The sunlight felt good on my skin.

Some things are obvious when they are missing from your life. Things like food, water, and freedom. Other things you can only really realize you missed when they come back. Sunlight was one of those things for me. None of the experiments so far required me to be outdoors, and the room was sealed with no windows. It was bright with magical light, but sunlight makes one feel alive.

Small things like this, as well as fresh air and getting to fully stretch my legs made me feel alive again. I have a feeling that something that made me, *me* had been… slipping away recently. I felt some of ‘something’ coming back, if just a little. Amazing what a stroll outside does for the mind.

Besides the walk outside there were other changes that signified that some semblance of normalcy was coming back to me. My hair that had grown scraggly from blood and sweat was clean and trimmed. My clothes were clean and colorful, so different from the blood stained white robe that was impossible to fully clean.

Most of all, I was finally about to see my friends. This put me in a good enough mood to hum, and so I did, much to my guard’s displeasure. But hey, he can deal with a little tone deaf humming, trust me there are worse things in life.

As we got to the end of the courtyard we were crossing through we came to a familiar hallway. It was the hallway where we first walked into the castle from the summoning room. Weird how nostalgic something so recent can be. Apparently I had been held in a completely different wing of the castle from the other students. It is really hard to tell sometimes and when I asked about how easy it was to get lost once Roland Black told me it was a spell he designed for the castle to deter intruders. He didn’t say any specifics but I’m sure lacking directions could make invasion incredibly difficult.

And more importantly for me, it would make escape similarly difficult.

We walked down the hallway past where I had been before to another courtyard. It was in the morning past breakfast time and according to the schedule I’d been given it was currently time for “gift” training for all the summoned (which is apparently the name the empire finally decided on to refer to us). Altru seemed to think it would be better to re-introduce me at this time so that there wasn’t a rush of people coming up to talk to me like there would be during a meal when everyone had free time.

I opened the courtyard door and was welcomed to the sight of a courtyard full of people both familiar and not. A few of the summoned turned their heads to look in my direction and there was a direct split between those who seemed to not recognize me, and those who had looks of shock in their eyes. Either way I waved my hand with a little shit-eating grin on my face.

I didn’t see anyone coming up to me yet as it seemed they were all in the middle of heir training. At least that was what I thought until I heard something that sounded like a charging animal coming from the blind spot on my left.

Thanks to the effects of the mind-enhancement drug, I had time to look over, determine what was going on, and even make a plan to get out of the way of the person charging towards me. I didn’t follow through on that however and instead chose to let myself be bowled over.

“You’re fucking alive!”

I was picked up in an effortless bear hug that was surprisingly gentle considering the speed the person I was now being held by came running at me.

“Been a minute Julian, you’re looking buff man! Also stop getting snot on my new clothes. Your face looks absolutely disgusting right now.”

And so it did. He was attempting to both laugh and cry at the same time it seemed. It made him look ugly and tears and snot were running down his face and onto my shirt.

“God damn man let me down. I just got the freedom to use my own legs again.”

This made Julian’s expression turn from ugly to calm very fast. He looked up at me while still holding me with a serious face.

“Speaking of freedom Tony…”

“Put him down Julian.”

A tired but happy sounding voice came from my right. I looked down to see May there. She had a soft smile on her face. I was used to seeing her smiling and bubbly but the smile seemed… ill-fitting on her right now.

She had dark rings under her eyes and while there was relief in her eyes, more than anything she looked like a burden had been lifted from her weary shoulders. The joy at seeing a friend didn’t reach her eyes, and despite the smile I could see her struggling to hold on to her current facial expression. The mind-enhancement helped me to see these things, even if I didn’t really want to.

“Let me down real quick Julian, we’ll talk in a second.”

Julian put me down without complaint and took a step back. He could tell what I wanted.

On my feet again I walked up to May who was quietly looking me in the eyes, shivering so slightly that probably no one else could tell.

Instead of saying anything I wrapped my arms around her and gave her a full hug.

She flinched pretty heavily and tried to come out of my hold, but she didn’t have her heart in it and gave up almost immediately, letting her arms hang down to the sides.

“Why are you the one hugging me? I was supposed to be cheering you up now that you’re finally back…”

Her words broke off.

“Tony, how… how are you?”

“I’m just fine, in fact I’m feeling great right now!”

I lied without skipping a beat. The hug made it so May couldn’t see my face but I saw Kristen who was walking up behind May flinch when she looked in my eyes. I’ll have to control my facial expressions better from now on.

“I’m glad to hear that Tony, even if I know it’s a lie.”

She moved her arms and hugged me back as she whispered in my ear.

“Anytime you want, I can light this whole castle on fire.”

You know it’s funny, that voice and those words coming from May should have made me feel terrible. It didn’t sound like her at all. But horrifyingly those words made me so happy. Knowing that there was someone I could count on if things got as ugly as they could get was a blessing to me. I still hurt to know May had changed so much, but really I don’t think I’m the same person I was either.

I whispered back;

“That sounds nice, but let’s take a rain check.”

She just nodded lightly and we separated. Kristen finally came up and just awkwardly patted my shoulder. Her eyes were flitting around scanning my face. I could tell she was trying to see if that face she saw for a second when May asked me if I was alright was still there, but my mask is back in place and I won’t make that mistake again.

“What’s up Kristen, miss my handsome face that much?”

She focused on my eyes when I said that and finally relaxed a bit.

“No Tony, just making sure that your treatment didn’t make you any uglier, you have enough problems in your life.”

“You’re telling me. It’s one thing to be a heretic, quite another to be an ugly heretic.”

“Oh by the way there is a giant moping behind you.”

I turned to see Julian looking at me all worried and shit. It was also only now that I saw what she meant by ‘giant’. Julian was about my size before, but he had grown a lot. He was a head taller and a lot broader than before. He still looked like he used to, just bigger, with a bit more muscle tacked on. It was kinda weird looking. It’s hard to explain but most people who grow up change their appearance somewhat but Julian just looks like someone took a picture of him and stretched it. Even his face was equally wider and taller.

“What the fuck Julian, you look like someone inflated you with air.”

“More of me to go around. You look like shit.”

“Fuckin rude. I will have you know that there is no way I look like shit. After all, my regeneration fixes all the small things like dark circles under my eyes.”

“Ah, you must have just always looked like shit then.”

His worried face started to give way to a smile as we bantered. We kept up our back and forth for a good minute before he broke the cycle.

“I’m glad to see you Tony, really. It was rough without you here. No one else has any sense of humor.”

At this point my guard, who had been quiet until then, stepped forward to split us up. Can’t even let me have a reunion.

“That’s enough chatting. Tony has been brought back here to train with all of you but he is not like the rest of you. He has no choice in what he does, he is here to be trained as a military asset and he won’t be given breaks or grace. If you want to talk you can do it during mealtime.”

“Wait, I get meals now?”

The guard stared at me coldly.

“And you are not to speak to senior officers without permission. Got it. You are a soldier and will act like it. Is this clear?”

I didn’t say anything.

“IS, THAT, CLEAR?!”

He was basically shouting and more people were looking over here.

“Oh am I supposed to respond, I didn’t know if I had permission to ta….”

I saw white for a second, and felt some SPU 6.2. I faintly heard some screams and yelling. I gathered my senses and felt my jaw where the pain was strongest. There was a cut that went straight through the joint connecting my lower jaw on the right side of my face. The lower half of my jaw was completely separated from the rest of my face on that side. I didn’t even see what he hit me with until I saw the blood on the tip of his spear. Holy fuck, I have the drug letting me see slow mo and I still didn’t see him swing a spear in front of my face? Damn he’s fast.

I looked around and saw looks of shock on the faces of Julian and Kristen, they hadn’t moved yet. I quickly looked at May and saw light gathering in her palms. Her face was covered in the shadows cast by the light and she looked downright wrathful. She was definitely about to attack that man but she can’t, she would die. That spear will pierce her throat before her god can do shit.

I quickly straightened up and got in front of May and put a hand on her shoulder. I realized I couldn’t speak and focused on my jaw. I felt it heal noticeably as it re-attached in just a few seconds. As soon as I could use it again I spoke.

“Don’t May.”

She looked at me incredulously, the light still shining brightly from her hands. I began to feel some of my clothes burn just being close to her, but I didn’t look away from her eyes.

“I’m fine. Calm down.”

May’s eyes quivered and she looked down to see my clothes burning. The light immediately faded and a couple tears ran down her face.

“I’m sorry Tony I just… your face… there was so much blood.. I forgot about…”

She kept breaking off and seemed to be struggling to keep her breathing under control.

“May. Look at me.”

Her wandering eyes looked up at mine and I smiled.

“I’m just fine, merely a flesh wound.”

I heard Kristen scoff behind me. I knew what I was saying was ridiculous but I needed her to calm down and not do anything rash. I heard Altru complain about May under his breath. The disdain of a prince could be heavy, and who knew if hurting me was only a way to get her to make a mistake that they could use to imprison her as well. I need to make it clear that she should do nothing.

“That’s all it will ever be to me, a minor inconvenience. So no matter what happens to me; Just. Stay. Calm. Can you do that for me?”

She nodded slowly and took a deep breath.

“I’m fine, and I can take care of myself. Don’t do anything rash if you trust me.”

I really hoped my poker face was working better than earlier.

I turned back to the (supposed) officer who was guarding me and gave one of the salutes I saw the soldiers use. I noticed he was covered in cold sweat. Whether from my quickly healed jaw or from May almost frying him alive I couldn’t tell.

“Permission to speak.”

He gulped but maintained a calm face.

“Granted.”

“If I’m to act like a soldier I’ll need to know how. Unfortunately I am very stupid and have never served before. Kindly let me learn how to do things the right way before taking half my face away.”

I saw his eyes quickly flick to May before coming back to me.

“Fine. You will have additional military etiquette training in the evenings. Till then listen to your betters, which is everyone. For today I’m handing you to Coach Creed for building you up to satisfactory physique for a soldier. Do whatever he says without complaint, and don’t disturb the other summoned unless you are both on break. Understood? You may respond.”

“Understood.”

The officer pointed in a direction. I turned to smile at May, Julian, and Kristen and waved at them, but said nothing as I immediately began walking over to the grouping of suspiciously normal looking workout equipment with heavy steps.