5.05 – Mediator II

As a rogue, Jordan was accustomed to scoring critical hits; doing so was a cornerstone of her class. Even by her standards, though, this one was gory. Sofia went red, facing Jordan with an expression of pure shock. Her mouth opened and closed soundlessly, too caught off-guard to even sputter.

Accusations like those made in the heat of the moment were one thing, like Jordan's taunting that morning, but in the sober light of day, at class, Jordan's words hit Sofia with far more impact.

"Or are you hoping to be more than just her sex pet?" Jordan continued in a serious tone, making sure to seem over-the-top worried. She squeezed her arm, again, play-acting the earnest friend. "Getting it into her thick skull that you want to be her girlfriend will be an uphill battle—so you'll need a plan. That's where I can help."

"What are you talking about?" Sofia finally stuttered out, stumbling an impressive three times over the first word—sounding half-strangled. "Have you lost your mind? Her sex pet? Her girlfriend?" she hissed, shooting frantic looks around, though nobody was nearby. "We have a bet! And, and the collar! That's it! And, by the way, the collar was the dungeon's fault."

"So you don't want it there?" Jordan asked—and this time, the seriousness in her voice was genuine. "Did that happen too fast? Or is anything else too much? Like the bet you two made? And what happened this morning—did I go too far?"

Those had, of course, been the actual questions Jordan wanted to ask. Teasing Sofia would always be fun, but her ultimate goal was to check up on the girl.

The pivot from over-the-top accusations to sounding genuinely caring caught Sofia doubly off guard: she reeled, again trying to orient herself.

"If you want Natalie to slow down, you can tell her," Jordan said. "She'll listen. I know that for a fact, even if you disagree. Or if you don't like something you two are doing, or where your relationship is going, tell her—she will ease up. Without making a big deal of it. I promise. Above everything, she cares about you, Sofia. And so do I."

Sofia's mouth opened and closed. Words didn't come out. Finally, her strangled response came. "Jordan. This isn't necessary." Her face somehow turned an even deeper shade of red. "I do have a spine. If I don't like something, I am more than capable of standing up for myself. Especially to that aggravating woman."

Jordan bit down on an instinctive response: something along the lines of, 'not from what I saw, this morning'. It wasn't the time. She'd gotten the honesty she'd wanted—and also made sure to hammer home that Natalie did care about her, and would drop the bet, or collar situation, if asked. In case the woman was deep enough in denial that she didn't believe that, it had to be said.

So Jordan nodded, then dropped the topic. Sofia looked kind of close to melting where she stood, anyway.

"So what about threesomes?" Jordan asked. "I mean, real ones. Not like this morning. Are those on the table?"

Sofia made a choking noise.

Jordan laughed, then eased up. She faced forward. There were a few things she wanted to talk about that weren't about their love lives—relevant topics for their team's future.

"Anyway, we're a few weeks in," she said. "School events are gonna start soon. And we should probably look into doing some quests. We're performing well in the dungeon, but that's not all we have to worry about."

Sofia was more than happy to accept the pivot, if, once again, she had to visibly orient herself. Her pale cheeks were dusted pink, and she pointedly didn't meet Jordan's eyes. She really was way too cute. Jordan had always been fond of Sofia, though Natalie's rivalry had made it hard to be friends—especially since Sofia had had her own friend group, back home.

Honestly, Jordan hadn't fully resolved her feelings for the woman. She definitely wasn't in love with her like she was with Natalie—but she admittedly did find teasing the woman irresistible. Or, in general irresistible. Any opportunity Jordan could get her hands on her, she would take.

So a crush, maybe? Though of a definitively different nature than the one she had on Natalie.

"You're right about quests. Especially since a decent portion of our loot is," Sofia paused, still somewhat scrambling to catch herself from the earlier conversation, "difficult to sell. We'll need other income sources, and quests are best for that."

A decent portion of the items they were earning from the dungeon would make a killing if put onto the market, but the team had come to the consensus that Natalie's class was better to keep hidden. Even without bringing in the whole 'sleeping deities' ordeal—which was something Jordan had no idea what to think of—a class like Natalie's was best kept on the down-low in a politically charged environment like Tenet. That subterfuge wouldn't last forever, but for the short term, they were keeping the lewd items a secret. Most were in use, anyway, or had future uses. But that meant they had fewer items going onto the market, and so, credits were tighter for them than most other groups. Sure, they got way better loot, but most of it they had to keep hidden.

"Think the team will want to head out this weekend?" Jordan asked. "Monster hunting quests are everywhere. They pay great. And we'll get to travel. See the countryside."

Of course, there were downsides to those kinds of contracts: most prevalently, the reduced experience. While surface monsters existed and could easily be as dangerous as dungeon monsters, they were sparser and a far less effective way to level. The upside was that quests posted by Tenet paid much better; they could easily triple or quadruple their daily earnings.

Or, a regular team could. It was a little murkier considering Natalie's influence on the dungeon.

There were also quest quotas to worry about, but that only became a concern for teams that only delved, ignoring the quest board completely—and they weren't that far into the semester for that to be an issue. Still, it was something to think about.

"I wouldn't be against it," Sofia said. Her brow furrowed. "If it means saving lives, then some inefficiency obviously doesn't matter. We can miss out on experience."

Jordan felt briefly guilty that hadn't been where her mind had gone. Though she obviously agreed. She hadn't pursued a career in delving purely out of a desire to help people, but it had been a reason. The grueling hours spent in the training yard, and down in the dungeon, was as much for her own personal benefit as for a desire to use that strength to make a difference. To protect people who couldn't protect themselves. Most delvers felt that way.

Well, maybe not most. That might be giving her classmates too much credit. Especially the ones who had come here with political goals in mind—which for Tenet, was a higher percentage than Jordan probably assumed, and she assumed high.

But Sofia, for her part, certainly meant it. For all the duelist did obviously care about her image and advancing in society—maybe too much so, in Jordan's opinion—she had a good heart. Jordan wouldn't have a maybe-crush on the girl if she didn't. Sofia had always been that charming mix of competitive, haughty, intense, but secretly a sweetheart. It was a shame Natalie didn't get to see much of the latter, thanks to her ridiculous behavior toward the woman.

"We'll talk with the team, then," Jordan said. "I'm sure we all could use the extra tokens. And seeing someplace new sounds fun."