Mattiew cracked his eyes open to moonlight streaming through the window of the guest chamber.

That...was a strange dream. He’d had stranger, but still.

He glanced up and smiled at his wife from her loving embrace.

Mattiew wiggled his way out of her arms, and grabbed a glass of water that had been set on his bedside table.

He chugged down the cup’s contents and set it aside, ready to get back to sleep.

Don the circlet of infinite intelligence!

Mattiew slapped his temple, as if trying to beat the sound of that cacophony of voice out of his head. Fortunately, it faded quickly.

A twitch of movement caught his eye.

Still halfway under the covers, Mattiew craned his neck. A small piece of folded papyrus had been slipped under his door.

“Adriana,” He shook her, before changing his mind about waking her. She didn’t rouse anyway.

He got out of bed and approached the parchment.

Perhaps it was a message from Adriana’s agents. Or it was the kind of innocuous trigger that would activate the powers of a sorcerer.

Even without a Bog Brew, Mattiew could usually tell if there was something sorcerous at work. The hairs on his neck would stand up as though something that shouldn’t exist was trespassing the laws of nature right in front of him.

He had no such apprehension here.

Mattiew picked up the papyrus and unfolded it. The first words made all clear.

“Welcome, competitor,” it said. “A good leader must be able to compromise and play to the strengths and weaknesses of their underlings. In order to make good decisions, a king must be willing to understand and cooperate with the perspectives of others. Today, your ability to cooperate with your Kingmakers, Champions, Generals, and fellow competitors will be tested. You will undergo a strenuous challenge of both mind and body. Success in this challenge guarantees a spot in the Trial of Humility. The twenty-two slowest to complete the challenge will be put on the bracket for this round.

“Tonight, your team will be tasked with getting to the sandpit of the Gridiron from your current position. Your time began from the moment you woke.”

“Shit.” Mattiew turned to look at Adriana. He shook her again, with more vigor, but she wouldn’t even move. She wasn’t a heavy a sleeper. Something had been done to her. A sleep spell?

He needed to find Alo’aharu, Dakkar, and Kalai.

If what Adriana said about the nobles was true, there would be a few teams out to hunt him specifically.

Mattiew grabbed the small sidearm he kept in their room before opening the door to Kalai, whose foot was poised, about to break down the portal.

Kalai lowered her leg. “I presume you got the letter as well?”

“Were...were you even going to try knocking?” Mattiew asked.

“Kicking is more fun.” She tossed him a chestplate of cloth armor, a spear, and his shield. “Get those on. I haven’t been able to find Alo’aharu. And we still need to fetch your general.”

Mattiew haphazardly tied the fastening on the chest plate as quickly as he could. “You got any idea what’s up with Adriana? She won’t wake up.”

“She isn’t here.” Kalai said. “We’re in a dream world, manifested by some sorcerer. I can see that everything is made of mana. We’re asleep. That’s why your injuries have vanished.”

He frowned and looked down at himself. His bandages and injuries were gone. Why hadn’t he noticed?

“There’s a chance Alo’aharu isn’t even here. Elementals don’t sleep, I’m told.” Kalai muttered. “Whatever the case, if they’re here, they’ll find us.”

“You think someone paid off the organizers to do this just so I’d be at a disadvantage?” Mattiew asked, strapping his shield to his forearm.

“Don’t be so arrogant. Those who care about your demise don’t have the money to do this. Now come on. We’ve no time to waste.”

Mattiew and Kalai ran from the halls of the Callione house out onto the streets of Veyshtar.

It was clear from the start that teams were more concerned with sabotaging each other than actually making it to the arena.

Lightning, fire, earth, time, air, space itself, and every other conceivable domain of sorcery was in absolute chaos.

It was easy to spot Semiramis through the onslaught of sorcerous duels. Beams radiant as sunlight tore through entire blocks.

“We stay far, far away from that place.” Mattiew said.

“I concur.” Kalai nodded. “Where is your crew staying? It’s likely Dakkar is still there.”

Every contestant had to let their army shack up somewhere. As such, many taverns opened up barracks around the time of the Bellirex to house armies. Mattiew had put up his crewmates in one that wasn’t that great, but in comparison to what they were used to, was a luxury inn.

“Not far from here.” Mattiew said. “Follow me and watch our backs for any sorcerers.”

Kalai drew her twin massive cleaver blades. They were supposed to be swords, but seemed more effective as clubs.

The two of them ran through the chaotic streets until two people crashed through the windows of their destination, the Jeweled Lamassu.

Mattiew sheltered his face from glass shards.

Dakkar and some woman were in a grappling match with one another. For as old as he was, Dakkar still managed to hold his own against the athletic woman trying to snap his neck.

Mattiew waited until the enemy’s back was facing up to pull the woman off Dakkar and knock her out with the blunt end of his spear.

He turned to his general as Dakkar pushed himself off the ground.

“Ancient Kings…” Dakkar muttered, cradling his head. “What in Irkalla is going on out here?”

“You didn’t read the letter?” Mattiew asked.

“That young lady got the jump on me before I could.”

“This is the trial of cooperation.” Kalai said. “We need to get to the sand pit as quickly as possible.”

Mattiew handed Dakkar his sidearm for the time being. “Let’s move.”

He turned to head towards the Gridiron, but stopped in his tracks as Khemti and Yasha rounded the corners. Khemti was followed by Senna and a massive, muscle bound Alazarite wearing old Wild Age garb. Yasha, dressed in light linens with a dagger at her side, was followed by male Siren, presumably her Kingmaker, and a woman in all black, her features obscured by her clothing.

“Please tell me she at least attacked first.” Khemti sighed. “That woman there’s my dear general Kanika.”

“Oh...sorry.” Mattiew muttered. “She’ll be okay, right?”

“She’s probably now awake.” Khemti said. “Why don’t we-”

“Khemti.” Yasha muttered. “We need to move.”

“Wouldn’t another ally do us good?” Khemti asked.

“We can’t just ally with anyone we come across.” Yasha said. “Especially those who aren’t to be trusted.”

Kalai started forward, but Mattiew held up his hand, signaling her to stand down.

“It’s Nikoliades, not just anyone.” Khemti frowned.

“Even more reason to leave him!” Yasha insisted. “He’s our competition here.”

“Yasha…”

“In fact, we shouldn’t let him get one over on us. This’ll take only a minute.”

“Wait! Don’t-”

“Ashtariya, give us a moment.” Yasha commanded.

The woman in black didn’t move, but a wave of shadow washed over the entire street, consuming Mattiew and his allies.

The wave didn’t cause any harm, but Mattiew opened his eyes to a space of indeterminable size, where everything that had once been around him had vanished. Including the people.

All except Yasha.

“My wife told me some of you would take issue with me.” Mattiew muttered.

“You misunderstand.” Yasha said. “You’re just a threat that needs to be taken care of.”

Mattiew assumed a fighting stance, scanning his new battlefield.

This place seemed to be some kind of alternate dimension. On top of a dream world. Sometimes sorcery just made no sense.

Regardless, it was unlikely this arena would do anything to give Yash a distinct advantage unless it was used against a sorcerer. The power of being able to isolate someone from a more numerable force was already pretty useful.

But that was Yasha’s champion. What could the sorceress do?

Yasha was unarmored and only had a dagger to wield. Yet, she seemed to be confident in her ability to defeat him.

“Your intentions were admirable, Nikoliades. I’ll give you that much.” Yasha said.

The woman vanished.

Did she go invisible? Don’t tell me she can teleport…

Mattiew looked up to see Yasha descend on him, dagger in hand. He rolled away as her knife landed where he was standing.

Can she fly? Is her ability linked to jumping? Force?

Theories whirled around in Mattiew’s head as Yasha pulled herself towards him. She was too fast to be propelled by her own legs. The force of a spin kick threw him a good thirty paces from her.

Her ability had to do with force. But what exactly, he couldn’t tell.

In this void, there were no surroundings to interact with. No unforeseen consequences to unveil some hidden aspect of the ability. Every use of her sorcery would reveal little to no information here. All he could do was speculate.

Yasha threw her dagger at Mattiew. The weapon spun like any normal knife, but the spinning was so much faster than it should’ve been.

Was her ability a force amplifier? Super strength? Would that be too simple?

The dagger punched through the metal of his shield. The knife kept trying to push through the shield, even after it had been stopped. Once Mattiew stumbled from the impact, the dagger stopped pushing.

No, this was more than enhanced strength. Something was directly affecting the dagger.

Maybe it affected inertia, like Adriana’s cousin.

Mattiew turned to face Yasha as she flew at him. He grabbed his spear and tried to clothesline her with its shaft. But Yasha’s momentum effortlessly shifted as she dropped under the spear and delivered a kick to the back of his head.

Vertigo rushed through his head like a tidal wave as he fell to the plain black floor.

Yasha pinned him down, but he squeezed an arm free and elbowed her nose.

“Fuck!” She stumbled back from the blow, giving him the time to regain his footing.

“Your sorcery…” he heaved. “It’s got to do with telekinesis, doesn’t it? The details aren’t clear to me. But you can move objects, including yourself, according to your will, not physics.”

“I know your go to strategy is always to study your opponents’ ability.” Yasha wiped a trickle of blood from her nose. “You always rely on the opponent to slip up. But, I’ll whittle you down just the way I have been.”

Mattiew gritted his teeth as she attacked the same way she had been. There was nothing Mattiew could do except bite his tongue through the blow.

She was right. In this isolated space, she would be free to chip away at his defenses while as far as he was cut off from seeing consequences of her actions.

But he could use another path.

Mattiew pushed her off him after taking the blow. “Question. Why haven’t you lifted me off the ground and smashed me against the floor until I’m a bloody pulp?”

Yasha didn’t respond. She just glared at Mattiew.

“You can’t, can you?” he smiled. “So you can only affect yourself and objects. At least, those are the only things worth affecting.”

“Wipe that smug grin off your face, Witch Hunter!” Yasha growled as her ability tore the dagger out of Mattiew’s shield, returning it to her hand. “And you know what? You make a good point.”

Two forces pulled on his spear and shield. The spear flew from his hand with ease, passing through the dark wall of this space.

Mattiew lifted his feet off the ground, allowing himself to be carried by the shield strapped to his arm towards the edge of the void. His shield passed through, but his arm hit a solid surface.

But the moment the shield passed through, the force vanished. Just like the dagger when he stepped back.

“So...your ability links two things. Maybe an object and a surface. Or a person and a person.” Mattiew pulled his shield back to himself. “One object is pulled towards the other. But once it reaches the target, the force stops.”

“How...How did y-you get all of that...from just…just...” Yasha stammered.

“A wild theory. One that your panic makes me think is right. Now it’s just a matter of finding the rest of the constraints. I wonder what they’ll be. Range? A time limit? The number of pairings perhaps?”

“Stop messing with me, you lowborn pig!” Yasha snapped.

Yasha’s face was twisted in rage.

“What happened to this being the simple disposal of a threat?” Mattiew put on the most shit-eating grin he could muster.

Yasha’s face blinked, coming back to her senses for a moment before allowing her emotions to drive her again. “Balthezar Ahiram. That is the name of the man your Scourgers killed. My uncle and the head of our clan. His death plunged our family into poverty. We couldn’t even afford a physician to cure my mother’s plague.”

“And what?” Mattiew asked. “If my Scourgers killed Ahiram, he did something to deserve it. Sorry you were born into that family, but I’m not responsible for your clan. Your shitty luck doesn’t make it alright to come after my life so you can satisfy your selfish grudges.”

“Fuck you, Nikoliades! You and your heathen claim to want equality. All you want is to drag us nobles into the mud and live among the worms with you! You are the selfish one! You are driven by your envy to kill anyone who might stand above you!”

Yasha roared and flew towards Mattiew. He was unarmed, but his head was clear.

He stepped forward, closing the distance sooner than she anticipated. His fist didn’t really hit her so much as she flew into it.

Her body flew past the blow and was thrown across the empty void.

The force pulled the affected object no matter what impeded it. At least, until it reached the targeted point.

Yasha staggered to her feet, undaunted by Mattiew’s ability to turn her magic against her. She flew towards him yet again. He attempted the same counter as before, but she paired herself with another object, dragging her to his right.

Mattiew cried out as a solid kick to the back of his knees sent him buckling. There was nothing he could do as her knee planted in his back, sending a spike of scorching pain and a nasty crack echoing from his spine.

He collapsed to the ground, heaving. He tried to stand, but was kicked in the jaw for his troubles.

For being a dream world, this place made pain far too realistic.

Yasha grabbed Mattiew by his hair, forcing him to look at her.

“I’m going to make you beg my uncle for forgiveness.” Yasha growled. “Maybe I’ll be able to hit you so hard in here, you’ll actually die. Let’s find out.”

Before Mattiew could respond, his head was slammed against the solid ground, sending a reverberation of vertigo and aches through his skull.

Yasha lifted herself into the air and prepared to slam all her body weight and momentum into him.

Then the darkness vanished, giving way to the moonlight.

A figure, clad head to toe in a suit of golden sand smashed into Yasha before she could land.

Mattiew scrambled away as Yasha was dragged away. His vision was at least triple, but he got to his feet with the help of a building.

The void had vanished and been replaced with the same street that he’d been pulled from. Dakkar, Kalai, and Khemti’s followers stood above the defeated forms of Yasha’s Champion and Kingmaker.

The figure’s sand-formed head dissolved, revealing Khemti’s face.

“You alright?” Khmeti asked.

“I guess bones don’t break here.” Mattiew said. “Thanks for the save.”

Yasha pushed herself back to her feet, face contorted in fury.

“Yasha, stop this.” Khemti insisted. “You’re far outnumbered here. Just stop and apologize and we can move on.”

“Apologize?” Yasha asked. “You’re a fool, Sett. And it’ll take more than this to have a number advantage.”

Mattiew’s hairs stood on end before he and everyone else on his side were dragged by Yasha’s ability to the buildings on the sides of the street.

Yasha’s eyes began to glow with a bright, burning azure as Kalai, Senna, Khemti’s champion, Dakkar, Khemti and Mattiew were thrown about by her ability, being pulled into another wall the moment they made impact with the last.

Yasha was beating them against buildings like threshing sticks.

Mattiew was able to use the momentum from one of his journeys to skim off the wall and put some decent distance between himself and Yasha.

He landed on the ground without being affected again. Though he was extremely dizzy. His bones screamed as though he’d just fallen flat on a bed of hot coals.

He estimated the distance to be sixty or so paces from Yasha. That was her effective range. But Mattiew didn’t have a weapon. His spear was...somewhere. And he wasn’t a hero of legend, so trying to throw the shield at her would just be a waste of good metal.

He needed someone with a more innate weapon.

Mattiew reached within her range for only a second just as Khemti passed by and dragged him out.

The sorcerer tumbled to the stone road, heaving.

“I had...no idea she could-”

“Yeah, shut up and help me before my geezer general shatters all his bones.” Mattiew pulled Khemti to his feet. “I pretty much know her ability. But I can’t do anything without a weapon.”

Khemti nodded. “Tell me everything.”

Mattiew gave the short of all the parameters and limitations he knew about Yasha’s ability.

“It seems the best way to defeat her is to turn the momentum against her.” Khemti said.

“But now she has a bunch of surrounding buildings to bounce us around like leather balls.” Mattiew muttered. “Can you make any kind of projectile with your sorcery?”

Khemti shook his head. “I can only manipulate sand that I’m touching. Do you think there was a reason why she always dragged herself towards you in that void rather than dragging you to her?”

Mattiew paused for a moment.

“...Weight? As in, whenever she pairs two things, the light object pulls toward the heavier one. Which is why she couldn’t just bury us under a pile of rubble.” Mattiew said. “Why do you ask?”

“I think I might have a way to beat her.” Khemti said.

The Alazarite pressed his fingers to the ground and covered himself in an additional layer of sand. The sediment seemed to harden like armor around him as it climbed up his body.

Khemti ran back into Yasha’s range. Mattiew hoped he hadn’t put his trust in an idiot.

The moment Khemti reentered her range, it was Yasha who went flying instead of Khemti. She barely had a chance to yelp in surprise before he set up a perfect strike. The combined momentum of Khemti’s weighted fist against the rapidly approaching sorceress produced a sickening crack.

Yasha’s unconscious body flipped over itself, though Khemti caught her before she had a hard landing on the stone streets.

His and Mattiew’s followers were finally released from Yasha’s sorcery and allowed to touch the ground once more.

Khemti allowed his sand-made armor to disintegrate as he looked pitifully at Yasha’s body.

“She’s not worth the thought, Khemti.” Mattiew said.

Khemti’s gaze shifted to him. “Why do you say that? After I put my trust in her...”

“You gave her the time of day. She decided her grudges were more important.” Mattiew said. “Now come on, let’s-”

Something-very possibly the ground itself-jerked under Mattiew’s feet. He kept his footing, but stumbled as the world around him shifted all at once.

Not again…

As Mattiew’s senses acclimated, he realized he’d only thought he was still standing. He’d actually sat up from laying in a pit of sand. Or rather, the pit of sand.

Mattiew was in the arena. Kalai, Alo’aharu, and Dakkar were waking up with him. As was the body of every other contestant and follower.

“Did...did we lose?” Dakkar asked as they slowly sat up.

Intense pangs of ice shot through him as he agitated his wounds.

“Congratulations, Vagabond Prince!” an organizer in white linens and a clay mask hissed. “You’ve successfully completed the Trial of Cooperation! And in 31st place. You’re immune in tomorrow’s bracket.”

“We...we did well…” Alo’aharu muttered in place of Mattiew. “Why?”

“The Trial doesn’t actually care about getting to the sand pit. You all have been here since the trial started.” The organizer explained. “The Trial was actually testing how well you’d work with other teams, even when there is ostensibly no consequences to your actions.”

“Mattiew!”

Mattiew turned his head to look at the entrance to the sand pit. Adriana was trying to get past two Veyshtari guards.

“Mattiew!” She cried out. Mattiew managed to stumble to his feet and start limping towards her. “Let me get to my husband, you brutes! He’s in no condition to be kidnapped!”

Mattiew reached the guards and asked them to stand aside with a hand. Adriana didn’t waste a second wrapping her arms around him in a tight embrace.

“Ancient kings!” Adriana hissed. “I...I thought you...ugh, I thought a lot of things. Getting kidnapped by a tournament organizer wasn’t one of them.” She looked pointedly at the nearest organizer. “Gods, we need to get you home.”

He let Adriana carry him away. He just wanted to sleep. For real this time