Dungeons and Dalliances

“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.