We met up with the Forged Order’s group in Zuva before we traveled to The Forest Of Living Dreams. It was my first time going into the city since arriving two months ago. A part of me gave the excuse that I didn’t want to waste time walking around a city when I should be studying, but I knew that deep down I was scared to run into my parents.

I had still yet to get a single letter from them, but I hadn’t really been expecting that anyways. Still it had been awkward when Elina asked where my parents lived and I said Zuva, but then followed up with I hadn’t seen them in years.

She seemed to understand that I didn’t like talking about my family so she then tiptoed around the subject whenever it would come up. Once again I was amazed at the progress the city had made in just seven years.

Before in the heart of the city there had been five buildings, skyscrapers, that towered over everything around it. Now there were another dozen such buildings and each one was either equal or greater in height than the five originals. We ourselves headed to one of the original five buildings.

It was a dark grey and somewhat short compared to the other skyscrapers, but had side buildings that formed a U with a courtyard in the middle along with two turrets on either side of the gateway similar to old castles. The main building was peaked in an upside down V roof with several similar lines intersecting around the top. A giant hammer sat above the doors, mechanical cogs and lines of Stygoscript inlaid on top along with a huge Sun Stone sitting where the haft met the double ended head.

Outside the doors a group, all of them wore pristine military uniforms but half of the group stood around luggage while the other half stood with a variety of weapons, spears, swords, shields, but the most common was hammers similar to the one that was over the entrance, except of course these didn’t actually have any Sun Stones visible, that would be a waste of power. Each person was obviously in great physical condition, even the ones that were not particularly tall or broad had a sort of compact muscular physique to them.

In front of all of them stood a single man. He wore the same uniform as the others, but his seemed to be even more pristine than the others without any wrinkle visible. A blazing sun surrounded in a pentagon with chevrons circling that told of his high ranking.

His blonde hair was salt and peppered and his deeply tanned skin showed how he spent a lot of his time in the sun. His own hammer was scratched and pockmarked from decades of use, but still looked well maintained with no sign of corrosion.

“Lady Alyci, it is a pleasure to see you again,” the man in the front said.

“You as well Sergeant Brightstrike,” Professor Alyci said. “Happy to see less blood covering you this time.”

I, as well as most of the other students glanced at Heidi. She chuckled awkwardly with a slight blush then waved at the man who nodded back with what I would say was an intentional lack of expression.

“It's been more than two years since then of course I wouldn’t be covered in blood any longer,” the man said with a smile.

“No, it's more recent, underneath your first two fingernails on your right hand.”

The man's hands had been behind his back so I thought she was joking, but the man checked his fingernails and his eyebrows rose.

“Apologies for that, one of our trainee’s injured themselves this morning so I did a class on battlefield medicine,” Sergeant Brightstrike said, pulling a knife from his belt and cleaning his nails quickly before wiping the blade on his sleeve and putting it back in its sheath.

He looked over the students with a stern expression.

“Hello first-years of the Rising Dreamer Academy. I am Line Sergeant Brightstrike, I have served with the Forged Order for more than thirty years. I will not over-explain my capabilities or accomplishments but with me and my squad behind me no Nightmare will touch you within The Forest of Living Dreams. That is, as long as you do not intentionally put yourself in danger. This is also a training exercise for our own recruits of the Forged Order. You will each have three Champions with you during your excursion into the woods. While we make our way to the forest I hope that you discuss with your squad and get to know one another, I know the young men and women from my team are excited to meet you all.”

He said this with absolute poise, his stare strong and unwavering as he looked each of us in the eyes.

Cystella was the only one not actually with us, she had talked to the professor earlier and had been allowed to stay in their personal train compartments. It was a good thing too, we had drawn a lot of attention as Professor Alyci took us through the city, a former Skulker in RDA uniform would have made the quiet girl uncomfortable and every normal citizen panic.

I looked to the more than seventy members of the Forged Order, if we each had three Champions then the other half must serve another purpose. I was guessing that their luggage was more than spare clothing and they were similar to squires and took care of equipment.

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Like the sergeant all of the recruits had stern expressions, but I could tell by the way their eyes glanced around us and subtle twitches in their body and faces that they were not as disciplined as the Sergeant was. Most of them also looked to be in their late teens early twenties.

I flexed my hand’s as I looked at the various weapons of the Forged Order. I wondered if the Champions assigned to me would let me look at their weapons. It was probably a state secret or something, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

What about their armor too? I had never seen the armor of a Champion outside of the relics in the museum, and obviously they wouldn’t let me get too close to those.

Professor Alyci and Sergeant Brightstrike separated us into our “squads,” as the Sergeant put it. I was assigned three normal Forged Order members and three Champions.

The three Champions were Private Quint, a tall dark skinned boy of around twenty with a shaved head an a spear for his main weapon. He didn’t have any glass jewelry to show that he was native to the Glass Kingdom, but I also wasn’t sure if the Forged Order allowed such things. When he spoke with a perfect Solarian accent I knew that he was born in the Sun State, or had taken very good lessons. He would lead the other five of his group because he was a year ahead of them. He also seemed rather awkward to be put in a place of leadership, saying things like I guess after what should have been instructions.

Private Icy was a stout Solarian boy with lightly tanned skin and burnished copper colored eyes. He was… bubbly, seemingly to jump from foot to foot and smile at me. It was unnerving, I was sure he was looking down on me despite not being much taller than me.

He also talked too much.

Private Downs was a young Empyrean woman with surprisingly tanned skin and dull grey eyes a similar shade to mine. She was average height but a strong build like most of the members of the Forged Order had. If I were to describe how she acted I would say she was very stoic.

The three porters seemed a lot more casual once they were no longer in the stiff formation that their Sergeant had them in earlier. To be honest I wished they were still acting stiff, it made me uncomfortable how close they got to me when asking questions, like I was in arms reach for their longer limbs but not the other way around.

The six that were assigned to Cystella awkwardly shuffled about and when Professor Alyci told them about Cystella their eyes widened in disbelief. Unlike what I expected Sergeant Brightstrike did not join in on Heidi’s squad and instead would lead them all.

I had thought nepotism and rank would change that but apparently not.

We left Zuva that same day and traveled south.

The other six members of my squad tried to engage in conversation with me a few times, and I, maybe a bit arrogant since gaining my first friend, tried to form a connection as well.

The problem was that they did nothing that was of interest to me other than workout and use Sun Stone weaponry and armor.

Working out still couldn’t be considered an interest or hobby of mine, but the theories and different techniques that people used when looking to increase their physical capabilities in certain ways was interesting. However all of the Forged Order members did the same workouts, the only difference being the Champions also having specialized weapons training.

When I asked about their daily nutrition and how that helped they had just told me they eat whatever they are given.

As for their equipment it was like I had guessed and they were not allowed to let me directly analyze it. Thankfully though they did let me see the armor and watch their maintenance of the equipment.

I gave up trying to form a meaningful connection to the Forged Order members when I realized I had no real interest in them. I didn’t dislike them, I just didn’t like them. If not for me forcing myself to remember the Champions name’s and matching them to faces I would have labeled them as Champion one through three like I had with Porter one through three.

So that was how I spent the next week, close but distant to rest of my squad, a familiar feeling. We headed southwest for two days by train before we had to get off and take automobiles. Then after that we had to travel by foot through rocky mountains. I was happy for the two months of physical training that Mr. Rider had forced upon us because I don’t think I could have been able to travel like that before.

One thing I did not enjoy was the disorder this trip brought to my life. Traveling made me tired which made me prone to take naps, napping meant time that I was unable to study or train. My clothing and skin got dirty, not to mention my hair.

The fashion in which we slept each night was different too. For the first two days it had been in the train cars, then in a hotel, then camping. When I saw the haphazard way my fellow students put up their tent in contrast to the neat and ordered rows and columns of the Forged Order I almost wished I was a part of their group instead.

But I had magic power and they wore bulky metal and had to take a lot more orders, so in the end I was satisfied enough. Because of the constant travel I had been able to keep my river stone completely formed in my Dreamscape. I had wanted to experiment more with my Dreamscape but put it off until after I finished our trip through The Forest of Living Dreams.

The other students seemed to be getting on well with their groups, from what I could tell at a distance at least. Heidi, Marollo and a few others looked like they were young lords being escorted by their loyal retainers, while others like myself looked like awkward teenagers surrounded by people more than a foot taller than us.

By far the one that seemed to have it worst was Cystella, not because her Forged Order group was rude or anything. They, along with every other member of the order kept a polite distance away from the girl. It reminded me of when we first arrived to the Rising Dreamer Academy, the students had parted around her like a school of fish around a shark. If not for her Dreamer abilities I was sure that Cystella would have been bullied.

When we finally did make it to The Forest of Living Dreams two words described it perfectly. Foggy and purple.