I was pretty tired by the time I reached the end of the hallway, because I hadn't walked so far in my whole life. I made myself smile at that thought. This body was only four years old, after all.

“It's the third door on the left.” The woman walking beside me said.

Surprisingly, I could almost detect sympathy from her. I guessed that she was uncomfortable as she watched me walking; but, like I had told her, I wasn't going to accept their help. My tiny body wasn't up for so much physical exertion, despite all of the mental exercises and training that my parents had taught me. I reached the third door and looked up at the door handle. I saw her reaching for it to open it for me, and I held a hand up to stop her.

“I've got it.” I said, and concentrated. I formed the box of energy around the door handle, and instead of pushing on the whole thing, I only pushed on the corner with Presence. The handle turned and the door clicked open, much to her surprise. I hid my smile at her reaction and stepped into the room, only to be greeted by two of the weirdest aliens I had ever seen. One looked like a giant cockroach and the other looked like a vampire bat. A really ugly vampire bat. It was also barely a few inches taller than me and they both wore ornate robes of The Order.

The cockroach made clicking noises with its mouth-like thing and the vampire bat squeaked at us, and the woman with me nodded and waved between them. We walked down a short hallway and entered a large circular chamber. It was full of windows and gave a spectacular view of a futuristic city, with flying cars and what I assumed were robot drones. There were also a dozen people that sat in large ornate chairs, and not a single one of them was human.

“Is he ready to be tested?” One of the aliens said.

“What do you mean, tested?” I asked. “I came here for answers, not to play games.”

“Aaron, don't be disrespectful.” The woman said.

“Only people I care about can call me by my given name.” I said angrily as the tingles went down my spine. “Since you killed the only ones I do care about, you people can call me by my family name, Ullir.”

“I don't suppose...” One of the aliens started to speak.

“Don't bother trying to apologize for your mistake.” I said and looked at the odd-looking yellow fluffy puff ball thing. “I'll never forgive you for killing my parents.”

“They were rogues and criminals.” The fluffy thing said. “It's our duty...”

“...to kill innocent people that never hurt you or anyone in your organization.” I said. “It's so horrible that people exist that don't share in your beliefs, isn't it?” I spat at the thing. “You need to go out and kill them all.”

The fluffy thing turned and looked at the other aliens, and one that looked like he was covered in bark spoke.

“What am I holding in my hand?” The alien asked.

“I don't give a shit what you're holding.” I said. “Where are my parents' bodies?”

No one said anything and I crossed my arms.

“Too afraid I'll dislike the answer, huh?” I asked. “What about my ship and my belongings?”

“Your ship?” One of them asked.

“You killed my parents, so what they owned is mine.” I said. “That blue asshole took the things I had on me and I want them returned.”

“You are in no position to make demands.” One of the others said.

“Really?” I asked and looked at the scaled monster. “When will I be in a position to make them? Or better yet, will I ever be in a position to make them?”

The alien opened his mouth to respond, then closed it.

“Yeah, you jerks are so high and mighty, aren't you? Doing whatever you want and assuming that everyone needs to bow down to your authority.” I said snidely, and saw several of the aliens squirm a little. I couldn't tell if it was because of my words, or because they were squids. “Well, I've got news for you. I'm not one of them.”

“You are in our custody.” The fluffy alien said.

“Yeah, because that blue freak kidnapped me and brought me to god-knows-where, and now I'm being held against my will.” I responded.

“That is your point of view.” Another alien said.

“There's no 'points of view' to the truth, you piece of garbage.” I said and remembered being kidnapped in my previous life. “Otherwise, you can just take whoever you want and do what you want to them, then tell everyone that it's for the greater good.”

No one responded, and I barked a laugh. It sounded really weird out of my four year old mouth, and some of them squirmed again.

“Justification of evil doesn't make it good.” I said. “You can delude yourselves all you want and you can spout out all the rhetoric in your feeble little minds; but, I know the truth. I know what you did and that you condone the actions of your followers because you don't see that it was wrong.”

“You're only a child.” The scaley alien said. “You don't understand...”

“...that it's okay to capture and kill people that disagree with you?” I asked. “No trials needed! Who cares about listening to their defense or their stories? Why show them mercy? They're rogues and don't deserve the consideration, right?”

No one responded and I glared at each of them at what I thought were their eyes. I couldn't really tell with some of them, though.

“Yeah, that's what I thought.” I said to them. “You can stuff your tests where the sun doesn't shine.” I barked a laugh. “In fact, you can all suck my tiny little... muhm!”

The woman had knelt and covered my mouth with a hand to cut off my words. “Forgive him.” She said and ducked her head. “He knows not the proper respect to show your exalted presences.”

I flailed my arms and mumbled into her hand to get her to let go, so I could tell them that respect needed to be earned, and they would never earn mine. Instead, she kept a hold of me and stood up with me in her arms.

“Perhaps we can do this another day?” The woman asked, and several of the aliens shook their heads.

“He will be tested, whether he wants to be or not.” The scaley alien said.

“I don't think that...” The woman tried to say.

“Bind his hands and gag him.” The alien said and cut her off.

“That's not going to make things better.” The woman said.

“He's never going to listen to reason, so we will make him see reason.” The fluffy alien said and stood up. It was about seven feet tall and walked over to me.

“Muh mmm hummm MUH!” I mumbled loudly.

“In order for it to work, I need to touch you.” The fluffy alien said and out of its puff ball fur, a long and spindly hand reached out. I tried to struggle and turn my head, then the Presence around me became solid and I couldn't move at all. “This won't take long.”

The alien's fingertip touched my forehead, and I immediately lost consciousness.

*

A scene played out before me, where the new gods had created mortals and bestowed upon them great gifts. For some reason, they were stronger in some gifts and very weak in others. I didn't understand what the hell was going on, then the scene changed and showed the mortals create The Order. It was blessed by several of the new gods and its main building became a church of sorts. People came to worship there and praised the new gods, and the members of The Order were regarded as priests.

The brainwashing goes back a long way. I thought as I watched The Order spread out to other planets and grow. It gathered more and more talented people to it and the organization became stronger as their talents elevated The Order even higher in the people's regards. I laughed at that, and then when hundreds of years had passed and The Order had reached a thousand planets, I was filled with tingles, almost to the point of pain, and then I felt a desperate need to worship at the church and to revere The Order for what it was. A universe-wide police force that handled things that planetary police couldn't handle on their own.

They're like the FBI. I thought, and then the vision faded.

*

I awoke and opened my eyes to see that I was back inside the room I was being kept in. I didn't feel the comforting lap or see a hooded figure, though. I sat up and my stomach rumbled. I looked around and saw the standard food tray off to the side and sighed. There were three of them.

I got up and walked over to the small table and sat down, then ate the closest one. I was tempted to eat more; but, I was only four and couldn't stuff myself like I wanted to. I also didn't have any pockets in my outfit and I couldn't stash anything away, either. When I finished eating, I felt a very strong urge to kneel and thank the Goddess of Light for the food.

“Assholes.” I said and walked over to the bed and laid down. It took me a while to fight off the urges long enough to complete one of the mental techniques that my father had taught me. My mind entered a lucid state and I relaxed as I let the Presence around me flow in and out of my tiny body, completely unhindered. In this way, it was easy to find the 'foreign' Presence inside myself.

My parents were good people, and I will not dishonor their memory by worshipping an organization that killed them. I thought, then spent the whole day trying to weed out the undue influences that fluffy alien had implanted in me.

I didn't succeed.

Whoever that fluffy alien was, they were really strong in their use of the Presence and I couldn't get rid of it with my very limited experience with it. That made me angry, because if my parents had still been alive, I was positive that they could have taught me everything I needed to defend myself. As it was, all I could do was mitigate the damage and did my best to not give in to the compulsions they had implanted in me.

I got up and saw three different food trays and ate the food from one. I ignored the need to thank the Goddess of Light for it and walked over to the door. I used the same Presence trick to turn the handle that I had used at the council chamber and the door popped open. I laughed mentally, because they left it unlocked on purpose, because they didn't think I was a threat anymore.

“Oh, hello!” A young boy said and stopped to look at me.

“Jared, come on.” A woman said and walked back to the boy. “We're going to be late.”

“Mommy, look!” Jared said and pointed to me.

“Hm? Oh!” The woman smiled warmly at me. “Hi, there.”

“Um... hi.” I said, and she took the boy's hand and walked over to me.

“No guardian?” The woman asked and shook her head. “I hate it when they're lax like that.” She said and bent down, then picked me up in a smooth motion and scooped up the other boy just as smoothly.

“Hey, wait!” I exclaimed.

“Don't worry. I'll have you two at the assembly in no time.” The woman said and I felt a flow of Presence encompass us. “Ready!” She said with a smile.

“Get set!” Jared said excitedly.

“Go!” The woman said and took off running. My mouth dropped open as we essentially flew down the long hallway. We didn't run into anyone and avoided all of the possible collisions with ease. I didn't move or try to touch the Presence around us, in case it disrupted whatever it was she was doing. I closed my eyes and used a quick meditation technique that let me detect the flow of Presence around me easier, and I opened my eyes to see a soft blue glow around us.

“This is so cool.” I said, despite my need to remain detached.

“It is!” Jared said happily. “Maron is the best!”

Maron chuckled as she ran around a corner and avoided a small crowd of people, who weren't even disturbed by her passing by so closely. With my concentration focused on feeling the flow of Presence, I felt a small spike of it from the crowd. I turned my head that way to look and saw that we had already taken another corner and the crowd has disappeared from sight. We arrived at the assembly hall and Maron slowed down to a normal walking pace as the flow of Presence around her dissipated.

“Hi, everyone!” Maron said to a group of twelve female guardians, and they all turned and greeted her with variations of hello, until one of them noticed she had two children in her arms.

“Hey, how did you get two of them?”

Maron chuckled. “I picked up a stray on the way here.”

“A stray?” The woman laughed. “I thought you might have wanted twice the workload!”

Maron laughed, too. “One is plenty, thank you.” She said and looked at me. “Although, he is kinda cute.”

I wasn't sure how to respond to that, then suddenly there were waving hands and kids hollering for attention. Each of the guardians had a young child in their arms, and each was anywhere from three to six years old.

“Okay, okay!” The guardians all said as one and a Presence barrier formed around the small section we were in. “Play nice.” They said and put us all down at the same time.

I was surprised that I was released from her arms as quickly as I had been picked up, and I looked up at her face. She smiled down at me and I wasn't sure if she was a robot of some kind, conditioned to be that way, or brainwashed to be the perfect nanny.

“There you are.” A woman's voice cut through the cacophony of children's voices, and I turned to see the woman that had come to fetch me to go to the council chamber a couple of days ago. “How did you get here so fast without me?”

I pointed up at Maron, who looked at the woman sternly.

“If you had been at your post, instead of slacking off, I wouldn't have had to do your job for you.” Maron said. She wasn't angry or anything, despite the words she said. She was merely stating facts.

“I was in a meeting to decide if Aar... I mean Ullir was allowed to come here today.”

“Oh? Why wouldn't he be allowed?” Maron asked, confused.

“It's a long story.” My guardian said.

“You can tell me all about it while the kids play.” Maron said and looked down at me. “Ullir, can you keep Jared company while I talk to my friend Emari?”

“But...”

“Go on! He likes making new friends.” Maron said and gently moved me towards the play area. I looked at her for a moment and at my guardian Emari, then I sighed and walked over to Jared.

I really wanted to hear what they were going to talk about. I thought. I was still using my Presence flow technique, so my eyes widened when I felt the flow of Presence around me change slightly and it funnelled into my ears at an increased rate and I could actually hear them!

“So, what's up?” Maron asked.

“Oh, he's... look, I don't know if I can even talk about it.” Emari said.

Maron chuckled. “Sit down and relax.” She said and they both sat down. “It can't be that bad, can it?”

“Maron, you...” Emari sighed. “It's a goddamn mess.” She said. “His parents were rogues.”

“By the Goddess!” Maron exclaimed. “What happened?”

“He's only four and they...” Emari's eyes teared up and she tried to hold back the tears as she told her friend all of the details. I listened intently to everything she had to say, because it would give me the story from a perspective that I didn't realize I needed.

*

“Explain it to me again, (Undecipherable).” The scaly alien said to the blue-skinned horned alien. “What were you thinking?”

“I don't know what you mean.” (Undecipherable) said.

“Assaulting a child, for starters.”

“I didn't...” (Undecipherable) stopped talking and rubbed the large bio-med device that covered his eye socket. “You saw what he did to me.”

“You shouldn't have approached him like you did.” A woman's voice said. “You left yourself wide open for an attack.”

“I didn't... I... he's just a child.” (Undecipherable) said.

“According to your report, that child used a Presence Blade on you, after successfully pushing your apprentice away.” The second woman said. “No child I've ever seen at that age could compress the Presence into a usable force, let alone use it in a fight.”

“I don't know what you want me to tell you.” (Undecipherable) said.

“You can start by telling us what actually happened when you killed the rogues.” The first woman said.

(Undecipherable) kept his mouth shut, because you couldn't incriminate yourself or others if you stayed quiet.

“Staying quiet is an admission of guilt that you falsified the report of the encounter that started all of this.” The scaly alien said. “Do you want to speak now?”

(Undecipherable) didn't say anything, and the first woman sighed.

“You are confined to quarters and restricted from leaving the building until we settle all of this.” The first woman said. “Your apprentice will be reassigned...”

“No!” (Undecipherable) exclaimed, and everyone in the council chamber stared at him. “He still needs my guidance.” He said in a much more subdued tone. “I know I can guide him to the proper path.”

Everyone exchanged glances, then nodded.

“Very well. He can remain by your side... for now.” The scaly alien said. “We will deliberate and keep investigating this incident.”

(Undecipherable) nodded to him and bowed to the council, then left the room.

“What do we do now?” The first woman asked.

“He's too powerful to fall under my Compulsion technique.” The fluffy puff ball alien said. “We can't force him to speak the truth.”

“I will try and talk to his old mentor and we will see if that can get (Undecipherable) to reveal the truth.” The scaly alien said and stood.

“Agreed.” The rest of the council said as one. The meeting ended and they left to attend to their other duties. Running an organization as large as The Order was no small feat and required a lot of their time. One task was running the weekly assembly to let everyone know of any new developments that happened in The Order. The first woman sighed as she was tempted by the thought of completely ignoring what had just happened and how they had 'found' a new member, then shook her head.

No, this will give me a chance to address the 'hunting down rogues as a rite of passage' nonsense. The first woman thought and quickly walked down the hallway to the assembly hall.