“Are you okay?” Terra asked, breaking the mental silence that had descended after his declaration.

  Justin jumped. “Yeah, why?”

  “We finished a minute ago and we’ve been waiting for you, but you kept making odd expressions, and weren’t responding. I think Ethan was about ready to try slapping you awake.”

  ‘I think we need to be more careful when talking around other people,’ Justin said inwardly.

  “Yeah, exactly like that,” Terra said. “You went all distant and stuff.”

  “Just thinking about some stuff. It’s not important.”

  Justin quickly left the room and led the way across the hall towards the next room, trying to escape the conversation.

  “Please don’t try to dodge the conversation,” Terra said, running to get in front of him, forcing him to stop. “The people at camp already told us how you were acting odd before you ran away. Are you gong to do that again?”

  ‘I didn’t run away!’ Dev shouted in his head.

  “I didn’t run away,” Justin echoed. “I just needed some time to find myself. Explore the islands.”

  “And you came back after just a few days?”

  ‘Do as I say,’ Elluvian said, ‘I’ll try to deflect.’

  ‘Fine.’

  ‘Dev, take control. Tell them about Axel. Try to let your voice tremble as you say it. Try to sound stressed. They need an explanation of some kind. Start by repeating after me.’

  Justin felt Dev take control, then begin speaking. “I was not well at the time. There are things I didn’t tell the people in the camp.” He sighed. “I broke someone.”

  “What do you mean?” Terra asked apprehensively.

  “I broke him. His name was Axel. He was a creepy stalker type, but he didn’t deserve that.” Justin felt tears start leaking down their face as Elluvian stopped feeding Dev lines. “He was stalking one of my teammates, apparently had been for years, so I tricked him and, and exploited his obsession to push him to the brink.

  “He nearly died!” Dev shouted, his voice cracking. He continued quietly, saying, “I didn’t need to push him that hard. I stole his water, denied him sleep, didn’t let him eat, set monsters on him.”

  He sniffled. “In the end, he just gave up. Laid on the ground while I stole all his stuff.”

  He wiped his eyes. “Call it a crisis of conscience, but I needed some alone time. So I left.”

  “Happy?” he spat out.

  Terra looked increasingly guilty throughout the rant, and with that word, she cracked.

  “Oh, my gods. I had no idea. I didn’t mean to pry.” she cried, reaching out as if to hug him.

  “Yeah, you did.” Dev said, taking a step back “Look, can we not talk about it? Can we keep this a secret?”

  Terra hesitated, then nodded.

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  After Terra had composed herself, Justin took back control and led the way to the next test.

  “Who wants to go first?” He asked, sitting down at the side of the room.

  Terra flashed him a guilty look, then volunteered, entering a large glass enclosure in the center.

  ‘I had no idea that was weighing down on you that much,’ Justin said once she wasn’t looking.

  ‘It’s not, really,’ Dev said in a much more level tone. ‘I didn’t actually push him as hard as I said. Plus, he absolutely was a narcissistic creep.’

  ‘Then, the tears?’

  ‘I did that,’ Elluvian said. ‘I haven’t used that trick in years, but it came through for me many times as a child. Kept me out of many schemes before I was able to act independently.’

  ‘I do feel a bit bad about Terra, though,’ Dev said. ‘She didn’t deserve that for being nosy, especially when she wasn’t even wrong.’

  ‘That’s the price of keeping secrets,’ Justin said.

  Justin looked up as he heard a thump and the door of the glass room closed, sealing Terra inside. She developed a glazed expression, then started walking in place in the glass room. Occasionally, she would seem to talk, but her lips were blurred.

  ‘What test is this?’

  ‘In a delicious bit of irony,’ Tae said, ‘The test of truth.’

  ‘Oh. We’re going to fail this, aren’t we?’

  Tae laughed but didn’t answer.

  ‘Dev?’

  ‘Just wait. If you really don’t remember, I want to see your reaction.’

  Justin watched as Terra wandered in different directions, never moving from the center of the cube.

  After nearly twenty minutes, the cube wall suddenly lifted and she lurched out.

  “That. Was. Awful.”

  She walked over and slid down the wall to sit beside him as Ethan took her place inside. “I really am sorry for prying. I just don’t want to be left alone here.”

  Justin was really tempted to ask what had happened inside the box, but restrained himself, as he was supposed to already know. Instead, he said, “It’s fine. It’s normal to be scared of being in a strange place. Don’t worry, I don’t plan to leave here for a week or two at least.”

  As he did, he felt the door swing open beside him. Looking up, he saw that June had just walked in.

  She stopped and regarded them for a moment. “I forgot that you would be in here,” she said.

  “Yeah, we’re going through the introductory tests right now. What are you doing here?”

  She looked at him confused. “I practically live here. I come back to get higher scores most days. I’m still trying to get a bettter cultivation technique.”

  “Oh, are you good at Apollo’s heritage?” Clair asked.

  “Pretty good,” June said. “I’m a good fit for most of it, but I’ve been struggling with this room. Is he going to be done soon?”

  “Just got in,” Justin said. “Then me and Clair need to go through.”

  “Do you mind if I go first? I’ll be reallly quick, I just need to test something.”

  “I don’t,” Justin said. “Clair?”

  “Oh, I’m in no rush.”

  They waited, and fifteen minutes after he had entered, Ethan strolled out. He had clearly had a much easier time of it than Terra had.

  “Oh,” he said on seeing June. “What are you doing here?”

  “Just stopping in to try something out,” she answered, slipping past him into the room.

  True to her word, she was out in less that a minute.

  “Learn anything?” Justin asked.

  “My new essence sight technique doesn’t work in there, unfortunately. I was hoping that would help me see the truth like it wants.”

  “That’s unfortunate,” Justin said. Turning to Clair, he asked her, “Do you want to go first, or should I?”

  “You go ahead,” Clair said.

  “I’ll be off, then,” June said. “Will you be helping with dinner tonight?”

  “Probably,” Justin said.

  “See you then, then,” she said, leaving the room.

  Heaving himself off the ground, Justin walked over to the glass room.

  Touching it, a voice sounded out in his mind.

  ‘Dev Cantor, would you like to begin the truth challenge?’

  “Yes,” Justin said. There was a flash of light, and Justin found himself in a different place.