"Not that it matters, at all, but it bears mentioning for form's sake: you are very, very late getting back," Elica said, turning herself to see her new dress from different angles. "And, you were very very late last night. Did you go out to a party after I went to sleep?"

  "On Sixthday? Yes," I said. "Goraline Grennick's charity mixer. I needed to present as a guest."

  Elica made a face. "Ew. Glad my social planner doesn't have me mixing with that sort of crowd. But that was Sixthday, and here we are Sevenday, and you're awfully late again, I point out."

  I shrugged, and discorporated my dress, sitting down in just my shift and smallclothes. "I went back to my home town, to spend the day. It was very... healing."

  "Ah, I thought you smelled kind of... farm-y," she said. "But don't sit around in your underwear, the door's not locked."

  I waved a hand and the door locked itself.

  Elica looked annoyed by that. "Fine. I suppose that's an answer too. Listen, next week I've got a party I will need to get to. We can exchange information so you can pick me up afterwards and get me back to the dorm afterwards."

  "Is it the concert and dance at the Auditioneer's Hall?"

  "Hardly. I'm going to the Cerulean Circus."

  "I thought that was a sex thing?" I said, confused now.

  She blushed hard. "It's lots of different things, not just that!"

  "And you're going with Yheta?"

  "Pff. I wish."

  I nodded. "No."

  "Great and- what?"

  "I'm not taking you to that party," I said. "I've got a duty of care here, if I'm dropping you off. You're an earl, Elica. You're not allowed marriage contracts for another four years. I am not dropping you off at a seedy festival on the third week of the semester, whether or not you're going to be accompanied by our mutual friend."

  "Oh please like you care," she scoffed.

  I put my thumbs to my temples and pressed. "Look, I'm as surprised as anyone, but I kind of do care," I said. "Leaving aside the damage to your reputation and prospects, there's a very real chance of you being hurt or kidnapped from a place like that. You're fifteen, you're upper-echelon nobility, and you're hot. People have died for being one of those at a time."

  "You think I'm attractive?" she asked, surprised.

  "Me and everyone else with eyes," I scoffed. "Now quit fishing for compliments. I don't think I could handle finding out that you're insecure and not nearly as self-assured as you seem."

  She shrugged. "It's not a big deal. I've just never heard it from anyone that I did not outrank, and didn't have to say nice things about me."

  "What did I just say?" I grumbled, and flopped back on the bed.

  Look, I can't handle this if it turns out that Elica is the one of us that is the confused, second-guessing insecure neurotic mess. Because if Vancy's the dumb one, Larianne's the snarky one, that makes me the Tahani, and I'm not ready for that.

  "It's almost fourteenth bell, we're going to dinner soon," Elica said. "C'mon, get dressed and hang out with us. We've got a few hours before lights-out, we can enjoy ourselves a little before we have to get back to the grind of classes tomorrow."

  I let the idea wrestle around in my mind. "Yeah," I said. After spending the last four hours just flying around and thinking my thoughts, I could use some social company. And, even if I keep thinking of us as the Mean Girls, they're not actually that bad. Elica is useless and spoiled and vindictive, but if I don't push her she's not that hostile to anyone. Vancy's not dumb, she's just.. unworldly. And not academically gifted. Larianne is- okay, she only really speaks up when she's got something nasty to say, but she doesn't do it very often. "Let me just conjure up-"

  "I have to stop you there," Elica said. "Sorry, but any time I know you're wearing magic clothes it bothers me greatly. Please put on real clothes that won't vanish."

  "You know the stuff I conjure only vanishes when I'm done with it, right? I'm not just going to poof become naked at some random time."

  "Humor me," Elica said, and gestured at my wardrobe.

  "Fiiiiine," I groaned, and rolled over, and stood up, and walked over to the wardrobe. I've got nice clothes, but once you've gotten used to just fabricating them on your body, it's hard to get used to cinching straps and tying laces again. I don't mind wearing real clothes, it's the part of putting them on and taking them off that's tedious.

  She was fidgeting. Like she was trying to start a difficult conversation. I recognize that look, but we're not dating so I'm not getting broken up with. "What's on your mind Elica?"

  "Do you know you sleepwalk?" she blurted out.

  I laughed, and pulled one of my simpler and plainer dresses out, and lifted it off the hook. "Was that all? Sorry, I thought I'd mentioned that before. I don't actually sleepwalk though. It's not going to be dangerous like I'll just have a bad dream and start attacking you."

  "Nnnno, I'm pretty sure that was sleepwalking," she said. "It was really clumsy and your eyes were shut and you went to the bathroom and back."

  "Souls don't sleep," I told her. "Minds and bodies do. While my mind and body are asleep, my soul can move me around some. I mostly use it to catch up on my reading or practice certain tricks."

  She stared at me, horrified. "Wait, you just.. don't sleep?"

  "Not completely," I said, slipping the dress over my head. "It's like the seventh or eighth weirdest thing about me."

  She thought about. "Well, if anyone tried to break in during the night, you'd just cut them up or something. I don't snore do I?"

  "Not even a little bit," I said, fluffing my hair. I put my back to a mirror so I could guide the laces pulling tight. "I would have teased you about it by now if you did."

  "What a relief," she said, and it sounded genuine. "Okay, now that I've got that out of the way: tell me everything about Yheta Snairlin."

  I walked with her down to the dining hall, no flying or voids. I told her all about this guy she had a crush on, and I gotta be honest I could not see him through her eyes and find whatever endearing qualities she was finding there. "And, uh, he's kind of been a close member of my social circle for a long time," I said. "And I've had... a lot of his attention, for a lot of years."

  "That's so great," she said with a big smile. "I like a guy with a loyal streak. Really speaks well to his character!"

  I was puzzled now. "He's been very... loyal, for about a dozen years now. Um, I think sometimes he's a had a crush on me."

  "Well yeah, that's plain to see," she said easily enough. "But I'm eligible to marry in four years and you're eligible in five. So, I've got five years to change his mind. And I think you're going to help."

  "As much as I can, I promise," I said immediately.

  Elica nodded. "I like to think I've got pretty good social awareness. And he's clearly looking for a long-term situation. He needs a bride with a rank higher than a count if he's going to enjoy the aristocratic lifestyle, or else he'll have to work for a living as a merchant. Ugh. He's too good for that! He shouldn't have to drudge around trading stuff or whatever. He just needs to marry me, share my title, and settle down in Wanfarrun and feed me grapes."

  What an image.

  She walked a few more steps, thinking hard. "Two boys and a girl," she said. "Three children should be perfect."

  I cannot have that conversation with her. "So, Lady Elica, I'm sure you've got a lot to offer him, and he's certainly... a good match for you. What other sort of plans do you have for the future? There has to be more than grapes and children, right?"

  "I'm going to be fabulously wealthy, intensely doted upon, and very important," she said with an almost flippant casualness. "What else do I need? I don't need to make plans to get all those things, that's taken care of."

  "Maybe.. accomplishing something? Or some goal that these things can do for you?"

  She considered for a long minute, walking beside me down the lane towards the student center. "I'd really like a greenhouse," she said after a minute. "My home doesn't have one yet. I'd like to have one built."

  It seems I might have gotten all the surprising revelations I'm going to get from Miss Elica today. Some people don't need to be any deeper than they are.

  When we got to the dining hall I tried to tell myself it was just my imagination and that people were not staring at me from the corners of their eyes, that conversations did not dip a little quieter as I walked by. That maybe this was just my nerves. Or that maybe this was just the reaction that I get at the Academy and a couple of days worth of weekend had inured me so much I had forgotten how people were here..

  I tried to convince myself that there was not a host of new rumors flying about me now, and that people were not whispering in hushed tones while staring at my back. I was telling myself that while I picked up a plate of dumplings and some soup, and brought them back to our table. Larianne was waiting for us with bright eager eyes, and Vancy looked nearly in a panic. "Oh my gods," she said, hissing a harsh whisper-shout. "Guys! There's so much going on!!"

  "From your expression I don't think all of it's good," I said. I sat down my tray, gathered my skirt, and settled myself down on the bench across from her, Elica across from Larianne.

  "Not at all! Those guys that were hassling you are dead, and there's a coverup, and the only reason anybody knows any of this is because there was a witness but then the witness was so scared and horrified that he went mad, and now the school is making him invent all kinds of weapons!"

  "They're not making him, he just likes doing it," I said, stirring my soup.

  "This is all stuff we knew," Elica said. "Since Fiveday."

  Vancy shook her head and her hair bounced around her face. "No, that's stuff we thought because of rumors but now there's proof!"

  Elica paused, fork and knife held in front of her. "I don't follow you."

  I patted her shoulder. "Not everyone believes rumors unconditionally, Elica, it's all right. Go on Vancy."

  Vancy was pulling out her book-bag and opened it, before withdrawing a folded and creased page of printed broadsheet. "There's an investigation by the city watch! Not just tabloids, the real papers are reporting this too!"

  I pulled the sheet over and started skimming it. "Hmm. Students at the nearby Hearstcliff Academy... recently moved from another duchy.. troubled home lives, insinuation of criminal backgrounds.. ah, 'numerous escalating confrontations with another student who was immediately cleared of suspicion', that'll be the part that people are hung up on. And then, inquiries going unanswered, watch investigators withholding information, yadda yadda yadda."

  Vancy stared at me, her eyes round with distress. "Natalie! That's you."

  "Yes, Vancy, thank you."

  Elica took the sheet from me. "We need a scrapbook. The Notorious Natalie Harigold."

  "Of course you're into scrapbooking," I rolled my eyes.

  Larianne matched my move there, which did not feel very validating. Of all the girls, she was the one I least wanted empathizing with me.

  Vancy turned the broadsheet over and over in her hands. "I just think this is... a lot."

  I took a moment and centered myself, and I put away the expression I usually keep up in front of Elica. I thought about my day at church, the people there, how they made me feel. I let that fall onto my face, and then I reached across the table, and I put my hands over Vancy's hands. She looked up and fixed eyes with me. She was really scared, and really hurting over this. And she was searching me for answers. And just once, I felt like I had them for her.

  "Vancy," I said quietly. "This was not me. I have always, every time, admitted my wrongdoing. I may try to explain myself or even excuse myself, but I never lie about whether something is my fault. And what happened to those boys was none of my doing. Yes?"

  What she was seeing in my eyes was what she needed, and I saw relief flood her face. "Yes," she said, relaxing all over.

  "But," I said carefully, "I think what was really getting you was that this," I moved my hands from her palms to the paper underneath them, "made it feel real, like this was real-world news and not just school drama. And I think I need to slip that security blanket away from you- everything is real. There's going to be a lot of very serious things happening this year, and none of them are 'school drama'. Everything we go through here is either going to filter out into the larger world, or is filtered in here from the larger world."

  She bit her lip and her shoulders shook one time, but she nodded.

  "Good," I said. "I'm not saying that to hurt you, but I just want you to have as much time as possible to adjust to that idea. Starting now, things are going to get very intense."

  Vancy nodded again, and I think this time I saw the right combination of calm resolution and faltering relief. I moved my hands back to hers, and gave them a squeeze before I pulled mine back. I pretended not to notice the very different looks that both Elica and Larianne were giving me from either side.

  "Can't believe I let you talk me into this," I groaned, watching Elica pluck her winnings up from the table.

  "Oh hush, nobody likes a sore loser," Elica said. "Except me. Pout harder."

  "Your mother says that cards are the only ladylike game?" I asked. "Did she say ladies when she meant bloodthirsty piranhas?"

  Elica shuffled again, and smirked. "My mother does not actually draw a distinction there," she admitted. "Anyway, isn't this so much better than working up a sweat with table tennis?"

  "Vancy's sweating," I pointed out. "I'm close to starting too."

  "I am," Vancy admitted.

  I groaned. "I can't believe I'm losing this badly."

  She shrugged. "You have about a thousand tells. If you played with your cards face-up I would actually have less to work with."

  "But I've been counting cards!" I wailed. It's not actually cheating, but it's considered very bad form.

  Elica scoffed at my confession and started dealing out. "Of course you have. It's one of the things that makes your play so predictable. You know the odds at seven-card stabilize around two pairs, so any time you're holding better than two-pair you think that's a winning hand."

  "But I was doing so well earlier!" I protested.

  She smirked. "Right. When you weren't paying attention to the game. The more you focus, the more your tells act up."

  I rolled my eyes. Fine. I'll stop paying attention to the game.

  "Ante."

  I dropped my chip in. No money behind it, just chips for chips' sake. But even these tiny stakes felt grueling at this table. Vancy was shaking like a leaf, and Larianne had a fierce concentration that looked like she was in a sword fight. Her nails clacked against her cards.

  Laughter at another table, I glanced around. Princess Lachel was playing shuffleboard and apparently had just taken some kind of big win. She had a nice laugh, and I did not actually have any enmity for her. She was always a very nice character in the game, and really did have everyone's best interests at heart. Hell, if I could influence her troop deployments she'd be the best possible match for Nathan.

  "Check."

  Stolen story; please report.

  "Check."

  I called and the next card came out. Normally the very best good-plus ending came with Lyric Vainting, but I don't think that's in reach for us. Her progression is really inconsistent: new players often latch onto her because her story seems straightforward and is closely tied to Nathan's own story- exploring her quests gives background on the dark days and disasters back in Meadowtam, reasons why Nathan is actually a tragic hero.

  "Check."

  "Bet."

  "Call."

  I called, matching the bet, and glanced back at Lyric. Well, there were two other reasons why new players often gravitated to her, but that is not part of my decision-making here. Her basic ending, good ending and true ending are all okay for her but bad for the kingdom overall. Players often leave her behind early and move to some of the more interesting personalities who have better dialogue. And that's where they hone their skills, getting better at the game and learning more about its progression.

  "Bet."

  "Call."

  "Bump."

  "Call."

  I raised over the bump and ignored their grumbling. Now, sooner or later an experienced player would return to Lyric and find out about her good-plus ending, the shortcut that kept the kingdom strong, saved the people of Meadowtam, raised him to Duke while his parents retired peacefully to a country villa, he was happily married and the kingdom was saved. All well and good, but that was normally only achievable with a knight or scrivener character- easy mode only. To get Lyric's good-plus on spy progression? It'd take a miracle, a high-end fluke of RNG blessings giving him every lucky break.

  "Check."

  "Call."

  I called the pot and the last card turned. Now the betting started in earnest. Nathan doesn't have a miracle or a blessing from the RNG gods. He's got a sister. Is that going to be good enough? If I can shove him past the big challenges and boost him where he needs it, the Lyric plotline could be our best chance of saving the world. Larianne was starting to flag in the betting so I raised hard and she folded. But if anything went wrong, anything at all, I would regret not eliminating Lyric early. I could, too, just one letter to the right person and Lyric would be kidnapped within a week and thrown off a cliff sixteen miles east of here.

  "Fold."

  "Just you and me, Natalie."

  I turned over the hand, and let them figure out who won. If I had my way, he'd be trying to date Clash Atland, the fencer. At this difficulty, best odds of a good-enough ending. And, she's fun. Not as cool as Thumper, but who is?

  "Ante."

  I dropped a chip in. There's not much I can do to steer him towards Clash if he's not pursuing her on his own. He's probably focusing on his fencing training, which isn't a bad idea. And, she keeps; he can pick up her questline in subsequent years.

  "Check."

  "Bet."

  "Call."

  Hmm. Most of his progressions right now are fine, I guess. I'm getting ahead of myself. I don't need to push these women away entirely right now. Just because I don't want him to finish Lachel's story out doesn't mean he can't fancy her for a couple years.

  "Check."

  "Check."

  And who knows? Maybe I'll figure out how to influence her troop deployments. The only one that is really important that he not pursue right now is Curigi Ghant, she's going to make everything more dangerous. Higher stakes and longer risks. If I can get him away from her right now, I can probably sit back and examine my options for another year, and see how things develop naturally.

  "Bet."

  "Call."

  "Call."

  After all, I don't need to solve five years worth of problems in my first semester. If I sit back, and just steer him off the worst choices, Nathan will solve some of our problems on his own just from natural inclination. And I can be tending my own plans.

  "Check."

  "Bet."

  "Bump."

  Which was going to mean a combination of questing plotlines to raise my level, as well as keeping up my stat training, but also getting out in the world and trying to butterfly-effect future events however I can. Setting up certain ambushes for the future, perhaps.

  "And here we go."

  "Bet."

  "Bump."

  "Raise."

  "Raise limit."

  "Bump."

  "You can't bump over limit!"

  "Call."

  "Fold."

  "Now I can bump."

  "You don't have the cards."

  "Raise."

  "You don't have the cards!"

  "Is that a call?"

  "I fold."

  I set down my cards. Chips moved around.

  "Oh, that's not fair! Elica, make her pay attention to the game again!"