“Do you regret it?”

“Before your mom hired me to be your Companion, I was being scouted over a few years to be a Courtesan of the Jasmine Flower Court. The local branch had even invited me to visit and get a few lessons and advice on what Class and Skills would suit me if I went that route. They told me that if I joined them, I would get trained at Suryadham and could even move to the Galactic Centre if I proved talented enough.”

“Wow.”

“I picked up a few courtesan skills but haven’t advanced them a lot. Sometimes I wonder how my life would have been going that route - glamorous, famous, fun, meeting the spoilt rich, nobles and royals.”

“And…”

“And nothing. Those last can be just as… difficult as you. They taught me how to handle idiots like that and no one messes with the Jasmine Court.”

“Then why become a Companion?”

“It meant my family got help immediately. My elder brother and younger sister are way more talented than I. With the resources we now have, my brother has joined the Stone Heart Kalari on Suran and we admitted my sister to the junior school of the Four Lionesses Academy. As a Courtesan, I would need time to earn enough. Time they didn’t have.”

He looked at her.

“The first 21 years lay the foundation for levelling. They were doing all they could, but… without rare spiritual herbs and fruit, without the right training and mentors, without the right equipment, without beast cores and affinity crystals, without so much else, they could only progress so much. Hard work and knowledge are free, everything else needs money.”

“So you sacrificed your life to better theirs’?”

“The reason I agreed was you.”

“Huh?”

“Your mom told me she would let me train skills and take a path that suits me. I wouldn’t have to compromise my development as your Companion because you would never accept the Companionship and would never forgive her.”

Rudra looked at her with surprise.

“Why do you think I let you get away with so much when I’m trained on shutting it down?”

They were on a hover-bike. Amita was driving and Rudra was riding behind her. He leaned in, to hold her, letting his hands wander.

“Oof… I need to concentrate, don’t distract me.”

“Oh… ok. Later then.”, he replied, trying to pull off a lustful voice.

Amita shook her head, “I saw the look on your face after the encounter with the Princes’ Companions. It seemed you needed answers.”

“Thanks.”

-------------------------------------

Rudra was silent after his conversation with Amita. He had not been comfortable having a Companion. This world was different, its culture was different, but he felt he was still who he was, that he had to be. His memories of his time on Earth didn’t feel like his own. Thinking of his past felt like peeking into the life of another, yet so much of it had come with him, helped him. To let that go, to embrace the norms here seemed like he was abandoning his old life, his old self.

“There is an attribute for intelligence, but not for wisdom.”, was Yashi’s answer for why he needed a Companion.

“Wisdom comes from experience, and I have…”

“Experience. No, you have knowledge from a life you won’t let be. It is not your past. You think that life shaped you. You already were you. Life doesn’t shape us, just the surface.”

“As I grow, my body’s development is guided by my genes, affected only so much by external factors. Right? But if my hands get cut off? That changes my body, it changes me. That is life.”

“Are those hands you? Don’t confuse losing a part of yourself with losing yourself. You once told me that time flowed differently in that world. That a year here was 1.6 years there.”

“Not flows differently, measured differently. There it was 60 seconds to a minute, 60 minutes to an hour, 24 hours in a day, 12 months and 365 days to a year. Here its 80 seconds to a minute, 40 minutes to an hour, 40 hours in a day, 10 months and 393 days in a year, by the galactic standard.”

“Is a child of 4 years here the same as a child of 7 years there?”

“No, but…”

“Tens of thousands of years ago, prior to the levelling and advancement system being introduced, most people did not have shakti enabled powers. Bio-adjustments were few and limited.”

“I know, I kept up on my history assignments. Level 1 represents having all attributes the same as that for an average person without shakti enhancements.”

“And from there to level 5 an increase by 1 in all attributes except intelligence represents a doubling to the prior level. Intelligence progresses differently but it still doubles every 5 levels for most.”

“Yes, I know that too. On average, children can start generating shakti and advance from age 3.”

“But do you understand what that means?”

“Huh? It means…”, he stopped seeing where this was going.

“Progress in vitality, strength, endurance, speed and dexterity is not mystical. It represents a transformation at the cellular level and body growth. A child with shakti in a year can exceed in mind and body a full-grown person without.”

“But not wisdom.”, Rudra completed her implication.

Yashi smiled, “Puberty used to come by age 10, even with shakti based development, till a few thousand years ago.”

“Till Sage Shukra’s discoveries of bio-adjustments that can mimic shakti based development.”

Yashi nodded, “Now puberty hits at six, sometimes earlier. Even levelling has gotten faster.”

“So, Companions are an answer to handling hormone-crazed, super powerful, super intelligent. To help fast track ‘experience’.”

“Yes, and no. They are an option that allows the children of the really rich to have a greater advantage over those… not so rich.”

“But… “

“The books say what they are meant to say. Companions are a tool. They are carefully selected for their wards. The wrong tool spoils the job.”

“And what have you selected Amita for?”

“To open your eyes to this world. She’s intelligent and fearless. She had a hard life and still has a sense of wonder for this world. I am hoping her excitement for life will rub off on you.”

---------------------------------

They were riding to the Shining Desert. The Five Island Trials were 50 kos^ from the edge of the Minor Canyons, beyond which lay the Desert. The Desert was not large, measuring 300 kos across at its widest. The rivers that had carved out the Minor Canyons just vanished into the Shining Desert, which had its own river. The Pearl River was a river of sand that flowed across the desert. It started a few kos off the Minor Canyons as a small stream grew to 2 kos wide for most of its length, broadening to 4 kos and dissipating into the sand dunes as it ended 20 kos from the other edge of the Desert.

Rudra was riding with Amita, Satt with Rana and Suvi by herself leading the pack. Their hover-bikes rode 2 gaz above the ground, streaking across at 100 kos an hour. Half an hour into the desert, Suvi slowed and turned to Rudra. He nodded to the right, Suvi turned her bike in that direction. It confused Rana and Satt until Suvi told them, “His senses are far more advanced than most. He sensed something in this direction, about 50 kos away.”

“His senses can spread that far?”

“No. But he can sense minute fluctuations we can’t. There must be something massive that way for its shakti pulses to be felt this far away by him.”

Half an hour later they noticed flashes of light, pulses of shakti and sand being thrown into the air in the distance. There was a fight going on. They came to a halt a kos away from the fight, taking cover behind a dune and arming themselves as they figured out what was happening.

A group of Red Armoured Fennec Foxes, about two hundred strong, was swarming over a bunch of sand dunes, hunting. Their quarry was not visible. The Armoured Fennec were small, only a hand in length and half a hand in height. Their body was covered in overlapping scales that had a dull red hue and were known to be very tough. They had elongated teeth and sharp claws. Fennec were known for their earth and sonic attacks. Individually they were not dangerous since most never reached stage 1. In a group, they were dangerous and would level together. The group they were watching was made up of foxes at the peak of Stage 1 and some in Stage 2.

This was not a group they could afford to be seen by, so they backed off. Suvi, Bouncy and Rana had stashed the hover-bikes in their storage rings. They were about to take them out when the other fighter showed up.

A dune vanished amid fennec foxes as a twenty gaz long shark burst out biting two foxes in half at once and slicing four more with its fins and tail as it curved through the air diving back into the sand. Trailing it were ten spikes made of glass that impaled ten foxes, ending eight and putting two out of the fight. Rana shouted, “A blasted Sand Shark, at this size it would be peak Stage 2, possibly even Stage 3.”

“It also has fire affinity besides earth affinity. Look how it used glass spikes instead of sand spikes.”, Suvi added.

“The fennecs are not fast, even at Stage 2, we could have escaped with our bikes. But that shark can reach double the speed of our bikes.”, Rana was not done.

“Relax. The shark will not be a problem.”, Rudra’s voice sounded calm, maybe a bit excited.

Suvi gave him a look, then turned to look back at the fight. After a while, she went, “Ohhh…”

Satt asked in a confused voice, “What am I missing?”

“Look at the shark’s attacks and how the fennecs have lined up to fight it.”, Amita answered.

“Yes, the shark is constrained to a boundary.”, Rana piped up, excited at having solved the conundrum.

“What, How?”, Satt sounded unsure.

“The fennecs have figured out the boundary. You can see most stationed along the boundary while attacking from a distance. The shark also takes swipes of opportunity but its direct attacks don’t extend to take out all the foxes it can.”, Rana was happy to explain.

At this distance, they couldn’t see but could sense the sonic lances being launched by the fennecs at the shark. Three foxes were combining their attacks to launch a single high-powered lance, working in groups of eighteen to launch six lances at once, alternating between groups to allow a group to recover their energy. The shark was trying to use the sand as a natural armour by moving around underground. They could not sense how the fennec’s did it, but their lances sped up in the sand. Thirty fast sonic lances, targeting the shark and its surrounds, making dodging the attack difficult.

The shark was taking a hit with every attack, with deep cuts crisscrossing its body. The shark’s attacks had phenomenal accuracy, but it could only respond after three or four attacks of the fennec. Using glass spikes, sand drills and a special attack caused the sand to erupt around a group of fennec, creating a wall that quickly collapsed, taking the group into the sand with it. It could knock off 9 - 17 of the fennec in one attack.

The fennec’s were attacking once every minute, and the shark struck back every three to four minutes. It was a battle of attrition with no clear victor.

“Any guesses on who will we be fighting? My money’s on the shark. In less than half an hour it would have finished the foxes.”, said Suvi.

“And take 30 attacks from the fennecs and survive? I’ll bet on the foxes.”, Rana responded.

“We will have to fight both.”, Rudra cut Satt off with his response.

When the others looked at him in confusion, he sighed, “The pack has already lost over half their number. Their spread and furious battle mean the rest have not realised the extent of the losses. Once the rest realise the extent of their losses …”

“They will break. But the pack leader keeps them attacking. It arranged the pack’s blindness on the field. The pack losses likely include its mate or offspring. It won’t give up easily.”, Suvi countered.

“But it will give up. And will want to vent its frustration. You think it has not noticed us?”

“Is that shark guard or a Guardian?”, Amita wondered out aloud, not having paid attention to the speculation.

-------------------------------------

^[1 kos = 3000 gaz = 3000 metres]