Eight

"CADETS!" Jurgen's voice filled the space of the hangar, a ringing filling their ears as everyone stared at the Knight as he walked in front of them. He wore a clean charcoal gray uniform with golden dragon epaulets on his shoulders, a shine to his normal appearance that had Kon instantly on alert.

"Today the culmination of your efforts shall be rewarded. The buyers have arrived. Representatives from over sixty chapterhouses have boarded and begun reviews of your files along with the creditors of your former chapterhouse. Your former chapterhouse's failures will not reflect upon you in this time, only your potential, your experience, and your training. You are still mine!" Jurgen said the last part with bark as he stalked back and forth in front of the lines of cadets.

"You will not embarrass my Order in front of the chapterhouse's representatives and you will not embarrass me in front of my peers. Do I make myself clear?" Jurgen finished his walk and stopped to stare at Kon.

"Why's he staring at me? I don't do anything besides work out."

"Now, when I step back and open the chamber's doors, the representatives will come in. You will answer every question thoughtfully and honestly. Your careers as future Knights depend on this. Good luck," Jurgen said finally, stepping back away from Kon. An unseen command passed and gunmetal gray doors slid open, revealing a line of people who immediately marched in.

Kon was taken aback as the majority weren't wearing the martial uniform that Jurgen and the other active Knights he had seen wear. If anything they looked more like they were dressed for a party. Bright reds, yellows, greens, and purples all clashed in an explosion of color as the representatives stalked forward with holopads in their hands and boredom on their faces.

"You there. Come here," a middle-aged woman said, pointing at Kon with one long finger, waggling it like he was some type of animal. Anger boiled in his gut instantly at the treatment, but his feet moved on their own accord, depositing him in front of the older woman.

She was wearing a peach blouse that plunged to her sternum, held in place against her chest to reveal a narrow strip of skin that managed to be both daring and conservative. High shoulders with a neckline covered her up to nearly her jaw and she had a pair of yellow-sun earrings that dangled from her ears as she turned to look at him with venomous green eyes.

"Kon, Cadet, four months of training on the Dragon's Maw. Your test scores are abysmal. What makes you worth the effort of my Chapterhouse?" the woman asked in a rush as she looked around at the other candidates.

"Ma'am, have you looked at my physical results?" Kon asked, his distaste for the woman thick in his voice as he looked down at her. She fluttered a few fingers at him and harrumphed.

"You're a cadet. Who cares? I see you have nothing of worth to us." The unnamed woman departed instantly, looking back at her holo and tapping a few buttons as she looked for another cadet. Kon stood there, trying to keep the surprise and shock of his dismissal from appearing on his face. He stood there stupefied as Diur slipped through the crowd to stand next to him.

"Your jaw is hanging open," she said conversationally.

"That lady said I'm not worth her time. Didn't even look at my physical scores," Kon whispered to her.

"Her mistake. I'm sure that you are devastated to be passed over by someone who couldn't even be bothered to read half of the testing results."

"No need for the sarcasm. Who's been teaching you that anyway? I think I preferred when you were all soft spoken and polite," Kon said, giving her a smile to take away any hint of real malice.

"I have been watching your media to improve my speaking skills in case of translator failure. Your people seem to enjoy speaking words that don't match their meaning."

"Yeah, it's called being a smart-ass. And no, I'm not mad she passed me over, but it was a bit of a blow to my ego. After all those tests of me demolishing everyone else physically, thought I'd have a bit more attention," Kon explained as he looked around. Not a single one of the recruiters had stopped to give him more than a quick glance at his face then a double look at their holopads before leaving him alone.

"They're lazy," Jurgen growled as he appeared next to Kon and Diur without a sound. Both of them jumped a bit, startled by the man's materialization next to them.

"Sir?" Kon asked, keeping a respectful tone to his voice as Diur straightened slightly, what little hint of a slump disappearing in a heartbeat.

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"These reps haven't been Knights in a long time. Lost in the pageantry of it all. It's an old tradition from the homeworld. Knights were nobility, lower nobility, but also a martial class. We've slowly begun to regress to that time, our warriors dressing themselves in silk and more worried about what words to use at events like these than who our enemies are," Jurgen said, a hint of heat in his normally placid voice.

"It's what killed your Chapterhouse. These people. More worried about their damn money and prestige than our security." Jurgen seemed to catch himself, looking at the duo out of the corner of his eye before snorting softly and shaking his head.

"Don't worry about these charlatans. There's one more who's a bit late, he'll be here in a minute and I know for a fact that he'll have read everything." Jurgen departed nearly instantly after that, stalking amongst the mass of cadets and recruiters.

"Was that weird?" Kon asked Diur, both of them kept their eyes locked on the bulky instructor.

"It seemed uncharacteristic of him," Diur agreed.

Both of them frowned and walked to the edge of the meet and greet to observe what was going on. Due to Jurgen having pulled Kon's training sessions to be with the squires, he hadn't had much time to talk with his fellow cadets. He knew most of them, but between his isolation on Crucible and aboard the ship a distance had opened between them that he didn't know how to close. Or if he wanted to.

"I too struggled with making connections with my fellows in my clan. There was always a distance between us since I was the granddaughter of an Elder."

"Yeah that's not what this distance is about," Kon said with a quick chuckle.

"The circumstances are different, but the results were similar, no?"

"Close enough. Wonder where this guy is that Jurgen said was going to be coming?" Kon asked, wanting to change the subject as he looked around the room. He didn't see anyone who stood out from the sea of peacocks who strutted around preening for each other rather than focusing on their objective.

Kon could see the realization starting to settle in with the other cadets as time passed. Anxiety and eagerness slowly faded away to be replaced with doubt and horror as their fates were decided by the uncaring socialites. A well of disgust began to grow in Kon's gut as he stared at them, sickening him as he looked over the crowds.

"You too?" A raspy, male voice said in his ear. Kon startled violently, spinning into an elbow strike as his heart tripled in pace as adrenaline surged through his body. His elbow met air as he spun around on the ball of his foot.

"Not bad reaction time. Terrible perception though. Your friend noticed me, but she was nice enough not to say anything," the man said, a twisted smile moving his gnarled features. Kon gaped at the ancient man standing in front of him.

He'd never seen a Knight or cultivator who looked seriously old. A few gray hairs here and there, maybe crows eyes, but the old man in front of him had been ravaged. His tanned face was a series of deep crevasses, white bushy eyebrows covered a wide swathe of his forehead while a bristly white mustache drooped down past his chin.

Kon took a step back, trying to calm his racing heart, and looked the man up and down. He wore armor, full Knight armor, but it was strange. Kon had never seen a Knight's armor that wasn't bulky and enlarging, but this suit was lean and closer to form fitting. It was battered matte black with long scratches, numerous dents, and a few obvious replacement parts on it.

"Benny, it's good to see you," Jurgen said, though his words were icy cold as he walked up to the old man, a razor-sharp smile on the bulky Knight's face. He didn't offer his hand and stood outside of the old man's reach.

"No it's not," the old man said with a cackle, revealing stained teeth as he smiled broadly, which did little to soften his craggy features.

All around them the crowd had grown slowly still, eyes peering back to look at the newcomer. Some of the older guests had paled a bit at seeing the armored figure, but the majority looked confused or curious. Jurgen smiled politely at Benny's words.

"Well, the last time I saw you was under vastly different circumstances," Jurgen said. He kept his hands low to his side and his knees were bent as if ready to spring into action at a moment's notice.

"Took the wrong contract, boyo. No hard feelings now, are there?" Benny said with a wry laugh. Kon felt the air chill as Jurgen's eyes hardened ever so slightly.

"Where's Kenneth?" Jurgen asked suddenly, his eyes darting to the empty hallway the man had come out of.

"Kenny? Oh he received an offer he couldn't turn down. Asked me to step in for him," Benny said. A vein throbbed on Jurgen's head as the man took a few calming breaths. The line of representatives began to back up slowly away from the two figures. Diur's fingers slipped around his elbow and began to tug Kon out of the way of the two of them.

"No hard feelings," Jurgen finally said, shoulders slumping slightly as he let out a deep breath.

"Excellent. We can't be fighting against each other now, can we? Anyway, I came to buy a cadet contract, who should I see about that?" Benny said, looking at Kon and throwing him a wink, before turning back to Jurgen. Jurgen stiffened again, swallowing slowly as he looked at Kon and Diur.

"That'd be me. I can assume you mean Kon?"

"And his steward. Two for the price of one. The best type of deal," Benny said and once again anger suffused Jurgen's features.

A chime rang out and Benny reached down to pull out a holopad and smiled at it before turning to look at Jurgen. The older man frowned and shook his head.

"Thought you would've learned about that neural shit. Not good to have something like that in your brain, is it boyo?"

"Kon, Diur, it was a pleasure to have you aboard and train you. Good luck," Jurgen spat out, his face flushing darkly as he spun on a heel to march back into the crowd.

"Don't worry about him, he's just a sore loser," Benny said, throwing an armored arm over Kon's shoulder and pulling him along and out of the room.

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