Basque stepped out into the hallway. He felt Natt’s pain. Any and all progress with Banca had all but been destroyed by Reianna’s revelation, but he didn’t blame Reianna. It was probably best that Banca knew sooner rather than later. If years had passed, the feeling of betrayal would have cut deeper.

  “Crystal!” Reianna yelled as the husky sprinted down the hall to Basque.

  The dog jumped and put his paws on Basque’s chest, and Basque gave him the attention that he craved. Reianna came trotting after him, obviously feeling the pain of her day.

  “Oh! Gerenet-Shr…” She looked past him and the dog and at the dorm room he’d just left. Crystal got down off Basque and trotted over to Reianna, his tail wagging happily.

  He felt a bit of relief that both Reianna and Banca had reverted to calling him by his teacher’s title. “Reianna? What are you doing?”

  “Getting Crystal back from Kamron.”

  “Why didn’t Fawna go get him, or Kamron bring him to you?”

  “Because I wanted to get him. Why are you coming out of there? Did you have something to say to Yesenia?”

  “You need to rest. Let others help you.”

  “He’s my dog. The interface says so.” Her gaze didn’t leave Room 314’s door. “What were you doing in there?”

  He looked at the door, then back to Reianna. “You pretty much shattered her world.”

  “Oh, okay.” Reianna turned to go, turned back, turned to go, then back once more. “Will she be okay? Will…will she tell someone? Will I be okay?”

  “You don’t have to worry about you. We have more allies now. Even if she tells someone, you’re too high of a profile, especially after your fight with Loushee.”

  He could see tension flow out of Reianna.

  “What about her, though?”

  Basque shook his head. “I don’t know.”

  “I see. Okay, thanks. Good night. Come on, Crystal,” Reianna said and led the dog back down the hall. The dog obeyed, and they vanished into Reianna’s room.

  Walking all the way to the end of the hall, back to his room, Basque paused before going in. His stomach hurt, but he couldn’t tell if it was from his worries or that death stick Natt had fed him.

  He did his best to ignore the queasy feeling as he headed into his room. He expected to see Natt waiting for him on the sofa, but she wasn’t there, nor was she waiting for him in their bedroom.

  Going over to the bathroom, he knocked on the door. “Natt? Are you in there?”

  She groaned.

  “I’m coming in.”

  He opened the door and saw Natt sitting on the floor with one hand resting on the toilet. When he entered, she looked at him. “We shouldn’t have eaten that garbage.”

  Her cheeks puffed out, and she turned back to the toilet. Basque rushed over and grabbed her hair, but it was already too late—they would need to wash it when she was done.

  Letting go of her dirty hair, Basque went out to the bedroom, grabbed a cup from the tea station, and filled it with water. He handed it to her, and she thanked him after she downed it.

  “Honestly, I feel the same way,” Basque said.

  “Yeah, that tasted a lot better when I was a kid. That’s nostalgia for you, though.”

  “Are you feeling better now?”

  “Yeah, thanks for the water.”

  “Wanna get cleaned up? I’ll draw you a bath.”

  “I’d rather just shower this off.”

  “Want some help?”

  She shook her head. “I’ll be fine.” She gestured at the toilet. “Need me to hold your hair?”

  He laughed. “I’m not quite at that level, but I’m feeling it.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “No! No. It was…a good experience at the time. It’s just not feeling so great now.”

  Basque reached a hand out and helped her up off the floor. “Want me to shower with you?” he asked.

  “No. I’m really not in the mood right now.”

  “Hey! I can take normal showers!”

  “Sure, you can. And I can stuff a Yani in a jar.” Natt rolled her eyes.

  “It’s all about angles.”

  “What is? Sex?”

  “No, stuffing a Yani in a jar.”

  Her face clouded over, like she was considering the possibility he might actually have a Yani stuffed in a jar in his inventory.

  “I’m kidding, Natt. I’ve never stuffed a Yani in a jar.”

  “I don’t know. You Hianbruns do weird things.”

  He smiled and leaned in to kiss her.

  She held up a hand. “Vomit breath. Now, out, so I can wash off.” She shooed him away.

  “Okay, okay!” he said and let himself be ushered out. Out in the bedroom, Basque headed over to the desk and began writing his report to be sent back to Hianrbu.

  This was the second major event he had had to write about, but as he wrote, he saw all the lines that connected him to the creation of the incident. Was he getting too involved?

  Eder’s mantra popped into his head, but Basque shoved it out before he repeated it. That was dead to him. Writing the reports was the only thing he considered left of his original task. These children were his students. He would do anything for them.

  As he wrote, he squirmed in the chair. His stomach was really feeling off, and the second Natt stepped out of the bathroom, wearing a Kruamian bathrobe and drying her hair with a towel, Basque bolted for the toilet.

  Natt jumped out of the way, and he slammed the door. “I’m sorry, Basque!”

  “It’s fine…”

  Twenty minutes later, he was showered and in his own sleeping gown, lying next to Natt on their bed.

  “I’m really really sorry,” she said.

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  “It’s fine. You got something bad out of it, too. But if you really wanted to make up for it…” He slid his hand into her robe.

  She smiled and pulled his hand out. “Oh, no. If I’m making up for it, I have to be the one in control.” She climbed on top of him and made up for feeding him food so bad that it made him desire Reaggie’s cooking.

  The next morning, his class assembled in the hallway after breakfast, and Basque stood in front of them.

  “Good morning, Gerenet-Shr!” they said as one.

  “Good morning, class.”

  They stood in their exercise uniforms, ready to go to the colosseum to watch the second-years fight. Third and fourth-years would be the following day, and fifth-years would be the last. Basque didn’t want them to watch. He wouldn’t let them watch. There was nothing for them to gain from doing so.

  “Today, we’re not going to the tournament. For us, the tournament is over. We’re going to resume regular classes.”

  The students moaned. They weren’t upset about not getting to watch the tournament; they were lamenting that they lost their break from classes.

  “I know. I know. School sucks. I get it. I was a kid once, too.”

  “Don’t lie, Gerenet-Shr!” Taraia yelled. “We all know you were born a thirty-something!”

  “Ha, ha, Taraia. Alright. You guys go straight to the classroom. We have lots of things to discuss today. The afternoon session will be back on the training ground, though.”

  “Understood, Gerenet-Shr!” they replied.

  Basque stepped out of their way.

  “Move out!” Reianna called, and the class trotted out of the hall in line.

  Natt brought up the rear and stopped when she got to Basque. Since the students were gone, she stopped putting on her blank face and let the hurt show. “She didn’t even look at me this morning.”

  “Just…give her time. I think you’re taking a big step by agreeing to let her go with me and Yesenia to the camps.”

  “Well, you made a good argument about showing her more. She has lived a sheltered noble life. I was just…hoping I could be there for her as she discovers more of the world.”

  “And she needs a bit of space.”

  “Yeah…”

  “Come on, let’s go. I have to break the news at the meeting that the entirety of my class is unable to attend the tournament.”

  Krill had changed so much throughout the year that Basque wasn’t sure what sort of reaction to expect from the man. He knew most of the teachers would argue against their absence, but Krill was the determining factor.

  They were the last two to show up to the teachers’ room, but none of the other teachers paid any attention to them. Julvie was talking to Kora, and the two women glared at Natt and Basque.

  Harnel was passed out on his desk and still stank of beer and alcohol. Basque wrinkled his nose.

  “Is that what I looked like?” Natt asked

  “And smelled.”

  “Sorry and thank you.”

  The door to Yasher’s office slammed shut, and Julvie went prancing back to her seat. Krill and Yasher took their seats. Yasher’s face was red, and he pointedly wasn’t looking at Krill.

  “Good morning, teachers,” Krill said. “We need to discuss yesterday’s events.”

  “And how Hianbru is going to make up for it!” one of the fifth-year teachers shouted.

  Krill raised his hand. “By ‘discuss’, I mean you all will listen to what’s been negotiated and understand what’s happened. This isn’t an actual debate, so no comments, Martintin.”

  The teachers fell silent.

  “The Hianbrun delegation has been rather generous and has agreed to not hold us responsible for assaulting their representative on the condition that Duke Yasher step down as Dyntril’s headmaster at the end of the year.”

  The room exploded with teachers yelling and screaming.

  “Who assaulted who?”

  “That outwaller didn’t even get a scratch!”

  “Yeah! I was sent to the nurse’s tent!”

  “This is outrageous!”

  Basque raised an eyebrow. It seemed that after he and Krill spoke with Loushee, he ramped up his takeover plans, bypassing smaller steps with Basque and taking giant leaps with Eder. Considering Eder, he was probably more than happy to comply. Basque didn’t really care what Eder got out of the deal.

  “SILENCE!” Yasher’s yell echoed around the room.

  The teacher who had stood to voice their protest sat down.

  “The fault is clear. We—you all—attacked Basque Gerenet.”

  “He was trying to attack one of our students!” Jael, the head teacher of the fifth-years protested.

  “Viscount Jael, Basque Gerenet never touched her. He attacked her construct, but when it fell, he never touched her. You, on the other hand, attacked him and forced him to defend himself.”

  “But—”

  “But nothing! Answer me, did he lay a finger on our mage, yes or no?”

  Jael looked down. “No.”

  “Did he attack you before you touched him?”

  There was a long pause. “No.”

  “We were in the wrong.”

  “But to make you resign!” Bobbis, year four’s Class A teacher said.

  Yasher looked at Krill. Look was too kind a word; he stared death at Krill. “It is more than that. I was the one who agreed to allow Basque Gerenet to teach a class, despite the original agreement being for him to observe only.”

  He sighed. “As such, of the two rare, precious mages enrolled at Dyntril, one has fled two years before graduation, and we cannot find him. The other, a mere week before graduation, attacked students five years younger than her. As part of the deal with Hianbru, she is expelled immediately.”

  “What?!” Jael yelled.

  “No!” Alhan, the fifth-year’s Class A and Loushee’s teacher, yelled as he stood.

  “Sit down, Alhan. We all know that if someone who wasn’t a mage attacked first-years like that, they would have met the same fate. All the Hianbruns did was make us apply our standards to mages as well.”

  “But they were elevators!” Julvie yelled.

  “Exactly!” Kora agreed.

  “It was still a tournament, and you all failed to contain her!”

  “She’s a mage!” Alhan protested.

  “Is that supposed to be an excuse?”

  “Who could beat a mage?” Jael supported his fellow teacher.

  “That man.” Alhan pointed at Basque. “Our third-year mage is terrified and running from him, and I have it on good authority that the Hianbrun has defeated our fifth-year mage multiple times.”

  Yasher stood. “Enough. I’ve been ousted. It is not my decision, and arguing will not change that fact. Deputy Headmaster Krill will take over my position.” Without waiting for a response, Yasher went into his office.

  The room was silent, and everyone just stared at his door. Even Harnel had woken up at some point.

  “Yani, Basque. You sure know how to shake things up,” Harnel said.

  “Okay, people,” Krill said. “We still have a tournament to run. Let’s get out there and do our jobs.”

  Basque raised his hand.

  Krill rubbed his eyes, then pulled his hand away from his face. “What is it, Gerenet-Shr?”

  “My class will be absent for the rest of the tournament.”

  Once more, the room exploded.

  “Preposterous!”

  “For what reason?”

  “They have to go!”

  “They’ve finished their round,” Basque said. “They want to train more.”

  Krill shook his head. “They should be there cheering their fellow students on.”

  “After Loushee’s attack, my students are worried that another fellow student might attack them again.”

  “Yani don’t always announce their presence. That is also training.”

  Basque frowned. He didn’t understand why Krill was objecting so much, but as he thought about it, it made more sense. The atmosphere in the room was that Basque and Krill had colluded to oust Yaser, which was true; they had.

  However, Krill was trying to weasel his way out of that impression. And that meant being contrary towards Basque. Basque could help with that.

  “They’re sick,” he said.

  “What?” Krill narrowed his brows.

  “Every single one of them is sick. They’ll be absent for the day.”

  “Preposterous!” Ashkar yelled.

  “I agree, Gerenet-Shr.”

  Basque shrugged. “Believe what you want, but the fact of the matter is, my students will not attend the tournament. I’m sure you can sell their seats.”

  “It’s not a question of…fine. We need to get out to the tournament. I’m not going to argue with you anymore. If there are any other teachers whose classes have finished in the tournament, you may opt to train instead of taking them to the tournament.”

  Basque nodded. While he felt like he’d triumphed, and the teachers’ room echoed that sentiment, Basque had a sinking suspicion that he’d played into Krill’s desires.

  Krill had effectively distanced himself from Basque and made Basque’s request seem unreasonable, siding with any teacher who felt that attendance at the event was mandatory.

  At the same time, he’d acquiesced to Basque, giving Basque what he wanted, but also allowing any teacher who supported Basque’s plans for training to have just a bit more courage.

  Krill really was having his cake and eating it as well. However, as long as his students got a nibble or even a slice, Basque didn’t care. They had permission to skip the tournament and to train. At the end of the day, that’s all Basque wanted.

  He didn’t care about the stares that bore into him. The people behind those eyes could do as they wished. And if any of them wished to join his class on the training grounds, Basque would welcome them with open arms.

  It was a weird victory, but it was still a victory nonetheless.