In his thirty or so years of life, Gin didn’t expect to be in a classroom again. Not only that, it wasn’t something the mages twisted and called “classroom.” No, the small room contained desks, chairs and an old-fashioned blackboard at the front. Granted, the ones he used as a child had projectors attached to them, but at least he knew of these relics of the past.

Very few accompanied him. In fact, he could count about twenty (with one of them Joan). The others came from the other battalions in squadron W, most of whom were either familiar types or medics. Either way, everyone waited on the teacher to arrive, ready to give whatever lesson could be taught to so few numbers. Gin himself watched a grandfather clock on the wall. It ticked away, almost reaching seven O’clock.

‘Time for roll call,’ Gargarensis barged into the room all of a sudden, right at the hour mark. He carried a massive wad of paper and began distributing them. ‘Number two-five-O-Nine’

‘Here,’ someone called out.

Gargarensis ticked a register and carried on, ‘Number…’

In the meantime, the papers reached Gin. It was more of a booklet connected by a piece of string. He took one for himself, passed the rest down the line, then inspected the cover. Just from the title “Military instructions, signs and procedures,” he could see the stark difference in how squadron O and W operated. Like the rooms themselves, O had a sense of polish to their training rather than the archaic nature of W. I bet the teaching is going to be great too, Gin kept childish optimism.

‘Roll call is done. Please read and memorise the booklets I have just given by next week. I’ll go to my office now,’ Gargarensis announced, about to leave the room as quick as he came in.

‘Eh,’ Gin looked up dumbfounded.

The giant stopped and glared at him as if he committed a heinous deed, ‘Is something the matter, Mr Gale?’

‘Um, with all due respect, I expected the lessons to be taught,’ Gin looked the man straight in the eyes. He knew if he didn’t do so, he would lose all authority on the matter.

Gargarensis narrowed his eyes, ‘Does anyone need my help?’

The room went silent.

‘Can everyone read?’ he asked another question to which everyone nodded, albeit hesitant at first. ‘Then I believe that I am not needed. To be honest, I have worked diligently for months on end, given many sleepless nights up and almost lost my life in the process. I was meant to have some time off, but when I inquired about it recently, my higher-ups told me that they conveniently never received my formal request. So, now instead I am told I will have to supervise your squadron. And between you and me, it would be better if you learnt everything yourself rather than from me.’

Is he boasting about how important he is? Gin could feel a vein pop. However, the words of the colonel telling him to keep good relations stopped him from saying anything else. ‘If that’s the case, then I will abide by your decision.’

‘Any other objections?’ Gargarensis asked the room once again and once again no one replied. ‘Spend the time reading then. I’ll be leaving for my office.’

At that, the so-called teacher turned right and left the room for good.

So, he really is going to leave without teaching anything then, huh? Gin sighed his annoyance away. He couldn’t be bothered with his supervisor anymore. Instead, he did as instructed and began reading the booklet.

The first few pages looked like the instruction manual back in his room. First the contents then a foreword. However, when he looked at it in more detail, he noticed that the foreword looked word-for-word the same as the one in the instructions. Not only that, at the bottom, he found the initials “B. East.”

This guy wrote some books back in my village, Gin recalled the vast library he would spend hours in. He had connections to the mages? The name intrigued him so much that he decided to read the foreword this time:

Experience. Wisdom. Knowledge. Common Sense. Long ago, these four traits marked the signs of an intelligent being. Then, everything changed when the nation of imbeciles attacked. Only the leaders, masters of the traits of intelligence, could help educate the masses. But when the world needed them most, they disappeared. A hundred years passed (maybe more maybe less) and I was born. While I was young and immature, and I had a lot to learn before I was ready, I knew I could change the world.

And you know what? That’s what I did. I changed this stupid world into a paradise for the intelligent. The masses called me mad at first. They hated my ideals because they didn’t fit their own greed. They tried to stop me. But I used their own words against them. I caused them to fight amongst one another till I became the last one standing.

My first decree was to take down language. I unified it so that only English could be spoken. Those who said a word of another tongue would be shamed, their sentences made to seem like hate speech, until no one dared to speak anything but English.

Then came the illiteracy. Institutions of learning became optional. My greatest feat was to convince the masses that they could further in life without qualifications. Celebrities became wealthier than the learned. Billions followed the clowns and ridiculed the pioneers of research. They made the truth into lies and the lies into truth in their own, egocentric worlds. Oh, how literacy fell! And guess what? The fact that it did was cheered as a great accomplishment.

The stupid grew exponentially while the smart dwindled in numbers. People soon wanted to become like me. They were offering their lives to be one of us mages because they couldn’t think for themselves. Their neighbours did the process so why shouldn’t they? That was the logic behind them.

Long story short, it became really easy to control the masses. I became a supreme ruler under the guise of a democracy. My (planted) opposition would be so painstakingly dumb that I was the only respectable choice for the few remaining intelligent beings to vote for. Not to mention the stupid wouldn’t get back at me since they had all the worldly pleasures they could hope for. They just didn’t have the literacy and intelligence to overthrow me in the end.

So why did I say all this? Well, with me at the helm, the ability to read and write eventually became obsolete. Language itself became a privilege. Only the elite, hand-picked by yours truly, have this ability to know their ABCs. And you, Mister or Miss whatever, who managed to read this, are one of those. Be proud of your gift. Be intelligent about it too. Who knows, maybe we can sit down and chat sometime about one of my books. No one else in hell can read what I’ve written anyway.

1. East

Before Gin could read further, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Joan looked at him a little red in the face as if embarrassed about something. She clutched her booklet a bit too tight, almost scratching the paper off with her nails. What did she want?

‘Yes?’ Gin whispered, mindful of the others concentrating on their reading.

‘If possible,’ she paused, rethinking some sort of decision, ‘mind if I meet you privately in your room in a bit? I kinda need your help with something.’

‘Yeah, sure, but you could tell me now what it is you want.’

‘Ok, thanks. See you there,’ Joan ignored Gin’s suggestions and headed out.

Gin raised an eyebrow, sighed again, then packed his stuff. Gargarensis told him to read but didn’t say where. In all honesty, he somewhat missed his first few months in squadron W. He could do pretty much whatever he wanted, be annoyed with every lesson he had with Alder, and say whatever came to mind. Now, he gained so much responsibility and experience in such a short span of time. It felt like a leash grabbed hold of him and that he needed to use every technicality possible.

He said his goodbyes to the other squadron members and headed out. But, as he exited the room, he almost crashed into the ever-petite Sam who appeared to be in some sort of rush.

‘Something wrong?’ Gin brought attention to himself.

‘Nothing, sir,’ Sam stopped in his tracks.

‘Were you coming from somewhere?’

‘I have message. From Gargarensis. Need to go to Maria,’ Sam answered. However, Gin could tell the man itched to stop the conversation.

‘Ah, I see. I’m actually heading to my room, so I can accompany you to the lifts,’ he offered.

‘Oh, ok,’ Sam gave a short and snappy reply. What he meant by that; Gin had no clue.

They went to the area designated for two separate lifts. The colonel’s office was on the floors below while Gin’s room was situated above, so they had to part ways there. They gave a final farewell before entering and pressing the buttons to the correct floor.

The ground shook and the wooden cage whirred upwards. It didn’t take long but, the moment Gin stepped out, he could see that the door to his room stood wide open. A sense of déjà vu overcame him. He thought the days when his privacy got invaded would be gone. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. How did she get access anyway? he sulked as he knocked on the door.

He didn’t know why he did that, as the room did belong to him, so he proceeded to enter regardless. However, he stopped in his tracks when a petite woman, almost manush-height, walked out. She had black hair, a body that looked as if the fair skin stretched over the bones and several holes on her limbs that screamed that something bore into them…almost like the remains of a xernim. And yet, he couldn’t see the core anywhere on her body.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

She stopped, looked up, smiled and said, ‘Apologies for the intrusion. I would love to chat, but it is a tad unfortunate that I do not have the time, my dear.’

Artemis? he recognised the manner of speech. However, the moment he looked down, the woman disappeared. ‘Joan? You’re in there, right?’

‘Yeah, come on in,’ she responded from beyond the room.

‘Why do I need permission to come into my room?’ Gin rolled his eyes and shut the door behind him.

‘Because I’m your personal medic?’ she retorted while sitting comfortable on his brand-new bed.

‘Ex-personal medic,’ Gin clarified. ‘You belong to my battalion now.’

‘And you’re not included in that?’ she smirked. ‘Come, sit. I haven’t done a check-up on you in a while.’

Gin furrowed his eyebrows, unsure what caused her to bring that up. In fact, the last few days, he noticed her acting weird. He couldn’t quite pinpoint what though. Of course, she still said witty remarks and kept her usual upbeat attitude. But everything felt toned down, even if by a little as if she too had a collar round her neck. Just like him.

‘Alright,’ Gin decided to comply, taking a seat by his desk and taking off his shirt.

He inspected himself before his medic. He saw how the xernims almost covered his chest (and probably his back too). He also noticed that the two gauntlets had two different shades of brown now that they connected together, the right darker than the left. When he thought a bit, they receded up to his elbows, leaving behind small holes in his body but at least showing skin for Joan to work with.

‘You appear to be fine,’ Joan commented, placing her nails in various places. ‘You’re in total control too. Your heart is now fully flesh again as well. It’s no longer the nano-thing I saw when I first met you. Your blood and liver have an abundance of those things now as a result though. Is that where they’re stored when not in use?’

‘Yeah, that’s a relief,’ Gin affirmed before changing the topic, ‘What was Artemis doing here?’

‘Who’s Artemis?’ Joan stopped all of a sudden.

‘That woman that was in a room a few minutes ago,’ Gin looked back.

‘Diana? She’s the colonel of this squadron. She needed to speak to me about something.’

‘I got the wrong person then,’ Gin grew confused as he put on his shirt and let the xernims grow back again. ‘Yeah, I’m totally thinking about someone else, sorry. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense since she’d probably be one of the few who could access my room, right?’

‘Uh,’ Joan sat back on the bed. ‘Is everything ok?’

‘I’m a little dazed. We woke up really early, haven’t we?’

‘We have.’

‘But I guess,’ Gin rocked on his chair and sighed, ‘it’s not really me but everyone around me. Not sure if it’s because of our first battle or if squadron O is too overwhelming. But when I see all the main characters in my life, the colonel’s mind is on a mission for success, Brim seems to have mellowed out, Syndra seems to have opened up yet still closed at the same time, Jake who had some sort of vendetta against me now acts like he got neutered and is it wrong that I think something is up with Sam as well? Everyone’s changed in such a short period of time. The only real constant is Wo and probably you.’

‘You’ve changed too,’ Joan pointed out.

‘I have. But I’m happy with my progress. I may not have matured at all, but I do feel more culpable for my actions. If it was the old me a year ago, I would probably have spoken my mind to Gargarensis, complained the whole way to you and not care about how people view me. I still don’t care about how people see me don’t get me wrong. I stopped caring about that over a decade ago when those who judged no longer could. However, now, if I do look bad, then so does my battalion and I can’t have that, can I?’

The room went silent. Gin waited for Joan to respond but she never did. Then, he heard sniggering. He looked back to find her hands clasped over her mouth and a few streaks down her face.

‘did I say something wrong?’ Gin inquired.

‘I’m sorry,’ Joan calmed herself down and wiped her nose. ‘It’s just that for the first time you – No. Nevermind.’

‘First time I what?’ Gin turned his chair to give Joan his full attention.

‘Not telling. It won’t be fair,’ she pursed her lips and looked away.

‘Joan… looks like I was wrong about you being a constant.’

‘It’s not that. I haven’t changed one bit,’ Joan grinned a genuine grin. ‘It’s just that I was thinking about what you said yesterday. How do I expect you to tell me about yourself when I have said nothing about me? Then you said something about your past right now without me prompting you for the first time? First of all, I’m impressed. Secondly, thank you. And third, that’s what was unfair because I should have said something first.’

‘You do realise what I said was a jo-’

‘I know. I know,’ she interrupted. ‘And yet, what Brim did was eye-opening for me. It made me realise if I want to get something out of you, I need to offer a bit of myself too. So, I have a confession to make.’

‘You don’t have to do th-’

‘Shush. I do,’ she interrupted again.

‘Jo-’

‘Sh.’

Gin just nodded in defeat.

‘Um, please don’t tell anyone,’ Joan leaned forward, whispering, ‘but something that not many know about is that I struggle to read or write.’

Silence filled the room again. Gin gave a blank stare, processing what she said. A smile crept up on him. It turned into a grin. That turned into a smirk. Finally, he burst out in laughter. ‘That’s it? You thought I wouldn’t notice when you wrote “hurt” with an e?’

‘If you’re going to patronise me, I’ll just leave,’ Joan pouted.

‘Heh. But still, why say that of all things? Is it because we needed to memorise this?’ Gin flapped the booklet in a demonstration. ‘I can understand if you’re embarrassed about a minor thing like this but- ’

‘Minor? That’s minor to you? If only I could face death in the eye like you or Brim or Syndra or Jake have, then it wouldn’t be considered minor,’ Joan’s raised her voice. The smile she had earlier turned into gritted teeth and laboured breathing.

‘Joan?’ Gin looked concerned. I messed up, haven’t I?

‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to shout like that,’ she let out a giant sigh. ‘A week ago, I came up with a massive plan to get you to talk with me alone, saying my secret, catching you off guard and then having you say something in retaliation. Like how Brim managed to do it. But as the days went on, not only were you catching me off guard instead with your calmness and weird jokes, I realised that I didn’t really have anything important to offer. I mean, how can I top seeing your idol or sibling dying in front of you? Compared to that I got no story. In fact, you’re right and my thing is minor.’

Joan stopped there. She got up and almost ran out of the room. But before she made it, Gin stopped and grabbed her arm.

‘So, tell your story,’ he guided her back into a seat, smiling all the way. ‘I’ll hear you out. If it’s not minor to you, it’s not minor to me either.’

‘Oh, uh, see what I mean by you catching me off guard lately?’ she looked down in embarrassment. ‘Where should I start?’

‘Pretend I didn’t act so stupidly and actually went according to your plan.’

‘Should have done so in the first place! Now, let’s see,’ Joan put on a fake display of thinking. She tapped her chin with her long nails. Melodramatic of course, but Gin put up with it for the time being. ‘My life has been easy comparatively. I was the only one out of my batch to live through the foetus phase, so I never had a sibling during my time in the MBP. As a medic, I didn’t have to go through gruelling exercises that could kill me like those born to fight nor did I have to have potentially life-threatening abilities like Wo’s bacteria. For eighty years, it was just me and my nails. Even then, I mastered my one ability early on.’

Joan took a second to rip off her own nails. She didn’t wince at all to Gin’s surprise. A moment later and she slotted them back on before sticking one into her body. Red liquid entered the nail. She pulled it out and kept the blood inside even after a shake of her hand.

‘I could do that trick since I was ten which is like three to you, I think,’ she ended her demonstration by injecting the blood back and patching the hole with a creamy substance. ‘I would probably be considered a prodigy in the medical field too. I knew the anatomy of almost all types of modern-day mages off by heart. I can operate complex procedures and direct those that need specialist abilities. I know every single disease that poses a threat and how to deal with most of them. Just ask me any obscure medical question.’

She paused, causing Gin to raise an eyebrow. She didn’t really expect him to ask a question, did she?

‘Uh, how many bones does the average fire elemental have?’

‘To make room for certain organs to produce their oil, most fire elementals have evolved to have fewer bones, especially in the spinal area and ribs. However, some can produce the oil directly from their skin. SO. To answer your question, it’s either 196 or 206 depending on what type of fire elemental we’re dealing with. Over four hundred if they’re babies.’

Gin blinked several times. ‘I’ll take your word for it.’

‘But you can see that I know what I’m doing. But the one thing I struggled with was literature. I know my basic phonetics but all the medicine bottles and writing down paperwork,’ Joan slumped back, distressed by her inadequacy. ‘It became overbearing honestly. The exams in the MBP too were impossible for me. I know I should have been like SS rank with my abilities but since I couldn’t read or write, I ended up a B.’

‘That’s still pretty high ranked. How’d you end up in W?’ Gin asked while thinking, they exams too?

‘I actually met Maria soon after being released from the MBP. Long story short, she understood my needs, made labelling the medicines easy for me and I could lead a happy work-life at squadron W. I doubt any other squadron would have done that. I’m grateful to our colonel. I really am. It’s just that I sometimes what would have happened if I,’ Joan’s lips quivered before finishing her sentence.

‘I get it. The ability to read is reserved for the elite and chosen. Or at least that’s what the foreword says. That’s also why I saw so few people in our classroom. You were chosen but you couldn’t fulfil that right, right?’

‘No need to rub it in,’ Joan sulked, head planted in her thighs.

‘I’m not.’

‘Oh, really?’ she looked up.

‘Yeah,’ Gin reassured, rocking in his chair. ‘The manush also have exams, you see. We test all the children in Mathematics, geography, science, about a lot of subjects. Those with the best marks had the best chance in life. They could pick what job they wanted to do similar to how the higher-ranked mages can pick the best squadrons I suppose. But the thing is, these exams were all timed. And while I knew the content of each exam, I struggled to put everything down on paper on time. The result? I end up losing a lot of points for not answering everything and my final grades, or “rank” as your equivalent, were lower than they should be.’

‘Oh,’ Joan uttered a single word under her breath.

‘So, while you have had it easy in life!’ Gin exclaimed, startling Joan before quietening again, ‘don’t ever think this one flaw is minor ever again. It’s my fault for treating it as such in the first place, Joan.’

‘Pfft,’ she began to giggle like a little girl. ‘What you’re telling me is that I’m pretty much the perfect person aside from one flaw?’

‘You have several flaws,’ Gin joked back. At least she seems fine now.

‘Oh, excuse me. I have a moment of insecurity and you think you have the high ground now? For every flaw you say I have, I could name ten of yours.’

‘Yeah yeah,’ Gin rolled his eyes. ‘So? What’s the plan? You going to learn how to read and write eventually or drop the lessons with Gargarensis altogether?’

‘Funny you say that because I requested Diana for more time so that I can learn how to become literate. That’s the whole reason she came to see me. And she said yes. I will have more lessons when everyone’s meant to have their breaks,’ Joan declared, sliding off the bed and standing up. She got ready to leave but turned around to face Gin again. ‘I actually have a request for you.’

Gin raised an eyebrow. ‘What is it?’

‘If possible,’ Joan started, ‘Mind helping me out with that? I can only learn so much from the lessons.’

‘If you want. Between training Syndra, helping out my battalion and doing my own studies, I think I can fit in a bit of tutoring,’ Gin shrugged, nonchalant as you like.

Joan narrowed her in annoyance. ‘Don’t stroke your ego too much. And, uh, thanks. For hearing me out and for saying a bit about yourself as well. It does mean a lot for me.’

‘No problem.’

Joan left the room while Gin swivelled in his chair, facing his desk and the wad of paper on it. He picked up a pen and went through the contents, underlining the important parts, while keeping a mental note of his plan for memorisation.

‘Chapter One: Common Hazards on Ships,’ he dictated to himself before entering a deep, methodical trance.