Wayne stood on the field and watched the other Cohort line up opposite his group. He had to look at them, as the rest of his team was busy equipping their familial Runic armor.

Yvonne was strapping on an entire collection of armor to her right arm, having already secured her breastplate. Makelian was fastening his pauldrons with Ivan’s help, the black haired boy whispering animatedly all the while.

August was also busy equipping her familial armor, donning a very strangely shaped helmet that had its visor in the wrong place. Wayne couldn’t even tell if the Lady would be able to see while wearing it. As a result, Wayne felt like someone should keep their eyes on the opponents. Their enemies.

“Relax, Lord Aouris. We aren’t going to kill you.” Avery called across the grounds.

No, just beat me, electrocute me, and roast me.

“I know. ” Wayne called back instead. “Can you blame me for being nervous though?”

“Mmm. No, I cannot. I hear you are weak.” The other man said without any contempt.

Because he was simply stating a fact. Wayne was weak. He didn’t like it, but he appreciated that the other boy wasn’t looking down at him. Instead, Wayne studied the other boy for a moment before eventually responding.

“I am, for now. I’m slowly figuring out how to change that.”

Now it was the other boys turn to study Wayne, taking a moment to look him up and down. Wayne wasn’t quite sure what the other boy saw, but he slowly nodded once as he said, “I see.”

Then, Wayne’s new friends were finished pulling on their gear, and it was time for the talking to end. Now, they would fight. Jaemeson held his arm up, then dropped it, and Wayne froze for a moment as chaos broke out.

Yvonne stepped forwards in front of him. She casually shrugged off several Lightbeams that had immediately streaked towards them, before extending her left arm to summon an enormous crescent of light and heat shaped like a battle axe. Heavy footsteps of steel and stone pounded across the training field towards them.

Wayne looked to his left. Makelian was dancing his way across the field with graceful movements. Ivan followed behind him. Making up his mind, Wayne darted across to join them.

A Lightbeam passed right across his face, causing Wayne to stumble but he tried to keep moving forwards. He took one more step, before another Lightbeam crashed into his side before he could react.

The blast wasn’t too powerful, but it was still forceful enough to knock Wayne to the ground. He instantly scrambled back onto his side, but thankfully a follow up didn’t occur.

Instead, Wayne got to watch as Makelian and Ivan advanced on the other team's backline, causing them to receive all the long range fire. His turquoise haired friend moved like the wind, dipping and slashing with his Ray Blade to intercept some attacks while using his oversized pauldrons to block the others.

Ivan was much less majestic, scrambling around as he dodged without the benefit of armor to protect him. Still, he too was managing to remain unharmed, so far it was just Wayne who was down.

He faintly heard the air whistle and Wayne trusted his intuition, rolling from his side and springing to his feet the best he could. The stone form of a woman falling where he was laying just a moment ago proved his intuition right.

“Sorry!” Yvonne yelled out from across the way, tussling now with just Avery after having thrown the other Hastas almost into Wayne.

He wasn’t given a chance to respond, because as Wayne was backing up another hand shoved him back to the ground.

Now August stood over him, glimmering with an internal light and moving at speeds that said she was using the Enforcer Form. Still, she was on the defensive as Jayna reigned blows on her, sparks flying from the other Hastas’ fists.

From his position on the ground, Wayne shimmied backwards on his elbows, trying to create some distance from the fight next to him. Wayne was already overwhelmed, having lost track of his directions on his latest tumble. He was so turned around, that Wayne didn’t realize what he was moving towards until his back brushed against something rough and hard.

Looking over his shoulder, Wayne saw the Stone Affinity girl standing over him. Her arm was already coming down on a collision course for Wayne’s chin.

“Oh sh-”

Then Wayne’s world was awash in brilliant light, and he realized he had been put in one of Praetor Jaemeson’s cocoons. And his first fight with a Cohort was over, at least for Wayne.

* * * * *

“You will do better next time, Wayne.” Makelian said.

“It wasn’t that awful of a performance.” August offered civilly.

“Better than I had thought you would do.” Yvonne added, although its effectiveness was debatable.

Somehow, they had ended walking to the cafeteria as a group when Jaemeson dismissed the Century. Even August had stuck with them.

However, they had just been walking the long corridors in silence, so Wayne had told them he was disappointed in how he had executed. and the rest of the group had somehow decided he needed to be consoled.

Stolen novel; please report.

In truth, Wayne had just been talking about sticking with Ivan’s plan, and wasn’t really upset so much as looking for ways to improve. After he had time to think, Wayne had realized he had frozen at the beginning of the match and could have used that time to group up with Makelian and Ivan on their blitz.

Still, it was a nice reminder they at least cared somewhat.

“I appreciate it.” Wayne said as they passed the entry of the cafeteria.

“I for one thought you were rather subpar. Why didn’t you at least cast some Lightbeams their way?” Ivan interjected, ruining the moment.

“Maybe because I don’t know how to.” Wayne retorted.

“Ah, of course, I should have known. Just another thing to add to the list of topics you are clueless on. How in the world are you going to survive the Assessment?” The snide boy said.

“Another thing I don’t know.”

The group quickly laughed at that, like Wayne was joking. Wayne was only half paying attention at this point, looking ahead at the heaps of food that were once again piled high across the various tables and serving stations.

“No I’m serious, what is the Assessment? I don’t know what, or apparently how deadly it is.” He asked offhandedly.

Wayne had already made his way to the station offering thick cuts of an unknown meat that smelled delicious, when he realized he was alone. He looked around to try and find his group but quickly realized that they had all stopped together, and were just staring at him incredulously. After a moment, Makelian broke their silence and began to move to catch up to Wayne.

“Why would you volunteer for an unknown and possibly dangerous task, when you so clearly were not required to.” The usual fake smile he plastered on was nowhere to be seen.

“I, uh…” Wayne suddenly felt crowded as his new friends surrounded him as they awaited his answer.

“Well… I guess it doesn’t feel much different to my entire time here in Light’s Reach. And to be honest, I thought Jaemeson would keep us mostly safe, but you all are sounding like that won’t be the case.”

The others shared a look, even August joining in, before they turned back to Wayne.

“We’ll fill you in after we grab food. Meet us at the same table as before.” Yvonne said, before turning to go and follow her own directions.

The others did the same, Ivan trailing for a moment to shoot Wayne a surprisingly sympathetic glance. The sour taste of knowing you had made some sort of mistake, but not knowing what exactly, made it hard to focus even on the gourmet heaven in front of him.

His plate ended up filled with two slabs of the tantalizing seasoned meat, a handful of fried melaen wafers, and collard greens. It was a meal worthy of a feast, and yet Wayne’s couldn’t look forward to eating it. So making his way over to the corner of the cafeteria, Wayne decided to get this conversation over with.

Sitting down, he got straight to business. “Okay, what is this Assessment all about? Assume I know nothing, because it is true.” Wayne asked the group.

August either hadn’t decided to eat with them, or was still selecting the food for her meal. Either way, Wayne wasn’t going to wait for her and didn’t need to, as Ivan, Makelian, and Yvonne were already ready at their table. The young woman snorted, and gestured for her brother to take the lead.

Ivan sighed, and straightened his glasses before speaking.

“Where to even begin… I guess, first we should establish if you know what Assessments are?” The gloomy boy asked.

“No.”

“Of course. Well, then you should know that Assessments are a key part of being a Legionnaire. To ascend through the ranks, you have to take a certain official Assessment at each step along with a host of other requirements.”

“Usually the Assessment is indicative of the tasks associated with that rank. For example, as Grand Hastas we will be asked to be able to clear Rifts as a Cohort, without any notice. So that’s what our Assessment will be.”

“Tomorrow, our Century will go out into the Western Wildes in Cohorts early in the morning, to close selected Rifts without supervision.” Ivan stated.

No… The Western Wildes was the last place he wanted to be. The odds his corpse was added to the infamous collection it had were all too high right now, before he had any real time to improve.

“Oh.” Wayne said.

“Yes, and even though we know ahead of time, the Cohorts will be chosen tomorrow morning, so training and preparation are still mostly irrelevant outside of an individual sense.”

That’s even worse! Not having people around that were at least inclined to protect him was pretty much a death sentence in the Western Wildes for Wayne. And if he could be in anyone’s Cohort, someone might be inclined to make sure an accident happened, especially a certain someone that seemed to hate him…

“Ahhg, Cleft.” Wayne said with a groan.

“Hmmmph, exactly. The other Aouris has plenty of reason to see you dead, if given the opportunity.” Makelian added.

“Which leads us back to the original topic of tonight’s meeting, before you threw us off our schedule with that ridiculous stunt you pulled Wayne.” Ivan said with a soft glare.

“The Aouris family situation, and how it applies to you.” He continued. “Are you ready to learn about your Noble family?”

* * * * *

For most of his life, Wayne had imagined that somewhere out there, a family was waiting for him. While he had dreamed of it, his prayers had gone unanswered. And when he had finally given up, only then did his family reveal itself.

But it had not been the idea of family Wayne had expected all those years at the orphanage. Instead, he had immediately found himself in a whirlwind of moving across the Empire for the ceremonial Awakening, and then his training at Light’s Reach.

Wayne had thought about his father’s expectations, had learned about his cousin’s apparent anger problems, but he hadn’t considered what being a part of a Noble family truly meant.

It meant history, lineage. Superiority, if not from talent then from opportunity. It meant wealth, power, and fame for most of Wayne’s new peers. It was time to see if Wayne could twist it to his benefit as well.

“I’m ready. Please tell me everything.”

“Begin eating then. With a full mouth you will not interrupt my brother until he is finished speaking.” Yvonne said.

Wayne sawed a few pieces free from the cuts of meat, and then gestured for Ivan to begin.

“Alright,” Ivan responded. “To begin with, your House is a relatively new one, formed along the snowy slopes of the Orkun Mountain range when your grandfather claimed the land upon his Ascension.”

“As Empire custom dictates, he couldn’t take the Margrave position himself, so he instead appointed his eldest son to the position. That was your father, the current Emperor Regent. At the time though, he was Margrave Aouris.”

Wayne tried to picture his father over his meal, young and newly a Noble. Like him, now. He couldn’t do it. Maybe it was because he had only seen the man surrounded by pomp and circumstance, but the Emperor Regent seemed born to it.

“Your father quickly proved himself immensely talented, not just in the world of politics but also in more violent arenas. He too joined the Legion, and rose through the ranks to reach Praetor at record pace. Then he withdrew from those activities to manage the March.”

“The Marches' wealth and prosperity increased immensely under his reign, despite the desolate surroundings of Aouris.” Ivan continued. “By initiating trading with the Orks, your father created a thriving economy that grew more and more powerful in the North. Under his protection, no one could threaten the city of Aouris.”

“Then, your father hit Tier 4 as well, becoming a Noble himself. He didn’t have a… known successor, so the stewardship of the March transferred instead to his younger brother. Lord Cleft’s father, and Cleft would be the heir.”

“Which is essentially why Cleft despises you. Now that your existence is known, Empirical law dictates that you are the next Margrave Aouris. By being born, you have taken everything that Cleft believed would always be his. His home, his job, his title.”

After Ivan said that, their table was silent for a long while. Wayne absently listened to the chatter and bustle around him, his mind spinning as he methodically chewed his remaining food.

It was hard to be upset with Cleft now. Wayne understood why his cousin hated him, and recognized it was a legitimate grievance, even if Wayne couldn’t have done anything about it. It was just another aspect of his new life that he would need to learn to navigate.

“So, am I a Margrave now?” Wayne finally asked.

“You are, Lord Aouris.” Makelian responded.

Another sombre moment passed before Yvonne snorted.

“Alright, if you sad sacks are done being serious, it’s almost the tenth bell, and I would like to use the healing pools before I go to bed. Assessment is at bloody six in the morning.”

At her words, Wayne remembered something he had promised to do, earlier that day.

“Tenth bell? Already? I’ve got to get going, then.” He said, not wanting to be late to this meeting.

The group said their goodbyes, and made their way in various directions. Wayne hustled out of the cafeteria after cleaning up, taking long strides through the hallways. It was time to meet with Klaw, once more.