Anata had spent the night learning how to lie to my feet.
I discovered this twenty-two minutes into the second trial.
By then it had already cost us a flag lane, one of Oren's wards, and enough of my dignity that I considered charging Nexus for damages.
The morning had begun more politely.
Which should have warned me.
The second arena occupied considerably less land than the Ashcourse.
That made it more dangerous.
The tournament staff had transformed a rectangular section of the old competitive grounds into two fortified territories separated by a broad neutral zone.
Celcium held the western side.
Nexus held the east.
Each base consisted of a raised stone platform surrounded by low walls, two access lanes and enough uneven terrain to make direct charges unpleasant.
A flag stood at the center of each platform.
Blue-white for Celcium.
Dark Nexus colors opposite.
Simple.
Almost.
The official explained the rest while the six of us waited behind our respective start barriers.
"One flag per academy."
I liked him already.
"Capture the opposing flag and return it to your pedestal."
Still excellent.
"A score is valid only while your own flag is secured at its base."
There it was.
Civilization inevitably complicates theft.
"The flag must be carried physically. Direct magical displacement resets it to its pedestal."
I looked at the Celcium flag.
Apparently someone had anticipated mages.
Unfortunate.
"Valid disabling strikes remove a competitor for forty-five seconds. Recovery occurs inside the marked zone nearest that competitor's base."
Oren whispered:
"Better than the Furnace."
"Financially, no."
Leonie ignored us.
The official continued.
"No deliberate serious injury. No attacks against competitors inside recovery zones. Field structures may be altered only where tournament wards permit it."
I looked across the neutral ground.
Xavier was doing the same.
His eyes passed over walls, slopes and drainage channels.
Not me.
The previous day, that would have annoyed me.
Today I understood it.
He had a match.
So did I.
Anata stood several paces behind him with her bow.
Arkad rolled one shoulder and checked the tournament weapon at his side.
Their arrangement looked obvious.
Arkad pressure.
Anata range.
Xavier mobility.
Too obvious.
Leonie crouched and drew a rough map in the dirt.
"Oren stays within one rotation of home."
He nodded.
"Fixed wards?"
"Two maximum at once."
"I can maintain three."
"You need reserve."
No argument.
She looked at me.
"You're central."
"Scouting?"
"Interception. I don't want you in their base during the first five minutes."
I stared.
"You distrust me."
"Yes."
Refreshing.
"Why five?"
"Because you've spent most of your life with three of the people opposite us."
"Not most."
She gave me a look.
"Enough."
I glanced toward Nexus.
Anata was talking to Xavier.
He nodded once.
Arkad said something.
Anata shook her head.
I could almost reconstruct the conversation.
Almost.
That was the problem.
"What about you?" I asked Leonie.
"I move."
"That is vague."
"It is flexible."
"Vagueness with better tailoring."
The start signal lit above us.
Ten seconds.
Leonie planted the butt of her spear against the stone.
"Oren protects the flag. Raymond owns the middle. I test their defense."
"Own?"
"Occupy."
"Much less flattering."
Five.
Across the field, Nexus changed formation.
Arkad stepped forward.
Xavier stepped back.
Anata disappeared behind the eastern wall.
Interesting.
Three.
Two.
One.
The barrier fell.
Arkad came directly at me.
Of course he did.
There is a peculiar disadvantage to knowing someone well.
You begin searching for the clever thing they intend to do.
Arkad's first strategy was not clever.
He ran at me.
Fast.
No feint.
No hidden flank.
No elaborate mana pattern.
Just a large angry Knight crossing neutral ground with the visible intention of making my morning worse.
I opened Ground Resonance for a pulse.
His footfalls came through clearly.
Heavy.
Consistent.
No second contact nearby.
Anata hidden.
Xavier still deep.
Why send Arkad alone?
Bait.
Probably.
I shifted left.
Arkad changed with me.
"Morning!"
"You sound cheerful."
"I am."
He reached striking distance.
His practice blade came across in a controlled diagonal cut.
I stepped outside.
Board Sight tracked shoulder, hip, centerline.
Easy.
Too easy.
I touched gravity around his leading foot.
Arkad anticipated it.
Not perfectly.
Enough.
He shortened the step rather than resisting the weight, rolled his shoulder through the missed strike and drove the other hand toward my chest.
I blocked.
The impact still moved me backward.
He grinned.
"You've been practicing."
"So have you."
"I noticed."
Second exchange.
He attacked again.
I expected him to force me east.
Instead he pressed west.
Away from Nexus.
Toward Celcium.
There.
Objective.
He wasn't trying to win the duel.
He wanted me occupied while—
Ground Resonance picked up movement on the southern lane.
Light contacts.
Three steps.
Pause.
Three more.
Anata.
I disengaged.
Arkad tried to follow.
I increased gravity briefly across his rear leg.
Not enough to pin.
Enough to buy two seconds.
I moved south.
"Raymond!" Leonie shouted.
"I have movement!"
"So do I!"
She was already crossing north toward Nexus.
Fine.
Oren remained at home.
South lane first.
I pulsed again.
Three contacts.
Pause.
Then three.
Approximately forty meters ahead.
I accelerated.
Trees and low artificial walls blocked direct sight.
Another pulse.
Movement continued.
Same rhythm.
Too regular?
Maybe.
Anata was careful.
She might be doing it deliberately to—
A tournament arrow struck stone fifteen meters to my right.
The vibration returned through the ground.
One impact.
Then another farther ahead.
Then another.
I stopped.
No footsteps.
Arrows.
The three-contact sequence had not been a person moving south.
It had been impacts against concealed stone surfaces, timed carefully enough that Ground Resonance interpreted distance changes as movement.
My stomach sank.
Anata was not here.
She was somewhere with line of sight on the lane.
Watching me chase her arrows.
"Damn."
A horn sounded behind me.
Celcium outer ward.
Hit.
I turned.
Too late.
Mud had spread across part of the central approach to our base.
Xavier.
Of course.
Earth and water layered over the stone in a thin moving sheet.
Ground Resonance touched it and came back ugly.
Soft.
Distributed.
Footfalls blurred before they reached the deeper ground.
He had not disabled my perception.
He had changed the surface carrying the information.
I ran back.
Anata fired again.
Not at me.
At the ground behind me.
Two impacts.
Then another farther north.
More false motion.
I ignored them.
Which was exactly what she wanted me to learn.
That annoyed me most.
Oren's first ward shattered before I reached the base.
Xavier came through the opening.
His movement pattern changed every few steps.
Long.
Short.
Pause.
Burst.
Rhythmic Permutation.
The mud helped.
His feet landed quietly, then heavily, then almost slid.
No stable cadence.
Oren stood between him and the Celcium flag.
Second ward.
Smaller.
Xavier hit it once with reinforced force.
It held.
Arkad arrived behind me.
Excellent.
I had acquired a personal escort.
"Move."
"No."
He attacked.
I blocked the first strike.
His second pushed me sideways.
Xavier hit Oren's ward again.
Leonie was still inside Nexus territory.
I could call her back.
No external communication beyond our voices, but she would hear if I shouted.
That would abandon her pressure.
Chessmaster produced the obvious priorities.
Flag.
Xavier.
Arkad.
Oren reserve falling.
Anata unknown.
And beneath it all, irritation.
Anata had fooled me.
That variable had no place in the calculation.
It remained anyway.
Arkad struck again.
I let the blade glance off my forearm guard and stepped inside.
His strength mattered less at short distance.
Palm against shoulder.
Turn.
Gravity increased beneath my own feet.
My base locked.
I redirected his momentum past me.
He stumbled once.
Not enough to disable.
Enough to open a lane.
I ran.
Oren's ward broke.
Xavier crossed.
Ten meters to the flag.
I pulsed Ground Resonance.
Useless through the mud.
Fine.
Eyes.
Body.
Movement.
Xavier shifted left.
Then right.
I waited instead of predicting.
He noticed.
Almost smiled.
Then Anata's arrow came over the wall.
I heard it before I saw it.
Tournament shaft.
Padded head.
A legal disabling strike if it landed cleanly.
I moved.
The arrow passed my shoulder.
That half-second was enough.
Xavier touched the flagstaff.
He couldn't move it magically.
So he grabbed it.
Oren hit him.
Not a strike.
A compact mobile ward thrown sideways like a shield.
Xavier lost balance.
The flag came half free of its pedestal.
I reached him.
My hand closed around his wrist.
For one breath we were sixteen again in an empty training room rather than standing between two academies.
Then he drove his shoulder into me.
I answered automatically.
Elbow control.
Hip.
Weight shift.
He knew the sequence.
Changed his footing midway.
My leverage vanished.
"Still reading me?" he asked.
"Trying."
"Stop."
He twisted free.
Oren struck the flagstaff with his ward.
The tournament pedestal recognized defensive contact and locked the flag back into place because Xavier no longer had full control.
A chime sounded.
Reset.
Xavier retreated immediately.
No frustration.
He had almost taken it.
Learned our defense.
That had probably been enough.
Arkad withdrew too.
I could chase.
Oren leaned against his ward bracer.
Breathing hard.
I didn't.
Instead I looked toward the north lane.
"Where's Leonie?"
Oren pointed.
"Nexus."
Of course.
Leonie had never come back.
While Raymond performed a reunion tour in front of the Celcium flag, our captain had crossed half the field alone.
I found her by the sound of Anata's bow.
One arrow.
Another.
Then Leonie's spear striking stone.
I ran north.
No Ground Resonance.
Not yet.
I trusted my eyes until I had a useful question.
At the edge of Nexus territory, I found Anata on an elevated wall.
Leonie below.
Neither looked happy.
Good match.
Anata fired downward.
Leonie moved behind a stone barrier.
The arrow struck where her knee had been.
Anata already had another ready.
Leonie saw me.
"Don't chase her."
I stopped.
That was exactly what I had been preparing to do.
Anata noticed.
A tiny smile.
I disliked her profoundly.
"Flag?" I asked.
"Behind the inner wall."
"Xavier and Arkad returning."
"How long?"
I listened.
No useful sound.
One Ground Resonance pulse.
Stone beneath us.
Clearer here.
Two heavy contacts coming north.
Perhaps thirty-five seconds.
"Less than a minute."
Leonie looked at Anata.
Then the inner wall.
"Can you get me through?"
"Yes."
"Without chasing her?"
"Yes."
Anata fired.
I shifted gravity around the arrow only slightly.
Not enough to stop it.
Enough to alter descent.
It struck the wall beside Leonie.
She moved.
Anata changed target to me.
Excellent.
That was the point.
I pulsed the ground.
Not to find Anata.
What moves between Leonie and the flag?
One mechanism.
A tournament gate.
No defender on the ground.
"Straight!"
Leonie sprinted.
I became interesting.
Anata made sure of it.
Two arrows in quick succession.
One forced me behind cover.
The second struck the ground beside me.
Ground Resonance flared with the impact.
For an instant the technique wanted to expand.
Follow the signal.
Map it.
I closed it.
Anata saw that too.
Her next arrow didn't come.
She changed tactics.
"Raymond!"
I looked up.
She was pointing behind me.
I almost ignored her.
That would have been beautifully stupid.
Arkad came around the northern wall at full speed.
No lie.
No trap.
Just Arkad.
I barely moved before he reached me.
His shoulder caught mine.
We both staggered.
He recovered first.
"Sorry."
"You aren't."
"No."
He attacked.
Anata jumped down from the wall behind him and disappeared toward the inner flag.
Not defending me.
Defending the objective.
Independent roles.
Changing.
I could try to beat Arkad quickly.
Or stall him while Leonie worked.
I chose stall.
That offended him.
"Fight properly."
"No."
"Coward."
"Strategist."
He nearly hit me for that one.
The Nexus flag came out of its pedestal thirty seconds later.
A horn sounded.
The crowd changed.
Leonie appeared behind the inner wall carrying dark cloth wrapped around the staff.
She had it.
"Raymond!"
Arkad heard too.
His expression changed.
He abandoned me.
Immediately.
No pride.
No insistence on finishing our fight.
He turned toward Leonie.
Another improvement.
Terrible people.
I caught his sleeve.
He pulled free.
I changed gravity across the ground between him and Leonie.
Not enough to stop.
Enough to slow one step.
Leonie gained distance.
Anata appeared from the opposite lane.
Arrow aimed at Leonie's legs.
I moved into the line.
The padded shaft hit my side.
Hard.
Pain spread.
Not disabling location.
Still unpleasant.
"That's personal," I called.
Anata already had another arrow.
"No."
She fired.
I ducked.
"Very convincing."
Leonie reached neutral territory with the flag.
We could score if our own flag remained home.
I looked west.
Then heard Celcium's alarm.
Once.
Long.
Not a ward break.
Flag removal.
I froze.
Across the neutral field, a blue-white standard rose above the low wall.
Xavier.
He had gone back.
Not alone.
Oren appeared behind him, trying to cut off retreat, but Xavier had already crossed the pedestal boundary with our flag in both hands.
Oren couldn't score a disabling hit without closing distance.
Xavier hit the mud lane and accelerated.
Our flag was gone.
Leonie stopped running.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me."
For once, I had nothing witty.
The rules were simple.
We possessed Nexus's flag.
Nexus possessed ours.
Neither could score until its own standard returned home.
Arkad saw Xavier.
Anata saw Xavier.
Oren saw Leonie.
Everyone understood simultaneously.
The match changed.
No more attack and defense.
Two moving fortresses.
Leonie carrying Nexus colors west.
Xavier carrying Celcium colors east.
I moved beside Leonie.
Arkad and Anata fell around Xavier.
Oren withdrew from our empty base and began moving toward us.
The scoreboard showed twelve minutes remaining.
Still zero to zero.
Leonie looked at me while we retreated toward the southern wall.
"Did you plan this?"
"No."
"Wonderful."
I nearly said the word back.
Didn't.
Across the field, Anata caught my eye.
She was tired.
Sweat at her temples.
One sleeve dirty from the wall.
Human.
Not some perfect rival mastermind.
Then she tapped two fingers against the side of her bow.
The same rhythm I had chased earlier.
Three impacts.
Pause.
Three impacts.
I understood.
She had not known the entire match would reach this position.
She hadn't needed to.
She had only needed to buy Nexus one false decision from me.
I had supplied the rest myself.
Xavier adjusted the Celcium flag against his shoulder.
Rhythmic step.
Different again.
Arkad moved ahead of him.
Anata behind.
On our side, Oren finally reached us.
He looked at the Nexus flag in Leonie's hands.
Then across at ours.
"Any ideas?"
Chessmaster opened the field.
Distances.
Mana.
Recovery zones.
Routes.
Flag carriers.
Opponent positions.
Twelve minutes.
Dozens of lines appeared.
For once, I did not select one immediately.
Leonie was captain.
Oren knew his remaining wards.
And somewhere across the field were three people who had spent months learning how I thought.
I looked at Leonie.
"What do you need?"
She stared at me for half a second.
Then smiled.
"Now we're getting somewhere."
The second half of the match began.