“You can begin, candidate Wexler,” Vincent said. Sophie nodded and stepped off the road and into the field of crops taller than she was.

“There were nine grass darters reported,” Vincent said to the other candidates. “While candidate Wexler chases them down, we will have time to discuss the remainder of the day’s notices. Those of you who have yet to demonstrate your aptitude to a satisfactory level should be looking to volunteer…”

He trailed of and looked to the crops, where Sophie emerged, struggling to carry four dead beetles, the size of small dogs. The group watched as she dumped them onto the road, each having a fist-sized hole in its carapace.

“According to the Magic Society listing,” Sophie said, “the shells of these things are pretty valuable. You said you knew harvesting rituals, right, Clay?”

“Uh, yes,” Clay said. “Were they already dead?”

“If they were already dead, they’d be rainbow smoke already,” Sophie said. “Just harvest this lot and we’ll go even split. I’ll go pick up some more.”

“How did you catch them so fast?” another candidate asked.

“I think these ones are duds,” Sophie said. “The Magic Society listing said they were fast, but these seemed a bit sluggish. Can’t hide their auras, either, so my perception power makes them easy to find.”

Sophie ducked back into the field.

“I wouldn’t put much stock in what candidate Wexler considers slow,” Vincent advised the other candidates. “Her perspective is somewhat skewed.”

At the marshalling yard, Jason and Belinda were part of the crowd waiting for the return of Sophie’s assessment group. It was the first Adventure Society intake since the expedition, the last one having been cancelled in the wake of that disaster and the incursion of the inquiry team. For this assessment, Vincent had been paired up with a member of that team who mostly watched in silence. It was also a smaller group than usual, with families suddenly more wary about placing their young people in the path of potential harm.

“She’ll pass, right?” Belinda asked nervously.

“She should,” Jason said. “Vincent won’t just give her an easy pass but she’s better than I was when I took my assessment.”

“She’s better than you are now,” Neil said. Their whole team was waiting for her in solidarity.

“I’ll have you know, people find me very scary,” Jason said.

“You’re wearing a pink shirt with tropical flower print,” Neil said.

“They could be poisonous flowers; you don’t know.”

“My concern is the member of the inquisition team they sent,” Humphrey said. “He’s meant to be assessing Vincent’s execution of the assessment, but he may just make them fail everyone as some kind of example.”

“They could have just sent Rufus for that,” Jason said. “He failed everyone when he ran the assessment.”

“He didn’t fail me,” Neil said.

“He did me,” Humphrey said.

“He failed me before it even started,” Jason said. “He wouldn’t let me go, told me not to bother because I was definitely going to fail.”

“Was he right?” Clive asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Jason said. “A few weeks earlier I was assistant manager at an office supply store.”

“A what store?” Belinda asked.

“Office supplies,” Jason said. “The Station-Eyrie, where we’re hawkish about your office supply needs.”

“Does this make sense to anyone?” Neil asked.

“We find it best to just let him go and not ask questions.”

“I am curious about his world, though,” Belinda said.

“There are a lot of differences,” Jason said. “More pamphlets, for example. You go to an accommodation and they’ll have a stand of pamphlets for local attractions. I haven’t seen that here.”

“Pamphlets,” Neil said flatly.

“Yeah,” Jason said. “Folded pieces of paper with information printed on them. Do you not have them here?  Maybe I should start a business. I could be a pamphlet mogul.”

“Is it too late to change teams?” Neil asked. “Someone must be looking for a healer.”

A wagon rolled its way into the marshalling yard, Adventure Society candidates climbing out as it came to a stop. After a few words from Vincent they broke off to meet with their families, some looking confident, others morose. Vincent exchanged a brief chat with the inquiry official before following Sophie over to their group.

“How do you think you did?” Belinda asked, giving Sophie a greeting hug.

“You’ll have to ask this guy,” Sophie said, jabbing a thumb in Vincent’s direction.

“We’ll make our assessment reports today and final results go up tomorrow,” Vincent said. “I don’t think candidate Wexler has anything to be concerned about, though.”

“How was the inquiry official?” Humphrey asked.

“Tough but fair,” Vincent said. “He didn’t demand quite as high a standard as Rufus, but he certainly wasn’t going to tolerate the usual Greenstone standard.”

“So we can expect better adventurers from now on,” Clive said.

“For a while,” Vincent said. “How long it takes to fall back into old patterns, who knows. Adventure Society culture is set at the top and Elspeth Arella isn’t what I’d hoped she’d be.”

“My mother hates working with her,” Humphrey said. “She wasn’t happy Arella held onto her position, but this threat from the Builder pushes aside everything else for now.”

“Speaking of which,” Neil said, “did your mother say anything about Thadwick?”

“Not much,” Humphrey said. “After they caught him she watched the purging ritual herself. It seems to have extracted the star seed intact but Thadwick was fairly ravaged by the process. Last I heard, he hasn’t woken up from the healing, yet.”

“Thanks,” Neil said. “I hated being on his team but I’ve known him most of my life. He didn’t deserve that.”

“He tried to kill me that one time, so I kind of think he does,” Jason said. “The suffering part, at least; I’m glad he’s not dead.”

“To finish the job yourself?” Sophie posited.

“No,” Jason said. “Thalia Mercer knows her son’s a useless dimwit but she’d still kill me if I did. Then my friends would go after the Mercers and on and on. I’m going to do what I should have done when I first met the guy and let it go.”

“That’s a mature attitude,” Vincent said.

“I’m still going to make fun of him though,” Jason said. “A lot. That guy sucks.”

“That’s slightly less mature,” Vincent said, “but I’ll take it.”

Sophie vaulted over the gap between the Old City rooftops, sailing through the crisp morning air to land with delicacy and precision. The sun was only just peeking over the delta, beginning to banish the cold of night.

Gary was close behind Sophie, his leaps heavy and powerful compared to her light agility. Jason was a distant third, his cloak floating around him as it let him easily make the distance. On Jason’s heels was Humphrey, manifesting wings to cross the gap. Bringing up the rear were Clive, Neil and Belinda, who balked at the jump, stopping at the edge of the roof.

“I can’t make that jump,” Neil said, breathing hard.

“Not with that attitude,” Gary called back.

“We don’t have movement powers,” Clive said. “I can only teleport other people.”

“Teleport me over, then,” Belinda said.

“Why should you get the teleport?” Neil asked. “You aren’t even an essence user, yet.”

“And I still have to do this awful training,” Belinda shot back. “That’s why I should get the teleport.”

“No one’s getting the teleport,” Clive said. He backed up, broke into a run and vaulted the gap, successfully reaching the other side.

“Why do I even need to do this?” Neil asked. “I don’t have any mobility powers.”

“Which makes it all the more important,” Humphrey said. “It means that if it comes down to it, the skills you’re developing now will be all you have to rely on. What happened to the man who was eager to train?”

“I want to train the things I’m good at.”

“That’s all well and good,” Gary said, “but it’s the things you aren’t good at that get you killed.”

Neil groaned, but moved for a run-up before barely clearing the gap.

“Not bad,” Gary said, thumping him heavily on the back.

That left only Belinda on the other rooftop, eyeing off the jump when an angry man climbed up from a window.

“Who’s jumping up and down on my roof, first thing in the bloody morning?”

The team looked at each other uncertainly, then Clive chanted a spell.

“Exchange your fates.”

Belinda and Neil switched position, bringing Belinda into the group and leaving Neil with the angry homeowner.

“LEG IT!” Jason yelled and they all started sprinting.

“Oh, come on,” Neil complained as he watched them go, then turned awkwardly to the man whose roof he was standing on.

“Well?” the man demanded.

“I’m with the Adventure Society,” Neil said.

“Is there a monster up here?” the man asked, casting a gaze around.

“Uh, no,” Neil admitted. “No, there isn’t.”

“Then get off my bloody roof!”

A crowd was gathered at a dock in the Old City port that had been completely cleared for the approaching ship.

“Why do you need me here for this?” Rufus asked. “I’m meant to be making final inspections of the annex site this morning before giving the go ahead to break ground.”

“You are still my contracted agent here,” Emir said. “That’s why you came here in the first place, which makes any other ventures of secondary concern.”

“Since when do you care about that?” Rufus asked.

“Since now,” Emir said. “Shut up and get ready to greet the people as they disembark.”

They had spotted the approaching ship from the cloud palace. Full of Emir’s recruited iron-rankers, it would normally have used the Adventure Society’s private dock, but that was currently claimed by the cloud palace. Instead, room had been made at the regular port.

“You realise you’ve thrown this whole port into chaos, right?” Rufus asked. “They weren’t expecting to have some gold-ranker come in and just claim a whole dock.”

“The entire point of being a gold-ranker is to have other people deal with all the mundane problems.”

“And here was me thinking it was to protect civilisation from monsters,” Rufus said. “That’s a life lesson, I guess.”

Rufus made his way through the gathering of Adventure Society officials, Emir’s staff, dockworkers, and adventurers, arriving dockside as the ship approached the dock. Rufus’ eyes went wide as he spotted a man on board with midnight skin and dark, curly hair tied back behind his head. The man spotted him to and launched off the boat, sailing through the air on a magical wind to land in front of Rufus.

“Hello, boy,” the man said.

“Hello Dad,” Rufus said. “What are you doing here?”