And then I was alone with her in the darkness. For a moment I thought maybe it had all been a trick to find a way to be alone with me. I felt nervous, unsure of what to do. But she dispelled the notion quickly.

"What I have to show you may help you, but perhaps we would be better informed if you told me how you have been gaining attributes so quickly. Maybe my methods will work in tandem, maybe they will work against each other.," she said.

I hesitated. "Are you trying to get me to reveal my secrets first so you can scamper away with them?"

A flash of genuine hurt crossed her face, surprising me given her usual aloofness, but it soon melted into amusement. "I have a suspicion about you, Tiberius. I think I already know the secret of your growth."

I scoffed at that. Only if you think I hear a voice when I'm inside the suit.

Then she stunned me by saying, "I think you hear a voice when you're inside the suit."

I tried to keep a poker face, unreadable, but the jerk of my knees nearly giving way beneath me probably gave her some sense that she had hit the mark. "Amazing," she said, "I don't believe it."

I stammered, "How... how could you possibly know that?" My mind raced back, trying to recall when I might have revealed some hint of this. Only once with Morningstar, and once with Lauren, which I had quickly covered up, had there been any glimmer of a reveal. How could she possibly have known?

"Do you know the story of Danefer Ma'at-Ra?" she asked.

It seemed a ridiculous question to ask; who didn't know the stories of Danefer, the Crownless King, a Sword of the strange Southern lands from long centuries ago. "Of course I know of him."

Then I considered, he had been a Sword of Miami, and Katya was a princess, the daughter of their queen. Katya strolled around me, acting coy, enjoying my undivided attention, it seemed.

"You're well-tutored, Tiberius. Tell me about Miami. What do you know of my homeland?" she asked.

"Not as much as you might think. I know Miami is led by a queen, always a queen, always has been since the start of history."

Katya asked, "And how is the next queen chosen?"

"I'm not sure. She's a daughter of the last queen, isn't she?"

Katya nodded. "Yes, but Miami has no kings. Where does her father come from?"

I blushed. "The Queen keeps, uh... male..."

Katya giggled. "The Queen has consorts, often many of them, and though she might have many sons and daughters, it is rare for any two of them to share the same father." She savored my discomfort at the topic.

"I don't know where this is going..."

Katya said, "In the time when Danefer Ma'at-Ra was Sword of Miami, he was a consort of the Queen, except I should say, he was the consort of the Queen."

My eyebrows went up. "Since that time, all the royal lines have been descended from Danefer Ma'at-Ra," Katya said.

"So you..." I trailed off.

She smiled. "I am born of my mother, descended from all the old Queens, and Danefer Ma'at-Ra is my ancestor."

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I whistled, impressed at this claim. Then I frowned. "But what has that got to do with anything?"

She stood, smiling, her arms clasped behind her, swaying back and forth like a little girl. Sometimes she could be so aloof and unconcerned with projecting her femininity that it was disconcerting to see her so playful, so girlish.

"Danefer Ma'at-Ra was possibly the greatest Griidlord ever to live," she said.

I nodded. "Possibly, though he never wore the Griid-Crown..."

"He never chose to wear it," she interrupted. "He was a mystery even to his queen, to his companions. He was driven by strange whims. He won fortunes of Orbs for the city, and Miami never feared intrusion as long as he held the Sword there. In his time, as for much of time, Miami reigned sovereign over the lands of the South."

I nodded again. The stories were mixed with myth and often contested in my time, but there was always a vein of oddness to the decisions made by the legendary Danefer.

Katya continued, "But we, the royal line, his family, know things about Danefer Ma'at-Ra that few others do."

Growing impatient, I said, "Things relevant to you guessing I have voices in my head."

Katya smiled, tutted me, and shook her head. "Not in your head, Tiberius. You don't believe that either. My ancestor heard the voice of the suit when he wore it."

I was startled by this. She said, "He attributed much of his success to following the advice of the voice. It trained him faster, revealed secrets of the Griid-Suit that others couldn't guess at. From the moment you used your beam, gaining the attribute faster than any contestant for a suit has done in living memory, maybe in all of history, I suspected straight away."

She walked up to me, standing very close. My heart pounded, my skin pulsed at her closeness.

"The Griid chose Danefer Ma'at-Ra," she said softly. "It spoke to him, and now it's speaking to you too."

I was flustered, unsure if I should argue or deny it. It would be such a relief for someone else to know, but she was a competitor still, despite our arrangement here. I had little to offer her in terms of secrets, and I had committed to sharing, so I said, "It does speak to me."

She was giddy at this, "Amazing, you're chosen by the Griid, I knew it!"

"I've been chosen to struggle to survive at the very edge of being eliminated every round," I said.

She dismissed my words with a hand, "No more, that was the old Tiberius. The Tiberius I saw today is already a favorite to win. The oddsmakers only put Lance ahead of you. Some put Gideon, Lauren, and myself above you, but not the majority, I wager. You announced yourself today; your power was amazing and sudden. And you have the voice. Do you think Lance has the voice in his ear?"

I suppressed a laugh. I anything I thought the voice didn’t like Lance at all.

"Tiberius, you know what this means. This means that you could win the Sword, but more than that, you could forge your own legend. Winning the suit is just the beginning. It is what you do as a Griidlord that defines you."

"Maybe I should just try to win the Sword first," I said.

She nodded, "Good, that's right."

Katya stepped even closer. I could nearly smell her skin. She said, "I can teach you a method of meditation," she said, her voice soft yet filled with a sense of purpose. "It’s something passed down in my family, something that helped Danefer Ma'at-Ra attune to the voice more deeply."

I nodded. My heart was pounding at her proximity.

"I’m willing to learn," I said,.

Katya smiled. "Good. This meditation is not just about calming the mind, but about opening yourself up entirely to the voice of the Griid. Follow me."

She led me deeper into the small grove behind the arena, where the sounds of the city faded, replaced by the sound of the wind through the branches. A night bird, rousing early, chirped at us in annoyance.

She sat cross-legged on the ground and motioned for me to do the same.

"First," she said,, "you need to clear your mind of all distractions. Focus on your breathing, in and out, slow and steady."

I mimicked her, drawing deep breaths and trying to push away the thoughts of the competition, of Lance, of my father’s expectations.

"Good," she said, after a few minutes. "Now, close your eyes and imagine yourself becoming one with the Griid. Feel the suit around you. Even though you’re not wearing it, remember the sensations of it closing around you. Imagine the weight, the power, the connection."

"Listen for the voice," she said. "Invite it into your mind. Make it a part of you."

I hesitated for a moment, then mentally reached out, Are you there? I thought, feeling somewhat foolish.

But there was no answer.

We passed a long time in our practice. The sky darkened. I thought of Zeb, the ever present sentinel, waiting beyond the trees.

There was no danger of anyone putting a baby in anyone that evening.