“Okay,” he said as soon as we were all seated. “Remember how there was something going on in the capital last week? So I don’t know this for sure, but I overheard one of our fellow cadets telling someone that his cousin works at the palace. According to said cousin, one of the imperial princesses is missing. Can you believe it?”
It took all my training and practice to express the exact right amount and type of shock at that statement. I had hoped they would keep it more of a secret for longer, but I wasn’t surprised it leaked.
“I don’t know, Delroy. That doesn’t sound like the most reliable gossip. I mean, do you know how secure the imperial family is? I don’t know how anyone would manage to kidnap one,” Gathrok mused.
Then Kolo chimed in with what I didn’t want them considering. “She could have run away.”
Delroy looked incredulous. “Why would an imperial princess run away? She’s a princess—what else could be better?”
Kolo shrugged. “Who are we to understand royalty?” The way she said that, it didn’t seem a compliment.
Valissa nodded slowly. “Royalty are often inscrutable. It’s a natural consequence of the position.”
Delroy turned to me. “What do you think, Dax? Was the princess kidnapped, or did she run away?”
I paused for a moment, as if I were thinking about it. “It’s hard to say. I agree with Gathrok that it would likely be difficult to kidnap a princess—the security at the palace has got to be top-notch. But I can’t imagine a princess running away and staying hidden for very long, either. Maybe it’s both—she ran away and then was kidnapped before they could track her down.”
“Brilliant!” Delroy exclaimed. “I never would have considered that. I bet it was the damn squids.”
“The Kaksholi?” I asked. “I doubt one of the Hexarians themselves could infiltrate the planet, though I’ve heard they have ways of ensuring their slaves obey, so it’s possible they send some of our own people to do it. It seems more likely it would be pirates or smugglers, though.”
“I’ve got it! It must have been Kaksholi slave pirates!”
The four of us shook our heads in exasperation at Delroy’s antics, and I was satisfied as the conversation devolved into increasingly outlandish theories. Somehow, though, the truth was never one of them—apparently the idea of an imperial princess running away to join her own military in secret was even more unbelievable than the idea that she ran away to marry her secret pirate lover. How Delroy thought an imperial princess would have even met a pirate, let alone become his lover, I had no clue. I also couldn’t point out that if said princess did take a pirate for a lover, she’d have to be a woman, since I obviously couldn’t reveal who the princess was.
Lunch ended, and classes resumed. By the end of dinner, I had overheard multiple people talking about the missing princess. It made me nervous, even though rationally I didn’t expect to be discovered.
It was a few days before talk of the princess died down, even though there didn’t seem to be any more information than before. Our group spend our Polday doing much the same thing as the week before, though I didn’t lose at wallball by quite as much that time.
The Torlan boy had continued to harass me in PTT, at least when I didn’t manage to avoid him, but I wasn’t two upset since I was actually learning a fair bit. Classes were challenging, but the information was useful and mostly engaging. Law was still incredibly boring, reaffirming my desire to avoid a major political role.
The biggest change came at the start of our fourth week. We finished our warm-up exercises in PTT and started to prepare for sparring when our marine instructor called us to attention.
“You all have some experience with hand-to-hand combat. We’ll continue to train your martial arts as time goes on, but starting today, we’ll be alternating days with weapons training. Follow me to the firing range.”
He led us on a march to a nearby building. Inside, he began by explaining gun safety, making us repeat everything he said multiple times to really drive it in. From there, he gave an overview of the standard fleet pistol.
“This is the Akkorian Arms MH5 Viper. The Viper is a standard mage handgun. It has two modes—stun and kill. In stun mode, the pistol fires a ball of magical electricity that targets the enemy’s nervous system, temporarily knocking them unconscious. It only lasts a minute or two, so it is important to restrain a target before they awaken, though they will often be dazed for a short time after rising.
“In kill mode, the Viper fires a tiny ball of pure force at high speeds. When it hits a target, the force bursts forward, dealing significant damage to an unshielded target. The main reason we use these weapons is that we can ensure that minimal damage happens to a ship when fired inside.
“The Viper uses a standard-sized crystal charge pack. Each crystal can fire up to eight shots in rapid sequence, and the crystals can be easily swapped out. Try not to lose them—they are expensive and of course self-recharge over time. The pistol can also be fired using your own mana, though the rate of fire is limited based on your ability to manipulate mana.
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“For now, we will begin with firing at stationary targets. The targets at this firing range are designed to glow where you hit them. Go ahead and choose a station, then follow the safety guidelines and begin shooting. I will come around to assess your performance and give you advice. Begin.”
I found a station and examined the weapon already there. It was unloaded and the safety turned on, as it should be. After a careful inspection to check for any damage that might pose a danger, I loaded a crystal into the gun and released the safety, careful to only point it downrange. My first shot missed the target entirely, but by my fourth shot, I managed to hit the bullseye. I was surprised to realize that I was actually enjoying myself. After firing two more shots, one that hit in the inner ring and one more bullseye, I tried powering the Viper using my own mana.
It wasn’t difficult to do, but it was definitely slower, taking more than twice as long to fire. Deciding that the ability to fire without a crystal pack could be the difference between life and death in the future, I chose to continue firing without a crystal pack, even though there were plenty there.
After maybe ten minutes, the instructor reached me. “Show me what you’re doing.”
I fired six shots, hitting three bullseyes and three inner rings. Already, I was a bit faster at firing using my own mana.
“Why aren’t you using the clearly charged crystals sitting next to you?”
“Sergeant! I decided to use my own mana because I was too slow with it and needed the practice.”
He gave me a firm nod. “Reasonable decision. Make sure to practice swapping crystals, too, though. Being able to save your own mana for other purposes is also important. Your accuracy is decent—have you fired a weapon before?”
“No, sergeant. This is my first time.”
“Well done, then. Keep practicing, and try squeezing the trigger rather than pulling it.” With that piece of advice, he moved on.
I did as he said and switched to using crystals for a bit, realizing he was right the first time I tried swapping them. While it wasn’t difficult, it could be a little awkward, and I would definitely need practice to be able to do it in a high-stakes situation. By the end of the session, my accuracy was somewhat improved, and I felt reasonably comfortable both with swapping crystals and powering it myself, though I realized there was plenty of room for improvement.
I toggled the safety, removed the crystal, checked the weapon for damage, then set the weapon down and reset the lane before heading out with the rest of the class to shower and get lunch.
Everyone was excited about weapons training, even the half of the students who wouldn’t be doing it until tomorrow. They revealed something interesting, though—they now had the Shield spell added to their interface and had practiced using it. It was expected that we would get it tomorrow.
Indeed, after warm-ups the next day, our sergeant brought out a cart. Atop the cart were a handful of grimoires. Each one looked like a metallic book with an embedded mana crystal in it, but that was merely a traditional affectation—they could be any shape.
Traditionally, spellcasting was very difficult. You had to spend months or years studying mana flows until you were able to recreate a single spell. Even an archmage might only know a few cantrips and maybe a dozen more complex spells. With the invention of the interface, though, that was no longer the case. Now, you could load up a spell schematic into your interface, which would aid you in forming the correct mana flows, making the process of learning a new spell measured in hours or days instead of months or years.
Grimoires were devices that contained an encoded spell schematic that could be transferred into an interface. Since schematics used to be stored in thick tomes accompanied by detailed descriptions of how to cast a spell, modern grimoire manufacturers generally shaped the magical devices like books.
“As you have probably heard, today you’ll be learning the Shield spell. These grimoires will teach you the spell. Now, line up in six lines, as that is the number of grimoires we have. When you reach the front, place your hand on the grimoire and channel a small amount of mana into the device. Confirm with your interface that you want to learn the spell, and it will transfer. Do not attempt to cast the spell until everyone is finished and I give you permission.”
Everyone lined up and waiting in eager anticipation. When it was my turn, I did as directed, and a mental nudge from my interface had me agreeing to the upload. Once complete, I stepped to the side and pulled up my interface overview.
Name: Faye Shael Lumien Daxina Erythralia [Dax Juniper]
Age: 20
Species: Dragon [Elf]
Core Tier: 1
Spells: Elf Shape, Shield
Modules: Infiltrator
It was strange seeing my true name listed—at this point, I felt more “Dax” than “Faye.” But the overview confirmed that the spell was installed. From there, I pulled up the schematic and started studying it while I waited for the others to finish. It was a fairly simple spell—much simpler than Elf Shape, the only other spell I knew. I had to push down resentment towards my father that I was a princess yet was only allowed the one obligatory spell for dragons.
Soon enough, everyone was through, and the sergeant began explaining the spell.
“The Shield spell is designed to form a magical barrier around your body to block attacks. It works on both energy attacks like the Viper uses and physical attacks like a blade. However, note that it will not protect you from heat or cold, nor does it give you an air bubble in a vacuum. It will hold off the aether for a short time, but it’s not very efficient at that compared to dedicated spells, so it will quickly run out of energy.
“By default, Shield is powered by a pre-determined amount of mana, and when that mana runs out, the barrier fails. It has an alternate mode where you can tie it directly to your mana. This has the benefit of only using exactly as much mana as is necessary and not running out before you do, but it has the disadvantage that you can have your entire pool drained by a large number of minor attacks that would be little more than a nuisance without the shield.”
With his explanation over, he directed us to begin practicing. By the time the session ended, I had just managed to cast it once successfully, something only a few others had done.
“Good job everyone. Note that while you are allowed to cast this spell on campus at your discretion, that will not be true of all the spells you learn. Dismissed.”
With that, we headed to the showers and lunch.