Dungeons and Dalliances Ch. 040-049

"No clue."

Natalie considered that. "I'll keep it in mind."

"But we can still talk," Sammy said, winking. "Just, can't stay the night each time."

"Works with me." Though it had been nice having someone warm to wake up next to, and the lack of bustle in the barracks.

She waited another second to see if the conversation would continue, but Sammy rolled out of bed, heading for the shower. She waved Natalie goodbye, who returned it, then slipped out.

***

She made it to morning practice on time, though only by a few minutes. Jordan had already left. Had she waited? Natalie realized she hadn't explicitly told her that she might not make it back in time to walk together. She had told her that Sammy had invited her to the party, though, and so Jordan had probably pieced things together.

Was that a problem? Her and Sammy?

What was Natalie talking about? Obviously not. Why would it be a problem? Beyond her and Jordan not being in a relationship--the confusing 'class stuff' and resulting physical intimacy wasn't a 'relationship', however hot and heavy things got--Jordan had been the one encouraging her to find other partners. So even if she and Jordan had been in a relationship, then clearly she would be fine with it.

Not that they were in one. Natalie didn't even know where this train of thought was coming from. Or going. Why did thinking about Jordan in regards to this topic always leave her in such disarray?

Just the weirdness of it all. That was it.

She'd gotten another boost in her secondary resource 'lust' from her activities with Sammy, which meant she'd earned twice as much as normal--both Sammy and Jordan. The ultimate goal would be to have as many girls as possible she was consistently earning points from. Which was weird, putting it like that. Turning relationships into a sort of game, something to be 'progressed' through. But, Natalie could separate the strangeness out.

Scheduling could get a bit weird, though. Impossible to manage efficiently. The harvest skill reset once a day. A little below that, actually, though the exact timing she didn't know. So assuming she had multiple ongoing partners, having fun with each of them once a day would be ridiculous.

Jordan, she suspected, would be the only one ready to help her out consistently.

Which was, uh, good.

Not that Natalie was excited she had routine make-out--now groping, soon to be more--plans with her best friend. A purely, one-hundred percent platonic relationship. Well. Maybe not platonic, now, by the definition of the word. But... just friends. Who made out and groped, sometimes. Er, every day.

It was just the proper way to be handling things. Again, Natalie was playing from behind, and needed as many opportunities to be advancing her class as she could get her hands on.

Plus, even if under inappropriate circumstances, she'd never turn down a chance to hang out with Jordan. While hooking up in bathroom stalls wasn't exactly a hobby she'd thought the two of them would pick up, she'd enjoy any time spent with Jordan.

She pointedly pushed the messy thoughts away, walking through the polished halls of the training facility, headed for more lessons guided by Tess.

Remembering that, she slowed, then almost stopped entirely, blushing. She was going to face Tess after... the event in the bathroom? Using an illusion of her to get herself off? She'd almost forgotten about that, somehow.

Well. It was just imagination with a few extra steps. It still had her cheeks burning, but it wasn't like the event had been morally wrong. Maybe a bit questionable, but definitely not horrible.

And between worrying over that and the possibility she'd been caught... well, the second concerned her much more. But as she'd figured then, there wasn't much she could do about it. If she had been, then the perpetrator would reveal themselves soon enough. Or if they didn't, then she guessed the matter was settled. No point in stressing.

So, magic lessons. More bashing her head into a wall. At least it'd take her mind off things.

2.20 - Taunts

"You're getting better," Tess said.

"That is the point of practice."

"Faster than most, I meant. Or, even more frankly, faster than I expected, with how you started out."

Natalie snorted. She didn't take offense. Struggling with spellcasting had her temper fraying faster than most things did, but she didn't mind being called bad. It was self-apparent. Plus, it made Tess's praise that much more meaningful. Though, the praise hadn't been that she was good--just getting better faster than expected. Still, small victories.

"It's all I've been doing, so I hope so," Natalie said, shrugging. "Been neglecting everything else, pretty much. And lots of that is probably more important than messing around with a single illusion spell." As a paladin, being her team's frontline would require more traditional fighter skillsets than it did spellcasting ones. Just, she wanted passing competency with it. Maybe that was a bad idea?

"The age old question," Tess mused, mirroring her thoughts. "Train to improve your deficiencies, or train to hone your strengths. Which is a better use of time?"

"And the answer?"

"It depends."

Dryly, Natalie said, "Real useful advice, that."

"Oh, no. The world is nuanced. Certain questions don't have simple answers. Such a novel discovery."

"Smartass." Despite her response, a smile had found its way onto Natalie's lips. Tess's dry--even snippish--sense of humor had been something she'd only gotten hints of yesterday, but which had come out in force during practice today. Just with Natalie, though. She remained polite with the others. Did that mean...?

"Smartass?" Tess quoted. "Students are supposed to respect their instructors, you know."

"Good thing you're not an instructor."

Tess looked around at the gathered students and raised a neatly trimmed eyebrow. The upperclassmen really had such stern poise to her. More of an air of 'instructor' than most actual Tenet faculty did. She didn't come off as only a few years older than Natalie.

"I'm not?" Tess asked. "And all this is, then?" She swept a hand out at her collected students.

"Not a real instructor," Natalie clarified, though Tess had known what she meant. "And even if you were, what? Gonna punish me for talking back?" After yesterday's fantasies, the accidental innuendo had Natalie's heart skipping a beat. "Wash my mouth out?" Hopefully Tess hadn't noticed the way she stumbled.

She rolled her eyes, so she probably hadn't. That was good.

Patting her shoulder and turning, Tess said, "Keep it up. You won't need to be in my course for long, I can tell."

"Wait."

Tess paused, body still turned, about to move to the next student. "Yes?"

"Uh." Telling her to stop hadn't been fully intentional. Like usual, Natalie's impulses had guided her. Oh, well. There'd been an idea she'd been considering, so she might as well try, right?

"I was wondering if you wanted to, uh, show me around the mage's guild."

Her eyebrows went up. She faced back to Natalie, crossing her arms. She seemed unimpressed. That was a default expression of Tess's, but in this situation especially? A first-week freshmen hitting on a third year? Especially a girl like Tess?

Not that Natalie was discouraged. Hitting on girls out of her league didn't scare her. Was kinda fun, actually. She stuffed her hands in her pockets, shrugged, then smiled.

"I know it's, like, a secret rule you should stick with one guild, and I'll probably be going with tank. But still. I'd like to look around. Maybe talk about it, a bit." Then, just in case Tess hadn't picked up her real intent: "And maybe after, we can hang out? Get something to eat, or whatever?"

Her expression didn't change, so she had sussed out Natalie's goal. Or was especially good at not reacting. That would hardly be a rare trait at Tenet.

Natalie would like if she didn't have to be so blatant about things, but she didn't have much choice. Straddling the line between being 'grossly obvious' and 'obvious enough' could be hard. But was necessary. One of the woes of being a girl that liked girls. She had to bludgeon potential partners with her intent. Else all sorts of misunderstandings could happen.

Because some people were unimaginably dense when it came to romance. Natalie was fortunate she wasn't one of them, but others, she knew, weren't spared from that fate.

Tess's scrutiny lasted long enough most people probably would've started squirming. Natalie almost did, but while Tess was cute, and she did want to get to know her better, this was hardly some long-standing confession. She wasn't that anxious.

"Only if you want to," Natalie offered. "I think it could be fun."

Tess seemed to make her mind up. "I suppose I could spare an evening. But not today. Tomorrow?"

"Sounds like a plan." She fought down an obvious grin. Despite her few-seconds-prior thoughts about how she 'wasn't that invested', she found herself inordinately relieved, and also a bit giddy. So. Tess swung that way. And had accepted an offer to hang out.

With a wave of her fingers, Tess walked away. Natalie let her smile break out a bit more obviously, now that Tess wasn't watching.

"That," someone drawled next to her, making Natalie jump, "is so not fair. You make it look easy."

Blinking, Natalie faced the invader. It had been a voice she half-way recognized.

"It's those eyes of yours, I think," Camille added. "All big and blue and confident."

"Camille," Natalie said, caught off guard. One of her fifteen classmates--the plant-based mage she'd fought the day prior. "Uh. Hi?"

"And the hair," Camille continued in her thick eastern drawl. After so much crisply enunciated northern dialect, it was twice as noticeable. Even her, Jordan, and Sofia's voices didn't stand out as much. "Red hair, blue eyes. It's the rarest combination, you know."

Natalie caught up to the unexpected conversation, shaking off her surprise. Camille had seen her flirting with Tess, successfully, then said 'it wasn't fair'.

... because of her hair and eyes?

Was she being hit on? It didn't have that sort of tone to it, though, however much the words themselves would've suggested it. Camille sounded more... exasperated, than anything.

"I know red and blue's not common," Natalie said. "But the rarest?"

"A few steps short of a genetic anomaly. And combined with the rest..." she gave Natalie an up-and-down, which, bizarrely, still didn't come off as flirting, then said, "it's not fair."

"Thank you?"

"You're wondering why I'm here. In the newbie yard."

"A bit," she admitted. "You didn't come off as an amateur during our fight."

"I was passing by and saw you. Figured I'd say hi." Camille nodded toward the hallway, which was lined with windows. "I had no idea you were a mage. Didn't sense anything in class, unless I'm mistaken?"

"No, you aren't. I haven't made much use of it." Natalie hadn't been so outstandingly subtle in her spellcasting that an experienced mage--which Camille had demonstrated herself as being--hadn't seen it. Rather, she was so bad she'd chosen not to use it at all. "It's a work in progress."

Camille made a noise of amusement. "I can tell. You're clumsy on your execution."

Again--continuing the trend of Camille's words being contradictory to the impression she should have gotten--the insult didn't come off as one. She made it sound like idle commentary.

"Thanks?" Natalie was a bit bemused by this conversation. She still hadn't decided if Camille was hitting on her.

"But illusions," the dark haired girl continued. "Useful."

"Once I get a hold of them, they will be."

"I've heard they're tricky to wrangle," she said. Then, a mischievous amusement crept onto her face, seemingly from nowhere. "And, truth told, a specialty I wouldn't mind having. I've always wondered... what else could you do with them?"

Natalie jolted. The words had been pretty obviously laced with... well, innuendo.

Huh?

"All sorts of fun things, I'd imagine," Camille continued, her grin widening.

Mentioning illusions in that way? After the bathroom event, yesterday? Was this girl--?

"Anyway," Camille said. "Just wanted to say hello. Didn't mean to distract. I'll leave you to it."

She turned to leave, and Natalie took a step forward. "Wait."

Camille turned, tilting her head.

Except, what was Natalie supposed to say?

First, not only might those comments not have been an innuendo--though she was failing to see what else they could've been--but even if they had, it might be a coincidence. Just a crude sort of humor. Hardly impossible.

But what a coincidence. Making that sort of suggestion about how Natalie could use her illusions? After being fairly certain someone had caught her in the bathroom, yesterday?

On the chance it was, though, she shouldn't raise suspicion. After a long pause, Natalie continued lamely, "Never mind. See you at class."

Camille smirked.

She smirked.

She knew. Didn't she? Natalie couldn't tell. She didn't know the girl well enough.

"At class," Camille agreed. "Talk to you later."

Natalie stared, watching her go.

Great.

That wasn't going to drive her crazy.

2.21 - Agitate

Showing up to class a half-hour later and seeing Camille there, Natalie almost couldn't resist the urge to storm up and confront her. Except, she really couldn't tell whether she'd been reading into it. And if Camille had been the one who caught her, then, by the simple fact she hadn't tried to blackmail her yet, Natalie supposed she ought to be happy about things.

Though, 'yet' might be the operative word there.

The best case scenario was Camille simply liked seeing Natalie squirm. Which wasn't a great thing for her state of mind, but for her reputation at Tenet? Again, a rumor spreading that Natalie liked to summon illusions of her magic tutors and jerk off, loudly, in the public bathroom--that wouldn't paint her in the greatest light. To say the least.

Had she seriously done that? If she could go back in time and strangle herself, she would.

"What is it?" Jordan asked.

Natalie jumped. She realized she'd been staring. "Uh. Nothing."

By Jordan's quirked eyebrow, she'd made a few assumptions about why Natalie had been staring at Camille. Not wholly unfair ones. If the dark-haired woman wasn't the subject of Natalie's anxiety, then she'd happily admit just how much her classmate had going on.

Was it better or worse that such an attractive girl had been the one to catch her?

Had she liked what she'd seen?

Okay. That was the problem in the first place. Keep it in your pants, Nat.

"Gather around," Instructor Robin's voice rang through the sparring room. "Some quick announcements before we get started, today."

The sixteen students formed up in a semi-organized half circle. Like usual, Instructor Robin had arrived exactly on the dot, just as the bell rang.

"I'll get straight to things. First, I want to straighten out how the ranking system will work. It's better you know before it's official."

She spoke with a quick, impatient tone, wanting to deliver the information and be done with it. Instructor Robin had made it clear she enjoyed her job, the training of a new generation of delvers, but her dislike of her peripheral duties was equally clear.

"I'm sure everyone knows, by now, that Tenet will be ranking each of you across a variety of fields. Most critically, combat performance, academics, and delving. But let me ensure there's no misunderstanding. The first comes from official bouts and evaluated competitions, not our practices. Feel free to experiment and do poorly in my class. It's one of the few places you can do so without overmuch worry of injury."

Natalie found herself passively nodding along. She'd discovered why, despite the brutal intensity expected from Tenet students during spars, so few left the ring with life threatening injuries. Besides hitpoints--which weren't a panacea, merely a mitigator--it was the faculty.

Though Instructor Robin was no top ranker, she was a retired high-ranker. Likely the lower end of high, true, but a 'lower end' high ranker was still a position most delvers never managed. It meant she had astoundingly enhanced senses, and an equivalent ability to act on them. Several times, Natalie had seen the woman halt one of her student's strikes and spare a gruesome injury. She moved like a viper. Made them seem clumsy in comparison.

"And beyond that, evaluations for rankings won't begin until two weeks from now. That includes dungeon performance. This initial period is for finding your feet, finding teams, experimentation of all kind. A luxury you won't be afforded in the near future, so savor it while you can."

Natalie found herself biting down on a question. Not because she thought Instructor Robin was a woman intolerant of questions, but because she had a feeling it was something she should already know. Plus, no point in holding up the class. She'd ask Jordan in a second.

Instructor Robin surveyed the line of students, then nodded. "You two," she said, gesturing at Camille and a boy Natalie had yet to learn the name of. "And you two. You're up first. Get to it."

Jordan was included in the second pair, which Natalie frowned at. There went the person she'd intended to ask her question to.

Lining up to watch the spar--the rapid bouts tended to rotate, to give breathing time to the combatants--Natalie considered her alternative. Sofia. She found she had idly wandered over to the white-haired girl's side. That shouldn't be odd, considering they were prospective teammates, but Natalie had spent the past several years avoiding Sofia. So it was definitely weird, even if it shouldn't be.

She was just too... too... something. To be around. She messed with Natalie just by existing. Even now, that stupid, analyzing look on her face as she observed the spar. Why was it so irritating? And who the fuck thought it was okay to give her cheekbones like that? Natalie wanted to file a complaint with whatever deity had been in charge of Sofia. Several complaints. For varying reasons.

Blue eyes flicked to Natalie, catching her staring. Natalie narrowed her own. "Do you always have to come off as so perfect?"

She hadn't meant to start something, wandering over to Sofia's side, and when she instinctively had started something, it was supposed to be insulting. The question she'd asked, she realized a second too late, fell a few steps short of that.

"No," Sofia said dryly. "It comes naturally."

Natalie crossed her arms, making her lack of amusement clear. On anyone else, she would've figured the response stemmed from a sense of humor, but here, that wasn't possible. Sofia didn't have a sense of humor.

Which was good. It wouldn't have been fair if she'd been both able to trounce Natalie in a fight, and be likable. It was necessary for Natalie's world view for this girl to be annoying. To have some flaw. However much she seemed like it, she wasn't perfect. She refused to believe it.

"How's it work, anyway?" Natalie asked, finding, like always, her mind going on the fritz just by holding conversation with the girl. It was an unparalleled talent of Sofia's. Supernaturally gifted, maybe.

"Pardon?"

'Pardon'. And with that stupid little raise to her eyebrow? This girl was so aggravating. But Natalie was supposed to be playing nice with her, since she was her teammate for the short term, maybe even long term, so she cut off a retort.