Troy ran in an all-out sprint. She moved incredibly fast on straight paths, only slowing when she felt her power overwhelm her, and when she was forced to turn.
The long stretch of land that separated the edge of the bronze sector from the land beyond the orphanage grounds shrank in record time.
Troy forced to slow to run up the spiral stairs that led to the lavish home that Jade had placed on the roof, the same day she brought Arson home. The large house made absolutely no sense to Troy, as she was supposed to think about where she needed to go within the home and even without knowing the direction to follow she always ended up wherever it was she needed to arrive. One of the runic home’s many luxuries.
“Where are you, buddy? Please tell me that you didn’t really hurt yourself?
Troy moved through the house as fast as she could.
Just probably need a good night's rest like always…
Troy’s thoughts trailed off leaving her mind like that of space, a silence equivalent to the areas between planets was all she was left with as shock filled her, nothing but dread filled her every sensation and the desperation for air caused by her panic.
“What happened?” Troy took timid steps closer as she took in Arson’s form. His broken bones visible from the outside of his skin layer even though none of the bones managed to punch through. Troy found this odd, but also as a potentially good sign.
She could see all of his biometrics on a screen with logs displayed in the hibernation restorative cabins which were given to coma patients in more affluent areas of the CityNation.
Why are his readings so sporadic and low?
Troy didn’t even notice anyone other than Jade in the room, so was shocked to hear Xani speak up as Troy pressed her hands up against the glass that separated Arson from massive amounts of mana and the rest of the world.
“We don’t know, or I don’t know I should say…” said Xani, nervously.
“We were on the roof talking, everything was fine, he was walking away and had already sent me a contract. I got the news that he’d had an accident on my way here after I’d read the contract and brought my people after I decided to accept. I didn’t think whatever happened was this bad, or I would have come sooner. I’m sorry Lady Jade,” said Xani frantically. Troy looked back toward Jade, who didn’t seem to even be paying Xani any mind as she stared at the dismantled form of her son, until she shocked Troy by responding.
“I will be honest with you both. I don’t think there was anything any of us could have done, even with a leash around his neck. His charisma is odd that way. He could probably talk us all into following him off a cliff with enough time on his hands. He probably got the idea that he could fly somehow for all we know and tried it.”
Jade laughed, but no one else did, both young women scared that there was an unseen trap in the woman’s casual nature. They felt urged to engage with the woman who stared unblinking at her hurt child, but didn’t know how comfortable they should truly be in such a sensitive moment regardless of how openly she spoke.
“Is he going to be okay?” Troy asked, looking back to her partner. The boy who helped her find a courage and confidence that she’d thought she’d never feel again after her failed adoption and its prepackaged traumas. The one she wished she could ask for advice about how to confront her opponents, best training practices and even how to survive through the night in some of the slightly more dangerous areas of the dump all around them.
“I believe so, I think he is going to be asleep for as long as all of his bones are out of place like that, seems like his bones weren’t strong enough to break through his skin, but the force of the fall moved them all around, slicing up his insides and even puncturing his unrefined organs,” explained Jade, holding nothing back in her description.
“How long do you think that will take?”
“ A few fortnights at a minimum maybe more, could be as long as a whole season,” admitted Jade. The woman was just glad he was alive and that she was able to put him in a pod in time to help his healing process along from the very beginning. Anything less and she didn’t know how long his recovery may have taken without the runic systems and clean environment of the pod, both cleaning away bacteria and housing him safely prospectively.
“What am I supposed to do in the meantime, is there anything you think Arson would have wanted me to do?”
“Other than watch over that group of potential guards… Arson stated he wanted to test with you. I don’t know for sure, he spoke with me only briefly on his way to meet everyone this morning,” Jade responded. Troy nodded at the woman and looked outside at the setting suns.
“Doesn’t look like I have long until sundown, and I think Khalif actually said he needed my advice about something, maybe it's what you're talking about now. I should go check that out. I will you keep me informed, Lady Jade?”
“Of course, child, go. We don’t want him to wake up and feel as if what he started has no value. Go ahead and figure out what your friend needs. This may be exactly what Arson needs of you,” offered Jade. Troy gave another simple nod, and rushed out of the room.
Xani stayed, and watched Arson’s levels for so long the suns set. Neither she nor his mother spoke until Jade finally strode to the door and spoke once before she left.
“Guest rooms are on the right at the end of this hall, just think of the words "guest rooms" as you walk and you won’t get lost. Otherwise think the word "exit" and you’ll find your way out in no time, I have prior business I need to attend to,” said Jade. She left before Xani could even manage to think of an appropriate response.
“Looks like it's just me and you against the world as always, buddy,” said Xani pulling a rather large comfortable chair from the corner of the room with the assistance of air mana. Condensed squares of wind pressing into the bottom of the chair made it easy to lift and set an arm's length away from Arson’s pod. The bed alight with many hologram based screens that described the young man’s current state with vivid notes beside depictions of similar injuries from a medical database, and replicated images of the damage from the inside based on external scans.
“You know what’s funny? Before you came up to me today, I was incredibly bored, bored in a way I haven’t been since you were even younger believe it or not. I wish this wasn’t true but I honestly do miss just getting to spend my evenings building cities with you, buddy. I think that is why I honestly entertained the idea of us working together.”
Xani spoke to Arson like she did when he was younger. Long before he was known more for his ability to trick the masses into things they would never do otherwise, they had been friends, even if something had changed within him suddenly, causing him to not come around her nearly as often as he once had.
She expressed how she missed him and his knack for absolutely crazy inventions and other ideas he wanted to build. Spoke to him about ideas of her own that she currently struggled to find ways to bring to life. As well as just simple day to day matters.
She’d nearly fallen asleep when the watch on Arson’s wrist lit up, and a hologram was projected onto the glass, showing a scene recorded during a night that Arson and Troy trained within the dump.
“So who would you bring onto this super team of yours if you could pick anyone you know,” asked Troy, all while sending kicks in every direction.
“Well I already have you on my team which I thought would be my biggest hurdle, I’m going to ask Rob the chef tomorrow because I love to eat and though my mom loves to cook, I don’t think I’ll be able to have her follow me through the realms without me paying a rather large ticket, but if I’m being honest…”
“Oh come on, don’t hold back now dude, you won’t hurt my feelings if there is someone more important than me that you need on the team, just tell me. I’m honestly excited to know who and why,” Troy extended in an attempt to break the ice.
“I need my rival, Xani. I could build all kinds of things with her help. I feel like I’m okay at building things but Xani is like a born tinkering goddess or something, she could build you a new arm out of trash,” said Arson looking around at all the dismantled robots that lay crushed around the pair in the recording. Troy laughing at the over the top joke only after Arson picked up a robotic arm, gestured toward it with a wriggling brow that made Troy roll her eyes before she snorted and returned her focus to the battle happening all around them.
“I have my own rival, and unlike you I cannot stand mine. I will eventually kick his rotten smile off his face if I have the chance, but until then I look forward to a rivalry that I cherish like you do yours,” Troy said, doing her best to dodge the large group that stormed up the path toward them, surrounding them in a handful of breaths.
“Sounds more like an enemy than a rival. Almarine told me once that you love your rivals for the passion they fill you with to do better, and hate your enemies for every moment that they take you away from those that make you stronger, These robots are my enemies,” said Arson firing continuous blasts of conductive water orbs from his hands at everything that moved too close to him and Troy.
“You're my rival, Xani is my rival, Khalif and Jasmine are my rivals. I do not call anyone who doesn’t push me to a higher level a friend, which is why I need Xani. Even when I was younger and knew far less than I do now, she still spoke to me as if I could be an amazing builder one day. Even as she told me how much better of one she was going to be, and I wouldn’t have it any other way, as without her I wouldn’t even know that I was any good. It's only because she’s as talented as she is that I even believe her. She’s the type that is so smart that lying bores her,” Arson said with a chuckle, performing a well timed spartan kick that made Xani give a nod of appreciation. Not only for the impressive kick, but the compliment she never expected to hear, let alone see first hand.
“Are you awake in there, Arson?”
It was as Xani asked the question that Arson’s watch stopped the projection and shut off entirely. Xani frowned and rose from her seat, putting her face to the glass to inspect Arson’s face, hoping to see movement of any kind, but nothing changed. He still slept surprisingly peacefully with the broken state of his body.
Xani shook her head, and took the display as a coincidence. She’d talked for so long that she may have caused the video to trigger by something she’d said, deciding that she would stay for the night, rubbing her tired eyes before she walked to the door.
A beautiful woman’s face made of stars illuminated Arson’s screen sneering at Xani’s back before disappearing in a blink. The actions of a rogue AI only just beginning.
“She said go to the right, and think guest room if I remember correctly.” Xani followed the instructions, and quickly came across the hallway full of doors with a sign above the hallway’s entrance titled, Extra Bed Rooms.
She walked in and read the words on the first door.
“#1: My beloved son,” said Xani moving on to the next door.
“#2: The favored friend... I assume that is Troy.”
Xani moved on to the next door.
“The bossy one… Jasmine maybe, yeah… that's gotta be Jazz.”
“#4: The two that look the same, wow that is incredibly insensitive,” said Xani still chuckling, hoping that the naming conventions being used in this hallway were meant to be humorous.
“#5: The wild eyed smart one,” said Xani, rolling her eyes with the assumption that she’d found the room she’d been offered to sleep in that night. Shaking her head as the door opened with a silent ease that somehow made her feel even more welcomed to the space. She stepped inside and found a runic worktable filled with books and mana infused paper for scroll development, her eyes going wide at both the value of what she saw there alongside the size and luxurious accommodations in the room. She felt she’d somehow just stepped into a bathtub full of honey with the promise that it would give her eternal life with no hard work involved. Knowing that nothing of value came without sacrifice and hurdles since childhood, she still felt an eagerness to push forward.
Yet as she looked around at the large bathroom, the nearby pantry full of snacks and the wall screen in the room with accompanying station table and wall tablet by the door to control advanced functions in the room, she froze. Remembering how many people she was forced to share with back at the orphanage.
One night won’t kill me, right?
Realizing something else was off in the next instance, she exited the room and noticed that the room door next to her own on either side was so close that they would open up behind her bed and in the room's walk-in closet, confirming a very advance use of not only runic systems, but spacial runes, one of the realms most coveted magics, topping the charts for most expensive categories to be educated in in all realm layers, not just their own.
Sparks… Xani thought taking in the sight of advanced magic that she’d always wanted to learn and shook her head once more.
“Well, little buddy, looks like you got me. Can’t turn all this down. You just better wake up quick…”