The dining hall was alive with the clatter of utensils and quiet murmurs of conversation. Atenyos sat among his teammates, absentmindedly pushing his food around his plate. Ipsum, seated beside him, took large bites with his usual carefree attitude, while the others exchanged casual remarks about their upcoming mission.

A silence settled over the table—one that Cassian chose to break.

“Atenyos who would win in a full-on battle to the death between me and Ipsum?” His tone was lighthearted, but the underlying tension in his words did not go unnoticed.

The question caught Atenyos mid-bite. He barely looked up, his expression unreadable.

“Ipsum.” His answer was immediate, his voice cold and detached, as if the question hardly required thought.

Ipsum smirked, taking it as a compliment, but Cassian’s jaw tightened.

“Oh?” Cassian’s voice held a slight edge. “And if you were to go up against Ipsum, who would win?”

Atenyos finally lifted his gaze, meeting Cassian’s eyes with an expression devoid of arrogance, yet filled with quiet confidence. “We’d have to fight to find out. But in a full-on dance…” He allowed himself a slight smirk as he glanced at Ipsum. “I’d triumph.”

Ipsum chuckled but said nothing, though Atenyos’ choice of words made it clear—there would never be such a fight.

Cassian’s lips pressed into a thin line. “I see,” he muttered, but there was something else beneath his words, something unspoken. “Well, only time will tell who’s the strongest… and who’s trustworthy.”

His last words were full of significance, an unstated reprimand hidden within their depths. But if he was expecting reaction, he was not to receive it. Atenyos simply continued on with meal in front of him, not bothering with whatever Cassian was insinuating. Tension lasted for yet another instant before Ipsum changed subject, and meal went on from that point in peace.

However, Cassian’s inspection of Atenyos wasn’t going unnoticed.

.

Mission Briefing

Training room was quiet upon their arrival, thick with unspoken anticipation. Kantara was at its center, face unreadable, arms locked across his chest.

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“Assume that all of you have eaten well,” he began off on level tones, unshakeable words. “Today, words turn to actions."

Presence was enough to command their attention alone, but that he spoke differently now — differently than he ever spoke — added to it.

“Before we start, we have to welcome someone." He waved towards doors. "To welcome her."

“Mendr, a new addition to the team she’s a Ring Bearer of notable physical strength—one of strongest among the guild. Raw power alone makes her of immense utility to us, but determination to match hers is scarce."

He fell for pause before going on to talk of more things in greater details.

“Respect her power. Soon enough, you'll need to."

The young woman emerged, black hair falling from shoulders to mid-back, eyes blank of all expression but for their unyielding concentration. There was sharpness to her vibe, determination to her stance that spoke of someone who’d struggled for every step of advancement she’d won.

Team welcomed her in their own way—each of them greeting in their own way. Atenyos welcomed with a nod not much more than that, but she gave him hers in turn in no way hesitant at all.

Only Ipsum faltered. His smile faltered for only for a split second, his eyes on Mendr for brief a moment before he stepped back.

Kantara didn’t pause to go on. “Now to the task at hand.”

His face clouded darker, his energy altering.

“There are two objectives—two Regressors.”

Serenity lacked from the words he spoke.

"As Ring Bearers, their mission was to fend off the Witnesses and creatures of Bright Darkness,” Kantara went on to harden he stares. “And that is not all that is requested of us.” His words now cut with edge, more cutting than before. “There are members within us—those who have ingested the Light—who have decided to wield it for their own agenda. Instead of protecting this world, they would seek to corrupt it.”

Atenyos’ fingers curled at his side.

Pathetic.

“The thought of combating other humans might turn your stomach,” Kantara went on to look across their crew. “These aren’t harmless men, though. They are agents of damage to the land. They destroy things, and if we don’t take steps now, more humans will get hurt than have so far.”

His words remained even, his sense sound—but something was wrong. Atenyos heard it in undertones to words of him, in how he tightened in body by fractions.

The exasperation in Kantara’s tones wasn’t without reason.

It was from suffering....pain.

Atenyos’s eyes tightened in suspicion.

Why?

Why would naming these Regressors have caused that reaction?

Kantara’s powers slightly flared to life at his emotions, even causing air in the room to condense. Shiver of fear coursed through the spine of their crew—an involuntary reaction when having an Emperor candidate’s power in their ranks.

And yet, Atenyos didn’t flinch, all of his focus on Kantara.

He was hiding something.

What was it?

Kantara breathed finally, shoving all of the feelings that welled to where they belonged in his mind.

“Okay,” he continued speaking in that even, measured way again. “Here’s all that’s known of the two Regressors that we'll hunt."

Room grew tense.

Hunt was on.