Malware: A Cultivation Academy Series (Bastion Academy Book 2)

by J D Astra

  “I’ll need a few minutes to comb through the data before I can provide a summary,” Mae said through the speaker.

  Eun-bi came in with a pot of fresh tea, and we helped Mother take tiny drinks until her strength returned. After what felt like far too long, Mae reappeared on the table in front of us in a flourish of blue and purple light.

  “My assumption was correct. The disease is a malicious nanite infestation that has created its own reproduction hub attached to your reservoir. The work your husband Hiroto did coated your core in a nanite repulsion field, which is the only thing stopping the infestation from overtaking your core. I’m surprised the field has lasted this long. With Jiyong’s help, I think I can reinforce it and repair the areas that have failed, but this is not a solution. It is only staving off the inevitable.”

  Mae’s words hung in the air with a chill.

  When no one spoke, she went on. “I have collected a considerable amount of information on the disease, and I will be analyzing it in greater detail over the coming weeks. For now, I think the best move would be to reinforce the shield around your core and have you avoid situations where your core might activate on its own. Keep the house warm, wear thick clothes outside if you must go, try not to allow yourself to be put under any undue stress or anxiety—just pretend you’re on vacation.”

  Mae’s voice came through strong in my head. “There’s something else we need to discuss on the way back to school.” I avoided nodding, but gave her a mental affirmative.

  Mother sipped her tea with eyes closed. She breathed deeply, never taking the cup away from her lips, as if she were enjoying the smell of jasmine and citron rather than mulling over her eventual—and painful—demise.

  “I understand,” Mother said as she set the cup down, empty.

  “What would you like us to do?” Mae asked out loud.

  Mother’s lips turned up in a grim smile that didn’t touch her eyes, then she sighed and said, “Nothing.”

  “You can’t be serious,” I protested. “We can reinforce the shield around your core and buy you time, maybe even years—”

  She held up a hand to stop me. “This is my choice.”

  Eun-bi scowled as she asked, “But why? They can help you!”

  Mother took a deep breath. “It’s my decision, and it’s final. You can keep working on your data analysis, and I’ll keep doing what I’m doing.”

  I gritted my teeth. Another choice with no logical explanation behind it. Why was my mother this way? Heat twisted with sour tightness in my chest, and I stood to keep my spiteful reply inside. I grabbed the bento my mother prepared and the cleaned Bastion pants from the chair by the door.

  “You’re leaving?” Eun-bi asked as she rushed after me.

  I nodded, my cheeks flushed with anger as I said, “There’s nothing more we can do. We’ll send word when we know how to fix it.”

  I looked to my mother who carefully avoided my gaze. I didn’t want to tell her I loved her. I didn’t like her right now. How could she be so selfish? This was not just about her life. It was about my siblings growing up with at least one parent who cared for them, too.

  “I love you, Mother,” I willed the words from my mouth.

  She looked to the back door, turning her face even farther away from me. “I love you, too,” she whispered. I heard anger in her whisper and knew what she was thinking: I was trying to take away her autonomy. Maybe I was, but why was her decision so stupid!

  “Travel safe, brother,” Eun-bi said as she wrapped her arms around my shoulders.

  I hugged her with all my strength and whispered, “I love you, too, and all the others. Don’t forget what we’re fighting for.”

  Chapter 17

  THE JOURNEY BACK TO Pi-Ki was fast and quiet. I ran the whole way, knowing I had a full bento to replenish the spent energy on zo to infuse my muscles. It wasn’t until I boarded the train that Mae spoke up. I was too occupied with my anger for Mother to concentrate on anything Mae had to say, anyway. I appreciated her giving me the space.

  When I took my seat and leaned back, her voice filled my head. “I’m very certain there’s a connection between your mother’s disease, and the signal I’ve detected from those who have ingested the prank potions or drugs.”

  ‘Why so?’ I asked as I leaned forward, my gaze pinned to the floor as I focused on her words.

  “The parasitic nanites in her system—let’s call it malware for now—are giving off a signal that seems similar to the others I’ve detected, but less advanced. As if the malware your mother has is a predecessor to the new potions going around. Her malware was sending some of the same information to a location in the kingdom. Not sure exactly where, but it was close enough that the malware was receiving return signals that verified receipt of the data.”

  ‘What does this all mean? Someone in the kingdom has been experimenting on my mother?’ I asked as the tension in my shoulders made them burn. I relaxed my posture again, trying not to look suspicious for when the sungchal would do their pass.

  Mae took over my field of vision with a piece of parchment lined with data points that showed a history of months along the bottom and a plot of points far to the right. The page zoomed in to the last three months as she said, “This signal is simple enough that I would’ve detected it coming from her without the additional device, like I did with the junkie and the girl who took the prank potion. I compared the more advanced information to my previous, lighter scans and found this started very recently, as if her malware detected the startup of whatever technology is in the kingdom and decided to start sending data.”

  “Decided?” I blurted, then mashed my lips together. Mae closed the data in front of me and I glanced around casually to see if any eyes were on me. No one seemed to notice, so I relaxed again and thought, ‘What do you mean decided? These things aren’t thinking, are they?’

  “Sorry, that was a poor choice of words to allow for simplification. I forget you’re becoming more adept at understanding my world... I think the more accurate term would be, they were activated. It’s possible whatever agent is spreading the drugs in the kingdom was setting up last year. When your mother had the particularly bad relapse, it could’ve been her malware responding to a test broadcast signal of the machina designed to send and receive data.

  “The agents doing the work in the kingdom may or may not even be aware of her presence, or be able to decode the information the malware is sending, simply because it doesn’t match up exactly with what the other malware—from the drugs and prank potions—is sending. If we want to find out, we’ll have to go to the source of the receipt signal.”

  I took a deep breath and cycled zo to calm my nerves. ‘So, what’s the next step? How do we find the location of the signal?’

  Mae was quiet for a moment. At my mental prodding, she made a sound like a sharp inhale, then said, “Hana’s not going to like this. You, or someone we trust, must take one of the potions. Then I’ll run a continuous scan as we move in the direction of the pings. They’ll get closer together until it enters our detection radius. It’s the only way I’ll be able to track the signal to its exact point of origin.”

  ‘Of course.’ I pushed another round of zo calm through my veins, and the muscles in my neck melted. My posture loosened, and I let my mind become still.

  The conductor came on to mention the final stop before the kingdom, and I presented my student badge and paperwork to the sungchal as they patrolled my section. They wanted to look in my bento, then made a few jabs about my mother packing my lunch and moved on.

  It was getting dark when the train let off at the Bastion stop, but the gates were still open. I kept my eyes down as I flashed my badge to the guards—though they all knew me by now—and headed toward my lodge. I didn’t want to think about the conversation to come with the crew. I knew Mae was right; Hana would not be pleased. Knowing Hana, she’d likely demand to be the one to volunteer for ingesting the potion.

  That wasn’t
going to happen. I would be the only one taking that risk—and Mae. Was that fair? I felt Mae’s apprehension at the edges of my consciousness and invited her to share her thoughts.

  “I must admit, I’m not excited for the prospect of being painfully eroded with no hope of survival,” she said with a nervous chuckle and paused. Then her tone took on strength and resolve as she went on, “I owe you my life. You rescued me from the eternal void in my device, you’ve allowed me a home in your mind, and welcomed me into your family. I’m ready to do what must be done to get to the bottom of this and to save Moon.”

  “Thank you,” I whispered. Relief and gratefulness swelled in my chest. We would get through this together.

  “Who are you talking to?” Ko-nah’s accusing voice made me jump with a start.

  I stopped and half-turned to see the shorter boy walking a few paces behind me. His steps were inaudible, and his face unreadable as he approached. I cleared my throat for a lie, despite not being very good at them.

  “I was saying a prayer to Jigu,” I said with as little emotion as I could manage.

  He nodded but didn’t look convinced. He stepped up next to me. “Where did you go today? You know the rules. I’m supposed to follow you everywhere.”

  It was then I noticed a weak ry glimmer over his left eye. I breathed and pulled a small energy reserve through my ry block. Purple, effervescent munje gathered in my palm and I waved my hand past his face. Ko-nah shied away from the gesture, a look of shame in his eyes as his gaze darted away.

  “Did Tae-do do this?” I asked as the reddened mark around his left eye appeared below his disguise. There was a cut on his swollen bottom lip and another over his eyebrow. Someone had given him a good pummeling.

  Ko-nah didn’t reply, keeping his gaze firmly on the trickling fountain at the center of the resident village. My senses prickled with a warning of deception, but the watery gleam in Ko-nah’s eyes pushed that feeling away.

  “Did he duel you?” I pressed as I reversed my revealing magic and reinforced his previous glimmer to hide the burgeoning bruises.

  He shook his head. “No, he had one of his cronies do it. I wasn’t worth his time.”

  “Why?” I asked, my anger bubbling.

  “I’m supposed to follow you...” He trailed off.

  “Where is he?” I demanded.

  “Jiyong, this isn’t a good idea,” Mae warned as she sensed my thoughts.

  ‘I don’t care,’ I sent back. I wouldn’t allow Tae-do to get away with beating my friend over failing to meet an agreement that should never have been forged. I was going to show him firsthand the power of doing things right.

  Ko-nah shook his head, shrugging as he looked away.

  “Where?” I demanded with a growl.

  His eyes locked on mine and for a moment I saw the flash of hungry malevolence in his stare. Worry overcame the look of burning desire for vengeance in his eyes as he whispered, “Finishing dinner.”

  “Jiyong, he’s using you to get back at him,” Mae whispered, her voice pained.

  I turned toward the main pagoda. ‘I know.’

  “Then why are you doing this?” she asked, frustrated. “Tae-do’s fist is almost the same size as your face, and I don’t want to know what getting punched by it feels like.”

  ‘We’re all-in, Mae. I said I would teach him, help him, and make him a Bastion. I can’t do that if he’s getting beaten any time I leave campus. He’s going to resent me.’

  I stormed up the thick white steps with Ko-nah close on my tail. Heat bubbled in my chest at the thought of Tae-do’s malicious injustice. Ko-nah ranked in the high three-hundreds, so fighting him served no purpose for Tae-do or his friends, who were all in the low two-hundreds. It was purely a show of force, of his control over Ko-nah.

  The dining hall was only a third full when I stepped through the doors, and all the food had been carried away. I caught sight of Hana, Yuri, Cho, and Il-sung at the far end, wrapping up their meal. Hana’s amethyst eyes locked on mine, and she jumped to her feet. I could almost hear her concerned voice in my head as her lips mouthed, “What is it?”

  I gave the slightest of nods to Ko-nah behind me, then turned my gaze toward the center of the room where Tae-do and his buddies laughed obnoxiously. Someone at his table saw my approach, and quickly reached into their pocket for something. Tae-do turned to face me with a confident smirk as I came to a stop before them.

  “Duel me,” I said with hot fury.

  Tae-do looked over my shoulder at Ko-nah. “Good boy,” he said with a patronizing tone.

  I glanced back at Ko-nah who shrank away from my stare. They beat him, then sent him to me with fresh, barely disguised bruises so I’d get upset and do something rash. Exactly what I just did.

  Ko-nah could’ve told me it was a trap, but he didn’t. He was still protecting only himself. The sting of his betrayal was not unexpected, but hurt nonetheless. Hana stood not far off, her eyes blazing with the desire for retribution; another thing for us to fight over later.

  “You could’ve told me he sent you; it wouldn’t have stopped me,” I said, and Ko-nah’s cheeks colored with shameful heat.

  He crossed his arms and took another step back as he whispered, “I’m sorry.”

  “That’s cute, ganhan,” Tae-do taunted, and I turned my attention back to him.

  The occupants at his table were sniggering—except Shin-soo, who slowly shook his head as he tapped his empty teacup twice. I looked at Tae-do as he lifted his cup to his lips. It was steaming with inky-black rivulets of power that looked like death manifested.

  He drank back the tea and rose to his feet with a deadly grin. “I accept.”

  Chapter 18

  “WHO WILL OFFICIATE the duel?” Tae-do roared to the emptying room, and all eyes fell on us.

  Tae-do twisted his neck to each side, popping it with loud snaps. He flexed, and the air around him trembled as waves of zo radiated off his skin. Black veins bulged in his forearms, and the color in his eyes was blotted out by the zo. He was mad with power.

  Fear coursed through me as I realized the depth of my stupidity. I wasn’t just going to lose the zo trial to him. Whatever had gone into his tea was undoubtedly some kind of zo amplification. With his extra strength, he might not only land me in the infirmary, but another coma.

  “There’s a duel? Now?” came the annoyed voice of Pung-sah, the En Manipulation instructor. The shorter man stepped around the hulking Tae-do to see me and pursed his lips. “It’s the end of rest day, boys. Are you sure this is what you want?”

  “Yes,” Tae-do growled the word with animalistic madness. His lips spread in a leer as he panted, and the veins at his temples throbbed. “I’ve been saving my duel all week for this fujek ganhan.”

  Pung-sah gasped. “Mr. Wong, your language is—”

  Tae-do’s head snapped toward the instructor with a snarl, and the shorter man flinched back.

  Pung-sah sighed, then rolled his eyes. “We’ll need another teacher, but Mr. Wong, I think you should go to the infirmary. You don’t look well.”

  Tae-do turned his feral leer back toward me as he said, “I feel amazing.”

  Pung-sah grimaced as he looked at me. “Right. Let me go get another instructor.”

  ‘Mae, I’m sorry,’ I thought with a resigned sigh.

  “Don’t be sorry yet. You can still win, and we can find that signal source without you drinking a potion,” she said, her voice taking on the tone it always did when she was deep in interesting analysis.

  ‘You’re tracking his signal, aren’t you?’ I thought, unable to contain my smirk. The madness in Tae-do’s eyes flared brighter than before at this, and I started developing my strategy. I didn’t like playing dirty, but if Tae-do was going to cheat, I could do a bit of my own.

  The duel hadn’t started yet, so now was my only chance.

  ‘Are you ready for a run?’ I asked my ghost companion as I performed the dan-jun breath to infuse my muscles with zo.
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  “Fortunately, I don’t have to do any running. Best of luck. Don’t get us killed,” Mae said with plucky enthusiasm.

  I recycled my used ry from revealing Ko-nah’s glimmer into a fresh implement to amplify my words. I puffed up my chest and sent a vibration of ry with my taunt. “Only a weak pungbahn would have to cheat his way to the top.”

  The boys at Tae-do’s table ooh’ed with interest and one jeered sarcastically, “Hope he likes his blood all over the floor.”

  “More like all over my fists,” Tae-do replied, his leer widening. One more push would do it.

  “You can’t hit the broadside of a training dummy—”

  Tae-do swung. I blocked the blow, though it stung like a dozen zapet stings. I pushed away from his strike with my own zo infusion, launching myself backwards three meters. Ko-nah leapt out of the way with a yelp and Hana called my name, but I couldn’t look back as I turned on my heel and bolted for the gate.

  Tae-do’s growling breaths were right behind me, and his heavy footfalls seemed to beat as fast as my pounding heart. Black zo twisted around my legs and propelled me faster and we blasted through the main door into the entrance walkway.

  With a burst of strength, I jumped the fifteen or so steps and landed in a roll, then sprung back into a sprint. I dashed over the fallen leaves on the path and past the trees that blocked my view of escape.

  Tae-do screamed, his pace increasing. “Get back here, ttong-gae!”

  I’d been called many things in my life, but the equivalent of “scaredy cat” had never been one of them. I wondered if it meant something worse in the kingdom or if the drugs he’d taken were slowing down the processes in his brain. I smirked at the thought, but that melted away into fear when I saw the entrance gate—

  Already shut...

  Time for plan B.

  ‘Which way?’ I asked Mae as I continued my sprint toward the gate.

  “South,” she said.

  ‘Which way’s south?’ I asked in a panic.

  “Right!”