Aether Engineering

Chapter 5

Maston Academy

The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

Myles found himself in a training room in NorthLeaf hall. The room was right below where he was staying. In the room, sand was packed down into four different depressions in the room’s floor. Myles recognized the design as sparring fields. Back in Verrith, martial arts tournaments were held in pits just like these.

In three of the pits, Myles and his five roommates stood in anticipation. Over the past two days, Myles had gotten to know each of them to various degrees.

The one who stood in the left pit with him was Silas Smith. Of all his roommates, Myles had found he preferred Silas’ company the most. Silas was usually reserved, but he had eagerly jumped into the conversation when Myles had brought up his former job. Silas’ father was a craftsman who also doubled as a blacksmith for their town when needed. Silas had quickly proven that while he could perhaps be accused of a lack of passion for creation, a fatal flaw for craftsmen, he was something of a prodigy in business matters. Silas was quick to rattle off the costs and economic factors relevant to procuring any common metal, tool, or wood.

In the middle pit, Mercy Grove and Jane Cooper stood together, quietly talking. Myles had rarely seen the two of them apart. Their friendship was as odd as it was strong. While Mercy was the daughter of a miller with a penchant for socializing, Jane was probably the least social of the whole group. Actually, it might be more accurate that Jane spent most of her time in her room when she wasn’t with Mercy.

In the rightmost pit, Kate Kenly and Seth Elias Hall seemed to have decided to make use of the pit for its intended purpose. Those two had been at odds since they had first met. Kate was the first of the group that Myles had met. She had been hanging upside down from a tree as Myles had followed his stomach to the cafeteria. When he had asked what she was doing, she had decided to follow him around and badger him for the rest of the morning as “just retaliation”.

Seth was the first-person Myles had ever met with three names. The name came from his status as a noble’s retainer apparently. Verrith had nobles, but they were little more than wealthy citizens. Myles had quickly learned that the story was completely different in the rest of the empire. Nobles were the governing body. Even in Maston, the Matrake family made all the decisions from who got to live where to matters of defense. The Matrake family had even been an important factor in the changes that had happened in Maston academy. Without their approval, the academy would have been swiftly shut down.

The whole group had assembled in this room at the behest of a letter that had been slotted under their door. The academy had no entrance ceremony or other direction. They were simply told to assemble in this room at dawn. Based on the few people the group had talked to, it seemed the whole academy had been given similar instructions. Nobody seemed to know exactly what was going on though.

Everyone turned as they heard the door opening. When they looked, they saw a woman saunter into the room, drinking what seemed to be tea from a cup. Myles recognized the outfit she wore. After all, it was nearly identical to his own.

The outfit was a greyish-blue set of long pants and a jacket with an attached hood. Emblazoned on the left side of the chest was an insignia of blade piercing through a leaf, the tip pointing directly upwards. A white band went around the circumference of the right arm in the same spot Myles had once worn his red band. The implication had been clear when they had been given the uniforms. The white band was intended to give them similar status to the blue band sewn into the uniforms of most soldiers. Myles could feel that his uniform was not just simple cloth. When he moved, he could feel layers of armored padding sewn into the cloth. He suspected that he would soon figure out why they needed padding in their standard uniform.

The woman walked slowly towards the vacant sand arena. Unlike the others, this arena was elevated, clearly intended for use in demonstrations. After a slow sip from her cup, the woman turned towards the group. “My name is Primrose Tomkin. I will be your instructor for the next year as well as your commanding officer the year after.” Primrose swept her gaze across them. “I may be your officer, but I am neither an instructor nor a soldier by trade, so please just call me by my first name.”

Even if she hadn’t said anything, Myles would have known she was no ordinary soldier. For that matter she could hardly be called a normal human. Her hair, tied back carefully, was an impossible shade of white. If Myles was back at the job shop, he would’ve bet his own shoes that the hair wasn’t natural. Myles had occasionally seen hair dyes, but only the extremely wealthy could afford the unneeded expense. For some reason though, Myles didn’t get the impression of extravagant wealth from Primrose.

Primrose continued after taking another sip. “Right now, you are all completely incompetent as soldiers. In the provincial army, a normal squad is comprised of 25 soldiers, and a normal platoon is comprised of 4 squads. By the end of this year, it is my job to ensure the total military strength of you six is equivalent to one of these platoons. In addition, you will each be expected to master one of three vital functions: socio-political interpreter, aether engineer, or monster strategist.”

Kate was the first to throw out a comment. “If you think the six of us will be able to fight 100 professional soldiers in a year then you might want to get your own interpreter.”

To everyone’s shock, Primrose ignored the outburst completely. “I will be instructing you each morning in combat tactics and aether space usage. In the afternoons you will study your disciplines with instructors who are highly capable in those fields. At the end of each month your skills will be tested on a real-world mission. Every third month, a more challenging task will be given that will require everyone here to cooperate.”

Mercy, disregarding the lack of response Kate got, decided to present her own question. “Does that mean we will be doing the monthly assignments by ourselves?”

This question apparently deserved a response. Primrose nodded and took another sip from her cup. “Good question. You will be split into squads of three for these exercises.” Primrose pointed first at Mercy, then at Jane next to her, and finally at Seth. “The three of you: Mercy Grove, Jane Cooper, and Seth Elias Hall will be the members of the NorthLeaf company’s squad 13. The rest of you: Myles Redman, Katherine Kenly, and Silas Smith will be in squad 14. All of you will report to me as members of platoon 7. It will be as a platoon that you will attempt the more challenging assignments.”

Something finally clicked in Myles’ head. Everyone they talked to in NorthLeaf hall had almost identical orders to themselves while the few people they had met who lived elsewhere had been given other instructions. That combined with the emblem emblazoned on the chest of his uniform meant that living in NorthLeaf hall had more meaning than just a dormitory. It seemed that they had been assigned living arrangements based on the unit they would be in when their time at the academy was over. In that sense, NorthLeaf hall was more of a barracks than a simple dorm.

Primrose knocked back the rest of her tea and discarded it to the side without ceremony. “The first thing you will be learning is how to defend yourself. While you will usually be equipped with weapons during combat, I will first be teaching you how to fight with nothing but your own body. There are a number of martial arts I could teach you, but I will be teaching you the core arcaner’s way of the fist.”

Primrose flowed more than moved into a palm jab, twisting her arm as she delivered the blow to the air in front of her. “The core arcaner’s way of the fist is a traditional martial form most notably used by a particular group in the Perralin empire proper. The form is made up of fifty steps or moves. What makes this form unique is that each of these move’s transitions seamlessly into any of the others using a specific transition movement.”

Primrose repeated the palm thrust she had demonstrated before, but this time instead of stopping, she took a quick step back, ending much further back than should have been possible. Without stopping, she launched herself a good five feet into the air, coming down on the same spot she had struck with her palm with a brutal kick. Sand flew up in a cloud where her foot had impacted. “The first step, palm thrust, flows well into the fourth step, falling javelin.” Primrose turned to face them without a single bead of sweat on her face. “If any of you were knowledgeable about martial arts, you would be screaming about how that move is leaving significant openings.”

Seth seemed to be the only one nodding along to that statement. Everyone else was mesmerized by how easy Primrose had made what should have been physically impossible movements look. She was obviously using her aether space to help somehow, but it was still extremely impressive.

Primrose seemed to sigh when she realized that only one of her students seemed to have any background in martial arts. “As I mentioned earlier, the core way of the fist is an arcaner’s way of the fist.” When a few of her students, Myles included, continued to give her confused looks, she sighed again, more obviously this time. “Arcaner is the term that we use to describe any individual who uses their aether space. Meaning that while this martial form would be totally impractical without the use of one’s aether space, when using it, this form becomes a far better option than the traditional martial forms that many soldiers choose to adopt.”

Myles had a bad feeling in his gut when he saw a wide smile spread across Primrose’s face. “While the core way of the fist is designed for arcaners, you will all need to be in fantastic physical shape for the coursework you will face here, so, today we will start practicing the first four steps without any use of the aether space.”

Myles felt like he might come to dislike his morning classes.