Now, though… Now, Hiroto could not have been more pleased with the lapsing memory of his aging mind.
On the screen before him and Abigail he watched as the boy’s lips moved, the words absent from the feed. The change in his CAD, however, was beautiful—breathtaking, even—and the brutal end to the match that followed would have been called worthy of praise by any half-decent SCT combatant on the part of both first year fighters. But it wasn’t the match that Hiroto was studying. Not since his first playing of the recording had it ever been the match.
No. What Hiroto’s eyes followed was the face of the white-haired boy, the features utterly unknown to him, and yet so familiar.
The face, and the name that hovered in one corner of the feed to label him.
Reidon Ward.
Hiroto drew a slow, calming breath, willing the terrible anger—the absolute all-consuming fury that had been simmering in his chest from the moment he’d laid eyes on the boy—to settle. It took some time, but he managed it, and at long last he reached out with a wrinkled hand to tap the desk’s surface, pausing the recording on a still shot of Reidon Ward’s set, focused features.
“Abigail,” Hiroto said as evenly as he could manage. “Let Jasper know I need to see her. I’ll be needing her services soon. And tell Keiji I want him in my office no later than tomorrow. Samantha, too. I don’t care what protests she offers.”
“Yes, sir,” the steward answered at once, and in the corner of his eye Hiroto saw the woman pull up her NOED. “What about Sarah?”
“No,” Hiroto shook his head slowly, not lifting his gaze from the image of Reidon Ward on the desk before him. “She only just finished her own Intra-Schools. We can leave her out of this for now. Just her parents.” At his sides, he gripped the arms of his chair, willing himself not to crush the handsomely carved wood as Hyosube’s grey-black vysetrium gems glinted in its bands around his wrists. “Don’t tell them why, though. I don’t want my fool son and his harpy of a wife readying more lies to feed me this time.”
CHAPTER 60
Mid-December – Two Weeks Later
Astra System – Astra-3 – Sector 9
“Never war for war’s sake.
War for the peace that follows.”
- dying words of an unnamed User
Sirius System – front lines
Rei was puzzling over a particularly interesting block of script, displayed in blue on the semi-transparent smart-glass window before him, when he thought he made out a faint knocking of knuckles on wood. Seated at his desk, he looked around from his work with a slight frown, wondering if he’d imagined it. It was Sunday, just past lunch, and Viv and Catcher had elected to brave the snow he could see falling outside to make for East Center while he stayed behind.
Then the knocking came again, and he realized it was coming from the door of the suite, rather than his own room.
A brief moment of panic clutched at Rei’s throat, and quick as lightning he closed out of the software examination tools and snatched the small disc of his NOED up from where it had been in the process of being scanned on his desk. He’d been careful, but was it possible Galens had caught wind of his poking around already? He’d only finally found the time to take a look at the coding in the last week or so, and it wasn’t like he’d done anything wrong.
At least not yet…
Pressing the neuro-optic into the empty divot of its socket in his temple, Rei got up quickly and snatched up his jacket from the back of his chair, pulling it on as he hurried out of his room. Entering 304’s common space, he heard the knocking a third time, more insistent now, and he called out as he jogged down the hall to the front door.
“Coming! I’m coming!”
Finishing with the buttons of the jacket just in time, Rei smoothed the black-and-gold fabric and grabbed his cap from where it hung on a hook in the wall to his right. His last check-in with Ameena Ashton had him topping out at just over 5’7”, still not tall enough to feel great about walking around even Kanes without the 4 inches or so the hat gave him.
Tucking it on quick, Rei straightened his posture and finally took hold of the door handle, pulling it open firmly.
Instead of the representative of the school he had worried about, though, he found himself face to face with Aria.
“Oh!” he said, brightening at once. “Hey! What are you doing here?”
“Hey,” she offered him one of her brilliant smiles. “I’m actually here to see—” Aria stopped, though, her gaze dropping and her head cocking to one side. “Rei… What are you wearing?”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said with a shrug. “I thought you might be one of the school staff.” He lowered his voice. “I’ve finally had a chance to poke around in our NOED coding. It’s pretty state-of-the-art, but there are a few places I think I could smooth things out to work better with Type Shift and—”
“You thought I was an officer…” Aria interrupted him with a bemused raising of one eyebrow. “And you decided to answer the door dressed like… that?”
“Yeah?” Rei asked, frowning as he looked down at himself. “What’s wrong with how I’m—?”
He froze, mortified.
“Pants,” he muttered. “Pants would be helpful.”
“Very,” Aria said with a laugh.
“Don’t move,” he said, starting to turn back for his room. “I’ll be right back.”
“No need. I’m not actually here to see you.”
Rei paused, frowning. “You’re not?” He hoped he didn’t sound too disappointed. “Viv and Catcher aren’t here either. They’re off training.”
Aria shook her head, the braid of her red hair swinging behind her neck a little. “Not here for them either. I’ve already invited them. Can I come in?”
Invited them? Rei repeated silently to himself.
At a loss, he moved dumbly aside to allow her entrance. Aria kept her smile as she stepped by him, striding down the hall past the kitchen and into the common room. To his surprise, she turned and made directly for the first door in the left wall, pausing only long enough to doublecheck the name on the plate in the center of it before lifting her head, straightening her shoulders, and reaching up to knock three times in quick succession.
There was a noise from inside the room, and Rei watched with confused interest as, after a little while, the door opened a crack for the occupant to peer out.
“Laurent?” Chancery Cashe sounded more than a little surprised as she widened the sliver further to reveal a baggy t-shirt and shorts, her silver hair in a loose bun behind her head.
“Cashe, can I talk to you for a minute?” Aria asked.
Cashe hesitated, then nodded, stepping out of the room looking utterly perplexed. She paused before shutting the door, though, catching sight of Rei and blinking.
“Ward… What are you wearing?”
Rei cursed, then turned and bolted into his own room, cap and jacket still on over his boxer briefs. By the time he’d stripped out of the regulars in favor of his own shirt and a pair of sweatpants, the two girls had taken a seat across from each other on the room’s couches.
“Me?” Cashe was asking in disbelief. “You want me?”
“I do,” Aria answered with a brief nod, and Rei realized he had missed some important part of the conversation.
“But… why?”
Aria smiled. “I want my squad to be balanced, Cashe. Right now there’s me—a Phalanx—as well as a top-tier Saber and Duelist. I want your range. I need a Lancer who can hold their own in a fight.”
It hit Rei like lightning.
“You got selected?!” he demanded excitedly from the doorway of his room.
Aria looked around at him, bemused. “Why do you sound so surprised?”
“No! I mean… I’m not. I just didn’t realize they’d announced the squad-leaders.”
Across from Aria, Cashe frowned at him. “How could you not know? They sent a class-wide
notice over an hour ago.”
Rei stared at her, not comprehending.
Then, at last, he saw the blinking notification in the corner of his frame he’d missed in the distraction of Aria’s arrival and his wardrobe mishap.
Rei cursed. Of all the times he could have chosen to unplug… No. That didn’t matter now. In a rush he selected the message, the frame of the alert opening in a short, square panel before his eyes.
ATTENTION ALL FIRST YEAR CADETS.
The following individual qualifiers have been selected as squad-leaders for the upcoming Collegiate Sectionals SCT:
Aria Laurent - Phalanx: C6 - 1-A
Laquita Martin - Duelist: C3 - 1-B
Kastro Vademe - Lancer: C4 - 1-B
“B-But if it’s a Lancer you want, there’s better than me.” The girls had continued their conversation while Rei caught up, Aria having turned her back to him again to listen to Cashe trip over her protest. “There’s Kay, for one. Kay Sandree.”
“You beat Kay Sandree, Cashe,” Aria reminded her gently.
“It was a fluke,” the girl said at once, shaking her head aggressively as though to deny the very fact of the statement. “She wasn’t at her best. I got lucky.”
“No. You didn’t.” Aria reached up, swiping something over to Cashe that popped into her frame in a blaze of light. “I spoke to Valera Dent. She’s been keeping tabs on the extra training hours the first years have been keeping. For extra logged hours in East and West, there’s a leading pack of five people.”
Five? Rei’s brow furrowed, not having expected this.
“Rei is at the top,” Aria continued. “I don’t think that will surprise you anymore. After that, there’s me, Viv, and Catcher—”
Makes sense, Rei thought with a short nod.
“—all basically tied for third.”
Rei had to work to keep his jaw from dropping, not understanding for a moment. It wasn’t until he caught sight of Cashe’s averted gaze that it dawned on him, though.
All those days… All those times he had assumed the girl had just been in her room…
“Cashe… Do you mind telling me how old you are?” Aria asked gently.
It was an odd question, Rei thought with a frown, looking between the two girls. Cashe, though, jerked like she’d just been slapped, and some of the fire he’d seen in her on that very first day of school returned as she glared around at Aria.
“Did the captain tell you that, too?”
Aria shook her head. “No. This is all me. Rei and the others… They’ve mentioned you had a chip on your shoulder, when you first met.”
“Aria!” Rei hissed in disbelief, but she ignored him with a wave, not looking away from Cashe.
Cashe’s purple-green eyes, though, were on Rei, but the anger that had been burning there looked to have been abruptly replaced with regret.
“I still don’t think I’ve apologized enough for—”
“He’ll be fine,” Aria interrupted, and this time she graced Rei with a glance back and the flash of a smile. “You’re hardly the worst he’s had to deal with.” She turned back to Cashe. “But I’m right, aren’t I? You’re not our age, are you?”
There was a long, tense moment of silence, Rei looking on as suspicion scraped at him.
“No,” the answer finally came. “I’m not. I’ll be turning 20 in February.”
It clicked, then.
“You’re one of the exceptions,” Rei said with awe, seeing Cashe in a whole new light. “You failed your CAD-Assignment Exam. The first time, I mean.”
Cashe nodded unsteadily. It took her a while, as though the girl needed to build herself up, but when she finally spoke it with the breathless rush of someone who’d too long held onto a secret.
“In the final portion. The… uh… The psychological assessment.” She looked around nervously, as though worried even this obtuse allusion to the brutal interview with the MIND might have agents of the AI popping up from behind the couches to drag her away. “It hurt. A lot, honestly. Being a User was all I wanted. All I ever wanted. It was so important to me.” Her features grew harder. “But I learned. I was told, in that third part, where I was lacking. I spent a year training, a year conditioning. Non-stop. Every day.”
“And you passed your second attempt,” Aria finished for her with an appreciative nod. “Something that’s almost unheard of.”
“Only because people who’ve spent their whole life thinking they’re owed everything can’t stand back up when they’re faced with the fact that they aren’t,” Cashe responded, sounding a little bitter. She caught herself, though, lifting a hand to her mouth as her eyes grew wide. “I’m sorry…” Her eyes drifted to Rei. “That sounded awful… I just meant that—”
“That people who’ve had things handed to them their whole life can’t handle reality,” Rei finished for her with a shrug. “I get it, Cashe. Don’t worry. We’re in the same boat, there.” He offered her a crooked grin, crossing his arms to lean against the frame of his door. “Explains why you hated me when we first met, if you believed I’d been spoon-fed a spot in the first year class.”
“I didn’t hate you,” Cashe mumbled, looking at her where her hands were fidgeting in her lap. “I just thought you didn’t deserve it. That’s all.”
“And how am I doing now?” Rei asked with a chuckle.
Though she didn’t look up, the Lancer managed a sliver of a smile. “Better.”
Rei laughed at that, and Aria took advantage to redirect the conversation back to the purpose of her visit.
“You’ve just answered your own question, Cashe,” she said kindly, scooting forward to lean over the table towards the girl. “You asked me why I want you? It’s because if I’ve learned anything in the past couple months it’s that potential and talent are rarely going to beat out will and work ethic. If you gave me the choice between someone who is good and someone trying to be great, I would pick the latter every time. Kay is incredible, and I consider her a friend, but she won’t have any trouble finding a spot on either Vademe’s or Martin’s team. She might be able to be great… But when I look at your training log, Cashe, I know for a fact that your becoming one of the best Lancers on the planet—maybe the System—is only a matter of time and patience.”
Cashe’s fiddling had stopped. She was staring at Aria now, clearly overwhelmed as astonishment, gratitude, and doubt all flashed across her face. Her eyes looked a little wet, suddenly, and it was Rei’s turn to avert his gaze.
“Yes.”
The answer came so quietly, he wasn’t surprised when Aria voiced her uncertainty.
“Yes?” she asked. “As in…?”
“Yes,” Cashe repeated, more firmly this time, and Rei looked around to find her expression set again, even if one corner of her t-shirt sleeve was a little stretched from rubbing at reddened eyes. “I’ll do it. I’m in.”
Aira brought her hands together excitedly. “Oh! Great! I’m so glad! Do you already have plans over winter leave? The school wants squads to train for Team Battle and Wargame formats, but it’s not technically mandatory. Viv, Catcher, and I are all staying, and maybe our Brawler and Mauler, depending on who I select.”
“I can stay,” Cashe confirmed slowly, but her eyes had once again drifted to Rei over Aria’s shoulder. “But if you need a Brawler, wouldn’t the obvious choice be—?”
“Great!” Aria said again, getting to her feet quickly and sliding around the couch. “I can’t wait! We’ve got one more week of school, so I’ll reach out in the next few days about coordinating training times.” She graced Cashe with such a brilliant smile it almost made Rei jealous. “Thanks. I have a feeling that with a couple more strong picks, we’re going to be unstoppable.”
“Oh.” Cashe looked confused, but pleased. “Yeah. Of course.”
And with that, offering nothing more than a last wave goodbye and solemn nod to Rei, Aria was headed for the entrance of the suite again.
He stared after her, dumbstruck, at a complete loss as she turned the handle and stepped out into the hall.
Then she was gone, leaving the door open behind her.
Leaving it open…?
“Ward!”
Rei started and looked around as Cashe hissed at him, her purple-green eyes wide as they stared him down.
“What are you doing?!” the Lancer demanded, like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “Don’t let her walk away! Go after her!”
Rei gaped at her a full 3 seconds, momentarily paralyzed by the snub, the abrupt departure, and Cashe’s sudden energy in his presence.
And then he was running, bolting out of the room into the hall, catching sight of a trailing red braid vanishing around the corner at the west end of the corridor.
“Aria!” he shouted, engaging his Speed spec to chase after her. In barely a breath he’d reached the turn, skidding across the carpeted floor as he took it…
… and running right past where Aria had taken to leaning against the wall just around the bend, grinning at him as he nearly sprinted by.
“Took you long enough,” she giggled as Rei stumbled to a halt before turning on her. “I was surprised you let me out of the room.”
Rei glowered at her. “Not funny,” he muttered. “You seriously made me think I wasn’t invited onto the team…”
“Oh? And who says you are?”
Aria’s mischievous smile sparkled so brightly, Rei had a hard time keeping his composure.
“Is this because I hid Type Shift from you?” he asked, narrowing his eyes at her. “How long are you and Viv going to punish me for that? I told you Colonel Guest put me under a gag order. The ISCM wanted a little time to get ahead of the news that a C-Ranker had developed a User-Unique Ability.”
Iron Prince: A Progression Sci-Fi Epic (Warformed: Stormweaver Book 1) Page 101