I spent the next year with the seven year old children and learned a little more about the fundamentals of using Presence. I had thought about using it to reinforce my body already, and about a third of the way through the year, the teacher brought in a member of The Order that specialized in those kinds of mental focusing techniques. I learned a lot during that week. Unfortunately, that was the only new thing I had learned.

Thankfully, just like my supplementary lessons in the alphabet, I had successfully convinced Emari that I was wasting my time in class and she helped teach me what I needed to know. She couldn't force herself to show me any of the advanced techniques that I had heard about or seen other people perform, like her technique for Presence Run. I didn't pester her about it, though. She had helped me practice all year so that I could split my focus as many times as I wanted and wouldn't lose concentration.

My sixth birthday arrived and Emari took me to the same room I had been in the year before. I looked through the wall and saw the same woman was there; but, the other four were different. My teacher for that year was there as well. I didn't protest her presence, and the test went without a hitch. I asked for the next year's test to be performed, and after my observers had a short discussion, they ran the next year's tests.

I didn't push my luck ask and for the following year's tests to be run, mainly because I knew that if I passed them, they wouldn't advance me, anyways. I figured I had to settle with skipping every second year.

Needless to say, I passed both sets of tests with high marks and I received a holomessage the next day and I had advanced from the seven year old classroom to the nine year old classroom. It was unheard of that a six year old would be training and learning with children three years older than them.

I didn't disappoint them.

I learned a lot of new techniques as we started using practice swords. Both mental and physical techniques were taught that year, and I was as happy as I ever thought I could be. I was actually learning something that would keep me alive and I threw myself into my studies with both reckless and controlled abandon. I had hidden the resentment I felt against the council for holding me back for a year and my plans for escape started to form in the back of my mind.

Over the years, I kept overcoming all of the things I thought were detrimental to my development. One of which was that I had a dominant arm and a weaker one. It bothered me that I could use Presence so much easier with my right hand, and I knew that wasn't how it was supposed to be. So, I trained hard in my spare time to make myself as fluent in the use of my left hand as I was with the right. Everything I did with my right hand, I repeated ten times with my left. I also worked hard to keep my emotions contained and didn't let them influence my training or my studies.

By the time I was ten, my body had grown and expanded to that of a young adult. I had even skipped five years and took classes with fifteen year old teenagers. Luckily, my height had increased in proportion to my age and I was close to being the same height as everyone else. No one questioned me about my age or my abilities, because we had all proven that we deserved to be in that classroom.

The year was kind of a primer year for us to refine all of the techniques we had learned up to that point and to prepare us for, in their words, the gruelling year that was to come. A lot of the other students were worried about that, and I didn't assuage their fears. I knew for a fact that none of us were going to fail, because The Order had spent all of this time training us and they weren't going to get rid of us now. Unfortunately, this also meant that they would be very reluctant to let me go when I was of age and wanted to leave to head out on my own.

Unlike the other students, I suppressed the flow of Presence around myself to make things more difficult for myself. I lowered my resistance to injury and intentionally weakened myself during mock battles, just so I could improve so much more than I would have if I had used all of my abilities. Despite intentionally handicapping myself, I still won every fight I was involved in and completed every task that was given to me.

*

“So, he's finally become a more even match for his fellow students.” An alien said as he gazed out the window at the training grounds below. “It took him long enough to find the right balance.”

“He's ten years old and competing against teenagers that have five more years of experience than him.” The woman said. “Quite successfully, I might add.”

The alien laughed. “Are you back to thinking he's a prodigy, then?”

“I always thought he was.” The woman said as she watched the tenth level class that Aaron Ullir was in. “He's also very dangerous.”

“Well, at least he hasn't been spouting rogue philosophies from the rooftops and shouting down the council.”

It was the woman's turn to laugh. “Only because he's waiting for the right opportunity.”

“If you didn't keep him from attending the assembly...”

“It's for his own good.” The woman said, and couldn't help but admire Aaron's long dirty blonde hair. She had to keep hers short because it kept getting in her way. “A child speaking out can be forgiven for the most part.” She turned to the alien standing beside her. “As he is now, he would probably be assaulted and arrested for his views on the council and The Order as a whole.”

The alien chuckled. “You make it sound like he wants to take us all down.” She didn't respond at his joke and he put a hand on her arm. “Are you actually worried about that?”

“What? That one person could go on a crusade and destroy everything that The Order has built?” The woman asked. “That would be crazy, wouldn't it?”

The alien didn't say anything as his hand moved up her arm and gripped her shoulder.

“He's going to complete the training curriculum next year as an eleven year old and not a sixteen year old, as it was designed to be.” The woman said and looked down at the young boy that seemed to be growing into a man before her eyes. “He's going to have to sit here and wait for another five years before he'll be of age and can make decisions for himself.”

“I wondered why you kept holding him back, even though his skills were more than a match for kids much older than him.”

“We weren't trying to delay his progress like he believes.” The woman said. “We were trying to protect him.”

“From what? Life?”

“Yes.” The woman said, and you could hear a tone of sadness in her voice. “He doesn't realize what getting older means.”

*

The intense training and preparation year passed by without incident, mainly because I didn't want to cause any, and I performed my eleventh birthday tests without batting an eye. Literally. I had done it all with my eyes closed, much to the surprise of the people that had tested me. I hadn't told anyone that I had learned years ago that I didn't need my eyes to see and feel the flow of Presence around me. The range I could detect it had grown at a constant rate, because I never stopped using the technique, even while I slept.

“We will have the results for you as soon as we deliberate and...”

I ignored her words and walked over to the door and opened it before I reached it, still with my eyes closed, and stepped out.

“Ullir!” Emari exclaimed and jumped on me to give me a hug. “Congratulations!”

“We still have to wait for the official results.” I said with a smile, and she chuckled.

“We haven't done that the last few years, so why would now be any different?” Emari asked. I was only six inches shorter than her now and she couldn't carry me like she used to. We both missed it, each and every time we were near each other. “Come on! Your party awaits!”

I humored her every year as she threw me a 'surprise' birthday party. She always let things slip and told me about it, which just made her more endearing. She had tried once to give me an actual party, with guests and everything, and it was a disaster. Nothing seemed to go right and everything was messed up. Even the cake had somehow gotten squished while being delivered. Everyone was disappointed in her, except for me, because I knew of all the effort and hard work that she had put into it for me. She didn't try anything fancy after that, though.

We went back to her party-decorated apartment and had a great time as we ate good food, watched our favorite holoprojector programs, and cuddled on the couch. It was something that the both of us enjoyed, even though we did a similar thing at least once a week. I helped her clean and tidy up the apartment after that, we each took a shower and got changed, and joked and carried on before we climbed into bed.

“Goodnight, Aaron.” Emari said as she pulled me in close and kissed my forehead.

“Goodnight, Emari.” I said and closed my eyes.

Almost immediately, or so I thought, my eyes popped open and it was morning already.

“Good morn...” I stopped talking when I realized I was alone in the bed. “Emari?”

She didn't respond, so I threw off the covers and sat up. She wasn't in the bedroom, so I jumped up and ran to the kitchen. The appliances were cold and she wasn't there, either. Rather than run around like a chicken with its head cut off, I closed my eyes and used the flow of Presence to detect her instead.

She wasn't anywhere in the apartment, the hallway outside, or in the surrounding apartments.

“Something is wrong here.” I said as my anger tried to bubble to the surface. “She promised that I would never leave her sight.” I concentrated harder and focused on her specific traces of Presence. It was all over the apartment in faded quantities, so I walked back to the bedroom and found the strongest concentration. Once I had that, I followed it to the closet, then out of the bedroom and over to the dining room table.

I picked up the datapad there and read the message from Emari.

“Dear, Aaron. Congratulations on graduating and being assigned to your final year. I am so very proud of you. You struggled a lot and you let me help you. You also let me hug you whenever I felt like it, and that made me very happy. These last six years have been the best time of my life, and I am overjoyed that I got to spend them with you.”

I took a deep breath and let it out to try and stay calm.

“Unfortunately, when a student enters their final year of training, they are deemed old enough to take care of themselves and my skills and abilities are no longer needed. I've been told that I need to leave you, despite your age, and I left this message for you.”

The flow of Presence around me intensified and cracks started to form in the datapad's display.

“I couldn't bare to tell you this in person, in the fear that I would see in your face the same loss that I'm feeling right now. I can't... no, I won't... subject you to my endless tears or my broken heart. Aaron, thank you for caring enough about me to let me call you by your name. I know I slipped up a lot; but, you never became angry. That touched my heart even more than you letting me snuggle you every night.”

I intentionally stopped pushing Presence through my hands so I wouldn't destroy the datapad before I finished reading her note. I heard a crunching sound and looked down at the table. It looked like an elephant had stepped on it. I ignored it and read the last part of her note.

“I never imagined that The Order would reassign me so soon! I was supposed to stay with you for another five years! I... I don't even know where I'm being sent to. It's all so rushed and confusing that I didn't even get to pack. All I have are the clothes on my back and my sweet little Aaron in my heart. Even though our time together was cut short, I hope beyond hope that some day we will see each other again.”

“All my love, Emari.”

I held the datapad gently as tears started in my eyes. “I... I lo...” I quickly tucked the datapad into my pocket as my anger broke free of my considerable mental blocks and a large ball of energy formed around me. I automatically made it solid with Presence and yelled. “YOU BASTARDS!”

The solid energy ball expanded out in all directions from the force of anger and Presence that I shoved through it. It crushed the rest of the table, the chairs, the cabinet of dishes, and the walls deformed.

“AHHHH!” My whole body glowed as I angrily pulled in far more Presence than I should have been able to, converted it into an outward force, then pushed it into the solid ball of energy.

The solid ball of energy expanded out and met no resistance whatsoever.

*

BEEEEEEP! BEEEEEEP! BEEEEEEP!

“By the Goddess' Light!” A guard exclaimed as his security monitor lit up like a Christmas tree. He hit the alert button which connected him to the security communications network for the building. “Damage alarm on the fourth floor! Guardian apartments, section B. Unknown assailants, unknown casualties.”

“Squad Six is on it.” A calm voice said right away.

“I hope so.” The guard said and shook his head at the massive damage. “If anyone was caught in that...”

*

The armed and armored security squad arrived on the fourth floor in mere moments, thanks to their use of Presence Run, and stopped in the hallway.

“Geezus! Look at this place!” One of them said as they saw the devastation.

“Gawk at it later!” The captain of the squad said, drew his laser rile, and activated it. “Helmets down and get into position!”

“Sir!” The whole squad responded and drew their weapons and activated them, then were instantly scattered in excellent firing positions around the massive hole in the wall. What they saw in the middle of the mess surprised the hell out of them.

An eleven year old boy hovered in the middle of a completely wrecked apartment. There was no floor or ceiling, because they and the walls had been pushed out to form a perfectly smooth sphere nearly forty feet in diameter.

“Wh-what do we do?” One of the guards whispered. “He's just a kid.”

“Stun rounds!” The captain yelled and they all switched their rifles to stun.

Unfortunately, the boy heard him and turned to face them, and they saw that his face was both tear-streaked and completely calm.

“FIRE!”

The entire squad of ten people, a mix of aliens and humanoids, fired a single stun shot each. The energy from the stun blasts looked as if they had hit the target, then the energy dissipated.

“Hey, what...”

The captain unhooked a grenade from his belt and flicked the switch. Rather than throw it, he slipped it into the large hole. It was a perfect sphere, so the grenade rolled down to the center of the depression, right under the boy.

“Shields!” The captain said and they polarized their helmet visors. A bright blinding light covered everything. “FIRE!”

All of the guards fired a single shot each. When the light dissipated a second later, they saw the eleven year old boy was unconscious at the bottom of the sphere.

“Search patrol!” The captain said. “Check the surrounding apartments for any injuries... or deaths.”

“Yes, sir.” Half of the squad split off to search and the captain led the rest into the apartment to secure the boy.

“Captain, do you need to handcuff him? He's unconscious.”

“Do you want him using his powers when he wakes up?” The captain asked, and the guard didn't respond. “Check him for injuries and get a stretcher in here.”

“Sir.” The guard knelt and checked the boy over. “He has some cuts, bruises, and I think a sprained ankle; but, I suspect they are from the 20 foot fall he just suffered from and not preexisting.”

The captain nodded. “Send for the stretcher.”

The guard nodded and called for medical assistance. Five minutes later, both the stretcher and the search patrol were there.

“All of the apartments were vacant.” The patrol reported as the boy was strapped into the stretcher.

“Wait, what?” The captain turned and looked at the guard. “This whole wing is supposed to be full of people!”

“I don't know what to tell you, sir.” The guard said. “We didn't find anyone. Hurt or otherwise.”

The captain took a breath and let it out. “All right, let's get out of here.”

“Where are we...”

“The holding cells.” The captain said and waved his hand at the destruction. “Look at this place.”

“But...”

“It doesn't matter if no one was hurt.” The captain said. “Oh, and send someone outside and see if any of the debris from the outside wall landed on anyone.”

The guard looked at the gaping hole where the outside wall used to be. “Yes, sir.”

The captain stood there and watched part of his squad take the stretcher with the unconscious boy out of the hole. When they were gone, he told the others to record everything and to gather any evidence that might be there. There wasn't; but, he didn't want them to assume that there wasn't any and made them look anyway.

They left the wrecked apartments and cordoned off the damaged areas, then went downstairs to the office and the holding cells.

“How long do you think he'll be out?” One of the guards asked.

“Depending on if he took all 12 stun blasts, anywhere from an hour to a day.” The medic said. “His ankle was sprained, so I wrapped it. The left elbow has a nasty bruise so it's in a sling, and I've patched all the scrapes.”

“Thanks, doc.” The captain said.

“Should I even ask what happened?”

“Sure you can ask.” The captain said and walked away.

The medic turned to the guard. “It's that bad?”

The guard chuckled and handed the medic a datapad with some of the pictures of the apartment. “See for yourself.”

The medic looked through them and made a low whistling sound. “He did that?”

“We saw him hovering in the middle of it, so yeah.” The guard said. “Did he have anything on him besides his sleep outfit?”

“Yes, this.” The medic said and took a partially smashed datapad from his pocket.

The guard took it and turned it on. The display flickered in and out, since it had been damaged in the fall. “Thanks, doc.” He said and left to find Jenkins. He can repair these things in his sleep. He thought and found the alien he was looking for in the barracks cleaning his laser rifle. “I have a pet project for you.”

“Nice.” Jenkins said and took the datapad. “Ooo, Presence damage.” He said and rolled it over in his hands. “Pressure cracks.” He said and rolled it back. “Impact damage on the top corner.”

“Can you fix it?”

“Bite your tongue.” Jenkins snarled and pulled out his field tech repair kit. “Can I, he says.” He shook his head. “If I wasn't busy right now, I'd be insulted.”

The guard chuckled at Jenkins musings and watched as the datapad was quickly popped apart, the display screen was replaced, two micro-welds to hold it in place were made, a repair to a faulty connection was completed, a replaced wire to the damaged battery was added, then the battery itself was replaced.

“I can't do anything for the casing without my quick-set bonding material.” Jenkins said as he snapped the datapad back together and handed it to the guard.

“This is great, Jenkins. Thanks.”

“I don't want to see your ugly face again, unless you come back with something else for me to fix.” Jenkins said.

The guard laughed and his joke and left the barracks. As he walked back to their offices, he activated the datapad and called up the last thing entered on it. When he read what it said, he ran instead.