The current expedition team sat uncomfortably in the hallway of the Council Hall, waiting for the cleaning personnel to adjust an unused meeting chamber into an interviewing location.

“Let’s spare no expense!” Elder Nero had cried out when he heard of their plans to interview those hopeful candidates before marking their final decision to the two of them. Jose was keenly aware that Elder Isabella was still absent from their meetings, likely advancing her schemes in one way or another.

He just had to depend on Emma to handle her on the homefront.

“Thank you for yesterday.” Lysa punched him on the shoulder and snorted.

“Anytime, asshole.” He punched her back and felt his knuckles crack against a concrete wall.

Fucking reinforcement.

“The volunteers are waiting outside.” Joanna gestured to the small line formed in the public atrium, eight potential candidates speaking to one another in hushed tones.

“It’d be funny to have them fight for the last spots.” Carmina raised her eyebrow and waited for someone to agree with her ruse.

“No.” Matteo shut down the notion immediately.

They’d sent invitations to ten candidates so drawing back eight of them was a good sign. There were formal rejections for followup from Delores and Vallejo, the former assuring that her pupil would be a worthy candidate and the latter yelling about having his sons take his place. Carmina had already drawn the line on both of them so it was beyond his hands.

The current team setup was him as the Sapper, Carmina as the Scout, Matteo as the Bulwark, Lysa as the Lancer, and Joanna and Izirrary as the Medics. They needed an additional dedicated Scout and Sapper and two frontline members. Jose was going to interview the three Sapper candidates and assess their personality and skill level. Carmina was going to do the same with the two Scouts we invited. Matteo and Lysa were interviewing the frontline members together with their own criteria of investigation.

Joanna and Izirrary didn’t have to interview anyone on account of their deal to have Izirarry join the team but Jose gave them the option to sit in on any of their interviews should they feel left out or become interested in the details of their roles.

Izirrary showed interest in watching his interviews but the judgmental glare of Joanna told him it’d have been a bad idea to egg her into the room.

“Hey, if you’re uninterested in any of the interviews here, go and talk to your Elder about our supplies.” Jose suggested to the two Medics standing at the edge of the hall.

“She’s in the middle of a project at the moment and can’t be distrubed for a few hours.” Joanna started.

“But I’m sure we can compile a list of resources we’ll need for the expedition when she’s done with it.” Izirrary ended.

Jose’s train of thought was derailed with the bombastic opening of the interviewing chamber.

“The room’s been taken care of.” One of the cleaning staff stated to the group. The lot of them shuffled off and out of the hallway, exchanging pleasantries with the volunteers waiting outside. The group entered the room and did a once over of the setup, a long table and comfortable looking chairs on the far end of the room looking at the double-doored entrance with a singular chair at the center of the room's open space. Tables had been pushed to the ends of the walls to provide ample maneuverability space.

“We can have demonstrations then…” Jose muttered under his breath. He wouldn’t need the space for that but his teammates might. He turned to the rest of the group, “I’ll go first with the interview process.” No one made objections. He walked out to the hallway and brought back his toolbox, taking out a number of items from the Sapper kit and a few items he’d refurbished that the Annals didn’t care to ‘misplace’.

Jose turned to Lysa, “Send one of them in after three minutes. Go with your gut on who looks the most prepared.” Lysa nodded and walked out of the room. He tapped his fingers on the table as the rest of the group stood out in the hall, straining his ears to hear the faint footfalls of their first volunteer. He instinctively reached for his journal, to occupy time with reading the report again but stopped himself.

This wasn’t just about testing their skills.

His ears perked up as steps moved down the hall and towards their interview chambers accompanied with the metallic rattling of tools in a box. The double doors opened wide and he saw a toned dark skin woman wearing a smudged machinist uniform, soft caramel colored eyes behind circle framed glasses. She moved with purpose, the unfocused glance at the interview chamber flashing instantly to a narrow acknowledgement of his presence at the end of the room. Her eyes moved farther down to the table.

“I won’t be needing your tools.” She declared in a mid-range voice. She sat down at the chair in the center and crossed her arms, carefully placing the decorated toolbox on the floor.

“Please say your full name before we begin.” Jose recited his opening lines.

She raised an eyebrow but shrugged, “Thought you already had it but okay. My name’s Marsiella Marin. I can go by Marsi or Mari if you’d prefer.”

“I’ll address you by your full name for now. It’d feel odd to call you by a shorthand so soon.” Jose admitted to Marsiella.

“Suit yourself.” Her mannerisms were disinterested but professional. He was sure the disinterest was towards the typical opening moments of the interview process and not the chance at getting a seat on the expedition. Otherwise why’d she accept the invitation?

“To introduce myself, my name is Jose Ileria. I’ve been appointed to the leadership position and am our team's current Sapper.”

“Thought you were an Arcanist? Didn’t see you use any magical items beyond that club implement in the second round.”

“I’m formally trained as an Archivist. I’ve been introduced to the Arcane Arts but am not formally an Arcanist. Didn’t use any tools in my fight because I didn’t expect to be put in one.” Marsiella digested his response and found it satisfactory.

“My boss asked me to ask you why you didn’t consider his ‘golden boys’ for the job?” Marsiella shifted the conversation.

“They were written in the report as a packaged deal. We didn’t want to be saddled with occupying two spots on the boat outright when we only have four to speak of.” Jose spoke in half truths.

“I’ll let him know.”

“To get back to this interview process, I see you’ve brought your own toolbox.”

Marsiella gestured to the floor, “Never leave home without it.”

“How many of the Eights do you have on hand?” Jose posed the first technical question in a calm tone. Her eyes narrowed and a faint smile crept on her face.

“I’ve got two wands, the toolbox is a spatial container, a lot of petrified cores, a club implement like yours, a spool of Weaver’s Milk, and a Curiosity.” Marsiella checked off seven of the Faithful Eight. Eight in all if we both considered the journals as part of the group but most magical item enthusiasts reserved the Book classification for Grimoires, Scrawls, and Scrolls.

“What’s your wand's node-to-line composition? What are they for? Do they have any Aspects?” Another technical question. Likely softballs for a machinist of her expected experience but he didn’t want to stray too far off the testing script. He could use that confidence for the end of the interview.

“The first one’s a 5 to 1. It’s a modified pipe for Vessel and Chariot repairs. It’s a manufactured design so no. The second one’s a 2 to 6. Traded half a year’s salary to buy it off an adventurer who didn’t recognize its worth. It’s a torch with a combat function and Aspected to boot.” Marsiella pulled the first pipe out and it looked well maintained. He could see from a distance its current function was set to hammer and was likely an all in one multi-tool tailored for her job. The second pipe… a mangrove bark frame? Jose’s eyes widened.

“No way!” Jose couldn’t hold back his excitement. “Is it a classic design or a gout design? What sort of Aspect function does it have?”

“Neither. Ha ha, love your enthusiasm but I’ll be keeping that a secret unless I’m given the spot.” Marsiella dropped it back into the toolbox without giving Jose a further look. He doubted she’d hand over any of her tools to an Archivist like him.

He cleared his throat and moved on, “You mentioned you have a lot of petrified cores. Any reason why?”

“I use it to power the Curiosity if I need to or hand them out to my neighbors when their stuff starts to go bad.” He avoided dwelling on the subject of the Curiosity but if it was powered by soul cores, it meant it was usable. A tool or a deterrent, Jose would need to see it to assess.

“And just to confirm, your club isn’t modified right?”

“I’ve got a studded ring around the end of it but nothing else, no.”

“If given a Sapper Kit, what would your top three items be and why?”

Marsiella didn’t miss a beat, “Same thing I ran with during the final event; a spool of Weavers Milk, effect prisms, and a variety of soul cores. The spool came in handy in acting as a primer or tripwire for the effect prisms or tethering the use of one effect prism to another without the need for anyone else to be around. Tether a soul core on top of that and you amplify the effects of the prism. They’re also small and light to carry so it was never a hassle to bring them along.”

That explained the versatility of the report. Doing a once over of the Sapper kit he had in his mind, he was limited to general explosives, a torch pipe, and a compression charge.

“Final question and then you can leave; What are your motivations for joining this expedition?” Jose leaned in close and observed the twitch in her body. It looked like she was surprised by the unexpected question but did he feel she was being suspicious?

“I joined because my boss asked me to join the team and promised I’d get a week off in the lead up to the event to do so. Spent that time lounging around with my sister's kid and getting drunk off my ass at the bars. I came back because I’d like to take some souvenirs off the Vessel if I get a chance to explore it and make enough money to purchase a home topside. And the look of shock on those boys faces when I got an invitation and they didn’t was fucking priceless to me.” Marsiella answered.

“It was a pleasure to speak with you, Marsiella. You’ll know if you’re on the expedition team by the end of the day.” Jose watched Marsiella pick up her toolbox and walk out of the interview chamber. The moment the double doors closed, he let out a huge sigh of relief, his shoulders dropping in relief from the pressure. It didn’t seem she was being influenced by Isabella in a meaningful capacity but I wouldn’t put it past her to inform the infiltrators not to mention their involvement with one another.

No, her history with Vallejo and the fact he picked her over other machinists suggests some adherence to loyalty and trust, two qualities they were looking for in the takeover plot.

Lysa popped in her head through the door, “Hey, we’re sending in the next one now. Look alive.” She left just as quickly. Jose composed himself and waited for the next volunteer to walk through the doors.

After a few moments taking deep breaths, the double doors opened slightly and a small woman with a black bowl for hair and deep set bags under her eyes slinked inside. Her hand was fidgeting with a staff, fingers tapping from top to bottom like playing keys on a piano. She saw the chair and sat down, struggling to look up and make eye contact with him. Did Lysa forget about making sure they weren’t nervous? Jose suppressed a groan.

“Please say your full name before we begin.” Jose asked her. The two sat in silence for a moment, her body beginning to tremble slightly with every passing second.

“E-e-Eloise F-f-f-Flores. Sir. My name is Eloise Flores.” Her initial stutter was followed by a deep breath and a struggle to get her name out without chattering. “I’m sorry about this. I should just go.” She motioned to leave but grabbed the side of the chair tightly, stuck in the motion.

“Hey, it’s alright to be nervous about this. Just give yourself the chance and go from there.” Jose softened his voice and motioned for her to sit down. She didn’t budge.

“I just don’t know what I’d offer that the other two can’t do. I’m average.” There was more authority to her statement, as if it was a fact she was lesser than the other candidates.

“You were invited because your skillset jumped out at me personally. You accepted the invitation because on some level, you think you belong in the expedition. Am I wrong to assume this?”

She stared at him for a while before slowly drooping back into the chair. “Okay, let's continue then.” Eloise mumbled.

Jose cleared his throat, “To introduce myself, my name is Jose Ileria. I’ve been appointed to the leadership position and am our team's current Sapper.” He paused, waiting for her to make a comment of some kind. Finding none, he continued, “I’m going to ask you a series of questions to assess your skill set and your mind set before making a consideration on any Sapper that takes the position.” Jose gestured at the tools on the table and looked at Eloise. “Can you tell me how items are classified?”

“Do I have to walk over there or can I do it from here?” Eloise asked with slight horror behind her eyes.

“Do whatever’s comfortable to you. I’d just like to know how these items are classified.” Jose sat back and waited.

“If we’re using the Kingdoms classification style, in order we’ve got the Pipe, the Book, the Weaver’s Milk, the Faces of Anhalar, the Implements, the Containers, the Cores, and the Curiosities.” Eloise recited the classifications from memory.

“Good. I see you have a staff on hand. Is it artificial or wild?”

“It’s old but artificial. My grandfather based it on a staff he held once for an adventurer while working as a lumberer. He carved out the lines and nodes on the wood and did his best to fashion something for himself.” Eloise looked at the tool with a tender gaze.

“What’s the staff’s node-to-line composition?”

“Err… 10 to 6 I think. I know it’s not typical for an artificial staff to have that kind of composition.” Eloise admitted to Jose and he was in agreement. Depending on the functions the crafter wanted, they’d have been better off with a 2:1 ratio but the lines might be amplifying their soul use for different functions instead of providing the same output to all ten nodes.

“What are the most used functions you have for your Staff?”

“It doesn’t take a lot to take out fiddly pieces from this compartment,” Eloise gestured to a node towards the bottom end of the staff, “and I felt this top end was very useful during our expedition.” She activated the node at the top of the staff and Jose saw all the ley lines flare with energy to produce an orb of rotating light. She took out spare pieces of scrap from the bottom of the staff and tapped them with the light, the metal disappearing inside before reappearing reformed as a crudely formed metal dog.

Jose raised both eyebrows at the demonstration. “Was it your grandfather that added the reforger to the top of the staff?” It looked to be very impressive work from his distance, although the output was noticeably pulsating. Such was the level of energy the function demanded, even with that many ley lines amplifying her output.

“I don’t know if it was him or my dad that did it.” Eloise replied. It didn’t seem she understood the difficulty of the function her staff was performing then.

“Final question and then you can leave; What are your motivations for joining this expedition?”

“I was asked by my dad to join because it would increase attention to the family business. He runs a crafting shop in Barnacle Bay and he saw that we could get premium stuff off the Vessel if I did get on the boat or gain some attention in that process…” If Eloise could bore a hole through the floor with her sullen gaze, she’d have fallen through it.

“And you accepted the invitation because?” Jose followed up.

“Because he saw it as an opportunity to still get on.” Eloise responded. The two were silent in the room before Jose clapped his hand.

“Thank you for letting me know Eloise. I hope this was worth the effort for the both of you.”

“...Me too.” A barely audible whisper. She rushed out of the room. Jose appreciated her honesty but it didn’t appear that she was going to be a fit for the expedition.

Lysa barged back into the room, “Jose, what did you do to the poor girl? She fucking ran out of the hallway.” Izirrary followed after Lysa.

“I’m going to sit in for this one. I’m curious to see if you can make this one cry as quickly as you did the last.” Izirrary said this with a smirk.

“I didn’t do anything!” Jose shouted defensively. “She’s a timid girl and she was asked to come here by her dad. What more do you want from me?”

“Maybe not to have the girl bawling coming out of here. The volunteers out there are gonna think we’re monsters.” Lysa shook her head in a mocking manner before leaving to acquire the final volunteer. Jose crossed his arms and turned to an amused Izirrary, her iguana familiar staring at the door in an alert stance.

He didn’t do anything wrong!

“Get ready, Jose.” They’re coming.” Izirarry whispered.

Jose suppressed his embarrassment and watched the door with the final volunteer open up. Slick was the only word Jose could use to describe the tall man that slipped into the room. His hair was black and glossy like an oil slick, wearing a black shirt and tan jacket that jingled with the number of zippers on the chest, black pants that glimmered rainbow colors when the light hit his leg at an angle. He noted there were no apparent tools he was carrying but his jacket might have been outfitted with his equipment.

The man sat down on the chair and stretched his legs, bouncing one foot up and down while one arm hung over the seat, eyes shifting between Izirarry and Jose.

“Please say your full name before we begin.” Jose said.

The man didn’t shift his position, “Federico Castillo.” The three sat in silence. Jose could feel Izirarry staring at him expectantly.

“To introduce myself, my name is Jose Ileria. I’ve been appointed to the leadership position and am our team's current Sapper.”

“You didn’t look like a Sapper to me out there.”

“I didn’t expect to be put in a fight like that. Sort of sprung up on all of us at the last minute.” Jose replied.

“I guess. Just seems to me that you leaned back on your talents as an Arcanist and steamrolled those chumps.” Federico stated.

Jose took a deep breath, “Regardless of that situation, we’re here to figure out if you’d be the right fit for our expedition. At the moment I have a series of-”

“I’ve got eyes, man. I can see the tools. What, do you want me to name them? Classify them? Tell you how many of each class I have in my own toolbox?”

A pang of irritation welled up within Jose, “If you don’t want a position on the boat, you don’t have to be here.”

“I’m here because I want a damn boat position. Your test though is just an insult to my fucking intelligence.” Federico finally shifted positions, leaning forward as he punctuated his statements with a wagging finger.

“Jose is looking for your technical competence and your emotional competence. It doesn’t help to be a genius when you’re also belligerent.” Izirrary chimed in.

Federico looked at her and glared, “Some Elder’s pet isn’t going to lecture me on belligerence. I’m just telling it like it is.”

Jose switched gears, “If you’re so special, why don’t you show off some of your skills?” Jose got up from the table and looked through the devices. Finding what he wanted, he turned his back to the unruly man and adjusted the parameters of the box in his hands.

“What, you’re gonna fight-” Federico groaned as a fist sized box was thrown at his stomach. “What the fuck are you-” The box that had fallen to the floor flashed a pale blue and slowly started to beep.

“Disarm it.” Jose leveled his gaze at the man and the puzzle box. “Disarm the explosive or this whole room’s going to blow up.” He lied.

“Jose, what are you doing?” Izirrary asked with a pang of concern in her voice.

“Nothing our genius here can’t handle.” Jose looked at Federico expectantly, the box shifting from a pale blue to green.

Federico motioned towards an expletive but grabbed at the box instead, looking at it from all sides to figure out an approach.

Turning on his Sight, he could see that Federico was gingerly approaching the box with his own soul, assuming correctly that he’d need to travel down its paths to find the end node that’d turn the device off. There were many lines to travel through though, and a reckless individual would sooner drain all their energy brute forcing a completion than actually achieve one.

“You’re running out of time.” Jose said in a singsong, delighting at the box turning from a green to a yellow.

“Shut the fuck up, I’m concentrating.” Federico twisted the box around and around in his hands to find the shortest point from entry node to end node. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a rod with a bulbous crystal at its top.

Jose was right about the jacket being enchanted in some way. Federico applied the rod onto the box and stared at the smooth reflection of the crystal, its insides suddenly becoming a cloudy swirl.

The face of urgency on Federico’s face soured to one of irritation, glaring at Izirarry first and then Jose. “You think you’re fucking funny throwing this toy at me?” He threw the device at Jose, who fumbled to catch it.

Suppressing a chuckle, “What’s wrong? Sounds like you’re admitting you couldn’t even disarm this toy.” Jose, with measured practice sank his soul into the familiar device and travelled through its labyrinthine lines, the beeping it was causing suddenly stopping after a few moments.

“The opportunity isn’t worth this shit. Good luck with your expedition plans, you fucking bitch.” Federico shouted at Jose before kicking the chair over and walking out of the room.

“What a rotten attitude.” Izirarry said directly behind Jose. He nodded in agreement. His line of questioning was going to be more pointed with him since he was on a team with the Isabella supporter but the interview didn’t even get that far.

“Sorry you had to be around for that. Didn’t expect for the last candidate to be such a prick. They’d described him to have an ego but I never thought it was something like this.” Jose apologized.

She shrugged her shoulders and got up, walking towards the door, “I don’t mind. I’ve dealt with people like him before and know how to manage their outbursts when they do happen.” Izirrary spoke with a cold authority. “I appreciate you caring about his outburst on my behalf. I’d expect nothing less from a leader like you.” The chill in her previous statement mostly disappeared.

He wrote down Federico’s name in his journal and sent it over to his partner, receiving a confirmation soon after. Jose was exhausted but glad his lot of interviews were over.

Jose high fived Lysa on his exit from the interview chamber, “It’s your turn now. Knock 'em dead.” He felt a slip of paper smack into his hand and immediately balled it closed.

“You know it.” Lysa responded as she walked into the chamber with Matteo.