The morning light felt different.
Loki knew it the moment he opened his eyes. No one groaned when the bell rang.
They take their baths and dressed in silence and walked to the dining hall.
When the doors opened, Loki stopped.
The long tables were covered with food he had only seen in books. Platters of roasted meat, bowls of steaming vegetables, fresh bread, even something that looked like cake. The smell made his stomach clench with hunger he didn't know he had.
Nun Mama stood at the center of the hall, her brass bell raised. Today her face was different she had a smile on her face.
"This is your welfare meal," she announced, her voice echoing off the stone walls. "We are grateful for your service here. The council wishes you to dine well."
For a moment, no one moved.
Then someone laughed a bright, startled sound.and the room erupted. Teenagers rushed to the tables, grabbing plates, piling food, laughing and crying all at once.
T
he four of them found their usual seats. Tars stared at her plate, her hands trembling.
"I never thought food like this existed," she whispered. A tear rolled down her cheek and landed on a piece of bread.
Mari reached over and squeezed her arm. "Eat," she said softly. "Enjoy it."
They ate. For once, there was no rush, no
Nun Mama watching the clock.
Loki chewed slowly, trying to memorize every taste. Beside him, Mari ate with careful, deliberate bites, as if she was afraid it might disappear.
Across the table, Mends piled his plate high and grinned. "If this is how they send us off, maybe I want to be tested every week."
No one laughed. The weight of the day pressed down on them again.
After the meal, a bell rang not Nun Mama's, but a deeper sound, Loki gasped the Priest was here. The doors at the far end of the hall swung open.
Priest Light walked in.
Behind him came two figures in blue hooded robes, their faces hidden in shadow. Crystal-studded gloves covered their hands the same crystals Loki had spent two years mining. Swords hung at their belts. They moved with a stillness that made the air feel heavier.
The room fell silent. Some teenagers gasped. Others stared, wide-eyed, as if they had seen ghosts.
Evolvers, Loki thought. Real evolvers..
Priest Light raised his arms, his green robes flowing. "These are the warriors your crystals have built," he said, gesturing to the hooded figures, who bowed towards the teens. "Your labor has made them strong. Today, fate will decide where you stand among the evolvers, or miners, you all follow me"
As he turned and walked toward a corridor, followed by the two evolvers. Behind them, the teenagers rose from their tables and fell into line following them, gasping and sounds of awe among them.
Opposite the recreational hall, a stone done Loki seemed to have never noticed was unveiled by Priest Light. Above them, carved into the arch, were three words:
DOORS OF FATE
Priest Light pushed them open.
The chamber beyond was round and open to the sky. Sunlight streamed down on twenty stone bowls arranged in a circle, each no larger than a cupped hand.
The teenagers filed in and formed rows of four. Loki stood with Mari on his left, Tars on his right. Mends was behind him. He could hear the boy's steady breathing, calm as always.
Priest Light walked to the center of the circle and turned to face them. His voice rang off the stone walls.
"Today, your fates are decided."
He spread his arms wide.
"You have served humanity well. For years you have mined the crystals that fuel our warriors and help our fight against the monsters. The gods have watched your labor. Now they will show you the path you were born to walk."
He gestured to the twenty bowls.
"The gods decide all fates. Behind me are two doors the red door and the brown door. Before you are twenty bowls. Each of you will cut your finger and let a single drop of blood fall into the bowl. The scale within will measure your lightning bloodline attribute. If it rises into the green mark, you will pass through the red door. If it falls below..." He paused. "You will take the brown door."
Loki's heart pounded.
He looked at Mari. She met his eyes and nodded once small, fierce, certain.
They stepped forward to the bowls.
Loki took the blade beside the bowl, pressed it to the tip of his finger, felt the sting, watched the blood well up.
He let it fall.
The moment it touched the bowl, the blood moved. Threads of electricity crackled across the surface, blue and white, lighting up the crystal at the bowl's base. A needle on the scale beside it began to climb.
Please, Loki thought. Please.
The needle passed the halfway mark. Kept climbing. Passed into the green.
11.5%.
He exhaled and stepped back. His hands were shaking. Murmurs filled the hall as the teens took their stands again "Quiet down, we will give you a quite time to says your good byes" As he and the evolvers left the room by the door they all came in …
He finally turned to find Mari already watching him, a smile breaking across her face. She held up her finger, still bleeding. "11.1%," she whispered. "Green."
Tars stepped up beside them, her face hard. She cut, bled, and watched the needle jump. "12%," she said. "Green."
Loki's chest loosened. They had made it. All three of them. They would go through the red door together
"Seems I'll be seeing you on the other side."
Mends's voice was calm. Too calm.
Loki turned. Mends stood with his bowl, the needle frozen far below the green.
8.5%. Red.
"No." Loki shook his head. "Tell me you're lying."
Mends smiled, but his eyes were wet. "I'll work hard. Get you more crystals out there. Someone has to mine out here, right?"
Loki felt the world tilt. He took a step back, his mind blank.
Tars stared at Mends with an expression Loki couldn't read anger, maybe, or grief. Mari was already crying, tears streaming down her face without a sound.
Mends wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. Then he stepped forward and pulled Mari into a hug, holding her tight. When he let go, he grabbed Tars she resisted for a moment, then collapsed against him, her fists clenched in his robe. Finally, he turned to Loki.
"You fight," Mends said, gripping Loki's shoulder. "I mine." He reached up and ruffled Loki's hair, the way he always did. "I might have a better life here than you, Loks. Less lightning trying to kill me."
He pulled Loki into a hug. Loki held on, not wanting to let go.
Then Mends pulled back, nodded once, and walked toward the center of the chamber.
"You all stop whining!"
His voice cut through the noise. The teenagers who had failed nine of them, red-faced and sobbing turned to stare.
"So what if you don't have the bloodline attribute?" Mends shouted.
"Life goes on. We'll mine for the greater good of mankind. That's what the book says, right?" He spread his arms. "Clear your eyes. Our friends are the ones who need to be worried they're the ones going out to fight. We don't need to make it harder for them. Smile. Give them a pat. Send them off right."
For a moment, no one moved. Then one of the boys Tony, from the bunk across from Loki let out a shaky laugh. He wiped his face and nodded.
"Yeah," he said. "Yeah, alright."
The nine gathered around Mends, their shoulders straightening, their tears drying. They turned to face the eleven who had passed Loki among them and bowed.
Loki bowed back.
The room shifted after that. What had been a place of judgment became something else. Teenagers moved between the two groups, hugging, laughing, crying, promising. Loki watched Tony clap Mends on the back. He watched Mari hold the hand of a boy who hadn't passed, whispering something he couldn't hear.
This could be the last time, he thought. The last time we see each other.
Priest Light returned with the hooded evolvers. He stood in the doorway, and for a moment his composed face flickered.
"Seems the farewells are finished," he said quietly.
The two doors opened. The red door revealed a corridor lit with pale blue light. The brown door led to darkness.
Eleven teens walked toward the red door and nine walked toward the brown.
Loki was the last of the chosen to enter. He paused at the threshold and looked back. Mends stood at the brown door, his hand raised.
They nodded to each other. Then Mends turned and walked into the darkness.
Loki stepped through the red door.
The corridor beyond was narrow, the walls smooth and cold. The eleven teenagers who had passed walked ahead of him, their footsteps echoing. Loki tried to keep up, but his legs felt strange heavy, then light, then heavy again.
He blinked. The walls seemed to blur.
What's happening?
He tried to call out, but his voice wouldn't come. The others were stumbling now, too, some of them already on the floor. Loki's knees buckled. He reached for the wall and missed.
As he fell, the last thing he saw was the pale blue light of the corridor, flickering like a dying flame.
Then everything went dark.