Elise Moonfire strode between piles of stone rubble, surveying the ruined cafeteria. Gusts of wind blew in from the shattered windows, and wooden tables lay overturned and broken. Some had been used for cover, but most had been struck by stray Missiles.

The second-years had banded together here and made a desperate push for the food. The battle hadn’t been easy, but the Celestial Alliance had overwhelmed them with their superior numbers. Not to mention Zukan Kortez, who was a one-man army in his own right.

Now, two dozen soldiers filled the main hall, with the rest on guard duty around the perimeter. An invisible line ran down the room’s center—a clear division between Sun Army and Moon Army. They might be allies now, but that didn’t mean they trusted each other. And for good reason.

Elise turned from the dining hall and stepped down a long corridor behind the cafeteria’s main kitchen. Footsteps echoed behind her as her bodyguards followed.

They passed an open staff bathroom, and Elise stepped inside. It was a cramped space with just a toilet, a sink, and a wire rack filled with cleaning supplies. Those supplies hadn’t been used in weeks, judging by the stench. Was that part of the arena’s ambiance, or was its real-life counterpart this bad? She never visited the cafeteria, so she’d never know.

“Pass me my bag,” she said to Levi.

The Gravity Artist unshouldered her backpack and passed it to her with a frown. The expression wasn’t quite a downward pull of his lips—more like a glint of judgment in his dark eyes.

Elise ignored him and examined her reflection in the mirror. She’d worked up a sweat in the last battle, causing her makeup to smudge around her eyes. Her golden hair had also lost some of its volume, which certainly wouldn’t do. She unzipped the top of her pack and pulled out a smaller bag, which she’d looted from a professor’s office.

“Seriously?” Levi asked as she worked. “You know we’re in a warzone, right?” Several blasts erupted outside as if to prove his point. Even the mirror rattled in its frame.

“And you know we’re on TV, right?” Elise pulled out a sheet of blotting paper and cleaned up the excess oils around her face. She followed with a cotton swap to clear her damaged eyeliner. “Millions of people are watching.”

Fortunately, the audience wouldn’t be watching her at this exact moment. Cameras were forbidden from entering bathrooms for obvious reasons. There were also rules against fighting in here, mostly to prevent people from doing their business in the streets. That would be inappropriate for live television. As opposed to slaughtering each other, which was totally fine.

Elise pulled out a concealer brush, grazing her face to apply the bare minimum amount of product. People would see her as shallow and narcissistic if she overdid it, but the right amount would convey the look of a composed leader. She used a second brush for blending, and she used the largest brush to apply a layer of combat powder.

If this were any other day, Elise would have used dream mana to complete the image. She would have curled her blonde hair and deepened the blue hue of her eyes. She would have raised her breasts for more cleavage, despite her constricting combat bra.

Alas, mana was scarce today, and she’d need every drop for the battles to come. Regardless, Elise emerged from the bathroom looking fresh and polished, as if she’d just entered the arena moments before. Her channels still felt like wrung-out rags, but no one could tell that with a glance.

“Look the part,” her mother always said, “and people will believe it.”

She’d barely taken two steps out the door before one of her officers rounded the corner.

“General Moonfire,” Aurora Skyfall said as she approached. The young woman was Levi’s cousin, but she’d trained as a Light Artist rather than her family’s usual Gravity Arts.

“Lieutenant,” Elise replied with a curt nod.

“Zukan and Arturo are fighting a second-year.”

She’d asked her officers to inform her of all Zukan’s movements. Only her inner circle, of course—she couldn’t have Sun Army getting wind of such an order. Even then, she’d taken a page from Kalden Trengsen’s book and thrown half a dozen fake orders into the mix. You couldn’t stop spies in this game, but you could certainly confuse them.

“Lead the way,” Elise said.

They continued farther down the hall, passing through a back door that opened into a parking lot behind the cafeteria. Elise took cover behind a bush, and the other three followed. This might be the moment she’d been waiting for, and they’d need impeccable timing to pull it off.

Across the parking lot, Zukan Kortez led a squad of soldiers against a second-year Blade Artist. As always, the dragon fought with the grace of a dancer, despite his hulking frame. He never blocked a technique when he could dodge it, and he never took two steps when a single step would suffice. His power was a stark contrast to his grace. Javelins of fire and blade mana shot out from his palms, shattering the second-year shields on impact.

Zukan had been the only one to score higher than Elise on this year’s admission exams. He’d also remained undefeated in class duels, and survived the midterm exam, including the part where Kalden Trengsen blew up the whole power plant. Some people even called him invincible.

Elise let out a breath and began cycling dream mana to her palms. If Zukan survived this fight, he’d be more vulnerable than ever. She’d never get a better chance.

“Give the order,” she told Aurora.

The other woman nodded, turning herself invisible as she moved to pass it on.

Arturo Kazalla fought beside Zukan, wielding a pair of pistols he’d taken from the Manatronics Building. Weapons of that caliber couldn’t normally hurt an Apprentice, but Arturo had enhanced his bullets with some kind of ice mana.

No sooner had Zukan broken the second-year’s shield than Arturo shot the man in the stomach. The Blade Artist kept moving for several heartbeats, but the ice mana spread from the spot of impact, forming a web of pale blue crystal around his torso.

He stumbled forward, his blades faded to mist, and Zukan finished him with a burst of sunspear mana to the face.

“Now,” Elise said to her bodyguards.

No sooner had the words passed her lips than she released two Missiles of dream mana at the Sun Army leaders. Both Missiles struck their targets from behind, and they collapsed to their knees, overwhelmed by a rush of their worst memories.

In the same moment, a dozen Moon soldiers attacked from around the parking lot. A few Sun soldiers rushed to their leader’s aid, but Aurora Skyfall slit their throats from behind. Elise finished the rest with bullets of pure mana—two for Zukan’s honor guard, and two more for the snipers across the street.

Zukan put up a valiant defense, forming a golden shield while Arturo knelt on the ground and attempted to activate some piece of equipment. For several heartbeats, he held back the bombardment, absorbing the attacks from ten other Mana Artists.

Elise’s chest tightened at the sight, and her limbs felt like iron weights as she hurled her own mana into the fray. What if this wasn’t enough? What if Zukan really was stronger than all of them combined?

The shield broke a second later, and Elise’s forces struck with renewed vigor. Clouds of rainbow mist surrounded Zukan as he spun his spears of fire, cutting their attacks from the air.

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It was an impressive sight, but Moon Army had positioned themselves well. Zukan couldn’t defend himself from every angle, and several techniques broke through his spinning spears.

Arturo died first, adding streaks of white to the dense clouds of broken mana.

Finally, Zukan collapsed like a fallen tree, and his body faded just before it hit the ground.

Elise sighed with relief, and her lips curled up in a grin. So much for the invincible Zukan and his sidekick.

Moon Army ceased their attacks just as soon as they’d begun—they couldn’t risk drawing more attention right now. Not with the rest of Sun Army so close. The smoke faded around the battlefield, and Aurora appeared by her side once again. Her braid had come loose during the fighting, and strands of brown hair clung to her sweat-covered face.

“What do we tell the rest of Zukan’s troops?” she asked through several ragged breaths.

“Easy.” Elise spun on her heel and stepped back through the cafeteria’s back door. “Zukan led a team into battle and didn’t come back.”

The other woman gave a slow nod as she followed her back into the building. “They might be suspicious. All the casualties were on Sun Army’s side.”

“They won’t know that,” Elise retorted. “There’s minimal evidence.” That was one nice thing about this game—no one left bodies behind when they fell. What’s more, Sun Army had no sense of purpose or loyalty. They were just a band of misfits who hated the rich and powerful. But of course, that sort of self-righteous anger was just envy in disguise. Everyone felt envy, but no one ever admitted to it. Not even to themselves. But Dream Artists like her saw the world as it truly was.

Zukan’s followers wouldn’t care that their leader had fallen. They’d see themselves standing one step closer to the ultimate prize. And Elise would sweeten the news when she told them about their larger food rations. Maybe she’d even bring Sun Army’s new leaders into her circle—see how long their anger lasted once they had the power they craved.

“Why bother trying to convince them?” Levi spoke up. “Sun Army’s weak without its leaders.”

“No.” Elise’s reply cut the air like blade mana. “We still need them.”

“For what?”

“The same reason we allied with them in the first place. Blood Army might be dead, but Trengsen and his friends are still out there.”

Levi snorted. “What? Three people?”

“Don’t underestimate them,” Elise said. “Tori Razien already made that mistake.”

The rest of the day passed without incident as the remaining indy squads looked elsewhere for food. Eight o’clock rolled around, along with the official break. Time slowed to a crawl, and a sixty-second countdown appeared in her vision. Everything went black when the number reached zero, followed by a warping sensation as if she’d just been teleported.

When Elise opened her eyes again, she stood in a simple, nondescript room. Gray carpet covered the floor—the same kind you might see in a typical office building or physician’s office. The walls were a lighter shade of gray, and a simple sink and mirror sat in the room’s center.

Elise glanced down and saw two glasses of water beside a row of colorful pills. One was her birth control, and the rest were her daily vitamins and mana-building supplements. A black cocktail dress hung on a shelf to her left, along with her purse and a pair of black heels.

That’s right. She’d worn that dress to a party the night before the qualifying rounds. But unlike most people, Elise had no memories of being taken by the Artegium’s staff. Probably because they couldn’t pull the whole kidnapping act in public. More likely, they’d been forced to tell her the truth and erase her memories afterward.

A knock pulled her from her thoughts, and Elise spun around to see a closed door with no handle.

She took a moment to compose herself and said, “Come in.”

The door pivoted inward, and Master Dansin Roth stepped inside. As always, the KU professor wore a dark blue blazer with his brown hair combed straight back.

“Well.” Elise smiled at him in the mirror. “This is a surprise. I thought students weren’t allowed to meet with their teachers?”

“They aren’t.” He closed the door and activated a sound suppressor. “But you aren’t my student yet. Officially, we have no other relationship.”

“Officially,” Elise deadpanned. The truth was more complicated, of course. Dansin Roth belonged to the same secret organization as her parents. They wouldn’t tell Elise the name, but she had her guesses. There were only so many secret groups in the world, and only one had connections to Creta’s ruling clan.

“We need to talk about Akari Zeller,” Master Roth said

Elise didn’t swallow or clear her throat—that would have made her look nervous. Instead, she grabbed the handful of pills and downed them all with the first glass of water.

“This room is secure?” she finally asked him.

He nodded. “Surveillance is illegal inside changing rooms, and the nearest Mystic is more than a hundred miles away.”

Elise took a long drink from the second glass of water. She had plenty of water back in the cafeteria, but that could change at any moment. Better to prepare for the worst.

“You need to take her out,” Roth said.

“No shit,” Elise muttered. She’d made several attempts at sabotage, and he damn well knew it. She might have failed, but she wasn’t alone in that regard. Roth couldn’t even keep her out of the Artegium, and that was before she’d advanced to Apprentice.

“This order comes straight from your parents,” he continued. “They want you to go through with the original plan. Check the security cameras inside the Healing Arts center. Particularly, the back parking lot and the first floor. You’ll find even more footage for your collection.”

Elise hesitated as she raised the glass to her lips again. She knew the Dragonlord’s sister wanted revenge for her dead son, but what would this accomplish in the long run? Even if she took out Zeller right now, that would only inconvenience the girl.

Unless …

“Are you going to kill her?” Elise asked.

Roth shook his head. “No. Of course not.”

It didn’t take a Dream Artist to read between those lines. Still, she’d been waiting her whole life to make her parents proud. She couldn’t fail now.

~~~

“Hey!” Relia shouted. “Wake up, you two!”

Akari jumped at the sound, and Kalden caught her elbow just before it struck his nose.

Oops. It had been a few days since she’d kicked or elbowed him in her sleep. But in her defense, this blanket fort was way smaller than their bed at the Darklight’s house.

Kalden crawled out of the shelter first, and Akari followed close behind. The sky had been dark when they’d gone to sleep. Now, violet mana swirled in the air above the cafeteria.

“What the hell is that?” she asked.

“Dream mana,” Relia said. “Probably my sister.”

Slowly, the strands of mana came together to form a massive Construct. Elise must have been using an amplifier, because no Apprentice could make something that large. Not to mention the shaping skill involved.

Finally, the Construct snapped into existence, revealing a violet rendering of Elise Moonfire’s face in the night sky. The image was at least a hundred feet tall, putting most movie theater screens to shame.

“Good evening, my fellow contestants.” Her voice sounded close and distant all at once, just like Glim when she was trying to be scary. “I have a proposition for you all. But first, I’d like to tell you about three dangerous people.”

Shit. What were the chances she was talking about a different group?

“The first is Relia Dawnfire. You might have heard rumors about her, and I’m sad to say they’re true. She’s a Death Artist. Some say she was trained by Lyraina Trelian herself.”

The image of Elise Moonfire faded, replaced with a scene of Relia using her death mana against Blood Army.

“I know what some of you are thinking,” Elise said. “This is just a game. She would never use these illegal techniques in the real world …”

Akari’s blood froze, and she knew what came next. Relia must have realized it, too, because her face went even paler than usual.

The image showed camera footage from a bathroom in Creta. There, Relia used her death mana to kill several Unida soldiers who’d tried to arrest them. Those soldiers had attacked her first, but no one saw that side of the story. They only saw the broken bones and twisted limbs.

It switched scenes again to show Relia killing more uniformed dragons on the bridge. Her clothing was torn in this scene, and blood covered her face like war paint.

“This footage was taken four months ago in Creta,” Elise said. “No one knows how many soldiers she killed. We only know it was several dozen.”

That was bullshit. Elise’s own parents had lent them the very airship they’d used to escape Creta. She must have known they’d been trapped in that country against their will.

“Dawnfire has two allies in this game. The first is Kalden Trengsen. I’m sure you all remember him—the one who blew up the power plant during midterms.”

The screen switched to Kalden doing just that. Then it changed to footage of him during the qualifying rounds. The first scene showed him with an indy squad on the outskirts of campus. He pretended to lead them to safety, then stabbed them in the back with his mana blades.

From there, it transitioned to a montage of him poisoning Blood Army, fighting beside Relia, and finally killing Tori and Lyra with a death mana bomb.

“The second is Akari Zeller. She’s as ruthless as the other two, but she relies even more on tricks and deception.”

The screen showed a near-flawless rendering of Akari killing her own squad one by one. Talek. How did she even get this footage? Elend could have done this easily, but he was a Grandmaster. Elise Moonfire was only an Apprentice.

“They’re out there right now,” Elise said. “Hiding on the library roof with half the food and water. They’re content to let us fight each other while they swoop in tomorrow and feast like crows. And when they come, they won’t fight you with honor. They’ll bring every dirty trick they can muster.”

The screen showed more death mana bombs, like the one they’d used to kill Tori and Lyra. Portals appeared at random places throughout the arena, taking out unsuspecting contestants. One pair looked like Zukan Kortez and Arturo Kazalla.

“We have to go,” Kalden said. “Now.”

Akari nodded and began cycling spacetime mana.

“These three are a disgrace to our school,” Elise said. “And we can’t let them represent us in the battlegrounds. So I propose a truce. I swear that no member of my army will attack anyone until these three are eliminated. No more factions. No more games or betrayals.”

She extended a hand out from the screen. “Just one alliance. Us against them.”