The crushed ice did little to abate Gem’s pain as she pressed it against her head, numbing coolness like a wind amid desert air. Her groans mingled with those of her teammates.

She didn’t care to listen to it. Barely even found herself paying heed to the throbbing beneath her skull, thoughts held far too tightly by the events of the previous task for her to consider anything else.

“We’re winning.” Unity Eden said.

The boy was chirpier than any of the rest, including Deka. Nowhere near so wounded, and not cursed with the empathy that caused her teammates’ suffering to spoil the luminar’s mood.

“If this is what victory feels like then I say we let ourselves lose next time.” Astra Tempora grumbled.

Gem spared a glance for the girl, winced at the sight of her. Among them all, she’d been by far the worst affected by Rajah’s last stand. Wearing the proof as wounds littering her body, flesh bruising where it had been pulped, lips split and one eye swollen half shut.

The girl smiled in spite of it all, and Gem felt a peculiar spark of happiness for her.

After seeing the state defeat had brought her to she supposed the victory was worth its cost, however much the blonde complained otherwise.

“If this is what victory feels like then I say we only let ourselves win from here on out.” Crow cut in, grinning as he leaned forwards.

The boy was almost as wounded as his sister, dried blood caking his face even still. Somehow it failed to diminish him. The green, runic eyes that had captivated even Gem seemed brighter, framed by the dark ichor clotting on his flesh. Gaze more piercing than ever.

Gem realised she’d been staring only when Astra Tempora answered her brother’s proclamation with a lower, angrier tone.

“And I imagine we won’t be learning anything more about why victory is so important to you in the process?”

It killed the mood dead, then hoisted its corpse high to cast a grim shadow over the room.

Crow stood wordlessly, taking his leave without meeting any of the eyes aimed his way. Gem could practically see the tension.

For all the bitterness Astra Tempora had conveyed with her snipped remark, the girl was far from alone in her thought. Even Gem herself found worry where a dull amusement had been just moments ago.

The Eclipse’s Nectar. She thought. Suddenly eager to crack open his mystery once more.

It was a useless effort. Gem could discover nothing more than she had last time, save another possible way of manipulating the truth from him. That she considered following the boy to use it only drew her mind back to the matter that had plagued it over the previous day.

Simona’s face flashed in her mind for the thousandth time, pain etched flawlessly into Gem’s memory. Sharp cry of agony mingling with the sounds of devastated stone and hissing air in.

Gem found no great disturbance in the sight, no sudden pity for her crushed enemy. Every thought that might have grown into either was met in its infancy by the memory of Gem’s own suffering at the dakaran’s hand.

Instead she considered the pleasure that had come from destroying her enemy. That vindication was more distressing by far than the destruction itself.

Distressing enough that Gem soon stood just as Crow had, leaving her teammates.

The corridor seemed to whisk her along as she moved, stiff muscles growing more pained with every step. Gem ignored it at first, then finally grew tired enough of the passive agony.

She felt for her magic, seizing it with pinching fingers rather than a grasping fist and drawing forth a trickle. Too little by far to work any overtly miraculous effects on the world, yet just enough to alter her thoughts.

Manamis made the pain a distant thing, hardening her mind against its distraction and rendering its processing a more intellectual practice than instinctual.

The detachment soon moved to the rest of Gem’s thoughts, killing all passion and regret at her joyous crushing of the dakaran. Gem hadn’t wanted that at all, the thought of being indifferent to what she’d done was no thought whatsoever.

Stemming the tide of her magic, she cursed at the inflammation of her pain. Filling her thoughts with Utalis instead.

Pit, I shouldn’t be using the arcane to discipline myself at all.

It occurred to Gem that she was moving for Karma’s quarters, and thoughts of her friend’s exhaustive lectures on the danger of what she did at that very moment were soon all that Gem’s mind held space for. She found her nerves quivering.

There was no reason the Taik ought to have known, surely not on sight alone, yet still Gem found it impossible to convince herself that the woman wouldn’t.

She’d never hidden anything from Karma before, and not for lack of trying.

Gem knocked on the Taik’s door with a shaky hand, leaning on the wall opposite it and finding herself with just time enough to regret not bringing the ice pack before the door opened. Karma seemed surprised to find Gem on the other side.

“Gemini.” She said, a smile bleeding onto her face just a moment later. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

She stepped aside for Gem to enter, eying her as she did and closing the door behind them. Even with just the two of them alone, Gem found herself struggling to say what she’d come to.

“I’d like to talk about my task. The one yesterday, if that’s no trouble. I… Something happened in it that left me… thoughtful.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Already, she knew her leaden tongue had made a mess of things, yet so too did Gem realise there was no choice but to continue. She couldn’t simply wait to resume the topic at a later date, with Karma’s schedule, and even with her head bruised and mind clouded she needed what answers she could get.

“You’re talking about your fight with the Simona girl.” Karma asked, gesturing for Gem to take a seat in an exquisite sofa and placing herself down in the armchair opposite it.

Sitting back, arms folded and legs crossed, Gem realised her friend was studying her. Eyes like twin suns.

“I am.” She admitted, suddenly feeling as though she were being interrogated. “Sort of. I’m talking about how I ended it.”

The account flooded from Gem like waters from a dam, all hesitation and thoughts of obfuscation purged gone.

She spoke for what felt like minutes, recounting each detail, prattling on so much she wondered whether even Karma’s eagle-focus might break.

Gem described the joy of using her magic again; the fear and hate that had consumed her at but a glimpse of Simona, the exaltation of crushing the girl with a single attack and the vindicating jubilation of seeing her squirm helpless. Voice almost failing her as she neared the end.

Karma sat silent and stoic through it all, still watching. Face impassive, unaccusing, unintrusive.

When Gem finally finished, she found herself answered with silence. Karma eyed her for a few moments more, perhaps waiting to see what else she might decide to add. When Gem said nothing, the woman smiled.

“These are understandable worries, Gemini. You’ve had a difficult few weeks.”

The woman’s voice was silken as it caressed Gem’s ears. It seemed to coax the worry away without her even realising. Leaning forwards, Karma placed a hand on Gem’s, squeezing just tight enough to emphasise the contact.

“But you have nothing to apologise for, you did everything perfectly in that task and nobody in their right mind would hold how you treated the dakara against you.”

Gem frowned, gears turning in her head even as she desperately wished for them to lie still so that she might accept the reassurance in peace.

“But I didn’t just beat her, I… practically tortured her. And I enjoyed it. That’s not right, surely. No matter what she did to me. Enjoying the pain of another is among the worst things you can do.”

Karma had taught her the last phrase, and the rest was basic Solifate principles. Neither ought to have erred. Gem’s friend seemed to give the matter a moment of thought before speaking next.

“It is wrong to enjoy the pain of another human.” The woman said, nodding slowly. “That much remains true. But, Gemini, I ask you what it is that separates a human from an animal.”

The question was a surprise, jarring her wits. She stared at Karma even while considering it, finding half her mind put to imagining why the woman might have asked in the first place.

“Intelligence.” She said at last. “That’s what defines higher species from beasts, animals and monsters. It’s wit, intelligence, wisdom.”

Karma nodded for a moment, speaking slowly still.

“That is a line you could draw, but is it truly one that matters? Would a constrictor be any less a beast if it could strategise and consider the world as a man might, yet still hesitated not a moment to feast on the young and helpless?”

“I suppose not.” Gem answered, slowing her speech to match Karma’s. Quickening her thoughts to find whatever point was being made.

“Then, by that same metric, why would you consider a person who lacks the empathy and compassion of common men any less animalistic?”

It clicked into place in an instant, and Gem felt her blood run cold as she realised what her friend was suggesting.

“You’d call Simona an animal?” She croaked.

“I would.” Karma answered, eyes alight. “Or, perhaps more accurately, I would consider her a dakaran who holds no greater goodness and deserves no greater compassion than an animal. You don’t need to feel any guilt at all for wounding a creature like that.”

“She’s not a creature.” Gem snapped. “She’s a person, Karma. How can you even say otherwise? I don’t care if she has a cruel streak, she-”

“Cruel streak?” Karma cut in, speaking with a wrath so great and sudden it stunned Gem into quietitude. “A cruel streak is found in children pulling the wings from butterflies. That savage monster held an innocent girl pinned beneath her screaming and writhing while she broke her, one bone at a time. She is all cruelty, and she deserves all cruelty in turn.”

The conversation was too much for Gem to bear sitting down, she stood in a fury. Voice raising in answer to Karma’s anger.

“So you just decide who is and isn’t human now? Is that within the purview of the Megala Progenus?”

Her friend’s eyes hardened at that.

“We can drop the example of humanity and inhumanity if you’d wish, it was nothing more than a thought experiment to begin with. My point, Gemini, is that humans are greater than animals because we hold certain values and certain thoughts. By that metric, treating a human who lacks them as greater nonetheless is senseless and wrong.”

“Would you mind simplifying it for me?” She jeered. “I’m not as bright as you.”

“Don’t get snide with me, you stupid girl.” The woman answered, matching Gem’s anger as the calm mask cracked.

Karma paused, seeming to check herself mid word, then inhaled sharply. Three cycles of breath appeared enough to calm her, and she spoke with a renewed stability.

“I’m saying that treating humans differently than animals can only be justified by our being different and deserving that treatment, the alternative is to admit we’re just another species preserving itself in place of others for no reason at all. We are better than animals, by merit of our capacity for goodness. Those who lack that capacity are not.”

“And what of the human capacity to learn?” Gem asked, finding the thoughts gathering in her head. “You’ve always cared for that more than most others, why dismiss it and consider all who lack something doomed to never possess it?”

She straightened as she spoke to Karma, trying to shear an inch from the towering height difference between them. The woman seemed not to notice her effort.

“Rehabilitaiton, you mean? Yes, perhaps that is the best way. Assuming no unforgivable wrong has been committed, and assuming it can be afforded. But there are many humans in the world, many higher species, many individuals living in poverty. Why deplete resources that could help them to try and teach basic decency to beings who lack it?”

Gem felt suddenly sick. She tried to sharpen her gaze to match Karma’s.

“So you’d abandon them as a lost cause?”

The woman didn’t shy away form her glare as she answered.

“I’d abandon them as an unfeasible one. I live to serve the many, Gemini, I can’t do that by funnelling resources into helping animals gain humanity. And if you ever want to do good in the world, neither can you.”

For a moment Gem stayed, trying to think of another argument or refutation. Her thoughts seemed a dry well, though, and she soon turned to the door, walking out without another look at her mentor.

“You did nothing wrong, Gemini.” Came Karma’s voice at her back. “No matter how you disagree with me here, that much remains true. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

That she’d used her last word to comfort Gem further was a gesture too kind and pure to ignore, yet so too was it tainted by the exchange they’d had just moments before. How could Gem heed Karma’s wisdom, having seen such vitriol escape her lips?

How could she dismiss, having had years to become acquainted with the sharpness of her friend’s mind?

Gem found no answer in her thoughts.