Chapter 25

  Distracted Business Dealings

  “The moment you stop being vigilant of your surroundings, is the moment you leave your life up to fate. And I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but fate is not that gracious to us.” –Teaching of Marcon

  Buzzing.

  It started off slowly.

  A dull thrumming sensation from within her mind. Something intangible that spoke of something being off, ever so slightly in the world. A disturbance of the natural serenity of the world.

  For a moment, Arla thought that what she might be feeling was directly in relationship to Chloe, which was why she did answer most of her questions to a satisfactory level. While she had left out a few minor details, like her being of Cerusian decent and a few other key factors about her life prior to her admittance here, she did answer questions about Cerusians themselves.

  It was also noted that she would help the girl, when it came to time for studying more about Cerusian culture.

  However, that didn’t solve the issue, the sense of unease that Arla was continuing to feel.

  Oddly enough, it had a geolocation component to it as well.

  Arla found that by moving to certain locations she would feel more tension, and then less when she moved away. It would have made sense if this was one stationary point, but there were multiple such areas that caused unease within her.

  With the first spot, being near the center of the Academy there were a lot of variables about what could be generating the mental feedback that Arla had been feeling.

  Then as time went on, and more spots were observed, Arla noticed a pattern.

  Relics.

  For whatever reason, Arla always found or had her eyes drawn to Cerusian relics that were often left unattended at different areas of the campus.

  Once she noticed the first relic, she began noticing them everywhere.

  Most were simple wall mounted objects; others were semi-statues components impaled into the ground. While others were metallic objects added to and worn by higher ranking Cerusian delegates.

  What were these objects? Why did they seem to cause an odd buzzing sensation in Arla’s skull that made it feel like her teeth were hollow, as a dull resonating ache seemed to fill her.

  Worse, she was the only one who seemed to suffer from such an affliction, as everyone else moved around seemingly oblivious to these distractions.

  While her mind told her to avoid the distractions, to keep her head down and avoid everything. Her curiosity got the better of her.

  Why was she being afflicted?

  Was this some type of Cerusian attack?

  If it was an attack designed and conducted by Cerusians against Cerusians, then why were the other Cerusians not being affected? Did they have some form of protection against this odd dull energy?

  “Hey there,” the high-pitched voice of someone overly happy to see someone rang out. It was the overly energetic voice of someone who was used to getting their way, someone born to power, worse Arla knew firsthand that this voice did not belong to someone who could be avoided.

  Glancing out of the corner of her eye, her suspicions were confirmed when she saw Lyria coming towards her. Her big blazing ‘S’ shining brightly in the afternoon light.

  As she moved, many people instinctively moved out of the way, the way minnows and other smaller fish might move away from a predator that already had their eyes set on their next meal.

  “Hello, Cadet Hylinch, how can I assist you?” Arla greeted and bowed to the higher-ranking student. Whatever her true feelings were of having to bow to Lyria, only proper decorum and respect for the Academy’s ranking system were observed in her actions.

  Hearing her controlled tone, Lyria paused and then offered a cracked smile.

  Seeing the forced smile, the slight waves of tension, and the inadvertent twitches that happened with her left hand, Arla concluded that Lyria was nervous. Nervous or…

  It took a second, but Arla then realized what the issue might be, withdrawal? It couldn’t be, not yet. The last dose had just been applied.

  Then Arla realized that the girls were probably in far worse condition than she had thought. Their bodies were unable to keep up with the strain of pushing so much energy through their underdeveloped bodies that it was causing twice as much energy as necessary to be used.

  At least, that is what conclusion Arla came to.

  “Can we talk?” Lyria asked, her eyes performing a quick glance around, focusing on the network of students who had gathered to watch their little display.

  Seeing the gesture and giving her own quick glance, Arla confirmed that this place was not conducive to having a private conversation. Especially as two Geminoids were positioned nearby. While their faces were clearly held in stoic poses, Arla had no doubt that the crafty silicon-based life forms would be able to experience, record, and repeat all forms of information communicated around them.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Sure,” Arla replied, then proceeded to follow Lyria who gestured for Arla to follow.

  Arla did just that, happy to feel a slight form of relief take over, with each step away from the centralized node of odd energies that were accosting her senses.

  There was more to these odd energies, something that Arla vowed to understand. If only to figure out how she could avoid feeling uneasy by going to different parts of the campus.

  As she walked with Lyria, she found that the Cerusians were now broken up into much smaller groups. While trying not to be obvious, her reflexes counted people, groups moving, energy sources nearby, everything and anything was now under her scrutiny.

  This was a game that Marcon would make her play, while walking around, keep track of people, groups, and energy signatures around her.

  It was tough, particularly as Marcon would force her to keep her eyes forward, only allowing her to glance over in Marcon’s direction every few words or phrases. Then while walking, she was to keep track of the people following, without breaking her conversation.

  That was why, when Lyria began trying to speak somewhat cryptically, Arla had no trouble keeping up, despite fully monitoring the area around her.

  “We might be in trouble,” Lyria began.

  Hearing that Arla could only nod in understanding.

  “Your bodies are weak, too weak to fully contain the power you yield, as such you are losing energy at a rapid rate. All while noticing swift gains to your physical characteristics?” Arla posed as a question, but it was clear she had already diagnosed the problem.

  “Exactly, I didn’t. I mean, we didn’t realize how much of a gap there truly was,” Lyria began.

  Arla just nodded in confirmation, while using the moment to track that a group of Cerusians were following them from behind.

  A quick glance forward showed that there was likely going to be a handoff, one where a second group took over the tracking of her and Lyria’s movements.

  It was clear that the groups were far enough away that no one could hear them. Also, Arla gave out slight overcharged bursts that would fry most Federation standard, and Cerusian technology devices. The idea being to cancel any listening devices that might be trying to listen in at any given point.

  These bursts would obviously cause more questions to people who might be monitoring the pair, but Arla hoped that with Lyria being nearby, most of the advanced scrutiny would fall on Lyria, rather than herself.

  More tingling.

  This time, Arla was aware of the odd vibrations that the Cerusians were generating and felt something coming from the handoff group up ahead.

  Then as if choreographed, the new group waited for Arla and Lyria to pass by before taking a step out to quickly follow behind the pair. Meanwhile, the group of Cerusians that had been following Lyria and Arla to this point abruptly turned right down a different roadway that went to the military training fields. An area where these two Cerusians would have no business going, but it was clear they were just leaving to try to get away from Arla’s gaze.

  “Amateurs,” Arla hissed under her breath.

  The entire process was too choreographed and rigid, one team came on at the exact moment the old team left. Then to break off and go to a part of campus that would be closed to the group made the entire clumsy exchange seem almost comical.

  “Hey, we are working on it,” Lyria protested.

  “What?” Arla asked, only after speaking did she realize how her comment could have been interpreted as chastising Lyria and her group.

  “Can you help us?” Lyria asked, changing the subject slightly.

  Pausing, Arla mentally weighed the options of doing a full Ignition on these students. Honestly, the entire process was beginning to become time consuming, and all the girls had so many tells that Arla was surprised more of the instructors did not have more questions.

  “Yes, offer the full thing to everyone,” Arla suggested.

  “Full? For everyone?” Lyria asked, wondering what happened to this model.

  “Yes, I think we have run this to its course. One final payment and everyone walks away, no questions asked.”

  “One payment? That’s all?” Lyria asked, her voice incredulous as she tried to take in the implications.

  “Yes, but under two conditions. First, a million per request.”

  Gasp.

  “A million?” Lyria parroted back.

  “That’s my cut. I don’t care what you get as the broker, but my cut will be a million per. Anyone not interested in this clearly didn’t do the math.” Arla stated, implying the costs of doing the payments of ten thousand credits every two week, or less than a week in this case would add up to roughly 500K for the first year, and easily two million by the time graduation came about. Then the cost of trying to maintain their vaunted ranks without a steady supply.

  While it would be more lucrative to have a constant monthly payment, Arla couldn’t help but feel that she was only as safe as the weakest links. And so far, all of the new S-Rank students all proved they were weak.

  Lyria was deep in contemplation for this, but then finally nodded, “okay.”

  “And secondly, see the pair behind us,” Arla asked casually.

  With that, Lyria did a full head twist, the way one might expect an owl to perform. Somehow she managed to only veer slightly off course with this random next spin, but her objective was complete as she did see the two Cerusians a modified couple of a male and female walking behind them.

  “The Space Elves?” Lyria asked, using the slang term for them.

  “Yes, though they prefer to be called Cerusians,” Arla commented.

  “Yeah, yeah. Okay, so what about them?” Lyria asked while only giving a partial glance back at the pair this time. The pair had fallen a step or two behind, which was perfect for this next part, as Arla needed to have a distraction for her next plan.

  “I need you to turn around and ask out the male,” Arla commented.

  “I need to go on a date with them?”

  “Try to,” Arla nodded.

  “A mil and date a Space Elf, that’s it, then you will agree to the new deal?” Lyria asked.

  “Yes,” Arla began. She was even ready to mention lowering the price of a few of the purchases, but Lyria surprised her.

  “Deal,” Lyria exclaimed, and then proceeded to pirouette in mid-step, performing a complete 180 degree turn before turning around, where she now faced the two completely startled Cerusians who had been tailing them.

  Seeing her gusto for the request, Arla smirked slightly as it was clear that this might be better than she had expected.

  Using Lyria in this was supposed to be little more than a distraction, a simple operation to let her get in close and see if there was something that protected these Cerusians from the annoying wavelengths of energy that now covered the school.

  The reason why Arla wanted Lyria to focus on the male was the fact that for whatever reason the female Cerusian was the one who held the new device that caused Arla’s body to tingle and pulse with energy.

  With the female Cerusian focused on Lyria attempting to talk to her perceived partner, Arla would go in with her own distraction.

  At least, that was the plan that Arla had made up in her mind.

  However, the plan quickly went sideways, when Lyria clearly targeted the female Cerusian, instead.

  “Why hello, fancy running into you here,” Lyria began.

  “What?” The couple cried out in unison.

  “Hey, get back here,” Arla called out, going closer to the trio.

  Lyria for a moment looked flustered, but then seeing that Arla had no intention of getting closer to her paused, and then seemed to fall into the roll asked of her. That of a seducer.

  “Hey, I was wondering if you thought some of us were pretty,” Lyria asked with an odd amount of charm. Again, the only problem was that the focus of Lyria’s seduction was on the exact wrong target.

  Still, Arla used this moment to do what she planned to do from the start. By now Arla had enough time to sense and focus her attention towards finding the origin points for these odd energy signatures. From the girl, it was a clear power broach that stood out on the woman’s chest.

  The closer Arla got to the broach, the more that pulsing sensation behind her teeth began to flare to life. Moving more on instinct than anything, Arla moved in between the two.

  By this point Lyria had already gotten to within a foot and a half of the female Cerusian. By Arla cutting in between both of them, she made it so her body brushed up against both, then using her right arm she spun Lyria, while turning her body to fully face Lyria.

  “How could you?” Arla declared and stared into Lyria’s eyes, intensity and fury blazing. “I loved you, and this is how you repay me?”

  There was a pause, as everyone stared at Arla and Lyria’s exchange. Even the two Cerusians were at a loss for words.

  That was when Arla blinked once, almost as if trying to hold a tear, before turning and fleeing in a different direction.

  For a moment everyone just stared at each other in mesmerizing silence.

  What they missed, what everyone missed was the quick practiced no-look swipe performed by Arla with her left hand, while everyone was focused on her right hand that grabbed and twisted Lyria around.

  The movement was fast and so seamless that the female Cerusian the start of this little escapade failed to notice the pendant that was now missing from her military jacket.

  A pendant that caused two things to happen to Arla.

  First, that odd tingling sensation that had been rattling around in her teeth all day finally ended.

  Then the second thing that happened was she received a system message.

  A message from a system she had almost forgotten due to its inactivity.

  And like that, Arla knew she had to leave the area before she was no longer able to contain her curiosity over the item that she had palmed up the sleeve of her uniform jacket.