The chamber was no larger than those which they had walked through before, but the place had an unidentifiable sense of expansiveness.
Shadows clung to corners and cloaked the ceiling from sight, flickering around the edge of unsteady torch light. The walls were lined by a dozen openings identical to the one through which they’d entered. Light leaked into each of them, falling off shortly and giving way to an inky darkness that told Crow the entrances were just as uniform inside. No better lit, at least.
Rows upon rows of varying equipment lay out across racks around the edges, but it was the tables in the room’s centre that caught his gaze. Filled with meat, bread and fruit sectioned out onto plates, dishes numerous and seats vacant. People already sat before them, feasting like kings and with all the vigor of starving vagrants.
Recognition of the eaters came slowly, delayed as Crow tried to make out faces and attire through the gaping mouths and grasping hands clearing one plate after another. When he finally realised who they were, it shocked him enough that he cried outloud.
“Other contestants!” He gasped. “From the first chamber, all of them!”
None of the eating contestants seemed to notice them, so focused on their food were they. Crow couldn't falt them. His own stomach growled like a rabid dog.
“How did they get here before us?” Hissed Ethi. Crow glanced at her, saw the look on her face- as frustrated as it was furious. He felt the beginnings of the same feelings himself.
“Our route must have been slower.” Unity mumbled. “Or longer. Or both. Fucking bastards.”
Crow was unsure whether the boy’s curse had been meant for the Alliance, other contestants or he and Ethi. He decided not to ask.
Turning back, he studied the room further.
It was immediately clear the place had been built as a refuge for the contestants, stocked with food, and unlit lamps, yet a closer look showed more than merely basic tools and refreshment.
Swords were bound in leather and iron; sheathed and unsheathed, torchlight running along their razorous edges like rivers of molten gold. Spears joined them, some barbed for tearing and others crossed for boaring. All looked as deadly as the blades.
Whips, he saw. Coiled and varnished. Alongside them were hammers, flails and maces- all bearing savagely jagged spikes like the steel fangs of a creature hungry for flesh and thirsty for blood.
It was an admirable armoury, if a few centuries behind the advances of modern weaponry. Its presence only served to fill Crow with doubt and fear.
The Sieve had been tight fisted with aid thus far, after all. He feared whatever made them think the armament was needed.
“I’m hungry.” Unity said suddenly, drawing Crow from his concerned stupor as he started for the rows of eating contestants.
“Wait.” Crow blurted out, but the boy paid him no heed.
He took a seat on an empty stretch of table, a dozen paces from an opening much larger than any others.
Near the exit then. That’s something, I suppose.
“Don’t bother.” Ethi chimed in. “He’s not made for caution.”
For a moment Crow thought she was eying the boy, but he soon realised her gaze was falling upon the untouched food around him.
Her hunger rekindled his own.
“The other contestants are eating.” He noted, gesturing at them. “I think it’s safe.”
Ethi clearly needed little convicing, for she said nothing before hurrying after Unity. Crow followed, taking a seat beside her and pulling the nearest dish towards himself.
Beef, or something close to it. Sliced into strips; all grease and steam, falling apart between his teeth and loosing salty, savory juices to drown his tongue.
He didn’t bother with cutlery, didn’t even check to see if any lay within arms reach. The hunger was a snarling carnivorous void within his stomach, and the thought of slowing himself down as he sated it, even by a few seconds, was anathema.
A glance showed him Ethi had forgone decorum, too, and another revealed Unity having drenched the area around his mouth in so much food that it was almost a mask.
Crow ate and ate, yet he found his food disappearing far faster than his hunger. Without pause he shoved the cleared plate to one side and replaced it with another, wafers of bread and strips of cheese.
Jaws, tongue and teeth worked mechanically. Grinding away the contents of one portion after another.
He’d never eaten half so fast in his life, nor felt one tenth so hungry, and before Crow knew it he’d cleaned his third platter.
How in the world did I manage to do anything with this hunger? He marvelled, seizing yet another plate.
He tore into it just like the first two, not even noticing what it was that he ate, caring only that it fell into the ceaseless pit that had become his gut.
Once he finished, picking the last scraps from the dish and swallowing them with the rest, Crow realised that something was very wrong. His belly ached with hunger, yet with strain as well. Filled to the brim, then forced to intake yet more until its walls were taxed just in holding their contents.
And even still the ravenous void hadn’t retreated a millimetre. Worse, it had grown with every bite.
For the second time he looked around at the other contestants, and now he saw what haste had blinded him to before.
They ate as he did, rapid and unrestrained, and each of them bore faces marred with pain and lacquered with beading sweat. He turned, saw the very same thing mirrored in Ethi and Unity as their eyes screamed with a silent desperation.
Then something primal took him, clawing its way up from deep within his belly and reaching the surface with a roar of triumph. Even as his guts were racked, even knowing the cause of his infernal hunger, Crow reached for another plate.
Disgust and fear warred with the impossible urge to stuff himself. Every bite was reluctant, won through an internal war. Every lump of food threatened to bring acidic bile up to meet the matter sliding down.
I need to stop. He told himself, urged himself. I need to stop.
Pain turned to agony as Crow’s stomach deformed, but his irrational starvation grew faster than even pain. No matter the torment, he was helpless to keep himself from trying futilely to sate his hunger.
One more bite, then I’ll stop. One more. One…
I’m going to die. He realised.
The thought chilled him more than he would have thought possible, bringing a shock so great that a hand came to rest upon his magic without conscious thought.
Manamis and Neramis were like cubes of ice cast into a bonfire, the cold calm melting as it fought the flame.
Eating just makes my hunger worse. I need to stop.
The spheres tinted his thoughts, making everything so very clear. Still Crow couldn’t bear to do what he needed to.
And the hunger continued to grow ever stronger.
It was only when the blunt ache turned to a sharp stab that Crow felt his mind clear. Fear leaked away at the shock, panic joined it, and then even the emotional artifice of his magic followed.
Only an unassailable calm remained as his head was filled by thoughts of Galad. Galad, who had been an uncle closer than most fathers. Galad, who had thrown everything away to save him.
Galad, who Crow had entered into the Sieve to save in turn.
Crow’s hand stopped halfway from his lips, fingers opening to let the lump of food they’d clutched drop down and spatter against the table. Straining against his very body, he stood up and backed off from the dishes.
For seconds the urge to rush back and continue filling his gut burned like a sun. Then it faded, falling away like dirt before water.
He fell to his knees, raced on the way down by a stream of acrid vomit frothing up and pooling on the ground beneath him. Its reek stung his nose, taste wetted his eyes. A sickeningly rancid stench.
Accompanied by the easing of his tortured belly and the calming of his terrorised mind, Crow thought it might well be the most beautiful smell in the world.
“Ethi, Unity!” He gasped, fighting for control over his spasming throat. Both Crow’s teammates remained at the table, and neither were slowing as they ate.
No, that wasn’t right. Crow could see the girl struggle, exertion and the tightening of strained will showing clearly beneath the pained fear twisting her face. She was putting enormous effort into stopping herself.
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And his heart leapt as he realised it was near enough to working.
“Focus!” He cried out, stepping towards the girl as he watched her efforts, unsure even if his words would reach her. Whether they did or not, Ethi paused to stare at her plate.
The war in her eyes unfolded within moments, culminating in the girl sweeping her plate from the table to clatter against the floor. She stumbled away as Crow had, then painted the floor by her knees with her own bloated stomach’s contents.
He looked away as she retched, stepping towards the last of their team.
“Unity, the food is a trap. You need to stop eating- it’ll only make you hungrier.”
Fury flashed in the boy’s eyes as they came to rest on Crow, silent and hot. He knew instantly what it meant. The artificial had already realised the truth of the matter. Of course he had.
Crow rushed to his side, placing an arm on Unity’s shoulder as he spoke.
“You need to stop.” He urged, then, realising no logic or reason would move someone in the clutches of whatever magic was at play, he tightened his grip and began to pull back.
Unity whirled like a hurricane, the orange flash of light kissing metal serving as Crow’s only warning. He leapt back from the hissing knife, landing heavily and seeing stars as the motion jarred his wounded shoulder.
When his head cleared, he saw the artificial was hunched over once more. Arms moving in a frenzied blur to shovel more and more into his maw.
“It’s no use.” Came a voice from his side.
Crow turned to Ethi, wincing as the motion agitated his shoulder. She seemed drained of vitality, emptied out. He doubted he looked any better.
“We both felt that hunger,” Ethi continued, “You don’t need me to tell you that he won’t stop unless he makes himself.”
“No.” Crow answered. “Almost as soon as we stopped eating, we both spewed our guts out.”
She stared at him as though suspecting delirium, he pressed on regardless.
“Why wouldn’t we do that while eating? Surely trying to fill our stomachs even more would’ve caused that exact response.”
“I don’t understand what you’re getting at.” The girl began, Crow spoke over her.
He was fully aware of the strain that must have assailed Unity, and terrifyingly ignorant as to how long they had before it turned deadly. Not long enough to waste, he was sure.
“Are you still hungry?” He snapped. “If we get him away from the table for a few moments, the effects should wear off. He’ll vomit like us, I imagine, but he’ll be fine.”
“And if he fights, like he just did? When he fights?”
Crow turned away from the girl, realising he hadn’t nearly enough time to convince her of anything. He moved towards the artificial, pouring magic into both physical enhancement and his Glimpses, and reached for him.
Neramis showed Unity’s slash before he’d come nearer than a yard, and he needed no more advantage than that.
The knife went wide and Crow stepped into its range before it could be brought back around. Unity tried to leap back, but it took precious moments for a mystic to touch their magic- and the boy had yet to do so. The absence left him sluggish and clumsy, more so by far than Crow’s grab.
His hand closed around the artificial’s, pinning flesh to the carved handle of his blade. With a single tug he dragged the boy off his feet to strike the ground like a sack of stone. He was up almost too fast to believe, madness giving haste where magic brought none.
Whistling, the knife raced ahead of its wielder as he rose. Crow leapt back from it, then lashed out a strike for Unity’s wrist.
The disarming blow had been thrown with a fraction of his strength, yet the speed at which it cast the boy’s fragile arm downward still left Crow worried for him. He pushed the doubt aside and seized hold of his teammate.
Unity bucked and thrashed in his arms like a man being dragged to the guillotine; head slamming into Crow’s chest, arms and face, spit spraying from his open mouth as he screamed and bit down at the hands grasping him.
His strength was further from Crow’s than a child was from a man’s, his movements far too feeble to even be testing against the restraint, but Crow nearly let go all the same. The boy’s desperate squirming strained against his resolve far more than his strength.
Manamis and Neramis bolstered Crow’s will, giving it surety enough to burn away the doubt. He’d felt the very hunger that seized his teammate just minutes prior, there would be no escape from the sensation. Save starving it out.
Unity’s struggling grew weaker, and the seeds of hope were planted in Crow only to be wrenched out before they could sprout.
The boy touched magic, brought serpentine energy coiling about his hands, and Crow released him to dive back from his deathly touch.
Unity was running before Crow even landed, heading for the reaper’s banquet laid out across the table. He was just paces away when a pale streak flashed beside him, followed by glinting silver.
The artificial stumbled, shattering a table as he fell into it. Ethi stood by him. A spear was in the girl’s hand, a fire in her eyes and the caution of a sentry in her gaze. Neither was needed, for Crow beat Unity in their race to stand.
He was on the boy before another flash of destructive lightning could appear.
Crow grabbed the artificial’s hair and brought skull against stone, wincing at the wet crack as Unity’s head rebounded from the floor. Seeing the artificial stunned, he released him and seized both wrists, kneeling on his back and keeping a careful eye on his fingers for any sign of red.
It was only a heartbeat later that Unity regained his thoughts and restarted his struggling, and less than five after that when it grew to new heights of panic. Crow held on as his teammate contorted beneath him, fighting to keep his balance as though he were wrestling a bull.
Unity’s struggles subsided moments later. As if muscle had turned to cotton in the boy’s limbs, his blood to molten lead. Crow hesitated before letting him rise, unsure whether he had the sense left to trick his guard down.
He was convinced by the boy’s spray of vomit.
Once Unity had finished emptying his stomach of its toxic contents, he managed to shakily stand. Face pale, eyes dull and mouth still marred by splotches of bile, he made a poor sight.
“Thank you.” He mumbled, not meeting Crow’s eye. He moved before any answer could come, heading for the exit wordlessly and without so much as a glance behind.
Crow went to follow, then turned to look back at the other contestants. The sight nearly made him sick all over again.
They continued to stuff themselves, and their expressions told him whatever pain they’d first experienced had surely grown a dozenfold. Almost without thought he took a step towards them, stopped by a hand on his arm.
“You can’t help them.” Ethi said, almost apologetic.
“I can try.”
Crow shrugged her hand from him and went to take another step, it was interrupted as she continued.
“And waste precious time just to create potential enemies?”
“Spend precious time to help other people.”
Anger seeped into her voice.
“The Sieve will save them, the moment they’re actually at risk of dying they’ll be taken from the stage and treated with magic. Surely you know this.”
Crow did, and he could see the logic in her words. It fought his instincts hard and bitter.
“Think about why you entered the Sieve.” Said Ethi, a sudden softness in her. “Would you throw away your aspirations just to help your enemies?”
He cursed the girl as he turned, storming around to follow Unity. He didn’t look at any of the other contestants as he moved. He couldn’t.
“Please tell me the two of you were considering breaking all of the other contestants’ legs while they were stuck eating.” Unity said, some of his usual fluttering energy present once more.
“Let’s go.” Crow answered, in no mood for his teammate’s games. The boy followed as he walked, falling into an uncharacteristic silence.
He broke it only when they turned a corner, hiding the deathly chamber behind them from sight.
“Thank you.” The artificial said.
Crow turned to look at him, certain he’d misheard.
“I should’ve known not to eat anything there.” Unity continued. “I saw the other contestants stuffing their faces and assumed it was safe, that was stupid.”
The boy’s rue reminded Crow of the question burning at the back of his thoughts.
“What exactly was the purpose of that trap, anyway? It seems far too… final. And escaping it was surely more to do with luck than ability, it would’ve been easy to avoid if we’d arrived to study the other contestants just a little later.”
“It’s funny you should ask that, Crow.” Unity answered. “I’ve given it some thought, and my current theory is that it was designed in the pit, by the Eclipse.”
Crow let his lack of amusement be known, but it was Ethi who answered the question.
“Will, I imagine.” The girl said.
He turned to her, questioning with a look.
“We needed to fight off the urge to keep eating in order to escape. That sort of thing seems like a test of will, more than anything else.” She explained.
Hearing it said aloud, the explanation made sense to him. Will was, at least as Crow had been taught, among the more consistent markers of magical ability.
“What about you, then?” Unity asked. He eyed the girl impassively, byzantine thoughts hidden behind opaque eyes.
Ethi didn’t look at the artificial as she walked, spear’s handle clacking against the stone. Nor did she reply until another half dozen paces had been taken.
“Will doesn’t correlate exactly with magic, you should know this better than most.”
Anger flashed in Unity’s eyes, quickly felt and soundlessly quelled.
“I do know that.” He said. “But I also know that I’m a considerable outlier in that regard, I find it suspicious that you should free yourself so easily with power as limited as yours.”
“Wonderful.” She snapped. “You have something interesting to ponder while we walk.”
“That’s right. Along with the fact that you suggested leaving me.”
Ethi stared, mouth agape as Unity’s own twisted into a grin.
“I had no idea, in case you’re wondering. Only a vague suspicion. Your reaction just now confirmed it.”
Shock looked most peculiar on Ethi, her strangely narrowed eyes seemed barely to widen, yet when it turned to shame Crow saw it as clear as day.
“And what are you getting at?” She demanded, cycling once more to anger. “Do you mean to tell me you’d have acted any differently?”
Unity’s smile didn’t falter.
“Of course I’m not.”
That seemed only to make the girl more furious, yet as her mouth moved mutely she said nothing more.
Had Unity deliberately antagonised her by comparing them? The more Crow saw of him, the less sure he found himself as to his intentions.
“My training in magic was accompanied with a great deal of mental discipline.” Ethi blurted, voicing the words quickly and with a shakiness that betrayed great reluctance.
“May I ask why?” Pressed Unity.
“You may not.” She answered, unmoving. Final.
Something about her seemed to have changed, and Crow found himself edging away. He glanced at the girl across the wide berth, unsure of why, being met with as stoic a face as she’d ever worn.
Torches began to grow rarer once more, however, and he brought his eyes front as they continued into the gloom.
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[https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/512595944613740556/1150489049228906567/5.png?width=885&height=498]Sample of Survey Carried out by the Udrebam institute of Relations, Have Women, Circa 1,195 I.E.
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