Arden laid on his cot with his hands behind his head and his legs crossed. He would have had a beautiful view of the concrete ceiling of his cell had it not been for the upper bunk of the cot positioned just above him. To make matters worse, the only picturesque aspect of the cell was on top of the bunk, meaning Arden couldn't see it from his spot. At least not until Vera poked her head over the edge of her bunk.

  Now the view was better.

  “How you feeling?” She asked.

  “I can't really complain,” Arden shrugged. “This cell is better than our previous lodgings. It's clean, it has running water, and we get food given to us. It's like the government actually learned that leaders live by the governed.”

  “Was my place really that bad?”

  “Nah. It was fine. But this place has amenities that are hard to obtain for people like us. If I knew these were the luxuries a prisoner enjoyed, I would have committed a crime sooner. Sya has it even better. She's chilling with Starborn without worrying about infecting anyone.”

  “Besides us.”

  “Besides us,” Arden parroted back. “But did that even matter? I've been fine for years.”

  “But you've also been backed by an extra-dimensional deity-like bullshit entity for just as long that keeps you in tip top shape. I'd wager the Usurper’s Throne that your legacy ability has been what's kept you from turning Blighted.”

  “Ooh. You'd wager a couch on the possibility of my healing power keeping me healed?” He asked with a grin.

  “It's white-tier,” she said, hyping it up.

  “I'll pass, thanks.”

  The cell was quite spacious as far as prison cells went. Ten meters by ten meters, with a desk, a coffee table, and a small bookshelf with a smattering of books too boring to interest Arden or Vera.

  Truthfully, the prison cell was closer to a dorm room than a prison cell. Cirai was the reason for that, much to Frozhe's chagrin. She claimed that because there were no other prisoners and because Arden and Vera were only suspects that it would be fine. Frozhe did his best to prevent it, trying to get Arden and Vera confined to one of the bare bones cells. It was only when Podren stepped in that the situation was resolved.

  Vera pulled herself down from her bunk and stood beside Arden, looking down at him with her hands on her hips. She was still wearing the clothes she took into stargate, so there were numerous holes in them. Thankfully, while she was showing a lot of her skin, there was nothing forbidden, something which Arden was both pleased and upset about in equal measure.

  Arden was still in his armored suit, as the Starborn had no other clothes to give them. In another concession to Podren, Frozhe had been unable to take it from Arden, as Podren had passed ownership to him.

  “Alright, Arden. That’s enough rest. We’ve been here for a day already.”

  Arden sat up.

  “Vera, not that I don’t totally agree with you about being locked up, but can we not make a daring escape from a heavily fortified building with several Starborn while they have Sya in their possession?”

  “Relax,” she said, pulling Arden to his feet. “We’re not going to escape. We can’t. The doors and walls here are made of celestinite, at least until the Association pulls out. We could barely take out a red-tier main sequence, and that was with access to our Statuses. All of these rooms use Starborn tech to cut off Status access.”

  “I mean, yeah, of course the prison is going to have countermeasures against Starborn. That’s why I’d rather not try an escape. Not only would it fail horrendously, but it would be taken as an admission of guilt.”

  “Right,” she said. “So we’re not going to escape. We’re going to use it to our advantage.”

  She gave him a smile that was equal parts cunning and excited, like her grand plan for world domination was about to come to fruition. Arden found it incredibly pleasing to look at.

  He looked around the cell, partly to avert his gaze, and aptly to look around for something that would give him a clue to what Vera was planning. Coming up short, he spoke.

  “Okay. I give up. What are you talking about?”

  She pointed to the sealed door that prevented them from leaving. It was the only thing that stood out from the room, looking extremely out of place. With its incredibly resilient translucent material, it was closer to a sci-fi door than the door of a building people actually lived at.

  “I’m still not following,” Arden said.

  “Put your ear up to it.”

  With a raised brow, Arden put his head against the door.

  “If Big Hank is on the other side of this…” he muttered.

  “What was that?”

  “Nothing. What am I supposed to be doing here?”

  “Listen. Tune out your other senses and focus on only your hearing. What do you hear?”

  ‘Let’s give it a shot.’

  Arden tried to do what Vera told him. He wasn’t sure exactly how to tune out his other senses, so he just closed his eyes and tried to only pay attention to what his ears were picking up.

  It took a minute, but Arden was able to pick up on something. It was a strange mechanical whirring sound. When Arden tried to focus on the sound, it grew louder and became discordant. A static-like haze settled on his brain. It was giving him a headache.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “Ugh,” he groaned, pulling his head away from the door. “That wasn't good.”

  He felt something warm trickle down his nose. Before he could wipe it away, Vera used a part of her increasingly threadbare shirt to do it herself. She wiped up his blood and spoke.

  “Are you alright?”

  Arden rubbed his head.

  “I think so? What was that weird noise?”

  “The jammer that’s preventing us from accessing the Status. I don’t know how it works, but its not important. What’s important is that even though we are likely under surveillance, the others are unlikely to do anything to us with the belief that we are cut off.”

  “We are cut off though.”

  “Exactly. What I’m going to teach you won’t have any effect in here, but once we get out, you’ll have a head start. Just think of this prison sentence as a training period.”

  The fog lifted from Arden’s mind and the pain that came with it also disappeared. With a relieved sigh he turned his now clear eyes to Vera.

  “So, we’re training again?”

  “Yup.”

  “Finally,” Arden said with relief. “I needed to do something. Chilling in here is nice and all, but I’d rather do something active again.”

  “You like training already?”

  “Well, I wouldn’t say I enjoy the training itself. But having killed a few Celestials after a bit of training made me realize how fun it is to get stronger. I want to get even stronger.”

  Vera smiled in such a way that would threaten to melt the ice caps. Arden found himself captivated by it. He now had another reason to want to get stronger. He wanted to see that face more.

  “That’s good to hear,” she said. “Really, it is. You have the motivation now. Unfortunately, you still have a limit as a mundane. We might as well lay out the groundwork for being a Starborn. Even if you don’t become one, which I doubt considering all this weird stuff around you, this will still be helpful.”

  “Lay it on me.”

  Vera put her hands on Arden’s shoulders. Even through the armor, he could feel the warmth of her fingertips, thanks to the sensors built into the suit. She pressed down on him.

  “Sit down,” she said.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he responded.

  It took him half a second to realize what he’d just said. He just instinctively felt the need to capitulate to her.

  ‘Oh god. Please don’t let her notice.’

  Vera gave him an odd look as he hurriedly sat down with a face tinted a light shade of red. As soon as she saw his face, she smirked at him, seeing right through him.

  “Cross your legs and straighten your back,” she instructed.

  No matter how much she wanted to tease him, her professionalism took priority when she was teaching.

  “Good boy,” she said.

  Or so she thought.

  She didn’t mean to say that. It just slipped in a moment of weakness. She cleared her throat and continued.

  “I taught this to Sya back in the Mausoleum when you were taking a snooze. It's a way to improve recovery as a mundane, but it's far more important as a Starborn. You already know that Starborn use stellar essence, right?”

  “Yeah,” Arden said, temporarily forgetting his embarrassment.

  “Using a breathing technique will help make you recover stellar essence quicker by circulating it around your body. Learning how to control its flow will also help as a Starborn during fights.”

  “How can I learn how to circulate essence if I don't have any?”

  “I’m getting to that part. For now, close your eyes and breathe.”

  Arden shut his eyes and began taking long, deep breaths. After a minute of meditating, he felt something warm against the center of his chest. He flinched at first, knowing that it wasn’t energy or anything like that.

  It was Vera’s finger.

  Arden felt the finger move lightly across his chest creating a small circle. The sensors on the armor made it feel like he was wearing nothing at all as her finger continued to graze his chest.

  “Do you feel it?” she asked softly.

  “I'm feeling something,” he said, a little short of breath.

  “This will be where your stellar core forms. Try to focus on my heat more than just my finger. Memorize the path I take. Imagine a separate energy following my fingers. It’s warm like me, but the energy is yours to control.”

  Before he could answer, Vera’s finger moved slowly, breaking away from the circle she was forming. She dragged her finger up to his left shoulder and began drawing circles on him again. After a few seconds, her finger moved down to his elbow where she made a few more circles.

  “Imagine the energy, Arden. Focus.”

  He tried to do as she said. He imagined a warm energy that began next to his heart where Vera began. He slowly imagined the energy following the same path that Vera took. By the time he made it to the shoulder, Vera made it to his hand.

  Her fingertips caressed his open palm. Arden had to clench his jaw to prevent him from making an embarrassing sound. He wondered how much of the touching was necessary. She brought her finger up to each of his fingertips and slowly back down to his palm where made concentric circles again.

  “Now we go back up,” she said.

  She slowly retraced her path, making her way back to the space next to his heart, redrawing circles at all the spots she did before. Arden was still lagging a bit behind her with his mental energy, but that was alright. He was told to follow her fingers after all. She did the same thing to his right arm. Drawing circles at his shoulder, elbow, and hand, before returning to his core. By the time she made it back to his heart the second time, he could swear that she could feel his racing heart beat. He didn’t know why, but it felt really good to him.

  ‘Maybe I am a sub after all. No, it can’t be. I just haven't ever been touched like this before. Yes, that’s it.’

  When Vera started tracing her finger down his legs, he was very happy that the armor wasn’t a skin-tight set. She did the same procedure on his legs as she did on his arms. She made circles on his knees, ankles, and feet, traced each of his toes, then returned back to the core. She made a few last circles before gently lifting her finger from Arden’s chest.

  “And we’re done,” she said cheerily, wiping the sweat from her brow.

  It wasn’t difficult, but she had to make sure not to get the pathways wrong. If Arden circulated stellar essence through his body in the wrong way, it could end up disastrous. But she was satisfied with her job. She felt that she had done it as well as she could have.

  “How do you feel?” she asked, leaning back across from him.

  Her heart skipped a beat when Arden opened his eyes and looked at her. His eyes were somewhat glassy and his face was beet red.

  ‘He’s cute,’ she thought. It was immediately followed by another one. ‘I want to tease him more.’

  “I feel…warm,” he said slowly.

  Slipping back into her instructor persona, Vera spoke.

  “Make sure you do that at least once every day. Imagine the circulation throughout your entire body. Right now it will only improve your stamina, but when you become a Starborn, it will be the fastest way to replenish your essence.”

  “I could go for replenishments right now,” he said.

  “Yeah, you look like you do. I wonder why?”