Madeline’s heart raced when she entered the second room. She fought to keep her hands from shaking. She must have passed the test. She must have.

  If she failed, she would have exited out the door she entered. Something would have stopped her from advancing.

  Right?

  Her eyes adjusted quickly to the dimness of this room, lit only by two torches, one on each side of the blank stone walls. Their crackles were the only noise.

  The silence helped her concentrate.

  In front of her she saw a heavy table, not dissimilar to the one the Professors sat at in her interviews. This one, however, had been designed for fewer people. Large enough for one small person at best. Curiously, she couldn’t find a chair.

  On the table Madeline could see two talismans. Her heart sank. What should have been a moment of great relief or even joy turned sour when she saw what affinities they represented.

  Neither was the ivory skull of the Death affinity. The vast majority of her planning assumed she’d get an offer from the Death affinity. Choosing to style her background as a Grinnrocker, the things she’d done in preparation of this moment…

  *Plans on plans on plans, all invalid with one failure.*

  She failed her objective, plain and simple. The person responsible for murdering her parents would be with the Death Dealers. They would be safe and sound out of Madeline’s reach.

  Madeline would have to pick one of the other affinities. Processing this information slowly, she inched forward and looked closer at the items on the table, of which there were five. On the left was the wooden vine talisman on top of a folded piece of parchment. On the right was the copper glove, also sitting on top of a piece of parchment.

  In the center she found a third piece of parchment, but this one had no talisman on top of it.

  She shook her head. Of all the permutations of this moment… not this one, not by far.

  The obvious thing to do was to move the talismans and read the letters. So she did, beginning with the center parchment. The paper crinkled in her hands as she opened it.

  Madeline read the letter twice. The bit about a lifelong commitment was new information as was the bit about an entrance ritual. Whatever. Small price to pay for revenge.

  The letter made its way to her pocket, folding slightly as it entered.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Next, she moved to the letters. She moved the vine talisman that represented the Life affinity first.

  Madeline only felt the need to read this letter once. The Life affinity felt like such a polar opposite to both her personality and her plans, she quickly discarded the possibility of joining. Plus, they wore green.

  That left her one and only one viable remaining option. The Energy affinity. She held the copper glove talisman and weighed it. Heavier than expected. She pocketed it.

  This letter held more writing than what Professor Taran put on the page.

  It was a nice note, Madeline had to admit. He promised nothing yet offered an opportunity. She breathed, looping a lock of hair over her ear. The torches flickered.

  She clutched the talisman in her pocket. It didn’t necessarily feel right in her hands, not as right as the skull would have, but it didn’t feel wrong.

  “I have accepted the offer from the Energy affinity. I wish to become an Energy Warrior.”

  At the end of her sentence the stone wall split open in front of her. She chastised herself for stepping backward. __Show no fear.__ The stone groaned, taking its time to reach its endpoints. Once it did, the doors gave one final heave and stopped their movement. Only then did Madeline assume it was safe to enter past yet another doorway into yet another stone room.

  The only thing she left in the room was the wooden talisman of the Life affinity. Taking it didn’t feel right once she accepted the offer from another affinity. She had chosen another discipline. Still, she kept Taran’s letter. People simply didn’t write Madeline things, least of all letters that offered sincere compliments.

  The new room smelled damp. She must be deep in the castle by now, in a place with poor ventilation. Similar to the previous room, this one was lit by two torches on opposite walls. There were no tables in here, only a blazing hearth.

  And three glints of silver that made her swallow her tongue.

  Three masked women clad in the primarily black garb of the Energy Warriors. The accents of the women's clothing were touched with a fire red trim and Madeline was willing to wager that somewhere on her person was the glove logo. They each held a scepter topped with the glove she'd come to recognize as the symbol of the Warriors.

  Madeline fingered the talisman in her pocket.

  Looking at the statuesque women, Madeline found it difficult to not be put off by the masks they wore. They looked like something from a twisted masquerade, all silver, and smooth with only small slits at the eyes, nose, and mouth. If Madeline didn’t know better, she’d assume she was in some sort of danger.

  But…did she know better?

  The woman in the middle spoke in a disguised high pitched voice. “Madeline Le Torneau, are you ready to begin the entrance ritual of the Energy Warriors?”

  “I am,” Madeline answered with much more confidence than she felt.

  Only the woman in the middle showed any visible acknowledgement that Madeline spoke. Neither the tall, willowy woman to Madeline’s left nor the woman with greying hair on her right moved a muscle.

  “Then disrobe and remove your valuables.” The woman in the middle waved her scepter and the fire in the hearth roared to life, doubling, tripling in size and intensity in an instant. “Discard your clothing and items into the fire, initiate. Leave only the Energy Warrior inside you.”

  “Pardon?”

  Only silence met her question. She’d been given an order, the woman in the middle spoke clearly and had no intention to repeat her words.

  Madeline grumbled but let her holey cloak fall to the floor then stepped out of her worn boots. Her socks also had holes in them and the undersides of her feet were cold against the stone through those holes. She hesitated when working the clasp of her shirt, not because she felt shame over her naked body - quite the opposite, in fact - but because this was the true point of no return. By doing this, she left no option besides full commitment.

  The shirt fell to the floor, Madeline’s head held high. Her pants were next, then finally her undergarments.

  She didn’t try to hide her body. If she had to be naked, she’d keep her chin out and get through it.

  Besides the talisman and the letters, she had nothing in her pockets, no pendant around her neck, no broach in her hair. She’d never owned such finery's. The only thing of any emotional attachment she carried was the cloak. She refused to let it show. Sacrifices would have to be made.

  In one movement, Madeline scooped up everything on the floor in front of her, including the talisman, and threw it all into the fire. A part of her wished she could have kept the letters from the Professors. It might have been nice to have evidence of their validation when things got tough. That fleeting thought burned away as fast as it had come.

  The fire doubled in intensity again and Madeline shielded her face from its blaze.

  In an instant, it winked out. The woman in the middle returned her scepter to her side.

  “Pick up the talisman, initiate.”

  Madeline’s eyes returned to the hearth where only the glove talisman was left. No wood, no clothes, no letters. Only the talisman. She picked it up as instructed.

  “Now, we begin.”