Cassandra told the others about her encounters and Juliane during their lunch the next day. She skipped all of the forbidden information as this was a public setting. However, she did mention her thoughts on the older students seeming rushed. The others listened intently and agreed to meet Juliane. As for the latter, Alois didn’t seem too concerned about it.

“We still have plenty of time. Rushing will do more harm than good,” he assured.

“I was thinking the same thing,” Cassandra agreed, relieved he did not feel the same sense of urgency as the others.

“Marcus?” Caleb suddenly muttered, derailing them from their discussion.

Cassandra followed his gaze to see Marcus approaching their table with Lily, Iris, and a couple others she didn’t know. Iris and Lily seemed particularly close. Marcus walked right up to Cassandra with a somewhat awkward smile.

“It’s been a while,” he greeted.

“It has,” Cassandra agreed. They hadn’t really crossed paths much since arriving at Nobility. She got the feeling Maximus might have something to do with that.

There was another pause as Marcus formed the words he wanted to say. “I wanted to thank you for helping Iris last night. My faction has been having some trouble being taken seriously by the other students.”

“Is it because you are all first years?” Cassandra asked, wondering if Alois solved as many problems as he caused just by existing.

“That is part of it,” Marcus confirmed, “but we don’t all have apprenticeships like your faction does. Your reputation is hard to live up to and compete against.” A reputation? How had they gained a reputation already?

“I don’t have an apprenticeship,” Autumn broke in, “Most of them don’t either.”

“I know,” Marcus said, “Lily does, but it doesn’t matter. It is all about how people see us.”

“Just like the world outside,” Wayde muttered with a dark expression, “Have you recruited all six courses?”

“We are just missing a Dusk,” Lily spoke up, “All the Dusks we have come across have been rude or already in a faction.” It was obvious to all of them who the rude Dusk had been.

“I already have a faction but I might know some people,” Alois, the only Dusk present, offered.

“You’d be willing to help us?” Marcus asked in surprise, “Once you are part of a faction, aren’t we rivals?”

“We were told to consider ourselves as miniature kingdoms,” Caleb pointed out, “If a kingdom considered every other kingdom a rival and enemy, there would be constant war.”

“Feuds are pointless if we don’t even know what we are fighting over,” Keane agreed.

Marcus began to smile as he took in their words. “In that case, why not start the faction test as allies?” he suggested.

“I don’t see why not,” Maximus agreed.

Cassandra was surprised he was the first to agree to the alliance as he had his own personal rivalry with Marcus. Then again, it was always a ruler’s duty to set aside personal feelings for the good of their nation.

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After that, Iris personally thanked Cassandra and gave her a hug before leaving with her faction. Then Cassandra worked out a message to send to Juliane with the others. They all agreed on a good time and place to meet her before the midday break ended. It was during magic classes that Cassandra was approached again. This time by Rena.

“Have you joined a faction yet?” the porcupine beastkin asked her.

“I have,” Cassandra confirmed.

Rena frowned a little. “I haven’t been able to find one yet and I heard they are filling up fast.”

“Some of them are already full?” Cassandra asked in surprise. The official faction applications limited each faction to thirty students. With a faction being viable with only six, Cassandra had assumed it was a number that would not be reached.

“I have already been rejected by three factions because they were full,” Rena confirmed, “I even asked that one Dusk who was recruiting everyone.”

Could that be Nathan? His faction must have truly been full for him to reject a promising first year.

“My faction still has plenty of room,” Cassandra offered, “We are actually gathering to meet a potential new member later. Did you want to come?”

“You’ll let me join your faction?”

“This is a bit more like an interview,” Cassandra corrected, “My teammates need to approve of you.”

She didn’t hesitate for a moment. “I’m in! When is it?”

==========

Rena was bristling with nerves even though Cassandra had brought her to the meeting place a little early. Early or not, she noticed a few people were already waiting there. There were two dark haired boys, one casually reading a large volume and the other discussing some kind of medical technique with a cute catkin with cream colored fur.

Shortly after she took a seat with Cassandra the headmaster’s apprentice walked in, already in some kind of argument with an incredibly sparkly fairy wearing a Heart pin. Behind them was another Heart sorting through some papers that looked a lot like the faction registration application.

As Rena watched each of them enter, she suddenly got a bad feeling. This wasn’t that faction was it? The one chock full of geniuses and talents with crazy good apprenticeships? That meant that Cassandra, who she had casually approached during class, was the apprentice of the seventh princess.

She suddenly felt extremely out of place. Her bristling nerves grew twice as strong and she felt her hair go stiff and sharp. Could she really convince them to let her in? What about that other potential new member? Were they just as intimidating as the rest? Rena waited with some trepidation for the last member of the meeting to arrive.

What she was not expecting was a short and petite Quill looking slightly disheveled and running late. “Sorry,” she panted, “My duties ran a little late. Did I still make it?”

“It’s fine,” Alois assured her, “I know Quills have duties on top of schoolwork. Juliane, right? Cassandra said you would like to join us?”

It looked like the small girl, Juliane, would be going through the wringer first. Rena couldn’t tell if she felt better or worse sitting right at Cassandra’s side for this. At least she would have some idea of what to expect after witnessing the first one.

“Let’s start easy,” Alois said, taking the lead as the only second year and the headmaster’s apprentice, “Why do you want to join us?”

“I am the apprentice of the Steward of Tear,” Juliane introduced, “My mentor is always talking about the promising Tear candidates and Cassandra is one of her favorites. Not only that, but you have a good reputation among the Quills. I am sure many other Quills will be eager to join this faction.”

Alois, had an odd expression when she mentioned his reputation among the Quills, but he passed the baton off to the sparkly fairy instead. He was even more impressive than Rena had thought. Even this new potential recruit had a crazy apprenticeship.

“I am Mazimus, apprentice of the Ninth Prince,” the fairy introduced, “If you join us, you have to promise to align with our goals. Cassandra has agreed to be our negotiator, and we will support her no matter what happens.”

“Of course,” Juliane promised, “The negotiations don’t mean much to me, anyway. My role isn’t affected much by them.”

Hold on, she knew what the negotiations were? Did that mean this girl was a second year? Surely she couldn’t be a third year or older. Unless… Rena was embarrassed she didn’t think of this earlier, was she a dwarf? Rena had never actually met a dwarf before but some beastkin were naturally small in stature.

“It’s fine with me,” the boy with the book approved.

“We do need a Quill,” another agreed.

With the first recruit settled all attention turned to Rena. Right. She still had to convince them she was worth being part of their faction. She braced herself for the same question Juliane had gotten, but hers was far worse. It came from the boy holding the papers.

“Who are you?” he asked.

Rena had to admit that it stung a bit, but the best thing she could do now was introduce herself. “I am Rena, a first year Tear,” she told them. She had no apprenticeship to her name, and no achievements or special talents to bring to the table.

“I invited her here,” Cassandra told them, “We know each other from the entrance exam.”

That one sentence from her turned everyone to her side in a moment. There were no more questions or doubts and Rena was suddenly part of the very intimidating faction before her. Had this been a good idea? It was too late to turn back now. The Heart who had introduced himself as Wayde had already written her name down on the form.

Rena went from factionless to part of one of the most powerful factions in a single night. She wasn’t even sure the other factions had officially registered yet.

“We often meet at mealtimes but you don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Maximus told them, “We don’t have much information to plan with yet.”

In other words, once they did, Rena would be expected to join them for their mealtime planning sessions. She secretly hoped that by then, the faction would be much larger so she didn’t stand out quite so much.