Volithur accepted the shot to his ribs from Thassily to give back a chop to the side of the neck. The movement, as silly as it had first appeared to him, had been proven time and again to be effective at inducing an involuntary reaction. The nub of the wrist bone whipping into the neck muscles hurt like hell. As Thassily flinched back from the point of pain, Volithur stepped in on a stiff jab.

  His friend waved a hand in surrender and cradled his nose. “Ouch.”

  Volithur backed off and stood with his hands on his hips, waiting for their match to resume. Causing minor injuries had become such a commonpce occurrence that he found it hard to feel bad for bloodying a nose. They all beat on each other every day, which made it a normal fact of life. You tried not to take things too far, of course, but no one got too out of sorts when they gave or received an injury that didn’t require time off from training.

  Around them, spars began pausing as people turned to face one direction. Volithur joined them in looking into the air beyond the pace. A mirror-surfaced transit sphere hovered there for just a moment longer before shrinking away to nothing. Someone had just left the estate. And because of the strict no-fly rule, they knew it must be a close retion to the Lord General.

  Instructor Gordo called out for everyone to get back to business and sparring resumed. Volithur took it easy on his friend and barely made contact as they finished the round. After squaring off against a few more opponents, they called it quits for the day.

  Thassily smacked him on the shoulder as they returned to the barracks. “You’re getting really good at fighting, Harridan.”

  “Or maybe you’re just tired all the time from staying up so te.”

  Thassily pulled him off to the side. “We’re doing like you said.”

  “You’re trying to get Dar pregnant?” Volithur asked the question because he had not, as of yet, received any actual confirmation that his friend was sexually active. And Khana desperately had to know those kinds of details. Maybe he was curious as well.

  “Her dad thinks I would be a good assistant distiller. I just have to invest my payout from the family into his business.” Thassily stared into the distance. “Things might be looking up for me, Harridan. A good woman, a job that lets me sip rum every night, even kids. I really hope it happens fast. I’m getting tired of the soldier stuff.”

  A sad smile stretched onto Volithur’s face. He would miss his friend, but this was the best thing that could happen for Thassily. “Won’t you need to get a day job?”

  “While Dar is out having a kid, they’ll hire me to work in the tap room. That should be enough income for us to live on if we’re frugal. Then when she can return to work, I’ll find seasonal work on one of the vegetable farms like most of the borers around here. It doesn’t pay a lot, but they pretend not to notice if you take home a basket of produce each day. We won’t get rich, but we won’t go hungry, either.”

  Volithur punched his friend in the shoulder. “You’d better not forget about me when you’re living the good life.”

  “What? Who are you? Why am I talking to this strange man?”

  Volithur sighed and looked up at the ceiling. “I suspect my punch gave you brain damage.”

  As the two of them were ughing, the Barracks Clerk rushed past them yelling for everyone to assemble in the dining hall. Volithur and Thassily shared a concerned look. Quite often these sudden announcements were to disseminate bad news.

  The other soldiers seemed to share the same worries. Everyone milled about, muttering compints under their breath. Having a bad attitude could be forgiven, but you always had to watch your words when you were upset with nobles.

  The Marshal arrived shortly after the Barracks Clerk had gathered everyone together. The man whistled for silence and got it. “Everyone, the third daughter visited the estate st night and then departed this morning. She issued a series of decrees while here.”

  Volithur gnced about, trying to see by his fellow’s reactions what this meant for them. Stony faces gave away nothing. The Marshal lifted a heavy bag, causing the sound of tinkling to fill the room. “The one most relevant to us is as follows. ‘The fifth household exists in part to raise up soldiers for the Lord General’s army. All commoners in garrison will be provided with appropriate resources to meet these expectations.’ Based on that decree, with the full cooperation of the pace staff, I have brought two months’ worth of elixirs to distribute.”

  The reaction was swift and very, very loud. They roared and cpped and stomped their approval of the third daughter’s decree. It took them a while to calm down enough to hear the Marshal’s next words. “The Barracks Clerk will be distributing your resources. Other than duty assignments, your schedule is cleared for the rest of the day. All of you will be cultivating.”

  It took a quarter hour for Volithur to receive two vials of tea powder elixir. He disappeared into his room to down the first vial and began to circute cosmic energy between his soul and body. His skull saturated not long ago and he was now working on the long femur bones of his upper legs. Though he had been clearly instructed to focus on one bone at a time, Volithur had decided that he would do both femurs as a set.

  He worked right through lunch, as did Thassily, and probably most everyone else. Ava the cook’s assistant stopped by his room. He ignored her for as long as he could, then told her he was cultivating with an elixir and needed quiet. She appeared hurt by the curt dismissal, but it got her to go away.

  Volithur eventually exhausted the usefulness of the tea powder elixir. As he took stock of the changes he had wrought, he was pleased to note that his femur bones were close to full saturation. They would reach that level for sure with the second elixir. Though he did not have time at the moment to finish another session.

  Post dinner stew, Volithur went to the library as usual.

  There he found a disheartened Khana colpsed into one of the seats, head down so that her hair cascaded around her face like a veil. Volithur approached slowly. “Are you well, Khana?”

  “Master Zara came here to set right all the changes Master Aramar implemented,” Khana said without moving. “Elixirs flowed like they cost nothing. Family and commoners alike were showered with resources. Everyone… except for me.”

  Volithur sighed and pced a hand on her back. “I’m sorry, Khana.”

  “Ulysses broke through to level six. He and his parents left with Master Zara.”

  “That’s… good for him.”

  “Yes. Good for him. Good for you, too. I know you got your hands on resources.” There was no heat in her words, only heartbreak. In her current circumstances, a couple of vials wouldn’t be near enough to change her fate. This wasn’t about not having a chance to progress. It was being made to feel the outsider. In a way, this was crueler than anything the fifth household had ever done to him. No matter how distantly reted members of the family were to one another, they still shared a common descent from the Lord General. And they had twisted the metaphorical knife in Khana every chance they got.

  Volithur reached into a pocket and pulled out his second vial and pced it into her hand.

  She split her veil of hair with fingers of her free hand and stared at the gift. “Tea powder elixir? Harridan… you can’t give away your advantages like this.”

  He turned away before she could see the heat rising to his cheeks. “Just drink it down already. I don’t want you being moody during my lesson.”

  The sound of a cork being removed reached his ears. He heard her drink the liquid, then the plink of gss on wood. Volithur turned back around to find her eyes fixed on him. He cleared his throat. “Can we start now?”

  “I should cultivate since I just drank the elixir….”

  “Oh, right.” Volithur backed away, heart beating, as if her steady gaze forced him back. “Then tomorrow you can make it up to me by making my lesson twice as long. I have to go. Stuff to do at the barracks. Bye.”

  He sprinted back to the barracks and fled to his room, where Thassily sat in cultivation still. His friend opened one eye briefly upon his entrance. “You’re back quick today.”

  “Right. Had to tell Khana I wouldn’t be doing lessons today.”

  “So you’re going to take your second vial now?”

  Volithur winced. Stupid. I am so incredibly stupid. Why did I do that? “Uh, yeah. I already took it, so now I can cultivate. Yep.”

  Thassily’s eyes popped open. “You’re being weird, Harridan.”

  “Too much cultivating can do that to a person. Make them weird. Right?”

  Thassily closed his eyes again. “Never mind, I don’t want to know what you’re up to. Your schemes are going to get you in trouble some day. Instead of trying to trick your way into higher status, you should just knock up a hot babe like I did.”

  Volithur crushed the thought that popped into his head with self-criticisms. I needed that damn elixir. Why am I such a fool?

  Instead of letting himself dwell too much on the events of the past half hour, Volithur began to work his aura in the familiar rhythm of cultivation. He would just have to work harder to make up for the lost resource. Not lost. Discarded. It is a resource I threw away for no real purpose.

  “Thassily?”

  “Yeah, buddy?”

  “Did you really know you loved Dar the first time you saw her?”

  “I sure did. First my eyes figured it out, my nether regions gave a tingle of approval, then my heart started beating, I got all sweaty in my pits, and then my brain figured out I had to wife that girl up. Calling it instant would be an exaggeration. From start to finish at least two seconds passed. Maybe even three.”

  “That isn’t very helpful,” Volithur muttered.

  “Helpful? Oh, right, Ava came by earlier. She’s a scrawny thing. Teeth are messed up. Bad skin. But… if you like her, why not? Life isn’t a movie, Harridan. We’re not going to hook up with models. Well, you’re not. I obviously have the superior skills with the dies.”