The temple was crowded.

I was used to seeing large groups waiting their turn to enter the Dungeon. The most popular floor in Aurox had always been the sixteenth floor. Monsters spawned in groups of four, and most graduates were able to farm Tier One, while the ones who were trying to reach Tier Three would focus on floor twenty-five.

We'd arrived at the same time as the All-Temple students. Locals had priority over outsiders, though I had a feeling that Gesai could have made a scene and got us in faster. Instead, we stood near the door and waited.

"They're not here." Fray's voice cracked. "Eggar and Gunter…"

I scanned the over a hundred students that were in the lobby. All of them were illegitimate children that would have to claw their way into recognition if they ever wanted to earn their family name. While some might, most would get absorbed into other families, or they'd try to create their own.

The people Fray was talking about were the other two men that had been potential candidates for us to add to our team. While I knew that some students from this class had died trying to replicate our farming techniques, it hadn't clicked that it might have been people she knew.

"I'm sorry about your friends." I put my hand on the green woman's shoulder.

"If you hadn't taken me, then they'd be here…" A tear rolled down her cheek. Her face flushed. "I'm not even..." She touched her chest. "I don't deserve to be here."

"Hey." Aelin wrapped Fray in a hug. "You're one of us now, and you definitely belong here." She wiggled her eyebrows. "And you know, if you want to..."

"Aelin." I flicked the blonde troublemaker on her round ear. "We talked about this."

"I'm not pressuring her." Aelin huffed as she released the other woman. "I'm just saying—"

"We all know what you're saying, and you've been told to stop saying it. Fray is free to decide how she wants to be a part of this team."

"Well, how the mighty have fallen and risen again!" Trela Margrave marched over to us. The green woman eyed Gesai.

"I'm just here to run my students through a few boss rooms." Gesai straightened up. She had a few inches on the older woman and was making sure that was obvious.

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Trela tucked a few strands of gray hair back under her habit as she counted us. "One, two, three, four, five…" She looked at me. "Here to steal another of my vagrants?"

"Actually—"

"No!" My outburst caused the other teacher, Aelin, and Fray to flinch.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before looking at Aelin. "We have full teams." I smiled as I turned to the teacher. "Thanks for the offer, but we wouldn't want to disrupt your teaching any more than we already have." I put my hand on Fray's shoulder. "Fray has been an invaluable addition to our team. Thanks for letting us add her to our team."

The Nun eyed Fray, then shrugged. "Bah, probably would have died with the other idiots." She turned to me. "Just don't be doing any more of your crazy stunts. I don't need to fill out any more forms for dead students."

She didn't wait for my response; she just spun on her heels and stomped back to her students.

"Well, that was rude." Aelin grumbled. She crossed her arms in front of her. "And you know what it's like for them. Just taking one of them for the day would help her out so much!"

"No." I glared at the blonde. "There's no way that you'd let it be for 'just one day'." I used air quotes. "So no. We already have enough attention on us; we don't need any more."

"Fine." Aelin huffed, then smirked and nodded with her head. "She's pretty."

"No." I didn't bother to look at who she was pointing out. I knew that these students were leveling a lot slower than the ones at the Dispatchers, which were behind the ones at the Cathedral or any of the other seats of power within any of the other Wards. Just the gear drops alone would set them up for the rest of the year.

I shook my head. "We can't save everyone." I glanced over at Fray. "Last time we got Fray, and they had people die trying to emulate us." I turned to Aelin. "Do you want to build someone past their peers only to send them back where they'll be ahead of everyone?" I shook my head. "Think about Rix. If we kept pushing to try to catch up to her, one of us would die. And the last time we fought together?" I shook my head. "Rix was bored with things we were struggling with."

"Fine…" Aelin's tone let me know she didn't agree, but at least she was going to let it drop.

We waited in silence until all of the students had filtered into waiting rooms. Once the lobby had cleared, Gesai walked up to the front desk. She held out her CB for the green man behind the desk to scan.

"Gesai Alard, I'm teaching the Blue team of first-years from the Cathedral. We need queued to the third floor."

The man scanned her crystal, then nodded. "You're good. Waiting room seven." He pushed a button under the desk, then looked around us as the door behind him slid open. "NEXT!"

We shuffled down the hallway to the door marked with a 7. Once Ether and Fray changed into their armor, we'd be ready to go into the Dungeon.

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