I didn’t realize how comfortable I became around Elina until her presence was gone. She had left the day before along with the rest of the students who had yet to open their Dreamscapes. Meanwhile those of us who stayed were riding in cars toward the city of Zuva.

  A bit odd to think that the prodigious Daybreak Dreamer Academy would use carriages instead of an automobile.

  The carriage I was inside of seemed to be filled with a suspenseful tension only I could feel. Next to me Marollo Ventlos, the Solarian boy with thick glasses was drawing in a sketchbook, meanwhile opposite me Cystella the Skulker and a long faced half-Empyrean boy with black hair and golden eyes were reading books.

  I too was reading, or at least attempting to. Iron Nightmare would have been a fascinating book any other day, but some part of me wished that the silence was instead filled with conversation. It seems friendship could have its negative side effects.

  Perhaps it was not the silence that filled me with tension, but the growing skyscrapers in the distance. My parents were there, and they wanted to see me. The chance of me seeing them was nonexistent. We were only stopping by a single building, one which my parents had no business being inside of.

  Still, I feared they would be lurking there, waiting for me. I wanted them to be.

  My grandfather’s reply to the letter I sent him did not arrive by the time I left, something I anticipated. Would he tell me to go to them with open arms? Unlikely, but I couldn’t see him telling me to reject them.

  Him and my grandmother, however addled her mind was, wanted us to be a real family, not… whatever we were.

  But the very idea filled me with shame. My grandparents had raised me in place of my parents. Showed me love even if it was difficult for them. To go back to my parents like a kicked dog looking for scraps felt as though I would be stabbing them in the back.

  It would be easier to just reject it all, to never open or send another letter to any member of my family. Let them pile up and use them to build a wall I could hide behind. Then I could just be Monty.

  It was a foolish thought, so I quickly discarded it.

  Whatever the reason for my parents' letter, be it true affection, a sudden desire for an heir, or for the protection of a Dreamer, I would not be dealing with it now.

  Our carriages came to a halt, the coach opening the door for us. We exited, well, three of us did. I looked back to Cystella who was still reading her book. She noticed my gaze, glancing at me with a derisive gleam.

  “I’m a Skulker.”

  Fair enough.

  The Forged Order Headquarters looked like a castle from the post Drowning era. When the Sun State was a land of city-states and small feudal kingdoms, the nearby skyscrapers towered over the castle, making it look squat and out of date.

  That being said, the building was in no way unimpressive. Created by the Dreamer Gneiss Family it was in the shape of a U, black stone walls covering a plain grass yard like a coat. Two turrets covered each side of the wide entrance to the central area and a third, larger and more impressive tower, stood opposite the open entrance.

  The larger tower had a single glass panel shaped from a leaf of the Evergleam Tree that covered it from bottom to top. Not that it allowed them to see inside the building, like the surrounding stone the glass was black, only allowing those inside to look out.

  Framing the building were golden metal rods, though I doubted they were made of true gold. They intersected one another in a beautiful display of V’s and X’s.

  Framed by those poles was a ten foot tall sculpture of a hammer placed over the glass, a large Sun Stone in the center of its heavy ends. Pretty, but disingenuous. Sun Stones were not displayed openly like that unless it was for decoration.

  In the middle of the square stood a formation of soldiers, no, not just soldiers, Forged Order warriors. Three women in officers' uniforms stayed a bit to the side and one man in Champion’s armor stood in front of the formation.

  For a moment I wished I stood with them, they were so… tidy, put together. On the other hand us students from the Daybreak Dreamer Academy were a mass of individuality. Some pointed and exclaimed, others shuffled awkwardly, and one girl, Lady Heidi Brightstrike, waved to the Forged Order. They did not wave back.

  Our escort for this trip, Professor Alyci, stepped toward the formation. The man in front of the formation changed his stance and said something in that incomprehensible way military people do. The rest of the formation, an equal mix of Champions and soldiers with bulky packs, mimicked the man’s stance.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Adam Brightstrike,” Professor Alyci said, her voice amused. “To think you dote on your niece so much that you stepped down as Grand Champion just to protect her.”

  “Lady Alyci,” the man at the front of the formation said. “I assure you my niece needs no protection from me. If anything I stepped down so as not to deal with her more politically destructive habits.”

  “Uncle…” Heidi Brightstrike pouted.

  Adam Brightstrike only gave his relative an amused look before turning to the rest of us. Though he was covered in bulky Sun Stone powered armor I could tell he was a tall well built man with a stern square face. His blond hair was streaked with grey and he had a rather thick walrus mustache.

  “Hello students of Daybreak Dreamer Academy. I am Line Sergeant Adam Brightstrike. As your professor just said, I am the former Grand Champion of the Forged Order, but now I spend my days training the next generation of Champions. Our organization has existed for almost a hundred years. In that time we have learned a very valuable lesson. For all of our technology and training, there are times when we are unable to defend our citizens from Nightmares.”

  Though their faces remained stoic I could see that the soldiers, who were only a handful of years older than me, did not like what their sergeant said. It was told in the way their shoulders stiffened, the slight tightening in the eyes.

  “Nightmares come in all shapes and sizes, with Terrors' armor can't stop and bodies that make our hammers and blades prove ineffective. It is during those times that we come to rely on people like you. Where our citizens come to rely on you. Now do not misunderstand, I am not expecting you to fight any Nightmare’s we come across in the Forest of Living Dreams, however I do want you to keep in mind that there may be a day when you are asked to step up and defend our country against the constant threat that are Nightmares. This exercise will be the beginning of our relationship together, one I hope will be fruitful for everyone… Now Luitentinent Arlark will call out your names and the names of the team that will be working with you during our journey.”

  One of the officers stepped forward and began calling us one by one. After a student stepped forward a set of three armored Champions and three packed Packers moved to join each Daybreak student.

  “Monty Gao with Team Thunderbird.”

  Each team of six Forged Order was named after a Nightmare, a bit odd seeing as their entire purpose was to hunt Nightmares. As its name implied the Thunderbird was rather famous for its ability to control thunder and lightning. It was said the area of the Second Layer in which they lived was embroidered in a never ending storm.

  “Monty Gao? It's a pleasure to meet you, I am Private Quint and will be leading Team Thunderbird,” One of the Champions said, holding out his hand.

  I examined the hand, or to be more precise I examined the armor surrounding the hand. There was a distinct difference between the armor Line Sergeant Brightstrike wore and what the other younger Champions had on. Sergeant Brightstrike’s had additional contraptions I could only guess the function of, as well as the scratches and dents that came with an oft used and well taken care of tool. But what mainly stood out were the designs, namely the designs of walls, turrets and portcullises that covered Sergeant Brightstrikes entire body, and then the blank, smooth armor of the trainee Champions.

  Gears and pistons would allow Private Quint to crush my hand like a grape if he was not careful. Still I put my hand forward and shook the oversized gauntlet. It would do no good to be rude.

  “It is nice to meet you, Private Quint. Not to bring insult, but I thought you would all be of higher rank.”

  Despite my earlier thought I only felt a gentle but sturdy grip. A sudden memory of my mother came to mind, her thin bony fingers bending my hand almost in half, the pain almost enough to make me tear up. I missed that feeling.

  The young man, no older than twenty smiled kindly at me. He was Solarian with short cropped hair and a thin face. Attached to his back was a sword that was not fully extended, as it would be far too unwieldy to carry if it was. The other two Champions carried a hammer and spear respectively. The hammer wielder was also a Solarian man with a square jaw and dark brown eyes. The spear wielder was- wait, the spear wielder was an Empyrean woman. It was hard to tell at first because of the armor and short hair.

  While it was women that founded the Forged Order, protecting the citizens from Nightmares during the invasion of the Charred Continent, they changed to an administrative role once the war was over becoming the officers and weapons developers instead. Which in of itself apparently caused controversy.

  From what my neighbor told me, men’s bodies were better suited to handle the strain of the Champions armor. Perhaps the technology had developed enough to mitigate that.

  “Well we stay private until we graduate from our basic training. We’ve actually been privates for three years now,” Private Quint said with an amused smile.

  You could enlist into the Forged Order at fifteen, and you had to go through a rigorous twenty week course in order to be accepted. It was something I briefly considered as a career for myself, but I didn’t think I would make it through the selection with my scrawny body. I might have tried to join the officers, but they only accepted women as far as I knew.

  “Private Icey and Private Downs are my fellow Champions,” Quint said, pointing out the stout man and Empyrean woman respectively. “And these three are our Packers. Privates Yun, Terkville and Gelf.”

  The three men, one Empyrean and two Solarian, wore oversized packs supported by straps and leg braces that took on some of the weight. Packers were the far ranged support of the Forged Order, carrying firearms, food, extra Sun Stones, expandable mirrors and maintenance equipment. Champions and Packers were based off of the old knight and squire duo of the feudal era.

  “If you have any questions for us feel free to ask,” Private Quint finished, the rest of his team giving me the same kind smile.

  It was one of those rehtorical questions people said to be polite… but he did ask.

  “How are you able to move your hand so well despite the bulky armor?”

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