Nathan

Year 2849 | Month 9 | Day 7

The very first thing I hear after passing through the portal is an incredibly loud explosion that has my ears ringing for a split second before they stop again due to my healing.

I quickly turn my head to look up, above the walls of the large, black fortress around me to see the smoke falling down the side of a flickering barrier around the fortress. However, the flickering of the barrier doesn’t last for long, and it stabilizes again. Just for another fireball to strike it and make it go back to flickering before I see several magicians flying straight out of the fortress with their different types of spells to chase after the attacker.

“Looks like we have bad timing,” Maria says as she narrows her eyes at the barrier that is once again stabilizing. She then turns to look at us and the closing portal behind us while saying, “Let’s just leave that to the magicians here. We have to meet with the base commander first.”

“Yes, ma’am,” we all declare with a salute before following her as she begins to walk towards the large building located at the center of the fortress, which looks oddly similar to the HQ.

We pass by dozens of regular soldiers and magicians alike on the way to the building, with the lower Class magicians all rushing straight towards the fortress’s entrance. And even when we get inside of the building, it’s full of activity with soldiers running around everywhere.

Maria just ignores it all though and continues leading us through the building all the way towards the back on the second floor, where we eventually stop in front of a door. She then knocks on the door and raises her voice, “Colonel Maria Marshall reporting with the interns!”

A few seconds pass in silence before an answer comes from the other side, “Enter,” followed by a clicking sound coming from the door.

Maria proceeds to open the door and walk in while indicating for us to do so as well. However, when I walk in, instead of finding myself in a regular office like I was expecting, I instead find myself in a very large and very fancy looking bedroom with what looks like an office setup at the very back consisting of a dark-wood desk decorated with expensive-looking magi-tech objects and an expensive looking chair.

My mouth drops open slightly just to close again as I focus on the man on the other side of the desk. The man is someone I’ve seen at least a dozen times before on the tv. He has a full beard with some gray hairs sticking out in it, a thin mustache, and the same black hair and blue eyes as Cyria.

The healer general.

I didn’t realize he was in charge of this fortress… oh. That makes sense then.

If I remember correctly, Afvalder – the radiation specification class S light magician – was the one who was originally running this base whenever he decided to show up. And since the Class S magicians are ‘on strike’, they probably had to replace him here.

“Dad?” I hear Cyria mutter in confusion, but I ignore her to instead salute the man alongside the others. I then see Cyria rushing to salute him as well after getting over her surprise.

The healer general doesn’t even bother looking up from the documents that he’s writing as he says, “I’ll get with you in a minute. Find somewhere to sit,” obviously not having heard his daughter’s voice from the other side of the room.

“Yes, sir!” Maria says while giving Cyria a faintly surprised look, apparently not having realized who she was.

I look around for a moment before taking my seat on a nice looking recliner and opening up my id card’s interface to continue working on my next spell.

Several minutes pass by in silence as the general deals with paperwork before I eventually hear his voice again as he asks, “Cyria?”

I look up again to find him staring at her with surprise on his face.

“Yes, sir?” she asks as if addressing a superior officer and not her father.

The general clears the surprise from his face and focuses on us as a group again as he says, “You’ll all be working on this base as a squad with the same permissions as a regular magician squad for the foreseeable future. Your supervising officer, colonel Maria Marshalls, will be assigning you a daily schedule that will consist of daily training, patrols, regular duties, and a mission every other day.”

He then nods towards Maria and adds, “If you have any questions, then you should ask her. And if any of you die during this internship, your families will be compensated, and your body and equipment will be returned to them if possible.”

I purse my lips slightly at that reminder about my family, who are currently being held by the doctor.

Although, at least they don’t just toss us into action and not do anything if we die like they used to.

Actually, I think it was the current Chairman that changed that rule, giving more benefits to the regular soldier and magician. Even if that was just to get the people’s vote for the reelection.

The general looks at his daughter and gives her a faint nod with an even fainter smile that I only barely catch before looking down at his desk again and stating, “That’ll be all. You’re dismissed.”

We all give him a salute before filing out of his… office? Bedroom?

Either way, once we get out, Maria immediately lets out a sigh of relief before pulling out a sheet of paper from her spatial storage spell and handing it to me.

“This is your schedule for the time being,” she says with a smile, only to glance at Cyria and ask, “you’re Cyria Argent, right?”

Cyria doesn’t look surprised by the question and simply nods her head, to which has Maria’s smile growing wider. The colonel then turns to look at Sophia, then at me, Amelia, Rebecca, and Aidan and says, “I’m glad you found a good group,” before she turns around and begins to walk down the hall while calling back to us, “Follow me to find your rooms!”