Collin came alive all at once. No thought, just motion. A moving target. This—this he could do. Like hunting.
He reloaded in a blur. As the sack arced high into the sunlit air, he released.
The arrow ripped through the center. Straw exploded, golden motes raining across the grass.
His chest heaved. He looked to Sol.
The faintest hint of a smile curled the corner of the old captain’s mouth—but it twisted unnervingly against the hardened lines of his face, like something old learning how to grin.
“You are excused.”
Collin didn’t wait to be told twice.
He rushed to the table, snatched up Lumen, and headed toward the hall door.
But the guard blocked his path, eyes like chipped stone. “Keep your mouth shut. Move.”
Collin nodded quickly, breath rasping. The door opened into cool dimness. His vision swam. His friends—still waiting, wide-eyed—and did what the others had done.
He ran.
Straight through the hall, past the silence that felt like pressure—thick, watchful. Each step pulled at something raw beneath his skin, an echo he couldn’t shake.
The doors loomed ahead. Heavy. Ornate. Indifferent.
Now he understood. It wasn’t just the order to keep quiet. It was how it stripped him down. Left him open. The shame didn’t roar—it whispered. Crawled. Settled in his gait, in the hitch of his breath, in the blood tacky at his temple.
He crossed the square.
The steward barely looked up. “Name?”
“Collin of Chroma,” he said, breath still short.
The steward rifled through a stack of papers. “Return at noon, second of May for your results.” He slapped the letter into Collin’s hand.
Collin turned to leave.
“Bring your weapons with you,” the steward called loudly.
Collin froze. His heart stuttered. “My weapons?”
“You may be required to be assessed again,” came the gruff reply.
Collin didn’t answer. He didn’t have words left.
He thought about waiting for the others—but he was too wrung out to make conversation, too bruised to offer comfort or ask for any. Besides, no one else had stayed.
He trudged toward home, pain blooming with every step. By the time he reached his road, a single thought looped in his mind—
What would tomorrow bring—and who amongst them would still have something left to give?
