Chapter 56

“So,” Delta said. “I’ve got a business proposal for you.”

Maddy had leaned her staff against the wall and sat at on one of the Oasis’s benches, next to Delta. She basked in the mana regeneration effect, looking less fatigued by the second. Her hat was also off, now, with her bright blue hair on full display. It was short, straight, and well-maintained, unruffled by the hat she’d been wearing. It went down to her shoulders. She had warm gray eyes. Paired with her hair, and build, she’d always been a distinctive-looking girl.

“Business proposal?” Maddy asked, amused. “You’re trying to put a team together. No need to phrase it like that.”

“Well. Kind of. Like I said, it’s complicated. The team part is only a maybe.” Delta shook her head. “We’ll get there. First, an actual business proposal, not a team invite. That squad I joined—one of them is a mage.”

Maddy blinked. “Okay. What role?”

“Aegis?” Delta wrinkled her nose. “Actually, as the dynamic stands, she’s more of a booster. But she has the potential to be an aegis. Her support skills are innate, so she has no problem getting those out, but her spellcasting abilities, the ones linked to her arcana rune, are ... lacking.”

“Okay...?” Maddy said. She didn’t see where Delta was going with this.

“We’re looking for a teacher. Someone we can trust. Who has a bit of discretion. Er, a whole heaping of discretion.”

“A whole heaping?”

“It’s weird. A bit of an explanation.” Delta chewed her lip, looking around the Oasis. There were plenty of other mages seated on nearby benches, recovering from their mana expenditures. “Hey, can you do that thing with the sound bubble?”

“Uh. Sure?”

She traced her finger in the air, imprinting a fist-sized arcane diagram of complex white lines in the air. A second later, it fizzled, and all outside noises disappeared. Nobody could hear what they were saying, now.

“Man. That’s seriously so useful.”

“It better be! Took me weeks to learn. It’s a tricky one.” Maddy tilted her head, waiting expectantly.

Delta wasn’t embarrassed about explaining Zoey’s class to Maddy, but she did think it deserved a segue of sorts. Though, launching straight into it would be pretty funny ... Delta fought away the impulse to do so. Much as Maddy’s reaction would be more amusing that way, Delta needed to be a professional. Which she could do, when the situation called for it.

If, admittedly, only through great effort.

“What’s the weirdest class you’ve ever heard of?” Delta asked.

Maddy blinked, adjusting to the swerve in topic. “Huh. That’s a good question.” Her brow furrowed down as she puzzled over it. “Oh! Mom told me about a guy who called himself a ‘devourer’.”

“Eh?”

“Got stronger the more he ate! Was like, four hundred pounds, Mom said. Ate monsters, even, from the various shards he worked through. That’s a pretty weird class.”

No kidding. He ate monsters? “That’s real?”

“I mean ... I think so? Mom met him, apparently, back when she still wayfared. But she could’ve just been making it up.” Maddy shrugged. “But you asked for weird classes. Most of those are made up, I’d figure. Heck, most of everything feels made up, sometimes.”

“Most of everything?” Delta was letting herself get distracted, but talking to Maddy was always interesting; she was constantly saying stuff that had Delta’s head tilting. Probably what growing up with in a reclusive family of mages did. “What’d’you mean?”

“Oh, I dunno. Like, there’s so many rumors floating around. People like to tell stories. Part of the human spirit.” She shrugged. “Makes the truth hard to find.”

“Can’t argue that, I guess.” Maybe normally Delta would continue down this conversation, but she tracked herself back to the matter at hand. “I’m sure you can guess why I asked.”

“She has a weird class,” Maddy said.

“Exactly. Uh, even weirder than what you said.”

“Really?”

Delta supposed Maddy’s curiosity might be a useful thing, here. Plus, she was a bit odd herself ... that might help in a roundabout way. Odd things meshed, right?

“Now,” Delta said, “she just needs a teacher. So you wouldn’t have to do anything you didn’t want to, of course. This is just a disclaimer. But, uh. Her class is sex-related. She recharges mana through ... having sex with other people.”

Maddy stared at her.

Delta laughed. “It makes resting between fights more interesting, I’ll tell you that. If a little less ... restful.”

“Wait,” Maddy stuttered. “You’re serious?”

“Me? I’m always serious.”

Maddy raised her eyebrows at that.

Delta smirked. “Okay, but this time, I am. And like I said, it’s a disclaimer. Doesn’t affect you.” If Maddy didn’t want it to, at least. But Maddy had never come off as particularly open to sex. She got awkward when Delta talked about girls. An impression that Maddy’s blushing and stuttering, now, was reinforcing. “She needs a teacher, and we’re willing to pay well.”

“Uh,” Maddy said. “Teacher ... shelve that for a second. You wanted to invite me to the team, too? With her?”

Delta paused. “I mean, we’re figuring that out. If you’d fit. Not to be rude. The other teammate ... she’s got standards. And it’d need to be a unanimous agreement.”

Maddy leaned back, looking affronted. “You don’t think I’m good enough?”

“She might not,” Delta clarified. “I’m pretty sure I barely squeaked by. Maybe, I only made the cut because she was in a rush to get going.”

“You?” Maddy seemed shocked. Delta had a reputation at Treyhull; for a second-advancement, she was pretty good.

“She’s old blood,” Delta said. “Maker, you’ll see what I mean. But yeah. I mean, I think she’d accept you. But it’s a maybe.”

“Huh,” Maddy said. Zoey’s odd class seemed to have taken a brief back seat; Maddy, like any wayfarer, was interested in the opportunity to put together a promising party. “And she’s good, as well?”

Delta paused, remembering the way her annoying blonde teammate had carved through their latest adventure, first with her bare hands, then later, when armed with a shortspear, with even more breathtaking fluidity. All while protecting Zoey, not letting a single scratch onto her until they’d reached the boss ... which had been a particularly difficult fight, for a second-advancement shard.

Delta thought Rosalie was arrogant, but to say it was unfounded would be a lie. It couldn’t be more founded. Which forgave it in some part ... but not entirely. She had a lot of mixed feelings when it came to Rosalie. She shook the thoughts off.

“She’s good,” Delta said. “More than good. Pound for pound, probably the best third-advancement lancer in Treyhull.” Because she was no longer second advancement—she’d progressed this morning. Delta hadn’t been so lucky. To think Rosalie had been in the Fractures less than half the time Delta had, and already had hit third advancement. Zoey’s rune had helped her along, having delved two shards with her compared to Delta’s one ... but even so. Astonishing.

Maddy leaned forward, incredulous. “Best? In Treyhull?”

It was a lofty claim for a city as big as Treyhull. But Delta believed it. “You’ll see what I mean.”

“Coming from you, I can trust it ... but still. Really?”

Delta didn’t like talking up Rosalie, so she wrinkled her nose. “Yeah, really.”

“Wow.” Maddy’s brow scrunched down. “Sounds like you’ve brought a real opportunity to me.”

“Comes with unusual circumstances,” Delta reminded her.

Maddy paused, remembering the reveal from earlier. Zoey’s ‘sex class’. She colored, then coughed into a fist. “Right.”

“Again, you wouldn’t have to do anything you didn’t want to,” Delta said. “Well, sort of. She has a ‘linking skill’, so you’d need to ... do something. But just once. Or, maybe more than once, to refresh it. But we could take care of recharging her.”