"The trial corridor isn't ready," Menya hissed to Nira, as Zu Mari listened in covertly.

"I don’t know— Can you make it ready? I'll… get them uniforms or something. Just hurry."

Menya nodded and hurried off again.

Nira led the group of confused prisoners into the tower and down a different flight of steps until they reached a wide open chamber with a ceiling high enough Zu almost expected to see clouds. Windows from high above let in shafts of sunlight, giving the whole place a calm and powerful aura. It reminded Zu of the Mari family sacred library, only about fifty times as grand.

There were no books here, however, only a tiled mosaic across the floor and blue patterns embedded into the walls over which water flowed in a gentle trickle.

He was reminded of the mental place of calming he'd been instructed to create, back before his clan had discovered he was utterly incapable of learning. A place of serenity so pure it could be almost tangibly felt. He wondered if he still had his mental place, or if it had been destroyed by the years that followed.

It shook him when Nira clapped her hands to catch their attention. He'd been so lost in thought he'd almost forgotten why they were here.

"You have all been accepted as potential acolytes. Soon you will face the first trial of your apprenticeship. If you survive five trials, you will become one of us."

"What if we don't want to be one of you?" Lukas asked defiantly, standing protectively in front of little Kia. "What if we want to go home?"

"You have no home any more,” Nira said calmly, her hands folded into her sleeves in front of her. “Your home was destroyed, and your people eliminated. Only you remain, and you are no longer of the place or the people you once knew. If you are to survive and thrive in this new world we are building, you must accept that."

"There are thirty of us and one of you. What's to stop us leaving?"

Nira moved her hands to rest on the sword hilts at her sides. "You are all weak. Do not expect that a single one of you would live if you tried to fight past me. I may have compassion, but I will not let you leave here. I have my duties, and they supersede any kindness I may feel toward the unfortunate."

Perhaps it was the beauty of their surroundings, but Zu thought she looked lesser now than she ever had before, diminished and petty. But he needed her.

Zu raised a hand and stepped forward. "I, for one, would love to be an acolyte of the Green Flame. But I'm not sure if your curriculum would be sufficient for my needs. I have a spirit-bound blade, can you help me learn to conjure it?"

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Nira stared at him, forehead creasing into a frown. "You... have a spirit blade? And yet you allowed yourself to be captured without a fight?"

"It wasn't completely without a fight," Zu mumbled. "But, I don't know how to summon it."

Nira looked at him consideringly. A look came over her eyes that Zu recognized, the sort of weighing greed of someone who sees potential advantage to be had.

To help with his pitch, he swallowed his pride and knelt right there, hands held out to her pleadingly. "I will be your faithful servant, if you will deign to teach this unworthy one the secrets I cannot grasp on my own. Please, teacher."

That did it. Nira smiled, her nod of acquiescence letting her black hair fall over her shoulder. "Yes, there is something special about you. I think I can find a place to suit your requirements. The Master did leave your training to our discretion, after all. He can have no complaints if I do as seems best. Very well, you may come with me. The rest of you, wait here. I'll send someone with your new uniforms, and then Menya will come to show you to the trial. Until then,” she looked pointedly at Lukas and Kia, “meditate and try to accept your new state of being."

"Wait," called one of the group of four sisters, the other three standing at her sides. "We would study under you as well, if you'll have us." As one, they dropped to their knees. "We have no spirit powers, but our lineage is strong and our locked potential is limitless. Please, accept us as your students as well."

Nira looked over the assemblage, saw that no one else put themselves forward, then nodded. "Then so be it. You five will be my personal students. Do not think this will make your lives easier. My challenges will be just as dangerous as the rest."

Zu remembered the four as giving him a distinctly cold welcome the first time around, but this time they displayed none of that coldness. Then, he'd been defiant and they submissive; now it seemed they saw him as a leader among the chosen who would become acolytes to the Green Flame, and to Nira specifically.

The sisters introduced themselves, Alie, Melie, Turie, and Carie. Alie was the one who led the group, the loudest and most confident. Zu wasn’t sure he’d be able to tell the other three apart. They all had similar facial features, similar expressions, and near-identical purple-grey hair. None of them even styled it differently. It was as though they wanted to distinguish themselves as little as possible from one another.

Nira led them to a room not far from the grand chamber they’d left, following a hall that curved around it to the right, through a doorway on the left and into what seemed to be her personal quarters. Two connected rooms, a front room that seemed to serve as both bedroom and study, small and neatly kept without much adornment. There was a bookshelf, a table with two chairs and a desk with one, and a wide open circle in the middle of the room with geometric markings drawn into it.

“Wait here, I’ll return for you when your first test is prepared,” Nira instructed, then left them there.

Knowing Nira to be the sort of person who'd stab her own sister-ally in the back just to get at Zu made him less inclined to trust their new teacher than he ordinarily would have. Nira had seemed kind at first, but he'd seen firsthand that when push came to shove, she'd choose herself over all others.

That seemed to be a prevailing doctrine among the Green Flame, actually. That combination of utter disregard for Zu and his power, as well as the emptiness of their lives showed clearly just how unsaveable they were.

Zu would never let Death Shadow or Fire Twilight Death be hurt or destroyed to save himself. The absolute lack of loyalty between these people was as great a condemnation as anything Serena could have told him.

The goddess hadn't needed to tell him, because she’d known he would see for himself.

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