Zack pulled away from her, uncomfortable at the sudden contact and the look in her eyes. “We should be getting to class. Why don’t you tell me what happened with Spencer and the Albrights? What did your parents have to say about his words? I noticed you seemed to be in a bad mood earlier.”

Her fiery-hazel eyes narrowed at the dodge to her own question. “Mother reacted about as well as I thought she would, in that the Albrights should be experiencing some business difficulties about now. She forced a couple of government agencies to go through their financials with a fine-tooth comb. Father, well, he just laughed and said the king would never allow them to control his work.”

“What is it your mother does again?” Zack had heard Tessa mention her the night of the attack and had been wondering ever since.

“Hmm?” Her feet stuttered, and she crossed her arms. It was a classic defensive move that people used when they were insecure, among other things. “Oh, she is an advisor to the king.” Tessa gleefully took in his look of disbelief, her arms dropping open.

“And Dorn thought his family could just force yours to do anything?”

“The identity of my mother is rather special, and only a few people know who she is. You should consider yourself grateful and standing among a select few.”

“Why even tell me then?” He asked in exasperation, looking around for any eavesdroppers.

“I am not actually sure, but mother said that if you ever asked, I could mention it. It is odd, I admit, normally I’m barely allowed to mention her at all. My mentioning her the other night was purely an accidental slip of the tongue.”

He wasn’t sure he believed that. People didn’t just accidentally let slip a secret they kept from everyone. It was more likely that the girl had been instructed by her mother to let it slip at some point. Why, though? What game was her mother playing?

Regardless, it was already too late for him. The lines had been clearly marked with the attack and then with Tessa’s mother taking action. To everyone else, it would appear that he was firmly in their camp, whatever that meant.

His mind made those connections in an instant of clarity, destroying any shred of trust he may have formed with her.

Zack shook his head and pulled away from her. “No, I don’t think it was an accident. You and your mother are playing some kind of game, I assume against the other nobles.” He scoffed and took another step away from her. “You probably even knew that sitting with me would cause a reaction from the younger idiots.” He raised his hands, stalling her excuses. “Just tell me why?”

To her credit, the way Tessa looked at him didn’t change at all. There was no sudden switch to an expression of revulsion because she had been forced to spend time with him. A commoner, someone beneath her vaunted station. She simply continued to stare at him, her eyes shaking for a brief moment, and then nothing.

Everyone had heard the stories, or read the books, wherein someone would get used by the nobles. It was a common enough tale, and when the noble would reveal their plan to the unwitting commoner, it always came with a look of disgusted revulsion. She didn’t have that.

Tessa glanced behind him at the clock set high up on the central building. “We should get to class; I hear that Quinn will be covering our status sheets in class today.” She walked up to his side and in a whisper spoke one final set of instructions. “I will be dropping by your dorm tonight before dinner. Make sure you and Zara are prepared to spend the night somewhere else. You won’t be back until Sonntag night. I will make sure Edith is aware.”

He didn’t like being ordered around by anyone, but he was willing to make an exception this time. The need for answers outweighed his normal reaction to being controlled.

***

The other students had nearly all arrived by the time they walked into class. Their appearance, together, set them off and everyone began talking at once.

Spencer, who had dared to show up for the class that day, in particular, looked livid.

Quinn let them continue talking for a minute, waiting for the few late students to arrive. He stood when it was time. “Everyone shut up now. Class is about to begin. That means you too Spencer!”

The boy in question twisted his head in anger towards the teacher. “I wasn’t even talking!”

“I SAID SHUT IT!” Quinn thundered, unsuccessfully hiding a smirk from the class. “You were already going to get detention for not coming to class yesterday, now you have it twice, and both of them need to be done today or you won’t be going through the portal next week.”

“But…” Spencer sputtered impotently.

The teacher quirked a brow, clearly daring the boy to continue. “Good,” He said once it became clear he wasn’t going to say anything more. “Now we have a few things to cover today. Right now, we are going to cover what the information on your status page means. Later, I will be giving you the overview of the monsters you might encounter inside the school’s portal.”

Quinn pointed to the board, where each of the items that appeared on a status page was written. “I’m assuming that you all know enough to understand what each of those is for. Strength is for muscles.” He flexed with a self-satisfied smile. “It lets you beat things down easier.”

“Dexterity is for hand-eye coordination and for precise control of your body and movements. It is useful, and for most classes, it is a secondary stat.” He twirled a dagger around his fingers to demonstrate the control. Then he threw the blade over their heads to a target that had been pinned to the wall for that exact purpose.

“Constitution is directly related to how much of a beating your body can take before you die. I would suggest that all of you invest in it. If you can. We have the perfect example of what you will look like after each trip through the portal otherwise.” Quinn directed the class’s attention to Zack. “I would suggest using less makeup, in the future, just as an FYI.” He said good-naturedly.

Zack nodded in good humor, glad that no one was looking closer than that.

“Intelligence is directly related to how much magic you have, and how fast you can regenerate it. On a separate note, if you raise this enough then it can also make your memory better on this side. Magic affects the oomph, the power of your spells. At a high enough level, some travelers have reported that it has given them a sort of sixth sense on this side of the portals.” He shrugged. “I’m not a magic-user, but it does help any attacks I make centered around my element.”

“Final one, and then you can ask any questions you have about the rest of the status page. Agility affects your speed, fast-twitch muscles, and reaction time along with balance and more body control.” Quinn walked over to his desk and sat on it. “Questions?”

“What are the averages for each stat?” A girl sitting near Tessa asked.

“The average for students is typically between ten and fifteen. Twenty is generally the highest you would ever see naturally. That would be the person at the top, the strongest, fastest, etcetera. If your parents have had you exercising, and training since you were young, then getting stats in the fifteen range is not unreasonable.”

“How rare are abilities and titles?” A quiet but dignified boy, who rarely interacted with the other students, asked.

“Abilities are common. Most, if not all, of you will get one with your class. A typical one would be ‘Powerblow’, a beginning attack that all warriors get. As for titles, that is hard to say.” He scratched at his chin in thought. “They are rare. Off the top of my head, I can only think of maybe five travelers that I have personally met with one. That said, there are probably more who have just never reported them. Each title comes with an effect of some kind, better elemental control, a slight increase in a specific stat. The crown pays handsomely for information on titles, and yet some people prefer to keep the information to themselves.”

Zack thought of his own two titles and knew which he would choose. It was for the best if no one ever knew about them, and Zara agreed.

“At what point do the effects of our portal stats influence those we have on this side?” Zack took the chance to ask something he had always wanted to know.

“The conversion rate is ten portals’ stats, for one normal stat. This sounds easy until you realize that all training classes only give you one stat to use at each level up. That increases to two when you reach your junior class.”

Zack realized he had asked the question wrong and was in the midst of raising his hand when Tessa asked the question he had originally intended.

“And what about for the special effects you mentioned earlier? What stat number is needed for those?”

Quinn sucked in a breath and let it out in an explosive sigh. “I was hoping none of you would ask that. I said earlier that twenty was the highest natural stat, and that is true, especially in relation to your question. For example, raising your magic to twenty-one would give you a small chance of having that sixth sense activate. It would become more noticeable at twenty-five and higher.”

He looked desperately at the clock and smiled in relief. “It is something that is out of reach for most of us, and I would encourage you all to forget about it. Now, it is time for training.”