Unity hid his gaze cautiously as he drank, making certain he eyed Crow only when the boy was enraptured enough by something else to be sure of missing it.

The tankard was a light touch in his hand, seat a rocking surface beneath him, jaw slack with as fine an impression of a drunkard’s idiocy as he could manage. It was, he estimated, a serviceable performance.

Even so he counted himself lucky the boy’s ability to see through deception was so far surpassed by his skill in weaving it.

Deka’s voice caught his ear just as Crow finished emptying a bottle.

“You mentioned being curious about why I decided to come with you.” The luminar said, barely even audible.

“I did.” He replied, not turning to face her. He made a mental note as Crow reached for another drink, studying the boy’s bearing. He seemed to keep a level head for one of his size. Unity estimated it would take twice the wine he’d had already before broaching the topic of his participation would achieve anything.

“Joking though it was, your guess was off by quite a lot.” Xenus pressed, seeming blissfully ignorant to Unity’s apathy. He felt irritation growing in the pit of his stomach, familiar and vicious at once like a loyal wolfhound.

He held his tongue still. Continued studying Crow, ignoring the luminar and hoping she’d realise his disinterest.

“I wanted to come so that I could have a moment to speak with you in a situation you might be disinclined to merely walk away from.” The girl continued, missing his implication entirely.

Unity felt his temper boil, the dark thoughts beginning to slither upwards from within. All halting as Xenus spoke again.

“You seem to be familiar with finding your own mind…untrustworthy.”

He whipped his head around to stare at the girl, finding his eyes met with a gaze of guarded caution. Xenus said nothing, beckoning words from him with the silence.

“What sort of assumptions led you to that conclusion?” He asked, voice low and quiet in spite of his anger. The truth in her words had shaken him to the core.

“Many in Udrebam have forgotten what happened to the boy in the last stage.” Xenus continued. “But none of our team have, and looking back on the reaction you had to his death, I sense you’re the least likely of us all to ever let it leave your mind.”

“Quiet.” He snapped, casting a glance across the others to study the expressions he saw on display. Unity breathed a sigh of relief, seeing that no eyes were on them, then rounded on Xenus.

“Well that’s a nice little theory.” He sneered. “But I don’t think your deduction has quite as much backing behind it as you seem to.”

“Oh I agree.” She answered. “But seeing your panic at my raised voice just now more or less confirmed my suspicions.”

Unity cursed under his breath, then fought the urge to strangle Xenus as she smiled with a smugness to match misbehaving children across the globe.

“Fine.” He hissed. “You’re very clever and I’m sure daddy would be most proud of your bottomless intellect. What the pit are you getting at with all this?”

Unity didn’t miss the flash of corrosive tension that spent an eyeblink colouring Xenus’s face, nor did he pay it heed. Merely filed it away for later use, an intrigue to be dissected at his leisure.

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Xenus’s deliberate answer was of more immediate concern, her tongue betraying more than her face.

“Do you recall what I said before the last task, about how I was unfit to take part in a combative role?”

“I do.” Unity answered, noticing the girl’s tone suddenly grow quieter even than his own. Her glances more fleeting.

He waited with as much patience as he could muster, soothing the roiling tides of his mind with the promise of sated curiosity.

“Well I wasn’t entirely forthright about the reason.” Xenus began, speaking so slowly it seemed she was deliberately taunting him. Unity listened all the same, soon found her revelations interesting enough that all mental strain abandoned him.

Xenus described her feelings during the task, pausing constantly to ensure their voices remained buried by the drunken slurring of the others. She touched on the iciness of her thoughts, the distance between them and her emotions. Above all the logic of it, how every choice had seemed a matter of weighing cost and effect in pragmatic ideals alone.

She finished weakly, yet with relief. The story’s telling clearly a tiresome one. Unity studied the girl, thinking for a few moments to measure his words before he answered.

“Our situations are comparable.” He said, having found no deception in her. “Though far from the same.”

Xenus looked at him expectantly at that, hoping, he realised, to receive a revelation in return for her own.

Unity prepared to meet her idiocy with its deserved scorn. He paused at the sight of her, seeing a vulnerability that hadn’t been apparent before and finding his mind turning to when he’d shared his own thoughts, on those rare occasions someone had deserved to hear them.

Fighting down every instinct, he regailed the girl with an account of his impulses, questioning the sudden madness that coaxed such a secret from him even as he spilled it. By the time he was finished, she’d visibly paled.

Unity waited for her reaction, for the disgust, the horror. The vitriolic, bitter acid of her words. He was left wanting, for Xenus seemed to steel herself before speaking.

“Thank you for telling me that.” She said, and Unity caught sight of something glowing behind her eyes. “I know you don’t like me, Eden, and we hardly know one another, but still… it’s good to have someone whose situation is comparable. Even if far from the same.”

He said nothing. After a few moments, perhaps of patience, perhaps curiosity, Xenus turned back to her drink and joined him in the silence.

Unity found himself uncertain of how he ought to respond.

Evening had turned to night long before the jubilation was finished. So far from its living areas, even the Crux was colder for it. Crow realised dimly the alcohol was to thank for his continued warmth, but it was welcome nonetheless.

He’d taken not a step from the doors before a great arm fell over his shoulders, grasping him with a familial tightness.

“I think it’s going to be goodnight for us soon.” Rajah noted, swaying slightly as he stood. The boy had drunk far more than Crow, seeming to handle each gulp worse than the last.

He didn’t mind steadying the Jyptian while he said his goodbyes, even with the faint alcoholic reek of his breath.

As Crow prepared himself for a slurred parting, he caught a lucidity in Rajah’s eye. Surprising him with its abruptness and entirely at odds with all else about his demeanour.

“I enjoyed this little gathering.” The boy said, voice carrying all the sudden steadiness of his face, “but the moment the Sieve begins again, we’re enemies. You won our last task because I was an idiot and didn’t take things seriously. I need to win too much to let that happen again. Just so that you’re aware.”

The statement sobered Crow, pouring hot steel to replace the addling drink filling his veins. Reinforcing him as he met Rajah’s challenge unblinking.

“And I’m afraid you’re going to lose all the same.” He said. “Because I’ve got far too much on my shoulders to let myself fail when I’m so close.”

Without a word they released one another, stepping apart and going their separate ways through the corridors. Situation’s gravity crushing all lighthearted cheer into the dirt.

Crow found himself past mourning the mood’s loss. The relief of finally bringing their tensions to bear outweighed it by far.

Matters had been made simple. An enemy placed before him once again.