Risha woke the rest of us well before it was light out. Since there were six of us and only two showers in the house, we all grabbed our bags and went to one of the group lavatories and showers beneath one of the barracks buildings to clean up and get ready for the day. The avatar did stop by the kitchen first though, to quickly upload some of the specialty molecular scans that Kiley had stored in the food dispenser at her house to the one in ours. This included some special herbal shampoo, conditioner, and body wash that Kiley had especially liked and that Risha thought would be suitable for us to use.

I had to admit that we did smell very nice and I felt clean by the time we were finished our showers and dressed. Fortunately, getting dressed was easy for me, I just had to send a command to my H.E.S.S and think about what undergarments and clothes I wanted it to mimic from the small archive that I had downloaded to Connie. Once that was done, I only needed to add the new holster belt that bore my new handgun and the pouches for its clips and extra ammunition, and then put my trench coat on top.

It was just after six-thirty a.m. when we headed to the mess hall to meet Raven and my grandmother. Autumn surprised almost all of us by eating the same thing that I was having; griddle cakes with scrambled eggs, sausages, and bacon with a side of maple syrup and orange juice. I had assumed that she was vegetarian, like Lisbet. She had told us at one point that most Fay were omnivores, they just only killed animals when it was to put one out of its misery or if they were a danger to the ecosystem. I hadn’t thought that included her though and it seemed like the others hadn’t either.

Seeing us all looking at her in confusion as she set her plate down beside mine she shrugged. “What? I like meat, I just don’t like it if the animal had to suffer or die unnecessarily for it to show up on my plate. Risha said that this is basically just reconstructed matter so no animals had to die. It’s guilt-free meat. If we can eat like this all the time, then I plan on taking advantage of it whenever I can. I won’t have the same luxury while we’re in the capital.”

Technically, that wasn’t completely true since an animal had died at some point to create the meal that was scanned to be reconstructed. Since that was around six hundred years ago though, I didn’t bother bringing that point up. Just think of all that animal’s descendants that can be spared in the present because it was cooked and scanned centuries ago. At least nobody here had killed any animals so she could eat those sausages and bacon.

While we all ate a very filling breakfast my grandmother told us what to expect for the day. She also gave me and Autumn each another box of ammunition for our new secondary weapons. She, Heather, and Lisbet would be stocking up on ammunition and grenades at Eden base before we left for the capital and Risha would be issued weapons there as well. It was fairly standard to have a full complement of gear when heading to the academy and Sira and my grandmother wanted us ready for anything.

Once she was finished telling us what to expect, our trainer was quick to caution us. “Don’t let any of the other recruits know any details about your missions. Everything needs to remain classified until we’re ready to make our move. If anyone asks, keep it simple, you were doing some basic weapons training by helping me to suppress some Demons on the borders of the ruins. Try not to let on that Risha is an AI either, for her own safety.”

“I don’t know how well that part about Risha is going to work, Wingleader,” I said with a frown. “Fay and Animen are going to be able to smell that she’s not Human, and how do we explain her being a recruit that none of the others have seen before?”

“Do not worry about my scent, I can alter it if I want to, it was a feature that my father thought might be useful for hunting Demons. I can mimic a Human scent and pheromones easily enough,” Risha said with a shrug. Suddenly her scent changed and while I could still faintly smell her android body, it was so subtle that I didn’t think that any other Animen of Fay would be able to pick it up since my sense of smell was extremely sensitive since my transformation.

“That was weird, your scent just completely changed,” Autumn said as she stared at the avatar.

Even my grandmother looked a bit surprised. “Well, that’s one issue solved. I thought we were going to have to equip you with perfume or something. As for explaining how she joined your team, I’ve already discussed that with Sira. She’s a Human that we found hiding from Demons while patrolling the edge of the ruins. She was sick but showed signs of a unique Seed-borne gift and we didn’t want to risk moving her. So when Sira flew out with four veetols a few days ago it was to assess some damaged old-world technology that we found and bring a dose of Angel Elixir to program for Risha. The technology proved to be useless and Risha just recovered from her changes.”

Risha looked pensive for just an instant as she considered such a ruse. “My particle beam weapons emerge from the palms of my hands, they could be easily mistaken for a person using a Seed-borne gift if I time the opening and closing of the emplacements properly and use a bit of sleight of hand. I will have to be careful to not use things like my micro-drones or my full physical capabilities in front of anyone but my teammates though, so I will have to hold back in combat exercises.”

“We won’t be able to explain your nice new clothes either, unfortunately,” Raven pointed out.

My grandmother nodded in agreement. “You’ll have to leave them in your new home and just wear the simple clothes that Sira provided just after your changes were complete, it will give you the excuse to go shopping while in the capital as well. Risha, use the boutique booth to create some clothes that look to be in rough condition and we’ll have you get them nice and dirty later so it looks like you’ve been on your own for a while. Snow, do you think that your HESS armor can look like those clothes that Sira issued, or can you keep it hidden?”

“Maybe? I think I’d need a download of the exact outfit to copy it but all of this technology still confuses me most of the time,” I admitted. Then I decided to see if Connie might have any ideas. “Connie, what do you think? Is there a way to hide this in plain sight?”

-= Affirmative, Snow. The H.E.S.S was originally designed to be worn underneath clothing in basic mode as a form-fitting bodysuit. You could create a basic mode default for that and match the color to your skin tone. I could also simulate veins and other features using your body data from your nanites, =- my NCI suggested.

“Okay, that sounds good Connie, can you do that for me then?” I asked.

-= Affirmative, Snow. Default setting created and saved as ‘hidden’. Would you like to activate that default now? =-

“Not just yet, Connie, I’ll wait until I can change clothes. Thanks,” I replied.

-= You are welcome, Snow. =-

I turned my attention back to my grandmother and the others at the table and told them, “From what Connie says, this was originally made to be worn as a sort of bodysuit underneath clothing in basic mode. I got her to create a setting to do that and match it to my skin tone so it won’t look like I’m wearing anything.”

“Excellent,” Risha said with a grin as she steepled her fingers together.

Once we were all finished eating and talking we placed our plates and other detritus in the raw matter reservoirs of the food dispensers and returned to our new home to change and leave our new clothes there. Soon we were all dressed in the clothes that Risha had issued; simple dresses in colors that complimented us with cozy knee-length socks, panties, a bra, leather boots, and a jacket. The rest of our clothing from Sira and equipment that we were able to take were stored in our shoulder bags.

My armor was surprisingly comfortable in all of its forms and with this setting even I had trouble seeing that I was wearing anything. I didn’t really need to wear the bra or panties, but I did anyway just to add to the illusion. I never knew what might happen and I wasn’t quite sure whether I might have to change clothes in front of the other female recruits.

As for Risha, we solved that problem by having her wear some of Lisbet’s old clothes from before she got the Angel Elixir. They were very worn and both the jacket and the dress were a bit too small to fit her very well but that just made her look more like an urchin who had been surviving on her own for some time. For the underclothes, we skipped the breast binder altogether and managed to create a rough loincloth from torn-up scraps of one of Karina’s old dresses.

Risha did produce a couple of things from the boutique booth but they weren’t for her. She had managed to find designs for various gun holsters the night before and produced a pair of shoulder holsters for me and Autumn so that we could keep our new secondary weapons hidden under our jackets. The spare ammunition went into our bags and the extra clips in our jacket pockets.

As soon as we were done with addressing the clothing situation, we headed down to the hangar to meet up with Raven and my grandmother and board one of the veetols. While the elevator was bringing us upward toward the surface, Risha ensured that both the veetol and Raven’s new NCI were programmed with the proper authorization code so that Raven could fly it back safely after dropping us off in the woods out of sight of Eden base. Since the airship to take the recruits to the capital would be there and its crew didn’t work for the Angel Corps, my grandmother didn’t want to risk them seeing this more advanced veetol.

A couple of hours later, Raven managed to find a small clearing and set us down, then we all said our farewells to our pilot as we grabbed our bags and gear and stepped out. It had started snowing heavily by that point and had reduced visibility, which was both a good and a bad thing. Good that it was likely to keep anyone from getting a good look at our ride, and bad because it had been difficult for Raven to find a spot to land. Still, I had to wonder if Kasala, the Great Spirit of the moon and snow was watching over us to cover our approach like that.

Raven waited until we were what she felt was a safe distance away and then took off and headed back toward Woodbury Base as we trudged through the woods toward Eden Base. It took us a little more than an hour to make our way there through the woods and it was almost eleven o’clock by the time that we got to the base. At least the walk had made Risha look even more like someone who had been surviving on her own for a while.

As my grandmother had expected, the airship was already there waiting when we arrived, though it wasn’t due to take the recruits and trainers to the capital until after lunch. It was large but it wasn’t as fancy looking as I had been expecting with the polished wood and brass I had seen on the airships that the Santas used. In fact, it looked old and worn and not very reassuring to fly on.

“It looks like the welcome mat for new Angels is being pulled out from underneath us,” Heather spat bitterly once she got a look at the craft.

“What do you mean?” Lisbet asked the former princess as she looked nervously at the airship.

Heather pointed at the decrepit-looking craft and sighed. “Usually it’s the Queen’s personal airship that is used for bringing recruits to the academy. It’s a tradition that stems back to the first airships that were built and it was meant to be a personal welcome and a thank you from the Queen for dedicating our lives to fighting Demons so that the rest of Misota can live peacefully. A brief bit of luxury before all the hard work. That isn’t my mother’s personal airship.”

My grandmother let out a snort of distaste before adding, “Oh that is the Queen’s personal airship, just not the current Queen’s. That’s the Gentle Breeze, it was your grandmother’s airship… thirty years ago.”

“You know, I’m beginning to think that we’re not wanted in Misota,” Karina muttered as she rolled her crimson eyes.

“Oh, we’re wanted in Misota, whenever Demons show up. Just remember that it’s mostly the wealthy, those who see Seed-borne as less than human and who stand to gain something from our removal, who want us gone. Not all residents of Misota, or even the capital feel that way, at least, I hope not. But that is exactly why we need you recruits to get a feel for what’s going on in the capital and how the people, in general, think of us there.”

“And those of us who appear Human might just get a different reception than those of us who are Fay, Devilkin, Animen, and those rare individuals like Snow and Heather, who have additional features that make them stand out,” Risha pointed out. “Getting several points of view will give us a clearer picture.”

As we made our way across the clearing toward the elevator in the side of the cliff I was glad that we had made sure that Risha was dressed for her part, and that the others and I were dressed as we had been when we left for our mission. The snowfall was much lighter now and it felt like the crew clearing any snow off of the bladder of the airship were watching us. They didn’t seem to be the only ones interested in our group either.

There were also several recruits, like us, out enjoying the snow with a snowball fight. A few of the Animen recruits were making snow angels as well, though that could have been for fun too. “What are they doing?” Autumn asked, watching a pair of the angel-makers.

“What, haven’t you seen someone make a snow angel before?” Risha asked with a look of disbelief.

I was surprised that Risha knew of the tradition, being alone for so long after the fall of the old world. I nodded and turned to explain to my Fay girlfriend. “Yeah, they’re making snow angels. Usually, it’s done to invoke Kasala, the Great Spirit of the moon and snow, and protect their village from Demons. The moon isn’t out though, so I think they’re just making them for fun.”

Risha looked as surprised as Autumn as the redheaded Fay replied, “I’ve never heard of that before, or Kasala.”

“She’s not widely worshipped,” my Grandmother said with a shrug. “I’ve only ever seen about half a dozen Animen villages with her image carved into the walls of their spirit houses. She is depicted as a snow-white Catkin with golden eyes. Given Snow’s resemblance, many of the people of Serkis believe that she is watching over Snow and has special plans for her. When they realized that Snow was two-spirited and her Seed-borne gift manifested, they only became more certain. It was part of the reason that she was chosen as their light-bearer this year.”

“Huh, now that I think about it, Snow does bear a striking resemblance to the carving of Kasala in my village’s spirit house,” Lisbet said as she stopped to give me an appraising look.

By that time, we were nearing the elevator and a couple of the other female recruits approached our group. I was pretty sure that the leggy brunette Human girl’s name was Maryn and the raven-haired Fay who was draped all over her was Orchid Blooming. “Thank goodness you girls are back!” Maryn exclaimed. “The airship leaves after lunch and we thought that the guys were going to outnumber us.”

Karina grinned at them both. “We wouldn’t leave you hanging like that, Maryn. In fact, we brought another girl back with us to even the odds a little more.”

“This is Risha, she’ll be joining our team,” I explained to the pair who were now looking at the avatar in interest. “We found her hiding from Demons while patrolling the edge of some old-world ruins. She’s been living on her own for a while so she can be a bit quirky, but she’s nice.”

“Will she be joining us in the capital once she recovers from the Angel Elixir then?” Orchid asked in interest.

“She’s already had it,” Autumn replied simply. With their devotion to honesty, Fay aren’t very good at lying, they really don’t like it. So, while she was being honest that Risha already had the angel nanites, she wasn’t comfortable saying more than that to sell our cover story.

“Yeah, she was in pretty bad shape when we found her and I guess that she was running from some people from her hometown who reacted badly when she developed her Seed-borne gift, you know how that goes,” Heather said with a shrug and a roll of her eyes. She was actually pretty convincing but then, she hadn’t grown up as a Fay and was still learning their ways so she didn’t have the same aversion to lying.

Judging from the looks on their faces, both girls knew exactly how that kind of situation usually went. It was why Seed-borne try to avoid using their gifts in front of Humans, especially those who were born looking Human themselves. Showing off gifts made a lot of Humans think of us as Demons more than people. That was why I was cautioned to never use my gift when we had Human traders visiting Serkis. “Is she okay?” Orchid asked, looking toward Risha in concern.

Risha pretended to be shy and uncertain as she replied, “Uhh… yeah, I’m fine now. I was just on my own for a while and playing hide and seek with Demons. I figured that I would rather face Demons than those intolerant assholes at home. As Heather said, I was in bad shape when they found me but I’m feeling much better since I woke up.”

“Yeah, we called Sira to get some Tinkers to look at some old-world stuff that we found a few days ago and told her about Risha. So when they came she brought a dose of the elixir for her. As soon as she recovered and woke up we started making our way back here,” I offered. “Too bad the old world technology turned out useless. We did get some training, and experience fighting Demons, at least.”

“We were all wondering why things were so crazy and why Sira left the base, the Angels wouldn’t tell us anything though. You actually fought Demons?” Maryn asked wide-eyed.

I felt bad lying to our fellow recruits but we were under orders and it was for a good reason. I knew that the others felt the same but at least we could tell the truth about the Demons we had fought. My grandmother thought that it would help sell the rest of the story if we were free to talk about the battles that we had been in.

“Did we ever!” Lisbet exclaimed with an enthusiastic grin. “We fought a Fenris, a huge swarm of Spidren, and some other Demons too. Snow is a great team leader and her weapon is awesome! And she jumped out of the veetol to save Heather’s life!”

The others regaled them with stories of our battles for a little while longer and then we excused ourselves to go see Sira so that Risha could be issued her gear. Sira brought us straight down to the armory where she had an assortment of grenades ready for Lisbet and more ammunition for my grandmother’s and Heather’s gauss sniper rifles. She had also prepared Risha some clothes, and a shoulder bag similar to our own to put them in.

With that taken care of, Sira finally gave Risha a gun of sorts with a short but very wide barrel that made it look extremely top-heavy. It looked like it had an aim assist interface computer, like the ones on the handguns that Autumn and I had been issued, mounted on top as well. It didn’t seem to come with a magazine so I figured that it was probably a single-load weapon. Sira also handed the other AI a bandolier filled with what must have been the biggest bullets that I had ever seen. They had little fins at the back, were nearly as long as my hand and as thick as three of my fingers together.

“Risha, this is the M-4 Minimax, like Snow’s Goliath it was a weapon that has never been used by other Angels but I have modified it so that it will interact with your avatar’s systems. It is meant for heavily armored opponents like Razorwings, fires armor-piercing guided micro missiles, and has a range of up to three miles. The explosives inside are extremely potent but do not worry about them detonating accidentally, the two components for the explosive will remain separated even on impact with the target until they receive a signal to mix and detonate. Once loaded into the weapon, each missile will be connected to your systems like your drones so that you may control its guidance systems and detonate it when necessary,” Sira explained.

“So it is for busting the bunker under the bunker that you just busted?” Risha asked with a grin as she looked at one of the projectiles. I had a feeling that she might have been quoting something from the old world again but I had no idea what. “Are you sure they work? They are not going to fizzle on me in a critical moment are they?”

Sira regarded the other avatar calmly. “It is a prototype but it was tested with the original Angel Initiative test subjects. The issue was not with the weapon’s performance but that the testers did not possess the multitasking ability to control the projectiles’ course and time the explosions properly while in combat situations. The NCIs were too limited as well, so when we started the Corps I decided to have Angels use the M-1 mini-missile launchers instead. The projectiles for the M-1 may have been inferior in every way but they were ‘fire and forget’ and more compatible with the NCIs. If there are issues, please let me know.”

“Got it, little sis. I will let you know if I have any problems with it,” Risha said as she gave a thumbs-up.

Sira nodded and asked, “Would you like a secondary weapon, Risha? The Minimax does not have a mode shift option and, while I know that you are probably as durable and strong as Snow is, you will have to hold back while pretending to be Human, even as enhanced as Angels are.”

The elder AI sister seemed to consider it for a moment before nodding. “It is probably a good idea if I am going to have to hold back. Show me what you have, little sis.”

We were sitting in the cafeteria on the commons floor eating lunch and listening to the conversations going on around us. Many of the other recruits were talking about us. Orchid and Maryn must have passed on our cover story to some of the others because word about that and our Demon fighting stories were spreading fast. There also seemed to be new details added to every telling.

Risha had changed into her new clothes once we had left the armory so she wasn’t standing out among the recruits quite as much unless you counted the huge hand cannon holstered over her shoulder and the pair of bandoliers crisscrossed over her ample chest. She had chosen a bandolier of daggers made from Razorwing metal for her secondary weapon, thinking that in fights they could be useful for both close combat and throwing. Nobody would want to mess with her looking like that, especially since somebody had started a rumor that she was taking on Demons and holding her own before we had shown up to help her.

I found it funny how much a story could change and how quickly rumors could circulate in little more than an hour. Even the boys were spreading the juicy gossip and we were getting a lot of wary glances sent our way. We might just be able to win team-on-team battles through intimidation alone once we were at the academy.

Speaking of the Angel Academy, my grandmother seemed to decide that it was time for us to hit the road as we finished our meal. She stood up and, in a roaring voice that people could probably hear on the floors above and below us, she called out,” Attention, all recruits! It’s time! Gather your belongings and make your way to the elevator! Only ten at a time, and once you’re on the surface make your way to the airship! Wait for all recruits and trainers to be gathered and for the word to be given before boarding!”

The large room was suddenly filled with nervous energy as recruits scrambled to their feet and grabbed their bags and gear. Occasionally, over the noise of the chaos, a trainer could be heard telling their teams to move their asses or chiding someone for nearly forgetting something. I decided to have my team hold back and wait until the hectic rush was mostly over before we too grabbed our things and took the elevator up with our trainer and a couple of stragglers.

It was nearly as chaotic getting everyone on the airship. Fortunately, while the Gentle Breeze looked old and decrepit, at least it seemed to be well cared for by its crew. That crew was solely comprised of Humans though and the way that they watched all of us and some seemed to be listening to every conversation was making a lot of the recruits nervous. The looks that they were giving some of us were not friendly either, and Heather and I seemed to be getting more than most.

Autumn and Risha started getting more than their fair share too once they got cozy on the couch with us. None of us were kissing or doing anything inappropriate but just our closeness seemed enough to make the one watching us give a hateful glare to Risha. As much as we wanted to glare back we just made it look like we were ignoring him. I did get him to look away for a short while when I drew my Goliath and started to polish it.

The trainers, including my grandmother, were watching those crew members back. They were like hawks waiting for prey to make the wrong move so they could swoop in and tear them apart. Those jerks may have felt confident looking at raw recruits like something that they had found in a refuse pile but experienced Angels were another story.

The entire situation made for an extremely tense flight toward the capital. The entire time I felt like a brawl was going to break out any minute. Finally, after more than three agonizing hours, the pilot announced that we were approaching the capital and would be landing soon and all of the recruits, including our team, rushed to the nearest windows to get our first view of Twinvale.

Spread out below us laid the capital in all of its glory. It was huge and Heather told us that over forty thousand people lived there. Soon we were past the outer slums and making our way above the defensive walls that surrounded the city proper. The top of the wall was dotted with weapon emplacements to fend off Demons; ballistae, cannons, and massive Tinker-made repeater guns. My grandmother explained the repeaters and said that it took three people to use them; one to aim the gun and man the firing crank, a second to operate the hand cranks that swiveled the weapon into place, and a third to act as a spotter and tell the second where to position the weapon.

It was no Woodbury Base but seeing it from the sky like this was still awe-inspiring. Far below us, tiny soldiers walked the walls and manned the weapons, and as we passed the walls and made our way toward the academy grounds the tiny people were going about their daily business. It was over all too quickly as we reached the academy grounds and the airship eased its way downward and the ground grew ever closer.

With a surprisingly gentle bump the airship touched down and the pilot announced that we could now depart. After that tense flight, we were all anxious to do just that and, after making sure that we had all of our gear and belongings, we made our way to the exit ramp. “Welcome to Twinvale,” Heather muttered as we stepped off the ramp. Her voice was barely loud enough to carry to our group as she added, “I’m not sure whether I should be angry or relieved that the Queen isn’t here to greet us.”

“Go for glad,” Autumn advised as she hugged the former princess tightly.

I put my arm around them both and nodded. “She’s got no power over you anymore, Heather. Now let’s follow our Wingleader so we can get this assembly over with so we can explore the city. It’ll be the first time for all of us and I can’t think of any other people that I’d rather do it with.” I took them both by the hand and Risha, Karina, and Lisbet all fell in step with us as we followed my grandmother across the training grounds and toward the great stone castle that had nearly rivaled the royal palace when seen from above. We were finally at the Angel Academy.