“What?” Livia said.

Antonias opened his mouth to speak but I held up a hand.

“It’s kind of a lot to explain right now… all I’ll say for now is that I got into a kind of vision with the entity the Voice I heard comes from.” I said.

At the very least I would have to edit out the portions of the conversation with Tavias about the ring and my transformation, neither Livia nor Antonias knew I had once been a Servus and I would like to keep it that way.

The storm still sang in my ears.

“Why don’t you finish the lesson of limiting your senses.” I said.

“Just let the storm go silent and wash away any extraneous sound. If something is loud or strange enough to pierce the veil of relative silence, just raise the storm’s sounds and tangible feelings to drown it out and then reduce the thunderous noise again to take it all away.” Antonias said.

I tested it out. No longer did I hear the Servi workers in the servants’ quarters adjacent to the rest of the rooms in my suite nor did I hear faint sounds from the other suites around my own holdings.

I smiled. “Thanks, Toni.”

“If you want to hear something, just strain a little harder to pick up on it.” Antonias said.

I reached out with my senses and the murmuring conversations of others washed back in. I raised the sounds of rain and wind and thunder and it went away.

“Too bad we didn’t get to see the Oracle again like you wanted, even if you might have gotten more answers just now.” Antonias remarked.

The Oracle had left Sunburst Station by the time Antonias and I had managed to extract ourselves from the others and search her out. Perhaps if we had skipped our celebratory dinner at the Undersea Bohemian with Kato and Caesia we would have caught the draconic seer but eating out with them had been nice, I had to admit. Fun even. It wouldn’t necessarily be worth it to throw away that experience just for the vague possibility of digging something useful out of the cryptic hints of an Oracle.

“It is what it is.” I said. “Perhaps we’ll see her again someday, but if not, there is assuredly several other Oracles on Iulius.”

The Sunbringer had spread his chosen in numerous groupings across the stars and the many planets, moons, and space stations of the Dominium’s nine solar systems.

“The other reason I wanted to come over here besides being bored is that we need to study.” Antonias said.

“Absolutely.” I replied. The Scholarium’s standards would surely be grave, steep and exacting.

“More than that, you’re a bit behind the rest of us, Adrias.” Antonias said.

I grimaced. A fact that I didn’t like to admit.

“Go on.” I said.

“I thought we would start with basic knowledge to fill anything you missed and then expand further and ascend higher in topic and depth.” Antonias said.

“Alright. You want to begin now?” I said.

“Sure. What are the primary Paths associated with the Solar Guard and how are they divided and ranked?” Antonias asked me.

“Path that are listed are the Militares, Imperators, Servi, Venators, Navitae and Campeadors.” I said.

“And how are they divided?” Antonias said.

“The Militares are the foot soldiers. Their Coppers are legionnaires, their Bronzes are centurions, their Silvers primus piluses, their Golds are Tribunes. They served as the common ranks of the Solar Guard.” I said.

“And above those common ranks?” Antonias asked, inspecting his fingernails idly.

“The Imperator officer classes that graduated from the Scholarium. Our Bronzes hold the rank of strategos, our Silvers have the rank of archstrategos, and the Imperator Golds of the Guard hold the calling of hyperstrategos.” I said.

“And what’s the caveat for that last one.” He said.

I thought hard. What was a quirk or qualification that had to be added to the rank of hyperstrategos? I didn’t know.

“I don’t know.” I admitted. “What is it.”

“Hyperstrategos is an honorary title, something that would theoretically be assigned to any Gold Imperator part of the Guard. The caveat is that our Golds are above and beyond such petty things as being enmeshed in the inner workings of individual solar system defense forces. They, like the Regent, have their own private armies and more over they need no such title to grace their names and nor badge of honor to pin above their hearts. Their eyes, aurelian gold and royal violet, are all the proof of their glory and innate authority that they need.” Antonias said.

“There’s never been a Gold Imperator that’s been a part of one of the nine system’s Solar Guards?” I questioned.

“I think a lot of them predate the existence of such institutions. But yes, none of them have every cared to play soldier with the rest of us.” Antonias said.

“So, I would be the first hyperstrategos.” I said.

“If your ambition doesn’t choke you first, yes.” Antonias said.

“What do you know of the special positions for both the enlisted and the officers?” Antonias asked.

“I don’t know.” I said.

“The rank and file have the position of Signifer, a Silver Militares chosen to be a standard bearer of a cohort. The Imperators have the Silver positions of Aquilifer and Imaginifer. The Aquilifer bears the standard of an entire legion of the Solar Guard. The Imaginifer carries an image of the Regent himself into battle.” Antonias said.

“Too many ranks and positions.” Livia said, looking slightly dazed.

Antonias ignored her. “And what about the remaining few, the Servi, Venators, Navitae and Campeadors?”

“They make the Auxilia, the Engineering Corps, and the Navy. Venator Hunters, Gold Servi warriors, and Campeador Champions are special soldiers in the Auxilia that back up the main force or act as autonomous units. The Engineering Corps is made of Servi of various levels, and they maintain the ships and the technologies required for warfare. Navitae Sailors man the captaining and crewing of the various starships as they do the leisure voyager we’re on now.” I said.

“Good.” Antonias said. “You’re not completely hopeless. Primary weapons?”

“Ember rifles for Militares, Keenblades for Imperators, Lunaknives for Venators, Warp Hammers for Campeadors, various weapons for a Servus in the Auxilia.” I said.

“What are the key locations for the Solar Guard of the Apollo system?” Antonias said.

“The Scholarium on Iulius, the legionary training locations in the south pole of Amatius, the Kikeronian asteroid belt bases, there’s warships in geostationary orbit over every planet and gas giant in the system, construction yards on Iulius’s two moons, periodic fleet migrations to maintain a constant presence, various space stations for military purposes.” I said.

Apollo had seven solid planets that the Dominium had terraformed to be hospitable to human life, even superior life, from radiation burned, toxic gas filled messes that switched between scorching daytimes and freezing nights. I had even heard that they had gone far beyond effecting the magnetic fields of the worlds, their atmospheres, soil quality, and instilling biomes and microbiomes to the point of using gravitation and kinetic manipulation to slow or speed up rotation of the planets to fit the years and days of Terra better.

The livable planets were Iulius, Amatius, Cluvius, Nymphidius, Erucius, Saturius and, of course, my home of Lavinius, the most distant and least loved of Apollo system’s children. The gas giants were Sempronius, Vibius, and Trebius. Those storm-washed realms were harvested for hydrogen and helium mining by rigs that attracted streams out of the boundaries of the planets’ atmospheres and into the hungry maw of a harvester ship or space station in orbit around the immense giants.

Antonias kept quizzing me and Livia went to get something to drink.

“Can we do something else for a little while,” I asked after a good hour of trivia.

“We could go play in the zero gravity room.” Antonias said. “Just let me get changed.”

We stood and the water streamed off our bodies like waterfalls on marble cliffs.