Northern Combat Core Stronghold — Before Dawn
Levi woke before the alarm. That alone annoyed him. His ribs hurt when he breathed too deeply. His shoulder still protested whenever he raised his arm above his head, and there was a particularly irritating ache running down his back that the medics insisted would disappear in a few days. Apparently, being thrown through part of a detention facility had consequences. Who knew?
He sat up carefully and looked across the room. Lily was asleep in the other bunk, silver-white hair scattered across her pillow. The room was dark except for the faint blue-gray light slipping through the window. Levi quietly pulled on his trousers and undershirt. His boots were another matter.
The first one went on without trouble. The second caught against the bedframe. Thunk.
Levi froze. One green eye opened across the room.
"...Idiot."
Levi stared at her.
"You asleep?"
The eye closed.
"Yes."
"Good."
He grabbed his coat and slipped out.
Combat Core — Conductive Training Chamber
The chamber had been built for officers whose abilities made ordinary training facilities impractical. Thick reinforced walls surrounded a wide circular floor. Copper channels ran beneath iron plates and climbed portions of the walls, designed to ground, redirect, and disperse electrical discharge before it could damage the rest of the stronghold. Levi stood alone in the center. A dagger rested between his fingers.
He flicked the dagger into a metal target. Lightning erupted, splitting toward the blade, the wall, and a copper channel along the floor. Levi vanished and appeared beside the target. Another discharge followed, then another, until white-blue electricity webbed the chamber. He moved among the ricocheting currents, trying to feel each path before it formed: every change in direction, every surface that invited the electricity onward. He wasn't simply trying to outrun it.
A bolt snapped toward his head. Levi tilted slightly. It passed his cheek. Another came from behind. He caught it against an electrified blade and redirected it into the floor.
"Again."
The chamber answered. Lightning crossed from wall to wall. Levi moved faster. His body disappeared into electricity. For an instant, there was no distinction between the current crossing the room and the man moving through it.
"Direct Current."
The words came naturally. They always had. Levi emerged on the opposite side and drove his blade into another target. Electricity exploded through the chamber. The doors opened.
"You're supposed to be recovering."
Levi turned. Lily stood in the doorway, arms folded.
"Good morning to you too."
"That wasn't a greeting. The medics told you to rest, and this looks suspiciously like training."
"I was hoping the difference might escape you."
A stray bolt snapped toward her. Levi's expression changed instantly. He disappeared. Lightning cracked across the chamber. He appeared directly in front of Lily and threw his dagger backward without looking. Metal struck metal. The dagger intercepted the current and dragged it sideways into one of the grounding channels. Silence. Lily looked at the dagger embedded in the wall. Then at Levi.
"You knew where that was going," Lily said, looking from the embedded dagger to him. "Before the bolt moved. How long have you been able to do that?"
Levi glanced back at the blade. "I am getting better at it. Still working out how much better."
"You nearly died the other day. That isn't a reason to test your limits without somebody watching."
"It is a fairly convincing reason to improve them."
Lily sighed and stepped past him. Cold rolled through the chamber. Frost crawled beneath her boots.
"If you're going to ignore medical orders, move."
Levi raised an eyebrow.
"You're joining me?"
"I'm making sure you don't kill yourself."
"That's sweet."
Ice formed in Lily's hand. A narrow blade took shape.
"Keep talking."
Levi smiled.
"There's the Lieutenant I know."
They trained until sunrise. By the end, Levi was sitting against the wall with a towel around his neck while Lily drank from a canteen nearby. For several minutes neither spoke. Then Levi broke the silence.
"How much do they actually teach you?"
Lily lowered the canteen.
"About what?" Lily asked.
"Everything." Levi leaned his head against the wall.
"That's very specific. You'll have to narrow it down."
"Five Points, procedures, history, regulations, how the Council works. All the things you somehow know whenever I ask a question."
Lily studied him.
"You attended officer training."
"I never went," Levi said.
Lily paused. "You didn't attend an academy? Not even basic officer training?"
"Stone found me after my parents died. He handled my training himself—fighting, investigations, patrols. How to talk to people, how to notice when they were lying. How not to get stabbed."
Lily sat beside him. "That last lesson could use a little revision."
"It's a work in progress." Levi looked toward the targets. "He was Leone's Captain. He was training me to replace him someday. I don't think either of us expected someday to arrive when I was nineteen."
Lily's teasing expression faded. Her gaze moved to his hip. "It was his Star, wasn't it? After Reed, I kept thinking about what you'd told me. Stone's lightning, then yours. I didn't want to ask while we were still writing up everything that happened."
Levi rested his hand beside the badge. "Yes."
"When did he give it to you?"
He looked away from her, toward the scorch marks on the nearest target. "Before the last strike. He came back to where we were getting people off the street. Put it in my hand and told me I was his lieutenant. Then he told us to get clear."
"He field-promoted you. Right there?"
"Right there. I thought he was giving me an order for after the fight." Levi rubbed a thumb along the edge of the badge. "He'd worked it out by then. The Phantom could let attacks pass through him, but he still had to become solid to hit someone. Stone stopped trying to chase him. He waited."
Lily set the canteen down and turned toward him. Levi took a breath before continuing.
"When the Phantom struck, Stone caught him. Held on so he couldn't get away. Then he called down everything he could draw into one strike. Not beside them. Onto them."
The faint hum of the grounding channels filled the pause. Lily's eyes returned to the marks on the floor where Levi's lightning had struck earlier.
"Both of them," she said quietly.
Levi nodded. "The flash was so bright there wasn't a shadow left to escape through. When I could see again, part of the street was gone."
"And you were there."
"I tried to get back to him. Didn't make it." His hand closed against his knee. "I'd spent years learning from him, and when he needed help, I couldn't do a damn thing."
Lily moved closer, but didn't reach for the badge or try to turn his face toward her. "Levi, he'd already decided what he was going to do."
"I know that now. Knowing doesn't make it easier to remember standing there."
She let the answer stand. After a moment, he loosened his hand.
"It rained afterward," he said. "People stood outside the station for the funeral with water running off their hats. Most stayed anyway. Then Medical took him to the capital. He's buried in Fallen Stars, with the other officers who never came home."
"Have you been there?" Lily asked.
"Yes. It's a hell of a place. Rows and rows of names, and you still have to stop and find the one you're looking for."
Lily sat back beside him, her gaze resting briefly on the badge at his hip. "Six years with his Star, looking after his town. That's a great deal to carry."
"I was learning both as I went. Silvia had just turned eighteen when he died. We were only about a year and a half apart, but I'd somehow convinced myself she was still the little girl he'd sent somewhere safe." He rubbed his palms together. "I kept thinking I'd go once things settled down. There was always another reason to stay."
Lily let him sit with that before asking, "Who filed the commission afterward? A field promotion is valid, but headquarters still needs the record."
"They recorded Stone's field promotion and the transfer. Apprehension didn't need to retrieve his Star; it already belonged to me." Levi glanced down. "They said anyone he'd trained was unlikely to benefit from being sent back through an academy. I think his name did most of the arguing."
"That is an unusual exception," Lily said. "The promotion itself isn't the problem. An officer can field-promote someone up to their own rank, but bypassing commission school afterward is another matter."
"They left me in Leone as lieutenant. Said the capital would send someone to assess me later. I spent the next six years training and running the station. When the representative finally evaluated me, they approved the Captain's commission and filed the paperwork. That came with a requirement for a new lieutenant."
"Which is how they sent you me."
Levi glanced at her. "The paperwork finally produced something useful."
"I'll try not to let the praise go to my head."
Despite herself, she smiled. Then it faded.
"He trained you under the old system."
"What old system?"
"During the War for Peace, Five Points expanded faster than the academies could produce officers. Experienced officers were allowed to take apprentices directly. Some were eventually commissioned through field evaluations."
"Stone never mentioned that."
"He probably didn't think it mattered."
Levi looked toward the chamber.
"He taught me what he thought mattered."
"And judging by how you operate, almost nothing he thought mattered involved paperwork."
"Smart man."
Lily ignored that.
"The system changed afterward. Most recruits start at basic officer academy: law, ethics, history, and the foundations of all five Cores. Your marks and what you're suited for help decide where you're assigned. Strong medical results might take you toward Medical; strong combat results might take you toward Combat. Then you serve in a branch."
"And becoming a lieutenant?"
"Commission school, once you've proved yourself in service. That's where you receive a Star and learn to work with it. You have to establish enough control to graduate. If you can't, you fail the course and have to try again, with another badge if one is available."
Levi glanced at her badge. "So yours had a say in whether you passed."
"A considerable one. Command doctrine, politics, investigative procedure—there's plenty of ordinary coursework too. But none of it replaces learning to work with your Star. That's why they teach Star theory."
Levi glanced over.
"Star theory?"
Lily raised one hand. Frost slowly gathered across her fingertips. "You know there's a god of Order in your badge. Star theory concerns the being itself: its personality, its preferences, and what it remembers."
Levi looked down toward the Star Badge at his hip.
"Memories of what?" Levi asked.
"Their partners, among other things. The people they've served beside."
Levi's attention returned to her.
"When an officer dies, the next person doesn't inherit everything the previous user achieved. They have to establish their own relationship with the Star. Their own synchronization. Their own mastery."
"But the Star remembers its previous partners?"
"Yes. It keeps those memories even though the new officer has to earn their own mastery."
Lily looked at the badge at his hip. "The power belongs to the god. The badge gives you access in stages, and its trials determine whether you're ready for more. Having Stone's Star doesn't mean you began where he finished."
"I worked that much out fairly quickly," Levi said. "A little more warning would've been appreciated."
"And a Shard can overwhelm its bearer with power before they've learned to handle it. A Star makes you earn that access. The limits aren't proof that the being inside is weak."
Levi went quiet and touched the badge lightly. "Then the god in here knew Stone. It remembers the time he spent carrying it."
Lily nodded. "Probably better than most people knew him."
He stared at the Star. He'd inherited it as part of Stone's final wishes and spent years learning what he could do with it. He hadn't considered what it might remember of the man he'd lost. For once, he had no joke.
"Have you ever spoken to yours?"
Lily's expression changed slightly.
"That's complicated," Lily said.
"Which usually means you have, but you don't want to give me the details."
"It means communication varies. Don't treat every answer as a confession, Levi."
She ignored his look.
"Some officers describe words. Others experience dreams, images, emotions, or instincts. Some Stars reveal themselves almost immediately."
"And others?"
"Others take longer. Some don't communicate in a way the officer recognizes at all."
"What decides the difference?"
"They're people, Levi. Divine people, but people."
He looked at her.
"Some are talkative. Some aren't. Some become attached quickly. Others don't." She hesitated. "And some have had other partners."
Levi understood.
"A lot of them."
"Potentially."
Lily looked toward his badge.
"Imagine spending fifty years fighting beside someone and growing with them, then watching them become old while you remain essentially unchanged."
Levi's humor disappeared completely.
"Then they die."
"And someone else arrives."
The chamber seemed quieter. Lily continued.
"Some welcome the next partner immediately. Others need time. The documented cases vary as much as the Stars do."
"Then getting stronger doesn't guarantee a conversation."
"It can help," Lily said. "Greater synchronization usually improves communication. But there isn't a rank where a Star suddenly decides you are allowed to hear it. You are building a relationship, and it gets a say in that too."
Levi looked down again. He thought about the storm. The lightning that had descended from the sky. The strange awareness he'd begun developing during training. Sometimes he knew where electricity would travel before it moved. Sometimes a technique simply felt obvious.
"Anything familiar in what I am describing?"
Lily's question pulled him back. "The way the techniques seem obvious, sometimes. Is that what you mean?"
"Has yours ever spoken to you?"
"Not in words." Levi considered the question instead of dismissing it. He'd never heard a voice, but after everything she'd said, he wasn't sure that settled it.
"Sometimes it feels like something's pulling me in a direction."
"That counts."
"Doesn't feel like a conversation."
"It may not be trying to have one."
Levi frowned.
"Helpful."
"You aren't entitled to its attention simply because you're carrying it."
"I didn't say I was."
"No, but your face did."
"My face doesn't talk."
"Unfortunately, the rest of you does."
Levi smiled. There she was. He stood and offered her his hand.
"So what's after borrowing the power?"
Lily accepted it and stood.
"That's another academy lecture."
"I've got time."
"No, you don't. We have reports."
"Lily."
She sighed.
"The first major transformation is called Revelation."
Levi's expression sharpened.
"The officer's relationship with their Star deepens enough for a greater portion of the god's nature to manifest through them. It's more than increased power. The officer begins accessing a deeper expression of what that god actually represents."
"What would that mean for lightning?"
"It doesn't necessarily mean throwing larger lightning bolts."
Levi considered that.
"I like larger lightning bolts."
"I know."
She continued.
"Two officers could theoretically wield Stars associated with similar phenomena and fight completely differently. The god matters. The human matters. The relationship between them matters."
"And the second?"
Lily was quiet for a moment.
"Ascension."
Even the word felt heavier.
"What happens during Ascension?" Levi asked.
Lily chose her words carefully. "According to the oldest records, the distinction between the officer and the Star temporarily collapses."
Levi's smile disappeared.
"The human becomes an avatar of the god."
He stared at her.
"You're serious."
"The officer remains themselves. But for the duration of Ascension, the two exist as something much closer to a single being. Their appearance changes. Their abilities expand dramatically. Powers the human couldn't normally access become available."
"All of them?"
"In theory."
Levi whistled quietly.
"That sounds useful."
"It sounds terrifying."
"Those aren't mutually exclusive."
"No. They usually aren't."
Lily picked up her coat.
"And before you ask, having access to a god's complete power doesn't make someone unbeatable."
"I wasn't going to ask."
"You were."
"I was."
"The human is still the one fighting. Judgment matters. Experience matters. Creativity matters. A fool with extraordinary power remains a fool."
Levi smiled.
"So there's hope for me."
"I specifically said fool."
"Exactly."
Lily walked toward the door.
"First we finish the reports, shower, and eat. Then we go to the archives."
"Archives?"
"If Stone never gave you formal education, someone has to."
Levi followed her.
"This feels like punishment."
"It is."
Grand Archives — Northern Sector
By midday, Levi had decided he hated institutional education. The Grand Archives occupied an enormous stone building near the administrative center of the stronghold. The exterior looked centuries old. Inside, the age of the building gave way to an almost obsessive organization.
Shelves climbed several stories beneath iron balconies. Pneumatic tubes hissed overhead, carrying requests between departments. Brass indexing machines clacked beside rows of handwritten catalogs. Telegraph lines connected administrative desks, while mechanical lifts carried crates of documents between floors. Electric lamps illuminated reading tables beneath enormous arched windows. Levi stared upward.
"All this for paperwork," Levi said.
"Knowledge, if you are willing to read it."
"Paperwork with confidence. I see the distinction."
Lily handed him a catalog card.
"Five Points history."
"You're enjoying this."
"Immensely."
They spent hours working backward through the founding of Five Points, the War for Peace, the formation of the modern Cores, the expansion of the academy system, and revisions to officer doctrine. After the first hour, Levi noticed how clean each history sounded. Order, protection, and unity appeared in almost every account. Every restructuring had been necessary. Every expansion had been justified. Every failure became a lesson that conveniently proved the institution had improved.
Levi closed another book.
"Do these people ever make a mistake?"
"Constantly. What makes you ask?"
Levi tapped the book. "The people writing this don't seem to think so."
Lily glanced at the stack.
"Official histories rarely advertise embarrassment."
"Stone would've hated this place."
"Stone probably contributed to half the incidents they edited out."
Levi smiled.
"Now I like it slightly more."
Eventually they reached what they actually wanted.
Kestrel, Hagan.
Levi pulled the file and frowned at how thin it was before opening it. Research Director. Northern Development Division. Prototype Collar Compound X-9.
Most pages contained administrative summaries. Several sections carried a RESTRICTED stamp. Levi tried two more files and found the same stamp waiting in each.
Another. Restricted. Lily leaned over his shoulder.
"Try the facility."
Levi searched the mechanical index. A clerk retrieved the corresponding archive box. Inside was an incident report. Levi read silently. Then stopped.
"What?"
Lily leaned closer. He pointed.
Northern Development Research Facility — Destroyed by Fire.
The date sat beneath it. Lily immediately understood.
"That's when Kestrel disappeared."
"Same month."
They kept reading.
The report listed the official cause as Undetermined, casualties as Incomplete, and recovered research as Minimal.
Levi turned the page. The remaining documents required authorization beyond their current access. He leaned back.
"Captain can't read it."
"Because access isn't based purely on rank."
"Of course it isn't."
"Research divisions compartmentalize information. Need-to-know authorization."
Levi stared at the restricted stamp.
"I'll get whatever is."
Lily looked at him.
"Whatever authorization is required?"
"Whatever gets me through the door."
There was something different in his voice. Not ambition. Not hunger for promotion. Lily recognized it anyway. He wasn't interested in climbing because he wanted people beneath him. He wanted to climb because he was tired of doors being locked above him.
"Then you'll climb," she said.
Levi glanced at her. She returned to the report.
"There may be another way."
"I am listening. Preferably to something that doesn't require three more forms."
"Scientia," Lily said. "We should take the inquiry there."
Levi raised an eyebrow.
"The R&D sector?"
"The R&D sector."
Lily tapped the archive reference. "Scientia has the technical archives, and more researchers than anywhere else in Five Points territory. If Northern Command kept only fragments, they might have copies. Or someone there may remember Kestrel."
Levi closed the file.
"How far?"
"Overnight by rail."
"Pack light."
Lily smiled faintly.
"I already knew you were going to say that."
Northern Rail Line — Evening
The train pulled away beneath a cloud of steam. Levi sat beside the window while the northern fortress disappeared behind them. Lily sat opposite him with a book open across her lap. Levi watched electrical poles pass outside. Then he looked at his Star Badge.
"Revelation."
Lily looked up.
"What about it?"
"Does every Star call it that?"
"The stage, yes. The form itself has an individual name."
"Who names it? The officer or the Star?"
"It depends on the partnership," Lily said. "Some names are ancient. Others were developed with previous partners. Techniques can survive across generations in much the same way."
Levi frowned. "Because the Star remembers them?"
"Exactly. A new officer might discover something their Star has helped another partner do before."
Levi's eyes dropped toward his badge again. Something about that bothered him. Or fascinated him. He couldn't decide which.
"You're saying Stone could've developed something and I could learn it without knowing he invented it?"
"Possibly."
"How would I know what it's called?"
Lily shrugged.
"You might simply know."
Levi looked at her.
"That's ridiculous."
"You're carrying an immortal divine being around your waist and that's where you draw the line?"
"...Fair."
He looked back through the window.
(Direct Current.)
(Ride the Lightning.)
He'd never really thought about why he'd called them that. The names had simply fitted. For a moment, the badge at his hip felt warm. Levi glanced down, but nothing about it appeared to have changed. Across from him, Lily noticed. She said nothing.
Scientia — Following Morning
Scientia announced itself before the train ever reached the station. Not with impossible towers or machines from another age. With refinement.
The electrical lines became more numerous. Steam pipes disappeared beneath paved streets instead of running openly between buildings. Electric lamps remained lit beneath the morning fog. Experimental automobiles rattled beside horse-drawn carriages. A compact electric railcar crossed an elevated bridge while workers below unloaded copper wire, glass tubes, chemical drums, and precision instruments. Factory smoke still hung over portions of the skyline. But here it was controlled. Measured.
Even the noise sounded organized. Dynamos hummed inside brick power stations. Telephone lines crossed between administrative buildings. Pneumatic dispatch tubes ran through government offices. Large clocks synchronized intersections near the station. Levi stepped from the train and looked around.
"So this is twenty years from now."
Lily adjusted her coat.
"According to Scientia, everyone else is twenty years behind."
"That sounds healthier."
"It isn't."
Researchers crossed the platform carrying leather cases stuffed with diagrams. Engineers argued beside an experimental motor carriage whose engine was currently smoking. A technician kicked it. The engine started. Levi watched.
"I like him."
"Of course you do."
They walked toward the central R&D complex. Levi studied the city. He'd grown up learning how people behaved. Which shopkeeper knew every rumor. Which drunk had actually seen something. Which kid could tell you who'd entered an alley three hours ago. Scientia felt different. People here didn't watch streets. They watched machines. Lily glanced at him.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"You're doing the thing."
"What thing?"
"Looking at everything like it's lying to you."
"Everything lies."
"Buildings?"
"Especially buildings."
Lily shook her head.
"You see things differently."
"I wasn't taught how I'm supposed to see them."
She looked at him for a moment. That might have been precisely why. Ahead, the enormous R&D headquarters rose behind iron gates. Its stone foundations supported brick walls beneath copper roofing, with glass laboratory windows catching the morning light. Steam vented intermittently from pipes along the lower levels. Somewhere inside were records about a dead project. A missing scientist. And potentially an explanation for why X-9 had returned.
Levi adjusted the Star Badge at his hip.
"Let's hope we find the truth."
Lily stepped beside him.
"In my experience, that's usually when things get worse."
Levi looked at her.
"Then stay close."
She did. Neither noticed the observer watching from an upper window. Nor the message traveling through the building ahead of them.
CAPTAIN LEVI — ARRIVAL CONFIRMED.
A hand removed the message from the receiver. Read it. Then fed it into a small furnace. By the time Levi and Lily reached the gates, only ash remained.