Osmond stepped to the highest and most central point of the stage and looked around at all the students surrounding him until a hush fell upon the crowd. His careful dramatic flair reminded Cassandra of game show hosts rather than a headmaster. These past few months had really put into perspective how odd her situation really was.
“Congratulations all of you, for making it through your first quarter of this year,” he told them, “However, things will only get harder from here. Starting today the faction system will begin in preparation for your second semester. For now all you need to focus on is forming your faction. Each faction can have students from any year, but they must have at least one student from each course. Feel free to use club rooms and bulletin boards to promote and recruit for your faction.”
As a murmuring started to rise from the crowd, Osmond tapped his foot on the ground sending off a powerful gust to silence them.
“I am sure you are all curious about one thing. What is a faction?” he continued, “A faction will be your team that will stand by your side and help you rule your mini kingdom here at Nobility. That is why you must be careful who you recruit into your faction. You will all need to work together for the rest of the year.”
He paused, glancing towards the group of students who had bothered Alois earlier. Had he also witnessed their foolishness? If so, this would not end well for them.
“For you older students that have gone through the faction system before, I ask that you keep the details of the second semester to yourselves,” he instructed, “You are, of course, free to create a completely new faction or attempt to reform the one from last year. Just keep in mind, all factions must choose a first year representative for the negotiations at the end of this semester.”
First years weren’t allowed to know anything about the upcoming semester, but they needed to be the ones to negotiate for their team. In that case, it might be awful to team up with a faction of older students. If negotiations went south, there was only one who would take the blame. Hopefully they would be given at least a few minutes to plan things out with their team before the actual negotiation itself.
It was no surprise that after that announcement, the first years who already secured themselves apprenticeships suddenly became very popular. This included Cassandra herself. The polite ones who accepted her refusal were easy enough to deal with, but there were also persistent ones. She needed to find Alois and settle things with her friends right away. Hopefully the relentless recruitment attacks would stop once they had formed their own faction.
Unfortunately, before she found her friends, she found a familiar group of older students instead. The Dusk stepped forward with a confident smile while his friends watched his back.
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“Cassandra, it is a pleasure to meet you. We have heard amazing things about the most promising Tear among the first years,” he began, “We would like to invite you to join our faction.”
“Thank you for your offer,” Cassandra replied, “However, I intend to take my time to choose my faction. As Headmaster Osmond said, we will have to work together for the rest of the year.”
“At the very least keep us in mind,” he argued, “I am Nathan, and as you can see I am a Dusk. I know you are friends with Alois, but can you really call him your friend if he didn’t tell you anything about what is coming? I can help you prepare.”
The very person who had accused Alois of cheating by telling them secrets was now accusing him of being a terrible friend for keeping those secrets. Not only that, it was clear Cassandra was being scouted as the first year representative. The last faction she wanted to represent was one of two faced liars who were bound to dislike whatever negotiations she managed to make.
“That’s quite alright,” she told Nathan, “I think I know everything I need to know about you and your faction.”
Nathan tried to stop her as she turned to leave, but Alois stepped in just in time. “You should know that forcibly scouting first years is against the rules,” he warned, “The representatives are the most important members of the faction, and they have every right to choose for themselves.”
“You’re one to talk. I am sure you intend to recruit her for the same thing right now,” Nathan scoffed.
“That’s right,” Alois confirmed, “But unlike you, I was smart enough to make friends before it was all about factions and responsibilities. Why don’t you do yourself a favor and figure out if you intend to follow the rules or break them?”
Nathan backed off with a bitter scowl. “Don’t accept his offer just because he is your friend,” he warned Cassandra, “You won’t want anything to do with him once you find out what happened last year.”
Cassandra found it hard to believe that Alois could have done anything more shocking than the forbidden artifact hunt he had desperately dragged them into at the beginning of the year. Despite about half of their friend group knowing about it, no one mentioned the Eye after that night. It was likely whatever incident happened the year before would be the same.
“You’re not going to ask?” Alois questioned once Nathan and his friends were well and truly gone.
“Would you answer me honestly if I did?” Cassandra asked in return.
Alois hesitated. “I might. I don’t think it is that big of a deal, though,” he admitted, “It has to do with how I became Osmond’s apprentice in the first place.”
Now that piqued Cassandra’s curiosity. “Why don’t you tell that story after we gather everyone to discuss our faction,” she suggested.
“Great, so now I need to tell it before a crowd,” Alois said, shaking his head. Despite his verbal annoyance at the prospect, Cassandra caught a momentary smile as he turned away from her, “Let’s go fetch everyone. The library might actually be busy today, so let’s meet at Keane’s.”
Much to Keane’s annoyance, they had taken to meeting at his room in the tower whenever the fourth floor library was in use. It was because of his private and isolated position in the main building, as well as the fact that his living area was larger since he technically had two floors of the tower all to himself.
“Keane’s not going to be happy about it,” Cassandra told him with a smile of her own, “But I think he might get over it if he gets to hear your secret little story about why the other Dusks seem to hate you.”
Alois sighed. “This is what I get for trying to blackmail him at the start of this year,” he muttered, “Keane won’t ever let this go.”
No wonder no one ever talked about what happened with the Eye. Alois had really met Keane and gone straight for blackmail? That did make Cassandra a little curious what Alois could possibly have on Keane to blackmail him for.