“I destroyed it, Peam,” A man said.

  Gasps and whispers surrounded me. A bunch of people said his name, but I already knew him from one of the most mindless shows I’d ever seen on TV. It was Berin Kinder, one of Peam’s older brothers.

  “Wait, what.” I said.

  “It…was you?” Peam said through snotty gasps.

  “I was having a bad day,” Berin said. “A bad week…everyone else in the family had such great things pnned for the garden party, while I had jack. So I broke it, I thought it’d be funny and it’d make me feel better.”

  I didn’t watch a whole lot of House of the Kinder House, but it was still surreal to see something that could have happened on the show in person. The Kinders didn't really t as fun celebrities so it wasn't like seeing, say, Raina Starlight in person. Berin looked a bit more haggard than he did on TV, a bit paler without TV makeup I guessed, and way shorter than he looked on s. He was the Kihat had the appearand personality of a stock photo of a businessman.

  “I thought I could fix it, so I spped it back together, and look how great I did.”

  “I ’t believe it…” Peam said.

  I couldher. So it wasn’t our fault?

  “I’m sorry buddy,” Berin said. “I let you down as a brother.”

  Berin held his arms out, aeldtam hugged him. Still g loudly, but I made a mental hat Peam seemed immediately fiving in case I did something stupid and got in trouble again. Berin broke the hug and turo the crowd.

  “And I shouldn’t be such a bad role model for my daughter,” Berin said.

  “Wait, what kid?” I whispered. Berin didn’t have a kid. At least they weren’t on the reality show.

  “Geez, whoever his kid is will be so messed up.” Kalei whispered.

  Berin looked around the crowd with a warm smile.

  “And here she is!” Berin said, grabbing a girl. “Or wait.”

  The girl apparently was not his kid, because she immediately started sobbing as Beri her go.

  “She’s g,” Berin said. “I don’t know what to do, she’s g. She’s not my kid. She’s g.”

  The girl cried about a third as loud as Peam but it was still really awkward.

  “Do you want like a milkshake?” Berin said. “ someo her…oh, she’s leaving. I’m sorry.”

  Berin looked our way and his eyes lit up.

  “Oh! There’s my kid.” Berin said.

  I thought he was looking at me, but he shot his hand forward and quickly pulled Oka to him.

  “Here she is,” Berin Kinder said, shaking Oka by her shoulders as he awkwardly ughed. “This one’s my kid, everybody!”

  As she un around in front of the crowd, Oka shot me a look and I wasn’t quite sure how to read it. Embarrassed obviously, but also guilt? A ‘don’t judge me for him’ kind of look? Since when was Oka a Kinder?

  * * *

  The loangur box we got o css of the st day of the week felt like a trophy for making it through. Fortunately, there wasn’t another i like the cube, but it was still difficult. It wasn’t a mystery what was inside, but after a week of intensely b bloodsaber safety videos and some practice with the ky batons, I just wao hold the real deal already.

  We learhat there were two main models made for Rising Shards students, the sigma model and the beta model. The sigma was more advanced and had its blood collector as just a tiny little tab on the handle of the sword. I got the beta model, which had a block ected to a cord on the side of the hilt with a little lid that flipped up. It looked kinda like the pulse measuring things people have to wear in hospitals. I just had to stick my finger in that, and it clipped the blood for the veins.

  “Maybe they shoulda called yours the Zeta model.” Kalei said. “Eh? Ya know? Cuz…”

  “Yeah, I got it,” I said.

  We all had protective clear foam-like pieces around the bdes to prevent us from immediately stabbing each other. They were built from a special material that dissipated when ihe void, and reformed when we were out of it. My bloodsaber felt ni my hand, a bit like a toy with the padding around the sword, but it felt like just the right weight for me. After getting my neon, it was off to void practice.

  A cool breeze passed over us.

  “Alright, everyone line up!” Diast said. “Or, stand in listening distance, whatever.”

  Ahead was a massive field of flowers, all vibrant and in all the colors imagihe flowers moved like waves, like an o of life in the ter of the forest and mountains that cupped it. There was a loree on the hill, and Dr. Diast leaned against it. I stood by Oka, Kalei, Aira, Laenie, and Lillia for our first actual void css. Diast had a blue fruit she’d grabbed from the tree that she was closely studying.

  “So this is your first actual css in the void.” Diast said. “Everyone’s adaptive gear feeling OK?”

  We all his was my first time wearing the adaptive gear. It was made from some special void specific material for the geii makeup or whatever. They could ge shape based on the enviro we were in while in the void. They were weird to put on, it felt like wearing a full body unitard with heavy boots and light armor on my torso, but then it like defted o was activated and ected to my wristband. They were in the Rising Shards color scheme, so they were mostly dark green.

  “Did Caya drill the catchphrase about them into you all?” Diast asked.

  “Yeah,” I said. “’Tears in the adaptive gear are hard to repair, keep it the same here as it is there’.”

  The others, even Lillia, all joined in with me to recite Caya’s instrus that we had to write down a bund say at the start of css.

  “It’s such a weird rhyme scheme,” Oka said. “Tear and gear are spelled the same, but it looks like it should be tears like fr.”

  “Caya Kinder makes me want to cry,” I said. “She’s scary sometimes.”

  Diast ughed.

  “Does it feel weird when these clothes ge into like a big coat for a snowy area or something?” I asked.

  “Have you tried messing with the dial?” Kalei asked.

  “No…?” I said.

  Kalei showed me how to get to the s with the basic clothes options on my wristband. Since we were first years, most of the options were locked down, but there were a few that I immediately started switg around, feeling the clothes armorize and tighten, then baggy.

  “Baggy clothes, unitard. Baggy clothes, unitard. Baggy clothes, unitard.” I said as I went bad forth. Kalei joined in and we had an unspoken race to see who could switch bad forth the fastest.

  “Oka, you want in on this?” Kalei asked. “Or do you want to be the judge?”

  Oka wasn’t paying much attention.

  “Maybe you should actually focus on css instead of goofing off.” Lillia said.

  Lillia’s brutal gre forced my hand to put the dial back to normal. Even Kalei was intimidated by Lillia.

  “Thanks, Lillia,” Diast said. “You’re my new deputy. If they step out of line just do that again.”

  Lillia nodded.

  “Anyways, so here’s the main area we’re going to be in this semester in the void,” Diast said. “Since you’re all o this void stuff, we’re just gonna start off super easy. Level zero and level one void monsters out here, so for the first few weeks of css I just want you guys to explore around this ure park and clear out any monsters you see. If you have any issues with your bloodsabers, head back here instead to tinue fighting.”

  Diast pointed behind the tree. Oher side of the hill was a stone building that looked like a bigger version of the one on campus.

  “Down there is where the freakier, higher level monsters are,” Diast said. “It’s locked to you guys, but don’t go in there yet. If you do I’ll catch you.”

  Laenie raised her hand.

  “Dr. Diast,” Laenie said. “I don’t think I will be able to fight…”

  “We’ll be doing fighting sure, but we want to learn anything we here too,” Diast said. “It’s like we have a ten-million-piece puzzle that we get to solve together. So don’t worry about anything weird just yet.”

  Laearted hyperventiting and g at the same time.

  “Oh, oh no, Laenie,” Diast said. “I didn’t mean in a like, ‘just stop w!’ kind of way, obviously it’s not a switch you just shut off if you’re anxious. Just, it’ll be OK. You should really breathe. Like, please start breathing.”

  Diast sent us to go wander around while she soled a visibly shaken Laenie.

  “So where should we start?” I asked.

  “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m gonna see if I run a full p around this field.” Kalei said.

  “I would rather stay with Laenie’s hyper-cry than do that.” I said.

  “Suit yourself,” Kalei said. “How about you, Oka?”

  “No thanks,” Oka said. “If you think yonna faint from exhaustion maybe call us, though.”

  “Will do!” Kalei said as she took off with perfect running form.

  Oka and I sat down at the edge of the flowers.

  “I’m sorry,” Oka said.

  “For what?” I said.

  Oka looked like she was ready to cry. Not like, Laenie level fear-g. She looked more quietly despair filled.