Jordan was already in the . She looked up from her novel—Jordan was always lugging around something to read—saw her, then tucked a bookmark in ahe book to the side.

  “Hey.”

  “Hey,” Natalie returned, shrugging off her backpad sitting across from Jordan. “This pce is roomy.”

  “First css. They’re sending us off in style.”

  Natalie wrinkled her nose, her earlier thoughts—that she appreciated it, but was a waste of money—flickering into her head. But she didn’t ent. The money had already bee, and she didn’t want to e off as an ingrate. “Sofia’ll be here, soon,” Natalie said. “Saw her saying bye.”

  “Mm.” Jordan seemed amused. “Five hours together. Think you’ll survive?”

  “I’ll have to.” But she wasn’t looking forward to it. With luck, they could just ignore each other.

  “You know, we’re lucky she qualified, too.”

  Natalie raised her eyebrows.

  “We are,” Jordan insisted. “You’ve heard the stories. Te’s cutthroat. The whole pce is a … a whetstone. For delvers. It’s not a friendly pce. Having Sofia there, a sed ally, someone we trust … that’s more fortuhan you’re admitting.”

  “Sofia. An ally.”

  “, Nat. I know you two are bristly, but we’re in this together.”

  “You think she thinks that? Sofia’ll dump us the moment it bes her.”

  Jordan frowned. “You ’t believe that.”

  Natalie’s first respohat she did believe that—fizzled up. She sniffed. “Well. Maybe not. But that doesn’t mean I think she’ll throw herself on a sword for us.”

  “I’m saying she’s an ally,” Jordan said, rolling her eyes. “Not our blood-sworn subordinate. Allies will be useful to have at Te.”

  “Sure. I guess. But she’s out to make a name for herself, first and foremost.”

  “And we aren’t?”

  “I mean … not first and foremost. It’s just up there. Obviously you’d e first, if something happened.”

  Jordan paused, then gnced away. “Well, yeah.” She cleared her throat. “You too. That’s a given.” She tilted her head, peaking into the hallway. “Ah, she’s here.”

  Sofia walked in.

  Or, strode in. Sofia had always moved with a certain … arrogance. Some people would call it fidence, but Natalie knew better. Her squared shoulders and lifted were iional; Sofia showg, through body nguage, what she thought of everyone else … and her positioive to them.

  She was dressed fortably, in jeans and a loose, frilly pale blue shirt. That was hardly a rare event, but Natalie had growo seeing Sofia in adventuring gear: leather armor, with a on at her hip. Usually a rapier. Sofia had alreferred a more elegant style of fighting than Natalie. They were both close-bat fighters, but ihat category, they couldn’t be much different.

  Sofia was a shirl, shorter than Natalie by a signifit amount, and a bit more than Jordan, who was an average height. Something about the way she held herself didn’t make her seem short, though. She had a presewice her size.

  A distinctly annoying presehese days, just the sight of her irritated Natalie.

  “Natalie. Jordan.” Her words were crisp, deliberately so. Sofia had always been someone who cared too much about appearances. Her ly trimmed eyebrows, perfect hair, and outfit gave it away. Natalie had always thrown on whatever she had avaible; she’d never cared whether what she was wearing was fashionable. What kind of adventurer did? “The day’s finally arrived.” Sofia’s pierg blue eyes surveyed the . “I’m gd all three of us made it.”

  Natalie snorted. She saw the dig. “Came as a surprise that I did, did it?”

  Sofia spared a gnce for her, then sat down on the opposite end of Jordan’s benext to the window. She tucked her backpaderh the seat. “Sensitive as always. I was being genuine.”

  Another snort.

  Jordan gave Natalie a look. Natalie had seen it before; ‘py nice,’ Jordan was saying.

  Natalie guessed for the sake of keeping the peace, she’d try. Even if Sofia had been the oo start it. A five hour trip would be miserable if she and Sofia were bickering the whole way. And bickering might be y pert of their retionship, but stu a fined space, together, it would quickly bee a headache for everyone involved.

  And there was some truth to what Jordan had been saying. Sofia wasn’t their friend, but the three of them were from Tinford. They’d grown up together; their parents were friends. That ted for something.

  The train shuddered, then started to move. Sofia must have been one of the st to board. She’d cut it close.

  “So,” Jordan said. “I was w if the three of us could talk practicals.”

  “Meaning?” Sofia asked.

  “Our pns. For Te. Are we teaming up?”

  “In what regard?”

  Jordan shrugged. “Well. You’ve heard the stories. Te isn’t all delving and training. There’s cliques. Politics. Seeing how we’re all nobodies, we should stick together.”

  “I presumed we would. It needs crification?”

  Jordan gave Natalie a sideways gnce—‘See?’ it said. Natalie fake-s her. Sure, whatever. Sofia wasn’t a snake, she was just annoying. Natalie had already admitted that.

  “But delving?” Jordan asked. “I realize that’s more than a week away, before Te lets us into the dungeon, but tentatively? Assuming we don’t work out somethier.”

  “With two fighters and a rogue?” Sofia asked.

  “It’s not ideal,” Jordan said. “But Nat …” she trailed off, shooting a ed look Natalie’s way.

  Natalie rolled her eyes, then said, “You tell her.” Natalie hadn’t e to the rest of Tinford, but it wasn’t like she would be able to hide it from Sofia. They’d be rubbing shoulders for the four years.

  “Nat’s css isn’t wholly a fighter type,” Jordan said. “She got a padin css. So, more a versatile tank, than anything.”

  Sofia’s eyebrows shot up, and she looked, incredulously, at Natalie.

  Natalie crossed her arms, uo stop herself from getting defensive. “I’ll figure it out, okay? Not my forte, or whatever, but that doesn’t matter.”

  “A padin,” Sofia repeated. “You. A mage hybrid.”

  Natalie s her.

  “I’m just surprised,” Sofia said. “How did that happen? And why am I just learning it?”

  “Because you’re my first fidante, are you?”

  “I mean, that you lied. To everyone else. Didn’t you? Why?”

  Natalie’s squeezed her crossed arms tighter. Because of this, she didn’t say. Sofia’s incredulous rea to what everyone would’ve known was an ill-fitting css … it would’ve been mirrored a huimes over, by other residents of Tinford. Even Mom and Dad, probably.

  “I didn’t lie,” Natalie said. She’d simply … omitted relevaails.

  “The point is,” Jordan said, interrupting the tension. “That a padin, a duelist, and a rogue isn’t a horrible position.”

  “It could be worse,” Sofia said coolly, turning to Jordan. “But it’s not ideal.”

  “Sometimes we don’t get ideal,” Jordan said. “It’s what we make of things. And again. No hard itments. But we’ve worked with each other. Know each others styles, habits. That’s important in a team. Maybe more than a perfeposition.”

  “Mm,” Sofia said. “I’m still caught up on the padin thing. What sort of skills did you get?”

  The first thing that popped into Natalie’s head was the … less appropriate skills she’d received with her css. But obviously those were staying a secret to everyo Jordan. If the three of them were w on the assumption their first delves would be together, then Sofia would o know Natalie’s skills, but only the relevant ones. She’d learn them, regardless, during spars and training.

  “An illusion,” Natalie said.

  “An illusion?” The raised eyebrows were back. “Not a heal? Or an empowerment?”

  “Not a standard padin, I guess.” Not that a ‘standard padied. It was a rather varied css. It depended on the god, or aspect, one received.

  “Who’s your patron?” Sofia paused, then huffed. “You. A padin. With a patron. So ridiculous.”

  Natalie agreed, but she took offense, anyway. “That’s none of your business.” Not that Natalie even knew who her patron was. There were a few options for who a ‘goddess of lust’ could be. None were givele ht, at least, not from what Natalie’s research had shown. It could be any of several … the goddess of love, or fertility, or, in some interpretations, wiess and sin. Again, it didn’t really matter. The skills she received, she received. Didn’t matter what her patron’s name was.

  “I suppose not,” Sofia said. “What else?”

  “The illusion’s the important one.” And, unfortunately, the only practical o wasn’t the best level-oarting kit. But if Natalie had had something else, like a skill that made her faster, or stronger, it wouldn’t be something she’d o divulge to Sofia. Teammates were expected to share the general strokes—the key skills they’d be iing with—but not their e.

  Some did, of course. It just wasn’t a hard requirement.

  “Hm,” Sofia said. “Either way, an illusion sounds versatile. But you’ll o practice.”

  Natalie bit her tongue on a retort. “Yeah. I will.” Sofia had a way of sounding desding, eve wasn’t her i.

  “It’s a shame your unlog happened so soon to intake day,” Sofia said. “You didn’t have much time to adjust.”

  Yeah. That was definitely a problem. Natalie would rather not have been reminded of it. “I’ll figure it out,” Natalie repeated, half a mutter. She’d been experimenting with the skill in the past two days, and not made much progress. She wasn’t, as she’d mentioned, a natural when it came to spell casting.

  The solution was obvious. She’d just have to make up for it in other ways.

  Other ways.

  The … stranger parts of her css. Natalie would o make the most of them.