Larsa sat on the bleachers of the catacombs’ open training area. She put the rejuvenating pills in her mouth before washing them down with a bottle of water acquired from the cafeteria.

  Instantly, she felt like one would after waking up, having a shower and treating themself to a fresh cup of coffee.

  “These really do live up to the hype.” She thought to herself.

  Now, without any sleepy haze clouding her mind, she reflected on what had occurred back in the hallway.

  She had overheard a heated argument between Inquisitors Edward and Rebecca, something Rutger didn’t want discovered. Inquisitor Claudia had an ample opportunity to sell her out as well, but remained quiet.

  This was a collection of events she didn’t know exactly how she would interpret or digest on her own, a rookie to the order as she still was.

  “Yaah!”

  The sounds of exertion made it hard to concentrate, members of the order engaging in sparring contests all across the room.

  The training area was about the size of two football fields and had three separate divisions. The bleachers where you could rest and spectate, the side area which connected to the gym and had training dummies, and by far the most popular, a series of 25 feet rectangles etched with chalk with a 50 foot diameter circle in the middle.

  The dueling rings as they were called, areas where members of the order could engage in friendly battles. Naturally, any excessive force was banned, the winner of a spar being whoever could push the other outside the chalk. The circle was typically reserved for a major contest, often the rules were a bit more lax for the sake of entertainment, all attention in the room being on that spot whenever it was occupied.

  “Hey Larsa! You look serious, well…seriouser than normal. Wait, is ‘seriouser’ a word?”

  That familiar nasal sounding voice came.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me. How…HOW do these two keep finding me? This place is twice the size of the Vatican City it’s under!”

  Larsa turned to Milo who was climbing the stairs of the bleachers, her annoyed thoughts suppressed to only her head for now.

  “Hey Milo, surprised to see you here, I thought you were busy in one of the lounges.”

  “Did Miranda tell you that? Anyways, yeah I was setting myself up with some very juicy odds, going to hit the jackpot this time for sure.”

  Milo rubbed his hands together.

  “Why are you so obsessed with money? Even rookies like me are going to be taking home a decent cheque, so why does a more well tenured member need cash so fast, can’t you just save up?”

  “I’ve only been here 5 years…”

  Milo actually looked hurt in a more genuine way than any of the digs she or Miranda took at him before, something in what she said had cut a bit deep.

  “…So what brings you here, cooked up another of your brilliant plans, wind mage extraordinaire?" Larsa asked in a more friendly tone.

  Milo perked up now.

  “Not this time, I’ve come because a friend of mine asked for something and wanted to exchange it here, that I spotted you was just a coincidence.”

  Milo looked around the spacious area before focusing on a figure ascending the other set of stairs on their side of the bleachers.

  “There he is now.”

  With the ends of his scarf bouncing after each step up the stairs was yet another familiar face.

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  “Oh, you’re that lady from the cafeteria. Forgive me, I’m bad with names when I first meet someone.”

  Ben exclaimed this while sheepishly scratching the side of his head.

  “Larsa, and you’re Ben, that guy with the ink magic, pen and a crush-”

  She stopped when she saw him rapidly shake his head and wave his hands to plead for her silence.

  “Fuck Larsa, at this rate you won’t have a single friend in the Templars if you keep treading on their toes like this.”

  She always had trouble knowing what to say to boys, they had a somewhat different set of anxieties unique to them which she couldn’t know how to navigate, or at least that’s what she would like to tell herself.

  “Ahem, anyways, do you have what I asked for Milo?”

  Ben turned his attention to the wind mage, who reached into his pocket for something. They both checked their surroundings to make sure no one else apart from Larsa, who they didn’t seem to mind, was watching.

  Larsa became nervous, Ben didn’t seem the type, but perhaps he was deep into hard drugs like cocaine, heroine or-

  Milo pulled out a very elegant looking white flower and handed it to Ben, who rotated it around in inspection.

  “Alright, yeah this is perfect.”

  “That will be 20 of your Canadian dollars if you will.” Milo opened his hand awaiting payment.

  “That’s a bit expensive don’t you think?” Ben replied to Milo’s frankly absurd pricing.

  “Supply and demand Ben my pal, supply and demand. Also exchange rates, woof, those are killer.”

  Grumbling slightly, Ben handed over the fee and placed the flower in his own pocket; it didn’t take too much imagination to come to a conclusion about what he wanted it for.

  Larsa figured that now was the time to try and answer a few of her questions, particularly while she had someone close to a few of the Inquisitors in her midst.

  “I want to ask if either of you two are familiar with Inquisitors Edward and Claudia, or what they are all about I guess.”

  Ben turned towards her with an eyebrow raised, but answered her nonetheless.

  “Edward is…despondent I guess the word is. He’s been something of a cold calculator as long as anyone can remember. An event in the distant past dulled his emotions, enough that his wife divorced him and took custody of their daughter because of how she was becoming of him. Now with his one heir to the Van Helsing legacy in question, he’s become even more brutally efficient at monster hunting, terminator-like if you would. From what I can gather at least, slaying vampires in particular is the only thing that makes him feel something.”

  Larsa took a second to digest this. It at least explained the conflict she heard in their lounge, a consummate professional taking umbrage with those who didn’t operate the same way. Still one thing bothered her.

  “What was that event which made him this way?”

  Ben shrugged his shoulders.

  “No clue. The only people still around who would know what happened back then are Edward himself, High Priest Marcel or Inquisitor Rutger and none of them are likely to want to tell the tale to just anyone.”

  “Noted, what about Claudia?” Larsa pressed on, looking for more answers.

  “Well-” Ben began, but it was hardly out before a loud voice rolled over them.

  “YOU THERE! DAUGHTER OF MASTERSON!”

  Larsa, Milo and Ben all looked down to the edge of the bleachers which connected to the field. There stood a woman who could not be more than five feet tall.

  She wore a red chinese qipao dress which had an embroidering of a golden tiger running from the neck to the hip. Her brown hair was kept in a singular tight bun held together with a gold hairpin.

  “Looks like you caught the interest of Mei Li, best of luck.”

  Ben retreated comedically fast down the stairs and out of sight, leaving her and Milo on their own once more.

  “They’ve got a bit of a rocky history, mostly because Mei Li won’t leave him alone when it comes to dueling her, it seems like you’re the object of her attention today though.”

  Milo explained hastily.

  “Lucky me.” Larsa muttered.

  Deciding to humour the small bulldog of a woman, she marched down the stairs to meet her head on. Once they were on equal ground the Chinese woman laid down the challenge.

  “I Mei Li, apprentice to lady Uematsu, request a duel with you, daughter of Archibald Masterson. I will prove that your family is only another name and nothing more for me to surpass on my ascension to the heavens alongside my teacher.”

  She certainly had a flair for the dramatic that was for sure.

  “Very well, I accept your challenge.” Larsa responded confidently.

  Mei Li sported a wickedly arrogant smirk.

  “Then as is customary I shall meet you in the circle after 20 minutes of preparation. Good luck Masterson, you’ll need it.”

  She walked off to the side area to prepare herself.

  “You’ve really done it now.” Milo’s voice sounded.

  Larsa glanced over her shoulder to see the wind mage had followed her down.

  “What can I say, part of me really wants an excuse to sock her…gently and non-lethally of course.”

  Milo sighed and shook his head before answering.

  “Even if by some miracle you beat her you’re screwed, Mei Li has a problem, she HAS to win and won’t give up until she does, it’s both her most admirable and horrific trait. Her record against Ben stands at zero after some thirty matches and she still won’t stop challenging him. She spends most of her free time here picking random duels with whoever she thinks looks the strongest, hell half the fights that happen in the circle are probably hers.”

  Larsa drank the information in, but it was something Mei Li herself said that had made her most curious.

  “She mentioned Inquisitor Yoko, is it true what she said about being her apprentice?”

  “Inquisitor Uematsu has a few apprentices she’s been training to one day replace her, so I’ve heard. Mei Li is just one of them, which might be why she wants to beat every non-Inquisitor in the order, prove she’s the most worthy and all that jazz.”

  “Has she beaten you yet?”

  Milo puffed his cheeks and exhaled, all the confirmation that she needed.

  “Look Larsa, you’re a rookie you really don’t need to do this, Mei Li’s beaten members with far more experience than you and her combined.”

  Larsa smiled undeterred.

  “Won’t know unless I try, will I now? A challenge is only impossible to overcome if you believe it to be so.”

  She left Milo in the stands and made her way to the circle, ready to face one of the Templars’ most promising in a battle of prodigies.