It was the dead of night. Both Riven and Jordan were in their bed sleeping after going out with their parents for a good meal. Their clothes were already packed up in their suitcases, ready to go. Kaden, their father, was downstairs watching TV but also keeping track of time like he was waiting for something. His phone then pinged as he saw an unknown number texting him.
"Go to Channel 1015."
Kaden knew this was a news channel. When he was turning to it, his wife came downstairs in what seemed to be a robe.
"What are you doing still awake?" she asked.
"Oh, I just wanted to—" but he was stopped as he heard the broadcast.
"And now we have breaking news. The academies and camps seem to be hosting some type of tournament. We have the head principal of the Sigil Gate Academy here to explain more." They both saw Darius on screen.
"Boys, get down," Candace called.
"Five more minutes," one of them responded back.
"Now."
"Ugh," they both said out loud, and they both came out of the room, going down the stairs.
"So what's up, Mom? Why did you need us?" Riven yawned.
"They are talking about your academy," she said, pointing at the screen where the two boys could see their principal.
"Hello everyone, I am Darius, the head principal of the Sigil Gate Academy. First off, I want to publicly apologize to all of the students, teachers, parents, and loved ones who were lost during that beast horde that attacked the academy—Kairo, Kain, Cletus—" Darius then started to list random names.
"What is he doing?" Jordan questioned.
"He's listing their names. All of them. Everyone who died during the ou— I mean, the beast horde. Everyone who died in the beast horde." Riven almost slipped up and said something that would've gotten him and his family in big trouble. Even if the Storm Guild was watching him, who knew if they would still take them out for mentioning the outing or even another planet in general. But Jordan was wondering about something else—why did Riven know all of their names, or at least most of their names? Little did the twin know his brother knew, in fact, every student's name who died. The boy promised himself that he would always keep those students' names in his memory bank to remember what happens when he tries to be greedy instead of helping others. People's car names like it's his sin. After Darius was done talking, he took a small break and then started back up again.
"Today or tonight, depending on how many times they will show this broadcast, I am willing to give money for the parents and loved ones who lost someone in this tragedy. But the academy itself is losing money by the minute, so we can't just give it. So we've made a fundraiser—that being a tournament between the academies and the camps. The money that the Sigil Gate Academy will earn will go to the families in mourning. We do this for both good relationships between all factions and just to overall keep everyone as a whole together. Parents, your children will have three extra days with you so you can fully embrace it, because after what happened, you can never tell when an accident will occur. Students, when you're watching this, when it's your time to probably come up on that bus, you will directly go to the Grand Capital, so be prepared to meet your peers from different places. That is all. Have a nice day or night."
Darius then disappeared off of the screen as the news anchor started to put his own input on the man's words.
"Something's up," Riven thought, but he had the telepathic link on, so everyone else could hear him.
"Oh, now you wanna talk," Tessa replied while reading a book. "Leo's asleep, so he won't be joining us in this conversation. So, what's up?"
"Look on the news or just go on social media—it's blowing up almost everywhere."
Everyone who was in the link did, and they could see Darius's speech going viral on the internet.
"What is this?" Wren questioned, as Riven expected. None of them looked at the news, which made sense—it was last night. It was a miracle all of them even answered, well, all of them minus one, since it was the middle of the night.
"Go watch the video yourself. I'll put the link back up after a couple of minutes since that's how long it'll take. Also, wake up Leo so he can be involved in this and we don't have to catch him up later." Riven then took down the link.
"As I thought, they never made the tournament public. If they did, Mom would've been different for the past two days," Jordan thought, but he was still in the link so Riven could hear him.
"We know what's going on here; there's no point beating around the bush. It's a PR stunt. The whole thing, even about giving the money to the people mourning—they'll find a way to keep the money for themselves or at least most of it. But why a tournament, and why even include the others?"
"Most likely ego. I'm getting a pretty good understanding of our principal, Darius. He's a man who has a big ego—an ego that can be shattered very easily. So most likely, when the other families and, in turn, their camps and the other academies found out about how bad the outing went, they most likely clowned him for it—for even attempting something like that for a bunch of first-year students, no less, and expecting everything to go just fine. So he most likely challenged them. This wasn't to build funds for the academy—it was to save a broken man's pride. And since he called them out, they all thought their pride and ego were on the line as well. So instead of just being the bigger person and keeping on putting in their monthly funds—which they've been putting in less and less every time—they instead decided to indulge in this, pushing it even more. It's sad. Something that people think is for them and their family to help them out in this hard time of need is instead just a competition of people's pride." Riven couldn't believe how pervasive his brother was. With their short interaction with Darius plus everything that was going on, he couldn't help but believe all the words his brother just said were true.
"Did you boys know about this?" their mother asked.
"No," they said in unison. It was better if they denied any connection to this at all. Who knew if they were even supposed to say anything about it, even though it was already announced?
"Mom, can we go upstairs? We need to really process what's going on," Riven said with a look of fear. His mom's face lit up from suspicion to worry.
"Yes, yes. Take all the time that you need. Me and your father will be down here talking, okay?"
"Okay." They both started to go upstairs.
"Who knew you'd be such an actor," Jordan thought.
"Let's just say most of those times that I was sick weren't exactly truthful," Riven shrugged.
After a few minutes went past, Riven then invited everyone back into the telepathic link.
"So, did you have a chance to watch?" Riven asked, with everyone saying yes.
"Truthfully, I feel like we should just leave tomorrow. I'm starting to get homesick," Harkel said, looking out his window, seeing his father walk around.
"Wait, isn't homesickness like the opposite? I thought homesickness was like you want to go home, instead of you don't want to be at home," Luka questioned.
"Okay, fine, since you want to be an asshole, I don't want to be here. There, you happy now?"
"Uhh, yeah, I guess. Are you okay, Harkel?" Luka had never seen the boy get truly angry before.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm good. Just parents, you know."
"I hear you," Leo yawned. "Dad and Mom wouldn't let us go most of the time. I gotta sneak out just to go buy a snack I like."
"He didn't start this link so you guys can talk about your daddy issues. Why did you start this link?" Wren questioned.
"Truthfully, I did. It's so I can get you guys' point of view of it. Obviously, I already have Jordan's. And plus, it'll be nice to hear your voices after two days. You know we already saw Joey like twice in one day."
"In my opinion, I say let him do what he do," Jude responded, with everyone confused at her response. "The rich get richer every day, but there's a reason why the poor stay poor—because when they get rich, they don't know how to stay the same or how to treat their own daughter. It's more likely even if the loved ones even get that money, they'll most likely spend it on some bullshit anyway. So I say let him flair."
Anyone could tell something wasn't right in Jude's home, and it most likely had something to do with the units.
"Since we're talking about home, do you think that could affect us in any type of way? I mean, obviously Wren's mom knows about this, meaning also her family will be involved somehow." Both Joey and Jude didn't like Harkel's words, since whatever the Fallows get into, they would have to get into as well in some type of way or form. "But my father already knew about the tournament, and even though he keeps things from the families, something tells me he's gonna be pretty involved in this."
"Same for my father. Even though he never directly said it, I could hear hints of what he was getting at," Nico spoke.
"Well, that gives us a lot of insight into this," Skye spoke up. "Not only will the Voss clan—one of the main enforcers of the Evolaris—but also, by Nico's words, the Ascension—one of the main enforcers of society when it comes down to taking out rogue evolvers. And since all of the families will be there, you know who else will be there." They could all hear her sarcastically chuckling.
"You're not—the only one who has a grudge against the Zale family," Jordy said.
"What?" Skye asked.
"It's nothing, at least nothing that concerns you," Riven responded quickly.
"Since we're changing the subject now, I have a question, Riven. What did you do on the night we got home?" Wren questioned.
Riven sighed and then started to give an explanation on what happened with him and his father. He didn't go into great detail about his father doing all that he did to obtain resonance, but he did tell them of a matter that concerned them.
"How about a warning next time? My mom thinks I had a nightmare and now thinks I'm a sleep-talker or a sleep-screamer," Kira complained.
"I couldn't give you one—it happened so suddenly," Riven defended.
"Luckily, I stopped Tessa from screaming. If my parents would've heard her scream, they most likely wouldn't let us out of their sights for the rest of our lives. They would've probably even put a tracker on us," Leo joked. Some of them laughed, but Jordan found a little inconsistency in Leo's words.
"Wait, what happened to you then? Weren't you in pain as well?"
"No, not really. I was right beside Tessa the entire time before she passed out. When she did, I saw a bar in front of my face, and it started to load up. I'm guessing we all had the same thing."
"Wait, has anybody else been able to stay awake on the night that it happened?" Riven asked, with everybody saying no. "That's weird. Obviously, he went through the same thing, though, but his body endured—meaning if Jordy never got the system to adapt to it…"
"Leo still would've survived," Jordan finished.
"What do you mean, if Jordy didn't adapt?" Wren questioned.
"Long story short, if Jordy was never in the system, we would've died—well, everyone except Leo," Riven responded.
Everyone in the link then yelled out in shock and anger about the fact that none of them had told them about this.
"Look, I didn't tell y'all because of this in the first place. I'm sorry that I didn't. Next time I'll be more mindful that this is affecting you guys' lives as well as my own. And in my defense, I didn't know you were still connected to the system even without being in the party. That's my b right there." Everyone in the group took a big deep breath, with Nico speaking up.
"So what now? Do we call this meeting adjourned?" she said sarcastically.
"One more thing. Do any of you actually want to learn how to use this power? Because if you're able to find your way into the walls, my dad could teach you what he taught me and my brother. Joey is easy; he can just walk down the block. Basically, he's already here, but you guys might have to take a bit more difficulty. There's Wren and Harkel, but after something, Jude might not trust Wren anymore, so there's Harkel."
"I can convince someone to help me get into the Walls of Dawn," Harkel responded, feeling a bit interested in this.
"How?" Jordan asked. They couldn't just take his word anymore after what Wren did—they needed to know how.
"It's a favor. A big favor. A 'if I didn't do that, he would've been kicked out of the entire clan' favor. So yeah, I have a way, but knowing him and the restrictions, he'll say I can only bring one plus-one, so who will it be?"
"Me," Skye said. "Since Luka and Kira already live inside of the Dawn Wallborn, it wouldn't be too hard for them."
"Oh yeah, it would. Riven lives closer to the wall than we do, while we live all the way in the back. It's gonna take us at least two hours by bus," Kira replied.
"Then you're gonna have to take that two hours," Riven replied.
"I can just say it's on behalf of the Ascension," Nico said—her way of getting there.
"Okay, what about you, Wren?" Riven questioned.
"I'm only doing this, because I know Tessa and Leo wouldn't want to be left out. So knowing my mother, I'll have to pay her a big sum of units to get in—and pay for those two as well."
"Okay, Jude, are you coming?" Riven asked.
"I have no way. Harkel can only bring one, while Wren's paying her mom. I guess I'll just sit this one out."
"No, I can get her," Wren said.
"Are you sure you wanna pay your mom even more?" Riven questioned.
"No. It's most likely that Jude will be free of charge thanks to a certain situation," Wren said, embarrassment plastered on her face. Everyone who wasn't Joey, Jude, Riven, and Jordan was confused by her words, but they still rolled with it.
"So, Jude, are you still coming?"
"Yeah, I am."
"Good. Then we should be all set. I'll tell my dad he'll be getting new students tomorrow," Riven said, but was about to end the link.
"Wait, Riven, what are you gonna tell your dad if he finds out they already know about how to use resonance?" Joey asked.
"I'll just say I talked to you about how to use it over the phone."
"Wait, what if he—" but Riven then took everyone out of the link, not wanting any more questions, as he went down and told his father he's getting a lot more students for the next three days.