The great hall steals my attention. Soaring ceilings arch impossibly high above us, supported by columns carved to resemble various mythical creatures. Colored light streams through stained glass windows depicting epic battles between humans with glowing markings and elemental creatures. Some of the paintings look absolutely ancient, and they show humans fighting elementals—the wars that shattered civilization and brought us back to the beginning.

We're assembled into orderly rows facing a raised dais at the far end of the hall. I'm positioned beside a red-haired girl with mud-streaked cheeks and an oddly serene expression, despite our circumstances. A guard gives her a particularly rough shove, knocking her off balance.

I catch her arm before she falls, steadying her. "You okay?"

She nods, offering a quick smile that brightens her whole face despite the grime. "I'm Mireen. Thank you."

"Nessa."

"So…” her voice is low, quiet, and tinged with wry humor. “Want to take bets on which of us is going to die first?”

“What would be…” I begin, trailing off as her smile widens.

“Sorry,” Mireen says. “Where I’m from, we see a lot of death. I find joking about it makes the whole thing just a touch less terrifying.”

“In any case,” I say, keeping my voice to a whisper. “Maybe death isn’t so certain. Why would they mark us with badges and go through all this just to execute us? This is Confluence Academy. What if they brought us here to train us? To become primals?"

The words sound pathetic even to my own ears—the desperate bargaining of someone who's suddenly realized they're not ready to die after all. Minutes ago, I was ready to die. Now I find myself clinging so tight to the idea of survival it makes me sick.

"What if they brought us here as food for the students?" a boy beside us asks, his eyes wide with terror. "Maybe primals eat people."

"Primals don't eat people," another voice responds.

"You sure about that? You ever seen a primal eat?"

"Never seen a primal. Period."

Mireen offers me a sidelong glance that says she at least doesn't think we're about to be consumed. Then her eyes widen when they fall to my badge. "A 'V'? That means you volunteered, right?”

"It's a long story." I can feel my expression shuttering, walls sliding into place like fortress gates before an attack.

To my surprise, Mireen nods instead of pressing me for answers. "I didn't even think this place was real." She looks around the large hall as more offerings are led in by guards.

A lanky boy with intelligent eyes sidles up beside me. Unlike the fear evident on most faces, he carries himself with quiet confidence.

"Ah! So there is another volunteer," he says, nodding at my badge. "Only two so far in the entire gathering. That's two out of about fifteen hundred offerings. Have you met him? The other 'V'?"

"I haven't..."

"I'm Nolan, by the way."

"Nessa."