Dimly lit, the ancient palace was bereft of all the furnishings it housed during its glory days. It had been stripped down to its walls, floors and ceilings. In fact, in its great hall, the only accessories besides the Utrium-powered lights were markings drawn on the ground, demarcating a section of the floor.
The Terran boy stood still, slightly bent over. He was using every hair on his body, every goosebump to sense for Utrium auras. In the month or so that he had become a student of the cover branch of the Heimat Academy, he had learnt how to detect Reserve energy. Detection, as practitioners of the Utrium arts would call it, went hand in hand with Casting. It involved bringing a thin layer of Reserve to the surface of the skin and hair, fine enough that its form in any one region of the body would change in reaction to the creation of Casted constructs, such as Barriers. Unlike Casting, Detection did not have a tiered power classification system, nor did it need one. Defense and offense were far from the only purpose Detection served and could be used by just about any Titanian or Terran given some mental training. Of course, they still had to be Initiated.
Finally, he felt it. A bulge of Reserve expanded from behind his neck. He quickly spun around and using a physical shield built from Utrium shared he carried in his right arm, parried the sword’s blow. The force from the strike was great, however, given its deliverer’s height and weight difference compared to its receiver. The boy stretched his left hand out and used the friction it made against the marble floors to avoid sliding and slamming into a wall violently. His instructor forced him and his three peers to train using only the lightest armor so that they had no choice but to actively defend themselves. However, it appeared that the boy was just a little too slow and was unable to stop himself in time. He hit a wall of the long great hall back first and fell forward onto his stomach. His body was still except for the rising and falling of his back. He was still breathing, but he couldn’t get up.
“That blow was just too much for the little Terran guy. Shame.” A Martian-accented Titanian a year older than his poor excuse of a sparring partner said sarcastically.
“We keep telling you to go soft on him, Sindri,” a girl with a manner of speech consistent with children born to Terran slaves on Titan cried. “He hasn’t been here nearly as long as the rest of us.”
“So what, Malin?” he groaned in the direction of the girl, one year his junior. “Instructor Gerlachus couldn’t give less of a shit. You see that?”
He pointed towards the grand doors to the hall, where a woman in the Titanian military’s standard uniform stood holding a communicator in front of her.
“I gave you my warning. If you want us to get punished, be my damn guest.” Malin sighed, and that was about as far as she wanted to intervene. She did not have any particular care for the Terran boy, but she would’ve rather not seen him die in front of her. She’d witnessed one too many deaths.
“Whatever. Since you’re always so concerned when I go up against him, I’ll go check on him for you. He’ll be fine.”
The soldier-in-training prepared to approach him, but a flash of grey appeared before him. He blinked and saw another of his fellow students kneeling beside the downed boy.
That damned half-breed girl, he grumbled internally. Only ever here when she wants to save the day. Pathetic.
“Joakim? Come on, Joakim. Talk to me.” the multi-origin girl said as she shook the boy’s shoulders.
“Out the damn way, Lucia,” Sindri said, shoving the girl away from Joakim. He kneeled on one knee and tried to flip him onto his back and gently slap him awake. A loud thunk came from the back of Sindri’s head and he nearly fell onto the unconscious Joakim. Only, Joakim wasn’t there anymore, and he certainly wasn’t unconscious.
“You Terran rat!” Sindri cried as he saw Joakim standing over him. Before he could put his hands on the boy, Joakim pressed the corner of his shield into the Titanians partially exposed neck. Sindri was unable to fight back as his energy rapidly decreased.
“Ah, that’s what that special Titanian child is capable of,” a man whose face appeared on Colonel Tove Gerlachus’ communicator screen mused. “Unable to fight with Reserve but can still best an ordinary Titanian with moderate ease. I must say, you’re doing a good job at utilising that, Colonel Gerlachus.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“I’d like to thank you for having him sent to me, Brigadier General Brose,” she said to the man in charge of all military education on Titan and Mars, both Titanian and Terran. “This is definitely a once-in-a-lifetime teaching experience.”
“You should be thanking General Karesti, not me,” Brose smiled. “It was she who ordered me to take him into the system. I’ll send her your regards, though.”
Interestingly, Brose was not tenured enough to be a part of Rhona Karesti’s Central Council, so he would not ask why such an ordinary Terran boy was sent to one of Titan’s most exclusive training classes, second only to that of the mysterious Team Zero’s. He wouldn’t dare ask her who Joakim was and why he was there.
“Of course. As you suggested earlier, Joakim has exhibited capabilities that we haven’t seen before. We have seen a few soldiers who were never able to conduct Reserve, but those were all Titanian. I’ve put him through rigorous testing from which I’ve confirmed he is unable to Cast any Reserve at all.”
“But instead, he’s able to draw Pool out of Utrium-crafted weapons and armor and use it for himself.” Brose added.
“Indeed, he is. Another observation I’ve made—you’ll find quite interesting. He can draw Reserve from his opponents if he touches them and use it as his own. He can effectively drain them of their power before using it to finish them off.”
“Ah, can he? Nothing like that’s been heard of since… the last Solich era. Well, that’s what I heard, at least. It’s a shame that Emperor Haldor was so bent on destroying every piece of Solich history after he made them go extinct.”
“At least this Palace survives,” Tove said in an appreciative tone. “Emperor Henrik crossed many lines, but getting rid of this building was one I’m glad he didn’t.”
“You’re right,” Brose nodded. “I’ll petition to the Council that it turns into a full-on secondary campus of Heimat. There’s so much space there just going to waste. I’ve been trying to for a while now, but I know I can have your support,”
The man took a pause for a moment before he spoke his next words—the actual reason he wished to speak with Gerlachus.
“I had a talk with General Karesti’s adjutant. He tells me she wants to invite you and the Freiheitssuchender Squad to the conference in Shargara.”
“The conference… you mean the one that’ll decide the fate of our Martian and Terran colonies? Are we seriously being invited?”
“Yes, you are, Colonel. Do you accept?”
Being invited by the effective head of the Empire was a wish few Titanians could hope to fulfill. Although descended from minor nobility, someone like Tove could’ve never hoped to meet such a monumental figure.
“Yes, of course.” she said professionally, but the reality was that she was ecstatic.
“Thank you. I’ll let General Karesti, or her adjutant know right away. Be ready to depart for Terra two days before New Years’.”
Colonel Gerlachus nodded before saluting her superior. After he returned it, he signed off, allowing the colonel’s communicator screen to go blank.
The heels of her boots clicked against the floor, echoing with each step she made towards her students. The sounds were a reminder. She was never far away from her students, and she was always watching. She never punished them nor verbally warned them. After all, she had access to the names and locations of most of the student’s parents or guardians. Any interaction she’d have with them wouldn’t be a simple telling of what their children had done.
“Joakim, he’s about to go unconscious!” Lucia said as the boy refused to peel his shield away from Sindri, who was unable to move and could only pant loudly. Her beckoning went through one ear and through the other.
She glanced at Malin through the corner of her eyes, who reluctantly joined beside her. Together, they grabbed Joakim’s arms and waist to pry him away from Sindri. Even though Lucia was noticeably larger than even an average Terran man and likewise stronger, she couldn’t risk touching Joakim and have her Reserve sapped away from her in seconds. With Malin’s help, she could at least divide that risk between the two of them. Joakim’s Anti-Reserve, when in use, was indiscriminate.
Tove was within an arm-span of her tangled mess of students, all pressed up against one another as two of them prevented one from killing another. Malin and Lucia immediately turned to face their instructor, putting their right arms up to the sides of their foreheads in salute. Sindri, although dizzy, was physically fine, and it took him a couple of seconds to recalibrate himself and follow his two female peers. Joakim, of course, was the last to offer his salute.
“At ease, cadets,” Instructor Gerlachus ordered. The students promptly dropped their arms and rested their hands at their sides. “I have an important announcement to deliver. We have been graciously invited by General Karesti to attend the Shargara Conference on New Years’,”
Shargara, Joakim noted in his head. That doesn’t sound like a Titanian place.
“I trust that you will act honorably and courteously in the presence of the nobility and our military superiors. You will show, not tell, that you are worthy of being equal to the regular military. You will show them that the badges on your shoulders have the same weight as your comrades’. Is that understood?”
“Yes, Ma’am!” all of them chanted in unison, but with one voice clearly more muffled than the rest.
“Mr. Holt… as you proclaim yourself on your daily reflections, may you repeat that, please?”
“Yes, Ma’am!” he said again, this time even louder than his peers in the first iteration.
If Shargara is off Titan, he resolved, I can finally get off this damn moon. I will find a way.