Fey stops, looking up at the walls surrounding Stena HQ.

“Alright Crimson, time to wake up,” She says, dropping the sleeping Crimson on the ground beside her. “You’re lucky I didn’t walk in with you like that, you’d never live it down.”

Crimson sits up from his downed state.

“Honestly I might have preferred that to the concussion you just gave me,” He says, unamused by her joke. “I don’t know why I’m so tired. I must have slept at least a full day.”

“Try two full days. It’s because your body is going through a ton of physical changes,” She says, knocking on the massive gate. “You needed that sleep, and I bet you’re starving too.”

As if on cue Crimson’s stomach growls, almost mimicking the sound of a lunynpa.

“That is going to be annoying.”

Fey smirks, “Yeah, that’s going to be funny.”

The gates to the HQ creak open, out of the gate comes a brutish man. Nearly twice the size of Crimson.

“Fey? I thought you were supposed to be back a week ago, we all thought you were dead,” He says, happiness obvious in his features. “I’m glad we were wrong.”

“Grunt? It’s good to see you’d kept up the training, thought you would have slacked in my absence,” Fey says, examining every inch of the larger male. “You surprise me kid.”

Crimson looks between Fey and Grunt, confused at their mannerisms.

“Why are you calling him kid? He says. “He’s clearly older than you.”

Grunt looks down to Crimson.

“Who is this? An initiate?” He says, annoyance in his eyes. “Get this in your head now. Experience and strength determines your elders, not age.”

Grunt stares at Crimson, refusing to look away. Crimson shies away from his gaze but keeps their eyes locked. Fey puts her hands in front of them. Once the eye contact was broken, Grunt looks away from Crimson, shielding his eyes.

“He has a hypnotic mutation?” Grunts says. “Could have warned me Fey.”

“Sorry, but even I just figured out. He only recently drank,” She shrugs. “I’ll give him the rundown on the way in.”

Grunt nods, “Alright, I’ll leave him to you but I thought you said you weren’t going to take any new inductions anymore. Especially after Bun.”

“Didn’t really have a choice on this one,” Fey says with a stony expression. “He has too much unrefined skill for me to let go.”

“You’re all heart Fey.” Grunt teases

Fey walks past Grunt, “Shove it.”

Crimson walks behind Fey, ignoring the chuckling man.

“You didn’t tell me you had inducted others.”

Fey looks towards him for a moment before looking back to the castle like structure in front of them.

“You weren’t the first, and I can only hope you’ll be the last,” She says with a sigh. “It’s the responsibility of every Butcher and Siren to scout new talent. Even if it gives them more hell than it’s worth.”

Crimson looks down at the ground.

“So why did you induct me?” He says, raising his head.

“It was either I inducted you, or you died. I meant what I said, you have too much natural ability for me to let you throw it away,” She says. “That, and you just needed a second chance.”

Crimson nods, going silent and following behind her. During their walk towards the large main structure of the HQ Crimson noticed a lot of the compound. Multiple training yards littered the outer courtyards. People of any race practicing on dummies or sparring with one another. Stables, outhouses, and countless other buildings litter the place.

Crimson spots a horse stable, what looks like a monster pen, and a very large court. Most likely used for different kinds of sports.

Fey notices Crimson staring at the different areas.

“You’ll get used to it,” She says. “I’ll introduce you to a couple friends of mine who can get you jump started, if they’re around. First we need to get you to basic training.”

Crimson nods, still following behind her. Eventually they reach the massive building at the center of the wall.

“This is Stena HQ,” She says with a slight smirk. “Let’s hope you get along with the other initiates.”

Looking inside Crimson sees a massive main hall. All kinds of people gathering in it. Job requests littering a massive board attached to one of the walls. Monster hunters and civilians mingling in a crowd. An oddly placed oval reception area set into the middle of the room. A spiral staircase leading upstairs, and also able to go underground. A long hallway showing a large number of doors.

“Sleeping quarters for the Initiates are upstairs, you’ll be shown them in a bit. Any long standing members get their own rooms on this floor, hence the long corridor of rooms. Big shots get big rooms on the top floors,” Fey says. “You’ll be sharing with a team. These teams can contain Sirens and Butchers. Try not to get carried away, or I’ll have to gut you. We deal with that stuff harshly, but I don’t care about what you do as long as everyone is ok with it.”

Crimson nods and looks around while trying to ignore that last part of the sentence, eventually spotting a small group of people gathering around what looks like a bipedal lion. Fey nudges Crimson on the shoulder getting his attention.

“You’ll be following that guy for a bit. He’s a big furry guy by the name of Holt. If he doesn’t kill you, you can find me in the forge downstairs after you’re done,” She says with a grin. “Oh, and here you go. Wear these unless you’re in a combat zone.”

Crimson looks over to Fey to see her holding out a pair of glasses. These glasses are tinted with a dark shade, darker than sunglasses. Crimson puts them on expecting things to be darker but sees almost the same as before.

“Those can only be used by you, they’re dark enough to block those hyno eyes of yours. The night vision that comes with them allows you see through the tint.”

With that, Fey leaves Crimson and begins heading towards the spiral staircase.

Crimson looks down at the glasses and slips them on. Heading towards the group of initiates and the Holt. Crimson walks up to the back of the group and attempts to remain unnoticed but fails once the larger man calls out to him.

“You there. State your name and preferred role,” He calls out. “That and your inductor’s name.”

Crimson freezes up slightly before answering.

“…Crimson, support archer, and I was inducted by Fey.”

Holt’s mouth remains open for a moment before smiling.

“It’s no surprise that woman was late. Her bringing another initiate is,” He says while writing it down on a clipboard, his large clawed hands handling the pencil skillfully. “Let’s hope you don’t let her down.”

Murmuring spread throughout the group at Fey’s mention. Many of the other initiates peering behind them to look at Crimson, his plain clothing disappointing them.

Some scooted away from Crimson, out of fear or disrespect. Most didn’t pay him mind. One person on the other hand stepped closer towards him. A smaller female figure wearing a hood. At the mention of Fey, she had stepped closer to Crimson. Which he didn’t fail to notice, assuming it to be his imagination he ignored it.

“We will be touring the facilities of Stena then if you decide to stay, you will be going through initiation. You will be given basic equipment to start with,” Holt says, loud enough for everyone to hear clearly. “Until then, follow me.”

Holt jumps down from the platform he was on and begins walking down the hall. Crimson waits for the bulk of the group to go ahead and tries to follow behind but is stopped by the female in the cloak, grabbing onto to his shoulder.

“You were inducted by Fey?” She asks, her lower face covered by a cloth mask. Her purple eyes staring into his glasses.

“Yeah, is that a problem?”

The girl lets go, dropping her mask and pulling back her hood. Revealing what looks like cat ears. She smiles at him, showing her sharpened teeth.

“Let’s just say she’s a big part of my life,” The girl says. “I’m Mon, I hope we can be good friends.”

Crimson stares at the girl for a more than comfortable amount of time. Enough time for the girl to wave a hand in front of his face in concern.

“Did I break you?”

Crimson shakes his head with a shudder.

“Sorry, just never seen your species before,” He says in embarrassment. “Took me a bit to process it.”

Mon sees the group getting ahead of them and motions for Crimson to follow. Joining her he looks her over again. This time noticing just how feline her eyes are, that and the tail swaying at her behind. Somehow he missed that at his first glance.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” He says. “What species are you? I’m not too well versed in a large portion of them.”

“Oh, I’m human,” She says, not bothering to elaborate. “Same as you I’d assume. There aren’t many other species around. None that aren’t already gone at least.”

Crimson looks her up and down while walking with the group.

“How?”

She looks at him in confusion, until her tail creeps into her view.

“Oh, the feline traits!” She says as if she’s just made an amazing discovery. “Why didn’t you just ask?”

“I was told it could be taken as rude here,” Crimson says. “Tried to tip-toe the subject.

Mon nods understandingly, “I’ve seen some issues like that come up.”

Mon points at her ears and tail, trying to get Crimson’s eyes on them. Even though he’s trying his hardest not to stare, especially where the tail is.

“I was inducted before coming here. Where I come from these things called Regals are everywhere, they’re like big cats,” She says, swiping at the air to mimic them. Her gesture scarier then she meant with her claws nearing Crimson’s face. “They’re pretty powerful so I ended up drinking a lot of them. The mutations I have are some of the things I gained. Not that I mind them, they are useful. And so soft~. “

Her face contorts into one of comfort as her tail curls up next to her chest, and her ears flatten against her head. Her brown hair accenting the ears nicely. As she does this Crimson examines the extra appendages. The odd additions do seem useful excluding the extra possible limb damage. The tail, despite the looks, is incredibly muscular. It could easily lift another blade, or trip an opponent mid combat. The ears give an obvious advantage to hearing; the way they flicker on her head at every sound giving an obvious tell of their heightened senses.

“You tend to stare a lot,” Mon says, her tail poking Crimson on the cheek. “There are better ways to check girls out.”

Crimson shakes his head quickly.

“Sorry, I tend to space out a lot,” He says, embarrassed by her calling him out. “I was just studying your… mutations.”

Mon shrugs at the excuse and continues walking with the group. Holt still mentioning the inside of the HQ. From what Crimson has heard, all he talks about is how big his room is and how many trophies he has.

Crimson rolls his eyes at their supposed guide and decides to just wait until Fey can show him around. He looks back to Mon, who is currently nipping at her tail.

“How do you know Fey?” He asks. “She induct you too?”

Mon looks up at him, dropping her tail from her mouth and letting it return to its usual sway.

“No, my uncle did. She just took care of me,” She says with a smile. “Haven’t seen her in almost a year.”

“She’s a bit intense huh? I only spent a week with her and she’s already used me as bait,” He says with a sad smile. “The first thing she did was break the last thing I had from home. She is a bit of a jerk.”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Mon looks up at him, a slight anger in her eyes.

“Everything she’s done to you; she’s done to keep you alive,” Mon says. “That is something I can assure you of, she did the same for me.”

“Doesn’t feel like it, but I don’t know her all too well yet so I’ll take your word for it,” He says, not wanting to anger her. “Who is your uncle? Is he here with you?”

“His name was Dexter,” She says, an almost sinister smile playing on her face. “And no, he isn’t here.”

Crimson chooses to ignore the scary smile and looks towards Holt, noticing the group has exited the main building and has entered the large courtyard.

Holt stops at what looks like a combat circle, rows of weapons stacked along the sides of the arena. He turns around, spreading his arms like an announcer.

“This is where I will be assessing your combat potential. This is not your initiation; it is simply a test so I can find a good position for you to fill within a team,” He says with a smile. “That being said I want you to go all out, I will step in to ensure no one is badly hurt or killed.”

Crimson’s brow immediately broke out into a sweat at the thought of fighting an actual person. He looks to Mon expecting to see the same, but all he sees is her placing her hood over her head and pulling up her mask. Despite her face being covered he can hear her breathing increasing, and her breath leaving steam despite the warm temperature around them.

Holt steps into the arena, gesturing towards the weapons, “Those who fight will be able to pick from these standard weapons, no personalized gear allotted. Aside from mutations that is.”

He chuckles at the nervous initiates in front of him, his lion-like traits making it look like he’s roaring.

“Well then, who first?”

Unlike most who stay quiet, a few raise their hands. Jumping ahead, Mon leaps onto Crimson’s shoulders, using him as a backboard to spring herself into the middle of the arena. The move launching her a good twenty yards. Holt looks at her in astonishment.

“Those are some fast movements, I’m excited to see you fight,” He says, somewhat impressed. “Well, who’s going against her?”

An average sized male walks into the arena, shaggy hair giving him a laid back look. The only remarkable thing about him being that his hair was nearly green. He walks over to the weapon ranks, pulling out a small rapier looking weapon, clearly meant for precision stabs and speed.

Holt walks in between the two opponents and holds up his hands.

“Mon, rogue,” He says, pointing at Mon. He then points towards the green haired boy. “Hui, duelist. You two play nice, when I call the fight. No arguing.”

Holt drops his hands and jumps out of the arena in one jump.

Less than a second after Holt lands, Mon dashes toward Hui on all fours. Her movements giving everyone without enhanced eyes difficulty. Hui slashes in a horizontal arc in front of him, cutting off Mon’s charge. With her burst interrupted Hui steps forward, thrusting towards Mon’s midsection.

Expecting the strike, she dashes to the side and grips onto the blade. Hui smirks at the action and attempts to pull on the blade, expecting it to slice into her hand. His smile vanishes once the blade remains steadfast in her grasp. With her remaining still for a moment, Crimson can see her hands are thicker. Almost like the pads on a cat’s paws, a small amount of blood trickling from them.

Mon exhales from her hood, the heat from the breath causing distortions in the air in front of her. Seeing his weapon is no longer his, Hui attempts to roll backwards out of her reach. The moment Mon sees his attempted retreat she drops the blade and lunges at him, as soon Hui stands from his roll he is met with a punch to the gut. One strong enough to knock the air out of his lungs.

With him stunned Mon sweeps his legs out from under him, while he’s falling she pulls her other leg up and heel kicks him in the stomach sending him into the ground. Hui hits the ground with enough force to make his eyes see stars. Before he can recover Mon is on top of him, inch long claws appear from her hand and swipe down towards Hui’s throat.

Just as she’s about to end his life, Holt’s hand grabs onto her wrist from behind.

“Congratulations, you’ve won Mon,” He says, picking Hui up with one of his arms. “Hui you did well to defend at first but you didn’t analyze your opponent enough and played right into her plan. Mon, don’t expect that trick to work on most monsters. Other than that both of you are clearly capable in your roles.”

With that Mon jumps over the group, landing next to Crimson in a near silent landing. Crimson looks at with a mix of astonishment and fear.

“That was amazing!” He says. “I didn’t know those pads of yours were so dense.”

Mon looks down at her bleeding hands, she begins licking at them. Cleaning them with her tongue. After removing the bulk of the blood she looks up from hand and back to Crimson.

“I’ve adapted well to my mutations; I usually use bladed gauntlets though,” She says with a shrug. “My claws cut well, but they don’t do enough against monster hide.”

Nodding Crimson looks towards the arena to see a tall female with blonde hair and steel grey eyes scanning for an opponent. No one seemingly wanting to fight her. Holt begins searching the crowd until he sees Crimson in the back.

“I think Crimson would like a fight, get up here and show us why the great Fey chose you!”

Crimson swallows his fear and heads towards the front. Entering the arena, he can see the tall woman has chosen a sword and shield. He goes to the rack of weapons and chooses a standard longbow and quiver, along with a small short sword which he doesn’t know how to use. Mimicking the first fight Holt stands in front of the two with his hands up.

“Deidra, warrior,” He says pointing towards the stoic blonde. His other arm pointing towards Crimson. “Crimson, support archer. This is an uphill fight for Crimson here, so let’s hope he surprises us.”

Holt drops his hands and exits the arena. Unlike the first fight, neither Crimson nor Deidra initiated combat. Both just waiting for the other to make a move. After a full minute Crimson draws back an arrow, aimed for her knee.

The moment he releases it, Deidra rushes him. With less than thirty yards between them, Crimson immediately went on the defensive. Crimson ducks her first swipe of the sword, rolling backwards while nocking another arrow. As soon as he reaches his feet he lets it fly at her, just to be blocked by her shield.

Closing the gap, the warrior throws slash after slash at Crimson, all of them barely dodged. Eventually Deidra does a downward slash forcing Crimson to dodge to the side, just to meet the end of her shield colliding with his head. The blow sends Crimson reeling, her strength throwing him back nearly five feet.

Not giving him any time to rest she leaps at him, intent on plunging her sword into his midsection, just as Holt is about to intervene Crimson rolls out of the way. Causing the warrior to bury her sword into the dirt. Before Deidra can pull her blade out of the ground Crimson plants both of his feet into her face, stunning her long enough for him to loose another arrow into her shoulder.

Deidra grunts in pain and breaks off the shaft of the arrow with her sword and sprints towards Crimson, ignoring the pain. Crimson attempts to stand but Deidra beats him to it as her foot connects with his chest, sending him back into the ground. Not making the same mistake she instead rushes at him, her blade trailing the ground.

Crimson brings up his bow to stop the slash and succeeds at the cost of his bow being cut in half. Before he can react Deidra cracks her shield into his face, shattering his glasses and putting him back to the ground. Crimson looks up at her, blood running from a new cut on his cheek.

Deidra readies a blow aimed at his heart, until she makes eye contact with him. Her actions freeze, and she is stuck staring into his eyes. Taking advantage of her error he pulls out his short sword and sticks it within an inch of her throat.

Holt begins clapping, signaling the end of the fight. He looks between the two, a large grin growing on his lips.

“That was exhilarating!” He says, his voice echoing through the yard. “You, Crimson, have got some natural skill. Managing to last against a warrior for that long.”

Crimson stands up, breaking eye contact with Deidra. Deidra rips her eyes away from Crimson, cursing under her breath.

Holt grabs onto her shoulder, stopping her anger.

“You are more than capable, if not for that mutation of his it is likely you would have won,” He says with a reassuring nod. “Let this be a lesson to expect the unexpected and never assume you’ve won until your opponent is a corpse.”

Deidra sighs and walks over to Crimson. Crimson braces for an attack but is surprised when Deidra bows.

“I thank you for the fight and the lesson in combat,” She says with an honest voice, despite her eyes being full of aggression. “I hope to do this again once we have both improved.”

Crimson rubs the back of his neck embarrassed at her actions.

“Sorry for the cheap move,” He says. “Thanks for the experience.”

“Do not apologize for victory. It is victory and that is to be celebrated,” She says, straightening her back. “No matter the way it was achieved. Just don’t expect to win that way again.”

With their bout finished Deidra walks back into the crowd. Following her example Crimson walks back to where he left Mon, just for her to pop in front of him with a large grin on her face.

“That was great!” She says, jumping slightly. “I didn’t expect you to do that well against her, she looked really scary.”

“You should remember your own fight, you looked ready to kill that guy,” Crimson says, remembering Mon’s large blade like nails. “I thought you were actually going to for a second.”

“Oh, that’s because I was. The lion guy told us to go all out so I did,” She says without regret in her voice. “I tend to go a bit…feral during fights though so I’m sorry if I scared you.”

Ending her sentence Mon hangs her head in shame, her ears drooping along with her. Crimson looks at the sight in front of him, his heart not being able to take the girls sadness.

“Don’t worry about it,” He says with a grin. “It was more cool than scary. I’d love to see you fight some more. Just keep a lid on those feral instincts of yours.”

“Aye aye,” She says, her hand forming a salute. Mon’s eyes looking into Crimson’s.

Mon stares at Crimson for a very long time. Crimson remembers he doesn’t have his glasses and looks away. Mon blinks as the connection is broken.

“That is an odd feeling,” She says, shaking her head. “I get why you have to wear the glasses.”

“Sorry about that,” Crimson says, now starting to realize just how much he’s been apologizing lately. “I’ll go ask Holt if I can get an additional pair.”

Crimson turns to see Holt in a conversation with someone, unfortunately he can’t see over Holt’s hulking body. Deciding not to interfere he looks back to Mon, remembering to avoid eye contact.

“He’s in a conversation, hope you don’t mind I wait till he’s done.”

“I don’t mind, he’s pretty cool isn’t he,” She says with a grin. “I was expecting him to be a bit mean.”

“Yeah, I was expecting a bit of a harsher recruit manager. These are the best of the best,” He says with a nod. “What else do you think we’ll do?”

Mon shrugs, and launches into a happy rant about what she thinks they are going to do. Crimson tries to keep up with her until a loud shout brings him out of the conversation. Crimson turns around to see Holt yelling at the other person.

“So what if I did? They were nobodies! I think it’s worth the abilities I could gain and protect others that matter,” He says, fury covering his face. “Are you seriously going to go through with this? After everything we’ve been through! You know that those people were nothing more th-“

Holt doubles over in pain. With him crouched over Crimson spots Fey standing over the larger man. Fey grabs Holt by the throat, dragging him up to look her in the eyes.

“You know the rules, you know my stance on your actions,” She says, what looks like smoke leaking out from between her lips. “and you know the punishment.”

Holt looks up at Fey, fear crawling onto his face. Fey smiles wickedly as she opens her mouth. Blue fire bursts from Fey’s mouth, covering Holt’s body as his screams echoing across the courtyard. His scream sending shivers through everyone who hears them.

Eventually Fey closes her mouth as the flames cease. She drops Holt’s body, which now looks like nothing more than a burnt upper torso with a fur covered bottom. His face reduced to nothing more than the base of the skull.

Crimson looks at the body in horror. He then looks at Fey, anger and confusion filling his voice.

“What the hell was that for?” He screams at her. “Why did you kill him!”

Fey looks up to see the group of initiates staring at her. She begins walking towards them, causing the majority of them to shake in fear. Crimson takes a step back as she approaches. He looks over to Mon to see her not there. He looks back to Fey to see Mon latched onto her in a Hug.

“Fey! You’re here, it’s been so long,” She says, almost ignorant to the fact Fey just melted a person. “I’ve got so much to share.”

Fey looks down at her in confusion, until Mon looks up at her. Giving Fey a good look at her face.

“You got so big! When did you get a tail?” Fey says, hugging Mon back. “I told you not to drink anymore regals or this would happen.”

“That was all that was there, plus I have a good fighting style with the abilities I gained from them,” She says, her tails and ears becoming more prominent in her speech. “Plus they’re really soft.”

Fey shakes her and pats Mon’s head, eliciting a happy smile from the girl. Fey walks past her and towards the still cowering yet very confused group of initiates.

“What happens to a monster hunter that drinks the blood of a species not classified as a monster?” She asks. “More specifically when that species is of high intelligence and labeled a citizen.”

One person raises his hand. Crimson turns to see it’s Hui, the duelist from Mon’s fight. His hair somehow having turned white with fear.

“They are punished by their fellow monster hunters, if it’s a species labeled as a citizen the punishment is death.” He says, fear evident in his voice. “At least I’m pretty sure that’s it.”

Fey claps at Hui’s answer.

“That’s spot on,” She says with a smile. “I hope you all remember that.”

Fey points towards the burnt corpse that used to be Holt.

“Because he didn’t and he just became something for the janitors to throw out,” She says, disdain heavy in her voice. “Holt here was found to have drank from nearly a dozen different people. This is unacceptable and any offender will be punished the same as poor Holt here, no matter the age or standing they have. None of you are safe from Stena’s law.”

All of the initiates grow silent at the new knowledge. Crimson among them, his confusing trust in Fey tested once again. Mon’s words echoing true at her actions. Fey looks between the initiates and Holt’s dead body until she face palms and lets out a small sigh.

“Though with his death, that means I’ll be the one supervising you for the remainder of your initiation,” She says, annoyance clear to see. “Well, let’s get going then.”

Mon immediately darts next to Fey, only stopping to look and see Crimson standing still. She signals Crimson to follow her and then looks back to Fey. Crimson shakes off his surprise and jogs after them. He catches up to them and Fey looks over to him. He looks down at her hands to see another pair of glasses in her hands. He quickly puts them on and nods in thanks.

“I told you to take them off in combat,” She says with a sigh. “But it doesn’t matter, we have plenty.”

“Thanks, so that Holt guy killed people?” Crimson says, “Just for abilities?”

Fey nods at his question, not bothering to explain further. Mon and Crimson standing side by side to Fey with the other members of the initiate group trailing behind. Fey looks back at them and then at Crimson.

“Seems like you held your own,” She says, slapping him on the shoulder a bit rougher than she meant to. “I thought you might freeze when you had to fight another person.”

“I almost did, the blade aimed at my head helped me react though,” He says with a chuckle. “Kind of feel bad about her shoulder though, she took the arrow like it was nothing.”

Fey looks down at him in surprise and concern.

“Did Holt patch her up?” She asks.

Crimson shakes his head. Fey shakes her head at Holt’s incompetence. She turns around and looks towards the group.

“Who was shot by Crimson here?” She says. “Step forward, now.”

After a moment of silence Deidra walks forward. Despite Fey’s intimidating display the blonde warrior manages not to look scared.

“Show me the wound,” Fey orders.

Without second thought Deidra lifts up her shirt just enough for Fey to examine the wound.

Fey peers at the wound. She pulls the arrow head out of Deidra’s shoulder, causing the warrior to tense in pain. With blood now flowing from the wound Fey uses her hand to control the bleeding. Fey then licks her index finger, causing a small blue flame to set onto her finger. Fey removes the hand stopping the flow and replaces it with the flame.

Deidra clenches her teeth at the burning sensation but doesn’t make a squeak of pain. The flame quickly cauterizes the wound, stopping the bleeding entirely. Fey pulls Deidra’s shirt back down and pats the warrior on the shoulder only now noticing the warrior’s size.

“You’re a tough one, but don’t leave wounds like that. They could get a lot worse,” Fey says with a grin. “You have extra clothes to replace those right?”

Deidra shakes her head, seemingly embarrassed by it.

“I lost most of it ma’am,” She says as if it’s normal. “I was told Stena would supply us with more.”

“We do but most of it probably wouldn’t fit you, trust me when I say that because it doesn’t fit me either,” She says with a sigh. “When initiation is done ask one of the older members or janitors to take you to my room, I should have some clothes for you.”

Deidra smiles lightly at the gesture and bows in thanks. Fey bows back before clapping to get everyone’s attention,

“Alright, I will be giving you your roommates for the night. Tomorrow you will receive teams and your team room number. I’ll be explaining to all of you what a team is for, and I’ll be training you on how to improve…unless I get bored,” She says. “While this isn’t supposed to be my job, I’ll be expecting all of you to meet my expectations. Try-not-to-die-training starts in a week, so I suggest you all learn quickly.”

Crimson nudges Mon on the shoulder, drawing the girl’s attention from Deidra’s chest.

“How are the teams picked?” He asks. “Is it random?”

“I couldn't see anything past Fey, really a wasted opportunity,” Mon says in disappointment. “Is there a mutation to see through clothes?”

Crimson shakes his head. He flicks Mon’s forehead, snapping her out of the daze.

“Oh umm, teams right? I think they’re picked based on our personalities and skills,” She says hurriedly. “They can’t put five archers together, that’d be a bit dumb.”

“I guess so,” He says with a nod. “And what do you mean by that? Why would you need to see through clothes?”

“To check for hidden weapons?” Mon replies unconvincingly.

Crimson shakes his head for the second time before looking back towards the group of initiates.