“Casimir, it appears we are in the same group,” Rhys smiled, shushing Iona. “I received an urgent message from my mother that I needed to train in the dungeon as soon as possible. Imagine my surprise to find you assigned to the same party. You wouldn’t know anything about that would you?”

Orrin was impressed with Rhys’s boldness. The young man certainly suspected Orrin was a spy of some sort, which was why he’d invited him to lunch the other day. That night, Orrin dozed off before the pieces fell together. Rhys talked with no one else in the class, except his shadow Iona. The questions about Casimir’s past were probing for hints of where he was from as if to pinpoint who sent him.

He thought back to Annabella’s comments about how shrewd Lady Tonsa, Rhys’s mother, was. It seems like the son takes after his mom. Of course, now that he thought about it, Annabella’s note mentioned an opportunity. He didn’t know how she’d done it, but that spider made even the matriarch of the Tonsa family jump.

Orrin decided to play it safe and tell the truth. “I just found out about the dungeon last night. I don’t remember seeing your name on it. I also didn’t know you were in my group until I just read it.”

Rhys was good but he was young still. The last few months for Orrin were a constant exercise in lying and watching people’s reactions. So, when Rhys’s lips tightened quickly, Orrin knew he was marginally safe.

“We entered our names this morning,” Rhys said, gesturing to the wall with the group names broken out into five groups. “Do you know the other two students in our party?”

Orrin read the names: Hamish and Sloane. He didn’t remember either from his classes. He shook his head.

“Not in any of my classes, how about you?”

Rhys exchanged a look with Iona. She shrugged.

“Sloane is in a class with me,” he admitted slowly. “We’ve never talked before.”

“About time we did, eh?” A brunette woman in her forties came up from behind Iona. The bodyguard for Rhys fell into a crouch and moved to block an attack that never came. “Don’t get all twisted up, girly. We’re all in the same party. I’m Sloane Katra. How many of you have been in a dungeon? Scratch that. How many of you three have been into Mistwater Lanterns? We have second shift, so we go in an hour and a half. We’ll have as much time as we want, but I recommend no more than eight hours of experience hunting. We don’t want to be exhausted for class tomorrow, do we, Rhys?”

Rhys placed a hand on Iona’s shoulder and she stepped beyond him again. “We have never been to this dungeon but have experience in them in general. I’ve also studied the first thirty floors in sufficient detail. What about you?”

Sloane ignored Rhys’s question and turned to Orrin, her brown eyes crinkling in delight as Rhys stiffened from being passed over. “How about you, hun? Ever been in a dungeon?”

“I’ve never been into Mistwater Lanterns,” he answered simply. He studied Sloane, trying to figure her out. She was built like a mage but carried herself like a fighter. A smaller frame than Iona but she moved with efficiency. She’d also snuck up on them without much effort. If she was from Earth, Orrin would have thought she was Japanese but she talked slightly different than everyone else from Odrana.

“Veskar scum,” Iona muttered too quietly for Sloane to hear.

“Do you know where our last member is?” Rhys tried to regain control of the conversation. “I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting Hamish.”

“Hamish is one of those guys you have to meet to really know, ya know?” Sloane’s smile told them what she thought about the current situation. She was in charge and everyone knew it. “He won’t want to be party leader, though. If it’s all the same, I’ll take the lead. As the only two who have been in Mistwater, I can tell you now, it can be deadly.”

Orrin watched Rhys and Sloane standoff and sighed to himself. Why am I always surrounded by posturing idiots?

He snuck away while they continued to argue and made his way to Professor Graem’s office. Orrin needed the collar adjusted so he could join the party. He was lucky Sloane and Rhys both wanted to be party leader or he would have had some explaining to do.

Orrin knocked on the door and waited. A minute passed with no response and he knocked again.

“Go away.”

“Professor Graem, it’s Casimir.”

Orrin muttered a curse under his breath when a minute later the door remained closed. He made a fist and pounded on the door.

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“Go away or else I’ll expel you from this school!”

Orrin continued to pound on the door, pausing only to wave at a group of students walking down the hall.

The door jerked open and a bleary-eyed Graem swung at Orrin. With his stats increased it was almost too easy for Orrin to flick his hand out and redirect Graem’s punch into the doorframe.

“Fuck! Ow. I’m going to—”

Orrin pushed the man into the room and closed the door. “I don’t have a lot of time. My group goes into the Mistwater Lanterns in just over an hour. Are you sober enough to fix the collar?”

He was pushing his luck with this man again but something about his inability to get through a day without some sort of substance abuse was grating on Orrin’s nerves. This was the person that was supposed to be watching out for him and at every turn, Orrin was dealing with problems that were well beyond his means to fix.

Through the haze of whatever hangover he had, Graem was coming to a realization too. Casimir was in his private quarters and demanding things once again.

A staff jumped from the bedside and flew into his outstretched hand. Graem raised his arm high and…

A stupefied look spread on the professor’s face. The annoying student spy, Casimir was gripping his elbow preventing him from slamming his staff down.

“Professor Graem, I’m going to sober you up before you attack me again,” Orrin said slowly. He was suddenly very glad he’d increased his strength. Graem was a lot stronger than he looked and he was buff.

Orrin spent a few minutes healing and using [Remetabolize] on Graem.

“I apologize for attacking you but I’m quite sure I told you not to do that again,” Graem said as he put on a shirt. Orrin turned to give the man some privacy. He didn’t really need to turn as he’d already caught an eyeful of the man in next to nothing but giving some dignity back to the teacher seemed like a good idea.

“You asked me not to take away your buzz,” Orrin retorted. “You were hungover and incoherent. Plus, neither of us has the time for you to sober up naturally.”

Graem moved toward Orrin, placing his hand on the collar. Orrin felt the magic weave into the metal and tried to study it again but Graem was quick. “You have one hour to enter a party. I’m warning you, don’t try anything funny. I’ve set the collar as a tracker, so I can find you anywhere. Don’t make me hunt you. Neither of us will like that.”

Orrin wisely kept his insult in his mind. He had bigger fish to fry than a washed-up drunk. However, as he moved to leave, Graem reached out a hand and caught his shoulder. The strength in those fingers stopped Orrin cold.

“Who is in your party?”

“Sloane and Hamish,” Orrin rattled off, trying to duck out of the iron grip and failing. “I don’t know them. Rhys and Iona are in— ouch – let go of my shoulder.”

“Rhys Tonsa? Fuck.” Graem threw his staff on the bed. He moved back to his wardrobe and pulled out his teacher robes. “Nobody tells me anything that is going on around here.”

Orrin was lost. “You ignored me banging down your door. Who else would be dumb enough to do that to you? What’s the big deal?”

“The Tonsa welp is going into the dungeon with you and I wasn’t informed. An attack or warning was sent to you and I can’t find a motive or clue about who it was.” Graem threw an arm through his robe and gestured wildly at Orrin. “All of this… I can’t say it’s surprising but it is bold.”

Orrin folded his arms and waited.

“You don’t see it?” Graem picked up his staff from the bed. “It’s an assassination attempt. You’re the pasty. Sloane and Hamish are the other members of your party? I think I’ve heard of Sloane. I don’t know Hamish. He’ll have information or evidence that puts Rhys in your room. You’ll either be killed or left as a patsy for Rhys’s death.”

“What?”

Graem used the end of his staff to nudge Orrin away from the door. “It’s easier to kill someone in a dungeon.”

“No, wait. Why do you think I’m the patsy? You said you didn’t know who broke into my room. That might not be related to Rhys at all. We had a plan to catch them.”

Graem rolled his eyes. “I was fine to go along with your little trap until it involved the scion of one of the most powerful and richest families in Odrana. Spy games and subtle manipulation are allowed. Murder is not.”

“What are you going to do?” Orrin needed that experience.

“Cancel the entire dungeon run,” Graem said as he put his hand on the door. “I can’t risk a Tonsa dying under my watch.”

Orrin grabbed the door handle, making Graem give him a dangerous look. “I’m pretty sure Annabella got Rhys to go to the dungeon in an attempt for me to spend time with him. What if I can promise I’ll keep him safe?”

“Explain.” Graem threw up his anti-listening spell, covering the room in that protective layer again.

Orrin let [Mind Bastion] spin up in his head. He ordered his thoughts and started talking. “I got… a letter from Annabella that the dungeon was an opportunity for me and Rhys got ordered in by his mom at the same time. There is no proof that any of the other members of my party are involved in what happened in my room or that it’s connected to Rhys in any way. There are five parties going into the dungeon and from what I’ve heard, we’re supposed to go to different floors and avoid each other. It sounds to me that even if this was a hit attempt, there are over twenty other people you need to suspect. Not to mention, if you cancel the entire thing, you’re just letting the bad guys know you’re on to them. Wouldn’t it be better to play it safe and maybe expose whatever is going on at the same time? Also, I can let him know up front. If he wants to pull out, there is an entire waitlist of other students to take his place.”

Orrin was proud of himself for spinning such a compelling argument on the fly. At the same time, he was analyzing his past meetings with Rhys and trying to figure out if any other classmates had seemed jealous of them talking or overly watchful of the young heir to the Tonsa line. Even with his mind clear, he couldn’t find a lead.

“You want to use Rhys as bait,” Graem pointed out. “The target you were sent to befriend.”

“What better way to make friends than by saving his life… if you’re right and he agrees to it.” Orrin let go of the door handle as Graem wasn’t actively trying to leave anymore. “It could just be a coincidence that someone trashed my room. Nobody knew we would be in the same group. Wait. Actually, who assigns the groups?”

Graem gave Orrin a dark look and rubbed his hand over his face. “My sister.”

There was no good response to that so Orrin kept his mouth shut. He was learning.

“We are going to go talk with her and make sure everything is aboveboard,” Graem said with finality. “That will decide if you get to go into the dungeon or not.”