For maybe the second time in her life, Nora's mind was already occupied when she woke up. She still had very little idea what her trial run was going to entail—just that it would involve "cleaning up basic crime", and that she would be working with four highly skilled people, most of whom she'd just met.

After meeting the Sheer, Hexis had dragged her and Dyasen to the promised sparring match with the guard captain. Nora knew next to nothing about fighting, much less dagger-against-sword fighting, but she could tell that Hexis was unsurprisingly extremely good at it. She'd also done her best to pick out uses of their ERA, which was at least more noticeable than Dyasen's, even if it was still confusing.

It had been hard to concentrate on that with the trial looming over her, though. It was also hard to convince herself to get out of bed and get it over with, and she found herself observing the pale cream ceiling of her temporary—or maybe permanent—room for what felt like hours before someone finally knocked on the door.

"Yes?" she called, pushing herself into a sitting position on the soft mattress.

"Good morning!" a light and high voice called. It was muffled by the door, but she still recognized it as Kynar. "Are you dressed?"

"No, hold on," Nora called back, unexpected anxiety shooting through her. She'd expected Dyasen to get her, since she'd known him longest and he had sort of taken on a role as her mentor. What if I make a bad first impression with Kynar just by not being ready to go on time?

"'Kay!" Kynar responded, sounding as cheerful as ever.

Nora's eyes landed on the pile of fresh clothes Jade had given her the day before. It was a basic shirt and pants, but all of higher quality than any fabric she'd seen in FelSar. She pulled it on as quickly as possible, ran her fingers through her hair, then hurried to the door and pulled it open.

"Up! Hello," Kynar greeted her. "Does everything fit okay?"

Nora glanced down at her new clothes. Jade was slightly taller and more muscular than her, but her clothes weren't so baggy that they would be an encumbrance, and everyone had agreed Jade was the closest to Nora in size. "Yes, it's fine. Are- I take it you're here to take me to my trial run."

Kynar nodded. "Do you want breakfast?" She held out something wrapped in a napkin that Nora hadn't noticed her holding.

Nora blushed, accepting the gift. "Right, breakfast would make sense. Thanks." She pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth, cursing her nerves.

"Are you nervous?"

Nora nodded as she unwrapped a bread roll with cheese melted in the middle. It was a common breakfast across the entire Empire, and she was glad for the tiny bit of normalcy.

Kynar poked her shoulder, then quickly withdrew her hand. "Sorry. I was nervous when I started working for Miracca, too. Didn't have to do a formal trial, though. That must be scary."

"Yeah," Nora agreed through a mouthful of bread and cheese, prompting Kynar to giggle.

She followed the mercenary out of the palace and to the front gate, where Dyasen, Hexis, and Jade were busy donning their equipment. Dyasen and Hexis grinned when they saw Nora, while Jade's gray eyes remained impassive.

"Are we ready?" Kynar asked, bouncing on her toes when she reached the group. Her bow and quiver were already fastened to her back.

Hexis glanced down at the gloves, daggers, sheaths, cape, and belt piled on the ground in front of them, then shrugged. "I can be."

Dyasen snorted as the assassin scooped everything into their arms, apparently intending to dress as they walked. He was wearing his usual shirt, pants, and boots, with his sword fastened on his back. Eyes meeting Nora's, he asked, "How do you feel?"

She bit her cheek. "Nervous. But I'll be fine," she added hurriedly.

He nodded reassuringly. "I know you will. This'll be a breeze."

She drew in a shaky breath and nodded back.

"Recently, a gang of some sort has been disrupting a noble house's supply line right outside the city," Jade said, moving forward to address the group. "We're going to intercept them, covertly capture a few, and question them." Her eyes flicked to Nora with the last part. "Understood?"

"Understood," Nora confirmed, echoed by the other three.

Jade nodded. "Kynar will lead us to the supply route. Dyasen, may I speak with you?"

Dyasen's eyes widened, but he nodded quickly, failing to hide his obvious nerves. At least I'm not the only one.

The group started off, and Nora found herself walking next to Hexis, who was staring forlornly at the disorganized pile in their arms. Finally, they turned to Nora and asked, "Could you grab my daggers for a second?"

Nora nodded and reached out hesitantly, afraid to touch the weapons. She collected both sheaths in one hand, then gingerly removed the daggers from the pile one at a time, sliding them inside.

"Thanks." Hexis draped their belt and cape over one shoulder before pulling on their gloves.

"Did you do a trial-" Nora started, before realizing she was asking a question. "Sorry. I'd appreciate if you told me whether you did a trial as well."

"Yes, I did." They leaned in, lowering their voice. "And you can ask me questions if you want. I don't mind. Just don't tell Dyasen I'm ruining your habit, yeah?" They winked.

Nora blinked, laughing awkwardly and wishing they'd give her space. She still didn't quite know how to respond to the assassin. "Alright, thanks," she answered finally. "I know it's just courtesy, but it makes conversations awkward, and I don't want anyone to form a bad opinion of me..."

"I don't think anyone's forming a bad opinion," they told her. "I, at least, am excited to have you."

She raised her eyebrows, genuinely surprised. "Why? We've barely known each other for two days."

"For starters," they explained as they fastened their belt around their waist, "it means I'm not the 'new person' anymore."

"You were the new person?"

"Well, it's technically been a year since Jade recruited me, but I was still the latest addition until you."

"How long ago were the others added?" she pressed.

They thought for a moment as they secured their cape to their shoulders. "Jade and Miracca basically grew up together. Then about four years ago—so two years after Miracca inherited the throne—she recruited Kynar as a lookout, spy, general extra set of eyes. About a year after that was Voryis, then Dyasen, then me. And now you." They grinned.

"How did they all get recruited?"

"Ask them." Hexis stretched their arms above their head, looking up, then swept them down and met her eyes again. "But I never finished what I was saying. Yes, I'm glad to no longer be the 'new person', but I'm also glad it's you who took the role after me. So far, you seem very level-headed, and more confident than you might think you are. And..." They paused for a second. "As much as I don't like to define a person by their ERA, I do like the idea of having someone to more thoroughly interrogate my targets before I have to..." their voice dropped off as they waved a gloved hand in the air.

Nora swallowed, mind going again to Lord Leneha, who had been a fact of life for as long as she remembered. "Right."

"Daggers, please?"

"Right," she repeated, holding the weapons out for the assassin to take.

They walked in silence for a while after that. Jade and Dyasen seemed to have finished their conversation as well, but no one started a new one. The sky was completely clear, allowing sunlight to wash across the fresh leaves growing on the sparse trees. ZeSarys' streets were packed tighter than FelSar's, but the few patches of grass were green from recent rain. The group got the occasional odd look from a passerby, but most people saw Jade and quickly looked away; Nora recalled that the woman was Miracca's personal bodyguard as well as a noble herself, and wondered which of those things was causing the reaction.

Eventually, they reached a more barren stretch of road, where the foot traffic was replaced by merchant carts and the dense buildings gave way to swaths of farmland. Every couple of minutes, Kynar clapped her hands loudly and shook her head, until once where she perked up and turned around to address the group. "There's a group of people spread through those trees." She pointed toward a clump of oaks near the road that the group was approaching. "Two with ERAs, four without."

Nora's eyes widened. She'd known Kynar was the lookout, but hadn't known exactly what she could do.

Apparently Kynar noticed her expression, because her blue eyes brightened as she explained, "I can use sound to sense people in a range around me. And their ERA types, if they have them."

"Wow," Nora said, giving the lookout an appreciative look. Dyasen was right. Everyone on the team has such cool ERAs.

Except Voryis, she supposed, but even he had to have some sort of skill that had prompted Miracca to recruit him.

"Nora," Jade prompted, storm gray eyes staring straight into hers. "Do you have any suggestions for how we handle this situation?"

Nora paled, swallowing as she held the bodyguard's gaze. "I guess...there are six of them and four of us..." She glanced uncertainly at Dyasen, who gave her a thumbs-up.

Oh, thanks, that's very helpful.

"Kynar, are there any together, or are they all spread out?"

"All spread out."

She glanced around at the group, wishing she knew more about each of their strengths and weaknesses. "Well, we don't need to capture all of them for questioning," she said, glancing at Jade for confirmation. When the woman nodded, she continued, "So let's just get two of the ones without ERAs and see what they know. Kynar can lead...someone...to one of them..."

Again, she looked around the group for help, but they only continued to listen patiently. Dyasen's mouth was twitching in amusement, so she rounded on him, annoyed. "I still don't know what you all are good at, so input would be great."

Dyasen raised his eyebrows, looking unperturbed by her outburst. "Well, since you asked, I think Jade should go with Kynar. She's the most suited for capturing someone on her own."

"Okay...then you, me, and Hexis will look around for another and see what happens?" She liked the idea of getting away from Jade for a little bit; the woman had a constant intimidating aura about her.

"Sounds good to me," Hexis responded.

"Alright!" Kynar clapped her hands. "Let's all meet back here to exchange information."

Nora took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. Looking at Dyasen and Hexis, she said, "Let's do this."