Jack Blazespout was very good at lobbies.
The Tactical Siege teams had been drawn at noon, five names to a team, mixed across all six academies, and the staging hall under the east stand was full of strangers trying to decide whether to like each other. Most of them were doing it badly. Jack walked into the room, found his four, and in under three minutes had made all of them feel like old friends.
He remembered the Pillen boy's name from the list—Oskar—and asked after the injury he'd taken in the Fortress yesterday. He told the Gravehold girl that he'd watched her Labyrinth run and that she'd been unlucky with the fold. He laughed at the Starcrest boy's joke, which wasn't funny. And to Kai, a lean Serpentstone student with a Gift that let him walk through solid matter, he said quietly, "You're the most useful person in this room, and I think you know it."
Kai did know it. He looked pleased to hear it said out loud.
