Night has finally fallen when they checked in an inn two streets behind the colosseum. The generous coins they've received from the pouch bought them a room on the tallest floor. They've argued for a bit at the counter about who's deserving of it before the welcoming hotelier informs them that it's spacious enough to share.

The coins also managed to buy them a very gracious offer to take their sullied clothes to the wash as well as letting them choose a set of local clothes from the ground floor boutique that was opened past closing hours specifically for them.

Cyan wasn't in the mood to shop, so he's picked out the simplest looking white tunic and some matching cuffed trousers. Lilith however, thought it was a shame to let the opportunity go to waste. She's always wanted to try on the halter dresses and white veils she's seen the women wear around these regions. Then Cyan calls her an idiot because she wouldn't be able to move easily in a long skirt. Instead, she settles for a vibrantly tasseled bralette and red dancer's pants. It has slits down the sides so it wouldn't hinder her mobility, that and also it matches the color of her ribbon.

The room itself is rather cozy. There are two queen-sized canopy beds separated by a nightstand and a floral burgundy carpet beneath them. They're directly beneath the circular roof, so a wooden chandelier's able to hang from the tall ceiling at the very center. The moment she spots the bathroom, she bolts in, calling dibs before Cyan can protest about it. Then she tosses her dirty clothes out and asks Cyan to pass it to the hotel maid when she comes to collect it. But it wasn't until she's out and Cyan's in the shower that she actually arrives. Not emptyhandedly either. She's pushing a cart filled to the brim with local dishes.

Normally, this would excite her. But the taste of defeat hasn't exactly left her mouth. So instead, she requests the woman to set it up by the balcony diner where Lilith sits and waits for Cyan to finish bathing.

She thinks, maybe the cold night wind would help her damp hair dry faster. That and because she likes to stargaze. The night skies are clearer here without all the smog clouding up the heavens the same way Gildamore does. Infact, she's able to see the milky way. She also likes the noises of the other customers beneath her. They're directly atop the open sky bar. It's lit with fairy lights from palm tree to palm tree. But the smell of kebab and grill is quickly overpowered by myriad of dishes the maid's placing before her.

There's a plate of something that looks like barbequed chicken tenders and chilis, another of lamb skewers, flat bread and an assortment of different colored dips, and another of yellow rice next to a bowl of saucy stew. It's overloading her senses as the table gets gradually filled up. There isn't enough room for the deserts, so the maid's left it on the cart beside Lilith before she leaves.

It's tempting her to want to sneak a bite. But she remembers Killian telling her it's bad manners to not wait for others when dining together. So instead, she impatiently glances past the velvet couch and television set to the door where the bathroom is at. It also makes her realize that she leaned her axe rather precariously against the wall beside the main double wooden entrance.

It'll be a very bad day for the maid had it fallen.

Then she counts to ten, and decides Cyan's too slow. He probably wouldn't realize something's missing given the mountain of dishes they have.

Just as she's about to reach for a lamb skewer. She hears the door click. So, she quickly retracts her hand and eyes Cyan exiting the bathroom. He's wearing the tunic they've picked out from the boutique. There are actually more details to it than at first glance. The short sleeves are split at the biceps, connected by two small, but noticeably intricate gold ornaments at the shoulders. The trousers too, have a blue sash around it that's sewed with spirals. But it seems a size too big, so everything's a little baggy.

Cyan still has the towel over his head as he approaches her with a questioning glance,

"Why do you look so guilty?" but she refuses to tell him that she's tried to eat without him so instead she changes the topic just as he sits down opposite her,

"I was thinking about the thing you did at the trial. How did you do that?"

Grabbing a plate, he begins portioning himself a little of every dish as he asks,

"What are you referring to?" the amount of chicken he's piled in a mound hints to her that it may be his personal favorite. It's also the first thing he takes a bite of.

In demonstration, she picks up a fork and outstretches her arm, tapping it against her wrist,

"This. You didn't get hit by his cane."

"Oh." he says, pausing and wiping his mouth with the towel before tossing it towards the couch. Gathering his Magia, Cyan offers her a hand,

"Try touching me." it's slightly iridescent.

She reaches to take it. Instead, she just passes through, as if it's fluid. She waves around a little, almost like trying to swat at the wind.

He explains,

"It's called phase shifting, everyone born with the Sapientia," he pauses and changes his wordings,

"Wisdom alignment can learn to do it." then she bumps into his knuckles. He's materialized again,

"But I can't control it well yet. And I can only phase one small part of my body if I focus very hard. It also won't let me attack when I do it. So, it isn't very useful in actual combat at the moment."

She asks,

"Does that mean, if you mastered it, you can phase shift your entire body?"

He shrugs, retreating his hand and returning to his food,

"Well, if I manage to master it, that is." so that's what Killian meant by elemental manipulators are pesky. She can imagine them being hard to land a hit on.

Absently, she fills her own plate with whatever's in front of her, commenting after an audible hum,

"That means, you can see the old man's movements too, right? When he stops to tag us. That's why you were able to dodge it once."

He nods. And she follows up quickly,

"How much can you see? Of his movements."

She takes the chance to get a few bites in when he explains,

"Not when he moves from pillar to pillar. But I can see when he stops. He's going to flicker before he actually manifests. And he takes 400 milliseconds to tap us. But I can't cast my Magia quick enough, so the first time I dodged him. I channeled my Vita preemptively."

She agrees,

"Me too. Except, I don't think I'm able to dodge that fast." before she asks,

"Then, how long does it take for you to phase shift?"

He sticks out his palm and tries,

"700 milliseconds." turning it iridescent for a second before solidifying again.

She ponders for a bit,

"But the way things are right now. You're the only one that's able to juke him..." she pauses to spit out the extremely sour thing she unwittingly ate and makes a face. It was the purple fruit. It tastes like a lemon. Only less citrusy and more like an unripe apple.

He holds back laughing at her to ask,

"What are you getting at?"

"I'm counting."

At that, he gives her an amused,

"You can do math?" like he genuinely wasn't expecting it.

"That's rude!" she snaps and explains,

"Killian made me do timed errands around town a lot, so I had to figure out how long I have to get from location to location to make the timer, but it's usually something silly like buying groceries-" and she stops herself from going on a tangent to focus on the discussion at hand,

"I jumped when the old man said zero and it takes me two seconds to reach the top of the pillar. In that duration, he's tagged all four of you, and I'm the last one. So, it's safe to assume he spends an average of 0.5 seconds or 500 milliseconds on each of us and the total game lasted for 5.5 seconds."

Then he says, catching the drift of her conversation,

"That also means, he only takes 100 milliseconds to get from one pillar to another."

She reminds,

"But, but, he also gave us a three seconds head start!"

He guesses,

"You're suggesting, that's our win condition? If we can retrieve all five flags under three seconds, we'll be able to pass this trial."

She nods, "Yep!"

Then he balks,

"But we won't make the timer. Let's use your timing for example, it'll take you 6.7 seconds to get from pillar to pillar considering the pillars are thirty meters tall and hundred meters apart. With your time, you'll need 28 seconds to get all five flags."

She argues,

"I'm not playing the game alone."

He ponders for a bit,

"Well, if we've got the same team, then we have two dead weights today that didn't even make it up the pillar. Whereas, the redhead is fairly close."

"But on the contrary, this would also mean, if the two of us can retrieve four flags before three seconds, we have a chance of winning in sight!"

She's getting a little too excited to sit still, so she fidgetily asks,

"Hey, Cyan. Are you sleepy?"

It startles him back a bit,

"You can't be possibly thinking of going back to the arena to test it out, are you?"

"Please, please, please, please!" she begs, clasping her hands together and not holding back her words,

"We'll just go and time ourselves! If I don't find out, I won't be able to fall asleep tonight. I mean, aren't you curious of your limits too? You were the only one that managed to retrieve the flag today!"

His ears are flicking a little when he glances around the room and landing his eyes on the digital clock atop the night stand,

"I won't say I'm not..." he mutters difficulty. But that's enough for her to bolt straight up from her seat, tugging his wrist and leaping up and down,

"Come on, come on! Let's go!" praying that he won't change his mind.

Reluctantly, he sighs, putting his utensils down and stands up,

"Alright. Fine." then he makes for the digital clock, turning it towards her,

"But, an hour maximum, okay? We ought to get some sleep to even stand a chance tomorrow." the face is displaying 22:10 right now.

Jokingly, she salutes,

"Yes sir! We'll be back before midnight!"

At that, he slips the device into his pocket. She grabs her axe on their way out, and it intrigues Cyan to comment,

"We're just going to the arena. You don't need to bring your weapon with you."

She disagrees, glancing out the arches of the corridor,

"I just, don't feel safe without it." noticing it's barely railed. It won't prevent any unfortunate fool to stumble off the edges in a drunken stupor. She's seen them trip over themselves countless times in Killian's tavern. But she reckons the carpeted floors could provide enough friction to prevent that. Then she flicks her eyes up to look at the circular lights on the roof as she continues simply,

"It comforts me." It's emitting a dim orange glow to mimic candle fire. On the other side, they pass a number of closed doors which, she assumes to be rooms of other customers. But she's left her map below her pillow so she won't know if another test taker's staying here too.

Down the spiraling stairs, Cyan audibly hums for a moment, as though he's trying to relate,

"I guess, I'd feel pretty naked too if I couldn't use my Magia." his wordings confuse her so she tilts her head at him,

"Why would you be naked if you can't use Magia?" then she straightens her gaze to avoid the customers on the ground level that she's seen from atop their balcony. It makes her realize it's more crowded than she'd initially thought. Cyan tilts on a side to avoid bumping into a stereotypically dressed tourist in open green palm shirt and beige bermuda shorts,

"Idiot." he says and raises his voice to speak above the loud music playing from the speakers,

"It's figurative. I'm saying that I'd feel defenseless too." then lowers it again once they've exited to the main road,

"It's just that, I haven't met a Bellator that's so attached to their weapon."

She laughs,

"Well, that's because, it's the first present that Killian's ever given me! I was way shorter back then too!" and stretches an arm to demonstrate of her height,

"So, I had way more troubles trying to lift it up! It was so heavy!" finding the opportunity to complain,

"But, can you imagine? Killian's made me chop logs with it. I almost killed myself when I dropped it! And guess what he did. He just watched and scoffed at me! Scoffed, I tell you!"

The temperature's much cooler at night, so Cyan tucks his hands into his pockets as he replies, pointing out bluntly,

"You like Killian a lot."

It makes her snap her head away to break eye contact, declining,

"I don't! He's a bum, and a womanizer, and has a bunch of bad habits. Sometimes, he'll wear the same stained shirt for three days straight! And he also tried to stop me from coming to take the adventurer's exams because he's stingy!" staring down the serpentine of pitch-black road. But the orange light emitting from the second floors of shophouses illuminates their path.

"But..." she reluctantly admits, "he's not a bad guy. Not all the time at least." and flicks her head up again to watch Cyan rebut,

"He didn't want you to take the exam because he's worried about you, idiot. This exam is pretty dangerous. It's not uncommon for test takers to lose their lives in the process. I mean, we almost died a couple of times too." before he mutters, as if unintentional,

"I envy you, honestly..."

Curiously, she tries again,

"Does your family not worry about you? When you said you wanted to take the adventurer's exams?"

"Nope. It's customary in my family."

She doesn't entirely understand it, so she pries,

"Customary?" looking at him intently. But he isn't making eye contact, so instead, she just focuses on the red glow that's reflected in it. She can tell its wavering, as though he's bartering with himself to decide if he wants to tell her. Quietly, he says,

"Yeah. Everyone in my family is an adventurer. So, when the time comes, we're just expected to pass the exams."

She doesn't understand why he'd hide something awesome like that, so she exclaims,

"Isn't that epic?" and it only confuses her more when he unconvincingly shrugs,

"Yeah."

Spending time with him is letting her get better at telling when he's hiding something. There'll be a subtle difference in the way he bats his eyes, twitches his ears, and swishes his tails. And right now, she definitely knows, it's something that he doesn't want to talk about, but she's fighting so hard against her curiosity to pry, and she can't help it when she lets slip,

"You don't like your family very much, do you." before she immediately slaps her hand over her lips.

She shouldn't have said that.

The moment those words left her; he visibly tenses up. Followed by a whiplash of unintentional seeping aura. Like an overflowing bottle of feelings that he couldn't contain trinkling out. It's mostly melancholic, fuddled with an agitation. The mentioning of them vexes him.

Before the lid is screwed shut again and he tries to pretend,

"I do." clicking his tongue at her,

"Stop asking. You're nosy." he's lying.

It makes her realize, not liking them would be an understatement. He hates even thinking about them.

Then he diverts her attention, pointing to the pillars,

"We're here."

Engrossed in the conversation as she was, she hadn't noticed. But he's right. They're right at the base of the center pillar. The flags are still there. Except it's much harder to see the vibrant red in its hues at night. The milky way of stars far overshadows it above. Then Cyan pulls the digital clock from his pocket. Fiddling with it to set the timer. The buzz of an alarm snaps her attention like a magnet, it startles her.

Cyan, deadpans,

"Three seconds had already passed." as if he wants to quickly change the topic and sweep the previous conversation under the rug.

She gets the hint, so she too, drops it to argue,

"Not fair! I wasn't ready!" and runs to the base of the bottom left tower, plopping her axe on the ground to lighten herself. Before coiling her legs and focusing on the very top point, flicking him a glance,

"Okay! I'm ready now!"

He starts the timer. She jumps. Kicking behind her a cloud of dust. A shockwave of impact resonates through the deathly quiet night. Wind, blowing her hair back as she overshoots the height. Watching the top of the pillar shrink past her. Then the alarm sounds just as she lands on it. Bending her knees to balance herself.

Beneath her, Cyan's craned his head up to admonish,

"What the heck, you went way past the limit, idiot."

She explains,

"I'm not used to jumping without my axe!" The lack of extra weight throws her off her estimate. She's lighter now. So, the same force would bring her higher. Pouting, she leaps down from the pillar,

"Let me try again!"

"Fine." Cyan resets the timer, whereas she readies herself, and pins her eyes at the flag. At the sound of him declaring,

"Okay. Go!" she jumps again. This time portioning her Vita to a quarter so it should work. It brings her to the top. Swiping at the flap pole and yanks it from the metal sheath. Not wasting any time to even fully straighten her body, she quickly orients towards the bottom right pillar. Flinging herself for it. Streamlined, to reduce air resistance. At such a high speed, she thinks, the cold night wind hurts when it whips at her. Just before she lands. The alarm goes off again. Indicating that her timer's up. It frustrates her to whine,

"I was so close!"

"If it's a real trial, close wouldn't cut it. You would've already been tagged out."

"I know that!" She demands,

"Let me try again." leaping to the bottom left pillar to reset the flag before she makes for the ground.

Cyan knows she isn't going to relent so he's restarting the timer. Once she's in position,

"Go!" he says.

She makes another attempt. Up the first pillar, minimizing her movements so she has more time to make a turn. She shoots for bottom right. Outstretching her arm. Hair away from brushing her fingers away from the flag. The buzzer goes off again.

Irritated,

She demands,

"Again!" realizing Cyan's sat himself atop the bottom left pillar so that he can replace the flag after her. She instead, heads for the ground to ready herself.

"Go!"

She jumps, reaches bottom left pillar. The force of her landing, throws Cyan's hair back. He's positioned himself off center she wouldn't crash into him. She unhinges the flag. Spins and leaps for the right pillar. The buzzer goes off. Frustrated, she resets her location again.

Cyan repeats,

"Go!" she jumps, bottom left, flag, bottom right. Buzzer goes off.

"Again!" jumps, bottom left, flag, bottom right. Buzzer goes off. Repeat. Jump, left, flag, right. Repeat. Jump. Buzzer. Jump. Buzzer. Jump. She isn't certain if she's getting out of breath, or if the frustration is making her movements clanky, but each time she attempts. She seems to be getting further and further away from being able to reach her mark. The last try, the timer went off even before she reaches midpoint of bottom right pillar. Irritated, she lets out an agitated,

"Arg!" as she lands and buries her hands into her hair. This is really testing her patience. She's hyperventilating, so much, she's beginning to think that the bralette, clinging tight onto her from her sweat as it is, is restricting her from taking huge gaps of air.

Then she spins to make eye contact when she hears Cyan holler,

"Hey, Lilith!" he's flickering his gaze between the two pillars, like he's thinking about something, then he suggests,

"Try jumping from bottom left to center instead."

She tilts her head at him as she resets,

"What difference would that make?" but he's just restarting the timer and urging her,

"Just do it."

"Okay." she coils,

"Go!" jumps, making the first flag. She snaps around, throwing herself forward for the center pillar. Outstretching her arm midair as she approaches, she's anticipating the buzzer to go off, but it doesn't. Instead, she's managed to retrieve it, then she lands. It sounds a second later. Looking at the flag in her hands, she's got it.

She's actually got it.

Confused, she spins around,

"What sorcery did you do?" leaping to the platform where he's at.

Cyan explains,

"That's because, the center pillar is nearer." he points to the four surrounding pillars,

"These ones make a hundred-by-hundred square. That would mean, the center pillar is only seventy meters away from any of the corner pillars. And the total diagonal length is a hundred and forty meters." he tosses her the digital clock,

"This also means, we can try something like this." before leaping down to the base of the pillar. She furls herself on her shins, leaning over the ledge to watch him.

He's kneeled on a knee, flaring a hand on the ground, but he isn't facing the flag, instead. He's targeting the wall behind the pillar she's on.

"Tell me when you hit the button." gathering his Magia within his palm. Wind begins spiraling around him, picking up a spinning sandstorm along with it.

She takes a moment to find it, before she says,

"Go!"

A shockwave of wind-lash whips from his hand. He's launched himself with it. Blasting the sand away in a circle, so hard, it patters, like raindrops, when it hits against the pillars. Channeling another swirl of raging wind on his way up. He catches onto the edge of the viewing podium.

Bang.

Another shockwave, this time, much stronger. The back lash of it almost throws her off the pillar, but she's managed to grip her fingers in to the ledge to root herself. She snaps her neck to follow in the direction where he's pounced, as though a hunting fox. Fast like a missile, and pulling her hair with him as he flew past. In the diagonal trajectory of the three flags that are in a line from bottom left, central and top right. He manages to retrieve two. Touching the third just as the buzzer goes off.

But the force which he's shot himself wouldn't let him stop to land gracefully, so instead, he body slams, shoulder first, arms crossed before his face, into the wall behind the top left pillar with an unceremoniously loud crash. The impact is so strong, it dents the sandstone. Making a hole and chipping some rocks loose.

Panicked, she gets up and leaps in his direction, just as he climbs himself on his feet beneath the giant hole he's made. She asks,

"Are you okay?!"

He pats the fragments of rocks off himself,

"Yeah, I'm not an idiot. I fortified myself with Vita before I hit the wall, obviously. My Vi alignment isn't that strong, but it's good enough to at least tank this much." she's still examining his upper arm when he adds,

"I've noticed, the only reason why you couldn't make the timer, is because you had to stop and turn. That's why I came up with this idea." it's slightly red, so she reaches forward to brush away the split sleeves and presses her thumb in. Studying his expression as she does. He isn't flinching, and his bone still feels intact.

He shrugs her off,

"Stop doubting me, I'm okay."

She argues,

"I just wanted to make sure! I'm worried about you!"

It makes him click his tongue again,

"Idiot."

"Stop calling me an idiot!" then she ponders for a bit,

"I know how to get all five flags before three seconds! But we'll need to be really coordinated."

He agrees,

"That was what I had in mind too." and offers, "I'll grab the center."

"Okay."

Resetting the flags, they get into position. Cyan making bottom left, and Lilith's headed for bottom right,

"We'll go at the count of three." she still has the clock in hand,

"One." she aims herself for the wall, ready to mimic what Cyan just did,

"Two," bending down.

"Three!" she clicks the timer and leaps in time with the sound of Cyan's wind lash. Shooting for the wall and repositioning midair so she lands feet first against it. Perpendicular, she kicks, hard as she can to launch herself forward towards the center. She's nailed her gaze for top left, stretching her arm out to yank at the first flag on bottom right as she projectiles past. Heading for the center, she prays that she doesn't slam into Cyan in the crisscross trajectories they're going in. She sees him closing in her peripheral.

It looks like they're going to collide. It makes her instinctively shroud her Vita around her to soften the impact. Bang. They do, bumping shoulders to ribs. The backlash throws both of them back, like billiards, sending them away from where they wanted to go. Bracing their landing against opposite walls before ricocheting to land on the ball of her feet. Then the buzzer goes off. She stops it ringing, before hollering out to Cyan across her,

"You go higher this time!"

"Alright." he seems in pain when he staggers up. A hand pressing down the side of his rib where she's rammed into him, so she asks again,

"Are you okay?"

But he just assures her,

"Told you I'm fine. Stop asking." as he resets the flags pillar to pillar before returning to position. At that, she hesitantly agrees and restarts the timer to begin counting,

"One, two, three!"

She jumps, trying to eye a position lower. Propelling herself off it. Retrieving the first flag before crashing into Cyan again. After they land, this time, he gets up and yells at her,

"Idiot! Go lower!"

She argues, setting up again,

"It's harder than it looks! You didn't go higher either!"

They reattempt, the third time, finally not colliding, however, the buzzer goes off before they've managed to retrieve the flags.

Determined, they repeat.

Again, again. Few times, bumping into each other. Whereas others they're short by seconds. It's difficult because she has to allocate the precise amount of Vita to her legs to shotgun for the exact coordinate to not bump into Cyan. It almost feels like, trying to thread a needle while having stubs for fingers.

The dents they're beginning to make in the walls where they've repeatedly kicked wasn't helping either. So, the coordinates and Vita demands changes every attempt. It's only after a few hundred tries that they learn how to portion their Vitas correctly at small fragments so they can reliably and consistently avoid each other. And it takes a few thousand more to get anywhere close to the timer.

At this point, they're both out of breath, hyperventilating with sweat matting down their faces. Bruised all over from the collisions that she thinks, her joints are starting to hurt. Her legs are beginning to feel like jelly. Her throat isn't in a better state. It's dry as the desert surrounding them.

But it feels so within reach that they're reluctant to stop. So, they've been at this for a while now. Getting closer to the three seconds mark each time. Diminishing it by a few milliseconds every retry. Slowly chipping away at the timer like a sculptor to marble. Millisecond by millisecond.

They've also made a race out of replacing the flags half way through, at who could finish sticking all the flags back to their holsters faster. Of course, she'd won majorly of the time because she only has two and he has three. Until Cyan decides to cheat by tossing the last one from the center pillar instead. But it only makes her amazed at his delicate aim.

How is he so good at everything, it's unfair.

It's somewhere nearing the five thousandth attempt that the sensation of the walls around them, and pillars beneath their feet start to grow familiar. Even the wind, doesn't hurt as much when it strikes her face at high speeds. She's getting accustomed.

Finally, on their last attempt, she stops the timer at exactly 3 seconds 399 milliseconds. Flopping down atop the pillar with the flag in her hand and staring at the stars that are gradually dimming from the rising sun in the horizon,

"I think, we can work with this. The old man takes 400 milliseconds to tap us. We'll end the game before he can."

Hoarsely, Cyan agrees,

"Yeah." before he realizes,

"Fuck!" hearing him swear makes her prop herself on her elbows to watch him. He's curled on his side, hardly caught his breath judging from the hasted raises and dips of his back, but he still summons the energy to furrow his brows at her,

"Idiot! It's already morning!"