Chapter 56

"Well?" Katya asked again, her eyebrows raised expectantly. I hesitated, unsure of what to order. My father drank whiskey, and I joined him on occasion, but I wasn’t sure I really liked it.

Lauren cocked her head and said, "I know, it's so hard to choose. I live far out of town. Daddy likes to have the family together, and he needs to be on the estate most of the time to keep things running, to organize the men when there's trouble. A night like this is a major treat, but I'm always so spoiled for choice. I let Katya choose my drink, and I wasn’t disappointed." She smiled warmly, and I could see the effect of the booze had already softened her a little. Then she blushed. "What am I talking about? You live in the town. You probably go out like this all the time."

"Less than you might think," I said absently.

Katya sighed, "We'll grow old waiting at this rate, Tiberius. What will I get you?"

"Surprise me," I said. Katya gave me a funny little smile at that and wandered to the bar.

The moment that remained, with Lauren and I on our own at the table, was awkward. I knew I was going to be awkward, unsure of how to talk to girls my own age, unaccustomed to socializing like this. I was surprised that Lauren also seemed a little unsure.

She said, "That's twice now."

"Twice what?" I asked.

"Twice you've kept me in The Choosing. If not for your idea and your SHIELD, Lance would be a Griidlord now."

"And I don't think he's going to forget it any time soon," I said.

Lauren said, "Well, whatever. I won't forget it, Tiberius. I know you were behind the pack when The Choosing started, but you and Lance are the favorites now. The bet makers have moved Lance ahead of you again after today's showing, but you're ahead of me."

I stammered, "Hey, I don't know how true that is. I'm getting attributes really quickly, but you're better on your feet, better with a sword, and you're growing too."

Lauren looked at the dregs of her glass, sipped, and said, "I don't think I'll ever be good enough to beat Lance."

I snorted. "Imagine where you'd be if you'd had a whole day alone with the suit like he did during the race."

She looked at me, sensing my animosity. "Someone, maybe his father, is pulling serious strings to set him up. Don’t you think it’s funny that we get a day off for the first time right after he got hurt? Give him extra time to heal? Would the rest of us get that treatment?"

Lauren shrugged. "I don't know..."

I was making her feel uncomfortable. Was she friends with Lance? Did she expect that she too would be treated like that? I couldn’t work out her shifting around.

She said, "I know Lance seems like an ass, but I grew up around guys like him. We're brought up differently, we're raised with ideas. He's not really a bad guy, he has pressure on him too..."

"You're not an ass like that," I said.

Lauren said, "You know, I joked about you early on. I never stopped him when he called you Shopkeeper."

"Slowly," I said, "but you don't feel like that now?"

She blushed a little. "This might seem mad, considering how there are hundreds of people of normal birth for every noble, but I've never really spent time with anyone who wasn't a noble, except for servants obviously. We're brought up to think we're different, special, plain better, Tiberius. But you've grown and grown. You might be the best one in The Choosing now, and you've saved me twice. If I do win the Griidsuit, then I won't forget any of that."

I didn’t quite know how to respond to any of that. My words caught in my throat, leaving me lost for a reply.

Then Katya was back with us, three glasses held between her hands. She placed them on the table and said, "I almost don't care who wins the suit as long as it's not Lance." Lauren seemed taken aback by this. Katya followed up, "Oh, he's very handsome, and I'm sure he'd make very handsome babies, but he's a simpleton and very unpleasant."

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Katya tasted her drink, and I followed suit, picking up my glass. The cocktail was a mix of sharp and sweet flavors, surprising but pleasant. Katya continued, "I've been around. I traveled to many cities when I left Miami. I've been around a lot of noble boys, and Lance is no good. He's mean, he's nasty, and his family is poor."

I nearly choked on my drink and said, "The Darkwaters aren't poor!"

Lauren looked very uncomfortable at this, but Katya went on, "Oh, they might not seem to be lacking for money, and when I came here, I quickly came to understand that they were one of the premier, if not the premier, families in Boston. A big fleet as well as good lands by the coast. But I've poked around. I research all my potential husbands."

I looked into my drink and tasted it again, disliking the idea that Katya had scouted Lance as a potential husband, even if she'd found him lacking. Katya continued, "They still make a big show, lavish parties, their soldiers are the best equipped, servants all over their castles, and a very nice townhouse, but it's all afforded on borrowed money, and that debt is piling up."

Lauren said, "I don't know if we should be talking about this kind of thing."

Katya waved her off and said, "Why not? Tiberius should know about it. It's his father's fault anyway."

I looked at her, dazzled. Katya smiled, enjoying defaming the Darkwaters. She said, "All the houses have lands, but those lands can only support a certain level of decadence, and they're always competing. The Darkwaters have a big fleet of ships that carry goods up and down the coast. It gives them a second very substantial stream of revenue to squander on showing off how much money they've got. They don't talk about that, of course. A very uncouth way for a Boston family to make money. Funny really, don't you think, Tiberius? Lance giving you so much grief with his shopkeeper talk, and his father is secretly part trader himself, or he was at least. The last years have apparently been getting tighter and tighter for the Darkwaters. Your father moved in, undercutting them, breaking monopolies, even hiring away some of their best talent from their ships. I'm not even sure if the fleet is profitable anymore."

I looked at her, feeling my tongue loosen a little as the alcohol entered my blood. I was more than a little pleased at the idea that Father had wounded Lance's family, though I knew the thought was probably unworthy. Katya said, "That's at least part of why Lance has it in for you, Tiberius. Your father is ruining his father."

What really was the point of this? What had inspired Katya and Lauren to embark on this mad adventure of socializing? Wouldn't this be a bonding experience? Would this kindle further the small embers of friendship that had emerged between us, and how could that be a good thing? In less than 48 hours, we would be back in the arena again, all fighting for the same dream, all focused on destroying that dream for each other.

It may have been something that I just didn't have the complexity to understand, but there was a therapy in that night. We sat at the table in the bar and grew merry. None of us allowed ourselves to become drunk, as much as we were affording ourselves the chance to have a night off, a night out. A hangover would not have been acceptable, losing the next day and probably still having lingering effects on our performance for the day after.

What did we talk about? You might imagine we could have discussed The Choosing so far, debriefing each other or learning, but what we spent the evening talking about was mostly nothings, mostly silliness. Katya's revelation about my father competing with the Darkwaters was as serious as the night got. We spoke about horses and boating, hopes for the future beyond the chance of becoming a Griidlord. Lauren was first in line to inherit her father's estate and planned to modernize the farming, move on from what she saw as silly old traditions. Katya, as you know, wanted to find her place in the world, wanted to leverage her status as a princess to marry into a good house with resources, but she wouldn't sell her hand cheaply. She wanted to build a dynasty and it was clear that she intended to command the course of that dynasty, not whoever became her husband.

I think what was so important about the night, what was significant about the three of us sitting down together that night, as opposed to having the same experience with other friends, was that we all shared a similar experience. First of all, who else could we spend time with that could understand what it was like to go through The Choosing? Boston, the territory, contained some millions of people. Of those, only 12 had entered The Choosing. The three of us shared an understanding of the stresses, the aspirations, the dreams, the fears, the complications.

Further than that, as the night wandered onwards, I came to realize we shared more. I had been raised to compete for a Griid-suit. Long hours of training and study had left me isolated, without friends or peers. Being so rich and yet common born had isolated me further. I struggled to build relationships with the common folk who had so little in common with me, and the noble classes who disdained my lower birth.

Katya was an outsider, a visitor from a foreign land. While many noble houses might covet the status of having her marry into their ranks, she was still strange and brought no lands with her. Lauren surprised me. She was so beautiful, so gregarious, so confident, so natural around the others. I had expected her to be different to Katya and me, but as we chatted she revealed a picture of a lonely outsider herself. Her family had vast farmlands, but well outside the city. She had grown up mostly alone and separate from people her own age. There had been parties and gatherings, of course, but as she talked it became clear that she disdained many of her peers, many prospective matches, the likes of Lance, with their bravado, their conceit.

The evening provided a rare glimpse into their worlds, and as we laughed and shared stories, a bond was forming. This bond was strange, almost paradoxical, given that in just a short time we would be back to viewing each other as competitors, potential obstacles to our own success. But for that night, we found solace in each other's company