When the door opened, Gem almost leapt out of her skin. So far had she been in her thoughts, drowning miles beneath the waves at their surface, that the creaking of the hinge and the sliding of wood against carpet had felt as jarring and abrupt as a gunshot.

By the time the one responsible had stepped inside, however, she’d managed to flatten her features back to some semblance of calm and control. If barely.

She’d coiled up in anticipation for Astra, prepared to begin round two. When Xeno revealed herself with a smile, she couldn’t help but return it. Half from relief, and half from being genuinely pleased to see the girl.

She’d been gone only a few hours, but it had felt like much longer. Gem decided that Tempora was most likely to blame for that.

“Hi,” the fae girl beamed. Her smile seemed as radiant as ever, but Gem could feel an exhaustion to it.

“Evening Xeno,” she replied, plastering a grin across her own face. She didn’t miss the flickering of the girl’s expression at her words.

“Evening…” Xeno almost muttered with a frown. “I really need to find a better way of tracking time. A pocket watch, maybe…”

Her expression cleared up an instant later.

“Oh well, that’s something to think about later. How are you doing?”

Gem almost answered with the usual, saying she was fine, before realising that the question was directed about her injuries.

“I’m healing, though not fast.”

Xeno arched an eyebrow at that, making her way closer to the bed as she spoke.

“I did tell you it’d be a while.”

“I know,” Gem said quickly. “It’s just… well, it’s frustrating.”

The fae didn’t respond for a few seconds, her voice quiet and gentle when she did.

“Would you like another healing relic?”

“No!” Gem almost shouted, her answer ripping free of her lips before she could monitor it. Xeno jumped slightly, and she felt a surge of guilt.

“I’m sorry, it’s just… no, I think we’re best saving our credits.”

Xeno frowned at that.

“Both of our strongest members are down, I don’t think there’s much point in saving credits we don’t use now.”

“I know,” Gem conceded. “But… well, you know…” She found herself stumbling over words, simply spitting them out in an attempt to buy the precious seconds she needed to find a counterpoint.

I could tell the truth, she found herself thinking. Just let Xeno know that I don’t think I can keep competing, that it would be a waste to spend credits on my recovery.

She banished the notion without a second thought as her mind finally spun a sufficient response.

“We’re not sure how long it’ll be before the next task begins, it’s best to wait until we know so we can avoid the risk of wasting credits on something that’ll do more than we need. No point cutting away the entire week of remaining recovery time for me if none of us are competing again for another seven days, right?”

Xeno nodded slightly, apparently chewing on the suggestion. Gem found herself silently wishing the girl would just accept it. That her innocent, caring, brilliant mind could just stop for once.

Neither Xeno or her brain obliged.

“But it might be announced tomorrow, it’d be better to waste a few credits than waste the chance to pick our strongest member if we want to.”

She was trying to be kind. Gem understood that. She knew that Xeno just wanted to comfort her, to let her know that she had an option. All the same, she couldn’t stop the irrational bout of anger that gripped her in the face of her teammate’s stubborn rationality.

“I’m fine,” she snapped. Xeno stared for a moment, saying nothing, and Gem dropped her gaze. A few seconds passed before the girl spoke once more, her tone entirely neutral and pleasant.

“So, where’s Astra? Don’t tell me she left you on your own.”

Gem saw the change of subject for what it was, and hungrily seized it.

“We had a bit of an argument,” she admitted. “I think she’s gone to cool off on her own.”

Risking a glance back at Xeno, she saw the girl was now sitting down, nodding seemingly to herself.

“I see. I imagine Crow and Unity are probably out somewhere, too.”

“Do you need us all together for something?” Gem asked.

“No, I’m just… oh I don’t know, I like to know where things are I suppose. It doesn’t matter.”

Gem could’ve sworn she saw embarrassment in Xeno as the girl spoke. She chose to drop the matter.

“What were you doing today, by the way?” She asked. The fae hesitated before answering.

“I was at the reliquary,” she answered, tone like a child caught misbehaving. “Trying to see if I could find some miracle relic that might compensate for… uh, well, you know.”

For Gem being humiliatingly defeated and rendered useless, she meant.

Pushing her bubbling emotion to one side, Gem spoke.

“I don’t suppose you found anything?”

Xeno smiled weakly.

“No such luck. Though I did get a good look at everything they keep there, which was… disturbing.”

She hesitated, her mouth wavering in the repeated false-starts that came with being simultaneously eager and unsure of whether or not to say something. Eventually, eagerness won out.

***

By the time Xeno had gotten through even the first dozen outlandish, awful things she’d seen available for purchase, the dull light from the window had been enfeebled enough that she’d gotten up and begun to light the lamps across the room.

Gem preferred things that way by far. Something about the warmth of firelight was indescribably captivating. A thousand times as comfortable as the steadier, almost sterile glow produced by magical forms of illumination.

Perhaps the latter simply reminded her of time spent in malignant courtrooms and uncaring halls. As opposed to the memories of stories and games beside the log fire in her home.

As her thoughts turned to those past days, so, too, did they shift to Gilasev. It had been his stories, after all, that Gem had curled up to hear so many nights, blankets wrapped tightly around her and chocolate stuffed into her mouth.

For the briefest moment, she felt the urge to check her resonance stone once more. Sure that he had replied to her messages, that he’d taken as long as he had only because of the natural delays which so unreliably fluctuated with such messages.

She stamped out the spark of hope before it had time to grow to an inferno of naivety. Resonance stones were not delayed by weeks, and Gilasev had more important things to do than oblige Gem missing her childhood.

Try though she did to shove her darker thoughts to one side, Gem found her mood beginning to spiral pointedly downwards after that. Her usual knack for keeping such emotions to herself must have suffered as well, for Xeno began to act forcefully positive.

Feeling guilty for forcing such work onto the girl, Gem redoubled her efforts and successfully displaced the melancholy and anxiety.

By the time the loud voices rang out from their hallway, the pair had been talking and giggling for at least half an hour. The light outside had died almost entirely, and even with all lamps lit the room had grown difficult to see every inch of.

Xeno shot to her feet at the sound outside, hurriedly sprinting to and opening the door with an urgency which certainly contradicted her seemingly relaxed state. As she flung it open and stepped out, a whispered conversation reached Gem’s ears.

She caught only three words in ten, but it was enough for her to get the gist. Excessive drinking could cause severe headaches, bad enough to render a person useless for most of a day and as difficult to banish with magic as any other brain-related ailment.

Crow and Unity, it seemed, were in trouble. The sight of both boys entering, backs stooped like dying trees and faces as crestfallen as chastised puppies, was quite amusing. Its hilarity was increased to remarkable heights by their trudging after Xeno, the tiny girl dutifully strolling in front of them and still looking thoroughly peeved.

Sitting back down in her original seat, Xeno paid neither of them any heed until they had joined her on the sofa. She then spoke with the clear tone one might use to explain a mathematical problem.

“We can’t be sure when the next task will be,” the girl said. “And so it’s imperative that we’re prepared for it to be the next day, every day. Isn’t that right?”

Both Crow and Unity mumbled their assent at her words, and it was only then that Gem caught the fumbled, murky tone used by the artificial.

He’s downed enough to get the Olympian army drunk, she realised. I wonder if he’ll find some way to explain why this is my fault, as well…

Whether Unity had any such plans or not, Gem didn’t get the chance to find out. Crow interrupted her thoughts by licking his lips, a simple gesture she’d seen thousands of times- yet done in such a way as to let her know of the immense reluctance and anxiety he felt towards saying whatever it was he was about to.

“I’ve been thinking,” he said, then paused, frowned slightly as though realising something important and spoke again. “Hold on, where’s Astra?”

Xeno spared Gem the trouble of answering.

“She’s gone out for some fresh air I think, got a bit cooped up, being in here all day.”

The blonde nodded absent-mindedly.

“I see,” he muttered. “Nevermind then.”

Gem found herself extremely curious as to what exactly he’d been about to tell them, but managed to keep her tongue restrained.

“Why did you drag us in here?” Unity blurted out, voice leaning into each vowel as though for support.

Xeno’s jaw tightened at the display, clearly serving as a reminder to her of just how much trouble they’d be in if the next task were called the next day. Looking at the utter uselessness of the boy, Gem couldn’t disagree.

“Because,” Xeno answered, “I don’t trust either of you to be left on your own. If I leave you unmonitored you might go off and drink something else,” she pointed directly at Unity, then turned her focus to Crow. “And you’ll let him without a word.”

Neither of them had a retort for that, and they both sat still and quiet without further complaint.