Tala, Rane, and Lisa walked from the breakfast place with full bellies and a lot on their minds.

Lisa seemed to be considering deeply the decision that was before him. Even so, as they reached a cross street, he turned to regard her. “I should let you get back on the road. You were leaving as I reached out to you, correct?”

“We were, yes.” She nodded in concession.

“Then, I shall begin negotiations and reach out to this Artia you mentioned. If she already has an established business, perhaps my services and inventory can buy a partnership with her. That would be preferred to beginning an ill-fated rivalry.”

Rane chuckled and Tala smiled at the joke.

Lisa gave a small bow. “Hopefully, the next time you come to Bandfast, I can leave with you. Master Michael and Mistress Jenna will likely attempt to keep me in Bandfast, but I doubt they will give me the concessions I would need in order to stay.” He regarded Tala for a long moment. “Assuming that the preliminary terms we’ve discussed do not change?”

“They should not. I do not wish to impose any sort of required knowledge sharing, though I do want to be able to talk about such things with you.”

“That is acceptable. We can hammer out the details in the coming months.”

“I would like that very much.”

He let out a long, contented sigh. “I do appreciate that you have a longer view of things than so many humans. Even many of your Archons are always in such a rush.”

“But of course. We have all the time that we need.” She gave a gentle smile. “It has been a pleasure, Honored Lisa.”

He bowed her way. “And you, Eskau Tala.”

Rane’s eyebrow twitched, but otherwise he didn’t comment.

Tala shook her head, fighting to keep any reaction from her face. “You know very well that I left that position behind.”

“Have you? An Eskau is the hand of justice and assistance within a hold, and the sword of retribution without. An Eskau is a protector, provider, and a symbol of authority. You may not be officially a part of a Major House any longer—though I think you’ll find that you technically are—but you are decidedly still filling the role—as it should be—for those here.”

Tala held her face stoic, allowing her through-spike illusion to snap into place and hiding the evidence. Even so, she didn’t let her features change even as she gestured and an exit appeared, leading back onto the street. “Until next time, Lisa.”

He seemed to notice something was off, but aside from a brief hesitation, he didn’t react to that directly. “Until next time.”

The portal closed hard on his heels, the fox having re-layered his human illusion over himself as he stepped out.

With an act of will, Tala and Rane were on the far side of the Irondale dimensional space in an instant.

Tala’s helm clapped into place around her head just as she screamed loud enough to be heard even through the layering protection.

The space around her head actually warped at the force and emotional weight of the contained scream.

She hauled back and slammed her fist into the edge of existence, turning her own hand into mush.

Alat noticed the edge of existence ripple at the impact, but simply logged the information for later. Tala was not in a place to focus on such things.

With the sound of a simple snap, her hand reformed, even as Rane wrapped his arms around her.

She curled in on herself within his embrace, her helmet vanishing as she let loose a flood of tears. She was trembling even as she pulled comfort from the strong arms around her. “Why does it still make me so angry? Why can’t I get away from them? It’s been more than four years… will I never escape the shadow of what they tried to twist me into?”

Rane’s quiet voice resounded through his chest even as it reached her ears. “Because they stole you away. You don’t like to be associated with them. The truth of it doesn’t matter. The flattering or unflattering nature of it doesn’t matter. You were hurt, and you usually do a wonderful job of moving past that, but the wound is still there.” He hesitated for a moment before tentatively adding, “Though… this is a stronger reaction than I would have expected.”

She shuddered. “I know. I know I’m being ridiculous, but it just came out of nowhere. It felt like lightning from a cloudless sky.” She shook her head and barked a laugh. “I just wasn’t expecting it and…”

After a moment’s silence, Rane squeezed her again. “And it blindsided you?”

She let out a shaking breath. “Yeah…”

“I’m so sorry, Tala.” His arms somehow felt like warm blankets, encircling her. It made no sense, as she could feel their distinct points of contact, but the sense of them was that of a warm blanket on a winter morning: comfort and safety.

With a few minutes to calm herself and think, she put her thoughts in order. “He didn’t mean anything cruel by it. Arcanes see the position as one of honor and respect—even arcanes outside of the cities and Major Houses. If I’d been expecting it… I think I would have been able to take it in that spirit.”

“But you weren’t.”

She shook her head against his chest. “Yeah.”

He squeezed her again. “Take all the time you need.”

She snuggled down, curling up in his arms. “Thank you, Rane.”

A kiss landed on the top of her head. “I am here, and I will be.”

* * *

Tala was so frustrated that she was seriously considering killing Master Grediv or whoever had actually designed these scenarios.

-No, you’re going to be fine.-

Nope. She was pretty sure she was going to kill him.

She ran through a battlefield, hiding among stalks of grass… because she was a mouse. She and Rane had finally decided to take the next step in the War Games, and this was the result.

The battlefield was some person’s sick idea of a challenge.

A thousand mice had been dumped into a field, at the same time close to a hundred cats had been released around the outside.

It had not taken long for the green stalks to be covered with red. Surprisingly, if cornered some of the mice did fight, but the most they ever did was hurt the cat eating them enough that the cat was a bit slower after that.

The obvious solution had been to charge toward the edge of the field to escape in the confusion. The issue? None of the other mice did so, and she could find no way of making them.

So, if she charged for the edge, she would be utterly exposed, and she would become a prime target for the much too well organized cats. They were working together almost as if part of a pack, rather than as the solitary creatures that they should be.

Regardless, she had to get out of the field to ‘win.’

So, she did her best to hover near the edges of the massacre.

Finally, as a tabby landed on a nearby rodent, Tala darted outward.

She’d done it! She’d snuck through the chaos and—

Stolen novel; please report.

Tala barely felt the beginning of fangs sinking into her neck before her vision went black, and she ‘woke up’ back to reality.

Her eyes turned toward the Paragon who was facilitating this experience, glaring at him. “What is the point of this?”

“To teach you alien senses and body parts. As a mouse, you have senses in completely different balances than as a human. Plus, your tail. You didn’t use your tail even once, except as unconscious means of balancing.”

Tala growled. “Rane has had Enar for less than a week, Master Grediv. Why do you think this is a good idea?”

“Three things.” Master Grediv held up three fingers. “First.” He dropped the first finger. “You aren’t Rane.”

She grimaced but didn’t interrupt.

“Second, you all came to me and said you were ready for the next step.”

Tala sighed at that. It was true. They’d come to the compound the day after returning from Bandfast.

“Third, Rane and Enar are doing fantastic. He is leaning on his alternate interface to translate the foreign mix of senses and to control his tail. It is you who are struggling with this relatively simple exercise.”

She narrowed her gaze. “There isn’t a way to win, is there?”

He gave a half-smile in which Tala could very much see the resemblance to Rane. “I told you, there are two potential win conditions.”

She sighed. “I know, I know. Get out of the field or survive because of my tail.”

He shook his head, holding up a finger. “No. Survive at least once because of your tail.”

She frowned. She had heard him say that, but she’d assumed that he meant ‘once’ as in one iteration of the scenario. “So, survive one attack?”

“One encounter, yes. But it must be solely because of the use of your tail, not because you decided to use your tail instead of your hand, or something like that.”

Tala grunted at that. “Well… fine. Put me back in.”

“As you wish.” He didn’t gloat or smirk. He simply did as she requested.

She didn’t succeed that day, even though she spent the whole morning leading up to their afternoon shift trying.

To be fair, Rane didn’t succeed either. He did do very well, but even with Enar’s direct involvement he had trouble actually using five limbs as five rather than just four with a spare. He also couldn’t seem to grasp how to use the tail in ways that his paws couldn’t work.

Tala was vindicated in her assertion, though. The scenario was inescapable.

After she’d gone through about twenty quick deaths doing her utmost to at least barely cross the finish line, Master Grediv admitted that the false cats would always intercept her.

She could still get through them, if she utilized her tail properly, but she wouldn’t be able to make a clean break otherwise.

She and Rane grumbled good-naturedly on the way to their shift, even as they compared notes on what they felt like they’d learned.

They had a bit more fervor to their efforts as well, because Master Grediv had also dropped another tidbit.

No one had ever gotten past the mouse scenario in less than a dozen days of trying.

They wanted to beat that record.

They did not succeed.

* * *

Tala dove into the eye of one of the cats.

Scrabbling and digging as her little mousy voice squealed in rage.

The cats were large enough that she was able to reach through the hole in the ocular cavity meant to connect eye to brain, and do enough damage to drop the cat.

She was rageful, even though she was in full control of her rodent shape.

Even as the massive cat fell, she felt one of its fellows latch onto her tail, dragging her from the goop and allowing her to suck in a breath before she was tossed into the air with another squeak, this time of startlement.

Two cats jumped up—even as she arced through the air—sinking their fangs into her and pulling in different directions, ripping her in half.

Tala sat up with a gasp, hands moving involuntarily to her undamaged stomach.

Master Grediv sighed. “You are getting more skilled at acting like yourself in a mouse's body—using its abilities and capacities to bring about violence—but that isn’t the point.”

She grimaced, hiding her smile. She’d done it. She’d hit her personal goal, but she wasn’t going to let him know that. This was her own little revenge for these horrible scenarios. “I ended another cat this time. I’m getting better.”

“I just said that, Mistress Tala. You are getting better at something that isn’t the point. This is not meant to make you a better ‘Ender of Cats.’ You aren’t even the first to try this. In fact, you’re the third that I’ve proctored. This is meant to teach you to act as a mouse and still survive. Mice don’t attack cats, not unless they have no other option.”

She wanted to poke a bit more. “But I can do it. I can kill my way through.”

“You literally can’t. It’s a fake situation. If you kill a cat, all the others become faster, stronger, and tougher. Two are also added to the fight for each one you kill. They are literally unending.”

Rane cleared his throat, his eyes twinkling with hidden mischief. “Master, may I try?”

Master Grediv threw up his hands. “Be my guest, Rane. You finished two months ago.”

The younger man gave a half smile. “Yeah, but I wasn’t ever able to kill a cat. She now consistently kills five or six.”

Tala raised a finger. “Seven this time.”

He nodded in agreement. “Yes, you reached a new best this time. That is laudable.”

The Paragon gave a frustrated huff. “But not the point of the exercise.”

Rane met Master Grediv’s gaze. “So, may I?”

The older man moved to the corner and sat in a chair, clearly deferring to Rane for the moment.

“Thank you.” He oriented on Tala. “I know you hate to run away. But I also know that you are capable of it at need.” His smile grew. “But we’ve also already talked about this, and I know this isn’t the issue. You’ve reached your goal, are you willing to explain now?”

Master Grediv sat up straighter, looking back and forth between them.

Tala’s smile broke through. “Yeah, I really wanted practice against larger opponents without magical aid.”

Rane nodded. “And you promised me that seven would be enough.”

Tala sighed. “Fine. I think I’ve learned about as much as I can from this scenario anyway.”

Master Grediv’s eye twitched. “You’ve been stalling?”

She shook her head. “No. I’ve been taking the opportunity to learn.”

He grunted. “You are aware that we have scenarios optimized for such learning. Why—by rust or by starlight—didn’t you just finish the task and move on?”

She shrugged. “I learn where it seems best to me, and this seemed like a good opportunity.” After a moment’s pause, she gave a small smile. “And your approach to these scenarios was rather irritating, so I was playing the petulant child for a bit.”

Master Grediv rounded on Rane. “You knew she was doing this?”

“Of course. You did too, or at least it should have been obvious enough. When was the last time she tried to be defensive? Haven’t you seen her using her tail to balance and move on the assault? She used it to kill two of the cats this time. That didn’t count as an instance of ‘surviving’ though. She’s been learning the right lesson along with what she wanted to learn.” Rane’s own smile grew. “I’m three scenarios ahead of her, but I expect her to not simply catch up. She’s going to blow past me with the foundation that she laid in this test.”

“And you didn’t do the same because?” Master Grediv seemed genuinely curious, at least around his obvious irritation.

“Because I don’t like getting hurt. Tala doesn’t either, but she’s more used to it than I am. Her magics are more suited to this type of training, where mine are more conducive to the requested solution. I’m good at dodging and avoiding attacks. I can’t afford to fight like Tala does.”

Master Gredive sighed. “Fine.” He stood up once again, meeting Tala’s gaze. “I assume that you’d like to go back in?”

Tala nodded, laying down once again and closing her eyes. She had nothing more that she wanted to say.

There was a subtle—now all too familiar—shift, and she opened her eyes once more. The vision of a mouse filled her mind, and she charged straight at a cat, just like she had each time before.

Even though her external senses were blocked, she could have sworn that she heard Master Grediv grinding his teeth.

He was probably wondering if she was going to try one more time to do the literally impossible.

She wasn’t.

This time instead of attacking the cat, she slapped her tail down to shoot herself sideways as the cat slammed its paw down.

It was a motion—and caused a result—that her little paws couldn’t have made or accomplished, and it let her survive.

Win condition achieved.

The world faded to black without the pain of a ‘death.’

The scenario faded fully a moment later, and she sat back up.

The Paragon looked resigned. “I don’t suppose my telling you that such is not how a mouse would have used its tail would matter?”

“Nope. I used the tail to survive. The fact that I found a use that a rodent wouldn’t have is neither a complement nor a detraction in my view.”

“Fine. Let’s move on. I assume that you are aware of what the next scenario entails?” He gave Rane a pointed look before returning his gaze to her.

Her eyes sparkled with glee. “Oh, absolutely. This is my reward. I get to be a cat now, right? I just need to kill a hundred mice within an hour?”

“That’s right.” His voice was one of strained tolerance. “Let’s see how you do.”

Tala’s grin was nearly feral as she settled back in for the next stage of the War Games training.

This was going to be fun.