The fish was long gone, picked down to clean bones, and the small fire had burned to a steady orange murmur. The river still made no sound. The grey-gold sky still held its caught and waiting light.
Ten of them sat cross-legged in the violet grass in a loose ring around the embers, each one having spent a point or two on a single Axiom Art, and each one having chosen something different.
No two of them had picked the same name.
Erix had watched them choose. He had watched Rin's eyes narrow over her list and land on the one that suited the way she fought. He had watched Lilith pass over the cheaper options without a flicker and take the one that cost her three of her fifteen points. He had watched Lily choose in silence, and Isabella choose with one hand pressed over the place where Aaron's soul now rested in her inventory. He had watched Tenebria choose last, and slowest, the way she did everything that mattered.
And he had chosen his own.
