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"U m... Beck? What exactly is this?"

Beck smiles wide as he gestures to a group of five first-year waters he has paraded into the common room. It's late, but our promotion to aspirant privileges means we have a light day of classes on weekends, so we're all less exhausted than usual. At least most of us are. Some seem to be using the extra time to sleep with everyone they can.

The fear that every day could be our last has a lot of students acting without reserve. Who is sleeping with whom doesn't even qualify as an interesting rumor at this point. If anything, my lack of sexual activity is more rumor worthy than someone bedding a different partner every night.

I eye Beck and his small parade of pretty girls. A prickle of foreboding crawls up my spine—whatever he's doing, I'm sure it's going to be stupid.

"Agreed," Typhon says. "His elemental, Uther, also lacks deep intelligence. And he's rather promiscuous, from what I hear."

"Elementals gossip about sex, too?"

"We do not gossip. We simply exchange facts, suspicions, and bits of news."

"So you gossip."

Typhon blows out a puff of steam from his nostrils and turns his head slightly from me, his reptilian pride clearly wounded. "In any case. It seems the yellow-haired human is displaying his mating conquests. Impressive. I can deduce he has a preference for large milk glands in sexual partners. Curious. Would those not prove a hindrance in combat?"

"These," Beck says, sweeping his arm with a flourish, "are my suggestions for our fifth Crucible member. Each woman here was carefully vetted.”

One of the girls—a redhead with a curvy figure and, as Typhon noted, large "milk glands," cocks her head. "You said you had a surprise for me."

"Right, Misti!" Beck says, moving to touch both her arms and bend down to her height. "You've got a one in five chance of being added to our group. That's the surprise."

"But who are these other girls?" She asks, pointing at the others, who all look equally confused. "You told me you didn't talk to Havi anymore."

"Excuse me?" Havi asks. She's a dark-skinned girl with upturned eyes and cat-like features. "You said Misti was 'old news.'"

"Old news?" Misti asks, stepping out of line to face off with Havi. A dagger of water forms in her hand and the temperature in the room drops like a stone. "You want to see old news? Because I can show you?—"

"Ladies, ladies," Beck says, stepping between them. "We can all be friends here. But... only one of you can be our fifth. So who is it going to be?"

"In a way, it's almost impressive," Mireen says out of the side of her mouth. We're both sitting on the safety of a comfortable couch as we watch the tensions rise among Beck's girls. "How does someone so dumb manage to string along so many people?"

"Hold on," a black-haired girl named Poltrice cuts in. "Are you still sleeping with all these whores, too?"

"Hah," Brunhild says. She's taller than all the other girls by at least a head and nearly Beck's size with broad shoulders and muscular arms. "She admits she is whore. This is funny."

"What did you say?" Misti says, raising her water dagger, her eyes flashing dangerously.

"Real man sleeps with who he likes. Just like real woman does. Weak woman calls names." Brunhild spreads her wide arms. "We should fight for him."

I raise my eyebrows and look to Ambrose. He has a small handful of nuts he smuggled from the dining room and he's snacking on them eagerly, eyes wide as he watches the unfolding chaos.

"We don't need to fight," Beck says. "I was hoping we'd just?—"

But all hells break loose.

Misti gets disarmed and pinned to the ground by Poltrice, who is tackled by Brunhild.

There's some hair pulling, a lot of shouting, a little bit of unsanctioned channeling, and then the elementals appear.

I pull my feet up to keep my distance from the melee as water elementals clash amid the wrestling and screaming girls. Despite the tensions, nobody is going for fatal attacks, thankfully. It looks more like a training session on overdrive.

Somehow, it's all over in less than a minute. Beck is slapped no less than four times as disheveled and pissed girls storm out of the room.

Once the dust has settled, Brunhild is the last one standing and she wears a satisfied grin.

Beck clears his throat and brushes some dust from his uniform. "Well," he says. "That's basically how I planned for things to go. More or less. Winner, Brunhild!"

"This was good plan," Brunhild notes, arms folded as she nods with satisfaction.

"Meet Brunhild," Beck says, gesturing with both hands. "Her elemental was that giant crab doing the hair pulling. The crab is called Nora."

Mireen eyes me. "Is he serious?"

"I think he has no idea how ridiculous he is," Ambrose adds. "It's both his greatest strength and greatest weakness."

"I thought we agreed to stick with four," I say carefully. "No offense, Brunhild."

"Offense taken," she says seriously. Her blue eyes regard me coldly, sending an involuntary shiver down my spine.

“If she kills you, can I let some of my rats crash in your former room?” Mireen asks. “Mine is getting kind of crowded.”

I squint. “How many rats have you adopted, exactly?”

“Not important,” Mireen sits back, hands folded as she whistles innocently.

Beck puts an arm around Brunhild’s shoulder. He's big enough that even she looks small beside him, but she's nearly a head taller than me and looks like she could snap me in half. "Don't mind Nessa. She's just a little paranoid. Thinks everybody wants to kill us. But that's only because a lot of people here have tried to kill her. You could argue it even makes sense, from her point of view."

"She makes offense. That's what she makes," Brunhild says.

"Okay, I'm just going to say it," Mireen says. "Brunhild already looks like she wants to smash Nessa into little pieces. I don't know if that's the best quality in a fifth member of our group."

"Or," Beck says, eyebrows high. "Hear me out... the fact that she's not trying to hide wanting to crush Nessa a little bit is exactly why we can trust her. If she was with Malakai, she'd be sneakier than that, right? She'd be playing nice right now and trying to weasel her way onto our team. Then during the Crucible, she'd spring her trap."

"I hate to say this," Ambrose says. "But that actually does make some sense."

"Maybe we make group of four," Brunhild says, her deep voice heavily accented, though I can't place where it's from. I wonder if it's from somewhere distant, maybe even off the main continent. "We take the small one with big ass, drop her out window, and then we find stronger replacement?"

"Big ass?" I blurt. The only thing keeping me from laughing is the fear that Brunhild might actually try to throw me out a window.

“She’s not wrong,” Mireen says with a shrug.

"Uh," Beck says. "I love the enthusiasm and creative problem solving Brunhild, that's one of my favorite things about you. But Nessa stays. We like her."

"Hm," Brunhild says, blue eyes assessing me. "If sexy bear likes her, then Brunhild will like her. It is settled."

Ambrose sputters with laughter. I look his way, biting back my own smile as I see him mouth the words "sexy bear"?

"Alright, sexy bear," Mireen says, barely keeping a straight face. "Why don't you take Brunhild back to where you found her for now. We'll keep her in mind as a potential fifth."

Beck gives a thumbs up and leads Brunhild out of the common room. Before they're out of view, Brunhild takes a generous handful of Beck's left butt-cheek.

Classy.

"Are we sure we can trust Beck's intelligence?" Ambrose asks once he's gone. "I'm starting to worry he's getting dumber by the day."

"The scarier question is how he's convincing all these girls to sleep with him," Mireen says. "He's not that cute."

"So, what do we think about the scary blonde girl?" Ambrose asks. He pulls his rounded glasses from his face and gives them a wipe on his black aspirant uniform. "I actually am leaning toward trusting her. And we saw she can handle herself in a fight. Akaron didn't sense anything off about her, either."

"I still think five is better than four," Mireen says. "Brunhild seems loyal to Beck, at least. I think we can trust her."

"And what happens when Beck moves on and sleeps with a few other girls before the Crucible? Can we trust Brunhild not to go on a violent rampage and rip us all limb from limb?"

"Hmm," Ambrose says. "We just need to get Beck to promise to keep his dick in his pants. Or at least only release it for Brunhild."

I chuckle. "Yeah. Good luck with that."

"Good luck with what?" Beck asks as he returns to the room.

"We can't use her as a fifth," I say. "The moment you get bored and sleep with another girl, she'll turn on us."

"Brunhild is very open-minded about that sort of thing. On our way out, she asked how you were in bed, Nessa. I think she has come around on you. Honestly, I think she's planning to make a move on you. Or maybe she wants me to make a move on you? I wasn’t sure which it was."

Mireen nudges me. "You could be Brunhild’s big assed girl toy on the side."

"First of all, my ass isn't that big."

Beck pulls a face.

"What?"

"I mean... it's impressive. I'll leave it there."

Ambrose looks like he's trying very hard to stay out of the conversation.

"Believe it or not," I say, annoyance touching my voice. "I'm a lot more worried about surviving the Crucible than what you and Brunhild think about my body, Beck. So I need to know if you think we can actually trust her not to try to get us killed."

"Brunhild could have killed me already if she wanted. I let her tie my hands to the bedpost all the time. I'm completely defenseless. Naked. A little scared. Very aroused. But?—"

"That's plenty of input, Beck," I say, holding up a hand to stop him before he mentally scars me. "Thanks."

Beck shrugs. "I'll just say this. She’s got the strongest grip I’ve ever seen. And not just in her hands."

"Ugh," Mireen says, holding up both hands. "Didn't ask, Beck."

"I'd rather know I can trust everyone in our group,” I say. “Even if she's strong."

"Very strong. Full body," Beck adds.

"Even if she's strong," I repeat, trying to pretend I didn't hear him. "She's a question mark. I'm not sure it's worth the risk."

"Does this have something to do with Voss?" Mireen asks slowly.

"I don't know," I say. Whenever they ask about my meetings with Voss, I feel a sudden and almost uncontrollable need to change the subject. My skin prickles with anxiety. The entire focus of my relationship with Voss revolves around being unbound—around the secret I’m still keeping from my closest friends. "I just know Raith said he'll look out for us. He's not interested in winning to earn a spot as a legacy, so he's going to just keep an eye out for us."

"Wait, what?" Ambrose leans forward, eyebrows high. "Who wouldn't want to be a legacy? You know there's an entire section of the library they only give legacies access to?"

"He had… strong words about legacies. Just trust me. He’s not interested in winning. So with Raith and his group protecting us and Typhon, I don't really see why we need a fifth."

"And you think nobody in Raith's group will actually want to be legacies?" Beck asks. "They'll just agree to follow him for babysitter duty?"

"You've seen them. They're all loyal to him. Except Serena."

"What if she's had enough time to change some of their minds since Confluence Day?" Ambrose asks. "She's a terrible person, but I have to admit I can imagine her... charming her way into a few hearts."

Beck nods. "Serena is fucking hot. He's right. I could imagine a hypothetical situation where getting into her pants could convince me to do some stupid things."

"Beck..." Mireen warns.

"Hypothetical. I said hypothetical."

I chew my nail. I honestly hadn't thought about Serena winning over allies. A sudden itch to talk to Raith and try to warn him rises up in me. My pulse doubles at the thought of something happening to him.

"What about Bastian?" Ambrose asks. "Is he going to look out for us during the Crucible, too? He's got nothing to win, so that would at least make more sense since I know he wants to get in your pants."

"I've tried to tell you guys a thousand times," I sigh.

"Just like you've told us there's nothing between you and Raith?" Mireen asks, wiggling her eyebrows. "And yet you guys are constantly sneaking off together?"

"It's not constantly. I've told you he just helps me train."

"Convenient," Beck says, leaning against the wall and folding his muscular arms over his chest. "They disappear to train. An activity that leaves people looking a lot like they just vigorously fucked."

"Nessa has been getting good with that rapier really fast," Ambrose notes. "If he's not actually training her, how do you explain that?"

"Easy,” Beck says. “Raith lets her practice with his ‘rapier’ every night. Two hands. One hand. No hands. ”

Mireen covers her mouth so I don't see her smile, but I whack her on the arm anyway.

"You're all ridiculous. Except Ambrose. Thank you, Ambrose."

"Just to be clear, I still think you guys are having sex," Ambrose says. "I just also think you're finding time to train. And I definitely think something's going on with you and Bastian, too."

"Wow," I say, shaking my head. "I've only spoken to Bastian a handful of times since we got here. I hardly even know him." It feels mostly true, at least. His gift of the unbound book and his knowledge about what I am seems like a level of intimacy that adds weight to our few meetings.

But at least the essence of what I'm saying feels true: I don't think Bastian has any particular feelings for me. If anything, he's just another person who is trying to decide how he can best use my abilities. The only difference is I have no idea what use he thinks he can have for me. All I know is they don't involve me being dead, which lets me trust him to an extent.

"You have to admit," Mireen says. "It's suspicious that both men just happen to be around you so often. Not that you don't have a great personality, but..."

"I've got to go," I say, standing suddenly. I'm still thinking about Raith. About Ambrose's point. If Raith doesn't know Serena could be raising allies, he might be in far more danger than he realizes. My chest tightens at the thought.

"Nessa," Mireen says. "We're just kidding around. The Crucible is looming over all of us like an executioner's blade. Talking about dumb stuff like this makes things feel a little more normal. It's nice to at least act like we're not fighting for our lives once in a while."

I shake my head. "It's okay. I get it. I'm not upset, I just... need to talk to someone."

Beck and Ambrose share a look. Beck loops his thumb and forefinger into a circle and slides his other index finger into the circle meaningfully while mouthing the word "talk."

Ignoring him, I rush to leave the aspirant's section of the water's common room and head down the spiral staircase.

"Ahhh," Typhon says. "I now understand what the circle and finger gesture means. It's a depiction of sexual activity. They believe you're going to look for the fire touched to mate."

"Raith doesn't want me like that, Typhon. I just want to make sure he has thought about the possibility of Serena secretly gathering allies." Even as I say the words, I feel the flutter in my belly that seems to accompany thoughts of Raith these days.

"And yet I feel the truth through the tether, angry human. You know he has likely thought of this. You just crave his... scent?"

"Is there a way to just... shut the door on you for a little?"

"I would still be able to sense you through doors and communicate with you. I am Typhon. Ancient, immensely powerful, and blessed with the form of a water dragon. I could simply break the door."

With a sigh, I try not to focus on his continued rambling in my mind as I head for the fire tower. I've never gone there before, but I figure it's where I'll find Raith.

There are no strict rules about entering the towers of other affinities. In fact, I know plenty of students sleep around between affinities, even if the fires and earths are slightly more taboo partners for waters and airs. For some, that seems to be half the fun.

Even if there's no rule against it, I find myself hesitating at the entrance of the fire tower. I tell myself I'm being silly, then push through the wide double doors at the base of the structure. Considering the outside of the fire tower is bathed in constant, swirling flames and smoke, I assumed it would be unbearably hot inside. Instead, it's only pleasant and warm. The walls glow a soft yellow-red, providing plenty of light as I climb a spiraling staircase that's similar to the one in the water tower.

I reach the first landing, which would have been where the offerings were housed if the layout was the same as the water tower. I pass it, heading higher up the tower toward where the aspirant rooms should be.

I find a long hallway lined with the same glowing yellow-red bricks. There's a pair of girls with orange eyes and glowing fire marks a little ways down the hall. Both wear uniforms marking them as first-years, which seems like a good thing. The upper years often act like we don't exist, so I doubt any of them would be able to tell me where to find Raith.

"Um, hi," I say, stopping a few steps away from the girls.

Their eyes fall immediately to my affinity mark, then lift to my eyes. I see recognition there.

"You're Nessa," one says. "The one who nearly got eaten by a rogue elemental during your trial."

"And then she tethered a flying fish on Confluence Day," the other adds with a cruel smile. "To think, people thought you surviving that elemental during the trial meant you were bound for big things."

Typhon prowls into my view, teeth bared as his long, serpentine body coils around the girls, wings slowly unfolding.

"You told me to stop asking if I could eat people. So I shall not ask."

"Telling me you're not asking is pretty similar to asking, Typhon."

"Noted."

"I was wondering if either of you know where I could find Raith."

They share a knowing look. One folds her arms and eyes me up and down again. This time, it's more of a feminine appraisal and has nothing to do with my affinity. "So the rumors about you two are true?"

"No," I sigh. I've already had my fill of talk about rumors and silliness for one day. It's taking effort to keep my temper from flaring now. "I just need to talk to him."

The girls share another look, as if deciding whether they want to tell me.

"Okay," one says. "We're actually on our way to meet him right now. You can tag along. Just promise to keep your little flying fish away from us."

I force a smile as they laugh at my expense and start walking.

"I am not asking to eat them, but I am sending you awareness of my hunger through the tether. Do you feel it, angry human?"

I grin. "Quit trying to circumvent the no eating people rule, Typhon. I get it. You want to eat them."

"If I were permitted to speak about my desires to eat humans, I would start with the one on the left. And I would do it in my prestigious kuratokken form. The 'flying fish' as she so dismissively puts it.”

I continue following the girls as we leave the fire tower and pass through the courtyard. "I think your kuratokken form might be too small for eating people."

"I am Typhon. I would find a way."

We enter the eastern wing of campus, pass through halls that are mostly empty at this hour on a weekend, and stop outside a pair of doors. "This is it," one of the girls says.

I hear muffled voices inside and nod.

The girls push open the doors and I follow them inside.

And then they slide in behind me, closing the doors tightly and throwing the latch over the lock.

I frown, then squint against the brightness of torches in the empty classroom. There are nearly a dozen figures approaching me.

"Raith?" I ask, my voice coming out as little more than a whisper.

"Oh... what did you bring us?" asks a familiar voice.

And then Malakai steps in front of the torches, flanked by Serena and several very large and angry looking students.

Fuck.