Jaid grumbled herself awake and sat up in her bed. She stretched away the grogginess after a deep and blissful night of sleep, almost hitting herself in the face with her armored hand. It had certainly become something of a habit to sleep in the gloves and boots that Drim had commissioned for her, feeling restless without them. She was annoyed every time she thought about him when she put them on, but that annoyance vanished quickly when she slipped away to slumber.
But sleep was just about the only part of her life that wasn’t full of stress and annoyance. This was only compounded by the notification on her computer, which sprung to life of its own volition after noticing she was awake. There were already a vexing amount of emails.
Jaid ignored them for now as she slipped out of bed, undoing her armor. She then tied up her hair and changed into some freshly laundered workout clothes. She couldn’t help but take a moment to appreciate how nice they smelled, especially since she wasn’t the one who had to clean them. Thankfully, for the first part of her day at least, she didn’t need to look stiff and professional.
Once she got out of her room, she summoned a mover puck with her pendant and rode it to the nearest elevator. As a Captain, she had authorization to use the express elevators reserved for only high-ranking officials, but those were farther from her apartment than the regular ones, and using it would make her day have to start sooner, so she was fine taking the slower route.
In a way, she did envy the other soldiers who lived on the negative floors, since they had basically no commute, but they made up for it in the craziness of their mornings. Through the public elevators, she at least got to meet the other citizens and employees working there—a good reminder that the CP wasn’t just an overbearing government power that it sometimes felt like.
To start her morning off right, Jaid got off at the ground floor and walked into the open-air city at the center of the Central Peace. A new patisserie had just opened a few weeks ago, and she was still working her way through the menu, trying something new every morning she went—along with a few other past favorites.
“Captain Luciri, good morning!” she was met with a bow from a familiar face in front of her in line at the shop.
“Oh, Callum, good morning,” Jaid returned the greeting with a nod. The two ran into each other quite often on mornings like these. She still wasn’t quite awake enough for engaging conversation, and wasn’t planning to go beyond those simple pleasantries, but then she noticed something different about his pendant. “So it finally happened then?”
“Ah, yes,” Callum followed her eyes down to his pendant and picked it up to look at it himself. “The induction was just a few days ago. It still doesn’t feel real. I’ve still only ever spent a few days in Regend during the campaign and now I’m a Vice-Rep expected to lead its people. Well, I’ll just have to work through any doubts!” His ambition was blinding this early in the morning.
“And yet Viscelli still has you running around doing menial errands for her every morning,” she couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity.
“Yes, Gauld was quite clear that she didn’t want the nature of our relationship to change in the slightest once this happened,” the boy scratched his cheek to try and play off as not a big deal.
“Well, on top of that, we’re at the same level of authority now,” Jaid had to remind him. “I don’t care one way or another, but you really shouldn’t be bowing to me anymore.” Not that she ever wanted him to do it to begin with. “Someone else might get annoyed, or feel disrespected, or like you’re being condescending. So try to remember your own standing.”
“Yes, I will do my best,” the young man nodded. “Thank you for the reminder.” He dashed away as soon as his order was ready, nearly spilling the cup of scalding hot coffee. Jaid was both worried for the future of the CP and assured by it at the same time. If only there were more people in charge as earnest as him.
But she didn’t follow his example and took her time to sit down and enjoy her breakfast, relaxing at one of the tables out under the faux sky. There was a good chance this was the only time she’d see the fake outdoors today, so she’d have to enjoy it while she could.
Once she was finished eating, Jaid returned to the outer ring and headed towards the nearest express elevator. She’d have to use one for this trip, since the floor she was going to was restricted to certain ranks. No other soldier on the express would judge her for her current attire, but she always got strange looks from any of the politicians she ran into.
Now down far into the negatives—reaching deep into the bowels of Rathe—Jaid walked around the empty ring until she found the Captains workout room. Each of the officer ranks had their own, something about not letting subordinates see their betters in a weakened or lesser state if they weren’t as physically capable. Jaid at least somewhat understood that mentality, since she’d pay good money to watch General Breach attempt her routine.
Something odd about the room, though, and all the other officer workout rooms, was that they all had a glass wall that looked down below at the ‘outdoor’ training grounds. It was of similar size and scope to the city above it, with all sorts of artificial environments to drill their soldiers through. Jaid herself had run around it plenty, though usually as an instructor these days.
But she could never quite figure out why they wanted the officers to watch those below while they worked out. Some claimed that it was so they could watch over the training technique and correct it as needed, but there was no way that she could spot anyone specific from this high up. And each workout room was on a higher floor as the rank increased.
A few had suggested that it was so the officers would see the other soldiers working hard and become motivated as well. Jaid felt there was more rationale in that line of thinking. However, her best guess was simply that whoever designed it had a major superiority complex and wanted to look down at the grunts from on high.
The knight finished her routine in expected time. It wasn’t a record, it wasn’t especially slow—as average as average could be. But her muscles didn’t think it was average, since she was always pushing herself just a slight bit harder each day. She sat on a bench for a moment to cool off, eating one of the provided power bars in the room.
A clone spawned out of her, wanting to eat another bar of their own as a reward for their hard work. Jaid had started incorporating her clones into her routine, but only when the situation was right. For starters, she’d only do it when the room was otherwise vacant, which it was most days. She’d gotten better about openly using her Curse, but having someone witness the awkward scene and poses while working out was just too embarrassing.
And she’d only do it when she was near two or three compatible machines that all didn’t require much focus. It took a lot more energy out of her having multiple clones exercising at the same time than if she completed the workouts sequentially. Not to mention all those that had to stand around and bridge the gap, but the results were undeniable, and the time it saved was too good to pass up.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
After her workout, assuming she wasn’t rushed away to some mission, Jaid would switch to sparring training. Most days it was in the solo practice room which had automated dummies to fight against. It was effective, but she had to admit it was still nowhere near as realistic or useful as the simulation room at the Fiends For Hire—one of the few things she desperately missed.
Upon her return, and after regaining her memory of it, she put in a request with the development team to have a room like theirs made. They assured her they’d install it… just as soon as they figured out the technology behind it. So far, she hadn’t heard so much as a peep on their progress in that regard, so fighting dummies it would remain.
But today wasn’t one of those days. Today was live-sparring, in which she was one of the rotating instructors. Of course, today was her day to lead. How annoying. The teaching part was fine—she didn’t care for it, but it was tolerable. But worst of all, on days when she led, she was expected to wear her captain’s uniform.
For whatever reason, a rule clearly made by someone who hadn’t done a lot of sparring, they wanted the head instructor to be in full formal military attire. Something about being as professional as they were out in the field, not understanding how tight and restricting those uniforms really were. The actual combat uniforms the soldiers got to wear were far more considerate to mobility.
But in a way, it was good motivation and practice for the instructor as well. Because they had to be competent enough at their job to outclass the other soldiers with limited movement and range of motion, all while looking prim and proper.
That at least was something Jaid excelled at in front of others. She hadn’t earned the title of The Prude Paladin for no reason. She liked to believe she was easy going and a bit of a slob in her heart, but in practice, she was still far too quick to revert to her knightly training when it came to rules and procedure.
So she slipped into the tight clothing in the nearby changing room, sighing at herself in the mirror. It really didn’t suit her and felt more like she was wearing a costume for a party. She’d tried to get away with not wearing the matching cap either. Again, none of the actual soldiers cared, but some retired major who was still attending meetings for some reason decided to chew her out about it one day. So Jaid stuffed her hair into the hat so it wouldn’t get in the way.
Ironically, she also had to make sure that her pendant was untucked and fully on display on top of her uniform. That was another facet quite problematic for sparring. Obviously, it was against the rules and etiquette during training to give it a tug, but not everyone had the common sense to tuck theirs in when out in the field.
Fully ensembled and nerves settled, Jaid headed over to the sparring training room. Well, it was more a series of rooms so duos or groups could break off without being interrupted, but they all had windows for the instructor to observe. Everyone met in the main room first, though, for her to, well, give instruction.
Jaid liked to begin each training session with an open sparring invitation. Anyone could challenge her if they wanted. It was one of the few ways she’d earned back some respect after the failed raid on the Fiends For Hire compound. She fought 86 disgruntled humans and Lessers at once—putting all of them in their place. After that, their criticisms of her eased up a bit.
Still, though, she was certainly far from the most popular person in the army. A lot of the soldiers focused their vexations in her direction—an actual person they knew instead of the faceless politicians above them all that were really in charge and giving orders. But day by day, she’d been winning them over through her direction in the field, never letting such a disaster as the raid happen again.
These days, humans didn’t even attempt to spar with her, leaving it to cocky Lessers or Fiends which were becoming a dying breed. Occasionally she’d get someone wanting to try out a new move they’d been working on in practice. More than once it had led to a full-on Fiend fight which the soldiers loved to watch, especially since the fights usually took a while, giving them an opportunity to sit and relax.
But there were no takers today, which meant Jaid would have to pick on someone. Not to humiliate them, but to use as a partner to demonstrate the moves that they’d be practicing in this session. Her eyes wandered around the room, trying to find someone she hadn’t picked on in a while. Most of them knew to avert their gaze by this point, but one unfortunate woman got unlucky and glanced in the instructor’s direction.
“Izma, join me up here.” The words hurt her as they left Jaid’s mouth, but she had to do it. The Fiend was immediately distressed and shaking, like Jaid had personally attacked her. Which in a way, she sort of had. Izma, above all else, hated attention, or even being perceived. She stood out enough as a Fiend, but now everyone’s eyes had wandered her way.
It didn’t help that she received a lot of special privileges compared to the average soldier, isolating her even more. Most of the Fiends had some concessions as incentive to stick around, but she undeniably had more than anyone. The tracksuit she was wearing was one of them, too bothered to put on actual training attire.
But being able to skip out on training wasn’t allowed, at least not anymore. The raid proved how helpless she was outside of her obelisk. So if that event ever happened again, which hopefully it wouldn’t, they wanted her at least able to flee if nothing else. Jaid had been personally tasked with making sure she was up to par. It was proving to be a long, tedious task. They’d had several private lessons already, and they’d have several more.
It didn’t take long before Izma was face-planted onto the ground. At least it was cushioned. Jaid was teaching them a move where they dove between an opponent's legs, or skirted around them, and then kicked them in the back of the knees. It was quite useful at taking down heavily armored soldiers—hitting them in one of their biggest weak points—and making sure they couldn’t get back up again.
The move was quite advanced, and if Jaid was actually going to perform it in combat, she’d use her clones. But it was still useful to anyone, and the CP expected nothing less than the best from their prized military. After a few more demonstrations, and explaining some more moves, the soldiers split off into groups to run the drills. Jaid honestly probably would have done another dozen, but Izma didn’t look like she could handle them in her ragged state.
The instructor made rounds around the rooms, observing and correcting where needed. A few times, she caught herself mimicking Nachi in her training technique. That had bothered her for quite a while upon her return, but she had to remember that Nachi was both a very skilled trainer and formerly of the CP, so it was still their training by extension. A few of their more long standing soldiers recognized it too, the agony of their former teacher still etched into their bodies.
Fortunately, everyone else but Izma was in pretty good shape, so they could run the drill endlessly until they got the moves down. She was letting the older woman rest for now, but she’d make her participate once the practice was over. After drills came actual sparring, where everyone regrouped in the main room so the others could watch and learn, though they usually had a few running at the same time.
Izma could actually hold her own somewhat in a spar. Even though she was weak, the Fiend strength amplification still put her above most of those who had worked hard for their muscles. This meant that they didn’t go easy on her, or wanted to vent the frustrations that they couldn’t against Jaid. But as long as she kept her distance, she was pretty good at flailing and keeping people at bay. Someone, though, would always get the better of her eventually.
Usually, egos would start to flare if a soldier got on a decent winning streak. At that point the other soldiers would try to gang up on them, but if it got to be too much, or if someone really was getting their head too far up their ass, Jaid would intervene and challenge them directly. That was when they knew they mawhged up.
After slamming someone’s face into the ground for the third time that training session, Jaid called it and dismissed the group. Most ran off to the showers, which is where she headed as well, but not the public ones. Thanks to her rank, her days of showering with others were long over, for as much as she could avoid it. Returning to her apartment, though, would take too long, so she returned to the Captains gym and showered there. Occasionally, there’d be someone else, but they at least had private stalls.
Once she was cleaned up and decent again, Jaid reluctantly squeezed back into her uniform. She didn’t mind it as much this time, since the place where she was going was a happy one, and the uniform was required for entry.