Daughter of Nox

Chapter Twenty-Five

The friends hurried into their new Novice flight suits as quick as their exhausted limbs could manage, all while Freya recounted everything that had happened since she'd first met her cousin. Freya spilled it all–Cruxious Averni's threats toward her father, the peace talks with the Separatists, her father's enemies efforts to see her fail out of Academy. All of it. She even told Etta about Hela ordering her Esque to attack her, as well as the lies her father told about his relationship with her Aunt Sigyn.

"My dad said you'd have something to tell me once we got here," Etta said when Freya finished. "But I'll be slagged if I ever thought it was going to be something like this."

Freya felt caught off guard at this, but only for a moment. It made sense that Etta's father would know about the peace talks with the Separatists, and that he'd want Etta to hear it from Freya. He was, after all, Second to Freya's father.

"How in the flaming hell does all of that happen in only like three or four days?"

"I wish I knew." Freya let out an exhausted sigh. "These past few days have felt like a lifetime."

"The thing I don't get is why that officer just hand waved the inspection," Etta said. "If it was part of some plan to get you expelled, then why didn't she give hit you with two strikes and send you packing?"

"The only thing I can think of is that maybe someone found out about the plan and they couldn't pull it off."

"Someone, huh?" Etta said. "Vague, but okay."

Freya smirked. "You have a better hypothesis?"

"The fact that you even ask that question is a little insulting," Etta said. "Of course I have a better hypothe-thingy."

"This is where you tell me what it is."

"What if this whole cleaning thing wasn't part of any plot?"

Freya raised an eyebrow. "Come again?"

"Just imagine for a second," Etta said, "that our old friend, the cleanliness Inquisitor, doesn't like her job of having to convince Novices that cleaning up their disgusting barracks is a good idea. Actually, she probably hates this slagging assignment because it means dealing with a bunch of stuck up rich kids with way more power than she'll ever have. Then imagine our friend comes into the fabulous Raymond Hall, only to find an Ascending First Marshall and her gorgeous, yet humble Second trying to shirk their cleaning duty by playing dumb about being the only Novices in the barracks. She gets flaming mad, threatens to kick one of them out of Academy. You follow?"

"I think so," Freya said. "I mean, I sort of lost you for a minute at 'gorgeous yet humble', but I got the gist of everything else."

"Just try to keep up, Fray," Etta said. "Anyways, imagine that this officer's superiors find out what she's done, and are unappreciative of the fact that she is trying to boot Novices from Academy before classes even begin. They imagine that the decidedly less gorgeous Novice's father wouldn't approve of his daughter being expelled for something so incredibly stupid. And so they tell the officer to go back in the morning, give the Novice a pat on the back, and live to boss people around another day."

"So you're saying that this was all a misunderstanding?"

"No," Etta said. "I'm saying that while it could be part of a plot to expel you from Academy, it could also just be a misunderstanding."

Freya thought about this for a moment. It made sense, and took much less in the way of paranoid thinking to make it work. She was about to say as much, when a loud flat tone buzzed through the air of her room.

"Slag the stars," Etta said. "Is that for the start of class?"

"I think it might be," Freya said, and leapt up. "We'd better get going before we're too late or else I might get another strike."