Cal figure remained motionless, his eyes fixed upon Jaxon, Jabor and Joe as they encircled their fallen. The air was heavy with the half-hearted mourning of the other teams. Elena stood beside him, eyes unreadable yet mirroring the gravity of the scene.

The cervidians moved with deliberate grace. Their antlered heads bowed low, they chanted in low murmurs, the sounds more felt than heard. Cal noted the subtle vibrations underfoot, an extension of the ritual reaching deep into the soil. Silence was a shroud over the clearing, save for the faint murmur of the crowd.

Now that Cal could see mana, he understood this ritual was more complex than he first witnessed. Something indeed was leaving the dead bodies and was being pulled into the earth and into Jaxon, Jabor and Joe themselves. It felt mystical.

As the rites drew to a close, the cervidians' song faded. They rose in unison, their movements synchronized. They gathered the bodies in their spatial treasure and slowly, they turned towards Cal and Elena, faces etched with practiced grief. The somber expressions seemed painted on, a thin veneer disguising thoughts kept carefully at bay.

Cal exchanged a glance with Elena, a silent acknowledgment passing between them. Both were too versed in deception not to recognize its guise.

Vaish and Yella came to them. Yella started, “we’ll catch zhem. Zhey won’t get away with ruining our feast!”

“Zhose fuckers, we will yordle them real good.”

“Thank you broskis. For now we will rest and grieve. We will visit you later - we must still prepare for our role in the defense.” Jaxon spoke up.

The group edged away from the crowd. The encampment's perimeter beckoned, a place where words were absorbed by the embrace of the cavern, where they could be alone.

"Here," murmured Jabor, gesturing to a hollow veiled by drooping moss. It was an alcove of sorts, removed from the bustle of the camp's heart. The air was cool, the earth beneath them soft with the decay of countless seasons.

Cal settled on a stone, his posture relaxed yet alert. Elena leaned against another as she prepared a fire.

Jabor pulled out a spatial treasure and passed it to Cal. “We’ll need these.”

“Temp, take a look inside.” Temp opened up the spatial treasure and Cal could see a mountain of mana crystals. It would certainly be enough to power the ring.

“You –” Cal started.

Jaxon cut him off and put a finger to his mouth.

"Life," Cal began again, breaking the quiet, "is quite unpredictable."

"Indeed, bro." Jaxon agreed. "Sometimes it feels like we fixate on the steps, but the music continues playing."

Elena tilted her head, considering. "You have to. If you trip over a couple notes, you might never reach the end of the song," she said. Her voice carried a weight, as if each word bore the echo of a thousand more left unspoken.

"Does it really matter? Why should we dance to someone else’s music?" observed Cal. "If you make your own music, you can dance how you like, and trip how you like."

"Easy for you to say," countered Jabor, his tone deliberate. "The system shapes the path and makes our music." He paused. “We’re dancing to it even now, with this escalation.”

Flickering flames cast a warm glow on the walls of the secluded nook, shadows dancing to a strange rhythm in the air. The fire's whispers filled the alcove, its heat a gentle caress against their skin. Cal watched as sparks spiraled upwards before vanishing.

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“I suppose that’s true enough.” Cal agreed. “You’d have to be strong enough to resist the system to break free, I guess.”

“Strong enough to resist the system… an interesting concept.”

Static clung to the air at Temp’s words. Electricity hummed in the air around Cal, but then dispersed. His teammates stepped back warily.

“But I would rather supplant the system than forsake it. It seems rather lucrative.”

“What was that?” Cal exclaimed.

“Cal, careful with what you say! You… you don’t know anything yet,” Elena exclaimed. “The Ostellian accord isn’t just for show. If it wasn’t a compromise, it wouldn’t be called an accord. The path without the system… it’s perhaps more dangerous than what we face with the system.”

“But don’t… some people… exist outside the system?”

“Yeah, but they still rely on it, bro… they just cheat a little,” Jabor added.

“To forsake it, is a different path altogether.” Joe confirmed. “A lonely path.”

“Hmmmm.” Cal considered very carefully. “Isn’t the path to power always lonely?”

Elena contemplated. "I suppose you’re right there," Elena said suddenly, her gaze not leaving the fire, "friendships are like these flames. Intense, yes, but how quickly they can be extinguished in the face of eternity. Why worry about it, until we are as old as the stars?"

"Who says that power can’t exist without betrayal?" Jaxon smirked, “are we not bros and broskis?”

They all smiled, then chuckled.

As they settled back down, Cal couldn’t help but consider. Wasn’t he from a world without the system? He was not a ghost there. How could this other path be so dangerous?

The fire popped, a solitary sound that echoed their contemplation. They sat there, enveloped in the relative quiet of the cavern, each lost in thought.

"Once," Elena began, her voice threading through the stillness, "I trusted someone with my life. We were bonded by our cause, by the battles we fought side by side." Her fingers absently traced the pattern on her bow, a habit when her thoughts darkened. "But in the end, friendship held no sway against power. My trust was repaid with a knife aimed at my back. I don’t think it’s possible. Only benefits are eternal."

Jaxon nodded. "We too have known betrayal, but I would never betray my brothers."

“Heh,” Jabor laughed, "our elders once spoke of our ancestor long ago. There was a time when one of our own sought to rule over the forest instead of with it. It tore our community asunder. Broke the foundation of the community. Countless died."

"What happened?" Cal mused.

"The forest burnt down… from our ancestor… and from its ashes, the cervidian war fleet was born. Our ancestor, powerful and unafraid conquered and unified the cervidians," Jabor replied.

Cal shifted, the stones beneath him pressing hard through his tuxedo jacket. He caught Elena's glance as she adjusted her position.

“Sounds familiar,” she chuckled. “Fucking maniac. I hope Cal never meets your ancestor.”

“We have no idea where she is now.”

“Good. Keep the matches away from this one.” She paused. “Sometimes, power just sits there useless leaving you as powerless as before, but you are left with the consequences to claiming it.”

"Power," Jaxon began, his voice steady, "itself isn’t it just a tool. It shapes, builds, destroys." He leaned back against a boulder, arms crossed over his chest, the firelight casting long shadows across his face. “Others might not, but your friends will compromise with you. And you too will compromise for your friends.”

"Friendship then," Jaxon added, "is it not the anchor? Keeping us grounded?"

"Or the chain," Jabor countered.

"Perhaps," Jaxon conceded, "but only if you let it become one."

“Cal, why don’t you tell them about your little deal with the avians.”

“Oh, you heard that?” Cal paused, “They gave me… enough mana crystals… in exchange for distribution rights to tuxedos.”

“Huhhhh?” Joe exclaimed! “That is wild, bro.”

Elena pulled out her own spatial treasure and passed Cal another bag. Cal looked inside.

“That’s also for us.” It was another pile of mana crystals. Now they had a surplus.

Cal felt that Joe did not understand this conversation, but behind the talk, Elena, Jaxon and Jabor were arguing about the death of the cervidians. Cal himself could understand the subtext underneath the discussion.

Elena was questioning what benefits were worth putting the team in danger, especially ones done without planning.

Jaxon was arguing that benefits were in the best interest to the team, regardless of the danger. The power to meet the challenge required it.

Jabor himself was somewhere in the middle. Cal felt that Jabor questioned the reality of power. It was cruel and necessary, but indeed lonely. It seemed that Jabor was on edge about what happened to the other cervidians. More so, than Joe and Jaxon and even Elena.

One thing was for certain, however. His friends had poisoned the cervidians.