On a purely logistic level, spreading word of the conditions for the latest task was surprisingly inconvenient.

Karma had spent no small amount of time agonising over the problem, having been given it due to not being present to serve as the announcer at the end of the last event. It struck her as the sort of thing that several organisers could have worked in conjunction to do, but then the point wasn’t to finish the deed efficiently- it was to give her an impossible task, watch her fail and then swoop in with just enough remaining time to salvage it before scolding her failure.

As far as plays went, Sins could have at least attempted to hide her desire to punish Karma for her outburst. Then again, she likely considered herself so far above her that hiding her plans was as pointless as hiding the placement of one’s foot from an insect.

The annoying part was, in this case she wasn’t exactly wrong. Karma was the princess of Olympus, but she was a mortal- and this Sieve was held by Unix and for Unix. She’d fought tooth and nail to secure a place as one of its organisers, and such efforts naturally invited contempt from those who received a similar position without any effort.

That was fine by her, let them stare with their contempt. It made it all the more easy for Karma to spot who was an enemy.

She sighed, rolling over on her bed and massaging her temples as she continued to think. Ordinarily Karma made a point of working while fully clothed and behind a desk, but after a week in Bermuda she’d found the temperature was absolutely unacceptable for such things. Wrapping herself in thick covers whenever possible was among the few ways she had of maintaining comfort.

Comfort didn’t mean productivity, though.

Her problem was that of the many people in Bermuda, not all of them were likely or even capable of receiving news in a similar way. The original solution to this problem had been to announce things at the stadium, then let news spread mostly by word of mouth- something which causes no small number of miscommunications, but left plenty of people informed and, most importantly, involved showing so little effort in informing the rest that it didn’t appear to be a failure on the Alliance’s part.

Tamaias hadn’t done that at the end of the last task. It had probably been a good decision given the state of the crowd, but nonetheless it still meant that a city of three million people needed to be told through some other means.

Karma had initially considered simply releasing information slips. Some mental maths had told her that that idea wouldn’t work, however. High end presses could print around two hundred and fifty sheets per hour, with only a hundred present at the Organiser’s disposal it would take an entire day to make enough information pamphlets for even a fifth of the city, and that was disregarding the likely case of the machines breaking down and the act of actually diffusing the papers through the city once they were prepared.

Another option was to simply call a surprise orientation, once more something she quickly discarded. It would be obvious to anyone with a brain that it had not been initially planned, and the entertainment would be a fraction of the previous ones- a sure sign of ineptitude to any who noticed.

Pyrhic had suggested making use of magic to produce a large message somewhere visible, perhaps Bermuda tower. It was a surprisingly solid option, but in the end would still fail to reach any significant amount of the population- and there were no landmarks in the city with the required shape for the message to be readable from afar and still fit on.

In the end, the solution had come to Karma while she was receiving a massage. The speed with which she’d leapt from the table was great enough that it caused it to topple over, landing on Pyrhic’s foot and causing the woman to fold over in pain.

Karma informed her of the plan while examining her injured toes.

When in doubt, it was often a viable course of action to merely pretend that things were all going as intended. If properly diffusing the necessary information throughout Bermuda was impossible, the only remaining course of option was to make the lack of information seem deliberate.

After all, the only people who really needed to know the properties of the next task were those who would be setting it up and those who would be taking part in it. In retrospect the solution seemed obvious, but then that was how most solutions seemed when looked back on.

The fact that her best option had been deception wasn’t lost on Karma, however. Even as she righted the fallen table against Pyrhic’s insistence and laid down on it once more, she couldn’t help but think about what that implied.

As her assistant left to pass on her instructions, Karma was suddenly alone with her thoughts. Alone to look back on how she’d behaved over the last two days and allow the shame at her lack of control to wash over her.

***

Crow lay on his bed, eyes lightly closed and arms splayed outwards. Back in Selsis his mattress was shockingly small, far narrow by much for him to lie the way he did now. He’d never minded before, but after experiencing the joy of stretching out and occupying as much space as he pleased, Crow wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to stand going back to his old bed.

That was, if he did go back at all. It occurred to him that he knew very little about what would come from a scholarship into the Gilasev institute, even after earning one by reaching the third stage he wasn’t sure what it would entail. For all he knew he’d be whisked away to begin his education the moment the Sieve was finished.

He rolled over, suddenly wishing he’d spent more time saying goodbye to his mother.

***

It wasn’t dark, but Gem couldn’t help but feel like it was. Xeno had left her room shortly after the team meeting ended, and with Gem’s wounds she’d been left to remain on the fae’s bed rather than painfully moved to her own. With the other members of her team elsewhere, she’d been left with nothing but a book to keep herself entertained.

She’d put it aside quickly. Gem hated reading at the best of times, and at the moment she couldn’t have brought herself to pay attention to anything even if she’d wanted to.

Instead of the story, she brought out the familiar shape of a cylindrical, carved chunk of opaque, turquoise stone with a similar texture to resin or amber. Staring at the resonance stone as she held it between two fingers, Gem forced her shaky voice to straighten out- breathing deeply for several moments before she was able to make herself speak.

“Hi, dad.”

A good start, though it was hard to go wrong with such a simple greeting. Lips trembling, Gem continued.

“I… uh, I lost today, in the Sieve I mean. There were three of the enemy, and I didn’t exactly lose without putting up a fight, but… well, you know. Not used to losing at all.”

She was skirting around the issue, giving herself other things to say to avoid talking about what really mattered. Steeling her tongue, Gem pushed on.

“The thing is, when there was only one enemy left, I ran out of my magic reserves. And… well, the other contestant started… hurting me.”

Gem had expected herself to cry as she recounted the incident, yet there was no shaky, hot sloshing of tears building within her- only a fragile hollowness ringing into her voice.

“And I knew that I could’ve stopped her normally, but without my magic I couldn’t do anything. And it just made me remember how helpless I’d be if an Immortal or another powerful mystic attacked…”

Her voice began wavering so much as to barely be understandable, she forced herself to continue.

“I always knew that that was the case, but you were always there next to me- protecting me. And now you’re not. I just…”

She choked up, finding her words cut off at the root. Wiping her running eyes and nose on her sleeve, she finished.

“I just miss you, dad. And I want you back. I’m scared without you. Please, just answer me. Message me somehow, anyhow. Tell me what to do. Please…”

With a tap, she cut off the resonance stone’s output and let it fall onto her lap. Closing her eyes she lay back in the bed. Wondering whether this would be enough, whether Gilasev would finally deem her worthy of attention once more. The sobs came upon her before long.

She doubted it.

***

Karma had been alone for the last ten minutes. She still lay face-down on the massage table, not having the energy to move from it. Even if she had, her thoughts were swirling around so violently inside her head that she had a sneaking suspicion they’d throw her off-balance and make her fall if she were to try and stand.

Balance, as if she was at all steady to begin with.

What on Mirandis had come over her to lose control like that in front of other organisers? Worse, what would have happened if she hadn’t been near them? What would she have done? Lord Hercules had once warned Karma about her temper, instructing her to guard it as steadfastly as she would her throat. It was only now that she saw exactly why.

Karma had been convinced she’d detached herself from Gem, that despite the year she’d spent ensuring her friendship became more and more important to the girl, she herself had continued to keep her head free of such distracting thoughts.

And yet seeing what the vampire did to her had made Karma want to tear the bitch apart with her bare hands. It still did, in fact.

She felt a knot in her chest as her thoughts shifted to Gem. Karma had, it seemed, grown protective of the girl, slowly enough that it had taken her own rage to let her know. That had been unexpected, but not unbelievable. Try as she might, her discipline was only so great after all.

This didn’t necessarily undermine her ability to do what was needed, however. Gem still thought the world of Karma, she still saw her as something between an authority and a peer- a sort of older sister. Someone to love, cherish and follow the example of.

So why did she feel so sick?

Karma thought back to what she’d told Gem, how she’d let slip to her precious details- not of her own life, but of what she thought of it.

That was a sloppy mistake. Gem was naieve, she wasn’t stupid. No doubt the girl had read into what Karma had told her, pieced it together with what she knew about her childhood spent under Lord Hercules’ power and concluded that whatever negative experience Karma had idiotically alluded to had been done by his orders.

Just enough to know what had happened, not enough to know why it needed to.

Hot anger flowed into Karma’s veins, and she found herself suddenly energised to stand and pace. She made her way around her room, hands curled into fists and nails digging into her palms as her mind ferociously spun to weave some way of covering what she’d said.

She could think of none. None that wouldn’t threaten to drive Gem away from her by tainting what the girl undoubtedly saw as a moment of pure sentiment. Karma had planted a seed, and it was entirely out of her hands whether or not it would grow to drive Gem further from the path to Olympus. Fuck.

The familiar, seething rage began to build within her- spilling out from her boiling blood to the rest of her body. Melting bone, shrivelling organs, tightening muscle.

It had been a surprise last time, something which had washed over her so quickly that she had already been pulled into its throes by the time she’d realised what it was. But Karma was the daughter of Hercules, she was someone who danced with Immortals and locked horns with nobles. She would not make the same mistake twice.

Even as she felt the urge to break everything around her, to splinter furniture and fracture walls, she instead concentrated on her breathing- forcing it into that same rhythmic, loping pace she’d been taught all those years ago. Denying herself the oxygen necessary to feed its fury.

Within a minute she felt herself begin to calm, and within two her rage had subsided almost entirely.

Karma was arrogant and young, she knew that much at least. A dozen years spent memorising the contents of books and agonising over every facet of governing, combat and all other things required of a ruler had convinced her that she was without fault. Now, if nothing else, she was with one less than before. She exhaled, feeling her strangled anger soften into genuine relaxation.

All that was left was for her to think of how she could undo the damage caused by her impulsivity.

***

Crow had had a hand inside his pants when he heard the knock on his door. He’d whipped it out on reflex, remembering all too well his mother’s previous habit of entering less than a second after rapping her knuckles upon wood, and yet as he lay across his mattress for several moments, he was greeted by nothing more than another knocking.

Regaining his wits, he sat up and climbed out of bed before shuffling across the room and answering. Though he opened his door he was careful to do so in such a way as to keep it only partially pulled aside, keeping his unusually three-dimensional crotch hidden behind it.

He almost jumped back in fright upon being met with the terrifying sight that was his visitor’s eyes. Pitch black, with only the faint outline of redish capillaries breaking the solid darkness of the pupils and sclera- save for the silvery-white ring of the iris.

A moment later he realised who they belonged to, settling as he felt his face begin to burn at the outburst. Before he could apologise, Amelia beamed and stepped forward to hug him.

“Hi Crow!”

She said his name as though he were simply an object she was pleasantly surprised to see, yet her embrace had the strength and solidity of one reserved for a long-separated relative. He’d heard that some places considered rather intimate interactions to be the norm, even disregarding the almost infamous lack of clothing commonplace in Olympus, it seemed Amelia was from one of them.

Crow didn’t mind, though. Her embrace was warm, and though he didn’t hug back- fearing it was improper- he found the contact warm, almost comforting. Close as she was, he could smell Amelia as well- though he found the scent rather unusual. Like iron and cooked meat, a rather pleasant hardness to it.

It took him several moments to realise that with the way she was hugging him, his horn was pressed directly into her hips. If his face had been burning earlier, its temperature had risen from fire to molten steel.

Apparently the Teary Eyed God had looked down upon Mirandis and decided to perform a miracle, as when Amelia broke the hug off a few seconds later she gave not hint of having even noticed. Instead, she simply continued that beaming smile.

“I decided to come to see you since you’re going up against my team in the next task, and you might die.”

She said the words so fluidly and casually that Crow was sure he must have misheard, when he realised he hadn’t he found himself grinning at how completely straight she’d played the joke.

“Well it’s nice to see you,” he replied. “Come in!”

Stepping aside, he widened the door for her to enter. Crow reasoned she was unlikely to notice something from the corner of her eye when she didn’t even register it pressing into her. Unless she had and was merely trying to avoid any awkwardness…

He banished the thought as soon as it appeared, burying it in the same part of his mind reserved for such memories as the time he realised he may well be living under an impossibly realistic magical illusion and Astra’s monthly bleed starting while she had her legs wrapped around his throat in a grappling match.

Amelia looked around the room, her head tilting slightly as though she were somehow perplexed by what she saw. She turned back to Crow as he spoke.

“So, our teams are going against each other in the next task.”

He wasn’t sure why he’d said it, sometimes the obvious just compelled people to state it. Regardless, Amelia answered.

“Yep,” she almost giggled. “Faroah’s really worried about all of you cause of how much stronger you all are.”

There it was again. Crow hadn’t noticed earlier, but now that they were speaking as opposing sides Amelia’s habit of candidly speaking of potentially sensitive details regarding her team struck him as bizarre.

He recalled the way Unity had proudly spoken of getting information from the girl, then cursed himself in his own mind for being too soft to do the same.

“Amelia, you should probably keep things like that to yourself, you know. That’s the sort of knowledge that might help people on other teams.”

He’d not been sure what to expect from her response, but somehow seeing her tilt her head in confusion wasn’t surprising.

“Why would that matter?”

There was the note of a genuine question in her voice, and as she continued it was replaced with steely certainty.

“I’m way too strong for that to matter.”

Crow found himself blinking, not at all sure how to react to such a statement. Amelia saved him the trouble by grinning and speaking once more.

“Ooh, I just remembered something! Did you check your gauger recently?”

He shook his head.

“I didn’t either, but Faroah did and the contestants involved in the new tasks’s been revealed!”

Frowning, Crow glanced at his own gauger- peering at the slate and seeing that it had, in fact, brought up yet more instructions. He suddenly found himself being reminded of the first stage as he read them.

Next task will take place tomorrow. Select three team members to take part.

He returned his gaze to Amelia, and found her still smiling away- apparently oblivious to the very fact that even Crow had managed to instantly grasp.

His team had the advantage.