"The origin of the shroud is a heavily contentious topic in our modern times. The rise of ether technology, especially in the Central Authority, has led to some questioning the teachings of the Church of the One Shroud. Many state that the unshrouded being able to operate ethertech directly contradicts the Church's doctrine. I write these words to put such arguments to rest. Unshrouded are unworthy of the grace of the One Shroud. This remains absolute. Ethertech is an abomination, and it saddens me greatly that so many have been led from the glory and salvation of the One Shroud by such things as convenience and comfort." 'On Ethertech's Adoption' by Ecklemencus, the Seventh Speaker of the One Shroud.

Caeden woke up screaming. The last thing he remembered was the shattered remains of the Molotov flying toward his rendering barrel. Which he knew would cause a massive explosion. He wasn't expecting to wake up at all. Now that he was, his mind expected to experience pain from the searing burns and shrapnel that had surely shredded his body.

Except, he was fine. Sitting up and frantically searching his surroundings revealed that he was in literally the nicest bedroom he had ever seen, by a wide margin. The color scheme was primarily white but with heavy accents of green and gold. Breathing deeply, Caeden tried to slow his racing heart. He needed to calm down and figure out what had happened.

First, he looked himself over. He felt fine. Perfectly healthy, in fact, but that didn't mean it was true. He was lying under comfortable sheets in a heavenly soft bed, completely naked. That was mildly disconcerting, seeing as he had no memory of how he got here. Besides inexplicable nudity, though, he really did seem to be injury-free. At least, he couldn't see any burns or puncture wounds that he was expecting to find.

That assessment was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Ah, hello?"

"Is everything alright?" A light, feminine voice responded.

"Yes? Actually, where am I?"

"May I enter?"

"Sure." Caeden wasn't used to being treated with this level of deference.

"Excellent." In walked what he had to assume was a maid. She was dressed in what looked like a uniform in the same colors as the room. "One of the household heard screaming, so there was some concern over your health."

"Oh, that. I was expecting to be in much more pain, to be honest. I guess my mind wasn't in sync with my body." Caeden rubbed his head.

"I see," She said, clearly not understanding but seemingly trying to spare him some embarrassment. "To answer your other question, you are currently in the guest wing of the Dromar household on Arcturus."

"Oh." That was concerning. "Could you please explain what happened that led me to be here?"

"Unfortunately, I do not know the details of how you arrived. Would you like me to see if the Madam is willing to speak to you? I'm sure she would be capable of answering any of your questions."

Caeden sighed. "Yeah, that would be helpful."

"I will inquire on your behalf then." She turned to leave.

"Ah, actually…"

"Yes?" She looked at him expectantly.

"I, ah. I don't seem to have any clothes. Would there be a way to fix that before the Madam comes by?"

"Oh," Caeden could swear he saw a faint blush. "Yes, I most certainly can see about getting you some proper garments."

"Great, thanks," Caeden replied, his own cheeks burning.

{}

Hours later, Caeden was seated at a small table in the room he had woken up in. He was now clothed in much the same outfit the maid had been wearing; pants, shirt, and jacket. In fact, Caeden would almost guarantee he was in a spare staff uniform. Not that he was about to complain since he was essentially getting free clothes. They had also brought him a breakfast which, in keeping with everything else he had seen so far, was the best meal he had ever had in his life. It had both sausage and bacon, as well as actual eggs. Caeden usually had plain porridge if he decided to have breakfast at all.

Now he was just sitting, waiting for the lady of the house to make time for him. He had thought about trying to leave for home but figured that wouldn't go over well, especially considering the level of hospitality they had shown him. Every time Caeden had done work for the Dromar before, he had only talked with the man who handled maintaining the equipment. He had never been invited into their compound, let alone their actual home.

Still, his nerves were already shot, and he was afraid of what he would find when he got back to the smithy. At this point, he was starting to doubt his own memories. Why would someone chuck a Molotov at him? Plus, if that had happened, he would be heavily injured. Nothing he remembered explained why he was at the Dromar family's home. Maybe he got attacked by a monster that made illusions; he had heard of that.

A knock on the door hopefully meant answers. After Caeden answered, the woman Caeden could only assume was the Madam came in.

"Hello, young man. I am Angelica Dromar. You may refer to me as Mrs. Dromar, ma'am, or my lady. I hear you have a few questions for me." There was a hint of amusement in an otherwise cold voice. Her face and expression did not match the warm tones of her green and gold dress. This was a powerful woman, used to being listened to and followed. More than that, Caeden could feel it. A pressure bearing down on him, making it feel like he was carrying a hundred pounds on his back. This woman was shrouded.

"Yes, Ma'am. I'm Caeden, an ethersmith. I'm sorry to take up your time." Caeden replied as respectfully as possible. This woman was his main customer and essentially owned the town he lived in. The last thing he wanted was for her to be mad at him.

"Nonsense. I had meant to speak with you as well. Especially considering the situation, you have ended up in."

"About that. I'm not sure if my memories are correct, but the last thing I remember was my rendering barrel exploding. I'm wondering how I ended up here?"

"Yes indeed, that is what my people had surmised from the remains of your smithy as well. I was wondering how in the name of the Shroud you managed to blow yourself up, along with all your equipment, which I was informed was on loan from my family."

"Ah." Caeden sighed and deflated like a balloon. "Damn, I was hoping my memories were wrong." He let out another massive sigh. "I suppose there's not much left, is there?"

"Practically nothing. The structure itself is gone. Now, I'd like an explanation."

"Someone threw a Molotov through my window. I tried to stop it with my shroud and only ended up cutting the bottle. The burning alcohol hit the barrel."

"So you admit to being shrouded." Angelica looked triumphant.

"Yes? I never hid that fact. Is it important?"

She scoffed. "Important? What could be more important? You are an unregistered shrouded within my territory. I could very well be fined for that."

Caeden winced. "I'm sorry. I was unaware that there was a need to register anything. I'll undergo whatever process is necessary."

"You can't honestly expect me to believe you are unaware of the need to register."

"Ah, How was I supposed to know?"

"Your trade school should have told you unless you were hiding it."

Caeden shook his head. "I never went to a trade school. I learned ethersmithing from my uncle after my parents died. He didn't know anything about shrouds."

"Hmph. Well, the Central Authority has been alerted, and they will be coming to pick you up."

"Pick me up? What do you mean?" Caeden felt a creeping sense of dread.

"It's recruitment year, of course. You will be sent to the Central Shroud Academy to complete your mandatory education and military service. You really know nothing. Honestly, I don't know how people live out here. It's so uncivilized." Angelica continued on about the shortcomings of the continents.

Caeden had stopped listening to her. He was lost, the whole world fading away as he felt his mind shutting down. He had never had a single intention of leaving this continent. He was happy with his little smithy doing odd work for the people in his small town and living off the work he did for the Dromar. Now, his smithy was gone, apparently blown to hell, and he was being forced to leave. All Caeden could do was sit blankly staring into space. Everything he had planned was gone.

"Caeden? Boy, answer me!" Angelica snapped.

"Oh," Caeden shook his head, attempting to refocus after having his world turned upside down in the span of a conversation. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Dromar. I'm… I'm a bit overwhelmed."

"Hmm. I suppose that's fair." her tone softened a bit. "I would like to know more about this attack. I can't very well have people running around blowing up Dromar property. Did you see anyone? Can you think of anyone who might have done this?"

Caeden shook his head. "I only saw the Molotov. I hardly had time to cut it before it hit me. I never saw who threw it."

Angelica frowned. "You say you cut it? With your shroud?"

"Yes."

"What is your identity?"

"My identity? I told you, I'm Caeden. I'm not sure-"

"No, no, your shroud identity. Concept, type, and scale." She looked at Cae3den's blank expression and huffed. "You know absolutely nothing, do you?"

"I'm sorry, I have no idea what you're referring to."

"Nevermind then. Just manifest your shroud." She snapped.

Hurriedly, Caeden manifested his shroud much like he had last night in front of those hooligans. A ball composed of rapidly oscillating slivers of crimson energy darted around each other over the palm of his left hand.

Angelica flicked out her hand, and a brown and green shroud knocked on the door across the room. Immediately, a maid poked her head in. "Yes, milady?"

"Call in the men who found the boy."

"Yes, milady." And the maid disappeared just as fast as she had come.

"Is something wrong?" Caeden was nervous. Something about his shroud was bothering Angelica. If there was one thing he had learned over this conversation, it was how little he understood shrouds. He had no idea what to expect.

"Perhaps. Perhaps not. It depends on how competent my people are. And how truthful you are."

"I haven't lied once."

"We'll see."

With that ominous comment, she leaned back into her chair and crossed her arms.

Recognizing an obvious queue that she was done talking, Caeden sat in uncomfortable silence, waiting for the men to appear. Luckily, or unluckily Caeden wasn't sure; the men entered the room in only a few minutes.

"You requested us, milady?" One of the men stepped forward.

"Yes. You," She looked to Caeden. "Manifest your shroud again."

Reluctantly, feeling like this was some kind of strange trap, Caeden obeyed.

"Now, is that the shroud you all saw last night?"

Not the question Caeden expected.

"No, milady."

Definitely not the answer he expected either.

"It's like we said in our report, milady," The man continued. "We found the boy in the rubble. His whole body was wrapped in purple and gold. He was a good few feet taller as well. We almost took him for a monster before he shrunk down." He looked between the others present for support, and they all nodded along.

"Thank you. You may go." All of them filed out with a slight bow. Angelica turned back to Caeden. "Care to explain."

Caeden shook his head. "I have no idea. My shroud looks nothing like what they said. Plus, it doesn't do anything like what they said."

"Well, you best be telling the truth. The last communication I received stated that the Central Authority representative and tester would be here within the hour. If you try to lie to them, you will be in a world of pain." She warned.

Caeden shuddered.

{}

It was only half an hour before they arrived. They had moved to a courtyard to greet the CA representative, and Caeden couldn't help but watch in awe. He had thought of running away. Looking at what he was now, he realized again how futile that would have been.

Flying overhead was a massive ethership the likes of which he had never seen before. It was composed mainly of a dark grey metal, but there were huge chunks of carved glowing blue ether jutting out of the bottom -three aside. The whole thing had to be as long as an entire street, as wide as two houses, and just as tall.

"Holy shroud. Is that a War God?"

"Yes, it is. I'm surprised you knew." Angelica was standing next to him, looking up much like he was, though with a lot less awe and wonder.

"My uncle told me about them. Years ago, he did some minor repair work for one. He said it was the experience of a lifetime." Caeden shook his head. A day ago, he would have loved nothing more than to get on that ship and see how it worked. Now he was dreading it. More so now that he could see a portion of the hull open up to allow a smaller ethership to exit. This one looked more like what he had seen back in Earthstrom. A small craft with an aluminum hull meant for transporting a few people, not blowing up a few mountains. It had one small ether crystal on the aft, about as long as Caeden's arm. Small compared to the ones on the War God, at least.

The vessel floated down in front of them in moments, and Caeden got his first look at a Central Authority official. The man was large, both in height and girth. He had a thick-looking face with small features and was almost entirely hairless, only having eyebrows. His skin was a few shades lighter than Caeden's. More caramel than chocolate. He was also wearing the single gaudiest piece of clothing Caeden had ever seen. Both the men in the ship were wearing plain white military robes, but the official had augmented it with a sort of shawl made of gold and silver thread studded liberally with various rare ether crystals. Caeden had never seen anything so needlessly, wastefully extravagant in his life.

"Is this the boy?" Without a word of introduction or acknowledging Caeden, The man jumped right to the matter at hand.

“Yes, Commandant Havenhelm.” Caeden was surprised at the deference Angelica was showing. He hadn't realized this man was that important.

"What did he have to say?"

"He claims to have no knowledge of the second unidentified shroud. When asked, he presented a red, presumably aura-based shroud."

"Hmm."

Without any warning, Caeden fell to his knees. He had felt that the CA men were shrouded, that weight hanging over him. It was like that weight had turned into a mountain of razor blades shredding through every inch of his body simultaneously, ravaging his very mind. He couldn't even scream, stunned to his core by the sheer enormity of the pain he was experiencing. This was what he had expected to wake up to.

Just as fast as it had started, the pain ended, vanishing like it had never happened. Immediately, Caeden keeled over and threw up his very nice breakfast.

"Well," the official said casually. "He was lying. He's dual-shrouded."

"What the hell is that?" Caeden spat.