The training room rang with the familiar clash of steel.

  David stood arm to arm with Nestor, casting barriers with the help of Diana’s enchanted bracer.

  Olen, Lia and Diana were spread out in front of them, while Ualani kept her distance.

  Zerik advanced through them like a landslide. His shield swept aside Lia’s hatchet, his sword followed in a short arc that Olen barely caught on his own blade. The boy backed off two steps.

  A shimmer of force flickered between them as David raised his arm. The bracer grew hot against his skin, the barrier buying Olen time to catch a breath.

  The frontline pushed and pulled against Zerik, keeping him locked in place.

  Ualani was where she should be this time. Far out of reach, focused purely on spellcasting. Each time Zerik shifted, she mirrored his movements in a loose crescent, using her teammates as living barricades.

  “Left!” David called.

  Diana darted in, mace raised, cutting across Zerik’s path. The knight dodged under her blow, and bashed her with the edge of his shield.

  Another barrier flared, barely in time. The shield scraped along it; Diana slipped away, breathing hard.

  Olen and Lia stepped in to fill the gap. He parried the next blow. Zerik’s strikes were still heavy and relentless, but Olen no longer crumpled under them. Each clash stole momentum, slowed him just a little.

  When Zerik finally took a step back, David breathed relief. As long as they kept him away, fighting their whole team front-to-back, they had the upper hand.

  Zerik saw that as well. He shifted again, pressing into the pocket between Olen and Diana. He bashed his shield against the boy, then struck a powerful blow against Diana.

  She caught it with her mace, but it was too much. The weapon wrestled away from her hands. Only having to deal with Olen now, Zerik gunned forward.

  A barrier flared, but couldn’t stop him. Zerik burst through it, ramming it with his shoulder. Barely enough to slow him down.

  David brought his sword higher, ready to go face their teacher.

  With Olen and Lia pressing from the side, Nestor’s barriers limiting his movements, and David blocking his path toward Ualani, Zerik didn’t notice a single crucial detail.

  Diana, even disarmed, wasn’t out of the fight just yet. She stepped forward, closer than she had any right to be, and reached up to her hair. The raven-skull pin slid into her hand in one smooth motion.

  With a flick of her wrist, the “hairpin” snapped into a full-length rod, solron segments racing out with a sharp click. The skull blurred as she swung.

  The blow caught on Zerik’s shoulder, before he could fully turn around. It forced his arm wide and back, his stance abruptly open.

  Zerik jerked away on instinct, trying to soften the impact.

  That was when the ice javelin hit.

  The spell drove into his chestplate with a dull, crunching sound. It shattered on contact, shards of frozen mana spraying out, but the force of it shoved him back a step. His heel scraped at the floor, failed to catch.

  He tipped and fell.

  Before he could recover, Olen was already there, sword at Zerik’s throat. Lia slipped in on the other side, her hatchet mirroring the angle, the edge hovering just under his jaw.

  The room went quiet.

  Zerik blinked up at them, then let out a short breathless laugh.

  “I yield,” he said, hands relaxing away from his weapons.

  Olen stepped back at once, face pale with exertion. Lia jumped around, pumping her arms, screaming victory.

  David’s heart was still racing. They’d done it. They’d actually done it.

  Diana collapsed the rod with a practiced tap. The skull and its slender length turned again into an innocuous ornament between her fingers. Her breathing was ragged, with sweat streaming down her face, but her eyes showed only excitement.

  “That,” Zerik said as he climbed back to his feet, rolling his shoulders, “is the best example for why the element of surprise is important.”

  They all knew it had been a fluke. If he’d expected the hairpin, if Ualani’s spell had come a moment late, if any of them had misstepped…

  But he didn’t rub it in, nor did he make any excuses.

  “Better positioning. You’re starting to act like a team,” he added, nodding to each in turn. “It finally felt like a real fight.”

  David was overjoyed. All the effort was starting to pay off. He high-fived both Nestor and Ualani. Along with Diana, the three of them did most of the heavy lifting that day.

  “Starting from the next session,” Zerik went on, “I’ll be bringing some of my subordinates along.”

  Lia froze midway through her attempt to hug Olen. Nestor’s mouth parted in a silent “oh.”

  “Don’t look so terrified,” Zerik shrugged. “The odds have to always be stacked against you if you want to grow.”

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  He was about to continue when his expression shifted. His head turned sharply toward the back line.

  Ualani flinched under his gaze and Zerik moved at once, crossing the distance with a few long strides.

  “Ualani.” His voice was tighter than before. “Are you alright? Your mana is fading.”

  David’s stomach knotted. He focused, letting his magic sight overlay the scene.

  Mana shimmered around each of them in familiar patterns. Zerik’s signature was bright, like a christmas tree of magic items. Diana’s flared hot at the hairpin.

  Ualani’s was… wrong. She had been circulating the mana through her body manually when in public, but her concentration must have lapsed.

  The mana was thinning, dissipating, as it gathered in her head. Underneath, there was almost nothing.

  Her normal state.

  Her eyes darted around for a split second. Then she let her knees soften, her shoulders droop.

  “I’m… just a little dizzy,” she said, voice low. “Nothing serious.”

  “Do you need help?” Zerik frowned. “I’ve never seen something like that.”

  “I…” She stuttered. “Have a condition.”

  Her hand slipped into her clothes and came out with a small vial. She uncorked it with her teeth and downed the potion in one go. A beat passed. Then another.

  David watched as mana rushed back into her. It poured into her like water into a hollow vessel.

  I wonder if that potion even did anything, or if it was just a distraction.

  Zerik’s eyes narrowed. “How long has this been happening?” he asked. “You didn’t say anything before training.”

  Ualani’s fingers tightened around the empty glass. David stepped forward, trying to divert everyone’s attention.

  “She should have,” he said. “I told her as much earlier.”

  Zerik glanced at him.

  “We’ve been working late in the lab,” David went on, keeping his tone level, almost annoyed. “If I’d known she was this overworked, we wouldn’t have stayed up so long. That’s on me too.”

  He met Ualani’s eyes for the briefest moment.

  Her gaze flicked to him, then away. When she spoke, her voice sounded smaller, stripped of its usual bite.

  “Yeah,” she said. “It was irresponsible of me.” She tucked the vial away with careful fingers. “I thought I could handle it, but… I should have spoken up when I started feeling off.”

  She bowed her head slightly toward the group. “I’m sorry. I’ll take better care and not drag everyone down.”

  Olen shifted, discomforted. Lia scratched the back of her neck.

  Zerik held Ualani’s gaze a heartbeat longer, then sighed.

  “Don’t push yourself to collapse,” he said. “If you’re unwell, you say so. I don’t care how much work you think you need to do.”

  His tone softened a fraction. “We’re done for today. Get some rest. All of you.”

  Diana removed the hairpin and wiped a thin trail of sweat from her jaw.

  Marco drifted closer, grinning.

  “That was brilliant,” he said. “You timed the hit perfectly.”

  “It was your artifact that made it possible.” She rolled the pin between her fingers, letting the raven skull catch the light. “At first I mostly enjoyed it for its looks, but with a bit of practice, it really is a clever tool.”

  Across the room, Ualani was already leaving, rushing perhaps a bit too quickly toward the doors.

  “Ualani,” Diana called out. “A word.”

  The girl froze for half a breath, then turned without enthusiasm.

  “What will you talk about?” Marco asked, his smile unfettered.

  “Doesn’t concern you.” She returned the smile. “Give us some privacy, could you?”

  Marco hesitated, then relented. He moved away, looking back a few times.

  Something about him was different that day. There was his peculiar behavior toward Ualani, for one, but Diana also felt as if he suddenly trusted her more. She couldn’t quite put a finger on the cause, though.

  When the door finally shut behind him, it left only the two of them: Ualani standing stiff as a fence post, and Diana, still catching her breath from the fight.

  She let the quiet do its work briefly, before she spoke.

  “What’s your illness?” Diana asked. “If you are ill, why didn’t you speak up earlier?”

  “I am mostly fine.” Ualani’s jaw twitched. “I just need not tire myself too greatly.”

  “You went dizzy after a fight,” Diana answered. “And Zerik said your mana behaved strangely. That is not fine.”

  “I don’t appreciate being interrogated.” Ualani’s arms folded defensively. “If I say I am fine, what’s more to it?”

  “And I don’t appreciate teammates who hide problems,” Diana replied. “Make no mistake, you’re a great addition in terms of our combat potential, but trust is paramount.”

  “So you don’t trust me?” Ualani’s glare sharpened.

  “Unlike Marco, I am not so quick at assessing people and I wouldn’t offer you this chance so early into our relationship.” Diana stepped closer, slipping the hairpin back into her hair. “So far, you seem like a person with a long, troubling story.”

  “And if I am?” Ualani looked away, her fingers squeezing her sleeve. “I have secrets I am not willing to share.”

  “We all do.” Diana shrugged. “The question is, whether those secrets will affect me and our team.”

  “They should not.” Ualani bit her lip. “What do you want from me?”

  “Loyalty.” Diana stared her down. “If you so choose, we might become friends, but that is optional.”

  Sophie sat hunched over her mug, the rim pressed against her lip. The tavern was loud, but not enough to drown out her thoughts. She stared at the table instead, tracing the wood grain with her thumb.

  Hito was beside her, reclined in his chair, beer halfway drained, devouring a stew. She still wasn’t sure what she felt about him.

  “What’s with you?” He finally put away his bowl and looked at her. “You barely ate anything.”

  Sophie tried to swallow the lump in her throat. The beer didn’t help like she thought it would.

  She had trusted him. Enough to feel safe when he stood next to her. Enough to believe he wasn’t like the others.

  “I… saw you organizing the line the other day.” She raised her head away from the mug. Her fingers stayed wrapped around it anyway.

  “Yeah?” Hito blinked. “What about it?”

  She breathed in. And out. No use dancing around it. “You took bribes.”

  “That’s it?” He scratched his cheek. “I planned to share with you, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

  Sophie felt her jaw tighten. “It’s wrong.”

  “Is it?” He tilted his head.

  “Yes!” She crossed her arms. “We can’t abuse the people!”

  “So when I do it, it’s abuse. But when you lie to bail out your little brother, it’s just how life is. Tell me how that’s different.”

  Her breath hitched. “If I had a choice,” she said quietly, “I would have never done anything like that.”

  “Sophie, you did what you did.” Hito shrugged, looking back toward the bar as if the conversation barely concerned him. “It’s not like you can turn back time.”

  “I–I know.” She stared at her hands. Her white knuckles.

  Hito shifted in his seat, looking the slightest bit uneasy. “I see it’s rough for you,” he said after a moment, voice lower. “We’ll stop there, alright? Just… Let’s be fair to each other from now on.”

  Sophie nodded, but something in her stomach twisted.

  They settled things. So why did she feel so bad?

  She couldn’t name it.