Hunter policy #00901 (Redacted):

Only interfere with a formal Hunt when absolutely necessary, and ensure there are none who cannot be trusted with this infringement of the law who remain after the fact. Acceptable conditions for such an infraction are if a monster of particular worth or on the blacklist of requested items is spotted by a team of cadets, or if a student of particular sociopolitical worth is in mortal peril by beast or man. The utmost discretion in either case is advised.

I waited with my new leather pack strung along my back, Eliza’s gifts weighing it down. All around me, the buzz of anticipation lingered in the air as our entire cohort of first-years prepared to leave Halistair for the Wilds. Ahead, professors Alaric and Brayborrow attended to the enchanting guild members who would be traveling with us. I couldn’t decide which sight was odder: finely dressed enchanters arguing with elite warriors, or how each young Orion looked ready to warm their crotches from the nerves they felt.

Not that I was much better.

Anxiety crept along my skin like a winter chill that ensares you even as you huddle by a fire. I tucked an errant strand of my pale hair behind an ear and tried my best to remain calm. Teams huddled together, awaiting the call to march. In front of me, Elio stretched out his shoulders and grinned at our hodge-podge collection of teammates, but even his unshakeable mirth felt taut.

“Who’s ready to show the Shadow Lord our truest colors as we fight for life and limb?!” He yelled. Others muttered curses at his outburst, but I simply returned his smile.

“One of these days, you’re really going to have to tell me about this Shadow Lord you keep mentioning!” I said, resting my head against the tunnel’s damp surface.

“No, don’t!” Lysandra gasped, eyes alert and horrified at my invitation.

“Well, as a matter of fact, I’ve been meaning to tell you all—” Elio started, but Azuris cleared his throat loudly.

“We’re moving.” He started to walk forward a heartbeat before Alaric’s honey-trap of a voice echoed through the long expanse of where we were gathered.

“How did he—” I began, curious as to how he knew that, but I fell into line behind him regardless. To my right, Gwyn sheathed the tomahawk and whetstone she’d been using and fell into stride beside me.

“You ready?” I asked the short warrior, careful to leave the worst of the panic out of my tone. I couldn’t shake Eliza’s words even after the half-dozen meetings Azuris had orchestrated for our last minute team.

They want you to kill each other.

I glanced around at my allies. Azuris, Lysandra, Elio, and Gwyn.

Which one of them would kill me just to gain power? Prestige?

I shook my head in a vain attempt to dismiss the thought.

“I am ready. My blades have been too dry lately,” Gwynneth answered softly.

“Oookay, thank you for that visual. Lizzy? You okay?” I said probably a bit too quickly. She looked up from the map each team had been provided three days before we departed.

“Yeah, though the little message at the bottom of this thing doesn’t leave me too confident,” she admitted with a half-grin that didn’t reach her eyes. She nervously adjusted her spectacles and turned the large parchment toward me.

MAP DETAILS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE

Stolen novel; please report.

It said in every language but that of the tieflings.

“The Wilds change,” Azuris commented darkly. And I knew from my fledgling geography skills that he spoke from experience. Of the three nations that encircled the continental territory of the Wilds, only the tieflings were brave enough to coexist within it.

“Thank Zadalk for the Cloaks, then!” Elio boomed and several nearby cadets flinched at his volume. I smiled awkwardly and shrugged at their glares.

“My fellow Orions! Steel your hearts and ready your blades! We are off!” Alaric declared. Wagons creaked as the slender figures of the scaled horses began to pull their weight. Like the rest of us, they were led down the central road that wove away from Halistair’s main entrance. The main thoroughfare was shooed to the sides as our caravan departed the city. Some threw flowers, while others simply shook their heads.

A man, taller than most of the crowd, dropped a wicker basket. Vegetables and a few fruits tumbled out and he stumbled to pick them up. One Orion kicked at the food with a laugh, and I instinctively rushed to ensure the poor man’s groceries weren’t destroyed by the arrogance of my fellow cadets. I reached out for a strewn cabbage and held it out for the unlucky man. Sea-green eyes I knew better than my own hands connected with mine. We both froze.

“Dad,” I whispered, before I knew what was happening.

“Thea?” He asked, his voice hoarse with enough sorrow to drown Halistair and beyond.

“I have to go,” I told him. I quickly placed the dirty cabbage into the basket I now recognized as one of my mother’s and rushed away. Calloused fingers grasped for my bicep, but I slipped away.

“Please, Thea! Please! Come back!” My father cried, all dignity lost and forgotten as his one and only child disappeared into a crowd of black uniforms. I didn’t look back. I couldn’t. I knew that if I did, I would forget all about Kaelin. I would leave this uniform behind, laws be damned. For my dad, for those kind eyes that only ever reflected love for me—I would tear this world apart for him.

In a strange way, I was doing exactly that.

I wasn’t just seeking out Kaelin for my brother’s sake. It was so that my father would have his son back. Tears came unbidden and unwelcome to the corners of my vision.

“Oh, is the little rat sad to leave her sewers?” Prince James called out behind me.

“Oh, shut up!” I yelled back at him, uncaring of how pitiful I must’ve looked in front of him. How weak.

“That’s right, rat! Run ahead! You’ll need the headstart. I’m going to find you and that ashblood bastard and scalp you both myself,” he said in a sing-song voice. “Run, little rat!” Beside him, his compatriots laughed and howled at my disappearing form. Their words would’ve had more effect on me if not for the cracks already lengthening in my soul at the sound of my father’s sobs behind us.

The journey down the hill gave my heart enough time to help my heart leave the pain and enter a hollowness that emptied me of my guilt. My shame. It was a delusional haven, but numbness was all I could manage right then. My teammates didn’t comment on the sudden redness of my eyes or the sniffs that accented our heavy footfalls.

We reached the entrance to the Wilds by mid-morning. A soft glisten of sweat covered most of our faces, despite the autumn wind that tore through the gigantic circular gate that separated us from our true destination.

“Orions!” Alaric called out. He now stood atop one of the wagons, his hair immaculate and breath steady as he took us all in. “This is your first Hunt! For some of you, this will be your last. There are no safety nets beyond that gate. No professors to ensure the worst of your injuries are addressed. You will be alone save for your team. You will each have the seventeen days allotted to you to return. Be warned! Take any longer than that and you will discover why we do not barricade this gate during a surge. The great and terrible storm that has plagued our civilization will return then, so do not dally! Find your prey and apply all that we’ve taught you! Rise, my fellow Orions! Rise! For power and glory! RISE!”

The crowd bellowed and many thumped their chests, intoxicated with his promise and the untempered energy that flooded from beyond that gate. A wave of magic thrummed through the warriors, and I felt goosebumps gather over my arms and neck.

Why are they aura scanning us? I wondered absently, but the thought died as Alaric waved his arms above his head.

“Go, now, my dear students. Come back with a monster and our friends here will see to it that your first true enchantments are forged. These will be built from the blood you spill these next few days. Come back with your kill, or don’t return at all. That is the price of retaining your claim to the Orion name!” He grinned, and I gritted my teeth at his rhyming schemes and general existence.

To distract myself, I glanced around at the various groups who readied their weapons. It took the span of a single heartbeat as Alaric drew in his breath, but in that moment, nearly every pair of eyes from all the other teams shifted to us.

To me.

Something’s wrong.

“HUNT!”

And like a crack of the whip, all eighty-nine of us first years roared and rushed through the gate and into the Wilds.