Jean inclined his head and held the door for Riko. Riko went one way, so Jean and Neil went another. Jean brought Neil into the changing room and opened an oversized locker on the end. Neil obediently looked inside. The locker was packed with Raven gear. It wasn't until Jean shoved the jersey at him that Neil understood, because the name emblazoned on the back was JOSTEN.

"I'm only here for two weeks," Neil said. "Why did he have those printed?"

"Do not play stupid," Jean said. "Kevin would have told you by now that you are transferring this summer."

"He mentioned it. I told him I wouldn't do it. Didn't he pass that along?" Neil tossed the jersey off to one side.

Jean snatched it from the air before it could hit the ground and flicked a livid look at him. "Try not to get us both killed on your first day, you ignorant child."

"Us?" Neil asked.

"Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you," Jean said, thrusting the jersey at him again. Neil refused to take it, so Jean caught hold of his coat with his free hand and yanked Neil close. "You lost the right to be an individual when you stepped into the Nest. The consequences of your actions are no longer yours alone to bear. Ravens operate on a pair-based system, which means from now until you leave I am the only ally you have.

"My success is your success," Jean said. "Your failure is my failure. You are to go nowhere unless I am with you. If you break this rule we will bother suffer greatly for it. Do you understand? They want us to fail. They want to take starting line-up from me. I will not let you jeopardize my rank."

"I have some bad news for you," Neil said. "I can't outscore Raven strikers."

"It is not them you need to outplay," Jean said. "You are not a striker anymore. You never should have been one in the first place. The master is moving you to defense where you belong. He will want to know why you abandoned your position. I hope you have a good explanation for him."

"It wasn't my idea," Neil said. "Coach Hernandez had a full defense line. It was offense or nothing at all and I just wanted to play."

Neil told Hernandez he'd never touched a racquet before because he couldn't give Hernandez the names of his past coaches and teams. When Neil was recruited to the Millport Dingoes, though, it wasn't his eight-year absence from Exy that made him so clumsy on the court. It was that Neil played little leagues as a backliner. He'd had to learn the game all over again from scratch. In the beginning Neil hated it, because he figured strikers were glory-hounds who sought the spotlight. As Neil got more comfortable with the position, though, he fell in love.