In the center of Daimona and Irina’s sleeping quarters, Daimona and the rest of Squad 46 huddled around Kell's flaming open hand. His fingers flickered like five candles. Will unrolled a thin, ratty piece of canvas on the floor before then.

  “Why do this here?” Irina whispered impatiently.

  “Because Pultz is still floating around our wing,” Will replied. “And I can't trust him to keep his mouth shut if he barges in and hears anything.”

  Will pulled out a black marker from his pocket. With it, he wrote the words New Plan in big, bold letters at the top. He looked up, focusing in on each member. When his eyes landed on Norok, Daimona noticed a moment of hesitation, before finally Will’s gaze landed on her. His eyes softened, shoulders relaxing as she returned his stoic expression with a bright grin.

  “What's the deal, Captain?” she asked eagerly.

  “Our opponents played their hand too early,” Will said. He wrote each of the rival squad’s names down the left-hand side, each accompanied by a small, poorly drawn portrait. “In trying to rush the Weakest Link Exchange, they revealed our two real threats in this competition.”

  “Rik's curses,” Kell said, tapping Rik’s widely-drawn smirk.

  “And the incantation stuff,” Norok added.

  “Incantation stuff that they can all do,” Will reminded gravely. “We have to assume that every member of Squad 57 has some kind of advanced restraining or self-enhancing magic.”

  “Zia almost knocked me out by herself without saying anything at all,” Daimona said. She remembered the heat overpowering her senses from the inside, her body slowly losing consciousness as Zia cradled her. The image of that mask looking over her made Daimona shudder. “It was creepy.”

  “How'd you avoid it?” Kell asked.

  Daimona shrugged. “Norok sang to me? I guess?”

  Her brother quirked an eyebrow, but said nothing. He seemed to ignore the comment entirely as he turned to Will and said, “So why don't you just teach us incantation stuff too? Even the odds?”

  “Incantations are unique to the users and the purpose,” Will explained. “It could take months to develop the right set for each of us, and that’s not taking into account how long we'd have to practice to make them actually work.”

  “He does not know how to do it either, Tadpole,” Irina interrupted, rolling her eyes. “Otherwise, his chatter would be worthwhile.”

  Will begrudgingly nodded. “...That too, yes. Lotsvatinus must’ve used her family connections to get them a mentor… Normally, it's impossible to pin down an incantation teacher before moving through team initiation.”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Daimona tilted her head with a confused look. “Shouldn't they already be a team? I thought you guys already lost to them last year.”

  “Last year was more of a general bootcamp,” Kell replied. “It was more training oriented, ending with the relay race. Will beat Frode in the Weakest Link Exchange, which showed we had enough promise to come back.”

  “Which brings me to my next point,” Will announced. When Daimona looked back at the canvas, he had already written all of their names across from Squad 57’s, a tangle of diagonal lines linking each one. “At this point, we've seen their abilities, and incantations aside, we know what they're likely to start each skirmish with.”

  “Going forward, Smirnov, I want you to handle Avsten. Your precision and your speed should be exactly what we need to counter his, and your fighting style will make it much harder for him to drop his curses.”

  Irina bristled with excitement, quickly trying to hide her interest as Will looked back up at her. She let out a curt hum of affirmation.

  “Norok, Prodikor, you two will work together to take out their backline, H?yh? and Bartimeaus. Which leaves myself with Lotsvatinus, and Daimona with Leifson.”

  “The dancing boy?” Daimona whined. “Put me in charge of Bash!! I can take her!”

  “That wasn't a request,” Will said sternly.

  “But Kell said you beat him last year. You can definitely take him again!”

  “I only beat him because he wasn't taking me seriously,” and as he said it, he capped the black marker with a loud snap. “His true magic is Teleportation. He can move anywhere he can see, and he can move small objects within the same parameters. If I go up against him this time, he'll know what to expect and disarm me immediately.”

  Daimona's shoulders sagged. She crossed her arms, glaring at the ground. If she had to fight someone, she had at least wanted it to be worthwhile. Even her stomach seemed to growl with disappointment.

  Suddenly, the door slammed open. On the other side, gasping desperately for air, stood Leka. Her eyes were wide with panic as she uttered, “The sergeants… They're gone.”

  …

  As both squads stood in the banquet hall, a beheaded ice imp sat in the center of the room, melting quickly into the carpet. Two of Bash’s creatures were hunched on both sides of it, licking the imp's legs.

  “I-I heard a scream, and when I came out, I f-f-found this outside,” Bash explained.

  “And no one can find Sergeant Judith either?” Will asked.

  “Her quarters are empty,” Zia said softly. “It looked like her room was torn apart.”

  “Could’ve been Blems,” Rik added airily.

  “Not likely,” Kell replied. “We're too close to the Northern edge of Fable. They wouldn't come this close.”

  “Suppose you'd know, wouldn't you?” Rik snidely remarked.

  Kell rolled his eyes, ignoring Rik with a firm frown. He turned to Will. “What do you think?”

  “No enemy of Fable would waste their time doing something as minimal as kidnapping two proctoring sergeants,” Will said carefully. “Which makes this another bootcamp trial.”

  “With n-no rules,” Bash added. “Th-they probably want us to work together… It's expected that Foreign O-Operations teams communicate and c-c-collaborate on missions.”

  Will eyed her suspiciously. Slowly, he raised his head, looking over to the rest of his squad. Finally, he said, “Sure. Why not. Let's pair off.”