First day of the Selection

General Caelum's private training room is as spacious as her living unit. A glass panel separates the room into two. The half that the door leads into looks like a meeting room, with cushioned armchairs surrounding a large table. The other half of the room is a more spacious version of the training cube I always use for simulations.

A man in a knee-length white coat is adjusting the controls of a medical bot. Next to his feet, there is a box of tools and equipment I don't recognize.

He jolts at our entrance. "Oh, General Caelum! G- Good morning!"

"Good to see you again, Dr. Omura," General Caelum says.

"It's- It's an honor to work with your Gift again, General." Dr. Omura turns to me. "And you must be Cadet Lorensky! I am Dr. Ken Omura, and I will be handling the Gift transfer process for you." He gestures wildly at the armchairs. "Please, take- take a seat!"

A medical doctor? I can't remember the last time I saw a doctor in the Tower—a human one, like Devon, not a standard medical bot.

"Dr. Omura is part of the Gift Medicine and Surgery team in the New Research Shuttle," General Caelum tells me as we settle into our seats.

"Yes," Dr. Omura adds, "our team travels down to the Tower every year to help with the Gift transfer process and collect data for our research. It's almost like a vacation, you only work during the day, you get some breaks in between the matches, and you get free tickets to the Selection..." He trails off, as his nervous demeanor returns. "A- Apologies, General, I will get the process started now."

He wraps a band around General Caelum's arm and inserts two needles into her veins, each attached to a tube that extends out from the medical bot. Blood begins to draw out from one tube and back into her body from the other.

"This is the first step of the Gift transfer process: nanoid extraction from General Caelum," the doctor explains. "By dialyzing the general's blood, we can extract out the nanoids circulating in her bloodstream. After enough counts of nanoids are obtained and stabilized, they can then be transferred to Cadet Lorensky using a similar dialysis process."

I stare at the tubes, now a dark red. Queasiness washes over me, and I have to swallow the lump in my throat.

"The half-life of nanoids is about five days," he continues, "so after this transfer process, their effects should last throughout the entire Selection. But to ensure your optimal performance, General Caelum has obtained permission for you to receive a second transfer before the last day of the Selection. Well, assuming you make it that far."

"She will make it that far." General Caelum shoots Dr. Omura a sharp glare.

"Y- Yes, of course, General," Dr. Omura stammers. As if wanting to hide from his embarrassment, he spins around and busies himself with the medical bot.

General Caelum's gaze shifts towards me. I give her a reassuring smile, but her frown deepens. "You aren't wearing your rule-enforcing bot."

"Oh." My hand flies to my ear. That's right, Rea was General Caelum's gift to me when I first enrolled in the cadet class. Have I upset her by taking it off?

Before I can come up with a response, General Caelum adds, "Are you preparing to get out of the Tower already?"

"Uh... of course! I- I imagine that there won't be that many rules to stick to once I'm in NovaTopia."

She nods. "Life is much better up there." There is a tinge of wistfulness in her voice.

She leans back and closes her eyes as her blood circulates in and out of the bot. For the next five minutes, soft hums from the medical bot fill the room, interrupted only by Dr. Omura's occasional tapping on its display monitor.

When the extraction process is complete, Dr. Omura takes out the needles from General Caelum and brings two new ones next to me. Just as a needle is inserted into my veins, General Caelum speaks again, "So, your rival, who you've so graciously helped and sacrificed for, is being sponsored by your brother. That's unexpected."

I fix my eyes on the tubes and the blood—my blood—flowing through them. My stomach twists. "Yeah. I... I didn't expect that too."

"Really? He did not talk to you about it?"

"He never talks to me about anything," I grumble, my almost-forgotten rage at Ryan rising again.

"He probably also did not tell you the reason why he never sponsors anybody in the Selection. Before today, that is."

"What?" My eyes dart up to General Caelum.

There's a glint of derision in her curved lips. "Director Lin was too kind in his introduction today. Your brother did not volunteer to return to the Tower. He was kicked out of NovaTopia and was made to serve as a general. Because of that, he is prone to neglecting his responsibilities—and sponsoring cadets for the Selection is one of the most important responsibilities as a general. It is how NovaTopia determines the best candidate to take in—a cadet with great adaptability to Gifts and an ability to push their physical limits to the fullest. The peak of humankind. Alas, Ryan always refused to perform his role. A show of protest after being kicked out, I imagine." She tilts her head as she peers at me. "But I guess with his sister joining the Selection this year, he stopped rebelling."

My jaw drops. Ryan was kicked out? Why? All these times, I thought he chose to return to the Tower so he could indulge in his vices on Ground Earth. I insulted him so much about it too; why did he let me do that instead of correcting me?

And is that really why he never sponsored anybody? A show of protest because he didn't want to be a general? As much as I hate Ryan and his irresponsibility, what with all his contraband and tardiness, I know he still does his job diligently. He goes to Ground Earth for his missions so often that I barely see him around. That he barely has time for me.

Why has everything in my life become so confusing all of a sudden?

"Maybe... he is still protesting," I mutter. "I mean, his first and only sponsorship is for a Ground Earth dweller, and that's not... typical, right?"

"Not typical? It has never happened before," General Caelum snaps, her mood souring in an instant. She turns to Dr. Omura. "Are we done here, doctor?"

The doctor jerks away from the medical bot. "Yes, yes! Uh, no, I mean, not yet, but almost! Almost done, General! Please be patient. The transfer process is going very smoothly, but it must not be rushed."

General Caelum's darkened expression sends Dr. Omura into a frenzied ramble for the next few minutes—something about the nanoid count, the magnetic dialysis membrane, and the process of integrating them without triggering autoimmune responses. Neither General Caelum nor I are listening.

When the Gift transfer process is finally done, I rotate my bandaged arm around. I don't feel a difference, but I'm also not sure what to feel for.

"Now, let's test out the Gift. Step into the simulation room, Lara."

I enter the simulation room from a side door. The meeting room is quiet, but this room is soundless. It feels as though it is isolated from the rest of the Tower.

"Lara." General Caelum's voice booms. I look at her through the glass panel. Her mouth is moving, but the sound is coming from the speakers in the ceiling. "Let's start with your palm. Look at it, and imagine it burning."

I lift my hands and look at my pale palms. How do I imagine them burning?

An image of a stovetop comes to my mind—the one in Devon's living room unit, when he was making us pancakes. I think about the dancing blue flames, and how they lick the underside of the cooking pan. I imagine my palms hovering above the stovetop.

Smoke rises from my skin. Then, the pain hits me.

I shriek and pat my hands on my thighs to put out the fire. Even with the extra layer of pants, the heat against my legs is scorching.

The pain subsides soon after. I look down at my pants. The parts I touched are smoother compared to the rest of the fabric.

"Well done, Lara," General Caelum says. "Try not to touch your clothes or ignite other parts of your body. You will get a specialized uniform later so you can freely use your Gift without worrying about burning through them. But for now, you'll continue practicing with your hands, and later on, with a weapon. Do what you did just now, but keep the heat there for a longer period. Let it burn through your skin so we can check how well you heal."

"It hurts, General..."

"Yes, but the Gift allows you to heal at a faster rate so the pain is only temporary. If it's not working, we have Dr. Omura here to help."

"Yes, not to worry, Cadet Lorensky!" The doctor gives me an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

I squeeze out a smile and nod. General Caelum's right. I'll heal. This pain is temporary, so I can get over it. This is what it takes to win the Selection. What is expected of a cadet. What I've been training for.

I stare back at my palms. They are trembling. I recall Devon's stovetop and the dancing flames.

The smoke returns. I clench my jaw and will the imagined blaze to continue. The smoke billows and grows, until my hands glow red and char black.

Pain throbs against my skull. The stench of burned flesh suffocates me. It's sweet and nauseating, and I feel like throwing up.

"Very good, Lara, now let it heal," General Caelum says.

I cry out in relief. Holding out my burned hands, I watch them slowly recover to their original form. Pink, inflamed skin grows over the char, like ice crystals spreading across water when freezing.

The rest of my senses return. I realize I am sticky with sweat, the sickening smell still lingers in the air, and I am somehow sitting on the ground. I must have fallen and not even felt it. My memory is fuzzy.

"Wow, your Gift activation and recovery speed is incredible, Cadet Lorensky!" Dr. Omura's voice yells above me. "This is the quickest adjustment I've seen to this Gift, and I've worked with General Caelum for years!"

"Yes," the general concurs, although her emotions are more restrained than Dr. Omura's. "Very good, Lara."

I raise my head to look at her. The glass panel is clouded with smoke. "How... How do you... deal with this?" I say in between my panting. "It's so... painful."

"Think about your opponents and enemies, Lara. They will feel the same pain as you when you use your Gift on them. Keep that in mind as you fight through the pain."

I frown. This is a pain I wouldn't wish upon anybody. But I can see why it is a good reminder to have—if I use this power too much, I'd be inflicting too much agony. It's a cautionary reminder.

"Now come and pick a weapon," General Caelum orders. "You will practice using this Gift while you are armed. And you know what? Dr. Omura, could you retrieve her new uniform? I believe she can move onto whole-body combustion soon."

Whole-body?

I want to disagree, but I quickly close my mouth when I see General Caelum raising her brows.

"What are you still doing on the floor? Get up, Lara."

I manage a shaky nod and push myself to my feet.

***

General Caelum pushed me to practice over and over—so much so that I think every part of me has been burned away and regrown, and I am now a brand new person. It paid off, however. I was able to do a whole-body combustion right before I needed to assemble at the stadium for the Selection's first round. It was the most excruciating pain I've ever felt, and I hope to never do it again.

The challenges in the first round were so easy compared to what General Caelum put me through. I breezed through all of them, and the commentator's compliments along with the audience's cheers added to the fun.

Unfortunately, I was still in second place after Morgan, but I won't let that get to me. After all, our scores in the first round do not contribute to the eventual win. They just inform the tournament bracket placement. Since Morgan was first and I was second, we are placed on the very opposite end of the bracket, and I will only get to go against them during the finals. And I'm sure we'd both make it to the finals.

"Hey there, second place." Morgan skips next to me as we walk out of the stadium, their hands in their pockets.

I spin around, ready to launch into a monologue about why winning here doesn't matter, when they add, "Wanna grab dinner together?"

My annoyance instantly dissipates. "Oh. Okay. I was going to go eat now too."

"Let's eat together at the Common Area."

"Oh, sure. Um, lead the way."

"You never eat there, do you?"

I shrug. "Well, I mean, it's more convenient to eat at my living unit. All my stuff is there, and I can clean up immediately... But eating with- with a friend sounds good."

There is a small curl at Morgan's lips. "So, how's your new Gift?"

"Super cool." I pause. "It also hurts like crazy, but I can manage it."

Morgan's brows furrow. They take their hands out of their pockets. "You sure, Lara?"

I widen my smile. "Yes, I'm okay now. General Caelum was right; I did get used to it. My entire body can explode into flames now. You better be careful."

They chuckle, but the smile does not reach their eyes.

"And the pain is good," I continue my attempt to reassure them. "It's a reminder that it will hurt people when I use it, and so I should use this gift responsibly, you know?"

"That's a good way to think about it."

"What about you? How's Ryan's Gift?"

Morgan slows down their steps. "Hey, by the way, um, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about his sponsorship, even though you told me about yours. He was the only general I thought who would even consider me, so I had to try my luck and ask him, and when he agreed, I figured there must be a reason he never sponsored anybody before, so I kept quiet about it. I didn't mean to keep it from you."

"There's no need to apologize. I'm just happy you're being sponsored too. And it's good that you asked him since I... never bothered to ask. I kinda just assumed he wouldn't sponsor me since he's never... Well, I assumed a lot of things about him. About everything." I shake my head and force out a smile. "So, anyway, tell me about the Gift!"

"You know, it was a lot harder than I imagined to get used to it."

I rear my head backward. "Really?"

Morgan nods. "I'm shocked too. I genuinely thought it would be a simple Gift. But before you teleport, you have to visualize yourself in the exact spot you want to go to, and it gets very disorienting once you do it too often all around the room. I got very dizzy. And you have to make sure there's easily displaced matter in the place you want to teleport to—so, essentially, air, dust particles, small puddles of water—otherwise, it won't work and you just get stuck at the same spot, so there's a lot of trial and error too."

I have never heard Morgan rant about something for so long. I tilt my head up at them. "So maybe I should have been the one worried for you and your Gift instead."

"Who do you think I am? I got used to it too." They wink at me. "You better be careful too."

I give their arm a playful shoulder bump, and we both erupt into laughter.