He left when Benisek started discussing pros and cons of various girls in their class, not willing to get dragged into such a discussion, and went back to his room to get some reading done. He hadn't even opened the first book properly when he was interrupted by a knock on the door. Very few people cared to track him down to his room, so he actually had a pretty good idea of who it was before he even opened the door.
"Hi, Roach!"
Zorian stared at the grinning girl in front of him, contemplating whether to take offense at the insulting nickname before shooing her inside. In the past, while he was still crushing on her, the nickname had kind of hurt… now it was just slightly annoying. Taiven promptly ran inside and jumped on his bed like a little kid. Really, what had he ever seen in her? Beside a beautiful older girl who was fairly nice to him and had a propensity to wear form-fitting clothes, that is.
"I thought you graduated," he said.
"I did," she answered, taking one of the spellbooks he borrowed from the library into her lap to leaf through it. Seeing how she had already taken over his bed, he sat down on the chair in front of his work desk. "But you know how it goes – there's always too many young mages, never enough masters willing to take them under their wing. I'm working as a class assistant for Nirthak. Hey, if you took nonmagical combat you're going to see me all the time!"
"Yeah, right," Zorian snorted. "Nirthak blacklisted me in advance, just in case I get any ideas."
"Really!?"
"Yeah. Not that I would ever sign up for a class like that anyway," Zorian said. Except maybe to watch Taiven all sweaty and puffed up in that tight outfit she always wore whenever she trained.
"Pity," she said, seemingly engrossed in his book. "You really should put on some muscle one of these days. Girls like boys who exercise."
"I don't care what girls like," Zorian snapped crankily. She was starting to sound like his mother. "Why are you here anyway?"
"Oh calm down, it was just a thought," she said with a dramatic sigh. "Boys and their fragile little egos."
"Taiven, I like you, but you're really treading on thin ice here," Zorian warned.
"I came here to ask if you would join me and a couple of others on a job tomorrow," she said, throwing the book aside and finally getting to the point of her visit.
"A job?" Zorian asked suspiciously.
"Yeah. Well, more like a mission. You know those job postings people tack onto the big board inside the administrative building?"
Zorian nodded. Whenever a mage in the city wanted something done for cheap, he posted a 'job offer' there for interested students. The payout was generally miserable, but students had to collect 'points' by doing these, so everyone had to do a number of them. Most people didn't start doing these before their fourth year, unless they really needed the money, and Zorian fully intended to follow this tradition.
"There is a pretty nice one there," Taiven said. "It's actually just a simple find and retrieve in the tunnels below the city that-"
"A sewer run!?" asked Zorian incredulously, cutting her off. "You want me to go on a sewer run?"
"It's good experience!" Taiven protested.
"No," said Zorian, crossing his arms. "No way."
"Oh come on, Roach, I'm begging you!" Taiven whined. "We can't apply until we find a fourth member of the team! Would it kill you to make this tiny sacrifice for your old friend?"
"It very well might!" Zorian said.
"You'll have three other people to protect you!" she assured. "We've been there hundreds of times and nothing really dangerous ever happens down there – the rumors are mostly exaggerated."
Zorian snorted and looked away. Even if they really did keep him safe, it was still a trek through smelly, disease-ridden tunnels with three people he didn't really know, and who probably resented having to bring him along for the sake of a formality.
Besides, he still hadn't forgiven her for that fake date she invited him on. She may not have known he was crushing on her at the time, but it was still a pretty insensitive thing she did that evening.
Also, he might feel a little more inclined to help if she stopped calling him 'Roach'. It was not nearly as cute as she thought it was.
"Okay, how about a bet?" she tried.
"No," Zorian promptly refused.
She let out an affronted cry. "You didn't even hear me out!"
"You want to fight," Zorian said. "You always want to fight."
"So?" she pouted. "You chickening out? You're admitting you'd lose to a girl?"
"Absolutely," Zorian deadpanned. Both of Taiven's parents were martial arts practitioners, and they had taught her how to fight since she could walk. Zorian wouldn't last five seconds against her in hand-to-hand combat.
Hell, he doubted anyone in school would do much better.