***Tirnanog, Mount Aerie***

***Nikos Demi***

"They just threw me out on the street!?" I couldn't believe it.

What were those people thinking? They had given me a watcher, but that wasn't how prisoners were supposed to be handled. What would they do if I decided to get violent and hurt someone? Would the ones in charge take responsibility?

Then again, that little girl's psychic technique was insidious. I hadn't noticed anything until I was well past the point of just spilling my heart to her. By then, I hadn't dared to offer any resistance, or she might have decided to fry my brain to get her answers.

Psychics were a dime and a dozen in the kingdom, but the only ones I imagined coming close to the Matriarch's power were in the direct employ of the royal family. No wonder she was running around with her own personal bodyguards like some queen.

I turned to the guard who had been introduced to me as my caretaker before they sent me out the door. "I can truly go anywhere I like?"

"Obviously not anywhere," the bored guard replied while scratching his bearded cheek. "I will have to stop you should you try to enter any restricted zones. Or if you are about to do something stupid, like getting violent, or if you try to get dirty with a molerat."

He shrugged, looking disinterested. As if being here was a chore to him.

I decided to ignore the comment about the molerat, whatever that was meant to be.

"What if I try to run away?" I asked and threw up my hands, tired and frustrated about the whole situation. I was supposed to have a fine dinner by now, enjoying my position as commander.

The guard raised an eyebrow and looked around. "Run where? You know nobody in this place. Your home is across an ocean on another continent. Leaving the protected living areas would get you killed in no time."

So he had been informed about what was going on. At least to a degree.

I glared at him, but there was a certain logic to his words. Turning around, I walked off, intending to leave this office area in which I had been set loose.

"At least tell me where I am! And what is your name? Call me Nikos Demi."

The man who was following behind me cleared his throat. "My name is Iskandar, 13th strata, and you are at Mount Aerie, home of clan Aerie. One of the first colonies on the first continent."

"What are these stratas, Iskanda? They have been mentioned before."

"Is-Kan-Dar," the guard corrected me patiently. "The stratas are various political forces within clan Aerie. Each claims its own field of expertise and is led by a pair of elders. Expertises include resource gathering, farming, building, and other stuff. For example, my strata, the thirteenth is in charge of law and order. Please think of me as a police officer. Outsiders like to call it a caste system, but the way we govern ourselves is a little bit more multifaceted than that."

We arrived at a large hall with a big exit gate, and I immediately went for it. At least until I saw the warriors in full plate armour who stood guard to the left and the right like statues. They bore an eerie similarity to the two maniacs who caused havoc at my barracks.

If all of them had the same capabilities… I swallowed. "And who are these, if you are police?"

"Hunters from the 12th strata. Normally, they are hunting beasties outside the colony. Every strata has its own security force, but if something intrudes into the colony they can't handle, we call the 12th to kill stuff. In times of war, they act as special forces, shock troops, or additional security. Whatever is needed," Iskandar explained.

I warily walked forward and in between the unmoving guards, then outside.

What greeted me on the other side was the enormous cavern I had caught a glimpse of earlier. The giant pillar in the centre was mesmerising, covered with luminescent moss and plants. It was one of the main light sources.

"Is this whole city underground?" I asked.

"Yes, there are smaller settlements around the mountain, but Aerie is one of the largest," Iskandar provided.

"Settlements? Maybe that's what they wanted me to see…" I mumbled to myself.

"What?" Iskandar asked.

I shook my head. "I just thought, maybe that is what your superiors wanted me to see. If they want to use me and my people for a prisoner exchange program, then maybe it would help them if at least one of the prisoners could provide a first-hand account. Stand witness that your people are more than a band of rogues or impostors."

Iskandar shrugged. "I wouldn't know. I just do as I am told. At my age, I know better than to question what the bosses want."

I scoffed. "You don't look old enough to spout such gloomy wisdom."

"I am eighty-seven," Iskandar replied. "Not many get as old as me without learning the rules."

I almost tripped while whirling around to study the man. "You-you look no older than thirty."

Iskandar rolled his eyes. "Starfish mutation, dude. Gives a slow regeneration factor and stops ageing. You don't have them where you come from?"

I shook my head. "I never heard of something like that. Come to think of it, all the mutations which cause visible changes to the body I see around here look strange to me."

The guard pursed his lips. "Must be something like different ecosystems on different continents. It would make a certain amount of sense. Like comparing Europe and Australia!"

He laughed and patted me on the shoulder. "Count yourselves lucky."

"Why should we count ourselves lucky?" I asked. Such a mutation sounded powerful, even if it didn't give a lot of power in itself. But the potential to live and learn forever…

"Let's just say that none of the mates I lost so far had a peaceful death," Iskandar replied. "They all went screaming and kicking down some beastie's maw. If you eat a starfish, you accept that your death will be a violent one."

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"Everything must have a downside," I commented once I thought about it for a moment.

I kept walking while we talked. To see the sights, if nothing else. The cavern's floor seemed like a gigantic plaza with shops and people advertising their wares. The cavern walls were hewn structures with window fronts and walkways, giving me the impression that I was surrounded by skyscrapers. Only the somewhat rough ceiling and the central pillar made it clear that I was underground.

"So, how are your guys doing over there on that other continent?" Iskandar asked, showing interest in something for the first time. "The idea of having many isolated settlements seemed strange to you."

"It's just…" This time, I was the one who shrugged. "I understand now why your matriarch was so interested in that part of my story. It seems like on this continent, humanity never got a firm foothold, but the monsters over here seem to give some damn powerful mutations."

I drew in a deep breath, figuring I wasn't telling anything more than the damned psychic Matriarch hadn't already finagled out of me. "The kingdom controls a sizeable amount of relatively secure land. I suppose it is what would happen if all your clans got a sufficiently large safe area where they could unite.

"The kingdom is located in a large basin surrounded by mountains. The first colonisation efforts cleared out the larger threats. When Earth cut ties and turned us into a penal colony, the original colonists established the kingdom. Now we are holding the mountain passes to stop anything from getting in, and exiles are drafted for military duty.

"The defence forces are mostly busy clearing the land from the smaller predators which manage to climb the mountains. It's just enough to hold our position. To the south, we are constricted by the sea. I heard there was a push to claim more land beyond the mountains some decades ago, but it didn't work out so well. Without the terrain advantage, the expeditionary forces couldn't hold their ground against the cataclysmic level monsters. That's what we call the really large ones. To eliminate those, you need at least a few category 25 humans."

"What's a category?" Iskandar asked.

"That's what we use to classify mutations. Each mutation raises your category by one. For example, I am category thirteen, which is a lot by kingdom standards. Taking on too many mutations is risky. We have a few people around category thirty and above, but those are powerhouses under the direct control of the royal family."

"Huh," Iskandar seemed confused, giving me the same reaction as the Matriarch when I explained this. "You would count as an unpaired human according to our standards. How many people are living in this kingdom of yours?"

I scratched my head. "I don't know any exact population numbers, but maybe around a million people? The kingdom encourages every woman to have at least three kids before she takes on mutations. The more mutations, the higher the risk of something going wrong."

Iskandar pinched the bridge of his nose. "Wait, wait. If they pair so early, they would be doomed to stay weak or take extraordinary risks by gambling on new mutations the normal way."

"What's pairing?" I was getting frustrated.

Iskandar took in a deep breath. "Okay, so this is how it is supposed to work. You take on between ten and fifteen mutations, whatever is regarded by professionals as safe for the given combination. Then you find yourself a nice woman who doesn't share any conflicting mutations. You get dirty, and the next morning you wake up paired, sharing each other's mutations. It's a bond for life."

I blinked. "I never heard of people getting someone else's mutations. By getting dirty, I assume you mean sex?"

"Who the hell designed your nanites?" Iskandar exclaimed.

"What perverted moron designed yours?" I argued back. "No, scratch that. Does that mean your people would reach category twenty or thirty relatively easily?"

Iskandar shook his head. "Well, not easily. Many never find a partner or dare to take the risk. There are still risks involved, unless you follow a well-researched mutation path. But it is certainly way less risky than soloing yourself up to thirty mutations on your own. I know nobody who would be mad enough to try that! The researchers who gave your people their nanites must have found a way to switch off some functionalities. Not sure whether that is an advantage. Well, your method guarantees a higher population base and if you don't have the pairing downsides…"

He trailed off, frowned, then huffed. "I am not paid well enough to break my head over this. I assume a higher number of people means that there are still some who would reach an elder's power level. If there are enough who are willing to gamble."

I sighed. "How are your people classifying mutations?"

"Well, as mentioned, there are unpaired people with ten to fifteen mutations. Most decide to become specialists, focusing on their senses or physical abilities. We call those sensors, or generic warrior types, for example. Which doesn't mean they have to be weak. An unpaired, fully dedicated psychic is rare, but they can mess up your day if you have no resistance.

"Then there are paired ones. They combine two specialised fields. That alone usually already makes them more formidable than the unpaired.

"Those who risk taking on even more mutations after their pairing will be classified as juggernauts at some point. It is less about the number of mutations and more about the combat power they wield. A juggernaut should be able to mow through several dozen paired warrior types without a problem, unless they happen upon a mutation which hard-counters theirs. Pretty much all of our elders are at least juggernaut class.

"And finally, we have the ancients, of which there are only one or two in each clan," Iskandar finished his explanation.

"What's their power level supposed to be?" I asked, figuring those juggernauts would be the equivalent of a category thirty or forty.

"Well, I only saw ours at work once, some sixty years ago. A worm broke into the main living cavern through that big hole over there." He pointed at a section in the wall. It wasn't the usual hewn surface and had been patched with large, human-sized bricks. It was more than forty metres in diameter.

"Big mother-fucker, but she took it down single-handedly after the elders distracted it for a while," Iskandar stated proudly.

"I see." I had to force myself to look away from what must have been caused by a cataclysmic level being. The kingdom wasn't unused to taking down such monsters when they assaulted one of the mountain passes, but it always involved casualties among the higher categories.

We walked for a while without saying a word, until I found a prettily decorated gateway a few metres ahead. It stood out because the place didn't give me the professional utilitarian vibe the other shops exuded. Some real artists had been at work there.

"What's that place?" I asked, intrigued.

"That? That's a church of Gaia," Iskandar replied. "I suppose you won't have the religion over there. It's the main faith among the clans."

"The church of Gaia?" I frowned. "What are they about?"

"Oh," Iskandar smirked. "They aren't quite like other religions. Why don't you go inside and take a look around? I will stay outside."

I hesitated. My family back on Earth had been deeply religious. At least before I was exiled. There were the usual religions in the kingdom, but to my knowledge, none had enough dedicated followers to warrant a church. People had other worries than building places of worship.

"Shouldn't you look after me?" I asked, taking a step towards the church's entrance.

Iskandar waved me off. "Nah, I am already a happy man. Those places always have only one way in and out, so I will be here once you are done."

Frowning, I entered the church. It gave me Christian and Eastern vibes once I was inside, a mix of several cultures. There was a central, well-decorated altar, and several people were sitting on rows of benches facing the altar, but they weren't praying.

Some simply stared off into the distance while others were reading or chatting. Two even played cards. All very strange and certainly not very religious-feeling-inducing.

A guy in white robes strolled up to me, smiling. "Good day, sir. Please have a seat anywhere you like. If you need something like personal guidance, just ask."

"Ah, thanks?" I found myself being ushered to sit down. Thankfully, the guy left once I had fulfilled his expectations. Just what was this place?

Blinking, I grabbed one of the books which were apparently lying around for everyone's free perusal. But before I could open it, a blue box of text appeared in my field of vision.

System initialising, basic functions unlocked … 7%

Data synchronisation… 14%

Updating… 21%

I stared at it for well over a minute with my mouth hanging open, until someone touched my shoulder.

Turning around, I found the pretty lady from the row behind me grinning at me.

"Hey, what's your name? I am Mallory, but you can call me Lori. Gaia says we are compatible. Wanna explore the possibilities?"

I had no clue what was going on, but I forced myself to smile. That was the strangest pickup line someone ever spouted at me.

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