Sam woke up feeling happy and refreshed. It seemed his body was served just as good as his mind was by the indulgent consumption of Terran pop-culture from yesterday. Sarah most certainly had fun. Even the passing of a hundred years hadn’t managed to produce a quality substitute for Tim Curry. And Sam never doubted for a moment that live-action video game cinematics hadn’t surpassed their past glory.

They parted last night without bringing up again the topic that brought them there in the first place (if you discount the flimsy excuse that was celebrating his one week “anniversary”), even though Sam was sure that they both had something left to say to one another. But they both clearly felt that the majority of what needed to be said, had been said. Each driving their point across to the other party. Sarah, he assumed, was still dissatisfied by the fact that Sam dared to care about her caring about him. And Sam, for his part, decided to forgo his whole spiel about how Sarah was actually trying to make herself feel better about her own trauma in the past by prioritizing Sam’s in the present. Even if he was right, there was nothing to be gained by saying that. Sarah would be better served figuring it out by herself, or with her therapist (that she hadn’t had time to meet yet, since Sam came into play). And it would only make her feel bad if she thought that he was suspicious of her motives for helping him. Because he wasn’t. He was happy for the help. He just wished that it didn’t come with extra emotional baggage for Sarah, not to mention the possible cost to her own future.

Still, they both came to better understand the other’s point of view yesterday. Sam was going to try and care less about Sarah worrying about him. That was her choice after all, and she wouldn’t want him to try and act based on how she feels. And Sarah, he believed, was going to try and be a bit more hands off with him than she was up till now, both in her mind and in practice. He already found proof of that by her not making any plans with him for breakfast, just saying that they’ll meet up for dinner before working out. And that was yesterday. There weren’t any morning texts reminding him about dinner, although he assumed that those would come later in the day. People don’t change that fast after all. Nor should they.

Besides, was there really something that bad about an affirmation text for a planned meet-up? That was just good manners, wasn’t it? Sensible planning. People are fallible, they forget things, make mistakes. Just like he was doing right now, when he realized that he forgot to apply toothpaste to the brush.

He spent the rest of the previous day reading his elven history textbook. He dedicated some time to practice gathering before bed. And made sure to differentiate it by a couple of minutes from his post shower meditation. Those two might look the same, but they functioned very differently, and it was important to make a cognitive distinction between them. It was only when he was firmly snuggled underneath the blanket that he realized that Web-Web hadn’t made contact with him, like he did on every other day up till then. Amazingly, errant thoughts about the missing appointment didn’t trouble his mind too much, and he managed to fall asleep as fast as what was becoming the norm.

Eight and some hours later, Sam was once again free to let his thoughts wonder, having finished all of his morning obligations, and the question of the AI came to his mind once again. “Web-Web, you alright in there?” he asked out loud. “Give me one seizure for yes, two for now. You know what strike that, mix that up so that the good will be in with the bad and vice versa. Nothing? Well, OK… You’ll contact me if there’s a reason for it, right? You’re just not speaking right now because there’s nothing to talk about. That’s what I was thinking. You’ve already driven the plot pretty far ahead, no reason to waste energy on staying in place.”

Worries once again pushed deep down. He started cultivating for the short time remaining to him before he had to set out if he wanted to make it in time for his private lesson. A couple of minutes later, he was waiting for Lin inside the same room from last time, doing some light warm-ups to pass the time. Hopefully, the fact that he was felling pretty light on his feet and free in his body, despite the heavy training regimen he was undergoing, meant that he would still be able to attend that evening workout as well.

He was in the midst of a fierce battle between his want to have high expectations for himself, in order to not give him an out too easily, and his need to keep low expectations, in order to protect his value of himself, when the door opened. Lin walked in, carrying the four training spears from last time.

“Good morning Mr Anders. And how are you today?” Lin asked. “It’s been a good couple of days, I hope?”

“Pretty good, I think. Should have squared up on enough of the basic knowledge to understand your rules about not training with magic.”

“And what would those be?”

“Well, no tracing, that’s much clear at least. And I’m assuming some level of no patterns. None conscious, certainly, but I’m guessing that there’s a bit more leeway concerning sustained patterns.”

“As long as they don’t help improve your physical capabilities, they’re fine. You forgot about no gathering, though.”

“Gathering? Why would I be gathering in the middle of a fight—Oh, right. Never mind.”

“Yes. Gathering is an essential part of magical combat, but it has no place in lessons that are supposed to be purely physical. We will have plenty of time to train you in the aspects of magical combat after you master the basics.”

“We will? I thought that you still weren’t sure about teaching me anything beyond the basics.”

Lin cleared his throat, shying away from Sam’s questioning gaze. “Yes, well, let’s just say I’ve had a change of mind concerning that. Ritter has been most persuasive in his arguments regarding your potential. So I have decided that I should take a greater part in the training of someone who is very likely one of the republic’s future Rulers.”

“You heard that Farris declared himself my mentor, didn’t you? I didn’t know they lifted the gag order in the matter.”

Lin lowered his head, his cheeks reddening ever so slightly. “I didn’t even know there was one. General Ninae called me himself and told me about becoming your mentor. He said, and I quote: ‘If you’re not feeling comfortable training my precious mentee in the spear on your own, I am more than happy to send one of my many available instructors who are talented in the form.’”

“Yikes.” Sam laughed.

“Indeed. The only thing worse than being known as the person who was thought to be unfit to train a would be Ruler, is being known as the person who proved to be unfit. And I assure you, I do not plan to be, nor am I going to prove, unfit as your teacher.” He cleared his throat once more. “Besides, the general… he promised me his own personal attention and aid. Both as a spearfighter and for reaching level 10.”

“So he bribed you. That’s awesome.”

“It’s not really a bribe. More of a… reallocation of resources. Or a promised bonus in the case of a job well done.”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m not judging. I already had this talk with Dan yesterday and I get why you did what you did. At the end of the day, I still think that it’s a bribe, or at least close to it. But it’s a well-intentioned one. Like bribing the regiment’s logistics officer in order to get your company some more meat in the next shipment. It’s all for a good cause. And the logistics officer can’t just give every unit that wants it more meat, so the best way for him to know which unit really needs it is to see who’s willing to pay for it. There’s a term in economics for that… Tsk, don’t remember it right now, though.”

“That’s quite alright. We have plenty of terms of our own to be going through. One last thing before we begin today’s lesson. I’ve yet to finalize this plan with Dan, but I believe that he will give the go ahead. Since you and I are both determined to make you the best spearfighter you can be as fast as possible. I thought it appropriate to schedule us for three times a week. All in the morning before breakfast, at least while you still have those open for you. Am I correct that such is the case today and every other odd day?”

“Yeah. Those are for cardio, and it’s during the evening. At least until I can work out twice in the day, like you said.”

“Very well. And I assume you would prefer your third lesson of the week to not be on Saturday?”

“That’s up to you. I don’t really care. I’m planning to use Saturday for training as well.”

“Hm… That is admirable. Very well, I will endeavor to help you in this regard. We’ll skip meeting on Sunday in favor of Saturday. If you do find out, however, that such an undertaking is becoming too heavy on your shoulders, let me know and we’ll change it around.”

“Thanks, will do. But are you sure that you want to spend your Saturday mornings working?”

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“I would much rather be spending them fighting. You are right about that. But I have promised to take my position as an instructor here seriously. Worry not. I spend every second Saturday teaching free-for-all classes anyway. And even when I’m not, I usually spend the day here in the academy. Now, are there any other questions, or can we begin today’s lesson?”

“No sir.”

“Very well. Then just like last time, we’ll begin with a body-scan. I’ll guide you. In the future, I would want you to take the lead yourself, so pay attention to what I’m saying.” A short session of meditation later, they began their training for the day.

Lin had him run laps around the room and perform a stabbing motion with only his arms for warm-up before handing him the practice spear and having him go through what they went over last time. This session of training passed much more easily than the previous one. Sam was both able to retain the information he was taught to a greater extent while also feeling the strain of the training to a lesser degree. Although to be fair, and to take some of the credit away from Sam, he was pretty sure that Lin was going easier on him today.

They finished the lesson with sparring. Or what went for sparring when you had a newbie like Sam on deck. Describing it visually, it was pretty much just Lin moving around and Sam trying to stab him. Only the latter half of the “sparring” session included Lin wielding a spear of his own and only the last quarter of that included using the weighted spears. A fact that Sam would remain thankful of for the rest of the day whenever he had to lift anything heavier than his phone.

Lin had good words for him at the end of the lesson, which Sam hoped were genuine and not empty praise. He wasn’t too worried, though. While Lin did indeed take a bribe (or some form of it), he didn’t seem like the person who would betray his convictions so easily. And Sam was pretty sure Lin’s convictions included being a good teacher and not fawning over pupils just because they were well connected.

His good mood was cut short, however, by being confronted with the unknown once he finished showering and left the gym. The time was now even later than it usually was when he went for breakfast. So by all accounts, he ought to have grabbed a quick bite and made his way to Dan’s office in order to make the most of the day.

But he was struck still by indecision. Despite his many prior claims that it was no skin off his shoulders to do so, he had never actually gone to eat all by himself since returning. It’s not like that was such a big deal. He went to eat plenty of times all by himself. In fact, if you count his feeling of alienation and emotional distance from the people around him as being alone, then he ate most of his meals in life alone. Of course, if you dropped the edge and looked at the last couple of months realistically, then you would realize that the last time that Sam truly ate alone was before the accident. You can’t really call someone coming with a cart and giving you food as eating alone, even when you were the only one left in the room. And the question of what counts as eating alone didn’t even matter all that much, because it was going out to eat alone that Sam was now confronted with. And he sure as fuck wasn’t going anywhere back in the hospital.

To be fair, though, the whole discussion was an empty one anyway. Sam had already finished donning his headphones and started walking towards the nearest mess hall while having the back and forth in his head. Independence was much too wonderful a feeling to let it get bogged down by worrying about other people’s perception of him. And he didn’t have nearly enough time in the day to waste any of it by forcing his schedule to align with someone else’s.

Still, acting like he wasn’t bothered by being alone and truly being unbothered were two different things. Sam always had a spot of trouble with the prospect of going some place communal and sitting down to eat by himself. Something about seeing all the other happy, shiny people lunching together while you tried to find an empty sit out of the way. Of course, perhaps he should be counting himself among their number as of today. That was a change of pace: Sam Anders, popular to dine with.

One thing was surely different, though. He wasn’t going to take his headphones off this time, no sir. If there was no one to talk to, and no reason to listen to your surroundings, then there was also no reason not to shut yourself off to the outside world and have music supply the constant distraction that your mind craved. Yes, he was a new man. A braver man. And may social conventions that don’t truly exist and only matter in Sam’s head be damned. He wasn’t going to let himself dictate his way of living anymore. No one was going to—

“Heya Sam,” came a voice from behind him, accompanied by a tap on his shoulder that made Sam’s heart jump out of his chest. Not to be undone by its containing body, which did a half-pirouette with arms flailing wildly.

“Jesus Christ!” Sam let out a very heavy breath once he calmed himself down. It took him another second to recognize to person now standing before him, owing to the fact that they had only met yesterday and talked for only a single minute.

“Oh. Sorry about that,” said Carl Pines. “Didn’t realize you were so engrossed. Didn’t mean to surprise you or anything, honest.”

Sam, who was still heaving, raised two fingers to the man’s face. “That makes two. That’s two times that you ambushed me out of nowhere and almost gave me a heart attack.”

“Gee, I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean anything bad by it. Just wanted to say hello. Both times. But I understand how that it might feel like I came out of nowhere. I do tend to tread lightly, if you know what I mean.”

“That you like to sneak up on people?” Sam shook his head.

“Oh. No, no. Well yes, I suppose. But no. I meant to say that I’m training in stealth, for covert operations and the like. Silent movement, sound suppressing and sight dimming patterns. You know the sort.”

“No I don’t.”

“Right… Of course you wouldn’t. Sorry again about that. Although it is weird because I didn’t have any of those patterns active… Never mind that. Are you heading for breakfast?”

Sam narrowed his eyes at the gentle smile of the man more than a head taller than him. “Yes. Why?”

“Me too! Why don’t we go together then? We’re heading to the same place, after all.”

“Because we don’t know each other and it’s weird.”

“Nonsense. We might be relative strangers, but we are still both part of the academy, future comrades-in-arms. There’s no reason why any of us should feel uncomfortable eating together. And that goes to all cadets, in my opinion. We are, after all, the bedrock on which the Terran military will depend upon soon enough. We should all aim to be friendly with each other.”

“Yeah… no. Being friendly is thanking someone for holding the door open for you or letting them cut in line because you have a big purchase and they only have two loaves of bread. What you’re talking about is being friends. And that’s just a no go for me, I’m afraid. I only have a small quota of people I can tolerate enough to not act like an ass in front of, ergo only a small number of people who might stand being friends with me. And I’ve already made a bunch of Terran friends so that I am seriously taking the risk of running out of space for social connection. Which might leave me friendless with another race in the future, which in turn would make me unable to defend against accusations of racism. So that’s a no on us being friends.”

Carl laughed, and his earnest go at it made Sam think that he wasn’t taking what Sam said seriously. “I’m half-Imperial on my mother’s side. Is that good enough for us to be half-friends?”

“That depends. Does Terran on Imperial racism and vice versa exist?”

“It does unfortunately.”

“Then it’s good enough for you to at least get your foot in the door.” Sam replied while turning away from him, resuming his walk towards the mess hall. Still, he wasn’t fully committed to his anti-social act; his headphones, which had come off once the conversation began, were still resting upon his neck. “Dare I ask why you’re so interested in being my friend?” Sam asked the man who was now walking right beside him, his footsteps truly somewhat muted.

“I want to be friends with almost every person I meet. It’s a character flaw the military hadn’t been able to beat out of me quite yet.”

Sam chortled, even though he wasn’t sure that Carl meant what he said as a joke. “There’s what? A couple thousand pupils here? You try to make friends with each and everyone of them?”

“Fair enough. Not everyone. Those that I happen to meet regularly, certainly. Those whose name I know and I want to talk with them, that’s you, very likely. But if it eases you, may I point out the obvious ulterior motive in me seeking you out for a friend? You might be my CO in the not too distant future. It could pay off for you to have fond memories of me.”

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but choosing to talk with me out of nowhere is not the way to make me have fond memories of you. Besides, Felix, Yvessa or Sarah are just as likely to be your bosses in the future as me, no? Or at least equal comrades. Why not try to make friends with them as well?”

Carl scratched his chin sheepishly. “Well, if you must know. The real reason that I came to talk with you is because I worried that you were feeling lonely due to being by yourself. And I didn’t like the idea of a Taken like you feeling even lonelier than they had to. That’s today. Yesterday, I really did want to tell you good luck and show my admiration.”

Sam opened his mouth, but no words came out. He was conflicted between choosing to make fun of Carl, which would lead to making fun of himself. Or thanking Carl for showing consideration for a complete stranger such as him. If only there was someway to combine the two—He cleared his throat to clear his mind. “That’s… very nice, I suppose. Very kind of you and so on. Very weird, at least by my people-hating standard, but kind nonetheless. But it’s completely unnecessary, I am actually much more comfortable keeping to myself than to other’s company. It’s my natural state of being, as it were. Besides, it was only to and from breakfast that I was going to spend with no company.”

“I understand. Still, if you would like, or if you wouldn’t dislike it, I’d be more than happy to keep you company. Even for such a short while.”

Sam raised his hands. “I can’t stop you from following me. Nor can I stop you from taking a sit next to me. I could start making a scene like a four-year-old when they’re told no at a supermarket, though. I’m pretty proficient at that; way more than four years of experience.”

“Is that a yes or a no?”

“Who knows… who knows,” Sam said while grabbing a tray and making a beeline for that really good salad that he liked. Carl did end up joining him once he sat down. “Still here, huh?”

“Like you said, it would take a scene to drive me away. I’m can be pretty determined once I set my mind to something.”

“Fine then, have it your way. But you’ll have to pay for the privilege of eating with me. I think giving me some exposition on the Empire should be a fair due. You are only here due to your heritage, after all.” And that’s what Carl did. And he seemed glad to do so. Spending most of the breakfast talking rather than eating, although that didn’t stop him from making up for time by almost inhaling his food between bouts of the one sided conversation. Sam managed to learn quite a fair amount about the nation and people to which Carl’s mother belonged. None of it was enough to supplement any actual studying that he was going to have to do in the future. But it was enough to stop him from imagining the polity known as the Pyllan Empire as a Warhammer ripoff. He still wasn’t sure what the Pyllan Empire was a ripoff of, but he was leaning towards China by the time breakfast ended.