Evening and supper came and went quietly. Josephina retired to her quarters, giving her sister only a soft murmur of “good night” before she left.

Joan ate her dinner and set off to the barracks. Throughout the year they were almost silent at such an hour; with the impending graduation, however, the students had become restless. Some milled about, chattering. Others were up reading, sketching, or taking care of their weapons.

The blonde wandered up to her bunk and snorted as she caught sight of Aiko, who was laying rigid as a board beneath her blanket.

“I know you aren’t asleep,” she teased.

Aiko opened one eye and grimaced. “I wish that I were. These children are unbearable. We still have a week of classes. I, for one, intend to be awake for them.”

Joan rolled her eyes and said, “Well we don’t have any morning classes tomorrow. I was going to try and turn in early but ah— I don’t think that’s happening. Want to go for a walk?”

Aiko drew her covers back and stood, smiling for once. She was in uniform.

Joan raised a brow, frowned. “Why?”

“I will tell you later,” the brunette responded. “Come. If I don’t leave soon, I may do something drastic for the sake of silence.”

They exited the barracks, entered the main hall, and headed East toward the Academy’s sole garden. It was deemed frivolous by all those on the faculty, but the students had fought for it, as it provided a place of solace when they so desperately needed it.

Walking among the lavender and the chamomile, it was easy to forget that they were on the cusp of going to war, and that a godlike monster was getting ever closer to their city.

Aiko halted and turned away. Her voice was low and broken when she said, “I know that he’s close. You talk in your sleep and your thoughts are so loud. I haven’t told anyone, but… I want to. It isn’t right to keep this from the people.”

Joan sighed. Befriending a Mentalist was a task itself. People were so often unnerved by their abilities and the lack of privacy they presented. It wasn’t their fault that they could see, hear, and sometimes feel everything that another did. Joan knew she had no place to judge; she had some of the ability. She wasn’t as gifted with the magic as Aiko, who as a protégé in her Class, but she had some talent.

She shrugged in response. “You’re right. It’s not. But those are my orders, and I’m not going to disobey. We’ll drive him back when we ship out. He isn’t that close.”

The words were weak, laughable. They could never hope to drive him back. Only a miracle would save them now. Ilya help them, they were all going to die.

“The gods have abandoned us,” she whispered. “They made him. Why else would they make him but to erase us? I don’t understand.”

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Aiko took her hands and shook her head. “The gods did not make him. He is a fluke. And we are strong. A single person can turn the tide of war if given the opportunity. We are thousands. We will end this.”

Joan stared at her, derision plain on her features. She had wanted to be a soldier from a young age. And now that she was here, she was no less sure. But the task laid out in front of them was monumental. Could they conquer it?

Fatemakers were a rarity. In all of history, there had been three. The first was their maker, Ílya, who had given birth to the earth itself and the people. Hundreds of thousands of years later came Varrin, a sage who led them through an age of cold. The Beast had been born a half millennia ago, and was a war mongrel in his time. It was only with the united strength of the Sort and the Ilramore families that he was captured and imprisoned.

Joan disliked him more than most Fatemakers. Her family had lost their throne to the Ilramore on that day, a fact that would not bother her so much if the Ilramore weren’t squandering their kingdom. They were financially prosperous, but little else. Tucked away in their ivory castle, they seemed to care for little more than frivolous matters.

On the day The Beast attacked their kingdom five hundred years ago, the Ilramore were the first to step up. They were the ones to put him away, and they were the ones to take over after the war.

“There is something that could end him,” she said at last. “The Godkillers. They are still out there, somewhere.”

Aiko raised her brows, jaw agape. “They are three objects in the entire world. How do you expect to find them?”

“Magic leaves traces,” she answered. “Especially the ancient kind. With the help of a Naturalist, I’m sure I could track down at least one. There have to be clues. Somewhere, in some old book.”

“There is an entire group of scholars dedicated to seeking them out,” Aiko reminded her. “And they have found nothing so far.”

Joan scoffed. “Dusty old men in dark rooms cannot even hope to accomplish in a century what we can in a day.”

“Hm.” Aiko smiled. “I like the idea. If we can get it, though— we would need to find the Ring first. The rest will follow.

Joan cracked a smile and looked out across the grounds. Two weeks and they’d be shipped out. If her idea managed to get through the tedious chain of command, then her job would be far more dangerous than the field.

The Godkillers were three artifacts created by the most talented Naturalists the Sorts could find and were composed of a ring, a crown, and a knife. Combined, they had the ability to kill anything, even a Fatemaker. They were made in the years following the Beast’s imprisonment in the hopes that if he ever broke free, he would be slain.

Joan couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t simply executed in his prison, but dared not ask the question to anyone above. The Ilramore didn’t like inquisitive people.

They were swinging back around now, following the winding garden path back toward the main hall. As they stepped into the shadows Aiko stopped, frowning.

“What?” Joan asked, brows low.

“I feel… dread,” she answered. “For what, I do not know. It’s probably just graduation nerves.”

Joan nodded in response. They departed again, and by the time they returned to the barracks, all was still. She wiggled under her covers and yawned, eyes drifting shut. Sleep came uneasily. She could not get Aiko’s words out of her mind. Their lives were balancing on the edge of a precipice, the Beast pushing them ever further along.

One day soon, they’d fall.