Steam drifted in slow, ghostlike ribbons toward the vaulted ceiling. The bathing chamber was carved from a pale ocean stone, its walls veined faintly with silver that caught the recessed lighting and shimmered like distant lightning beneath water.
The water itself was sunken into the floor, wide enough to be mistaken for a reflecting pool, its surface dark and still.
Wein al Voss sat at its edge.
Servants moved quietly around him with disciplined efficiency. None met his eyes directly, none spoke unless required. Inside the water, the heat seeped into muscle still tight from recoil, sprint, and impact he faced as Kael.
Faint scars mapped his torso, reminders of shrapnel, blades near misses, a life from when he was a Trooper. Two attendants entered the bath behind, wearing water resistant fabric and approached him. One poured warmed mineral water slowly over his shoulders, the other began to scrub his back with a soft fabric cloth.
Wein kept his gaze forward. The far wall was polished obsidian, his reflection wavered in the steam seeping from the bath. For months, he had washed himself in showers aboard ships, quick and efficient.
He preferred that than this. It was too ritualistic, too theatrical. But in the limited time he was being groomed as new lord, he understood optics. He had to be a noble, behave like them, act like them, he had to be them. So he forced himself to act in a manner he would find ridiculous when he was a commoner.
The cloth moved across his shoulders again, slower this time, working past the lines of muscles he had built. A faint aroma of smell filled the entire chamber, it smelt like grape juice.
He noticed the form of soap on the water rippling away was purple, maybe they used grape scented soap. The cloth now went around his neck and down his chest, he felt the instinct to take the cloth and do it himself. He did not.
The attendant rinsed his back and front, fingers careful and distant. There was no intimacy, no eye contact or spoken word, just protocol and expectation.
Wein closed his eyes briefly.
The past months he had grown both physically and mentally still he was not confident in front of other nobles. His thoughts drifted to the past battles he had faced, from all over the empire.
Flashes of different planets came to him, places with heat that scorched the inside of his lungs. Colds that froze movement and hindered sight, forests that swallowed entire cities.
In that though all his fights came to mind, how he had pushed himself. The close calls, the injuries. He recalled the feeling and also the bodies. Every man he had killed. Like shelves in a warehouse, they appeared before him.
All the bodies he had killed from the criminals he first killed when he met the Baron all those years ago, to the prior mission. Taking a life was as strenuous as pushing your body to the limits.
It was not the physical act that lingered but the memory, he did not forget their faces. For a time he tried to push them back and try to forget but he couldn't. for the longest time Wein had remembered every face he killed, how they twisted in rage, how some were afraid, surprised.
Others did without understanding why. He had thought the training he got was enough, in war it was kill or be killed. For the short time he had been active as a Trooper, he realised he had quite the body count.
Being responsible for the death of people was mentally exhausting and he understood, in his life, the number would only multiply.
The cloth moved across his collarbone, rinsing away the last streak of dirt, when he opened his eyes slowly.
The attendants finished their work and stepped back. One offered a towel, thick and light red as he rose from the bath without assistance. Water cascaded down his frame and vanished into the stone grates beneath.
As the attendants dried him, he finally spoke.
"Astra."
"Yes, my lord."
"Inform the circle and the council, the meeting will be set for tomorrow."
The attendants did not react, they would not. Their eyes were glued to floor and silent but the shift in mood had occurred in the room.
Wein stepped forward as robes were wrapped around him.
"I will finally formally introduce myself to the council" he continued.
The warmth of the bath faded, replaced by a different kind of heat not from external sources but internal.
Being guided by a few servants he was led away to his quarters while the others remained to clean up after him.
***
Back in his quarters, a giant king worthy room Wein remained standing alone in nothing but a tight boxer shirt. The room was dark but slightly visible thanks to the light that shone through the curtains.
Wein stood at the centre, reminiscing about when he finally got to be a Shock Trooper.
The room was vast, high ceilings, dark stone pillars, glass walls overlooking a nearby city. Lighting flickered faintly beyond the curtains illuminating the chamber with brief silver flashes.
The memory came back with clinical clarity, a cold white light. A medical chamber aboard one of the ships belonging to house Voss. Sterile, controlled silence except for the monitored breathing and steady hum equipment.
After a dangerous mission a few weeks back, he had been one of twelve selected for the intake cycle out of a hundred candidates. The twelve candidates were the ones who passed genetic screening, cardiovascular thresholds, neural latency exams, and psychological filtration.
Even he barely managed to get past and was promoted because he needed to be a Shock Trooper. He recalled signing the consent document under the name of Kael as the scientists and doctors talked him about the procedure.
The first phase had not been surgical but preparatory destruction. He was put inside a tank with strange liquid that immobilised and paralysed him. Then he was given bone stress conditioning for what felt like months, controlled micro fractures induced through mechanical impact training.
Of course he recalled how excruciating the pain was, he had cried the loudest he had ever after all the training he went as a Trooper. The only pain worse was when he received the Divine Core.
Aside from the conditioning, he was given nutrient regiments that flooded his body with reinforcement compounds. Like before, the pain was enough to almost knock him out, he barely held through.
Then there were oxygen deprivation drills, which under special observation would push the brain to adapt and resist blackout. Of the twelve prospects, only two collapsed and most beside Wein were able to bear through without making even a sound.
Then came the real augmentation. A liquid was inserted into their marrow and coupled with the nutrients they were given earlier. Their bones were reinforced and became much stronger and the pain came that lasted for weeks.
During that stage, Wein/Kael went into cardiac arrest but was stabilised and after a while he was discharged having changed.
Since then, he could feel it at times, the density in his bones when he pressed against something. The elasticity of body when he ran and the strength he had when he lifted things. He was far and beyond more durable, faster, stronger and reactionary compared to before, even with the Divine Core.
Recalling that he returned to his dark chamber. He observed his nearly naked body, it was in perfect condition. He was used to it, could use it far better than before, he was glad. Such was the reason he wanted to be a Shock Trooper.
He knelt down and crossed his legs in perfect symmetrical formation and calmed himself.
"Astra, show me House Voss's accretion manual" he spoke softly.
The room lit up, with Astra's interface. "Yes sir."
The room shimmered as Astra's interface activated, glowing lines weaving in the air like constellations of digital stars.
"Accessing House Voss's Accretion Manual… Please wait, my lord… Warning, this is sensitive information of the highest level."
The darkness of his quarters seemed to deepen as the glowing lines twisted into more intricate shapes, eventually forming an elegant hologram of unreadable texts and images in the air before him.
The hologram shifted as a deep, resonating and alerting voice spoke.
"Warning, sensitive… opening clear channel for one time use."
Astra glitched in and out and then nothing.