The man didn’t respond and just stared out into the forest.

So he does think something’s gone wrong out there, thought Cyrus smugly to himself. But it doesn’t look like he’ll be convinced to call the test early. So they were just going to have to wait.

The boy grinned and contemplated what he wished for more.

For the two remaining students to fail the test.

Or for them to die out in the endless forest.

I guess option two satisfies both my desires, he grinned as he stared out to the empty forest.

* * *

“Are we there yet?” Casey groaned.

They’d been walking for ages and they hadn’t come across anywhere they recognized.

“Are you sure we haven’t been going the wrong way?” she asked Max for what may have been the tenth time.

Max wasn’t sure. If they had gone the wrong way, should they turn back? But there was no way to prove they were going the wrong way. It was possible the same area looked different on the way back, no?

His stomach growled.

“Alright,” he said. “Let’s stop for a moment to catch our breath.”

Casey’s shoulders slumped at that and then she plopped herself on the ground.

“Damn,” she sighed. “It looks like we failed this test.”

Max sat down as well and rubbed his forehead.

“I just wish there was some way to tell where we were, but this damn forest looks so similar in every direction!”

Max sighed. “Let’s take five minutes to clear our heads and then maybe a new idea will come to us.”

They sat quietly for two minutes.

Finally, Max broke the silence and asked, “Why were you nice to me earlier today? Everyone else seems to be so outright cold and mean.”

Casey hugged her knees and looked down at her feet.

“I don’t know,” she sighed. “I guess I just know what it’s like to be an outsider.”

Max considered the name they kept calling her. Fake-vein. What did that even mean?

“Why were they calling me a commoner and you a fake-vein earlier?”

She shook her head and rubbed her eyes. “It’s just the stupid names the prestigious families use to make themselves feel better than everyone else. They called you a commoner because you have a common trait. They called me a fake-vein because my parents are traitless. I don’t come from a family of climbers.”

Casey’s face went pale with dejection.

“Hey,” said Max. “If it makes you feel better, I barely got to know my parents at all before they died. I would rather have traitless parents than, you know, dead ones.”

Casey shook her head. “Was that supposed to make me feel better? Now I just feel bad for both of us.”

They went silent again for another few moments. Casey broke the conversational lull that time.

“Why do you want to become a climber anyway?”