Menya was not a gentle teacher, but her sharp insistence that Zu Mari master at least one exercise each day before he would be allowed to sleep made for much faster progress than Nira's more at-your-own-pace style of teaching. Zu progressed steadily through the books, chapter after chapter revealing their secrets to his voracious mind.

But before he'd mastered more than half of the example spells, the loop reset again.

This time, when Master Elvanis descended, Zu was one of those he pointed at.

Zu swallowed, remembering how the first time those who'd disobeyed were disintegrated on the spot, and stepped forward. He reached the Master's side before any of the others had begun to move. Master Elvanis looked down at Zu with an unreadable expression. Then the two of them lifted into the air, the others grabbed and dragged along behind them. Zu's heart sped up, the close proximity of Master Elvanis pushing him straight into fight readiness.

Not that there was any good a fight could do. He would be powerless against this master. Even young as he was, Master Elvanis could destroy Zu with a thought.

He forced his breathing to stay steady. This was his chance. He was right here, next to Master Elvanis. He could let his protagonist Fragment do its job. He just had to not start a fight, be nice, obey orders without question, and live to fight another day.

Nothing too hard in there. All perfectly doable.

Breathe. Breathe. It was hard to remember, air kept catching in his throat, or coming too fast. He had to appear calm, not on the verge of a meltdown. Control. Calm.

They arrived at their destination before Zu could attain the peace he sought. Master Elvanis dropped them each into a separate room, then flew off somewhere.

Zu was finally able to calm himself, now that the walking annihilation machine was gone.

The room in which he'd been deposited was square and looked much like a normal room. It had a bed, chairs, a table, a storage box, a bookshelf, a toilet and sink. Everything necessary for life and survival.

It did not have a door, or a ceiling.

Zu activated Striding Wind Sustaining and stepped up to the open air, hand raised in case there were a spell covering it, but there was not. It was simply a doorless room into which people could be dropped from the air.

He walked over to the second room, where a cowering boy lay in the bed, covered in the blankets. Pass.

The third room contained a furiously pacing young woman, fists clenched at her sides.

"Yo, good day, I'm Zu Mari, who are you?"

"I am Petra, and you... you're the one who ran up so eagerly. Be gone, lapdog."

"Lapdog, huh? Well. If that's how you want to play it." Zu moved on to the last room in the row.

The oldest man among the prisoners, probably in his late fifties, though still clearly strong and hale, leaned against the wall, staring up at the sky with a look of uncertainty. He startled when Zu walked over his wall and down toward the floor.

"Hello. I'm Zu Mari, fellow prisoner. Who are you?"

"Orin Estern." He placed his hands together in a gesture of welcome. "What brings you to my little cell?"

"Just checking out the new neighbor hood. Any idea why we aren't locked in?"

Orin raised his eyebrows. "We're not? Could have fooled me."

"The ceiling is completely open."

"Is it?"

Zu waved a hand. "I just walked from my side to yours through the air."

"Yeah, and have you tried walking anywhere else?"

Zu walked over to the side of the wall, crossing its threshold without a problem. He walked higher, then further away. "Nothing stopping me from going--"

He slammed into a solid wall of air.

Orin chuckled. "Yeah, I thought not. You're no mage."

"I am," Zu protested. "I know a lot of spells and techniques."

"Not enough, you don't. Not if you can't see the dome of air holding us here."

Zu sighed. It made sense that they'd use a dome rather than doors. When most people could fly with one technique or another, there was little use in doors and walls. "Does it at least keep the rain out?" Zu asked.

Orin laughed. "Yes, it will keep rain out. Not hat it rains here."

"How would you know, you just got here."

Orin leaned back and eyed him with a canny look. "This isn't my first time in Green Flame Citadel, boy. Though the first time was decidedly more... voluntary."

"You came here once voluntarily?"

"I did. It was always my dream to be a mage of great renown. Back then, I thought the Green Flame meant what he promised."

"What he promised? I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the promises of the Green Flame. I come from a land far beyond his influence and have never heard of him before today."

"A land very far, I see."

"Yes. Very far. So what is it the Green Flame promises, and what is it that he does?"

"The Green Flame promises peace and unity and prosperity and strength and power to all who will follow him. But, of course, those promises only apply to the few he personally selects to be worthy of the rewards. The rest of us... we'll be tried and tested until we can be tested no more, and then cast out as worthless refuse."

"Refuse? What a surprise."

"You mock, but you should not do so. The Green Flame is merciless. I saw you run eagerly to his spawn's side. How could you do that if you thought ill of him, if you knew what he was?"

Zu remembered the sheer terror of that flight, short though it was, the knowledge that at any moment the man flying at his side could decide he didn't deserve to exist and annihilate him in an instant.

Some of his remembered dread must have showed on his face, because Orin got a curious expression. "So you do see it. You are not completely blind, not completely ignorant, not fully taken in by his lies and promises of false power. Then you should join me."

"Join you in doing what?"

"In rising up against him to overthrow him and claim the citadel for ourselves, obviously."