The planks echoed softly as Jace walked down the stairs. The receptionist at the edge of the door was unsurprisingly absent.
Stepping out, a wave of cold air rushed past him. From the earthen calendar, it should be fall, a season associated with its rain and cool weather.
Jace raised his coat to cover his exposed neck as he felt a small chill. Jace had heard stories about changes in weather but stories could never compare to the real thing.
Outside the tall dorm, the massive clearing stretched on. The stood at the center, its shadow looming over all. The dark of the night transformed the giant statue into an ancient symbol of pain and despair rather than one of hope.
Unlike before, there were only a few people loitering around, most finding their way to the hall.
All students had been invited to an orientation party by a few second years outside the academy, the party occurring in one of the many businesses in the Island.
Jace sighed. If he could, he would be at the party. Preferably causing a scene.
But at the same time as the party was a more shadowy event. The bestowment of abilities.
All abilities could generally be ranked from 1 to 7, 1 being the lowest and 7 being the highest. Most abilities were hereditary with any ability being inherited from a parent having a minimum rank of 3.
Others were not so lucky. The lower someone's ability was, the higher the chance their children could be born without abilities.
There were some special cases, people who had rank 4 or 5 abilities yet had children who didn't have an ability. Jace was one of them. His father had a rank 5 ability, God knows what it was. His mother, meanwhile, was rumored to have had a simple rank 3 ability.
Of course, people who were born without abilities would be desperate to get one. So desperate they could do practically anything.
The military had capitalized on that, creating ways to give people an ability without being born with it.
Of course, the military was the only organization which did that, officially of course. Factions had long since learned the method to do that with the military tacitly agreeing to ignore that as long as they remained the official organization with the authority to do that.
Aside from that, the military had been shown to have the least amount of side-effects with those newly gained abilities. The only abilities someone could actually gain from the military were enhanced strength, enhanced speed and enhanced durability. Cliché, yes.
Hereditary abilities meanwhile, had a lot more variety. It was the difference between being born with something and gaining it.
The timing of the ability bestowment ceremony and the orientation party also weren't just a coincidence.
It was the military's way of showing, No, declaring that people would come calling no matter what happened simply due to the sweet allure of power. Jace considered it the equivalent of a child throwing a tantrum. A very powerful child.
Jace looked up at the pitch black sky. No moon. It wasn't for any reason, he just wanted to see it. The planet he was from, Apnea, had zero moons. What they did have was a bunch of flying asteroids.
Jace walked into the hall noting the vast amounts of people. There were about a hundred of them, far less than the number earlier that day.
Aside from that, Someone was already on the stage speaking. Jace looked up to see Skye, her scar somehow more prominent than before.
In front of the stage stood a group of people, motionless, their gazes directed to the students in front of them.
"Strength is principal. That's why you're here and nowhere else…" She paused as she examined the crowd.
"Each of you will be given an ability based on your constitution and what you have shown,"
As she spoke, someone called out loud "How do we know which ability is rank 2. Is it just random?"
Skye sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose "Whether or not your ability is rank 1 or 2 depends on you and how much your ability bonds with you. In other words, it solely depends on you,"
Clapping her hands together, she declared "Let's get this over with."
As she clapped, the motionless mannequins moved revealing their true forms.
Automatons.
With the war against the Rache, humanity couldn't afford to wage internal wars not to talk of wars against other species.
Due to that, the threat of artificial intelligence gaining sentience and waging war against humanity was greater than the prospect of them advancing technology side by side with mankind.
Trials or ways to give artificial intelligence sentience were stopped and most technological innovations with the potential to gain sentience were dismantled.
Another War of Liberation was an event humanity couldn't afford.
The automatons held boxes, red, green and black. They moved like well-oiled machines–probably because they were–ordering students into lines. And on the stage, Skye watched dishing out simple words of encouragement.
Jace sidled into a line as he could see a few people leaving the hall the minute they got what was in those boxes, probably to their dorm room or to the party.
A few stayed, loitering around the hall and doing nothing in particular, until it happened.
A loud, sudden, gut-wrenching scream erupted from a corner as a student lay on the ground coiled up. On the tiled floor were scratch marks, strong enough to damage the floor and covered in blood.
His eyes were red, blood dripping down as his mouth hung open. His cheeks were already sunken in and beside him. The black box, open but its content hidden.
A couple of automatons stumbled awkwardly towards him. Not even lifting his hand to check his pulse or checking for a heartbeat, they moved.
Swinging the unconscious body over its shoulder, an automaton walked out the secret door, another trailing behind.
Skye cleared her throat as she declared once more "As I said, it is only to be used in your personal rooms,"
She apparently didn't have much to say as she ignored the incident that had just taken place, still sticking to her script. It was clear this wasn't a one-off thing.
Jace had known there would be side-effects from the ability bestowment but dying like that. Jace wouldn't wish it for his first enemy.
For another second, the image of Councilor Sorn came to mind. Scratch that, Jace would only partially wish it on his worst enemy.
"Next," An automaton called out, as Jace headed to the origin of the voice.
Even with what had happened, Jace had no choice. It would have been weird if he walked out the hall with nothing.
That and the simple fact that he had reached this point. Jace had already come this far. What was a simple 5% chance of death.
Jace walked towards the automaton as it sounded in the familiar sexless voice that reminded Jace of his cybernet "Please, show your student ID,"
Jace reached into his pockets, fishing out the card as a bright red light emanated from the forehead of the robot and scanned the card.
"Jace Blank, student ID 021893. You have been gifted with speed enhancement." It spoke while he carried a black box dropping it into Jace's hand.
As it did, it spoke, his voice holding a tone that resembled…reverence "Vis est Potestas,"
"Vis est potestas." Jace repeated. Strength is power.
The words flowed smoothly from his tongue, the phrase every child had spoken at least once in their life.
The meaning was simple, strength was power. Only those who had the necessary strength were able to speak from a position of power.
As the box fell into his hands, Jace felt a sharp gaze coming from above.
Jace looked up to see Skye looking at him with an expressionless face. Then, forcing a smile,her tiny scar creating the shadow of a larger, she encouraged or at least tried to "You have a lot of potential. Grow strong so you can help the military,"
Jace blinked, her encouragement sounding more like a death threat.Not knowing what to do, he simply nodded causing Skye to look satisfied and focus on others.
Jace gripped the black box tightly as he gazed at the place where the fallen student had once been. The scratch marks and blood were still there, but the body was gone. That and the box.Jace doubted they would dispose of it. Probably refurnish it and give it to the next.
Jace shook his head as he took one last look into the hall.
Finally, he stepped out of the hall and into the cold. With the last thirty minutes replaying in his head like a tape, he muttered, mostly to himself.
"Welcome to the Military"
The cold wind carried the words away. A sigh breathed through the night as Jace walked across the clearing, the wind blowing in his face.
He crossed into the building, climbing up the still creaking stairs and onto the corridor. A lone light flickered from the ceiling, carving a hole into the center of the hallway.
Jace was at his dorm door when the light went out, the corridor drowned in darkness. A second later, the light was back and Jace swung open his door.
The wind howled behind him as Jace shut the door. Making sure to lock it, he walked inside his small confine, flickering on his lights.
The light shone to reveal a stack of clothes wrapping around one another lying on the bed. Beside it was a suitcase and at the edge of the bed, was another stack of clothes. This one, arranged.
Jace sighed as he shrugged off his jacket. As he surveyed the room, his eyes flickered over to the bed stand where the previously organized stack of papers lay everywhere, now disorganized and half-read.
They were the Rules and Regulations of the Academy. Jace had been reading them previously before he had gotten the notification to report to the hall.Jace picked up the stack, flipping through them. The rules were the same, familiar ones.
'Don't kill', 'Don't torture or maim', 'Don't leave the premises past 10pm,' and others like that.
Only a few of the rules interested him, one of them being the Ranking. In the academy, students had been ranked by their ability grades. A student could choose to move up the rankings by beating someone of a higher rank. Simple, right?The higher up someone was, the more benefits they would have including tokens.
Tokens were the form of currency in the military and even in factions. Aside from that, the amount they were giving the 1st ranked was almost absurd. Even then, it was simply a drop in the well for legacies, maybe a bucket at most.
Jace moved his attention to his cyberlink as the numbers shone '393/501'. It had been 502 people when Jace checked it before the ceremony. Jace involuntarily shivered as he remembered the haunting look on that student's face.
The blood dripping down from every orifice, the broken nails, the screeching wails. Jace shook his head as he struggled to push the mental image out of his mind.
Placing the papers back on the table, his eyes moved to the bulge in the pocket of the jacket now lying on his bed. Jace attempted to sigh before stopping himself.
'Not now. Soon, but not now,' He assured himself as he focused his attention on the clothes sprawled on his bed.
Folding and arranging them was easy. It was what would come after it that scared him.
Jace still didn't know a lot about the way to get an ability. Information like that was kept under wraps.
What Jace did know was that when you were bestowed, a fundamental change happened in your body.
At some point, other abilities like enhanced intelligence or telekinesis were once bestowed.
That had changed when the survival rate was close to 5%. There were still some rumors that experiments were still happening in the shadows.
Jace folded his checkered shirt as he gazed around. The bed was clear with nothing on it except a pile of folded clothes at the corner.
He was done, which meant he was just getting started.
Jace reached into his jacket pocket, retrieving the familiar black wooden box. Taking a deep breath, Jace cracked open the box as a silver-like object came into view.
It was a heart.
Not a heart-shaped object like chocolates in valentine or balloons. This was a real silver heart. Jace touched it as it pulsed slowly–a dry liquid, probably blood, dripping down from one of the many crevices on it.
Jace gazed at the heart as a folded piece of paper caught his eye. The contents on the paper were easy to see as Jace unfolded it.
'Eat the heart'
Jace blinked as he reread the note. The message remained the same 'Eat the heart', and for a second Jace thought it was a sick military joke.
The heart pulsed once more, as if it too was laughing at the absurd joke.
Jace closed his eyes as he pinched the bridge of his nose, his other hand holding the wooden box.
He considered throwing it away. Just tossing it away and pretending. He already had the mysterious floating window, that could probably help him, right.
The young student shook his head. That floating window was a tool, nothing more. The same as the heart pulsing in front of him.
He grabbed it, feeling the blood dripping down his fingers.A feeling of disgust rose up from his stomach and Jace pushed it back down alongside the familiar taste of bile. Bringing it closer to his face gave Jace another chance to observe its disgusting nature.
Shutting his eyes and pinching his nose, Jace shoved the heart inside his mouth as he felt a warm liquid flow from his lips.
Forcing himself to fit it into his mouth, Jace initially tried to swallow it whole but soon found that the only option was chewing.
This disgusted him more as he felt the strong muscles on the outer layer of the heart's structure, pushing against his teeth.
As his teeth pierced through the layer, the taste of metal filled his mouth as Jace fought the urge to gag.
The familiar feeling of disgust rose like a storm, upsetting his body.
The heart remained motionless in his mouth but even then Jace could still feel its little pulsing.All this served to increase the storm that was now forming it's way upward.
Jace choked down the heart just before the storm fell on him. Gagging and almost retching, Jace grabbed his neck, struggling to keep the heart down. Blood spurted out of his lips, as it stained the tiled bedroom floor.
With a sense of realization, Jace understood.
The Blood. It was his.
And the storm ramped up. From an uncomfortable feeling, it grew into a calamitous event threatening to destroy everything.
Blood rose up to Jace's throat as pain descended on his fragile body. His muscles tore and reformed, tore and reformed, tore and reformed in such a manner Jace could barely keep himself from screaming out.
The pain kept his mind on the edge, leaving him floating around, itching to go off it but being held back by a thin thread that held his sanity intact.
And then, it stopped. The storm calmed as the scattered pieces of Jace's mind coalesced into one. A sigh flitted from his lips as he collapsed, his mind now tired.
He closed his eyes just as darkness descended upon him.The room was silent, almost sleeping like the only inhabitant.
And then, it happened. The clacking of shoes across a tiled floor.
The door swung open, giving way despite the lock still on and armed.
A large figure walked in.
Shards of metal hung from its skin, a blank mask melted upon its face. Every part of the figure was clothed in a metallic sheen.The figure moved slowly, the metal breastplate hitting against its upper body yet making no noise.
It was as if the world had stopped, the wind frozen and the room still.
Only the small rhythmic breathing of the boy challenged that notion.
The figure walked slowly towards the defenseless boy, unslinging its rifle as she knelt beside his body.
It aimed its rifle, steadying it as the muzzle pointed to Jace's forehead. A period of silence settled on the room, the rifle aimed at Jace's forehead and the figure's finger slowly approaching the trigger.
A voice echoed through the room, cutting the timeless atmosphere through like a hot knife on butter. The voice was playful, with a hint of underlying power.
"Oh, I was sure I was the only one tasked to watch him. Who are you?"
The metallic figure remained motionless as it paused and then in a silent whisper, spoke. Either to the unconscious Jace or the inanimate room, it whispered in a half automated voice "I hope I'm not making a costly mistake,"
And then, like a shadow, it was gone–Its figure leaping through the window, leaving no proof it was ever there.
The invisible owner of the voice appeared, seemingly formed from the shadows. His bright green eyes scanned the room as he gazed around as if looking for something.
With a smile on his face, he held up the walkie-talkie that had somehow appeared in his hands.
"There was a little problem. Nothing major. Target is still safe and secure."
The figure surveyed the room once more, his eyes resting on Jace as a small twinkle shone in his eyes. And then, he was gone. His presence vanished, the world back in time, the wind flowing unhurriedly and the room breathing.
And in the center, that boy lay. His heart breathing unhurriedly and his presence, undisturbed.
For now.