In the dance room, it was like a repeat of the morning with an excited buzz filling the air. The Yallos girls were busy fixing hair, plastering on make-up and fastening jewels to every bit of exposed skin and hair in sight. It was really over the top. She wondered what clothes she would have to wear this time. Was it really worth this insane amount of effort just for a meal?

"Azra there you are. Put your green dress back on," said Mistress Skemtun. She was not a in a good mood with Azra. As Azra focused on Skemtun, curious to know why, she learned Mistress Skemtun had had a difficult and uncomfortable conversation with a very angry Headmaster Conway, in front of the terrifying Advisor Fang. He had criticized her decision to put Azra in the Governor's role for the play and asked her why Azra didn't perform the Alpha dance. She was extremely confused. She understood Azra had done something terribly wrong, and Conway was blaming Mistress Skemtun. She was frightened because she didn't understand why she thought Azra had danced perfectly, when everyone else said she clearly hadn't. Her fear had now transformed into uncharacteristic anger directed at Azra.

Azra avoided her after that and looked on the rack for her green dress. Someone had rescued it from the changing rooms at lunchtime and it was there. She guessed she'd have to take the binding off her chest after all or it would look awful.

She found Gwendolyn. Poor Gwen looked like she'd seen a zombie in the flesh when she set eyes on Azra and the sorry state she was in. It was not Gwen's place to be nosy and expect an explanation and so, although she was burning with questions, she kept quiet. Azra was impressed with Gwen's self control. She helped Azra remove the bindings and when Azra looked down at her naked chest, she saw her left breast was swollen, hot and red. It was almost twice the size of her right. Without the binding, it started to throb painfully. Would it ever be normal again? Had that brute, Anders, maimed her for life?

"Please Gwen, isn't there something else I can wear other than this green dress? Something where I can bind my chest again? This is really just too painful."

Gwen was sympathetic, went to the rack of clothes and spoke briefly to Mistress Fenny who was hovering around. Gwen came back with a gold, glittery dress. It actually had a scoop neck at the front and had material covering her chest fully front and back. It would be perfect. It was incredibly short, but that wasn't a problem. Gwen rebound her chest with the scarf so tightly, it was as good as Brandon's first binding, and then Azra put the gold dress on. The scarf didn't show. Although her chest looked oddly flattened which can't have been very flattering, the pain was back to tolerable and Azra was content to sit down for half an hour and have her wet hair dried, perfumed and styled. It was piled back on top of her head and this time coated in jewels.

She got jewels stuck on her exposed arm skin too, to complement the henna huolist decorations still there. She was given a delicate pair of jeweled gold sandals to wear with heels that were a little too high for her to walk in. It felt odd to be in a cocktail party dress and shoes. She didn't feel beautiful when they were done, just drained, exhausted, and utterly fed-up. She wanted simple food and to go to sleep, preferably in Adam's arms for comfort.

She was too tired to be nervous, tottering on her high heels into the dining hall just as the sun was going down. The hall had been decorated in flags and flowers. The Camaraderie black swan flag was flying above the fireplace, and at least eight others hung on the walls in blues, reds, greens and golds. She presumed the others were the flags of Hellyn, perhaps the six governors and possibly the King or Fang's guard. They had the usual mythical creatures on them including dragons and phoenixes, as well as other unusual animals represented. She was sure one of them was a beaver, rather than a rat or other rodent, and there were a couple of flags with eagle-like birds on them, with wings outstretched and curved up. The room looked impressive.

She figured the hard stuff was out of the way. Nobody had mentioned there would be any more dancing, singing, massage or additional tests or trials. She was still avoiding Mistress Skemtun, and Mistress Fenny was avoiding her, and so she hadn't found out precisely what would happen. The other girls were fairly clueless too, expecting simply to follow orders.

The dining tables had been rearranged. Three long tables were placed into a U shape with the bottom of the U a table raised up on a platform separate from the two parallel tables which had long backless benches to sit at, rather than the usual chairs. The boys were already in the hall, sitting at one long table, not the raised one. They were dressed in the usual long sleeved Camero uniform, and all of them had neatly brushed hair for a change and looked to have cleaned up. She was surprised to see that Arras and Brandon were with them, seated next to Adam and Blade towards one end of the table. They both had navy jackets on with high collars and looked incredibly smart. She was envious and really wanted to be on the Camero's table with a chance to talk to them rather than with the mindless Camista.

She shot a quick, "Hi Adam," to him in his mind and added, "Save me a place next to you, I'll be with you in a minute." He smiled at her. "No problem," he answered in his head.

Mistress Skemtun led the line of girls over to the other low table and just as the other girls started to sit down, Azra silently worked on Mistress Skemtun. "Azra can sit with the Camero. It's fine. You have no objection." She then walked over to the Camero table, trying not to wobble, and Adam moved up a little so she was sitting on the end. She was opposite Brandon, Calib and Blade. Arras was on Adam's right side with Fox on Arras's left. This was almost her favorite group of people and if Fox had been next to Brandon instead of Blade, that would have been perfect.

Brandon looked at her more than surprised as she sat down. He seemed about to say something, so she got her words in first.

"Hello!" she said brightly. "Do you mind if I join you?" She smiled at the familiar faces around the table. "I always sit with the Camero at dinner, Brandon." She said by way of explanation.

"No problem, Azra," said Adam supportively. He knew how Azra felt about the girls, all the Camero did and sympathized.

"You look amazing. I've got a new word for it, it's camfreaky!" Adam said smiling.

"I barely recognize you, Azra," said Calib, grinning at her. "You actually look like a girl for the second time today. I had no idea you could pull that off!"

"Those things on your feet could be used as weapons," chimed in Fox. "Just tie them together and you've got one of Kenve's throwing stars!" They all laughed at that.

"They're crippling to walk in, I'd much rather hunt rabbit with them," quipped Azra, glad to feel welcomed by the boys, even though neither Brandon nor Arras were smiling at her arrival. Unfortunately Blade had to spoil it, as always.

"Nice jewels Azra! Did Skemtun stick them on your nipples too?" Blade's voice was intentionally provocative. He always took any opportunity he could to wind her up. Azra knew it was his jealousy of her friendship with Adam that made him do it, but this was a particularly painful jab, given the events of the day.

"Yes she did, on little gold rings, and one has been painted black and blue, the other white. Would you like to see Blade?" she said, challenging him again.

He had the decency to blush. The mood at the table had suddenly turned awkward with only a few faint, uncomfortable smiles. No one thought Blade's comment was appropriate, but Azra's reply didn't help and she instantly regretted it. She didn't want to talk about Anders and her injury.

To lighten it, she followed up with, "Seriously, I have enough jewels in my hair that it actually feels heavy to hold my head up!"

There were scattered smiles at this and Adam loudly admired her skin jewels trying to name the different minerals.

"That must be malachite, mother of pearl, lapis, and I don't know what that is."

"I bet it's all just cheap, colored glass!" said Fox with a grin. "They wouldn't trust you girls with expensive jewelry! You'd forget where you put it!"

Azra didn't mind Fox teasing her. It was always good-natured and never nasty in the way Blade's comments taunted. Azra looked across at Brandon. Neither Brandon nor Arras had spoken since she sat down. She decided to change the subject away from herself and since she didn't want to talk about Gavin or any of the events of the trials, it had to be about them.

"Brandon, it's hard to imagine you were here going to classes with Kenve and Louse. Were they here when you were?"

"Yes, they don't look any different, believe it or not." Brandon chuckled. "Kenve still says exactly the same things I'm sure: 'Fifty laps of the gym!' and 'No, you can't have any water!'"

"That seems about right," said Calib, and everybody grinned.

"When you were at the Camaraderie, did you ever pull any pranks or tricks, or get into trouble?" Azra asked. She bet he played some games. He struck her as having a sense of humor. Brandon appeared glad to remove the remaining tension in the air as he recounted a funny story.

"Well, my biggest claim to fame from the Camaraderie is a prank I don't think you could pull off now. For a dare from my alpha friend, Andrew, I snuck out of the building at night and took a rope from the gymnasium. It was left unlocked in those days. I threw it around the flagpole on top of the wall near the gatehouse and then climbed up to the flagpole, took down the Camaraderie flag, and put up one we'd made from a bed sheet that we'd written on in ink. The flag read, "CAMERO KICK ASS!" It stayed up two days before they noticed and took it down."

Azra was impressed. That was a whole load of rule breaking and equal to anything she'd accomplished with Adam. She wouldn't even be able to write a sign that read 'Camero kick ass!'

At that moment, everybody stood up at the table, as the governors and their entourage paraded into the dining hall and took their places at the raised head table. Glittery wives, Advisors and all the Camaraderie staff followed the governors. Fang and Conway came in, dressed in surprisingly decorative clothing. There was a lot of red and gold for Conway, and Fang had on a dress uniform in dark blue. His jacket had a high collar and two rows of gold buttons, identical to Arras and Brandon's, except his had a lot more gold fluting. There were bands of gold around his sleeves and shoulders, and some silver medals on his left chest. They took seats alongside the governors.

Kenve was wearing a similar uniform to Arras and Brandon. He must have been in the King's guard a long time ago. Louse was there, as was Hadndin. Azra couldn't fail to notice the obvious segregation between males and females at the tables. Even though Kenve, Louse and Hadndin were seated at the top table, sitting amongst the Advisors, Skemtun, Fenny, Sayturrod and Grar had taken seats at the Camista's table, albeit at the high table end. The only women at the top table were the governor's wives, and she really stood out as the only female at the Camero's table. She bit her lip. Everyone at the high table had noticed her sitting on the end of the Camero's table and thought it odd, as had Fenny, Sayturrod and Grar, and they were muttering to Skemtun, asking why Azra was with the Camero when she should obviously be sitting with the Camista. She quickly manipulated the three women, to stop them thinking about it any more. Being in the wrong place could buy her a timeout, but she hoped Conway had other things on his mind, and none of the female staff wore Cam collar controlling bracelets.

Camaraderie guards appeared at the entrance to the dining room, looking incredibly smart in black jackets, rather than the usual long sleeved tunics They were just a little different in style from Brandon and Arras's uniform. Two remained standing at the door and one against each wall in the room, as a kind of symbolic Camaraderie guard on display.

The governors taking their seats was the cue for the Advisors and wives at the high table to sit down, and then all those at the low tables started to retake their seats. The conversation resumed immediately.

"How did you get out of the building Brandon? Weren't all the doors either guarded or locked?" asked Adam. "Because they are now."

"The doors to our rooms were locked back then, like they are now, but our bedrooms were on the third floor and the windows weren't locked. I went through the window. I believe they moved your bedrooms to the fourth floor the trisereid after my escapade."

"Did you get timeout for breaking the rules?" asked Blade.

"What's timeout?" asked Brandon, not understanding.

"You know, when you become like the gormless girls and lose your awareness and stop being awake," explained Blade. Azra's use of the word to describe it had caught on amongst the boys, and was the usual way to describe it when it was discussed amongst them.

Brandon was obviously surprised.

"Well no. We didn't have that kind of thing happen to us after stage one, we're not Camista, we're Camero."

Azra was surprised to hear him say this.

"Does it happen to you a lot now?" Brandon asked. "I had no idea."

Blade told the story of how they'd got their first timeout when Azra decided to run around the grounds without permission. He did it in an entertaining way that had everyone laughing as he described the difficulties they had recognizing the different plants and the strange feeling of losing your awareness and waking up hours later wondering what had happened to you, but the end result for Azra was embarrassing of course. She could do without Blade making her look badly behaved in front of Arras and Brandon. He was doing it on purpose.

Thankfully at this point, the lower ranked Camista served the appetizers. They were on their best behavior and didn't say a word. It was a pate with toast. Everyone hungrily demolished the tiny portion of food and there were just a couple of minutes of silence. Unfortunately Blade started up his stories of timeout again, immediately he'd finished eating.

"We've had another timeout too, but that's such a camtastic story of Adam's, he has to tell it." Brandon looked interested to hear Adam's story.

"Go on!" Brandon said encouragingly, looking at Adam with a big grin. Adam flushed. He didn't really want to tell any stories.

"No, really, I don't think Kenve would be happy if I bragged about it," Adam said. "One punishment was bad enough, I don't want another for retelling the story."

"Adam you're not going to get another punishment for that, relax!" piped up Blade. "Adam blew up a very boring visiting master and trashed the gymnasium with a bomb."

"Really? You made an explosive?" asked Arras intrigued, joining in the conversation for the first time.

The next course arrived, interrupting them again: chilled soup that tasted heavenly. It had a smoky flavor and there were dried biscuits to eat with it. This time the silence lasted a little longer before Adam was persuaded to speak. He was a little embarrassed to recount the story but did so.

"Well, I have to start by saying I didn't intend to blow up Master Wimple. That was an accident. He really shouldn't have picked up the bomb and dropped it. It was supposed to be detonated from far away, I mean outside, where it would be safe."

"What kind of explosive did you make?" asked Arras.

"It was what I would call a trash explosion. I mixed a bit of saltpeter, charcoal and brimstone with some rotten vegetables and dinner leftovers. I put it in a leather bag, so there were no sharp bits when it exploded. It was pretty safe, or at least I thought it should be."

"It was spectacular! Adam, you're an abysmal storyteller," said Blade. "Let me tell it, please!" And so Blade launched into the story with gusto.

"He picked this really tedious class we were having in the gymnasium. We had this visiting excruciatingly dreary, and unbelievably weird, hairy monster, Master Wimple, talking to us about ocean survival. Incidentally there was no way that man could do a fraction of the things he claimed he could in an emergency. Anyway, it was desperately dull and did require livening up. That's exactly what Adam did. After 15 minutes of his droning voice, when even Kenve was snoring on the other side of the gym, BOOM! This thing exploded when Wimple picked it up, thinking it was just a pile of clothing, and filthy, rotten stinking food hit the walls, ceiling and all of us. It blew Wimple off his feet! Everyone dived for the floor in shock and Kenve was doing somersaults."

Blade's embellished retelling of the story was much more entertaining than Adam's would have been, describing Kenve's wrath magnificently, and he mimicked the icy glare and holding up a Camero's chin on Calib beside him, as he recounted the story of Kenve walking along the line of Camero, waiting for Adam to confess. He took them all the way from Adam's punishment and then their own timeout to the grueling punishment the next day, first under Kenve's control and then under the supervision of the Camaraderie guards. Azra saw Brandon and Arras were as equally amused by the story, and very much entertained, as were the other Camero who never tired of hearing this story retold. Blade was a master storyteller.

"How did you get the chemicals together for the explosives, Adam? They're restricted access aren't they?" Brandon asked, when Blade had finished his account.

"They are stored in Louse's classroom storeroom. When he gave us the explosives lesson, I saw him bring the stuff out of there at the beginning of the class," explained Adam, telling a lie very convincingly.

"I would have loved to be able to get my hands on the stuff in that place!" Arras said smiling. "But wasn't it locked? I always found the storeroom to be locked in the strategy classroom, even in my day when not much else was locked up. I tried it often enough myself!"

Everyone laughed at this, trying to imagine a younger Arras, sneakily trying to get into the store cupboard. Arras probably had some stories to tell too. She'd get him to tell one next.

"Ah, yes, well, I unlocked it," said Adam blushing, not wanting to bring Azra into it. It was obvious he was hiding something.

"What with?" asked Arras, still curious. "That's a sophisticated lock. You'd need a lockpick set."

Azra was sure both Arras and Brandon were aware of Adam's discomfort. Adam could lie well, but not all the time, and he wasn't doing a good job of this one. He knew it himself and opted for a half-truth.

"Well, I have to confess, I had help picking the lock; I didn't do it myself."

All who were listening to the story, which was most of their end of the table, turned to look at Azra at this point. She was prime suspect for assisting Adam in a prank. She opted for a half-truth too.

"Well, there are advantages to being a girl, with a dozen bobby pins in your hair at any time, you know," she commented. She would never admit she had a full lock picking set in her possession.

"You opened that lock with hair pins?" asked Arras incredulously. He obviously doubted it was possible and probably quite rightly