As Reianna rotated the object in her hand, it shifted from shape to shape. Mirror. Flip. Dagger. Flip. Book. Flip. Mirror. That other box hovered just behind the main three. It was there. She could feel it in her bones. The answer was in that box.

  But she also remembered the pain that she’d felt when she’d used that box on her dress. It wasn’t a searing pain, like the pain Banca had subjected her to. No, it felt more like her soul was being torn apart.

  Crystal put his head on her lap, and Reianna set the book down on the sofa next to her. She rubbed behind his ears.

  “Okay, boy, I’ll pay attention to you.”

  Crystal's tail beat on the floor behind him.

  “Why are you such a cutie?”

  He got up, ran around the room, and barked.

  “Do you want to go outside?”

  He ran over to the door and sat in front of it. He looked over his shoulder at Reianna, then pawed at the door.

  She laughed. “Fine, fine, fine. I get it. You’re tired of being shut in. Let’s go see if there’s someone who can go with us outside.”

  As she opened the door, Crystal rushed past her, pushing the door into Reianna. Out in the hall, just as Banca was passing by, Crystal jumped on her, knocking her over.

  “Crystal!” Banca screamed.

  “Sorry,” Reianna said.

  Lying on the floor beneath Crystal, Banca smiled. “No, I was more surprised than anything.” Banca rubbed the dog while he licked her face.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. Fine.” Banca pushed Crystal off her and stood up.

  “He’s getting kind of hyper, and I was going to take him out to blow off some energy.”

  “Do you mind if I join you?”

  “Yes.” Reianna’s answer was immediate.

  “Please? I…uhh…wanted to talk to you about the tournament.”

  Reianna looked up and down the hall. All of the doors were closed. They would be at that time of night.

  “Fine. We’re running him, so you can talk while we run.”

  Without waiting for Banca’s response, Reianna headed into the back stairwell. Crystal went bounding down, and Banca followed after Reianna.

  “This is where we first met,” Banca said.

  Reianna looked over her shoulder at the other girl and narrowed her eyes. “I thought nothing of significance happened here.”

  “I was such a Yani.”

  “I’m wondering about the past tense there.”

  Banca fell silent.

  As they walked, Banca’s comment played over in Reianna’s mind. Why would she bring that up? So much had happened between the two of them, if Reianna hadn’t kept the fan from that first run-in, she wouldn’t have remembered it herself. It felt weird that Banca would bring it up now.

  However, she didn’t want to know—she didn’t want to ask why Banca was thinking about something like that. That meant getting to know Banca more, and that was something Reianna didn’t want to do.

  When they got down to the bottom landing, Crystal stood in front of the door, staring at the knob, wagging his tail.

  “You hold his scruff, and I’ll go make sure it’s clear,” Banca said and pushed past Reianna.

  “Okay.”

  Reianna grabbed Crystal, and Banca went out. A few seconds later, Banca came back. “It’s clear,” she said.

  Nodding, Reianna let go of Crystal, and the dog ran out. The two girls chased after him through the halls until he once again stopped in front of a door, this one leading outside to the training grounds.

  “I’ll go check again.”

  Reianna nodded and once more grabbed her dog’s scruff.

  “We’re clear,” Banca said as she came back.

  Crystal bolted out of the door and out into the fields. Reianna and Banca jogged after him. It was par for the course that Crystal would zoom around in the fields, then make his way back to whomever had taken him out after he burned through his energy, so neither girl was worried when he vanished into the lowlight of the evening.

  Still, Reianna didn’t want to wait around with just Banca, so she ran after the wayward dog.

  Banca took off after her. “You know it’s going to be me and you again, right?”

  Reianna glanced at Banca. “Like I asked the other day, do you want to go at me?”

  “I want to be the best.” Banca panted as she forced herself to keep up with Reianna.

  “So, that’s a yes?”

  “No, it’s not.”

  Reianna laughed. “It sure sounded like a yes to me.”

  “I’ve been watching you train.”

  “I’ve noticed.” It disturbed Reianna how much Banca watched her. During the morning exercises, Banca had never once watched the leader of the day unless Reianna happened to be the leader.

  “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to catch up with you.” Even saying that, Banca was a step behind in their run.

  “You don’t make any sense. Do you want to fight me or not?”

  Banca took a second before she answered. “I want to be your friend.”

  Reianna exhaled harder once, as a laugh. “Cycling on the moon.”

  “What?”

  “It means things that will never happen.”

  Banca didn’t reply.

  They ran in silence. Reianna still didn’t know what Banca wanted. The girl would definitely be one of the last two standing, and Reianna didn’t trust her enough to let anyone else fight her unshielded. Reianna didn’t want to hurt Banca anymore. She couldn’t figure out why they couldn’t just exist far away from each other.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Crystal ran towards the barn where the cattle were kept in the evening. Since it was dusk, all the cattle were inside, and it was locked up. Still, the barn was one of the dog’s favorite places to run around.

  The hair on the back of Reianna’s neck stood up as they approached the barn. Looking around, she didn’t see anything, but something felt wrong. A flash came from the roof of the barn.

  Reaching out, Reianna grabbed the back of Banca’s uniform and jerked the girl to a halt. As the girl fell to the ground and cried out at Reianna, the area she would have been running into exploded in flames.

  “What the Yani?!” Banca screamed from the ground.

  Looking up, Daymein stared down at them from the roof. “What did you do that for?” he asked.

  “That’s what I should be saying to you!” Reianna yelled.

  “I thought you would have been happy if I killed that for you.”

  Reianna stepped in front of Banca. “I thought Gerenet-Shr put you in your place.”

  Daymein sneered. “That stupid Yani. Here.” Daymein tossed a leather bracelet at her. She ignored it, and it fell in the dirt next to her.

  “You can give that back to him. Had to cut my fucking hand off to get it off.”

  Reianna’s face paled. “You’re psychotic.”

  He tilted his head. “You don’t find me charming?”

  Banca jumped to her feet. “You keep your Yani hands off her!”

  His gaze turned to the short-haired girl. “Banca, you look like an ugly boy with your hair like that. It suits you.”

  “No!” Reianna said. “I don’t find you ‘charming’.”

  Daymein’s eyes went back to Reianna, and they bore into her. Earlier in the year, she’d felt their pull was irresistible, but now, they just gave her an unsettling feeling.

  His aura had once been a void, but now it was just a small purple. It wasn’t a smoky mist, like what Madam Julvie or the bad Loushee had, just a purple ball that wouldn’t spread to the world around him.

  “Wait, why doesn’t it work on you anymore?” he asked.

  “Gerenet-Shr,” Reianna said, knowing that was all the explanation needed.

  “That outwall Yani.”

  Bending down, Reianna grabbed the bracelet off the ground. It was about five centimeters wide and had a stone embedded in it. The stone had been broken, and only the cracked ends remained where the stone had been sewn in.

  After tossing it into her inventory to give to Gerenet-Shr, she turned to Banca. “Come on, let’s go back.”

  Banca nodded. Reianna wasn’t worried about Crystal; he was smart enough to go back on his own. They’d just wait for him away from the lunatic mage.

  As they turned and took their first steps away, Banca shoved Reianna. She lost her balance and tumbled to the ground as one of Daymein’s discs cut through the air.

  Pain seared through Reianna’s arm. Banca’s reaction had been a fraction of a second too late, and the disc cut into Reianna, but thanks to the former noble, the disc only sliced into Reianna’s arm rather than cutting her in half.

  “Reianna! Get up!”

  The ground Reianna rolled off of exploded in flames, and the heat burned Reianna’s skin.

  Banca pulled one of her core balls out of her inventory and threw it at Daymein. He laughed and sliced the ball in half with one of his water discs.

  “You seriously think that can do something to me?”

  She threw a second, then a third. Once, twice more, Daymein sliced the balls in half. However, forcing him to focus on those gave Reianna time to stand. She held her left hand over the slice in her right arm. Blood streamed down Reianna’s arm.

  “Run!” Banca yelled and continued to throw balls at Daymein.

  Reianna took a step and crumpled to the ground as pain flared through her leg. She’d not made it out of the explosion in time, and her left leg was mangled.

  “Reianna!”

  Pumping the pain blocker into her system, Reianna got back to her feet. Looking back, Banca was still hurling balls at Daymein. He wasn’t looking at Reianna.

  She pulled a ball out of her storage, took aim, and threw it with all her might. The motion caught Daymein’s attention, and he blindly chucked a disc in Reianna’s direction.

  Reianna’s ball and Daymein’s disc passed by each other mid-air. Her ball smacked into Daymein’s head with a loud crack, and his head whipped back. He fell back onto the roof, then rolled off.

  His disc severed Reianna’s arm just above the elbow, and she screamed and fell to her knees.

  Before she could fall forward, Banca was there. She grabbed Reianna’s arm and picked her up in a fireman’s carry. She took off at a dash, heading for the training grounds. Reianna’s head bobbled, and her severed arm lay in the crook of her stomach. Neither girl spoke.

  Crystal joined them at the training ground. He looked at Reianna in Banca’s arms and whimpered.

  “Quiet, boy!” Banca commanded.

  Crystal went silent.

  He trotted along behind them through the now dark training ground. Once inside, instead of turning to the right and heading to the dorms, Banca turned left, towards the classrooms and Nurse Tyze’s office. Crystal trotted along behind her.

  The nurse was reading with his legs up on his desk when Banca burst in.

  “Banca?” he asked. “Oh, Yani! Reianna?! What happened?”

  He hopped up and ran over to one of the beds, pulled the curtain back, and gestured for Banca to put Reianna down.

  “Daymein,” Banca explained as she put Reianna on the bed.

  Reianna’s breathing was heavy as she gritted her teeth. She struggled to maintain consciousness. If she hadn’t been using the painkiller, she would have passed out long ago in Banca’s arms.

  When Nurse Tyze shot her up with actual painkillers, she didn’t even notice a difference. He took her detached arm and lined it up with the stub.

  “This is going to hurt,” Banca warned her and squeezed Reianna’s other hand.

  Nurse Tyze took out a tool Reianna had never seen before and held it over her arm. Banca hadn’t lied. A pain worse than having her arm cut off tore through Reianna in the area where her arm had been cut off.

  She screamed, and her vision went white.

  When she came to, Nurse Tyze was working on her leg.

  “She’s fine and stabilized now,” the bald nurse said.

  “Thank goodness,” Banca said with a sigh.

  “Go get Basque.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  As soon as Banca left, Nurse Tyze stared into Reianna’s eyes. “Was this really Daymein?”

  She nodded. “Banca saved me.”

  “Good. You should probably pass out for the rest of this. No reason for you to be awake.”

  Reianna nodded and let the darkness overtake her.

  When she came to, Gerenet-Shr was sitting next to her with his head bowed and hands clasped together.

  “Gerenet-Shr.” Her voice was raw.

  His head shot up, and he sat up straight. “Reianna! How are you feeling?”

  She raised her hand that had been chopped off and wriggled her fingers. “I think Nurse Tyze fixed me too well.”

  Gerenet-Shr smiled. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

  “Where’s Banca?”

  “In the dorms. I’ve shut everything down.”

  “You don’t need to. It was just by chance. We were out walking Crystal.”

  Gerenet-Shr nodded. “I heard everything from Banca.”

  “She saved me.”

  He reached up for her hand, then hesitated. She reached her hand out and took his.

  “I saw a flash and pulled Banca back—”

  “You don’t have to tell me now, if you don’t want to.”

  She looked at him. “Didn’t you say that reporting after a mission, no matter what happens, is part of our responsibilities?”

  He smiled. “I did.”

  “Then let me talk.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Reianna ran through the incident and pulled out the bracelet that Daymein had thrown at her. Gerenet-Shr took it, and his face darkened.

  “Thank you, Reianna. I’m so glad that you are alright.”

  “Thank you, Gerenet-Shr. I know he tried to use that charm spell on me, but thanks to you teaching us how to increase our INT, it had no effect on me.”

  His face lit up with his smile. “That’s great to hear.”

  Reianna looked at her feet sticking up under the blanket. “I know I am one, but how are we ever supposed to beat a mage?”

  “That’s what next year is for.”

  “With Daymein around, how will I even make it to next year?”

  “Don’t worry about him,” Gerenet-Shr said with a tone so cold, Reianna actually shivered.

  Gerenet-Shr released her hand and stood. “Tyze asked that you stay here the night so he can monitor you. I’ll have your pod come pick you up in the morning.”

  “Thank you.”

  He stood and left her partitioned area. Reianna let her head fall back and closed her eyes. Now that the battle was over and her adrenaline was gone, a deep fear gripped her heart. She’d worked so hard to get strong enough to beat Banca, but Banca was nothing compared to Daymein.

  Next year. She thought her next life might be more likely.

  “Basque, can I have a word?” Nurse Tyze said from the other side of the curtain.

  “What is it?”

  “I’m out of the medication your friend gave me.”

  There was a silence.

  “What does that mean?”

  “I’m basically down to commoner treatments. I have ostemorphina, so broken bones are fine, but I don’t have anything to reattach severed parts.”

  Reianna’s stomach lurched. What did that mean for the final between her and Banca?

  “Thanks for letting me know. When the next group arrives, I’ll try to get more for you.”

  Nurse Tyze thanked him, and the door opened and closed. The adults didn’t seem to be that concerned, but all Reianna could think of was Banca’s suggestion that Reianna should use her as a “pin cushion.”

  She finally understood the feeling that Gerenet-Shr probably felt every single day. It wasn’t a feeling she liked, and she wondered how he could stand it, but like him, she had no choice.