Before I knew what I was doing, I saw my hand reaching for the wooden door of the barracks and pushed.

It was not a push with my body. I didn't even extend my arm or exert myself because I never got the chance. The moment my palm touched the wooden door, long smoothed out from use, the forgotten remnants of the mental energy scattered throughout my body — that for whatever reason still remained inside of me — exploded out of my palm in a telekinetic wave.

The wood cracked and splintered as it vanished from before me. Leaving a vail dust hanging in the air.

"Ahhh!"

“Wha—

"Gah!"

Standing behind the nearly nonexistent cover that was vanishing far too quickly for my liking, the anger and suspicion clouding my mind vanished. Shit.

Thinking on my feet, I bounded off the stoop, plastering a look of shock and disappointment onto my face as I spun to face Kathren. The plan was perfect.

Betrayed by my feet, I face-planted into the stone floor as the tip of my shoe caught on that tiny crack on the ground you had to squint at to see. My fall continued, and I tumbled down the two steps leading to the door before coming to a stop.

Blinking away the spots, I saw Kathren — and it did not escape my notice that she was now standing to the side of the doorway — staring at me with a look of shock and disappointment plastered onto her face, amusement flickering in the depths of her eyes. Clever girl.

I started to give her an innocent smile, but I heard and felt a whoosh of air pass over me, and then my body was lifted into the air and spun around.

"Hey, how you doing?" I asked the glowering handsome man holding me by my shirt half a foot from his face, "Do you know you have a splinter in your cheek?"

The man blinked at me, taken aback by my casual demeanor before the tendons in his neck burst out, and his left cheek started twitching. "Who. The fuck. Are you?" Growled the man, his eyes burning with an inner fire.

I opened my mouth to give some flippant response but stopped. Whenever I had done something that annoyed a noble in the past, I played the fool.

It was easy. Make them mad, take a beating, then make yourself scarce until they forget.

That was what I had always done, so long as I wasn't actually on a mission for the legion. But I don't want to bow my head.

Looking the man in the eye, the anger that made me brake the door seeped into my mind again as I said, "Who the fuck are you to ask me that." It was like his head was thrown back, and the anger disappeared as his face showed more shock than it would be if I had struck him. "Now put me down."

The arm twitched as if he was actually going to follow my order, but then the whispers behind him corrupted his thoughts. Ahh, so close. His neck tendons returned as his jaw clenched, and his cheek started twitching again.

"I am Galic Ryarch, heir to house Ryarch, a Guard Commander of the scouts in the Senatorial Guard. Who are you… elf." He sneered at the word elf, like the fact the breath and touched his lips was a stain on his honor.

"I am a scout of the 15th legion. And this is my barracks, not yours." Looking past the man, I saw the faces of my ex-trainees pocking out of doorways and looking down the hall at me.

Standing outside of the doors keeping my fellow scouts trapped in their rooms, were legionaries decked out in black and gold uniforms. The chests of their black tunics had gold threads taking the shape of a scroll over a legion shield.

It was a blatant symbolism that anyone who looked would see. The senate scroll of law and the legion shield of defense, but every legionary knows there is a sword hiding behind the shield.

The only indication they were scouts was the pin holding their gold-trimmed cloaks together.

If the veteran Senitroal Guard legionaries were known for their marshal competence and grinding their way out of trouble, their scouts were known for getting them into it. Or not doing anything to stop them.

Just from what they were wearing, all that flashing metal woven through their clothing, I knew they were useless. No real scout would ever wear such gaudy items.

Then again, they weren't known for being stealthy but for being borderline knights.

The noble shit holding me pulled me close enough to his face that I could see his teeth between the small gap his venomous smile revealed. I could even hear a growl clawing its way out of his throat.

Then I felt like a hoarse kicked me in the chest.

The wind howled in my ears as the ground rapidly passed below me as I began to rotate in the air. My back caught on to something, and then everything blurred as I tumbled over the ground.

With one last chest lurching thump, I flopped to a stop looking at the stone nearly touching my eyes. I smelled the dry grit of the earth, and as my hands slid over the ground, I felt grains of rock tumbling along my skin.

A moment of mild annoyance later, after I had driven my arms into the earth, I was on my feet brushing off my clothes and the rocks embedded in my palms.

Twenty feet away, the young noble was stepping off the bottom step leading to the doorway. His hair was black, and his eyes a dark brown. His skin was a dark olive, and I saw what looked like a few moles scattered over his face and neck. If I got close and inspected his face, I was half convinced I would find freckles scattered over his nose and round ears — I could not see the slightest of points amid the dark locks of his hair.

Not that I would, as I had no desire to inspect his body that closely, but if I did and found them, I wouldn't be surprised.

The man exuded pure-blooded noble with every fiber of his being. I might not know his house, but that was because I was common trash. I could look at appearances as well as the next man, and he might be the most human person I have ever seen. Which means he has power.

"You know," I said in a conversational tone, "you nobles pride yourselves on your bloodlines. On making your selves look the most… human." His eyes were squinted at me in confusion as I spoke. "But I just remembered something I read. Would you like to guess what it was?"

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Haa! Look at this! An elf claims to be able to read!" Mocked the noble.

Ignoring the comment and the jeers coming from his lackeys in the doorway, "It was a commentary on The Mad Scholar's Wall. You know what it said," everyone had gone deathly silent, "it said that humans only have mental abilities because of intermingling with the elves. And with all your family's breeding, you can never get rid of the elf blood in your veins… as it is the source of your mental powers. So should I call you brother?" I threw my arms wide, welcoming him to run forward and leap into them.

Slowly but surely, the man's face twisted with wrath, and a red flush crept up his neck and onto his face.

He had a man wearing the mask of a demon. And the creature of instinct would enact his vengeance, but I didn't care.

I pulled the mental energy from my core.

A few mere hours ago, my core was empty. It was an accident on my part, but since I didn't bother to gather up my scattered mental energy, it should, at best, be a third full. The thing was, I didn't collect the energy because I knew I didn't need to.

Since I had woken up in the medico ward and first vented my mental energy, I knew I was different. It was far more than the fact I could no longer control my mental powers or stand.

I could feel my body sucking in the ambient energy like a sponge, and as I drained my core, it was already refilling at a steady pace. Within twenty minutes of emptying my core, it would be full again.

The energy flooding into my core, I also started pulling on. It spread a hollow feeling through my body like I hadn't eaten in days, and I felt like my mind was cramping from over-exerting itself, but what did that matter? At any time in my entire life I had ever exerted myself, I felt the same exact way, but instead of now only lasting for a few seconds after I stopped pulling mental energy from my core, it lasted for hours and possibly even days.

I focused the initial burst of power down my arms, and with every beat of my heart, I filled in my chest with the constant trickle. It was like holding a water skin under the flow of a stream, it's gonna take time, but it will be filled.

Bringing my arms in front of my face, I turned my forearms to face outward, creating a bulwark.

Though my arms were filled with mental energy, I had not fully solidified and reinforced it with my willpower. It was like the difference between someone having spent years of practice holding and using a shield and someone just being handed one. But I did enhance my body.

A mountain struck in the center of my forearms. Looking between the gap in my arms, I could see the self-assured sneer on the prick's face as my feet left the ground from the impact.

"Gahh!" I grunted as my back smashed into something unyielding.

My mid forearms to my shoulders throbbed like someone had beaten them with a log, and they were so numb I couldn't raise them.

I looked at the noble, the malicious expression covering his face melting away into astonishment as he raised his eyes to me from his hand. "How in the Void did you block that?"

Bearing my teeth, as it was all I could do while holding back the whimpers of pain, I bent forward at my waist to smoothly get to my feet.

Jerking back, I tried to keep my balance and get my legs under me as I began to fall… again.

As it turned out, I had not smashed into the wall behind me hard enough to make a crater. It sure as hell felt like I did, though.

Blinking and shaking my head to clear it, my bearing of teeth turned into a genuine smile. I looked the noble in the eye and mustered the strength to raise my arm before my middle finger popped out like it was attached to a spring.

Red flooded his cheeks as he stopped, unable to process the sight. When he started walking, he was so mad that his body radiated mental energy, and every step came down with enough force to crack the stone beneath.

My eyes flicked past the noble, and I saw Kathren running forward, a knife clutched in her fist, her face screaming murder. I locked eyes with her for an instant, long enough to give the smallest of shakes of my head, trying to signal her to back off before looking away.

The barracks doorway was a churn of bodies as the others fought with the scouts of the Senatorial Guard, either holding them back or fighting to get out. I couldn't tell which, and it didn't matter.

Focusing my eyes on my approaching death, I looked him in the eyes, then at my middle finger, before returning to him. I was even puckering my lips to blow him a kiss.

His hit would, more likely than not, kill me. Unless he missed.

But how could the man miss when I couldn't move?

"STOP!" Roared a voice that demanded to be obeyed. I even thought I saw dust lift off from the ground and hover in the air as pebbles jiggled as it sounded.

My ears had a ringing in them that died out a few seconds after the voice sounded. Turning my head, I wasn't surprised to see Markus standing in the street intersection two barracks over. The other scouts collecting behind him were new, though.

Where're the thunderclouds? I thought as I looked at his dark face. It was quite the sight. With the setting sun and the angle he was holding his head, it was like everything below his distorted brow was cast in shadows.

"Hey, Centurion!" I happily called out, trying to turn my middle finger into a wave, but it ended up as more of a wiggle of the fingers.

"What happened here." Asked Centurion Markus.

"Ahh. Well, these black cloaks were trying to kick our newest scouts out of our barracks. I arrived and accidentally shattered the door. Sliver face over there took exception and assaulted me." The noble's head snapped to me, his eyes burning with hatred. Though the intensity of the look was ruined as one of the slivers in his face, which he took his name after, fell out of his cheek. “And… here we are."

"Why are you here?" Asked Markus, his voice cold.

The noble, blood rolling down his cheek, raised his head. "I am here to receive proper accommodations along with my men. You can not expect us to—

"Shut up." Said Markus. His voice wasn't loud, but it cut through the noble's arrogant speech as it was laced with steel. "You are not of the 15th and have no authority to do anything. I can have you lashed for what you have done."

"It was self-defense! He assaulted me first!" shouted the petulant noble as he gestured to the blood running down his neck.

"From what I felt of his words, it was an accident. And the medicos did just release him for a head wound affecting his mental powers. So are you saying a mentally damaged elf wounded you?" Asked Markus. He sounded curious like the answer was purely academic.

The noble faces contorted from anger to shame and finally settled on scorn as he turned up the street, facing away from Markus, and started walking away. "Leave these elf lovers to their hovel!" he shouted over his shoulder, not looking back.

Even if he didn't look at me or say a word, I knew this wasn't over. Galic Ryarch would not forget this soon.

I looked at Markus and the gathered scouts behind him as he stood there silently watching the noble. I felt a mixture of anger and resentment rise up in me.

On the one hand, Markus did stick his neck out for me. But his threat was empty unless the noble kept pushing, and it appeared he had given up for now.

I didn't know shit about the noble's family, but Markus must have known something about the family's political power. Because he didn't say anything as the noble walked away without saying another word. He didn't even bother to salute the superior he was just talking to.

And, of course, it's all because I'm an elf… I thought, wallowing a moment in self-pity before pushing the negative emotion away.

"Thanks," I said to Markus as he walked up to me. He nodded in acknowledgment and grunted as he offered a hand to me. My arm didn't yet have the strength to grab onto his forearm, and my hand flopped against his bracers, but he grabbed onto mine and pulled me up anyway.

With a few unstable steps and Kathren appearing to steady me further, Markus looked me over. "You need a medico?" he asked.

"Nah," I said, rolling my back and slowly flexing my hands. "Just bruises."

"Good," he grunted, looking up at the darkening sky, "Now get to a bunk and go to sleep. It's gonna be a long day tomorrow."

"Sir!" I said, performing something close to a salute as Markus turned and walked toward the barracks.

"A pity," said a sickly sweet voice that could not hide the poison underneath, "I hope you are fine." I watched Celeste pass, my eyes narrowing in annoyance.

Then I sighed in regret as I took in the man she trailed behind. Cockroaches never die. I thought as Vlore didn't so much as turn to acknowledge me.