Aegis Academy announced unpaired teammates could find students in the same situation as them in the formation hall.

Ash took a spot by a table where students were standing around, hoping someone would come up to him.

Which is exactly what happened.

Alexis was standing outside the formation hall with her back against the doorframe and one knee bent, the short cape draped over her left shoulder shifting with the corridor’s air. Gray pants, flat thigh-high boots, and an untucked blouse with a tie knotted in a way that had clearly required deliberate effort to achieve its wrongness. The long bangs covering her left eye were the same color as the bandages wrapped from her right wrist to her elbow. She held a rolled document in her free hand.

"Art thou the one who doth seek fellowship for the coming trials?" she said.

Ash looked at her.

"I’ll keep you in mind," he said, and kept walking.

He was not in the middle of anything. He had been in the formation hall for forty minutes and had approached seven students. Four had said they were still in the early stages of forming their team. Two had said they were exploring options.

"Hey, are you looking to start a team?" Ash asked someone who hadn’t been approached yet by anyone.

The student took a look at Ash. "I’ll think about it; I’ll let you know in a bit."

Ash nodded and went off to the water station. When he turned around, he heard a conversation.

"You in?" one student asked.

"Yeah. Let’s go." The student that Ash just asked responded.

The two walked to the edge of the table, where they found another student Ash had asked to join him earlier.

"Hey, we need a third. Can you join?"

The student nodded, and the three of them left the formation hall together.

Ash put the cup down. He stood there for a moment, then went back to the dormitory.

The next day he had three conversations with students that all ended before they even began. The day after was even quieter. By the third day, most already had their teammates set. The ones that didn’t look like they were waiting for someone to choose them for the phase.

The fourth day of finding a partner still had the same results. Davos finally made his appearance in the formation hall. He walked past Ash.

"What’s wrong?" Davos said. "Can’t find a team, credit recovery student?"

He didn’t wait for an answer, instead choosing to keep walking. He pointed to two students that were towards the edge of the room. They looked relieved and followed Davos out the door.

Ash went back to the dormitory without a team made.

The next day Ash went away from the formation hall, going to the satellite campus wing of the main building. It was a reserved area only for one class that was taught to a mixed classroom of satellite and main campus students. Because of that, it was quieter; the only students there were the students who had a reason to be there. Ash had walked this wing once before, in a different context, and had not expected to find anyone he recognized.

Alina was at the corridor bulletin board reading the tournament bracket format printout pinned to the lower left corner.

She had changed since the workshop. The scar on her forearm was visible now, the tissue along the inner arm uncovered, her compression top leaving the length of it in the open air. She wore cargo pants that were stitched at both knees and the right hip pocket, practical work on a garment that had been repaired rather than replaced. Practical boots, laced to the ankle. Brown hair pulled back and not quite staying there, several pieces loose around her face.

She looked up when he stopped near her.

The Shade-sense registered her signature before he consciously processed it. The forge-at-idle quality, warm and metallic underneath, still running its low conversion. It was slightly stronger than he remembered from the workshop. She looked at him for a moment with the same steady brown eyes from the extraction.

"I felt you while you were around the residential block," she said. "About four days ago."

"I felt you about thirty seconds ago," Ash said. "How have you been recently? Are you doing okay since..." Ash began.

"Oh that? I feel better than ever." Alina admitted, flexing an arm. "More importantly, you feel stronger yourself," she said. She turned back to the bracket format. "I registered with the main campus last week. Satellite students go through a qualifier before the main preliminaries. Some of us have already competed just to get to the spot where you are now. I can compete in the main event now." She pulled the printout’s corner flat where it had curled. "I still need to find teammates for the preliminaries."

"I need two more myself," Ash said.

Alina looked at him again. "Are you allowed to team with a satellite student?"

"I don’t see why we can’t. If we’re competing in the same tournament and same preliminaries, then class locations should not be a factor."

She held his gaze with the flat attention from the workshop. Reading the instrument, not forming a judgment. Then she looked back at the bracket format.

"We just need one more," she said.

"Yeah," Ash said after some time, "just one more."

The next day, Alexis was parked at the east corridor just outside the formation hall. She was stopping anyone that would give her a second look.

"Dost thou not wish to compete with thy fairest maiden?" Alexis said to a student passing by, causing them to walk even faster.

She saw Ash coming and straightened herself off the doorframe.

"Hark—"

"Not interested," Ash said.

He turned to Alina beside him. "She approached me on the first day. I don’t really know her."

Alina looked at Alexis. "Three questions," she said. "Answer them."

Alexis’s posture shifted. It became less dramatic, more present, the cape settling back against her shoulder.

"First," Alina said. "Are you physically capable of competing in this tournament without requiring accommodations from your team?"

"Mine constitution is sound and my faculties unimpaired," Alexis said. "I shall require no special consideration from mine fellows."

Alina looked at her without expression. "Second. Can you manage yourself without us watching over you?"

"I am accustomed to mine own counsel," Alexis said, "and shall not burden thee with the weight of mine oversight."

"Third. Are you willing to do what’s necessary to advance?"

Alexis held her gaze. "I have come this far unallied," she said. "I did not arrive at these halls to stop short of what they require."

Alina looked at her for another two seconds. Then she said to Ash, "She’s our third."

"You understood all of that?" Ash said.

"Did you not?" Alina said.

He hadn’t been sure a conversation even took place between them.

Alexis produced a rolled document from under her cape with the air of someone presenting credentials. Alina took it, unrolled it, read the two printed pages with the same focused patience she applied to calibration, and handed it back.

"Our registration deadline is tomorrow at eight," Alina said. "We submit ours together. Bring both forms to the main registration office."

Alexis rerolled the document. "It shall be done."

"Plain language for you," Alina said, turning to Ash. "She’s in."

"Okay," Ash said.

The three of them walked through the main corridor toward the registration office. Ash held his entry packet with the registration form already completed. Alina had hers folded in the front pocket of her cargo pants. Alexis carried hers in the roll with the other document.

The registration office was closing in forty minutes.

"Is this the pairing you want to go with?" The administrator asked.

"Yes," Alina and Alexis answered simultaneously.

After a second, Ash answered as well, "Yes."

The administrator gathered their forms and handed them a new single team identification card. "You three will be in the third wave. The rules are attached in this package."

Alina took the package.

"I just need a signature from one of you to be the team leader."

"That shall be I," Alexis said, pushing Ash and Alina out of her way to scribble her name on the piece of paper before either of them could protest it.

They left the registration office as the corridor lights shifted to the evening frequency.

"We should eat," Alina said.

"Oh, thank the heavens, sustenance before—" Alexis began.

"Answer plainly," Alina said. "We’ll meet back in an hour."

Alexis stopped. "Okay."

They split at the corridor junction. Ash walked back toward the residential block. Around the corner at the T-junction between the main corridor and the east residential wing, he came across Phoebe.

She saw him, then Alina and Alexis a few steps behind him, already diverging toward their own corridors.

Her eyebrow went up.

Ash gave a small shrug.

Phoebe nodded, almost smiling, and walked on.