Taking the classroom key out of her storage, Reianna opened the door, and the other kids filed in. Since every other class was at the colosseum, watching other children fight and kill each other, the hallway was eerily quiet.

  Normally, the chatter of kids from other classes filled the hallway, making a din that made conversations difficult. Without that cacophonous background noise, even the normal speaking volume felt like shouting.

  Once her classmates filed into the room, the atmosphere lightened, and the sense that it was just another day finally settled in. Reianna went to her desk and sat. She pulled out her book and began reading it. Jan, Xav, Malcalm, Fawna, Dmi, and Taraia all gathered around her desk and were arguing about which one of their supplementary teachers was the strongest, excluding Natt.

  “It has to be Ulivia,” Malcalm said. “She’s a viscountess. By definition, she has to be strong.”

  “That old bat?” Taraia asked. “Davith would cut her down before she even drew her weapon.”

  “Have you seen that belly of his?” Malcalm countered. “It’s got to be Alestra. Dancing’s a lot like fighting. Reianna’s the best dancer, too.”

  “Banca’s better,” Reianna argued, keeping her face in her book.

  “No way!” Xav said. “You’re better.”

  “You only say that because she won’t dance with you,” Reianna said and turned a page in her book. “And I know why. My feet still hurt from the last class I danced with you.”

  “Ooo,” the other girls said.

  Reianna peeked at Banca from the corner of her eye. Banca was lying her head on her desk, not talking to anyone.

  “Then who do you think would win, Rei?” Dmi asked.

  “Why have you all discounted Leeroye?” she asked.

  “Our music teacher?” Fawna asked.

  “He’s a sword with sticks for arms!” Taraia said.

  “Not all swords are broadswords, Tar,” Reianna countered and turned another page.

  “Yeah!” Malcalm agreed. “There’s epees and stuff.”

  “You sure ditched Alestra fast, Malcalm,” Taraia said.

  "Who can argue with Reianna, though?!"

  While the others continued their meaningless debate, Reianna let her mind wander over to Banca’s situation. The girl hadn’t spoken with anyone that morning at training or at breakfast.

  It felt like Banca was pulling away from everyone. Reianna had already made an effort to get Banca involved the first time. She didn’t want to do it again.

  But she couldn’t hold back the guilt, even though she knew that feeling guilty was useless. It was her fault that Banca was withdrawing. She and Basque had had to lie about her being a mage. There was no other way around it.

  She hadn’t known how it would affect Banca. All Reianna knew was that she had to lie. The lie that destroyed Banca’s life was the lie that saved her own. It was one or the other, so feeling guilty about what happened to Banca was senseless.

  Did that mean she and Banca were fated to be enemies? It felt that way to Reianna, and it disturbed her by how bad that made her feel. Just like the guilt she was feeling, she couldn’t fathom why she was reacting that way. She hated Banca.

  The room fell silent, and the boys next to Reianna turned away from her, looking at someone approaching. Reianna lowered her book and looked at the lilac-haired girl now standing next to her.

  “Everyone here knew, didn’t they?” Banca asked.

  “I—”

  “Yes,” Cayelyn said, cutting Reianna off. “Reianna never told us, but before the trial, Gerenet-Shr all but admitted to us that she was.”

  “I wasn’t talking to you, Miss Ryder. I was talking to Miss Santi.”

  “Oh, sorry, Miss Cormick. I thought you wanted an actual answer.”

  Banca spun towards Cayelyn. Her face was red.

  “Banca!” Reianna shot up out of her seat. “Your issue is with me.”

  “No, Reianna,” Cayelyn said. “Her issue is with herself.”

  “My issue is with me? Ha!”

  “Yes! You’ve got your head so far up your own ass that it’s popped up through your neck again!”

  “Cayelyn! That’s enough!” Reianna said. Reianna wasn’t upset over what Cayelyn said, but rather, she was worried as it looked like Banca was about to attack her. Cayelyn couldn’t handle Banca.

  “No, Rei,” Taraia said. “Azure’s got a point.”

  “So, what? All of you don’t think I’ve been humiliated enough? You don’t think I’ve received enough from what I did to Reianna?”

  “What about me?” Cayelyn asked.

  Banca fell silent.

  “So, you do remember me.”

  Reianna blinked. She had no idea that they knew each other. The rest of the class seemed just as confused.

  “My mother is Duchess Norellia’s personal maid. She has been since the duchess went to school here. Let’s just say Banca’s attitude towards commoners and the servant class didn’t just develop when she enrolled in Dyntril.”

  “I’m different! I’ve changed.”

  “Just how, rich girl?” Cayelyn asked. “We all know what you say to Natt.”

  “We all have histories.”

  “Okay,” Cayelyn crossed her arms. “I’ll bite. What horrible thing did Natt do to you?”

  “She left me! She left me because she cared more about commoners than she did about me! If she hadn’t been trying so hard to mess up the nobility for the sake of commoners, the nobility never would have turned on her!” Banca was close to tears, and her voice warbled as she spoke.

  “She was like a mother to me!”

  “She’s still trying to be a mother to you!” Cayelyn responded.

  “It’s too late! She wasn’t there to protect me from him anymore.”

  “Who?” Caylyn asked.

  “My father! I had to be the best. I had to be more than the best. I had to be so perfect that when I enrolled here, he wanted me to be strong enough to take down fifth-years! You couldn’t even imagine the types of ‘training’ I suffered through once Natt abandoned me for you.”

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  The class was silent for two heartbeats.

  “Boo-Yani-hoo,” Taraia said. “You had a father who beat you to make you better. At least he had a fucking reason. I won’t even tell you what mine did to my older sisters. His own daughters! Trying my luck here, where I knew I would probably die, seemed like a better choice.”

  Once more, the class fell into silence. It was broken by Fawna’s sobs. She threw her arms around Taraia. The lime-haired girl tried to push Fawna away, but she didn’t budge.

  Giving up, Taraia returned the embrace. “Thank you, Fawna.”

  Banca worked her mouth. “Wha…why…what about the city guard? Why didn’t they do anything about your father?”

  “Why would the city guard care?” Ryleegh asked. Everyone turned to the shy girl with their eyes wide. Not only did Ryleegh usually refuse to speak in front of the class, but Reianna didn’t think she’d ever seen her speak to Banca before.

  “That’s their job.”

  “No, Miss Noble. Their job is to maintain order so that our issues don’t become your issues. They don’t care what we do to ourselves.”

  Ryleegh turned around. She pulled the back of her uniform up to her neck, exposing a giant, deep scar that went from her right shoulder blade down to her left hip. “When I was four, I tripped. I splashed mud on the viscountess’s dress. The city guard did this to me to ‘protect’ their lady from the vicious four-year-old.”

  Pulling her shirt back down, Ryleegh turned back to look at Banca. “My father protested. They killed him on the spot. The city guard exists for you, not us.”

  “Not any more,” Reianna said.

  Everyone looked at her.

  She saw where the moment was headed. If it wasn’t cut off, it would be a cascade of trying to show Banca how “good” she had it. Reianna hated that it had to be her, but she was the one who’d reintroduced the divide.

  “Banca has fallen. She’s not noble now, but when we graduate, we all will be.” Reianna looked at Banca. “Remember your past.” Reianna bore her stare into Banca as hard as she could. “Remember what Natt tried to do for people like us.”

  Reianna turned her gaze to Fawna. “We don’t need some sort of violent uprising. All we need to do is use the system that’s been given to us to change it. But we can only do that if we remember who we were and don’t play their games.”

  Taraia laughed. “Who said we want an uprising, Rei?”

  “You don’t want the city guard to be what Banca thought it was? Who controls the city guard? Tell me, Taraia, what’s the first thing you’ll do when you become noble?”

  Taraia’s face clouded over. “Go and kill that Yani and save my sisters.”

  “We’ve all heard Gerenet-Shr’s stories about Hianbru. Who doesn’t want something like that here?”

  Several other kids nodded along.

  “It won’t just happen. We have to be the ones to do it.”

  More of the class nodded.

  Banca crossed her arms over her chest. “Ahh, the innocent dreams of a child.”

  The class focused its attention on her.

  “You have no idea how impossible that will be. Look at what they did to Natt! She was on the verge of becoming an archduchess, and they stabbed her in the back. They’ll do the same to you.”

  “That’s why we all need to become strong, stronger than Natt ever was.”

  “Easy for you to say, mage-girl.”

  Reianna walked towards Banca. Banca took a step back.

  “Yeah, Banca, but look at you. Look at how much stronger you’ve become since you started working with us. This is the end of our first year here.” Reianna stretched her arms out. “Look around!” She spun in a small circle. “We gained a student in our class!”

  She lowered her arms and turned back to Banca. “‘Look to your left. Look to your right. Only one of you will live to graduate.’ That’s the promise we were given on our first day here.”

  Once more, others nodded along with her.

  “Gerenet-Shr isn’t a perfect man, but Yani eat me if he doesn’t do everything he can for us. We will be stronger than Natt was. Every. Single. One. Of. Us.”

  Banca’s expression was incomprehensible. It was like she was alternating between disbelief and awe.

  The rest of the class, though, were swept up. Their eyes sparkled, and most wore grins.

  Reianna wanted to go on; she wanted to invite Banca to join them, to really join them, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it—what Banca had done to her still hurt.

  The door slid open. Reianna checked her interface clock. Yani! Kids ran back to their own desks and straightened themselves next to them.

  “Good morning, Gerenet-Shr. Good morning, Natt-Shr.”

  Gerenet-Shr paused. He looked at the class. He knew something was going on, that there was something off with the atmosphere, but he couldn’t tell what. “Good morning. Please be seated.”

  As the kids sat, Natt walked to the back of the room. Reianna pulled her seat out and sat back down. Her book was still on her desk, so she vanished it to her inventory. After her rah-rah speech, the knowledge that she could now read that book sent a tingle down her spine. It was all thanks to him.

  “Well, congratulations. You are officially done with the tournament. We still have a couple of days left before hunting vacation starts.” He looked out over the class. “How many of you actually want to go home during the break?”

  Reianna wanted to raise her hand, but there was nothing left of her home. Earl-ess Wendina had destroyed it, and Natt was hiding her parents somewhere. That’s where she wanted to go. So, she didn’t raise her hand. She wasn’t the only one.

  Only Cayelyn raised her hand. Reianna looked at Fawna. Fawna stared at her desk. Home for Fawna meant home with Avali. Fawna hadn’t spoken to or of her former friend since the opening tournament.

  Gerenet-Shr observed the same thing as Reianna. “Hmm…To be honest, I wasn’t expecting this.”

  “I told you,” Natt said.

  “And I told you I need you to tell me this stuff sooner.” He turned his attention back to the class. “Students aren’t allowed to stay in the dorms. You all have to go somewhere. I also want you all to go somewhere where you can train. I’m not having your skills atrophy because of some silly point system.”

  He gripped the sides of the lectern. It was one of his quirks. Boys often did it, imitating him during those times Gerenet-Shr wasn’t in the room. Their imitation was out of love and respect, not mockery. They wanted to be him.

  “We still have a few days, so I’ll see what we can do. Maybe Headmaster Krill will be more accommodating.”

  Emilisa raised her hand.

  “Yes, Emilisa?”

  “Don’t you mean ‘Deputy Headmaster’?”

  He pointed at her. “No. He’s the headmaster starting today.”

  Reianna glanced over at Banca, but the girl didn’t react to the news. She thought Banca would have some sort of reaction to the man who actually murdered her family and anyone she cared about, but she didn’t even flinch at the thought of him gaining even more power.

  “But, just in case, I’m going to try to line up places for you all to stay.”

  Banca raised her hand.

  Gernet-Shr raised an eyebrow. She’d never voluntarily asked a question before.

  “Yes, Banca?”

  She stood. “Are we going to the training ground today?”

  “Yeah…after we discuss this.”

  “Will the topic to which you don’t have an answer take much longer?”

  He blinked. “Umm…”

  “If it’s possible, I’d like to go to the training grounds before any of the other students get back from the colosseum.”

  “Why’s that?”

  Banca looked at Reianna. “I want the match with Reianna.”

  The room went silent. Reianna’s pulse quickened. Was that what Banca wanted for revenge?

  “You may not fight unshielded.”

  “Of course. I’m not asking for that. I’m asking to spar with Reianna. Shields are fine. Well, considering that I’ll probably lose, shields are preferable.”

  “I see.” He looked at Reianna. Banca looked straight ahead at him.

  “Well?” he asked Reianna.

  “Sure,” she said.

  “I guess we can—”

  “And give her one of those things.”

  “What things?” he asked Banca.

  “One of those things that you gave Daymien that took away his mage abilities. I want to fight her fair and square.”

  Reianna hadn’t told any of her friends what exactly her mage ability was, not even Fawna. Gerenet-Shr knew, but he was the only one. Reianna was worried that someone would harm her friends trying to get to know the secret or to get her.

  Anything that nullified her ability was useless in a fight. That’s not how her ability worked, but Banca didn’t know that. So, nullifier, restrictor, or whatever, by the time combat came around, it would have no influence on the fight.

  “I’m fine with that, Gerenet-Shr. I’m more than happy to abide by any rule Banca would like.”

  “Okay, then,” Banca said. “Chosen weapon. Best of three. 200% health.”

  “Agreed,” Reianna said.

  Gerenet-Shr’s face was full of consternation as he looked from Banca to Reianna, then to Natt in the back of the room.

  The lily-haired teacher shrugged. “It’s shielded. I don’t see why not.”

  Gerenet-Shr sighed. “Fine. Might as well go now.”

  The rest of the class hollered. “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

  Reianna’s heart rate stayed elevated. She didn’t know what it was, but she felt something major was being put on the line in this fight, and she didn’t know if she was supposed to win or lose.