They made it back to their shared hovel without further incident.

Nax led Seph and Lume through the city, helping them stay unnoticed and unlooked for as much as possible. Seph had given Lume his mask so she wouldn't be recognized if someone saw her face, and he'd noted the surprise when she saw him for the first time.

She wasted no time asking questions once they'd made it to him and Nax's home. "You live here?"

She sounded almost offended at the sight of their hovel. "The most famous fighter in Tuwallo lives in the slums. I don't believe it. And you!" She turned, pointing at Seph like she was accusing him of thievery. "You're no older than me! I've been treating you both like my parents this whole time, and you're still wet behind the ears!"

Before Seph could reply, Nax took off his mask.

Lume looked at him, swore, looked at Seph, and then pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes. "You're just as bad. You're telling me you're this good, after what? Your twentieth cycle?"

"Nineteenth," Nax replied.

Lume threw Seph's mask at Nax's head. Seph had to hold back a laugh when Nax caught it.

"Shade and sun, I thought I was doing well! One cycle on me, and you fight like you've lived another thirty!" Lume complained.

"He had me," Seph joked. "The greatest gift-"

"Seph helped. But I started fighting when I was eleven. Head start makes a difference."

Seph noted the difference between that and what Nax had said about winning the race a few weeks ago, but he held his tongue.

Lume looked back and forth between them, and he could see her mind turning things over, looking at conversations under a new light. Finally, she stepped forward and offered Nax her forearm. "Lumellin Ojenta. My friends call me Lume. It's nice to finally meet you."

Nax gripped her forearm without hesitation. "Naxtus Wressom. Nax. Canestalk over there is Sephyr Tarmin."

"Seph," the aforementioned boy replied, extracting himself from his heavy robes. "And it's hard to gain weight when you spend twelve hours a day wading in the bay."

Nax nodded. "Seph is a carnacle harvester by trade. I fight."

"I fight, he says," Lume muttered. She turned to Seph. "Does he do it on purpose?"

Seph shrugged, collapsing onto the bed and pulling out a sheaf of notes tucked under his makeshift mattress. "I haven't figured it out. Either it's true, or he's a better liar than I thought."

"On purpose?" Nax asked.

Lume and Seph looked at each other. "Nothing," they replied together.

There was a silence for a moment, though the mood was lighter despite today's events. Finally, Nax turned to Seph.

"Theories?"

"I have two. One: the vulcanites decided we needed to be taken care of before Lume created too much momentum. They sent three Hollows because Lithiums beating on a Hollow in the dark would be considered shameful. After all, if they're so much stronger they can do it in the ring. Why ambush you in the tunnels?"

Nax nodded, turning to slam his fists into the hanging bag next to his bed with a steady rhythm. "Two?"

"Verrin," Seph replied.

Lume interrupted, her eyes flicking back and forth between Seph's notes and Nax's strikes. "I'm sorry, Verrin? Why would he try to hurt me and Nax? He can't market my fights if we're crippled."

"Exactly. Which means Verrin didn't want it to happen in the first place."

Nax grunted.

Lume still looked like Seph had told her she'd grown a tail. "Why on the Fortress' wrinkled nose would he do that?"

Seph suppressed a snort at the butchery of the local Tuwallin oath. "Because he wants to drum up attention for the fights even more. Right now the fights are packed, but if he can make them even more popular he can get away with charging more chips for admission. Verrin knows the chances of Nax losing to three Hollows are almost zero. Say he sends a crew after you and Nax. Nax kicks their skulls in, and Verrin spins it as a heroic defense against a gang of thugs by Surestrike and his protege. Does that sound like something the people would like?"

Lume sighed. "You Tuwallins, with your smoke and dagger idiocy. Only here can you pay someone to not kill a man just to make you and him richer. Among the Ojentus, if Verrin did this they'd strip him of his ancestors' favor."

"A terrifying punishment," Seph deadpanned. "And it's cloak. In all seriousness, that's what I think is most likely. Though I'd be willing to bet he didn't think you'd kill them," he said, turning to chastise Nax.

Seph had seen more remorseful bricks.

"Didn't kill them," the larger boy replied. He paused. "Mostly. Except the one."

"And made the other two forget their names, if I had to guess," Seph replied.

Nax shook his head. "Izar, at least, will be fine. Sore for a while, true. But alive."

Seph saw the spark of surprise from Lume when she noticed Nax had remembered the man's name. "Being good at it doesn't mean he enjoys it," Seph explained.

"I know. I just..." She trailed off.

"Would lay on a beach if I could. World has other plans," Nax said. "So does he," he continued, nodding to Seph.

"Guilty," Seph replied. "And that brings us to the giganti in the room. Lume," he said, turning to the woman. "I could be wrong. Maybe that really was an attempt on our lives. Even if it wasn't, you're still in danger just knowing us. So I have to ask: are you still wanting to do this? If you're out, we'll disappear before the day is over. You'll never have to worry about us again."

The silence after Seph's questions was only punctuated by the sound of Nax's fists impacting the bag. The moment stretched until Lume sighed. "Of course I'm still here. But I need to know who I'm working with. And I'm not calling you Master anymore," she joked, eyes sliding to catch Nax's reaction.

He looked like he was carved from limestone, and she slumped in disappointment.

Seph spoke up before she was too distracted. "We'll tell you everything."

"First, we decide our next step," Nax chimed in.

"True. Luckily, I have a few ideas for that..."

----------------------------------------

Verrin had the whole city talking about the attempt on Surestrike and his student's lives before the day was over. Seph had to listen to Old Pon relating a highly fictionalized, bordering on impossible version of the day's events. Seph smiled and nodded through most of it.

The story was that the vulcanites had finally gotten sick of Surestrike's arrogance in the pits and had decided to do something about it. They'd sent three Lithiums to cripple him in the arena's tunnels, and Surestrike had killed all of them before disappearing.

That, more than anything else, convinced Seph that Verrin was responsible. Izar's leg injury was brutal, but he should have lived. Seph assumed Verrin had decided to tie up loose ends before any real Lithiums could investigate.

He and Seph had discussed confronting Verrin, but that was quickly discarded. Nax's conversation with the man had been both unwise and unplanned, and if Seph had caught him before Verrin's door he would've advised against it. This time, they took the cautious approach: they let Verrin think they were scared of the vulcanites, and in truth, they were. But Verrin had shown them what he would do for a few extra chips, and in the process brought the city to a boil.

Seph silently cursed Nax for telling Verrin to be more ambitious, despite how satisfying the scene must have been. The slipscale had been a thorn in their side for cycles, and seeing Nax humble him would have been a treat. But Verrin was the type to cower before hiring knives in the dark, and angering him further was folly.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

If there was a brighter side to the attempt it was that Lume seemed like she'd been catalyzed by the encounter. She came to terms with her new reality quickly, something Seph was grateful for. He liked the tribeswoman, her enthusiasm often bringing him from his darker moments where his mind churned through all that stood between them and Nax's ignition. She dedicated herself even more thoroughly - if that were possible - to improving rapidly.

Seeing Nax defend the two of them while she hesitated had clearly left a mark.

Her victories grew with her skill, and before long she defeated her first 'real' opponent as Nax put it. There were few fighters Nax respected in the arena, but Corrus was one of them.

Corrus the Stag was a popular fighter among the rowdier citizens of the outer rings, his drunken style carrying a raucous charm that even Seph felt, but Lume had outclassed him in the end. That fight was the first time Nax relaxed since they'd started.

As the victories continued to pile up, so too did their chips. Verrin was true to his word, giving them portions of the fight cuts that dwarfed the payouts Nax had received over the last ten cycles. It was enough to fund both the orphanage and their ignition efforts, and now they were barely a few hundred chips from being able to ignite Nax.

It didn't feel real at times, and Seph kept expecting to wake up and find their stash stolen out from under their noses.

They talked about their next steps with Lume at length, the tribeswoman poking holes in Seph's plans with the same precision she'd used to devastating effect in the arena. Seph's original plan had been to run to Xenta, the cultural hub of Jandus Lailatt's lands.

She'd quickly disabused him of that. Xenta, she said, was a cesspool. The oppression from vulcanites was even worse than here in Tuwallo, and so many souls called the city home they were bundled together in great swathes of stone.

It was apparently where Lume had been before ending up in Tuwallo. Seph didn't ask after what happened, and Lume didn't volunteer.

They shifted, instead, to looking towards Terundria. The land was harsh, but from what Seph could tell, The Winterforge protected the people under his aegis better than any of the other Lutetiums. There was even word he was working on a system to hide his holdings from the Sunscourge's advance. The great ball of darkness was often attracted to the largest concentrations of animus on Asin, and if Tuwallo was a spark then Gorunhold was a beacon.

The heart of the city was barred to vulcanites who weren't at least Titanium, the mental enhancement on reaching the rank considered a necessity for Gorunhold's core inhabitants, but the city itself was open to Hollows. After his anima senses matured, Seph could work as an artificer for all the vulcanites that flocked to Gorunhold's environs. Nax had been worried about what he would do in a city devoted to understanding animus and constructing artefacts, but Seph reassured him.

Vulcanite fighters seldom lacked for work on Asin.

They spoke to Lume about her plans, and Seph was surprised to learn she didn't have any. It seemed like she simply intended to float through where life took her, uncaring about her direction. She wanted to improve herself, that was certain, and the fire in her eyes when they spoke of ignition convinced him Lume's desire to be a vulcanite was sincere.

But it seemed for all the world like she didn't care what happened to her. It left Seph feeling unsettled, that someone with such a bright light seemed disinclined to make sure it kept shining. In the moments where she didn't realize he was looking, he saw her edges fray. On one particularly bad evening, he took her to meet Farris.

"Seph!" The man exclaimed, little Velda gripping his pants with white knuckles. "It's good to see you, my boy! Who's your friend?"

Lume looked the most uncomfortable he'd ever seen her, eyes darting back and forth between the mountain of a man in front of her and the tiny girl at his side. "Lume," she choked out. "Nice to meet you," she said, performing a bow Seph had never seen before.

"Welcome to my home! Apologies in advance. My roommates are a little... Rambunctious." Farris scooped up Velda to walk her deeper into the orphanage, the girl emitting a tiny squeal as he did. Seph followed, and Lume did the same, though she seemed to walk in a daze. He tapped her elbow, leaning in so the sounds of the children drowned out his whisper. "Are you okay? You look like you've seen a leviathan."

She started, her eyes darting to him and then back to Velda before she spoke. "My mother. She used to take care of the tribe's children. I wasn't... Suited for it."

Seph attached that to the sparse picture of Lume's old life he'd been painting in his mind, her clear pain at the memory something he hadn't expected. He got the impression that Lume's emergence from Omata's jungle hadn't been smooth.

"We'll leave soon. Just need to give him the chips."

She nodded.

"These are the rest of the little ones!" Farris exclaimed, piercing through their whispers. He gestured with an open arm to the common room, children running around as young as two cycles and as old as twelve. No one in Tuwallo would hire before thirteen, so that was usually the limit of Farris' generosity. Seph knew it pained him, but he couldn't house these children forever.

"I see you have your hands full as always," Seph said. "We're just here to make a delivery. I know the little ones get rowdy at this time. We'll be out of your hair in a moment."

Farris chuckled, rubbing his bald head. "What hair?" He set Velda down and she scampered off to sit next to another little girl even younger than her. Seph noticed the way Velda seemed to fuss over the little one.

"She's decided that Belsy is her responsibility. Couldn't get her to say a word the whole time she was here, turns out all it took was someone for her to mother." Farris looked on with pride, though Seph could tell the necessity pained him. "I think she wants to do what her mother didn't."

Lume's sharp intake of breath was quiet, but Seph knew Farris heard it. He turned to her, his eyes kind. "It's nice to meet you, young lady. I've heard all about your fights lately. You sound like a real competitor."

"Farris was arena champion three cycles running twelve cycles ago," Seph said. "If he says he hears good things, it's the truth."

"But..." Lume trailed off before seeming to find her courage. "But you are a nurturer. How could you fight in the ring?"

Farris laughed at that, mirth pulling the lines of his face to softness. "And why can I not be both? I had my time in the ring, and I enjoyed it. There's no sweeter feeling than triumph in the arena. But I did that for me. This, I do for them. These children need me like I needed the arena. Who would I be to ignore that?"

Lume looked like Farris had struck her, and Seph saw tears begin to well up before she crushed them with an iron will. "Thank you for your guidance," she said, performing the same salute she used when Nax taught her. "Truly, you are wise."

"I don't know about that," the man replied. "Wise would be figuring out how to make sure none of these children need me in the first place. I'm just a man doing his best."

"Aren't we all?" Seph replied. "Speaking of which, a gift for you."

Farris took the proffered bag, opening the mouth and raising an eyebrow. "This is more than last time."

"You can thank Lume. Her fights are the biggest attraction for the last twenty cycles, and Verrin is giving us a cut."

Farris' gaze darkened at Verrin's name, but the rage was old and diluted. It fled quickly. "Thank you, Lume. Your work in the arena goes to greater purpose."

"I see that," Lume said. "Thank you for bringing us into your home."

"You're welcome. After all," Farris grinned, "You could almost say it's your home. You're paying for it."

----------------------------------------

Lume was crying when she left the orphanage. Seph had to have noticed, but he had enough tact not to acknowledge it.

Learning the boy's identity had been a struggle. She had imagined him as a librarian in his middle ages, despite the youthful comradery he shared with Nax. She'd believed it was impossible for someone his age to be as knowledgeable and carefree at the same time as Seph was.

She'd been spending a lot of time reevaluating beliefs lately.

She turned to Seph, knowing he would be dying with curiosity. "Among the Ojentus, classes are strictly codified. Ojenta warriors do nothing but train, hunt, and defend. Nurturers handle the needs of the many. Builders construct defenses and homes, and cultivators grow the food and tend the herds. The only constant between all classes is that they do not mix."

Lume paused, and she felt gratitude that Seph had the decency not to ask the questions she knew must be burning in his mind.

"My mother is First Nurturer. I was intended to be the same, but..."

"But you wanted to fight," Seph finished for her.

"Yes. More than anything, I wanted my hands to defend the tribe, not just swaddle and feed. I knew I could do both. I went to my mother, asking that I be trained as both a nurturer and a fighter." Lume's tears fell silently, years of frustration welling up and flowing through her. "I've never heard her so angry. She said my mind was tainted by the very thought of violence, that I yearned to hurt instead of heal. She was wrong. I wanted nothing more than to protect us."

Lume paused, dabbing at her eyes as her tears slowed. "Omata's jungles are vicious; whisperclaws, rigorweeds, ripwings, even pondlurks hide in the shadows. We lose a dozen a year to the threats of the jungle, and those are only the ones killed directly. How many more die because we can't hunt and harvest safely?"

"I can't imagine, Lume," Seph said when she paused. "Life in Tuwallo is hard, but it's rarely deadly."

She laughed at that, and she could tell he had no idea why. "Tuwallo is worse," she explained. "Everyone here spends their time figuring out how to step on the next person. They'd rather burn a feast than share it with another. It's disgusting, the selfishness and brutality I see here every day. And yet..."

"I know what you mean. Despite all of that, I can't help but love it. People like Farris make the city worth saving. Nax, the kids at the orphanage. Even Old Pon, geezer that he is. There are so many people here just doing their best to get by. And like it or not, there's always something to do or see in Tuwallo." Seph sat, his back against a wall made of the same limestone most of the city was constructed from. "I imagine the jungle feels the same."

"It's deadly and beautiful," Lume agreed, sitting down beside him. "Just like the jungle. But in the tribes, we faced nature together. Here, it's like you're all on your own islands. My mother told me to spend time in the city, to see how the people lived who did everything instead of letting others handle their specialties. I went to Xenta looking for work, and slave traders had me shackled within the day. They said my skin was a rarity."

Seph's brows darkened, and it was easy to guess why. Lume found out after coming to Tuwallo that Jandus Lailatt had outlawed slavery in all of his lands, but even a Lutetium couldn't be everywhere. The slave trade was still alive and well despite his attempts to stomp it out.

"I ended up here, and apparently whoever bought me reneged, because they left us rotting in a warehouse for days. It took me almost two days to pick the lock, and when I did, I was so dehydrated I wanted to dunk my open mouth in the bay."

Seph winced. She imagined he'd seen, as she had, men driven mad by drinking salt water. "How did you end up with the fry?"

"Don't know," she smiled with empty eyes. "One of the ward's adjudicators just walked up to me the next day and asked if I wanted to join the fry. He said my skin was good for selling tickets if I could get the skills to make it into the arena."

"You couldn't afford to say no."

Lume snorted. "I wouldn't have anyways. I wanted to prove my mother wrong, show her that I could learn to fight and then return to care for the children. Then you two came along."

"Sorry about that," Seph joked.

"No. I was naive, thinking I could make it to the arena on my own and then just leave. Without you two I'd probably die in a spar, have my body fed to the ironshells." Lume sighed, looking up at the moon above. "This is better. Coming back as a vulcanite is a world different. We had one, almost a hundred cycles ago, but he died to a whisperclaw without igniting anyone else. We've been struggling ever since."

Seph sat in silence, digesting what Lume had told him. Finally, he spoke. "We'll come with you when you go back. Together until the end, right?"

Lume's smile returned, radiant enough that it almost replaced one of the missing suns. "Together," she agreed.