February 18, 2019, 5:52 pm. That empty moment after you see your friends snarling at each others’ throats.

As I walk out of the arena, I find Beth, Josh and Rose talking in hushed tones on the far side of the room, casting glances at where Tipan, Rufka and Kellica are gathered. Despite not taking part, Smoulder is sitting with them, confusion radiating through her bond as she nudges Rufka's shoulder. Roberts is standing to my side, frowning at everyone with his hands clenched into balls instead of his usual steepling.

After looking over everyone, my eyes drift up towards the floating text. It wants us to play a tie-breaking match.

When I look down to the two groups of people, both filled with people I care about, I shake my head.

"No."

"What was that, Alexis?" Roberts asks, turning towards me. His question is soft but solid. Loud enough to carry to the rest of the room. The mumbling stops as everyone looks in our direction.

"No. This isn't... this can't..." I take a deep breath before Pausing. I've been growing used to not needing to Pause at every little thing. But this, this needs calm. I can't see my friends get torn apart just because of... a game. And... as I take in their frozen countenances, I know I don't have to. I could walk away. Let my team use one of the NPC replacements.

But I won't. Because that's just like... it's like how I ran away from what I did to papa. We don't even need to be like this. We could be letting one of our teams win. And we're not because... pride?

Or because... because we've been fighting non-stop for days. And winning. All of us.

After several more seconds of considering how to approach the problem, my pause ends. I still remain quiet for another couple seconds, everyone's eyes locked on me. Then I look at Beth, locking my gaze with hers. Then Rufka. Then every one of them for a solid second.

"Okay," I say, letting the word sit there for five seconds. "Okay, that was... bad."

"Bad, she just about took Rufka's-" Kellica starts, jumping to her feet.

I hold up a hand and to my amazement, she goes quiet. Not dwelling on my surprise, I continue. "I think we all got carried away."

Roberts arches his eyebrow, but thankfully, he remains silent as I continue. "There was no reason to even contest it that hard. It was a game. And... I think it was a game that was set up to create this division."

At this, I notice Beth and Rufka both frown immediately, though the others just seem confused.

"Roberts. Did one of the players attack you with the Theet at any point? Maybe knock you out of the match?" I ask, crossing streams of mana behind my back instead of fingers.

"They did. It was decidedly unpleasant."

"And it was early on? And realizing you could use the Theet as a weapon made the rest of the matches easier?"

"Indeed," Roberts agrees, a small smile tugging at his lips.

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me," Beth says as she sits down on the bench, hard, her head in her hands. "Fucking again."

My growing sense of relief collapses at her reaction.

"Oh. Wow," Rufka says on the other side. "Wow. I really..." Then she turns towards the others. "I apologize. Never was much of one for team sports. Guess this proves I should probably avoid them."

"We... should've known better too," Josh says, sharing a glance with Rose who nods back.

Most of the others apologize, going so far as to move forward and clasp hands or give hugs, though Beth remains on the bench with her head in her hands. I glance desperately at Roberts, hoping he'll be able to help, but he gives me a sad little shrug as he places a hand on my shoulder, "I'd only make it worse. Best you talk to her. In private."

Nodding, I sit down next to Beth. I could try to lead her away, but it's honestly easier to create a private space around us. Roberts subtly guides the group to the far side of the room as I erect a stone chamber, only including Beth and myself.

"So," I draw out the word as I sit down next to her. "Wanna talk about it?"

There's a small snort as Beth looks up from her hands. Then another as she notices the stone enclosure. "Wow, kid. You worried I'm gonna hurt them for real?"

"Uh... I wasn't, no," I reply, looking around at the stone walls. Pretty sure they wouldn't be enough to stop her, but that doesn't feel like the right thing to say. "Just thought you might like a little privacy."

"Oh," Beth gives me a half-smile that crumbles almost immediately. "This..." Beth waves her hand at the wall of stone, roughly in the direction of our party. "This whole group thing. I told Wyonna I wasn't good at leading groups on extended missions. Solo operative."

"But... I have memories of you leading people before," I reply.

"Yeah. Didn't end well. Never ends well. Pull shit like I did today. Too easy to get lost in the moment once blood starts flying," Beth sighs as she looks up at the stone figurine of Smoulder etched in one corner. A ghost of a smile flits across her face before she turns back to me. "There's a reason I've been pushing you to take the reins, kid. Out of all of us, you're the most level-headed."

I blink at her, crossing my arms as I respond with a single name, "Tipan."

"I... okay, out of us going back to earth," Beth chuckles. "Kid does have a good head on her shoulders."

"Roberts is-"

"You know he won't. He'll give advice. Or argue till he's blue in the face. But he won't lead. Not if he doesn't have to. I'm not the only one with a past," Beth says, staring at the back of her hands as she slowly flexes them. "Ever tell you about the first time I saw him?"

"Uh, no."

"He was out shopping with his daughter and grandson. Cute kid. Polite too. Roberts was pushing him around in a wheelchair. And that was how I knew we had him. Cared too much about the boy not to accept a chance to save him."

"Ethan, right?"

"Yeah. How fucked up is it that I didn't care that he might not ever see his grandpa again?"

"Do you now?" I ask instead of replying.

Beth laughs, but it's short with a small choking sound at the end. "Yeah. Yeah, I do. Getting him back to that kid is... it's more important than making it back myself."

"You know... we don't have to play her game," I say, gesturing in the direction of the arena we came out of.

"We do if we don't want to be stuck farming points for weeks," Beth spits to the side.

"I... okay, yes, we have to finish the quest. But we don't have to hurt each other. We've done lots of sparring that wasn't half as brutal as what you were doing today. And we could literally let one team score then wait out the clock."

"That's..."

"Smart?"

"Feels like cheating," Beth says, with a grin on her face. "I love it."

"Good. Now I need you to apologize to my girlfriend for almost cutting her head off," I say, clapping my hands as I stand up, earning a groan from Beth as she puts her head in her hands.

"Can you just kill me instead?" she asks without looking up.

"Nope," I reply with as much forced cheer as I can. And not a small amount of petty satisfaction in Beth's discomfort. "What sort of leader would let their co-captain off the hook that easily?"

"A benevolent one?" Beth asks as she shakes her head. But there's a trace of a smile as she stands up.

Instead of replying, I do my best cackle.

The way Beth shudders as I bring down the stone barrier tells me I'm improving.

Beth shakes her frown off once the wall comes down, and immediately strides over to Rufka. Once Rufka notices Beth's approach, she glances at me for a second before turning to face Beth.

"I... sorry about hitting you in the face with a metal disk," Beth says, her back stiff as she tries to burn a hole through my thiani using nothing but the power of her gaze.

"Hmm," Rufka stares back at Beth for several seconds, turning enough to give me a hidden wink before she steps forward and hugs Beth. "Apology accepted. But try not to do it again. Felt like I got kicked by a Zanbia."

There's a moment where Beth doesn't seem to know how to react before she pats Rufka gently with one hand on her back. Then she's released, and there are more apologies throughout the group. Roberts comes over and squeezes my shoulder. "Well done, Alexis. I... thought this was going to be much worse."

As everyone shuffles around, I shake my head. There's still a nervous tension. "Didn't fix it, just made it... better."

"You don't fix people. You can only give them support," Roberts says, nodding towards the others. "Now I hear Beth saying something about cheating our way through the last round. What do you say we join them?"

"Sure," I reply, a smile tugging at my lips as I move forward.

"Ah, kid. Good. I was just telling them about your blindingly obvious solution the rest of us overlooked," Beth says in way of greeting. "And we've decided your team gets to win."

"Based on?"

"Based on, if we can do the tournament again, you'll let us win. And if not, then well..."

"We were jerks," Rose says, stepping forward. "And you and Roberts weren't."

"I feel obliged to point out, I'm on your team," Roberts says with a light chuckle.

"Yeah. Well, the rules allow us to change that. So, Kellica's going to drop from your team and join ours."

"I... we can do that?" I ask, squinting at Rose. "That seems... broken."

"Oh. It's totally broken. But who cares?" Josh says with a little too much cheer.

"Okay then. We're decided," Beth states, to a general round of nods.

It's a quick process to remove Kellica from our party and add Roberts. With Roberts' addition, I'm no longer the goalie, though it doesn't really matter. When we go in, I'm given the honour of tossing the Theet past Kellica, who simply stands to the side. Then we all wait out the clock.

As it counts down to zero, without a single one of us having so much as bumped each other, I can't help but watch Atun. Her frown causes a smile to blossom on my face.

When we win, she stands up, holding her blade in one hand. Even as she stands, a third team appears from amongst the crowd. Team Zabian-dung, who took third place. As they enter the arena, Atun draws my attention back to her with a flourish of her blade. "Through a show of strength and wit, these contenders have proven their worth. Know that they stand before you as testaments to the true spirit of the Belkavan Queendom."

"The who?" Rufka asks from beside me.

I shrug as the quest completes, granting us our million arena points. Despite her words, Atun's eyes remain locked on me as we shuffle out of the arena. I smile and wave.

When I get outside, the Desh’mersa graphic has a timer above it, just like it did yesterday.

I barely notice.

In the center of the console, fully filled in, and raised several centimetres above the surrounding tiles, Atun's sigil awaits.