Crow stood straight and still, struggling to keep the nerves racking his body from showing.
He didn’t even bother trying to fight his eyes as they drifted around to the other contestants, already knowing that the fearful curiosity would prove stronger than his focus.
They stood not so far from him, all hundred of them. Set out into a ring, as he was, facing inwards and staring at one another. All spaced a half dozen feet apart, four score paces from whoever was opposite them.
None seemed half as worried as him, though fear and apprehension leaked through the cracks in all of their masks. It was of some comfort. Not much.
The crowd’s murmuring barely registered to Crow, rendered ephemeral by his quarter-hour’s exposure. A bizarre energy seemed to have taken them; half human excitement, half… something else. Darker. Hungrier.
He forced his mind away from the watching spectators and their poorly hidden lust for blood, focusing instead on seeing whether he could recognise any of the other contestants standing with him in the ring.
It didn’t take long for him to find his eyes drawn to the obvious.
Gemini Menza stood shorter than both the boys at her side, yet seemed somehow to loom over them as Crow stared. It was as if the girl herself weren’t there, merely a flash of something larger. Glimpsed above treetops or between mountain peaks.
By the Goddess’ tear, please don’t make me fight her.
She wasn’t touching her magic, nor even did she appear to be particularly invested in her surroundings. Cyan eyes were turned to the sky as she fidgeted on one foot and the other. Somehow, her power still cut through Crow like a knife.
Was this how Ethi felt, seeing me and Unity?
He banished all thought of his former teammate in an instant, still too slowly to keep the seed of bitter regret from planting itself deep in his gut.
Suddenly he felt urged to seek the Gemini out- to throw his power against hers face to face. Let her call on whatever magic a prodigy of such skill could and leave him broken in her wake.
It would be no less than he deserved.
After ten minutes of studying the clouds; their movements, forms and consistency, Gem had found herself stumbling onto an insight she’d heard no mention of by any scholar or naturalist.
They were incredibly boring.
But, if nothing else, less boring than the floor. Scarred sandstone made inferior patterns by far than the wisps of vaporous water miles overhead. That, and the unseemliness of any Menza’s gaze being at their feet, drew Gem’s eyes to the sky.
Unseemly. Pit, I’m starting to think like Karma.
Gem found herself unable to decide whether such a thing was bad or not. Certainly, any influence her friend’s tutelage had had was limited in extent.
Karma would have had her study the other contestants, treating every passing moment as a priceless opportunity to gain some sort of advantage.
She almost felt tempted to do so, suddenly aware of each second as it passed her by, but her gaze remained high. After all, Karma would have had her study purely out of caution. And caution had only ever served to slow Gem down.
That she could feel a hundred awed stares fixed on her from the circle of mystics only strengthened her resolve. She was the danger, not the one in need of petty advantages to overturn it.
Gem noticed one cloud, slightly bigger than the rest, was bifurcated by a fissure running from one edge to its median point. It intrigued her, made her wonder how exactly it could be split. It was hardly solid and cohesive, nor was the wind a cutting edge.
Karma would have known. It seemed she knew everything, even being only a few years older than Gem. Gilasev certainly would have been able to give her an answer.
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Gilasev isn’t here. She reminded herself, smiling wider at the knowledge.
It was just Gem, finally. After years of her guardian angel hanging onto one shoulder and watching all she did, she was entirely alone. Alone and independent.
She lowered her eyes, bringing them to move along the line of waiting contestants. Free though she was, Gilasev’s absence instilled an uncomfortable feeling of vulnerability in Gem.
A smothering guardian angel was still a guardian, after all.
Unity looked from one contestant to another, finding himself wishing Unixian attire could take inspiration from that of the Taikan Empire. It was cold, and yet there were more than a few young women and men lined up that he’d have been happy to see in more revealing wear.
He slaked his hunger with imagination, but it was like bread and water on a tongue yearning for meat.
Pit, why does Unix have to be so cold? Why do I have to be from this cursed continent? Let me see some midriffs, you dull-eyed, rut-born cunts.
Lavastro Kaiosyni moved between two contestants so smoothly that her passing seemed barely to register as it gave them pause, dropping jaws and widening eyes.
It brought a smile to Unity, one which was redoubled as he took in the Taik’s apparel.
A dress, or something near enough to it, multi-layered and seeming to hang from the frame of Kaiosyni’s body rather than wrap tight around it. A strip opened along one side, revealing copper skin from ankle to hip. Unity mouthed a silent prayer of thanks to whichever Gods or Goddesses might be real that it was facing him.
She made her way deftly to the centre of the contestants, heads turning in her wake. Unity found himself near to giggling as he wondered how many of the idiots were concerned she might compete against them, eying her as she came to a stop.
Turning slowly, she brought her eyes around to pass over each one of the contestants now surrounding her.
Backs straightened wherever her gaze fell. Hands folded, shoulders squared and chins arched upwards in a defiance rendered paper-thin by the shaking of their owner’s knees.
The crowd made a ruckus as Kaiosyni pivoted, still as glacial as ever, and studied the contestants. When her stare reached Unity, he answered it with a smile and a wink. It didn’t seem to faze the woman.
Only when the cheering of the audience had begun to fade did she speak, voice pitched to a childish high and face twisted to as vacant a smile as any Unity had ever seen.
How does she do it?
“Welcome to the second stage of this year’s Sieve!” Cried the woman. “I thank you all; both for your attendance, and your patience as the event’s preparations were concluded. We will begin in just a few moments, right after I’ve gone over the rules one more time in case any present missed yesterday’s orientation.”
The sky was heavily clouded; white and grey drowning out the blue. What few streaks of sun broke through the vaporous curtain were thinned and enfeebled in doing so.
Unity studied Kaiosyni as she spoke, not listening to whatever script she was regurgitating- not caring to hear the task’s rules repeated for a third time.
There was no sight of contempt or bitterness across the woman’s face, nor even frustration. As far as he could tell, her positivity was no less sincere than his own boredom.
The ability to make masks that perfect, and you use it to convince Unix you’re an empty-headed bint. We’ll just never see eye to eye, will we Kaiosyni?
Gem found her concentration slipping as Karma spoke. She barely managed to wrestle herself back into the state of vital agitation she’d learned to enter after so much practice.
The world grew dim and distant near the end of Karma’s speech. Gem’s heart was a drum in her chest, her lungs a roaring waterfall. All other things drifted from her notice, consumed by the obliviating concentration she drove herself into.
“Now then, without further ado, let’s begin!” Came the Taik’s voice. It galvanised Gem, drawing her eyes into focus even as she felt the build of magic around her.
This is it.
Excitement bubbled in her stomach, making her squirm as if flies were hatching within. She fought to keep an unbecoming smile from her face, fought harder to keep the jittery energy from escaping as motion.
Thickening, deepening, the magic around her became impossible to ignore. Like the heat of a fire just far enough to be felt without pain, just close enough to push the line. It had a unique presence. Ethereal, almost, as if it were around her and a thousand other places at once.
Itamis.
Colour bled, light becoming liquid and sloshing around her. The crowd's buzz, reaching new heights at the start of the event, became muffled and beyond hearing.
Gem looked down at her own hand as she felt space break down and twist around her- the digits lengthened and thinned, widened and shortened. Folding, expanding, creasing and twisting.
Her eyes became unfocused, and the world shattered into a mass of impossible angles and shifting forms.
Then even weight was nothing to her.
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Udrebam Sieve advert Poster, Location: Udrebam.
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Circa 1,195 I.E.