Daughter of Nox

Chapter Forty-Two

It took until the day of the F.O.X. sim for Etta to give up the silent treatment. Though when she did, it was only to tell Freya how much people hated her.

"I'm sure you don't realize, seeing as you weren't in the briefing," Etta said, with extra emphasis on the last word, "but I feel obligated to let you know that at least half your team is going to hate you."

"Deirdre and Nero?" Freya shrugged. "Honestly, I'm not worried about them."

Saying she wasn't worried was only partly true, but only because she'd already worried herself out. She'd had a mini-panic attack after reading that Deirdre, and Nero–both Novices from her first F.O.X. sim team–had been assigned to her, but seeing Etta's name listed there too helped to pull her back from the edge.

"Aww, I wanted to be the one to tell you about your two best friends." Etta looked disappointed. "Who ruined my fun?"

"Hela and a few other slagging Core-Worlders," Freya said. "They thought it would be funny to reenact me falling down during the first sim."

Again, partially true, but only about Hela and her friends.

"Did you thank them graciously?" Etta asked. "And 'thank' I mean bludgeoned them with a heavy club."

"As my goal is to remain in Academy for the foreseeable future," Freya said in her most official sounding voice, "I did not. I did, however, call Hela and her mother a lot of dirty words."

Etta snorted with laughter. "How did she take that?"

"Surprisingly well," Freya said. "Though she did call my dad a traitor to the Ministry in front of all her cronies."

Etta clutched at her chest. "How dare they!" she said. "What a monster she must be to suggest that your father might quite literally be working against a Ministry's official policy!"

"No, I get that," Freya said, "but my sense has always been that Hela and her ilk want to present a united Founder front to the Ministry. Shouting that my dad is a traitor for everyone to hear doesn't mesh with that approach." Freya gave her friend an appraising look. "Also, have you ever considered auditioning for a holodrama? I think your talents really are wasted as a lowly Ministry bureaucrat."

"If only I could," Etta said, the back of her hand to her forehead as though she might swoon, "but alas, what would become of my dear Fray Fray were I not here to provide her with comic relief?"

"Get a full night's sleep, for starters," Freya said. "Speaking of which, I want to go back to the barracks to stretch out for a bit before we have to be back to the armory for the F.O.X. sim."

"Wait, what?" Etta shot her a confused look. "How can you sleep knowing that we're about to head into the sim that could potentially earn you a third strike?"

The urge to tell Etta about the file surged inside Freya, but she quickly smothered it. Sure, Etta might like the idea of seeing Pavo and Hela have their faces rubbed in all their smug, Core-Worlder superiority, but explaining the part about the Esque and her Imprint posed a lot of questions that Freya didn't want to answer.

Freya shrugged, as casually as she could then turned toward the barracks. "Don't worry," Freya said. "I have a plan."

###

Later that night, she and Etta met Nero and Deirdre outside the armory where they'd been ordered to get equipped for the F.O.X. Freya hadn't seen much of Deirdre since the Ground Trials, but judging by her attitude toward her, Freya's absence had definitely not made Deirdre's heart grow any fonder.