I had signed up to the military my predecessor, and eventually I, commanded as soon as I was legally allowed to, years before I was required to by way of mandatory service. I started at the bottom, where everyone else did. There would be no nepotism, no skipping ranks, not with her. That was fine with me; I'd wanted to reach that ideal, reach her, under my own power, through my own efforts, and, little more than a child, I was ushered into basic training, first planetside, and then... Aboard a starship, the backbone of the Imperial military.

Defanged, of course, for training purposes, but, nonetheless, a ship made for war, every meter of the thing armored and engineered to exacting specifications, if not for uncontested might, then for a reasonable level of it for the price being paid for it. And in that neutered weapon, the living quarters for its complement of marines, a crushing hundred of us for a ship barely longer than that in meters.

The barracks were sparse things, meant to get the job done in as little space and for as little expense as possible, where the 'job' was sleeping twenty five young Imperial marines to a room, the 'beds' simple alcoves carved from the walls stacked three and four high, stashed to the back of the ship, far from the external walls so we might be able to reach any part of the ship swiftly in case of boarding.

A sound tactical decision, its placement, but because of this, there were no windows, no portholes through which to view the stars that we traveled, shielded or no. Time... did not exist in those hellish, cramped places, with no sea of stars or 'outside' to look out into.

We called them sleep cubes, and they were maddening.

I chose the name Lycoris Raven Ashborn to symbolically show my rebirth in this new world and new life, a transition from the old to the new, but it seemed it was not so easy to bury three hundred years of memories.

Even the name itself was indicative of Terra and the Imperium. Lycoris was the name of a flower, my favorite, in fact, native to the cradle of Humanity. Deeply toxic, of course, almost everything was on old Terra, but beautiful, and the people that lived where it grew believed it to be a supernatural thing, a flower signifying the afterlife.

A raven, likewise, was an animal from my old home, a bird with wings black as the void, and it was considered a messenger of the dead. They were clever little things, able to remember the faces of those they met, and describe them to their children, so they knew which individuals to avoid, and which were friends.

Callahan had told me to refrain from using any mana at all, to allow as much to recover as possible, so as to ensure I had enough to expand my territory, and I would have to do it again when it came time to summon denizens.

The lack of something to focus on showed.

Without my practice to hold my attention, my mind was drifting, turned inwards on itself and trapped in a sleep cube with only the changing of the guard to keep me grounded, the same as during my training three centuries ago. I tried to make conversation with everyone that came in, but not all of them were as talkative as the Archmagus and the Captain. The same as during my training three centuries ago.

Perhaps because of what I was.

A demon. Or the heart of one, anyway. Back then, it was because of my mother, though.

I didn't know what that meant, not really, what a 'demon' was. From what Callahan and Markus had told me, I could assume they were highly magical entities, and rarely, if ever, had benign interactions or intentions with the peoples of this world, but beyond that...

"Lycoris, my friend!" the Archmagus called cheerily, dragging me from my listless, drifting stupor.

[Oh, thank the Dragon,] I muttered. [Is there something you wished to talk about, Archmagus?]

"I was coming to check on you, and see if you're ready to begin claiming more territory," he said, carrying a new, more comfortable looking chair. The middle-aged man set it down, tested if it would rock in place, and, satisfied, sat down, looking at me expectantly.

[Is it time, then? I... hadn't noticed.]

"It is," he nodded. "If you're ready, we can give it a try?"

[Am I allowed to choose where I expand to?]

"As long as it's somewhere we can reach, for now, yes. Did you have somewhere you wanted to go, for lack of a better phrase?"

[The entrance,] I said simply, unwilling to elaborate further. I was sure he'd understand even if I didn't.

He made a small noise of realization, and an expression of sympathy crossed his features before he smiled. "Yes, that'll be fine, my friend. Now, I can't exactly guide you through the process, since... Well. There's never been a Core like you before, and typical ones usually expand without meaning to, when they can hold no more mana. The mana they would normally recover leaks back out into their territory, slowly expanding it."

[So it should be something similar, but perhaps I can do it on purpose... I see.]

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His smile grew and he leaned back in his chair. I took that as my signal to begin, and, with nothing else I could 'see', I poured my mana into the air and stone of the room.

At first, I couldn't tell if anything had changed, so I strained my senses as much as I could, and pushed even more mana into my surroundings, attempting to direct it out passed the threshold of the door that separated me from the rest of the world.

Then, I realized I could 'see' into the corridor that led out into the mountainside. Not very far, half a meter, maybe, at best, but I could see it.

[It's working. I can see into the corridor now. One of the witch-hunters is hanging a lamp on the wall outside the door.]

"Ah, excellent. Now, the exit to the mountainside is to the left at the intersection," he explained, getting up from his chair. "Come, I'll guide you."

The Archmagus stepped out the door, stared at the ground outside, and hummed, chewing his beard as he watched... Something. The edge of my territory, I would assume.

[Can you still hear me, Callahan?] I asked, and the guard outside nearly dropped the lantern in surprise, fumbling to catch it. [I'll take that as a yes.]

Callahan chuckled and nodded. "Yes, I can hear you. Good, we'll have to figure out if you can focus your telepathy to a specific person or area, as well, at some point, so you can have private conversations, yes?"

[I hadn't even thought of that yet,] I admitted, and redoubled my efforts to expand the borders of my awareness out further, the Archmagus slowly walking along, just inside the range of my senses, until we reach the intersection.

[Left from here, you said?] I asked, expanding to fill the intersection completely. It was disconcerting to have a gap in my 'sight' without a door in the way. At least in the room, I could delude myself into thinking it was simply just that dark beyond the door.

I'll just have to get used to it...

"Yes, just there, it isn't far," he said, gesturing down the hallway, and into the void I could not sense.

[Oh,] I stopped, realizing something.

"Hm? Is everything alright?"

[Yes, yes, I just... Cannot see the ceiling, one moment... There. Apologies, let's continue.]

It took some time, but eventually, I did manage to extend my 'territory', as Callahan called it, to the exit, witch-hunters and magi passing back and forth as the Archmagus slowly shuffled along, watching my progress. I stopped at the exit, however, despite how much I wanted to go out and see the sky again. There was something important, after all, to do first.

[Callahan. We need to figure out how I speak to just one person or one room at a time, first. I wouldn't want the guards outside to have to listen to just one half a history lesson or a conversation every time you or Markus come to visit.]

"Oh. Good point... How to..." he trailed off, brow furrowed. "Right, we'll need someone to test this. One moment."

He stepped out of my awareness and onto the mountainside, calling a name that I couldn't hear properly. Tesha, most likely. He was fond of bringing her in for assistance when we needed something.

As if to make a mockery of my predictions, Callahan returned with one of the other magi, Davyn, the young man looking around, curious, as he stepped into my territory.

Perhaps Tesha is busy. Or sleeping.

"Alright, Lycoris. I need you to focus, really focus, on just Davyn, and then speak to him. Any time I also hear you, I'll let you know," he instructed, and took a few steps away from the younger magus.

It didn't take very long for me to succeed in speaking only to Davyn, oddly enough. I had expected it to take most of the day, but the feeling was similar to when I gave something enough attention that the background started to fade a little.

With that settled, I pushed my territory out into the world. Just a little at first, but I quickly grew impatient, and then very, very quickly. Before I'd realized it, I could see most of the camp outside my doors.

The grass, the wind running through it, the blurry trees just outside of reach, the sunlight on it all. A dozen soldiers and magi, and all their tents and equipment, too, of course.

And the conversations I could hear! Enough to keep me from drifting back into that liminal daze, at least while the sun was in the sky, and the people milling about were awake.

[Thank you, Callahan.] I said, too distracted by everything to focus on him for it, and half the camp started at my words, reaching for their weapons on pure reflex. [For convincing the Queen.]

The Archmagus chuckled, and waved everyone off. "It was no trouble, Lycoris, my friend. If anything, I'm sorry we forced you to live in the dark for as long as we did."

I elected not to reply, simply taking in the relatively new sights and sounds, and when I shook myself free of the trance, I found Callahan and Markus speaking somewhat quietly at the entrance to the mountain.

"... And is the Queen alright with this?"

The older man shrugged, and grunted. "I'll convince her to be alright with it. She'll understand, don't worry. I've known Fianna since she was a girl. The last thing she'd want is for Lycoris to be stuck in that pit for any longer than necessary."

"If you say so, Archmagus," the Captain said with a shake of his head and a small sigh.

[Ah, apologies, Markus,] I said, focusing on the two men so I didn't disrupt anyones work or sleep more than I already had. [I just-]

He cut me off with a wave of his hand. "Don't worry about it, my lord. We were just surprised, that's all."

Oddly formal, for him. Is it because I'm a 'guest of the Crown'?

[No need to be so stiff, Captain,] I said, with special emphasis on his title, to drive my point home.

The witch-hunter grumbled a little, but relented. "Alright, alright. Well, I'll leave you two to your experiments," he said, and turned back around to return to his work.

[Callahan, should I claim the rest of the... 'facility' as well?] I asked as the witch-hunter left.

"If you think you have the mana for it, I don't see why not, my friend. You'll need to eventually, anyway," he replied and ducked back inside to follow the border as it expanded once more.

I kept my focus on him the whole way, in order to make sure I spoke only to him, when I did. The process made me intensely aware of how odd my perception had become. I could 'see' the bottom of his feet as he lifted them to walk at the same time I watched his face for signs of discomfort or surprise.

By the end of the night, and I could actually track that now, I had claimed everywhere a person could fit in this section of the mountain, which wasn't much. Another tunnel, and a slightly larger, but more crudely constructed, chamber at the end of it, and when I finished, the task had blurred my awareness of my territory. A lack of mana, the Archmagus told me, nothing to worry about. It would come back with time, much faster than it would have before, now that I had a greater area to draw energy from.

There were some few natural tunnels here and there, but they were much too small for anything but an insect, or a lizard, perhaps, to fit through, so Callahan told me not to claim them, for now, since I was 'tired', as he put it.

We would be summoning some denizens tomorrow, after all, and I'd need every bit of mana I could get.