As Hope Reese struggled to catch her breath, Char whispered in her mind. That was quite reckless, her Devotee said. You can’t use too much of my magic or you’ll tire yourself out even more than normal. Your body can’t handle it the way my old host could… we need to be more careful.

I’m fine, Hope responded.

You’re not fine, and you’re going to give yourself away.

She took a step back from her lunge, swiped her sword through the air and thrust it into its scabbard. Hope reached up and adjusted the collar of her jacket, then held out one gloved hand to the man on her left. “Hope Reese. I don’t believe we’ve spoken before. You’re Ryan Sawyer, right?”

“That’s right,” Ryan said. Afafa gaped at the two of them as Hope vigorously shook Ryan’s hand.

“Great! Glad to meet you. Sorry for the fright.” She spoke barely above a whisper, so as not to interrupt her breathing. Hope turned toward Afafa. “Afafa, don’t you know better than to antagonize people you’ve just met?”

“He was the one who antagonized me,” Afafa said, eyes wide and jaw clenched.

“Okay,” Hope drawled, glancing up at Deputy-Director Shula. “Deputy-Director – or, can I call you Robert?” She reached out to shake his hand.

He accepted, grinning. “In your case, yes. That was some stunt. Be glad you didn’t get that sword too close to me, or I might not have taken it quite so well.” Hope smiled sheepishly.

“My apologies, sir. I’m sure you’ve already read my file, but I’m Hope Reese. I’m meant to be helping with Ifterra Project software. And if I’m not mistaken…”

Hope. Somebody is watching you.

At Char’s sudden warning, Hope blinked. From where?

Char indicated for Hope to turn her head to the right, and she found herself looking down an alleyway. A tall boy stood there, just at the edge of the large, block-like building’s shadow. Under the hood of what might have been a raincoat, a shock of red hair covered a quarter of his face. He stepped back, watching Hope from the corner of his eyes.

The boy – the young man – walked back away from the edge of the alley and quickly vanished into the darkness. The expression on his face as he went was something like a sneer, but…

She turned back toward Robert, who tilted his head and raised an eyebrow at her. “Yes?” he said. “Go on.”

“If I’m not mistaken,” Hope continued, taking a slow breath, as deep as she could manage. “My team will be located in the Zvenla Complex near the middle of the Enclave. Is that right?”

“Yes,” Robert said. “Seems you’ve done your homework. And that’s also where you’re going to be housed, along with the other initiates here. All your luggage is properly marked, correct?”

Hope nodded.

“Right. Then follow me, and stick with Miss Gbeho here. I know it’s not obvious right now, from looking around the place, but there are a lot of people on Ifterra Project and our dormitories have limited capacity, so you’ll have to share a space.”

“I suppose we are together, then,” Afafa said, coming to stand next to Hope. “I will get used to it, just as long as you do not repeat that stunt with the sword. That kind of thing does tend to make me nervous.” Hope put a hand over her mouth and turned her head away.

“I’ll try not to do that again,” she said.

“That would be nice,” Ryan said.

As Robert started to turn and walk, leading the three of them, he waved his arms again. Hope glanced over her shoulder to see the gate beginning to close, the vehicles gathered inside. The great door slid shut with little sound. Suddenly, Robert’s voice snapped Hope back to attention.

“And you, young Mr. Fares- with Ryan here!”

Hope heard Ryan groan loudly as a teenage boy standing on top of one of the nearby towers jumped up, quickly gathered up a few small items in a rush, and disappeared under the floor of his perch. He emerged what seemed like only a couple of seconds later from the door at the bottom of the tower and rushed out towards the group.

“Oh, uh – hi!” the boy said, still struggling to get all of his things arranged properly in their bag. “I’m Ariel Fares.” With the one forearm that was half-free, he struggled to snap off a wave in the general direction of Ryan and the others. “I’m also starting work on the Ifterra Project. I assume I didn’t need to attend the welcoming ceremony, though, since I – I already live here and everything…”

Ryan sighed heavily. “It’s fine, Ariel. Just… wait. I hadn’t thought of that.”

“What?”Ariel and Ryan spoke at the same time.

“I assumed you and Ryan would be rooming together, but you already have accommodations. I’m sorry for the oversight. I guess that means unless you want to move, Ryan here will have a room all to himself. Lucky you, Ryan.”

“Well, I’m sure it would be nice to get out of my parents’ place,” Ariel began. Ryan cut him off with a glare, and Hope watched as Ariel’s face shifted from mild enthusiasm to a cringe.

“Of course, there’s nothing wrong with the way things are right now and there’s no – no real reason for me to bother moving out! Besides, I’ll probably be busy at the lab all day long most days, haha…”

Hope glanced over at Afafa, who leaned in toward her. “Mr. Sawyer there is not enthusiastic about meeting new people, is he.”

“Fair enough,” Hope said, but as they walked she watched Ryan closely. By his accent, the man was clearly Rivenstadi, like Hope herself. Of course her family was fine, despite the ongoing war in the region.

But Hope couldn’t shake the memory of hearing Ryan whimpering in his sleep on the long overland journey to Hope’s Enclave, crying out somebody’s name again and again, and then, upon awakening, regarding the other sleeping passengers with a cold glower.