The news cycle that morning wasn’t helping, having turned into a cesspool of rhetoric, guesswork, and sensationalism overnight. One of the government representatives back on Cassiopeia, where she’d lived for two years, had demanded answers from the council on live television, and even implied if something wasn’t done or the questions answered, he’d initiate secession protocols and Cassiopeia would leave the Union.

  It was probably just grandstanding for the media and people, for his next election, no world had ever seceded before. But it was still a bit shocking to hear the threat, empty or not, from the world she’d considered her new home before entering the academy.

  She also felt unsure of her place for the first time since she’d joined the academy. Not because of her peers, but because it felt like a huge pause before the hammer came down. The council had hardly been united in how she’d been treated, and she feared this outbreak would give the ones against her walking around freely traction. She also had no idea how the fleet mage academy would fall on this. They could ask her to resign because she was becoming a lightning rod.

  The fact Julie hadn’t contacted her yet, indicated what was going to happen was still up in the air, and it could truly go either way. The longer the wait was, the surer that faction was fighting to have her dealt with in some way to calm the populace.

  It was starting to really bother her, affecting her mental state. Yes, she’d gone through a lot worse, but Harbinger had always been her captors and enemies, these were supposed to be her allies.

  “Take a seat, cadet.”

  She sat, as Professor Cahill seemed to be ordering her thoughts. It was just a couple of hours later, and Cahill had asked her to stay behind.

  Cahill asked, “Have you been doing anything… differently? Your spell practice to push your Solis limit?”

  She sighed, “A little less than usual, actually. About an hour a night, instead of two. The workload has been a bit heavy. I suppose I’ve also had my detect magic spell active constantly, for a while now, save in weapons and tactics class and duels when I had to let it go. Why, did my progress fall off?”

  Cahill shook her head slowly, and she looked a little too fascinated. It made her feel a little like a bug under a microscope.

  She blinked, “What is it?”

  Cahill said, ‘Perhaps it’s that second part that was the true change. I checked everyone’s level today, during class. Your new Solis limit is one hundred and ninety.”

  She blinked, as that was beyond her goal for the end of the year, and closer to what she’d hoped for at the start of second year, five months from then.

  Cahill continued, “If that progress continues at the new level, approximately twenty points a month, you should be maxed out in just ten more months, around the start of the second semester in second year, two years earlier than your classmates.”

  “Should be?”

  Cahill shrugged, “I don’t think we can depend on you maxing out around three fifty, given…” she trailed off.

  Oh. Her instructor was suggesting she might become more powerful than top level of mages, as far as Solis potential. It wasn’t an entirely unwelcome idea but given her power as a star sorceress she really didn’t need it. But it wouldn’t hurt.

  Of course, it was equally as possible her Solis level would max out next week. As far as she knew, the Harbingers had no intention of training her in magic at all, and that hadn’t been a part of her enhancements.

  Not deliberately at any rate, she doubted they’d intended sped perceptions during physical intimacy, either.

  She replied, “There’s no way to tell, so I guess I need to wait to find out. You think it’s from constantly holding a basic spell all the time?”

  That jump in Solis potential would help her in battle, she could hold all the usual spells she did plus manage a power level twelve basic attack spell now, or a level three shield dome, or second level flight and a high enough thaums regeneration to keep it sustained indefinitely. Without the other spells, she could sustain a level three flight with regeneration. Point being, she would no longer have to sacrifice her chosen spells in battle, or prioritize one over the other.

  Of course it was all relative, since in a few months she’d be back in the prioritization boat, when she was powerful enough to start casting the area of effect, and multiple target spells, all of which had Solis potentials in the two hundreds.

  Cahill shrugged, “I doubt it’s because of less practice, so it does seem likely. It could also be your mind development, human minds don’t fully develop and set until twenty-five. I’m sorry to be so vague, but speculation isn’t a good idea for either of us right now.”

  She wasn’t certain, but she got the impression Cahill was suggesting she may have other DNA enhancements that were only now revealing themselves in the final stages of brain development. They just couldn’t talk plainly, because it would violate the secrets act.

  She sighed, “Yes, maam.”

  Cahill said, “I just wanted to let you know, since Solis levels are not restricted information, and you can expect this latest jump with raise some eyebrows among the staff and officers on base.”

  She nodded, “Thank you, maam.”

  She had no doubt Cahill was an ally, but she suspected an ally that would love to run a whole lot of tests on her…

  Ashley stared up at the ceiling in a daze, her mind fogged and spinning, until she got off the heal spell. She wasn’t sure what had happened.

  They were in the sparring portion of their weapons and tactics class, and Hall had paired her off with Jace.

  Jace had balked, and to her mortification had said there was no point in him fighting a genetically enhanced freak he couldn’t beat.

  Hall had measured the response of the class, then came at her fast.

  At first, she thought she was holding her own, but then somehow, she was slamming into the mat and her head was spinning, and she had no idea what Hall had done to her. A throw, obviously, but one she’d never encountered and couldn’t say how it was done at all. She hadn’t seen it coming.

  Hall snorted, “So much for invincible. She’s fast, and good. When did you start training, cadet?”

  Ashley said, “When I could walk.”

  Hall nodded, “So at least ten years earlier than most of you. I don’t care what the rumors are, and what people say. Fighting takes discipline, grades take discipline, and magic takes discipline, and she excels in all three because she works her ass off for it. You aren’t born knowing shit. She can kick your skinny butt because she’s been training ten years longer, and I can kick her ass because I’ve been training for thirty years and have years of practical experience in the field. Her reflexes are sharp, and she’s fast, but if she hadn’t done the work that would avail her nothing.

  “Instead of being a whiny puke, Jace, perhaps you should learn from her example. She hasn’t learned anything all year in this portion of class, because to advance in skill you need to spar with an equal or better, she’s doing well enough to keep her current skill level fighting the lot of you. She’s raised you all up from day one. So get with the program, or get the hell out of my class. I won’t have fools with their heads full of ridiculous rumors and notions disrupting it. Skill is never free, never doubt she earned it the hard way. So which will it be?”

  Jace looked a bit cornered, but she suspected that little speech was for the rest of the class. For the few others in the platoon that had obviously agreed with Jace’s cruel assessment. Jace had clearly lost their support, and they looked a bit ashamed and sheepishly apologetic.

  Jace said, “I’ll stay and spar, sergeant.”

  He looked angry and embarrassed, but he was also going to toe the line in the sand Hall had just drawn. It was a little disheartening, she liked Jace, but he clearly didn’t like her anymore.

  Hall nodded, and said, “Most of you have the potential to catch up to her before graduation, and then rise up further together as your skills push back and forth. I trust I won’t need to address this kind of idiocy ever again. My class is no place for your personal foibles and angst, period. Leave it at the door, or better yet, let it go, because it’s all bullshit in the end.”

  Hall moved over to the wall as the class got back to work.

  Chapter Eleven

  It was Wednesday night. The last few days had been a bit rough, but she dove into her workload and spent it with her close friends. They were still in her corner, they’d all known the truth for a while now. Hall’s message had been received, but it hadn’t really fixed the underlying problem, and in the end was only a threat to keep Jace and a few others acting civil in class.

  Julie had just arrived, and the six of them sat down in the living room, Brent wasn’t there that night.

  “Sorry you were kept in limbo so long, some decisions had to be made.”

  She nodded, “I get it, what’s the plan?”

  Julie said, “Councilor Evans is going to make an address tonight, in support of you. I should warn you it will be a bit personal, as he’s going to call them out on what they did, and what you’ve gone through and your loyalty to the people of the Union. They’ll be leaving things the way they are as long as you’re okay with continuing in the academy. You doing okay?”

  She replied, “I think so, yes. I’m a little worried about morale in our year, and my closest friends being painted with the same brush.”

  Julie nodded, “It’ll work out, in the long run. It just came out too close to the incident involving Zane, but tempers will cool. I don’t expect you to have a smooth or quiet career though.”

  She laughed, “No. I didn’t want this, but I guess it was naïve to think the secret would hold long. I’m also worried about those worst-case scenarios.”

  Julie said, “All you can control is yourself. You’ll make enemies, but you’ll also make allies, any idiot can get through life without either. How the worlds react is not your responsibility or fault, let the government handle it, you’re only job is to help keep us all safe to do it, just like any other fleet mage.”

  She knew it wasn’t that simple, but Julie wasn’t wrong.

  Julie said, “Ready to watch? He should be on any second.”

  She nodded, “I don’t want to be blindsided by my… critics. Detractors?”

  Julie snickered, “Nice word choice, and you’re probably right. Not knowing would be worse, even if it is a little embarrassing.”

  Crandall took her hand, and she allowed it, because it was comforting. She didn’t need it, but she wasn’t too proud to admit she wanted it and enjoyed it. Life was to be conquered, alone if necessary, but fighting as a team always made sense, in all aspects of life, when possible. She’d done alone growing up, and she didn’t want to go back to that.

  They turned on the display wall, and the talking heads were speculating about what Councilor Evans would say about all of it, but she ignored the speculation and focused on her friends while they waited for the speech.

  Daniel’s father stepped out of the doorway behind the podium, and stepped up. He was decked out in a suit, and he had a stately gravitas to his presence.

  “Good evening, to all in the Planetary Union. Terrorist. A person who scares and engenders terror, usually with a political goal in mind. Terror is the root word. So what makes a terrorist plea to the government they hate? Terror perhaps? I’ll come back to this, but I want you to consider the level of desperation that implies, a hardline terrorist organization who has eluded our best efforts for over two decades, running scared.

  “But I’m here to talk about SSE0007. You see, that’s her designation, and it stands for Star Sorceress Experiment, number seven. She had no name until she was sixteen years old and escaped captivity. She often tells her friends she was trained in martial arts from a small child, but the truth is different. You see, this laboratory where they were experimenting on humans, was isolated. So the guards didn’t get out very often, and they had all that anger at the union to take out.

  “Some of them thought it amusing to beat a toddler to get that cruel anger out. I’ve seen some video of it personally, and it is not pleasant. When she turned three, she applied what they’d taught her in their cruelty, and struck back. You see, even though she was mind controlled, she could defend herself if ordered to. That made it more fun for them, you see. Of course, she was still a toddler, so it wasn’t very effective.

  “So that was her training, on a daily basis, for years, so as you can imagine she was quite motivated to protect herself and learn.

  “When she was six, the only woman that had ever been nice to her in the lab, and treated her like a real person, threw her a party. Her only one in her first eighteen years, because the woman was killed, for treating the scientists experiment as human. Her name was Ashley Brown. For the next ten years, her only contact was her training, and when they decided to run an experiment.

  “They succeeded by the way, despite the terrorist’s assertions that they failed. Ashley Foster, and yes, she chose the name in honor of the woman who died for being nice to her, can travel at a rate of a light year per second. With, or without a ship. So why did they abandon the project? Because when using her full power, it shorted out the control implant. A young woman of such power was no use to them, and represented a danger, if they couldn’t control her very thoughts and actions.

  “When she escaped, she was understandably angry, and she ensured that laboratory would never run such heinous experiments on a human being again. Make no mistake, she is a human being. I’ve had the pleasure meeting the remarkable young lady myself.

  “To date, she destroyed the Harbinger’s last fleet saving my life, she also saved the lives of every member of her platoon, when the Harbinger’s came after her during their first training cruise. She’s been in several skirmishes where her life and others were on the line planet side, and she does not use her full powers there, but fights as any other mage.

  “Her stated goal at this moment is to rip out Harbinger, root and branch, which terrifies them. It is not vengeance that drives her, but rather justice and a deep need to stop what happened to her from happening to anyone else.

  “Harbinger just managed to steal a whole new fleet, by sacrificing three of their old ships and several platoons of men, the latter merely to nail her feet down on the planet.

  “They knew she wouldn’t abandon her unit out on a training exercise. They purposefully waited for her and her platoon, company, and the other two companies of her year to go out on a training exercise, to pull off this latest act of terror.

  “Does that sound like they believe she’ll destroy planets? She could’ve left them to destroy their tugs that stole several decommissioned ships from our own military ship graveyards by Minos. But they knew she wouldn’t, if they were threatened by four drop ships and a company of murderous mages. She is also under orders to never use her inborn spells unless threatened, so she organized a defense and did everything she could to avoid that step, and she succeeded in the finest traditions of the fleet.

  “My point? She is our cadet, she believes our Union is flawed, but that it’s the best thing out there. Her ambition is to take down Harbinger, to protect you. Each and every one of you, and the people she fights with.

  “So that old man? Remember the beginning of my speech? Terrorism. Scare tactics, sleight of hand, trying to get us to do their dirty work for us. Trying to get us to turn on each other. They are terrified she will spell the end of their organization sometime in the future, they are terrified she would’ve stopped them last week and sacrificed a hundred men to prevent it, and they are terrified that they’ll lose their new fleet. Mostly because she can be anywhere in the Union in under a minute. Their fleet will remain hidden, frightened, and cowering in a dark corner of our galaxy while she fights for us.

  “Is she perfect? No one is, but she’s not monstrous, she’s not an abomination. She’s a driven, intelligent, and loyal young woman of integrity. I trust her with my son’s life, that should tell you all you need to know.

  “But let me leave you with this, and I hope she’ll forgive me for this breach of privacy, but I think you need to hear it from her mouth. To see the intelligence in her eyes, as well as the empathy and kindness in her heart. So, good night, and don’t let the terrified fear mongers control your thoughts with words of doom. They are the only danger here, and the only ones in danger from her.”

  She gasped as she saw the screen change to the bedroom she’d stayed in, she was sitting on the end of the bed in that dress, and Rebecca was at the vanity desk.

  Rebecca shook her head, “We’re all still human, at the risk of sounding condescending I approve of you. I do wonder however, where you picked up your root values, given your past I wouldn’t expect you to rise to the occasion and choose to protect and serve in the fleet.”

  She nodded, “Would you believe the Harbingers? At least, the root of it. They are evil, twisted, self-justified monsters parroting ideals they truly didn’t follow, and they wouldn’t recognize true integrity if it slapped them in the face. Given their horrific treatment of me, it was easy to see their hypocrisy, but when I escaped, I had two years to separate the wheat from the chaff, while I discovered who I was and who I wanted to be. They use those ideals to twist and recruit those wronged into monsters over time.

  “So I had all these ideas in my head, about the evils of the Union and ideals that my creators ignored, but I had no idea what if anything was true. So I did a lot of research. A lot of reading about history, and I found the answers for myself.

  “I concluded a perfect world can never exist, because it’s made up of humans and we are all imperfect, and ideals without compassion and empathy for the human condition can lead to those horrors. At the same time, it’s important to strive for that perfect ideal, even if we always fall short of it, otherwise we’ll never get as close as we can to it.