“The invention of System Cores solved two distinct problems across major Magocracies in the known universe. The first problem was the obvious—creating a method to deliver magic to the masses, thereby increasing the rate by which those worlds could contain the spread of mana. The second problem was the ‘outlier issue’ as researchers called it. Outliers being those with unparalleled capability to convert mana into disasters for their own amusement.

  “I am required to give my next statement, though I do not give it under duress. Thanks to the efforts of the Mana Containment Force, implementation of System Cores on worlds in dire states was performed with the swiftest intervention in the history of the Interplanetary Trade Council. The ‘heroes’ of the MCF remain lauded for the salvation of over two hundred planets and trillions of lives.

  “Now, System Cores have created the bedrock of societies that rely on them for survival, even to extremes where the system is revered as a deific presence by the native populace…”

  -Guest Speaker Lavinius Shields, Author of ‘The System and You: A Primer to System Living’

  Kris:

  She awoke to warmth. Not the warmth she expected, but she was briefly surprised to find she wasn’t shivering while sprawled across the bed of her room in her mothers’ house. That fogginess left her rapidly as she rubbed her eyes with sore hands.

  Still, after the pleasant night they’d shared—hopefully the first of many—she was concerned to find there wasn’t a pleasant body heat beside her. Instead, Kris had slept well, and rather than an arm and a leg sticking out into the cool air of their room, she found she was nicely tucked into the blankets, almost cocooned within the remnants of the heat from the night before.

  As she rolled over, searching for her erstwhile companion, she enjoyed the pleasant afterglow, feeling an entirely different form of muscle soreness from what the prior day should have left her with. The big, stupid grin on her face didn’t leave regardless of how she tried to focus on the day ahead.

  She and Mari had… enjoyed themselves. She was perfectly happy to admit that, and the compelling part of her that ached for her chosen one felt deeply satisfied. Like she had appeased a precious obligation she held. Perhaps in the enslaved world before her mother, that obligation would’ve held a darker connotation. Instead, she felt more reassured than ever. All of her doubts were gone.

  And so was Mari. Gone, that was.

  She wiggled free of her cocoon and stretched habitually. As an athlete, she had always learned to get rid of the morning stiffness within her back and neck. Only instead, she had an aching… everything else.

  She reddened at the realization, then stalked into the bathroom to get the water running.

  Her mind ran over the night before, and she slapped herself to focus on the day ahead of her. It wouldn’t do to dwell on the way Mari had utterly satisfied—nope.

  It was normally a school day. They’d barely started their school week when disaster struck, but with the danger they’d been in, the entire district was closed while matters were settled. No school. No lab access. She’d have to occupy herself with their new home.

  Kris took a deep breath, then tried to decide what she would do.

  Shower: already in progress.

  Breakfast next. Morning energy is important.

  Then she could do some house chores or something.

  Laundry? Yes. Definitely. The sheets sure need it after we—stop it.

  Kris paused, lathering cleansing herbal rinses into her hair. She was absolutely out of her mind. She couldn’t focus on a damn thing besides those stray flashes of their night. She had never believed herself so physically intimate that she’d hyperfixate so much. It felt excessive.

  No, it is excessive.

  She needed to do something relaxing with her day. She just didn’t know what. Kris didn’t really have relaxing hobbies. She kept active—mentally or physically—at all times. She couldn’t figure out why all of those felt too much like work after the day she’d had before.

  Kris stepped from the shower and tugged a robe on, feeling refreshed. Mari didn’t have many clothes at their new place yet, but it was out of respect for privacy that nobody had cleared out her small apartment just to move her in. Kris, though? Her entire wardrobe had been moved, and a few of her favorite outfits had been replicated and left at her childhood residence.

  She opted for some rather delicate pink undergarments, then covered them with an outfit that popped with reds and whites. The pants were baggy and breathed well, but the top was a long dress with slits at the sides that freed her legs to move more. It was a bit different from her usual style, being a bit more eye-catching than normal. That could mostly be attributed to how low the waistline of the pants was compared to how high up her hips the slits of the dress were. There was a lot of skin showing, and the straps of her underwear showed just enough to entice.

  She was dressed to remind. Remind Mari of exactly the things Kris couldn’t get out of her damn head.

  She descended the stairs from their room to find the house quiet and empty. It was a little lonely. Still, Kris could wait and find out where Mari had gone. It was odd, though. Mari was not a morning girl. It was hard to imagine her going out somewhere by choice.

  If someone important had come and gotten Mari, it probably would’ve woken them both up. Kris turned her suspicions on Anise.

  With a sigh, she snagged the apron as she entered the kitchen and started combing through the dishes and whatever food her mom had stocked the place with.

  Eggs, toast, some root vegetables to season and a bit of diced meat. She had the foundations of a protein-rich morning repast.

  Her worry grew, however. Anise came down the stairs in her bathrobe just as Kris finished cooking enough food for three. And Anise had the robe hiked up over the sash to keep it from dragging on the ground as she walked.

  She mentally added clothes to her day’s list for Mari and Anise. The only clothing Anise had were largely destroyed in all the fighting.

  “Good morning. Sorry about your clothes. I remember you saying that outfit was one of your favorites. We should arrange for some replacements today.” Kris slid a plate of food towards the youthful enigma with a wry smile. She’d at least try to salvage the robes if she could.

  Anise looked down at herself, then nodded, “Yeah, good morning. What do you guys do for money? Nice house and all, but like… how can I help out? I ain’t gonna freeload.”

  Kris laughed, light-hearted and mirthful. “No money here. There aren’t enough people to currently outpace the production of automated facilities. If you want it, order it, and it’ll be at your request. If you can’t figure out what you need, there’s an entire public center just for that. Display rooms for different interior designs, too. You name it, you can get it, though sometimes with a bit more waiting involved.”

  Anise stared at her, flabbergasted. “But how? Why does anyone do the work to maintain anything?”

  Kris felt her face fall. It wasn’t an intentional shift in atmosphere, but she’d heard stories. “Most people just want to have something to do to keep busy. The reality, sadly, is that it’s been bred out of us. Aimless lifestyles don’t exist because we’re incapable of it. Fixations on being productive are part of who we are. It’s an evil sort of thing in our history, but it keeps our society running, in some small way.”

  The truth was, Kris had seen Mari struggling. Wallowing in her own feelings of inadequacy. She hadn’t known how to help, but anyone who saw the remaining few humans or Sylphariens collapse into despair realized how society might collapse without motivation and drive.

  When she’d read extremely old books, she’d seen stories of families where the elderly worked straight into their graves because retirement had bored them so much. Based on what she’d seen, younger people tended to struggle to find something to motivate them, and older ones found that spark and pursued it with all their might. She hoped that would be the future for her classmates that had similar positions to Mari’s old one.

  “A utopian society.” Anise cut into her thoughts with a suspicious look. “Actually seems weirdly perfect. A whole city with all their needs met, living without stagnation. It sounds familiar, but not to Earth’s media. This sort of advanced society in movies and shows usually goes in the opposite direction. Excessive decline. Maybe your city seems artificial to me because of that.”

  Kris frowned, unsure if she followed the statements. Not that she really had the basis to get most of what Anise said. “Anyway, have you seen Mari?”

  Anise held up three fingers, then ticked them off. Three. Two. One.

  And then the front door opened.

  Kris’ eyes widened as Mari entered, dripping with sweat and heavily out of breath.

  She looked amazing. Mari was only wearing a bra and tight-fitting leggings, all in black. Her shoes were the athletic ones the school used as part of the sports uniform. The bra was soaked through, and Kris glanced out a window just to see if it was raining.

  It wasn’t.

  The smell of salt and spices was enough to tell the story. Mari had gotten up early to exercise. “Tadaima,” the sweaty beauty breathed out as she closed the door and knelt to unlace her shoes.

  “Okaeri.” Anise called out as she paused between bites of her breakfast.

  “No idea what that means.” Kris admitted with a mixture of emotions that were hard to puzzle out. “Mari, if you were going to work out, you could’ve invited me.”

  “I did.” The shoes fell onto the shelf beside the door. “But you didn’t answer. So I tucked you in and went for a run.”

  Kris decided she could forgive Mari, in that case. “Next time! Breakfast?”

  Mari almost nodded, but stopped halfway through. Then she tugged at her bra with a grimace down her cleavage. It was nice cleavage. Mari had nothing to be disappointed about, despite her poor nutrition. Most likely the girl’s lack of athleticism, Kris supposed. The handful of calories had at least gone somewhere attractive.

  “I’m going to wash off first. Can I borrow your wardrobe today, Kris?”

  That took some thought. And even more to navigate around the dirty thoughts. Mari was shorter than her, and had more curves. Her newfound muscles made her a little more bulky in the arms and legs, too.

  “Will my clothes fit?” She asked honestly.

  Mari chewed her lower lip.

  “I’ll find something, I hope.”

  Mari:

  She struggled.

  It was a great night, but sleep came hard and dark. Oftentimes painful, too.

  Marielle’s memories screamed through her every time she closed her eyes. Visions of explosions, the ravaged remains of butchered civilians, and the agony of a lifetime of scars.

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  The previous night had been different, yes.

  While she enjoyed her time with Kris—and that had been a blissful realization of something she hadn’t even realized she wanted her whole life—she had dreaded sleeping. In the end, she’d lain awake for hours after Kris had finally passed out from one peak too many. When sleep claimed her, she relived the horrors of the monsters they’d fought.

  Pleasant. She thought, annoyedly. I’ve added some nightmares of my own to the collection.

  She was just happy that it wasn’t Marielle losing her mother again. The smell of a person burning alive was as vivid as the screams had been.

  And so Mari ended up awake before dawn, threw on her bra and pants, then walked to her place to grab some workout clothes. Armed appropriately, she had run from their residential district all the way down to the beaches.

  Elitheen was built in a huge, shallow ravine on a very large island-continent. The innermost part of the ravine housed the administrative district, but the layers of walled districts that sprawled out towards the edge of the island each had their own theme. Different colored banners or gemstone inlays on the walls. When she finally reached the beaches where the harbor lay, Mari had marveled at the ocean waves as the dawn’s light crept in.

  She paused for a break while enjoying the twilight and ocean air.

  Passing from one district to another took little effort. The only patrolled or guarded wall was the innermost. It meant that she could run straight down any of the three largest streets and never stop from the high residences all the way to the shoreline.

  It helped. The cool breeze of the fading night and the hints of warmth as she ran cleared her head a lot, helping to think about her new life.

  Immortality was an option, and Kris wanted it, too. Their love could become eternal. She was all-in for that. With Marielle blissfully not aware enough to interfere, there was no doom echoing in her mind about the unlikelihood of that future.

  Anise was present and probably a better teacher than Marielle’s memories had been. Kris could study mana and cultivation alongside her.

  Mari wasn’t weak anymore. She’d run a casual seven minute mile for the six or so miles to reach the harbor district. Not only was she not responsible for the pain and suffering of the former slaves of the empire, she was strong enough to stand up for herself.

  Sylvia was out there. Wherever Anise had come from. It seemed depressingly likely that her predecessor’s doctor-fiancee actually was responsible for some of the things the empire had done. The question was more about whether she was ever given a choice.

  When Mari really considered it, even suicide wouldn’t have spared Sylvia from the empire. They were quite capable of cloning her and sticking her memories into the new body to torture her all over again. And with Anise on the line? The real question became whether Sylvia was still the kind person she had been.

  Mari didn’t even know how long Marielle and the rest of her colony ship had been on Sylpharia.

  The run helped to arrange her thoughts and priorities.

  She checked her HUD notification the moment it arrived.

  [Quarantine sweep complete. Risk level minimal. Dispensing reward.]

  [Test Subject 001: Maj. Marielle Smith, AKA Kishibe Mari]

  [Current status: Long-term stasis]

  [Location: Special Experimental Research Facility Uriel Point]

  Mari sighed, taking in the information.

  Karin must’ve worked all night. It’s been barely seven hours and the quarantine is done?

  And there was no mention of wherever Uriel Point even was. She wasn’t aware of any such place. If Kris wasn’t interested in going, then she would probably have to take a long trip alone. It didn’t enthuse her, but Mari knew better than to take off under the assumption that nobody would go with her. Karin might not allow them to take a long trip into dangerous locales, either.

  She read it over again, not expecting to find anything new.

  Except that something did catch her eye.

  The way it referred to Marielle. Her rank had been updated to Major and fixed the Japanese arrangement of her name. It learned from mistakes. Marielle had a Japanese father and an American mother. Having family in both countries meant she had taken two names, each one to suit the interests of her two bloodlines.

  The Major vs Captain thing that had spread on the colony ship was interesting, too. Mari had told-off Barclay about it, but she didn’t remember correcting the HUD or nanites or whatever was going on there.

  Thinking of Barclay, she had left him sitting in the school and totally forgotten to return.

  Great. More things to deal with.

  She turned away from the ships and docks of the harbor. Breathing the last of the salty air, she sprinted back up the street towards the high residences.

  Single-story homes with open-air gardens flashed past as the sun spilled over to hit the wall of the ravine to the west. The harbor residences were replaced with the foodworks production facilities to one side and the fabrics to the other. The artisan district was large, but only the offices lay at ground level. The underground layers of the city received incoming supplies and processed them into goods that were rapidly distributed elsewhere.

  Growing up, it had taken years to get everything running without Sylphariens having to be forced to approve changes to the automated systems. People had starved, but the city survived. Lucky enough that Elitheen was tropical. It didn’t experience frigid winters.

  She ascended towards the artisan residences, hiking up the incline as people began to leave their homes. She got dirty looks as she ran past, but it wasn’t anything new.

  Sweat beaded on her forehead and dripped down her back as she detoured towards some stairs to extend the run. She crested onto the top of the wall adjacent to the operations district and ran along towards the next main street over.

  Operations was where a lot of coordination happened between Elitheen and the wider world, or even with space-based mining facilities. Every major city in the world had a corresponding office somewhere in the mess of two-story buildings. It was the first part of the city that also had the large apartment complexes built deep below the courtyards in upside-down pyramids.

  There was probably an office for Uriel Point, even.

  The flaw with the system was the lack of real oversight. Elitheen only heard what the cities told them, which meant that reality might be entirely different there compared to what was believed. There were elite teams of the Investigations Unit that handled sporadic excursions, and they were random to keep cities honest, but there were only so many personnel involved.

  Mari heaved breaths in and out as she pushed herself. While her body didn’t need as much oxygen with the efficiency of Galileo’s designs, she still didn’t have great lung capacity after a lifetime of poor nutrition and exercise. That was why she was running.

  When she reached the next staircase down from the wall, she took her time, giving herself a brief respite. Then she hit the bottom and took off again. She hit a dead sprint and pushed herself as hard as she could, skirting around the glass surface of an apartment pyramid. She didn’t have a stopwatch, but her HUD clocked about a six and a half minute mile as she slowed down outside the new house.

  Mari placed her hands on her head, helping her recover faster. She sucked in each breath through the nose, then let it out through her mouth. Her heartbeat stabilized as she opened the door, and then color returned to her world when she saw Kris in an apron preparing breakfast next to an oddly reserved Anise.

  Heavens, what is she wearing under that apron? It looks… Oh, heavens. She blushed a little, hopefully hidden by the flush of her exercise.

  Mari refocused elsewhere before her brain fried entirely.

  She had to admit a bit of worry over how poorly Anise seemed to be taking to Elitheen even since the night before. There was probably a lot to unpack there. Millennia-worth, even.

  As Mari ran the water for the bath, she decided to take all the sheets and blankets off the bed. If they made a habit of going so far in the future, at least their bed would always be remade properly on a daily basis.

  Mari smirked, stuffing the pieces one-by-one down the chute into the laundry room downstairs. Thank whoever soundproofed this room.

  Once she was done, she drifted into the bathroom and discarded her clothes before staring at herself in the mirror again. The new height still surprised her. Tightly packed muscles rippled under the skin, and a bust she could finally appreciate for not revealing her ribcage around it. Some self-care helped, trimming places that deserved it and touching up her nails to ensure no accidental injuries might occur in the future.

  Then she looked herself in the eyes. The vivid, almost glowing red. She brushed her teeth and finally entered the bathing section of the master bath. There was a shower set into a corner and a tub that was easily three meters by two. It was definitely not meant for one occupant.

  She smirked as she remembered what had happened in that bath not so many hours prior.

  Kris was… a damn goddess. The pink hair and pale skin offered a particular sort of angelic appearance, sure. But Kris was sculpted. Every limb was like honed perfection. Slender but brimming with incredible strength. She was lithe, but her stamina was pretty impressive.

  Another chuckle escaped Mari as she rinsed soaps from her body.

  Kris had tried. She had tried so hard! It was obvious that she wanted to please Mari. That wasn’t what had happened, though. Mari took immense satisfaction in making sure Kris’ every fear and spark of jealousy were snuffed out. They could be mutually satisfying for one another later. Her lover’s hands desperately clenching the bedsheets was somehow a rapturous memory she couldn’t shake.

  The smug grin didn’t leave her face until she had soaked for a good ten minutes or so. Then, she rose and stretched, feeling her body pop in a few satisfying places. Her meridians weren’t completely healed, but the pain had gone away. Using them would hurt, but they’d mend a fair bit stronger than they were before.

  Mari left the bathroom to find fresh sheets on the bed. Kris had been busy. She entered the closet to find a dearth of bras that would fit her. The cup size was one thing, but even the band sizes were too small. Kris was a slender thing, after all. Chewing her lip, Mari looked at the different styles, searching for the right combination of back hooks and sports-bra cups that had the right amount of flex.

  When she found one, it was a bright white. Kris preferred whites over blacks. They were opposites in that regard. Still, the pattern reminded her of chrysanthemums from Earth. She flexed her nanites, turning the single percent she’d gained overnight into an extender for the hooks, giving the band size a bit more room. It wasn’t comfortable, but she would survive a day.

  And then came the hunt for the matching bottoms.

  Kris always owned things in sets. If one ripped or got a hole, the entire set was gone. Mari found that perfectionism a little cute. Then she found the matching flower patterned piece and breathed a sigh of relief at how normal it was.

  Armed with appropriate underwear, she flicked through the clothing options. Skirts, dresses, various robes and sweaters. Almost nothing that suited an Earth-style fashion. Kilthien liked long, flowing garments that accentuated their graceful motions.

  She almost considered taking a pair of pants and then walking around with only the bra on top. The size issue would be too obvious, though. The public didn’t need to see her in poor-fitting clothes while standing immediately next to their proper owner. Not yet, at least.

  And then Mari remembered something she really shouldn’t have forgotten.

  With a sigh, she left the closet and tried one of the other bedrooms and found what she’d been told about.

  Marielle’s belongings, each sealed into long-term storage for preservation’s sake, were stacked to fill the guest room closet. There was more than she’d imagined. Jeans, tank tops, jackets and an inordinate amount of footwear.

  In the end, the jeans fit perfectly. Taking them out of vacuum sealed packaging and putting them through their decontamination scan went quickly, and she decided to top herself off with a basic shirt and the singular flannel jacket that hadn’t been lost in the colony explosion. Marielle was lucky most of her belongings hadn’t been in the colony when it had gone to shit.

  Mari skimmed through the rest of the packages briefly, checking sizes. Apparently Marielle had been a full cup size larger. How they didn’t get in the way was beyond her. C’s were enough for Mari to be completely satisfied.

  Shaking her head, she stuffed the closet full and closed it before leaving.

  Anise was gone, and Kris was audibly humming in the laundry room at the back of the home. So she helped herself to breakfast. Which had gone cold.

  She regretted soaking in the bath for ten minutes too long.

  Anise:

  These lesbians. Anise groused uncharitably.

  It was mildly annoying how unproductive they turned out to be.

  Anise had spent too much of her time cooped up meditating. She’d been doing that for a large chunk of her time going back centuries. Finally, she was free to do something but no. Kris did house chores while Mari washed up and drooled over her lover’s undergarments.

  She could’ve gone off on her own, but she decided that would be a mistake. Going anywhere without a guide was unwise.

  So she sat. Fucking meditating once a-fucking-gain. Sure, the garden was nice. The sunlight rising as the morning progressed had begun to bathe the greenhouse in warm light. Her nature path felt like unfurling its blossoms under the life-giving rays.

  Anise had always dreamt of experiencing real sunlight and attaching something truly tangible to the paths she had chosen.

  All night, she had basked in the varying reflected ambiance of each moon as they crept overhead. She wasn’t sure how many moons Sylpharia had, but they were all different. She could feel their grip on her cultivation, lending weight to the concepts that embodied her being.

  As a vampire-aspirant, she had considered giving herself the vulnerability to sunlight that was so core to the identity. It was stupid, she decided. She didn’t like being held back by things. The core of her soul yearned for freedom. The sun would not restrain this vampire wanna-be.

  A soft sigh escaped her lips as she rose again from her morning meditation.

  Mari was done getting dressed and eating, while Kris had figured out how to operate her new laundry machines. As the adult in the home… Anise would encourage them to finally do something useful.

  Shopping.

  In a town that didn’t have money.

  She couldn’t tell if that made her happy or sad. There was a fun bit she wanted to do about mooching off a rich friend or family member. Alas, some dreams go unfulfilled.

  “Come along, minions!” Anise announced as she descended into the main living space of the house. “I require clothes!”

  Mari huffed in laughter. “Wearing that robe to go out, huh?”

  Anise glared at her. “Have something better in mind? My favorite outfit was quite ragged after getting thrown around yesterday.”

  Mari grimaced at the memory, but Kris emerged with the clothes in question, looking thoughtful. “You left these in our bathroom last night. The robes are a bit worn in a few places, but the dirt, blood and chemicals all washed out under some extra care. The pants, though…”

  Kris held up the pants and showed the missing left leg where she’d done her best to sew an even hemline to prevent the ragged tear from pulling apart more. The robes that made up the upper part of the outfit were definitely in rough shape, but the colors and patterns were still visible enough.

  “It will do. Onward and forward! To shopping!” Anise then went backward to get changed.

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