Jose and Lysa were staring at one another, their breath ragged in that training arena, the sun just starting to peek in from the glass ceiling above.

Their training sessions had left their bodies raw. Jose more so because he was trying to catch up with what the training regimen considered an ‘average’ recruit. It had been excruciating work pushing his soul outside of him. Most of the exercises he pushed himself in were ones to strengthen the malleability of his soul.

He was hoping to see results today

Emma was standing in a corner, observing their sparring with a device of some kind.

They had agreed to cap off the week-long training session with a sparring match to see how far their abilities had come in a real world brawl.

“I’m going to shut off the lights for the match, okay? Aside from the skylight, you’ll have to reach out and use your sense to find one another. There are weapons scattered across the arena as well that will only react to your kinesis attempts. Otherwise I hope you’re confident in your reinforcement skills because that’s all you’ll have access to.” Emma called out the rules of the match.

“Just get it started, woman! I’m getting antsy over here.” Lysa replied. She was stretching, alleviating her muscles from the fatigue incurred on them in training earlier that day.

Jose was perfectly fine taking a breather, the training session having taken more out of him than before. He was pushing himself harder, training alone at night as well as in the mornings just to scrape up an advantage over the other volunteers.

His shaping wasn’t great, but it was much better than before, at least slightly above the shaping skills of a non-Hollowed individual. This fire under his feet had really pushed him to close that gap and he felt more confident about it.

Without warning, Emma shut off the lights. Jose responded by focusing his mind inward and pinging the immediate area for the presence of other souls. There was one in the corner and another barreling straight at him.

He pulled back from the sense and moved into sight, seeing Lysa’s soul shaped gauntlets around her fists. She jabbed and he tumbled away.

Her ability to see and sense him in the dark via soul was much worse but she kept up her assault through mundane skill.

He fumbled in the dark and reached out with his kinesis. It was his weakest skill but going blow for blow against Lysa was a losing battle and he knew it. He pushed his soul like taffy out of his body, as far as it would go to grab anything planted in the ground.

And found nothing.

“I gotcha!” Lysa slammed both of her reinforced fists onto the ground and Jose rolled away from the blow, the compacted dirt kicking up and hitting him with flakes and pebbles.

His gambit had failed and he was straining to move his soul for sight and sense around. Even if Lysa was bleeding energy inefficiently, she had enough of it to outlast him after a training session.

He considered attempting a spell cast and decided against it. Without the book as a conduit, the chances of it fizzling were about fifty-fifty. The spells that weren’t slotted anyway... Greater odds if he invested more soul into the casting for the mold but he was almost spent as is.

“You better run, Jose!” Lysa broke him out of his train of thought.

He refocused on her and saw she had acquired a weapon off the ground with her own kinesis. Now it was a loss of attrition or an assured defeat in combat.

He shook his head. He needed to pull through somehow.

“Oh wow, I thought you were all about pummeling with your fists. Didn’t realize you’d actually know how to use a tool in battle.” Jose goaded. Lysa didn’t take the bait, instead rushing at the sound of his voice with a readied swing. He ducked and the weapon whizzed over his head.

“You’re fucking slippery for someone so big!” Lysa griped, swinging her weapon around in wide arcs to limit his movements. Another duck weaved backward and he was pressed up against the wall.

Without thinking, he pushed himself from the wall and barrelled forward into Lysa’s midsection, catching her off guard.

They both tumbled into the ground and he wrestled her to gain the weapon from her hand but she wouldn’t budge.

She kicked him in the stomach, leaving him more winded than he already was, gasping for air to enter his lungs. She didn’t let up, swinging her weapon downward on his crumpled body. He raised his hands and mustered the best reinforcement defense he could but it shattered after the second blow.

Before she could slam down with a third attack, Jose yelled, “I yield!”

In an instant, the lights were turned on and they could see one another clearly. Lysa was letting out labored breaths, arms shaking just to keep her weapon above her head. After a moment, she let out a sigh of relief and fell onto the floor.

“Fuck, Jose… you really… you really know how to make a winner feel like shit.” Lysa let out.

The fatigue caught him all at once now that the adrenaline had faded and he sunk himself further into the ground.

“I… my body hurts… I’m fucking exhausted…” was all Jose could muster. Emma walked towards the both of them and threw warm towels on their faces. The warm fragrance removed most of the fog clouding his mind and he reached out to rub his tender muscles with the rest of the towel.

“Both of you tried your hardest out there and the progress you’ve achieved so far shows. We can talk about the examination and your improvements but that all can wait. Get showered and dressed. Nora and I are taking you out to lunch.”

Jose and Lysa looked at one another in surprise.

“When did you get the time to plan?” Lysa asked as she pulled herself up from the ground.

“At work. Fits that the both of you should get something for all that effort you’ve been putting into this. Anyway, get moving!” Emma clapped her hands and hurried the both of them along towards the bathrooms.

Jose showered, rubbing away the fatigue in his muscles with warm water and a sudsy cleaning rag. The showers were communal and he felt grateful for being alone with his thoughts. Tomorrow was the day of the examination and although he’d progressed this far this quickly, he remained uncertain that his advances would see him on that boat towards his first adventure.

He kicked the water in frustration. He was waiting for a moment like this but he never put any effort in making himself ready for when the time came.

Whatever. Wallowing in self-pity is what got him there and kicking himself now was just going to sour his mood over something he was attempting to deal with now. Jose had to make up for lost time and he’d work twice as hard to make up for it.

He cleaned himself up and got ready for their celebratory lunch.

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Nora and Emma had chosen a higher end restaurant for lunch. The Canopy was considered a higher end establishment because of their local garden and an obsession with fresh ingredients hunted in the swamps to avoid the aftertaste that foods generated from the Copia had. The inside of the establishment felt more like a tavern than a proper restaurant, with mounted monster heads and framed ornate tools for preparing the meats and vegetables listed in the menu. The seats were cushioned in velvet with lacquered mangrove wood and the ambiance was pleasant, the gentle tones of a piano carrying through the hall from a bard unseen.

Emma had given him his semi-formal attire, a long sleeved dress shirt with belt and crisp black pants and a long jacket to match the baby blue color of his shirt. She was wearing a light yellow dress with a faint floral stitch at the hem, her shoulder length hair tied up in a bun. The jewel on her necklace glimmered in rainbow hues.

She noticed him staring at her and the necklace and smiled. It was a gift for their one year anniversary after they had married. Jose had found the necklace among the magical items in a shipment at work and begged his Overseer to take it home. It was the kind of item that was inscrutable to identify but he didn’t care for its effects. Even with the conditions he had to deal with the month following that, just her smile alone was worth the effort.

Opposite of them at the table were Nora, Lysa, and their youngest son, Ollie. Nora was severe in every sense of the word; short hair with sharp features, cheek bones, thin pointed nose, and blue colored eyes that gave off an icy chill like she was trying to freeze whatever she was looking at. She was dressed in a formal Vanguardian uniform, complete withe gloves and badges on her chest.

It was always strange to see her features soften the moment she interacted with Ollie or Lysa, their love melting away the frost on her face.

Lysa was dressed in a three piece dark blue suit. The faint outline of her muscles could be seen even through the suit jacket but Jose could feel Lysa’s discomfort over wearing such a thing. She wasn’t much for pretexts and the idea of wearing a suit to a fancy place wasn’t something he thought she’d be keen on doing of her own accord.

Ollie was seated on one side of the circular table. If Jose recalled, the boy was around nine years old and was beginning to settle into his parents' features; a rounded face with chestnut hair from Lysa and the same blue eyes from Nora that gave him a gentle and ethereal quality. Considering the boy's brown complexion, the eyes were all the more striking.

Nora turned her attention to Jose and he suppressed a yelp, “I hear you’ve been working hard with Lysa. From the looks of ya, you’re starting to get that adventurin’ edge.”

Jose stumbled to get his words together, “Y-yes ma’am. I’ve been trying to take this excursion seriously and don’t want to hold back my team in any way.” Bold assumption to think that he was already a shoe in for the volunteering team but he needed to be confident.

He turned his attention to Emma and saw her giggling.

“Ma’am? Shit, Jose I didn’t think you’d be so well mannered with my wife around. Where’s all that respect when you’re talking to me, huh?” Lysa said, grabbing onto Nora’s arm. The older woman raised an eyebrow and smirked.

“Well, if he’s just talking to you, there’s not much to respect.” Nora’s smirk became a wide smile, the severity in her eyes softening to a playful expression. Lysa pulled her hand away from Nora and crossed her arms, pouting at the betrayal.

“Mom talks about you a lot.” Ollie chimed in.

Jose leaned over to him and raised an eyebrow, “Really? What does your mom say about me?”

“Well, she says that you’re smart and funny when you work but…” He trailed off, turning his attention to Lysa, walking off to whisper something in her ear.

Lysa let out a laugh. Ollie hid his face behind his hands and hid behind Lysa.

“What did Ollie tell you?” Jose asked Lysa.

She cracked a grin, “He asked if he could repeat the bad word I say about you.”

Ollie peeked over his mother and peered with his eyes through the cracks in his fingers before ducking back into cover. Jose shook his head in amusement.

“Don’t worry kid, I won’t bite. I’m sure I know what kind of bad words your mom says. Come and sit with us.” Jose said. The boy walked back to his seat, giving Jose side glances until their food arrived.

It was a luxury they were going to eat a fresh, local meal. He wasn’t going to sour the mood by asking how exactly they afforded the lunch for the whole group, instead being grateful for their generosity and love. What good were coins if you weren’t going to spend them on moments like this?.

Besides, Ileah was well off in having the climate they did; Most families managed gardens to have fresh ingredients on hand and stored more delectable ingredients in their own ice boxes until a shipping caravan came ‘round with fresh ingredients from either the Plains or the Coast. The climate throughout the route was consistent, meaning those gardens weren’t subject to temperature fluctuations like some other Vessels.

Jose smelled the food before it was laid on the table. His plate was filled with seared meat that could fall off the bone with just a tug. The food was served with fresh bread that crinkled with a crunchy outer shell, revealing a warm and soft interior. Jose waited for Nora and Lysa to settle Ollie with a napkin on his knees before everyone dug into their meals.

They didn’t start conversing with one another until they’d gotten their fill, collectively making noises in satisfaction and pleasure at the delicacies they were trying. Jose hadn’t expected alligator meat to be as chewy as it was but the richness of the meat was apparent with every bite he took.

“Mr. Jose,” Ollie started, “Are you a Wizard?” Emma choked on her food a bit and Lysa frowned, looking at Ollie in disapproval before looking at Jose and seeing how he would respond.

Jose sighed and turned to the boy, “Well, what kind of Wizard are you talking about, Ollie?”

He turned to his mother to gain approval for his next question before turning back to Jose, “You have a book on your hip like the Wizards in my book. They all have a book with those kinds of letters so I thought… I thought you might be a Wizard.” He trailed off, unsure what kind of social boundary he crossed.

“Well, and you keep this between you and me,” Jose leaned in and whispered to Ollie, “This is a Wizards book. It’s from a very famous Wizard and she left it with me to learn from and take care of it.”

Ollie’s eyes lit up and he gestured to touch the cover. Receiving a nod from Jose, the boy touched the book's cover and then opened to the first page. The smile turned to confusion very quickly.

Lysa nudged Nora on the shoulder, “Our boy doesn’t know how to read it.”

“I do know how to read it!” Ollie yelled, his brows furrowing the more pages he flipped through. Jose was reminded of the first time he flipped through his spellbook, the very same book that gave him so much trouble.

“It’s okay to admit that you don’t know how to read it, Ollie. Most Wizards learn to read through spell books by learning from another Wizard.” Jose gently took the book away from Ollie. The boy was clearly disappointed that he couldn’t read through the material at all, the runes on the cover and pages indecipherable.

“But wait, if you can read it, then that means you’re a Wizard right?” Ollie’s eyes lit up again. Jose chuckled awkwardly.

“I don’t know if I’d measure up to any of the Wizards in your story books but I guess if a Wizard needs a book and can read through it, then I’m a Wizard.”

Emma placed a hand on his back and smiled at him, rubbing away the mental discomfort that was welling up within him.

Before Ollie could ask another question about the book and its origins, Lysa jumped in and changed the conversation, “So, Jose! I heard from the rest of the cabal that you’ve fully deciphered the book from the Mire Men shipment?”

Jose immediately perked up, “Oh, yeah. I was sad to give it to the Overseer but I still have the deciphered transcripts. Do you remember how I said the manual talked about the fortresses' functions?”

Emma and Lysa nodded in recognition of the subject. A quick whisper to Nora and she was caught up to speed with the tidbits.

“Well, it turns out that the manual had all sorts of interesting bits of information. The name of the sunken fortress is the Telm-Pao and it’s been in service since before the Veil was established.”

Emma whistled incredulously.

“You’re fucking with me.” Lysa stated matter of factly.

“Nope. The place is old. Stuff in the margins talk about expectations from the gods and everything. Honestly, the fact that we found this fortress after so many years of looping through the same route is baffling to me. But that’s not even the crazy part.”

Jose leaned in close on the table, monitoring their surroundings before speaking in a hushed tone, “This forge developed Chariots.”

That discovery caused all of their eyes to widen.

“You’re lying to me. You have to have read it wrong.” Emma said.

“What she said. Did you double check or-”

Jose sighed, “Yes I double checked the translation. Triple checked it and compared it to the deciphered diagrams in the pages. This is an honest to goodness Chariot forge.”

He could understand their incredulity. A forge that built Chariots was expensive to maintain and exceedingly rare amongst the mobile fortresses still in operation but the resulting product elevated those fortunate mobile fortresses into proper bastions of commerce and questing.

“Do the elders know about the forge?” Nora whispered with a serious glare.

“I provided the information to the Overseer as was the task. If they provide my report to the elders, that’d be their prerogative. I doubt he’d keep it to himself but the elders won’t act on this information until the volunteering team that’s sent out comes back with information on the condition of the forge. Wouldn’t make much sense to derail Ileah’s entire route and retrieve the forge just to find out the relic’s a hunk of scrap not worth the effort.” Jose responded. The breadth of the response was satisfactory for Nora since she reclined back on her seat to ruminate on the information.

Ollie looked at the buzz the revelation generated and frowned in confusion, “But why do we care about ch-chariots? Mom rides one all the time when she goes outside.”

Before Jose could jump in with an answer, Lysa chimed in, “Well kiddo, Mommy is riding on a… fake chariot.”

“It’s not fake, mom, it’s real. We’ve seen it.”

“No, Ollie, I mean that the chariots that mom rides on are not really chariots. They don’t have souls. They were built in a forge that we’ve had to make in the today times to meet the needs of adventurers and traders trying to extend trade routes between fortresses.”

Ollie nodded slowly, attempting to understand the information in as sophisticated a way a nine year old could. Jose thought Ollie looked like he wanted to ask more questions but held off. If just the cursory explanation was already hard enough for him to digest, throwing him into the deep end over the differences between artificial and genuine Chariots and those implications was sure to leave him frustrated rather than curious to seek out information.

“I also made a rudimentary map of the fortresses interior using the diagrams of their vent systems. It’s likely not going to hold up to scrutiny since the fortress isn’t in peak condition, but knowing where to find vents and bread crumb our way to the forge should make the expedition easier and safer.”

Emma rubbed his back and smiled, “Look at you thinking ahead.”

“Yeah, bold of you to think that you’re going to be on that expedition to begin with.” Lysa interjected

“Wait what the-”

“I mean I’m glad that you’re confident enough in your skills that you already think you’re getting into the team. Takes a weight off my shoulders to hype you up for tomorrow.” She gave him a wide smile. Jose begrudgingly accepted the compliment, however back handed it felt to him.

“How many volunteers are left on the list?” Nora asked.

“The list was finalized last night with 62 participants still registered. Unless anyone else backs out come examination day, it’ll be about a 17 percent chance that either of these two make it on the team.” Emma answered.

17 percent didn’t sound like great odds but he’d work with what he had.

“It looks like the training though has been paying off for these two,” Emma pulled out her journal and cycled through pages to find their growth charts, “Lysa gained significant improvements in the reinforcement and kinesis categories, especially after trying some shaping exercises in a training chamber. You’ll need to focus your attention on Sight and Sense if you’re planning to continue training without the aid of our facilities though, so do keep that in mind. Your Communion skills are above average, by virtue of your profession so there wasn’t much of a reason for training you there. Keep up the good work.” Lysa nodded in approval and received whispered words of encouragement from her wife.

Emma turned to Jose with happiness all over her face, “And I can’t help but feel so proud for what you’ve accomplished in such a short time.” She displayed Jose’s charts and he, for the first time, visualized his progress. There was a validation that came with all of that time investment and he felt it when he saw that he’d improved in nearly all areas of training.

“By way of Jose’s profession, his Communion skills were already strong. His specializations at the Annals meant that his Soul Sight was also above average. It was a struggle on both our parts, but we pushed Jose into the lower averages for all of his other skills. Although not considered a skill on this chart here, his soul shaping skills have also significantly improved. We have a training regimen for him to continue to follow, but I’m proud to say Jose has a fighting chance in all of this.” Jose stared at the charts, at the creeping rounding of his skills and the feelings of bittersweet pride welled up in the pits of his stomach and the corners of his dampening eyes.

“Congratulations, Jose. I expect for you to watch Lysa’s back should you get accepted,” Nora turned over to Lysa, “And I expect you to drop from this mission if he doesn’t make the cut.”

“Honey, I’ll be fine. Jose’s always been the cautious one in our cabal. When he’s enlisted, we’ll make sure to cover our weaknesses and take on whatever creepy crawlies lurk in the fortress.”

With final assurances from Lysa and the others, Jose was able to focus on eating his meal and settle his nerves.

Tomorrow was examination day and he wanted to be calm and collected for the event. He was going to look over his notes before bed tonight. He wanted to be ready.

He wanted to win.