Advanced css, in many ways, felt like a repeat of when Volithur first moved up to the intermediate css. In other words, he clearly demonstrated to everyone how monumentally incompetent he was.

  The css of six students were led through ‘fifth limb drills’ by the Sergeant. These were energy conservative combat movements that utilized a single cable of force. There were trips, pushes, shes, and strangles in the repertoire. Volithur cked the fine control of his domain to reliably execute any of them against a training partner.

  Their ‘sparring’ that day involved no violence. They simply had to take turns with one person running and the other person attempting a trip. Volithur face-pnted several times. His partner, meanwhile, had no problem running right through Volithur’s force cable like it was insubstantial.

  In the weeks that followed, the situation didn’t much improve. Volithur felt like his body enhancement progress had begun to tail off a bit, but the morning fat and yeast and salt combination still made it hard for him to store up a usable energy surplus. Low reserves plus low natural aptitude equaled unimpressive results. He consoled himself with the knowledge that his body enhancement would soon be superior to everyone at the Fifth Household other than the Marshal.

  During one of his morning meet-ups for what he had begun to think of as ‘yuck breakfast’, Volithur posed a question to the Marshal. “Might it be a good idea to take a break from the body enhancement resources for a while so that I am able to do more work with my domain?”

  The Marshal leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. “It’s a valid question. I haven’t decided yet how far we should push your body enhancement. Your weakest point is definitely your domain, so it would make sense to focus on that. At the same time, common wisdom holds that a soldier’s body should never be more than one level below their soul.

  “Further complicating the matter is my impression that you ck a talent for domain work. I don’t know if the right call is to push you extra hard to overcome that deficit or concentrate on areas where you will see better results for the effort you invest. The main reason I’ve continued with the resource use for so long is that you are actually keeping up with the energy demands.

  “I think peak level five body enhancement and spear proficiency might be the best we can manage in the time we have left. If you are certain you would benefit more from focusing on domain training than on body enhancement, I am open to persuasion, Ward Harridan.”

  After a few moments, Volithur shook his head. “I think you’re right. It would be better if I was bad at one thing and great at everything else.”

  So Volithur continued on with life. He made love to his wife at night, attended the advanced css in the morning, and did domain drills with the Sergeant in the afternoon. At all other times, he was cultivating cosmic energy. Sometimes it felt like that was the main thing he did in life: sit or y in one pce and gather energy into his soul. It could be maddening. Other times, the unthinking rhythm would rex him.

  Overall, things weren’t bad. He didn’t love every moment of his day, but he was making progress towards his goal of obtaining power and he certainly enjoyed some aspects of married life in the pace. Then something terrible happened.

  When Volithur met the Marshal at the store room for his breakfast, the man did not hold the usual waxed paper. Instead, he stood beside a wooden box as he scowled.

  “Is something wrong, Master Marshal?”

  “A representative from the Main Branch arrived to evaluate you.” The words were said in the manner of someone offering condolences at a funeral.

  Volithur hesitated. “Was that not expected?”

  “The thirty-second son elected to take on the duty.”

  “Oh.” Volithur swallowed. That was bad. Terrible, actually. The thirty-second child of the Lord General was Master Aramar. Volithur still remembered the beating given to him by Dorian, the son of Aramar. He’d spent weeks in recovery.

  “Exactly, Ward Harridan. I persuaded him to give you a full day to recover your energy levels before the evaluation. Master Aramar has generously provided this crate of resources to ensure you can perform at your best.”

  Volithur hung his head in defeat. Who knew what disgusting things he would be forced to eat before being brutally beaten and humiliated. “I understand, Master Marshal.”

  When the box was opened, the first thing to be withdrawn was a gss bottle sealed with cork and wax. “A fortified wine,” the Marshal announced, his voice tight. “It’s from a renowned vintner.”

  “Wine?”

  “Substances that digest rapidly and aren’t present in significant amounts in the human body easily surrender their cosmic energy for cultivation purposes. Alcohol is perfect for this purpose. You have a full day to sober up, so it won’t be an issue. Begin drinking, Ward Harridan.”

  Volithur peeled the wax and popped the cork. His first swig of the wine almost caused him to spray the Marshal with spit. It hit his taste buds hard, astringent and sour in all the wrong ways. “This is what good wine is supposed to taste like?”

  “Only a handful of us at the Fifth Household have ever had wine from Tian, Ward Harridan. It would be unseemly for you to compin about the fvor.”

  He began to sip the wine at regur intervals, treating it like the chore it was. Meanwhile, the Marshal pulled out a bag filled with small citrus fruits and instructed Volithur to eat them with the skins on. Those actually tasted good.

  A number of high fiber items came out after that. Raw carrots, dehydrated apple slices, toasted peas, and a mixture of small roasted seeds. Volithur used the items to cleanse his pate between sips of wine. Soon they were gone and he was feeling quite full.

  The Marshal did not relent and pulled out the final two items: a tin of bckberry Jelly and honey cakes. Volithur forced down his unwanted dessert and then looked at the bottle of wine still half full. “Master Marshal, I don’t think I can handle anything more at the moment.”

  “Then cultivate, Ward Harridan. Alternate between body and chaos. You need to be prepared for tomorrow. Take the wine and finish it as soon as you can. I’ll collect you ter tonight so you can spend time in the cosmic chamber.”

  Volithur returned to his room to cultivate. Very rapidly, the free energy in his body skyrocketed. The effort required to move it into his soul was so minimal it almost seemed like a joke. Was this how people on Tian felt with every meal? The unfairness deeply disturbed him, even knowing he had a better method now with his chaos cultivation.

  He sipped at the wine until the end, even swallowing the dregs and bits of cork. It metabolized rapidly, releasing cosmic energy that his soul slurped up with the barest exertion. Over the rest of the morning, he drew down the energy levels of his body to normal. His soul reserves were replenished by perhaps ten percent of full capacity in the process.

  Volithur switched to chaos cultivation for a few hours, then came back to body cultivation when the food had metabolized a bit further. When he sat down for lunch, a servant brought him a tea powder elixir in a double vial and a ewer filled cosmic water. Khana made her appearance and expined the appearance of Aramar to him and that he would likely be tested. To which he responded with the specifics of the situation.

  Khana rushed off immediately after lunch, no doubt eager to share her gossip.

  It was just as well, because Volithur could not afford distractions. The new resources provided with his lunch needed to be absorbed. Then he was ready to draw in more chaos. At dinner, the Casteln stopped by his table. “Ward Harridan, you have been granted a spot in the cosmic chamber this evening. Ensure you arrive early so the family does not have to wait on you.”

  Volithur made a show of bowing in acknowledgment of the order. In turn, the Casteln gave a perfunctory nod as if they were frequent colborators before moving away. Things had been awkward between them since the wedding. The Casteln alternated between ignoring Volithur’s existence and feigning a working retionship. Not being a fool, Volithur knew that the man could turn on him in a moment. Only his perceived status protected him.

  That evening he sat in the cosmic chamber, having taken the pce of Master Aria. The other nobles whispered to each other while shooting gnces his direction. Volithur politely ignored their rude behavior and furiously pumped his aura – his motivation had more to do with spitefully taking the cosmic energy away from the others than it did with desiring to restore his energy reserves.

  Afterwards, he engaged in more chaos cultivation before drifting off to sleep. By burning through resources and svishly pushing himself to exhaustion, he had managed to bring his soul reserves up to about twenty percent. Hopefully that would be enough for whatever test the thirty-second son had in store for him.