March 792 U.C., Heinessen

Reinhard arrived at the Officers’ Academy alone. Though Annerose was now in her senior year, her summer internship had been off planet, on a space station constructing battleships, which meant that she took a different path back to school. Reinhard hadn’t seen her, and he hadn’t been in contact with her, either. Although he missed his sister and wanted to see her, he admitted that it was probably for the best that he did not even have the temptation of letting her into his room to help him set up his belongings.

He couldn’t say that he took an immediate dislike to his roommates, but he didn’t take an immediate liking to them, either. All three of them were two years older than himself, a fact that he was not keeping a secret, but was also not going to say unless someone asked. Making himself into an easy target would mean getting into fights, and Annerose would certainly disapprove of that. The three roommates were Gabriel Mifune, a tall boy with dark brown skin and a gold ring on his hand; Charlie Lendecker, who was broad shouldered but twitchy; and Jose Perrau, a pasty faced boy who had a very homemade looking tattoo on his upper arm. They all sized each other up, in the way that young men in half-competition usually did, and all independently reached the conclusion that it was perhaps best to just ignore each other, for the time being.

Before she had left for her summer internship, Annerose and Reinhard had had a discussion about the upcoming school year. Reinhard had told her that he wanted to sink or swim on his own, and that she shouldn’t give him any warning about what was coming. She had bitten her lip and sighed, but had accepted. He knew that something was coming, something that included getting his head shaved, but he didn’t know what, or when, so he looked around himself cautiously throughout his first day of orientation. He wasn’t nervous, but he did not like the feeling of being caught off guard, so he kept himself on guard. The longer things went without something happening, the higher the tension grew, and he caught himself biting his finger at dinner, looking around at his classmates and taking stock of them.

That night, Reinhard fell asleep easily, laying flat on his back on the top bunk. He was blessed with a constitution that allowed him to take rest where he could get it, and wake up quickly. If something happened during the night, he knew he would be ready for it. So, when the shouting and pounding started in the hallway, it wasn’t entirely unexpected. Reinhard got out of bed and put on his shoes immediately, then the rest of his uniform. He had no desire to face whatever was about to happen in an undressed state. Last, he slipped his locket underneath his shirt. He considered leaving it behind, just in case whatever was coming might divest him of it, but he would prefer to have it with him. Before the school year had started, he had taken a preventative measure of delicately removing half of the lock of hair and leaving it safely in his room at home. He might take the locket with him for comfort and as a reminder, but there was no reason to be completely foolish about such things.

He was dressed before any of his roommates had even gotten up; they were all far slower to rise than he was. When the pounding reached the door, Reinhard opened it, not caring what state his fellows were in, and faced the bare-chested upperclassman with a flat expression.

“Thought this was a girl’s room for a second,” the upperclassman laughed. “Let’s go, freshies. Going for a little run.” He grabbed Reinhard by the shoulder, and Reinhard twisted out of his grip with a sneer.

“I’m perfectly capable of moving on my own, thank you,” Reinhard said.

This made the upperclassman laugh harder. “Well, get moving, then!” He shoved Reinhard forward, down the hallway with the throng of other students, and Reinhard ran.

Considering that he regularly went running around Wrightsville, this nighttime expedition was much easier on him than many of his classmates, and he ended up near the front of the pack, feet pounding across the asphalt of the city, then the muddy grass of fields.

He looked around for Annerose but didn’t see her anywhere. That didn’t necessarily mean that she wasn’t there. Reinhard wasn’t sure if he would prefer her to be there or not.

His question about Annerose’s presence on the run was answered sooner, rather than later. Someone holding a torch jogged up beside him. Reinhard ignored them for a moment, but when they said, “You’re Reinhard von Müsel?” he turned his head and looked.

The person jogging beside him was a woman, with long black braids, barefoot, wearing uniform pants but only a tank top. He had to imagine that she was cold, and that her feet hurt, but she was an upperclassman (judging by the presence of the torch in her hand), so she really had no reason not to be wearing shoes.

“I am,” he said.

“Your sister told me to make sure you didn’t cause trouble.”

“Who are you?” Reinhard asked.

“Kino Mejia.”

“Oh, her roommate.”

“Yes. Are you going to cause trouble?”

“She needn’t send spies after me.”

“If I were a spy, you wouldn’t see me at all,” Kino said. Her voice was very odd and flat. Reinhard found it hard to believe that she was friends with his sister, but apparently they had been involuntary roommates for one year, and then voluntary roommates from then on, so they must have gotten along well enough.

“And what would you do if I did cause trouble?”

Kino just gave him a look, then increased her speed and moved to the very front of the pack of runners, away from him.

The running continued until they reached a fallow field, and the whole assembly stopped, surrounded by the seniors with torches. Reinhard had somehow gotten pushed to the back of the group during the period where everyone clumped up, so he couldn’t exactly hear or see what the man in the front was shouting about, but then slowly the group began to shuffle around, and Reinhard could see what was happening: students were getting pulled from the group, forced to kneel, and having their heads shaved.

Well, it wasn’t very different from what he had expected, but he still didn’t like it. He touched the end of his own hair, which was quite long. His other hand found the necklace under his shirt. It had been a long time since he had given Kircheis a chunk of his hair. He imagined that Kircheis still had it, but Reinhard was about to no longer have the matching pieces. There were worse things in the world, and he had had time to prepare for the idea.

Someone grabbed his arm while he was thinking, and started pulling him along. “Don’t touch me!” Reinhard snapped.

“I have to!” the person grabbing him hissed: a girl’s voice. “Come on.”

Still, Reinhard didn’t let her drag him to the front, where everyone was getting their hair cut off. He walked under his own power. Several people tried to force him to his knees, and Reinhard resisted, but then on the edge of the crowd, he saw the woman whom Annerose had sent to make sure he behaved, Kino, and she caught his eye, then made a short jerk of her head downward. If it was what Annerose wanted, then… He bent his knees and fell to the muddy ground. It disgusted him.

“Sorry,” the girl behind him said, and then her fingers were in his hair, and the razor was buzzing on his head.

When it was over, he wrenched himself away from the people holding him down, and stormed to the edge of the gathering. “You’re supposed to do the next one!” the girl shouted after him, but he was already leaving. He couldn’t bring himself to touch his newly bald head, but he did stand around and try to brush the mud off the knees of his pants, ignoring the mass of students who were either humiliated or invigorated. Reinhard didn’t consider himself to fall into either of those two broad camps. He was mostly annoyed, but there wasn’t anything he could do about the annoyance, so he was forced to stand there and stew in it.

The first night was the worst one, even though it was the only one he had been prepared for. On the second night, he was surprised when he was dragged out of bed, but mere physical challenges and interruptions to sleep were nothing. And Annerose had come.

They didn’t speak to each other during the week, but he saw her. He wondered why she had bothered to show up, when he first glimpsed her running alongside the group, torch in hand, the second night. It didn’t exactly seem like participating in hazing was an activity that aligned with Annerose’s personality, and her roommate should have reported to her that he didn’t need to have his behavior monitored. Still, he couldn’t say he was ungrateful to have her there, even though they both ignored each other.

When they came to the side of a wide, rapid river, and were ordered to strip and swim, Reinhard looked among the assembled students, who were all haphazardly taking off their clothes and tossing them on the riverbank, with the seniors gathering them up and taking them across the river in little boats, Reinhard figured he understood why Annerose was in attendance. He took off his uniform, folded it neatly, and placed his locket in the shirt pocket. He laid it down on the ground, then dove into the murky river water, ice-cold stealing his breath. He was a good swimmer, though, and made it across easily. On the other side, he saw his sister berating some other senior for something, waving a torch in his face, while Reinhard’s clothes were neatly folded in the boat she had dragged up to the shore. He retrieved them without acknowledging her, but found his locket exactly where he had left it.

How kind of her.

The week continued in this way. He would catch glimpses of Annerose as they did their nighttime trials. The closest he actually got to her was the night that they had to crawl through the sewer tunnels. He noticed that the upperclassmen interspersed themselves with the freshmen, which Reinhard didn’t understand until they were deep in the tunnel, in the slimy pitch-blackness, foul water up to his chest, crawling on his hands and knees, feeling the push of the person behind him. Reinhard was inching his way through the tunnel, and found himself crashing into the person in front of him, while the person behind him bumped into him.

“Why are we stopped?” Reinhard demanded. There wasn’t any clear answer, people behind him and in front of him making strained whispers. In the quiet sloshing, there was a sound, growing louder and louder, of someone sobbing. “Who is that?”

The sobs grew louder.

“I can’t get him to move!” someone called back. “We’re stuck.”

“What’s the matter with him?”

“Push him!”

“Oh my god, we’re going to die in here because some stupid idiot--”

“I can’t see!”

“We’re lost!”

“It’s a straight line, we’re not lost.”

“There’s a branch ahead, I--”

The person who was sobbing began to wail. “I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!”

All down the line, people started yelling, all incoherent and chaotic, which only made the person in front who was stopped scream louder.

“Everyone stop yelling!” a voice demanded. It took a second for Reinhard to process it, over the echoing, gurgling, scream-filled tunnel, but it was Annerose. She sounded more in control and imperious than Reinhard had ever heard her before, and her voice, unusual for being so assured, and unusual for being a woman’s, cut through the noise and minds of the panicked freshmen. They lapsed into silence, just enough that Annerose could lower her voice to a more soothing tone. The person in the front was still sobbing and choking, half saying incoherent phrases.

“In the front, what’s your name?” After a moment of non-response, she said again, “Come on, what’s your name?”

“I can’t breathe!”

“Yes you can,” she said, her voice very calm, carrying past all the other students in the tunnel. “You’d be dead if you couldn’t breathe, and you’re alive and talking. What’s your name?”

“Jonathan Kiel,” he said, coughing.

“And what’s the matter, Jonathan Kiel?” Annerose asked.

“I--”

“There’s a branch up ahead, isn’t there?” she asked. “And you lost the person in front of you. It’s okay. Take a deep breath.”

“I can’t breathe!”

“Yes, you can,” she said. “Take the right hand path.”

“I can’t!”

“Put your hands in front of you.”

There was a sloshing sound.

“Good. Just move your hands. Now your knees.”

The whole line of students inched forward a little.

“Good. Keep doing that. One hand in front of the other.”

And the line moved, and they made it out. If it had been Reinhard alone in the tunnel, he probably would have crawled over the other boys and throttled whoever was holding up the group. Perhaps it was for the best that Annerose had been there to talk everyone down from their panic. Reinhard had to wonder if there were other seniors elsewhere in the tunnels who had to do similar things, or if it had been sheer luck that he had been trapped with the one student who couldn’t bring himself to move through without being comforted.

No, he didn’t want Annerose’s help, but he did find the parallel existence they were living odd. He wanted to talk to her, but she was deliberately avoiding him, so he would let her speak to him on her own time.

Reinhard knew that things were over on the last day of the week, because he had heard the upperclassmen chatting among themselves about “Hell Week”, so he made the reasonable assumption that the hazing period would soon be over. He wasn’t suffering unduly. He didn’t mind the nighttime jaunts, and found the challenges they provided somewhat interesting. He slept in shifts, because he was good at it, and so he wasn’t even that tired during the days. His roommates were suffering, though, and they glared at him in barely restrained anger when he got up easily in the night and got dressed as people began running through the halls once again. Reinhard made a mental note that he would have to keep an eye out for that.

The tenor on the last night was different, more cheerful, and the upperclassmen weren’t shoving the freshmen around quite as much. Annerose wasn’t there.

It was some kind of party that they ended up at, with a bonfire and alcohol. Reinhard couldn’t say that he’d ever been to a party before, and he decided that he didn’t like it. He didn’t know anyone here, and he had little desire to talk to anyone, so he stood around and sipped his beer (he decided that he didn’t like beer particularly, either) and watched as several guys almost fell into the bonfire, on several different occasions. It might have been funny if it hadn’t also been pathetic. His eyes roamed over the gathering, and he saw Annerose’s roommate, standing on the edge of the party, watching like a hawk.

Reinhard walked over to her. “Have I been well behaved enough to suit my sister?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Is there a reason she didn’t come tonight?”

“She didn’t think her presence was required.”

“But yours was?”

“I have nothing better to do with my time,” Kino said.

“I find that hard to believe.”

She shrugged. “I don’t sleep well, so I might as well be up.”

“Annerose didn’t tell me that about you.”

“Annerose is good at keeping her own counsel. As am I.”

“Is there a lot that she hasn’t told me about school?”

“I would have no way of knowing.”

“Hm,” Reinhard said. “Is she keeping away from me on purpose?”

“She wanted you to have space. You’re free to speak with her.”

“I see.” Reinhard paused and took a sip of his beer. “Are you enjoying the party?”

“I’m going to leave in a minute.”

“Oh?”

“Yes.” She didn’t elaborate, but she raised her cup. “To your health, Reinhard von Müsel.”

“And to yours.” They drank, and then Kino nodded at him and turned away, walking, then running, out of the party area. No one stopped her.

Reinhard stood around. It was clear that the seniors were allowed to come and go as they pleased, but he had no idea if the freshmen were being afforded the same privilege, so he remained. He could have, he supposed, spoken to other people at the party, but he didn’t know any of them well enough to interest him, or even to think that they might be worth getting to know well enough.

It was as he was standing around doing nothing, fiddling with his locket with one hand and holding his half-empty beer cup with his other, that Reinhard became aware of a somewhat familiar voice, raised in half anger, half alarm, on the periphery of the party, towards the edge of the clearing that they were in.

“I would prefer not to,” the girl said.

Reinhard turned and looked. The girl was in between two men, both of them freshmen, and had her arms crossed. “Come on,” one of them said, and reached out to put a hand on her shoulder. She shrugged it off.

“I’m not sure what gave you the impression that I’m interested,” the girl said.

“You were talking to Aaron just fine,” the other said.

The girl didn’t respond, and tried to walk away, but they blocked her exit. Reinhard decided that he wasn’t going to allow this to continue, so he walked directly up to the trio. Kino had gone, so there was no one here to report on his bad behavior to his sister, if this became a real problem.

“I believe she told you to leave her alone,” Reinhard said, getting their attention.

“No, she didn’t. Isn’t that right?” one of them, the taller one, said.

“Who are you?” asked the other.

The girl looked at him with an expression that hovered somewhere between relief and annoyance, but he ignored her for the moment. “How about you leave,” Reinhard said.

“You a knight in shining armor, or something?” the tall one asked. “Look pretty scrawny to me.”

“Heh, maybe he just wants a piece of the action, too.”

“I’m asking you politely once more, and then I won’t ask politely again. You should leave.”

“And what are you going to do after we’re gone?” The short one laughed at his own ‘joke’.

“More importantly, what will you do if we don’t leave?”

Reinhard had gotten their full attention, which was good, because it meant that they were paying less attention to the girl. He glanced at her, and then flicked his eyes towards the treeline, urging her to go. She furrowed her brow for a second, then began creeping backwards, away from the group. In order to keep the attention of the two men, Reinhard said. “I’m sure you don’t want to find out what I’ll do.”

The tall one snorted. “You talk a big game, don’t you?”

“Hey, where are you going?” the other one asked, catching the girl walking away. He grabbed her arm again.

“Let her go,” Reinhard said. The girl yanked her arm out of her captor’s.

“I’m not sure what your problem is, man,” the tall one said. “We’re just having fun.”

“You know exactly what my problem is,” Reinhard said. He stepped up towards the tall one. He figured that it was more likely that he would get them to leave this woman alone if he distracted them with something else.

“You didn’t have to get involved,” the short one said. “It’s really none of your business.”

“But I am involved now, so what are you going to do about it?” Reinhard asked. He leaned forward. He looked almost ghoulish in the light of the distant bonfire. Just like he had said to Annerose once, his fresh baldness brought out his cheekbones.

“Oh, you want to fight?” the tall one asked. “Two on one? You’re drunk.”

“Perhaps I am,” Reinhard said, though he was anything but: he had only had half a cup of beer. He tossed his cup to the ground. “Let her go. We can go over there and settle this.” He jerked his head towards the woods.

The tall one and the short one glanced at each other. “You know what? Maybe that’ll be fun. But you should come,” the tall one said, looking at the girl. “Since he’s fighting for your honor, or whatever.”

“I don’t need anyone to fight over my honor,” the girl said.

The short one laughed. “Regardless of what you want, it looks like it’s happening, doesn’t it.”

This was not exactly going the way Reinhard had planned. “Just go along with it,” he said to the girl, putting a tone of annoyance and derision into his voice. “This is the fastest way to get them to leave you alone.”

The two guys laughed. “You really do think a lot of yourself,” the tall one said. The short one grabbed the woman’s arm, this time tightly enough that she couldn’t pry herself out of his grip. “Let’s go, then, if you want to fight us so badly.”

The short one dragged the girl along, towards the treeline. Reinhard was distinctly uncomfortable with that, but he would have to let her go in a minute, as soon as Reinhard actually started to fight them. He felt pretty confident about his odds, even two on one against older students. They walked a little way into the woods, away from the bonfire, so the only light was the moon overhead, and the sounds of the party were muted. No one had seen them go, or was paying any attention to their argument at all, which was probably for the best.

The place they were in wasn’t exactly a clearing; they were in among pine trees, which grew spaced quite far apart, and the ground was littered with rocks of all sizes, half obscured by a blanket of soft pine needles. In a better time, the scenery would have been pretty, but Reinhard was not looking around to admire its beauty; he was taking stock of how the landscape could be used to his advantage.

The tall one was taking off his jacket, while the short one continued to hold the girl, which rather infuriated Reinhard. “Let her go now,” he said.

“Not until I need to step into this, which I doubt I’ll have to,” the short one said.

“Come on, take off your jacket,” the tall one said. He was shirtless, having tossed his jacket onto a nearby tree branch.

Reinhard took off his jacket and shirt, folding them neatly, taking his time.

“Nice necklace,” the tall one said. Reinhard pretended to start laying down his shirt and jacket on a nearby rock, but as he bent down, he dropped them, then lunged for the tall man’s waist.

Caught completely off guard, Reinhard was able to knock the tall man to the ground, ending up over him. It gave him a second of advantage. On his knees, he tried to punch the face of the man on the ground. He wasn’t going to win that easily, though, and his opponent rolled out of the way, Reinhard’s fist missing by a fraction. His legs locked around Reinhard’s waist during the roll, trying to bring Reinhard to the ground, but Reinhard forced himself free, and then both of them were on their knees, facing each other. Reinhard got to his feet first.

“You don’t fight fair,” the tall man said, slightly out of breath.

“No, I don’t,” Reinhard agreed. His opponent lunged at him, but Reinhard stepped slightly to the side, and kneed him in the stomach, making him double over. Reinhard got behind him and lept onto his back, wrapping his arms around his throat and his legs around his hips, causing him to stumble forward, then backwards. Reinhard felt the man start to lean back, clearly intending to drop to the ground with Reinhard underneath him, and, as he did so, Reinhard let go, pulling the man the rest of the way to the ground. Reinhard ended up on his feet over him, and kicked the man in his side, hard. The man yelled out in pain, then tried to scramble away. Reinhard brought back his foot to kick him again, but then two things happened simultaneously: the man on the ground tried to grab his leg, and he saw the shorter man coming towards him, out of the corner of his eye, having abandoned holding the girl.

Reinhard changed the trajectory of his kick the best he could and spun towards the approaching shorter man, who was startled by Reinhard’s sudden change, but not deterred. He swung a punch at Reinhard’s face, and Reinhard ducked, then swung back. It was now a two on one fight, and the guy who he had dropped to the ground was getting up, though slow and wincing, as Reinhard faced the shorter man.

His new opponent was stronger than the taller man had been, visibly so, but that made him commit to his punches in a way that threw him off balance. Reinhard suspected that he hadn’t been in many real fights before. Not that Reinhard had himself, at least not for several years, but he was agile and familiar with the way his own body moved, in a way that this man clearly wasn’t.

As the shorter man swung at him, he leaned forward, putting most of his weight on one foot, Reinhard observed. He dodged that punch, then moved back just a hair, so that the shorter man was forced to overextend by a hair, should he want to punch Reinhard.

“Come on, hit me,” Reinhard taunted. It felt below him, but he was going to use whatever tools he needed. His words had the intended effect, and the shorter man tried punching him again. This time, Reinhard kicked at him, ending up taking a hit to the shoulder (an acceptable sacrifice) while his foot crashed into the weight bearing leg of his opponent. He went down, hard, a shocked expression on his face as he tried to break his fall with his hands.

Reinhard was going to kick him in the ribs, too, but then the tall guy grabbed him from behind, one arm around Reinhard’s throat, hooking his legs around Reinhard’s, trying to bring them to the ground. Reinhard would be at a disadvantage if this became a wrestle, so he tried to twist out of the grip.

He was lucky, in a way, that his opponent thought to humiliate him, by grabbing at his locket rather than focusing on choking him. Reinhard felt the strain of the chain on the back of his neck. He elbowed the ribs of the man who was grabbing him, which caused the man to let out a measure of breath and lift the arm that was around Reinhard’s neck ever so slightly, enough for Reinhard to move his head. Reinhard did, moving his head down and biting the arm as hard as he could.

The tall man swore loudly and tried to shove Reinhard away from him with his other hand. Reinhard let go, tasting blood in his mouth, but not because he was being pushed, only because the shorter man had recovered, and was swinging at him again. Reinhard ducked, which threw the shorter man off balance, not wanting to end up hitting his ally who was right behind Reinhard. Reinhard kicked at his leg again, but he didn’t fall for that trick a second time.

Still, that had given Reinhard an opening to get out from between the two, and he moved behind the shorter man, who turned and lunged at him.

It may have been completely unsporting of him, but Reinhard let the short man get close, then kneed him in the crotch, as hard as he could. The short man went down like a sack of bricks.

Reinhard ignored him for the moment, because the tall guy was coming back, swinging a punch at Reinhard with his uninjured right arm. Reinhard stepped sideways and grabbed the arm, trying to force it down, but the tall man turned, using his whole body weight, and threw Reinhard to the ground.

For the first time in this fight, with the other man on top of him, Reinhard got a little nervous. He kicked upwards, but his legs weren’t in an ideal position, and the man ended up getting his arm across Reinhard’s chest, holding him to the ground as he reared his arm back to punch Reinhard in the face. Reinhard tried to move out of the way, and was somewhat successful, the first blow only grazing his cheekbone and ear. Painful, but not fight ending. He still couldn’t quite get out from under the large, heavy man, even as he tried to use his own arms for leverage.

The man raised his arm for another punch, but suddenly his weight shifted, and Reinhard felt a kind of second hand impact. In the darkness, with the man directly above him, Reinhard couldn’t see what had happened, but the man let him go, rolling to the side, and Reinhard squirmed out, getting to his feet.

The girl stood behind the tall man, wielding a thick tree branch that she had picked up from the ground. She held it like a club and swung it again towards the tall man, who had made it onto his hands and knees, catching him in his already wounded side. He collapsed to the ground, clutching his side. The girl dropped the stick as though it were on fire.

“Where’d the other guy go?” Reinhard asked.

“Ran,” the girl said, slightly out of breath.

“You should have done the same.” He was annoyed that this girl probably felt like she had rescued him. He would have been able to win the fight, he knew; he had just been momentarily inconvenienced. Reinhard turned towards the tall man, who was clambering to his feet. “Are we done here?” Reinhard asked. “Or are you going to continue being stupid?”

“Fuck you,” the tall guy said, grabbing his jacket from the tree branch he had left it on, and limping away, back towards the party.

“You shouldn’t have fought them,” the girl said.

“You sound like my sister,” Reinhard said, gathering up his shirt and shaking it off. “Sometimes violence is the simplest solution. They probably won’t bother you again.”

“I hope you don’t expect anything from me.”

The expression of complete disdain Reinhard made was fortunately mostly invisible in the darkness. He pulled his shirt on, then his jacket, then started to walk away.

“You’re leaving?” she asked.

“I’m going back to my dorm,” he said. She jogged after him, stumbling slightly over the tree roots in the darkness.

“What’s your name? I feel like I recognize you from somewhere.”

“I believe you shaved my head,” Reinhard said.

“Oh! Yeah, you really did your best to make that difficult for me.”

Reinhard turned to look at her. “I was well behaved.”

She laughed. “You know you were supposed to pick someone else to shave.”

“I had no desire to participate in a humiliation ritual,” he said.

“I get that,” she said. “My dad warned me about it, so I was prepared. It would have been pretty shocking if I hadn’t been.”

Reinhard nodded. He didn’t have the high ground on that point, since he had also been warned about that particular aspect.

“I guess I just didn’t expect to see you around again after that. I thought you were leaving.”

This angered Reinhard, and he hissed, “I’m not weak.”

“I didn’t say you were!”

But he didn’t respond, and just stalked off, leaving her behind at the edge of the party.

Reinhard found Annerose the next day, at lunch in the dining hall. She was sitting with a few senior women, and she waved him over, scooting over so that he could drag up a chair next to her. She introduced him to the women, who were members of the women’s society, and they were vaguely patronising to him, which he tolerated for his sister’s sake. He stopped short of allowing them to pet his shorn head, though.

He rarely saw this side of her, the one where she was the vivacious leader of a group, but he rather liked to see it. She directed the flow of the conversation, in complete control, and he felt, for a moment, at least, fine to follow in her shadow.

After lunch, Annerose said goodbye to her friends and walked with him around campus. “Glad to see you survived Hell Week,” Annerose said.

Although he had been offended when the girl from the night before said something similar, he was in a better mood now, and this was Annerose, who knew him. “Did you think I would do any different?”

“Of course not.” She sighed a little. “I will miss the hair, though.”

“It will grow back,” Reinhard said, very grudgingly. “Why did you send your roommate to spy on me?”

“Hah, you talked to Kino? I just wanted to be sure that you didn’t get in any serious trouble.”

“Could she have stopped me?”

Annerose considered for a second, then nodded. “But either way, I’m glad you didn’t cause trouble.”

Reinhard smiled, and was careful not to let the lie show on his face. “Of course I wouldn’t.”

“I know. I just can’t get out of the bad habit of looking out for you.”

“Did you know that about half of my professors asked me if we were related?”

She laughed. “I’m sorry for the embarrassment.”

“No, it’s fine,” Reinhard said. “I’d be a poor brother if I was upset that you’d made a name for yourself.”

“You’ll have plenty of time to make your own impression.”

“Of course. I fully intend to be at the top of my class.”

“I’m sure you will be. Let me know if you need any help.”

“You’re a poor sister for insinuating that I can’t do my own schoolwork,” he said, but he was smiling.

“Have you made any friends yet?”

“No,” Reinhard said. “I think it will take some time to get an idea of who is worth being friends with.”

“Not everything has to be so transactional.”

“And the group you hang out with isn’t made up of the most competent people you can find?” Reinhard asked with a raise of his eyebrow.

“Well, of course, but--”

“I’m not wrong, then.”

“There are other reasons to be friends with people, too, you know.” She paused for a second. “Remember when I told you years ago that you should make friends. Giving that a chance then made you happy. I’d give you the same advice now.”

Reinhard fiddled with his locket. “I’ll think about it.”

She smiled. “I’m glad you’ll at least think about it.”

They talked about other, less consequential, things then, until Annerose had to go, since she was going to a student government funding meeting, to submit the women’s society’s proposed budget for the upcoming year.

Several weeks later, Reinhard felt as though he had settled into his life at the Officers’ Academy fairly well. He wasn’t friends with his roommates, but he thought that they realized that it would be mutually beneficial to not cause trouble for each other, since they were going to have to live together for the rest of the year. If it was any consolation to Annerose, he wasn’t the only source of tension; the entire group of four was mildly antagonistic in every direction.

He was doing well in all of his classes, and enjoyed thoroughly trouncing his classmates any time there was any sort of competition to be had, whether it was in the computer simulation strategy games or in the physical fitness classes. Class rank wasn’t public, but Reinhard felt fairly sure that he was at the top. He would have to wait until the end of the semester grades calculated to find out if that was true, but he suspected it was, and he went about his days with a confidence that matched his assumed place in life.

He didn’t see Annerose as much as he might have liked to. She was very busy, being the president of the womens’ society, and the top of her own class. It wasn’t as though he had seen much of her over the past several years, so this was actually an improvement from what it had been. Still, he found it odd to be in the same place but so distant, occasionally catching glimpses of her as she walked across the green between classes, or sat with her own friends in the dining hall. He didn’t intrude on her personal life because there was no point in it. It wasn’t like he hadn’t realized she had a whole existence separate from him over the past several years; he was just now getting to see it, as through a window, staring through it into a different world that he had no part in.

She did insist on inviting him to things, some of which truly tested his patience.

One night, she texted him.

> I don’t like parties

> Since when do you get to boss me around?

> Who?

But he didn’t get a response to that question. He was annoyed at the demand, but he wasn’t going to directly refuse his sister. Grudgingly, he admitted that she might be right that he could use some friends, and he trusted her taste, at least a little.

So, that Friday evening, he got dressed in his one formal, non-uniform outfit, which was a smart black suit. His roommate, Gabriel, asked, “Got a hot date, to be dressing up like that?”

Reinhard ignored him and headed out.

The dance was held in the upscale reception hall of a restaurant a good distance off campus. It was some kind of fundraiser, which was why it was in such a nice location, but Reinhard had gotten his ticket for free through Annerose. He didn’t see his sister when he came in, so he loitered around the food table, picking at the hors d’oeuvres and watching the room. It seemed that most people were older, and there seemed to be too many women for all of them to be from the academy, since the gender ratio was so unbalanced. As he was contemplating this, someone came up beside him.

“Are you Reinhard von Müsel?” a woman asked.

Reinhard turned, putting on a gracious smile. The woman looking at him was dressed very nicely, in a slinky red dress, and she had blonde, shoulder length hair. She was too old to be an academy student.

“I am,” Reinhard said. “And who do I have the pleasure of speaking to?”

“Jessica Edwards,” the woman said with a smile. “Your sister’s told me so much about you, so I’m glad to finally meet you at last.”

“The feeling is mutual, Ms. Edwards,” Reinhard said. He offered her his hand to shake, and she did. “Annerose speaks very highly of you.”

“Does she indeed?” Edwards asked. “You’d think that she’d be tired of me bossing her around, and tell you as much.”

Reinhard laughed. “I don’t believe she ever mentioned that, no.”

“Really?” Edwards smiled. “You know, when I first met her, I had to practically drag her to come to one of the women’s society meetings, and now she’s president, and a good one at that.”

“My sister is a very capable woman,” Reinhard said. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

“Well, she used to be a little timid.”

“I don’t know if I would describe her as that,” Reinhard said. “She just chooses both battles and friends very carefully.”

“She tells me that she’s always telling you to make friends, like I told her.”

“Oh, are you here on that errand as well?”

Edwards laughed. “No, I just came to say hello. Are you enjoying the party?”

“The food is very good,” Reinhard said. “Aside from that, I don’t really know anyone.”

“There’s plenty of people here for you to meet, should you like to do so. I work over at Thernusen College, so I made it my business to advertise this event over there. It’s good to socialize with people who aren’t soldiers, sometimes.”

“I’m not a soldier yet,” Reinhard said.

“It’s only a matter of time, unfortunately,” Jessica said. “Still, I suppose there’s nothing that can be done about that. Since you say you’re bored at this wonderful party, would you care to dance?”

“I see my sister didn’t tell you everything about me.”

“Not a fan of dancing?”

“I wouldn’t describe it that way.”

“Then what’s the harm?” Edwards grabbed his arm and dragged him gently away from the refreshments table and onto the dance floor. “There’s no point in coming to a dance if you aren’t going to dance.”

“If you insist,” he said.

She wrapped her arms over his shoulders, and they moved to the music. Reinhard wasn’t a bad dancer, but he was somewhat uncomfortable. He was not used to being touched by anyone, unless it was Annerose or someone attempting to hurt him. This was neither, so he wasn’t quite sure what to do with his own hands. Still, Edwards seemed to be enjoying herself, and she wasn’t trying to do anything other than dance, so Reinhard went along with it for a while.

“And how would Jean feel about you having your hands all over my brother?” Annerose asked, coming up beside the dancing pair.

“I don’t think he’d mind at all,” Jessica said. “Good to see you escaped the charity talk.”

“And it’s good to see you both enjoying yourselves.”

Reinhard disentangled himself from Jessica, who let him go without a fight. “You look nice,” he said. Annerose’s hair was done up, and she was wearing a simple but elegant black dress, with a necklace that Reinhard recognized as formerly belonging to their mother, though he didn’t think he had seen anyone wear it since they left Odin.

“Thank you,” Annerose said.

“Was Ms. Edwards the person you summoned me here to meet?”

Annerose laughed. “No, but I’m glad to see she sought you out. There’s a freshman in the women’s society who I think you’d get along with. I forced her to come tonight, so she’s around somewhere, but I lost her when I had to go talk money with the food bank people.”

“And who is this?” Edwards asked, saving Reinhard from having to do so himself.

“Fredrica Greenhill,” Annerose said. “You know what, I’ll go look for her. You two keep entertaining yourselves.”

“It’s more like I’m keeping your brother trapped in my clutches,” Edwards said as Annerose flitted off.

“I don’t think you’re that bad,” Reinhard said, which made Edwards laugh.

“Such a compliment.”

They continued to dance for a while, Annerose apparently struggling to find this Greenhill. When the music changed to something more upbeat, Jessica taught Reinhard a very silly dance that accompanied the music. “I can’t believe you’ve never danced this one before,” she said, putting her hands behind her head and wiggling her hips comically.

“I didn’t attend any of my high school socials,” Reinhard said, though he imitated her for her amusement.

It was at that moment that Annerose returned, and she covered her mouth to keep from laughing aloud at him. Reinhard rolled his eyes. “I’d like to see you do that dance,” he said. “Then you’ll have license to laugh at me.”

But, as he was saying that, his eyes fell on the girl behind Annerose. Even though she was dressed in a pretty blue party dress rather than in a dirty school uniform, he recognized her immediately. “You!” he said.

“Funny meeting you here,” Greenhill said dryly.

“You know each other?” Annerose asked, surprised.

“Yes,” Reinhard said, frowning.

“We’ve made each other’s acquaintance before,” Greenhill said.

“I think I’ll leave you to it,” Edwards said, winking at Annerose and vanishing into the crowd.

“How did you meet?” Annerose asked.

“She shaved my hair,” Reinhard said, at the same time as Greenhill spoke.

“He almost lost a fistfight on my behalf.”

“What?” Annerose asked.

“I did not almost lose. I would have won,” Reinhard said. “You think too highly of yourself.”

“And when were you fighting?” Annerose asked, voice somewhat cold.

“The last night of Hell Week,” Reinhard and Greenhill said simultaneously. They glared at each other.

“You said you had been well behaved!” Annerose said, frowning.

“You could tell her that I was attempting to be a gentleman,” Reinhard said to Greenhill.

“I have no idea what you were attempting to do. I could have handled things myself.”

“Oh, really?” Reinhard asked. “I’d have liked to see it.” He crossed his arms.

“There’s no need for you to be rude,” Greenhill said.

“I could say the same to you.”

“Fredrica, could you please explain to me what this is about?” Annerose asked, with exaggerated patience.

“Jackson Colchester and Emmanuel Grant were making fools of themselves at the party at the end of Hell Week,” Greenhill said. “Your brother stopped them, which I suppose I’m grateful for, though he thought that the best way to do that was to fight them. And he did almost lose.”

“Reinhard?”

“If you’re going to take her side on this, then I don’t see the point in me staying at the party,” Reinhard said, and started to turn away.

“There’s no side to take!” Greenhill said, sounding exasperated now. “What do you want? An apology from me?”

“At the very least, I’d like you to stop insinuating that I’m not capable,” Reinhard said.

“I didn’t intend to wound your pride,” Greenhill said. “So, sure, I apologize.”

Infuriating. She was infuriating. Reinhard glanced at Annerose, who lifted her chin in her own stubborn expression, and so Reinhard put a false smile on his face and said, “I accept your apology.”

“Great,” Annerose said. “Let’s try this again. Ms. Fredrica Greenhill, I’d like to introduce you to my brother, Reinhard von Müsel. Reinhard, this is Ms. Greenhill.”

“Charmed, I’m sure,” Reinhard said, and he stuck out his hand for her to shake. She met his eyes, and tried to crush his hand with her own. He didn’t back down, so they ended up holding hands for far longer than was absolutely necessary.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. von Müsel.”

“Reinhard,” he said.

“Reinhard, then,” she agreed.

“Excellent. Now, as I was saying, Fredrica is a wonderful member of the women’s society, and has already been a great help, even though she’s a freshman. I feel like two intelligent and capable people such as yourselves might both enjoy getting along, and perhaps being friends,” Annerose said. She glanced around the room, and saw that some suited man was making a bee-line towards their trio. “Unfortunately, I have to go for the moment. How about you two get to know each other better?”

Reinhard gave her an exhausted look, but Annerose was already turning to greet the man. “Mr. Hardwick, I’m so glad you could make it…”

Reinhard turned and walked away, towards the outside area of the venue. The air out there was cool, and there was a nice view of the riverfront, decorated with twinkling lights. A few harmless clouds scuttled across the night sky. There weren’t many people out there. Reinhard leaned on the balcony and stared out over the water, watching a couple small boats travel up and down its course. Greenhill sidled up beside him.

“You don’t actually have to do what my sister says, you know,” Reinhard said. “She wouldn’t be mad at you for not wanting to talk to me.”

“No, just disappointed,” Greenhill said. “And I like your sister, so I’m going to attempt to make less of a fool of myself in front of her from now on.”

“She should know better than to try to set me up with you.”

“Is that what this is?”

“I assume so.”

“And why shouldn’t she try?”

“I’m spoken for,” Reinhard said. “Though if you mention that to her, she’ll probably make a face.”

“Oh?”

“I’m not going to discuss it further,” Reinhard said idly. He pulled a leaf off the bush below the railing and twirled it around in his fingers. “If you want the details, you can embarrass her by prying.”

“I won’t.”

“How kind of you.”

She wrinkled her nose at him. “I’m afraid I don’t understand you at all.”

“What is there to understand?”

“Why did you fight Colchester and Grant?”

“I was hardly going to stand around and watch them take advantage of you. That’s all.”

“For any particular reason?”

“Is it not enough that it’s abhorrent behavior?”

“I didn’t see anyone else stepping in.”

“It was a loud party.”

“Not that loud.”

“If you are so curious, then go ahead and ask Annerose about that, too.”

“Is there a reason you’ve taken such a dislike to me?” Greenhill asked.

“I don’t dislike you.”

“You certainly sound like you do.”

“I’m trying to dissuade you from feeling like you have any obligation to stand here and talk to me. You don’t owe me anything, and you don’t need to bend to my sister’s whims, because she isn’t going to get what she wants. So you’re free to go.” He was annoyed, thinking back on the conversation he had had with Schenkopp several years ago, where Schenkopp had said it was more pleasant to spend time with people who weren’t feeling some kind of obligation.

“If you want me to leave, I will,” Greenhill said. “But it’s not as though I have any friends at this party, either.”

Reinhard laughed. “Ah, we’re two creatures stuck together out of pitiful circumstance, then, is it?”

“Sure. Talking to you is better than standing around doing nothing.”

“I’ll do my best to take that as a compliment, even though everything you’ve said to me thus far has been at least half insulting.”

Greenhill sighed. “Do you want to get something to drink?”

Reinhard fished in his pocket and handed her his drink ticket. “You’ll have to get it for me, on the off chance they’re carding. I’m underage.”

“Seventeen still?” she asked.

“Sixteen.”

“What?”

“I got ahead in school.”

“I see. Your sister won’t be mad if I do go get a drink for you?”

“She would probably be pleased.”

“Got a preference?”

“Wine, thanks.”

Greenhill nodded, then disappeared back inside. She emerged a few minutes later, holding two glasses of wine. She passed one to Reinhard.

“Cheers,” Reinhard said, raising his glass.

“To underage drinking,” Greenhill said.

Reinhard took a sip. He was trying to become a person who appreciated wine.

“Are you liking the academy so far?” Greenhill asked, clearly trying to keep the conversation going.

“It’s better than high school,” Reinhard said. “And it’s going to get me where I want to be, which is enough.”

“And where do you want to be?”

“In space, taking down the Empire.”

“That’s a strong set of goals.”

“Well, what other reasons are there for being here?”

“Plenty,” Greenhill said. “I wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps.”

“Hm. Who’s your father?”

“Admiral Greenhill,” she said.

“Oh, I didn’t realize that was a relation.”

“It’s a common enough name. And I’m not trying to get favors out of it.”

“I see. I should congratulate you on having a competent father.”

She laughed. “Is that a thing that one should be congratulated on? It seems more like an accident of birth.”

“It’s better than the alternative.”

“What about you?” she asked. “What’s your family like?”

“You’ve met Annerose.”

“She’s the only one?”

“All people have a mother and a father, regardless of how they feel about them.”

“I’m sorry for prying, then, if it’s a sore subject.”

“My mother is fine,” Reinhard says. “She did one brave thing in her life, and I respect her for that, but mostly she stays in bed and sends too much money to her church. My father did one terrible thing in his life, and I hate him for it. I have no idea where he is or what he’s doing, and I would be rather pleased if he was dead.”

“Oh.”

“In terms of following in someone’s footsteps, Annerose is plenty. I’m only a few steps behind, which suits me.” He paused. “What about you? Do you like the academy?”

“It’s about what I expected,” she said. “I’m glad the women’s society is so welcoming.”

Reinhard nodded. “They seem to do well by their own.”

She shrugged. “It’s just nice to have other women around, since there’s so few of us.”

“There are no women at all in the Empire’s military, so I suppose you should be grateful to the Alliance for giving you a chance to make your mark here.”

“It’s not some right that was simply granted from on high,” Greenhill said.

“I didn’t mean to imply that,” Reinhard said, suddenly finding himself on the back foot. “I’m speaking of my own gratefulness to the Alliance, more than anything else.”

She laughed. “I see. You don’t strike me as one to be grateful for much.”

“Perhaps.” He sipped his wine and stared out at the river.

“Should we make your sister happy?”

“By doing what?”

“Going to dance?”

“I believe I told you that I am not interested in you in the least.”

“I’m not so fantastically ugly that I can’t be danced with, even without hair.”

“It has nothing to do with what you look like.”

“You were dancing with Jessica.”

Reinhard finished his glass. “Because Ms. Edwards is the type who gets her way.”

“If you really can’t bear it, then I won’t press. But I do want to make your sister think I gave it a good try.”

Reinhard raised his eyebrows. “And that wouldn’t be a kind of lie?”

“Like you have a problem lying to her.”

He looked over at her, amused. “Alright, fine. I’ll dance with you.”

“Excellent.” She grinned like she had won something.

“You infuriate me,” Reinhard said mildly as they walked together to the dance floor.

“Oh, I’m glad to hear it.”

Reinhard held out his hands for her to take. “And why is that?”

“It’s at least better than you thinking nothing of me at all.” She placed her hands on his and they began moving around the dance floor in time to the jaunty music. “You did save me from inconvenience, after all. I think that means something.”

“Hah, not really. None of this makes us friends.”

“What does make you friends with someone?”

“I wouldn’t even know. I’ve only ever had one.”

“I’d say that’s sad.”

“It’s not. I just choose very carefully.”

“And what does it take for you to choose?”

“It’s a high bar that’s impossible to describe.”

“And I haven’t cleared it?”

“I wouldn’t say so, no.”

“So, you don’t want to see me again?”

Reinhard raised an eyebrow, then raised his arm to spin Greenhill around. “Maybe in class, sometime.”

“You really are cruel.”

“Perhaps.” He smiled a little, then looked around the sides of the dance floor, observing everyone else in the room. He caught his sister watching them, a pleased expression on her face. “Look, there’s Annerose. Pretend like you’re having fun.”