Caeden couldn‘t help but think back over the last two weeks, now that they were coming up on the first of their mandatory sparring sessions. Everything they had worked for culminated in this moment, where they could really test the results of all the extra training they had been doing. They had completed the testing portion of their old classes yesterday, and Caeden felt confident all of them had done well. Especially Lily.

Evolving her shroud had turned Lily into an absolute beast. After seeing the results, Caeden felt he understood what she had meant about people hounding him if they found out. The woman who had previously been one of the weakest, combat-wise, was now almost certainly the strongest in their cycle. Caeden and Erik couldn’t beat her working together. They had tried. Multiple times.

They had passed her evolution off to the teachers as one of the naturally occurring ones, which they seemed to accept easily enough. Caeden was sure that that belief would collapse if another evolution happened any time soon, or anywhere near him. Lily vehemently and vocally advocated for not using his Physical Enhancement’s hidden ability again. That included Erik, even though they all agreed it was likely to give his shroud greater healing powers. Possibly enough to heal Unc.

When that thought occurred to him, Caeden was ready to do it anyway, damn the consequences. Lily had barely managed to talk him down. She brought up several valid points. The CA had no reason to let Erik heal Unc if they would, and if it worked, both big ifs, the CA would still very likely disappear his uncle as a bargaining chip once they found out about his new ability. Plus, Caeden didn’t even know where his uncle was right now.

This reasonable and valid argument convinced Caeden that evolving Erik’s shroud was a bad idea right now. That didn’t mean it wasn’t a constant knife in his gut, knowing the option existed, that the solution to his problem was moments away. It killed him every day. He felt ungrateful, like he was putting his own safety and well-being over his one living family member. The man who had practically raised him. Logically, he knew he was making the best choice with the knowledge and resources he had, but that didn't make him feel less shitty.

This spiral of negative thinking had the unexpected and unwelcome benefit of serving as additional motivation to excel. Now, Every bit of effort was a moment he was letting his uncle suffer. Before, he had a hard time limit on how long he had to wait to get Unc healed. Now, it was also a measure of power. If Caeden could get strong enough to where throwing him in a hole would be more hassle than it was worth, he could freely evolve Erik’s shroud. So, the faster he got to that point, the better.

Not that he had any guarantees that he would be anywhere near that strong in the five years they were in the Academy, it was likelier he would be top of his class than reach that level of power, but the thought held him together. Also, the constant, relentless pace of his training helped distract his mind. Without it, Caeden wasn’t sure he could resist the temptation to try and evolve Erik’s shroud anyway.

All that led back to now, and the sparring. These two weeks had been mostly spent consolidating what they were already good at and refining those strengths with the new information they had. There would be time later to try and shore up weaknesses, but now was the time for solidifying what they could already do. Caeden was feeling much more confident in his abilities in a real fight, and both of his friends had seen similar progress. Now they got to show it. Plus, Caeden had to admit the idea of taking out some of his frustration in actual combat was more appealing than he was comfortable expressing. Caeden had never been a violent person. Right now, he felt like being violent.

“Gods, look at that ass, though!” The crass whispering coming from behind him cut through his dark thoughts. Caeden turned to shoot a disapproving look at the newest addition to their group.

At some point during the first week, Cat, Lily’s roommate, had invited herself into their training sessions. From there, she just inserted herself into the group in general. Apparently, she and Erik found common ground, namely perving on all the women they walk by on their way to the arena.

Cat, ever unconcerned with Caeden or Lily’s disapproval, just smirked and shot him a wink with her blue eye. Cat was heterochromatic, with one eye electric blue and the other a pale green. He hadn’t noticed it at first because she always had her dark hair hanging over one of them.

“Yeah!” Erik, deliberately oblivious to Caeden’s stern expression, carried on the conversation, “Man, I’m so glad I met someone around here with good taste! Cae is great and all, but he’s super boring when it comes to girls.”

“Just because I avoid making rude comments in public does not make me boring.” Caeden rolled his eyes. Lily nodded along next to him.

“Nope, you both are super boring. Lily won’t talk to me about boys either.” Cat shook her head in mock disapproval.

“That’s not fair.” Lily crossed her arms, glancing back at her roommate. “It’s not like you really talk about boys either. You just talk about how they look and whatnot.”

“How’s that not talking about boys?” Cat looked genuinely confused.

“I mean, it technically is, but I’m more interested in a man’s intellectual capacity and trustworthiness than whether or not I like his ass.” Lily rolled her eyes.

“Oh, I get that.” Cat nodded along, “Not my type, though. I like ‘em big and dumb.”

“Yes. I know. You keep telling me.” Lily stated dryly.

“Guess we’re both out of the running then, huh?” Erik stage-whispered to Caeden.

“Yup, neither of you are my type of guy.” Cat acknowledged, not even bothering to pretend she hadn't heard. “Caeden’s too smart, and Erik’s too much of a twig.”

“Hey!” Erik clutched his body as if to cover himself, “Don’t insult my slender, refined build. I’m elegant!”

“Still not my type.”

“I know, right?” Erik immediately switched tones, dropping his arms to swing widely at his sides. “Sometimes I wish I was a big ‘ol beefcake like Cae. Then the ladies would love me!”

Both the girls turned to look at Caeden.

He held their gaze. “What?”

“Do girls come after you?” Cat asked.

Caeden shrugged. “No.”

“Oh, come on! You have to give me more than that!” Cat protested. Caeden could see a bit of curiosity in Lily’s eyes as well, though she respected his privacy enough not to ask.

Caeden sighed. He had a sinking feeling that Cat wouldn’t let it go until he spilled. “Erik probably never noticed because his personality is off-putting enough on its own.”

“Hey!”

“But unshrouded girls don’t want anything to do with a shrouded guy. Without a shroud as an equalizer, men have a physical advantage over women, which makes the culture a little different out on the continents. Most women are wary around unknown men for good reason. With me being physically imposing and shrouded at the same time, most wouldn’t even want to be near me, let alone entertain a relationship. Plus, I spent all of my adulthood in a small village with an equally small population. I was already an outsider. Just add everything else, and I think I saw a girl my age twice in three years. They avoided me like the plague.” Caeden finished uncomfortably rubbing the back of his head. It was a topic he didn’t like thinking about much. Caeden always figured he’d be like his uncle, married to his work.

There was a long silence before Cat spoke again. “That sucks. Sorry for asking.” She looked genuinely apologetic.

“It’s not like it’s a big deal. There’s just not much for me to talk about.” Caeden waved off her concern.

The slightly awkward silence carried them all the way to the arena. A bronze structure made in the same style as every other bronze building on campus. So, lots of seemingly pointless pipes and small bits of ether crystal scattered haphazardly across walls. It was only two stories tall, which was something of an exception, as most of the Academy buildings were larger than life for no apparent reason. The front doors opened into a small alcove with a set of stairs leading to the second floor. Past the small entryway was a well-lit room that seemed to occupy the entire space of the small building. Their combat arena. Everything was smooth bronze, though Caeden’s aura sense found that the surface had been slightly roughed to create a better grip.

Seeing no one in the arena, they went up the stairs, which led to an observation room with raised benches. There was enough seating for twenty people; it wasn’t a large room. They were the first to arrive. It was early in the morning, the day after their classes were over. Caeden assumed most people were going to be sleeping or relaxing up to the last possible minutes. In fact, he had seen many people openly crying when it was announced that physical conditioning classes would no longer be mandatory.

Admittedly, long periods of intense exercise three times a day for two weeks was rough beyond belief, but the results spoke for themselves. Caeden had lost almost 10 pounds of fat he didn’t know he had and gained at least three in muscle. His legs were actually muscular now, matching his ethersmith’s arms. His whole torso was ripped. It had been easy for him to make progress, considering he already had a solid base.

Erik had added a lot of lean muscle to his wiry frame. It was difficult to tell under his robes, but his previous general athleticism had morphed into a runner's physique. He might complain about not being as visibly bulky as Caeden, but he was muscular in his own right. Cat was practically perfectly in line with his build, though she was a good deal shorter. In fact, she might be the more muscular of the two, but it was a close call either way.

Lily was the one who had gone through the most significant changes in the past two weeks. She had started out dangerously thin. Caeden had never asked about what happened in her family after that first day, and she hadn’t supplied anything, but it had led her to be practically skeletal. That had all but disappeared between the good food and constant exercise. Now she was developing into a much healthier place. Caeden couldn't tell the same way he could with Erik or Cat, since Lily didn’t sleep in the same room as him like Erik, or wear her robes loose with more revealing clothes like Cat.

Still, just from her face, he could tell she had put on a more healthy amount of weight, and based on her improvement in Physical conditioning, her strength and stamina were leagues better than where she was when school started. All that, plus her evolved shroud, had transformed Lily completely. As silly as it was, Caeden couldn’t help but think of a flower blooming after finally seeing real sunlight for the first time. Except, this flower could kick his ass, and had done so repeatedly.

They weren’t waiting that long before the teacher showed up. It was a tall man he had never seen before. He gave them a brief nod of approval before turning to look out over the arena. They talked quietly while students slowly trickled in. Right before class was set to start, a group of five entered together, all of them wearing Sun emblems.

That was another thing that had changed in the last two weeks. Caeden and Lily's predictions had started to come true, with students showing up all over the place wearing emblems of the different Seats. It wasn’t everyone, or even a majority, but they existed. Caeden had to guess that they were hand-picked students from families affiliated with that Councilor. Lily had also pointed out that if they performed well, others would look to them as leaders, and that division would spread.

The woman obviously leading the group looked around the room, practically exuding a sense of smug superiority. Her eyes landed on their group, and a scowl crossed her face. She immediately began talking to the other Sun Seats.

“This is going to be fucked, isn’t it?” Caeden looked at Lily, who was also watching the group.

“Absolutely.”