Chaths ducked around a corner as he saw Crow nearing the tunnel entrance, deciding in an instant that he was best meeting the boy when time had taken heat from his temper.

Smart, Chaths. Excellent reading of him. It’s a shame you didn’t extend that deductive prowess to your own fucking team, isn’t it?

He seized the anger bubbling up within him, cast it down to his feet. His walk was left swift, though didn’t occupy his mind nearly so much as he'd have hoped.

Chaths arrived in mere minutes, pushed through the door of the contestant’s waiting area, scouring it for the sight of Simona and quickly finding the dakaran seated at one end.

There was little surprise in seeing her flocked by the rest of his team.

“-Too far.” He heard Sia say, the fury reaching Rajah’s ears seeming altogether too big to be born in lungs as small as the boy’s. Even seated, Simona’s long torso left her head barely cocked upward to meet his gaze. Smile undaunted in its breadth, red eyes sharp with amusement.

“I was fighting the Gemini.” She answered, shrugging as though explaining the obvious. “I needed an edge. Now she’ll be out of commission for a few tasks.”

“You tortured a fucking fourteen year-old girl!” Sia roared, taking a step towards her. He was stopped only as Timi clutched him from behind, her brown eyes drawn tight with the effort of retaining him.

“Well you certainly seem to have grasped the basics.” Smiled the dakaran.

She didn’t so much as glance at Chaths. None of his team did, all too focused on the conflict immediately apparent. He moved across the room practically unnoticed, heading straight for Simona with neither question nor hindrance being aimed his way.

It was only when he’d almost reached the dakaran that she seemed to take note of him, mouth parting to say something.

Her seated position and open maw made it all too easy for Chaths’ boot to crunch into teeth, snapping the dakaran’s head back so swiftly and strongly that it rebound from the stone wall behind.

“Shit!” Cried Timi, releasing Sia and rushing for Chaths. The dakaran was on her feet first, eyes suddenly aglow with hate rather than amusement. Lips red with blood instead of paint.

She moved predictably, lurching forward and driving her own nose into a swiftly raised fist.

The impact’s weight nearly threw him to the ground, spinning Chaths as the girl tore blindly past him and sending pain to dance along the joints of his arm, threatening to rip it clean from the socket..

Chaths allowed himself a moment to awe at a dakaran’s strength, then followed the stumbling girl as she fought for her balance. Tears, he knew, would be flooding her eyes. The body’s answer to a struck nose. Anger would muddle her thoughts, hate would hasten her action.

He’d been in enough fights to recognise the opportunity before him, but Timi’s arms ensnared his torso from behind before he could close in to seize it.

Panic took him as Simona stood, yet just as he considered headbutting Timi to free his arms, Sia stepped between them.

Chaths felt the boy’s magic. Barely a fathom behind him, it was akin to the heat of a bonfire on his skin. Watering eyes and shrivelling hairs.

Even the dakaran paused at that, maddened anger subsiding as caution bled through to take its place.

“Don’t misunderstand me.” Sia said, voice betraying his fury. “I’d never use magic on someone who’s not touched theirs. But you’re a special case, aren’t you? Why did they let a monster like you into the competition?”

It was a splendid threat, and an even greater bluff. Chaths worried only that it was made convincing by sincerity.

There was anger in Sia’s voice. Low and quivering, threaded with hate. The sort that might motivate a boy to do something dangerous and stupid.

Chaths had felt the strength of a dakaran first hand, recognised its limits all the more clearly for it. If a mystic of Sia’s power turned his magic to attacking her, Simona could be killed.

“Thank you for the warning.” She hissed, spitting blood and saliva at her feet.

For a moment Chaths thought the girl might call on her own magic, bringing a hand to touch his in case he needed to step in. Instead, she turned. Making her way to the room’s exit, closing half the distance before he realised there were things yet unsaid.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Simona.” He called, watching with satisfaction as she stiffened at his voice.

“Yes?” Asked the dakara, stopping as she spoke. Waiting. Chaths let her wait a moment longer.

“If I ever see you do something like that again, I’ll kill you.”

There was no reaction visible in the back of her. That the dakaran said nothing at all before continuing might have betrayed something in and of itself.

Astra hurried through the corridor with a whirlwind underfoot, panting as she took her half-thousandth stride, not daring to slow by even a hair.

She reached the door to Deka’s quarters shortly, powering through without knocking and heading straight for the great bed tucked away in one corner. The luminar looked up as she neared, standing and holding her hands out expectantly.

“What did you get?” She asked.

It felt strange to see the girl speak with such speed and force, even in the current situation.

“See for yourself.” Astra answered, voice straining to squeeze words out between her heaving breaths.

Years of jogging had done little to prepare her for the Crux’s torturous staircases. Even walking on flat ground, she felt her muscles still knotted in protest.

Deka took the relics tentatively, peering at them with a studious eye. Astra knew the girl would find her answers through sight alone. None she’d met had half her memory.

“These are good.” She said without smiling. “Very good. Pit, how much did they cost you?”

“I didn’t really pay much attention to the price.” Astra shrugged.

A lie. She’d added the total up to just a hair under nine hundred credits. It had left her with barely half a thousand, yet that seemed a petty concern as she eyed the Gemini’s unconscious form.

“Well they’re just what we need.” The girl said, hurrying to the Gemini’s side and kneeling down. She placed the relics next to her, save one. A large strip of what looked to Astra like twine.

“Do you need any help?” She asked, silently hopeful.

“No.” Replied Deka, dashing optimism before it could take root. “In fact I think you should leave for this, it may get unpleasant.”

The request’s bluntness was a stunning blow, but Astra acquiesed without argument. She’d heard enough of Deka’s medical skills from the girl’s own reluctant mouth to understand what a hindrance she’d be to their application.

Even so she exited the room dissatisfied. The feeling turned to poison.

Disappointed I can’t help? No. Just guilty.

She began to walk back to her own room, passing Crow in the corridor and forcing a weary smile. He returned it, green eyes bright at the sight of her. Ever ignorant about the wretched currents moving in her mind.

Astra wondered how he’d have reacted to hearing of her initial pleasure at the Gemini’s loss. How it had thrilled her to see tactics triumph over talent. She buried the thought, recognising its danger and speeding up as she moved towards her own quarters.

To the privacy needed for such cruel, treacherous notions to be held fearlessly in her head.

Crow’s first entrance was halted as Deka Stimon practically snarled at him to leave, a fury burning behind the girl’s eyes so uncharacteristic and hot as to force him back through the door on reflex alone.

Chastised by the very sight of her, he waited outside for what felt like an hour. Time was stretched long and sluggish by tension.

He was surprised when Unity sat down to join him after a few minutes. More surprised when the boy made no jokes or jibes. Crow didn’t see his own grim reflection in the boy’s face, merely exhaustion.

Even adding to the silence, Unity’s presence seemed to make it more bearable. Less heavy. Less suffocating. Like a breath of air beneath the waves.

Both of them nearly jumped at the opening of Stimon's door, eying the girl expectantly as she stood over them.

She answered their silent question solemnly.

“Gem is resting right now. I think she’ll be resting for quite some time… But her wounds weren’t as bad as they seemed, and I was able to treat them well enough. She’ll be okay. Eventually.”

Crow thought his relief might crush him, such was its weight.

“Can I see her?” He asked.

Stimon hesitated only momentarily.

“Yes. Though try to be quiet.”

The Gemini looked better than Crow had dared to fear, though worse than he’d dared to hope.

Still lying back, her pale skin had darkened with her hair. Both were soaked through by sweat. Smooth, slender features were no less so than ever, yet somehow they’d been twisted. Ivory turning to parchment, glass to chalk.

Crow could make out the rise and fall of her chest, noticing with relief that each breath had grown deeper than before. They were shallow all the same.

“She looks better.” He said, fighting to keep his voice even. “You’ve done a good job.”

“Agreed.” Unity cut in, eying her just as Crow did. “Though it seems I’ve lost a rather large bet, unless she dies tonight.”

Stimon stared at him, eyes wide with a rage Crow had rarely seen equalled.

“You keep that forked tongue in your mouth before I break your jaw.”

The threat was spoken almost as a whisper, yet lost none of its bite. Crow stared at Unity, trying to guess by expression alone how the boy might react. It was surprising to see him chastised.

“Consider me warned.” The boy muttered, eyes falling.

Before amazement at the sight could truly sink in, Stimon took her seat in one of the large sofas halfway across the room.

Crow joined her, Unity too. They sat in silence for some time. No words were necessary.