Elend sat in his office, waiting for the qualifying rounds to begin. It was a bright Talekday morning, and the sun cast its golden rays over the campus. Not that Elend saw much of it from in here. He and Irina had closed every curtain, focused only on the monitors in front of them.

The first screen showed Akari curled up in the back of a conversion van. The second showed Relia in the basement of a manatronics shop, and the third showed Kalden laying in an alley next to an overflowing dumpster.

As an Artegium professor, Elend got access to this raw footage a full hour before the public. Everyone else had to wait for the censored highlights.

“Who do you think will get up first?” Irina asked from the leather chair beside him.

Elend raised his coffee mug to his lips as he considered. Technically, every student would wake up simultaneously—the sleep was only a controlled illusion like everything else in the arena. But he knew what she meant. Some contestants would spring to their feet, while others would lie still, either cautious or confused.

Akari was the most impulsive of the three, but the situations mattered more than the people here. Besides, she’d become more contemplative in recent months.

“Kalden,” Elend finally said. “He’s outside, while the girls are in more precarious circumstances.”

Irina hummed in vague agreement as she sipped her own drink. The countdown ended a second later, and Kalden scrambled away from the dumpster. Akari and Relia each pretended to be asleep, but they eventually sat up once they realized they were alone.

Elend reclined in his chair. “Now for the real question—who will crack the mystery box first?”

“Kalden,” she replied. “His aspect should reveal the dream mana soon enough.”

“Ah, someone’s confident.” Knowledge Arts was a complicated aspect that did a few simple things. At Kalden’s level, it let his brain make faster intuitive connections, but that wasn’t the same as a free intelligence boost. You needed the right experiences first—information to draw on, and practice with the aspect itself.

Irina smiled. “You disagree?”

“It’ll be Relia.” He watched the middle screen, where his apprentice made a calm search of her surroundings. She opened every drawer, cabinet, and closet, pocketing anything useful. That wasn’t the body language of someone who’d been kidnapped. She knew the truth.

Last year’s qualifying round had been a desert theme, and the contestants had entered the arena awake, just like in Raizen’s midterm exam. Both arenas would feel similar though, and Relia had enough experience to recognize that. Not just experience with these games, but with dream mana in general.

Irina raised her coffee cup with a nod, conceding the point.

Kalden released a red Missile from his palm, letting it graze the alley’s concrete floor. He absorbed it back into his hand a second later, then his face took on a more focused expression.

“Well,’ Irina said, “he wasn’t far behind her.”

Meanwhile, poor Akari kept searching the van in a panic. She started with a better view than the others, but she’d also experienced the most realistic kidnapping. Kalden and Relia had both been “captured” within the wards of the Darklight estate. Such a thing was impossible unless their attacker had somehow snuck past himself, Irina, and Glim.

“Who will draw first blood?” Irina asked.

Elend lowered his gaze to the coffee table where he’d conjured a live map of dream mana. The arena itself encompassed the entire Koreldon University campus, plus several surrounding blocks. This gave them roughly nine square miles of playing space. The students appeared as colored dots. Red for Blood Army, yellow for Sun Army, blue for Moon Army, and white for the independent teams.

Elend hovered his hand over the map and extended his thumb and forefinger to zoom in. Relia was the most isolated of the three, but that made sense. She was a second-year with no official alliance, and they didn’t want her going on a killing spree too soon.

Akari had started in the independent quadrant, less than a block from her own team. Meanwhile, Kalden sat right on the edge between the Blood Army and independent quadrants.

“It’ll be Kalden.” Elend pointed to the lad’s position on the map, then to a small squad of five more contestants nearby. “He’ll take advantage of their confusion, pretend to lead them to safety, then stab them in the back.”

“It would be smarter to gain their loyalty,” Irina said. “He’ll need allies going forward.”

“Aye, but he won’t do it. The lad might have a fancy new aspect, but he still thinks too much like a Blade Artist.”

Sure enough, the next few minutes played out exactly as he’d predicted. Kalden also took out another lone wanderer, giving him six kills in less than ten minutes.

Akari spent a few minutes following her team into the campus proper, but she turned on them when they reached the Artegium.

“Her technique’s still a bit sloppy,” Irina noted.

“Aye,” he mused. Akari’s pure mana skills were as sharp as anyone’s, but her inexperience with spacetime mana was clear as glass. A smaller angle on that last portal—combined with more downward thrust—would have saved her from that broken leg.

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What’s more, she could have formed that first portal in the sky rather than the library. That would have immediately killed Nimble and Sadie, and avoided that fight entirely. But she clearly hadn’t trusted herself to pull that off.

Elend’s frown only deepened as Akari used another dirty trick to kill Nico Talez.

“He was telling the truth,” Irina said. “Wasn’t he?”

Elend nodded. “His face said he had no plans to betray her.”

“But she couldn’t have known that,” Irina countered. “Not everyone’s a Grandmaster-level Dream Artist.”

True. If anything, Akari was notoriously bad at reading people and even worse at trusting them. Her life on Arkala had seen to that.

Even so, this behavior might be too ruthless for the Artegium. Unlike the first-years, Akari and Kalden had fought in real battles, and it showed in their actions. This real-life experience would serve them well if battle struck again, but their peers might not understand. And whether they liked it or not, they’d need more than two or three allies going forward.

Elend took a long drink from his mug. “I’ve always hated the qualifying rounds.”

Real wars brought out the best and worse in people. Yes, there was death and brutality, but also mercy and sacrifice. These games just brought out the darkest side of the Artegium’s students. And the viewers loved every minute of it. They wanted to believe that talent and power came with hefty price tags—that you couldn’t be a good person and a good Mana Artist. Naturally, this made them feel better about their own mediocre lives.

“Sure,” they’d say as they patted their beer bellies. “I haven’t trained in a few years. Sure, I probably should've been an Artisan five years ago. But hey—at least I’m not like those crazy kids on TV!”

Elend remembered the night they’d escaped Arkala, and how Akari had leapt from the boat to save Kalden. He remembered the stories from Creta, and how Kalden had plunged deep into enemy territory to make Relia’s pill. They’d both risked their lives against all odds. Not for advancement, but because they knew in their hearts that it was right.

These were the qualities he sought in potential students. Those were the reasons he’d chosen them.

Not this nonsense.

Irina’s phone vibrated on a smaller table between them, and she leaned over to check the screen. “I should take this.”

Elend nodded as she stepped into the sound ward around his desk.

Back on the screens, Akari had barricaded herself in a small house near the Artegium—no doubt waiting for her mana to refill itself. Meanwhile, Kalden had met up with some more members of Blood Army, and Relia made her slow way toward the Artegium proper.

Elend grabbed the remote control from the desk and switched over to some other noteworthy students. They were less than an hour into the game, and Zukan Kortez had already led a squad into the Combat Arts Center to retrieve weapons and armor. Arturo Kazalla was with him, overseeing the construction of their base.

Elise Moonfire sat cross-legged in a teacher’s office, ostensibly deep in meditation. But when Elend looked closer, he caught the telltale signs of dream mana flowing out the nearest window.

Interesting. Was she stretching out with her senses—observing some distant part of the battlefield? That was a common skill among Dream Artists, but rare for an Apprentice. She’d also have a limited range, not so different from Elend's own limitations when he'd worn those impedium cuffs.

Then again, he also spotted a large manatronic device sitting beside her. An amplifier? That could allow her to spend more mana for a temporary boost.

The rest of Moon Army looted the Combat Arts Center, maintaining their loose alliance with Sun Army. Still, Elise clearly planned to betray Zukan at some point. She’d probably take him and Arturo out quietly, point the finger at Blood Army, and then seize control of both factions.

Kalden might be outmatched, in all honesty. The lad had some good ideas, but he’d stretched himself too thin this semester. You couldn’t take a full load of classes, invent a new aspect, and beat Elise Moonfire at her own game.

Another minute passed, then Irina emerged from the sound suppressor. “Sozen Trengsen just boarded an airship for Vaslana.”

“What?” Elend sat up straighter in his chair. They’d been investigating Sozen since the start of the semester. His intentions had seemed innocent in their first meeting, but he had far, far too many secrets.

For one thing, Sozen appeared to be an Artisan, and Elend had sensed no dishonesty in that regard. But the lad kept his mind and soul shrouded with Master-level wards. That made it impossible to confirm his actual rank.

Elend could have popped those wards like a soap bubble, but Sozen would know if he did. People had a right to defend their own souls, and curiosity was no excuse to draw first blood.

Then there were Sozen’s secret benefactors—the ones who’d financed his advancement and promised to help him save Arkala. Elend had asked about this group directly. He’d been to Arkala himself, so why would they turn down a potential ally? But Sozen had always delayed, claiming that he would pass along Elend’s messages.

Now, more than a month had passed, and they were no closer to the answers they sought.

“I know a discreet Space Artist who can take us there,” Irina said. “No one needs to know we’re gone.”

Elend gave a slow nod. “He could lead us straight to his friends.”

“Either that, or we'll get a better look at his soul.”

“But that means leaving the kids alone.” Dansin Roth had been acting suspicious lately, and Elend liked to be on campus where Glim could keep a close eye on him. That was the whole reason they’d come to his office today rather than watching from home.

But this was important, too. What if Sozen Trengsen was even more dangerous than Elend’s colleague? They couldn’t wait around to find out.

“Maybe we should split up,” Elend said. “You go to Vaslana, while I stay here?”

Irina bit her lip—she always looked especially cute when she did that. "This mission will require a subtle touch. We’ll need your dream mana to make us disguises.”

“What if I make you a disguise that will last?”

“It won’t be strong enough. And we might also need Glim for scouting.

Damnit. She was probably right. He’d always thought of Vaslana as a weaker nation, but living in Koreldon City had given him a skewed view of the world. Vaslana had a Mystic, plus several dozen Grandmasters. Not only did this make them the strongest nation in Cadria, but it made them stronger than most Espirian states.

Sending Irina there alone would be as bad as leaving his students here.

“Who’s overseeing the qualifying round this year?” she asked.

“Raizen and Truewater.”

“And they’re both your allies, correct?”

He gave a slow nod. Dansin Roth couldn’t make a move against his students with Raizen and Truewater there. Both Grandmasters were too competent to let anything slip through the cracks.

“Then here’s the real question,” she said. “Do you trust them?”

Elend rubbed his temple. He’d known Moanna Truewater for half a century, and the woman was as stubborn as Relia when it came to matters of ethics. As for Raizen … they’d only known each other for a few years, but the man was actively working against the Sons of Talek, going so far as to infiltrate their ranks. Soldiers like him had a strong sense of duty and honor, and Elend couldn’t imagine him lying to his face.

“I suppose I do.” He looked up and met his wife’s eyes. “Guess we’re going to Vaslana, then. Any idea where?”

“Calario,” she said. “If my sources are right, we’ll be attending a meeting for the Cult of Solidor.”