Once inside the castle, we and the other new recruits were guided toward a large audience chamber to join the second and third-year students, their trainers, the academy’s instructors, and those training for support roles within the Corps. Once we were all settled, the doors were securely closed, and they were certain that there would be no uninvited guests, my grandmother left our side to join a Devilkin man at the podium on the small dais at the front of the chamber. He was tall and thin with rosy red skin, large black horns sticking out of his short-cropped greying brown hair, and dressed in a comfortable-looking tunic and trousers combination in simple black.

Once she had joined him the pair talked for a few moments and then the man called out for our attention. Once he had gotten it, he spoke in a thundering voice that easily carried to every corner of the large hall. “Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our new students. For those of you who are new recruits, I’m Damian Lucifer. I have been the Headmaster of the Angel Academy for the past nine years and teaching advanced mechanics and repair to our Tinkers for the past fifteen years.”

The Headmaster paused a moment, taking a deep breath, before continuing to speak. “Normally, this is where I would introduce Queen Sabine, she would say a few words of welcome and encouragement, and then the new recruits would swear their oaths. Unfortunately, as you can all see, Her Majesty is not here today. However, Archangel Abbadine Bengal would like to say a few words in her place.”

The older students had been speaking quietly in front of us. Many were confused as to why they had all been gathered for the reception of the new recruits and where exactly the Queen was. The droning cacophony of various conversations coming from the older students came quickly to a halt as soon as the Headmaster spoke my grandmother’s name.

She took advantage of the sudden silence to speak, her voice just as loud and clear as the Devilkin who had introduced her. “Good afternoon, students and new recruits. As you can all probably guess from why all students are all gathered here instead of only the new recruits, there are going to be some changes this year for the Angel Academy. Before I go any further into what those changes might be, I want all of you to repeat your oaths as Angels as the new recruits give theirs for the first time.”

“Angel recruits and students, please repeat after Archangel Abbadine,” the Headmaster instructed, gesturing to my grandmother.

She nodded and said, “I pledge my life to the Angel Corps, and to fighting Demons. I vow to protect the people from the dangers that Demons represent. I will protect the weak and strike down Demons when they appear, and I will not give up until my dying breath. The Corps is my family, and I will defend them as they will defend me. When interacting with the public I will guard the secrets of the Corps and always speak and behave in a way that protects those secrets and reflects the values of the Corps.”

Most of those gathered in the room repeated the oath, including me and my team. There were roughly two dozen people who had been gathered with us first years in the back who I didn’t recognize from Eden Base or the Gentle Breeze. They hadn’t spoken the oath and I was wondering why when the Headmaster spoke again.

“And now for those of you training for support roles in the Corps, repeat after me,” the Devilkin called out. “I pledge my life to the Angel Corps, and to use my gifts and the skills that I am taught to support the people and the Corps to the best of my ability. I vow to do so, even if it should endanger my life. The Corps is my family, and I will defend them as they will defend me. When interacting with the public I will guard the secrets of the Corps and always speak and behave in a way that protects those secrets and reflects the values of the Corps.”

When they were all finished speaking their oath as well, my grandmother looked over all of the people gathered in the large chamber before addressing us once more with a serious expression on her face. “Those oaths were written by Haley Wilson before she became the first Queen of Misota, I was there when she wrote them. They were written even before the people of Misota were unified into one country. Although the past Queens have always had our loyalty, we have never sworn fealty to either them or Misota. Our loyalty is to each other and the people as a whole, no matter what their Races or where they may live.”

The first Angel let all of that sink in for a moment before continuing. “Those oaths have never been changed because Haley knew that at some point we would still be needed but we might not have the support of whoever was ruling. That time has come. Queen Sabine courts the wealthy, and they want our technology and a political agenda that is friendly to a select few. She has demanded that we find a new place for both our main base and the academy so that they can have Eden Base and so we won’t be here in the capital unless they happen to need our help.”

An atmosphere of shock and anger descended upon the room, some calling for us to fight. That wasn’t really a surprise though since I suspected that everyone in the chamber was some sort of Seed-borne or were family or friends of Seed-borne. From some of the angry muttering that I was hearing, people had a pretty good idea who those select few were, and that they didn’t include anyone here.

My grandmother was obviously hearing similar things from the front of the crowd because she frowned and shook her head. “Yes, we could fight, and probably win with all of our advantages over the army under the Queen’s command. Doing so would cause a civil war though, and leave the entire country vulnerable to the Demons while we tried to fight two wars. We were meant to fight Demons, not the people that we swore to protect from them. There is a plan in place but we are going to need everyone’s help.”

That was when she laid everything out. She told them how my team had found a pair of secure complexes in the area of the Twin City ruins, and that we were planning to move the academy and our main base to one of them while the other would act as a forward base in an attempt to sanitize the ruins of Demon activity. She also said that we needed to buy time for those at Eden Base to move everything useful to the new locations.

As soon as the Queen found out that we had a prospective new location she would want to take possession of Eden Base so we wouldn’t be telling her until we had everything moved. Until then, Sira, the Archangels, and the other Angels needed us to make it look like everything is normal at the academy. Though there would be no classes until we were relocated, we would be having team versus team combat sessions in the courtyards to train our physical abilities and we would have free time during the afternoons to explore the capital.

Our exploration of the city was to be part of our assignments as well. They wanted us to get a feel for the climate in the capital among the different classes, especially where it concerned Seed-borne and Angels. To that effect, they wanted some of us new recruits who wouldn’t be recognized to hide our Angel insignias and only reveal them if we were in some sort of danger. People wouldn’t want to piss off the Angel Corps without good reason and we were still technically under the Queen’s protection, though there were some grumblings about how long that would last.

Once things had been explained and orders were given, everyone was free until it was time for the evening meal in the dining hall. After that, we would all be free to go about our business for the evening. However, those of us who were new Angel recruits needed to take our things to our rooms but our Trainers were going to be escorting us there so we could get settled in before dinner.

As everyone dispersed, my grandmother was talking with the Headmaster. It was hard to make out what they were saying over all of the conversations between us as people who actually knew where they were going filed out of the chamber and talked about what they had just learned, their plans for the evening, and various other topics. Eventually, she joined us once the room was almost completely cleared and led us to the girls’ dormitory wing.

“Here we are girls, the first-year girls’ dorm. This will be where you will all be staying while here in the capital,” my grandmother said as she opened the thick wooden door to the noise of what was likely every other female recruit trying to get organized under the watchful eyes of their Trainers.

The room was large but a lot of the space was taken up by ten upper and lower bunks on each side of the entrance for a total of forty beds. With that many beds and only roughly two dozen female recruits, there were thankfully still several bunks to choose from. We were starting to look around when Maryn called out, “Snow! We saved you girls some bunks on this side!”

My grandmother motioned for us to go join her. “I’ll wait for you to get settled and then we’ll go have a quick tour and get some dinner.”

We headed over to the right side of the room, where Maryn and Orchid were unpacking their bags at the pair of bunks closest to the door. As promised, they had the three upper and lower bunks nearest their own saved for us. “Thanks, girls,” I told them gratefully as we approached.

“No problem, Snow,” Maryn replied with a smile. “We thought that all of you might want to stick together and our other teammates are in the boys’ dorm.”

There wasn’t really a lot of furniture or storage space in the room and it looked like each pair of bunks shared a large wooden chest that sat at the foot of the lower bunks. I opened the closest one and found that there was a divider inside to separate the belongings of the two occupants of the bunks. “Snowy and I will share this one!” Autumn blurted out, calling dibs on both me and the bunk before anyone else could.

Risha seemed a bit disappointed but quickly shook it off. “I’ll bunk with Heather then,” the avatar offered, leaving Karina and Lisbet as bunkmates for the final pair of beds.

As we all started to pack our things away in the large chests I looked at the bunks and, since I didn’t really have a preference, I asked Autumn, “Would you prefer to be on the top or the bottom?”

“Oh my, how forward of you, Snowy,” the redheaded Fae replied with a flirty wink. “We’re not even mates yet and there are rules against that sort of thing but, if you really must know, I think that I would like to be on top.”

“You and me both,” Orchid purred playfully as she latched on to Maryn, causing the brunette Human to turn bright red. I wasn’t blushing quite as bad as she was as I hurriedly finished packing my clothes away, but I was getting used to Autumn by now.

We quickly finished putting our things away and then took a tour of the girls’ dorm area with Maryn, Orchid, and both of our teams’ Trainers. The Trainer for Maryn and Orchid’s team was a Foxkin woman named Kelsie. She had long chestnut-colored hair that matched her big floofy tail and fox ears and her left arm was missing from just above the elbow. Poor Lisbet couldn’t stop staring at first.

Kelsie noticed and told us, “We fight Demons, there’s always the risk of severe injury, even when we think that we’re being careful. I’m lucky to not be dead. I’ve learned from the experience though, and since I’m not going to be able to return to active duty until it grows back, I was asked to become a trainer for one of this year’s new training teams.”

Lisbet’s eyes went wide. “It’ll grow back?” the Harekin asked in an awed tone.

“Yup, though Sira told me that it might take up to a year, and I’ll be eating a lot more during that time to fuel the process. As long as we aren’t dead, our nanites can always put us together again to perfect health and fighting form. It just takes time and, since they stop us from aging too, we have plenty of that.”

“That’s why if one of you gets seriously injured the others need to stop the bleeding first and foremost, even if you have to cauterize the wound. Even if a wound looks fatal, don’t give up until they’re actually dead. Most Angels die from immediately fatal wounds or by bleeding out before the damage can be completely healed,” my grandmother warned us.

“Losing an arm for a while might be an inconvenience but it’s a hell of a lot better than dying, so never give up on a teammate,” Kelsie agreed.

With that said, we continued on our tour. There really wasn’t much to see though, and girls weren’t allowed in the boys’ dormitory wing. Basically, there were just the girls’ dorm rooms for years one through three and the communal baths and bathrooms. The latter were built by Tinkers but weren’t near as advanced or as luxurious as the facilities that we had gotten used to at Eden Base, Kiley’s house, or Woodbury Base.

Once we were done touring the dormitory area they showed us where the classrooms, Tinker and Alchemist labs, and the courtyards for team battles were. We would only be using the last one while we were here but the trainers thought that it would be best if we knew our way around anyway. Last, but not least, we were shown to the dining hall where the evening meal was just getting started.

The food served for dinner was tasty and well-made but we had been spoiled since meeting Risha and I found myself missing the variety available through the food dispensers. I had other things on my mind as well, like how I was going to have the privacy to get out of my H.E.S.S and how to keep my fellow students from discovering it. That was going to be a problem when we would be sleeping and bathing together.

Sure, I had it in the ‘hidden’ setting that made it look like I wasn’t wearing anything, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to sleep or bathe in it. That was doubly true since I had no idea how long we were going to be staying in the capital. Eventually, I asked Connie about it and my NCI said there would be no harm in wearing it continuously, even in the bath. In fact, it was designed with that kind of thing in mind.

The H.E.S.S suits were originally meant for planetary exploration and harsh environments and so it was expected that the wearer could be expected to wear them anywhere from hours to months at a time. As such, it not only disposed of the wearer’s bodily wastes but also cleansed their body once every twenty-four hours, was designed with maximum comfort in mind in all modes, and could be submerged even in non-aquatic modes with no issues. I did have to admit that it was comfortable, even if it has been a little awkward and uncomfortable at first when it had made its way into my most personal places.

With that settled I began to pay more attention to my meal, and my dinner companions. Maryn and Orchid had introduced us to the rest of Phantom Wing as soon as we got to the dining hall. The first of their teammates was Kyle Cervus, a brown-haired and brown-eyed Deerkin with not only the tail and ears but a set of antlers as well. The other was Peter Lapin, a Harekin with reddish-brown coloring who seemed to have gotten Lisbet’s attention from the way that she was watching him as we ate.

While calling themselves Phantom Wing may have seemed ominous, they named themselves that because none of their Seed-borne gifts were offensive in nature or suited to direct attacks. Maryn’s gift was to create illusory decoys of anyone that she could see, while Orchid could change her skin color to blend completely into the terrain, shadows, or darkness. As for the boys on their team, Kyle could create balls of swirling light that were extremely hypnotic to look at, and Peter could control mist and fog and create it from water.

Their Trainer, Kelsie, was planning on teaching them a lot of distraction and hit-and-run tactics to play to their strengths. Personally, I thought that was a very good idea. My grandmother also mentioned that they would probably be pretty useful as a support team to back other teams up too, once they were trained.

“So, why did you go for six people for your team?” Maryn asked as we were finishing our meal. “We were told that the usual is four per training team.”

“Well, originally we had five but then we met Risha and she seems to fit in pretty well with us,” Karina said with a shrug.

“It was actually my idea,” my grandmother admitted. “I have been wanting to form larger teams with support members who can handle long-term missions under potentially harsh conditions for a while now. Snow is my granddaughter, so I know what she’s capable of, and the others all have gifts that would be useful to the type of team that I wanted to create. Their team is a bit of an experiment to see if the idea will work.”

“So it’s true then?” Peter asked self-consciously. “You took them into the Twin City ruins and they fought Demons and found the new bases that you were talking about?”

My grandmother simply nodded as Lisbet said, “Well technically the bases are only new to us, they’ve been around since before the old world fell.”

“Are they even going to be livable if they’ve been abandoned for that long? What about Demons?” Kyle asked.

“We checked them out pretty thoroughly and we should be comfortable there once Sira and the Angels can get all of the important stuff from Eden Base moved,” I promised. I didn’t elaborate though since we were supposed to be keeping a lot of the more sensitive information quiet until we were out of the capital.

“Why didn’t you girls tell us about that part earlier?” Orchid asked, looking a bit hurt.

“We were told to keep things classified until we got here, Orchid,” Autumn told her fellow Fay. “So, we had to leave some things out. We couldn’t risk anyone getting excited about it and saying something on the Gentle Breeze. It would have been reported to the Queen or her backers before we were ready to move. You saw how the crew was listening to our conversations. One slip up and we would have been turned around and on our way there right now, and the Queen would be insisting on taking possession of Eden Base immediately.”

“To hell with the Queen, and anyone connected to her,” Maryn spat bitterly, making Heather visibly wince. “I’m… from here in the capital, my Dad is a Tinker working for the Corps here. He put my name forward as a possible light-bearer and I was kind of relieved when I was chosen. I mean, sure, we look Human, and as long as we’re careful nobody would ever know that we’re Seed-borne but that just makes it easier for us to see how bad things have been getting for visible Seed-borne in the city since that bitch took the throne. There are even rumors that her sickly eldest daughter is a Seed-borne and she was cast out.”

“Those rumors are more accurate than you know,” Heather said with a depressed look.

Since Autumn was the closest of us, she put her arm around the former princess and pulled her into a hug. “Hey, don’t let it get you down, Heather. You have us now, and we’ll be the family that she should have been. That bitch is about as good at being a mother as she is at being a queen.”

“What do you mean?” Orchid asked as she gave the two other Fay a curious look.

“I am… I mean I was the princess,” Heather admitted morosely.

The eyes of every member of Phantom Wing, including their Trainer, went wide in shock. “But you are Fay,” Orchid protested as she tried to mentally process Heather’s claim.

“The Angel Elixir uses the best genes available for the new body template,” my grandmother explained. One of her Seed-borne ancestors was likely starting to turn into a Fay before the process halted and those genes were strong enough in Heather that the nanites finished the job when her body was being optimized.”

Maryn suddenly looked like she felt terrible as she stammered, “Heather, I’m sorry, I… uhh… didn’t mean to….”

Heather cut off her apology. “No, you were right and so was Autumn. She’s a terrible Queen and a worse mother. When I was born with pink hair and eyes she hid me away; I wasn’t allowed to leave the palace or to see anyone but her and the servants caring for me, so people wouldn’t connect a freak like me to the royal house.”

I interrupted to tell her sternly, “You’re not a freak, Heather. You never were. None of us are, no matter what some people might believe.”

“Yeah, you’re right, Snow,” she admitted. “Anyway, things only got worse when she took the throne and my sister was born, she never made time for me and I was told that my only choice was to join the Corps when I was old enough. I was actually looking forward to it and then she used me to try to push Archangel Abbadine into doing what she wanted. I guess that I kind of did the same thing but I just wanted some control over things and I wanted to learn to be an Angel from the best. It wasn’t like my mother cared, I wasn’t useful as a daughter so she found another use for me.”

“Kids aren’t supposed to be useful, they’re supposed to be loved and cared for,” Phantom Wing’s Foxkin Trainer muttered bitterly.

With all of us finished eating and the conversation getting a bit heavy we decided to head to the baths and then settle into the dormitory early for bed. We had all had a long day and wanted to get some rest since we were supposed to have our first team-on-team battles in the morning followed by an afternoon of exploring the capital and getting a feel for the atmosphere. Since Maryn knew the city pretty well she had offered to show us a great café that was run by her uncle and friendly to Seed-borne so our two teams could have lunch there before splitting up to explore the city.

Despite the facilities not being as good as at the base we all enjoyed the hot bath. Well, at least we girls did since Peter and Kyle had had to go to their own dormitory’s bath. Even with my H.E.S.S on it was nice to just relax and soak with the other girls. The hidden mode worked well too; somebody would have had to get a pretty close look at me or actually touch me to notice that I was wearing it. Since Autumn had insisted on ‘washing my back’ she helped to sell it too.

Soon we were all sleepy from the hot water though and, once we were dried off, we quickly dressed in our nightgowns and headed back to our dormitory to settle into bed. It was strange being in bed alone after those nights sleeping with Autumn, and later with Risha and Heather joining us as well. I found myself missing their warmth and their company even though I knew that Autumn was just above me and Risha and Heather were in the bunks to my right. Despite that, and all of the worries that I was harboring about our stay in the capital and all of the possible ways that it could go bad, I found myself quickly drifting off to sleep.