As Palinus woke the next morning in the tent he shared with his friends he felt a rising excitement. The landscape they marched through in the night was hilly grassland with patchy forest, as a boy who had only known the city it looked beautiful and he soaked up the sights and smells with a broad smile on his face.

The whole expedition felt exciting and there was a buzz amongst the century. Palinus and the team felt the same pride as the other newly minted soldiers as they preened and puffed their chests.

Their campsite for the evening was at a junction of the road with one fork traveling up a hill. In the night they hadn't been able to see where it led, but as they prepared to march again in the morning light it revealed an enormous estate dominating the top of the hill.

"Who lives there?" Palinus asked his friends.

"Some rich family owns it." Rufian answered.

"ONE family owns it?"

The size of the place was mind boggling to Palinus with several different buildings making up a large square shape with tall columns lining the sweeping terraces that enjoyed the views down the valley and river that meandered along it.

"What do they even do with all that space?"

"They go out to places like this to hunt, or to lounge around and drink too much wine." Vesuvia answered quietly. "There would be a main villa for the family, then quarters for their servants, a stable… all sorts of things. Oh, and a hunting estate like this would have dogs."

As if to punctuate Vesuvia's comment the barking of dogs came from up the hill.

"Have you never seen an estate before… how could one even be impressed by such a small one?" The rift teams always camped together near the center of camp and Palinus turned to see it was Marnus that spoke, his voice dripping with an arrogant disdain.

"Well, I actually haven't seen an estate before." Palinus replained matter of factly.

"Psch." the arrogant healer snorted at the response, but floundered to follow up for a moment. "Of course someone from the streets like you has never been involved with proper society…"

Rufian launched himself towards Marnus and the bookish teenager flinched at the aggression of the response.

"STOP."

"STOP." Two quick orders came from Seline and Vel hovering nearby almost simultaneously.

Agrippa and Arruns stood menacingly behind Marnus, glaring at Rufian who still held his fists up as Bruchts held him by the shoulder.

Trying to deescalate the situation Seline walked between the boys.

"We are in the same Century now… we can't fight or you will be lashed. Or even worse, have to do the sacramentum again and be useless for the Rift Trials." She spoke directly to Rufian, "They are trying to goad you because they know this."

"You think too much of yourselves," Bakano countered. "We don't care about you in the slightest."

The clenched fists, visible from the hem of the mage's robe belied the indifferent posture and words.

"It's a shame we are on the same team," Rufian said, "because it robs us of the opportunity to beat the arrogance out of you."

"Psch." Marnus snorted again, "Your victory was cheap! You were too cowardly to fight us then and too cowardly to fight us now!"

"Enough." Vel's statement was firm without yelling yet cut through the squabble with a supernatural weight. There was something strange about the way he turned away from something behind them as he said it, and when Palinus turned to look he saw the officers of the century watching them with mild expressions of amusement. Noticing him looking Centurion Felusian snorted and whirled away while tribune Asterius smirked and winked at Palinus, following soon after.

With some reluctance the former 111s turned away from the scene and resumed packing up the camp.

"We need to keep it together." Seline pulled the team in with a whisper, "I think… They are testing us, as if the Rift Trials have already started…"

"What?!" They exclaimed together.

"The rankings of the soldiers around us are weird, this isn't a normal Militia unit. I have counted at least half a dozen extra officers floating around, and they are watching us." She said slowly, piecing her thinking together and looking around them wearily. "I think they are assessing us… I'm not sure what for bu-"

"Hurry up Legionnaires! We need to get on the road." A Decarion they didn't know ordered them as he bustled past.

The team shared a meaningful look and as one glanced at Rufian.

"...We need to be on our best behaviour."

The mood shifted with the feeling of being watched and assessed. It felt weird at first, always having someone standing in their peripheral vision while they did the mundane things of marching as part of a century.

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Digging latrines with a silent friend.

Pitching the canvas tents with someone taking notes on their frustration.

But mostly they marched; sole destroying, mind numbing marching from first light until it started getting dark.

The feeling of being watched faded quickly to be replaced with boredom, the first leg of their journey was only supposed to be a bit more than a week but it felt infinitely longer.

While they marched Palinus and Rufian pestered the rest of the team to share the details of the calculii they were granted as loot after the Ranking. Seline was quick to shush them and remind them that they were marching surrounded by potential rivals, but her own curiosity and with the boys persistence they eventually got an update on the new ars.

Standing in a stream beside the road as they took their turn washing. A square shaped light blue stone shone on Brucht's stomach. He whispered quietly as they splashed water over themselves that it felt like it aligned exceptionally well with his attunement and was some sort of Runic Defense ability. When he tried it his whole body shone with a runic font that swirled around his body from the stone and down his arms and legs until it completely covered him. Rufian couldn't resist punching Bruchts with the essentia armor on, but the big blonde boy barely felt the blow and the punch made Rufian fall on his face in the shallow water of the river to everyone's amusement. It seemed that the ars had a limited active timeframe as it faded after around half a minute.

Out on patrol late at night Palinus discovered how Vesuvia felt about her new ars.

"I can't believe you haven't noticed!" she ranted "I put it on and all of the other boys can't stop staring at me and trying to get my attention! I put it on for you three and you don't even twitch…"

"Sorry V…" Palinus tried to apologise, "but I just haven't really noticed anything different."

"Bah," she huffed as she sat and sulked. "It is a charm ability but I guess it seems to work better on more hostile targets. Or maybe you just don't like girls."

She laughed as she noted his flushed face and just like that was instantly back to her usual mood.

Seline had been more withdrawn than normal for the first several days of the march. It was late one evening as they sat around a small camp fire when she finally felt it was time to share her ars.

"I'm so sorry…" she sniffed a bit, and trembled slightly with emotion. "It's my fault that we didn't get much loot from the Ranking."

Holding out her hand she showed the team a completely clear gleaming gemstone with a sharp end and a hollow bulbous bottom. It sparkled in the light and seemed to be moving and warping slightly in her hand.

"Whoa!" The team were enraptured with the stone, it felt powerful and had a sense of potential that Palinus could feel would make him more powerful. ifAll he would have to do is take it from her.

He could see in Rufian's face a similar expression, and a similar response as his friend scrunched up his face and physically turned away

"I tried to give it back and ask them to share the rewards more equally." Seline's voice firmed, "Bu-"

"You didn't need to do that," Bruchts said softly. "You were a massive contributor to our success in the Inter Cohort Battle, and you deserve to be rewarded."

"You're just saying that because you don't know what it is…" Seline replied. "It is worth way too much."

"I don't know what it is, you're right." Bruchts said. "But, it doesn't make a difference. We could not have achieved half as much as we did without you."

Palinus found himself nodding along to what Bruchts was saying, he was disappointed not to get any reward for himself but he was happy for Seline.

"What is it though?" He found himself asking.

"It's… it's an unaspected projectile weapon enhancement with an upstream slot link."

"A what?"

"It is a calculus with a moldable ars that will respond to the aspect of the calculus in the next slot up from where it is placed. It will do something that synergises well with that ability but is limited to some sort of projectile enhancement. Vesuvia could use it to create an ars for her staff which synergises with her anti heal or… Pal would get something that made his whip do something amazing with his smoke aspect…"

She gulped as she looked down at the calculus. With a trembling hand she held the stone out to Palinus.

Without hesitation he reached out with both hands and closed her hand around the stone, gently pushing her hand back towards her chest to refuse the unspoken offer.

"I… I just…" she whispered for only Palinus to hear. "I want things to go back to how they were…"

"They can't," he whispered back firmly, "but they can get better."

Nodding his encouragement, Palinus watched as Seline considered the calculus.

She looked into Palinus's eyes. A long moment passed as a shared history of painful memories flitted wordlessly across their faces.

With a lingering sigh she tore her eyes away from his and wiped at her arm. Taking care to line the stone up perfectly she placed it against the skin of her upper arm with the point towards her elbow and the bulbous end towards the green stone already set in her shoulder. As if the skin was barely solid the stone sunk into her flesh until it settled in place.

Looking up at the team she beamed with both newfound power and an emotional weight lifted.

"It's perfect…" She smiled. "It feels aggressive. Not like a root at all, but like a plant attacking? I don't quite know, but I can't wait to find out!"

An orange glow was overtaken by a purple shade as the sun fell below the hills around Tremona as they finally arrived.

"We camp here tonight and march across the bridge first thing in the morning!" Centurion Felusian instructed. "You do NOT have leave to exit camp and you will NOT enter the city."

With clear instructions the century began to set up camp, disappointment at missing out on leave clear on their faces and audible in their grumbles. Many of the conscripts had been in the training camp for months and were frustrated at missing out on the opportunity to go to town and experience a new city.

"Splintery… bloody… farts…." Rufian was in a particularly foul mood.

"Why are you so upset?" Palinus asked.

"We need to get into the city tonight, so I can pick up the calculus from Marius!" He grumbled. "But you hear the centurion, we don't have leave and we are going to be quick marching through town tomorrow so we won't be able to sneak off and grab it then either!"

"Hmm," Palinus had forgotten about the calculus and instantly understood Rufian's frustration. It would have been dangerous to leave camp and be branded a deserter in a normal legion century on the march, but with the observers surrounding the century it was even more suicidal. "Is the calculus even worth-"

"You saw it!" Rufian hissed at him. "It is perfect!"

"It was pretty go-"

"No," Rufian stated firmly, "Not good. Literally perfect… I won't just be the iron fist. I will be the Flying Iron Fist. We NEED to get into town… and it needs to be tonight."

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