18: Orientation Final Four: Battle Two I

The ready room was filled with a deafening awkward silence as I stared at Jane and Iris. They both were doing everything they could to keep from making eye contact with me. Iris' face started getting red under my gaze.

"Why?" I asked finally. "Why did you two save me?"

"Would you rather us have not done anything?!" Iris snapped. I scowled and folded my arms.

"I'd rather have two teammates that I knew I could trust to have my back." I replied. "Wanna try a different attitude this time Tri-clops?"

"Do you have to call me Tri-clops all the time…." Iris muttered. I gave her a droll stare that I hoped translated the 'I can call you worse' attitude I was feeling.

"Because that attack would have seriously hurt you or possibly killed you." Jane said. I looked at her and sighed.

"Figured as much." I said.

Bone-lasher's opinion of those two was coming through to me clearly. Bone was currently in my crystal resting but I found out that it could sense everything that was going on outside by linking its senses with mine.

"So what I'm hearing is I can't trust you to help me during our next match." I said.

"We all might not have a choice but to trust each other now." Jane said. She turned to Iris and sighed. "Lady Baset probably isn't going to respect that deal we had now that we've helped him. Though in all honesty I don't think I could have stomached going into that class if we'd betrayed."

"Yeah, I felt dirty the entire match watching him fight his hardest while we just hid." Iris said. She turned to me and flashed a apologetic look. "I'm sincerely sorry. A deal like this was beneath me, but by accepting it I threw away any sense of nobility and honor that my ancestors worked so hard to get. You are not a peasant Chase Kingston, you are a warrior worthy of respect."

Iris then stood up and placing her hand over her heart took a deep bow that she held for several seconds before she stood up straight. She was blushing deeply when she stood up and quickly turned her head away. I was stunned I didn't think I ever hear her admit that she was wrong.

'My thoughts exactly!' I thought as Bone-lashers emotions flooded my mind. Jane stood and patted Iris on the back giving her a proud smile then turned to me.

"At this point we can't trust Baset and you can't trust us. But if we want to get into Baset's class we will need to trust each other. So I am going to tell you Iris and mine's biggest secret." Jane said.

"Lady Jane are you serious?!" Iris exclaimed. "Do you realize how much power he'd have over us? Our entire careers as splicers would be in his hands!"

"They already are. Let's be honest the only reason we won that match was because everyone underestimated Chase. We won't have that during our next fight. We will need to work together to win." Jane replied.

Iris and Jane shared a intense look, as if communicating silently before Iris sighed and threw her arms into the air.

"Fine, I hope you don't come to regret this Lady Jane." Iris said. Jane smiled softly, her eyed looked almost apologetic as she turned to face me.

"We aren't who we say we are. My last name isn't Yearwood and Iris' name isn't Stone. My real name is Jane Iluman Soloman." Jane said.

"My name is Iris Kolpih Philari." Iris said. They both eyed me like they were waiting for some huge reaction or gasp of disbelief. I just gave them a blank stare and shrugged.

"Those names supposed to mean something?" I asked. Iris scowled and shook her head.

"Lets just say that if anyone were to learn of those names both Iris and I would be forced to drop out of school."

My eyes grew wide disbelief. 'She can't really be serious? I thought. I scanned Jane's face for any sign of her lying but there wasn't one. She was being a open book.

"Okay. Now we each hold the others splicer careers in the others hands. What's next?"

"Now we address the elephant in the room." Iris said. She walked over to me and grabbed my right hand and pointed at my crystal. "YOU HAVE A FUCKING STAR FARM CRYSTAL!!!!"

"Ow!" I yelled snatching my hand away. "What the hell is a farm crystal?"

"The crystals that all splicers have, those are called farm crystals." Jane explained.

"And the fact that mine is star shaped is reason enough for Tri-clops to scream in my ears like a banshee! " I growled.

"Yes actually!" Jane exclaimed. "Star shaped farm crystals are impossibility rare! There have only been about two hundred confirmed splicers to have those crystals."

I looked down at the crystal on my hand and frowned. I was starting to wish I had my glove on but I lost track of it after I threw it away to dive into Bone's mind.

'If these two where having such a strong reaction I can only imagine how anyone else would.' I thought.

"As interesting as that is it doesn't really help us with this next match. Which we need to win, I don't know exactly how much mana I have left but it's not much. If we don't win this one I'm not going to be strong enough to fight again." I said.

"So we'll need a good strategy." Iris said.

"Well I'm not the best at Frontline fighting."

"What's your evo?" I asked.

"I have two. A croyan and a hivdrix." Iris replied.

"Wow. Those evos aren't great at fighting…but Bone-lasher and Jingles are." I muttered.

Both the croyan and hivdrix were smaller evos that specialized in generating poison. While the croyan's poison was better suited at killing the hivdrix's poison was more versatile in its effects.

"Jingles is the only evo that I have." Jane said. I scratched my chin and looked at Iris.

"What's your specialty when it comes to magic?"

"Curse type enchantments sigils and stealth utility spells." Iris replied. I glanced over to Jane.

"Defensive sigils, I'm proficient in all spell types though." Jane replied. I started pacing the floor, scratching my head as I thought of a plan. Then suddenly it hit me, I glanced at Iris then at Jane and smiled deviously.

"That smile scares me." Iris said.

"I have a plan."