After half an hour in the meeting area outside their new bed chambers, it was clear that none of them knew how to work together even a little bit.

Zericho was lounging on one of the cushioned sofas, head resting back in an attempt to stop it from pounding. Lief sat next to her, looking only slightly less exhausted despite it still being early in the morning. Across from them, Dust and Imika each had their own chairs, the former executioner leaning back while the probably-a-pirate sat forward with his elbows on his knees. Darshek had dragged his chair as close to Dust's as possible, although the interest in the boy's eyes had been fading throughout the last half hour as irritation overtook him.

The only other person in the room was the same guard who had gone to find Annavhe earlier—Mianin—who had remained completely silent the entire time with their hands clasped behind them. After the guard had seen the commotion the day before, Kaneia had more or less put them in charge of the batch of criminals, apparently to ensure that no one else in the House learned of their existence. Mianin 'wasn't supposed to interfere with the trial operation,' but Zericho thought that was about as believable as Darshek willingly bathing two days in a row.

"All we have to do is steal one barrette," Darshek grumbled, shifting to tuck his legs under him on the opposite side. "We are five people, people. Five. People."

"The barrette is still in the guard captain's front pocket," Imika said, in the thick and slow voice Zericho was slowly getting used to.

"Right," Dust interjected, "assuming she hasn't changed its location to throw us off."

"We've been over this," Darshek sang, making an expansive gesture with one arm.

Zericho sent him a hard look.

He rolled his eyes. "I'm getting a drink," he muttered, hopping to his feet and twisting back and forth. "Does anybody else want one?"

"Water," Zericho said sternly. "You're fourteen. And no thank you."

"I'll have a water as well, if it's not too much trouble," Dust told the boy, the corner of his mouth twitching up when Darshek nodded excitedly.

Imika raised his hand. "Water, please."

"I will accompany you," Mianin said as Darshek tried to leave the room, stepping in front of him. To the rest of them, they added, "Another guard will watch the room on the outside while I am gone. Please avoid speaking too loudly." Turning around, they flicked a small switch on the wall, and as they pushed the door open, Zericho saw a string of circular yellow lights turn on down the hallway beyond. They had to be connected to an outdoor solar plate by crystal wire, yet another display of the wealth this family had at their disposal.

As the two left and closed the door, Zericho turned to Dust. "You seemed pretty confident about the idea of a trial run earlier. What changed?"

"Sleight-of-hand isn't exactly my specialty," he admitted. "I thought it would be more action-oriented, if the end goal is to cause mayhem, as Annavhe put it."

"It should have been, if these people had the slightest idea what they're doing," she told him. "But Kaneia pretty much pulled this whole trial thing out of her ass."

"So you've mentioned." He shifted to lean back like the rest of them, resting one arm on the back of his chair and crossing his legs. "I think our best bet is to split up. We can make two groups to watch different parts of the estate and figure out Kaneia's most common destinations, where she's the most on-guard, and where she's the most relaxed."

Zericho nodded thoughtfully. "Sounds like a better idea than any of the others, not that that's a high bar." She glanced to the side and briefly met Lief's eyes, then added, "We should split our groups to get to know each other. I'll go with either you or Imika, and Lief can go with the other. Darshek can go with Imika's team, since he's already taken far too much interest in you." She narrowed her eyes at Dust.

Dust pursed his lips. "I know you all have known each other for a while, so you can split up to keep an eye on us- Which is what you're doing, right?" he added pointedly. "But Imika and I only formally met a few days ago, and we aren't exactly...the best of friends."

Imika glanced in the other man's direction, and Zericho was surprised to see nervousness in his normally-cold gray eyes. "I promised to help you. You've shown me that what I did before was wrong."

"Mm-hmm," Dust agreed with a half-smirk, leading Zericho to believe that Imika hadn't learned the error of his ways by choice. "But I'd still prefer to keep an eye on you, no offense."

The door to the room opened again, and Darshek came in with three ornately-crafted glasses, each filled with water. Mianin entered behind him, closing the door and resuming their stiff stance.

Darshek went beside Imika's chair first, holding out the waters for the former executioner to take one. Zericho carefully averted her eyes from the boy's actions, looking back at Dust. "Would you prefer if you, Imika, and Lief went in one group, and Darshek and I in the other?" she suggested. As long as she and Lief were in separate groups to make use of his ability, and one of them was watching Dust, she would be satisfied.

Dust glanced up at the ceiling for a second, considering. "You know what, your first idea was fine. I'm just being paranoid. You and I can check one half of the place, and your brothers and Imika will check the other." He turned to accept a water glass from Darshek, then faced Zericho again. "That is-" His hand shot out and grabbed Darshek's wrist, pulling his hand up to reveal Lord Silveress' necklace in his grasp. Prying the jewelry from the now-sulking boy's fingers, he finished, "That is, if no one's going to jump in and attempt anything before we've decided what to do next." He shot Darshek a pointed look before dropping his wrist.

Zericho rested one arm on the back of her chair as Darshek stomped his way toward her, hanging her hand just below the level of the chair's back. "I think we can all agree that it's in everyone's best interest to think before acting," she said, feeling two small metal objects drop into her fingers as Darshek crossed behind her. "We don't want to rot in jail, you don't want your crew to rot in jail either, and you..." She glanced Imika over. "You probably don't want to disappoint him, at the very least." She jerked her head in Dust's direction. "So let's take this slow and prove that we're up to whatever task Annavhe wants us for."

"So what's the plan?" Darshek asked, continuing to pace in a circle around the room. "Besides 'not jumping in and attempting anything.'"

"You, Lief, and Imika are watching the south half of the estate," she decided, shifting position and slipping her now-closed fist into her pocket. "Patrol it as stealthily as possible, and try to figure out Kaneia's usual patterns. Dust and I will watch the north half."

"What if I want to go with-"

"No."

Darshek huffed, but his eyes brightened a second later. "Does this mean we're done planning?"

Dust chuckled. "For now, I think so."

Mianin stepped forward, looking uncomfortable. To Zericho and Dust, they asked, "Can you promise not to be seen by anyone on the premises? If not, I will have to insist that you do not split up."

Zericho blinked. Come to think of it, it was surprising that the guard was considering letting them do this at all. "Yeah, we promise," she answered with a firm nod, seeing Dust echo the motion in her peripheral vision.

The guard swallowed. "Very well. Just in case, I'll get you all some new clothes, so you don't look like a bunch of outlaws if you get caught."

Mianin directed them all back to their bed chambers and brought them clothes to change into. Zericho's outfit was a peach-colored silken shirt and loose-fitted black pants, along with stiff leather shoes that started to hurt her feet about three minutes after stepping into them. For once, she found herself impressed by Annavhe, and any other noble who could wear these things all day without throwing a fit.

Before putting away her regular clothes, she pulled Darshek's findings out of her pocket, setting them on the polished wooden desk by her bed. One of them was a five-crystal coin, made from steel with a character 5 and the Sun Seal stamped on both sides. She shoved it back in the pocket of her dirty clothes, figuring it was the best hiding place in a house where almost nothing was actually hers, then turned to the other item.

It was about the same size as the coin, but made from polished copper. The center was engraved with a snake that had been painted with stripes of blue and gray—Zericho recognized the former executioner's Aster, or Tungsten, as Dust had called him.

Not sure what to make of it, she put the copper disc in the pocket with the coin, then met Dust back in their central meeting area. She took a second to scan over his outfit, which was the same as hers, but with an emerald green shirt to accent his lighter skin tone. He also had his hair done differently, a thick braid encircling his head while some loose hair hung down to his shoulders. Overall, it didn't look as terrible as she might have expected, even if he also seemed to think long hair was still an indication of status.

"Ready?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"Guess so."

It looked like the other three and Mianin had already left, so they slipped out of the meeting area quietly, taking a second in the hallway beyond to look around. House Calla was such a maze that Zericho could hardly remember how they'd made it to the room from the building's entrance—she would have to trust Lief's knack for remembering directions if they ever needed to find their way around quickly.

She and Dust padded down the corridor, mouths as silent as their feet. A general air of awkwardness hovered around them, which Zericho determinedly ignored. As long as he's not a dumbass or a liability, I can act like he's not here.

The soft carpet of the floor—dyed almost to the point of eyesore status—was something she hadn't really experienced before; yes, she'd robbed people's houses, but never a noble's estate, and never a person who had the money to acquire and maintain such pointless luxuries. Combined with the strip of lights along the wall, it was almost like walking through some alien dimension. And to think that people lived here was even stranger.

"When did you meet your step brothers?" Dust asked quietly.

Zericho flashed him a sidelong glance. "Shh."

There was a pause, before his voice said, "Alright, talk later."

"Talk never," she hissed. "You don't need to know anything about me."

"I do, if we're going to be working together."

Pursing her lips, she tried to restrain her knuckles from finding the man's nose. "And why's that?"

He sucked in a slow breath, as if her question was so tedious he could hardly be bothered to answer it. "If you can't trust me with basic harmless information, you won't trust me to do my part of the job, you'll try to check up on me instead of doing your part, and it'll get us all killed."

Zericho crossed her arms. "Are you an outlaw or not?"

"What, does being an outlaw now require a dangerous lack of trust? I thought I just had to get exiled from society, lose everything I cared about, and spend the rest of my life on the run. You're telling me there are more requirements?"

"How about basic common sense?" she suggested. "Or are you planning to tell everyone your life secrets?"

"I'm not-" He groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Do you even know where we're going?"

They'd taken a few turns throughout the conversation; Zericho felt like she'd mostly been following where he was going, and was only counting turns in case they had to quickly get back. "No, do you?" she challenged.

"No," he admitted.

Zericho rolled her eyes. Unbelievable. If you're going to bring up stupid conversations, you can at least take accountability for how distracting they are.

"Okay, well..." Dust tried, rolling his shoulders back. "I at least know how we got here, and assume you do too, if you're any good at your job. Let's just keep going in this direction and look for anything that might give us an idea where to go next."

"Great plan, I never would have thought of it."

"Go ahead and tell me what your better one is."

"Excuse me?" a soft, lilting voice asked from behind them, shooting a jolt through Zericho's limbs. "Are you looking for something?"