When Arden stated his intentions to his students, List found herself wondering, not for the first time, if the man lived in the same world as the rest of them.

"Look, I get he's your teacher, but he's not infalli—what in the seven hells is he doing?"

King's Dawn had come to Shadefall, and the town was the most alive any of the outsiders had ever seen.

With a sigh, he took off his jacket to keep it free of any blood.

After a few minutes of circling the market, Valerie was sure of it.

She was being followed.

“Now, tell me everything you think you know about your abilities.”

"That . . ." List struggled to find words to adequately convey the mixture of anger and utter befuddlement she was feeling. "That's the worst fucking educational rhyme I've ever heard."

Xigbar didn't know who he was more angry at—the thin-skinned, ham-handed, vindictive idiot who'd just stabbed him in the back, or himself for not seeing this coming.

Xigbar hated to admit it, but Arthur actually had a decent plan.

He could always stop antagonizing Arthur. But he had that perfect blend of pride and incompetence that made it too fun.

It was hard to tell when Larian Masters wasn't happy.

“GORPMORP!”

Valerie felt a pang of sympathy for the boy. Unless he'd lived a prodigiously unlucky life, this was bound to be the worst day of his life.

Daniel Shen was going to die, alone and bleeding in a stinking hole in the ground.

“This is Xykesh. The day we got here, this town had just come off the back of a week-long landshark problem. There’s got to be something that needs killing around here.”

It was just sitting there, out in the open.

“Where are you folks from?”

Everything was going perfectly fine right up until they were robbed by bandits.

“It’s so good to finally meet you, brave hero!”

Valerie's voice was like a child who'd just brought in a stray, and was now desperately pleading with their parents to keep it.