"Ava, don't."

The raven-haired girl whipped around to face Kingsley, who was exasperated beyond imagination at her mule-like stubbornness. He ran a hand through his hair, looking at the floorboards as he explained to her for the umpteenth time why it was not wise of her to give their trainer a piece of her mind.

"I don't care if he's of a higher authority! They have no right to randomly abduct us and throw us in a panic situation just for some bloody test! Who do they think they are?"

Hector simply shook his head, opened his mouth as though to speak but then thought the better of it, knowing it was pointless trying to dissuade her. She would refuse to look at any point of logic if she had a target set. Yet as a last-ditch attempt, he reasoned.

"Just listen to me- These people know what they're doing. I don't think the best way to get in their favor is by critiquing their methods. All I'm saying is, it happened, so let it go now."

Avyanna stood there for a moment, pursing her lips until, much to Hector's surprise, she slowly nodded.

"You're right. I shouldn't question their authority because I have bequeathed my mercy at their feet and you, wise sage, have opened my eyes to the truth." She said, her words sincere but venomous.

"The amounts of sarcasm I'm detecting in that sentence is creating black holes in the universe. Ah, who am I fooling? You were always gonna do what you wanted to, there is no point talking you out of it so I'll just stop," Hector sighed.

Avyanna smiled cheekily and patted Kingsley's arm as one would do to a dog who just learned a new trick.

"Attaboy, Kingsley. You've been hit by a long due epiphany." With that, she left an amused Hector watching her wink before she turned the corner.

✘✘✘

"Aillard, we're running out of wood!"

"I'll get it!" Bexley yelled to his mother in the back. He pushed the door of the bakery open and with a soft trill of the bell, it swung shut. As he paced forward, the scent of the baking bread flooded out and filled the street. It was a clean, slightly sweet, yeasty aroma that somehow smelled warm like you were inhaling a blanket on a cold winter day.

But when he started nearing the forest, the wafting scent was replaced by the heavier smell of sap and dewy grass. The bakery used a tiny furnace built into the back wall where his parents of baked dough of all kinds. They didn't need large logs of wood, just dry twigs. The kind that would immediately catch flame was found in the lower crest of the valley and that's where Bexley was headed.

He stepped over damp patches of grass, knowing that twigs sparged by the rainwater would just decay. His feet squished at the moisture-laden soil and he kept trundling about for that satisfying crunch. Until he heard the distinct crinkle of paper. Looking below, he could barely discern the vague outline of a blue-tinted paper, half-hidden beneath the mud.

Bexley kneeled, carefully balancing on the arch of his toes and gingerly pulled out the sheer sheet of paper. It just looked like lines and blotches of color at first, but when he held it to the light, he saw it was a sort of map. When he touched it, the surface bulged in a grid pattern. There were evenly shaped, rotund blotches of color, which had concentric circles within themselves, each of differing shades of red and blue.

He squinted at the paper, trying to make sense of what it was but failed to do so. He was about to fold it when a queer symbol caught his eye. It was a tiny and black, placed at the top right corner of the margin and appeared to be some sort of mask with a sword drawn through it.

The blue-eyed boy cocked his head, glancing skeptically at the brown-tinted paper. On any other occasion, he wouldn't have given it a moment's worth of thought. However, the markings alongside the margins looked somewhat official and he thought it best to hand the map over to the Council.

He folded the paper carefully and tucked it in his pocket. As he continued ahead to gather the firewood, his ears perked up to the sound of ruffling bushes. He turned around, scanning the surrounding for the source of the sound. It could very well be a stray raccoon but ever since the spy was caught, people were on high alert. A head peeked from the top of the shrubs and Bexley's heart rate raced. He was debating fight or flight when a tall, red-headed girl emerged from the bushes, a bow in her hand and a silver quiver slung over her shoulder. She lowered the arrow strung in the bow and let out an embarrassed laugh.

"Christ, I thought you were an animal."

Bexley still hadn't let his guard down, wary of the girl who was mere seconds away from impaling him.

"Yeah, me too." He responded coldly.

He turned around, making a beeline for the town lest the girl should try to murder him. It made him scoff at himself how afraid he was of everything that had the slightest amount of danger, whereas his best friend was out in the war-zone, risking her own life for the greater good. While he was lost in thought, he didn't notice the red-head sneaking upon him.

"Hey, I know you... You're friends with that Avyanna girl, no?"

"Damn it! Stop sneaking up on me. And yeah, I am."

The girl pursed her lips and nodded slowly while kicking a tree with the side of her foot. She unstrung the arrow from the bow and slid it back into the quiver as she fell in step with Bexley. She looked at the brown-haired boy beside her, who had adamantly fixated his stare ahead, not bothering to spare her a glance.

"Oh crap, almost forgot. I'm Ethel Devon. Nice to meet you." She said cheerfully, holding out a hand.

Bexley eyed her hand, itching to leave her hanging but his upbringing taught him to respect a lady and so he did. Shaking her hand once, he introduced himself.

"Aillard Bexley. Nice to meet you." Not so much, He added internally.

"I know this may come across as odd, maybe borderline creepy, but I kinda followed you into here. See, what I wanted to talk to you about can't just be blurted out in public so..."

Bexley was getting more and more creeped out by Ethel and was seriously considering breaking into a sprint while yelling and waving his hands above his head. But he didn't. He just kept his lips sealed and mildly quickened his pace as Ethel continued, animatedly gesticulating with her hands.

"My brother Harry, and I are friends with the Evermore twins. It was just so goddamn infuriating how they refuse to give us any information, I mean, what the bloody hell, we deserve to know! Aren't we-"

"Okay, what's your point?" Bexley interrupted, growing tired of her ceaseless yapping.

"Right. Sorry. Erm so basically we knew that you'd probably be wanting to find out more since your friend is a part of it too and Harry wants you to meet up with us because he thinks he has a plan. Won't even tell me what it is."

Bexley rolled the idea a bit in his head. It was pretty risky of him trusting someone he didn't know. But it was for Irvine so he was willing to take a bet. He looked at the girl who was awkwardly wringing her hands and shrugged.

"Sure, why not. When exactly do I meet this Harry?"

Ethel smiled and looked to him excitedly. "Noon would be great. Meet us by the bar."

Bexley gave her a single nod and gladly parted ways. His heart had stopped trying to hammer it's way out of his chest now that he was in safe territory.

✘✘✘

"He called me immature. Immature!"

Hector looked at her amusedly while Ace was in splits. Ava glanced seethingly at Ace, who was now gasping for breath from the continuous fits of laughter he was attacked by when Ava narrated her encounter with their trainer, Clarence.

"You find this funny, Loughty?" She threatened.

Ace suddenly stiffened up and shook his head with a forced serious expression. "No ma'am."

"Anyway, that man calls me overdramatic, and then, he has the nerve to tell me there are worse tasks to come in the future and that we better 'prepare' ourselves for it. I really wanted to throw something at his head," she ranted, making exaggerated air quotes in the air.

Ace looked up, his eyebrows furrowed and the cogs clearly turning in his head. What if Clarence had not just said that to provoke Avyanna? What if he was actually suggesting something?

"Hey, what if Clarence actually gave us a heads up?"

Hector looked up from the book he was half-heartedly reading and cocked an eyebrow, not very sure of what the other boy meant. Ava, on the other hand, found something particularly interesting with her nails and was closely examining them.

"What I mean is that it doesn't sound like Clarence was necessarily taunting Ava, more like hinting that we'd better-- stop biting your nails, Ava it's disgusting" He interrupted himself to reprimand her as she made a face at him. "That we'd better prepare ourselves. 'Worse tasks to come'... What if we'll be tested now? He did mention eliminations in the first training session." He finished.

"That's brilliant, Ace! Let's head over to the library archive." Kingsley exclaimed softly patting Ace on the back. He spared a glance at Ava as he remarked, "Seems like pretty boy's got a brain up there." He got up and headed to the archives as two-thirds of the trio were left behind; one of them flushed red and the other one smirking.

Ava raised her eyebrows at Ace who scowled at her and whispered, "Shut up." Avyanna gasped in mock surprise.

"Such curtness from a gentleman. Tsk tsk, I think I might have to tell Hector about this little thing going on," she waved a finger back and forth from Kingsley to Ace. Ace shook his head slowly, menacingly while Avyanna broke out into a smile and sprinted in the direction Hector went. Ace cursed colorfully under his breath as he chased the girl, regretting opening up to her ever.

"Ava, don't!" he whisper shouted from the end of the hallway.