Crow had scarcely left the Crux in the hours since Amelia’s task, yet even still he’d found word of it reaching him. Stories regailed in as distorted a form as he’d come to expect, yet all of them bearing some nugget of truth.

It was the factual details that had disconcerted him most of all. Surviving countless retellings in spite of their outlandish reality, or perhaps because of it.

He almost wished they’d been embellished more, if only to keep him from recalling the true account himself. There were enough things to worry him without a constant reminder of his enemy’s power.

The meeting with his team was a solemn one from the moment it began, all present taking an age to begin speaking. All silently aware of the dread hanging over them like a thunderous cloud.

Crow felt it more acutely in himself than any other.

“We’re fucked.” Unity said, rending silence with the abruptness he seemed to love so much. It drew an immediate response from a peculiar source.

“No we aren’t.” Deka snapped. “Just in a tight spot with fierce competition. Nothing we can’t overcome if we think clearly and take our time before making decisions.”

“Careful and clear decisions, such as letting you compete against an alphoe for no reason other than helping you avoid feeling inadequate.”

The remark was delivered off-handedly, almost careless, but Crow saw the intent behind it. In a single sentence Unity had breached the topic they’d all been too hesitant to begin, and done so on his own terms.

“We’re talking about that now, are we?” Deka asked, bristling and flushing as she spoke. Unity sat back, shrugging with an impenetrable relaxation.

“Do we have anything else worth talking about? We agreed to wait until we saw the task before deciding. We’ve seen the task. Are you still in the mood to go earning your pay, knowing it would be in a fight with something like that?”

Crow’s eyes flickered around the room, moving from face to face as he studied the rest of their team. Waiting to see if anyone else had something to input on the matter.

Gem and Astra both remained silent, not even glancing his way. Eyes unshaking as they rested on the artificial and luminar.

It became clear to him in an instant that the conversation would soon be between them alone. Crow’s chance to have his voice heard was shrinking by the moment.

“I want to compete.” He said, forcing volume into the declaration.

“Absolutely not.” Astra replied, almost before he’d finished speaking.

Crow locked eyes with his sister, recognised in an instant the look that promised no surrender.

Pit of a time for the family stubborn streak to emerge, Astra.

“Why?” He asked, trying to keep himself calm. It was a pointless effort, Astra was agitated enough for both of them.

“Because you don’t trust us. You don’t trust me. So I’m not going to trust you.”

She paused, breathing suddenly heavy.

“I know you’re competing for the Eclipse’s Nectar, and I’ve ignored that fact. Sat back and done nothing while you let yourself get torn apart or almost killed just to work towards a ridiculous, impossible goal. But that’s not good enough anymore. Tell me why it is you’re competing.”

Crow met his sister’s eye with as much steel as he could muster, but it was a pointless effort. One glance was enough to speak of the determination in her, and he soon backed out from their contest of glares.

He turned to the others, saw a similar distance and distrust in them. Even the Gemini appeared unsure of him. To find such a phenom staring in such a way struck him dead in his very core.

But his spine didn’t falter.

“No.” Crow said at last. “I’m sorry Astra, but I can’t.”

He’d expected the dreadful mix of anger and disappointment that filled her eyes, but even still it broke his heart to know he was the cause. His sister’s gaze was hard as she spoke.

“Because you don’t trust me.”

Because I love you. He wanted to say. Because I know you’re no worse a person than I, and I don’t intend to push my duty on you.

Instead he simply remained silent, let it be his answer. Let Astra take of it what she would. It was only a few moments before she spoke again, voice cleared of all emotion.

“Then who’s going to enter the next task?”

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“I will.” Crow said again, not shying away from the bitter glare his sister fired back in response.

“You won’t.” She snapped. “Not unless you’re willing to tell me why it is you’re so insistent on doing so. Since you won’t, I’ll vote against your entering on principle.”

An idea came to Crow, festering in his head as he weighed it.

“So you admit you’re not being impartial when you do so.”

“Oh fuck you.” Astra spat, face suddenly alight with emotion. Tanned skin turned red with rage, brown eyes made wide with disbelief. It was a fury he’d never seen her equal, enough to cow even him.

“Galad taught us that, didn’t he?” She continued, hissing. “When facing multiple enemies, divide before conquering. Is that what you’re trying to do here?”

Crow said nothing. In truth their mentor’s lesson had been the furthest thing from his mind, but the moment Astra made mention of it he found himself looking back and recognising the words.

She continued before he could answer, anger leaving barely enough room for her own words. None at all for anyone else’s.

“Well then, I think it’s about time I was upfront with you. Galad was a spineless, pathetic coward who deserves your reverence about as much as the cutthroats we were warned to steer clear of on the road here.”

An instant later Crow was standing, vision red, hearing drowned by his wardrum heart and mouth tasting of acidic rage. Astra joined him on her feet, meeting his eye unflinchingly with her own hands curled into fists.

Neither of them moved for a moment, both remaining poised and ready in silence. Then Unity’s voice rang out through the room, shattering the deadlock.

“Alright, I think we’re all getting a little bit too excited here. Why don’t we all just calm down before someone gets hurt.”

He was between them before Crow knew it, both hands raised and easy smile quivering with the effort of maintaining it. He looked from Crow to Astra, then back again.

“Astra, I assume you don’t want to fight a boy bigger than you are without magic. Nor touch your power and leave our quarters ruined in the aftermath of two mystics throwing each other around.”

Crow knew his sister would back down an instant before she did. Appeals to reason had always been the way to reach her. Falling back into her seat, she glared at him with an exasperated sigh. Breath shaky with the rush of an oncoming fight.

Pit. An oncoming fight with me. Crow thought. What was I thinking?

“I’ll compete in the next task.” Astra said, speaking as if the altercation never happened. “I’m the most powerful of us, not including the Gemini.”

Crow glanced at Gem, finding no hint of displeasure at being dismissed for her injuries. The girl remained admirably impassive.

“And I’ll compete alongside you.” Declared Deka.

Silence fell like a fog, and for the second time in one meeting Astra donned the mask that had left her victor in so many arguments.

“Deka, we all saw the creature yesterday. You can’t help fight that. You can’t even try. It would kill you.”

“It could.” The girl conceded. “But do you think I’d insist on being allowed to take part, if I truly thought the task were so suicidal as that?”

Astra seemed ready to answer, then fell silent. Deka continued.

“You were speaking of trust just a few moments ago, and now I’d ask that you extend it to me. I know I can help you here, all I need is the chance to prove myself.”

“We don’t trust you though.” Interrupted Unity, eyes back to their usual iciness. “We barely know you. In fact everyone here save the twins has known one another for a few weeks or less.”

The girl seemed stunned by that, and Crow himself found the declaration disheartening. Time had seemed slower to him, paced by intervals of franticity and near-death in the Sieve. He’d felt those weeks as months.

“Then trust in my nature as a rational person. Unless you’d argue I’m deranged, you must surely realise I wouldn’t want to commit suicide against a beast.”

“Apparently you do.” Unity countered. “Because you seem insistent on being allowed to fight the creature. We’ve all seen what you can do, and the power you’ve shown is too slight by far to measure against an enemy like that. Just leave this task to the rest of us.”

“And the task after that, because you can’t risk a guaranteed loss that late in the competition.”

Deka’s voice was cold, her eyes colder.

“I know you have no faith in me, I’m not asking you to. Just use that impressive mind of yours and realise that I wouldn’t be putting myself forwards unless I knew something you didn’t.”

“Alright.” Answered Gem. “I vote for Deka taking part.”

Unity rounded on the girl, face twisted with an aimless outrage.

“You’re fucking with me.” He snapped. “Clearly, even one as empty headed and pampered as you would know better than this.”

The girl held his glare unflinching, giving Unity no answer.

“I vote for letting Deka compete as well.” Said Astra. Her own proclamation seemed far less of a shock for the artificial, yet still he whirled towards her with eyes of flame.

“Compete.” He spat. “In a contest for most easily avoided death, perhaps? I can see her winning little more.”

It occurred to Crow, even while his teammates held glares at one another, that the decision had come down to him again. He was the last of them to vote, and the power to make a tie or settlement of the matter rested in his tongue.

He considered it for a long moment, feeling the frustration swell in his gut again at the thought of being denied a chance to near Eclipse’s Nectar.

But he knew the chance to compete was lost to him, no matter what. Astra’s distrust had been mirrored in practically all his teammates, and he saw no way he could hope to convince them to abandon it in time for the next task.

Better that he focus on aiding Deka for the moment. Help in what little way he could. It would be hypocritical, for him of all people, to deny someone their idealism.

And he could think of few ways better to get the girl on his side the next time he asked.

“I vote to have Deka compete alongside Astra.” Crow said.

Unity looked at him with less rage than the others, but his glare was fierce nonetheless. Crow weathered it impassively, finding it lacking compared to the glower of his sister.

“Fine then.” The artificial said, shoulders slumping as he deflated. “But don’t any of you come crying to me when she’s turned into mulch by the fucking thing.”He stormed from the room, anger turning his steps to stomps and breaths to snarls.