An excerpt from the Journal of Terr'An'Cer, Primus of The Volari

I once sat among my advisors, listening to them criticize my decision to punish the Judicators. 'They are too influential', they said, 'you risk bringing their wrath down upon our allies'. I sat there and listened, nodding along with what they said. They were all learned men and women, wise in their own fields. As they finished, however, I stood and walked to the window, looking out over the city that I had built from nothing. I turned to them all and said, "How can I expect anyone else to act in the way I ask if I am not willing to follow my own rules? Can I preach virtue and honor and honestly while turning a blind eye to those who stand for their opposite?" None of them had a good answer.

The light fades and I find myself within a small, but comfortable, room. Large upholstered chairs, the kind someone would expect to see in a wealthy person’s library, have been placed in front of a gentle fire that fills the room with a nice warmth.

Sitting in one of these chairs is the pale woman from earlier. Now, without the pressures of being surrounded by enemies, I’m able to get a much longer look at her. Without the spear on her back, she isn’t nearly as intimidating as I had initially thought. There are smile lines around her eyes and she has a friendly softness, a feeling about her that welcomes me in for conversation.

She doesn’t seem to notice my presence, instead looking into the fire as if haunted by her thoughts. I wait there for a few moments before raising my hand towards my mouth and coughing loudly. The noise carries across the room and she spins instantly as her right hand darts up to her back.

Raising my single hand in an open palm, I say, “Woah woah, I’m not looking for a fight here. Best I can tell this is probably a rest area. How about we call a truce for a bit?”

She looks at me warily but lowers her hand and nods her head, gesturing at the furthest chair away from hers. I walk over to it and lower myself into what is easily the most comfortable chair I’ve ever sat in. It is as if I sink into the chair itself, enveloped by a feeling of comfort and relaxation.

The woman chuckles at my expression. “I felt the same way.”

Her mouth seems to move in a different pattern than the words that come out and I realize, with slight surprise, that this is the first time I’m seeing Genesis’s language translation on another human. Octavian, Faul, and Albasalas had also had their words translated but it wasn’t as big of a shock as I had no frame of reference to what their real language sounded like. To me, the movement of their mouths was perfectly aligned to the words that were spoken.

On the women, however, it is very clear that she is speaking a different language. The shape of her mouth, the way she seems to enunciate in odd spots, and a dozen other small signs give it away. I shake the thought away after a moment though.

Trying to break through the tension of the room, I say, “So, I guess we are the only two that have finished so far.”

Her eyes go distant and a morose look passes over her face, erasing the small amount of humor that had been previously present. She turns back to the fire and mumbles. “I guess so.”

I mentally chide myself for the mistake. For a split second it had seemed as if we were just two people, not two Candidates in a competition to the death, and I’d ruined that with just a few words. Feeling uncomfortable, but compelled to keep trying, I continue. “Who was your fight against?”

She turns a single suspicious eye upon me. “Why do you want to know?”

I shrug. “Curiosity, I guess? Mine was against the young girl with the teddy bear.”

“Did she surrender?”

I turn to look at the fire. The embers beneath the logs crackle, expelling their comfortable heat and filling the room with a slight noise that seems to cut through any silence. A moment passes. “What do you think?”

Her voice fills with a strange bitterness. “Everyone is treating this competition like it’s the end of some long-prolonged war … This is just the beginning. The real war is waiting for us just around the corner and we’re killing all our strongest fighters. Pah, they are idiots.”

I narrow my eyes and turn to her. I hadn’t expected anyone in this competition to think about it like that. In fact, I had expected all the Candidates that made it this far to be exactly like the young woman in my previous match. Headstrong, morally dubious, potentially psychotic individuals who pursued power without any restrictions. To find someone among this group, especially someone as strong as this woman, who thinks like me is a complete shock.

I extend my single hand towards her. “My name’s Cael. You?”

Her eyes dart over my missing hand for a split second. It’s obvious that she wants to ask about it but has enough social decency to wait until it comes up. Giving the circumstances that brought us to this room, I find it mildly amusing.

She reaches out and grasps my hand, shaking it with an impressive strength. “I’m Astrid.”

I turn back to look at the fire. “If I’m honest, I’m surprised to find someone like you at this level of the Trials. I’d expected everyone here to be … power hungry.”

In the corner of my eye I see her grimace. “Cael, for all you know I could be a murderer.”

I stare at the fire as I respond, watching the flames dance above the logs in their hypnotic pattern. “No … I don’t think you are. I saw you when I came in here. You were staring into the fire just like I am, trying to come to terms with what just happened. You can deny it all you want but I know that look when I see it; I’ve felt that way more times than I care to admit. Whatever your reason for being here, I don’t think you are a bad person.”

Silence fills the room for a few seconds as we both stare at the dancing flames. It is a comfortable silence, matching the feeling of the room itself, and I feel no pressure to speak any more.

Her voice breaks through the quiet after a minute. “I fought against the man who was choked by the shadow. The idiot’s ego was hurt from that little exchange and he refused to surrender, no matter how many chances I gave him.” She takes a slow breath. “I’m no stranger to death but his served no purpose. He wasn’t strong, but he could have helped with what is coming.”

My interest perks up at her second mention of the future. Unlike my general musings, she speaks with a calm surety, almost as if she knows specifics.

Keeping my voice conversational, trying to hide my interest, I reply, “That’s the second time you’ve mentioned what’s coming. What do you mean?”

“How much do you know about Genesis, Cael?”

As soon as she speaks those words I know that I’ve come to a crossroads. This powerful woman is the first person I’ve met who seems to view things the same way that I do. She is pragmatic enough to realize that sometimes killing is necessary while still maintaining a sense of respect for life. If both of us survive these Trials, we could form an alliance that would be incredibly strong. Of course, she could have been lying this entire time, but she doesn’t strike me as a deceptive person; she speaks with a surety that suggests her power does not depend on any intrigue or misdirection.

On the other hand, she might be my opponent in the future and there are still hundreds of things I don’t know about her, the most important of which might be the strange voice in her head that referred to itself as the Allfather. I can’t fully dismiss the idea that she may be under the influence of some other type of entity.

In the end, I decide to take a leap of faith. This woman may end up becoming one of my enemies in the future but the possibility of an alliance between the two of us is too great an opportunity to pass up.

“I know a decent amount. I was one of the randomly selected and spent a little over a year off Earth.”

She jerks up and looks at me with poorly hidden shock. However, fear doesn’t fill her eyes like it had the citizens of Everwall in those early days; no, her eyes seem to be filled with sympathy. Despite this look, she doesn’t stray from the topic of discussion, seeming to take my revelation in stride. “Well then you know there are hundreds upon hundreds of other planets and civilizations out there. From what I’ve been told, there may be upwards of a few hundred in our wave alone.”

“How do you know that? Who told you?”

She waves her hand dismissively, looking uncomfortable. “That doesn’t matter. What matters is the fact that we are all going to be fighting over limited resources. Specifically, Dungeon Worlds.”

I feel my blood go cold in my veins. “What the hell do you mean?”

“Well you would know better than me, but I’ve been told that Dungeon Worlds are extremely beneficial to the growth of the individual within them. Between the time dilation and the increased ambient Mana, these places can make or break a fighting force of a civilization.”

I feel memories of my time on Helldarvin rush to the forefront of my mind, but I push them away with sheer force of will. Now is not the time to remember. “That’s not what I’m asking. How do you know there are a limited number and that we’ll be fighting over them? That’s not something you can claim without backing it up.”

“Look, I can’t say where I found out that information. All that matters is getting a Dungeon World for Earth. Best I can tell, less than five percent of planets get one, and those that do become the powerhouses within their wave. I don’t want Earth to fall under some other planet’s control just because we were too busy bickering.”

If what she’s saying is true, and I have no reason to believe that she is lying, then winning this competition is only the first stage. I’d always known that things wouldn’t become easier once the Trials were over, but I had never imagined that we’d so quickly fall into wars with the other planets. A stray thought pops into my head and I remember a comment made by the Linus, the referee of the entire tournament. He had mentioned something about how long it had taken us to get to the tournament. If we truly are later than everyone else, then it means the other planets have a head start on us. We might have no time to spare.

I raise my hand up to my head and run my fingers through my hair, the sensation relieving a little bit of the stress that has begun to build within me despite Effortless Presence. It … it just seems relentless. Apart from the short break to run the Genesis Academy, everything just always piles on and on, a never-ending deluge of events that always force me further in. I want to protect Everwall and its people but this … this is almost too much.

Her voice cuts through my thoughts after a few moments. “If it’s any consolation, I pretty much felt the same way when I found out.”

A laugh bubbles out of me and I can’t help myself. She stares at me for a few seconds, almost taken aback, and then begins to giggle as well. Within moments the two of us are laughing, a respite against the craziness of the situation that we’ve both found ourselves in.

Our laughing ends as we hear someone else appear within the room, a slight scuffing sound as they walk over towards the fire. I turn and see the middle-aged Asian man. Blood coats his entire body, sinking into his clothes and streaking down his face. Without pausing, he walks right past us and sits down at a third chair before closing his eyes.

His presence kills any conversation and Astrid and I find ourselves staring into the dancing flames as we await the future, knowing that only random chance will keep us from facing off against each other in the very near future.