I landed in my gaming chair with a thud. Chase had been working me too hard and my body ached. My knuckles were swollen and I had bruises everywhere. Going to bed early every night had cut into my gaming time.


    I thought maybe Anders had been too easy on us with our training previously. We had all had time to develop hobbies and had time to sit around and chill. But Chase Morgan had other plans for us.


    While Anders spent most of his time in his office or at meetings, Chase had us doing training sessions and practice missions. And he was everywhere.


    Sitting down to game, nope, training session.


    Gonna have a late night snack, nope, Chase is behind the fridge door, waiting for you to run laps.


    He felt like a phantom gym teacher, drifting about with his weird bloodshot eyes and unblinking stare. He had run all of us into the ragged, except for maybe Tadashi who seemed to enjoy all of Chase''s training.


    I swiveled around slowly to face my computer. I dared to touch my mouse and looked over my shoulder, expecting Chase to suddenly be standing behind me.


    When he didn''t show up, I put my headset on, turned on Spotify and booted up League of Legends.


    I got into Champion Select by the time there was a knock on my door.


    "For fuck sake!" I threw down my headset and spun in my chair. Amelia was standing behind my partially cracked door.


    "Oh! Sorry. Come in. I thought you were Chase." I told her. She chuckled, still looking a little stunned from me yelling.


    "Sorry. Didn''t mean to disturb you." She waved her hands in the air, but then she closed the door and came and sat on my bed. "I think we''re all hiding from Chase at this point. Everyone hides in their rooms now. Don''t want to be accused of having too much spare time."


    "If you''ve got time to sit around, you''ve got time to train." I said, trying to mimic Chase. Amelia laughed so hard she snorted.


    "Have you seen Erik?" She said suddenly, her entire face changing to a look of concern.


    "Yea, I''ve seen him around. He''s usually got earbuds in, and always coming in from, or going for a jog." I told her. "Why? Do you think somethings wrong?"


    I knew something was up with him, but I didn''t wanna tell her that. Especially when I hadn''t actually talked to him about what actually was up. He had been avoiding everyone, even training. He was supposed to be my partner, but when he didn''t show, it gave Chase more time to focus on me. Which had not been fun.


    "He seems distant. He''s not even hanging around the new girl anymore, as much, kinda." She picked at the skin on her thumb absently.


    "I think he''s just working through some stuff. There have been a lot of changes here recently. Speaking of, has anyone bothered to welcome Dyson into the group? I''ve seen him kind of wandering around talking to himself." I said, trying to change the subject.


    "I haven''t said anything to him yet." Amelia shrugged.


    That meant that no one had probably said anything to the poor guy since he got here.


    "Why don''t you round up the team? We should all go introduce ourselves." I told her. She seemed to deflate because I wouldn''t commiserate about Erik.


    "I guess you''re right." She looked like she might get up, but then flopped backwards on my bed.


    "Ori, do you think all this change around here has ruined things? It doesn''t feel the same." She asked.


    A notification pinged loudly on my headset that I had been kicked for being AFK. I sighed heavily and turned my computer off.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    "I think Chase has brought some much needed...structure?" I winced. "And having Kalysta around is nice. I thought you would be happy about not being the only chick on the team. And Dyson seems like fun. Come on, we should go say hi." I stood from my chair and Amelia whined loudly.


    "Get off your ass." I said, grabbing her arms and trying to pull her up. She resisted, groaning and shaking my arms.


    We played tug-o-war for a few moments before she finally caved and sat up. I flew across my bedroom floor and landed right on my ass. We both howled with laughter.


    ~*~


    After rounding up the crew and explaining our plan, we found Dyson laying on the couch in the Rec Room.


    The Rec Room was an amazing space that Anders had cultivated for us to enjoy our downtime. It was a huge open concept room, with a step down into a huge home entertainment lounge. The tv on the wall was massive and the couches were plush and comfortable. We had a pool table, pinball machines, old arcade cabinets and a popcorn machine. There was enough seating to turn the place into a small movie theatre.


    Dyson sat up and looked over the couch slowly as we all stood awkwardly in the doorway.


    "Is this an intervention?" He asked.


    "No, nothing like that. We realized in all the stuff going on, we didn''t introduce ourselves." I told him. I tried to look as friendly as I could, being as exhausted as I was. "My name is Orion Wells, I like video games and researching mythology." I pointed to my right at Ethan, who suddenly had stage fright.


    "Do we have to do the icebreaker stuff?" He asked. I elbowed him in the side.


    "Ow, I''m Ethan O''Bryne. I like umm, eating and my sword." He grimaced. I turned to look at him and he shrugged.


    "I''m Amelia O''Bryne and if you couldn''t tell, that moron and I are twins," she said whacking Ethan in arm. "I like 2000''s metal, things that go fast, and beating up my brother." She said with a grin.


    We all turned and looked at Tadashi.


    "This is..." I started. To my surprise, I was interrupted.


    "I am Harada Tadashi, you may call me Tadashi. I enjoy playing piano and also beating up Ethan."


    He smiled for the first time since we''d met. I felt myself beaming, I guess, with pride.


    "I didn''t know you played piano! How come you''ve never played here?" Ethan asked excitedly. Tadashi stared at him incredulously.


    "We do not have a piano." He said slowly, narrowing his eyes at Ethan, who took a minute to clue in that there was in fact, no piano in the Cathedral.


    "You''re right, this feels more like an AA meeting than an intervention." Dyson chimed in before laying back down on the couch.


    "Now it''s your turn." Amelia said, jumping down the small step to the couches and leaning over to look at him. We all took that as our cue to move closer too.


    "Uhh, I''m Dyson, but you guys knew that already." He paused, pulling the hood from his head to reveal his dyed black hair. His brown roots were beginning to come through. We all stared at him waiting to continue. He didn''t.


    "Come on man, you gotta do the thing too!" Ethan said loudly, hopping up and down. Dyson rolled his eyes.


    "I like my music, but my headphones broke, and I like my peace and quiet, but it seems that broke too." He joked. Or at least I think he was joking. It was kinda hard to tell with him.


    "I might have a spare headset I could lend you." I offered. His eyes lit up and he smiled at me.


    "That''d be pretty rad dude. Thanks." I nodded.


    "So what''s with the other two?" He asked, sitting all the way up on the couch.


    "Kalysta and Erik?" Amelia asked. She turned visibly red. "I''m pretty sure he''s into her. No idea why."


    "Probably, but I meant more along the lines of what we were doing here. As far as I can tell, Erik is angry all the time, and Kalysta is kinda hard to read and reminds me of my ex." Dyson said, scratching his head and leaning back. I noticed he fidgeted a lot.


    "Erik isn''t always like that. There is just a lot going on right now. He''ll be back to normal soon." I said trying to sound confident. Amelia looked at me, like she was starting not to believe me. "Kalysta is new too. You should try talking to her since you have that in common."


    "Yea maybe." He didn''t seem to interested so I left it at that.


    We all clamored over the couch and started watching the movie Dyson had put on. It was some slasher horror movie. I noticed Amelia testing the waters with Dyson. When something scary would happen, she''d jump and lean into him, or grab his shoulder. He didn''t seem to mind, but he also didn''t seem to reciprocate. I cursed the cesspool of hormones we lived in. Across from us, on the smaller couch, Ethan and Tadashi sat awkwardly. I rolled my eyes and slumped back against the couch.


    "I''m gonna go get a drink." I said. No one seemed to notice.


    In the mess hall, I sat with a glass of milk and small plate of cookies and stared at the cement wall. I missed windows. If it weren''t for all the clocks in every room, I''d have no idea if it was night or day. I dunked a cookie and started to think about how we''d expanded as a group, so quickly, in the last month or so. Anders had done his best with what we''d had initially. It was him, Erik and I to start. Erik''s dad and my parents had all been part of Anders'' team back in the day. Legacies were easy options. The twins had come next, transferred from the Citadel in England, and then Tadashi from the Conclave in Japan. I was surprised that those places had let such amazing members just up and leave for the Cathedral. We were probably on the lower end of all the Order bases. I wondered what strings Anders had to pull. He had come back a few weeks ago, from one of his travels, with Kalysta. She apparently was also a legacy. She didn''t really talk much about it. And now Chase and Dyson were here.


    I looked down and realized that I had drowned my cookie.