“Start whenever you’re ready,” Adia said, waving a hand nonchalantly. We stood in the middle of the arena. Enough time had passed that all the mist and ice was gone, but there was still a slight chill in the air.

I was wary, mainly because Adia had seen my stat sheet, yet she still carried herself with an absolute confidence.

Samantha as well had me start out cautiously, placing all of my Mana Regeneration towards Agility. Then, I moved forwards to close the gap between us.

Adia tried to put more distance between us by backing up slightly and moving along the border of the arena. She held a throwing knife in either hand.

She flicked her left arm and wrist in a sudden motion.

Following Samantha’s outline, I dodged to the side. As I was moving, I saw that the knife hadn’t left her hand yet.

Then, the knives started flying.

The first knife flew directly to where I was heading. I jumped, contorting my body to dodge it. But as I was in the air, I saw another two knives flying towards me.

I let myself continue along my original trajectory, raising my dagger to deflect the knife approaching my chest, and raising my knees to my stomach to avoid the knife flying towards my feet.

And then I saw three more knives flying towards me—while I was still in the air, from my first leap.

I deflected one and dodged the other, but the third sliced through my magician’s robes at the shoulder and sunk into my right arm.

I ignored the knife, rushing towards Adia.

After my first step towards her, I felt dizzy.

The last thing I saw was the ground, flying towards me.

I woke to the sounds of cheering. “A-di-a! A-di-a!”

Parker was crouched over me, his acne-covered face awkwardly close, and I shoved him off.

“What was that?” I asked, standing up and turning to Adia, who was staring down at me triumphantly. “Poison?”

“You should know,” Adia said, smugly. “You’ve experienced it before.”

Samantha supplied.

“Well, you win,” I said, raising my hands up helplessly, remembering Uman’s advice. “What next?”

“You heard Lord Ignatius. You know Ryker and River best. How would you go about convincing them to join our cause?”

“Ryker, can you hear me?” Lord Ignatius’s voice cut through the silent room.

Adia’s whole team was here, along with Declan, the requisitions officer, and Uman, the self-described director of Human Resources.

I stood between Ryker and Lord Ignatius, and Adia stood between Ryker and the door. According to Parker, Lord Ignatius’s powers had never failed before, but caution came at a low price.

“Ryker, can you tell me why you are here?” The question came again, bearing down on all of us. I held my breath, hoping that the conversion had worked, that I would be reunited with my friend again...

“I’m here to help you out,” Ryker’s slow, casual drawl replied. He raised himself up and glanced around the room. “Not sure how I’m supposed to do that without my weapons and shit.”

He had been stripped down to his underwear, and there was a pile of his equipment in front of Lord Ignatius. Despite this, he still carried himself with his usual laid-back confidence.

“Why do you want to ‘help me out?’” Lord Ignatius asked again.

Ryker glanced around the room. “You seem like my kind of people.”

Lord Ignatius smiled. “I have two questions for you, Ryker, before you join the Crucible. First, I’d like to see your full Status Window. Second, I’d like to know how you think you can best serve the Crucible. We are a multi-faceted organization. You could be a fighter, a professionalist, an administrator, a scout, a diplomat. Think carefully.”

Ryker laughed casually. “Oh, did Jarek not tell you already? I’m pretty good at hitting things.”

The conversation continued in a familiar vein.

Ryker expressed concern over Reed City and his grandmother, and Lord Ignatius promised to send someone to Reed City while we continued with our next mission—onboarding River.

Once Lord Ignatius left, I helped Ryker pick up his weapons and equipment.

“I’m glad you’re with us,” I said, passing Ryker his boots.

“What’s the lay of the land?” Ryker asked. “Any prickly people?”

“Lord Ignatius—the bald man who was on the throne—tends to be pretty absent, from what I hear. We’re trying to form a team of elites to take down Region Lords.”

I gestured to the remaining people in the room. "Adia is the team captain. There’s Hank—the big guy with the shield—”

Parker, standing off to the side, snickered. “Just call him Hank the Tank. It’s easier.”

Hank smiled. “Whatever’s easiest for you. If it’ll help you remember my name, go for it. It is a pretty forgettable name.”

“Alright,” I said, somewhat unsure how to respond. “Hank the tank, Parker the healer, Petrov the magician, Amos, the swordsman, and Adia, our fearless leader.”

“Definitely the best line-up in the Zone,” Parker said, excitedly. “Seven Hard-mode challengers. I bet we could even take out Dawnbreaker with the right planning.”

Ryker and I exchanged confused glances. “Dawnbreaker?” I asked.

Adia spoke up. “Dawnbreaker is the only confirmed Hell Mode challenger that we are aware of. At last count, she has cleared two Regions already. The only thing holding her back is finding new Region Lords, and getting where she needs to go.”

I frowned, picking up on a certain tone in Adia’s voice. “But, she’s not one of us?”

Parker piped up again. “We haven’t made contact with her yet. She’s on the restricted list for our teleporter, and Lord Ignatius has made it clear that we are to avoid her whenever possible.”

“Dawnbreaker isn’t our concern right now, though,” Adia said, turning to me. “Lord Ignatius really values magicians. We need River.”

I frowned, glancing over to Ryker. “Unfortunately, River isn’t as gullible as Ryker. With River, it won’t be as easy as ‘Here, drink this.’”

Ryker shrugged, not even having the grace to look embarrassed.

“She doesn’t really trust me,” I continued. “But she should trust Ryker. Ryker can make up some story to get her to come to the Crucible. Then, we can ambush her at the Teleportation Circle.”

Ryker nodded. “I can do that.”

“Alright,” Adia said. “Ryker, bring River through the portal in a half hour. Jarek, Amos, head to the potions shop. Jarek, you’ll need the standard set of potions. Amos, ask for two Fire Resistance potions per person.”

Amos nodded, and Adia continued, “Two per person… is fourteen total. Got it?”

Amos glanced at me and rolled his eyes.

The moment we were alone in the hallways, Amos whispered, “I let you beat me.”

“Really?” I raised my eyebrows.

“They didn’t call me ‘Famous Amos’ for nothing before all this Atropos stuff happened. I’m the two-time holder of the State-wide fencing championship. You were really telegraphing your intent—when I saw that you were going for a pommel strike, I let it happen.”

“Why would you do that?” I honestly couldn’t tell if Amos was lying. He had gone down very quickly during our fight, and he seemed completely confident now.

“Let’s just say I’m not all that happy with the…current leadership of the team. You saw how she talked to me, right? As if I couldn’t do some simple, mental math. Absolutely no respect for her elders. It’s like Adia has had this grudge against me from the moment we met. If you’re able to take her spot as leader, I’m all for it. You would have won, if it weren’t for the poisoned kni—“ Amos cut himself off, noticing two people coming down the hallway towards us. “Let’s talk about this later. But I just want to let you know, I’ve got your back.”

I was starting to get the hang of these winding, dimly lit corridors. We soon came out near the cafeteria, and walked into a large, spacious room that had a counter and hundreds of glowing bottles on rows of shelves.

“Mr. Wright,” Amos said, addressing the man behind the counter. “We need a full kit for my friend here, and fourteen Fire Resistance potions.”

Mr. Wright put the pencil in his hand down, and flipped the paper he had been writing on over. He was a middle-aged black man, a bit taller than I was, with short-shaven hair and wide-rimmed glasses that almost hid the bags under his eyes.

He glanced at me. “I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Haki Wright.”

I offered my hand. “Jarek Novak.”

“Where are you coming from, Jarek?”

Amos puffed his chest in response. “Jarek here founded the first City on the West Coast. Killed a hydra.”

Mr. Wright smiled warmly at me. “That is quite the feat, Jarek. What brings you here to the Crucible?”

I suddenly remembered Uman’s warning—not everybody was Chosen by Lord Ignatius. “The Crucible is putting together a team to hunt other Region Lords,” I said. “It was a good offer.”

Mr. Wright nodded at that. “Ah, then Jarek, you’ve probably met my daughter—Adia. Tell her I say hi.”

Amos smiled forcefully. “Of course we will. Adia says hello as well. She wanted me to send her apologies that she couldn’t come—we’re in a rush.”

Amos glanced not-so-subtly at the potions behind the counter.

“Of course, of course,” Mr. Wright said, turning and gathering the necessary potions and recording them in a ledger.

As I placed everything into my Interdimensional Pouch, Mr. Wright said, “Tell Adia that I’m sorry. I just want what’s best for her.”

Once Amos and I were back in the privacy of narrow tunnels, I asked, “What was all that about?”

“Adia and her father aren’t on speaking terms,” Amos said. “He isn’t a fan of Adia risking her life against monsters. And Adia, as I’m sure you will quickly realize, doesn’t like to be told what to do.”

“Request pending,” one of the teleportation guards announced. “River and Ryker.”

“Potions and buffs!” Adia called.

We were already in formation and ready for River. Parker and Petrov stood behind me and started chanting. It was unnerving, having a magician chanting spells behind me—Petrov, I knew, could kill me in a split second. We all drank our fire-resistant potions, and I felt the buffs from Parker start to come through. I felt stronger, faster, and more aware. Around me, the whole area started to grow chillier, and ice started to spread on the walls.

Adia glanced around, waiting a few more seconds for Hank to position his massive shield.

I stood at the front of our squad, with Hank next to me.

“Let them through,” Adia called.

The moment River appeared, a dozen things happened at the same time.

A dozen icicles darted towards River, just as Adia threw a flurry of knives. Ryker dove to the ground as River lit the whole room on fire.

I noticed that despite the Fire Resistance potion, I was still losing health, so I put more mana into Physical Defense.

The knives and icicles bounced off something surrounding River.

Hank moved forward, swinging his warhammer, and with a single blow, cracked the shield around River. River practically flew against the wall, knocking her head hard against the concrete.

Two more knives flew towards River, slicing a hand and an ankle, and it was clear our battle was over.

Adia quickly gave Ryker a healing potion—he’d suffered the worst from the burns, since he was closest to River and he hadn’t had the chance to take a Fire Resistance potion.

Meanwhile, Petrov cooled the room down, causing a loud hiss as ice put out the fires around us.

Amos moved forward to River, pried her staff out of her unconscious hands, and started patting her down.

I couldn’t help but notice his hands were—

“Stop,” Adia said, sharply.

“I was just checking for other weapons,” Amos said, raising his hands.

“Try anything again and you’ll realize you’re missing a finger,” Adia said. “Parker, take care of Ryker.”

Adia left Ryker's side, and took Amos's place next to River. She removed River’s robes and a necklace that she wore. Underneath, River wore a simple tank top and spandex.

As Parker passed me, he inclined his head toward me, and whispered, “You didn’t mention she was a goddess.”

“Parker! Help Ryker!” Adia snapped. “One more fucking word and it’s not just Amos who will be missing fingers.”

“Calm down, Adia. Why do you have to make a big deal about everything?” Amos asked. “Right, Jarek?”

I put some mana into Agility and Strength, grabbed Amos’s arm, and twisted it behind his back, spinning his body so that his fingers were closer to Adia.

“Which finger are you thinking?” I asked Adia, drawing my knife slowly.

“What?” I couldn’t see Amos’s face, but I could hear the betrayal. “We were just joking!”

I let go of Amos’s arm, giving him a hefty slap on the shoulder I’d just twisted. “I know. I’m just playing with you,” I said, smiling back at him. “It must be all the testosterone floating around, ammiright?”

Amos’ pale face nodded slowly.

Adia flashed me a grateful look.

“River, can you hear me?” Lord Ignatius’s voice cut through the silence of the throne room.