Everyone was gathered in Arden’s room as was accustomed at that point. They had yet to begin sparring for the day, so Arden took the time to explain what he had planned for the night.

  “I just want to say,” Arden said. “That I think this is a really good idea.”

  “You think that about everything,” Sya said.

  “And most times, they are really good ideas.”

  “I can name an Association official or three who would disagree,” Vera said. “But I think this is one of the good ones.”

  “Of course it is. I also already went ahead with making the reservations. We're on at seven tonight.”

  “You made the reservations already? Without asking us?”

  “I wanted to surprise you,” Arden defended himself. “Besides, you're always talking about building good habits. Socialization is a good habit for us to have. We haven't really talked to anyone besides our group since we came back from the registration.”

  “Fine, fine,” Vera said. “I’ll let it go. Did you at least let Savish know we'd be coming?”

  “Who do you think I am? Of course not. I want to have some fun as well. That's why we're reserved under the ‘Does’ family, by the way.”

  “You faked our names too!?”

  Arden shrugged and tried not to laugh at his girlfriend's expression.

  “It's not an official registry. It's a restaurant. You should be happy I didn't choose completely ridiculous names. I even had a few lined up.”

  Arden pulled a slip of paper from his inventory. One of the many that were in there. He read a few names off of it.

  “Imagine if I called myself Nick. That'd be more embarrassing than what happened last time at Savish’s.”

  “Can someone please tell me what happened at Savish’s!?” Sya raged.

  “Maybe someone there will tell you,” Vera offered.

  “Not likely," Arden said. “I made a special note on the reservation telling them that I'd offer a red-tier star coin to anyone who lies to our faces about what happened that night.”

  “Goddamnit! Why!?” Sya continued.

  “I direct you to my previous statement. I want to have fun. Oh by the way, Sya. Savish’s place in the evenings is more formal than during the day. Make sure to wear what you bought when we went shopping yesterday.”

  “How formal are we talking?” She asked, trying not tk show how much she wanted to know his secret.

  “All of the waitstaff wore cocktail dresses,” Vera answered. A thought popped up in her mind. She turned to Arden and squinted. “You're just trying to get her tailor's information, aren't you?”

  “No,” he lied.

  *****

  “I thought you said we had to dress fancy,” Sya whisper-yelled at Arden.

  “We do,” Arden answered with his hands in the pockets of his slacks.

  “Then why the hell are you wearing a Hawaiian shirt!?”

  “Are you telling me that this isn't fancy? Last time I was here, there were one or two dudes with the same idea as me.”

  Arden scratched at his face as they stood in line outside of Savish’s restaurant. The shirt that Sya was so offended by was a Hawaiian shirt with warm colors and red lobsters adorning every inch of it. Arden thought it looked good with his beige slacks.

  “The thing about dressing formally,” Vera said from beside him in a black sundress. “Is that it's supposed to make people look more refined. Last time we were here, Arden showed how unrefined he was, so there's no reason for him to even try.”

  “Harsh,” Arden said. “And also a lie. I made more money than you.”

  “Was that before or after you engaged in willing self-mutilation to look cool?”

  “Before, since you ask. And is it still self-mutilation if someone else carved me up and I just let it happen?”

  At this point, several other people in line were giving the group weird looks. They dutifully ignored the onlookers.

  “What matters is the intent, not the hands,” Sya said. “That still doesn't change the fact that I feel ridiculously overdressed.”

  Sya gestured to herself, showing off her frilly white dress.

  “I look like a frickin’ horny urban legend who abducts men.”

  “You look fine,” Vera assured her. “Once we get in, I promise you you'll forget all about it.”

  A few more minutes passed before they were finally granted entry into the restaurant. As they entered, Arden and Vera were both immensely surprised to see that there was no sign of the damage caused by the fight from the previous week.

  “Oh,” Arden said, approaching the front desk. “A familiar face mans the desk.”

  Lyzia glanced at Arden in mild confusion. She recognized the voice, but not the appearance. To her, Arden was an effeminate man who was able to pass off as a woman with a bit of work.

  That was the past Arden. The one who hadn't been in the middle of undergoing an intense training regiment. Now, he wasn't buff, but he had enough of musculature to make it immeasurably harder to connect him with his past self.

  “Name?” Lyzia asked, still trying to figure out who the man was.

  “We should be under the name ‘Doe,’” Arden answered, a little disappointed to not be recognized.

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  With him focusing on Lyzia, he wasn't able to see the mischievous grin apparent on Vera. The anticipation was killing her as Lyzia read the note that Vera modified just a few hours before.

  Recognition flashed in Lyzia's eyes seeing what was written under the reservation. She recognized who it was in front of her.

  “Arden?” She asked.

  Arden smiled.

  “In the flesh.”

  “I haven't seen you since you dressed in drag.”

  The smile froze on his face and the blood drained from his face. As he froze in horror, he watched as Vera approached the desk and handed Lyzia two red-tier star coins.

  Vera turned to Arden who was still white as a sheet.

  “You're not the only one who's allowed to have fun.”

  *****

  They were once again in Savish’s private dining area. Arden Vera and Sya were joined by Savish, naturally wearing her Satellite, and her husband Cayde wearing a Hawaiian shirt as well.

  “You're not mad are you?” Vera asked.

  “Just disappointed,” Arden said with a sigh. “Not with you. I kind of figured Sya was going to learn about it at some point. I'm disappointed that I failed to see it coming. And it was executed perfectly!”

  Arden laid his head on the table. It was a good thing that the food had yet to be served, otherwise his face would be covered in the expensive meat that made Savish’s restaurant so popular.

  “It was such a good prank,” he muttered.

  Savish swirled the wine in her glass around looking at the ensemble gathered.

  “You’ve changed a lot, Arden,” she said. “I can see how Lyzia didn’t recognize you at first.”

  “We’ve been working out,” he said, lifting his head from the table. “Prepping for the field test at the end of the month.”

  “I didn’t mean that,” she said. “Do you remember how you were the night you returned? I do. Vera does as well.”

  Arden cringed.

  “Yeah…I was less than subtle.”

  “To put it lightly. You were hostile and scared, ready to lash out at any given moment.”

  Savish turned to the women in Arden’s group and smiled.

  “You’re a lot more secure now. You found what you were looking for.”

  “My immediate problems were solved,” he said with a shrug. “I found Vera, and I found Sya. I put the screws to Yaan, and I’m training to become a combat Starborn. Having a goal that's more than just surviving can do a lot to take the edge off.”

  “And your other problems?” she asked.

  Arden thought back to the many pieces of paper filling his inventory, filled with notes about what he learned about the Archons, the Sovereigns, the Blight, and the other timelines. So far, he didn’t have anything worth speculating on.

  “Too far beyond me to even comprehend in any meaningful way.”

  “That’s the way to think. Focus on what you can do, not what you can’t do.”

  “That’s kind of what Vera has been teaching us,” Sya said. “She’s also changing our perspective on what we can do.”

  “I can tell,” Savish said. “You’ve got meat on your bones now. Before, you looked starved. I thought Arden over here was the most malnourished Starborn to ever exist when he fell into my restaurant, but you proved me wrong.

  Perfectly on queue, several familiar faces entered the room pushing a cart with plates covered in steak and varnishes. Kelkis the cute petite one and Lyzia the alternative librarian entered, them being the ones that Arden and Vera were the most familiar with.

  “Sorry about earlier, Arden,” Lyzia started off, placing his plate in front of him first by way of apology. “But you'd do the same thing in my position, right? If you were still a mundane, and someone offered you two red-tier star coins to make a joke, you’d take it.”

  “I can’t throw stones,” he said with a shake of his head. “I threw away my masculinity for a few dollars last time I was here.”

  “How did it make you feel?” Vera said with a teasing grin.

  “I was more pleased with myself than I care to admit. If I knew I could earn that much money by crossdressing at a nice restaurant before, I would have been doing it for years.”

  “You wouldn’t have passed as a woman before your trial,” Vera said. “Your ascension smoothed out some of your rough features.”

  “With emphasis on smooth,” Lyzia said, drawing a round of nods from everyone in the room except for Sya. “I haven’t seen anyone rack up as many tips in a single night as you.”

  Sya started laughing.

  “Wait, wait, wait,” she said. “Not only were you a waitress, you were a good one?”

  “He was the best one,” Cayde said, causing Sya to laugh even harder. “He put on a clinic.”

  “What can I say?” Arden said, deciding to own it. “I’m a guy, and I know what guys like.”

  “It’s true what they say,” Sya said, trying to hold back tears. “That boys make the best girls.”

  The dinner party continued well into the night. Merriment was the vice of choice tonight, not diluted Omnigul blood. As cute as Arden thought a drunk Vera was, he’d rather they save that kind of cutting loose for the safety of their own place.

  By the time everyone finished their meals and Lyzia came back to take the dinnerware, the topic of discussion turned to the topic of Starborn training.

  “So what has Vera been teaching you?” Savish asked, leaning against her husband.

  “Pretty much everything,’ Arden answered. “We’ve been building stamina and our bodies, working on balance and footwork, trying to get a grasp on most types of weapons, and trying to get the basics of aura control down.”

  “How’s the last one going? That's harder than the rest.”

  “It’s difficult, but I’m having fun. Sya’s a prodigy at that, so I’m lagging a bit behind, but I’m getting there. It’s almost been a week, and I’m able to do a rudimentary release and restraint.”

  Savish raised a brow.

  “That’s lagging behind? Less than a week and you have basic control? It sounds like you’re a prodigy yourself.”

  “Don’t say that,” Vera scolded lightly. “He has a big enough head already.”

  “It’s not talent,” Arden agreed with his girlfriend. “I’ve just been focusing more on my own self actualization. Turns out, discovering who you are helps with controlling your aura.”

  “You were able to put that into practice already?” Savish asked.

  “Some stuff happened. Between my trial and saving Sya, I found who I am.”

  “That’s great and all, but I can’t help but notice that there is a form of training you guys have yet to mention. How are you training your powers?”

  “We haven't done that yet, actually,” Vera said.

  “Me and Arden’s powers aren’t something we can really practice with unless it's a real fight,” Sya said.

  “Vera said we’d be heading out into the wilds to train our powers soon,” Arden said. “There should be plenty of roaming red-tiers to practice on.”

  “Will you guys be ready for that?”

  “I’m making sure of it,” Vera answered. “We’re not heading out until their foundations are solid. They’re getting there. They’re close, but the difference between being close and ready is the difference between three of us coming back alive and only some of us coming back alive.”

  “What if you take Sav with you?” Cayde asked. “She’s been looking to go hunting for more meat again, and I’m sure she’d enjoy seeing what you guys can do.”

  Vera rubbed her chin for a moment.

  “It would be a lot safer to bring an orange-tier with us,” she muttered, turning to the person in question. “Are you willing to come with?”

  “I’m game,” she answered. “I still owe you for saving my ass. When will you guys be ready?”

  Vera glanced at her disciples.

  Sya leaned back like a relaxed femme fatale, while Arden folded a leg over the other and put his hand up to his chin, trying to look dignified.

  “Three days should do it.”

  “That seems short to right any wrongs they have left,” Savish noted

  “I was going to say two days until they started posing. That convinced me that they’re not ready yet.”