Kris, Age 10:

  Kris had established a sort of system over the first few years of the academy. Trouble was, unfortunately, quite common between the human students and the other races.

  Many of the human students were quite unique. According to historical texts, the human race on Sylpharia had become increasingly lacking in diversity as various genetic lineages intermingled. That was the entire original purpose of genetic modification. Preventing their race from having to rely on individual mutations to maintain itself.

  That had been a mistake from the start.

  Sylpharia’s history of genetic modification had ended interspace trade quite violently. Viral bioweapons had erased an entire species on another world, in fact. The issues on the world itself had been a sort of creeping decay, though. Every race on Sylpharia was the result of genetic remodeling, and it had caused the near collapse of their world.

  Circling back to the humans, however, was the most shocking part. The humans found in the Citadel labs were all unique. They shared very few features with one another, with various skin and eye colors. Based on her own historical research, Kris found that Sylpharia’s humans hadn’t had that sort of genetic diversity in over ten thousand years. Not since the days of their own world’s space travel era.

  It was as if someone had taken a wide array of features across genetic lineages from that era and transplanted them into the modern age. Frankly, it had been a total miracle. The rumor that the orphans were genetic backups for Imperial leadership was entirely impossible, and it only made sense to kids, like their classmates, to ignore the flaws in the theory in order to keep bullying their peers.

  So, the rumors had persisted, and Kris had developed a safety system. The orphans had their own little networks that kept track of one another. For the chief recipient of bullying, Mari, the best person to keep an eye out was Wilke. The pair had developed a close bond from Mari giving up her own food for the boy. It was one thing Kris liked about Mari. The selflessness.

  Mari was also sick, even if people didn’t see it on the surface. She had some odd blood disease that required frequent blood transfusions. Everything came together into Mari being a frail little girl, despite being a couple months older than she was.

  So Kris had made plans in advance.

  When Wilke came to see her and inform her of Mari’s incident, she’d been well prepared.

  Really, as a student of history, it was a foregone conclusion. All the events and rumors would come to a head, and Mari would be the weakest link, therefore the easiest to torment. If Kris didn’t stop them, they might even kill the poor girl.

  “Where are they?” She asked the broad shouldered boy.

  “Classroom on the second floor. Krystal, Lynthia and Cynthia. Lyn’s being Lyn, so you should hurry before things get too bad.” Wilke’s words made Kris grimace. The nickname for Lynthia would’ve made the girl in question fly off the handle.

  “Careful with the nicknames. Reminding her of the nickname their parents used will only set her off.” Kris scooped up her tablet and made long strides back towards the school building, leaving the park she’d been reading in behind.

  The uniform was composed of long skirts, flowing robes, and a sash at the waist, all over a colored shirt that denoted the proficiency of the school you fell into. Kris was the youngest to wear a white shirt, the highest proficiency level available before specialized instruction began.

  Wilke was around Mari’s level, and they were in the second group, wearing green shirts.

  The school building itself also was divided by proficiency grouping. The white group studied on the ground floor, with the green group on the second floor, then the blue group and red groups on the third and fourth floors, respectively. Not that the red group really existed as such. That was just a label, but most parents didn’t adhere to school uniforms for toddlers.

  When Kris reached the stairs, she could already hear the voices. Krystal didn’t do a good job of moderating her volume, and her incessant whining always made Kris’ skin crawl with displeasure. She couldn’t believe the girl was related to her. Cousins, if one was charitable, but members of the same clan, regardless. They shared some amount of bloodline, and that fact bothered Kris.

  Wilke stopped at the base of the stairs when Kris held up her hand in a mimicry of her mother’s military hand signs.

  Kris went alone.

  Standing outside the classroom, she turned on the recorder for her tablet before waiting and tuning out the wild accusations.

  She slid a padded glove over her fingers, then flexed the fit a little, wishing she had more than improvised ammunition. Unlike her mother’s volatile weapon of choice, Kris still had the limits set on her own, since she used it for sports. Still, she had a handful of small metal marbles that she’d practiced with. Just in case she needed to defend herself, of course.

  Once the girls inside had incriminated themselves enough, she entered the room, right hand behind her back, though she doubted she would need it..

  “What an unsightly display. Krystal, you shouldn’t pick on endangered species so much. Humans were rare even before the empire was overthrown, so they really won’t survive so much pressure.” Her voice was lilting, using the right tone to sound like she was joining in on the verbal abuse. She knew how to play her cousin’s games.

  “Oh? Oh my? Little Krissanine. How fortunate we are to be in the presence of the Kilthien prodigy herself. The difference between humans and Sylpharien scum is largely academic, though. They are oppressors all the same.” Krystal wasn’t a very bright girl. Sylpharians were actually just the wealthiest people trying to perfect themselves. Most humans were largely unwilling or unable to afford the transition in the earlier days, which built an increasing wealth gap. Humans began dying out in short order after that.

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  “I’m not sure where you heard that, but I fear you may have been misinformed. Your unfortunate victim over there is a human, and most humans were unfortunate in their own ways. Even if you were correct, Mari was actually intended as a test subject in a lab experiment. If not for the revolution, she might’ve lived her whole life inside a pod of suspension fluid. Even agreeing with you, I’m not sure my mother would appreciate her efforts in saving the girl’s life being wasted.”

  Krystal had a grimace on her face, and Kris had to keep herself from making a comment on how the expression would give her wrinkles. She kept her own mean streak carefully restrained.

  “Fine, I suppose you’re right. We’ll leave it be.”

  Kris didn’t miss the way she’d referred to Mari as an ‘it’ instead of a ‘her.’

  Lynthia seemed thoroughly annoyed at losing her kicking bag, and tossed Mari to the ground like a sack of potatoes. There was blood running from the dark-haired girl’s mouth, even.

  Kris paused in front of the taller, older girl. “Did you get any blood on you, Lynthia?” She asked sweetly.

  “No.” The Ravien girl practically growled at her, but sidestepped to leave without another word.

  Cynthia departed with Krystal, but caught notice of something as they exited the classroom. “What’s that?” She asked.

  “Perfect,” Kris subvocalized with a smile before replying. “What’s what?”

  “A library tablet. And it’s recording.” Cynthia handed it to Krystal.

  Her cousin’s face grew red with rage. “You were recording us to tattle to the instructors? Over a filthy lab rat? You’re the daughter of a hero. The daughter of our leader. You’re supposed to be on my side!”

  A child’s logic, really. Kris was sick of the entitlement. “I’m on the side that prevents any future uprising over petty conflicts.”

  “If that were the case, you’d be urging your mother to execute the monsters before they can oppress us all again.” Krystal made a show of deleting the audio recording before dropping the tablet on the ground and storming off. Her two followers dutifully followed her out.

  Then Kris rushed to Mari’s side. She had a pack of cloth wipes for exactly that purpose, so she quickly wiped up the blood. “Where are you hurt?” Kris knew better than to ask Mari if she was hurt. Mari would insist she was fine until she had to be dragged to the hospital.

  To her dismay, the raven-haired girl was barely conscious.

  Mari, Age 19:

  Kris was a kind girl. Her family had always been kind to Mari and her fellow orphans, though it had always struck her as an obligation instead of a true sense of kindness. It was sincere, at least.

  Ever since Kris had helped her out, they’d been friends, sort of. Kris always had the best intentions, but her actions were always well planned and thought out. In fact, she could be outright verbally brutal to Mari in the pursuit of the most peaceful resolution. She’d pretend to be on the attackers’ side to win them over before defusing the situation. Mari envied that ability of hers. The ability to think through the consequences of every action and sentence and play everything out in the least violent manner.

  Even when her audio evidence had been caught by Krystal and her cronies, it had been intentional. It had been a statement. ‘I can get evidence if you do it again.’ Sadly, Krystal had been too dumb to realize it.

  At some point, word had gotten out about Mari’s illness. The adults had always known, never allowing an errant drop of blood to go unsterilized. They didn’t know what her illness was, but they knew it existed and could be a problem.

  And Kris knew, too. She had been discreetly watching over her for years. Mari had noticed, but it had never really been an issue. The blood transfusions were frequent, which sucked, but to Mari, it was all part of the things she felt she deserved.

  She looked into the mirror.

  Nineteen years old, as of that day. And in nineteen years, she felt that she’d barely grown at all.

  Of course, she was taller, but never as tall as she felt like she should’ve been. One hundred sixty centimeters, her mind assessed for her, whatever that meant. Her limbs were all poorly muscled and feeble. She had no sense of balance, either. Her face was too gaunt to be attractive, but her vivid red eyes were almost hauntingly pretty. In the dark, they seemed to glow faintly, even.

  Every little detail of herself felt like it was a perfect embodiment of her own misery. Then again, Kris had never stopped reaching out to her, and all the suffering she subjected herself to would just make her friend sad. Kris was her emotional rock, and Mari always returned to it when the turbulent waters of her own being became too difficult to tread.

  With a sigh, Mari began her basic makeup routine, then styled her long black hair before heading out. She felt weaker than usual, but Councilor Karin had been putting off the next transfusion for a while, and had something to talk to her about after the birthday party.

  She didn’t like parties, but she could weather one that was restricted to just Kris and her mothers, Karin and Constance. The latter was always a bit hard to understand, even if the story of how the blonde former maid had pursued the Kilthien leader was adorable.

  Kilthien having their little restriction on partners made the story even more wondrous.

  Kilthien, as the final of the slave races race, only ever had one true partner. They experienced a number of unique changes upon reaching their late teens. Their androgynous bodies would shift based on their personality and desires, molding into a proper gender over the course of a few months. At the same time, their own romantic interests would solidify, leading to their final identity. Before the revolution, they’d been athletic entertainment for the Sylphariens through sports in their youth. Once they reached the age of their own maturing, they’d be bought up by the wealthy and ‘used.’ Oftentimes, they’d have their choice forced upon them by their new owners, as well. A disgusting practice, and a bastardization of a trait that had the potential to be so beautiful.

  In Karin’s case, her sports talents were so great that she remained in the leagues longer than her peers as bidding reached incredible values over her. Instead, she’d fallen for her partner, who’d developed a male biology alongside her own female one.

  There was a long story that played into the revolution afterwards, but Karin lost her lover, Kalen. And Kilthien only ever loved once. Kris was the result of that love, but somehow the Emperor’s maid, Constance, had also been named a war hero, and then she’d slowly found her way into Karin’s heart.

  They were a beautiful couple. One of the things that could lift Mari’s mood besides Kris. She looked forward to their dinner and party, but something had her dreading the ‘talk’ she’d be having with Karin afterwards.

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