"Old news?" Misti asks, stepping out of line to face off with Havi. A dagger of water forms in her hand and the temperature in the room drops like a stone. "You want to see old news? Because I can show you⁠—"

"Ladies, ladies," Beck says, stepping between them. "We can all be friends here. But... only one of you can be our fifth. So who is it going to be?"

"In a way, it's almost impressive," Mireen says out of the side of her mouth. We're both sitting on the safety of a comfortable couch as we watch the tensions rise among Beck's girls. "How does someone so dumb manage to string along so many people?"

"Hold on," a black-haired girl named Poltrice cuts in. "Are you still sleeping with all these whores, too?"

"Hah," Brunhild says. She's taller than all the other girls by at least a head and nearly Beck's size with broad shoulders and muscular arms. "She admits she is whore. This is funny."

"What did you say?" Misti says, raising her water dagger, her eyes flashing dangerously.

"Real man sleeps with who he likes. Just like real woman does. Weak woman calls names." Brunhild spreads her wide arms. "We should fight for him."

I raise my eyebrows and look to Ambrose. He has a small handful of nuts he smuggled from the dining room and he's snacking on them eagerly, eyes wide as he watches the unfolding chaos.

"We don't need to fight," Beck says. "I was hoping we'd just⁠—"

But all hells break loose.

Misti gets disarmed and pinned to the ground by Poltrice, who is tackled by Brunhild.

There's some hair pulling, a lot of shouting, a little bit of unsanctioned channeling, and then the elementals appear.

I pull my feet up to keep my distance from the melee as water elementals clash amid the wrestling and screaming girls. Despite the tensions, nobody is going for fatal attacks, thankfully. It looks more like a training session on overdrive.

Somehow, it's all over in less than a minute. Beck is slapped no less than four times as disheveled and pissed girls storm out of the room.

Once the dust has settled, Brunhild is the last one standing and she wears a satisfied grin.

Beck clears his throat and brushes some dust from his uniform. "Well," he says. "That's basically how I planned for things to go. More or less. Winner, Brunhild!"

"This was good plan," Brunhild notes, arms folded as she nods with satisfaction.

"Meet Brunhild," Beck says, gesturing with both hands. "Her elemental was that giant crab doing the hair pulling. The crab is called Nora."

Mireen eyes me. "Is he serious?"

"I think he has no idea how ridiculous he is," Ambrose adds. "It's both his greatest strength and greatest weakness."

"I thought we agreed to stick with four," I say carefully. "No offense, Brunhild."