After Rena and Juliane joined, their faction was suddenly flooded with applications and it took a while to sort through them all. Just as predicted, many of the applicants were Quills. There were also many others who weren’t overly special and had been rejected by everyone else. Cassandra was more than willing to take those in who were full of passion and drive. Unfortunately, that thirty student limit came up faster than she ever expected.

Alois had explained that the reason for the limit was to prevent any faction from becoming a majority. She might not have believed this was even a possibility until she saw the reaction to their own. Other factions formed and filled out with amazing speed, leaving only a few stragglers who didn’t fit in anywhere by the time the deadline was approaching.

Exactly a week before the deadline, right after the final tests of the semester, information was released to all of the students about what was going to happen. The first and most important announcement was about the negotiation. The object of the negotiation would be ten territories that each faction would populate and run for the duration of the second semester. Any faction who failed to gain a territory would fail that semester.

Anyone who failed to find a faction before the deadline would be formed into the Spare Faction commanded by the headmaster himself. Their territory would automatically be assigned as Nobility and would have to spend their semester helping Osmond with any tasks he happened to require. In other words, they would not only be losing out on valuable experience they would have to follow the headmaster’s every whim or fail.

Following these two announcements was recruitment chaos. Any factions that had failed to qualify disbanded immediately in favor of joining a faction that met the requirements. Stragglers who had been putting off doing anything towards the faction system rushed to join anyone that would take them. That was how Marcus’s faction that had made it til then with only seven members was suddenly flooded with constant applications. His wasn’t the only faction in that situation. Before the week was up, the factions became only eight with some unfortunate stragglers who couldn’t fit in any of them or meet the requirements.

The next announcement was the day before negotiation. It went over the time and protocol for sending the representative of each faction, as well as details of the ten territories up for grabs. This would give each of them a chance to research and discuss with their factions which territory to go for and how to negotiate.

“Should we go for a trade territory like Teber or Omaris?” Cassandra asked, looking to their local merchant’s son, Alois.

Their faction had gathered in one of the now unused classrooms as thirty students was far too large to try and stuff into the fourth floor library. They thought it only fair that the whole group had the chance to input their opinion as they would all be in this together. A semester was a long time, and if they made the wrong choice they would be stuck to suffer with it.

“You can, but I won’t have much time to help manage it,” Alois warned, “I will still have to keep up all my apprentice duties during all this.”

Cassandra nodded in understanding once she took a moment to think about it. Princess Rosalind had let her know that her tasks would be a bit easier during the second semester to give her plenty of time to settle in her temporary role, but that didn’t seem like Osmond’s style. She once again felt pity for Alois’s unfortunate forced apprenticeship, but he seemed to have gained the drive for it since that time.

“How about Dyment?” Maximus suggested, “I’m no good with farming, but as long as we let them keep to their secret dye production methods the territory should keep itself running.”

“Running, yes, but we need more than just a surviving territory to pass this semester,” Wayde pointed out, “Territories with secret productions will be cautious about new leadership, especially temporary students.”

“Which territory did you choose last year?” Caleb asked Alois.

“We went for Kol for stability,” Alois said, “The coal mine there is safer than the dying silver mine in Silvin and it was a rich and stable territory.”

“It’s too safe,” Cassandra noted, “I don’t have the confidence to negotiate for it since everyone else will be eyeing it as well.”

“We have some experience with combat,” Keane brought up, “Should we go for Merk? Their strong fighters could benefit from my medical expertise as well.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“The idea of selling people’s strength makes me uncomfortable,” Autumn rejected, “Even if they did consent to it.”

“I’m terrible with farm animals,” Rena spoke up, a lot more confident than she had been when she first joined, “I would like to avoid Herdin, if possible.”

It seemed they were doing a better job of deciding what they didn’t want, but at this rate all of the territories would be on that list. In order to get anywhere useful, it might be easier to generalize things a bit. Based on majority vote, everyone would prefer a trade territory with crop farming as a backup. No one really liked the idea of Herdin or Merk so she would have to do her best to avoid those.

Omaris was finally chosen as their first pick. With its central location their premade alliance with Marcus’s faction would be an immediate benefit. There was also the extra pressure of border trade possibly affecting bigger things like their relations with Beraud. Cassandra knew that in the future her friends had seen Beraud had turned into their enemy, but there was no need to accelerate things.

If neither of those could be obtained the faction didn’t really have a preference between Flaxen, Rutin, and Fisher. Kol would always be a good thing if she had an opportunity to claim it, but none of them expected that to happen. As for Dyment, it was at least better than Merk and Herdin, but everyone agreed it would be a challenge.

With their personal territory rankings decided, it was time to address another concern. This was their last day until the deadline and it was likely too late to make major changes. However, there were ten territories and only eight factions. It might make negotiations easier, but it also might give that sneaky headmaster a chance to give them all a little extra test.

“Has this happened before?” Cassandra asked the older students, “Do any of you have an idea of what happens when there are less factions than territories?”

“He did something different both times this happened,” the oldest student in their faction told them, “The first time he sent the Spare Faction there and the second time he forced every faction to share the spare territory. This is the first time I have seen two spares, though.”

“So we should definitely be concerned,” Cassandra muttered. Whatever his plan was this time, she would have to deal with it firsthand as their chosen negotiator. Luckily Princess Rosalind had drilled her on the basics of negotiation to prepare her for this.

“If you can’t handle this we still have enough time to switch to someone else,” Juliane offered, seeing Cassandra’s concern.

Cassandra looked at the rest of the first years gathered in the room. “No one else has had time to prepare,” she said, “Unless someone else really wants to do it.”

To no one’s surprise, there were no volunteers. Just in case, they did another run through of what everyone wanted, with Omaris as their top goal. Unfortunately, it was hard to tell for sure what the other teams would be going for. They did have one faction they were allied with that she could potentially ask.

“I’m going to visit Marcus and see what his team is planning,” Cassandra told them, “If we can go into negotiations with a plan together it will make negotiations easier for both of us.”

“That’s a good idea,” Caleb approved, pulling out his book, “I am going to study some farming magic just in case.”

Cassandra left their classroom and did a quick look around for Marcus. She found him quickly enough in the banquet hall, sitting with just a few of his own faction mates. Iris spotted her first and gave her a smile and a big wave.

“Hi! How is your faction doing?” she asked.

“We have things mostly figured out,” Cassandra told her, “I was actually hoping to get some more information from you. Do you know what the others are aiming for?”

“I’ve already had someone try to pay me off to make sure they get Kol,” Marcus told her, “I get the feeling that it is the big one everyone will be fighting over, unless they pay off everyone.”

“Was it Nathan again?” Cassandra asked, perpetually disappointed by his behavior. Was it alright to let him into a leadership role, especially one that influenced future leaders of Tethia?

Marcus let out an awkward chuckle. “That’s right. I feel bad for the first year who he roped into things. If they somehow fail to get Kol it won’t end well.”

“I’m not really interested in Kol,” Cassandra assured, “What kind of territory are your faction going for?”

“We were planning on Herdin since we have a few members with ranching experience,” Marcus replied easily.

That was a big relief. She probably wouldn’t have to worry about that one, then. “That sounds like a good plan. Do you think there will be much competition for that one?”

“Not really. Everyone seems focused on the mines and Omaris,” Marcus told her.

Cassandra winced. Of course Omaris was one of the big ones. It was hard to say for sure until the day of, but perhaps she should focus her efforts on Teber instead. “I was also hoping to secure Omaris,” she admitted, “I was hoping to take advantage of our alliance since it is a territory that requires teamwork.”

“That would be good,” Marcus approved, “I will try my best to support you in the negotiations.”

“I will as well,” Cassandra promised.