25. TWENTY-THREE

twenty-three

Before she could second guess herself, Kira spun and raced toward the one circle nearby that was guaranteed to have a slot remaining.

The circle she chose contained a solitary figure. The wanderer. A person who might very well be her enemy.

Electricity built in the air. Along with the knowledge that if she wasn’t somewhere safe when it burst, she would be in for a world of pain.

Maybe that was why those Tuann who’d been intent on attacking their fellow initiates were now scrambling for the remaining slots in the circles.

A time limit was approaching. One everyone could feel—even if they didn’t know when that limit would arrive.

“You couldn’t have made this easy on yourself, could you?” Jin snarled as Kira sprinted toward the circle she’d targeted.

“Why don’t we leave off on questioning my judgment for the moment and worry about my impulsiveness later,” Kira grumbled.

Like when she wasn’t trying to attempt the impossible.

She dodged several traps her senses told her were waiting below the sand, along with a chunk of stone the fierot hurled at her.

“Do you have a plan to get inside?” Jin asked, unable to disguise the worry in his voice.

Even for Kira, this was a bad idea.

Changing the fundamental rules of a competition like this simply because you willed it was impossible.

Despite that, she couldn’t force herself to divert to another course.

Something compelled her forward.

Kira was curious enough not to resist—for the moment.

“I’m working on it,” Kira said as she arrived at the perimeter of the safe zone.

She touched the wall of the circle, an invisible force preventing her hand from pushing through by so much as a centimeter.

“You’d better work fast. There’s thirty more seconds before this symbol changes over, and I don’t think we want to be standing on the outside when that happens.”

Kira squinted up at the tendrils of nearly invisible ki she could see feeding into each of the circles, not letting Jin’s words bother her.

There were two ways she could see this going.

The first was to use brute force to force her way inside.

While such a method was impossible for most, Kira sensed she could do it.

There were several reasons she preferred to avoid that option. One—because it would show too much of what she was capable of.

The most pressing reason, however, was that everything inside her was telling her this wasn’t the end of the adva ka.

It couldn’t be.

Everything they’d done to this point was far too easy for a rite of passage that instilled trepidation into anyone considering an attempt.

There had to be something more. Which meant she needed to conserve her strength and not waste it unnecessarily.

That left finding a way inside that didn’t require her to tap too deeply into the well of massive soul’s breath waiting at her center.

“Fifteen seconds,” Jin’s emotionless voice came as his training kicked in. “Ten.”

Under Kira’s palm, the resistance in the outer wall of the circle abated.

Just slightly.

Sensitive to the change, Kira pushed forward, her hand sinking in about a centimeter.

Thinking of something, Kira twisted to take in the tendrils of ki.

Wasn’t that interesting?

There was a slight flux in the amount being fed to each circle. Particularly the circle she stood in front of where the discrepancy was the highest.

If she was reading the pattern right, that meant this circle’s barrier would be vulnerable for the smallest of windows.

“Count it down,” Kira instructed, turning back to the circle with renewed determination.

Jin’s tinny voice sounded through their comms, noting the seconds as Kira set her other hand on the wall and braced.

“Four.”

Kira gathered herself, sending tiny amounts of her soul’s breath to reinforce her muscles.

“Three.”

She took a deep breath. She could do this.

“Two.”

Kira surged forward, her mind shouting “now” at the same time Jin reached “one”.

The barrier resisted, a flood trying to eject her from its boundary. It was like trying to step into a wall of rushing water.

Stubborn, Kira dug in, the legs of her muscles straining to allow her to maintain her footing.

That’s it. Just a little more.

As if sensing her thoughts, the resistance from the circle increased.

It was like confronting a water hose on full blast, the pressure threatening to rip the surface of her skin away.

Kira reacted instinctively, sharpening her soul’s breath into a blade before her. It cut through the influx of external ki, forcing it to pass to either side of her.

Even then, it took a monumental amount of will to take that first step forward.

The seconds that passed seemed endless as Kira forced her way forward inch by slow inch.

To bystanders the time would have seemed like no more than a blink of an eye, but to Kira it felt like days.

Finally, her hand encountered no resistance as she stumbled through the final layers of the barrier.

The wanderer looked over at her, their expression still hidden in the shadows the hood of their cloak cast.

Kira didn’t say anything to the stranger as she straightened, taking stock.

She’d been arrogant before. There was no way she could have brute forced her way through that.

“Jin, how are you doing?” Kira asked in a low voice.

She hadn’t been the only person to pass through that barrier. Jin was able to feel ki. Though not with the same sensitivity as Kira.

Before he could answer, a tone sounded in the arena. A finality to the note as the symbol controlling the circles exploded.

Fire shot out in all directions, a curving rope that wound and twisted its way through the maze as it hunted those who hadn’t reached safety yet. Screams echoed as the slow pokes were caught in its blaze.

Several figures broke from the walls of the maze, fleeing toward whatever circle was closest.

Some were lucky, reaching one and forcing their way inside.

Without the symbol controlling the barriers, all circles were open.

A Tuann hit the side of the zone she stood in, trying to break through. Unsuccessfully as a rope of fire speared him through the torso.

An agonized scream ripped from his throat as the fire consumed him.

“To answer your question, I’m really glad we’re not out there,” Jin said in a grave voice.

Kira hummed an agreement, reaching over to touch the lu-ong around her wrist. Its weight was comforting in the face of the chilling sight of the fire hunting the initiates.

Though they would survive being burned alive, they would come out of the experience having learned a cruel lesson.

It was one Kira was grateful to avoid. Although she would have been unharmed if she’d been caught and burned—physically at least—the same might not be said of Jin.

She didn’t know whether the fire would have been capable of destroying the mini spawn.

Although Jin and his spawn were two separate entities, the mini spawn contained enough of Jin’s essence that Kira feared what would have happened had she failed to enter the safe zone.

“This looks like it could take a moment,” Jin said after a drawn-out silence. “How about you get some rest while we wait for what’s next?”

The military had a saying. “Never run when you can walk. Never walk when you can stand. Never stand when you can sit.”

The purpose behind the mantra was simple. Don’t waste energy.

When a break was offered to you, take it. You never knew when you would get another one—if you got another one.

It was advice Kira decided to heed as she took a seat on the ground, her eyes closing as she leaned against the barrier and let herself sink into a meditative state.

A short time passed before Graydon’s voice once again echoed throughout the arena.

“You have survived the gauntlet of your peers and chosen your path whether by luck or other interference. Now, it is time to demonstrate the skills imparted to you by your House. Fight wisely. You never know when the next one will come.”

The barriers dropped, the flame serpent retreating to where the symbol had been. It coiled into a flickering ball of fire. An artificial sun blazing against the shadows of the ceiling.

Everything outside of the safe zones had been swept clean. The maze and drones gone. Along with the fierot.

A platform formed under Kira’s feet. Matte black, it was a perfect square of ten feet by ten feet. She tapped on it with one toe, finding the surface solid and stable.

“You made the right call breaking with the others,” Jin whispered as similar platforms formed in each of the circles.

He wasn’t wrong. The circle Raider and the rest had targeted was made up of six individuals. Had Kira remained, it would have meant one of their party would face elimination.

Four people. Three slots.

It wasn’t hard to do the math.

Because she’d chosen a different route, they’d escaped that fate.

“This test is vicious,” Jin said.

Kira found herself in agreement.

To pass the survival phase, many of the initiates had chosen to work together. Now the Tuann were telling them they had to fight their previous allies.

She couldn’t help but wonder what the lesson was in all this.

Possibly that today’s friend could be tomorrow’s foe?

She had no idea.

Nor did she have time to ponder further as the wanderer stood in a smooth movement that contained a predator’s grace. He prowled toward the center of their platform where he spun to face in Kira’s direction.

“Someone’s eager,” Jin observed.

Kira didn’t move, taking the time to study him.

To make it this far, she was betting he wouldn’t be an easy opponent. Particularly given the difficulty level contained in breaching the circle’s barrier.

“Be careful. He looks like a scrapper,” Jin said.

The wanderer reached over his shoulder to clasp the hilt of the broad sword he wore on his back.

Kira’s face soured as he withdrew a blade that resembled a claymore sword that was longer than her arm and thicker too. Edged on two sides, it was meant to be wielded with two hands and featured a heavy build.

Parrying it would be hell.

Still, all wasn’t lost. That heaviness and size would sap its owner’s strength far faster than her lighter blade while also making him slower.

Kira could work with that.

She drew her blade, holding it loosely at her side.

The wanderer’s gaze dropped to her sword. “You’re not going to take your stance?” His hand tightened around the hilt of the claymore. “Are you looking down on me?”

At her silence, there was a shift in him—almost as if her lack of response was seen as an insult.

“I see. Then allow me to make the first move.”

The wanderer closed the distance, appearing before her in an instant.

He was fast. Much faster than he should have been capable of with a sword of that size and weight.

Kira evaded by a thin margin, the wind of the claymore’s passage ruffling her hair.

Close. Way closer than she’d planned.

Kira recovered her balance, watching the other with a newfound respect.

He was talented. Very talented.

How did someone like him end up as a wanderer?

Already he was shifting his weight, preparing for a sideways slice.

Kira faded out of reach, surprised when he moved with her. He was relentless as he pursued her across the floor. His movements containing a faint air of familiarity the longer they fought.

Kira’s foot touched the edge of the platform. Victory showed in his face as he sliced his sword downward.

The screech of metal reverberated throughout the arena.

Kira blocked, her teeth gritting as her arms shook from the effort.

The man hit like a tank.

Kira’s arms threatened to buckle as she sank all her strength into one upward heave, sidestepping as she let her guard fall.

His blade whispered past her body, slamming into the floor and cracking the platform.

Kira would have attacked, but in the instant that she shifted to do so he had already recovered.

“You’re good,” Kira told him.

“You’re not trying.”

Kira rolled her shoulders, wincing as she moved her arm. Her biceps protested.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Kira said.

Now that they’d exchanged a few blows, Kira had a better grasp of his style.

Strength wise, she wasn’t his match.

Good thing duels were about more than how strong you were.

Still, there was something bugging her about the way he fought. It was in his movements and the beauty of his slices.

“Do I know you?” Kira asked.

It was a stupid question. What kind of idiot would admit that when they’d been so careful to hide the majority of his face behind the hood he still wore?

She could see enough of his jaw to know he was male. There was something weird about the shadows his hood was casting, veiling everything above his mouth except the intermittent glimpses she caught of his hazel eyes. It was enough to make her think there was some type of technology or ki preventing her from getting a really good look at his features.

Despite that, she couldn’t shake this sense of recognition. Not so much of him but of his technique. Like she may have known the one who taught him.

“Mind games won’t work on me,” he informed her.

“We’ll see.”

She hadn’t attempted any of those on him, but that could change.

“I was wrong before. You aren’t looking down on me,” he said unexpectedly.

He reset his stance, raising the sword in front of him.

“I’ll get serious now.”

Wait. He wasn’t serious before?

Kira danced out of the way as his sword sliced into the spot she’d just been. They swept back and forth across the small square as he attempted to corner her.

Each time, she escaped. Her goal: to make this bout last as long as possible.

To her surprise, he didn’t lose his calm. Not even when the minutes ticked passed and their duel became one of the longest lasting.

The world faded as she moved faster, her movements getting sharper with every second. Her muscles screamed and her breath shortened but she never faltered.

The phoenix always rose. Even if she had to burn in her own fire.

Shouts from the platform next to them distracted Kira for a brief instant. Her focus fractured as she darted a glance toward the rest to find Joule desperately maintaining his shield as his opponent hammered against it with everything he had.

“Where are you looking?” the wanderer snarled, sinking everything into his downward swing.

A blaze of lightning slashed across Kira’s shoulder and upper chest before lodging where her lungs were.

The wanderer dipped his face toward hers. “A warrior such as you should know better than to get distracted on the battlefield.”

It took two tries to get her voice to work.

“And you should beware of traps.”

His gaze followed hers to where her hand was located against his stomach. The blade of her sword piercing his abdomen at an upward angle and exiting out of his back.

Kira coughed, her lungs trying to fill up with nonexistent blood as her body insisted it had suffered a mortal wound.

“The sensory feedback in this place is no joke,” Kira gasped.

It was difficult—especially when both her mind and body experienced sensations that were all too real.

Kira had been close to the brink a time or two. She’d be a fool not to recognize the slow creep of death stealing over her.

“Kira, your vitals are all over the place.” Jin sounded panicked as his mini spawn shifted on her wrist.

“A little death. No big deal.”

Kira twisted her blade in the wanderer, making sure the wound she’d dealt was as fatal as the one he’d given her.

The last of her strength expended, she didn’t try to stop him as he stumbled backward.

The shock on his face made her grin.

“Mutual destruction. Fitting, wouldn’t you say?”

Kira’s vision wavered, her body trying its damnedest to shut down. Her mind attempted to follow.

Kira refused to allow it.

In real life, she would have had little choice but to yield. Determination and will took you only so far. Eventually, reality caught up.

An illusion, no matter how realistic, was different. The same incontrovertible rules did not apply.

The wanderer pressed a hand against the spot where her blade had penetrated, his expression still a little stunned.

Not expecting that, was he?

Ah, well, Kira didn’t like to be predictable.

Distantly, she became aware of the hush that was slowly falling over the arena as her platform became the center of attention.

Tuann whispered to each other, their eyes on Kira and the wanderer.

“Why haven’t we been booted yet? We both failed.” The wanderer’s hand dropped from his side as he stared up at their audience.

“It’s not just what is said that is important. It’s what they’re not saying that really matters,” Kira replied in a distracted voice as she looked up at Roake’s box.

An outsider would never be able to see the worry and tension on her uncle’s face.

Kira did, though. Or at least thought she did.

It was hard to see but she thought she caught a glimpse of apprehension on those austere features.

The problem was she couldn’t tell what about the situation had unsettled Harlow.

“What does that mean?” the wanderer asked.

Kira finally looked at him. “Graydon said it before. ‘Demonstrate your skills.’ He didn’t say anything about winning.”

It was a gamble, but Kira had been right in her assessment of the situation.

Graydon was a clever man. For him to leave such a big loophole in his words had to mean something.

Turns out she was right.

Not that she’d ever had any real doubts.

“I can’t tell if you care about passing the adva ka or not,“ the wanderer said with a thoughtful stare like he was looking at a puzzle he wished to solve.

Good luck with that. People had been trying for years and never succeeded in deciphering the riddle that was Kira Forrest.

“Don’t expect something you can’t give yourself.” Kira looked over her shoulder as the rumble of rock sliding against rock filled the air.

A doorway appeared directly across from their platform, the cavernous opening beckoning.

Kira took a look at some of the other circles, noting that the numbers inside the arena had been drastically reduced. It wasn’t until she saw one of the initiates win their bout and then disappear into their own door that she understood why.

“I suppose that’s our next stop,” Kira said softly as she made her way slowly toward the door.

“What did you mean before?” the wanderer asked, dogging her steps. “About not expecting something I can’t give?”

Kira didn’t answer immediately, shooting a look at the platform Raider and the rest had chosen.

Devon was absent. Joule too.

Kira didn’t know if that meant they’d been eliminated or gone through their door.

Raider still fought, happily hammering a fist into the nose of his opponent. At this point, Raider was just toying with the other. The duel already over.

“If I asked you why you’re in the adva ka when the Tuann are not welcoming of your kind, would you tell me?”

Kira didn’t have to see the other man’s expression to know the answer was a big fat no. His silence spoke volumes.

Kira stopped on the threshold of the door as an icy breeze swept out of the tunnel. It carried a warning against trespassing further.

How amusing. First, the Mea’Ave disrupted her plans by pulling her in this direction. Now, it tried to push her away.

It was as mercurial as a toddler.

Kira started forward, not letting herself be bothered by the change.

It was already too late to turn back. It was doubtful the Tuann would allow her to use one of the other doors even if she had the mind to listen to the warning.

“If I am willing to part with that information, would you tell me?” the wanderer asked from behind Kira.

She paused. Would she?

“Nope.” Kira stepped into the mouth of the tunnel. “That’s another thing you have to learn. People don’t always reciprocate.”

It was a cold fact, but there were those in this world who would suck you dry and then say it was your fault when you ended up broken.

It only took a three-year coma and the loss of everything she cared about to learn that lesson.

She hoped the wanderer was smarter than her.

Darkness wrapped around Kira, the light fading as she trudged forward until finally it disappeared altogether.

For a moment, Kira got the sense that she was in a cave. The blackness containing the absoluteness that came only with the complete absence of any form of light.

Kira didn’t mind darkness, not even when all sound disappeared, leaving behind nothing but an echoing silence that rang in her ears.

It was an odd sensation, moving forward without sight or hearing. Almost like being stuck in a sensory deprivation chamber.

It was disorienting to say the least.

Time held little meaning. Kira had no way of knowing how long she’d been walking, but she was thinking it was more than long enough to have reached her destination.

She could only attribute the experience to another illusion.

Or maybe it was reality, and she really was stuck in a cave of some sort, winding her way deeper and deeper underground.

That was a chilling thought. One she was glad she hadn’t voiced as the lu-ong avatar shifted uneasily on her wrist.

Jin did not like being underground. For any reason.

He had no problem being stuck in a giant metal can hurtling through space but stick him in even the shallowest of caves and he’d melt down in the most epic of fashions.

“How much further?” he whined.

“It’ll take longer the more you ask that question.”

This place was strange.

Kira couldn’t shake the impression that any reaction to their surroundings would end in a lengthier and more rigorous test.

“You always say that,” Jin complained.

“That doesn’t mean I’m not right.”

Jin grumbled to himself but settled down.

An undetermined length of time later, Kira finally sensed a change in their surroundings as the smell of water reached her. It carried with it the scent of dirt and growing things. Neither of which belonged in a cave-like environment.

Light pierced the veil of black.

Kira squinted, resisting the urge to raise one hand to protect her eyes as she found herself on the edge of an immense room like that of the ancient cathedrals.

Only on a much greater scale than those human masterpieces.

Intricate columns held up a ceiling covered in complicated mosaics and beautiful paintings. Sculptures decorated the entrance of each tunnel, featuring long dead heroes whose names were likely still remembered.

It was the emotion on each statue’s face that stuck with Kira. The anger and determination as they battled invisible enemies.

One guess as to the identity of those enemies.

The Tuann were nothing if not tenacious in the way they clung to the story surrounding their origins. It was a species-wide trauma that fed into every aspect of their society.

Of course, the adva ka would feature heroes from that time period.

What did Kira want to bet that a big part of the purpose of this rite could be directly traced back to that era?

It made the familiar cast in the features of one particular statue all the more intriguing.

She recognized the line of the person’s nose. The angle of their jaw.

She saw those same features in the mirror every day.

This was her ancestor. Likely one of the early Overlords of House Roake. If not the first.

As Kira moved deeper into the room, she was a little surprised to find the crowd waiting for her much larger than she had expected. Several of the initiates milled around, looking confused as Tuann trickled out of the tunnels surrounding the perimeter the room.

Kira paused on the faces of a few initiates she’d personally eliminated.

Huh.

It seemed that being evicted from the arena after receiving a mortal blow wasn’t the fail that she’d assumed. Judging by the number of bodies waiting, not a single initiate was missing. Every person who’d been transported to the arena had made it to this point.

Fascinating. And not the outcome Kira had expected.

It seemed the rite of passage wasn’t as straightforward as it appeared. Why did Kira find events so much more interesting because of that?

While Kira was pondering, Solal, Amila, and Baran appeared from the shadows like ghosts. Faint distortions rippled around the room’s perimeter, leading Kira to suspect they had quite the audience watching from the sidelines.

The knowledge made her a little more cautious as she joined the rest, unsurprised to see Alexander and Selene already present.

They were part of the forty-three, after all. Children who’d been pushed to the brink and had no choice but to succeed.

It would be strange if something as minor as this gave them trouble.

Besides them, the woman from Asanth stood a little apart, watching the rest with a bored expression similar to Auralyn’s.

Renata and Notus were in their own pocket of space as they whispered among themselves and to those initiates surrounding them.

A ripple went through the crowd as the wanderer stepped out of the same tunnel she’d arrived from.

He took in the gathering for half a second before finding a column to lean against, crossing his arms as he watched the rest of them as carefully as they were surveying him.

“The Tuann haven’t changed,” Alexander said, coming up beside Kira. She didn’t jolt, having already sensed his presence.

“They are as suspicious and closed minded to outsiders as ever. I don’t know if that man is brave or foolish for attempting to rejoin them,” Alexander continued.

“Maybe he’s a little of both.”

Or maybe he had a goal that he could only accomplish by being here.

“Have the forty-three ever dealt with the wanderers?”

Kira couldn’t help her curiosity. It was obvious the wanderer was skilled. Far more so than most of the initiates. There was also the fact his technique was eerily familiar.

What drove a man like him to a place like this? Especially when he knew the Tuann wouldn’t welcome him with open arms no matter how well he performed.

Someone like that could go anywhere. Both the Consortium and the Haldeel would make a place for him.

Why choose the one group who would do their best to push him away?

“Some of us. Yes.”

That was helpful. Not.

“Anything of note to share?”

Alexander narrowed his eyes at Kira. “Why are you asking me this?”

“Just curious.”

Her answer made him pause. “You’ve noticed something.”

Kira sighed. Of course, that would be where his mind went.

“Don’t overthink. Sometimes curiosity is simply that.”

Alexander peered at her with an assessing expression as if he was trying to peel back her layers to see what was inside her mind. “Not when you’re involved.”

“Answer or don’t,” Kira said, losing patience.

Everything always had to be difficult with him.

“They are lawless.”

Kira blinked in surprise both at the description and the fact that he’d deigned to answer when she thought he wouldn’t.

Moreover, his choice of words was an interesting one. The term “lawless” didn’t necessarily mean something bad.

There were many areas in Consortium space where the law of humans didn’t reach. One of the things she’d learned over the years was that a place without law didn’t always lack justice.

There were many faces to justice, and it was up to those frontiers to determine what that looked like.

In Kira’s opinion, they did a better job than the Consortium sometimes.

“You are as unhelpful as ever,” Kira told him.

She’d hoped for more. Something that might give her insight into the other.

Alexander smirked as he patted Kira on the shoulder. “Maybe if you’d taken my advice about keeping a low profile that would have changed.”