winterwhereof

  Natalie would never admit it, but she was so nervous she might be sick.

  Unlog ceremonies were a big deal. Not only did they mark a person’s ing of adulthood, on the midnight after their eighteenth birthday, but they were the day a person decided their css … the path they would walk for the rest of their life.

  So, there lenty for Natalie to be nervous about.

  Then again, not really. Everyone knew what atalie would be getting, even Natalie herself. hly what. The gods only provided three options to deliberate over, but a person’s offered csses were shaped by the life they had led up to their unlog. And Natalie? Natalie’s life didn’t leave much to interpretation.

  Some unlog ceremonies had an air of excitement about them—an air of mystery. Natalie’s, oher hand, was still cheerful, upbeat, in the vein of most big events, but there was intrigue hanging in the air, around the mingling party-goers. There was nothing to wonder over, little to be excited for besides the fact it was Natalie’s big day. Because Natalie would be receiving a brawler-type adventuring css, and that was as given as the sky being blue.

  Sure, they didn’t know the specifics, but then, they never would. The specifics to a person’s css were private, shared with family and friends. Rarely, with a person’s adventuring party. So there was nothing for the party-goers to discover, today.

  Yet even with nothing to be worried over, Natalie was nervous.

  She didn’t have a habit of being nervous, and she triply didn’t have a habit for seeming nervous. Which was why she issed off, too. Why the hell was she being such a baby?

  “Worried what you’ll get?”

  Natalie jumped. She’d been stewing, alone, off to the side of the festivities, finally haviricated herself from the crowd, and so she hadn’t seen or heard Jordan arrive. That’d probably been iional. Natalie’s best friend had always had a pent for sneakiness. Her unlog ceremony had been as decided as Natalie’s: she’d gotten a rogue-type css, and in a few weeks, would be shipping off to Te Delving Academy. The same fate that awaited Natalie.

  Or, that was the pn. It depended oher she got an adventuring css. If Natalie got a worker-type or crafter css, or anything else, then her promising future went up in smoke.

  “Worried?” Natalie scoffed. “About what?”

  Jordan gave Natalie an amused look, ohat said she saw through her. “Doesn’t have to be rational. I was worried, too. It’s a big deal.”

  “I guess.” A short pause as Natalie looked around at all of the people that had showed up. All unlog ceremonies saw good turnout, regardless of popurity. It was tradition, and in a town as small as Tinford, tradition held weight. “I just want it to be here, already,” she added.

  “Twenty mihey’ll be shuffling you off to the chur no time.” Another amused look. “You know, if you weren’t brooding in the er, it wouldn’t feel like the clock’s tig so slow.”

  “Brooding?” Natalie eyed her. “I’m not brooding.”

  “Stoically awaiting your fate,” Jordan corrected with a roll of her eyes. “The Architect forbid, someone ever think you on edge.”

  Natalie sniffed.

  “Anyway,” Jordan said. “I ’t believe Sofia showed up.”

  Natalie’s nose wrinkled. Even hearing Sofia’s Natalie in a bad mood, and no, it wasn’t because she was the only person for two towns over that could matatalie in the sparring ring. It was … how smug about it she was.

  Sure, she aunted Natalie ht, but Natalie could read the expression on her face, every time she scraped out her victory. Natalie didn’t uand how sistently the white-haired girl could beat her, and by such thin margins. Natalie was always a hair breadth away from winning, but it always ehe same. A loss, and Sofia’s smug self-satisfa.

  Ugh.

  “If you’re trying to cheer me up, you’re doing a poor job.”

  Why did Sofia show up? The reason was obvious—the aforementioradition, and Tinford’s tiny size—but Natalie couldn’t help but take it as a slight. She khat was irrational, but she couldn’t help herself. Something about Sofia infuriated her. It was those … those … those stupid cheekbones.

  Cheekbones?

  “Cheer you up?” Jordan asked. “I thought you didn’t need cheering up.”

  Natalie seized the distra. Clearly, she was even more out of it thahought, if she was thinking about how Sofia had geous cheekbones. Seriously, where had the thought even e from?

  The only thing Natalie wao do to Sofia’s face unch it, not … anything else. Which, with how often they sparred together, was something she got to do with fair frequency. And yes, every time she nded a left hook square on Miss Stuck-Up’s nose was as amazing as the first.

  “I don’t,” Natalie huffed. “And I ’t believe we’re stuck with her for another four years. I swear, she’s following us just to be annoying.”

  “Te’s the only delving academy this side of the Jagged,” Jordan said amusedly. “And if we qualified, of course she did.”

  Natalie made a noise of irritation. “Do you ever get tired of being reasonable? Just let me be annoyed. How aren’t you?”

  “I mean, Sofia’s not that bad.”

  Natalie gave her an incredulous look.

  “She’s a little uppity,” Jordan amended. “But there’s worse a person be.”

  “Sofia is the devil,” Natalie said firmly, “and today is my unlog day, so you have to agree with me.”

  “Fine. Sofia is the devil.”

  Natalie narrowed her eyes. There was a ck of hoy in Jordan’s amused tone … but it would do.

  For a few moments, they stood o each other, not-so-subtly watg Sofia. Natalie was surprised she didn’t feel their eyes crawling on her back.

  “A devil with a great ass,” Jordan said. “Architect. How’s she get it all in there? Pulleys?”

  “Jordan!”

  “Oh, don’t sound sdalized. You were staring too. Look at it.”

  Natalie opened and closed her mouth at her best friend, who, for the fortieth time in the past two minutes, rolled her eyes, as if Natalie were being ridiculous.

  Then a sed ter, she gnced over Natalie’s shoulder, and the amusement faded.

  “Ah,” Jordan said. “Here he es. Looks like it’s time.”