“What do you mean I don’t have a choice?” I demand.

Talia had refused to answer anything else until we made it back to her place and I got patched up. I slipped my knife back into my Inventory, just so it wouldn’t accidentally poison any present company, which meant I had to carry my bandolier and Lisari’s alchemy book all the way there. Whatever Talia thinks of my new accessories, she’s kept it to herself.

Lisari sips at her lemon mint tea, appearing quite content to listen to Talia and I go back and forth, as I throttle my own mug between my hands.

Talia grimaces. “The spell circle she marked you with. There’s a summoning component. I suspect you’ll be pulled into the arena the day of the tournament no matter where you are.”

I glance down at the hand mirror Talia had lent me, once again catching sight of the mark. It’s an intricate circle about an inch across, shapes and runes making a complex network of lines, and at its center is the likeness of a spear. I clap a hand to my forehead, as if hiding the brand would make it go away. It throbs faintly beneath the warmth of my hand. “It’s not fair. They can’t just make me compete against my will!”

“They can, and technically, you tried out for it,” Talia points out. “You just had to go sneaking back in after I took you to the exit. I told you to avoid the arena!”

“I didn’t know attacking her was the tryout!” I exclaim. “I thought they were just showing off their magic or something.”

“So what outcome were you expecting, exactly?” Lisari pipes up. “You thought you could kill a demigod?”

“I thought this was my best shot at it,” I say.

“That doesn’t sound very confident,” Lisari points out. “You were expecting you might fail, then?”

I shrug. “I was hoping to win, but… yeah. I knew losing was an option.”

“And then what?” she presses. “Did you really think she would be forgiving of a failed assassination attempt?”

“I’m not stupid,” I grumble.

“Just suicidal then,” Lisari says. She takes another sip of tea. “Why would an attempt on Maru’s life be worth dying for?”

“Because it’s me or her,” I say before I can think any better of it.

Lisari and Talia are silent for a moment.

“You’re referring to the others Maru killed a few weeks ago,” Talia says. “Can you tell me why? You seem to believe she wanted you all dead, but you haven’t explained.”

I shake my head, stuffing down the sorrow almost as soon as it starts to well up. “Not all of them. Just me.”

“Why?” Talia presses.

I hesitate, glancing between Talia and Lisari. “I… don’t think it’d be safe for you if I said why. But I guess it doesn’t matter. She didn’t even recognize me.” Like I was nothing to her. Inconsequential. I could have just continued on with my life and she would have been none the wiser.

Perhaps. Why do the gods want to kill people from another world in the first place? What if they find out Maru didn’t finish the job? Can I avoid them forever?

Well, one thing’s for sure: I won’t be able to avoid Widengra at the end of this month.

I groan, sinking into my chair and knocking my head against the table. “What am I going to do?”

“It doesn’t seem you’ve much choice in the matter,” Talia says. “Show up to the tournament. Intentionally lose in the first round before you can be hurt by anyone far more experienced. And pray their tournament is not a fight to the death.”

“Who am I going to pray to?” I scoff. “The gods?”

“Not all the Champions are like Maru, you know,” Lisari says. “And not all of the gods are like Widengra. If you’ve got gods working against you, you best find some to work with you.”

I roll my eyes. Of course she’d say that. She doesn’t have any gods trying to kill her. And how could I trust a god not to act the same way Maru did? They have to know people like Maru are Champions. If none of the other gods have objected to Widengra’s choice in champions, then they’re all equally complicit.

“She’s right,” Talia adds. “If you really do believe Widengra is against you, you won’t stand a chance without some other Patron God to protect you. We have many temples in the city. Perhaps if you made an offering and prayed for their assistance—”

“No,” I cut in, disgusted. “I’m not going to go begging for their help. As far as I’m concerned, they’re all the same. I’ll find my own way.”

“What can you expect to do in just a few weeks?” Talia asks.

I rub my forehead. “There’s really no way to remove it?”

“No,” Talia says, at the same time Lisari says, “Yes.”

We both look at her.

“I mean, it’s technically not impossible,” Lisari says. “Maru could choose to dismiss the mark any time.”

I snort at that.

“Or, her magic would vanish if she were to die,” Lisari adds.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

I sit up. “Really?”

Talia sighs. “Please, Lisarihs, she doesn’t need encouragement.”

“So it is possible,” I say, my mind racing. A way to get out of the tournament. A way to avoid Widengra. And I’d get my revenge on Maru, too.

Sure. Easy. But… “I have to try.”

Talia rubs her temples. “What exactly do you intend to do?”

The only thing I can do, I suppose.

“Study,” I say, putting a hand on the alchemy book Lisari lent me. “Practice.” If I want to survive this, I need to expedite my magic and fighting progress tenfold.

“I can’t say that sounds wise,” Lisari says, smiling faintly, “but that’s some resolve. Here, let me mark some of the passages in that book before you go. It’s as much as I can help.”

“Thank you,” I say.

Talia just shakes her head. “If I’d known you were this much of a fool, I doubt I would have conscripted your help with my sister’s murder.”

Oh, yeah. With everything else going on, I’d forgotten about that. “That reminds me,” I tell her. “I talked with Iski and Gugora—ah, the inn’s owners—and I might have some more information for you.”

Talia just sighs, not appearing nearly as interested as I’d expected. “All right, then. Let’s have it.”

While I dole out some more lies Cyros gave me, Lisari flips through the Alchemy book, her translator quietly reading out excerpts of chapter titles as she skims through the tome, dog-earing important passages. Although I’m more interested in what spells Lisari is gathering for me, I try to stay focused on Cyros’s mistruths. This time, repeating them to Talia makes me feel a little guilty. She wasn’t even close to her sister, I tell myself, hoping that makes the betrayal feel less, somehow. The lies don’t hurt anyone.

Talia listens intently, nodding along to my “report.” It’s some bullshit about timelines, when Cyros had supposedly come and gone, and something else that had supposedly been “overheard” in the Starlight.

“The Architect’s Guild,” Talia repeats, skeptical. “But what would they stand from making a move on the Council? Their position’s already secure.”

I shrug. “I don’t know. Doesn’t mean anything to me.” Probably the first truthful thing I’ve told her since the talk about the tournament.

“Very well,” she says, idly spinning her cup around on the table. “Thank you for the additional information. I will put out some feelers and see what progress I can make on investigating these claims.”

I mentally grimace. Good luck with that.

“In the meantime,” Talia says, “you should be more focused on how you’re going to survive the tournament. Especially if they won’t let you forfeit in the first round.”

“I’ve got some ideas,” I say, touching a hand to my bandolier. “First, I need to get stronger.”

----------------------------------------

I do, in fact, buy the ingredients Iski asked for. Probably not as much as she wanted, given I lost half her money sneaking into the arena, but at least I’ll have something to show for my trip to Fairwood when I return.

You know, besides a mark from the gods burned into my forehead.

Talia seemed a bit sad when I left, and Lisari was a bit disappointed as well, though I think for her it was more morbid curiosity. But I couldn’t stick around all day. After completing Iski’s grocery run, I still have one more stop on my list.

I spend the last two coins on dinner at Babs’ noodle stall, the harpy Talia had taken me to the first time I’d been in Fairwood. The broth is salty and hot, and it warms my whole body as I slam the meal down. It’s almost enough to forget about Maru for a moment.

Almost.

“That’s new,” Cyros says, sliding into the seat beside me.

I give him a sideways glance and see he’s looking at the strip of cloth I have tied around my forehead.

“Helps keep my hair out of my eyes,” I say shortly.

It irritates me that he wanted to meet here. That means he’d been following me and Talia the whole time she’d been taking me through the city. I guess I should have expected that, given how he was waiting for me outside Talia’s home, but I still don’t like the idea of being followed. Worse, I don’t like the idea that I had no idea I was being followed.

He shrugs, gaze dropping from my new accessory. “Hope you didn’t eat too much. Eating a bunch of food isn’t a good idea right before training. Would be a waste to throw it up.”

“Shouldn’t have asked to meet here then,” I say, polishing off the last of my bowl. I set it down with a content sigh. “Let’s go.”

Cyros slips off his stool and back into the flow of people, and I hurry to catch up.

“What am I learning next?” I ask, knocking shoulders with some of the passersby as Cyros forges a path against the flow of traffic. “Running up a wall? Backflips? Swords? Shadow magic?”

“Do you have shadow magic?” Cyros asks me.

Echo?

[Negative.]

“Uh, no.”

“Then we’ll stick with the basics,” Cyros says. “All the fanciest weapons and magic won’t mean much if you’re dead at the end of a job. Living to fight another day should always be your number one priority.”

If only he knew how appropriate that advice has become.

“One of the most important skills you can learn,” Cyros continues, “is slipping away.”

And just like that, he ducks around a stranger, and I lose him.

Crap! I jump after, pushing around the stranger. The flow of people passes me on both sides, and I snap my head around, trying to catch a hint of Cyros’s black cloak. I pick up my pace, knocking into people as I press ahead, but he’s gone. All it had taken was an instant.

A hand taps my shoulder.

“That was pathetic,” Cyros says from behind me.

I whip around. “How did you do that? Did you go invisible again?”

“I can’t go invisible,” Cyros says. “And no, I didn’t use my camouflage. That spell only works around plants, anyway. I just did what you’re not doing.”

“Which is?”

Cyros steps around me and begins ducking through the crowd once more. He sidesteps a passerby, then slips past the next. “Displaying bodily awareness,” he says.

“Bodily—I’m aware of my body,” I object, shouldering after him.

“If you are, then stop knocking into every other person you pass,” Cyros says. “Don’t fight the crowd, slip through it. Watch three people ahead. Plan your route, angle your body, and flow through them.”

“That sounds like more than just bodily awareness,” I grumble.

“It’s awareness of your own, and others,” he admits. “Like a game of stones, you can’t just make each move independently of the next; you need to be planning ahead, predicting your opponent’s moves. Let’s try again. Keep up.”

Once more he glides ahead, and once more I struggle to follow. I try to do what he suggested, watching the other people around me, trying to predict their movements and step around them accordingly. And I do, for a moment—until I realize I’ve lost sight of Cyros again.

He taps me on the opposite shoulder, and I sigh.

The game of cat and mouse continues for nearly an hour as we weave through the city. I get better—a lot better—but he still manages to slip away from me each time.

Finally, he stops at the edge of an alley, and I pause for a breather, leaning heavily against the wall.

[Stat Level Up: Agility,] Echo announces.

I smile faintly. Good. This combined with Soft Step has the potential to develop my stealth abilities. And if I could work in smoke potions…

“What are you smiling about?” Cyros asks. “You didn’t improve that much.”

“Every bit helps,” I say. “But I’d really like something more proactive. Less fleeing and chasing, more hands-on. I’ve been working on my knifework, but I’ve barely even held any other kind of weapon. Not to mention tools—lockpicks, tripwire, you know, ninja stuff.”

Cyros raises an eyebrow. “What’s a ninja?”

Uh. “I just mean, I want to learn more than the basics,” I insist. “As much as I can. As fast as I can.”

I steady my breathing, uncertainty bobbing to the surface for only a moment. No. I can’t falter now. If I want to kill a demigod, if I want to avoid being killed by an actual god, this is the best path forward. The only path forward.

“Take me to the Blackcloak Guild,” I tell him. “I want to join.”