King Gabriel was on his throne when they arrived, Queen Abigail beside him, the butler having announced them with the specific formality of a palace that knew how to receive guests who had recently assassinated a foreign emperor.
"My trio of prodigies," Gabriel said, standing. He came down from the throne the way he'd crossed his dining room — unhurried, with the quality of someone who moved through his own space as if he'd always been there. "In all my years as King of Olympia, I have never seen youngsters do what you three did in Levatia." He looked at each of them. "You took a mission designed for experienced agents and you completed it. For that, you have my gratitude."
"Thank you, your majesty," they said. "We did our best."
"Your best was exceptional." He looked at Melissa beside them, briefly, with the expression of someone confirming a shared assessment. "Which is why I've asked Colonel Theo to process a promotion for all three of you."
"To what rank, sir?" Levi asked.
"General."
The word sat in the room for a moment.
Levi thought about the classification chart at the academy. The rank structure Veronica had walked them through on the first day. General was not the highest rank in the Olympian military, but it was the rank at which you stopped being assigned to squadrons and started leading them — the threshold between being a weapon and being a decision-maker. He had been an A-class MK two months ago.
"We're seventeen," Priscilla said. Not objecting — just noting.
"I know," Gabriel said. "Which makes it more impressive, not less." He looked at her. "The rank comes with leadership responsibilities — you'll be commanding MK squadrons on higher-intensity missions. The kind of missions that Olympicõ and Olympiqué are currently generating." He paused. "Colonel Theo will brief you on the specifics when you report for duty. Understand that this isn't a ceremonial promotion. I expect things from you at this rank."
"Yes, your majesty," they said.
"Good." He gestured to an aide at the edge of the room, who produced three envelopes. "Your payment for the mission. Generous, as promised."
Levi took his envelope. He didn't open it. He looked at Gabriel.
"Thank you," he said. "For the weapons. For the training. For this."
Gabriel looked at him for a moment — the same careful read he'd given at every meeting, the assessment that Levi had learned to recognise as Gabriel taking in information rather than delivering it. "Your mother would be proud," he said simply. "Now go. I have a kingdom to run."
He turned back to his throne.
They left.
✦ ✦ ✦
The Blaze mansion had been transformed.
Not dramatically — it was still itself, the familiar warmth of a house that had been home for two months — but there were people in it who hadn't been there this morning. Kevin and James and Dwayne and Vanessa. Charlotte, in civilian clothes, with the expression of someone who had been persuaded to attend and was finding it better than expected. Chef Jeff had been busy since dawn judging by the smell.
"Surprise," Melissa said, from the entrance hall.
Sylvia stared. "You planned this while we were at the palace."
"I planned this before you left for Levatia." Melissa smiled. "I had faith."
The reunion had the quality of seeing people after something significant had happened — the slight recalibration of who everyone was relative to each other, the acknowledgment that some time had passed and the time had contained things. Kevin shook Levi's hand with the specific grip of someone who had been told about what happened and was registering it in person. James had the expression of someone who wished he'd been there and had been following the broadcast on his device.
"You climbed the ranks without us," Kevin said. "We leave you alone for one mission—"
"We weren't alone," Sylvia said. "We were in Levatia with a classified assassin and an informant named Jamal Ballin."
Kevin absorbed this. "And you're generals now."
"Apparently."
"Colonel Theo told us," Kevin said. "He seemed very matter-of-fact about it, which made it worse somehow." He looked at Sylvia. "I'm not calling you General Sylvia."
"I wouldn't want you to," said Sylvia. "That would be unbearable for everyone."
"Including you?" Dwayne asked.
"Especially me." She looked at Levi. "If any of you ever call me General Sylvia I will make you regret it."
"Noted," said everyone, mostly simultaneously.
✦ ✦ ✦
The barbeque wasn't ready yet, which was how hide and seek happened.
Kevin was the seeker — this was decided by a process that involved everyone pointing at Kevin simultaneously before he'd finished registering the vote — and everyone dispersed across the estate with the specific energy of people who had been through a lot recently and needed to play a game about it.
"Ready or not," Kevin announced, having counted approximately eight seconds, "here I come."
He activated his earth ability — ground-contact sensing, feeling for the weight of living things on the soil and stone of the estate. He catalogued: eleven signatures inside the mansion (staff), five outside. Two were clearly Melissa and Chef Jeff at the barbeque. Three were the others. He moved toward the garden.
He found the gardener trimming hedges.
The gardener handed him a card.
Kevin read it.
"LMAO. Did you really think we'd hide in a maze? Come on Kevin, you can do better than that — right? Right? — Sylvia"
Kevin made a sound. On her security camera feed, Melissa watched this happen and said: "Chef Jeff, first wave of meat before he finds them, or after?"
"After," said Chef Jeff, without hesitation.
"I think so too." Melissa watched Kevin stride toward the pool area. "He's relying on his ability to do the work and it's misleading him. His sensing covers ground contact. They've been clever about it."
On the camera's secondary feed, a plate near the barbeque station showed four small figures sitting in a pile of snacks — Levi, Sylvia, Dwayne, and Vanessa, each approximately the size of a jelly bean, watching Kevin's progress on the estate's security monitor that Melissa had thoughtfully angled toward them. They were eating crisps larger than their heads. Sylvia appeared to be commentating.
Kevin found the pool boy, who also had a card.
"By the pool? There's nowhere to hide there. LOL. Okay since you're struggling I'll give you a clue. From where we're hiding, we can see the sky and my mum barbequing with Chef Jeff. Good luck — I believe in you. Kind of. — Sylvia"
Kevin read this twice. Then he went into the mansion and searched three rooms on the second floor based on his sight-line calculation. In the third room's cabinet, he found another card.
"What are you even doing in that cabinet?? We're not five years old. At this point just give up — Sylvia"
He heard giggling.
He went to the window. Nothing. He looked up.
—
Priscilla, James, and Charlotte were on the roof.
"Do you think he saw us?" Priscilla whispered.
"We were too fast," James said.
"I gave him an obvious clue," Charlotte said. "He went into the house and searched rooms. I'm starting to question whether this is density or something more specific."
"He's not dense exactly," James said. "He just doesn't think laterally under pressure. It's a known thing."
"Is that so," said Kevin.
All three of them screamed.
Kevin was standing behind them on the roof, having climbed the exterior wall on the building's blind side after looking at the ceiling and having the relevant thought. He looked at them with the expression of a man who had been through a lot today and was entitled to this.
"Found you," he said.
The three of them came down with Kevin to the barbeque area, where Melissa was monitoring events with the expression of someone who had been entertained beyond expectation.
"The others?" Kevin said.
"Give up," said Melissa. "You won't find them."
"I know." He looked around. "Where are they?"
"Come out, shrunkies," Melissa called.
Kevin looked at the barbeque table. Then down. At the plate of snacks.
Four tiny faces looked up at him.
"Hey Kevin," said Levi, at approximately the pitch of a very small bird.
Kevin looked at them for a long moment. He looked at Dwayne, who had resized himself and Vanessa and was standing next to the table at normal height with the expression of someone who had made good life choices.
"Can you—" Kevin started.
"Already on it," said Dwayne, and Levi and Sylvia returned to their original size.
Sylvia looked at Kevin. Kevin looked at Sylvia. The air between them had the quality of a reckoning.
"I believe," said Kevin, "that you two owe me a significant apology."
"We hid in plain sight," said Sylvia. "That's just good strategy."
"You wrote me four cards."
"Motivation."
"You called me dense on two of them."
"Encouragement."
Kevin looked at Melissa. "Could Dwayne keep them small for maybe twenty minutes."
"Absolutely not," said Melissa.
"Five minutes."
"Kevin."
Dwayne, who had clearly been weighing his options, shrank them anyway — a quick, apologetic application of his ability that left Levi and Sylvia at jelly-bean scale before either of them had processed what was happening.
"DWAYNE," said Sylvia, at chipmunk pitch.
Kevin's revenge was methodical if brief — attempting to step on them, being dodged repeatedly, eventually landing one solid flick that sent Levi tumbling into a cushion and Sylvia retaliating with a 3rd-form fiery fist that scorched his thumbnail. Kevin's Sandy Mist filled the table area and the two of them ran blind until Melissa caught Kevin's second attempt and held it.
"BBQ's ready," said Chef Jeff.
Levi and Sylvia's heads turned simultaneously.
"Resize them, Dwayne," Melissa said, with a sigh.
They returned to full size. The grievances were set aside in the way that food sets aside grievances, which is completely and without ceremony. Kevin sat down. Sylvia sat down. The table filled up.
"I believe Chef Jeff just saved your life," Melissa told Kevin.
"At least now I know the method," Kevin said.
✦ ✦ ✦
The evening went the way the best evenings went — food and noise and the particular looseness of people who had been under sustained pressure and were now, specifically, not. Charlotte stayed longer than she'd planned to. James and Kevin left around ten. Dwayne and Vanessa not long after.
By midnight it was just the trio and Melissa in the lounge, the lights low, the estate quiet around them.
Melissa sat in her usual chair and looked at all three of them — the particular look of someone taking inventory and being satisfied with it.
"I've been thinking," she said, "about what it was like when Jane and I were your age."
Nobody spoke. They'd learned to let Melissa's Jane stories arrive at their own pace.
"We were goofballs," she said. "I mean it — genuinely, embarrassingly, the kind of goofballs that would hide at jelly-bean size on a plate of snacks and write mocking cards to the seeker." She looked at Levi. "I see her in you. Not in a heavy way. Just — the same thing she had. The ability to be completely ridiculous one moment and completely serious the next, with no friction between them."
Levi held this for a moment.
"You're more promising than we were at your age," Melissa continued. "After this past month — what I've seen you three do — I can't help but be excited about what comes next for you." She paused. "But I also want to be honest with you. What comes next is going to be harder. The rank means harder missions. The skills you're developing are going to attract things. The mystery behind these coordinated attacks — the thing that took Velvetia, that's been probing Olympicõ, that sent Horus to your trial — isn't resolved. It's building toward something."
The lounge was quiet.
"As long as you three stay together," Melissa said, "I believe you'll get through it. Whatever it is."
"Mum," said Sylvia. "That was extremely corny."
"I know. I meant all of it." Melissa looked at her. "Go to bed, Sylvie."
"You can't make me emotional and then immediately tell me to go to bed."
"I just did."
Sylvia stood, affecting dignity, and bent to hug her mother before she left. Priscilla followed, squeezing Melissa's shoulder as she passed.
Levi was last. He sat for a moment after the others had gone.
"I don't know what the future holds," he said. "But whatever it is — I'll keep my promise to my mum."
Melissa looked at him. The open-door quality, fully open.
"I know you will," she said.
He stood. "Good night, Sensei."
"Good night, Levi."
He went to his room — the room that had stopped feeling like a guest room months ago — and lay on his bed and looked at the ceiling. The daggers were on the nightstand. The estate was quiet. Outside, Olympus was doing what it always did.
He thought about what Melissa had said. About what comes next being harder. About the thing that was building toward something.
He thought about Velvetia. About the mystery man's closing words. About Scarlett's professional assessment delivered from the ground with one eye destroyed.
He thought about the fist technique, still unfinished. About the Godspeed Triple Strike, unrefined. About Ivel waiting in the oak tree.
There was so much still to become.
He was looking forward to it.
He closed his eyes.