Dungeons and Dalliances

If there was one piece of credit Jordan could give to their assaulters, it was that they didn’t gloat about their victory.

Well, besides Elida. But the smirk she wore as she had Liz strip off her gear and hand it over seemed to be for Liz alone. By Jordan’s appraisal, Elida genuinely didn’t care about rubbing the victory in to anyone else. To her, everyone else’s involvement—including her own team’s—was incidental. This had been between Beaumon and Parda-Halt.

Jordan had known they’d be getting mixed up with something political, coming to Tenet. While maybe spared the full intrigue of a court, the campus was swarming with all layers of nobility, and from other countries, even. That she, Natalie, and Sofia had decided to team up with a Beaumon meant political consequences would be coming for them.

Just, she hadn’t expected it to be so soon, and in such a dramatic fashion. What were the odds that the Beaumon’s arch-nemesis had bumped into them on their first long delve out? Astronomically low, she would have figured, but here they were.

All things considered, their team wasn’t in horrible shape. All of them had been taken out of the fight, HP dismantled and left stunned, but no accidents had happened—and accidents did, on occasion. HP wasn’t the most reliable resource when it came to ensuring someone’s safety, even if it usually saved your life, as long as you had the points to spare.

But beyond some cuts, bruises, and bumps, their team hadn’t taken any grievous injuries. It was the kind of beating a night’s rest would take care of, thanks to their classes. Jordan had honestly been beaten up worse in spars.

The emotional—and situational—damage was much worse.

Elida and her group took, as she had implied they would, nearly everything they owned. Not just their earnings from the hours delving prior, like Jordan’s quiver and Liz’s wand, but the gear they’d spent putting together for the past week. Elida’s teammates at least had the good grace to look awkward about it.

“We’ll leave you your weapons,” Elida said. “Besides Lizzy, of course. And your supplies. So you can fight your way out. If you five got killed, it would look bad on us.”

The humiliating event was at least short-lived. Jordan and her team were forced to peel off their relevant gear and hand it over, and the items went tucked into the opposing team’s monster cores, but with that done, Elida and her group departed, punctuated by a dainty wave of the red-head’s fingers. She had eyes only for Liz as her group departed down the trail of the Wispwood. The smirk was so blatant—and well-earned—that it grated even Jordan’s nerves.

And so her team sat in a scattered circle, in a motley arrangement of mundane armor and plainclothes, stripped of their belongings—and more importantly, their pride.

A cloud hung over them, and nobody spoke.

Even Jordan wasn’t immune to the sour mood, and she usually could brush past this sort of thing. But this was a more infuriating event than usual, because she held the lion’s share fault for the defeat. She had been the quickest to be downed, and the moment she’d failed to keep Elida’s attention, the enemy rogue had decimated her way through the rest of Jordan’s teammates.

Rationally, she knew she couldn’t be faulted for that, not fully. Elida was possibly the best student of their year. That Jordan had crumpled in a direct duel against her was inevitable.

She recognized this from a practical standpoint. Still, like all delvers, she had a competitive streak, and would have liked to have held off her opponent for a bit longer. Maybe if she had, then one of her teammates could have won their bout, and when Jordan finally fell, it would have been a four-on-four. Instead, Jordan had lasted all of half a minute.

She could barely remember the fight, even. Elida was a demon. For all her poise and smirks, she was no less vicious with her daggers than her tongue. Looking back on it, Jordan was almost impressed she had lasted as long she had.

Jordan sighed. It would be on her to smooth this over, she could tell. Who else would try to rally the team after something so morale-breaking? And that did need to be done. Sometimes delving wasn’t about combat. As with any venture operating in teams, the human element couldn’t be discounted.

The heavens knew Natalie, Ana, or Sofia wouldn’t be taking care of it, trying to bring the team back together. Liz, Jordan figured, would usually do so, but she seemed to be in the worst mood of everyone. Understandably so. The poor girl was slumped over and staring at the ground, fists clenched on her lap. Elida hadn’t even left her her weapon.

Ignoring her own shame, Jordan stood and stretched, rolling out sore muscles and groaning in an exaggerated way.

“Okay,” she said. “That sucked. But no point in moping.”

Four pairs of eyes turned to her.

“What?” Jordan said. “It’s not the end of the world. Don’t be babies.”

She received a few different expressions at that. Natalie was of course the person her attention gravitated to first, and her best friend was, to no one’s surprise, practically seething where she sat—and the glare pivoted Jordan’s way at the dismissive words. Jordan could feel the heat radiating from her, and that disoriented her, even if she knew Natalie wasn’t actually mad at her. The girl was just someone who burned hot.

Jordan rolled her eyes, which Natalie probably didn’t like, but she wouldn’t pull everyone out of the slump by being timid. She turned her attention to the others, more worried for them. Natalie’s anger, while smoldering right now, would cool shortly. Liz’s depression, Sofia’s icy rage, and Ana’s—well, who knew what Ana was thinking, like usual—Jordan expected would be more difficult to handle.

They all seemed irritated at her, which was good news, and had been the intent at the goading words. Anything to drag their focus away from their thrashing and robbery.

“It’s really not,” Jordan said. “And stop looking at me like that. Boo-hoo, we lost a fight.” She clapped her hands together. “Come on. Let’s start figuring this out. It’s a little setback, but what’d you all expect, becoming delvers? For everything to be easy?”

That drew even more irritation, which, again, was what she’d been aiming for. Better mad at her than hunched over and depressed.

“So,” Jordan said. “Seriously. Let’s talk it out.”