We emerged onto a red carpet by the side of the canyon. The carpet led to a large seating area with tons of tables and chairs all facing the site of the action, and Malk and Clary stood on either side of the canyon, standing straight and looking almost presentable.

“Hello, sirs and/or madams! May we take your coats?” asked Malk in a pseudo-fancy voice.

“Alternatively, we’d happily take your money.” declared Clary.

“Yes, tips are appreciated! Especially tips of a monetary kind, much better than tips of a non-monetary kind, unless those non-monetary tips are things like gems.” said Malk.

The Council stared at them, Fitzdonald especially just blinking in confusion.

I stifled a bit of laughter and Fitzdonald frowned. “This is your doing, Kiana?”

I couldn’t stifle it any longer and burst out laughing. “No, but I so wish it was! Haha, oh the looks on your faces! Lovely job, Malk, Clary, couldn’t have done it better if I tried. Ah, that was good. Alright, you Council lot. Go take your seats or what have you, and we potentials shall make our way to the arena below.”

The Council shuffled over to the seats and arranged themselves so that they were sitting in groups. Meanwhile, I walked over to the edge of the arena and jumped down. I called back to my soldiers, “Hey! Verca, other two, you lot coming?”

They stood at the edge and looked down uneasily. Clary said, “Uh, there is actually a path down. It’s right over here, you didn’t need to jump.”

She showed the soldiers and potentials to the path, and I said, “Jumping is more entertaining! Plus, it’s quicker.”

Verca, Jamis, and Rak joined me in the arena, while the other two teams went off to the right and left. Once they were in place, I asked, “So, how’s this contest… challenge… tournament…. thing going to work? Clary?”

She nodded at me and announced, “These are the rules and details of the Arena Challenge. Within this canyon there are three monster nests, all filled with the same types of monsters; ravagers. For the uninformed, ravagers are creatures of the same body type as an elemental, but far more feral, with sharpened teeth and claws and heightened agility and strength. Each team, led by a potential, will go to a different nest, and attempt to destroy the ravagers. The Challenge shall be over when all teams have either completed their objective or are unable to continue. The winner shall be determined based on their teamwork, their kills, their time to completion, and their number of living soldiers. Are these rules satisfactory to the Council?”

Fitzdonald nodded and said, “Yes, yes those sound quite appropriate and fair. You may begin.”

Clary nodded and yelled, “Let the Challenge begin!”

I burst into a sprint, heading towards the center of the canyon. A moment later I heard my three underlings start running after me.

I ran quickly, and in only a few moments I sighted the target; a twisting spire of stone and plant life, lined with faint glowing crystals. I adjusted my course to arrive at the spire, and in only another minute I stopped at its base.

Verca and the slayers arrived a moment later, and caught their breath. While they recovered their composure, I looked around in search of the other potentials, and sighted them just arriving at the other two spires; Drake on the right, Kymien on the left.    I nodded to Drake and sneered at Kymien, and got similar responses.

I looked back at my spire and frowned. For something containing a host of (magically-enhanced) vicious monsters, it seemed fairly quiet. Someone more clichéd than I would have said it was too quiet.

“It’s quiet. Too quiet.” said Jamis.

I glared at him. “Rule the third of Shadow’s elite team; clichés are bad, stop being lame.”

Verca tilted her head and asked, “What’s the first rule?”

“The first rule of Shadow’s elite team is don’t talk about Shadow’s elite team. The second rule is a corollary to that, stating it’s okay to talk about the team as long as I instigate the conversation.”

As Verca opened her mouth to say something else, I noticed a flicker of movement from the spire, and said, “Wait! Movement!”

Then the entire spire erupted, and combat began.

Ravagers flowed out of the spire, spindly things with feral faces and sharp claws. I summoned the shadows and directed them into moving shields, blocking the ravagers and separating them, crippling their mobility to make it harder for them to attack. I called out to my allies, “Verca! Start throwing around magic! Jamis, Rak, get your swords out and start slicing at any exposed bit of ravager, but don’t get hit!”

They moved into position and followed my instructions. Verca conjured up several tentacles of darkness, which lashed out at ravagers, slicing and swiping and causing general mayhem. Jamis took one side, Rak the other, and they began cutting at ravagers in a sort of rhythm, every two swipes followed by a quick back-step to avoid retaliation.

I saw a ravager sneaking up behind Jamis, and I quickly swiveled around a shield to block, the ravager’s feral talon clanging into the solid mass of darkness. It snarled, and Jamis noticed it, turning quickly to lash out at its legs, sending the creature toppling to the ground. Jamis turned back to the main combat, and I sent the shield smashing down onto the ravager’s head, killing it.

The other shields were moving almost independently on preset courses, funneling the ravagers into large groups to make it easier for my allies to attack them. Still, quite a few were escaping, and there were several ravagers still coming from the spire. I sighted one on a course to Verca, and called out to her, “Verca! Ravager on your right!”

She turned in a flash and, upon seeing it, conjured up another tentacle, this one spikier. She shoved her hand forward towards the ravager, and the tentacle followed, stabbing it in the chest and coming out the other end. With another gesture, the tentacle shifted and the ravager was flung off it, landing amid one of the main groups.

Then, my attention was brought back firmly to the ravager groups, as one of them lashed out at a shield, its clawed hand wreathed in darkness. As its fist connected, the shield shattered, and a horde of ravagers flowed through the gap before I could close it, ten converging on the nearest target, which just happened to be Rak. Well, looks like Clary upgraded them after all.

I yelled, “Rak, move!” as I directed the shadows once more, raising a set of angled spikes from the ground against the oncoming ravagers. Rak saw them and began running, as three crashed into the spikes and were impaled. The remaining seven wove around it, still intent on their target.

I shouted, “Jamis, Verca! Focus on those seven chasing Rak!” Jamis rushed over from slicing at ravagers to chase after Rak’s pursuers, while Verca sent tentacles flying at the outliers of the pursuing group. The first tentacle slammed into a ravager’s head and came out the other end, while the others only found appendages, slowing down but not killing three ravagers.

With only six left, Rak turned to face them, and they slowed to surround him, giving Jamis enough time to catch up. They split into two groups, three facing Rak, three facing Jamis. I checked the other ravagers, and enhanced the shields to make sure they couldn’t disrupt the fight.

One ravager flung himself at Rak, who neatly brought his sword up in an arc, slicing into the ravager. The beast fell back, snarling and wounded, but another ravager brought his claw down on Rak, leaving long scrapes down his arm. Rak cried out and twirled, his sword slicing into the ravager’s leg.

The third ravager facing Rak came up then, shadows around his hand making his claws bigger and sharper. He sliced down at Rak’s head, and I barely managed to defend him in time, raising a wall of darkness to intercept the claw. Rak tripped forward, falling to the ground, and a moment later the ravager darted around the wall and jumped on Rak, claws out and snarls issuing from his throat.

Just in time, Rak brought up his sword, impaling the ravager before it could seriously harm him. However, that left him vulnerable to attack by the remaining two ravagers, who raced toward him. So, I sent a spike of darkness at each’s head, killing them both.

Meanwhile, Jamis had been carefully dueling his ravagers, using his sword to block their attacks and taking any opportunity to retaliate. He’d managed to hold them off, but he’d also done very little damage, and would likely wear down faster than they would. I sent another spike to kill one of the ravagers, and he took advantage of the momentary break to slice out at another, cutting through its leg.

The wounded ravager fell to the side, and Jamis faced the third ravager alone, his blade against its claws. His sword darted out, and the creature ducked, bringing its claws in an arc to slice into Jamis’s leg. Jamis cleanly dodged to the side, bringing his sword around to cut into the monster’s arm, and it couldn’t move in time. The sword gouged into the ravager’s arm, and it howled in pain, before Rak’s sword came down in an arc and sliced through its head. Rak nodded to Jamis, and together they turned to the wounded ravager, killing it cleanly.

However, while they’d won a minor victory there, there were still loads of ravagers, and they were hammering down my shield with surprising force, likely a result of Clary and Wabbit’s alterations.

I considered for a moment, then turned to Verca and said, “This isn’t working. When I say ‘go’, I’m going to drop the shields and cast a mass invisibility spell on us. I’ll need you to cast your flash of night spell at the same time. Can you do that?”

Surprised, she said, “Um, uh yeah I can but wait, invisibility, you can cast invisibility?”

I ignored her, readied myself and my spells, and as I canceled all the shields I cast mass invisibility, and yelled, “Go!”

Verca threw her hands into the air, and darkness flew out in a surge of black and purple, flowing over the battlefield. In mere moments, the entire area was shrouded by night, and we were all invisible.

However, for this plan to work, I needed to be visible. So, I cast an illusion of myself, with a one-second delay on it so I would always be moving slightly ahead of where the ravagers would be attacking.

I drew Whisperdeath, gathered the darkness about my other hand, and prepared to cause chaos.

The moment the night dissipated, I flung myself forward, weapons ready, and slashed with my sword, cleanly decapitating the nearest ravager. I swiveled in an instant to face the next one, and sent a bolt of shadows to throw it back at the spire. I shouted, “Kill them all!” and sliced out at another ravager, cutting it in half.

While I did the dance of death with the majority of the ravagers, I saw a few others losing limbs or gaining cuts seemingly at random, from the invisible slayers. A few tentacles popped up nearby, distracting a few of the ravagers. I grinned at my allies’ work, and continued the slaughter, thrusting my hand into a nearby ravager’s chest and ripping out his heart.

A ravager leapt through the air at my illusion, and I swung my sword around to meet it midair, catching the thing by surprise for the second before my sword bisected it. The two halves fell to the ground amid the carnage, and I stepped over them to grab another ravager’s head. I sent a full pulse of darkness through my hand, and the monster’s head simply exploded, the limp body falling to the ground a moment later.

I did a quick head count (hah, pun), and estimated that only about a quarter of the ravagers were left after all of the killing I’d just done. Apparently, they realized that too, because at that moment the ravagers fled, falling back into the spire. I caught a few more with spikes and blasts as they turned tail and ran, but to the soldiers I called, “Don’t follow them yet. They know the spire far better than we do.” I dropped the invisibility spell.

“So, what do we do now?” asked Verca.

“You three take a moment to rest, regenerate, so on. I’m going to take a look at our competition.”

I looked first to Kymien, over on the left. He was standing atop a mound of dead ravagers, and killing more as I watched, but his caster was dead, and his slayers were backed against a wall. One ravager latched onto his arm, and he flung the creature off, sending it flying into the spire. It collapsed against the side and fell to the ground broken. The second ravager, however, simply slashed at Kymien’s shield with magic claws, leaving deep gouges in the metal. Kymien’s blade swept out and removed the monster’s head from its shoulders, but I could see other, similar gouges all along the potential’s armor. He was hurting.

Satisfied that Kymien was having trouble, I checked Drake. He had no such wounds, but his situation was arguably worse. Drake was weaving about, constantly moving from place to place, and slicing out at any ravagers he passed, leaving them with wounds aplenty. A few big groups of ravagers lay dead on the ground in other areas near the spire, and as I watched Drake’s caster gestured, and darkness exploded in the center of the group Drake had been harassing. The wounds and the explosion together proved enough, and the ravagers fell to the ground, dead. However, I noticed the corpses of Drake’s slayers; it seemed they hadn’t adapted to the stratagem very well.

Verca watched the other groups uneasily, and asked, “Shouldn’t we help them?”

I blinked at her in confusion and asked, “What? Why would we help the competition? If they win, we lose.”

“But, they’re dying!”

“Well, yes, enemy deaths usually do help your team win. Are you new to this?”

“They aren’t our enemies, they’re fellow elementals roped into this stupid contest of yours! They’re dying because of you!”

“Hey! They’re not dying because of me, they’re dying because of the Council. If those stupid bigwigs would have just let me rule over the military as Champion, I wouldn’t have had to set up this stupid thing, with all these enhanced monsters and me lugging around useless soldiers. So blame them for this mess, not me!”

Her eyes widened. “Enhanced monsters? That’s why they’re doing so well? You specifically requested monsters that were too much for us to handle?”

“Well, duh. How else could I be sure to win the contest and remove my competition?”

“But that’s, that’s evil, that’s horrid, that’s monstrous!”

“Yes. Yes it is. Get to the point.”

She just stared at me, dumbstruck. I sighed and said, “If it makes you feel any better, I’m going to try and keep the three of you alive, so I get a better score.”

“Is that all we are to you? A score? How can you view your fellow elementals like that? How can you view any person like that?”

“Hmm. It helps that I don’t quite see the lot of you as people, really. Or at least, I see people in a different manner. You’re all tools, really. Servants, subjects, belongings, nuisances, or opponents. Never really people. I’m people. Person. You get the idea. Apparently, that makes me a bit of a monster. Oh well.”

“That’s just, that’s just wrong!”

“Hey, if it isn’t broken, don’t go fixing it. Being a villainous sociopath works for me. Maybe you should try it some time.”

“Well, I’m going to tell the Council! If they hear that, they’ll never let you be Champion.”

I sighed. “Verca, Verca, Verca. You really are new to this. Let me… educate you. Firstly, never, ever, ever, ever tell the person you know to be a self-professed amoral sociopath that you’re going to try and screw them over. They will kill you in a heartbeat, and not regret a moment of it. Seriously, the smart thing to do would have been to act like you begrudgingly accepted my nature as necessary, and then gone behind my back to alert the Council.”

She paled and stepped back, and I continued, “Of course, it doesn’t matter either way. See, the Council already knows this. They’ve known all along. Why do you think the Council, the oh-so-bloody-brilliant Council, doesn’t want the greatest potential to be the Champion? They know I’m an evil villain, and that’s why Fitzy doesn’t want me to be the Champion. He knows I’d sacrifice you all just to further my own ambitions. And he knows that nobody on this planet can kill me, so instead he tries to stop me politically. And as you can see, I know how to beat him even in that. I’m going to win, dear Verca. I’m going to rule. Fitzy knows this. The Council knows this. Now you know it. And there’s nothing you can do to stop me. So the question is, are you going to try and fight it, or are you going to help me win?”

Verca whimpered, and then sighed. She said, “I will help you, Shadow. I just hope it isn’t enough for you to succeed.”

“Atta girl! Well, I think break time is over, let’s get back to indiscriminately murdering creatures that are just trying to defend their homes!”

The three soldiers formed up behind me, and we entered the spire of the ravagers. It was roomier than I expected. The spire apparently was just for looks, because though I did see a small path leading up, there was nothing actually in the hollowed-out rock. Instead, it seemed all the ravagers had descended, via the massive cave in the middle of the spire.

I walked into the cave, finding it to be a gradual slope, and the soldiers followed me.

A moment later, we were ambushed.

Five ravagers popped out of the walls, likely hiding in hidden crevices. They seemed to have learned not to attack me, and instead focused on my allies, specifically the caster.

Verca barely managed to dodge their opening attacks, but it was enough for Jamis and Rak to move into position and grab the attention of one ravager each. Verca summoned tentacles to distract another, leaving only two to face her.

I killed those two with spikes to the head, and watched Jamis and Rak fight their opponents. It was fairly boring, really. Swipe, stab, slice, dodge, step, slice, stab, dodge. Lots of repetitions. Eventually all the ravagers were slain and we moved on.

We passed through dank tunnels, with walls of coarse stone brushing roughly against my hand. Every now and then I’d feel some strange crack, likely signaling a crevice. However, no more ravagers jumped out, likely scared off by the murder of their friends.

After a few more minutes, we reached an open area, a big cavern rather than a winding tunnel, and in the center I saw a weird little box, with runes on it. Before I could investigate further, ravagers poured out of the walls, surrounding the box.

This time, they had a leader. A tall ravager was wearing some cast-off cloths and leathers, and in two hands held a big rusty sword.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.” I said.

“Rah! I is leader of da tribe! You must fight me to be vi-vitor-victri… to be winner!”

“Clary, you’re getting fired for this. This was the best boss fight you could come up with? Really? And everything else was so promising… oh well. Right then, might as well kill this guy.”

“This be great battle! Many triu-triba-tribula- bad stuff!” he shouted.

In response, I pointed my sword at him, channeled energy through it, and disintegrated him with a single high-powered beam of darkness. Seriously. What an anticlimax.

The rest of the ravagers charged us immediately after, snarling and howling with rage. Jamis and Rak readied their blades, Verca her magic, and I just started blasting the ravagers with sword beams.

As the ravagers reached us, my allies exploded into action, swinging swords wildly and letting loose with bursts of magic. Blood flew, limbs were mangled, and ravagers died in droves. However, I was on a schedule, so I just ended up killing them all with a blast of darkness.

With the path cleared, I strode forth to the runed box, and investigated it magically. It was actually much simpler than it looked, essentially being one spell and a trigger for said spell.

And the spell was- I burst out laughing. The spell was an explosive, powerful enough to destroy the whole spire with a burst of volatile Dark energy. Wonderful!

“Uh, what are you laughing about?” asked Rak.

“I am laughing, because my wonderful friends have given me an explosive to play with!” I started tossing the box back and forth between my hands.

The others paled and stepped back, and Jamis stuttered out, “T-th-that’s an e-ex-p-plosive?!”

“Yep! High-quality, blow-up-your-socks, top-of-the-line magical explosive! Powerful enough to blow up this whole spire, and us with it! Well, you three, I’d just shield myself and be fine. Clever bit of work this thing, though I’m guessing Wabbit did most of the work on it.”

“Who?” asked Verca.

“He’s a magic rabbit. Been thinking of getting him a top hat, but I don’t think he knows that trick yet. Anyways, we should really set this off and get to running, don’t you think? Though I would love to watch the explosion from ground zero.”

“Uh, why don’t we watch it from ground three. Or, maybe from Raven’s Shade. That would be good.”

“Oh, don’t be such a pansy. Fine, we’ll watch from aboveground. Wimps.” I threw the box on the ground, activated it mentally, and said calmly, “Run.”

We raced out of the spire, emerging back into the canyon just as the spire was flooded with energy, and collapsed, torn apart by darkness.

I cheered, and yelled, “My compliments, Clary and/or Wabbit! Excellent work!”

Then I turned to the soldiers and said, “Alright! You three did your jobs well enough, so go ahead and report back to the Council.”

“Wait, what are you going to do?”

“I am going to investigate the other two spires. Have fun, good bye.” With that, I sent them on their way, and checked the other spires. Drake’s spire was destroyed, and Drake was waiting outside, all his soldiers dead. Kymien’s spire was still standing, but his soldiers were dead and he wasn’t in sight. I walked over to Drake (a reasonably long walk, to be honest) and asked, “Hey, what’s up with Kymien?”

“What, him? Eh, I saw him go inside the spire, hasn’t come out yet. I see you blew up yours. And kept your troops alive, wow.”

“Yeah, though that did take work. The little idiots are useless in a fight.”

“Agreed. Those slayers didn’t last past the first wave of ravagers. I had to handle all of these groups on my own. The caster ended dying on the final group, so I had to go down there and kill the big one by myself. Not that he was very impressive.”

“Yeah, I was a bit disappointed in my helpers about that. The box-bomb more than made up for it though.”

“Oh yeah, those things are awesome. The explosion was so cool!”

“I know, right? Anyways, we should probably head back now, see the final judging.”

“Yeah, I guess. Though, they’ll probably wait until they figure out if Kymien’s dead or alive.”

“Hmm. How about you and I go check that out?”

“Sure.”

We walked over to Kymien’s spire together, and investigated the carnage. Lots of dead ravagers, the three dead soldiers, and a trail of scuff marks leading down into the cave system.

We followed the trail to its source; Kymien Rathel, slumped against a wall.

“Huh. Well, I guess that’s less competition for us.” I said.

“Yeah, I guess. Never liked the guy, you know? Always too stodgy, too uptight, and too friendly with the Council. I mean, he did help me in a fight, but… meh.”

“I hate the Council. They just keep getting in the way of things. I’ve tangled with them before, it’s always so annoying to deal with it, especially with all the factions. Ugh.”

“It’s the worst. I can hardly ever understand Fitzdonald, he’s always being so secretive, with this ridiculous vocabulary and double-meanings. I hate subtlety, but it’s all her ever uses! I never know what’s going on in those meetings.”

“Oh, it’s easy once you figure out how they work. Fitzy used to be all cloak and dagger, but I’ve made the Council understand that I don’t care about subtlety, and I’m going to be rude and monstrous and get my way no matter what. Every day Fitzdonald gets less subtle and more bitter and sarcastic. At this point, Fitz has gotten so desperate to stop me that he doesn’t even try to impress me with his cunning.”

“Wow. I wish I had the power and influence you do.”

“Oh hey, speaking of that, do you have a sponsor of any kind on the Council? Renessa’s technically my backer, I know Fitz was behind Kymien, but the closest anyone can guess to your backer is Margiotha.”

“What? No, not at all. Actually, I don’t really have a backer. I’ve been approached a few times, but I don’t want to get involved in all that politics shit. I just want to do my part for Nyx, and Darkness, and maybe have a bit of fun.” He grinned.

“Nice. Well, I look forward to having you as… uh, I guess a general or strategist or something, when the time comes to rebuild the army.”

At that, I heard a bout of coughing, and darkness landed at my feet to quickly fade away. Kymien was still alive, and he spluttered out, “You’ll… never… win…”

“Okay, really? You’re still fucking alive? This is just great, just great. I set this whole thing up to get rid of the competition, and you’re still alive!?” I ranted at Kymien.

“Wow. He’s resilient. And wait… you set this up just to kill one of us?”

“Yeah, more him than you… say, would you be up for helping me out here? We both hate this guy, he’s so close to death… what do you say we help him along?”

Drake tapped his chin for a moment, and then shrugged and said, “Sure.”

“Thanks. You can do the honors.”

“My pleasure.”

Kymien looked up at him, his face hateful but also confused. “Why… why would you… betray me… betray us all… we fought together… we were… allies…”

Drake smiled. “Sorry, pal. But I’d rather stick with the winning side.” He brought out his rapier, lit it up with darkness, and stabbed it through Kymien’s head. Darkness poured from the wound, and then Kymien fell apart entirely, darkness flowing from him to leave a skeleton.

Drake nodded at me, and asked, “Shall we report back?”

“Let’s.”

We left the spire, and began walking in the direction of the Council. As we did, Drake asked, “So, what’s that sword you have there? It looks pretty cool.”

“I call it Whisperdeath. It’s a channeler, meaning I can easily send magic through it, cast spells with it, so on. What’s yours?”

“Gildenprick. Not a channeler, just a good sword. How’d you get a channeler anyways?”

“Raided a dungeon. Lots of traps and monsters, cool place. Fought a mirror version of myself, and a really powerful Light guy. I got Whisperdeath, an awesome scrying mirror that can do crazy stuff, and a book containing knowledge that doesn’t exist anywhere else on Nyx.”

He blinked a few times, then said, “Nice.”

We arrived at the cliff side, and joined the gathering. Fitzdonald furrowed his brow at us, and asked, “Where is Kymien Rathel? The judging cannot commence until he is here.” There was a note of worry in his voice.

“Bad news, Fitzy. Your minion’s dead. Died to the ravagers. Nasty beasties, aren’t they? Good work, Clary and Wabbit.” I said.

Clary curtsied, and Wabbit wiggled his ears from his perch on a table. Fitzdonald’s eyes widened, and he said, “He… old friend… he’s dead? Kymien is a veteran of wars, those were just mere… beasts.” He looked at me in horror. “What have you done?”

Verca spoke up. “Sir, Shadow admitted that her friends did something to the monsters to make them more powerful.”

Fitzdonald’s eyes filled with hate. “Is that so? It seems as if such an action would invalidate Kiana’s claim to the challenge.”

“Actually,” Clary interjected, “before the challenge began, I listed the rules of the contest, and you agreed to them. There were no rules that banned magical enhancements, and indeed Shadow herself did not do such things, we did. So, you can’t disqualify her for that. You can only judge her based on the criteria I stated at the start of this. And by those criteria, she wins.”

For a single instant, Fitzdonald’s mask of political savvy and charisma shattered, and he looked at me with the full force of his rage and hate, every last scrap of bitterness and resentment he felt towards me. And then, he smiled.

Fuck.

When you have just killed someone’s oldest friend, and they smile at you, it is not good.

He gestured to the Council, and called out, “They are right of course. Magically enhancing those creatures to make them too difficult for Kymien to kill was fully within their rights, and thus Kiana is the victor of this contest, as witnessed by the Council. She proved most adequate, and capable in all areas.”

He continued, “Indeed, she seems capable in areas beyond what the contest was about. She proved very capable of manipulating rules so that she could not be accused of cheating, while at the same time arranging for the downfall of her opposition, all part of a contest designed to elevate her status, though the contest seems to have been fixed from the start! Once more, and perhaps for the first time to many of you, Kiana shows that she is both the most powerful and the most snake-like of the potentials! We cannot trust her to lead out forces in battle, nor to be involved in politics, nor to do anything, as she is inherently deceitful. I move that we place an immediate vote on who to make Champion. I, and those who stand behind me, change our allegiance from Kymien to Drake.”

I stared in shock as every member of the Council not directly aligned with Renessa said, “Aye!”

Fitzdonald called out, “Drake,” and was answered by a chorus from most of the Council. Only Renessa and a few others said my name, and then it was over.

Fitzdonald turned to Drake and said, “Congratulations on your new place in our society. I look forward to working with you, Champion. Your army awaits.”

With that, he walked back through the portal, which I’d left open when I came through. The Council followed, and the soldiers, and lastly Drake, looking quite reluctant.

And then they were gone.

And nothing made sense.

“Shadow? Are you alright?” asked Clary.

Those words were the final catalyst, and without a sound, I fainted against the rocky earth, unconscious.