After the dueling petition, with Natalie’s head still spinning over the whole Sofia debacle, Liz pulled her to the side. She asked Natalie to head back with her to her dorm room, and sialie didn’t have anything else to do that night—besides Jordan—she accepted. The group split apart, with Sofia and Jordan heading for their shared dorm, and Natalie and Liz to Liz’s.

  “So, what’s up?” Natalie asked as they plodded dowe pathway. The sun was setting, though night hadn’t quite arrived.

  “A few things,” Liz said. “And if there wasn’t, what, we ’t just hang out? I know we’ve got tight schedules, but that doesn’t mean we ’t rex. Good for team bonding. It’s actually bad to focus too hard ress. Even my uncle says that—and he would know.”

  “Uncle?”

  “The King of Valhaur,” Liz said amusedly.

  Natalie paused, having almost fotten just who Liz was. The girl was so normal that her status as literal royalty, not even just ‘nobility’, slipped her mind sometimes. “Then yeah,” Natalie said. “He would know. But that wasn’t what I meant. Hanging out sounds fun—it just seemed like you had something you were w about.”

  “W? That’s ly the right word.” Liz rubbed her elbow, seemiant, then shook her head, setting her short bck hair—and its single lock of blue—boung. “Don’t rush me. We’ll get to that ter.”

  “Sure.” Though Natalie would admit some curiosity. What did Liz have to talk to her about? She could imagine several things, obviously—whether reted to the team, Elida, the dungeon, or Natalie and her css.

  “Oh, and just a warning,” Liz said. “I’m rooming with Johanna. She’ll probably be there.”

  Johanna Valeria? The top fighter in their year? That was Liz’s roommate?

  “Right,” Natalie said, slowly remembering. “You mentioned something about that, I think. Being friends with her.” House Beaumon, the royal family, and House Valeria, a house absolutely stuffing the upper ranks of the military, were famously interected. So it made sense Liz and Johanna were close.

  “She be a little intense,” Liz said. “I’ve got the feeling she’s gonna pull you aside to have a talk.”

  “About?”

  “Feel you out. She wasn’t super happy that I didn’t group with her.” Liz wrinkled her nose. “I feel kind of bad about that, still.”

  Liz had inally joined up with them because she wao distance herself from the name Beaumon, in some part—to make her own legaatalie hadn’t known Johanna, one of the top names of the year, had been one of her inal peammates, though. Natalie and the rest of the team seriously had their work cut out for them if they wao surpass what Liz’s team could have been.

  “But that’s not the point,” Liz said. “She’s protective. Like, a bit annoyingly so. She thinks she’s my older sister or something. And she is, in a way. Anyway, that’s why she’ll probably try to get a feel for you.”

  “Sounds fun.” Holy, she was a bit amused by the situation. Being scrutinized by the ‘older sister figure’ of Liz’s—as if the two of them were dating.

  Though, after ret developments, Natalie wasn’t sure whether just friends erfectly accurate description. Especially with how things were shaping up iure. Natalie had a suspi that topic was one of the things Liz had pulled her aside for to talk about in the first pce.

  Arriving to Liz’s dorm plex—a different ohan Natalie’s, more expensive looking—they climbed up to the sed story then trekked down the hallways. Liz unlocked her dorm room, then ushered Natalie in.

  “We’ve got a guest!” Liz called out.

  The warni Johanna didn’t know in advance she had been ing, Natalie noted. And also that Liz hadn’t inally p her back to her dorm; it had been at least a someur of the moment invitation.

  Walking into the dorm, she discovered that Liz and Johanna had chosen a much fancier room thahe living room nearly doubled theirs in size, and was better decorated—and made of finer materials, with polished granite tertops and a nearly full-sized attached kit. Natalie wondered how many more credits Liz would be spending on the pce each month. Natalie, Sofia, and Jordan had gone for one of the cheapest options, and had also split it three ways.

  Her choice of room was another indicators of Liz’s status. She’d grown up as a member of the royal family, so her standards for ‘preferred living area’ was certainly far loftier than Natalie’s. Natalie wondered whether Liz even thought this extravagant two-bedroom was ‘enough’, so to say. Maybe even this didn’t meet her standards.

  Natalie didn’t ent on it. She would admit that the amount of nobility crawling arou did bother her at times, but Liz was obviously an exception.

  Sitting on the long, L-shaped cou the middle of the living room was a somewhat familiar face. Johanna Valeria had one arm draped over the edge, and blue eyes surveyed Natalie as she came in. Johanna had her hair up in her usual long blonde ponytail, and while being at home, rexing in her casual clothes, softened her serious demeanor somewhat, her hard edges were still pin as day. This woman came from a prestigious line of military leaders, the most promi in the try, and the way she carried herself made that clear.

  Johanna stood, setting aside the textbook she’d been pig through, then—unsmiling, though not in an unfriendly way—she approached Natalie, her hand held out. Natalie shook it. Johanna had a firm, calloused grip.

  “Natalie,” Johanna said. “Liz has told me about you.”

  “Good things, I hope?”

  “Liz only says good things. About anyone.” Johanna somehow mao make the statement sound—not like an insult—but at least b on reproachful.

  “That’s not true,” Liz protested. “Elida’s a jerk. See. Not everyone.”

  “Insulting the devil doesn’t t,” Johanna said. The words were delivered without the smallest shift in her serious tohat made it funnier. A dry sense of humor. This woman wasirely a stiff pieetal, then. Just acted like one.

  Casual introdus took pce. Johanna asked after the dueling petition, and they discussed it. Amusingly, before Liz could drag Natalie to her room for privacy, her predi came true: Johanna asked for a moment to talk to Natalie alone.

  Natalie underwent several minutes of what could only be called polite scrutiny. She didn’t mind; she even appreciated Johanna’s protectiveness over Liz. From what Natalie had seen of the bubbly bck-haired royal, she would even agree that Liz might be too o everyone—and that she needed people looking out for her. Another part of Natalie said that was aking Liz’s superficial presentation of herself at face value. Someone who’d grown up as a Beaumon couldn’t be ‘too trusting’—that just wouldn’t make sense. She was a member of the royal family, and oraining to be a delver. She simply couldn’t be naive.

  Shortly, though, the scrutiny ended, with Natalie irely sure whether she’d gained Johanna’s approval or not. She at least didn’t afriendly towards her. Natalie didn’t think the woman cared that they’d stolen one of the best healers of the year from her team, but rather, that Johanna only cared about Liz herself. So, despite having a bit of a hidden rivalry with the dominant fighter, Natalie found her opinion of Johanna raised by several notches—and, oddly, her desire to climb past her in the rankings.

  With that done, and a somewhat exasperated Liz having been waiting patiently, Natalie ended up in Liz’s room, the two of them alone.