Chapter 49

Showing up to class a half-hour later and seeing Camille there, Natalie almost couldn’t resist the urge to storm up and confront her. Except, she really couldn’t tell whether she’d been reading into it. And if Camille had been the one who caught her, then, by the simple fact she hadn’t tried to blackmail her yet, Natalie supposed she ought to be happy about things.

Though, ‘yet’ might be the operative word there.

The best case scenario was Camille simply liked seeing Natalie squirm. Which wasn’t a great thing for her state of mind, but for her reputation at Tenet? Again, a rumor spreading that Natalie liked to summon illusions of her magic tutors and jerk off, loudly, in the public bathroom—that wouldn’t paint her in the greatest light. To say the least.

Had she seriously done that? If she could go back in time and strangle herself, she would.

“What is it?” Jordan asked.

Natalie jumped. She realized she’d been staring. “Uh. Nothing.”

By Jordan’s quirked eyebrow, she’d made a few assumptions about why Natalie had been staring at Camille. Not wholly unfair ones. If the dark-haired woman wasn’t the subject of Natalie’s anxiety, then she’d happily admit just how much her classmate had going on.

Was it better or worse that such an attractive girl had been the one to catch her?

Had she liked what she’d seen?

Okay. That was the problem in the first place. Keep it in your pants, Nat.

“Gather around,” Instructor Robin’s voice rang through the sparring room. “Some quick announcements before we get started, today.”

The sixteen students formed up in a semi-organized half circle. Like usual, Instructor Robin had arrived exactly on the dot, just as the bell rang.

“I’ll get straight to things. First, I want to straighten out how the ranking system will work. It’s better you know before it’s official.”

She spoke with a quick, impatient tone, wanting to deliver the information and be done with it. Instructor Robin had made it clear she enjoyed her job, the training of a new generation of delvers, but her dislike of her peripheral duties was equally clear.

“I’m sure everyone knows, by now, that Tenet will be ranking each of you across a variety of fields. Most critically, combat performance, academics, and delving. But let me ensure there’s no misunderstanding. The first comes from official bouts and evaluated competitions, not our practices. Feel free to experiment and do poorly in my class. It’s one of the few places you can do so without overmuch worry of injury.”

Natalie found herself passively nodding along. She’d discovered why, despite the brutal intensity expected from Tenet students during spars, so few left the ring with life threatening injuries. Besides hitpoints—which weren’t a panacea, merely a mitigator—it was the faculty.

Though Instructor Robin was no top ranker, she was a retired high-ranker. Likely the lower end of high, true, but a ‘lower end’ high ranker was still a position most delvers never managed. It meant she had astoundingly enhanced senses, and an equivalent ability to act on them. Several times, Natalie had seen the woman halt one of her student’s strikes and spare a gruesome injury. She moved like a viper. Made them seem clumsy in comparison.

“And beyond that, evaluations for rankings won’t begin until two weeks from now. That includes dungeon performance. This initial period is for finding your feet, finding teams, experimentation of all kind. A luxury you won’t be afforded in the near future, so savor it while you can.”