I narrow my eyes at that. The key code that Talin had risked everything to give us now burns in my mind. Future game? Not a chance.

Jeran listens quietly as they crack jokes about how Tomm died and whether Pira needed to. I marvel at how he manages to keep his emotions in check; he doesn’t flinch, even when they complain that Aramin moved too slowly when the maze separated him from Adena. I scan the grounds as we walk around the arena, pretending to be lost in our own drinks and arguments. Some of the soldiers are quieter than others, looking uneasy as their comrades laugh uproariously. As I watch them, they stir awake my other voice.

Maybe they’re like how you once were. Silent. Knowing there is something sickening about the game you’d witnessed. Not strong enough to stop it.

Finally, Jeran nudges me quietly and tilts his head toward one of the arena gates. “Looks like those two patrols have merged into one,” he signs to me in the night.

I look in the same direction as Jeran, and there, I see what he means. Some of the soldiers from one of the gates have left their post to throw bets with the others, all of them sharing food and drink in a small circle as they take a break from their watch.

We wait patiently until it seems like they’re truly lost in their conversation. At the next peal of laughter, we move through the shadows and steal into the cool recesses of the gate’s archway, then into the inner corridor behind the archway and make our way up the pillar again, aiming for the vent.

The halls inside the arena’s prison are quiet, a startling contrast compared with the chaos we witnessed yesterday in the stands. Now there are only the soldiers patrolling the hall, rotating in and out every hour.

From within the air duct, I glance up and down the hall at the tiny mirrors that have been placed at regular intervals along the ceiling, each of them tilted just so in order for the guards to see the entirety of the space.

Jeran and I exchange a short nod in the darkness.

As the guards rotate, the hall falls into a brief silence. We waste no time. When the soldiers leave, Jeran pokes his head out briefly through the vent, then aims a slingshot at one of the mirrors. He shoots.

There’s the faint breaking of glass. He whirls around and does the same to the mirror at the other end of the curving hall.

As he shoots, I break open a filter beside the vent. Weak light illuminates part of the duct. I lower myself down and land with a quiet thud into the hall. Jeran leaps down behind me, so silent I have to glance over my shoulder to make sure he’s escaped.

We don’t have much time before the guards rotate in again. Jeran goes first, stealing close to the holding room where Aramin and Adena had first been kept.