For a time after their first mission, neither Samira nor José had anything quite so interesting for the outsiders to do.

They escorted a courier carrying stolen deployment maps through the woods, the path being faster and away from the eyes of the Chosen's agents, but much more infested with monsters. They scouted out an army camp José couldn't visit, getting a closer and more detailed look than any native scouts would have been able to. And, to List's delight, they destroyed a bridge the army had been using to move heavy equipment to and from the capital.

None of the missions had required a direct confrontation with the enemy, and in between them, they settled into a routine.

It was generally agreed upon that they should limit their time spent in town proper, as they were some of the province's most recognizable fugitives, and not everyone in Shadefall was sympathetic to the cause. Plenty saw the uprising against Zaman as nothing but trouble.

So as much as they could, they stayed in the hideout. They made use of the kitchen for most of their meals, with everyone taking turns cooking. Kiva and Daniel Shen, who had generally done a much better job of keeping her face off wanted posters, were their usual suppliers for ingredients.

There was one bathroom, and after the near-murder that had ensued from Xigbar walking in on Valerie just before she could get into the bath (during which Kaleb had to defend the animaborn from three different upset parties at once), a schedule had been introduced. List, who went first, tended to eat into Valerie's time, and it varied by the day whether Xigbar or Kaleb went after Arden, but in general, it kept the peace.

Most evenings, they retreated into private spaces before bed. Valerie spent her evening reviewing monster hunting texts. List sharpened her own reading skills, though she preferred her reading material light on education, and heavy on smut and violence. Xigbar tinkered with whatever equipment he could dig up from the armory or "borrow" from local tool sheds. And Arden alternated between journaling and meditation.

But there was limited space in the hideout, and List and Xigbar in particular were prone to going stir crazy if cooped up for too long. So they spent one night a week at the Scaled Maiden, which Egon would close early to all but a small circle of trusted patrons. They could talk, drink, and listen to whatever musician or performer Egon had booked that week.

List still dragged Valerie out into the town a few nights, in disguise of course, and Xigbar did still disappear a few times, but nobody ever got caught, and by and large, everyone behaved themselves.

And in between it all, they trained.

It was, first and foremost, the best option any of them had to kill time and burn excess energy. But more to the point, they'd all experienced multiple times now the limits of their current abilities. Gorpmorp had taken everything they had, and left them too battered to escape the Chosen's forces. They hadn't been enough to beat Agnizzar. And they'd come within a hair's breadth of disaster on their first mission.

Though none of them said anything, they were all in silent agreement that if they were actually going to pull this off, they needed to be better.

They sparred, one on one, two on two, and even four on one against Arden. They practiced working together, experimented with different combinations, and honed their own techniques against each other. On days when they weren't sparring, they honed their individual talents.

Because of the old cost of using it, Xigbar had previously treated his snake form as a last resort or escape card. Now that he didn't have to strip just to use it, he could incorporate it into his fighting style, and he practiced shifting back and forth on the fly in order to do just that, and that got him experimenting with other tricks.

List had experiments of her own. She'd started to feel the frustration of only having the effective range of a whip, and grown jealous of Arden constantly blasting all of his problems. So she started working on a blast of her own. She started out gathering her power into her hand, concentrating it into a tight ball instead of letting it arc across her body.

After a few false starts, she managed to gather up enough power to hurl out. The first attempt splashed more or less harmlessly on the barrel she'd been using as a target, leaving the wood only slightly scuffed. Over time, she got the wood to splinter and crack. Once she had the idea to gather power along the edge of a weapon instead of in her hand, she broke the barrel in two.

And learned that there was still some wine in it after all.

Kaleb kept his training focused on his own body. As an enziri, his flesh and bone were like living stone. The normal cycle of strain and recovery worked faster and better on him, and it didn't just make him stronger. He became physically denser and sturdier, down to the bone.

And Kaleb trained even when the rest of them didn't.

While Valerie reviewed her notes, Kaleb punched a boulder he'd dragged in from outside until it broke. While Xigbar lounged on a bench, taking a nap, Kaleb did bench presses with the bench while Xigbar was still on it.

On one occasion, List walked into the kitchen and was greeted by the smell of something herby on the stove and the sight of Kaleb performing perfect handstand pushups while he waited for his pot of vegetable stock to boil. She couldn't tell which she appreciated more.

Valerie of course had target practice. She worked on shooting faster and more precisely, and the grouping of her bolts steadily shrank even as her rate of fire climbed. She caught Xigbar tinkering with her wristbow once, but it turned out he was actually incredibly handy with its mechanisms.

After he finished tweaking some of its inner workings, she could toss an apple into the air and put three bolts into the bullseye before it hit the floor.If she took her time, she could split each of her bolts with the one that followed.

But what really drew her interest was the one power she'd avoided ever since their fight with Agnizzar. The one that made her feel hollowed out just thinking about.

After three weeks, Valerie asked Arden what he knew about the black fire.

"It's called Absence," Arden said in a grave voice. "It is the antithesis of Presence, the fundamental force that fuels all life and creation. It is not simply destruction. It is anti-existence. And it can only be fueled by burning Presence—your Presence. Do you understand, Valerie? When you use that fire, you are burning your own life force."

Valerie knew the explanation was meant to scare her off ever using the power again, and in truth, it had left her shaken. She'd listened to enough of Arden's lectures to know what Presence was and feel a visceral revulsion to something that existed in opposition to it. But she also remembered how effective it had been when her normal options had failed her.

Not to mention, she'd spent too much time around List, and the unquestioning obedience she'd shown Arden over the years had developed cracks. So instead of simply nodding her head and agreeing to stay away from the black fire, she asked a question.

"Why can I do it?"

He frowned, and for a long time, he said nothing.

"I don't know," he eventually lied. "But I would suggest that you stop."

Valerie hadn't known what to do then. Defiance was uncharted territory for her, and confronted with her mentor all but declaring the topic off limits, she found herself unsure how to push forward. So, she relented.

She was still working out her feelings about it nearly a month later, when Samira herself paid them a visit in the hideout to join them for dinner. And deliver them their next mission.

"How would you all feel," she asked, "about taking the fight to the Pavers?"

That question caught Valerie off guard enough to draw her back into the present. Arden and List looked intrigued by the headwoman's question. Kaleb seemed slightly forlorn.

Xigbar was grinning like a madman.