Sid POV

  Sid dropped the bundle of firewood in the middle of their training area. He hadn’t found many dead branches on short notice and had to cut some green ones down. The sap still clung to his fingers. Hopefully, the fire would take it without complaint.

  “Think that’s enough for the night,” said Varun, his voice sounding dry and thin, like it scraped over sand before reaching Sid. He was sitting against a tree at the edge of the clearing, a jacket covering his torso like a hospital gown.

  “How’re you feeling?” Sid grabbed one of the two bottles of water they had with them and passed it to Varun.

  Varun screwed his eyes shut for a heartbeat, then looked back at Sid and rolled his neck until it cracked. “I didn’t sleep right. My neck hurts.”

  He shifted the jacket to one side and used the tree to push himself upright. Sid’s eyes flicked down automatically. The lower half of Varun’s shirt was cut and hanging in uneven strips, exposing bruised skin underneath.

  “Can I get another shirt?” Varun asked, tugging at one of the loose edges with a frown.

  “It’s tough right now. Why don’t you wear that jacket for the time being?” Sid tried to keep his tone even. “Things are messy at the camp.”

  He caught Varun’s brief glance toward the tents. Even from here, raised voices sometimes carried over when the wind shifted. Tensions were on the rise at the camp, and their team was at the center. Another death in the Kurishingal family, Sunny’s wife this time, had lit everything up again. They were blaming Sid’s team, saying they had let goblins inside the camp and had alerted no one.

  “I’m not wearing that. It’s pink. At least yours is green.” Varun jabbed his finger at the jacket next to the tree, as if the color offended him. Sid had to wash his shirt and was wearing a light green jacket over his undershirt.

  “You know how difficult it was to get that one.” Sid felt the corner of his mouth twitch. “We had to make someone return it to us. Didn’t help our standing in the camp.” He caught the confused crease forming between Varun’s brows and added, “That’s Pallavi’s jacket. She’ll beat you up again if she finds it on the floor.”

  Varun winced at the joke, looking around. “Where is everybody? And why does it look like we are setting up a separate camp?”

  “I told you earlier about the power struggle in the camp, right?” Sid waited for Varun to nod. “We are losing that. Most of the people don’t like us. Only Rohan has a decent image in the camp.”

  Varun bent down, joints stiff, and picked up the pink jacket with a resigned sigh. “I know about Pallavi.” He brushed some dirt off the fabric. “I can accept people not liking me either—never cared about that.” He fell silent as he put his arms through the sleeves and tugged the jacket into place, the motion clumsy but determined.

  At least he was self-aware, Sid thought. There was a strange comfort in that.

  “But what about you? Why don’t they like you?” Varun asked. He pulled the front zip halfway up, then paused, watching Sid over the top edge of the jacket as he waited for an answer.

  “I let two goblins into the camp and didn’t warn them, which led to the death of a lady and injured a couple of people,” Sid said. The confession scraped its way out of him. His shoulders tightened, and he kept his gaze fixed somewhere near Varun’s feet. “And I didn’t share any skills from the goblins, not even their names.”

  “Damn right you didn’t. They had no right to those skills.” Varun’s response came quickly, almost on reflex. He took a step closer, eyes narrowing as he searched Sid’s face, then tilted his head to the side. “But why didn’t you tell anyone about the goblins that got into the camp?”

  Sid forced himself to look up. “I was busy trying to save your ass. It slipped my mind.” He tried to hook a crooked smile onto the end of the sentence, aiming for lightness that he did not feel.

  Varun’s expression shifted, something between a frown and a wince. The joke clearly did not erase what Sid had said.

  Sid knew how flimsy his own words sounded. He had been clear with Aditi from the start about how serious Varun’s condition was, and he had pushed her hard. Her connection to the Kurishingal family was something he couldn’t figure out. Their only actual strength was their numbers, but somehow that was enough to make people dance around them.

  “Where are Rohan and Pallavi?” Varun looked around the clearing, focusing on the gaps between the trees to see if they were nearby.

  “Rohan went to give Naga, Aditi, and the guard their skills.” Sid put his hands in his jacket pockets to touch and count the five remaining crystals.

  “I thought we weren’t giving away any spoils from the fight.” Varun’s eyebrows climbed, and he turned back to Sid, waiting for an explanation.

  “One guard helped us with the fight. He deserved one crystal.” Sid held up his thumb between them, as if he were tallying on an invisible list.

  “Aditi healed all of us, so I had to compensate her, and Naga’s was a bribe for handling all the discontent.” He extended his index and middle fingers, making the count three.

  “What? Every time she heals someone, we have to give her crystals?” Varun’s words came out sharp. His jaw tightened, and his hands opened and closed once at his sides.

  “There were a couple of people who were injured and closer to her,” Sid said. He felt the old discomfort stir again. “I had to threaten her to abandon them and come heal you. Before you say anything else, they were not in critical condition.” He paused, aware that he was choosing each word carefully. The memory of Aditi’s expression when he had pushed her was not one he enjoyed dwelling on.

  “That ungrateful bitch,” Varun snapped, his nose flaring. “I could’ve died.” His last words came out soft, almost like a whisper.

  Varun drew a breath, then looked Sid straight in the eye. Some of the tension in his shoulders eased as he spoke. “Thank you.”

  Sid looked away for a beat before meeting his gaze again, a grin showing up on his face. “I am keeping score. I won’t have you dying on me before you return all the favours in full.”

  Varun huffed a faint, almost unwilling smile at that.

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  A soft thud drew their attention, and both Sid and Varun turned their gaze towards the camp.

  “I can come back later if you guys need a moment.” Pallavi took a step back, boots brushing against the dirt and leaves at the edge of the clearing. Her tone was flat and deadpan, giving no clue whether she was serious or joking.

  “No, we were wondering what was taking you so long,” replied Sid in the same deadpan tone. He noticed a twitch on Pallavi’s face. She had been expecting him to be flustered.

  “I could only get two spears. The surroundings have been picked clean by the camp, but they didn’t have any to spare for us.” Pallavi passed the spears to Varun and Sid.

  “This will work for the time being.” Sid took his spear and gave it a short swing, testing the weight and balance. “Did you get the boar jerky?” He wanted to avoid mushrooms until they had somebody on the team who could identify the ones that got you high. He trusted Naga as far as he could throw him, which was not a lot even with his enhanced stats.

  “No, the pantry was a mess. The goblins attacked the foragers. Naga was there sorting things out. I can check after an hour.” Her eyes flicked to her watch and then back to Sid.

  “Why are you sending her to the camp?” asked Varun. He took a step back, spear in hand, when she shot him a glance. “No offence, but you were not popular in the camp, as far as I know.”

  “I am avoiding George.” Sid spoke in a level tone, but the name tasted sour. “He wants to know what skills we got from the goblins and likely wants a share of the spoils, if not the whole thing.” He knew he cannot avoid George indefinitely, but he didn’t want any accidents to occur before his team could absorb the skill crystals.

  Sid walked towards a tree, sat down against it, and placed the spear by his side. He had already gone through the skills and was waiting for Varun to wake up before distributing them.

  “What if he comes here?” asked Varun, rubbing his chin.

  “Then we hope a fight does not break out.” Sid reached for the bottle of water next to him and took a sip. The pause gave him a second to weigh the odds he was not voicing.

  “You do not have the confidence to win?” It was Pallavi who voiced the question before Varun.

  “He has Mana Shield, which blocks any surprise attacks,” Sid said. He counted the threats off in his mind as he spoke. “The same skill both goblin leaders had, the one from yesterday and today. There is Barkskin, which makes his skin resistant to stabbing and slashing attacks. Plus Enhanced Strength, which makes him stronger than an average person.” He turned his head towards Varun. “How would you take down somebody like that, Varun?”

  Sid posed the question with two objectives. On the surface, it was a simple tactical puzzle. Underneath, it was a test. He wanted them to start thinking about skills as more than flashy tricks. They would face enemies with different skill sets as they moved deeper into the dungeon, and he could not afford to be the only one planning. The most important skill taught at the institute did not come from a skill crystal. It was the ability to read an opponent’s abilities and build a counter. He wanted his team to reach at least the level of a regular graduate without ever setting foot in a lecture hall.

  “All I can think of is pushing him down a cliff or poisoning him,” said Varun. His eyes had a distant look, as if he were seeing the idea play out somewhere else. He leaned into the spear, its butt planted on the ground, using it like a support while his mind worked.

  Pallavi’s reaction was immediate. Her eyes went wide, and her head snapped towards Varun, the motion sharp. The casual way he had mentioned murder seemed to hit her harder than the words themselves.

  Sid was glad Rohan was not here. Rohan would have shut the conversation down on moral grounds before they could get anything useful from it. Sid understood the instinct, but he needed them to learn how to think around problems, not just flinch from them.

  “In a straight fight, we could try targeting his weak points like eyes or the mouth. Or go for blunt attacks to the groin. Realistically, against his skill set, the safest options are environmental or indirect, like a fall or poison,” Sid said.

  He let the agreement land to keep Varun engaged, then added the constraint. “However, we do not control where he gets his food, so poisoning him would be difficult.” His voice stayed even as he turned his head towards Pallavi. “Do you understand why I asked for jerky?”

  “Because mushrooms could be switched out for the ones that make you high,” said Pallavi. The words came out steadily, but there was a hint of reluctance in her tone, like she did not like where this trail of thought was heading.

  “Exactly.” Sid nodded. “It is not easy to get poison in here, unless you were in a profession that used poisons and had some on your person when you got transported here.” As he spoke, the memory of standing at the front of a classroom surfaced—rows of students, the smell of chalk, a bored professor in the very back row evaluating him with severe eyes.

  “Whoa. I never realized you were so paranoid, Sid.” Varun closed the distance to Sid, using the spear like a walking stick.

  Sid let the comment pass. Instead, he looked straight at Pallavi. It was a silent nudge, an invitation to keep following the logic. She met his gaze, hesitated, then spoke.

  “Like a doctor. Doctors could have access to poisons or sedatives that we could use against George.” Her mouth tightened around the words. Her expression did not match what she was suggesting. It looked like part of her still could not believe she was saying it out loud.

  Varun’s eyes narrowed. A small crease formed between his brows. “I get the thought experiment part,” he said slowly. His gaze shifted from Pallavi to Sid. “But to me, it sounds like you are planning to murder George. Why?”

  The second reason Sid posed the question had nothing to do with training drills and everything to do with the future he remembered. There were a few bad actors who made things go terrible for everyone, names that still tasted sour: George, the Bloody Butcher, the Siren of the Bay. It would be for the best if people like that were taken out before they could do significant damage.

  From Varun and Pallavi’s reaction, they weren’t ready the idea. He knew he would need strong justification to push them into action.

  Sid laughed, letting some of the tension bleed out through the sound. “You did not get the thought experiment part, Varun,” he said. “Why did I pose that question?” He looked from Varun to Pallavi, giving each of them a chance to answer.

  They stayed silent. Varun’s mouth pressed into a thin line, and Pallavi avoided his eyes, staring instead at a spot near his shoulder.

  “George wants to document the skills of everyone,” Sid said. He did not raise his voice, but the words felt heavier as he spoke them. “I just showed you the dangers of having that information fall into the wrong hands. How easy it is to plan against someone when you know their skills. Say George had some poison resistance skills that we did not know about. Our plan would have failed, and we could have been exposed. Hence, it is important that you keep the secrets of your skills within the team and not give away free information.”

  “Why don’t we just keep it to ourselves?” asked Pallavi. Her tone sounded controlled, but her eyes flicked quickly between Sid and Varun.

  “You will probably slow down your own growth.” Sid met her gaze and held it. “I can think of dozens of ways to test the limits of my skills if I can get help from you guys. But it comes down to single digits if I try alone.”

  He let that hang for a moment, then glanced around at the dim clearing. The fog creeping between the trees made their small group feel even more isolated.

  “Plus, it would lower the strength of the team if you keep your abilities a secret,” Varun chimed in, looking in the camp’s direction. He stepped a little closer to the others as he spoke, spear resting lightly in his hand, and looked out towards the camp.

  Sid stood up and followed his gaze. A pale yellow light was moving in their direction. Sid passed the spear to Pallavi and took out his dagger. Varun angled his spear forward, stepping in front of Sid and Pallavi.

  “Are we under attack?” asked Rohan, pausing his steps and looking around. He was carrying a piece of lit firewood in one hand and a small ball of cloth in the other.

  “No, we were waiting for you. Come, let us distribute the skills.” Sid lowered his dagger and moved to collect the lit firewood from Rohan. He added it to the pile in the center of the clearing to create a small bonfire.

  The group moved to the center of the clearing. As the fire took hold and shadows shifted around them, Sid could not shake the faint feeling that something out in the fog was watching.