The greatest thing about the Uurak University was that it didn’t operate within a bubble, and because of that it was one of the greatest places to network. While there was only ever one “grade” within the university, there were three different tracks: infantry, auxiliary, and finally specialist. Now all these tracks had separate classes and learned separately from one another, yet all the tracks came together for their assessments; there were practically no individual assignments or assessments. UU emphasized that groups were stronger than the individual, and as such all assignments were taken together as a squad comprised of the three tracks. Students were expected to form their own groups, and a whole month was granted to finding your group.
My group had already partially been formed, I would join the auxiliary track with Salome and my praetorians would join the infantry track. Now, there were no worries about any of us missing the bar and not being able to make it in, and the university was very good at respecting student’s privacy. The problem came from—my knights don’t speak, and that was very, very conspicuous and would definitely raise some eyebrows. Now, it wasn’t that my knights lacked the ability to speak, they weren’t mute like me. Instead, it was closer to like being a newborn and just not knowing any words, and because of that it was just a matter of teaching them, which fell upon Salome. Settling into our house was a simple task, we basically had no belongings other than the weapons on our back. For the first time in what felt like a long time a moment of peace had settled into my life, and frankly I wasn’t lamenting the fact.
Our days were simple, in the morning the knights and Salome would practice their weapon skills performing mock battles, and in the afternoon, she would teach them how to communicate with their voices. It was a strange thing to watch, and honestly it was kind of enduring watching a group of heavily armored knights sitting in a semicircle listening to Salome talk and practicing it.
Now, my days were spent in much the same way, preparing for a life within the university. My main form of practice was of the manipulation of the Void externally and internally, and basic reflex training. It wasn’t too difficult, and with my increase in control over the Void I found that I was able to transmute different materials—mainly metals with the Void attribute. Now depending on how much Void was interwoven with the structure of the material correlated to how many properties of the Void the material inherited. In fact, this was what happened with my clothing, instead of making my Void less destructive it simply made my clothes “Void proof”.
With this in mind, I decided to start refining my metallurgy skills, I was planning on creating a new arm for Salome, it seemed I still was a little sentimental. For the arm I had decided on using a combination of cobalt and chromium, whose combination was strong and somewhat flexible. Now, it wasn’t as good as something like mithril or any of metals of those caliber, but they were expensive and frankly I wasn’t expecting too much from my first creation—I mean it was the thought that counts right?
After renting our house for the next five years we were only left with two-hundred fifty golden pieces to last us until the start of university. Now, this would be considered a gargantuan sum for most commoners, and in fact could last them a couple of years of living the high life in the capital, it was by no means an infinite sum. Of that sum, a hundred and fifty of it would need to be taken to purchase the metal required to craft the arm, and the rest would be needed to purchase daily supplies such as clothes and other things. Also, while it was true none of us required to eat food anymore, Salome and I both could still eat, and while I wasn’t sure about her, I sometimes missed the act of eating.
My first instinct was to get Salome to go out and purchase the metals for me, but then I realized that would probably tip my hand and keeping secrets from her was hard enough as it was.
A week later I was ready to purchase the metals, I finally felt I had enough control over the Void to create a useful hand. Now, I wanted to strike a balance between the alloy and the Void, I wanted the arm to be Void proof, and also be able to channel the Void through it (similar to a conduit) but on the other hand if I over fed it then the alloy would be extremely toxic and would probably burn through everything it came into contact with. Now, under feeding it would not be that big of an issue, instead it would just be an issue of feeding it more, but on the other hand if I over fed it there was no turning back from that, so I would probably need to grab enough for three or four arms.
Grabbing a cloak, I went and grabbed my shield praetorian, who I had ended up naming Terhe on a whim, and we headed out to go purchase the raw ore I would need to create my alloys. We were located in the southwest of the capital, with the bazaar being located in the center of the capital. Walking through the city with Terhe was a very nostalgic journey, I had lived almost my entire life in the comfort of the capital, with all of its lights and sounds and having been torn from it had never lessened the sense of comfort I had gotten from the capital. Part of me resented that fact, just another one of the many reminders I had still yet to throw off my previous identities, but at the same time I recognized like with everything almost everything came with time.
The capital was beautiful and there was no point in trying to convince myself otherwise. Terhe had taken the lead, his tower shields faithfully strapped to his back, parting the way for me. Most people made their way for us, but soon we reached an intersection that was currently being blocked. Terhe moved to the side and allowed me to see what was currently causing the traffic jam. There were a group of four knights all with the royal crest etched onto their armor. They were currently blocking entrance to the intersecting street, apparently a royal was making their way to the bazaar and as such the street was blocked until they had passed. With the help of Terhe I pushed my way towards the front, finally making it to the front of the street where I would be able to see the procession once it had passed.
Luckily, we didn’t need to wait long, as soon the honor guard of the princess was seen making our way towards us. Upon realizing it was the entourage of my (ex?) not a lot of emotions ran through me, which was a strange feeling. For one, I thought I would feel mad, other parts of me thought I would feel a sense of loss or longing, but to that contrary I really didn’t feel much. It was just another thing that had been seen. Soon, the honor guard was upon us, and it became evident why they had blocked off the whole street, Her Royal Highness had decided to walk to the Bazaar today. I could see her going by happily shaking the hands of her eager citizens.
On instinct, my hand went up to my mask making sure it was carefully affixed to my face. As she got closer and closer for one reason or another, I kept getting more and more nervous. Finally, I was able to see past her guards and finally lay eyes on her since I had seen her almost a year ago. She was just as stunning as I remembered, with clear and passionate eyes. Honestly, that has always been the most striking part about her, crystal green eyes that seem to see right through everything and would never focus on anything. Suddenly, just past her I could see someone walking hand in hand with her. I was confused, and then everything clicked into place I really had been fully replaced. I was watching an engaged couple go on a date at the market. With this realization, the full extent of the betrayal was made evident, my eyes narrowed into tiny slits as waves upon waves of regret, anger, loss, all dug into my psyche. In what felt like mere moments this seemingly happy couple were upon me. Now moving to the front to get a better look seemed like a terrible idea, my first instinct was to turn around and leave but with the mass of people behind prevented me from escaping. Settling my breath, I stuck out a scarred hand,
Calm down, you are just one of many people wanting to shake the hand of the princess
Soon, it was my turn to shake the princess’s hand. My outstretched hand was carefully grasped as our eyes met. In that moment, time seemed to move in slow motion, had she figured out who I was? Terhe sensing my discomfort slid behind me ready to act if we were discovered. Instead, after what felt like an eternity the princess finally spoke,
“I love the design of your mask; is there any way I could purchase it from you?”
Not expecting that kind of question, I froze—and then unconsciously tried to respond, with only croaking noises coming from my mouth. Visibly confused, the princess simply tilted her head as if this was a common occurrence. I finally recovered enough to have Terhe respond for me,
“I apologies your highness, this mask is very dear to my master and cannot be traded for anything”
“Cat got your tongue. Do you always let your servant speak for you?” In a battle of proxies, the fiancé responded for the princess.
While his words would be considered rude, the fiancé flashed a smile so brilliant his comments came off as playful banter as opposed to a provocation—that’s some natural charisma right there.
“I apologize for the inconvenience; my master suffers from injuries that have taken away his ability to speak…” Tehre’s grating voice seemed to cut through the noise on the street. He spoke in a grating, halting manner that only seemed to accentuate the weird way he left his last words hanging.
Nodding their heads as if they understood, the princess let go of my hand and moved onto the next person in line. Her fiancé glanced back at me one more time before following in her footsteps.
Turning back to Terhe I nodded my thanks before turning back, waiting for our path to be opened once again…
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Honor Guards
There are two levels within the honor guard for the royal family. For the most part, many of the honor guards serve decorative positions, that is they got their jobs based on nepotism as opposed to any skill. Now, this isn’t always true, and one can be both skilled and know the right people, but for the most part most of the honor guard just “knew the right people”. There are no strict requirements for the honor guard, the only requirement is that for direct royals the Emperor must approve their appointment before candidates can be officially entered into the ranks.
The second level of the honor guards, the ones that go mostly unseen and are the ones that are mostly responsible for the actual protection of the royals. The front level of the honor guards might be rotated between different royals, but this secondary layer is directly appointed and assigned by that specific royal, and as such reports only to them. The Emperor has no say in who is appointed, instead limiting the amount of people that can exist in this secondary, “shadow” honor guard.
