The next day, the dining hall buzzed with the chatter of a thousand students. Cane spotted Cassius holding court near the kitchens and pulled him aside.
"I need your help. I have to get close to Aria Vale before Vincent inevitably does."
Cassius stared at him, bewildered. "Wait, what? Weren’t you going after Antonia Murray? How many women are you juggling right now, you absolute chud?"
"That’s not how it’s— never mind..." Cane sighed. "It’s... complicated. How do I get Aria’s attention?"
They brainstormed badly.
"Poetry!" Cassius declared. "Women love that shit."
"Can you write poetry?"
"Of course not. But it’s the thought that counts, right?"
"No." It would sound like a threat coming from either of them. The idea was shot down.
"Alright, then challenge Vincent to a duel for her honor! A classic move!"
Cane mentally reviewed his own stat sheet. It read like a cry for help. "Vetoed."
"Okay, okay... a heroic rescue! You stage a dangerous situation, then swoop in and save her! Girls get so wet for that."
Cane started to mock the idea out loud, a sarcastic retort already on his lips, but he went quiet. A heroic rescue. An idea began assembling behind his eyes, clicking into place. The Wildwood Trial was exactly that kind of setup. He wasn’t about to say that yet.
"Let’s go check how the pairings get decided," he said instead.
The assignment hall was a chaotic mess of students crowding around bulletin boards. That’s when a voice cut through the noise, sharp and utterly unbothered.
"I’m signing up. I don’t need to wait in line for that."
Cane’s attention snagged on the tone before he even turned. A prefect stammered something about procedure, but the girl was already walking straight past him. Only once she was fully in view did he take her in.
Her black hair was cropped short, more deliberate and severe than the softer styles other girls wore. Her dark eyes gave away nothing, and her mouth was set somewhere between a scowl and total indifference.
Then, because he was still him underneath all the survival panic, his gaze dropped. The uniform blouse was fitted close over a chest more modest than Aria’s, but it was a taut, athletic kind of modest that was somehow no less distracting. Her waist was narrow, flaring out just enough at the hip to pull the pleated skirt taut over a firm, rounded ass, making the hem hang a little crooked. Cane got a solid second and a half of respectful, incredible appreciation before he dragged his eyes back up. He reminded himself this woman looked like she owned at least four ways to kill him with whatever was in her pocket.
He recognized her of course. She was Raven Harbringer, one of Vinny’s harem members in the novel.
She must have clocked who he was from the whispers that trailed him everywhere. Her flat gaze swept over him once, unhurried.
"You’re the one everyone’s talking about?" she said, her voice flat. "I expected worse. Or better. Hard to tell which would’ve been more interesting."
She walked off without waiting for a reaction, leaving Cane genuinely thrown. It was the first reaction all week that wasn’t scorn, fear, or a punchline.
He learned from a flustered upperclassman that pairings for the Trial were locked in by a notoriously strict hall administrator. Student choice wasn’t a factor. Undeterred, Cane found the man’s office. He tried bribery. He tried a forged request with Aria’s faked signature. He even tried leaning hard on a Charisma stat that was still more theory than practice.
It was all useless. The administrator was the exact same portly official the sharp-voiced girl had brushed off earlier. The moment the man heard the name "Cane Valerian," his face soured. The scumbag reputation Cane had carefully maintained as camouflage was now boomeranging back to bite him directly in the ass. The man refused to even hear him out, shooing him from the office like a stray dog.
When the final pairing list went up on the main board, a crowd pressed in to read it. Cane pushed his way to the front. His eyes scanned the sheet, a knot of dread tightening in his stomach. He found it.
Vincent Loravelle & Aria Vale
Exactly as he feared. He’d lost his direct shot. His own name, he saw a few lines down, sat next to a different one.
Cane Valerian & Raven Harbringer
His gut reaction was a flash of genuine dismay. This just got ten times harder. That feeling was immediately undercut by a spark of real curiosity. He was going to be stuck in the woods for days with the one person on campus who didn’t seem afraid of him.
A dry, unreadable voice spoke from directly behind him, so close he could feel the breath on his neck.
"Lucky me."
He turned his head. Raven Harbringer was reading the same list over his shoulder, her expression giving absolutely nothing away.
The first hint of dawn painted the sky in shades of bruised purple and weak orange. In the main courtyard, a proctor with a face like a dried apple droned through the rules of the Wildwood Trial. Students stood in nervous clumps, their breath pluming in the chill air. Cane only half-listened. He’d read the plot summary. Fixed routes through the forest. Checkpoints. A mandatory two-day exercise, with everyone expected back by dusk on the second day.
The proctor’s voice sharpened slightly. "We have confirmed reports of a duskfang pack active in the eastern treeline. Exercise caution."
A murmur went through the crowd. The official route assignments went up on a large board, and the students surged forward. Cane shouldered his way through, his eyes already scanning for one name. He found it.
Vincent Loravelle & Aria Vale.
His gaze tracked their designated path on the large map pinned beside the list. It was a winding, northeastern trail. He found his own assignment next.
Cane Valerian & Raven Harbringer.
Of course.