I press my leg up against the table leg, glaring at the windows as the worlds pass by. Through fog and darkness, through fires so hot that it burns the very air, and lakes of mercury, we move from one to the next pausing only long enough to let people on and off. The places here are far beyond my understanding, I could spend a lifetime exploring the few worlds I’ve seen in the last ten minutes and still not see a fraction of what’s here.

And yet, all of it is nothing more than resources to be used. Even the people are packets of energy and mana to be converted to another purpose once eaten. Matter, energy, and mana. That’s all it is in the end.

Is it different on Earth? I don’t think so.

It was a slower process, certainly, but when people die they become dust and energy. Worms or scavengers eat what they can when given a chance, and even ashes spread over the ocean will eventually become soil for plants should life persist for long enough. We are matter and energy, limited resources that living beings fight hard to gather and hoard.

“Kyra are you okay?” Adler asks, subtly leaning against my side. “You seem down.”

“Just… looking at the world through a new lens, a new worldview,” I say. “The beasts, the ones that consume everything endlessly, to them everything is food. Beautiful gardens, wondrous new worlds, alien people; it is nothing but food, and they’re not technically wrong.

“I just find it sad,” I say. “Everything we value and care about, love, art, music, culture, all of it is meaningless in the greater schemes of nature.”

“And?” Eshya asks, shrugging. “I didn’t realize we cared what the world thinks, we’ve gotten this far by disregarding all the rules we’re meant to be living by.”

“The world is what we make of it,” Vii says. “We can struggle to claim as many resources as possible to try and survive for as long as possible, and to leave really big marks in history, or we could also just find a lonely corner and do our own thing. We can dedicate ourselves to mastering magic, fighting, singing, or sewing and forget all the rest if that’s what we want.”

“Only as long as someone can keep the beasts at the borders,” I say. “It’s a little difficult to sing when your body is dissolving in the stomach of a lesser eldritch god.”

She nods quietly, the smile on her face born of a confidence that I can’t quite find in myself. She knows that civilisation will survive against the chaos of the hungry beasts, but I don’t have the same faith. No, if I could trust civilisation that much, then I never would have been so inspired to fight to recreate my own brand of civilisation.

I trust only in my own power, which is why I must grow strong enough to defend civilisation all on my own, or with some few trusted allies under my command.

“Hey, don’t they seem to be a little rough for the usual crowd?” Eshya asks, pointing toward the newcomers boarding the ship.

From a world of ashen darkness marches a band of warriors. They aren’t quite the sort to stand toe to toe with Red and her ilk, not in attitude or fortitude, but they carry weapons and wear their bound wounds with a weary sort of dignity. Their vanguard, a bird-elf hybrid with one wing tightly bound, slides into the room with caution poorly disguised.

His team follows behind, walking in tight formation as if ready for a fight though they’re trying to hide it. The door closes behind them and the ship starts to rise, they shudder at the movement taking the table by the door and watching their surroundings carefully.

“You guys seem nervous,” Eshya says, turning in her chair to address the group. “You get into some… some…” She struggles with the word but forces it out, “nasty fights out there? Sorry about the stuttering.”

“Eshya,” Adler prods her side and pulls her slightly away from the group. With her eyes alone she’s giving us a warning ‘don’t interfere with these people’. We might have some protection against the welfare officers, but that doesn’t justify acting incautiously.

“We don’t mind, we’re proper civil folk just like you,” the stone man says, his gravelly voice surprisingly quiet. “Our most recent job has been difficult, and we are still recovering. Our ship was seized by rebels and in our battle, it fell. We are alert in case there is a repeat of the incident.”

“It isn’t anything beastly,” The vanguard says, with a slight trembling in his voice. “We’re just prepared to respond to the beastly actions of others.”

“Precisely,” an archer adds, rubbing at the scales along her arm as if to calm herself. “We didn’t do anything bad.”

“Of course,” I say with a casual shrug, approaching them. “We’re students of the combat course, we get it. Just because we’re violent when we need to be, doesn’t mean that we’re beasts.”

“Right, right. Exactly,” the vanguard says.

“Can you tell us a little about what it’s like?” I ask, meeting Adler’s eyes, she nods slowly. This much is acceptable, but we can’t let our own natures show. I’ll keep the conversation on them.

“It’s hard on us,” the stone man says. “There is more work than we can get done, and many people are suffering because we are not enough. There are many beasts too strong for us, and we can do nothing to stop them.”

“You can’t use a collar on them?” Eshya asks, joining me at their table. “I thought that for the most part collaring a beast, could get it subdued fairly easily.”

“It’s not always so easy,” The vanguard answers. “Collars work fine once you get them properly attached, but most powerful beasts have some trick to keep the collars from being installed in the first place.”

“Then there’s the rebel beast armies,” the archer moans. “You can’t collar what’s already collared, and you can’t even subdue them properly because of the orders they’ve been given.”

“But we are strong and talented,” the stone man adds. “These are all challenges that we overcome.”

“Us too,” I say, patting his shoulder and doing the rounds to get my Skill working on them. “It’s nice to meet you all, actually. We haven’t gotten to meet any working soldiers yet because of how busy you all are.”

“We were starting to think you didn’t exist at all,” Eshya jokes, stepping up to the table and standing by my side. Her eyes are focused on their injuries and their weapons. “I hope you don’t have it this rough every time you go out.”

“Not usually,” The stone man admits. “Usually, we only take on tasks that we can confidently overcome, this was because of unexpected eventuality.”

“Unexpected eventuality,” The vanguard spits, glaring at me as I touch his shoulder. He’s still suspicious of me, but I manage to get them all tagged without issue. It’s enough that I can skim the top thoughts off of their minds, and what I find is… unsettling.

They don’t know, it’s fine. Nothing happened if no one knows about it.

We’re fine. We’re safe, it isn’t happening again.

They’re not welfare officers, are they? No, that’s not how they do things. We’ll get back to work, and keep going like nothing happened, the welfare officers don’t need to know anything.

It seems as if that issue with the rebels and the crashed ships was more serious than they were telling us. Whatever happened out there isn’t a conversation to be shared in public, and not with strangers.

“We’ll do our best to be good students, then,” I say, grabbing Eshya by the arm and pulling her away. “Slacking off seems like a bad idea.”

The vanguard chuckles at us.

“Don’t worry, those slacking off won’t be around by the time you graduate,” he says. His eyes glow, as he’s immersed for a moment in his memories, and from the vague sensation alone I know that they’re not happy recollections.

I’m a beast now. I’m like she was when the welfare officers took her away… I’m a beast, so what’s the point in pretending to be a person? I may as well get revenge against them, I’ll meet the same end that she did, collared and killed.

He slips deep into his thoughts, considering the pros and cons of hunting down the welfare officers and getting revenge for those that he’s lost.

The others grow quiet as well, but they’re still watching everything around them seeking out threats. This should be a safe place for them, but it isn’t.

“Let’s leave them,” I say pulling Eshya back to our table, but she stumbles on her feet. I try to catch her, but she’s faster, using her combat movement Skills she catches herself stomping down hard and whipping her hands around as if thrusting with a sword still on her hip.

The vanguard warrior jumps from his seat and waves his wing out, blasting wind out towards us. It’s forceful enough to knock us back, a few steps, but doesn’t do any actual harm.

“Sorry, sorry!” Eshya shouts, waving her hands out to him. “I got hit in the head and keep tripping. Skills help get me back to my feet again.”

“No, we’re the ones who are sorry,” the stone man says as the archer pulls the vanguard back down into his chair. “It wasn’t anything harmful, just some protective magic. He was trying to protect you from falling.”

Not a very good excuse, but it would be considered a reasonable use of powerful magic. Being overly twitchy and using defensive magic could be considered beastly, however.

“Thanks,” Eshya says, with a wide smile. “We’ll take our seats, but it was good meeting you all.”

I sit back at my own table and meet the eyes of my own companions. Adler is taking in the room wearing a thoughtful expression, while Eshya digs into a meal that’s only just arrived. The rest of the room gives us all a little distance, mostly because of the new group of warriors with us.

It’s been some time since I paid it any mind, but the other citizens of the Unified States aren’t fond of combat specialists. Usually, it’s something we can push through with some friendly words and a casual demeanour, but seeing the injuries and the difficult expressions on the soldiers here… It’s clear that they live worlds apart, and more than a few look upon the warriors as if they are some sort of wild beast or murderer let loose.

“Keep silent and keep a distance from the soldiers,” Adler sends us a quiet message, sitting with a straight back and starting a light conversation with Eshya while messaging us. “There’s a welfare officer here with an interest in them.”

“Should we do anything?” I ask.

“No. Doing anything here could get us, or specifically me, in trouble with the higher-ranked welfare officers. We have to keep our heads down.”

Everyone looks at me with worried eyes.

“Hey, I’m not doing anything,” I say, holding up my hands in surrender, to their quiet chuckling.

As much as I despise the use of collars and the treatment of soldiers in this culture, I’m not in a position to do anything to help these people right now. This isn’t my territory, and I don’t have the power to resist the more powerful enforcers within the Unified States.

In the recent past, I’d be lashing out anyway, and there’s still a part of me that stirs in dissatisfaction at this situation. A part of me wants to stand up, claim this ship as my own and force the welfare officer to back down so that I can get the soldiers some help.

If I do that now, then I’ll put everyone in danger. I wouldn’t win, and I wouldn’t change things for the better.

If I want to help these people, then I need to grow strong enough to do so. As I am, I would only make things worse for them and everyone here.

The next stop brings us to the academy, our stop. The soldiers are still here, and the welfare officer is still watching them, whatever happens here we aren’t going to be a part of it. Their story, whether they fight and survive, or they’re collared and die, I’ll be but a witness.

Maybe, if they survive, we can recruit them. Save them.

I wave a quiet goodbye, but the moment we step from the ship and land in the familiar port, I clear my mind and refocus.

“We need to get some teachers and experts,” I say. “Talented students who would join our empire without causing us problems.”

“I have a list made if that helps,” Vii says. “Most of the people we’d want to join us are in that weird group that parties in the ruins.”

“There’s also that group that Vice and Alo were hunting with, the ones adventuring in the ruins,” Eshya says. “They seemed competent enough.”

“We’ll need to be careful with the welfare officers,” Adler says. “Arduelle won’t be happy with us if we bring even more attention down on her.”

“I’ll talk with her about it,” I say. “First, we check on our people, I’m sure that they’ve been working hard, and I need to see what they’ve done and make sure that everything’s alright.”

Back on the ship, the welfare officer is finally moving, pulling out a collar and approaching the group of soldiers. I don’t expect it to go well for him.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Stats and Skills

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 42,391 / 60,892 units

Current mana volume: 21,073 / 30,271 shards

Mana volume at crystallisation density (Max. mana volume):

Kyra: 30,271 shards

Kyra’s armour: 20,777 shards

Kyra’s throne: 1,109,298 shards

~Forms

Mana Canon

-Annihilation Heart (Adapted)

-Blood Fuel (Adapted)

-Bone Magic Storage (Adapted)

-Nail Shifters (50,000 mana shards)

Dancer

-Flash Nerves (Adapted)

-Quick Perception Mind (Adapted)

-Burst Reflex Muscles (35,000 mana shards)

-Layered space Muscles (80,000 mana shards)

Turtle

-Rebinding Tissue (Adapted)

-Catalyst Sweat Glands (140,000 mana shards)

-Repulsive Skin (Adapted)

-Prehensile hair (Adapted)

-Fatty Tissue Blood Storage (100,000 mana shards)

Investigator

-Wide eyes (Adapted)

-Wide ears (Adapted)

-Sharp nose (Adapted)

Misc.

-Clean bowels (Adapted)

-Mana Drive (Adapted)

~Favourited Skills:

Magic:

-Annihilation Magic (Customised)

-Fire Magic (Functional)

-Space magic (Broken)

-Force magic (Functional)

-Ice magic (Broken)

-Wind magic (Broken)

Movement:

-Hand-to-hand casting (Functional)

-Mana surge movement (Functional)

-Stealth (Functional)

Senses:

-Eyes of an Empire (Customised)

-Combat Awareness (Functional)

-Watchmen (Functional)

-Hidden bug (Mastered)

-De-tagging (Mastered)

-Anti-stealth sight (Mastered)

Special:

-Spirit Transformation (Broken)

-Conformity (Broken)

-Training mana form (Functional)