Emil

“Sure, why not.”

Mia’s nonchalance was the last thing Emil expected when he brought up the idea of moving to Azure City. He had armed himself in advance with a list of pros and cons. He had rehearsed his talking points not once, twice, but thrice, going as far as he can to prepare himself for a heated discussion. Instead, his preparations went to waste. Mia was unexpectedly open to the idea. Excited even.

“But I have two conditions,” she said with a determined gaze, “One, you let me work during the day. And two, you share your class notes with me so I can learn alongside you.”

Emil blinked, perplexed by her second condition. “…Yeah, I can do that. But why?”

Her mouth curved into a wistful smile. “It’s fun to learn, isn’t it? I’ve always wanted to be a student.”

With that, the next chapter of their life was decided. Emil sought the witch’s help to fulfill Mia’s first condition of finding a job in Azure City. He insisted, of course, that the job would not place her in any danger. Mia’s second condition was also amiable as it gave him an excuse to visit her and Raz on the weekends.

Exalted Academy was a boarding school and it expected its students to live on campus during the duration of their studies. The Academy was rather infamous for its strict curfews, not allowing students to wander outside of campus past six in the evening. It claimed that these draconian rules were necessary to foster an ideal learning environment. Emil thought that it was just a convenient excuse to keep its students gated and monitored.

Talented Exalted were in high demand in Ardair, but absurdly low in supply. They were one of the most sought-after assets in this kingdom—only second to Azurite. These strict curfews were mostly in place to keep the students sheltered and ripe, until they could be safely scooped up by noble families and wealthy institutions upon graduation.

That was one of the ways the Academy made its money—by taking a hearty commission out of an Exalted graduate’s first employment contract.

Once Emil agreed to his mission, the witch immediately put him to work. The first pre-requisite that he had to clear was the Academy’s entrance exams. During the day, he honed his newly awakened Gift under Steiger’s tutelage. During the night, he studied diligently under the candlelight.

For the first time in ages, Emil experienced some semblance of a normal life.

Like a dream, the peaceful month passed in the blink of an eye.

***

“Congratulations,” the witch said, a cigar in her left and Emil’s letter of enrolment in her right. The two of them were walking down a set of dark narrow corridors in the basement floor of the Steiger headquarters.

“You didn’t win any scholarships, but you made it in.”

“Getting a scholarship wasn’t the goal,” Emil hissed. He quickly let out a sigh of relief right after. Anxiety over the exam results had been tearing him apart. Heavy bags clouded beneath his eyes from the sleepless nights lost to worry. The uncomfortable knot in his stomach finally loosened as the good news settled in.

“I’m supposed to be undercover anyways. Being a scholarship student would have drawn too many unwanted eyes. It would have made the investigations significantly more difficult.”

The witch snorted, “I don’t necessarily agree. But sure, I’ll concede if that makes you feel better.”

Emil felt his cheeks flare.

“What name did you give to your Gift?” the witch asked, ignoring his indignation.

Azure City had a unique identification system where all Exalted entering the city must have their Gifts recorded in a registry. They were then assigned a badge with their names inscribed, which granted the user permission to use their Gifts within the premise of the city. Those who unlawfully used their Gifts without a badge were immediately treated as a Desperado to be hunted down by city’s police force.

With the largest Exalted population in the kingdom, Azure City implemented this rule as a measure to dissuade Exalted-related crimes.

“…I named it Bulwark,” Emil said. The name was a reference to the defensive capabilities of his new Gift, which gave him the ability to manifest and control the earth.

“How cute.” The witch grinned. “Let’s establish some ground rules for your new assignment. For the sake of brevity, let’s call your original Gift, Blaze. Your cover on campus will be ‘Emil Milligan.’ Any time you’re acting as Emil Milligan, you’re only allowed to use Bulwark as your Gift. Once you’re off-campus and working on Steiger-related tasks, you will remove your badge and only use Blaze.”

Emil nodded. It was a logical measure to separate his two identities.

“Now listen closely. Do not mix your Gifts unless you want to risk your cover being blown. Do not get caught as a Desperado. Consider your affiliation with Steiger severed if you’re apprehended. Do not attempt to use Steiger’s name to get yourself out of trouble, or the consequences will be uncivil.”

The witch made the implications clear—consider Mia and Raz’s lives forfeit if he broke this rule.

It was a harsh punishment, but perhaps warranted. The witch was taking an incredible amount of risk implanting him in Azure City. If his affiliation with Steiger was ever exposed, a political incident could break out between the royal family and the Council of Mana.

The witch rounded the corner of the bland corridor. Where the hell are we going anyways? Emil thought as she suddenly changed the topic, “How much do you remember about your first Awakening?”

His face hardened. The question dug up unpleasant memories that he would rather not recall. Faint vestiges of being tied down to a cold steel bed flashed in his head. He remembered thrashing about—trying to escape the contraptions and scalpels that defiled his body and pried open his insides. There was a low-hanging ceiling. There was the ever-present stench of antiseptics that meandered in the air. And then there were the unrelenting pains and dizzying hallucinations that followed.

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“…I was torn apart and bestowed the Gift of my friends’ murderer,” Emil said bitterly.

“You were implanted with some of his body parts. The end result was an artificial Awakening,” the witch added, “The techniques used on you that day were a piece of forbidden knowledge leaked to us by an anonymous source. You were on the verge of death. As a last resort, I made the decision to use you to validate those claims in that leak.”

Emil shot her a glare. The witch’s face stayed impassive, her eyes as cold as icy snow. If she even felt an ounce of remorse or guilt over her decision, she did not it let it show.

“The fruits of that decision finally revealed itself. You’re now the first Exalted in the history of this kingdom that possesses two Gifts. That makes you invaluable,” the witch proclaimed, “However, there is also another implication. This knowledge had to have come from somewhere.”

Fury surged in Emil’s chest. His throat grew hot as he muttered, “Someone was working on this. Experimenting on humans.”

The witch nodded. “The name of this initiative was the Bestowed Project. And as much as I yearn for the advancement of human knowledge, there are some lines that shouldn’t be crossed.”

“You want me to find out who did it. You suspect the culprit is in Azure City.”

It was a logical deduction. Azure City was at the cutting edge of research on Exalted and Azurite. It was the only place in this kingdom without Steiger’s presence. Those two conditions made it the perfect breeding ground for these sorts of heretical experiments.

The witch’s mouth curved to an eerie smile. “We have reasons to believe that project has been long discontinued. Nonetheless, your secondary objective will be to uncover evidence of the Bestowed Project. Your primary objective—” she suddenly stopped before a set of barred doors at the end of the long, meandering corridor.

“—is this.” She opened the barred doors with the turn of a key. The door creaked open, revealing a small, dimly lit room. The air thick with the nauseating mix of blood and antiseptics. There was a single bed along the wall. Occupied.

A petite person rested on the bed. Their face was deformed, littered with bulging splotches of virulent green and dark scarlet across their cheeks. Tumors. The lumps pulsated madly, squeezing against the person’s eyes and nose, rendering most of their facial features unrecognizable. Emil fought to keep his composure, not wanting to make a face at the disturbing sight.

The witch walked over and carefully removed the covers over their body. This time, Emil couldn’t hide his shock.

The same tumors were smeared across their body. Glaring incisions and stitch marks lined the edges of their torso, indicators that the person had been pried apart and then closed up.

“What the fuck is this?” Emil cursed through his teeth. The witch placed the covers back over the person.

“A survivor. She came from Azure City. Likely, she was a subject of human experimentation,” the witch uttered with a frightening calm, “Your long-term assignment is to collect evidence of Azure City’s heretical experiments. If possible, you are to find the malicious actors enabling these cruel acts to continue.”

***

The day of the entrance ceremony arrived. Emil ventured into Azure City with a modest suitcase filled with his belongings, eager to settle into his new living space on the campus dorms. Mia and Raz had already moved into the city a couple of days prior with Steiger’s assistance. Emil planned to meet them later on a weekend.

The morning sun was gentle. Excited chatters sang in the air from students, parents, and servants eagerly anticipating the start of the school year. Emil crossed the gates and stepped foot onto the campus of Exalted Academy. Immediately, his heart swelled, beating with awe.

The path beneath his feet was paved in polished, patterned brick. Beautifully trimmed hedges lined the trail. Alongside the hedges were plots of land lined with trees and vivid flowers in full bloom, not dissimilar to the views of a miniature orchard.

Students were found basking beneath the shade of the trees or resting on the various terraces scattered along the campus grounds—chatting or pouring over large books.

It’s similar to Upper Dannan. But the vibe is distinctively different.

If he had to describe it more succinctly, the décor and hanging gardens of Upper Dannan were built to impress. The splendor of its exotic plants and vibrant layouts were designed to seize your attention, inviting you to gawk and marvel in awe of its display.

The campus of Exalted Academy, while still splendid, was far more modest in its approach. The design was easy on the eyes and the layout was practical and spacious. For someone whose childhood was rooted in books and nature, Emil should have been overjoyed to be in this environment.

Instead, his heart was threatening to explode out of his body.

Calm down. He clenched his chest. His neck was damp with sweat. The edge of his fingers quivered, abuzz with the dread of danger looming in the back of his mind. Emil fought to keep his face neutral, trying not to stand out amidst the myriads of eyes gazing around.

The source of his distress was the number of Exalted in his vicinity. Their constant presence in every direction made him extremely uncomfortable.

They’re not your enemies.

He repeated the statement in his head, desperate to convince his body to tone down his combative instincts. For the past few years under Steiger, he had been conditioned to see other Exalted as a threat. Aside from Van and the witch, the only other Exalted that he came into contact with were Desperados while on the job. Those encounters would always end in bloodshed.

He would emerge battered and scarred—forced to use Blaze as he fought a self-destructive battle.

Somewhere along the line, his survival instincts began to associate other Exalted with danger. Those same instincts that kept him alive were now threatening to break him apart.

Emil felt his vision blur. Fear continued to gnaw the back of his mind. The mental battle of keeping his frazzled nerves intact was overwhelming. The ordeal was only intensified by his Awakening. His sensitivity to mana had increased significantly—enough to sense the small perturbations from students nearby. All of it manifested as searing itches across his skin.

They’re students. They’re not Desperados. They’re not your enemies. They’re just here to study. They don’t mean you any harm—

“Excuse me!”

An irritated voice blared in his ears, jolting him awake from his daze. Emil spun around, lashing out his right arm by instinct. Shit! He quickly realized his mistake. He tried to pull his outstretched arm back, but it was already too late.

Thud!

His victim was a female student. Petite. Her scarlet hair dangled to her shoulders. A pair of bright, doe eyes stared at him, wide with disbelief. Her belongings, scattered across the ground, had been knocked out of her arms.

Emil would have found her cute, if he wasn’t mortified by what he had just done.

“I’m sor—”

“Do you have a death wish?”

Emil froze. The cute face immediately deformed into a monstrous visage. The chilling question radiated murderous intent.

Before he could explain himself, the girl lunged. Mana swelled, engulfing her vessel in a layer of azure. Spontaneously, the coat of mana snapped, blooming into sparks of electricity.

The shrill cackle of electric discharge filled the air.

Emil immediately took a step back. His hands itched. Inadvertently, he found an outlet for all the combative energy rampaging in his body. The witch’s ground rules echoed in his head as he channeled Bulwark. His hands were suddenly covered by a gauntlet of stone.

“Die!” the girl screamed. She was absurdly fast. Emil could barely follow her movements with his eyes. It was only through the minute mana fluctuations around her limbs that he could anticipate her intent.

Boom!

His armored hand collided against her fist. Emil felt a jolt of energy rush down to his shoulder. He winced at the dull pain, shocked by the petite girl’s power.

The girl was equally surprised—her eyes raised in alarm. But her hesitation barely lasted a second. Without warning, she instantly whipped around to deliver a high-arcing kick. Emil ducked beneath the attempt as the whizz of electricity screeched past his ears.

Her Gift is bad news. Sensing that he was at a disadvantage, Emil jumped back. He was contemplating his next move, when—

“Stop! Cease your fighting!” the authoritative voice knocked out of his fighting trance. Clarity poured over his head as his lust for combat dissipated. Suddenly, he remembered his situation.

Right, I’m supposed to be a student.

He found himself surrounded by a cadre of Academy staff members. Behind the staff, students across the campus were gawking at him.

Shit. What have I done? He grimaced with regret as he raised his hands to surrender to the Academy staff.