“No way you can break these all in one hit, Lalek.” Channei stacked four slabs of glistening black stone on top of each other between two chairs.

Lalek grinned. “Wanna bet? I can beat Yayaba in an arm wrestle no problem.”

Kolo raised an eyebrow. “Yayaba?”

“Lightningfishers don’t have arms, Lalek.” Channei shook her head.

“All right, an arm and wing wrestle!” Lalek paced back and forth. “You really think I can’t do it, huh?”

“Breaking Rizval’s crystal’s not like splitting a plank, remember?” said Channei.

Kolo muttered under her breath. “Bet I could do it easy.”

They stared at her. Lalek glanced at Channei and then back at Kolo. “What was that?”

Kolo smiled. “I bet I could do it easy.”

Lalek laughed. “All right, you got me there, I never would’ve…wait, are you serious?”

Kolo nodded. “Totally.”

“So, Lalek, are you doing it or not?” Channei asked.

“Oh, no way. I wanna see this.” Lalek stepped aside and gestured to the black crystal slabs. “All yours, little devil.”

Kolo nudged past the muscular woman. She eyed the challenge. The slabs were thicker than they had looked from far away. She had a split second of second thoughts, but when she looked over her shoulder, Lalek and Channei were both watching. Kolo glared at the stones. Now she had a point to prove.

“Wait, hold on.” Channei interrupted. “What’s the bet?”

“Oh, I’ve got one, I’ve got one.” Lalek bounced on her toes. “If Kolo can’t break those stones with one hit, she has to wash all of our socks.”

Channei shook her head. “Boring.”

Kolo concentrated all her power in one hand. She raised her arm above her head.

Channei sputtered. “Wait, hold on, we need to…whoa!”

Kolo focused everything into that strike and shattered all four slabs of black crystal. Her head jerked back with the impact and an earsplitting ringing shot through both her ears. She yelled and could barely hear her own voice. The floor rushed toward her. It was scattered with rubble.

Channei grabbed her and steadied her. “You did it. You really did it!”

Her voice snapped Kolo out of the shock. “Huh?”

Lalek clapped her huge hands. “That was amazing!”

Kolo flushed, then laughed so hard it made her belly ache. The other girls cackled right along with her.

Channei elbowed her. “So, Kolo, what’s the biggest thing you’ve broken with that mighty fist?”

“Biggest thing I’ve broken?” Kolo beamed. “Azvalath.”

Channei wheezed.

Lalek snorted and tears spilled down her cheeks. She patted Kolo on the back with a huge hand. “Now that’s a badge of honor!”

Kolo almost fell again from the force of Lalek’s touch.

“Say, do we get to rough him up too now that he’s been demoted?” Channei asked.

“After what Master Xigon did to him? Sounds mean,” said Lalek. “Wait, Kolo, did you hear about that?”

Kolo shrugged. “What happened?” She knew he’d been unconscious for four days, but still didn’t know the full details.

“Get this. Master Xigon gave our man a rather heart-stopping scare.” Lalek plopped herself down in one of the chairs and nearly knocked it over. “And I mean that quite literally.”

“Master Xigon, redefining The Look for however long he’s been around.” Channei yawned. “Wonder if Azvalath still has a thing for him.”

Kolo’s head snapped up. “What?”

“Channei, that was never proven!” Lalek crossed her legs. “Or do you have a little something for him, and you’re trying to dump the blame on Azvalath again?”

Someone spoke up from the other side of the door. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear any of that.”

All three of them jumped. Kolo grabbed Channei’s arm. “Master Xigon, we…”

“Food is ready,” he said. “That’s all I came to say.”

“Good, I’m starving.” Channei ruffled Kolo’s white hair. “You need a haircut.”

“I think my hair is perfect,” said Xigon.

“I was talking to Kolo!” Channei charged forward and threw the door open. “I thought all you came to say was that it’s dinnertime.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Xigon leaned against the wall and tapped the floor with one crutch. “You’re the ones giving me plenty to run with.”

Kolo followed Channei. Lalek half-laughed and half-barked at Xigon. “Do you get that much of a thrill from embarrassing us?”

“Damn right I do.” Xigon maneuvered around them. He looked down at Kolo. “Making friends?”

Kolo thought about it, then nodded. “I guess.”

“Better if you do. They’re your new roommates as of tonight,” said Xigon.

“Great,” said Kolo. “Who has to sleep on the floor?”

Xigon chuckled. “That’s up to you three.”

When they arrived at the table, Kolo’s mouth watered again. The soup smelled rich and fantastic. The room itself, however, was very hot. Between the steaming soup, the fireplace, and the sudden crowd, Kolo was melting in her own sweat within seconds. She looked by the door and saw a coat rack. She tried to hang hers up, but it fell to the floor in a heap. Kolo didn’t bother trying to fix it. Channei grabbed a seat at the table and patted the chair next to her. “C’mon, Kolo.”

Kolo came and sat down next to Channei. The shapeshifter smiled. Her golden hair was all frizzy. Kolo couldn’t help but wonder if what she saw was Channei’s real face, or another disguise. The thought unsettled her, but she did her best to smile back.

“I’m dead serious.” Lalek sat down at the other end of the table, next to the person who looked neither male nor female, or perhaps both at once. “One hit. Pow. Shattered like thin ice.”

Rizval sneered. “Bull-sh…”

Master Qila interrupted. “Watch your language.” She ladled soup into bowls and passed them around. “Anyone who volunteers to clean up gets priority on seconds.”

Azvalath grabbed a bowl. “I cleaned the kitchen, does that count?” He sat down on Kolo’s other side. Kolo stiffened and inched away from him. Phantom pains shot through her left torso even though the wound had healed rapidly. Even if she weren’t still bleeding, how could he sit next to her like it was nothing?

Channei reached around Kolo and prodded him. “Azvalath, you sure you aren’t dead? You sure reek like a dead thing.”

Kolo shook her head. Did Channei not understand? Or was she trying to break the tension? If the latter were the case, she wasn’t doing a good job of it. Azvalath folded his arms. “Shush.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I can’t.” Channei leaned back and put one leg up. “You no longer hold any commanding authority, remember?”

“That doesn’t mean you get to be a pest!” Azvalath smacked his spoon on the table. Broth sloshed out of his bowl. Channei stuck her tongue out.

Xigon shot them a warning glare. “Mind your manners, you two.”

“Right! Where are my manners?” Channei handed Kolo a bowl of soup and a spoon. “Here you go.”

Kolo took a deep breath. It smelled delicious. She dipped her spoon in and took a bite. It was so hot it burned her tongue, but she didn’t care.

Something nudged against her foot. Kolo looked under the table and gasped. There was an enormous sabretooth cat curled on the floor. It gnawed at a haunch of raw red meat.

Channei noticed Kolo looking down. She bent to scratch the beast’s head. “Hello, pretty girl.” She turned to Kolo. “This is Jai-Lag. She’s not exactly your neighbor’s cat, is she?”

Kolo shook her head. The longer she stayed with these people, the stranger they became. She snuck a glance at Azvalath. He had not even touched his food. His face was pale, his hands were clenched up, and he bit his lower lip.

Kolo swallowed hard. She knew it was ridiculous to be afraid of Azvalath. But was it really? He was her monster. He had chased her for so long. He’d stabbed her. She had almost died. And there he was, sitting next to her at dinner looking troubled, like he was the one who had been through a nightmare. Kolo had an urge to laugh.

Azvalath glared at her. “What?”

Kolo’s heart hammered. She wiped sweat off her forehead. “Are you all right?”

Azvalath’s eyebrows rose in surprise for a second, then he scowled again. “No.”

“Why not?” Kolo asked.

Azvalath hunched over the table. “I thought coming home would feel good. But no, it’s been an ordeal. The masters are treating me like a disobedient child, and I can’t stand it.”

Kolo looked over to where the masters sat. Qila and Xigon were next to each other, but she noticed they, too, looked stiff and wary of one another. “Sounds irritating,” she said in a vacant tone.

“That’s an understatement.” Azvalath rapped his fingers on the table. “Hm, you notice it too, then?”

“Notice what?” Kolo asked.

“They might look happy.” Azvalath murmured under his breath. “They might look like they’re friends, Qila and Xigon. That’s because they have an image to maintain.”

Kolo watched them. The old woman and the towering man both laughed at something. Qila put her hand down on the table. It brushed against Xigon’s for an instant. He jerked his hand away. All the while, they kept talking and smiling like nothing was wrong, but there was clear unrest. “An image, huh?” Kolo pursed her lips.

“You and I aren’t the only ones with a silent war going on,” said Azvalath. He kept his voice as quiet as possible. “I wish I never knew how much the masters actually hate each other.”

Kolo squinted. “Do they really?”

“Yeah. I don’t know the full story.” Azvalath leaned back. “A word of advice, if I may?”

Kolo looked at him. “What is it?”

“You’ve already won our war, so stop fighting it.” He touched where Kolo had punched him before. “You’ve given me hell, and I surrender.”

“I gave you hell?” Kolo growled. “You’re really one to talk, sabretooth.”

Azvalath grabbed her shoulder. “You and I also have an image to maintain, believe it or not. So, if you still feel like you must conquer me, then do it with your mind and not with your fist.”

Kolo scoffed. “Conquer you? You’re not worth it.”

Azvalath nodded. “You’re learning.”

Lalek leaned over and pointed to Azvalath’s soup. “Are you gonna eat that?”

“No, go ahead.” He slid his bowl to the muscular woman. “Anyway, Kolo, I heard you’re moving in with Lalek and Channei.” He smirked. “Good luck sleeping ever again.”

“You can shut up,” said Channei.

“So can you,” said Azvalath. “Maybe then we’ll all sleep well for once.”

Kolo stood up. “It’s too hot in here.” She grabbed her bowl and left. She could only handle so much, but at least the soup was good. Better than small talk with her monster.

She sat down on the floor in the hallway. It was much cooler and much easier to breathe. Kolo looked around and noticed for the first time that the walls were covered in paintings. Not simple graffiti, either, but marvelous depictions of beautiful and terrible things. She spotted a sabretooth cat chasing an eagle across the stone. Then, a little ways down, the two predators clashed in a fury of talons and teeth. Was that Jai-Lag? Or, perhaps, it could be Azvalath.

  Who, then, was the eagle? Kolo thought for a while as she ate. Maybe she could be the eagle. Maybe she could soar one day.

  When her bowl was empty, Kolo set it down and began to explore the paintings further. She found a proud stag, its antlered head tipped up to meet the eyes of an immense serpent. The same stag and serpent appeared all over the walls once she looked closer, along with a few other animals. A bull charged one way, then another, then toward the sabretooth cat, then the two charged together. At one point, a fox snuck its way into the pictures and never left.

  Sometimes there was a crocodile. It didn’t appear very often, but whenever it did, it stole the attention away from every other creature on that part of the wall. The fox sometimes put on masks to impersonate other creatures. Only in those first two images did she find her eagle. Kolo pressed her hand to the cold stone and traced the wingtips with her fingers. The smoothness of it soothed her.

  Something flimsy hit her from behind. Kolo jumped. “Hey!”

  “You forgot your coat,” said Azvalath.

  “Go away,” she grumbled.

  Azvalath grabbed her bowl. “You’re welcome!”