It technically wasn’t the worst case scenario. That would have been a party hunting down enemy delving groups with intent to kill. Indeed, their opposition was a group of other Tenet students, so their literal safety—in the lethal sense—was assured. Maybe tensions between House Beaumon and Parda-Halt were high, but Natalie was ninety-nine percent sure that murder wasn’t on the table. Especially since Liz wasn’t that important inside House Beaumon. Though maybe that was worse for their situation. Natalie really wouldn’t know. Politics.

Elida’s party was composed of, unsurprisingly, five people in the archetypal layout. Elida herself was her team’s rogue. The heavily armored boy at the front, the tank, hadn’t removed his helm, so Natalie couldn’t make out much of him. From his gear alone, though, she could tell he was even more defensively focused than the average tank. She thought his name was Otto, but wasn’t sure.

The fighter, a boy with green hair, a crooked nose, and a scar on his lower lip, Natalie recognized from yesterday’s spars. Another member of class twelve, as Elida. She couldn’t remember his name. He’d been good—as all of class twelve.

Finally, the backline was composed of their healer, a girl with long brown hair, and a mage with short orange hair. Natalie didn’t recognize the mage, but the healer was another of class twelve. That wasn’t surprising; competent delvers usually wanted to group with one another.

Natalie didn’t get a chance to make more than a superficial appraisal of her opponents. Arriving within a distance they could casually speak, Elida was happy to take the opportunity.

“My, my, my,” the red-head’s amused voice rang out. “What do we have here? Is that you, dear Elizabeth? And your wonderful collection of strays, no less. How fortuitous of a meeting.”

By the girl’s tone alone, Natalie’s hopes that this encounter wouldn’t be antagonistic evaporated. Now, she just hoped it would be refrained to insults. Even that she found herself dubious on. The glint in Elida’s eyes was a bit too excited—a bit too opportunistic.

“Elida,” Liz returned frostily. “Yes. How nice to see you.”

Hearing Liz take an unfriendly tone was, funny enough, the most shocking part of everything. Natalie got the sudden impression that more than a house rivalry, there was some personal dislike mixed in between these two girls.

Which, great. Even better.

The ‘collection of strays’ comment hadn’t endeared Elida to Natalie, obviously, and she was definitely pissed off from it, but she was still digesting what was going on. She would really rather this unfortunate encounter wrap up cleanly and without incident. She wanted to be on with delving—seeking out a boss, not dealing with Tenet politics.

“And you as well, of course,” Elida said politely, her expression belying the seemingly friendly tone. The two girls studied each other for a long moment, when Elida finally continued: “So. How’s the delve going, Lizzy?”

“Don’t call me that,” Liz said flatly.

Elida’s grin widened at the response. She didn’t address it. “We haven’t been having much luck, ourselves. Not a single uncommon, the whole way through—and we’ve found two mini bosses. The dungeon’s being stingy, today.”

Natalie would’ve sympathized—that was rather unfortunate—but for obvious reasons, failed to dredge up any empathy.

“I was starting to wonder whether the whole expedition would be so unlucky,” Elida continued. “But, ah, it never lasts forever. Here it is. Our windfall. In such wonderful form.” Her eyes roved across Natalie’s party, the predatory smirk accompanying her words making her intentions clear.

Natalie internally grimaced. Not that she was surprised. She’d had a feeling what this would turn into the moment they’d bumped into another party—and doubly so when it turned out to be Elida.

“I like that wand, especially,” Elida said. “Is it new? I wonder how much it’ll go for on the Exchange.”

Liz’s grip tightened on the shaft of wood. She, like Natalie, didn’t seem surprised at the threat.

So.

This would be coming to a fight, then.

Natalie scanned the faces of Elida’s team. Though the red-haired woman had jumped to the implication of a fight in just a few sentences, the rest of her team didn’t seem half as eager. Rather, all four of them seemed uncomfortable by this encounter. Though not unwilling. They might not want to attack Natalie’s group, but it was clear where their allegiances lay. If Elida—the clear leader of the this group, by status if not literally—told them to, then they would.

And Natalie didn’t like her team’s odds. At least three of their opponents were from class twelve, which yesterday’s spars had shown to be, probably, the best students of the year. As expected of Elida’s teammates—who Camille predicted to be easily within the top five, possibly the best single student of the year.

No, if it came to a fight, Natalie didn’t see them winning. That stung, and she had zero intentions to roll over and give up, but she could still face the facts. They were outmatched.

“You wouldn’t,” Liz finally said. “It’s against Tenet policy.”

The statement was endearing, though it made Natalie want to snort. She had a feeling Elida didn’t care much about policy. And attacking other students in the dungeon wasn’t an expellable offense. Not an insignificant one, either, but Tenet didn’t mind letting rivalries foster between their students. Conflict created better delvers. Just no killing.

“I wouldn’t?” Elida asked innocently. She looked around, blinking to her teammates, in fake surprise. “If you ask me, not taking easy pickings when they arrive—that would be uncharacteristic. But I understand. You’ve always had too high of an opinion of me, Lizzy. I’m not half as nice as you think I am.”

“I said don’t call me that,” Liz growled.

Again, the hostile response had Natalie off-foot. She’d never heard Liz be more than mildly annoyed, much less outright angry.

 “And I think in exchange for a pay day, we can handle some kitchen duty,” Elida said. “See, I don’t mind getting my hands dirty. In fact, I quite like it.”

She tilted her head.

“But more importantly than the loot,” Elida said, “getting to take a Beaumon down a few notches. That’s the real prize.”

“One correction,” Natalie said.

Elida turned to her, seeming surprised that Natalie had spoken. Both teams had remained quiet, this clearly being—more than anything—an encounter between Beaumon and Parda-Halt.

Still, the surprise annoyed Natalie more, somehow, than everything else. As if it wasn’t Natalie’s place to be inserting herself into this encounter, when her team—and she herself—had also been threatened.

“Oh?” Elida asked, sounding genuinely intrigued.

“You said easy pickings,” Natalie said. “I’m going to have fun proving that wrong.” She shrugged. “Just wanted to say that.”

Maybe an attempt as deescalation was the proper way to handle this. But not only had Elida pissed her off, but she didn’t think defusing the situation was possible. The heavens had clearly intervened to make this happen. Considering who was on their team, and who was on the enemy’s, there weren’t many ways this ended without violence.

“My,” Elida said, appraising Natalie in a new light. “Maybe that’s even true.” She smiled. “For strays, I will admit I’ve been impressed. Natalie, right?”

“So is it a fight, or what?” Natalie asked. She had no interest in sparring verbally with this woman. She’d probably lose. Natalie would normally take solace in the fact she could win the real fight, but that wasn’t true either, likely. She rolled her grip on her hammer, annoyed at that.

“And so eager, too,” Elida said. “It’s a shame you’re with Lizzy. I think I like you.” Her eyes flicked across the group, to the rest of Natalie’s team. “Please know it’s not personal. You four are simply on the wrong side of the line. It’s how these things go.”

An attack and robbery, mixed with insults, wasn’t personal?

Somehow, Natalie even sensed that Elida meant it.

Nobility.

“But yes,” Elida said. “A fight.” She raised her daggers, then sneered. “If you can call it that.”