Chapter 267

“It’s so nice to speak with you again, Natalie,” Elida said with a smile. “Have you given my offer due consideration?”

Standing outside the training facility, with other students having headed for the cafeteria. She eyed the red-haired girl. Elida was as pretty as always. She couldn’t help but notice this fact, which only annoyed her further. Elida’s green eyes danced with amusement as she waited for Natalie’s response. If she hadn’t known better, she might even describe Elida as having a friendly appearance.

“You’ve been ignoring me when I tried to talk with you,” Natalie said flatly. “Why shouldn’t I do the same, now that you’re willing to speak?”

“Ignoring you?” Elida asked in mock surprise, a hand going to her chest. “No, of course not. I wouldn’t do something so disrespectful to a potential ally. You must have misread the situation.”

Natalie crossed her arms and gave her a flat look.

Elida laughed. “I’ve made changes to the team,” she said smoothly. “I have no doubt we’d make the strongest party in the year, if you joined us.” She smirked. “That will also be true if you don’t, but the gap would be larger, I mean.”

“What changes?”

She asked not because she was entertaining the idea of teaming up with Elida long term, but simply because she wanted to know. Elida had already made allusions toward shuffling her team around as necessary—how else would Natalie have been given a spot?—which didn’t sit right with her, but she also was curious what the composition of the best team of Tenet would be. Especially since they were enemies not just personally, but through the Beaumon and Parda-Halt political relationship.

“Vanetta,” Elida said. “As our new rogue, to name one.”

Natalie blinked. That surprised her for two reasons. “Aren’t you your team’s rogue?”

“We’ll have two.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s worth it,” Elida said simply. “Composition matters, yes. What matters more is having the strongest fighters of the year on your team. A little imbalance is well worth stuffing a squad to the seams with talent.”

“She’s that good?” She didn’t even know who ‘Vanetta’ was.

“She’s better.”

“And who is she, again?”

Elida paused, then seemed amused. “You’ve seen her. Short. Black hair. Lots of scars on her face.”

Natalie was briefly embarrassed that the description so readily summoned an image of the girl. It felt rude to describe her in that way, but there was no denying the facial scarring was the most immediately striking part of her.

“Ah,” Natalie said. “She is good. But not that amazing, I thought? She’s not in the top ten.”

“She’s sandbagging.”

“Sandbagging?”

“She was somewhere in the thirties, when the rankings came out. But she’s never trying her hardest. Or trying at all. Not in class, at least.” Her brow furrowed. “I haven’t a clue who she is, or why she would do that, which makes her an utter fascination.” She shrugged. “In the dungeon, she’s less restrained. It took a lot of convincing to get her to come down with me. Maybe she respected how I saw through her act. I can’t say. She’s hard to read. She’d been going solo, prior to that.”

“Solo?” Natalie nearly choked. “Alone? Into the dungeon?”

“Yes,” Elida said, seeming to sympathize with her surprise. “She’s a monster, as I said. And now she’s on my team.”

Well, that wasn’t great.

“In fact, I doubt whether I could beat her,” Elida said.

Again, Natalie reeled. Not just because there was someone so strong in the first year of Tenet students who had slipped past her notice, but that she was so good even Elida would admit to possibly losing to her. Natalie could only figure that meant Elida absolutely would lose, since the girl clearly had an ego.

And how did Elida not know who Vanetta was? The Parda-Halts had vast resources to call on, rivaling any of the major houses, including the Beaumons. And they traded in knowledge; Natalie could only assume, at least by reputation, that they were even better informed than the Beaumons in that regard. And yet they couldn’t dig up the story behind the scarred girl? How she had arrived to the academy, what her intentions were with keeping a low profile, and how she was so strong?