"Come on then," Torma said once we'd reached corridors where no one from our class roamed. "Why'd you do it?"

I gave a furtive glance around the hallway before answering, "She's improved a lot. Look how easily she beat Arun."

His scowl deepened. "Do you have a thing for her?"

My eyes widened. "What? Fuck no."

He looked even more unimpressed. "Now I know your lying. She's smart, beautiful, and she's got legs for miles."

"She's also stuck up, rude, ignorant, arrogant, and… loads of other negative things I can't articulate at the minute."

"Then why? Because for the life of me, I can't figure it out. Maybe Ressa will have some insight."

"I think I just went off you, Torma."

That brought a hearty laugh from the Grunir. "Then just tell me already!"

I punched him in the arm. "I was going to. Then you threw the 'having a thing for her' into the conversation and derailed me."

"Sure." He grinned, punching me back twice as hard.

I held up my hands in surrender. "It was too good an opportunity to miss. You've seen the amount of crap I've gotten since beating Arun. I'm trying to keep a low profile here, and her beating me means a lot of eyes are taken back off me. Yoru melting in our strategy class presentation helped as well. "

"Ah," he said, tapping his nose. "I get you. Need a low profile to sneak off, huh?"

"She told you too?" I hissed.

"Told me what?" he asked, looking confused.

Shit. "Nothing. Don't worry about it."

"I do worry about it, though. Ressa's putting herself on the line for you."

"So she did bloody tell you!"

He smirked. "No. Yoru did. Just so you know, Ellaazi knows too, but it won't go any further, and we're not annoyed."

"Annoyed?"

"For not telling us, you idiot."

"Ah, right. Yeah. I would have eventually. It's just the walls have…"

Fast marching footfalls caught our attention, and we both looked behind us at the same time to see Aeloria marching after us. Her expression was thunderous.

"Adam Henshaw." Each syllable landed like a hammer. "May I have a word?"

"Er, sure."

"Not here," she said, before stalking off back down the corridor.

Torma and I looked at each other, him trying to suppress a laugh, me trying to suppress bewilderment. Then I followed after her, reluctant to catch up properly.

She didn't seem to mind my dragging feet, and we walked like that until she came to a stop at a door. She touched the handle and channeled mana into her hand before opening the door. Entering, she turned smartly and held the door open to admit me.

Inside, there were two couches around a table much like in our dorm, and there was a kitchen area, but I could see no signs of a bed. There were two other doors, which I suspected led to a bathroom and a bedroom.

"Is this your room?" I asked curiously.

Se raised an eyebrow at me. "Who else would the room belong too?"

"I just thought everybody was in dorms."

"Oh, heavens no, I couldn't imagine it." Then she paused, grimacing at something. "My apologies. That wasn't very thoughtful of me."

I laughed as the power dynamic changed. "Not at all. I'm not precious about things like that. You're the daughter of a powerful Archon Prime after all. Now, what did you want to see me about?"

Wrong-footed again, it took her a moment to work back around to whatever she had to say. "Ah yes. The curious matter of why you let me win?"

I considered saying that I hadn't, but then she'd marched through the school after me, and called out without any doubt. To deny it now wouldn't achieve anything.

"What makes you think that? You fought one hell of a fight, and that roundhouse was inch prefect."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

She relaxed a little, but still shook her head. "It was a good kick. A perfect kick, even. But something nagged at me about the last punch I threw. It connected too cleanly."

"Because I was reeling from the kick. I didn't even see it coming."

"I already know how skilled you are, but above all else, I know you are tenacious. From your own mouth, last Freeday, you are trained to never give up. Yet that's exactly what you did. You gave up."

I cursed inwardly at giving up too easily after the roundhouse. Part of me was just relieved that it wasn't too obvious. I doubted anyone else would have noticed. They'd have just seen what they wanted to see, which was me getting beat by a superior Archon.

I splayed my arms wide and sighed. "You won, Aeloria. You're the bell of the ball, the top of the class. Enjoy it, embrace it, and move on."

"Impossible. If you won, you should receive the accolades. I want no false victories to cloud my judgement and undermine my confidence. But more than that, I need to know why. What are you looking to achieve by allowing me to win a sparring match up? Is there some sinister plot from House Garazal that I'm missing?"

I snorted. "If there is, I'm certainly not part of it."

"Perhaps," she replied curtly. "But that doesn't solve my problem or answer my question, and I dislike nothing more than mysteries. Especially ones with me at the center. You have all but admitted that you made a decision to throw the fight, and now I must know why.

"And before you try to divert my investigation again, I will tell you this. I will not be set aside. I will call in favors. I will voice my concerns to the faculty, I will bring in external investigators, and have them look into this if need be. Something is wrong here, and I will not stop until I understand what you or House Garazal are up to."

I rubbed my face. If she did half of what she threatened, the whole ruse would have backfired spectacularly, and I'd be watched and despised by even more people.

I made snap decision. "For god's sake, Aeloria, it was from my front kick. But you're massively overthinking this."

She frowned. "But that move came as a surprise. You all most caught me off guard."

I shook my head. "I've watched you fight and train. Hell, I trained with you for two hours on my first Freeday. I knew your best defense was against a front kick. You do it instinctively. And while we're on the subject, as good a kick as it is, it's also a bad habit you should probably stop as the quality of your opponents improves."

Her expression had changed subtly, but I could tell she was wrestling with the indignation of me calling her out on her skills. Finally, the new Aeloria won the internal battle and nodded. "I can see it now. A very clever subterfuge, but you still haven't told me why."

"Why do you think? I wanted to make my life easier."

I don't know what she'd expected to say, but the affront was back in her eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, then shut it again as she gathered her thoughts once again. Despite the uncomfortable scenario, I was impressed that she was making an effort not to just jump down my throat. It also sent my alarm bells ringing.

"How will it make your life easier?" she finally asked.

I chuckled. "I don't know if you noticed the difference in how the rest of the Archons in the school started treating me after beating Arun, but it turned from dismissive into active hate. I'm an outsider, and I could really do without that kind of attention."

"Well you achieved that. Now he'll rally his friends to hate me."

It was not the response I was expecting, and I stumbled for a moment on my own reply. "Sorry if it causes you difficulties. I didn't get the impression that you'd care. You didn't appear to be on the best of terms with him in the first place."

"I am not. He is a buffoon and a braggart."

I offered a noncommittal shrug as the same accusations could have been laid at her door until very recently. "Well, you beat him with ease. It was an amazing performance, and puts you firmly as the best in that class."

"After you."

"I don't count. I don't belong here, and I just want to fly under the radar until this nightmare ends. As for you, winning that fight helps you both in and out of school, doesn't it? So no harm, no foul. We really don't need to make a big deal of this."

That thoughtful look was back on her face again. "Your motives make sense, though I do not like being played without knowing the game. I will be watching you more carefully in the future, Adam Henshaw. "

I let out a slow breath. "Well don't waste too much of your time on me. I'm really not that interesting."

She cocked her head to one side as if trying to see me from a different angle. "The more I learn of you, the more I come to the conclusion that you might be the most interesting thing in this academy."

I'd have preferred a slap. Even another roundhouse. At least I knew how to deal with those assaults. This, however, caught me by surprise. I swallowed hard, and almost took a step back as she continued.

"An outlier with obvious skill and talent, already manipulating public opinion to suit yourself. I'm beginning to think, despite some of the big names in our year, you might well be the most dangerous of them all. I will keep the secret of our fight for now, but I will be watching you closely from now on."

"Good. Then you'll realize I'm not nearly as interesting as you seem to think." It was a lame reply, but it was all I could come up with on the spot.

She offered a cold, calculating smile as I backed off toward the door. Hopefully, I'd be out of this insane place in a few cycles and I wouldn't have to worry about it again.

Once out of the room, I hurried back to our dorm feeling like a grade A fool for throwing the fight. I'd truly played myself into a corner with the powerful Archon.

No sooner had I stepped into our room than Ressa was in front of me. "So, what did she say?"

I'd been expecting an assault of questions from her, so I was ready. "She wanted to know why I let her win. So I told her."

She looked doubtful. "That you didn't want the attention?"

I nodded.

"And she believed you?"

"Of course she did. Because it's true."

"And that's it?"

"That's it. She'll continue to be star of the class, and hopefully, I'll be forgotten about."

She lowered her voice and cast a look around the room at the others as they all did their own things. "With any luck, being forgotten about won't take that long if this meeting with my brother goes well."

I swallowed, not wanting to mention the closer observation Aeloria intended to keep me under. Luckily, I was able to deflect. "I don't know why you're whispering in here." I gestured at our friends. "They all know."

The color drained from her face, and her words came out in a hiss. "You told them?"

I pointed at the guilty-looking Yoru who was suddenly very interested in the glass of water he was holding. He was the one person who had been confided in by Ressa herself.

She grimaced. "Ah, right. That would be on me, then."

I laughed as she glared daggers at the big Thuris. "Don't worry about it. I trust them all."

Ressa didn't look convinced, but accepted my words all the same as we set off for our evening meal.

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