After the timestop came another bridge, and after the news of Daté's application to the Initiative, came the worst he expected to ever see Khridoli. The tweed always in his mouth went straight up, jaw to jaw, looking like a crocodile with a branch stopping its bite. Then his tongue broke the stick in half and he chewed it. The crack fit in perfectly with the clamor of distant pokémon – Upright felt himself become petrified with doubt twice over. He tried to shiver off the sheet of ice coating his pelt, which Shuteye noticed.

It floated over, pacing itself to the quilava's walk. "Sorry about the cold," it said. "And being the bearer of bad news..."

"You couldn't help it," Upright said.

At least he gleamed that from the goings-on Shuteye described: the leader of the Initiative, 'Master Adventurer' held off a vote to remove Daté. The idea of an obvious Grace permeating such a guarded place was so baffling, Upright couldn't see a way to fairly place fault on the acts of any one entity.

Finally, the terse aura broke down. Khridoli growled and stomped away toward the forward path at a large fork – only then did the other pokémon on the bridge feel safe to pick up the slack.

"Bye bye, commander," Shuteye said. "He's always promising to work on that anger of his…. this is foul," it muttered, describing the idea shining in its eyes. It looked like curiosity. "Foul stuff… but I can't ignore the fact you seem to know Daté. How have you come to know him? I doubt he's a friend – he's been gone for several years, at least. I won't spread it around, promise."

My friend and I are in deep with the Graces, Upright thought. Daté's been stalking me to make sure I don't ruin his plans with my human-ness.

Fat chance. It worked out so well the last time. Plus it was all to exhausting to describe on the go. Still, it was just as exhausting to whip up a lie. He should have been working on one since last night, but he was too busy ruminating.

"I remember!" Marker barked. "That friend robbed us. Commander Khridoli found the scene of the crime."

Doggy gave a long hum, as if cutting off some stored-up speech.

Wow, Upright thought, simply stunned. Is Marker really lying for me off of instinct? He doesn't even know the truth...

"...And then he decided to take you all on as unlisted," Shuteye finished for them. "That's strange. No commander's ever taken on victims. N-not that you don't deserve to be here!" It exclaimed.

"Looks like they don't offer courses on manners up in the Initiative," Doggy said. It was a sour reply, but Upright felt it too – the twang of doubt at Shuteye's comment.

The mismagius took it well. "Ha! Actually, cheerleaders take a course like that! But I'm no cheerleader, I can tell you that much. Most initiative stereotypes are true… including the one that says all underdogs are awful impolite."

"I'm not impolite," Marker whined.

Doggy gave him a shifty look. "Really? Dare to double-down on that?"

The poochyena never got the chance. A new batch of identity marks came to them. Wafting up, from below their own bridge. Marker went to the balcony to get a look. So did Upright and Doggy.

"So cool!" Doggy cried. "There has to be, like, forty pokémon down there!"

It was certainly wider than their own path, thicker too, with banners to point applicants towards orientation. They're all so small from up here. And so colorful! Upright thought that seeing wave after wave of pokémon, ready to show their stuff, would make him even more worried about his chances. But the vigorous crowd lifted his spirits.

"When orientation comes around," Shuteye explained, "we remove the furniture from the mess hall and set up arenas. We're headed to the observatory to watch the fights from above. Oh, and you might think there are a ton of them now," it added, smiling, "but this is the group after interviews and aptitude tests. It's our biggest group to date."

"How many quit a year once they get a taste of all the stairs and walking?" Doggy asked.

A startling hiccup came from the mismagius. Upright realized he had just heard how a ghost stifles its chuckling.

"Come on," it said, "let's get going."

Before they did, Doggy made sure to note something for his two friends. He brought a paw over the balcony, to point at a shape emergent in the crowd.

"There he is," Doggy whispered.

The crowd had distanced itself from Daté, who waited down there like just any typical applicant. Upright swallowed hard.

"Let's not allow him to ruin our day," the quilava ordered.

~~~V~~~

The clamor of hundreds of pokémon was loud enough, until it was put into a tower with an echo. Upright had to cover his sensitive ears for entirety of the descent to the rows of spots lining the observatory. His heart was about to leap out of his throat, so he made a mad dash for Khridoli, regardless of how the pangoro was busy slamming fist-against-palm in front of a group of pokémon.

Doggy and Marker followed – the noise was fine, but the full rows of adventurers gave them plenty of reason to seek out safety.

While Upright was in his mad rush, some words soaked through his paw:

"That one's a deep-forest bumpkin," a black-pelt hose (maybe a zebra?) jeered. "See how he covers 'is ears. What a dope!

"No way, he's a rich lad from east Territory!" The blue turtle responsible for the assumption didn't even try to keep their game subtle.

Upright stopped on a dime. Doggy and Marker padded on, not even noticing. "Huh?" He called, still unused to the clamor.

"Where are you from?" The horse asked.

He gave the answer quick, in hope of escaping. "Deep-forest." That's sorta true, he thought.

The turtle scowled and handed a small bounty to zebra – or really, dropped it into the bag the zebra picked up with its mouth. "Blasted kid, your mark is too clean for forest life."

Upright didn't quite catch that. "Huh?"

"Pardon him," the other one said, "he's a bit sour. I'd assume there's no use betting on which commander dragged him in. You're Amory's charge, all right."

Even among the business, Upright was completely blasted by guilt. There was little reason for, though that just made it harder to chew. "Commander Khridoli took me in," he said.

The two sat silently.

"He's one of us?" The turtle asked.

"Uh, see that, Shuteye's right close to him. I swear this is a prank – eh, Shuteye?"

Shuteye saved Upright from talking. "Ohmer. Milo. Want me to tell our commander that you are making bets on unlisted?"

Ohmer, the zebra, shook his head wildly. "You'd sentence a comrade to death, eh? You truly don't have a soul."

"I'm good, thanks," Milo pleaded. "Our commander looks ready to take down rayquaza with his fists n' attitude." With that, those two returned to facing the ground floor, and Upright took his chance to reach Khridoli.

Who, because fate was already having field-day with the quilava, had abandoned his ranting for a one-on-one with none other than Amory. They were discussing something avidly, arms folded, eyes sombre. When the pangoro craned his neck back and spotted Upright, and he shook his head slowly, Upright discovered that he was the dumbest pokémon there could ever be.

Commander Khridoli walked over. "You're in trouble. Go sit with your friends. Pay attention to orientation, learn a thing or two. Afterward, I'm personally giving you the outside-inside of the Initiative."

Upright walked to an open space next to Doggy like it was the electric chair. The growlithe was gaping at him – no, Upright realized, he's gaping at the three arenas on the bottom floor of the tower. He didn't notice, I think..

They were quite amazing. Special work had to have gone into designing the stages, into moving them, the slabs of stone that they were.

"So cool, so-oo-o cool." Doggy bounced back and forth, chanting to himself. "Upright, this is the best ever. We get to see, like, a thousand fights in a row!"

"That's too many," Marker said. "All those pokémon will tire themselves to death."

Doggy drooped one ear. "It's a hyperbole."

Marker was dubious. "You made that word up," he accused.

"W...why would I ever-"

"Because I am right and you are wrong," Marker said, pointing his nose to the air. "You lose." Then he noticed his own rude behavior. "Oops. Sorry, seeing this fighting-pit brings out my competitive instinct. Grr."

"Don't make me take you down there," Doggy growled. "I'll show you my competitive spirit."

Marker made his eyes cross, a talent he hadn't shown off before. "Goh-hoh-hoh," he mocked. "I am a bathseeker. Watch out for my competitive spirit." Doggy took a swipe at him, and they fell into a squabble.

Upright laughed. Those two are on the same wavelength

Then he had the idea to check his other side. And there was Amory, waiting to be seen. He adjusted his scarves, giving Upright a sidelong glance. The quilava slunk away from him.

"I' haven't yelled at anything since I was a scrapper," Amory said. "I nearly tried to make you DNT for field researchers, cartographers, and toolkits. Because what you did was perhaps the stupidest act to ever permeate my precious warehouse."

That would be three right off the bat… Upright hung his head.

"You're lucky I trust commander Khridoli to dole out a proper punishment – in case you haven't figured it out, he becomes considerably more stressed when inside the walls of the Initiative. Blame it on the politics."

"That must be what inside-outside means," Upright said, already fearing the experience. "I shouldn't have ever said that."

"Very right," Amory hissed. "You're also lucky that I understand what it means to enter this business a pariah. One chance, Upright. Don't throw it away on another silly 'confession.' Seriously, I ought to-"

"A-Attention everybody? Hello?"

Amory forgot his lecture. "Arceus help us. Who put that smeargle on announcement-duty?"

A doggish creature, standing on two feet and hanging on to a red-tipped tail for dear life, spoke into a megaphone. Somehow, Upright picked up that it was for lifeguard's watchers over the ocean, from its red-white paint, and the smeargle definitely looked like he was drowning.

"Er, uh, h-how is everyone? Hope no one fell on the way here!"

Silence. Amory buried his head in his paws.

"Tough crowd," Doggy whispered.

The smeargle jostled around.

"So. This is the orientation. We have a lot of new – well, of course they're new, unless the reapplied, to which I wish them good luck. Not that their success rides on luck, i-it's all skill. Speaking of skill, we are testing it today."

"I once leaped at a stag," Marker said. "I thought I caught it, but I was chewing on a tree. This is sadder." He seemed genuinely surprised at the fact. Several of the pokémon around them laughed at the remark. The smeargle noticed this bout of chuckles, along with several other pockets of mirth, and tossed away all pretense.

"Darn it, why am I up here again? Toss the cartographer up on the stand: has that ever worked out well?! Yeah, whatever, get your laughs in! Your maps will take you straight into rayquaza's belly!"

"Usually we try to inspire the applicants," Amory said, almost drowned out by the smeargle's ranting. "Sometimes we go for humor instead. You'd be surprised how far a little humility goes in calming things down."

Finally, Khridoli had enough. He stepped up, stole the megaphone.'

"First applicants up. Ring one, Acker and Retch. Ring two, Trotsky and Trixie. Ring three, Albus and Jash..."

The pokémon called entered their respective rings, their chosen corners. Before Upright had the time to take in their forms, they began, charging at each other.

Roars came from the observatory. Things were happening. Action. Combat. An unfamiliar scent reached him, a sort of energy. It incensed him, peaking his interest even so he had no idea what was happening.

His eyes caught the third ring. Hey, he thought, watching the two pokémon weave around each other, he's all weasel-like, like me!

The yellow creature was actually more otter-like than anything. He proved his breed by sliding about the ring on his stomach, staying under the charges of a scruffly dog. In a burst of speed, Jash took advantage of an overlong leap, putting himself beneath Albus. For a moment it seemed that Jash had given himself up, until a burst of water came forth from his mouth. Albus lifted onto his hind legs from the sheer force of it, then collapsed.

Okay, maybe we aren't very alike.

Albus somehow stood up and continued to fight.

Doggy and Marker, who were starting to seem as if they shared a single mind, had both chosen ring two. They were half-crazed, cheering every time a blow landed – and between Trixie and Trotsky, with long clubs and helms of ivory, there was a constant stream of impacts. Even so, the helms showed no signs of wear or cracking. They were in a frenzy, wailing on each other with reckless abandon. In a way, they almost fought as if in tandem – they had to be related.

Since his friends had lost their collective mind, he asked Amory. "Are the pokémon in ring two brother and sister?" He asked.

Amory took his eyes of ring one for a moment. The question made him sad, for whatever reason.

"For cubone, that's really not possible," the cinccino replied. No explanation as to why. "A-anyway, check out ring one. You can see the other commanders salivating over that mudkip from here."

The mudkip, Acker, was actually in the middle of an upset – at least, in terms of size. The lengthy creature in the middle of the ring kept trying to charge out, where it might push in instead of out. The tiny blue fish weaved around the edges in short little bounces. Whenever Retch attempted to escape, Acker came in and tipped his head. Upright gasped once his sharp eyes caught what was forming in the ring: blood.

He's cutting him with that fin of his! Upright thought. O-Ouch…even with expedited recovery, a pokémon was likely unable to weather such an assault for long. The fact that Retch managed to stand on ribbons amazed the quilava. I could never stay up…

The other two matches ended. Jash won the match, while the match between the cubone had to be broken up. Several cries of confusion spread through the observatory. To answer them, a graceful creature slid onto the stand. "To prevent grievous harm," she said, weaving the words together into silky announcements, "we are ending the matches in ring two – a tie – and ring one – to Acker." The commander adjusted his scarves and leaped down, back to his spot.

The cubone limped away. Retch wasn't so lucky: a few pokémon carried him off, barely conscious. Acker followed a bit, either concerned or angry that his opponent found a way out of the ring.

Amory sighed. "A bunch of fighters in the first round," he said. "At this rate, we're going to be stretched for field researches again."

"I know you're the head of R&D," Upright said, suddenly inspired, "but are you a commander?"

The look of bafflement on the cinccino's face was almost funny. "Uh… yes."

"Why are you…" over here? Bad question, Upright. For once (though he hoped to do it again sometime in the future) Upright used his head. If he recalled correctly, Amory's brother had defected to the Graces. Is that enough to make the other commanders dislike him? Khridoli, at least, seemed fine sending him in to get his tusks fixed.

Upright changed his tone. "Sorry. I'm not very insightful into fighting. You said you were a scrapper?"

Amory rebounded the moment the topic changed. "Yeah! Scrappers take the lead on fighting ferals. Those are the not-so-nice pokémon from the Outside. I was a pretty good one, too. But my brother was making an absolute wreck of R&D, despite his 'latent talent.' They asked me to become a researcher, keep him in line. I'm rusted over now… oh, more matches."

There were. They had actually brought Jash from ring three to clean up ring one and two. Now a fresh batch of applicants exercised their power. Except for ring two, which was mysteriously empty.

"Where's ring two?" Upright asked.

Doggy nudged him and nodded straight ahead. Two birds were interlocked in a panicked dogfight, trying to get the other one to plummet. One had a plumage of jet-black feathers, making it the standout in the mess compared to a beige-colored pokémon who, if being closer to the ground showed a disadvantage, was steadily losing the fight.

In a sudden burst, the beige bird wrapped its beak around the other bird's neck. They slammed into the rim of the observatory, sliding along the edges as either fought for control of this desperate move. Marker popped up on all fours and barked at them. Upright himself was taken aback: there's a ring for a reason, he thought. It was all fun and games until the audience got involved – Marker looked ready for a diving attack.

"Hey Marker," Upright said, trying to distract him. "Do you thing flying pokémon get pigeon-holed into scout roles?"

The poochyena stopped winding up. "What was that?"

"What was what?"

"It's strange. You say pigeon-holed, and a pigeon happens to be a bird, and you are speaking of birds."

Those two birds were gone, out of view because they had fallen under the rim. "I, uh, didn't mean to do that."

"Grr…" Marker looked frustrated. Upright decided to ignore it now, ask questions never.

Overall, this was much better than Upright anticipated. He hardly felt the same nervousness from before. The caveat… one of these rings would have Daté in it eventually.

While the other two rings ended with victories, ring two ended in a nasty draw. Jet-black and beige were colors that clashed, apparently; it took several pokémon to tear them apart. The same graceful commander returned to remind combatants to stay on or in the region above the stage.

Daté, though he hadn't provided much evidence, seemed to be a dangerous combatant. How many rules would need mentioning in his fight?

~~V~~~

Another batch went up to the rings. And another.

A break finally came after this fourth set of matches. The smell of blood, toil and excitement hung in the air. Shuteye called this a 'mess tower?' Upright asked himself. I don't think I can eat if this smog sticks around…

A leafy fellow interrupted his thoughts. More shroomish, on a second look. It was flanked by an armor-plated shrew and a third pal, who challenged Upright's limits of associating pokémon to animals; it had two diamonds for eyes, and seemed to be close to Shuteye's amorphous form, but succinctly different.

"Hiya!" The shroomy one said. "Commander Khridoli said you three were his unlisted."

Upright did his best to play it cool. He wore a big smile. "We are. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too!"

The shrew pointed at Amory. "Wait, there's a fourth unlisted. Who picked you out?"

Amory looked about ready to prove his scrapping background. "I'm a commander," he said, glowering.

Well that proves it, Upright thought, they know as much as we do.

"Aw… why are you over here?" Was the shrew's followup.

And that proves that they have about as much tact as I do.

"I'm sitting over here bec- which commanders picked you lot out?!" Amory asked, going on the defensive.

The greenest one replied first. "Commander Tairé, He called me pretty tough, for a leafy breloom."

The sandshrew was still in the throes of defeat. "I'm really sorry. Oh… I roll into a ball, like most sandshrew do, I guess…. then I can memorize my route and scale the distances in my head. Why? I don't know, why do remember anything… commander Eatzle liked it, though."

"Commander Regal," the dark one answered. "I professed my love for subterfuge one day, and the like mind sees its siblings in the details. A sableye maxim…"

Well, Shuteye did mention stereotypes. Though he wouldn't put it past the three to surprise him, the other commanders had made cut-and-dry choices for their unlisted. Maybe there's a deadline. Maybe Khridoli just picked us up off the street?

"We've got permission to use the rings while its break-time," the breloom said. "Let's all scrap a bit!"

Whoa, no thanks.

Doggy bounced up so fast he almost gave himself whiplash. "Me and you – right now!"

It's okay. This sandshrew is definitely going to sit out, like me. That leaves two one-on-one's.

"My commander said I must fight," the sandshrew lamented. "I have to etch a map in someone's flesh… it's sorta my first assignment. Unless he was being facetious..."

Marker took one look at Upright and nodded. "Upright has an upset stomach. I can fight both the maximum and the one that scares me a little."

"Maxim," the sableye hissed.

The sandshrew titled his head. "Um… okay. I mean, if you think you can do it."

The group of unlisted ran by Upright. Already, he felt left out. Considering his experience this was the best choice; he'd never taken a hit as a pokémon, and he'd bet money the fights down there felt nothing like play-wrestling with Doggy.

The excited pokémon were in the rings within a few minutes – there was likely an indoor route connecting the mess area to the observatory. Right away, Upright was captured by Doggy's struggle against the breloom.

The breloom's legs deceived Doggy by coiling up their length, which not only made them appear stout but added to the power they delivered. The growlithe found himself underestimating their range time and time again, though blows were always traded, the odds tipping neither direction.

"Sheesh," Amory said. Upright nodded.

Then the pace of the battle shifted. At first Upright missed the reason for Doggy suddenly jerking back. Then he saw the lengths of cord coming from the breloom.

Amory took in a breath. "Yikes."

At this point, where the rules seemed so established, Doggy panicked in response to the shift in strategy. He tried to charge over the vine. Another vine came from the breloom's free arm. It smacked straight into the growlithe's forehead and, in the contemplative tower, the echo of his cry, of his slipping off the ring onto the ground, reached Upright fully. Doggy kept his head buried underneath his forelegs as he attempted to get back to the ring.

Arceus! Upright straightened up. That didn't sound good! Thankfully, an adventurer peeled Doggy away before he climbed up for a second round.

"Arceus," Amory said, mirroring his thoughts.

Upright nodded. "Right? If only he could use fire like I can, then maybe-"

"Are we watching the same fight?" Amory asked. "Because I'm watching Marker work his way through our applicants this year."

Sableye, check, Sandshrew, check; both were writhing somewhere off stage. Not knocked off, but scooted off to make room for others to come up. First had to be Jash, since he looked a little recovered from a vicious headbutt. Maybe her fight had made Trixie too tired for another, or maybe Marker was the reason she kept checking her swings, while the poochyena worked on dealing with the mudkip. Acker, at least, proved to be on par.

Khridoli watched with the other commanders. For the first time since reentering the Initiative, he had a grin on his face – almost childlike. When the sableye appeared behind Marker, likely employing a sort of stealth technique, Marker whipped around and butted him out of the ring. The pangoro looked as if he might explode into a bout of giddy chuckles.

Until commander Regal stepped up onto the stand. "Refrain from ganging up on the poochyena. He is a docile and might assume he is being cornered." Then Khridoli sprang up and got into a furious argument with the gorgeous creature.

"That explains a lot of things," Amory said. "Even so, Marker seems to have a talent for reading his opponents. Wild or no, he reads pokémon well."

No, he doesn't, Upright wanted to say. Those Wild Committee fakes ripped him off, and he had no idea. Or, in a wild world, he did know. Did he see Doggy and me as better pack-mates than those fakes? Is that why he chose to turn on them?

The argument over at the commanders' spot was growing heated. A fox creature, his form made as if by the pull of being heavy and airless at once, took the stand.

"We're starting again, so everyone… everyone… everyone..."

Regal and Khridoli stopped to look at the fox.

"There we go. Next to the ring..." this stop wasn't to grab anyone's attention. He looked about at the observatory, then the ground floor, trying to find a way to buy time. There was none. "Next to the right. Pep and Hard-day, ring one. Lilith and Mara, ring two. And, um… Daté and Tahtib."

Upright kept his face expressionless. Daté.'s turn. Why do I get a feeling that this fox isn't worried about him, though?

A commotion began among the commanders. Regal lost her poise and, if Upright dared to call it the strangest part of his day, witnessed her reach for Khridoli – a moment ago the two had been at the throat with one another. Khridoli took her paw and held it, his face stern. The clamor spread from them, to everyone, until the announcement of ring three was the source of a violent uproar in the observatory.

"Amory, what's happening?!" He called.

But the cinccino was rushing to the other commanders. He did get in time for one bit, however:

"Tahtib is Regal and Khridoli's son. Something is amiss." He yelled at Khridoli, swinging a paw across his neck. Relax. Stop. Don't interfere.

The other, poor participants went to their rings, unsure of whether they should start – or if the chorus of boos at Daté were meant for any of them. The humility that went a long way? Gone, forgotten.

Tahtib, truly a smaller version of his father, seemed an ant before Daté. It was an image made from a difference in age, and the context Upright had surrounding the grovyle. Nonetheless, Tahtib had his paws raised for a fight.

Thud.

The entire tower went silent. Several commanders ran over to the edge of the observatory. Khridoli had jumped down.

The room was so absent of spirit, Upright easily heard the pangoro's booming voice. "Whenever we deem that an expert fighter has applied, a commander will take it upon themselves to test this pokémon in another applicant's stead."

Tahtib looked utterly defeated, but Daté found it nothing but amusing.

"Also," Daté yelled, "it is usually the case that this replaced applicant may still receive a chance to prove their ability against a superior adversary. What d'ya say, little guy? Wanna scrap for a bit? I went and switched us around in the roster to get this chance. I'll be real sad if you refuse this opportunity."

It sounds playful, Upright thought, but I swear on my life he plans to maim Khridoli's kid. Why though? Why arrange such a fight?

"You arranged your fight, and yet you talk about rules?!" Khridoli shouted. He jumped onto ring three. At this point, the other applicants had long retreated to the sides of the room, though no place seemed truly safe. "Face me instead, traitorous bastard!"

"I didn't want to bruise a poppa in front of his cub," Daté jeered. "But if you want me, you can have me!"

They launched at each other. Explosions of speed and strikes rang in the air.

Upright became rigid with fear. I… I can't keep up. I see every move their making, every single move, right in front of me… but none of them make sense. Khridoli's explosive punches. The bladed leaves on Daté's wrists. They were close enough to feel their opponent pant, yet neither landed a blow. How? How are they so close yet avoiding everything that's thrown at them?! They were on another level, another planet, one where the laws everyone else abides by didn't matter.

All he gathered was that Daté, though he slipped through the lightning-fast swings and kicks with short hops, occasionally moved a foot back. Then two feet. Three. A glimpse of lost ground.

Soon, Daté was at the edge. His eyes shot briefly to the position of his feet, just before he leaped back. If Upright noticed it, it had to be a mistake.

So it was. Khridoli's arm shot out, clutching the grovyle by the neck. The space behind the ring became blurry, brown-tinted; the impact of the grab sent dust flying everywhere.

"When I'm done with you," Khridoli roared, "Arceus'll marvel at what I did to one of his creatures!"

"Tear into the bastard!" A voice cried.

"Do it, do it!"

"Show 'em what he gets when he ruses 'ta Initiative!"

"ENOUGH, ENOUGH I SAY!"

Khridoli winded down, his chest heaving from unadulterated fury. His eyes turned towards the observatory – higher than that.

From a small compartment Upright never noticed, a hunched pokémon made it way out onto the precipice. From its vantage it reigned supreme over them all, despite its age, actually, because of its age. Its shiny green carapace shone dully in the sun that leaked through the higher tower windows.

This has to be the Master Adventurer. Upright marveled at the grand figure. He's here to exile Daté in front of the entire Initiative!

The Master pointed a claw at ring three.

"Khridoli," he roared, "how dare you?"

What? Khridoli's rage dissipated. Somehow, him and the chorus of cries were in the wrong. He dropped Daté, too stunned to move.

"Firstly, you detracted from our other applicants with this show of yours. I demand that you resume orientation immediately."

No one moved on the bottom floor.

"IMMEDIATELY!"

Pep, Hard-day, Lilith, Mara, Tahtib; they raced back their rings as if their lives depended on it.

"Secondly," the Master announced, "no one shall ever harm our shining emissary."

"Shining?" Regal howled. The word as a question sufficed, but she went on. "He arranged for me to witness my own son brutalized!"

The Master Adventurer began the walk back into the shadows. At the very end, halfway covered, he declared something that shook the foundations of the tower they were in:

"Despite his flaws, he is a part of us. Now leave him be and resume orientation, commanders." He disappeared into his station. "Daté, to my quarters."

Daté, to his credit, had the sense to quit goading the pangoro. Khridoli walked out of the tower - something told Upright he wouldn't be seeing his son's match. The grovyle waited a moment, then left the adventurers to fester in their confusion. A foul mood washed over the tower. Commander Regal, in spite of her outburst, went up on the stand to try and dredge up their old excitement.

Amory walked back from the group of commanders. He seemed tired, if a little relieved.

"Why did the Master let Daté off? He cheated!" Upright exclaimed.

"Too much to explain right now. Just be happy you didn't witness a murder; for a moment there," the cinccino admitted, "I thought we were to see the end of Daté." Upright recalled the shockwave sent out by Khridoli's attack, and swore to himself: if Khridoli had enacted his grab differently, he would have snapped the grovyle's neck. "Listen, Upright? All the other unlisted tired themselves out during the break. The commanders want you to take Daté's place against Tahtib."

Upright's words lodged in his throat.