Iron Prince: A Progression Sci-Fi Epic (Warformed: Stormweaver Book 1)

by Bryce O'Connor

  Getting to class, they found themselves among the first to arrive, and so took their usual spot towards the front, close to the bottom of the theater. The rest of 1-A arrived steadily, and they traded hellos with Sense and Kay when they appeared—alongside a silent and stiff-faced Leron Joy—then glares with Logan Grant and his posse when the group of four or five—including Mateus Selleck and Leda Truant—strode in like they owned the place. It was almost time for the tone that marked the start of the period when Laurent finally appeared, cutting it close, and she beamed when she caught sight of the pair of them, lifting a hand to wave good morning as they did the same.

  Then, before either of them could say a word to suggest otherwise, she hurried up the steps along the side of the theater to take her typical seat at the edge of the class, separate from everyone else.

  “Wha—?” Rei started to ask, but a nudge from Viv shut him up.

  Still, she was obviously trying not to laugh in exasperation as she shook her head at him. “Leave it alone. She probably doesn’t want to bother us.”

  “‘Bother us’?” Rei repeated, completely dumbfounded by this. “Why in the MIND would she think she’d be bothering us?”

  “Cause—you adorable dolt—she’s a shy girl who just made her first friends at school and doesn’t want to overstep and freak them out,” Viv told him calmly. “Since you seem impervious to the concept of a lack of self-confidence, just trust me: leave it alone.”

  “Oh,” Rei answered dumbly, considering this point.

  Just then Captain Sarah Takeshi, Head of the Tactical Studies Department, entered the room, and every member of 1-A was on their feet and saluting. The woman returned the gesture, then had them all sit again before turning to the large smart-glass wall that made up the lecture hall’s display.

  While Takeshi was preoccupied, Rei glanced over his shoulder. Almost predictably he locked eyes with Laurent, who must have been watching them, but this time instead of looking away the two of them exchanged smiles, and he turned back to the front rather high-spirited as their instructor pulled up the first slides of a presentation called “Basics of Wargame Stratagems”.

  He supposed he had no right to be too disappointed…

  After that first lecture came to an end, they had another in a classroom on the fifth floor of the same building, then a joint double-period lesson on military law with 1-B, held in the Combat Theory Department. Each time was the same, with either Rei and Viv taking to their seats before Laurent, or vice versa, always separated by several rows and chairs. The girl didn’t even try to walk with them between classes, and when Rei made the suggestion of calling out for her since she was alone, Viv took him by the sleeve and told him to be patient.

  Not about to pretend he had any experience in deciphering the silent understandings of girls, Rei offered no other objection.

  It was lunch, at long last, when Viv made her move. Rei saw it coming, because as they met Catcher inside the mess hall’s entrance he could see her gaze following Laurent even as they traded stories about the morning’s lectures. They got in line a ways behind the C-Ranker, with Catcher chatting away happily between them, all the while cheerfully oblivious to the goings on. Rei humored him, but he, too, kept an eye on Laurent, watching the girl pick up her tray of food from the end of the belt and head off towards the south wall of the arboretum without a glance back.

  Catcher only stopped talking when Viv interrupted him after they’d all collected their own respective lunches.

  “Come on. Follow me.”

  “And the look on his face when—Hold on, where are you going?” the Saber’s story about Jack Benaly answering a question wrong in class was cut short as he looked around in surprise, already having taken two steps in the direction of their usual spot. “Our table’s over here.”

  “Not today it’s not,” Rei said brightly, stepping in behind Viv to let her lead the way.

  They navigated the hall in a file, avoiding bumping into other students of every year and ignoring the curious—and occasionally nasty—looks thrown their way. It had become such a habit for them to claim the same place among the palm trees every day that Rei realized he’d never actually bothered to explore the extent of the mess hall, and discovered that this had been to his loss. Whereas on the east side of the large building the curated plant-life had always been tropical and bright in nature, as they passed into the southern quarter of the expansive biosphere the environment shifted quickly. Even the temperature dropped, as though the dome was subdivided into climates, and it fit the cooler, darker evergreens they suddenly found themselves standing under, their great, pointed tops looking like they could have scraped the glass of the atrium high above.

  Pine trees, Rei recognized them, noting too the mossy undergrowth and themed blue-green coloring of this section of the building.

  The space, unfortunately, was only slightly less jam-packed with students—mostly second years—and so it was that the three of them ended up having to search for a little after Viv had explained to Catcher what they were about. It was fortunate she had, too, because it was he—tallest of them as he was—who spotted their goal first.

  “Hey, over there,” he told them, using his elbow to gesture towards the wall of the dome. Rei—who couldn’t see anything through the crowd—trusted in Catcher’s vantage and began to press in the indicated direction as best he could. A few seconds later the trio were free of the bulk of the milling, chattering cadets, finding themselves looking at a quiet corner with a single table half-hidden behind the low branches of one of the smaller evergreens.

  And there, smiling to herself as she contemplated some private thought, Aria Laurent sat alone with her chin in hand, elbow on the plasteel surface by her tray of food, cap on the bench by her hip. She was looking out over the Institute grounds, and the sun through the clear triangular panes of the arboretum was alight in her eyes and hair like fire and green glass.

  “Stop staring, moron,” Viv snickered under her breath as she pushed by him, and Rei realized with a jolt he’d stopped short at the sight of the girl.

  “Shut up,” he muttered back, embarrassed at having been caught, but following all the same.

  Reaching the table first, Viv paused behind Laurent’s shoulder, waiting a moment to see if the girl would notice. When she didn’t, Viv followed her gaze out over the campus and the southern skyline of Castalon rising high above them in the distance.

  “You know, if you’ve been hogging a view like this to yourself this whole time, I’m gonna be kinda upset.”

  Before her Laurent jumped, whirling around. Her eyes went wide as she took the three of them in.

  “Oh,” she breathed, clearly surprised, watching in astonishment as Viv put one leg then the other over the bench by her side to take a seat “Hi… Sorry. I didn’t know if you guys would want to…”

  She trailed off, looking unsure of herself.

  “Please. I’ve spent the last month having to deal with these two on my own.” Viv selected a French fry from her plate to wave it at Rei and Catcher before popping it into her mouth, continuing as she chewed. “If you think for a moment I’m about to let my first opportunity to share a little girl time get away from me, you’re insane.” She feigned a glower at the boys. “Even if thing one and thing two here decided to follow.”

  “Oh please, you would get bored within a day without us,” Catcher played along, sitting opposite Viv as Rei did the same across from Laurent. “You should think of us as free entertainment.”

  “Just cause I don’t pay for it in credits doesn’t mean I don’t pay for it at all,” Viv jabbed back, reaching across to steal one of Catcher’s fries, this time. “Though I admit to the probable boredom part.”

  “Hey!” Catcher protested, making a snatch for Viv’s hand and losing to her Speed. She winked at him, taking a bite even as he cursed her and promptly thieved one of hers in retaliation.

  Leaving the two of them to their antic
s, Rei took in Laurent as she watched the exchange with hesitant delight, like she’d not expected to be having lunch among them.

  Which she obviously hadn’t, he reminded himself.

  “You could have sat with us, you know,” he said after a moment, putting his own elbow on the table and leaning a cheek into his fist. “This morning. In class. You’re gonna make us feel like you’re too cool to hang out with us.”

  “What?” Laurent demanded, whirling on him in absolute mortification. “No! That’s not what I was trying to do! I just thought—!”

  She stopped herself as Rei started to laugh across from her.

  “I’m just teasing,” he told her with a grin, finally moving to pick up his fork and knife as the squabble between Viv and Catcher beside them turned into an all-out war for ultimate french fry dominance. “Viv figured you out, even if I was a complete dunce about it.”

  Laurent’s expression grew relieved.

  Then she scowled at him. “That was mean! You about gave me a heart attack!”

  “I can see the headline now.” Rei started to dig into his steak. “‘First year Prodigy Dies of Embarrassment at Galens Lunch Table’. At least you’d go out in style…”

  “Shut up,” Laurent mumbled, but he glanced up to see her forcing away a smile.

  Tugging free a hunk of meat, Rei chewed on it in silence, looking out over the southern grounds while Catcher cried mercy behind him as Viv must have gotten ahold of his fingers. When he swallowed, he looked around at Laurent again.

  “Did you not have a lot of friends at your last school either?” he asked.

  He knew it was an awkward question—what idiot wouldn’t? Still, despite whatever she might say to the contrary, it made little sense for Aria Laurent—Galens’ top recruit—to be so secluded like this. Even Logan Grant, who—in Rei’s opinion—possessed the personality of an ill-tempered toddler, had formed something of a group, and had started to do so from the very first day of classes. Rei expected Laurent to blush and freeze up, or to maybe see a bit more of the fiery presence she’d cut when he’d first stood across the Dueling field from her, or when she’d pulled him out of the assembly crowd the day before.

  In the end, he got a bit of both.

  “No. Not really.” Laurent’s cheeks were indeed a little red as she answered quietly, but when she looked away from him towards the grounds again Rei got the impression she was less embarrassed than…

  Was that anger?

  “I mean… I guess I did,” the girl kept on after a moment, frowning at the grass and trees and buildings outside. “Not really sure you could call them ‘friends’, though.”

  “Why not?”

  Laurent made a face. “I feel like friends are people you get to pick, right? People you decide you want to spend time with? I… uh…” She looked a little uncomfortable, but continued. “I didn’t really have a choice in who I got to associate with.”

  “Ah,” Rei nodded in understanding, cutting another chunk out of his steak. “One of those families.”

  Laurent blinked in surprise, looking around at him. “How did you know?”

  “Because he’s been dealing with mine for years.”

  Viv was leaning victoriously over two plates of fries when she reentered the conversation, Catcher grumbling curses and nursing a few twisted digits across from her.

  “Your family…?” Laurent echoed tentatively.

  Viv nodded. “Yup. We went to the same preparatory academy. Hitched onto each other in our first year at Grandcrest, when we figured out we were the only two in the grade who were serious about becoming Users.” Without looking she smacked Catcher’s good hand away from her tray as he made a sly attempt at retrieving his plate. “My parents weren’t super pleased when they found out who I was hanging out with at school.”

  “Still aren’t,” Rei said with a snort, giving her the stink-eye over a forkful of meat and broccoli. “Four years, and I’ve never met them.”

  “Well that’s crap of them,” Catcher decided to chime in, shaking the sting off before freezing and looking slowly at Viv. “I-I mean I’m sure they’re great people in their own way, of course…”

  “It’s fine,” Viv shrugged the slight aside, finally reaching for her own fork. “They are great. They’re just… a little too stuck up for their own good.”

  “But you guys were allowed to keep spending time together…?” Laurent asked tentatively. “I mean, obviously you were, since you’re here, now…”

  “Nope,” Rei and Viv both said in unison, and with matching amusement.

  Laurent looked promptly confused.

  “My parents tried to put their foot down when they first heard I was ‘hanging out with a Ward’.” She made air-quotes to either side of her head as she said it, nearly spearing herself in the ear with her fork. “Told me it was fine to take an interest in CAD-combat, but that I should pick my friends more carefully.”

  Laurent stared. “And what did you do, then?”

  “She told them to shove it, and hung up on them.” Rei grinned as he recalled the moment. “I was there when she ended that call. One of the only good memories we have together.”

  “You’re hilarious, jerk.” Viv made a face and gave him the finger before scooping up some mashed potatoes. “But yeah. What he said, essentially. If anything the last 4 years are their fault. Weird as he is I might have ditched him on my own eventually, but the moment they told me I wasn’t allowed to hang out with him…” She shrugged. “Pretty much sealed the deal.”

  “They were all kinds of pissed for a while,” Rei continued the story for Viv as she started to eat. “Took them the rest of the year to get over it, and that’s only because I ended up with the best grades in the class. They must have thought I had some value to her, at that point.”

  “That is awful, though,” Laurent said quietly, but she was staring at Viv, watching her shovel down potatoes in a very un-ladylike fashion. “I guess you’re kind of amazing, too, huh?”

  Viv paused, cocking an eyebrow at the C-Ranker above overstuffed cheeks. She swallowed, and continued to look perplexed as she answered. “I don’t know about that. If anything I was just an overly rebellious brat who happened to make out with a smart-ass genius as a best friend in the end. Imagine what would have gone down if Rei had been someone else. Like Catcher.”

  She grinned as, across from her, Catcher spit and coughed into the water he had just accepted from a passing bot.

  “Ahck—That was—cough—That was rude.” He scowled over the table while dapping at the wet spot of his uniform with a napkin. “I’ll have you know my parents think I’m something of a catch, thank you very much.”

  “Well someone’s got to…” Viv said under her breath.

  “Woman, I will cut you.”

  As the two started going at it again good-naturedly, Rei returned his attention to Laurent.

  “I get the feeling it would take me being crowned an Intersystem pro-circuit Champion to get Viv’s parents to want to bother with meeting me, but they’ve long-since given up on stopping us from hanging out, even before we both made it into Galens.” He studied the Phalanx’s face carefully. “Sounds like you’ve had a tougher time, though…”

  Laurent didn’t say anything for a moment, still watching Viv with a bit of a sad frown.

  Finally, she nodded.

  “My family—no, my mother, if I’m being honest—can be… a bit overbearing.” She exhaled in resignation, turning to face him. “She has… expectations. I suppose both my parents do, but my father prefers a more… uh… extreme hands-off approach.” Laurent did a good job of keeping her expression set, but the disappointment didn’t escape her voice. “My mother raised me and my siblings pretty much on her own, and I think she got used to a little too much control.” The girl seemed to sag slightly, and appeared to have difficulty meeting his eye again. “I hope I don’t sound ungrateful. I know she loves us in her own way, but…” S
he trailed off, leaving Rei to wait.

  “I actually didn’t want to come to Galens, if you can believe it,” she started again when she was ready. “I wanted to go to an inner-system schools, maybe one of the academies on Mars, or even Earth. But Mother had to have her way again.” She spoke bitterly, then her eyes fell to the table, and her voice grew more subdued once more. “Still… I can’t complain. At least here I’m not surrounded by instructors and headmasters ready to bend over backwards to make sure they meet all of her ridiculous demands.”

  Rei whistled. “That bad?”

  Laurent nodded, and said nothing more, still staring at her plate.

  Rei, though, chuckled. “Don’t worry. You’ve got the wrong lunch buddy if you’re looking to be judged for a little parental baggage. At least your mom and dad didn’t leave you at the hospital the day after you were born.”

  The girl looked up sharply, eyes wide. “You’re kidding…”

  Rei snorted. “I wish. I was born with a nasty case of boneitis. The happy couple decided they couldn’t handle it.”

  “Bone…itis?” Laurent repeated uncertainly, clearly having trouble balancing his humor with the gravity of his statement.

  “His body’s soft tissues like to calcify and turn into splinters that have to be removed,” Viv spoke up, glaring at Rei as she pointed her fork at him. “If you’re going to explain things, do it properly.”

  “Okay, Mom,” he grumbled in answer, but across from him Laurent looked to be making a realization.

  “Is that what your scars are from?” she demanded. “I’ve been wondering what—!” She caught herself, looking suddenly distressed. “I-I’m sorry… I didn’t mean—”

  “Don’t sweat it,” Rei interrupted with half a smile, not even pausing in his cutting into his lunch again. “My point, though, is that you don’t need to feel bad about venting. Especially about your parents. You’re in the right place for that, Laurent.”

  He stuffed the steak into his mouth and looked away from her, studying the flyers and transport vehicles that cut across the sky high above them in a perfect grid of air lanes. For a while the only conversation was Viv and Catcher’s typical back and forth, and eventually Rei took to watching the pair go at it with amusement as Laurent sat quietly opposite him, hardly touching her food.