Gem kept her eyes shut, though not too tightly, and concentrated on her breathing. Drawing a deep lungful of air in, then holding it for a moment before expelling it in a long stream over the span of ten heartbeats.

In, hold, then out. In, hold, then out.

It was a technique Karma had taught her shortly after their first meeting.

Your body and mind decide which state to be in based on your breathing.

She had said.

Therefore, if you wish to be calm and collected, make sure you keep it strictly under your control.

Gem thought it was good advice, certainly too good to have come from the then fifteen-year-old’s own mouth. And yet, though she dutifully worked her respiratory system as was necessary, she found her head remained far too cloudy for her clear thought.

It was not the tension of her upcoming fight, that had somehow lessened as it drew nearer. Nor, even, was it the cheers of the crowds, still audible from Gem’s place within the tunnel leading out into the stadium and reminding her of just how many people would watch any victory or failure she was about to bring her team. Instead, the single thought which plagued her mind was of Crow.

He couldn’t imagine what it was like in her shoes? Absurd, surely. Gem knew Selsis was the most backwater of villages, but the boy had inherited the Eye of Chronos. When they’d first met she’d been sure he was down-playing its effect on his life, but now… could he truly have simply grown up normally in spite of it?

Her internally focused questions were scrambled at the call of a strong, confident voice- Karma’s voice.

“HELLO BERMUDA, AND WELCOME TO THE FIRST TASK OF THE THIRD STAGE!

***

Crow felt a strange, itchy hotness wash over his back as he stood before the door.

It was the same feeling he’d gotten many times before, apprehension mixed with fear mixed with uncertainty. Seen through the lens of such a mindset, the smooth oak surface before him somehow seemed far more threatening.

After far too long waiting, he raised a hand and knocked. The moments which followed without an answer were some of the longest of his life. He could almost hear the waiting, malicious group of enemies on the other side giggle as their prey approached.

And then the door swung open, revealing the form of Ra- leaning one-armed against the frame and grinning easily at him.

“Ah Crow! Could your teammates not make it?”

Despite having prepared his lie beforehand, Crow still fumbled over his own tongue to get it out.

“No, sorry. They’re keeping one of us company while she rests.”

There was no small amount of truth behind what he said. The day before, Xeno had gone to the credit shop to purchase medicinal supplies. She was still attempting to cut down on moving as much as possible so as not to interfere with the tentative process of her bone being repaired, and Astra had remained by her side to keep her company.

“Ah that’s too bad. Well anyway, come on in!”

Ra stepped aside, allowing Crow to pass him and enter the apartment. A single look let him know that it was more or less identical to his own room, albeit with a slightly different decor which favoured the colour yellow. The furniture was of the same make and in the same location as Crow’s, with the notable difference of being occupied by a number of people.

On the arm-chair was a woman with extremely short hair and a face already bearing smile-lines, sat on the sofa were two men- one was pale-skinned with a flabby face and long hair, the other quite thin with the crimson-skinned complexion he recognised as belonging to an Oni. Much to his dismay, Crow noticed that, like most of the other contestants he’d met, each and every one of them was older than him by at least a year. All of them looked pleased to see him.

“Crow, I would like to introduce you to my team”, Ra said as he closed the door and approached them. “This is Timi,” he gestured to the girl, then to the chubbier of the boys, “Sia and Genro. Together with me, they make up the narcissistically named team Ra” His hand clapped down on the thin boy’s shoulder as he finished the introductions. “Everyone, this is Crow.”

The first of them to speak was Genro, who stared at Crow with such intensity he felt for just a moment that the boy might attack him.

“It’s nice to meet you Crow, but before we discuss anything else there’s one extremely important question we need you to answer.”

Crow felt his mouth immediately dry as he realised the others had begun staring at him with similar focus.

I should never have come.

“Ass or boobs?” The boy asked.

It took Crow several seconds to finish processing the question, and even once he had fully accepted that it had, in fact, what he’d been asked, the sheer shock had him sputtering. And yet not a single one of the people on Ra’s team, or even Ra himself, relaxed their stares even slightly. Finally he was able to force himself to speak.

“What?”

Desperately, he turned to Ra for some kind of explanation- only to be met with the same stony stare.

“Answer the question,” the other boy- Sia- demanded. In a panic, Crow blurted out a response.

“Uh, b-boobs?”

The change in atmosphere was extraordinary. The moment Crow’s answer left him, Sia practically leapt to his feet- fist pumping upwards into the air as his orange eyes widened in glee.

“Aha!” He cried triumphantly. “It seems that universal balance has finally been attained, no longer do we need to live under the oppressive heel of the ass-lovers.”

Turning back to Crow, the boy grinned with such affability that it completely banished what remained of his intense air from just moments before.

“Please, take a seat my comrade-in-arms.”

Before Crow could respond, a heavy sigh came out from Timi. He shifted his gaze to see she looked thoroughly unimpressed.

“Don’t mind my idiotic teammates, Crow. It seems they all have some form of brain damage. I’m afraid it can’t be helped.” Despite her serious tone, a smile played at her mouth. “It’s very nice to meet you though.”

“It is at that,” Genro cut in. “Boob man though you may be, I’m willing to put that matter to one side and overlook it in the name of friendship.” He winked playfully, though Crow could already tell he bore no real hostility to him- the boy looked as though he didn’t have a drop of malice in his entire body.

“Alright,” Ra declared as he practically jumped onto one of the available seats. “Now that introductions are done, let’s all shut up and focus- the event is starting soon and I don’t want to miss it.”

***

Astra found herself regretting not asking Crow where he was going. She’d noticed him skirting around the issue, noticed the way he’d almost hurried to leave- the same way he always did when hiding something- but she’d said nothing.

She knew why, as well. After months of waiting for him to get over the accident at Serasis, only to watch him double, triple and quadruple down on his insane rationalisations, she’d simply lost the energy to continue. For the time being both of them were pretending the incident at the tavern had never happened, and for once Astra was quite happy to ignore a problem. Ignore any more problems Crow may have been causing. Just for a little while.

Anything for just a little bit of breathing room.

Besides, he was in the middle of the most secure building in Bermuda- possibly the entire continent of Unix. It wasn’t like her neglect would place him in any actual danger.

“Astra? Did you hear me?”

At the sound of Xeno’s voice she turned, locking gazes with the fae from across the sofa.

“Hm? Sorry, I was miles away. What did you say?”

“I asked if you know where Unity is, he’s just sort of disappeared.” Astra could tell from Xeno’s tone alone that she was asking for fear that the artificial would return, rather than that he wouldn’t.

Thinking for a moment, it occurred to Astra that she hadn’t seen the boy in quite some time- though she’d been preoccupied enough that she may not have remembered even if she had. Silently, and not for the first time, she cursed her recent inattentiveness.

“I think he’s just disappeared somewhere, then.” Astra answered. “It doesn’t really matter much either way, I say we can just watch the task without him. He’ll either be back or not, and it’s not like we have anything to gain from missing it.”

Xeno nodded, and Astra didn’t miss the small amount of relief on her face. Looking at the girl now, resting still with a light blanket draped over her, filled her with a great sense of satisfaction. There was a clear difference between how she was now and the agony-ridden state she’d been in only a few days earlier.

It had taken Astra twenty minutes, and Xeno many attempts at dumbing down her instructions, to finally finish bandaging her arm with the special cloth they’d bought from the credit shop.

In the end it had been worth every second. Astra had little actual experience with any kind of medicine, but she knew the basics- certainly enough to know that Xeno’s broken collar bone should have taken a full six weeks to heal. The artefact they’d wrapped it with was said to cut that time down a dozen fold, and according to Xeno herself the pain she’d felt had already begun to subside.

Astra liked to think she knew more about the world than any girl from Selsis could hope to, she’d certainly worked hard to give herself that knowledge. All the same, the difference between what she’d read and what she’d spent the last week seeing was drastic enough to shock her.

Glancing at the room’s clock, she noticed the time and hopped to her feet.

“Right, looks like it’s about to start- or at least it will in about two minutes. Should I activate the slate now?”

Xeno nodded in response, then added.

“Do you remember how?”

“Yes, I do. And you only needed to explain it eight times, how amazing am I?”

The fae smiled at her joke, and Astra stepped up to the slab of polished grey stone- gliding her fingers over the runes around its edges as she’d been instructed.

Scrying slates, she had learned, were exceptionally annoying if they were activated while receiving no input from surveillance-based magic users or artefacts specifically attuned to them. The lesson of just how annoying had come when she’d unknowingly tried to avoid the risk of missing any of the task by turning theirs on a half hour early, she could still vaguely hear the obnoxious screeching noise.

Pushing the memory, and questions of how it was the gauger currently on her wrist remained silent, to one side, she focused on completing her task- almost jumping as the image of the stadium leapt into being across the slate. Taking her seat back at the couch, Astra stared at the sight before her.

She’d been in that stadium, and next to it. Seen how it towered over her dozens of times, nearly as tall as any of Bermuda’s buildings, and covering as much ground as most of Selsis. To see it now, however, felt wrong. Those walls should have made her feel like an insect, surrounded her on all sides and loomed high enough to blot out the sun at any time more than four hours from noon. Instead, she could see past them with ease.

The crowds were just as they had been from within, more a mass of slightly shifting colours than discernible people. And yet somehow the angle, the height, from which she observed them made them feel so much smaller.

Flight was a rare ability, even among mystics. It required training, effort and aptitude- Astra had never met anyone capable of truly doing it. To see an image captured from the skies was something she’d never considered wishing for.

Was this how the legendary Paragons saw the world? Or was she seeing things from an even rarer perspective, the step above them. Was this the eye of a Fable?

Astra let out a breath she hadn’t noticed herself holding just as the image displayed on the slate shifted to something else. Letters, just like the ones on her gauger. As more began to cover the grey surface, she realised they were the details of the oh-so-secret first task that was about to unfold.

The moment after they had stopped appearing, she heard Xeno swear. Turning immediately to meet the fae’s eyes, Astra realised there was a sudden, deep terror embedded in them. The kind she’d seen only once before, when old Bert had caught Crow messing around with a firework. It was the sort of terror that came from someone simultaneously spotting a catastrophe and realising they were too late to avert it.

“We should have sent you,” the girl whispered.