“One hundred and fifty eight days?” Lousia stammered out. It was an unprecedented number that was four times quicker than her journey had taken. This child was without a doubt one of the elites of the Absolution clan.

“That’s impossible!” Gasped Quentin. “If you were a golden child of the Absolution clan then you would have to have taken ninety to get here. Shorter is possible, but longer is absolutely not.”

“Why not?” This confused Laurence, as he could only really go by what his father had told him. Quentin would know more about the inner workings of the clans simply by having a closer interaction with them from birth.

“Simple. The golden children are released on the first day of the month of Phenes, part of an agreement to push the children to compete better. You must have come in to Babel on the second of Turto for you to get here in that time.” Quentin frowned. “Strictly speaking that means you are the year after me, but you had a massive head start on the other children of your year. I'm not sure if that will make things harder for you, or easier, but I'm glad you’re on my team.”

“Well, my birthday is the first of Turto, so I guess you’re right about that.” Laurence smiled again. The cheeky grin was becoming his defence mechanism for situations he had difficulty working out. “I don’t know why my father would not tell me to wait though. I'm sure he could have.”

“Who is your father?” Quentin asked. He assumed by knowing the name of Laurence’s father he would be able to work out why the boy was released early. A normal golden child was privy to a lot of information that most of the other clansmen would not know. they would be the backbone of the clan when they grew up, so they were shown a lot to get them used to knowing secure information.

“My father is Angus Absolution, of Ribec Village.”

The moment Quentin heard this name his hand dropped from his fringe and his face went white. “Angus...” he stammered out. “Angus... Bloody Gus...” His eyes were as wide as dish-plates in fear and reverence as he looked at the boy in front of him. “You’re the son of an Ascendant Immortal?”

“What?” Laurence, Sara and Louisa all yelled out. All the people in the room looked stunned at the young boy, as he looked at his canine friend with wide eyes.

“I assume that he never told you for some reason, but there is a story in our clan about him. He was our greatest healer, but when his brother died he became an angel of death, reaping the lives of many many people. The Clan ceased calling children Angus, or Gus, after the incident, just in case they inherit the ire of Bloody Gus. He terrifies most of the clan.”

“That doesn't sound anything like my father though.” Said Laurence. He knew his father was skilled in battle, but the way he had been described made him sound like far more than the healer and guardian he always acted like. “Either way, shouldn't we get on to planning what we are going to do in the challenge?”

“For once I agree with you, kid.” Sara replied “We need to know how to progress. If we attack, then it’s pretty obvious that the bird scouts and we storm the weak point of wherever the enemy team is. Birdy, Louisa you said your name was?” Sara pulled out a pouch of something and began chewing a pinch of the contents. “Louisa, can you sweep through the sky and look for an enemy blind-spot? If they have two blind-spots we should probably go through the second most obvious. That way we know we aren't entering a trap by punching through what looks like the weakest spot.”

“You sure know a lot about entering battle!” Said Laurence, his eyes alight with a fervour for knowing how Sara knew so much about battle. “How did you learn so much?”

“As a bounty hunter I took part in a lot of raids on criminal encampments. I've picked up a few things about military tactics in my time.” She spat out the gunk she had been chewing into the corner of the room, before taking out out some more. Louisa winced when Sara spat. It seemed like she disliked spitting. “What you have to remember in warfare is that plans go out the window once combat actually starts, and that there are only two three real states any group is at. That’s if they are attacking or defending. You’re either in a state of assault, feint or rest. No matter what you do you can’t escape these three ideas, so in future you should plan with these three concepts in mind. The trick with any military engagement is guessing what your enemy is doing. Combat is like a massive game of rock, paper, scissors. If you have the right guess then you’ll more likely benefit. It’s not quite clear cut, but a good guess about your enemies plans will often save far more lives than a bad one. “

“So warfare at it’s core is simple, but its... Nuances come out in study?” Laurence beamed, he had learned a lot of new things in this simple conversation.

“You know a lot of big words for a kid.” Said Sara, spitting out the second load of gunk. Louisa winced again.

“Am I using that word right?” Said Laurence. “I have heard people use it, but I’m not sure if I was using it right.”

“you’re using it right, Laurence.” Said Louisa. She began preening her feathers in thought. “What if we are the defenders?”

Quentin piped up. “My suggestion is dependant on what our marked thing is. If it’s a person then we could either hide them amongst us or set them somewhere the enemy could never expect. If it’s an object, well while they said we couldn't cover the mark, they never said we couldn't cover the object. We just need to make sure it’s hiding in plain sight with the mark on show.”

They discussed the plans for fifteen more minutes, but in the end they could not come up with anything more substantial than what they had already thought of. they spent another ten preparing and ironing out their roles in the party. Laurence was their front line, with Sara and Louisa as scouting and ranged artillery. Finally Quentin was the support and healer. At the time no one had really paid any attention to Yun, they had just treated him as one entity with Laurence. They had no real idea of how strong any of the rest of the party really was, so the only thing they could do was test through combat.

They strode out into the arena, as ready as a group of misfits who had never worked together could be. Sara spat out another chunk of the stuff she had been chewing, making Louisa shiver once more. Before them was a small building, made of obsidian and basalt. The black obsidian walls surrounding the area had a layer of lava behind it, giving the entire area a ruddy purple glow. There were several obsidian pillars between them and the building, littered about at varying heights as to pose as either cover for the attacking party or a bulwark for the defensive party. Depending on how active either team was, it could change the entire way the arena was fought in.

Laurence summoned his hammer and took a few steps forward. “looks like we are attacking then doesn't it?” He smiled again, this time making all three of his companions shiver.