Gurns tapped his foot on the floor, standing by a pillar and waiting as a Rail car rolled in.

When it opened, a few dozen people disembarked. Last to get off was a blonde girl.

He watched her walk. She naturally had a faint presence but it was nothing that he couldn’t see through. Besides that, she looked generally neutral. A mostly expressionless face gazed around, her beauty catching several eyes. She looked like she didn’t have a care in the world, but to Gurns it felt like her state of mind was entirely hidden, which gave off the impression that she held no emotion.

He could feel something faint though, his instincts perking up when he looked into her eyes.

Scrutiny, judgment, perhaps some disgust? When he saw that, he began to glimpse the almost palpable pride coming off her, as if she were unsatisfied with how everyone did things, as if everyone around her were entirely inadequate.

He hadn’t felt that in her when they first met. Then again, they had only talked twice, both times briefly, and the second time she had simply accepted his offer. It was only now that he was scrutinizing her, getting a read on her personality. He’d have to if he wanted to induct her into one of his teams. Chemistry was important.

“Tana. It’s good to have you here.”

“Thank you sir, for the opportunity to be.”

Well she certainly didn’t speak pridefully, Gurns thought to himself.

He waved.

“Come, let’s get you situated.”

The two started walking into the base. Gurns brought Tana to one of the buildings where his teams resided. She wasn’t yet one of his but she’d get the treatment until she either was or failed out. That meant her room was nicer, and she’d be living alone instead of in a barracks.

After that, they went on a tour, Gurns explaining things.

“I will be conducting your training personally. Along with you, there are six other candidates who I’ll be training for this next cycle. You’ll all train together, and this right here will be where you spend most of your time in the coming months.”

The two stopped at the foot of the training grounds. Tana saw the large metal plate that composed the floor as well as the monolith in the center. She figured it was there for something strenuous and when she saw some of the knights moving with far more strain than normal, she figured that the monolith increased the gravity in the area rather massively.

A good way to break a knight down and build them stronger. She could even feel the interference it had with magic. It made it harder to even move Vigor, directly stunting anything someone tried to do within its field of influence.

She’d have to test her stealth under it.

The training area was the most interesting thing to Tana. Beyond that was nothing beyond the standard at every base. The only thing that caught her senses was the sheer skill level of the people she encountered.

She concluded that those in special forces were at least much more competent than the norm. It was comforting to know that there was a force within the Kingdom capable of surpassing the standards and capitalizing on both talent and hard work. Being around so many mediocre individuals, she had worried that the entire military was like that. The only person that kept her sharp in a dull environment was Umara, who was also one of the extremely few people who could still see through her stealth like it wasn’t an actual Auric technique.

At least now she’d be able to sharpen herself further, using the others here as a whetstone. Especially Gurns, who she couldn’t sense anything from to save her life. She couldn’t even tell if he was a warlock or a knight. He was dangerous but if she wanted to reach her goals, he would be a good gauge to measure herself against. She wanted to become just as dangerous at the barest minimum, and then far surpass that.

“For now you can relax. Tomorrow we’ll begin training. You’re the last one to arrive. If you want, go find Feiden. I know you two have probably wanted to see each other. He’s one of the reasons I came to find you in the first place.”

“Mm, I will. Thank you, sir.”

“Sure.”

Gurns left with that, leaving Tana to her own devices. She decided to send a message, and before long, she had somewhere to go.

She arrived at the mess hall, finding Feiden in a back corner by himself. She smiled, walking over and sitting down.

“It’s good to see you, Feiden.”

She muttered as he stuffed himself with food. The ravenous eating couldn’t dampen his good looks. He was still a pretty boy with that blonde hair and generally soft face.

He smiled back at her, hardly stopping his consumption.

“Hey Tana! Glad you could finally make it.”

“You’re stuffing yourself. Are you that hungry?”

“The training here makes you go through food like burning wood. My advice to you is to eat as much as you can, when you can. You’ll be spending every hour of every day recovering, at least until you get out of the first phase.”

“So first phase is conditioning. What’s the second phase?”

“Applied training. He puts you in a team and you go on hunts. There are plenty of Royals and nests and camps, and you’ll be fighting them. Sometimes the objective is to just survive, get in and get out. Gurns might be watching while you do things so you won’t risk dying, but if it really gets to that point then you’ve probably failed somewhere.”

Tana nodded at his reasonable words. It was about what she expected. At least she had plenty of experience by now. She had already had her run-ins with death. Only difference is she wouldn’t have Umara by her side, a reliable ally to entrust her life to.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Speaking of, how are the people here? Can they actually be relied on?”

“If Gurns is good at anything, it’s picking people out. Generally, I would say everyone is good at what they do. I wouldn’t necessarily say the people you’ll be training with are the same, but by phase two he will have weeded out the weak. Still, it’s all according to your judgment. You have to work with what he gives you.”

“Sure.”

She nodded again, and the two fell into silence, Feiden still chowing.

Once he was done, he pushed aside his tray, washed everything down with some water, and spoke.

“How have you been, Tana? I know things have been rough since we had to go straight into the military after Anarchy, that and develop our Aura. Have you been faring well?”

“I would say so, yes… although none of us can say that anything was the same after that.”

She suddenly smirked.

“I remember back at the Magisterium. I had cried after getting yelled at by the Puppet Master when John got hurt. I felt so… innocent back then. Now after everything we’ve been through, I can hardly imagine being the person I was back at that school. It’s only been two years and yet my maturity feels like the difference between a child and an adult.”

“I can understand that.”

Feiden nodded, Tana eyeing him with complicated thoughts.

Unlike her, Umara, and John, Feiden had lost someone he loved. She didn’t know how far he had gone with his girlfriend but to lose her was devastating for him. And to be forced to wrestle with Anarchy at the same time? She couldn’t imagine.

He was stronger than her, that much she believed.

Vetsmon had only left her. He hadn’t died, and someday she knew she would see him again. She wasn’t sure what would happen when that time came but she would at least get closure.

For a moment she felt bad, but there wasn’t anything she could say to help or change anything. Pity would do no good for either of them.

Feiden suddenly smiled.

“What has you so down? This is the first time we’ve seen each other in over a year. That unhappy to see me?”

“No, but you do seem to be in a good mood. Are you looking forward to seeing me suffer?”

“I will admit that it’ll be nice seeing someone else go through all that pain instead of me, but that’s not everything. I can’t wait until we start fighting together is all. I’ve developed my technique more and I’m excited to show it off. I think you’ll be impressed.

“Hoh?”

Tana smiled and rested her chin on her hand.

“Did you get even faster? Your Aura is definitely impressive. I can barely see it.”

“I did get faster, and I’m surprised you can see my Aura at all. You’ve been working hard.”

“Umara left me no choice. She’s the only one who’s been able to see completely through me, whereas I can’t see through her at all. Her Aura is too… complicated. Honestly I’m more interested in seeing you two meet.”

“Gurns told me she’ll be hard to recruit because of her mother.”

“What about John?”

“Well…”

Feiden shrugged.

“I’m not sure. Apparently John’s combat ability is impressive, but he’s still a summoner and I don’t think Gurns will easily disregard that bias. Everyone has been hearing about what’s going on over at the Treehouse though. Apparently John is making waves with his abilities as an intelligence agent. Maybe Gurns will bring him on for that.”

“Maybe…”

Tana sighed.

“I just hope we can all reunite sooner rather than later. The Scourge is amassing troops and increasing the pressure. We need to be together so we can protect each other. We can’t rely on anyone else.”

“I wouldn’t be so quick to disregard everyone, but yes, getting the squad back together will change things for the better. I think Umara will be here soon, but as for John…”

Feiden closed his eyes.

“We might have to wait a little while longer.”

……

…

Initially Nonnen had been slightly worried. So many things were happening all at once and John had never encountered a situation like it before. He was confident John could handle it, but how quickly, and how well?

John knew how to step up though, and he was a summoner so he didn’t have to worry about him being smart enough to handle the task. What he wanted was to provide the opportunity and use it as a test.

Now, Nonnen had no doubts. John was exceptionally qualified and he’d be bringing him underneath the Snow Doves very soon. Pollux would have no objections. It wasn’t like John had been operating normally with them lately, and since some Pathfinders died during the siege, Pollux would be getting reinforced anyway.

What Nonnen wanted to do was make sure John didn’t get taken away to some other base or under another general’s wing. Making him a Snow Dove would be a good way to secure his place. Those underneath a Brigaider, especially one that led a strike team like the Snow Doves, were not easily removed.

He could fight, too. He really was the perfect intelligence agent to keep with them. He could manage troops and missions in the field and had the concealment abilities and smarts to survive sticky situations.

Now they just had to get past this shitshow.

He followed John into the Treehouse’s headquarters. They had returned and troops were getting taken care of, so it was time to see the General.

They all already knew what happened. John had sent messages out ahead of time, and was now just supposed to attend a discussion. They needed to talk about what happened with him. John had quickly become the highest authority out there, the one with the best grasp of the entire situation, perhaps the only one with a full view of what had happened and enough information to deduce why.

The room was quiet when they entered. In attendance were some of the Brigadier Generals, Colonel Polly, the only other Major General, General Viskar, and even the Marshal.

Marshal Boores was a knight, a stocky man with the fierce face you’d expect of someone sitting in the position of Marshal. Unlike many knights though, he was a generally careful man, stable, not willing to make rash decisions especially when things weren’t certain, as things usually were with the Scourge.

He seldom showed himself, leaving a majority of the matters to the thinkers like the Generals and Colonels.

Now though, they had taken the most catastrophic losses since Purple Sky. Two Brigadiers and a Major General had died. Of the 12,000 troops that had left, only around 6,200 had returned, and nearly 60% of those were wounded in some way. The disease that had plagued the Treehouse earlier was making a resurgence with this group. The devastation the Bombardos wrought had finally made people realize just how much of a threat they were. They were mass killing machines.

Grave mistakes had been made, and that was what everyone present needed to know about. John was the only one who could provide answers.

Once inside, both of them saluted. John’s gaze remained forward, making eye contact with the Marshal as if he didn’t realize the kind of person he was looking at. By now, Nonnen knew that John didn’t give a damn about much. He didn’t either, because certain pieces of information had made themselves known over the past couple days that could affect things massively beyond Operation Breakwater.

“Major Cooper. I know you won’t mind skipping the pleasantries, since you wanted to relay some intel so urgently, and personally.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then go ahead. We’re listening.”

The Marshal leaned forward, John falling under all eyes of scrutiny.

There was no hint of wavering in his voice as he spoke.

“We have traitors to humanity in our midst, and I know who they are.”