Claude's start in the Island Gauntlet wasn't quite what he expected. No more reiterations needed.

It was messy. Unpredictable….. and most importantly, disheartening.

Then he was poisoned. Again. Then he was saved by her.

The ocean-golems were a distant memory. A thing to celebrate over after his explosive victory with his team on Ends-Island.

They fought as heroes. Valiant and without fear. Some even laughed in the face of danger— just like the stories.

And Claude's training felt like it paid off for once.

He was what he worked for.

The best.

"WOOHOOO! Keep on them strings Goren, I feel it in my soul!" Marion yelled from their sandy midnight dance floor as they all danced.

Up on the jungle cliffs, Goren and a few of his healer friends had their own all natural instruments. They played upbeat tunes with familiar but entirely unique sounds. Beats from boar-skin drums and cymbals made from construct-blades. Guitar riffs from vine and hemp bark-bass guitars. Sometimes it was dark and moody and other times it rose and turned the island into a pulsing wild thing full of life. All led by a seven foot tall bard that was apparently thirteen… and the greatest guitarist ever heard.

Claude danced. He danced alone all the time in the forest. Or with Frosty and Ray. But never with people.

That wasn't the case anymore.

"Oh yea, show me something, grey-bolt!" Isaac beckoned Claude to the center of the dance pit on the beach.

"That my new nickname?" Claude jumped over a shorter archer and rolled in the sand, keeping with the beat from above as he bounced and skipped through the sand. Injuries a distant memory.

"Man, yea!" He and Isaac shook up.

"Alright, we need one for you!" Claude danced with Isaac.

"How about, boost-boy?" Someone joked as they danced around them.

"I mean…."

"….."

Everyone around them burst into laughter. It wasn't even that funny. But their collective spirits rode the midnight clouds soaring overhead. It fought off the encroaching cold and ocean awakening.

"Grey-bolt and boost-boy…. Hahaha! Y'all sound like characters in those OldWorld graphic novels. New age bat-boy and bird-brains." Marion shimmied between them. He moved like he was swimming.

"Yea, but I don't like bats." Isaac replied.

"I like them…. They're misunderstood." Claude said as he moved to the beat, awkwardly laughing as a girl took him by the hand and joined him in remixing noble ball-room steps to fit the music.

"I would've clowned you for saying that before, bro. But after today, I'll hear you out on the bloodsuckers."

"Yea, what's what, grey-bolt?" Isaac questioned.

"It's not sticking, man…."

"Why? Cause he already has on—"

The most wicked chill ripped its way down his spine, nearly knocking him to his knees. His dance partner suddenly wanted to be anywhere else, disappearing into the crowd in a flash.

"Salam, liberator."

Claude turned around and found Naz standing alone in the crowd. She still wore her baggy leather pants, waist bag and near non-existent belly shirt. It fit both on the battlefield and dance floor.

"Hey…."

She danced in the distance. The bounce and sway in her hips only accentuated by the contours of her clothing. She didn't fight the way she danced. It wasn't hard and angular and sudden explosive cuts. She was all smooth and lithe. Incredibly rhythmic in her movements. Like a snake climbing a tree, she coiled and twisted and her muscles swam beneath the brown waves of her skin perfectly.

"What the— go dance with her!" Marion shoved him.

Claude stumbled forward and tripped— suddenly back to his old self.

Naz leaned into the blunder and suddenly they had their arms around eachother.

Whistles and childish giggles erupted. Someone told Goren to play slow music.

Suddenly they were rocking like the oceans in low tide. Fire and lightning element users encased their elements in their auras, sending ambient light shows across the skies.

"I told you they would warm up to you." Naz said in his ear.

"You did. Thanks for the back-up out there."

"This is what we do."

"This is what we do." Claude liked the sound of it.

"So, what House do you wish to join, future champion?" Naz asked as she gave Claude the que to hold her low back as they executed a dip. From there she watched the leaderboard bloom across the sky.

"I didn't think about that."

"Most would go for the top. Straight to Ronin. The Onslaught Guild is recognized around the world for its strength and connections."

"I don't know…. There's questions I need answers to. Skills I want to grow— I don't know if I simply want to learn from the strongest. I want to learn from what fits best." Claude said.

"There are no beast-tamers in The Nine. Do you plan to be the first?" Naz looked into his eyes, smiling as if she was joking but he knew she wasn't. She was taking him serious. She wasn't saying what he couldn't do like the knight at Beargrins blades. She wasn't commenting on his scars like the upperclassmen. She wasn't saying he was weak like the woman in his nightmares.

"Yea…. I'll be the first." That was never a thought.

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"Do not forget me on the way up." Naz winked.

"How would I? You're right next to me." Claude joked.

"I am." Naz leaned forward and kissed him.

Nothing grotesque or unwanted to Claude's surprise.

Just a peck. But the effects were longer lasting.

She tasted like jungle berries and ocean water. His heartbeat hammered from inside his chest. Warmth spread down his limbs, making him sweat as they disconnected.

Naz giggled again and then cupped his face, as if she could see him floating from reality, as if she needed to hold him to the ground, "Dance with me!"

And so he did.

He didn't know how long it was. He wasn't with her the whole time, but when he was, the night felt... fluid in nature. Reality wasn't so set in stone. The sand gave beneath his steps more. The winds felt fuller— of more substance. The night sky shifted and waned. Borealis artistry moving like ghosts of the skies wishing to join them in their partying. Other times he was with other students. The crowd beat with the same pulse. One heart pumping the life-blood of dance into the entire student body.

It was beautiful.

It should've been.

He should've stayed.

But he couldn't.

It had been hours since then. He sat at the northern edges of the island. Barren landscapes at his back. Pockets of sand still wet and sunken from where ocean-golems stood their hurricaning ground.

He watched the tides rise and fall, reaching for his grass and leather booted feet. He counted the Tangents hovering over the oceans in the distance. Watching as they opened and creatures came out swinging, only to immediately be swallowed by glacial-sharks. Or imprisoned by tyrannical fish-men schools.

The world was always at war. Always uncertain and conflicted.

He felt perfectly in tune with it in that way. Even in all his stillness, his mind reflected the battlefield that was the Glorian island ecosystem.

"Do you wish to be alone?" Naz's voice was clear as the music died down and students welcomed a much needed sleep. Guard patrols who were sleeping during the party took up their posts in the distance.

"I….. I don't know." Claude replied.

"I think you do. Your answer is just one you do not want to give. If that is the case, I will not be long." Naz came over and took a seat.

"I enjoyed dancing with you." Claude bumped her shoulder. The action hurt him, reminding him who else he used to do it with.

"I know." Naz smiled. "You dance how you fight, you know?"

"Really?" Claude asked.

Naz nodded, "You hesitate at first. You do not trust your eyes. You smell and you listen. You poke and prod. Once your certain, your face changes... you let loose. You become him."

She pointed to the leaderboard. To his name.

"Well, you don't dance how you fight at all." Claude added.

"Is this a compliment?"

Claude nodded, "You do both differently. But both are…..very good."

They shared a quite laugh. It died down fast.

"What troubles you, liberator?" Naz asked as she stretched out her legs, letting the rising tide soak her boots.

"That." Claude said. "I'm... I got lucky. You saved me from dying. Then I came here. It's fun and just like I dreamed THIS should be. I got lost in it. Forgot the reality of everything else. Students died. My friends are out there — where it's not like this. Not like the books. Just like she said. She kept saying it. She could be getting beat every day. And here I am, dancing….. laughing… kissing you."

Naz side eyed him, looking like a rattlesnake who's tail was just nudged, "Do you have regrets?"

"No. I have guilt."

"What is that?"

Claude had almost forgotten she was from across the globe where they spoke what had to be an intensely different language.

"It's like….. uhm, when you know you're doing something wrong— that feeling you get. You know what I'm talking about?"

Naz looked up into the sky as she pondered. Her ponytail of wild dreadlocks hovered above the sand. "No… I do not."

"Well, It's what I feel."

"Is it all you feel?"

"I also feel driven. I'm back. It was too good to be true. I'm leaving in the morning to free my wave of students." Claude sat up straighter.

Naz sighed and turned over in the sands so her crossed legs faced him along with her face. "Your…. guilt, seems to be intent on making you lose when victory is the otherwise the only way."

"This isn't a game, Naz."

"It is all a game. Life is a game. We are all players. You are choosing to play with less than all of your options. You aren't choosing to be free. Because of this… guilt."

"What do you mean?"

"I ask you to look to the sky again."

Claude did.

"Do you see your name?"

"I do."

"Now where is mine?"

Claude never even thought about it. Her name was nowhere.

A chill crept up his spine. "Is she a hex-blade construct….. can they do that. We're alone. She has her bag— I don't know what's in there. I have—"

"Ask me my full name."

"…. What is your full name?"

"Nasreen Cheone."

"Oh…." Now that she said it, it was intensely obvious. He let out a sigh of relief. "Your last name doesn't sound like it's from The Levant."

"It's not. I am half Sunlandian. Actually, I'm probably a distant relative of Isaac."

"What??"

"The Cheone Warrior-Women are a tribal-guild comprised of all the female offspring of The Lion throughout Sunlandian royal history. They run a patriarchy. They mold kings and breed with groups of strong outsider women made into prides — the female relatives back home developed a system of their own after being cast out. Guardians of The Nile. My mother was once one of them. I think now they work within the Royal family, though. Isaac's father is a progressive king."

"The Nile….. that's where the Beast-Lasher's operate." Claude mumbled without meaning to.

Naz nodded, "My uncle was one for eight years. He used to take me down the endless river to witness beasts you couldn't imagine. Mere movements could end entire bloodlines and they would not sleep any different."

Claude suddenly wanted to pick her brain for hours. But then he remembered.

"Why did you ask about my name?"

"Because you aren't getting it." Naz explained, "You wish to go free your people on your own. It's admirable, but why would a king engage in battle without his soldiers? Being the strongest should be freeing….yet you run to embrace a future in chains.You are an Island-Lord. You must act like it….. like how I know you can."

Claude shifted uncomfortably in the sands, "Woah hold on— that's you. These are your people, they look up to you. Naz, I just watched kids jump off a cliff for you. I jumped off for you."

"You jumped because you are brave. And after today they all see it. They see what I did before."

"I'm not taking this from you." Claude stood his ground, half expecting a strike. That's what Ursula would do.

"That's because you can not take from me. It's not what I'm asking. Any and all kingdoms fall when they give all power to one. Humans are incorrect. We must share power to hold it. Why choose to have one king when you can have two?"

Naz stood up suddenly. The winds blew, making her hair flow in the wind like outstretched claws of black and gold. Her jewels dangled from her ears and around her neck as she held a hand out to him.

"Stay, as leader. You still heal faster than I would have thought….. I wonder what your insides are made of. Tommorow we will hold a meeting. WE will. You and I. Tell them your plans, we will tell you ours. From there our chances of liberating your people will only grow."

Claude watched her for a moment.

Naz looked around, "Reality isn't all darkness. This is not too good to be true. Life is about good and bad. Take both. They are all materials to build with."

Quickly, he took her hand.

"You're something else, Nasreen."

"So are you."

They were close again. Within kissing distance. Claude's guilt wasn't entirely gone and his nerves couldn't handle much more. So he rambled. His mind was a nervous timebomb triggered by circumstance.

"Oh also, you've been around strong and intelligent people most of your life right?" As Claude asked he strained his senses, looking around for hex-blade ordinance. He was already under suspicion of dark god supervillainy. Whatever came next could either be depressing or….. super depressing.

"Depends on the definition." Naz replied flatly.

Nothing noticed. He took a step away from the water anyway. Naz followed. His next words came quieter.

"Have you ever heard of people experiencing irregular labeling in their system?" Claude's heart hammered for a new reason. Not one of butterflies and rainbows but dark-eaters and witch-hunters.

Naz squinted at him, making her long eyelashes flutter, "How so?"

"Oh I don't know….. I just remember reading something about defects in a system coding book. Like for example, what does it mean if your race status is human…. But as a defect."

Naz blinked once as she squinted at him. Her sly smile returned. That time he had no idea why. He wasn't as confident in what he saw.

"That usually means you were not supposed to be human. It is a defect because it is a flaw in your genetics. You became human only because you failed to be something else."

Claude accidentally swallowed his saliva down the wrong pipe.

The coughs came in excess. All the while his mind scrambled further and beads of sweat bloomed on his brow.

"N-No… not me. ERHM— I was just asking as an example." Claude fumbled.

"Oh I know." Naz replied, "My English is not the best perhaps I spoke in the wrong tense."

Claude straightened, "Yea maybe…. Anyway, let's get some rest."

"Yes. Let's."