The King slammed his desk with a fist. "Never question me! Go get Grace! Retrieve the object. Kill all who know anything about it and return to me. Is that understood?"

Daniel looked at the girls. An understanding passed between them. He looked back at the King. "Of course, your Majesty.”

The King settled down and nodded and sat. “Good. Sylvan, give them the details they will need. Good day."

They rose, bowed, and backed out of the room. Sylvan said to meet them in his office and ran off.

Daniel didn't know where his office was and watched him run off. He turned to the girls.

"No fucking way are we doing this, right?"

The girls nodded happily.

Blackness.

*

Everything went black for a long moment. And then their world illuminated, blinding them for a moment. They were seated on the floor of a large oval room. Surrounding them was a large audience of people. In front of them was a section for important people. Daniel recognised Quinten, sitting in the middle right away. Sitting next to him was Grace, smiling at them.

Daniel looked at the girls sitting beside him, their hands entwined.

They shared the same bewildered expression as him.

He looked at Amy. "Did all of that just fucking happen?"

Jasmine started crying and launched herself at Daniel, who caught her and held her. "You jumped into that river! You died!"

Daniel looked over her at Amy. “You took that projectile for me!"

Amy nodded and hugged his side.

After a moment, Amber hugged Amy from behind. Her hand stroked Jasmine's back. They stayed that way for a minute before they heard a gavel bang loudly.

Daniel looked up to see Quinten standing with a gavel in his hand.

“Stand, those about to be tested."

They broke apart and stood, their hands automatically finding each other.

"About to be tested?" shouted Daniel. The emotions of what they had just experienced were too raw, and his anger poured into his voice.

"About to be tested? What the fuck did we just experience, then? Huh?

What fucked up bullshit was that?"

He could see Grace was confused and looked at Quinten with suspicious eyes.