My wife was not thrilled that I’d be on Elysium for an extended period. Despite the time away, she detested that she couldn’t just visit if she needed a Penny fix—the level of ambient aether would be toxic to her.

“Baby, I you want to drop by, we have a house on Asphodel, not a large one, but it has a smaller loft variant and I can probably just teleport over to you if you call.” I think about administration while we are both away from Astoria. “Plus, Naomi can do the admin work of the Empire, and we can make approvals from anywhere in our domain.”

I gather my thoughts and the half dozen info packets for the mini class of test recruits I’ll be taking with me, plus Jenna, when slender fingers slide up my shirt and my sides. With one hand cupping my breast and the other wrapped around my middle, Katie kisses my neck. I shiver.

“I have access to some of the most attractive people in the Empire, but somehow, I can not get enough of you. New goal, make love to my wife a million times”

I giggle at that. “Ten thousand days is like 27 years baby, that’s like 3000 years of sex.”

“Don’t threaten me with a good time. And don’t pretend you won’t live that long, that with your minor shape shifting, you’ll be sexy forever.” She purrs into my skin and nibbles at me, eliciting a groan that I can’t contain.

I can be a little late to the shuttle.

***

A quick shower and a teleport to the inside of the shuttle potentially disguise why I’m late. Jenna sees me as I walk down the ramp and seems disappointed in me. Yeah, well, we’ll figure it out over the months of cohabitating.

“Welcome Aether recruits! If Lieutenant DeGurgis hasn’t told you yet, this program is for symbiote users only. If you have not been actively developing your aether exposure and absorption for three months or more, you are at a severe risk of unplanned mutation before the end of your first day. Furthermore, by stepping on that shuttle, you are acknowledging you have a planned aether track and have discussed with your swarms what kind of mutations you are willing to accept. Lastly, part of Aether Tier Advancement includes a beneficial track mutation. I have had two and the last was transformative and only slightly controlled. As soon as you achieve tier 1, you can chose to leave or continue at that benchmark.”

“The Empress is joining us on this training venture, and as such, there will be some additional rules. First greeting of the day to her will be formal unless in the field. Military members will salute, regardless of uniform. All other interactions will be akin to a revered instructor. Room, board, and basic field survival items will be provided. Personal items are only permitted if obtained or crafted on Elysium. Trophies and crafted items are, in fact, encouraged.” Jenna takes a deep breath and then levels a stern, oppressive glare at the gathered few. “If you are uncertain of your commitment, back out now. You will have another opportunity for this training. There will be no other opportunities to back out, however.”

One of the candidates in the middle ups and leaves. Jenna looks at me and I nod. There’s a standby list for military personnel registered with symbiotes. This was supposed to be a mixed civilian and military class, but the civies are harder to accept the accelerated program and accelerated risk.

There are no further complications as the candidates board the new 2nd Gen Astorian AWC Shuttles. We have some space only, or local only shuttles, but the Atmosphere, Warp, Cargo shuttles are by far the best model we make. They fit with one cargo pod perfectly withing the bay depth of the Alaris cargo and shuttle bays. Beecham has sone a superb job with shuttle building, and with a dozen multi-purpose shuttles and 20+ single purpose shuttles, he’s about to build his own version of an Interceptor. I’ve given him some minimum requirements of course, but they should be within our Empire’s artisan capabilities.

The blip to Elysium is short and the Lake Retreat is marked on all interactive maps, so the path is easy to find. I stand up first as Parallel Minds and Katie’s new mod connection allow me to land the shuttle while I walk to address the candidates.

“The community and the Lake are under the influence of Aether syphons, meaning the ambient Aether is severely degraded from what the mountains and forest would be. That said, synch with the feature map of the area and it will alert you when you are within 10 meters of a border. You are free to roam the compound as you will, explore the lake and the grounds. My personal quarters are off limits. There is a region marked on the mountain range behind the main hall inside which there are two shrines. One is to Andromeda, one is to the Empire. There is a third open space where other worship, penance or dedication activities are allowed and honored. “

Jenna steps up beside me and addresses the six, “Any other questions before I start orientation?”

The newest candidate raises their hand. Jenna nods.

“Is there a curfew or a limit to using the Retreat’s facilities?”

I nod at the excellent question. “No. There is no curfew or facility closing time. I do, however expect you to show at sunrise, ready to work at or above 90% aether capacity. In two days, we will have a meeting on the upcoming schedule. In three days, we start conditioning and classes.

Jenna corrals the candidates and walks them toward the barracks, turning to give me a brief smile before returning her attention back to the orientation. As soon as they’re out of sight, I start building covered workstations along the lake. Only one of them is properly outfitted, but the others will fill out as the others chose their trade skills. I feel that developing aether-related trades is a valid way to train—it’s how I developed mine early and the biggest use of my personal aether. Now that I can channel spells, it’s a lot easier to work on aether flow through my magic channels instead of my veins. In fact, I talked it over with Tessa, and she agrees that if I’d taken the elemental manipulation skill earlier I probably wouldn’t have a vascular system anymore.

I dump out my fanny pack full of construct components and start arranging the damned thing to see if I can anchor an aether field to it. Katie told me she wasn’t focused on the intricacies of magitech mechanics and had no plans to learn. I will probably have to try picking some more magitech skills to complete my construct dreams. Oooh, until then, maybe I can work on a way for them to cast spells. No, Penny, no new projects. Finish a few then start more, or the people you work with will go insane.

This is not a spellform I know, so I’ll have to use the skin hugging spell form and try to add some runeshapes that would flood it with aether. Mm, start small. Jenna would be cross with me if blew myself up immediately after arriving. Wait, do I have any planned gaps in the construct? Or is this mostly automaton shaped? I’d rather the joints be magic to be honest. Maybe parts tags to identify body parts? Let’s give it a go.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

A few hours into my swearing at my pile of parts, I start to develop a crowd. “Alright folks, I’m at the risky part, so I’m going to take a break to talk to you all. Questions?”

“Are you using magic on a machine?” the boy asks. I put the requirements to be 14 or older with parental permission. This boy is 15 and got his symbiote when his parents decided to avoid the transfer.

“Yes, several types of skills in fact. Engraving for all the swirlies, Enchanting for the various parts and metals, and some Magitech integration for the power and control systems. Trade-skills have been a valid way for me to develop capacity and refinement. For anyone less than B-rank in Power, we’re going to do some Aether conditioning and once you have the capacity not to hurt yourself, we’ll work on a few different techniques that have been recommended to me to help you on the road to B-rank power. Body skills will likely advance through this training, but the goal of this little school is to advance Aether ranks and skills.”

“Is there any way to refund our old tech skills?” A lady in her mid to late forties, not many years older than me, asks.

“That’s a hard no. The best we can do is to find an adjacent idea, skill, or vocation in an Aether track or skill that would synergize with it with the hope they will integrate on your tier up. As far as I’m aware, skills can’t integrate outside of a tier up unless they advance into Expert. Again, this is ‘what my AI tells me,’ instead of personal experience.”

“Can we start working on trade skills if we’ve already started one?” Good question mid-twenties Hispanic-looking man.

“If they are Aether related, I will even kit out a workstation for you and provide rudimentary materials. If it’s not aether related, then you are free to kit out a bench yourself, but I won’t subsidize it for this training period.”

“So, alchemy is fine then?” he smirks. Confident ass. I’m probably going to like him after training, but I can see him being a pain in the ass in the meantime.

“Absolutely! What step are you, if you don’t mind?”

“Intermediate 5.” I whistle at that. Man has been working.

“Excellent. Send a list of ‘need to haves’ and a list of ‘nice to haves’ to the Lieutenant and we’ll put some things together. Tomorrow. In fact, anyone that has similar skills send a list. Our meeting in a few days will cover more, but no reason you can’t start crafting if you already have the skill. Now, unless you have a combat rated safety suit, I need you all to back up 50 meters.”

Ten minutes later, the components shake an assemble and attempt to stand up when an arm ejects from the shield formation, causing and energetic aether release that flings me out over the lake.

“SHIIIIIT!” Since I’m still in the habit of not showing people I can teleport, I spin violently into the lake, thrusters be damned. My thrusters are magic and plasma related so they absolutely work underwater after I stop spinning.

I fly out of the lake to the shore and walk up to my workstation and look at how the parts were damaged. The joint where the arm ejected from was completely smoked. Channeling that much power must have burned the anchoring rune out. Fuck.

“That’s the end of our show folks.”

“Is that normal!?”

“Eh, kinda. For me it is. For most people, it’s not. My power rating is a little ridiculous so everything is borderline overcharged. It’s why I craft in a tier 2 combat space suit.”

They look at me funny as I collect my parts and fly off to the compound, I want to hear about what she wants to do for the next two days. The remaining people are hanging out in the entryway. I mean, just two folks and Jenny, but they looked combat oriented so, makes sense.

“Hey folks. You all hanging out, or should you want to lunch?”

“We were going to go a few rounds, interested?” Ah, handsome fit guy. Maybe trying to poach my girl. Eh, she can handle herself.

“I mean, I’d have to order some non-lethal ammo, but I’m game.” There’s a toy company that makes splatter pistols. I’m in.

“Just casually spending that Empress money, huh?” Fit guy chimes in as new pistols appear in my hand.

Jenna pales and pleads with her eyes not to murder him.

“Alright, fine, do you have the inspect talent?” he scoffs and nods. I pull out my new babies. And let him look.

“I built these myself, by hand. Let me know if you want me to use the effort of my literal blood sweat and tears, or my ‘Empress Money’. The description was updated last week.”

He reads and he starts stepping back as he continues.

“My martial art is Gun Foo. With these breaching pistols, it would be a reckless misuse of life. Care to challenge the throne, Candidate?” He doesn’t say anything. “Good, if we’re done with stupid. I’ll get back to my splatter pistols some other time.”

Jenna tells them to meet her at the training field and hangs back. “You okay Penny?”

“Fuck, no, I’m not Nini. My aether is making me agitated and volatile, and after blowing myself up twenty minutes ago, I want to vent.”

“Damnit, Penny! You should have chatted me!” she walks up and grabs me by the jaw, “You can rely on me you know?” The care and anger in her eyes is warring with her deference.

“I’m sorry, hon, I just, I came here to figure out my aether problems, but it was also time to test the training program. Katie thought it would do everyone good to do this now.”

Her thumb starts stroking my cheek. “Do you always listen to Katie?”

I laugh sadly, “When I’m uncertain? Absolutely. She has a more level head than I do.”

“I’m here for you too Empress, right here. With you.”

I smile, sigh and thump our foreheads together. “I know Jenna, but what I need right now is someone who wants to help Penny the vulnerable partner, not Empress Astoria.”

“Oh, no, I love all of this.” She gestures at me. “I just also really believe in what we’re doing.” She sighs and kisses me sadly, “Sure, it took me until yesterday to see you as Penny. But the last few days going over the experiences of the last seven months of getting to know my Empress, made me realize how much of the Empress is just you. Fierce, capable, radiant you.”

Stupid lady Atlas being poetic and making me cry. “Fuck, Nini.” I sniffle, “if I didn’t love you already, that would do it.” I hug her thick, strong anchor of a body and I swear it’s the only thing holding me to this moon.

“Do you still need to vent? ‘Cause we can go back . . .” I chuckle through my tears.

“No hon, I need to go and fight. I intend to go to the forest outside of our conclave and murder a whole lot of animals. Feel free to join me when you’re free.”

“Astoria’s shapely ass, I would love to go on a hunt with you!” She spins me and kisses me in excitement.

“Note to self, take Nini on survival vacays.” I slide my fingers across her abs and my whole body purrs.

“Oh, yes please. You, me, some knives and the wilderness. I would, I don’t know. That seems like heaven to me.” She moves her large, strong hand and grips my butt to pick me up. This fucking beast is unraveling me by accident. Andromeda bless her.

“I, uh, I need to,” fuck, I’m distracted and breathy how did this happen? “Nini, I, fuck, you distract me so much.” I grab her face with both hands to steady my self in her relentless, comforting strength. “Will you go with me on my Aether Quest?”

“You need my help?” I nod at her, and she moves to kiss me and I put a hand over her mouth. “Astoria’s tits, I need them in my mouth. Why won’t you let me?”

I giggle as the small woman she sees on rare occasions instead of the Empress. “You have students that need a tough lesson, Knight Captain.” I kiss her with a light flick of my tongue, “Go make me proud my sturdy protector.”

Her smile shines brighter than an annihilation explosion. Her back straightens and pulls her lips close to my ear and whispers, “As you command, my Empress.” She sets me down on the couch, leaving me to melt into the cushions, then walks away, making the effort to swagger them hips. Stupid sexy bruiser.