The fourth sector of the arena was the realm of the overachievers and the ones who wanted a place to test ideas born from a spur of the moment. Divided and protected by closed or opened high walls, the participants were hard at work building weird devices, training their bodies or sparring for sport.

They all had  an unreal focus on their projects, shared by a firg dragging symbols and lines on the ground. A small bug-boy sporting a disheveled blue cape under a set of transparent wings was carefully connecting two circles with the straightest line ever seen, you could have sworn a machine did it. In the middle between them sat a used pencil, with a sharp, metallic tip.

??? -” This better work this time”, he muttered, sinking his spear further into the ground. Since every other attempt failed, he thought that maybe the problem lay with the deepness of the ritual. “ I’ll take it in a literal sense if that fixes this issue.”

A young man yelled from a distance, guessing what the firg was doing: ” Slower, man, you might damage your weapon again.” Tommen and his group arrived just in time to admire the artistic work done by the insect firg. “Nice line work by the way Giol, you could work as a house illustrator when we go back home. That’s something you could on Earth, right?”, he waited, fishing for some positive brow wiggles as a response.

-” Tommen, shut up already about that”, replied Giol, a bit defeated and exasperated, resting his forehead on the spear. “ Hi Brigit”, he continued, exhausted, until Maci drew his attention.

Maci -” Oh, you do look like you're wearing a dragonfly costume. Reminds me of those Sentai…”

-”...Or ranger shows? Right?!” Giol then excitedly waited for a moment to see how she reacted.

Maci -” Wait, you saw them too? I recently got into them”, the girl acknowledged with a smaller amount of enthusiasm than him. “ I just saw some of the newer ones, I still haven’t gotten into the older material.”

Giol -” Many of them are so amazing, used to love them as a larva! The costumes, the heroic deeds, the fights, goddam the music pumps me up even now!”

Tommen raised his right hand above his head and declared, in a hoarse voice, to “STOP…Because today it’s a big day, and not just for the two of us anymore.”

Lian and her group found the others just in time for them to witness the attempt at a Fect Pact.

…..

-” Oh my, Arim, you finally brought a lady for the family to meet?”, teased Brigit in jest, but she felt her stomach shrink seeing how quickly he blushed. “ Did I take it too far? Ah crap, I made it awkward didn’t I?”

-” Is that a thing normally practiced now?” Lian shrugged. “We’ve barely met, but I don’t mind meeting my friend’s family. I guess I’ll start with you, since he told us about you two growing up as siblings.”

“Nice save” thought Brigit, trying to downplay her remark while grinning and apologizing.” Well, I’m-”

 -” NO! Let’s leave the introductions for later!”, intervened Maci with a stomp, then pointed towards Giol and Tommen to start the ritual.

-” Fine, fine”, sighed Arim. “ But that’s not a nice way to make yourself listen to, tu petit diablotin.”

The girl then wanted to mock repeating his words and complaining that “Oh, now everyone knows French, huh?” but got flabbergasted by his reply.

Arim, smirking under his collar, quickly said that -” I’m half-french”, then waved at the group to follow Tommen and Giol. “ The human sits in the left circle and firg on the right. And before you ask, they tried the other way around and nothing happened.” He then pointed toward the object in the middle. “That’s where the totem sits. It doesn’t matter what it is, you just need an object that both partners can hold and use.”

Tommen then started by cutting half of his long hair: “ The human then must offer part of himself to the ritual, proof of his being.” Right as the follicle hit the ground the circle started to glow in the same colored lights as the transport stone. It then rushed towards the Totem, embracing half of it in a rainbow glow.

Giol -” Then the firg does the same, in my case using a part of my shell and…” only a single gray line appeared, lighting the circle and the moment it reached the center, both of the glows vanished and broke. “Another fail”, he added dejectedly. “Next time Tommen?”

Tommen -” Sure thing man…I just, let’s take a breaker, ok?” to which Giol only nodded and the two took a defeated sit-down next to a wall.

Maci quickly grabbed Brigit’s hand and tried to drag her with her, but the firg checked with Lian and Ogda as well.

 Lian -” Ogda, are you ok with us being last?”

He didn’t blink, respond or move. Unbeknownst to the rest, a reprisal was taking place in his head:  “ This won’t work, middle one. An actual pact, much more ancient than this mockery abides. This attempt will fail…pretend when it happens, otherwise you’ll put her in danger’s sight.”

Ogda- ” Right”, he replied, late. “ Sure, I don’t mind”, he chippered up, ignoring the concerned looks he was getting. Giol then asked him if their attempt scared him.

“ No…maybe, a bit”, tried Ogda to coyly say, unknowingly believing half of what he was saying.

Maci -” Ugh not another downer party. Listen, this reminds me of when two of my team members fought over a middle position, only for them to figure out that neither was good at playing there. Who’s to say that this is the only good ritual?” Maci’s out-of-left-field insight surprised everyone, actually encouraging them about alternative solutions.

-” Later we should do another, deeper library dive on the rituals,” replied Tommen, thinking about it.

 …..

The teen put their symbol in the middle, a small ceramic statue of a football flying through the sky. Maci’s ritual went just like Tommen’s, except that the colors quivered in a different dance, followed by a similar performance from Brigit’s side. And her lights were drenched in similar shades as her human partner, all culminating with the totem glowing, then swallowing the light show.

Maci -” Does that mean…”, asked the teenager in awe but with a tinge of fear as well.

-” Yap. Congratulations you two, you are now in a Fect Pact”, replied Arim with a light applause. The rest followed his example and congratulated them as well. “Now, Lian, Ogda, what do you say?”

….

On the east side of the city, there was a tree unlike any other. Its bark was a faded brown, and patches of soot-covered bits and pieces of the vegetal armor were easily blown away by the lightest breeze. The remaining branches arched towards the ground, touching it with cusps of charred wood. Its leaves and flowers died years ago, but the soot that flew in spirals and circles between the branches made it seem alive. And the tree was alive, as it found a new way of sustaining itself.

Under the tree slept its eternal guardian, a beast who could stand the heat and lack of air that missed around the timber. Ashen’s head and body were hidden under the laid branches, except for a spot from where his eyes could see everything in the distance. That’s how he noticed the arrival of his latest guest, someone he excitedly awaited for.

Ashen -” The sprout of duel and learning has returned. With good news, I hope?” he bellowed in a rugged, old voice, smirking at his visitor.

Perren was well over 70 years old at this point, which for a firg was a somewhat middle point in their lifespan, and if those words came from someone else, he would have felt insulted. But to be called a sprout by this being was understandable for him.

Perren -” Ashen, how are you doing? I see that you’re still “guarding” the tree like usual”, he responded with a bit of a jest.

 Ashen -” Ha ha ha, well, you know how much I enjoy my “guarding” sessions. Especially at my age. Besides, since you left, Victor got a bit antsy and I had to entertain that little ball of energy. Even the other members tried their hand at it, and…”

Perren noticed the hesitation in his voice, a mixture of annoyance but sprinkled with some pride as well.

Ashen -” I don’t know if it’s because I feel my fire extinguishing, Perren, but I noticed a growth. More than I ever thought possible for the rowdy children who would pester my naps.” The dragon took a second to reminisce, with the warrior patiently waiting for him to address him again. “ Huh, I guess talking with someone closer in mind made me think about my passing time…but let’s get past all that, sprout. Did you find what I asked you for?”

Perren pulled out from his satchel a small object veiled in layers of cloth, leather, and other materials, removing only the ones at the top. “ As you asked for, the egg from a firg that failed to materialize. It’s all just mush now...I know you did this nine other times, but still…are you sure this is safe?”

 Ashen -” Yes…This curse binds me to yield this form of reincarnation time and time again until I reach the final one. If there’s one thing I could count on, it’s knowing the preparation needed for this voyage. The egg will be repaired and my tenth and last opportunity will be complete. If I fail once more to remove the punishment set onto me by the Dia in my last life, that will be it…”

Perren -” We will convince them, Ashen. The Platinum Union finally has the chance to get closer to them and maybe even ask for a favor…”

 Ashen -” Ha!”, replied the old dragon. “ My trust in the Union is absolute, don’t misunderstand me.  But so is my fear of the fickleness of this deity. My mind, bound to keep on living through it all, has decayed over time, and my recollections of my first life are limited. But that’s only because of the multitude of memories I am forced to store, Perren. What do you think about that, what kind of being gives that kind of punishment…how broken is the child?”