The sun had just begun to touch the horizon by the time they reached the apartment, but Mike felt as if he had been awake for days by that point. He could hardly believe everything that had happened since the previous morning. He had received a mission from Marius, fought a man to death outside a prison, killed three more at an airport, ignited to become a full paragon, caught a building with his kinetic talent, fought a demon, abandoned his mentor, accepted a major change in leadership, and been interviewed on television. Before bed time, he had to make sure everything was settled with the troops so that the new boss could begin transforming their amateur army into a professional organization.

The front door was open, venting hot air and allowing the clamor of argumentive voices to spill outside. They stepped inside, Mike first, to face a packed house. Varanelli stewed in the corner, arms crossed. Tracy and Spencer waved their hands dramatically in each other's faces as they debated their loyalties. Woodrow reclined on the couch, looking half asleep even with the noise. Srinivas and Smith sat awkwardly side by side on chairs brought over from the kitchen table.

Mike took a deep breath, not quite feeling up to the challenge of wrangling the troops into line. He didn't even know what Cassandane expected of him. He had fallen back on emulating the behavior of senior NCOs from his time in the normal army, but that might not generalize to what was expected in an alien military tradition of a rank he had never even heard of. Well, until he heard otherwise, he was going to act like the first sergeant of a company, handling day-to-day operations while treating his boss like an officer.

"At ease! Quiet, all of you. I know this has been a rough day for everyone. Honestly, you guys had it easy. I almost died somewhere between three and six times, depending on how you count the incidents. All of us here survived. Going forward, we are going to be getting a lot more training so that we keep surviving. Beside me is our new leader, Imperator Sta . . . Stateira? Yeah, Imperator Stateira Cassandane. I know everyone is upset about losing Marius, but we are extremely fortunate to have a replacement of her caliber. This is the woman Marius said was the best in the business when it came to the talents."

Tracy's jaw clenched. "If she was so good, why did she let Marius die?"

"Because Nallit is an actual fucking demon," Mike said. "We cut his damn head off, Tracy, and he resurrected himself."

"Mike, please, let me say one thing," Srinivas interrupted. "I do not want to be in army. This is not thing I enjoy or have talent for. So I quit."

"No, Srinivas, you're not allowed to resign," Mike said.

Cassandane patted his back, silencing him. "As Centurion Mike Dombroski has already said, I am Imperator Stateira Cassandane. I lead the Earth Defense Army now. In addition to being passed the command by Marius, I am more qualified than he ever was to both train and lead soldiers. In times of war, the penalty for desertion is death, so I urge all of you to consider very carefully before attempting to leave the EDA. Now, please introduce yourselves to me one by one. Name, rank, and talents."

Mike prompted Spencer with a stern look to begin. After Spencer obliged, Cassandane asked if she had been in charge the past day and then promoted her to sergeant. Woodrow, Srinivas, and Tracy followed and were told that their rank was soldier. Varanelli and Smith had held themselves back from the introductions, but Cassandane stared at them intently until they spoke.

"We're not in your army," Varanelli said. "The two of us flunked out."

"You were recruited and trained by Marius, correct?"

The two nodded. Cassandane tiled her head slightly. "And did Marius officially discharge you? I thought not. The two of you are part of the EDA."

Once Varanelli introduced herself as a teleotic and Smith introduced himself as a kinetic, Cassandane asked if anyone else had been trained by Marius. Mike brought up Jimmy and Bartender Bill. The bartender was dismissed as he had not attuned, but Mike agreed to bring Jimmy in the following day.

Tracy had something to add to that conversation. "There are two more. 'Quick Buck' Chuck and Nancy Bartelli. Trust me, you don't want either of them for the army."

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"Why don't I want them?"

"Quick Buck Chuck is a small time drug dealer who's always getting sucked into get rich quick schemes. He attuned noetic and disappeared. Probably selling nous precursor instead of weed now. Nancy is straight up senile. She might not look as old as Woodrow, but that lady gets lost in a parking lot. Don't think she even knows how to use the teleotic talent she got."

Cassandane's jaw tightened. "I don't like leaving loose ends behind, but we lack the time and resources to dedicate to a retrieval mission. Very well. Tomorrow I will negotiate with the city to arrange accomodations and funding for us. Mike has been tasked with recruiting additional soldiers. Erica will lead training exercises under the supervision of Mike. The specific focus of these exercises will be basic proficiency with the basic talents."

Spencer's face screwed up in confusion. "Excuse me, Imperator. What do you mean by basic talents?"

"Kinetic, noetic, and teleotic."

"So . . . the talents?"

Mike softly cleared his throat, then waited for Cassandane's nod before speaking. "There is a lot more to the talents than we were taught. If you mix different precursors together, you get synergies."

Tracy joined the conversation. "Synergies? What does that mean?"

"Cassandane can make a sword appear out of nowhere." Everyone stared at him as if waiting for the punchline to a joke. "I mean that literally."

"I will provide a theoretical overview of the talents in two days before we have our first practical training session," Cassandane said. "For now, you will have to be content to wait. Have any of you ignited yet? Or has everyone decided against it?"

"The hell is igniting?" Tracy again.

"That is the common term used for when an attuned individual begins to create precursor instead of drawing it from elsewhere. The name comes from the sensation of power exploding in the moment of transition."

Smith raised his hand, head tilted and too-long eyelashes fluttering in a feminine manner that set Mike on edge. "I ignited a few days ago. I'm much stronger now."

"I am betting you can not catch building," Srinivas said, drawing a dramatic eye roll from Smith.

Cassandane nodded. "And you, Kendra?"

Varanelli shrugged. "No. I haven't done much training. I'm not a huge fan of the teleotic talent."

"You should not look down on the applications of the teleotic talent. Nor should you seek to justify not igniting. It is not a decision to rush into."

"Wait . . . what?" Smith's long lashes made his eyes look larger than usual.

"The lifespan of a talent post-ignition is only a third of what it would be otherwise. Were you not informed of this?"

"Shit, lifespan? Am I going to die early because of this?" Smith looked on the verge of crying.

"A poor choice of words on my part. The kinetic talent you hold would normally have lasted an average of thirty years before degrading from residue buildup. That is reduced to ten years when you ignite. For someone with two talents, the baseline is fifteen years, or just five years in the case of ignition. I do not recommend igniting for those of you with two talents. Either way, the choice will be left to you."

Spencer groaned. "So in fifteen years, if I'm not dead from this war, I will be a washed up has-been."

"How long does Mike get with three talents? It can't be long, right?" Varanelli was giving him a look of pity that he did not care for.

"Actually," Mike said, "when a paragon ignites, they get to break all the rules and keep their power forever."

Pity fled his roommate's features. "You have got to be kidding me."

Cassandane clapped her hands to reign in the noise. "Please calm down, everyone. Tomorrow and every day after for the foreseeable future will be extremely busy. I want alarms set for six in the morning. Mike, what are the sleeping arrangements?"

"Sleeping arrangements?" Mike glanced around at the room full of people before facing his boss. He didn't want to undermine her authority before the troops, so he would have to put this delicately. "Varanelli and I have rooms in this apartment. Smith, Spencer, and Srinivas live nearby. I could give Tracy and Woodrow money to get a hotel tonight, or you could do your mind control trick to get a free presidential suite again . . . ."

"No one is leaving the building tonight," Cassandane said. "We have a male sleeping room and a female sleeping room."

Mike successfully resisted the urge to facepalm. "Uh, boss, there are only two beds here, neither of which are very big."

"There appears to be adequate floor space."

"Imperator, we have cots in my car," Spencer said.

"Take two soldiers to retrieve them. Everyone else, prepare for bed."