In the late morning, a loud boom rang out, slightly shaking the grounds of the AIKA estate. Smoke slowly drifted outside from under the East Wing. 

“Are you trying to kill us!?” Caelin yelled, quickly running over to Hale and slapping him across the face. She had made it just in time to seal his Imperium and stop another one of his bombs from detonating. 

“Of course I didn’t do it on purpose,” Hale protested ruefully, rubbing his cheek where a red handprint already began to appear.

“Watch out,” Theo called, activating his Imperium to move aside a large piece of the ceiling that had almost fallen on top of Caelin and Hale. “I don’t think this room can take but a few more explosions before the foundation collapses.” 

He began attempting to replace the larger pieces of rubble back to their original positions in hopes of providing more stability.

Caelin looked around at the combat training room they had reserved to use in AIKA’s basement level . Much to her displeasure, Lilac had commanded them to help Hale practice controlling his Imperium. It had been a week since they returned from their mission in Gorvia, but Hale’s control of his Imperium showed little improvement since. The recent explosion caused by him had expanded the room by a quarter of its size, exposing the jagged bedrock underground.

“On the plus side, we have more room to practice now,” Caelin remarked dryly. “Let’s try again at least one more time.” She pointed at a piece of rubble approximately the size of a fist on the ground beside them. “But we’ll start with something small again.”

“Why is this so hard,” Hale groaned, crouching down to pick up the broken piece from the room’s wall. He touched the small hoop earring on his right ear, contemplating. “Do you think that if I ate my Imperium instead, I could control it better?”

“Go ahead and do that if you want to die a painful, gruesome death,” Caelin said, looking at Hale like he was crazy. “Did they tell you nothing after you had passed the aptitude tests?”

“I actually caught a bad case of pneumonia after the last test, so I missed everything for a week, which includes the orientation ceremony,” Hale said sheepishly.

“By Fari’s patience,” Caelin muttered under her breath, realizing how much Hale still needed to learn. “Short answer is, don’t do it. It’ll essentially poison you and cause all of your organs to fail in a matter of minutes. Don’t think about sewing it under your skin either—and people have tried—but it’ll all be the same result. That’s why Robin and other Imperium craftsmen dilute the Imperium down with other precious metals to protect your body from it.”

Hale jerked his hand away from his earring instantly and looked at Caelin with worry. “My earring is so small, what if it isn’t diluted enough? Should I get a bigger earring? Or change it to a necklace instead like what Theo has?” 

He gestured to the dark steel pendant on Theo’s chest.

“Do you want your Imperium to be useless?” Caelin sighed. “Just as the metals dilute the negative effects, they’ll also dilute your power. That’s why you’re not allowed to wear any other pieces of metal, especially jewelry, outside of your usual combat uniform, and why we have to get those health examinations after every mission. Robin works really hard to craft this delicate balance between safety and power for us, and you just want to mess it up?” She resisted the urge to kick Hale.

“I’m sorry, I thought it was just some sort of AIKA fashion statement,” Hale said dejectedly. He tossed the broken stone between his hands. “But I’m still having problems with controlling my Imperium. How did you figure out how to control yours, Caelin? Wasn’t it even harder since you have two?”

“No,” Caelin said proudly. She flexed her fingers and stared at her hands thoughtfully. “It always felt natural, like an extension of my body. My hands and arms would get this tingly feeling…like sparks of lightning running through my veins. For my sword Imperium, there’s this constant stream of static charge flowing down to my hand that I can start and stop at will. And for the other one, depending on how long I want to seal away someone’s power, I can either hold onto them longer with a constant stream or do one large burst to achieve the same result. And then it works.”

“So not only are you compatible with two Imperiums, you’re also a natural genius at it,” Hale sighed dejectedly. 

“Well what about Theo?” Caelin offered. She turned to look at the grey eyed man walking towards them, having finished placing back half of the wall. “How do you control your Imperium?” 

“I definitely wasn’t a natural at it, and I struggled quite a bit in the beginning,” Theo admitted. “Personally, I think of it as this large wooden bucket of water that I have to water a plant.” He drew vague shapes in the air with his hands. “The larger the object I’m manipulating, the more water I have to give the plant. If I want to control more objects, I would need to water more plants, but I still only have one bucket. The bucket doesn’t have a ladle or cup or anything to help pour out the water, so when I tip the bucket over, I have to be careful to not accidentally drown the plant.”

Hale nodded slowly in understanding. “I think I got it. Let me try that.” 

He stared determinedly at the piece of rubble in his hands.

“Make sure you control it so that you only blow up the dummy and nothing else,” Caelin reminded him, pointing at the wooden, humanoid object. It stood approximately twenty meters across the room from them. 

Hale took in a deep breath before swinging his arm back and throwing the stone at the dummy. It hit the dummy firmly on the chest before falling to its feet. They all stared at it in silence for a few seconds.

“I could’ve sworn I didn’t seal your power away for that lon—” Caelin began to say before a massive explosion wrecked the room, nearly knocking her off her feet from the shockwave.

After the blinding light subsided, Caelin’s ears still rang faintly from the impact as she surveyed the destruction. There was now a massive crater in the middle of the floor, and the wooden puppet had immediately been vaporized, turning into black soot staining the walls and ceiling.

Hale stared dejectedly at the destroyed room. “I think I killed my plant.” 

After alerting the Facilities and Maintenance department about the damaged training room, Caelin made the executive decision for them to take a lunch break. Caelin happily hummed a random tune to herself as they headed towards the dining hall. She had seen in the daily menu posted the night before that there would be mashed potatoes as an option. Objectively speaking, AIKA’s chefs were horrible at preparing mashed potatoes. It was notoriously-known as the worst dish ever prepared in the kitchen. But Caelin didn’t enjoy it for the undercooked and unseasoned potato flavor. It was the gritty, sand-like texture that she couldn’t get enough of. After all, it was the closest socially acceptable thing she would ever get to eating rocks in AIKA.

“Who’s Robin?” Theo asked, startling Caelin as she was scooping herself some mashed potatoes. 

Nearly dropping her plate onto the dining hall floor, Caelin clutched the railing of the food station to calm her frightened heart. Theo seemed to make no sound when he moved, constantly catching her by surprise when he suddenly spoke right beside her.

Caelin cleared her throat and continued adding food onto her plate as she pretended to appear unfazed, ignoring her earlier shock. “Robin is AIKA’s resident Imperium craftsman. If you’re having issues with your Imperium, you can find him in the Mech and Design department to get it reforged. He’s really good at what he does.” She waved her hand with the matte, black ring in front of Theo’s face. “He had helped me get this reforged when I first arrived.” 

“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind,” Theo said politely. 

They walked together back out to the seating area, where they saw Hale waving desperately at them from a round table near the center of the room. AIKA’s dining area was a large rectangular room decorated in the same lavish, golden baroque style as the rest of the estate. Rectangular tables hugged the cream walls while circular tables were placed in the middle of the room.  

“I didn’t know you were friends with Dragos,” Caelin said, taking a seat at the table beside Hale with Theo beside her. She looked at the Division 1 member sitting across from them. 

“I’m not, but he sat down without even asking,” Hale said, stabbing at his salad bitterly.

“This is my table,” Dragos said arrogantly. “I’ve sat here for all of my meals since I first joined. Isn’t that right, Liffé?” He held out a fresh strawberry to a small, green creature the size of a hamster sitting beside his plate. 

Observing it more closely, Caelin realized that it was a wyvern pup eating the strawberry. 

“Is that your Imperium’s ability?” Theo asked, looking at the wyvern curiously.

“Dragos doesn’t have an Imperium,” Caelin said casually, while eating a spoonful of sandy mashed potatoes. “But he’s half-barbarian, so he can communicate with lizards and stuff. That’s why his eyes look like a gecko’s.”

“I’m half-drakonian,” Dragos said through gritted teeth. “Drakonians are descended from dragons, not lizards. And ‘barbarian’ is just a rude, mistranslation that humans derived from the correct word for our species, ‘berborian’.” 

Sensing its owner’s annoyance, the wyvern pup also stopped eating and hissed at the Division 3 members.

“So not all Combat Division members are Imperators?” Theo asked in surprise. 

“Only Dragos,” Caelin said. 

“I’m so strong, I don’t even need an Imperium,” Dragos boasted. 

“That is really impressive,” Theo agreed sincerely. “You must’ve worked really hard to keep up with the Imperators.” 

“Oh, I mean it’s not really that impressive,” Dragos said, suddenly bashful from Theo’s genuine praise. “You know, I personally think your tattoo is really cool. It’s honestly really offensive how they would attach such a crude meaning of ‘a harbinger of misfortune’ to the image of a dragon.”

“Thank…you?” Theo said, uncertain of whether Dragos was complimenting or insulting him.

“Besides, only old prudes who think too much about tradition will still actually care about such a mark,” Dragos continued. 

“You do realize that you’re essentially calling your own commander ‘an old prude’,” Caelin pointed out.

“Blue isn’t old, he’s in his thirties,” Dragos said before realizing he was defending the wrong part. “I mean, he probably only reacted like that because your new guy kept trying to play Xero’s advocate. Xero is a bit of a sore topic for him since Blue lost his father to him during the Dagann Wars.”

“I’m sorry,” Theo said somberly. “I wasn’t aware of that.”

“Don’t beat yourself up over it, it’s not like you were the one who killed his father,” Dragos said, shrugging. “Besides, I think it’s good to have a degree of skepticism towards everything.”

“Oh good, I’m glad you guys are all here,” a voice suddenly said.

Turning around, Caelin saw Killian standing behind them, looking slightly out of breath. He must’ve run around the estate to find them after seeing the empty, destroyed training room.

“Oh hi, Dragos,” Killian said, noticing the Division 1 member. 

“What’s wrong, Killian?” Hale asked, leaning back in his chair.

“Lilac wants us to meet her in her office as soon as possible,” Killian said. “We have a new mission.”