“No one shall die here!”

Elwin stretched his right arm across his friends, all the fifteen Fradihta, even Lucian.

“I refuse to believe it. And if what Professor Thales said is true, I refuse to allow it. No one shall be sacrificed or meet a hideous, unknown death here against him. To Narak with cleaving the unworthy! No one gets to decide our fate except ourselves!”

His kismets looked to him. Dread was upon their faces. Isaac was trembling in his boots, all his armor rippling with waves, about to retch even though there was no breakfast in his stomach this time.

“No... not again, not this again...” he repeated, over and over, the terrible memory of his disastrous struggle against Ursus sizzling into his mind. Though he was capable of command and leadership, his courage shined the most when he wasn’t in the midst of battle and had his friends to defend him from the prospect of death. Now his life and death and survival would come down to himself: this was a living nightmare for Isaac.

“Surely he must be joking, right? Robert?” said Daphne, nudging him on the shoulder.

“I don’t think so,” Robert replied, his face pale. “Everything he said makes sense. Why we were brought down here... why everyone waited outside, how Maximus could be so powerful even though he was only in his second year of study... why we had these sacks upon our backs,” he continued, throwing his bags into a pillar, “to make us think that all we had to do was explore!” He squeezed his sleeves in his fist, trembling with indignation.

“Perhaps it’s a test, after all, not a real duel to the death,” cajoled Claudia, “to see whether we’d be selfish to save our own skin while he pummels all of us, and those who are the most courageous to protect their friends wins.”

“Yeah, Professor Thales is full of persuasion, isn’t he?” added Daphne, consoling the others.

“I don’t think so,” Mirai replied, her countenance grim. “Though he’s told us many tales, a liar or a cheat isn’t what I made of him. I’m usually correct.”

“The Trial of Instinct worries me,” commented Lucian, speaking in raspy breaths, “because he was fully ready to weed us out like that the last time. In addition,” he coughed, blood trickling from his lips, “he was the Chief Director at the Ministry of Order.”

A chill went down their spines. They all knew what the Order once did and could do. A brief vision of Toto and the officer with his strong cologne hit the back of Elwin’s head, as if someone had taken a bat and swung it into his skull. Elwin reeled for a moment.

“Daphne,” continued Mirai, “do you remember the tale of the skycrafts that Professor Thales mentioned during the first week?”

“Yeah...?”

“Wasn’t that the tale of how people only looked at the skycrafts that survived, and not the ones that didn’t make it?”

“Yeah....”

“How we only looked at Maximus and the champions, and not considered for a moment what last year’s challenges would have been...”

“...”

“Why no upperclassman would tell us when we asked. Why their expressions were so solemn when we headed down into this city – they were forbidden to tell us what would happen!”

Daphne clutched her head and began to wail, and others followed in suit. They couldn’t believe it – all the clues, all the evidence as to what was to come was plainly written in stone, and they hadn’t seen it! Now twelve of them had to die, and only four could survive –

And without saying, the prospect naturally divided everyone but Elwin’s kismets into squabbling parties, all bent upon their own, selfish survival. It was the most logical thing to do; it was how civilization functioned once the future could no longer be guaranteed.

“I’M GOING TO GET OUT ALIVE! THE REST OF YOU, THE REST OF YOU... BE MY CANNON FODDER!”

“WHO ARE YOU TO SAY THAT? WHEN HAVE YOU EVER CONTRIBUTED ANYTHING TO AETERNITAS?”

“LET LUCIAN DIE! HE TRIED TO MURDER ONE OF OUR OWN ANYHOW! HE’S NOT WORTHY!”

The fact that the challenge provided an avenue of opportunity for some to live compelled them to insanity; if they were all to die, there would have been immediate consensus to fight together until their last breath like cornered mice. Perhaps their division is what the professor wanted.

Unable to make an adequate solution, they opted for the next reasonable course of action: drawing lots on who to live, and who to die.

With panic in their heads they hurriedly drew out a bundle of hay straws from the punctured hole of their sacks, and cupped it. They all began yelling to make the pick until –

With a woosh and a deafening roar, the straws ignited in a wreath of fire, and burned to ash, peppering the ground.

Elwin parted them all, facing them with fury, his kismets behind him, rallying the dregs of his strength to stand against the poison, against his throbbing and stinging wound, to stand against death.

“All of you, how disgraceful! Now that we’re facing death, you are willing to throw aside all of your humanity, and all that we hold dear and true, to pick an anemic living off haystraws?”

“What happened to your will to fight, your courage, all the mettle you’ve shown in battle thus far? Is this who my opponents were to begin with? All of you – we were together as Celendirs in the first challenge, were we not? We beat back the Padishahs with a daring stratagem that united our hearts into one! In the second challenge, we braved the storms, the winds, the chants of twenty thousand souls, and emerged triumphant! You mean to tell me and yourselves that now, in this moment of truth, drawing lots is what you will do? Are we really Artens worthy of Consul Astinel, who watches over us this very moment, this very temple? Are we really Artens ready to defend our families, our Republics?”

Elwin pointed to the statue of the first Headmaster, his eyes on them.

“No, not in the last place on earth is drawing lots to be our course of action. We shall fight!”

He exclaimed, his kismets by his side.

“But you have seen what Professor Thales can do, Elwin!” Claudia lamented.

“And Maximus as well! If you recall,” added Cassius, “one hundred-and-sixty of us lunged at him at the same time. We could not lay a single finger on Maximus, recall that? Even Lucian could not! And even with all his skill, that was only enough to let Maximus survive, Elwin! Survive against Professor Thales!”

“Yeah, who are you to tell us what to do? If you want to fight Professor Thales and think you can come out unscathed, then go ahead! You alone forgo the straw!”

And so Cassius began to pull out his straws once again, until –

S M A C K !

Rafia in Robert’s squadra punched him squarely in the jaw, knocking him clean.

“I’m sorry to interject in this crude way,” she declared with a steady voice, “but I have seen Elwin battle against Ursus and prevail. For his actions, he has my trust. I, Rafia, will fight alongside Elwin.”

“And I will do too,” said the muscular boy with a hair of cream, standing by her side. He was the one person in Robert’s squadra whose name Elwin didn’t yet know.

“I, Marcus, will follow Elwin.”

“And I, too,” said Robert.

“Me as well,” added Daphne.

With 7 allies already on Elwin’s side, there was no more point in drawing lots. Everyone else had to follow him.

“We are but motes of sand, Elwin,” lamented Cassius. “We are but wisps against a storm! You are condemning all of us to injury and death when some could survive unscathed! Some deserve to live more than others! What can we do against such reckless fate?”

Lucian remained silent.

Elwin replied with force, blood sputtering from his mouth, mustering every ounce of effort to stay awake against the poison spreading through his flesh, the poison that called him to dreamless sleep. If anything, he would sacrifice himself to save everyone; he would cut off his own tail so his friends would survive.

“No, Cassius, that isn’t it. This is the moment – the most important moment out of all – to choose our own destiny! Though shadows and dust and mere wisps we may be, we shall still carve out a path as wind carves the desert rocks. We won’t ever let our life and death fall to chance!”

The once-divided teams began to murmur in agreement.

“No one shall die here, and I will make sure of it!”

 

And with his speech, every student whispered to each other in organized conversations in a circle, sparing what little time they had to draw up strategies, battle plans, tactics. They were going to make full use of their squadra compositions: the Torch Bearers would be at the direct line of contact with Professor Thales, the Tide Controllers would use their power over water to disrupt his Mashurmastra as much as they could, the Artillery Guardians would wear Professor Thales down with all the barrage of fire and suppression they could muster, and vaporize the water he pulled out of the subterranean canals before he could shape it into something more dangerous.

The Eagle Watchers would provide a constant stream of support back and forth the lines with their sonir, with special care given to the Torch Bearers, who would bear the brunt of the attack. Since basalt had too complex of a melody for most to wield with fluidity of motion, they opted to pool their frying pans and cooking pots into two types of implements, first flaying the sides to make sharp tips, to make them function as glaives that Mirai and others good at Gurunmastra could boomerang in combat against Professor Thales, and the other a flat metal buckler of interlocking sheets, good for defending against piercing and bladed ice attacks.

“We must successfully defend while trying to maim him, to reduce his capacity to attack,” Elwin pointed out, his head throbbing. He could feel his heartbeat in the wound of his shoulder.

“What do we do after that?”

“He said –” Elwin paused, taking in a deep breath, “he said paths have been blocked by Tenebriton. It will take time and effort to remove by hand. If that’s the case, then we can’t run after we’ve maimed him, for he’ll recover and chase after us for the kill.”

“Then the only option left is...” Daphne trailed off.

“For us to finish him.”

No one was comfortable with taking a life, especially one which they had recently believed to be an ally. But in a situation as dire as this, it was simply a matter of fact they had to confront.

“It’s either all sixteen of us live, or we all die. We shall fight to the very end, until we come out alive. Think not that you can escape and live alone by breaking rank and running away. There is no guarantee that he won’t come after those that do – in fact, he might go after them first.”

They all made an affirmed nod.

Elwin knew that the fewer they became in number, the more likely they were to lose all sense of cohesion – if there were only a few remaining, each would betray or abandon the others to be one of the four who could survive. In order for them to avoid oblivion, they had to defeat Professor Thales quickly without casualties.

When the discussion had ended and they were beginning to rewound their battle-uniforms, Mirai came to Elwin’s side, leaning in with a low whisper.

“Elwin, do you think the other professors were into this scheme?”

“What do you mean? Does it matter...” said Elwin, coughing up a stream of blood, “does it matter now what they think?”

“Let me rephrase the question,” she continued, furrowing her brows. “Do you think Professor Aionia, or Professor Irina, would have allowed for a challenge like this?”