“What?!”
“Yeah.” She was rubbing at her right cheek. “After you pulled me down by my shield when I tried to throw you. You slashed at my face, and Shido caught me here.” She drew a line across the edge of her top lip. “It was shallow, but my mouth was killing me for most of that match.”
Rei stared at her, hardly believing his ears.
Then, unable to contain himself, he did whoop, this time, punching at the air repeatedly with both hands in excitement.
“Cadet Ward!” Jetson yelled from the south wall. “Contain yourself!”
“Yes, sir!” Rei called back without looking at the officer, grinning like an fool at the ceiling. “Sorry, sir!”
“Idiot,” Aria told him under her breath, but he could tell she, too, was smiling. “You’re gonna get yourself brigged until next week if you do that again. And it’s not like it’s that big a deal.”
“Lies,” Rei snorted, looking around at her again. “We’ve been partners for a month. I’ve lost probably a half a thousand matches to you, at this point. And this is the first time I’ve landed a hit.”
“A scratch,” Aria corrected him, raising an eyebrow in warning. “I don’t want to be hearing around the mess hall tomorrow that you took my head off or something.”
“Still counts!” Rei said excitedly, not in the mood to be deterred.
Aria laughed at that and shrugged before going quiet again. After a few seconds of shared silence, Rei realized they’d just slipped back into their usual habits, if only for a minute. The weight had faded, even briefly, allowing them both to forget the shift that was happening between the two of them.
The scary, incredible shift.
Checking his NOED, Rei saw that it was only 2 minutes until 0730, the end of his allotted training period. With no time left for another bout, he decided it was the moment to set things in motion.
“I get released at 1800 today,” he said quietly, looking to the ceiling again. “Same time you’ll be getting out of squad-training. I’ll meet you guys at the Arena, after.”
“You want Viv and Catcher, there, too?”
As expected, Aria hadn’t missed a beat as to what he was talking about.
Rei nodded. “Yeah. I think they’d want to be there, and—not to be dramatic—you’re gonna need them to verify that I’m not pulling your leg.”
“You could just tell me now, you know.”
“I really couldn’t.” Rei shook his head before looking around at her again. “No time, and this isn’t the place for it. Trust me on that, okay? You’ll see.”
Aria grumbled something unintelligible in response, then sighed. “Okay. Fine. I think I’m just impatient. It’s been almost two and a half months since Commencement, you know? Give a girl a break.”
Rei grinned. “It’s worth it, I promise. You won’t regret hanging out, after today.”
I hope, he corrected himself privately, seeing again Aria’s back as it had been turned away from him in his dreams. If he was honest with himself, he wasn’t sure what to expect of the moment he finally shared Shido’s secret with her. Viv had been explosive, while Catcher—oddly enough—had been fairly level-headed about it.
But Aria was different. Aria was a User of a caliber above. He thought he knew her, thought he could trust their relationship not to change after today, but he couldn’t be sure of it.
“I’ve never regretted hanging out. Not once.”
Rei blinked, pulled from his fears to find Aria looking at him intensely.
“Is that what you’re afraid of?” she asked quietly, frowning a little. “That I’ll be disappointed? That I’ll leave? Whatever your secrets are, Rei, I’d like to think you could have a little more faith in me…”
Rei looked at her for a moment longer, taking Aria in carefully.
“I’m not afraid you’ll be disappointed,” he answered finally. “I… Honestly, I don’t know what I’m afraid of. But I like spending time with you. Viv and Catcher do too. I guess… I don’t know…” He grunted in frustration as words seemed to fail him. “I’m afraid to give you a reason to think of me as anything else than I am on my own. As me.”
To his surprise, Aria cocked her head at him as she started to smile again. “You mean how someone might feel if they admitted to being let into a prestigious school not on their own accolades, but on their family’s whims?”
Rei stared at her, registering her words. They hit him like a hammer, and he almost had to laugh at himself for not seeing it.
Here he was, afraid Aria would see him as someone different after today, when she most certainly could only have been suffering the same fears…
Rei chuckled. “Yeah… I guess so.”
“Ward! Laurent! Time’s up!”
Rei pulled himself into a sitting position as Aria looked around next to him. Becker was standing at the edge of the field at ease, watching them both expectantly.
“Guess that’s it for prison-yard training,” Rei grunted, getting to his feet as he recalled Shido. The moment the Device had withdrawn from his limbs he offered Aria a hand, and she took it as soon as Hippolyta, too, had returned to its red-gold-and-green bands. She got up with his help, rising to stand a good 4 inches taller than him.
And it was her, this time, who held firm to his fingers.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she whispered, meeting his gaze intently as Rei felt his face warm. “I promise.”
Then, finally, she let go, stepping by him to make for the main doors of the chamber.
“See you after squad-training.”
*****
Time—as it is wont to do—passed at a crawl for the rest of that day. What minimal breakfast Rei managed to get down offered hardly any distraction, arriving shortly after he’d had returned to his cell and showered, and he spent most of the morning fighting and failing to study more of O’Rourke’s matches, unable to concentrate long enough to glean anything of use from the recordings. A-1’s morning lectures, mercifully, provided some small diversion in the form of several assignments Viv pinged him with a little before noon, but even this work collectively took less than an hour after the two or three weak bites of lunch his stomach could tolerate. In the end, Rei was left to stare blankly at his feeds again. Between the grey monotony of his quiet cell and his mounting anticipation—and trepidation—that last half day passed with almost-sickening sluggishness, most of the time spent with him struggling not to dwell on his fear despite Aria’s assurances.
For this reason, Rei was already dressed in uniform, his pad and combat suit tucked into the bag he had over one shoulder, when 1800 rolled around and the glass wall of his cell turned clear.
It was Jetson who was waiting for him, this time, and the young officer eyed Rei with what might have been amusement through the glass as he commanded the door to open. With the sound of a releasing vacuum it descended, the warrant officer addressing him at the same time.
“Cadet Ward, you’ve completed your assigned isolation time. I’m here to escort you out. You are to return to your normal academic schedule as soon as possible, and any class absences, tardiness, or missed assignments recorded from this point as being due to disciplinary measures will be marked on your record.” Strangely, Jetson offered him a smile. “Basically: you’re free, and everyone knows it, so starting now don’t try to get out of anything by claiming you were brigged.”
“Oh. Uh… Yes, sir,” Rei answered, a little thrown by this shift in tone given the sergeant’s typical formality.
Jetson didn’t miss his confusion. “You’re not a disciplinary charge anymore, cadet. Being a hardass is exhausting, so if you’ve served your time, I’m not gonna waste the energy.” He jerked his head to indicate the hall to his right. “Come on. I’ll show you to the Center lobby.”
He actually waited, this time, for Rei to clear his cell door before they made for the stairs along the south side of the building. Rei didn’t speak as he was led out, tr
ailing behind the officer down to the first floor, then out of the Security Center’s plain, polished cement backworks once more into the handsome front lobby. A Sergeant he didn’t recognized was staffing the front desk, and she looked up questioningly as Jetson led Rei across the marble flooring towards the front doors.
“Cadet Ward: time served,” he called over his shoulder to the woman, who nodded without a word and marked something on a wide pad floating against a lift-desk at her elbow. After that they reached the entrance, the heavy steel opening quietly at their approach, and Jetson motioned for Rei to pass through. “Try to stay out of trouble, cadet. Believe it or not, we don’t like having repeat offenders.”
It was Rei’s turn to manage a grin, and he threw the man a quick salute. “Yes, sir. Will do my best, sir.”
And then, turning, he stepped out into the warmth of the late afternoon, onto the stone path that led to the broad campus road just outside the building, hearing the doors slide shut at his back.
As strange as it was, the sun was the first thing Rei took notice of, feeling it play on his cheeks. He shifted his face to smile up into it, noting that he was likely catching the last rays of the day before the shadows of Castalon’s towering skyscrapers reached the Institute from the west. It was odd to feel so pleased about something so small, but—though Rei had only been confined 2 days—there hadn’t been a window or breeze to be found in those 48 hours. He felt some small measure of weight lift off his shoulders, and breathed a little easier as he turned east and started for the dark building whose flat plating shined and reflected in a hundred different ways in the very center of campus.
The Security Center had been built with easy access to the Institute as a whole in mind, so it didn’t take him more than a few minutes to reach the Arena at a quick pace. By the time he made the gaping maw of the west entrance, it wasn’t even 1815 yet, and so he was hardly surprised after climbing up the stairs out onto the viewing way to find the south end of the main floor still busy with some scores of first years who’d lingered after training had wrapped. At a glance Rei could tell Reese had already taken his leave, fortunately, and so it was more-casually than he might have otherwise that he made for the bend and the seating sections they always claimed on squad days.
“Oh! Check it out! The former convict!”
Approaching the end, Rei paused just as the walkway began to loop, looking down at the Arena floor. Sense, Kay, and Leron Joy were still in their combat suits, seated and stretching on the projection plating of the Team Battle field, though the bald Brawler was climbing to his feet.
“Hey,” Rei greeted them, leaning over the rail to take in the trio. “I just got let out. Did I miss anything interesting?”
“Nah.” Sense shook his head, approaching the 10-foot wall and shielding his face as the sun glared off the Arena’s steel crown high above them. “Haven’t you realized yet you’re the sole source of quality entertainment in this place?”
“Hardy-har-har,” Rei answered sarcastically, lifting his eyes to look over the other cadets scattered about the stadium. “Have you seen Aria and the others? I’m supposed to meet them here.”
“Laurent was in the final match,” Kay answered him with a smile and a wave. “Her and Catchwick. They’re probably still in the locker room.”
“Which means Viv, too,” Rei finished, returning the hello. “Thanks. I’ll just let them know I’m here, then.”
He was in the middle of pulling up his NOED, planning to send them all a group message, when Leron Joy spoke up.
“You training with them for the Intra-Schools, Ward?”
The question was posed mildly, almost civilly, but looking past his frame Rei could see the tightness of the Saber’s expression, the rigidness of the barely controlled irritation there.
“Who I train with isn’t anyone’s business but mine, man,” he decided to answer just as evenly, typing out a quick “I’m in the stands.” with his left hand before sending the message off.
“It is when you’re involving Laurent and Arada, man,” Joy responded pointedly, dropping the façade to scowl in truth, now. “Don’t know if you’ve been paying attention, but they’re favorites to qualify.”
“I’ve been paying attention,” Ray said steadily, blinking his NOED away to meet the Saber’s gaze. “And? So what?”
“So maybe you should consider the impact you could have on Galens’ standing if some of our best first years don’t have enough of a chance to get properly ready before Sectionals.”
Rei would have rolled his eyes if he’d thought that would help the situation. Despite how nice it felt to be out of his bleak cell, he supposed it would have been a pipe dream to hope anything might have changed during his 2 days of confinement. “Sure thing. You go ahead and tell Aria Laurent who she should be spending her time with. I bet that’ll go over reeeeally well, don’t you?”
Joy’s cheeks tightened as his jaw clenched in irritation. “You selfish son of a—”
“Anyway,” Sense called loudly, cutting his friend off from where he was still looking up at Rei from the floor below. “Good to have you back, man. Bretz was almost in tears yesterday when he realized his favorite student wouldn’t be showing up.”
Rei snorted, taking the opportunity to ignore Joy as Kay worked to calm the Saber down. “That’s an image I’ll hold onto for a while. Was Reese the same?”
The Brawler chuckled dryly. “I’ll spare your ego and choose not to answer.”
“Thanks,” Rei said with a laugh. “I don’t know how much sparing you’re doing, though, considering the major’s the one who tossed me in the brig in the first place.”
Sense frowned a little. “Yeah. Heard about that. What the hell happened?”
“Let’s just say your third wheel isn’t the only one to have a bone to pick with me, these days.” Rei inclined his head in Joy’s direction, which did nothing to help Kay’s attempts to calm the cadet down. “As it happens, it transpires that Reese isn’t a fan of mine.”
Sense sighed, then made a face. “I’m sorry, man. With any luck the Intra-Schools will get people to shut the hell up, finally.”
Rei looked at him curiously. “You think so?”
“Yeah,” Sense nodded with a crooked grin. “I’ve got a good feeling about them, when it comes to you.”
“Ah, well so long as you’ve got ‘a good feeling’, I guess I’m in good shape!” Rei laughed.
Before Sense could respond, though, Leron Joy had apparently had enough of Kay’s shushing.
“If you get anywhere, it’s gonna be on the backs of everyone who’s helped you so far, Ward!” he half-shouted, half-snarled.
Fortunately for everyone involved, that was the exact moment Rei caught a flash of red hair appearing from one of the underwork entrances.
“If you say so, Joy. I guess the SCTs will have to decide that, won’t they?” He nodded across the way. “There’s my group. Maybe I’ll catch you guys at the mess later.”
It was almost fortunate that he didn’t have the focus—or the energy—to rise to the Saber’s idiotic indignation. As soon as he’d seen Aria, Rei’s mind had whirred back to his reasoning for being there, and so he waved farewell to Sense and Kay and made his way around the south bend of the walkway. The stands, fortunately, had mostly emptied out as he’d been chatting, with the lingerers likely making down to the locker room to shower and change before heading to dinner. For this reason, Rei didn’t have to point too high up into the stadium to indicate a solid block of empty seating once Aria, Viv, and Catcher had caught sight of him, all of them nodding their understanding together and starting to climb to meet him higher up.
Rei didn’t jump up the white marble, this time, not wanting to catch more attention from the remaining first years than he already had with his mere presence. Instead, he took the stairs quickly, passing one section, then another, then a third. Halfway to the top he found a promising row, turning into it and marveling
privately at the thought that such an ascent would have—not so long ago—left his legs aching and lungs burning.
Despite whatever anyone might say, despite Logan Grant’s hostility, Dyrk Reese’s distaste, and Leron Joy’s irritation, Rei couldn’t help but take pride in the fact that Shido had already very much transformed him into an altogether different person.
“You’re alive!” Catcher exclaimed with feigned relief the moment they joined up, throwing his arms around Rei like a heart-stricken wife welcoming home a soldier. “Oh thank the MIND!”
“Get off me, jerk,” Rei snorted, pushing the blond Saber off with a smile. “It’s nice to see your face too.”
Catcher grinned at him, yellow eyes bright, but a moment later he was shoved aside as Viv pushed by him to come to stand in front of Rei with a scowl marring her pretty features.
“I hope you realized you left me and Aria high and dry, getting locked up,” she said crossing her arms. “We’ve been having to deal with this idiot—” she elbowed Catcher again for emphasis “—for two days without you.”
“Wow, life must have been so hard for you,” Rei teased. “Next time Reese throws me in a cell, I’ll make sure to offer to trade places with you.”
“You better,” Viv said, a little too serious. Then, after a moment, her face softened. “It wasn’t too much of a pain?”
Rei shook his head. “Nah. The cell was kind of miserable, but other than that it was fine. Besides—” he glared around his best friend to the girl waiting behind her “—I had a frequent visitor.”
Even after he addressed her, it took a moment before Aria met his eyes. For once, she wasn’t flushed, looking—if anything—a little pale as she stood holding one elbow nervously. She was chewing on her bottom lip—which Rei was sure he would certainly have found adorable had her obvious apprehension not sent his own worries and fears back into overdrive. Viv, it appeared, noticed his shift at once, because after a second of studying his face with a furrowed brow she stepped closer and bent down to speak quietly into his ear.
Iron Prince: A Progression Sci-Fi Epic (Warformed: Stormweaver Book 1) Page 59