Trial Preparation

“We do… not have very long…”

Retvik’s blunt statement was met with equally blunt nods from both Arkay and Litvir. The two of them were quite busy sorting themselves out. This actually made Retvik feel rather bad, as he’d spent the last hour writing a will. Just in case.

“Yeah, you realise just how quickly time passes when you’re facing potential death…” Arkay muttered, scrolling through files on his little computer. “Fifty hours isn’t even that long anyway, and we’ve already spent two of them.”

With a grunt, Retvik sat down at the table next to Litvir, who was staring rather blankly at his own screen. Litvir clearly didn’t want to talk, but muttered a hello anyway.

“What are you doing?”

“Downloading.”

“Downloading what?”

Litvir took a deep breath, almost scowling as he turned to Retvik. “I caught a glimpse of Itaviir’s password. The one he used to send the message that we are to do the Trial. I cannot find information on our specific trial, but I am downloading as much information as I can onto a portable drive so we at least have SOME idea of what we are up against. Arkay is helping me by sorting through the information and discarding unimportant data.”

Retvik simply shrugged back. “Is there something you want or need me to do?”

“I would ask you to write a will, but what would I even write about, since I am officially dead anyway?” Litvir sighed. “I apologise, I am not taking this that well. Even Arkay has more hope than I do.”

Arkay tutted, swivelling round in his chair. “You need some hope. But frankly, you’ve found so much fucking useful information. At the very least, we know what we can bring with us. Sure, we only have those rather limited backpacks they supplied us, but now we know we won’t be wasting anything.”

“You seem somewhat optimistic…” Retvik muttered.

“I am. I kinda feel like I have to be. I mean, Litvir needs some time to be miserable and hopeless and we can’t all be miserable and hopeless.”

Litvir tutted some more and went back to what he was doing. Retvik frowned, then turned to Arkay. “I need something to do. We need to be using our time correctly. I do not even know if our fifty hours includes travel time or whatever…”

“It does not…” Litvir grunted. “When the fifty hours are up, we will be forcibly moved into the trial. Whatever that means.”

“They’ll knock us out and place us in the trial location…” Arkay explained. “Literally just tranq us and dump our bodies there.”

“Charming…” Retvik sighed. “I suppose at least we can use these full fifty hours. Or rather, 48 hours. I need something to do.”

“Arkay, please give him something to do…” Litvir growled, rubbing his eyes. “Go pack up some camping gear or something.”

“I can sort that out…” Retvik paused, watching as Arkay started scribbling furiously on a sheet of paper, switching his focus between the paper and the screen he was looking at.

After what felt like a little too long, Arkay had produced a long list of things and shoved it in Retvik’s hand. “Alright, here’s a list.”

“This is a lot of stuff.”

“From what I can tell, we’ll be camping in a forest made of corruption. We’re gonna need a lot of stuff.”

Retvik scanned the list, tutting. “Why do you need fire-making tools when you have me?”

“In case we get split up. Although, if I’m honest, having you around is going to make things soooo much easier. If there’s one thing I know instinctively, it’s that corruption hates fire.”

“Fair…” Retvik sighed. “Alright. I shall get on with this. Is there anything else you need me to do?”

Litvir sat up, staring at both Arkay and Retvik. “Seriously, why are you so optimistic?”

“Oh, I was pretty terrified up until you, uh, borrowed Itaviir’s password!” Arkay did his best to smile. “And this is all still pretty terrifying. But from what I’ve gathered, if we’re going to be sent off to clean up Corruption as our trial, as long as we do everything right, we should be… maybe alright…”

“I hope you are right…” Litvir sighed, going back to his work. “I really, really hope you are right. I do not fancy dying again…”