“Permission?” He raised an eyebrow. “Really, with her behavior, you would leave her to make that decision?”
I sighed. “I was feeling pretty hot blooded back there, but in retrospect, I really don’t have the experience that she does to make decisions about this sort of thing. Frankly, we should probably be glad we’re not being thrown in prison for assaulting a teacher.”
“She invaded your room. There would be no grounds for such a thing.”
I rolled my eyes. “Professors have a lot of influence. If she claimed she was there for routine business and we attacked her, the courts would probably take her side. But that’s not her angle. If that was her, and it almost certainly was, her motivation was to test me and scare me. Both worked. Mission accomplished.”
“What convinced you that it’s really her?”
“Simplest answer, really. She’s the only one who has actually mentioned any threat toward me. I’ve seen no evidence of anyone knowing about my experiences in the tower aside from her. I haven’t told anyone else.”
After I said that, I realized it wasn’t strictly true. The Voice had also mentioned potential danger. And anyone who had seen me in the tower — Keras, Vera, or even Katashi — could have sent assassins after me. I just didn’t think most of them had any motivation to.
Orden had mentioned that Katashi might send agents to get rid of me. That was plausible, and it was a scenario worth considering and preparing for. But if they thought I was a big enough threat to warrant attention, I strongly suspected they would have found a more effective way to get rid of me than sending one person with a knife.
This particular attack was much more likely to be the real Orden running a test, but that didn’t mean I was free from actual danger. If anything, it meant Orden thought the danger was severe enough that she wanted me to take it seriously.
“Hm,” Jin replied helpfully.
We arrived at the dorm shortly thereafter. Much like mine, the building was three stories, and the doors to the rooms were external, which meant that we didn’t have to bypass any dorm guards. Jin holstered his revolver on his hip.
We walked up the stairs, and I knocked on Sera’s door.
It took a minute before she opened it, wearing a nightgown. Her hair was disheveled.
Jin’s eyes widened, then he glanced away. He looked a little embarrassed.
Sera’s eyes did the opposite. She folded her arms. “When I asked the goddess to send me two men in the middle of the night, this was not what I what I meant.”
I completed the eye-motion theatrics by rolling mine once more. “Can we come in?”
She sighed, waving us in. “Fine. You must be positively desperate if you’re here.”
I...I wasn’t that bad about visiting her without an agenda, was I?
Yeah, I definitely was. I’d have to get better about that.
We followed her inside the room, which was the same size as mine. She sat on her bed, staring at me. Jin was pointedly looking away from her.
I closed the door behind us.
“We need a place to stay for the night.”
Sera tilted her head down. “You’re joking.”
“Nope.”
“Why?”
“Assassins.”
She leaned forward. “Assassins,” she echoed, deadpan.
“You caught me.” I flicked my hand dismissively, looking upward with exaggerated irritation. “It was only one assassin.”
“She was very skilled,” Jin added.
“You two,” Sera said, rubbing the bridge of her nose, “can spoon on the floor.”
I leaned against the back wall. “I was kind of hoping you could put Jin in a room with one of your friends.”
Jin gave me a look that contained more horror than I knew he could express.
“Problem?”
Jin’s shivered and looked away. “I... It would not be appropriate for me to stay in this place.”
If he had somewhere else to say, he hadn’t mentioned it.
“Aww, don’t be shy.” I blame Sera for bringing out my urge to tease. Poor Jin was collateral damage in our normal dynamic. He deserved better, so I could at least reassure him. “I think the dorm rules are superseded by the destruction of our rooms.”
Sera raised her eyebrows at that. “Wait, what?”
“Long story. Anyway, can you find him a spot?”
Sera sighed and stood. “Your friend — who, you know, you should introduce me to — can stay with my lovely and nubile friend Patrick, in the nearby boys dorms.”
Jin breathed an audible sigh of relief. “Thank you.”
I chuckled. Most guys would have killed for a chance to have an excuse to be here.
“This,” I gestured, “Is Jin. He’s... Actually, I still don’t know what attunement he has.”
Jin pressed his mouth flat and looked as far to the side as his eyes would go. He obviously wasn’t planning to fill in the blanks. I gave a sigh of resignation, and his lips twitched. His gaze flicked back to me and he winked. It seemed his mood was improving.
“And this,” I gestured, “is Sera.”
Sera smiled with her usual charm. “Sera Cadence. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Jin. Now, if you boys would step outside for a moment, I’ll get dressed and escort you to Patrick’s room.”
Chapter IX — Hard Day
I woke on Sera’s floor with a terrible neck ache.
We’d dropped Jin off with Patrick, who had been kind enough to lend out his own floor, much as we’d suspected. We didn’t fill Patrick in on any details aside from Jin’s room being “in need of repairs”.
Maybe I’d tell him eventually.
Sera was reading in bed when I pushed myself off the floor. “Finally. Now do I get some real answers?” She stared down at me.
I rubbed my neck. “I wish I had them. Suffice to say that I was attacked last night, and Jin helped me out.”
“Attacked?” She pushed her covers away. “You actually meant that comment about assassins? What happened?”
“Eh, I probably shouldn’t get into it until I have a better idea of what was really happening. Simple answer is that I think one of the teachers was testing me. Or maybe hazing me. Probably both.”
“You could file a complaint about that.”