Liliana reclined into Lelantos’ warm bulk, legs crossed in front of her as she read through a textbook, referring to a separate book, and randomly annotating the pages on both. A notebook half filled with notes was open on her laps and a pen controlled by [Threads of Control] was busy filling the page with information paraphrased from the books.

She and her bond were sitting towards the edge of the circular clearing the second years had created to camp out in. The runecaster, Stanely, had placed runes around the clearing that afforded certain protections, warnings and levels of comfort not commonly found in rough campsites. The heat of the fire was evenly dispersed across the entire campsite, no matter how far one was from it. Apparently, inclement weather would also be kept out, such as strong winds, fog, rain, hail, and snow. Liliana would even swear the ground was softer than normal.

The geomancer, Dean, Liliana was fairly certain, was on sentry duty and Liliana had already sent Polaris and Nemesis out to both hunt and guard the area. They wouldn’t attack anything too low leveled for them to gain experience. Liliana didn’t want the second years to get too comfortable and lazy, so she had instructed her bonds to let things through that would be a ‘threat’ to the younger years, while not being anything they couldn’t handle.

Corbin hummed a low melody next to her, plucking his lute along as he seemed to search out the right melody, stopping every few minutes to write down lyrics or the notes he found pleasing. He kept sending her curious looks, but Liliana had been mostly ignoring it since they’d stopped for the evening.

“What?” Liliana finally asked after the twelfth look.

“Hm?” Corbin asked, face arranged into a visage of innocence that didn’t fool Liliana.

“You keep looking at me. What do you want? You’re distracting me from my studying since you keep tripping [Perception].” Liliana looked up, face serious and tone annoyed.

“Just waiting for something to happen,” Corbin responded cryptically.

“What does that mean?” Liliana prodded, attention reluctantly drawing away from her studying.

She really needed to get the Great War between Gadria and Cista from four hundred years ago researched so she could write up her essay on it. She had some passable personal interest in it since her own ancestor had played a massive role. They hadn’t ended the war, but they had been the lynchpin that spelled the end for the war.

As much as she hated her family name because of her father, she could admit she didn’t hate the Rosengarde family history. It was littered with powerful people who had protected the queendom, who had changed history.

Sometimes it felt like her placement in this body didn’t only have to do with the original Liliana’s fate. The Rosengarde family were full of ancestors who had changed fate, who had fought against insurmountable odds and risen to the challenge, overcoming and achieving victory. It was a family with a history of heroes, one she sometimes felt a slight bit of awe to realize she could call her own. Even if more recent generations left much to be desired.

“You’re like a bad luck charm. Whenever I join you, it seems the unexpected becomes the expected.” Corbin elucidated, and Liliana’s lips thinned as she glared.

“Then why do you insist on joining me?” Liliana demanded.

“The best bards are the ones who see the greatest heroes in action,” Corbin smiled disarmingly at her and Liliana scowled, trying to banish the affection that warmed her chest.

“So you’re using me as what? A muse?” Liliana asked sarcastically. Corbin shrugged, a lopsided, helpless smile on his face. Liliana’s eyes widened in something akin to horror.

“You are!” She hissed.

“You’re a very good muse. Trouble seems to follow you. And I need to have a portfolio done to pass my Music class. And Band Club requires you to write at least one original song, and to perform in front of alumni. If you do well enough, one will take you as an apprentice,” Corbin’s voice held no regret as he smiled at her and Liliana stared at him, flabbergasted.

“That’s why you stick around me so much?” Liliana asked, not able to entirely keep the hurt out of her voice. She’d thought they’d been friends. Not just… a bard and his muse.

“I like to think of it as a symbiotic partnership. Every hero needs a bard to make sure they’re remembered. And the best bards in history are those who knew which heroes to follow,” Corbin soothed, scooching closer to her to place a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“So you’re using me.” Liliana said bluntly, shrugging off the touch as if burned.

“It helps. I also like your presence, and consider you a friend,” Corbin said softly, stubbornly putting his hand back on her shoulder and squeezing. Liliana let it stay there, mollified by his words.

“You could’ve told me,” Liliana pouted mulishly, arms crossing tightly over her chest.

“You probably would’ve refused to work with me in that case,” Corbin said, and Liliana sighed, knowing it was the truth.

“Besides, don’t act like you don’t use people too. My reasons are multi-faceted, not just something to be boiled down to a simple thing such as using you. It just happened to be a happy side effect of our partnership and friendship,” Corbin explained, and Liliana rolled her eyes, nose scrunching at such a political answer. Corbin would not be out of place at court, or in a gathering of nobles.

“You befriended me because you thought I’d make for good material,” Liliana accused, mind clicking it together.

It made sense now, why Corbin had hung around her specifically so much once he joined class S. Liliana had liked having another tamer around, even if he was a bard, and his fighting style meshed well with hers, so she had permitted him to stay.

“Originally, yes. I have a good nose for people who will make excellent subjects for songs. You shone like a [Radiant Blast] amongst the dim flickering flames filling the Academy. But it doesn’t mean the friendship we have now is false,” Corbin admitted, slightly reluctantly and hastening to reassure her, stroking her ego to disguise the blatantly selfish explanation he’d given. Liliana appreciated the honesty far more than the flattery, even if her cheeks flushed slightly in pleasure.

“Whatever,” Liliana grumbled, turning a fierce glare on Corbin, “but if you try to manipulate me again, I’ll shove a sword down your throat and you’ll never sing another song again.” She promised. Corbin looked into her dark blue eyes that hardened until they were almost indistinguishable from sapphires, and slowly nodded.

“So… any thoughts on what rhymes with gorgons?” Corbin asked, humor shattering the chilly tension between them.

“Fuck you,” Liliana retorted with her nose in the air, turning back to her books.

“Not quite. You’d be a terrible bard with those rhyming skills.” Corbin teased her, tugging on a lock of black and silver hair that had escaped the confines of her braid.

Corbin snatched his hand back when she turned her head to snap her teeth at the offending digits. He turned his body slightly until his back rested against her side and he resumed his song writing. With his warmth leaking into her, and the comfort physical contact always gave her, Liliana let her body slowly relax.

Liliana had to admit she wasn’t as mad as she could’ve been. It helped that her [Empathy] and [Soul Sight] meant she had a better understanding of how others felt. People could lie about a lot, but lying with their emotions, lying with their soul was something most their age wouldn't have the capabilities of doing. She’d heard of such things, of course, both from talking to Healer Sybil, who now was more of a mentor than strictly her healer, and in her Soul classes.

Healer Sybil had mentioned such things were possible, but it usually involved a very strong affinity for Psyche, and almost constructing a second ‘them’ inside their mind. Like a separate personality that was given a set of directives, sometimes even entirely restricted from certain memories or given constructed memories. It was horrendously difficult, and even more dangerous, since it was far easier to break the mind in question than to form a, technically, second one.

Allegedly, it was a tactic favored by spies. Liliana wasn’t sure how true that claim was, as she was almost entirely certain Healer Sybil had never been a spy herself. And she had yet to stumble across a spy herself to get proof. Perhaps she could ask Marianne, as surely the queen had spies. It would be a good way to further learn about the Psyche affinity.

Liliana was almost entirely certain Corbin had no such skills. He might be proficient enough with the Soul affinity to do something to create false bonds. But she had never seen him show any level of knowledge with the Psyche affinity.

She also had never seen him use the Light affinity, which he’d need to unlock Psyche. She wasn’t even sure he could unlock a Light affinity, or not easily. Corvid beasts almost never had Light affinities, and if they did, it was always characterized by white feathers. She wasn’t sure what type of bird beastman he was, precisely, but she would bet a Dark aligned one. Which meant gaining a Light affinity, and any Light subaffinties, would be difficult verging on impossible.

And as much as she liked, and secretly respected, Corbin she didn’t see him being willing to devote the time and effort necessary to get a high enough mastery in the Light affinity to unlock a subaffinity and then devoting himself to getting good enough with it to make the false self, and risking his mind. Because for all that Corbin was, hardworking wasn’t a trait he could claim. He was lazy. His choice to be a bard and a tamer made that obvious. He would always pick the path of least resistance, and the one with the lowest personal risk.

So she was confident his friendship with her was not a farce. It might’ve started out with him wanting to simply be around someone he thought would become ‘great’, and oh, the irony, but the friendship they had now was real. She truly believed that, fully and utterly.

Besides, he wasn’t wrong.

It wasn’t like Liliana had never initiated a friendship or connection for personal gain. Reaching out to Marianne had been multi-reasoned. Wanting to meet her favorite character, who just so happened to be the crown princess, wanting a friend she felt like she could truly understand. And, if she was truly honest with herself, she’d known a friendship with the crown princess would be beneficial.

It didn’t make her friendship, or her loyalty, to Marianne now any less real or valid. And she’d admit, the friends she made in the Academy were all powerful, either in magically, physically or politically speaking. And it would be a blatant lie to say those factors had no impact on her choice to befriend them.

It wasn’t that she usually went out of her way to search for such people, but if they approached her, then it did make her more… inclined to give them a chance. Or at least consider it more than if they hadn’t had anything to offer her.

“Organ, on, jargon, foreign,” Liliana said softly as she focused back on her books, drawing herself out of the depths of her thoughts.

“Huh?” Corbin made an inquiring noise as his fingers stilled on his lute.

“They rhyme with Gorgon,” Liliana said in explanation as she started to add a new annotation to her textbook with a small smile.

“Face to face with the horrifying gorgon, our warrioress relentlessly pressed on,” Corbin sung softly and nodded to himself, writing down the line.

“Ugh,” Liliana gagged, “never let me hear you singing about me again.” She ordered, and Corbin chuckled.

He resumed plucking at his lute as Liliana fell back into reading about the war, pausing a few times when the name Rosengarde started to appear with more frequency, marking the paragraphs where it did for further review.

Maybe she could request her father send her some of the history books from the manor… surely they would have something more detailed in the ancestral home of the Rosengarde family. Perhaps a copy of a journal she could use for the essay. It might mollify her father if she reached out and showed some interest in their family history, at least enough to stop his weekly letters for a month or so.

When she became bored of reading about the war, her mind swimming with dates and names, Liliana summoned a new notebook from her storage. This was filled with events that were far more recent. All the information they, primarily Emyr, had gathered about the incorrect assignments. Liliana pulled out the pages that detailed the events other classes had seen, marking down the short list.

Ghouls, instead of Zombies. Thank the gods it wasn’t a Lich, I doubt any student could’ve handled one of those. They’re usually Rank 2 at the lowest. A company of Cyclops instead of a family of ogres. Thunderbirds, instead of Rocs. A self-proclaimed warlord instead of bandits.

A coven of vampires-wait, seriously? Those are incredibly rare outside of certain dungeons. They’re typically hunted with extreme prejudice, since they prey only on humans. They were reported as Lamias? That’s twice a Lamia assignment was wrong. Liliana wrote down a shortened version of the reports, tapping her pen against her lip as something perhaps resembling a pattern swam into her mind.

Most of these are beasts. There’s a few where it’s humans, the warlord, the human trafficking crime syndicate Alistair spoke about. And one instance in this latest batch of a gang that was higher leveled than reported. Before this there were a couple of human based wrong assignments, but overwhelmingly, its beasts.

Is it because generally nobles and guards deal with human crimes? Or because adventurer guilds, which is where our assignments come from, get mostly beast requests? Or is it because whoever is behind this has some… some connection to beasts? Is it possible the assignments are truthful, and between them being sent and getting accepted, the creatures are… switched out? Liliana rubbed at her eyes with the heels of her hands as her thoughts chased one another through her mind.

The only known way to be connected to beasts was through taming. Sometimes, if the beasts were a high enough level and friendly enough, alliances, treaties and agreements could be made. But those were rare. Beasts, at best, didn’t care about humans. The majority were actively antagonistic, seeing humans as threats or prey. Someone working with beasts, wild beasts, was… unheard of.

Unless it’s a beast doing this? A Rank 1 beast might be able to control this many beasts of differing types. It’s never happened, but it makes more sense than a human. Liliana bit into her lip as she twirled her pen around, considering this new option.

The only time I’ve ever heard of something even slightly similar to this was the game… The quests you had to take after the Academy were all subjugation quests, to deal with beasts who were acting abnormal. Far more agitated and aggressive than was typical, attacking where they normally wouldn’t.

The quest line ended with a confrontation with the original Liliana, who had tamed a number of powerful beasts. It came out that the boss beasts you fought up until that point were all different bonds of hers. She had become some type of shapeshifter class, taking their forms and forcing you to ‘defeat’ each form to proceed. The fight made you redo every boss fight before she turned into a chimera, a mixture of every boss so far. Combining all their attacks and powers and making it the hardest boss fight in the entire game.

But these aren’t quite like that. There’s more, for one. And the creatures aren’t… to the same level of difficulty, though the Gorgons came close. Liliana tilted her head back, eyes searching for the stars, light dim with the campfire so close by.

The stars gave her no answer for her thoughts and theories and after a few minutes, Liliana dropped her head back down. She started writing down the theories circling dizzily in her head down in the notebook, switching to using English. She could translate for Emyr, but she couldn't have some of what she was writing down getting around.

If… if somehow it’s the same thing. Maybe it is beasts controlling the other beasts, maybe someone has tamed high level beasts, rank 2 or 1, and they’re forcing these beasts to act this way? It would make more sense than a single beast being able to do this, which is unprecedented. Even in this insane world.

Multiple is more probable, and would enable them to do this around the entire country, which is what we’ve seen. Every territory has been visited by the students and had an instance of an incorrect assignment. Liliana wrote out the latest theory, her stomach twisting a knotting with unease.

This would mean that some things, some events, are still proceeding as they did in the game, though. In a different way, but still following the same beats. But now I have no idea who is behind it.

Is it a student? A professor? Someone not even in the Academy? This is almost worse than if we’d kept to the original storyline, since I don’t know enough to predict what happens, or who’s behind this. This could be more dangerous, as I could end up acting on old information, old assumptions, maybe even subconsciously, and it could have fatal mistakes. Liliana frowned at her notes, unease curdling into foreboding that sent a cold chill through her bones.

She’d need to speak to Emyr as soon as she was back. He was the only person who knew everything, and he might be able to help her figure this out. Either he’d help her figure out some sort of plan, or he’d present a logical argument that would destroy her worries and show her she was being paranoid again. He didn’t have the same ingrained assumptions and preconceived notions she did, which meant he would be invaluable in helping her sort through these frightening theories.

“Lili?” Corbin’s voice startled her enough that she dropped her pen. She swiped it from the air before it could hit the ground, but it was a mark of how unsettled she was that she’d dropped it at all. Corbin gave her an odd look, lips pulled slightly down in a worried frown.

“What?” Liliana asked, wincing at how weak her voice sounded.

“We should head to bed. It’s late and we’re setting out at first light,” Corbin said slowly, eyes flicking between her face and her notebook, eyebrows pulling together when he saw the strange script written on the page. Liliana snapped the notebook closed before Corbin could stare for too long and sent it back to her storage with her pen.

“Yeah. Yeah, right,” Liliana said, voice still sounding rattled.

Corbin gave her a worried look and when he stretched out his hand to help her up, Liliana accepted it, only making his face crease further in worry. Liliana had too many thoughts running in her head to try to comfort her friend. She couldn’t even comfort herself.

There was a rustle in the grass near her leg, and then a serpentine body wound up her leg. Liliana picked up Nemesis without a thought, settling the serpent on her neck, where she started to squeeze in a comforting rhythm, like a heartbeat.

“Calm, there is no use in fearing the enemy who is not yet before you. All you're doing is fighting the battle for them, weakening yourself,” Nemesis’ hissing voice filled her mind and Liliana let out a long breath as she approached her tent.

Lelantos had already slunk out of the camp to start his own guarding shift when Nemesis had rejoined them. With more concentration than her anger had ever required, Liliana dispersed the feelings of fear and heavy unease filling her.

“Sleep well, Lili.” Corbin said softly, eyes heavy with concern as she stepped into her tent.

“You too,” Liliana said, distractedly, her voice stronger than before.

She didn’t need to see the future to know tonight she’d be beset by nightmares.