Uess’s tutege, Natalie made surprisingly goress. Certainly more than she had by herself, bashing her head against a wall back at Tinford. While Titus—her, Jordan, and Sofia’s primary mentor—knew his way around ons, he oor at spellcasting as Natalie. That might’ve been one of the reasons she’d been hopeless at it. With proper training, she hoped she could crawl out of mediocrity. Or maybe to mediocrity, by Teandards.

  At 9:20, a bell rang through the training facility, announg that personal hours were over, and that it was time for Natalie to make her way to her css for official training—spars, primarily, which doubled as bat instru.

  Admittedly, she was anticipatory as she trekked through the polished halls of the facility, headed for the sparring room her schedule indicated. It was time to meet her css … the fifteen other individuals she’d be spending the year with. And fighting against.

  Or, thirteen. She’d only be meeting thirteen of them, because two, she already knew. Iher a stroke of unlikely ce or iional arra by Te—Natalie suspected the sed—she, Jordan, and Sofia had been put in the same css; they’d noticed it at lunch by paring numbers.

  Sheer ce seemed unlikely, so Te must have grouped them together iionally. It was a given the process wasirely random, because they o bance a ’s position to have a roughly equal spread of roles—some mages, some fighters, and so on.

  But that they lumped students together with more deliberation than just position did e as a surprise. Not that Natalie was pining. It meant she and Jordan were in the same css. Though, Sofia too, so not wholly ideal. But worth it, in the long run, especially sihe three of them were teaming. It wasn’t like Natalie hadn’t already spent years tolerating her rival’s presence. Just part of life, at this point.

  Finding the appropriately marked number, Natalie walked into the sparring room she would be being intensely acquainted with over the following year.

  Naturally, Natalie’s eyes sought out Jordan, who had turo see who had arrived—probably waiting for Natalie. Natalie raised a hand iing, gave a begrudging nod to Sofia as well, who was o Jordan, then sed the rest of her cssmates as she walked over.

  Most had arrived, though at a brief survey, one or two hadn’t. They still had a few minutes before they’d be te.

  Natalie reized another of her cssmates, which, sidering the size of Te’s years, was more than she could have hoped for. It was the girl with short bck hair—one bright streak of blue—who had been talking the ear off of a rather uhusiastic-looking blonde bed-neighbor back at the barracks.

  Like the first time Natalie had seen her, she was chatting up a storm, and again, to someone who didn’t match her eagerness in half. Though, that’d be hard, sidering how animated the girl was. The boy at least didn’t look like he wao be away … he just seemed bored. Though, more of a passive boredom, like an expression he always wore. He nodded along here and there, adding to the versation when appropriate.

  Natalie could swear she reized him, too, but she scraped her brain and came up empty. It clicked a sed ter, when she caught a s of his voiatalie reized him as ‘Mister Adair’, from the briefing Harper had given. One of the interrupters.

  Someone whose face Harper had put to a o … so someone important? Though, Harper hadn’t been afraid to insult him, either. That might be because Harper herself had her own family name proteg her. Most people weren’t in Natalie’s situation—a girl from the middle of nowhere, without a single e to speak of.

  Arriving at Jordan’s side, she gave the usual, “Hey.”

  “Hey. How’d it go?”

  “Good, actually. Made some progress.” She frowned. “It’s weird being around a bunages, though. And a headache.”

  “Headache?”

  “Spells flying everywhere? I was in this big courtyard, lots of other people. Everyoheir stuff tained, but it was still … annoying.” With the arrival of Natalie’s css, she’d gained a passive awareness of magic she hadn’t had before. She could feel it. In the back of her head, whenever a spell went off. Multiplied by however many dozens of people had been there, it’d been more than a bit annoying. There had been stronger spells going off, too, by higher level Teudents—or instructors. Those left more than just a hum. They vibrated her bones, even with the distaween her and them. “Ynize anyone here?”

  “No. You do?”

  “Well, sort of.” Natalie the chatty girl. “She’s in my barracks. Reize the dude from yesterday’s briefs. Haven’t talked to either, though.”

  “We’ll o, eventually,” Jordan said thoughtfully. “We ought to get to work on putting together a party.” She sed the thirteen students—the st two had arrived—and nodded idly. “Hopefully most of them aren’t taken. Doesn’t look like there’s too many cliques.”

  Funny enough, she, Jordan, and Sofia seemed to be the established group. There were a few people talking, but they didn’t seem like friends—at best, they reized each other, but only in a casual sort of way. Six or seven were standing aside, arms crossed or hands in their pockets and leaning against a wall, waiting for their instructor to arrive.

  Which happened in short order. Almost at the exaent the bell went off, in strode a tall woman with white hair. White, like Sofia—a Theliosian. They had rather distinctive looks. The darkest their hair got, as a general rule, was shiny silver.

  “Good m, css,” she said in a brisk tone. “My name is Instructor Robin.” Her eyes flicked across the gathered students, mouth moving barely as she ted heads. “Sixteen. All of you. Good. Let’s go. If we’re quick to the armory, before things are crowded, we get out quick. Then, we might be able to some spars in.” That said, she strode out the room, waving a hand for them to follow.

  Natalie bli the brusque introdu, as did most of the students, but they set off after her.