Zagreus followed her back to the elevator, when they got off they were in a long tunnel with few doors. “Where does this tunnel go?” Zagreus asked as they walked.

“The word is corridor or hallway, not tunnel.” Lilthana said. “There are several training simulators on this floor. They use illusions similar to your shadowcat abilities.”

“How do you know what I am?”

“Your genetics have polymorph markers but we also have cameras in the village you attacked. We saw you morph during your fight.” She held out her arm. A moving image appeared above her hand for a few moments. It showed a shadow cat tearing through a familiar defensive line. “You are quite skilled. Half-starving and you still managed to kill six and injure another four. Some of those were important breeder candidates. Cinder and Karimere were ready to chop you into pieces before they found out you are a match to the Eleventh.” Lilithana turned and stopped at a door. It stuck, barely open. She gave it a swift kick and it finished opening with a protesting groan. “Something else to add to the list.” She muttered to herself.

His heart skipped a beat. The door opened into a seemingly endless room. A wide winding path made of cut marble led away from the door. The ground around it was covered in various colored plants. Above was a dull grey shifting haze. In the distance stood tall wide structures of pink marble, metal and glass. His shadowcat senses told him it was all an illusion but the vast size of it rooted him in his spot. “Is this what the surface looks like?”

“These buildings were on the surface, before the war.” She took his arm and gently guided him onto the path. Her touch was cold but he ignored it.

“Why is the ceiling moving?”

“Those are clouds. I will show you a bright sunny day when your eyes have had more time to adjust to light. The colorful plants around us are called flowers. There are even birds and other surface animals simulated here.” She pointed to the colorful creatures as they darted above a nearby pool of water.

Something in him wanted to chase the little things. They were tiny but they were enticing prey. A gust of wind nearly blew him over, a shadow covered him as the ground shook. He spun to see a massive crimson colored lizard creature with a long neck, bat wings and black horns. Its tooth filled jaw could swallow him whole.

“That’s a dragon.” Lilithana said in her same flat tone.

The creature let out a roar that Zagreus could feel reverberate through his whole body. Its head struck at him. He instinctively tried to evade but found Lilithana holding his arm. Her grip was impossibly strong as he flailed away from the maw. A hands width from him it let out a torrent of fire. His skin burned, his breath failed.

With a little laugh Lilithana let him go.

He fell back choking as the dragon illusion shattered into a shower of twinkling arcane fragments. His heart pounded in his chest and his skin tingled. His legs trembled as he got to his feet.

“You don’t require new clothes, so I say you handled it well. This room is for combat simulation. You will feel pain, but it is designed to keep you safe. Any time taken to heal is time stolen from training.”

“You did that just to screw with me.”

“You are a test subject. Everything we do here has a goal. But I will admit, I find the dragon introduction one of the most amusing tasks.”

“Do those things really exist?”

“They were quite real and just intelligent as any person. I hope some of them are still alive. It is a dream of mine to meet one.”

They walked the long path and finally stopped in front of a massive golden door that was at least four times his height. The door was decorated with an intricate carving of a female with scales and clawed hands. The head shape and two horns sticking off the back of her head gave her the appearance similar to the dragon. “Is that a real woman too?”

She turned away from him and made arm gestures like she was speaking to someone but he heard nothing. “Yes. But please hold your questions. Tomorrow is selection day for sector seven, I have to leave soon to prepare.” Lilithana held her hand up towards the door. A soft melodic sound came from her and an arcane circle appeared across the door. It grudgingly split and opened inwards.

“That was beautiful.” Zagrus gasped. “What is this place?”

She walked briskly, “This building is an accurate model of the Hall of Endrala, a diplomatic nexus for the planet. Cinder customized the image on the door and a few other minor details but the structure existed in basically this form.” The long, tall corridor had a row of armored figures on each side. “This hall holds statues representing each race of this planet. It is likely many of them are extinct at this point.”

They were every size and shape imaginable. One stand held dozens of people no taller than his hand. They had an assortment of wings. Another figure towered so tall he only came up to its knees. Various wings, horns, claws, scales, tentacles . . . Then he noticed a presence. Cinder was there, hidden as one of the armored statues. She was as tall as him, clad in a full plate metal suit. The helmet was oddly shaped. He didn’t dare guess what kind of head would fit in that. He had to fight a smile.

“Are you suicidal?” Lilithana whispered.

He fixed his gaze on the statues across the hall until they were much further along.

“Kytheras is being evasive and you are the most convenient target for Cinder to take out her anger. I suggest avoiding all contact with her for the foreseeable future.”

“Ok.” They reached the end of the rows and entered a large round room with a circle of columns. The ceiling was a clear domed roof with metalwork in the shaped of a twelve pointed star. “This place is amazing. I still can’t believe all of this is made out of illusions.”

Footsteps approached from the far side. The same woman from the door carving walked towards them wearing the same flowing gown. She had deep blue scales that sparked in the light. Two smooth and white horns adorned the back of her head. “I am Anateri Baltoris. I am a dragonite. I was sent on mission to save Endrala from . . .”

“Another illusion.” He interrupted smugly. “Does this one breathe fire too?” He laughed. “How many tricks are you going to pull today?”

He barely noticed Lilithana say, “Stop.”

He grabbed the dragonite woman by the horn and pulled her head closer. “I bet you have an interesting looking skull. Maybe I could add a dragonite to my collection. What do you think Lili?”

With a resigned sigh she said, “I think you will be lucky to survive this.”

“Survive wha…” He felt murderous intent focused directly at him.

A howl came from down the hallway with the statues. The Cinder armor stood in the center of the aisle with a growing orange aura of arcane flowing off of her. Six long slender wings that looked to be made of pure arcane protruded from her back. “YOU INSOLENT! PETULENT! CHILDISH! . . .

“What the fuck did I DO?!” Zagreus looked for anywhere to run as the screaming continued.

“Don’t flee, that will only fuel her rage.” Lilihhana said, “Turning all safety protocols to maximum and releasing energy limiters. If you don’t survive this I will make sure you are buried on the surface.” Lilithana slapped some kind of shackle around his neck.

“… UNGRATEFUL! DISRESPECTFUL! . . . DIE!“ With an orange blur Cinder appeared a step in front of him. “I’m going to enjoy this.”

One punch stole the air from his lungs and doubled him over, the second sent him up shattering through the glass ceiling. He was strong, fast and experienced. Few people could challenge him in a one on one fight. But this was not a fight. He could barely see her move much less react. He slammed into the sky. The snap of bones was unmistakable. Chunks of stone and metal fell with him. His body was completely unresponsive.

Cinder appeared next to him, in midair, as he fell. She did a spin hitting him with a tail. This sent him soaring through the sky, slamming through several illusionary walls that shattered into glowing fragments. Cinder appeared in front of him before he reached the ground. He had just enough time scream before she backhanded him through more walls.

I am dead, so fucking dead.

She appeared above him in midair and pulled back to punch him again. Then a familiar red whip-like tendril appeared around him and snatched him away from the offending arm.

“KYTHERAS! STOP INTERFERING!” She screamed as she chased them through the sky. A glowing trail of orange arcane flowed from the wings.

“Negative.” The chest sized orb said. Its large red crystal eye glowed menacingly. Kytheras dragged Zagreus along roughly as he led Cinder erratically through the buildings. Walls shattered, columns fell, and everything became a dusty glowing haze of red and orange energy. Zagreus regretted having eaten. The next few minutes were a blur of evasions through a disintegrating set of buildings and countless near misses and a couple hits.

As they darted through another building, Kytheras suddenly stopped. Cinder landed hard a few paces away.

“That is enough fun for today.” Lilithana said calmly.

“I’m not done punishing him!”

With a tilt of her head and a disturbing smile Lilithana said, “You have completely destroyed at least two projector arrays. He needs to be treated and we have selection tomorrow. I don’t have time for any more of your antics.”

Orange energy swirled around Cinder as she let out a howl that shook the buildings.

Lilithana held up some kind of tablet, “Oh, look, the candy machine has some valuable parts that are needed in other places.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“The choice is yours Cinder.”

With a low growl the orange energy dissipated into quickly disappearing threads. Cinder relented. “Since you claimed him, you will take over his training, and you can treat him as well.” With a flash of orange light and a gust of wind, she was gone.

“Kytheras? The threat is gone. Please let him go.”

“Acceptable.” The red whip-like tendril loosened, letting Zagreus land, on his face, in a heap. His body was pain.

“Please state your objective.” Lilithana said.

Kytheras said. “I seek the return of the Cradle using the organic Zagreus and the Eleventh mecromail to establish a scanner network in the Geothae system.”

“That is good, we seek the same thing. Can I assume you brought Zagreus here for training?”

“Affirmative.”

“So are you going to wait in your assigned area while I work? I don’t want to have to waste any more time and resources dealing with you. That would be, inefficient.”

“Meet the standard training goals and the terms are acceptable.”

“I will put every effort into it.” She bowed then Kythera whizzed away.

Zagreus felt like he had been chewed up and shit out by a knarklaw. “I hate that fucking golem.” He mumbled from his immovable spot on the ground.

“I warned you, but you did not comply. The Anateri Baltoris programs were all created by Cinder. She is, overly sensitive, to any negative treatment of them.” Lilithana leaned over him and use a metal block to project a faintly pink field of energy across him.

“I hate that crazy bitch too.”

“You only broke five ribs and seven bones your limbs. There is a little internal bleeding, a skull fracture, some brain swelling, you did better than expected.” She sounded almost cheerful.

“I hate you. Just kill me now.”

“You have to live. You are going to save this world.”

“I hate everyone. This world can die.”

She stuck his arm with something then everything faded to black.