Tala sat in a sturdy—yet still comfortable—chair across from Rane.

The room was away from anywhere public, though there were some windows that looked out over Alefast from their high vantage.

They had both given their new inscriptions two full months in order to have time to set properly and become properly intermeshed with their natural magics.

Even so, they were both a bit nervous as it was their first time, but they were excited too.

-You could still lay down. From what I can find most people prefer it that way.-

Tala sent Alat a negative feeling in response to that. No. I think sitting up will be better. I think I’ll feel less vulnerable like this.

She’d even made sure that she was facing the door, for all the good that would do.

Her focus would be entirely subverted soon enough. So she doubted that the direction she faced or the position she was in would matter in the least.

-I’ll be monitoring our threefold sight’s volume of perception and keeping it from you so that you can focus. I’ll let you know if you aren’t safe or if there are any potential threats.-

I know… Maybe laying down would be better… but she was already there, already in place, and Rane was ready as well.

He smiled over at her. “Are you nervous too?”

She nodded. “Yeah…”

Master Grediv—the only other person in the room—sighed. “There is nothing to be nervous about. You will be perfectly safe and unless you are a true genius—beyond even what we’ve already observed—you will be back out sooner than you’d prefer.” He smiled. “I suspect you’ll be begging for round two all too soon.”

“That may be true.” She shifted slightly, then nodded. “Alright. I’m ready.”

Across from her, Rane leaned his head back against its rest. “Ready.”

Spellforms blazed to life both in the room as a whole and on the chairs themselves, and Tala felt magics invading her mind.

There was a moment of panic in which she almost lashed out to destroy the incoming power, but Alat was there, calming her from within.

-Hey now, Tala. You know what this is. This is expected. You are safe.-

Her breathing was rapid nonetheless. I know. I know. This is the War Games. This will give me insight into how other Mages wield their power. It should also, eventually, allow me to test my own power against things and opponents that are too rare to usually come across, or too dangerous to clash with unaware or unprepared. It will allow me to learn and fail without any lasting consequences.

-That’s right.-

The world around her went… empty as Alat took over and blocked out Tala’s threefold sight. It was as if all of existence had been masked, or she pulled out of it entirely.

Additionally, the magics permeating her mind took over her connections to the external, hijacking them to feed her other information.

Tala blinked and found herself standing on a featureless plain.

She looked down and saw a body holding up her head, but it wasn’t hers. Instead, she was a much taller woman, built for battle and lacking any magics.

Tala felt a shudder run through herself as her mind momentarily rebelled.

There were no magics, no inscriptions, not even any natural magics. The feeling was foreign, alien, and odd to the extreme.

Master Grediv’s voice came to her a moment later, seeming to echo across the plains with no discernable source, “We’ve found that giving Archons a magically empty body for their first scenarios helps them to adjust before we impose differing magics for them to have to acclimate to and seize control of.”

She nodded. That made sense. “So, why am I taller?”

“That is simply the generic female we have set up. Do you need me to alter it to more closely mirror your actual proportions? We will be changing you to mimic the size and build of whoever’s magic you are using later on, elsewise we’d have to come up with entirely new schema in every instance, and no one has time for that.”

She thought for a long moment, then shook her head. “No, but thank you for offering.”

Weapons suddenly blossomed into being around her. “Choose what you’d like to use.”

Tala easily grabbed a glaive that was almost identical to Flow’s glaive form.

“Alright, your weapon is chosen. Let us begin.”

The world fuzzed around her, and she was in a forest clearing.

From the darkness of the woods around her, she heard the growling hiss of a large feline predator.

She strained her eyes, but she couldn’t see her opponent. She couldn’t pinpoint where the threat would come from, and even the noise was such that she couldn’t tell where its source was exactly.

This left her spinning, trying to keep well balanced and prepared for an attack to come at any time from any direction.

It… didn’t work.

She didn’t even hear the creature lunge before it slammed into her back, bearing her to the ground even as it bit into the back of her neck ‘killing’ her.

Tala jerked up, out of the chair, gasping and scrambling at her back, but of course, there was nothing there.

Master Grediv was beside her in an instant. “You are safe. You are here. Calm. Be easy.”

Tala had already gathered her wits and stopped flailing, but she appreciated his words nonetheless. She hugged herself and shuddered. “That was awful.”

He nodded. “That is the experience of most mundanes who get separated from others in the Wilds.”

She grimaced at that. “Yeah, I know that to be mundane and lost is to be dead… I could have done without the visceral experience though…”

To take her focus off her recent experience, she glanced toward Rane. His eyes were moving under his eyelids, but his breathing was level, and he seemed in complete control.

“He seems to be doing well.”

Master Grediv shrugged. “He entered the woods almost immediately rather than staying in the clearing. If the goal is simply to survive as long as possible, it wasn’t a bad choice, but it definitely tilts the eventual outcome in the predator’s favor. Even now, the cat is stalking him. It will only take a bit longer in order to… Ah. There it is.”

Rane jerked, and his eyes shot open with an accompanying gasp. “Rusting puma!”

Tala felt herself smile slightly at that, and her humor was helped by Rane shaking his head even as he shook with laughter.

“That was… that was awful.” He was laughing even so. “I can’t believe how terrible I was at that.”

She nodded her agreement. “Yeah, me too… What’s the purpose of this again?”

Master Grediv gave a long-suffering smile.

Tala hesitated, then sighed. “I apologize, that sounded really ungrateful. Thank you, Master Grediv, for setting this up for us. I’m feeling a bit muddled. Can you remind me why this is such a good thing? If you would be so kind.”

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He huffed a laugh at that but answered nonetheless, “First, as I said, it is to prime you for a change of magics, even if just cognitively. There is the ancillary benefit of connecting you back to the experience of mundanes. Though, in the case of you two, that is far less critical than with Refined who are already centuries old.”

That did make sense. Even so, she was still mentally reeling, even if only a bit. So, she decided to just ask, “But… why do we want to be able to change magics?”

Master Grediv gave her a searching look, then shrugged, not seeming to mind a rehashing of the reasoning, “Well, for one it will allow you to test out variations on your own magics—if you so desire. But the primary reason we use it is to give Refined a deeper understanding of the various magics that others can have, how they function, what their limits are, how to use them in battle, and how to counter them when they are used against you. It also allows you to face more dangerous variations of magical creatures in a controlled environment, giving you a greater chance of survival if you encounter them in the real world.”

“So… it’s mainly a cognitive exercise, with extra oomph?” That made a lot of sense to her, actually.

“In a sense, yes. Generally speaking, we’ve found that Refined who go through this training—especially those who keep up the regular maintenance of the skills—have a higher rate of survival, and tend to advance closer to Paragon, on average. The insight gained helps across the board, really.”

She sighed, already suspecting she wouldn’t like the answer, but she asked anyways, “Right… why didn’t we start me on this a year ago? Assuming it was available then.”

The Paragon gave a nonchalant shrug, “It might have been, though I don’t know that you were in the right mindset for it, after your arcane experience. That aside though, you were working on a vast number of other projects as well as training and acclimating yourself to the position of Defender. We probably could have, but it would have been one more thing. I believe our last discussion highlighted that you didn’t need one more thing.” He then smiled. “Also, as a Refined, you don’t exactly have a shortage of time in the long view. Delaying this until now kept your load lighter and will still convey the same benefits, if not more so because it isn’t crammed in among other things.”

She grunted at that. It was a fair assessment. She focused back on the War Games, then. “So, are we adjusted now? We can try out other magics?”

The Paragon chuckled, shaking his head. “Oh, no, not at all. You will each need to defeat the singular predator before we can move on. It is already a fairly good showing that you have actually acclimated to the false-self within the simulation.”

She felt her eye twitch, but controlled her reaction, keeping her tone level. “And what will we be doing then? What will happen after we defeat this singular predator?”

“Then, the two of you will fight side by side against an unknown number of adversaries. When that is complete, you will face different opponents both alone and side by side.”

Tala took a long slow breath before asking—forcing sweetness into her tone, “And when will we be given other magics to work with?”

“After you overcome a total of twenty-five scenarios. That is what we have found is needed to fully convince the mind that your illusory, other self shouldn’t match the real you.” He gave her a comforting smile. “This really is the fastest way we know of. You can treat it like a bit of a game, many of our Refined do in the end. It can be relaxing in a way.”

She grumbled a bit, but it did make sense… at least a bit. But it raised another question, “What about the Refined who aren’t very good at mundane combat? I know Rane and I are melee fighters at our core, but most Defenders aren’t.”

Master Grediv smiled in return. “That is an excellent question. We also have non-combat scenarios, but I think it would take you longer to make a series of mundane crafts. I could also throw you into a wrestling arena, striving for the championship or set you to run an obstacle course in a set time.” He shrugged. “There are innumerable variations and options, but this seemed like the one best suited to the two of you.”

That was actually a rather fair assessment. “Alright. Thank you for the explanation… let’s try this again.”

Rane nodded. “Yeah. I feel like I can learn quite a bit in there, even if having a shorter reach is more difficult.”

Tala almost laughed. Of course he’s shorter in the simulation than in real life.

A smile still pulled at her lips, and she somehow felt a bit better about the whole process. With that lingering good attitude, the second round began.

* * *

Tala did not like fighting as a mundane, but she had to admit it did raise her opinion of the Caravan Guards quite a bit. They did this in real life… on purpose.

It probably didn’t help that she strove to use the heavily hampered Way of Flowing Blood to accomplish her victory.

She hadn’t felt her body scream at her in irritation to this extent in years. Still, it did help her iron out and then cement some elements of her glaive work that she realized that she’d been propping up through physical capacity and other less than ideal means.

Grudgingly, she admitted that she would probably ask to come in here with her own body-shape— without magic—so that she could finalize her work with the glaive then do the same with the sword and knife.

But that was for later.

She had finally managed to consistently face the massive, sleek cat as it tried to attack her, but that still left her facing a predator that was easily as big as she was. It wasn’t magical or arcanous, but it was far, far too aggressive to be a standard mundane beast.

She had gotten to the point that she was able to keep it at bay with her glaive, but that was where she had stalled. She couldn’t thrust too aggressively, or that might unbalance her and allow the cat to close with her. She couldn’t do sweeping cuts for the same reason.

It was quick, seemingly ducking and dodging with preternatural ease. There was no way a mundane feline was this slippery…

Or I’m just slow… Yeah, that was more likely to be the issue.

Still, she had scored several shallow cuts this round without taking any wounds in turn. Unfortunately, she was wearing out.

In an experience that was far too foreign to her of late—though it was becoming common in these simulations—she wasn’t just getting winded or a bit sore. No. She was nearly exhausted to the point that she was having a hard time moving her weapon.

Well, it seems that I can’t out fight it. My only option, then, is that I’ll have to out think it.

Just then, she stepped on yet another slick patch of forest which gave her an idea. Instead of wrenching herself to stay upright, she allowed herself to fall, gasping to sell the ruse.

Her glaive dropped to the ground still pointed at the beast, but seemingly out of the equation for the moment.

She felt a moment of weakness that almost made the faint feint all-too-real, but she hardened her resolve.

A more cautious predator might have hesitated, might have noticed that she still had an obvious, firm grip on her weapon, but this large cat was not cautious.

The aggression that Tala had counted on showed itself again, and the cat lunged forward. At the same moment, Tala heaved with everything she had to lift her glaive once again.

There was an incredibly satisfying sound of her blade punching through flesh and skittering off bones to align with the gaps and drive deeper. That was followed by a mildly disturbing gurgling hiss. It only took a moment more, and the beast was dead.

Tala opened her eyes in the real world grinning widely. “Yes!”

She rolled parts of her body even as she remained seated to move stiff joints and looked at the window… the dark window. She’d been at this all day. Well… rust.

Rane smiled over at her from his own chair. “Do you want to try working together? Or should we get some food, some sleep, and come at that challenge fresh tomorrow?”

She sighed. Of course he finished before I did… She didn’t let that get her down, though. “I think I could use some sleep, but let’s meet up early tomorrow morning to try our hand at the next scenario. It should be fun to be mundanes, partnering up.”

* * *

Tala stood beside a man who was just a bit taller than her, in a clearing deep within some unnamed woods.

If there are more rusting pumas, I might have a name for these rusting woods.

The man didn’t look like Rane at all, but she knew that he was Rane. He stood like Rane, and the way he carried his long sword was exactly what she would have expected from him. More than that, though, he felt like Rane in some intangible way that she simply couldn’t quantify.

He looked her way, speaking with Rane’s voice. “What?”

“You’re just obviously you.”

He chuckled. “Who else would I be?”

Her eyes narrowed. “A puma in disguise.”

His face twitched, and he looked around, doing a quick check for danger. “Oh, good. They aren’t here yet.”

Still, Tala and Rane could hear movement in the woods around them. The time for dillydallying was over.

Rane made the obvious suggestion first, “Back to back?”

She considered for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, but a few feet apart. I need to be able to wield my glaive without accidently hitting you.”

“Agreed.” He gave her an oddly familiar smile on the unfamiliar face.

Deciding it wasn’t worth focusing on, she simply smiled in return.

A moment later, they had put their backs toward one another while leaving a workable gap. Then, they waited.

What lunged out at them was not, in fact, a large cat.

As Tala jammed her glaive through its hideous face, taking it from the air before letting it fall and finishing it off with a driving thrust into the ground, she felt a wave of revulsion. She couldn’t help but express her disgust out loud, “Giant spiders? Really?”

Rane grunted in agreement, but then came to his former master’s defense, even if only slightly, “He did say that the enemies would be different…”

Tala was not having it, “Well, these things are ugly as rust. How many do you think—”

Rane let out a sharp exhale as he slashed one of the dog sized arachnids that tried to leap onto him with a silent lunge. “More than two, it seems. Focus outward, we can get angry at Master Grediv later.”

She tightened her grip on the shaft of her glaive, “Agreed.”