Haze handed them off to two soldiers. They have escorted them to the spirling vault chamber. The throne chamber was the same as before. Ear muffs and blindfolds awaited them on the floor in front of the chair. Putting them on and kneeling triggered the next step. The ichor came once more. The sensation was notably more pleasant this time. The lack of surprise helped. Ichor peeled away from them and the covers were removed. Their bodies were still similar to before the ritual. Cutlery felt like her insides were different though.
Cutlery began to stand. The two soldiers from before grabbed her under the armpits and dragged her out of the room. Her feet bumped the vault door as additional guards grabbed the others. Once outside the vault throne room, the soldiers switched to pushing her. Annoyance built up slowly. Down the stairs, they were brought to return to the others. Right before they reached their floor they were stopped. The soldiers led them onto the floor just above it. Cutlery and Angela were brought into a bedroom like the one she and Rega had.
"Uhm this isn't..." Angela said. The door slammed on her. The two women exchanged glances.
The new room was a little bigger. It had two desks at the end of the bunks. They were stocked with paper and pens. Exercise equipment was also inside a new closet. The hangers included more clothes too.
One set of clothes was arranged on each of the beds. Instead of blank white cotton shirts, they were grey. The pants were simple brown linens as always. Cutlery hid her old white shirt with the patch. With great effort, she began to remove all her torn-apart armor. They had already taken their weapons during the spiral vault checkpoints. Angela also took quite some time to doff her heavy metals.
Once they were changed they looked at each other. Many questions hung in the air. Their answers would be elsewhere. They exited and found Haze waiting for them. The other new second slivers left their room adjacent to their own. Everyone glanced at each other for an explanation and then at Haze. Haze smiled.
"Good job once more everyone. You have been promoted to seconds. As you can see your living quarters have also been promoted. You can expect the same upgrades in the future should you continue to outperform others. You have the rest of the day off to explore your new floor. You are discouraged from going to the lower floors. Ask if you must." Haze said. He waited.
"We live up here now?" Tall asked.
"Yes, you do," Haze said.
"Oh," Tall responded. The others shifted and Haze was still, waiting.
"Alright, if there are no questions. Enjoy the time off. The eating schedule is the same here." Haze said. "Dismissed." He concluded after another pause. His eyes slid across Cutlery as he turned and moved onto the stairs.
"So no one wanted to meet anyone on the outside?" Angela said.
"I look too odd now." One of the other team's girls said.
"True." Cutlery said. They all laughed at the jab. Then they relaxed and looked about nervously.
"Ow bout we tour aez a group?" Tall suggested. Nervous energy accumulated in each person. Nodding started to break through. Janet reached up and padded Tall's forearms. They moved to tour the rest of the floor.
-
The new floor was much more cramped. While it had the familiar curving walls, ceilings in each room scrapped Tall head. Observing only a few dozen bedrooms meant fewer people lived on the floor as well. Every other space was a carbon copy of the floor below, just, a pinch smaller. The only difference they found was the training room.
The training area was an all-in-one firing range, gym, parkour course, arena, and showers. Cutlery didn't know what showers was, is, were, or wisen. The range, as it was labeled had slime stuff in it. It moved about like waves on the city docks. They were locked out of it as well.
Hours were posted on the door stating it was only open five days a week for nine hours each day. Looking inside, they saw many droplet blobs crawling about. Occasionally they would bump into each other. When they did large pseudopod blobs on tentacles would grow out of them and smack the other droplet. Like a living minefield.
The arena was labeled above a set of double doors. Everyone gathered by them. Tall smiled when someone helped them read the sign. They reached over Angela's head and opened a door. Sound rolled over their ears. Inside, about two dozen adults wailed on each other. At first, Cutlery thought she had found the Tower's pink house. Everyone was lightly clothed, sweaty, yelling, grunting, and bending about. Turns out, they were just beating the tar out of each other.
They dashed about on blood-stained sand. Benches surrounded a large oval-shaped pit. Four chalk circles made smaller spaces within the pit. Each circle had two to four people in them. On the benches, other adults stretched and trained while they watched the fights in the middle. A blood dome came to Cutlery's mind. This is the kind of place soldiers live, was her other thought.
After a few seconds, a few of the benched adults started to point up to them. Only when a couple of men seated on the nearby center bench turned around, were they waved over. The short set of steps led them down to the two men. No extra seats were above the benches, just more weapons and tools for use.
"New seconds!" A woman with green arm braces wound hair, and pale but dark skin yelled.
The fighting in the middle of the pit came to a slow standstill. People pulled apart, eyeing each other, then relaxing. The many fighters started to move toward Cutlrey's group. Many of them slowly ran their eyes over the gathering. Cutlery got worried when not one of them spent more time on Tall. They each spent an even time looking over each of them.
"Lotta girls." A blonde male-looking youth said.
"True, slivers don't care what junk you got though." One of the benched center males said.
"Are euh oual second swilvers." Tall asked after suffering the quiet stares.
"Yes, yes we are." The other seated male said. "Would you like to spar?" He asked. Tall smiled.
"Just loike ome, oi loike it ere more." Tall said.
-
Tall's thighs rippled as they strode over the bench and barrier. They turned and pointed to Cutlery.
"She will be my partner," Tall said. Cutlery smirked on the outside. A not-quite scream, a screm bounced around her insides. She didn't know Tall liked her that much. She did an awkward step over the bench, got her other leg over, and then sat on and flipped over the arena barrier.
The two men seated on the bench stood up.
"Two minutes to stretch and plan." The shorter one said. He was also not as hot as the other one, Cutlery thought. The two of them started to pretty much hump each other. They wrapped their arms and pulled at each other's legs and hands in an odd unified stretching. Cutlery spun her arms and kicked her legs. She wasn't sure what to do. Tall closed their eyes and breathed heavily.
After two minutes passed Cutlery noticed the men's muscles were rippling. They seemed ready. All four of them walked to the end of the arena. Tall took a large weapon from the wall that looked like it weighed a hundred pounds. At least it was soft. Cutlery took a rapier that had a large cylinder on the end that kept the stabby point from being stabby. She was starting to like these things. She also stalked up on daggers and throwing knives.
The hot one took a long bow for himself. The shorter one took a pair of hooks after looking at Tall's weapon. He had moved away from a shield and short sword after Tall did a few test swings. Cutlery hadn't seen hooks used before. They were close to axes.
Cutlery relaxed. This time it was an even fight. She had gotten up here cause she won despite the odds. Here, there were no stakes.
"Normally there would be stakes. But let's measure first." The hot one said. He also said it in a deep resonating voice. His sliver had done him right, wow.
"Begin when the coin hits the sand." The shorter one said with a knowing smile. A gold coin came out of his pocket, floating. It moved on its own and then flicked into the air suddenly. Cutlery watched it. It hit with a puff of sand.
The men sprang a second before they did. The hot one knocked an arrow and pulled back his string as the short one rushed forward. Tall roared. By the time she got a step in, the hooks were already flashing. The short one had joined the hooks onto each other and doubled their range as he swung them at Cutlery.
At the same time a soft, but fast, arrow was suddenly bouncing off Cutlery's forehead. Then the hook's hard handle smashed her cheek. She was dazed. A shadow fell over her and the hook boy jumped backward. Tall's huge blade smashed the air where he had been. Cutlery shook her head. With a flex, she steadied her legs and looked forward. The short one was unhooking his blades from each other to hold one in each hand. She sprang without thought.
Quickly she ducked by the Short One and towards the hot one. Tall swung their blade at the short one again. Cutlery looked ahead to see the hot one actually had run forward to meet her, no arrow notched.
The bow slammed into her shins, and she stepped through the string and recurve wood, tripping her She got a glance at the short boy's hooks grabbing onto Talls sword as he was then pulled off his feet. He turned into a kick and the backswing of Talls attack caused him to slam his feet with utmost force into their face.
The archer then stepped on her head and put a dagger to her throat.
"Measurement complete." He said. Such a hot voice. Cutlery realized this was probably her first crush. Something Chloe had said a few days ago faded from her memory.
