Lying on his bed, Basque stared at the ceiling. He’d avoided an open revolt in his class, but things would still be rocky for a while. Just because the class accepted his logic didn’t mean they were happy or that they forgave him.

  Billiam had been a big help. He was glad that one person in power seemed to be a decent person, if not a bit on the forward side. With his help, they shortened the transfer process so that Banca would only miss one day of classes. Of course, Natt almost randomly deciding to adopt Banca was a huge factor in that. He didn’t even know what all that would entail.

  The clicking of the door closing told Basque that Natt was back from her talk with Banca, and he sat up in bed. “How’d it go?”

  “As fine as it would be telling a girl who was poisoned against me that I’m planning on adopting her.” Natt leaned against the closed door.

  “She loved you once, though, right?”

  Natt shrugged. “I like to think so.”

  “Do you want to talk about it more?”

  She tilted her head. “Let me take a bath first.”

  Basque nodded, and she pushed herself off the door. She didn’t strip down in their room; she just went into the bathroom and closed the door.

  He remembered her tearful confession that morning, and his heart ached for her. Maybe he’d been a bit harsh towards her when she’d been in her drunk phase. He’d so blithely believed that she’d turned herself into that state simply because she’d fallen.

  No, there was so much more to her story than he would have ever believed. She was a brave, strong, and proud woman. Her life and her goals had been betrayed, then life kept kicking her more and more while she was down.

  His chest swelled. He didn’t care how it happened; he was going to spend the rest of his life with her. The first thing he would do would be to start petitioning Eder. The Yani-spawn owed him more than just fixing her eye. Next, he’d send letters back home, directly petitioning, and then to his mother to get her working on it as well.

  Sure, Eder might give him grief for asking his mom for help, but Basque didn’t care. What was the point of having a parent in power and then refusing to ask that parent for help? She could always say no. Spending his life with the woman he loved was more important than whatever some prick thought of him.

  When Natt came into the room, she was wrapped in one of Basque’s sleeping robes. It was slightly too large for her, and she had no idea how to close it properly, so when she moved, it flashed parts of her body. Why are women wearing men’s clothing so sexy? Basque wondered.

  But now was not the time for that. She’d only given him a brief conversation that morning after a giant Yani nest had been stumbled upon. He also needed to know how her conversation with Banca went.

  “I see where your eyes keep drifting,” Natt said.

  Basque smiled. “Later. Talk to me.”

  She crawled across the bed, and the sash holding the robe closed fell apart. “What if I don’t want to talk right now?”

  Pulling her to him, Basque flipped her onto her back. She cooed, then tsked when he tied the robe shut instead of taking it off.

  “Talk first. None of your running away.”

  “It went fine. Okay?” She pulled at the sash.

  Basque put his hand on hers. “Natt…”

  Her hands fell away from the knot, and she sighed. “She agreed to it, okay?”

  Lying down next to her with his hand propping up his head, Basque ran his other hand along the side of her face. “Are you happy?”

  “Yes. No. I don’t know. The little girl I knew and loved would never have done to Reianna what she did to her.”

  “Do you still think she’s in there?”

  “I don’t know if anyone is still in there. Tonight she was so…despondent. I think maybe the events all caught up to her at last.”

  “Do you think you should stay the night with her?”

  Natt shook her head. “She’s not suicidal, just…it doesn’t feel like she has the will to live anymore.”

  Basque raised an eyebrow. “That’s so different from last night.”

  “I know.”

  “What does it mean for you to have adopted her?”

  Taking his hand away from her face, Natt held it in hers. “It’s more of a legal thing. It just means I can speed up things like Billiam and I did today. Relationship-wise, we’re still just strangers. Well, she still hates me.”

  “Do you hate her?”

  “I hated what she did to Reianna. I begged her to stop. She laughed at me. It was like…she’d turned into a Yani in the three years I couldn’t see her.”

  “Why didn’t you talk to me about it?”

  Natt rolled her head over and looked at him. “I couldn’t even tell you what Banca was doing, let alone the complicated relationship I had with her.” Natt dropped her voice an octave. “Oh, hey, Mr. foreign-guy-I’ve-known-for-a-month-and-am-now-boffing, the girl I was a surrogate mother for is abusing your favorite student! Mind if I cry on your shoulder?”

  Basque laughed. “I get your point.”

  “After that, I didn’t really think it mattered. Even after the trial, I tried to look out for her as best I could, but you know how kids can be.”

  Basque thought of coming across Banca being beaten in the shadows of the Grand Entrance Hall. He’d only stumbled across her by dumb luck. “Yeah…But you could have told me something then.”

  “Are you comforting me or blaming me?”

  “Comforting? Look, I’m just trying to say that you can tell me things.”

  “Understood. I’ll pipe up if something comes up.”

  “Why does she hate you so much?”

  Natt shrugged. “I don’t know the exact reasons, but I know Jorellan well enough to kind of guess. It’s not a big secret that I’ve spent my life trying to improve the situation for commoners. That’s never made me popular among most of the nobility.”

  Basque lowered his head to the pillow. “Billiam seems to like you well enough.”

  Natt laughed. “Billiam doesn’t count. He’s a mage, not nobility. If mages were allowed in the nobility, all the upper rankings would be filled with them; that’s why they’re on a different system.”

  “But he likes you, right?”

  “He’s been an ally well enough. I don’t really trust any mages, and Billiam has his own agenda, but our goals line up often enough that we’re on good terms.”

  “I see.”

  Natt rolled over so that she was looking at Basque. “Jorellan wasn’t directly involved with my fall, but he would have supported it. And he would have taken advantage of it.”

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  “How so?”

  “I can just tell from the way Banca speaks about commoners that he would have used my concern for them as a cautionary tale. I don’t know what he would have said exactly, but that’s where the fanaticism she had against commoners when she came to Dyntril would have come from.”

  Once again, Basque reached out and stroked Natt’s face. “I’m sorry.”

  “It is what it is. When I taught her, she felt for them. I know she has the compassion in her, but I’m just worried the damage might be too much.”

  “She’s still young.”

  Natt grabbed Basque’s robe and pulled him closer to her. “Is that enough talking for you?”

  “How do you feel about becoming her mom?”

  “Ugh!” Natt moaned and pushed him away. She rolled on her back to stare at the ceiling again. “Can’t you just fuck me like a normal guy?”

  “We have to get through your feelings first.”

  “What sort of freak have I fallen in love with?! Fine! I’m conflicted and scared. Now fuck me.”

  “Conflicted?”

  “Basque! Yes! I’m conflicted. After I left her life, she wasn’t a good person! I’ve not exactly had the nicest things to say about her. I called her a Julvie in the making. At times, I didn’t treat her like someone I used to love, and I’m feeling guilty.”

  As he opened his mouth, Natt slapped his chest. “Shut it! I’m scared because of all the things that I’ve told you, and I’ve attached myself to her again. Happy? Is that good? Do we need to talk more, or can you put your dick inside me already?”

  Basque laughed.

  Natt rolled over, then got on top of him. “You know what? Fuck you, because if you won’t fuck me, I’m just going to fuck you.”

  She leaned down and kissed him. He pulled on the knot of her sash, and her robe fell open.

  “That’s more like it,” she said.

  ***

  The next morning, Natt woke before he did.

  “This is a first,” Basque said.

  “I need to tell Banca what’s going on.”

  “Should I come with you? I should probably explain the pods to her.”

  “You are the main teacher.” As she got out of bed, she put Basque’s robe on. “You know, this thing’s pretty warm.”

  “It is.”

  “I might appropriate this for myself.”

  “Only if you want me to be all over you.”

  She smiled at him. “You just lost yourself a robe.”

  Sliding over to the edge of the bed, he put his arms around her and pulled her to him. She kissed him, then pushed herself away.

  “You should have done more of that last night, and not been all Mr. Sensitive.”

  “You were pretty sensitive after.”

  She slapped him. “No sex jokes in the morning.”

  He laughed.

  As she walked to the bathroom, Natt said, “We need to get ready before all the students head out for breakfast. You and I can talk to Banca while the others are out training.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  By the time they’d changed, all the students except Banca had left for the morning training. Basque’s new student answered the door in her nightgown.

  “Oh, morning, Mom.” She said to Natt, then looked at Basque, but didn’t address him.

  Basque cleared his throat. “We’ve got some things to explain to you, Miss Banca. Mind if we come in?”

  She walked away from the door. Basque followed Natt in and closed it behind them. Banca sat down on the sofa while Basque and Natt took the two armchairs across from her.

  “How are you feeling?” Basque asked Banca.

  Banca pulled her legs up on the couch and put her hands in her lap. “Like everyone I knew was murdered. How are you? Did you sleep well?”

  “Banca,” Natt said.

  “Oh, right, my mom avoided the purge.”

  Basque frowned. He wanted to scold her and let her know her attitude wasn’t appropriate, but at the same time, he didn’t think being stern with a child in her position would be beneficial. He would let her lash out for now, but wouldn’t tolerate it in class.

  “We’re here to help you, Ba—Miss Banca.”

  “You can call me Banca. You don’t put the honorifics on anyone else, do you?”

  Basque clasped his hands together. “I understand that you are hurt and need to lash out. Natt and I will take it, but I ask that you try to be more polite with the other students.”

  “Ha. Like they’ll talk to me.”

  “They will. I have my class work in pods. Some of them have volunteered to take you into their pod.”

  “By volunteer, you mean you forced, right?”

  He shook his head. “No, they volunteered. Cayelyn, Jame, Kolt, and Kamryn will be your pod mates.”

  “Not Reianna?”

  “No, not Reianna.”

  Banca pouted.

  “For your safety, you are required to move in a pod. If one member is delayed, all members are delayed. So, when you go to breakfast, or go to class, or go to work out, you will all be together.”

  “How suffocating.”

  “Kruami fights Yani in groups, right?”

  “Yes…”

  Basque held his hands out. “These are the groups. Currently, everyone is off doing their morning exercises. It’s fine that you missed them today, but you will be with them tomorrow.”

  She opened her mouth.

  “If it’s not a ‘Yes, Gerenet-Shr,’ I don’t want to hear it.”

  She closed her mouth.

  Natt scooted to the edge of her seat. “The paperwork will go through today, so you need to stay in here until tomorrow. Belinia will bring you your food in here.” Though her face said she wanted to say more, Natt fell silent.

  “Do you have any questions?”

  “Yes. Why do you have Marchioness Wendina’s dog here?”

  Basque’s blood ran cold, but he kept his face straight. “I brought that dog with me from Hianbru. If it looks like Marchioness Wendina’s dog, it’s just a coincidence. I always have a low Yani-ratio animal in storage for classes to teach about inspections.”

  After glaring at him for a solid second, Banca said, “Okay. Not that I really care about someone eaten by Yani. I don’t know if anyone else would notice. I just love dogs, and Sanya was a friend.”

  He understood her implication that no one but her or Sanya would recognize Crystal. Whether she meant it or not, he also understood her implied threat that she thought he might have had something to do with Wendina’s death.

  “Do you think you can take care of Crystal today?”

  She shrugged. “Sure.” Despite her attempt to be apathetic, the flush in her cheeks gave away her excitement about the prospect.

  “There’s one more thing I need you to do. Daymein has a charm skill. I need everyone in my class to raise their INT high enough to resist it. I’ve taught the technique to raise that stat to the rest of the class.”

  “What? Stats? Int?” Banca looked at Natt. “Is he still speaking Kruamian?”

  Natt nodded. “Yes. I’ve been doing this training, too.”

  “Okay, fine. Teach me.”

  Closing his eyes, Basque let her tone wash over him. She was hurting, and this wasn’t an official class. After he opened his eyes, he looked at Banca. Her hair was still scraggly and uneven, and her skin was pallid. He couldn’t imagine what it was like inside her mind.

  “Alright, do you know how to bring up the command line in the interface?”

  Banca shook her head.

  “Okay, I’ll ask one of your pod members to teach you what they know later, but for now, I’m just going to teach you how to get what you need.”

  He told her how to pull up the command line. After she said she got it up, he told her how to input into it, and then said, “Type in ‘service -hud --module=stats --submod=INT’.”

  “What the Yani is this?”

  “That’s your INT stat. It will protect you from mental attacks.”

  “It’s just gibberish.”

  Basque nodded. “Yes, but it’s important gibberish. Now, in order to increase it, you have to stare at that dialog and just be calm. Contemplate life. Think about what you want, about who you want to be. It doesn’t matter what you think about as long as you are calm and stare at that box.”

  “That’s it?”

  “That’s it. Please do this for at least an hour a day.”

  “An hour? It’s really supposed to do something? What a bunch of carp.”

  Basque nodded.

  “I’m doing it, too,” Natt said. “It’s really amazing how it re-centers me, along with creating that immunity.”

  Banca tilted her head and rolled her eyes up. “Fine. I’ll do it.”

  “You can tell if it’s working because the number will increase if you are doing it right.”

  “The five at the end?”

  Basque kept himself from wincing. Her INT was only five? Natt’s theory that Jorellan had somehow influenced his daughter became stronger. The girl was effectively defenseless against mental attacks. “Correct. If it doesn’t go up by the end of the day, let me know.”

  “Sure.”

  “Right. That’s about everything I wanted to say. Natt, you good?”

  “We’re good,” Banca answered for her.

  Basque could see the pain in Natt’s eyes as she looked down. She nodded once and stood; Basque stood with her.

  Looking away from Natt, he turned his attention back to Banca. “Let me know if you have any questions. I’m always available to hear from you, no matter the time of day or problem. I can’t promise I’ll have an answer, but I’ll do my best.”

  Banca looked at the floor. “Thank you.”

  Out in the hallway, Natt turned and pressed her head into his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her and held her to him. He knew the conflict in her heart was raging. The fact that she’d not given up on Banca and was still trying made him love Natt more.