#vld thace

A sneak peek for my other fic for The Fight We Takethe@galrashipzine Thulaz zine, which will be free to download soon! “Those Who Live and Those Who Die” is a story about death, knowledge, and Galra poetry, feat. special guest star: Kolivan!

His chest ached and his sides felt tight, lungs burning with every breath, but Thace had to keep breathing. Walking. Breathing and walking were simple actions. It was his task to focus and carry them out, as he always had. His body could not be allowed to fail now. It could not so much as slow. Time could not be spared. A Galra could push their body beyond all endurance through the power of will. More than enduring, he would excel. Thace moved into the pain. Pain was the great teacher. It had one more lesson for him.

Ulaz would have told him to pick up his pace. It would have been a grim joke, meant to encourage him, although Ulaz’s tone would have remained dry and flat. “I know what you’re capable of,” he would have said, with a quiet pride. Thace could almost hear his voice again.

Thace quickened his pace, steeling himself to make his way down the long corridor in stealthy silence. The last time his chest had ached like this had not been so long ago. That earlier ache hadn’t come from a wound, but it had been more severe than any agony the Druids’ unnatural techniques were able to inflict. Thace had been alone then, as he was now. A message had come for him.

When he’d received the transmission from headquarters, Thace had known it would be important. They were always important, though Ulaz would have said some were more important than others. He would have been right. Ulaz always was skilled at prioritizing.

Contact between comrades in the Blade of Marmora was intermittent and brief, by necessity. Messages from headquarters might come in quick succession when a situation escalated and immediate action was called for, but lengthy spans of time could pass with no word. Thace scanned communication channels regularly for anomalies, seeking patterns. Messages wouldn’t come to him by chance. He had to look for them. His military superiors considered him admirably diligent. They had never guessed he was a traitor—until now.

Thace, I still wish that Thace was Keith’s dad. He had such a fatherly demeanor about him.