The only problem that he faced now was Vera’s absence from the bed.
“I miss her already.”
In the darkness of the early morning room, he could see the light in the bathroom peeking out from beneath the door. The sound of the shower and a light humming tickled Arden’s brain. He did his best not to imagine Vera in the shower, and failed.
“It’s going to be hard to think about anything else for a while.”
Arden pulled himself out from beneath the covers and got out of bed. He glanced at the ground, noting all of the clothes strewn across the floor from last night. After he found his pants, he slipped into them, just as Vera exited the bathroom.
Arden was about to greet her, but his brain short circuited upon seeing that she didn’t have a towel wrapped around her, but a shower curtain instead.
“I was right,” he said.
Vera’s eyes lit up seeing him awake. A smile spread across her face as she moved over to him.
“Good morning,” she said.
“Yes it is. Easily the best morning ever.”
They shared a prolonged kiss that conveyed how much they cared for each other. They could taste it.
Vera broke away first, causing Arden to reach towards her, not wanting it to end.
“Ooh,” she said as she denied it, seeing Arden’s hurt expression. “Are you really that needy? Do you want me that much?”
“Yes,” he responded without hesitation.
“Too bad,” she teased. “It’s time we started to train again. We already told Sya that as well. We’ll be meeting her in an hour down the block for some movement training. Hurry and wash up so we can begin.”
“You want to shower before we exercise?”
“You said you wanted to hide our relationship from Sya for a while right? If we head down there with disheveled hair, bite marks, and the smell of sex, it'll be obvious.”
“Valid,” Arden said.
He paused for a moment and furrowed his brows in confusion.
“Wait, you have bite marks? I bit you?”
Vera stuck out her tongue teasingly.
“Of course not. I bit you, though. You loved it.”
Arden’s face went red and said nothing as he entered the bathroom.
Vera giggled to herself as he went. He responded so well to her teasing that it made it impossible for her to resist doing it.
When the bathroom door closed, Vera pulled out a set of lightweight, breathable clothes from her inventory. They would be good for exercise.
“Holy hell!” came Arden’s muffled voice from beyond the door. “How many bites did she take?”
Vera snickered and finished getting ready.
*****
Close to an hour had passed since then.
Arden and Sya stood side by side in front of Vera.
They were standing on the sidewalk outside of Miasma HQ. Various personnel were giving the group strange looks as the trio started to stretch and get limber. There was a training hall inside, so they were a little confused as to why a group of people were preparing to train outside before the sun came up. They would have questioned it more if Laurent hadn’t told them to ignore whatever the group did.
“So what’s the plan, Vera?” Sya asked.
“We’re getting back to physical training,” she answered. “Things have finally calmed down, and we’re all back together. If you remember before the cascade, the plan was to work on your fundamentals before actually teaching you to fight.”
“Yeah, that didn’t really work out well,” Arden said.
“I don’t know,” Sya said. “Exercising for one day and then not doing it for a few months sounds pretty normal for me. I’m sure a lot of mundanes would agree.”
“It worked,” Vera said. “So we’re going to continue it. For a while. Remember, this is phase one: repetition. You have to learn enough of the fundamentals that you can put them into practice in the field for experience. Clarity will come at some point, so don’t try to force it.”
She turned to Arden.
“You’re a bit wonky, though.”
“Thanks, I know.”
“You have experience. Not much mind you, but you have some. Your foundations are a bit off, so we’ll be pushing your fundamentals a bit harder to right any wrongs.”
“Woo,” he said without any enthusiasm. “So what are we going to do first?”
“Do you remember on day one when we were done and you two were lying collapsed from exhaustion?”
“Yes,” Arden and Sya answered in unison, both fearing what Vera was going to say afterwards.
“We’ll stop when you get to that point again. This time though, it won’t be pushups or limit breaking calisthenics. We’re gonna go for a nice run.”
*****
The run began easy enough. It was just a run around the nearby city.
For people like Arden and Sya who felt like they hadn't done enough physical activity recently, it felt like a nice return to form.
Especially for Sya, who had been sedentary for years at this point. She relished in the freedom that came with running with Arden and Vera.
Vera led the pair through the darkened streets at a quick clip. They were slower than a full sprint, but definitely faster than the average jog.
As they left the guild's property, the streets became considerably busier. The sun wasn't up yet, but it would start to climb very soon, meaning the morning rush was on.
The trio consisting of two beauties and a marginally attractive guy stood out as they weaved through people on the way to work, maintaining their running pace.
Arden recognized the path they were taking. He recognized plenty of the shops along the street that had yet to open. It was the same path he and Vera had walked along the way to the restricted zone.
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By the time they reached their destination, the park across from the primary school, both Arden and Sya were exhausted. As soon as Vera called for a break, they summoned what little energy they had left to make a dash for the picnic table.
Vera approached them as they tried collecting your breath. For her part, she had only broken into a sweat and her breathing was only slightly disturbed. It made Arden wonder what the hell she had done yesterday to make her sweat so much before coming to his room.
“Good hustle. Rest up for five minutes, then we can run back.”
They both groaned. They already knew that they would have to run back, but having it confirmed still annoyed them.
As soon as they made it back to Miasma, Arden and Sya collapsed on the sidewalk outside. As they gasped for air, it was hard for them to tell if the liquid pooling on the concrete below them was sweat or their tears.
The run wouldn't have been so hellish if Vera didn't routinely test their perception. What letter on the marquee was out? What color shirt was the commuter they passed wearing? Naturally, every wrong answer yielded pushups, and naturally, Arden did more than Sya.
“I feel like I'm gonna throw up,” Sya said, punctuating every word with a breath.
Vera stood with her hands on the back of her head, taking in deep breaths. Sweat poured off her face, but she seemed unbothered.
It irked Arden a bit.
“That’s how you know you’re pushing yourself.” Vera said, wiping the sweat from her face with her shirt, exposing her well-defined abs.
Even with his cheek on the pavement, Arden made sure to get a look at the pleasing sight.
“Make sure you guys do more than catch your breath. Circulate your essence. You'll recover faster.”
Reluctantly, the pair of slum siblings peeled themselves from the concerningly comfortable concrete. They leaned against the fountain that was a centerpiece for Miasma’s entrance and tried to circulate their respective essences. Blight flowed through Sya’s soul and biomass through Arden’s.
Vera watched her students with pride as they managed to get their essence flowing despite their exhaustion.
“Good,” she praised, noting a small smile and light blush that appeared on Arden. “The fact that you are able to circulate in such a diminished state shows your focus. Get good enough at that, and you'll be able to multitask to the point of circulating even as you fight.”
Eventually, their breathing settled as they recovered. After ten minutes, they were able to recover enough to push themselves to their feet. Their legs buckled and shook, but they managed to stay on their feet. The image of two determined Starborn rising to their feet below the morning sun would have looked empowering, if not for the fact that they were clearly just tired after exercise.
“How are you feeling?” Vera asked them.
“I don’t really feel tired,” Arden said. “But my body is telling me otherwise.”
“Same,” Sya said, hunched over with her hands on her knees. “Moving is going to be tough for a little bit.”
“I take it that you won’t be able to do a second lap?” Vera asked. She laughed seeing the pair’s aghast expressions. “Relax, I won’t push you that hard on your first day.”
Arden shivered at her words.
“The first day…”
“Yup. This is going to be a daily thing. Same with the other training. Strong foundations come from good habits. This is the time to put everything you have forward. If you don't, you'll regret it in the future. Would you rather suffer a little more today, or get killed in the field?”
“That’s not even a question,” Arden said. “What do we do next?”
Vera smiled at him. His tenacity was one of the many things she loved about him.
“First, we’ll get cleaned up, then we’ll have breakfast. I’ll tell you guys what our routine is going to be like for the foreseeable future.”
*****
Arden wasn’t sure if it was normal to have several showers in a single morning, but he didn’t really care. He wasn’t paying the water bill.
‘I'll just consider it making up for lost time,’ he thought as he made his way to the food hall.
When he stepped into the large room filled with people eating together, mundane and Starborn alike, he once again realized how much this palace had changed over the past few months. As he walked to an open table, he noticed several people waving to him and greeting him, which Arden responded to in kind.
That was something that definitely didn’t happen before.
Before, he was just another slum rat who lived with a Blight Walker.
Now, he was a Starborn.
He summoned his Status and read it as he waited for Vera and Sya to meet him here.
Name: Arden
Starborn Tier: Red
Starborn Rank: Protostar
- Progress to next rank: 2/1000
Constellation: RedShift
- Rank: Paradox
- Description: Hidden
- Legacy: Arden
Innate Ability: The Blood of Billions
- Description: Hidden
Protostar Ability: Devour
- Description: Hidden
“Right,” he said. “The real meat and potatoes of the Status can only be seen in the Soul Cluster. I forgot that.”
His eyes lingered below his Constellation where his legacy was named.
He was an Archon now.
“Whatever that actually entails,” he muttered.
The Administrator was tight-lipped about the Archons last time they talked, but now that he had a personal stake in the matter, he was sure that there would be better information available. All he had to do was challenge an orange-tier golden stargate.
“That’s not happening anytime soon. I barely survived the last one.”
“The last what?” Vera asked, walking up to him with Sya in tow.
“The last trial. I’ve been thinking-”
“That’s dangerous for you,” Sya said.
Arden continued, ignoring his sister.
“I think that the only way to figure out what's been going on is to meet the Administrator again.”
“Arden, I’m saying this because I care about you,” Vera said. “It is way too early for you to consider ascending again. You’d be reduced to a quivering puddle of man, and not the good kind.”
Sya gave her friend an odd look, while Arden nodded his head, trying not to think about last night.
“I’m aware. I don’t want to take on another golden stargate for a while. I’d like to become a Main Sequence first. Get that extra ability.”
A few minutes later, the three had large plates of food in front of each of them, all of them filled with various breakfast delicacies. The siblings greedily tore into their food like it had been missing for their whole life, which it had. Vera ate her food more modestly, but she was still a force to be reckoned with.
“We’ve already done a run, but that’s only a part of the training I’m going to put you through. The run will mainly be used to get you two into better shape and give you more energy in the long run. That will be the same with the rest of the normal exercises I put you through. It will make you push past your limits. Arden’s aware.”
Arden cringed, thinking back to the first day she trained him before the cascade.
“Yeah I remember that.”
“Along the way, I’ll be redeveloping how you move from the ground up. Posture, how to walk, how to stand. That sort of thing. Kind of like when I taught you how to use a sword.”
“I’m pretty confident in my standing abilities,” Sya said.
Vera smiled in response.
“So you say. By the end of it, your new self would be able to handily win against your current self.”
“Is this what you meant by working my foundations harder?” Arde masked, swallowing a piece of bacon.
“Yeah. I’ll have to break some habits for you first, so it’ll be a bit harder than Sya, who is a perfectly clean slate.”
Sya snickered smugly at her brother, only for Vera to speak again.
“I just said that you have no skills.”
Now it was Arden’s turn to snicker.
“And you have the wrong skills.”
Vera cut into her smoked sausage.
“The basic physical stuff will be done in the mornings. Run first thing before it gets too hot and humid, breakfast, then other exercises along with redevelopment until lunch. After that, we’ll spar for a couple of hours. After dinner we’ll do some aura training.”
Vera pointed her knife towards Arden. It made him feel funny.
“You mentioned having an alternate aura training method?"
Arden nodded.
“It’s not concrete yet, but it might help. If you and Sya join me in my soul again, you can see if it’ll work. You probably know more about it than me.”
“We have a few hours until our appointment,” Sya said. “Is that enough time?”
“It should be. I don’t think it’ll take much time.”
“We can show each other our soul clusters,” Sya pointed out. “Or at least, I can show off mine and I can see yours. There is absolutely no way you two haven't explored each other’s clusters.”
“I’m game,” Arden said, finishing off his plate.
“It works for me as well,” Vera said. “Let’s give it a shot.”