A choice makes not a leader,

But a fool, expanding influence.

A true leader’s heart,

Bears naught but hesitance.

 

An early morning’s dew dripped from a young oak’s leaves. Grasshoppers made loud cricketing sounds from the depths of nearby bushes, and birds chirped from atop the older trees in the dorm gardens. Many other sounds of nature met Tullian’s ears as he rhythmically squatted. Tullian truly enjoyed his morning exercises in the dorm gardens. They often reminded him of his home, back in the Great Plains.

“Hey! Tullian! Good morning!”

Tullian paused his squats to turn around and look for the source of the voice. His eyes landed upon Amy.

In the cold hours of the morning, sweat drifted into visible steam from her forehead as she ran over to Tullian.

Upon reaching him, Amy let out an exasperated sigh. She was breathing heavily.

She must have been running... “Morning! Did you have a good run?”

“Yeah! I love the dorm gardens, they’re so pretty, which makes running really fun! They’re beautiful, and smell great...” She paused for a moment to take in a deep breath.

“Whew. That feels good. The air here is much nicer than in the city!”

Tullian held eye contact with Amy’s mismatched eyes. Since the Technique Evaluation on the previous day, he’d begun to see just how pretty Amy actually was.

“Haha. I like it too. These gardens remind me a lot of home.”

Amy locked her arms behind her back and stepped forward a touch. She tilted her head at Tullian.

“Tell me about your home. What was it like, compared to Aurum?”

Tullian gestured at a nearby bench, so the two of them went and sat there together. He grabbed a towel that he’d left there when he started his exercises, and wiped the sweat off of his forehead.

“Aurum’s a lot louder, that’s for sure.” Tullian said.

Amy giggled.

“But... I do miss it. It felt a lot like a big family, my village. We’d hunt together, eat together, sleep together. All of us are as close as can be.”

“... It sounds nice. Do you have any siblings?”

“Oh! Lots! We’re all adopted and part of the same creed! So all of my friends from home are like my brothers and sisters!”

Amy smiled as she watched Tullian get excited about his family. She loved seeing him smile.

“What about you Amy? You have Lina, and Maya from your home, but what was it like living there?”

“Well... we spent a lot of time with our parents. Me and Lina lived in a small town towards the edge of the Isle of Chimes, and we knew everyone there. It was like a big community where everyone knew everyone. The whole town was our playground, haha! Running around, playing hide and seek, being with our friends everyday... we had a lot of fun!”

Tullian noticed the shift in Amy’s tone towards the end.

“Was there any trouble? I know that for us, there was always something annoying that we had to deal with.”

“Yeah... there always is. Everyone’s got problems, but luckily for me and Lina, we didn’t have many problems with our family. It was just the town itself. The Songstress would come to our town a lot and recruit people into her personal faction. They couldn’t refuse either. Many of them never came back to us, and stayed with her...

Mum and dad stopped us from going out much after that started happening. They didn’t want us to get taken away. That’s why we’re here, really. They sent us here to avoid her, but they never told us why it was so much of a big deal that we had to move to an entirely different region.”

Tullian digested Amy’s words. She’s always so bubbly and fun and energetic but... she doesn’t seem all that happy... This stuff with the Songstress must’ve been really hard on them both.

“I’m sorry that you had to go through that.”

“Nah, it’s fine! I got to meet you, Rai, Sindyl, and see Maya again! I’m sure Lina is the same... she’s definitely happy to see Maya again hahaha!”

“I’m not sure what you mean?”

Amy stared at him, deadpan, “Just-... Phew. Yeah, I really have a lot to teach you.”

Tullian returned her stare with nothing but a confused expression.

Before either of them could say another word, Lina ran at them.

“You two! We’re gonna be late! Hurry up!!”

Trip.

SMASH!

“Oof!” Tullian groaned.

Tullian pried Lina’s clumsy body off of him and got up.

“Lina... look at the sky... we’ve got a while til we have to be there.”

Amy covered her mouth as she laughed to herself.

Lina broke out of her panic and looked up.

Zenith’s twin suns were only just revealing themselves. It was still relatively early in the morning.

Lina looked back at Tullian blankly.

“Oops. I guess... I woke up early...” She offered him an awkward smile.

Amy grabbed her sister and pulled her along with her, back to the dorms.

“No problem. We’ll get ready now and go a bit early to see Rai and Sindyl before the tournament.” Amy said.

Lina was grateful for her sister’s save. She breathed a sigh of relief.

Tullian called out to them.

“Meet outside in an hour?”

“Yep!” Amy replied.

The three of them returned to their dorms. They showered, quickly ate breakfast, and then met outside.

None of them were really ready to go to the red light district. If at all possible, Amy and Lina would’ve liked to avoid going there altogether. Tullian had almost no view on it at all. In fact, he liked seeing good looking people, and the last time that they all went there together he’d gotten to see a lot of funky outfits that he enjoyed.

After a little while, they met back outside the front of the dorms.

The three of them set off together.

 

---

 

Huh... was it always like this?

Tullian had no idea what he was looking at.

They’d arrived at the Secret early, and got ushered in by the same guard as last time. Instead of waiting in the VIP reception area like normal, they were taken directly into the lift and down to the training area.

But... the training ground was completely destroyed. How are we gonna have a tournament here?

Ding.

The lift door opened again behind them.

“Hello there.”

Tullian, Amy, and Lina all turned around.

They beheld the red-headed middle-aged looking man. His powerful blood-red eyes stared into each of their eyes.

Kallad smirked.

“Glad you could all make it so early. However, given that it is somewhat early, Rai and Sin are still getting ready. The most company I can offer right now is my own.”

Kallad went to greet his guests.

Tullian was glad to see the Deceiver once again. He walked over and shook Kallad’s hand.

“It’s wonderful to see you again sir!”

“The same goes for you Tullian!”

“Where’s the tournament going to take place sir? The training ground looks... a little...”

“Yeah it’s uh... under maintenance.” Kallad shot Tullian a blatantly fake smile.

Amy and Lina didn’t quite know what to do in Kallad’s presence. He was an Aspect, and their only experience with Aspects was with the Songstress in their home town. Even then, they’d never directly interacted with her until the Evaluation. They were lucky that she didn’t realise they were a part of her clan, like their parents were so worried about. They’d heard enough stories about other Aspects to know that they weren’t to be so easily trusted.

Kallad noticed their apprehension at his presence. As a gatherer of information, he’d learned to pick up on small things about one’s mannerisms that gave things like that away. For now, he couldn’t do anything about it.

“As for the other part of your question... You will go to the Underworld. The tournament will take place there.”

“...”

“...”

They all stared at him with blank faces.

Tullian wanted to speak, but his ability to speak seemingly escaped him.

Amy only managed to whisper out her response.

“Are you... serious?”

“Deadly... serious... okay I added the ‘serious’ because the ‘deadly’ didn’t make much sense on its own and now it just sounds weird and... forget it. I’m serious.”

The three of them were speechless.

Kallad walked by them and set up an arcane circle on the ground.

“For one time only, the Underworld is accepting guests from the rest of Zenith. However, it’s in a limited capacity. In other words, you are to speak to no one about this. If you do... then hope to the Creator that you’re fast enough to evade me.”

They didn’t respond.

“Do you understand? All of you?”

The three of them jumped. They nodded profusely and voiced their understanding.

“Good.”

Ding.

Rai and Sin came through the lift doors, followed by Maya, Hiron, and Feris.

Hiron looked into the room and couldn’t believe his eyes.

The whole place was destroyed.

“How are we supposed to do a tournament here?!” A more pressing matter reminded him of itself, “Hell, I don’t even want to be a part of this, so why did I have to come?!”

Kallad stared at the boy.

Hiron flinched slightly.

“... Call it a favour. One that I do not undertake lightly, boy.”

Hiron audibly gulped.

Kallad was still an Aspect, regardless of his demeanour. Hiron had to learn to respect him just as much as his own father.

Feris walked into the room and looked around at the mess and destruction.

“We’re not gonna fight here though, are we? What kinda idiot wrecks their own training area?”

Rai and Sin felt slightly embarrassed at Feris’s words.

Kallad pointed a finger at his own face.

“Are you talking to me?”

“Yeah, who else would I be talking to, HUH?!” He sounded like a bandit, trying to pick a fight with an Aspect of all things.

The others went silent. Many of them clenched a number of their respective cheeks. Feris was clearly disrespecting the Deceiver. At least the rest of them knew that disrespecting an Aspect was a sure-fire way to get your ass beat.

Kallad subverted their expectations by simply sighing. He just sounded disappointed. But... he ended up doing a number of things in order that made very little sense to them. At the snap of a finger, a magnet appeared in his hand. To the others, however, it simply looked like a big block of metal. He walked over to the wall beside the lift and stuck the magnet to it.

Everyone was confused.

Kallad gestured for Feris to walk over to him.

Feris cautiously made his way over. He was crazy, but not crazy enough to defy an Aspect.

Kallad pushed a hidden button on the magnet.

Feris’s face slammed into the magnet on the wall. He tried to pry himself away from it, but his piercings kept him stuck there.

“Hey! Get me off this thing!!” Feris yelled out to no avail.

Kallad ignored him and returned to the rest of the group. He explained what he needed to while Feris flailed about.

“Right. Now that that’s dealt with, let me explain again.” He took a breath, “To reiterate for the newcomers, we’re heading to the Underworld. Not for a trip or for exploration, but to where you’re all going to meet your tournament hosts. Also, you’ll do best if you don’t consider this a traditional tournament.” He looked at Sin wish a knowing expression.

Sin returned it. She understood what Kallad was trying to tell her.

Kallad called forth the portal.

A swirl of red and black mana formed from the arcane circle on the ground.

“I’ll see you all on the other side.” Kallad smirked at them all before walking through the portal. Feris was set free upon Kallad travelling through. He was rather furious, but clearly this wasn’t the time to kick up a fuss. After all, he was the one who disrespected Kallad first.

The others repressed their surprise at this whole situation, and their fortune at being able to go to the Underworld, and followed Kallad into the portal.

The ‘untraditional tournament’ was about to begin.

After they’d seen the setting, the Archaeology Society agreed with Kallad’s previous words.

This was most definitely untraditional.