The reason why it’s only days after the declaration of the one-on-one fight is so that none of them could fully prepare—and that’s the point of the fight. To see who can rise victorious against the other in only a short amount of time.

Last night, I had the weirdest of thoughts: that the childhood friend whose face and name I cannot remember was Kallias. “Bullshit!” I told myself. It’s just so...nonsense. So impossible. It’s so much of a coincidence. Surely, the Moon Goddess wouldn’t mate me to the man that I have loved for the first time—would she?

Years of praying to be mated under the full moon and...