The Book of End's End: Fighting Dogs - Chapter 10-11 (Patreon)

The scratching of pen against parchment had become a great distraction for Gem. Drawing her eyes in to focus on its tip, dragging them to flick one way and the other in pursuit.

It was hypnotic. Captivating, even. For Lavastro wrote in much the same way she did all other things; exceptionally fast, and exceptionally well. Beholding the practiced ease with which she filled in forms and jotted down requisition orders entertained Gem for almost ten minutes. But boredom soon prevailed.

Her eyelids drooped, weighted by tedium. She felt her head lean forwards, body slacken, only barely keeping herself from slumping with a jolt.

Fast as she was, Gem hadn’t fought off her exhaustion nearly quickly enough.

“I saw that, Gemini.” Lavastro said, chastising voice ringing out well over the sound of her writing.

“Sorry.” She answered. Heat seeped into her cheeks at the words, as if Lavastro’s tongue were a whip of flame.

Still indifferently monotonous, still not looking up and still writing, the Taik continued. “Don’t apologise. Just learn to sit still for ten minutes without fidgeting or falling asleep.”

Gem bit her tongue to stifle it, glaring at her friend from across the room. The look affected her no more than it might a statue.

I could sit still, you know. Easily.

She dismissed the seed of her treacherous thought before it could even begin to blossom. Lavastro had made it abundantly clear that she didn’t approve of magic being used to regulate emotion.

The memory of being dangled by the ankle over her balcony was enough to quell any interest Gem had in repeating the offence, but it didn’t stop the calming rigidity of Utalis from calling to her.

A cough caught her ear, pulling Gem’s eyes from the pen and bringing them to rest on the grey-coated man stood in the far corner.

It had taken only a single look for her to decide she didn’t like him. Hooked nose, ugly. Twisted mouth, cruel. Glinting eyes, disconcerting. Despite his off-putting appearance Gem found the source of her ambivalence beyond identity. Pinpointing it was like trying to grab smoke.

What’s wrong with him? Why does he irk me so?

Gem found no answer, turning back away from the man with curling lips- disgust repelling her gaze even against the push of curiosity. She would find out what it was about him that irked her so, but later. When she could stomach looking at him.

Lavastro moved with an abruptness that had Gem jumping in surprise, laying down her pen and looking at her.

“Thank you for your patience, I know it must be difficult for you to wait several entire minutes for something.”

Gem let the barb slide as she stood. Lavastro swung the door open, striding out without another word. Following her, Gem found her path crossing with the silent bodyguard’s. He took the lead as she stepped back from him, feet moving without thought.

She hurried past him, hiding the revulsion that came from such close proximity before coming into step beside Lavastro and turning to look her friend in the eye. Doing so from only half a pace away nearly cricked Gem’s neck as she stared up.

“Are you going to tell me what it is you want me to do, now?”

To Gem’s surprise, Lavastro seemed confused.

“Did I not tell you already?” She asked, a frown creasing her jade-perfect features.

“No. You just told me to stop asking stupid questions and that I’d find out soon enough.”

“That doesn’t sound like me at all, are you quite sure?”

Gem almost took the bait, just barely keeping her tongue still and shaking free the harassing needles of anger that pricked her mind. She’d almost forgotten Lavastro’s irksome habit of testing her to ensure she didn’t let emotion overrule sense.

“I am very sure,” She said through gritted teeth. “And very tired of waiting for something while being refused any hint as to what it is.”

A smile touched Lavastro’s lips, melting Gem’s annoyance and whisking the air from her lungs.

Two years and she can still do that to me. It’s not fair.

“Alright then, since you sat so close to quietly back in my office. You’ll be meeting someone today. Someone important, who may be vital in your immediate future.”

Gem’s mood soured. It surely showed on her face, for Lavastro arched a disapproving eyebrow.

“Do you have an objection to that?” She asked.

There was no hint of a challenge in her voice, nor was there a threat. Somehow she needed neither to bring forth images of thin ice breaking under Gem’s feet, water currents dancing below.

Steeling herself, Gem fought past the urge to buckle beneath her friend’s gilded stare.

“I do,” She replied. “Assuming, at least, that you intend on having me meet yet another magical prodigy.”

So-called prodigies had become the bane of Gem’s existence. It seemed wherever she went they were being thrust into her face, put on display as if her very presence challenged people to bring out the nearest thing they had to match it.

After years of receiving the treatment, she’d met only five mystics who came even close. Among them Lavastro alone was phenom enough to be called a peer.

“Oh hush.” Lavastro said, purring the words more than anything. Her eyes glinted with an amusement equal parts caring guardian and sneering cat.

“My reasons for introducing you to this one are different,” She continued.

Gem waited for her friend to add more, realising only when they turned a corner in silence that the Taik had no intention of doing so.

“And you think just saying that will convince me to do it?”

She’d meant her words as a challenge, but they rang in her ears as a joke. The woman smiled like a sculpture, then laughed like a windchime.

“What’s so funny?” Gem snapped.

“Sorry,” Lavastro grinned. She raised a hand placatingly, the gesture only serving to breathe air into the embers of Gem’s annoyance. “It’s just that you seem not to have noticed you’re already on your way to the meeting.”

Gem had half a mind to stop walking then and there. Dissuaeded only by the petulence of it.

“I hate you.” She muttered, drawing another artisan’s laugh from Lavastro.

Her annoyance quieted their walk, leaving only the sound of footfalls echoing across marbled walls to break the silence around them. Udrebam’s Crux always seemed muted to Gem, as if it drowned her to walk inside. It was one of the things she hated most about the building.

Staffed by two thousand people and it still feels empty. Typical.

It was obvious why, Gem had seen herself just how excessive the structure’s size was. Like all things in Unix it had been built to an extreme in every dimension.

She found the trend more tiresome than most.

“Just how far is this prodigy?” She asked, an ache began to take her feet after the tenth minute of keeping up beside Lavastro’s titanous strides.

Glancing over her shoulder revealed that the grey-coated bodyguard seemed entirely comfortable with the pace. It made Gem hate him just a shade more.

“Close, now.” Lavastro answered. Her words were knitted together, all emotional tells surgically removed from them. It made a mystery of her answer. A habit Gem had come to both expect and despise in her friend.

“Close for a normal person, or close for someone with legs as long as most women are tall?”

“Close.” Lavastro answered, impassive as ever.

Gem fell into another silence. It lasted until the turning of another corner, halting as Lavastro came to a stop beside her. The woman cursed in high Taikan, turning the air blue with words Gem had first learned on the only other occasion she’d seen her friend use them.

Lavastro had thrown a man down twenty steps, then. And the look on her face as she stared ahead brought the memory shooting back. Beauty twisted by anger, hardened by hate.

Like the winking steel of a drawn sword.

She followed the Taik’s gaze, spotting its focus almost immediately. Two men, or rather a man and boy. The older of them looked Lavastro’s age, hair like coal and eyes like blood. The younger was a face any Jaean would recognise at a glance.

Unity Eden grinned as he saw her, blue eyes lighting up like an ocean struck by dawn. He practically marched towards her and Lavastro, ignoring a barked protest by the red-eyed man.

Coming to stop just two yards from her, he met Lavastro’s gaze as he spoke.

“The Princess of Taiklos, fancy meeting you here!”

Gem could see no fault in the delivery of his words; all warmth and friendliness they held seemed as genuine as the breath with which he formed them. Her skin crawled regardless.

“Eden.” Lavastro said, not bothering to match his pleasantry. “It’s been quite a while. I saw your performance in the Sieve, it’s good to see your fingers recovered in time for it.”

Face darkening, eyes hardening, his response came through a clenched jaw.

“They did, thank you.”

Gem decided there was a story there. She reminded herself to ask about it.

“Kaiosyni.” Came a deeper voice, drawing Gem’s eyes from Eden to rest upon the red-eyed man who’d accompanied him. He was shorter than Eden by a hand, yet broader at the shoulders by two.

“Mylif,” Lavastro answered. The nod of her head and sterness of her eyes betrayed no abnormality, but Gem felt sure nonetheless she’d misheard his name.

“I trust you’re doing well.” The man continued; haggard, lined face betraying little real investment in the answer. Gem found herself peering at his eyes, mind stretching for recognition.

“You’d have to, wouldn’t you?” Answered Lavastro, eying Eden scoldingly.

Her retort didn’t seem to faze the man.

“I see you’re with the Gemini,” He continued, crimson eyes coming to rest upon Gem.

“The Gemini has ears,” She cut in, “And doesn’t appreciate being referred to as if she were an it.”

From the corner of her eye, she saw a smile flash across Lavastro’s face. It was smothered almost instantly, like a candle in the wind.

“My apologies.” Answered the red-eyed man, dipping his head in the shadow of a Unixian bow.

Gem didn’t see an ounce of sincerity behind the gesture, nor did she hear a modicum of regret.

Despite herself, she found the man all the more likeable for it.

“Can we end this tedium?” Eden blurted, shifting his feet and exhaling with a dramatised tiredness. “I have places to be, too, you know.”

The display was robbed of all bite by the boy’s appearance. His skin bore the flush of life, yet it was painted across a deathly pale canvas. His vitalised movement didn’t hide sagging eyes or thinning lips.

Magical healing could do many things, that the artificial could even stand after the condition he’d left the first stage in was evidence of that. Still, no magic was perfect.

“I’m quite aware of how busy you are,” Lavastro answered him, “You made that clear in our meeting yesterday. Or rather your absence did.”

“Oh, excellent.” The boy exclaimed. “I was worried you were too busy thinking about cocks for my contempt to sink in through that thick skull of yours.”

“As much as I’d enjoy trading barbs with a boy whose impulse control ceased developing at prepubescance, I actually have matters I must attend to.”

Lavastro turned from the artificial, resting her eyes back on the crimson-eyed man.

“Please step aside.”

He didn’t move, simply raised a hand as spoke once again.

Mistake number one. Thought Gem.

“Wait just a second, Koros Kaiosyni, I understand that Unity’s absence left you… upset.”

“My withdrawing does tend to have that effect on people,” The boy sneered. He bolstered his words with a wink that threatened to dredge bile up from Gem’s gullet.

Lavastro didn’t grace him with another look as she spoke.

“It seems you’ve exclusively encountered skilled actors, then, if you thought they felt you in the first place. Sir Mylif, you were about to suggest that we reschedule the official meeting between Gemini and Eden? I’m afraid we’ll have to decline.”

By the look on the red-eyed man’s face, he had been.

“Can I ask why?” He asked, voice choked to a grating murmur. Whether by anger or bafflement, Gem couldn’t tell.

“You may not.” Lavastro replied, then took a step to one side.

“Now if you’ll excuse me-”

“I may be slow, but could someone please explain to me why it is that the Gemini’s comings and goings are being regulated by a foreigner? I’d expected to see Gilasev Menza negotiating, not… Well.” He waved a hand at Lavastro, as if to dismiss her entire being at once.

She didn’t even register the insult before opening her mouth, edged tongue surely ready to flash for his throat.

It sent hot anger running along Gem’s spine. Weeks of begging had preceded her travelling to Udrebam, reasoning with Gilasev and strong-arming him into loosening his constant caution to let her finally operate without a protective eye stifling her.

Gem hadn’t gone to such trouble just so that her friend could take the place of her father.

“They aren’t.” Gem cut in, ignoring the arching of Lavastro’s eyebrow. “I simply have no interest in meeting with you after what I saw in the first stage.”

“And, I suppose, it was beneath your divine self to go to the trouble of saying so directly?”

Eden smiled as he spoke, but Gem saw the expression fall far from his eyes. There was a hardness to him, a toxicity dwelling just beneath the surface.

He hates me. She realised, finding herself stunned by the notion. How could he? We’ve never even met.

Gem buried her shock, then her confusion. Steeling herself and seizing hold of her thoughts in a vice.

“I won’t be lectured on agency by one who needs to sneak away to avoid having theirs constrained.”

Eden’s retort fell silent as Lavastro began walking, and Gem hurriedly followed her friend. The greycoat came after her, making no more sound than he had during their first walk. His quiet footsteps were inaudible over the jeering curses Eden threw back after them.

None of them answered him.

“What was that?” Gem asked, eying Lavastro. She might as well have tried to read the face of a painting.

“An inconvenience.” Answered the Taik. “And not one you ought to concern yourself with.”

“You always told me concerning oneself with things not immediately relevant is the expression of a sharp mind.”

“I did always tell you that.” She conceded. “Word for word, in fact. Which now has me worried that you weren’t listening when I also told you to consider your lessons and build on them, rather than learning to repeat them as you would in a classroom.”

Gem flushed, turning away from the woman and finding a sudden, impotent anger seizing her.

“People are normally impressed when I show them how good my memory is.” She muttered, not meeting Lavastro’s eye.

“And people are always impressed when I show them mine. What does that tell you, Gemini?”

Gem took her time answering, realising that it was a question Lavastro would be patient with. It wasn’t till they turned the corner that she found an answer.

“That I should remember my limits and be humble, as there’s always someone better than me?”

It was a safe answer; showing open-mindedness and, most importantly, humility. One to impress priests and teachers anywhere in Unix. Even Arcane.

Too late did Gem remember just how different the Taikan Empire of Dewlz was to either of its sisters.

“No,” Lavastro answered. “It’s to keep in mind what you’re good at, and not show it off to one of the admittedly few people alive who can best you at it.”

A girlish grin split her face as she spoke, infecting Gem. Lavastro didn’t often smile, certainly never in public, but that only made the occasions that she did more special.

Gem felt she was sharing something precious; something exclusive, even. That the Taik’s smile was the most beautiful expression to shape the most beautiful face she’d ever seen only intensified it.

“Why in the world did you want me to meet him?” She asked, avoiding her friend’s gaze for fear of its disconcerting insight.

“Why do you think?” Lavastro responded.

“Can you not just tell me?”

Gem felt herself sag at the test, energy seeping from her like heat into frigid air. In her excitement to escape Gilasev’s suffocating protection, she’d forgotten the most important thing about Lavastro.

There was nothing her friend liked more than stretching Gem’s mind to its limits. She steeled herself and thought.

“Because you, the great Lavastro Kaiosyni, were finally wrong about something and thought he’d be worth introducing me to.”

Gem’s calculated petulance failed to even raise an eyebrow.

“If you thought to irritate me into giving something away, you’ve learned less than I’d dared to worry.”

She ignored the retort, dropping her gaze to the smooth, scintillating face of polished marble ahead. Gem’s thoughts became measured by the space between each footfall, their rhythm giving tempo to her mind, steadiness bringing calm to what was turbulent.

“Oh.” She breathed, answer leaping to her like a loyal hound. It was so simple Gem almost laughed at herself for failing to grasp it.

“You’re trying to play to my ego..” She grinned, staring up at Lavastro and finding herself basking in the woman’s attention rather than retreating from it. “You wanted to bring me face to face with someone famous for being clever, knowing that, bastard he was, he’d insult me. Get on my nerves and leave me irritated at being slower. Am I right?”

“You are… not wrong.” Answered the Taik. Gem saw, for once, emotion leaked out from her. Like water slipping between fingers. “That was one of my reasons.”

Gem felt her smile waver at that.

“You had more than one?”

Lavastro’s eye glinted, that girlish delight back again as she spoke. Tempered by the same severity she injected into all their lessons.

“Of course you had more than one.” She muttered, finding her sense of triumph evaporating.

“Don’t detract from your own accomplishment, Gemini.” Chastised Lavastro; gently, kindly. “You used your head well.”

The conversation, Gem saw, was turning the way she’d known it inevitably would.

“So what was your other motivation?” She asked.

“That knowledge is for me alone, if you would like to share it then you’ll have to use your mind again. Though I can’t imagine it’s easy for you, what with the cobwebs tangling it.”

“I could just master Manamis,” Gem countered, finding herself irked beyond tolerance by Lavastro’s monomania.

The woman eyed her as though the words had been drool wetting her shirt.

“Do you really need me to explain why digging around in a person’s thoughts with magic would make a poor substitute for learning to think?”

Gem did not. She fell silent, and Lavastro seemed content to leave her in it as they walked.

Their pace was quick, and the tension-thick conversation had left Gem unnoticing as their footsteps sheared away distance.

Before long they were in the easternmost wing of the Crux, and only minutes later Lavastro turned down a corridor and quickened her gait. Gem suppressed a curse as she struggled to match it, then stumbled to a stop when the Taik halted beside a door.

She paused before it, glancing at Gem wearily.

“I should warn you, the girl you’re about to meet is somewhat… eccentric.”

“Eccentric?”

Gem feigned curiosity to hide her elation. She’d met many individuals described as such, and in her experience their eccentricity was invariably an obsession with the legendary Gemini. Coupled with a fascination regarding her mythical abilities.

“Thank you for letting me know,” She said. Solemn, serious. Mustering every scrap of her practiced acting abilities.

By the look in Lavastro’s eye, she wasn’t fooled for an instant.

She turned the doorknob, flinging it open and stepping inside. Gem followed behind her, the soundless greycoat further still behind.

The sight of a short, thin girl with Haven-black skin, tustled brown hair and a nervous smile did little to give climax for Gem’s walk.

“Hello.” The brunette said, waving a single hand weakly and smiling with such wavering fragility that Gem thought her mouth might shatter like raw iron.

“Good morning,” she answered.

Despite herself Gem glanced to Lavastro, studying her friend for any hint as to what was going on. As always she found none. Just that ever-present curtain of stoicism held over emotion like lacquer.

“Gemini, this is Deka Helus.” The Taik said, gesturing to the tiny girl and plastering a warm smile across her face. Were it not for the fact that Gem had seen just how easily she could take the expression on or off, she’d never have doubted its authenticity.

“Deka, this is, as you probably already know, Gemini Menza.”

She looked between the two of them, still smiling. Still hiding the whirring cogs and grinding gears in her head.

“Well, I’ll leave the two of you to get to know one another. Gemini, don’t forget to attend the second stage’s orientation.”

“I won’t.” Gem snapped, a hair sharper than she’d intended and half a dozen more than she’d have gotten away with. The narrowing of Lavastro’s eyes froze the breath in her throat.

“There are things I must attend to,” the woman said, acidically, “Goodbye.”

Almost as soon as Lavastro closed the door behind her, Deka Helus’s voice was ringing out once more.

“It’s nice to meet you,” She began. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Gem would have been more surprised if she hadn’t.

“All good, I hope?” She asked, plastering her uncertain smile on and walking forwards as she spoke. Drawing nearer made it clear just how small the girl truly was. Like a child of nine, not a woman of fifteen. A luminar, Gem was certain.

“All… fascinating.”

The answer wasn’t one Gem had expected, and Helus followed it up almost more quickly than confusion could twist her brow.

“Sorry.” She quickly added, a nervous smile splitting her lips. “I just meant to say… well, it’s true isn’t it? That you’re… different.”

Gem recognised the awe displayed before her, fighting back the grin it brought on as she spoke.

“It is.” She nodded. “Though I don’t like to talk about it.”

Helus quickly mirrored her gesture.

“Of course, I imagine it must be tiring for you to be asked about it all the time. Just pretend I didn’t say anything.”

“What brings you to Udrebam?” Gem asked, covering her disappointment with the question. Something tensed in Helus before the girl answered, but her hurried reply hid it well.

Like clockwork the girl spoke. She told Gem of her position in the Alliance, how she’d been taken under the Zoric Faction’s custody nearly two years prior. She told Gem of her tutelage, her studies of magic, her knack, as she put it, for understanding the fickle and changeable forces of the arcane.

When her tale turned to the sudden and surprising insistence from her handlers that she enter the Sieve, Gem found it difficult to continue listening.

So she’s another magical prodigy taken in by the Alliance. What in the world made Lavastro think I’d care to meet this girl?

“That sounds like a drastic change,” She said, waiting an appropriate few moments after the girl finished speaking. “How are you adjusting to it?”

A shrug, all hesitation and uncertainty before a wavering answer.

“I’m not sure. It’s drastic, as you said, but it’s not been so bad in Udrebam. The Faction’s always kept me comfortable.”

“Silk sheets do make sleep a little bit easier,” Gem noted. Her remark drew an entirely disproportionate laugh from Helus, and it took her a second to realise the reaction stemmed from nerves rather than sycophancy.

“Sorry.” The girl mumbled.

They spoke for some time longer, Helus asking Gem about her own experience with the Factions all while Gem tried and failed to find a way of exiting the conversation.

“I’ve had no contact with them, so I really can’t give much input.”

Helus blinked.

“I assumed you’d be more familiar with the Alliance than I am, what with your… talents.”

Gem could understand the mistake. Few in the world knew just how tenuous her family’s relationship with the Alliance was, fewer still how much that tension had thickened in the wake of the Faction War. Even Gilasev, renagede among the Menzas, had been careful to keep Gem from being caught up in their politics.

But she wasn’t about to tell Helus that. Not when the topic had just moved so perfectly towards more interesting matters.

“Lots of people are interested in what I can do,” She said instead. “Gilasev is quite selective about who gets to talk to me, at least when it comes to those with the most influence.”

“Speaking of your, uh, abilities… well, I don’t want to sound rude, but could you…” She trailed off, yet it was clear what she was asking.

Gem’s smile came easily.

“Of course, ask away.”

Helus’s face lit up, her mouth working as a blur to weave one question after another. Gem grinned as she answered them.

Days of torturous mental practice at the hand of Lavastro left genuine praise for what really mattered like honey against starved lips.

Somewhere deep at the back of her mind, her friend’s words rang out once more. A warning she’d heard a hundred times over, cautioning her against overreliance on the supernatural at the expense of all else.

Gem ignored it.

Lavastro was right about a thousand things, a million even, but for all her merits, there was one thing the woman simply failed to grasp.

There was nothing in the world Gem could practice or learn that wouldn’t be eclipsed by her ability to wield both magic and nihil.

Crow moved through the stadium in a daze; the world’s noise mute in his ears, its colours blurred in his vision. Strong guiding hands led him from the centre of the arena, tugging him like a breeze snagging cloth and drawing him deep into a tunnel.

His mind was a storm, thoughts a gale. It had barely even registered to him when he glimpsed Unity being rolled onto a stretcher, hoisted up and carried away by a number of severe-looking, uniformed men. The hour-long ceremony after that had been punctuated as he drifted off to sleep a half dozen times during its length, fatigue growing to more than he’d ever experienced.

His walk through the building’s corridors was similarly lost to him. World no more solid than a mist, no more coherent than a dream. He seemed to glide through. Aimless, save for the nudging of whoever held his arms.

It wasn’t until a particularly firm turn sent hissing pain erupting from his shoulder that Crow felt himself plunged back into reality, world embracing him like the waters of an icy lake.

I did it. He found himself thinking, thoughts orbiting the fact like brine about a whirlpool.

Exhausted, battered and bleeding though he was, Crow still smiled. The greatest contest of magic the world had to offer, and he’d managed to meet the test of its first stage.

Joy evaporated in his heart at the thought of how he’d done so, and Crow found himself shaking free the hands of the Sieve’s staff, trying to purge Ethi from his thoughts.

“Sir.” Came a voice, flat and monotonous enough that Crow nearly dismissed it entirely. He turned to see one of the attendants addressing him.

“You’re going in the wrong direction,” said the man, gesturing to a corridor at his side.

Crow mumbled a word of thanks before following the correct path, finding his thoughts too heavy, his body too weak, to muster so much as embarrassment.

It was perhaps a fraction so long as he’d already walked, at least if the throbbing of his soles was of any indication. Somehow it seemed an oceanic distance all the same.

Every step was heavier than the last, every pace longer. Every moment he spent with nothing but the echo of footfalls to accompany him further darkened the movements in his mind.

The corridor opened to a room at his back, wide and tall yet filled to the brim with the distant sound of shifting feet and excited tones- a walkway sure to be packed with exiting spectators, he realised.

It couldn’t be more than minutes till they arrived, perhaps less than one, but he still found it hard to spare even a scrap of his attention for the approaching masses. The girl occupying the space before him ate far too much of it.

She was of average height, no taller than he remembered. Nor were her eyes any less brown. Her nose sat button-shaped and small, centering a round face framed by pale blonde hair.

Her clothes were different, tied with the red and gold ribbons he’d seen city-dwellers use to celebrate the Alliance- colours of the Zoric and Xion Factions. Hair braided, face sooten and bloodied.

Crow recognised her in an instant regardless of condition, nothing could disguise that face from him. And nothing could disguise his from her.

He and his sister had been looking at one another their entire lives.

“Hi Birdie,” Astra said.

There was a deep exhaustion in her voice, of a kind Crow would never have understood before the emptiness he’d left the first stage in. She smiled in spite of it.

“Hi Astra,” he answered, returning the grin in spite of himself. In moments he felt the worries and doubts of his trudging walk begin to retreat from the forefront of his mind, like tides waning by the pull of the moon.

“I’ve been looking all over for you,” She continued, eying him scathingly.

Crow couldn’t quite blame her. Their arrival in Udrebam had been a blur, but he could clearly recall them being separated through his own mistake.

“You’ve been looking, while in the Sieve?”

She smiled.

“Well, glancing at least. Over my shoulder. I was preoccupied.”

Crow took another look at his sister, studying her for any wounds or marks. He found few. Cuts and scrapes dotted her hands and face, flesh turned red and yellowing in many places, already forming bruises. He could see the ugly crimson of burnt flesh peeking out from beneath her left sleeve, singed short as the fabric was.

Astra took off at a walk, heading down one of the many corridors protruding from the room. Crow allowed himself to marvel as he followed.

He’d always known she was the better of them. No more powerful, but with seemingly twice his skill in everything save Neramis and fisticuffs. It still amazed him that she’d crawled through the same fire he had with so few marks.

“Are you alright?” She asked, a sudden touch of concern leaving her voice unsteady. Crow waved a hand, blinking at its unexpected weight.

“I think so.” He answered dumbly. “At least, I should be…”

Even as Crow spoke he felt a sudden exhaustion, stumbling as one of his legs lagged to obey mid-step.

Astra placed a hand on his shoulder, staring at him.

“Crow what’s wrong?” He turned to meet her eye, drawing a gasp from his sister.

“You’re white as paper! Why in the world were you allowed to leave on your own in this condition, how are you even this hurt?”

He hesitated, knowing full well what her reaction would be to finding out and wishing, in his exhaustion, to spare himself from it. Crow steeled himself, seizing his nerves just as he forced his leaden legs to continue trudging forth.

“I used up all of my magic reserves getting past the first stage.”

The words hung between them for a moment, then Astra’s tone sharpened into an answer.

“Idiot.”

Crow heard no pity in her voice. He couldn’t begrudge her its absence.

“I know,” he replied.

“The one thing we were always warned against, the one mistake we could find consistency in every older mystic cautioning us about.”

“Yes, Astra. I understand.”

The edge Crow heard in his own voice surprised even him, but his sister seemed unfazed.

“Well I hope you haven’t forgotten what we were told about it.”

He hadn’t, after having it hammered home so many times by Galad Crow doubted he could have if he’d wanted to- and the weight he felt clinging to every fibre of his being with each step would have refreshed his memory even if it had atrophied.

“You don’t need to worry, I’m perfectly aware that my imminent suffering is entirely my fault.”

Astra grinned crookedly.

“Then I have nothing else to add.”

Crow didn’t miss the faltering of her smile, the hesitation in her eyes. He ignored it regardless. Finding himself in no mood to hear her concerns yet again.

They walked in silence for ten paces more, the lull in conversation only serving to let Crow hear people growing nearer behind them.

Spectators closed quickly thanks to Crow’s slowed pace, and in moments any chance he and Astra had of conversation was swallowed by the noise.

“I don’t think this is the best time to talk,” he half-shouted, grunting with blooming pain as the mass of people swelled at their back.

He struggled to keep his eyes on Astra amid the jostling of the crowd.

It seemed the people were growing louder, for Crow heard only half of Astra’s next words. Enough to know she was naming a time, and a place. Cyan Square. Though it wasn’t till the tide of bodies enveloped him and cut her off from sight completely that he realised why.

Very well then, Astra. I’ll meet you there.

Crow didn’t bother fighting the flow of bodies. Even without the weariness overcoming him, there were too many to stand his ground.

Moved by the seemingly inexhaustible press of bodies, he quickly found himself squeezed from the stadium and left to stumble off to one side as the human river leaked out beside him.

He pressed himself against a wall, eyes closing and lungs cycling the cool air in great heaving gulps. Walk having drawn more from him than just the little physical energy he had left.

It had always been a mystery for Crow exactly why animals fell limp and slack when held, no matter the gentleness. After feeling something so similar to it, flesh on all sides without even an inch to give in any direction, he had his answer.

“I do hope we aren’t disturbing you, sir.”

Crow’s sluggish mind took a moment to register that the voice was aimed at him, his tender neck requiring longer still to pivot and bring his eyes to face it.

A woman stood five paces back, dressed near-identically to the man who’d corrected his course just minutes earlier and looking at him with a touch of something that would have neared concern were it not for its clinical impassivity.

“You’re not,” he answered, marvelling at the difficulty he found in moving even his mouth.

He’d always been warned about magic deprivation, every mystic he knew had, yet it still shattered expectation to feel first hand.

“Would you care for any assistance? We have a carriage prepared for you, as well as accommodations within Udrebam centre for you to use whilst competing in the Sieve.”

Too tired to talk, or even think, Crow kept his answer to a nod. It seemed sufficient, as the woman quickly turned and set a brisk pace elsewhere. She was back only minutes later, placing a hesitant hand on his shoulder and looking at him almost cautiously as she spoke.

“Can you move on your own?”

A mad, irrational part of Crow wanted to insist that he could. The urge perished under his exhaustion, leaving him empty of everything save aches and pains.

He shook his head, making no futile efforts to fight the woman’s aid as she offered it. They couldn’t have been more than fifty paces to the waiting carriage, but each step felt like a dozen.

The handrail was a blanket against his tiredness, flooding Crow with relief as he grabbed it and giving him a steadiness he hadn’t quite allowed himself to feel in leaning on another person for support. Pulling himself into the back of the vehicle took more effort than he’d have liked, yet melting into its seats made the screaming of his muscles worth enduring.

It almost escaped his notice when the carriage rocked into motion.

Wheels jittered and clacked against the cobbles below, leaving Crow swaying to and fro as he lay across the seats. He found the movement almost comforting, allowing it to lull him to drowsiness and leave his worries to sink deep past caring.

When, finally, he was jerked almost into rolling from his makeshift bed by a sudden stop, Crow was sure no time had passed at all.

Less than ten seconds spent perusing her new quarters were enough to leave Astra impressed. Another fifteen moved her to outright amazement.

It was a set of only two rooms, three including the privy, but more spacious than her entire house back at Selsis. Carved wood rested beneath soft carpeting, curtains hung light as silk, and it seemed every piece of furniture had been crafted by an expert.

For minutes she found herself turning, taking in every inch of the place and simply letting her silent awe swell. It wasn’t until a knock rang against the frame of her still-open door that Astra’s stupor was banished, her head turning to meet the sound’s source.

“Are your accommodations acceptable, ma’am?”

It had been the same attendant who’d led her to the carriage that spoke, using a title Astra didn’t recognise, with an accent she could only assume was born in an off-land Unixian colony. She understood all the same.

“They are.” She answered, her voice drawn high in pitch by a grin.

“Wonderful. Is there anything else I can help you with, then?”

Astra forced her thoughts from the domicile, pondering the question as best her distracted mind could manage. The answer came quickly.

“My things, the luggage I came to Udrebam with I mean. I need to go and get it.”

She’d left her possessions in a section of the building that had led her to the Sieve. In the day's excitement, they had entirely slipped her mind. Astra could only hope they were still where she’d last seen them.

“Your possessions were taken shortly after you entered the Sieve by its staff,” the attendant answered. “They will be moved to your quarters soon, do not worry.”

Tension Astra hadn’t even noticed leaked from her shoulders, freeing up space within the frantic pool of her mind to consider other matters. It didn’t take long for the obvious to make itself known.

“The second stage of the Sieve will start soon, I assume. How will I know?”

She’d already had some idea, but Astra wanted the certainty of hearing it confirmed.

“The orientation will be the day after tomorrow,” The woman replied. “At the Udrebam stadium, noon. You will be provided transportation to attend, if you so wish.”

“Thank you.” Astra said, nodding. “That’s all, I think.”

Saying nothing else, the attendant turned to leave. Astra racked her thoughts for another question. She found none before the woman was gone.

With the door closed, the room silent once more, she allowed herself another sweeping gaze across it. The smile crept back across her face, the giddiness swelling all over again in her stomach.

This is my room. Mine.

Astra laughed. She couldn’t help herself, elation and delight proving stronger by far than self-consciousness. Her fingers danced with an energy she hadn’t felt moments earlier, burning electrically in her excitement.

It was her room, one she’d earned by fighting tooth and nail. Filled with her furniture, housing her bed and trapping in warmth to keep her and her alone from the icy fingers of Udrebam’s night.

She moved to a chair, letting herself fall into it and gasping at the soft embrace of its cushions. Astra’s head lolled back almost on its own, all strength stripped from her body by luxury and comfort.

Her elation faded quickly, novelty wearing thin and making way for the cold pragmatism she’d spent so long learning to temper herself with.

Crow was first among her worries. In the relief of seeing her brother once more, Astra had barely taken the time to truly study his wounds, yet thinking back to their state made her wish she had.

It was a rare battle, indeed, that could last long enough for a man’s magic reserves to be depleted in their entirety. He could only have drawn on all of his own by fighting consecutively.

She’d seen enough cuts and scrapes marring her brother to curdle her blood, and recalling the palour she’d witnessed creeping across him at his magic deprivation left her furious with herself for not checking further.

The idiot had probably been nursing a dozen broken ribs and missing half his blood.

As much as Astra tried to drive the worries back, she found herself unable to find any real certainty that there was no reality to them.

Her thoughts flashed to sparring with Crow, seeing the boy continue trading blows long past the point where her own body would have given in. Then to his withdrawal and misery upon Galad’s disappearance.

A mania that had quickly turned to a darker focus than she’d ever seen before.

The more Astra considered things, her brother above all, the more likely she found it that Crow’s wounds had been taken from recklessness rather than misfortune.

Anger flooded in to replace her worry, directed a year into the past and to all corners of Mirandis. Wherever it was Galad hid. Whichever corner the rat bastard had fled to. As if hate alone might bring to him the destruction he deserved. As if the man’s death would free Crow from his obsession.

She slept on softer and more comfortable sheets than ever before in her life, and yet the luxury was a cold comfort.