With a pizza and a half gone down his gut alone, Lukas felt comfortable as Jane told him of her former roommates and her time at her academy. As he suspected, it provided an adequate, but not complete education to the law-keepers. Then again this was a lower-tier world compared to his own as well. So he was trying not to judge too harshly. With her story being told till they met Lukas decided to return the favor.

“ My parents were not a couple. In my homeworld, abortion is forbidden. So, my mother, had me costing her months of work before being handed off to my father. He was a simple laborer and he worked hard to provide for the two of us. I was eight when the accident happened...”

Lukas closed his eyes remembering that day very well. The day his father did not come home and cook them dinner while he did his homework. He stayed up till the house grew cold from the winter storm and he eventually hid in his bed to stay warm. If the social worker did not come by when he did, they might have found him frozen instead of barely alive.

“ My mother wrote me off the day I was born so she could continue her whoring, so I was left to an orphanage. I was there for a full year till...”

Lukas closed his eyes again this time shivering in the echos of pain.

“ Some rich kids heard of my history and thought it is funny to put fuel on my tail and set it aflame. I nearly died again, if not for a nearby Warden who was visiting his sister that day, I would have. If it was some simple matches, it might have been considered a poorly thought out prank, but this was classified as a hate crime. The boys who did it were sentenced to five years hard labor and the one that actually set my tail aflame got an additional twenty for attempted murder.”

Lukas leaned back and stretched to give Jane the opening for the questions he knew she had.

-----

Jane felt conflicted a bit, on one hand, what happened to him was cruel, but on another, the sentencing seems extreme for children.

“ Isn’t that a bit?...”

“ Harsh, I was maimed for life, whatever remained had to be surgically removed for health reasons. I spent the next five years learning how to walk again. Mind you I was added to the [Initiate] program because of it, but still. If they did what they did as adults their punishments would have been much more extreme. The one who maimed me would have been executed.”

Jane thought about that a moment and nods understanding the logic behind the judgment.

“ So, what was your initiate training like other than the physical therapy?”

She saw Lukas nod thinking about it before deciding he wanted yet another piece of pizza.

“ From what I understand, it is like your police academy, but well more... everything. The training is harder. The education is stricter. The rules are even more iron clad.”

Jane started picturing what that could be like as Lukas continued.

“ Thousands try to be a Warden every year, but they only take a few each year and there are prerequisites that have to be met. I got half a pass on the physical till the final exam, but most others. It is not easy to take the step from [Initiate] to [Warden]. First, there is a hard cutoff of eight years as an [Initiate]. If you can not pass by this time, the bar you from taking the test again. Mind you, it is still possible but it is rare.”

“ I got an extra three years of education at the [Initiate] level than most, but my physical handicap hampered me in my early years just as much. Some youths as young as six enter the Warden Academy to become Warden. Some are children of Wardens and others with rich parents and spoilt kids. Again, tens or even hundreds of thousands of [Initiate]s a year try to take that next step.”

Jane closed her eyes to picture it.

“ Why don’t most make it?”

Jane saw Lukas ball his hands together and look at the pizza.

“ To be a Warden is to be part of something greater than yourself. That means you have to give up your own selfish desires. How many do you think can give up their dreams and passions?”

Jane lowered her head not sure she could.