Page 45 of The Amber Sunburst

“Eudoxos,” Zeno says, not quite a question, but not not a question either.

Eudoxia smiles nervously.

“Oh, Forms, you did not.”

“I didn’t know he’d go after Kallias for it!”

Zeno snorts, and, after a moment of stifling it, Eudoxia breaks down laughing too.

10

LAZARUS

Lazarus has been sitting alone in their cohort amphitheater for the past forty-five minutes. He didn’t even notice when everyone left for lunch.

To think, they can sit and eat when the Trials start in twenty-one days. Lazarus hasn’t been able to do anything but stress for weeks.

For years, even.

Or maybe for all of his life.

Everything he has ever done was ‘in preparation for the Trials’—that scary, far-away task looming perpetually on the horizon.

The Guardians drilled it into him. He would be the best Auxiliary. He would be the perfect Cohort Leader. He would be the last man standing in the Trials. He would be the next Educator.

He’s achieved two of those things. But now the other two are no longer distant concepts that he can convince himself he’s capable of achieving. Now they’re… well, now.

Suffice it to say, Lazarus hasn’t slept in days.

Because he needs to do this. He was born to do this.

Apollonia, third member of the Council of Kings, chose him from the dozens of newborns in their year and decided that she would make him next in line. Lazarus isn’t quite sure why, and he isn’t sure that he’s grateful for it either, but that doesn’t matter.

Ever since Apollonia pointed to him and declared him the next Educator, most of the Council and lower-level Guardians have invested in his success.

They say he’s going to bring a new era to the Republic. That he’s going to have a slew of advisors to guide him, to help make every decision. That he will be one of the youngest Educators, second only to Lykos, who came into power at nineteen when the previous Educator died young.

All he needs is to finish the Trials on top. Because if he doesn’t, all of the resources put into his success would be wasted. Apollonia would never speak to him again. None of the Guardians would look him in the eye.

And doing that starts here. He’s been briefed on Trial-winning strategies hundreds of times, and one of the most crucial moments is this one: the first cohort meeting.

It’s smartest to keep your cohort together and be the last twenty Auxiliaries at the end of the third Trial. From there, the cohort fights for their number on the Council. The last one standing is the successor of the Educator, the leader of the land.

There is always a clear favorite in every cohort, and that favorite tends to be the winner. Often the cohort respects that person enough to simply cede the position to them.

So step one is to establish his authority and assess his cohort’s weaknesses and strengths to best lead them. In all of the Trials he’s watched, Trial One has been a team challenge—one that depends on cohesion and trust.

That means that he needs his cohort to listen to him.

He sighs aloud. He can’t name a single time they’ve listened to anything he’s ever said.

Lazarus knows what they think of him. They think he’s too serious. Too severe.

They don’t like him.

But they don’t need to like him to respect him. Or at least, to respect his ability to properly bring them a win.

That’s what today is for, then. Showing them that, if they do hear him out, he can take them far.