<h2> </h2>


    Corrine, Tom discovered, was in the central area, in an animated conversation with four other alien. All of them were substantially larger than her, but the largest one was only hippo-size.


    She stopped mid-sentence when she caught sight of him. Concern flashed in her eyes, and she leapt to her feet. “Fuck, Tom, what the fuck happened? You look like…”


    “Briana knows.” He interrupted. “She knows I’m a.” Social Silence locked his throat before he could blurt out the wrong word in front of the others. While some people here might have guessed the human secret, they hadn’t confirmed the facts with anyone, and reincarnation was rare enough that no one would truly believe it unless it was confirmed by the primary source.


    “Briana? Your little sidekick?” she asked.


    He nodded dully.


    “You didn’t. She didn’t. Oh. shit. Fuck.”


    A small part of Tom died at that reaction. It was not what he had wanted to hear from her. He had been hoping for her to burst into laughter and then to assure him that there was nothing to worry about. To inform him that it happened all the time and there were processes and systems in place to make it go away. That was what he had wanted to hear. A stream of obscenities was close to the worse case scenario.


    “That’s fucked up.” She continued after a moment. “That’s bad. Terrible! How? What the fuck? Why would you tell her?”


    “We didn’t. She guessed.”


    “She guessed?” Corrine looked at him blankly for a moment.


    “Yes, she worked it out by herself.”


    “Like, I know what the fucking words mean. But how? How could you possibly be so fucking incompetent?”


    “It wasn’t just me. It was both of us.”


    She gasped and threw her hand over her mouth. There was disbelief in her eyes. “What? Kang as well? Fuck, Fuck.” She screamed the swear words at the roof. Then she glared at him. “And what were you two fucking idiots doing to be discovered? Were you two fucking spastics chatting about your past lives like imbeciles?”


    “No, of course not.”


    “Showing off your powers? Discussing builds?”


    “We were helping her. It was the advice we gave and reading the spell list that did us in.”


    “But why? On what world can you be so careless?”


    “I think she’s suspected us for a while. I reckon it was an accumulation of many things that she had observed over a long period, and today’s events just pushed her over the edge into making the accusation. For example, our performance at obstacle training.”


    “No one’s concluding anything from that. I’ve seen you. You’re like a fish out of water.”


    “Kang isn’t like that.”


    “No, he would do better if he hid his coordination. But still, that shouldn’t be enough. What reading? What advice prompted her to make up her mind today?”


    Tom felt like tearing out his hair. This wasn’t helping, and they were on the clock. “It was a mistake. We screwed up. We accept that.” he shouted back at her with tears dripping from his eyes, which made him feel a lot like the young, helpless child his body actually was. “Corrine, she guessed the truth, and I don’t know what to do now. Help me, please.”


    Corrine cradled her head in her palm. “Oh fuck. Um, this is bad. There’s the easy solution but I don’t know if you’re the type to be that extreme.”


    “No!” Tom snarled having guessed from the way she was presenting it what she was implying. “We’re not doing that. It’s not acceptable.”


    Corrine nodded like she approved of his reaction. “Don’t tell Dim then.”


    He felt sick to his stomach at what she had just said. Lives beyond their own were at stake. Everyone who had made it to the competition, at least those who weren’t delusional, always expected to have to make hard decisions. There were things that would make you feel like a donkey had kicked you in the nuts, and there was this. Tom shook his head from side to side:


    “Dim- no. Dim wouldn’t. He wouldn’t do that. Would he?”


    She hesitated.


    “He wouldn’t. She’s only a child.”


    “My understanding is that the policy is that he would offer you the choice.”


    Tom felt like vomiting. Part of him approved pragmatism, but most of him didn’t. Then there was the knowledgeable way she discussed the process, one that spoke to personal experience. Subconsciously, he moved back away from her, sitting up straighter and withdrawing slightly. “Corrine, how do you know that? Did this happen to you? Did you...”


    “No, it didn’t fucking happen to me, thank DEUS, but I’ve chatted about it. Discussed hypotheticals.” She stopped talking a sad smile on her face. “And from afar, I’ve seen the consequences. But that’s not my story to tell.”


    “I won’t do that. I’ll tell him no. I won’t let him order her death. It doesn’t matter what the personal cost is, she’s innocent.”


    The same despondent smile graced her face. “Tom, I’m very glad to hear you say that. But it’s not just your decision, is it? Kang gets a say as well.”


    “He wouldn’t,” Tom said confidently. “She’s his little sister, too.”


    “It’s never that black and white, Tom. What people do when their lives are truly at stake might surprise you. Plus,” she waved at the sky. “The situation’s abnormal. It’s pretty easy to calculate that, in the greater schemes of things, humanity is best served by you living and a less valuable person dying in your place.”


    “No,” Tom interrupted. “I hate that shit. It’s bullshit.”


    “I fucking detest it, too. But it has a ring of truth to it, which is part of the reason I find the concept so hateful.”


    “Exactly,” Tom agreed. “Life is not about logic and plus-minus calculations. There’s a place for morals.”


    “I agree, but are you certain she actually knows knows?”


    Tom nodded. “It wasn’t what she said - it was her eyes. She knows in here.” he smacked his chest over his heart.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Corrine was visibly distressed as she paced back and forth. “Definitely don’t tell Dim. With two of you on the line, I don’t know how he would react. Especially when one of them is you.”


    “Why would that matter?”


    “Tom, don’t be an idiot - just your illusion-piercing titles are enough to keep you alive. You’ve saved the life of lots of reincarnators with it. Not to mention the whole heroes thing.”


    “Is it really a question of me or her?”


    Corrine stopped and looked at him. “No, it’s not anywhere near that black and white. We’ve had this conversation before, Tom. Eventually, your friends can be brought under the reincarnator protections.”


    He checked his title and shook his head. “She’s not covered.”


    She tugged on her hair. “No, she wouldn’t be. That takes time, and there might even be a maturity requirement.”


    “Then that means I’m dead. They know I’m here, Corrine. They’ve already sent super assassins to try to flush me out once before. I’m sure they have another party in reserve to eliminate me the moment they find out who I am.”


    “Fuck, I know that, Tom. Your situation is more dangerous than usual. I think usually I would have said ignore it. Treat her like nothing happened. My understanding is that doing psychic reads on children, particularly younger ones, is nearly impossible. Our minds are too jumbled, and our judgement too impaired. But you being their focus changes things. A year ago, I would have said the chance of Briana being mind-read even once while in the orphanage was near zero. Now I would say she’ll almost certainly get examined this year, and possibly in the next month.”


    “So I’ll be discovered. What do I do?”


    “If you’re a heartless fuck, you kill her yourself or have her killed.”


    “I’ll never do that.”


    “Good,” Corrine said simply. “If you did...” She stopped. “Fuck. I’m not going down that rabbit hole. I don’t want to think that way about people. If Kang feels the same as you, there are two ways to deal with this. Both of them involves luck.”


    “I need to spend fate.” Tom felt sick at that thought, and the impact this would have on his development, but the moment Bri had realised who they were he had known it was going to be required.


    “Yes. You and Kang. It’ll buy you time by putting her last on the list of people going to be mind-read. But that’s not what I was talking about. You have two options. The first is to try to convince her you’re not a reincarnator. It’s not as crazy as it seems. People’s views change all the time. I swear that everyone in my cohort has been the primary suspect at one point.”


    Tom considered that for a moment. The idea was simple enough, but he wasn’t sure it was possible or something that he could pull off. Social Silence might even cause trouble for him. “I don’t think I can do that.”


    “Yeah, it’s difficult. You’ll need to hit the disinformation campaign hard. Get her off balance, stop being friends. Lie to her, throw suspicion onto others. Fight with her. I don’t fucking know. I was never good at the shit.”


    “Nor am I.”


    “The other is to lean into being a reincarnator. Deepen the relationship enough that the title can cover her.”


    “That’s…” He intended to say it was a great idea, but Corrine cut in before he could.


    “Puts all your fucking eggs in the one basket. Fate to delay mind reading, fate to speed up the title recognition, and the problem is, you’re putting yourself on a timer, and there’s no guarantee she can even be included. It’d be unprecedented for Briana to get it. The youngest I know of anyone being covered is a nine-year-old. And the issue with this strategy if she has her mind read before your title covers her, you’re dead. The evidence will be so incontrovertible that they’ll send a rank hundred and fifty powerhouse to make sure of the kill.”


    “Fuck.”


    Her lips quirked slightly. “That’s my line, Tom.”


    He glared at her and, despite everything, despite the way it felt like the world was crumbling around him and the gathering darkness was coming to devour him, he cracked a smile.


    Corrine grinned back. “This is so fucked. This is a fucking massive screw-up. What are you going to do?”


    “I guess my first step has to be to talk to Kang. We’re in this together.”


    She nodded. “Good luck, Tom. You’re a good man.”


    Instantly, he returned to his body and, while it had only been ten minutes; he was assailed with a full set of memories. His body had explained all the crucial aspects of the Divine Champions’ trial, excluding the contender contest, because apparently there was a geas in place to prevent details of that leaking out.


    “And did you ever count how many arms he actually had?” Kang asked with a mix of genuine enthusiasm and someone waiting to be led to the gallows.


    “Who gives a shit.” Tom shot back. “The guy sculpts mountains as a hobby.”


    “Oh…I...”


    “If you haven’t realised it, I’ve returned.”


    “Thank DEUS. The avatar you get when in that room is amazing. It was even practicing the lightning spell. The only way to tell it wasn’t you was because you refused to talk about Bri and what Corrine said.”


    “Yeah, its ability to act appropriately is guaranteed by the GODs, but who cares about that? We need to talk about Briana.”


    Kang was serious again. “What did she say?”


    Tom hesitated; he was genuinely unsure of how to approach this conversation. He trusted Kang, but how much did he actually know the boy? How pragmatic, or, more poetically, cold-hearted, was he? How far would he be willing to go?


    For the first time, he assessed the other boy for real. If the chips were down and they were in a death match, the question was, who would triumph? With his lightning and the nearby spears, Tom was pretty confident he could take him. Power Strike, Spark and Instant Strike would be a lethal combination against Quick Step, Axe abilities, and whatever shadow skills he had developed. There was no need to catch him by surprise in a straight-out fight - Tom was winning almost a hundred times out of a hundred. That meant he didn’t have to be devious in assessing the boy’s intent. He could be blunt like he preferred.


    “Corrine’s advice was to kill her.” he said casually.


    “No way! The bitch actually said that?! We’re not doing that, Tom.” Fury radiated from him. “I won’t let you.”


    Unbidden, Kang’s eyes flicked over to the practice weapons. Tom had already factored them in, while the other boy was closer to them, he was pretty sure he was susceptible to Spark. Stun locking him for two seconds would be enough for him to finish a death match. If he had managed to convince Kang to condemn Briana, then Tom would have been the only person leaving the room alive.


    “Good, that was a test. We’re not hurting her. But it also means we can’t afford to tell Dimitri.”


    “Are you kidding me?”


    Tom shook his head. “I wish. Standard policy is to give us the choice, but…”


    Kang lowered his eyes, an anguished expression on his face. They all knew the pressure of the competition, and the feeling of what was one person’s life or ethics against the suffering of a billion.


    “Is that really the policy?”


    He nodded sadly. “I fear it is. Corrine kind of implied she had seen it play out before.”


    The larger boy inhaled sharply and shut his eyes for a moment. “Well, we’re not doing it.”


    “Not a chance,” Tom agreed. “Which really limits our options.”


    “Can’t we get an artefact to protect her mind or something like that?”


    “I wish, but that’s not an option, according to Corrine. We’re in a waiting game. We either try to convince her we’re not reincarnators...”


    “Let’s do that.” Kang said instantly.


    “You didn’t hear the other option.”


    “Flood the zone with shit. It makes sense.” Kang retorted. “It doesn’t matter what the other option is, this one will work, so we should do it.”


    “Or we tell her everything and hope that allows our titles to protect us.”


    “Nope. Unless that’s a guaranteed option, gaslighting her is better,” Kang said simply. “And if it was a better option, you wouldn’t have bothered mentioning the gaslighting. So that’s what’s we’re doing.” He finished calmly and with complete conviction.


    “How would we go about doing that? This is Bri. She’s smart.”


    “It’s easy.” Kang said dismissively. “You don’t even need good acting skills. Especially if there are two of us working together. We just need to keep repeating our alternative facts. For example, you can say to me that my hours spent practicing those hard words paid off. Or that Eloise was only able to defeat her because she’s the real reincarnator. How could Briana beat a genuine reincarnator at obstacle courses? Throw enough shit and it’ll stick. Trust me, I’ve seen it work before.”


    “She can’t.” Tom couldn’t help but point out. If either of them took it seriously, they would smash her best time by fifty percent.


    Kang smiled and rolled his eyes. “But she does. She thrashes you and beats me most of the time. That’s evidence. We just keep pushing those points. It’ll be easy.”


    “Or we can tell her the truth.”


    “What did Corrine think?” Kang asked in response.


    Tom remembered the conversation. While she had been hopeful at times, mostly she had looked haunted. “I’m not sure she thought either method will work.”


    “Briana is six. If we can convince her that the moons are made of cheese by accident, we can make her doubt her conclusions about as esoteric a topic as us being reincarnators. Given how bad you are at everything physical, it should be an easy sell.”


    “I don’t know, Kang. It doesn’t feel right to me.”


    “Leave the talking to me.”


    “Fine. But, Kang… be strategic with the fate use. Don’t use it to try to change her mind, because that won’t work. Our fate, for the time, being has to be directed to stopping her from being mind-read for long enough.”


    “Yeah, I figured. Can you go make sure Corrine keeps her mouth shut?”


    “No problems.” Tom said, and, a moment later, he was standing on blue grass once more.