Kierna

Grace’s broken body is laid out in the middle of the common area for everyone to see. There are no words of recrimination. No blasts of divine fury at the murder. Just a warning. A bag of meat and broken bones that had once been a person. She lay there for all of them to see after Pavel had called out those to be dismissed and those who stayed at the top. There had been little change over the top students, only Grace’s squad had changed. A boy named Hayden took her spot. Kierna had hardly paid any attention to Pavel’s announcements.

She had sat there with her plate of steamed vegetables and savory meats, still wafting trails of steam to tease her nostrils. She had smelled nothing, the memory of Grace’s desperate look etched into her memory like acid. Dion ate slower than normal, taking a bite and chewing it slowly, as if finally savoring it. Her face was blank as she ate, lost in her own contemplations. She had survived this round of culling, and Kierna still stood as the top candidate for her squad.

Now they all stared at the small body laying on a white silk shroud. The instructors ignored the corpse, but Kierna had seen Ryen with glistening eyes of unshed tears. The healer was soft hearted, her entire being was trained to keep things like this from happening. How she perceived the world, how she thought of aether, this was all anathema to her. Every now and then, Ryen would shoot a venomous glare at Pavel who stood in stoic silence.

“I think he approves,” Dion whispered next to her. The smaller girl had pulled her sleeping mat closer to Kierna so that their shoulders nearly touched. Dion had been just as observant of the instructors as Kierna, if not more so. She had been the one to push Grace after all. She was the killer. Kierna had to wonder why she didn’t feel any revulsion towards the smaller girl. She had killed someone in a fit of rage and embarrassment. Death was a constant, but murder went beyond that.

Aether storms, evolved beasts, crazed necromancers, rogue gods, and all other things roamed the Frontier. Duels had leveled cities, armies had razed planets, gods had destroyed suns. Yet, murder between mortals was rare. The sense of community was strong, those who clung to each other to weather the storm of the Frontier were often loath to harm each other.

They were stepping on the path of cultivation though. To ascend, broaden their perspective, and gather power that would elevate them to the realms of near immortals. If they traveled far enough, they would be able to peer between the cracks of reality, to see the secrets of the universe. Kierna was just now realizing that the path they had started to walk was stained in blood. Hells, the paths were made of crushed bone and shattered dreams. The dead are fertilizer for growth of the survivors. Grace’s body was the reminder to them all.

“I agree. It’s a warning to some and encouragement to others. Pavel believes in the survival of the fittest,” Kierna murmured, her lips only inches from Dion’s ear. The clean scent of soap tickled Kierna’s nose. The same soap they all used, but mixed with Dion’s natural scent.

“He’s a monster.”

“She warned us. Before we took our first steps up the mountain. We would hate them all for what they were going to do to us,” Kierna said.

“Will it be worth it?” Dion’s whisper was half question and half plea. She wanted the reassurance of her best friends. The strain of the last two weeks formed a strong bond between them.

“Yes,” Kierna lied. She lied to both Dion and herself. For what could really be worth dead children? What could be worth the stains that were going to decorate their hands. Pavel was welcoming an increase to the brutality between recruits. It would have been better if he punished Dion, showing to the rest that these actions were unacceptable. Instead, he just stood silent.

“Together?” The question was so faint, the words hardly having the strength to tumble past Dion’s lips. Fear filled the question, a fear of abandonment, of being rejected. Kierna felt a piece of her break at hearing the fear in her friend's voice. She had done something terrible, but they all would. They were being encouraged to do it. How could she abandon Dion now, when they all would likely finish this with blood on their hands?

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“Of course,” Kierna responded instantly. Seeking to assure Dion. The other girl closed her eyes and let out a shaky breath. The hint of a smile creased her face and she wiggled slightly closer so that their shoulders touched. Kierna closed her own eyes and let herself slip away, wanting nothing more than to leave this terrible day behind her.

The next morning came too soon. They all rose and were relieved to see that Grace’s body was gone. Whisked off to hopefully a burial spot. They gathered and began their morning calisthenics. Kierna looked at her group, now missing another face, and took in their bruised and battered faces. They were all hurting, Kierna the only one who had frequent full healings. She performed better than all of them, not needing to nurse sore limbs as she pushed herself.

She started to understand how this would help, how being at peak health could begin a spiral of success. If she constantly got healed, got preferential treatment, and the most focused training, she’d keep winning. As the weeks went on and the other grew weaker, she’d be stronger. Only the peak of the company would have this advantage, of being fully healthy.

The exercises ended early, their instructor taking them to the normal meditation spot. Most of the squad seemed relieved, they had only started to work up a sweat before they were released from their predicament. Kierna had to wonder why they were ending the physical training early though.

“This is your reward for finishing first. Extra aether training,” the inflectionless tone was welcome. Kierna had wondered what their reward would be for winning. They still had lost some of their people, their dismissal at dinner having caused a brief stirring of resentment. They had won after all, why were they losing someone?

“You are all currently skimming. This is a reference for drawing ambient aether into yourself, through your aether channels, and boosting your strength. This is the lowest tier of cultivation and most don't even consider it cultivation. The next step, which we will begin today, is called infusion. There are three levels to infusion, outer, middle, and inner. Outer being your skin, middle being muscles and ligaments, inner being organs and bones.” The class doesn’t move, glued to their instructors every word as he goes over knowledge that most would never had heard.

“The first step will be the outer cultivation. This is the easiest and least impactful. You will begin a series of breathing exercises and try to move your aether in a way that settles in your body. If you do this wrong there can be extreme pain or injury. Death is also common for the unskilled.”

Kierna wasn’t unskilled, but his words still had her worrying. Aether was primordial energy, the basis of life. Trying to infuse yourself with it was a disaster waiting to happen. She could only imagine the explosive consequences if she failed.

“This will cleanse you of any impurities. Blocked pores, oily skin, ingrown hairs, skin cancer, pigmentation diseases, and more. The primary advantage will be that your skin will toughen, become reinforced. You will shrug off blows that would have hurt like they were nothing. At the first level though, you will still be vulnerable to common blades and blunt force trauma. We will now begin.” The instructor started them on the breathing exercises, drawing the ambient aether in and having it flow through their bodies. For most of the afternoon, they just played with aether, moving it in their bodies carefully, practicing drawing it out of their aether channels to slide through their skin.

When Kierna came out of her trance, the smell assaulted her. The stench of dead skin, body oil, rot, all of it came pouring off her squad. Just gently moving the aether through their skin had forced out the impurities, and now the entire squad was covered head to toe in black gunk. Kierna gagged, standing and racing to the showers, dry heaving as she ran to escape the smell. The rest of the squad was right behind her.

The showers helped. A little. The stench remained, floating around them. It had been helpful though, Kierna had looked at her fellows and realized their skin looked better. Clean and healthy, a radiant glow coming from them. Some of their injuries had faded even further, the bruises softening to just pale yellows and blues. Dion stood next to her, clinging to her side in silence as they scrubbed themselves and then got dinner.

Half of the crowd looked like them, the winners of the squad vs. squad battles. The rest of them looked exhausted, their faces dirty and their clothes sweatstained. They had undoubtedly received the extra workouts the rest of them had missed. Kierna nodded to herself, winners were rewarded with more training, the losers punished by training. This week's squad vs. squad battles would be more epic without a doubt. The winners are desperate to hold their spots and extra training. The losers do not want to be forced to keep up the extra workouts.

Pavel floated by in the air. His robes fluttered as he moved, otherwise he looked as still as a statue carved from marble. He looked around the tables and rose even higher, till he floated half way to the ceiling before he began to speak.

“Winners are rewarded. Losers are rewarded. The rewards are different. 1 vs 2. 3 vs. 4. 5 vs. 6. 7 vs 8. 9 vs 10. I hope to see you work hard for the reward you want.” Pavel ended his brief speech like he always did, simply floating down to the ground and walking away. Kierna looked over to where Squad 10 was sitting in a cluster. They were going to be fierce, they had lost their last challenge and were covered in dirt and sweat and had angry looks carved on their faces as they met her gaze. Kierna didn’t care if they felt like they would come out on top or not. She had to win, she was going to be on the top regardless of what happened. If she had to walk over them, then so be it.