Rising Shards

Kitty Kilander held her pose for a long time as we all tried to process what we were seeing. For all my panic and fear about what waited for us when we had to face the Order, I did not expect it to be a Kilander doing a dramatic dance routine entrance.

“Wait, Kitty Kilander?” Aira said. “As in from the Kilander show?”

“Uh huh.” Kitty said, finally breaking the pose. “Much more famous than your principals, right?”

I turned to Oka, who was understandably more stunned than the rest of us. Kitty spotted her and squealed.

“It’s my little niece-y!” Kitty said. “Ohohoh, look at that expression. Berin never tell you? Penty?”

“I…” Oka said.

“She can’t even speak!” Kitty said, scanning through the rest of us. “I’m that impressive, I know.”

“I can speak!” Oka yelled. “And I’ve never even met you! Of course I’m surprised you work at Wildfire Hearts!”

Kitty blew on her extravagantly painted nails. “It’s fair though, I don’t spend much time working here. But I just had that itch to get some recruits, you know? The old guy’s getting older, and there’s gonna be a spot at the top when he’s out.”

I had no idea what she was talking about, but I knew anything to do with Wildfire Hearts wasn’t good.

“Let’s cut the crap,” Kitty said. “You guys had that cute widdle void camping mission, wight? Well, thanks to Wildfiwe Heawts, you get to do something way cooler instead!”

“This could be our way out of here,” Lillia said quietly, thinking five steps ahead while I was still trying to figure out why Kitty Kilander was standing in front of us. “Or a way very much not out of here.”

“What do you want?” Oka asked.

“It’s simple,” Kitty said, batting her eyelashes. I immediately began to hate how she had weird little exaggerated gestures every other sentence. “This is a raid. I need seven more of you for Wildfire Hearts. Quota is a bit behind. That’s some internal document secrets, so enjoy those confidential deets. I won’t hurt you if you don’t, but I think it’d be great for whichever five leave Rising Shards.”

“I mean,” Kitty laughed. “I could kick all your asses easily. I’m a Haven champion. But I won’t!”

“Why are you asking us?” I said. “Shouldn’t the Benta get enough students in?”

“Yeah!” Kalei said. “There’s no way all of us are gonna finish that thing, just, I don’t know, wait, maybe?”

Kalei shrugged, potentially realizing her defiant statement came out a bit too agreeable by the end.

“Oh,” Kitty snorted. “The Benta. They tell you that thing’s a little crappadoodad invented by Atrian schools like Rising Shards to make you guys scared of us, right?”

I blinked, her words not processing at all with me for a few moments.

“Wait…what?” I asked. “But, the Benta’s the reason a lot of us are in—”

“Blah blah blah,” Kitty said. “Just so you all know, you all are pretty much total morons about the way the Cani world works thanks to your little Atrian school. You know so little, it’s like watching a bunch of girls made of slime try to learn math. Which…I’m kind of into? But you guys are doing it in a boring way. Don’t be boring. Be exciting! Don’t worry about the Benta. You have a lot more of a choice than you think you do. Which is why I’d rather plead my case than take a bunch of expelled losers in.”

“Well, you’re not getting any of us,” I said.

“Right!” Oka said.

“Hell yeah,” Kalei said. “I mean, wait. Er, hell no.”

Nikki was now looking Kalei’s way, and I realized that was probably the source of Kalei’s usual quick wit and sharp jabs being absent.

“Well, you can’t leave until you hear me out, so you might as well listen.” Kitty said. “Just let me talk a bit! I’m cool. I’m a lot cooler than Penty.”

Kitty dragged her foot in the dirt in front of her, making a line that faintly glowed with blue embers for a moment.

“That’s charmed,” Kitty said. “I can charm lines. Can you believe that? It’s one of my things. If you step over that line, you’re with us. You get the full Wildfire Hearts package, and I get a bright and shiny new Cani to have and to hold and to mold into something of my own. That’s lyrics, a bit, from my new album. You guys listen, right? Oh! Whoever listens to my music gets first dibs on hopping the line. Anyone?”

Our class murmured. Oka and I locked arms, neither of us even considering letting the other move an inch closer to the line. Kalei quickly gripped onto my arm as well, and Lillia grabbed Oka’s shoulders. Aira and Laenie each grabbed my tail, which was more painful than helpful. At the very least, we were prepared in case Kitty tried to pull us with her freaky glitter tentacle things again.

“You don’t give these Terina freaks anything,” Kalei said with gritted teeth. “They’ll say anything to get you over that line.”

“Oooh, we got a grumpy girl!” Kitty said. “I heard that.”

“Shut the hell up,” Kalei said.

“Feisty!” Kitty said, holding her hands out like cat claws. “Wait, I know you. Where do I know you from? Why do you look familiar?”

“If it’s from watching me play beam chasers, ass kissing isn’t gonna work on me,” Kalei said. “And don’t try to show me any visions of my friends bleeding out and dying either, some Terina freaks tried that already. It won’t work.”

“Oh that’s it!” Kitty said, giving a joyed open mouth smile that bared her vicious looking fangs. “The recruitment tapes! You were one of the Birchsceptre kids, right?”

Kalei flinched, and for a moment a distant terror crossed her eyes, but anger soon replaced it.

“God, that seemed fun. I was watching the streams. Maybe we went a bit too horror, we didn’t pick up many on that run. But we did get some blood, which…well, if you cross that line, I’ll tell you why that’s great for us. And I’ll get some of your blood.”

The murmurs and chatter had died down. I couldn’t speak for everyone, but I imagined the rest were as uncomfortable and ready to leave as I was.

Kitty was too busy stomping around in a circle to notice. That stomping gradually turned into her marching and singing and dancing to herself until she noticed everyone standing near her again.

“Well, hopefully I find some fun among you, or this is not gonna be a gweat day fow me.” Kitty pouted. She activated her wristband and scanned the class. All our wristbands pinged for a second, and she started looking through images of us, with information displayed on the side of the projection. She stopped on a picture of me.

“Zeta Faleur,” Kitty said. “I know about you.”

“Yeah, because I’m dating your niece.” Is what I wished I’d said. Instead of that line that I came up with a few minutes later, I muttered something that had a few high pitched “Eh?” sounds that mostly was just horrifically embarrassing.

“You have so little confidence in yourself,” Kitty said. “Don’t you want to get stronger? You could fight Ovie all day—you beat her so easily, right?”

“How do you know about…?” I gasped.

“I study my potentials,” Kitty said, then thought about it for a moment. “A bit. Some of you don’t really have anything interesting going on. Oh, speaking of!” Kitty started scanning through her wristband projection. “It’s just about time. I want you to take a look at something, Zeta. You don’t have to step over the line, just look up.”

I thought it was a trick, and kept my eyes locked forward.

“Oh, come on, this isn’t a trick!” Kitty said. “If you don’t look up, you’re gonna feel it anyways.”

Kitty started stomping her feet like she was revving an engine, then pointed to the sky.

“Take a look at this!”

Nothing happened. Kitty held the pose, her one apparent talent.

“Wait, I timed it! No, Jeannie-Weanie!”

I almost barfed at ‘Jeannie-Weanie,’ but then it started to sink in that Kitty was trying to entice me with something Jeans was doing. Something she was doing right there, right then in the void.

“To say I’m disappointed would be—” Kitty started. The ground began to shake. For a horrendous few seconds, we all held onto each other, and all I could think was that I would tumble over and fall over the line Kitty had drawn and doom myself to Wildfire Hearts. Also, Aira and Laenie’s iron grips on my tail started to really hurt as they basically yanked on it while everything was shaking. The blood moon began to grow more crimson before the sky above us seemed to rip itself apart.