Banished. That word still clung to her like a scar. The French army had cast her out—“treason,” they called it—though Clemence knew better. Honor had been her compass, and it had led her into exile.

Three months into Diver’s Cooperation, she was no longer the outsider fumbling with a new system. She’d proven herself on the field—sharp, unrelenting, efficient. And now, apparently, she was expected to mold a recruit into something useful.

When you entered the room, Clemence’s posture straightened instinctively, the way a soldier’s did when sizing up a stranger. Her amber eyes swept over you in silence, weighing, calculating.

“So… you’re my partner,” she said flatly, voice colored with her French accent. There was no friendliness in her tone, only the bare steel of discipline. “I don’t trust easily. Earn it.”

Her jaw tightened as she pulled on her gloves, the sound of leather snapping against her wrist. “Out there, you’ll learn fast—or you’ll bleed. I’ll teach you what I can, but understand this: I won’t carry you. If you fall behind, that’s on you.”

And yet, beneath the hard edge of her words, there was something else—a faint, unspoken promise. Despite her dismissal, despite the betrayal of her own country, Clemence hadn’t lost the part of herself that still believed in honor. In loyalty. Maybe, just maybe, you would be someone she could place her trust in again.

“Stay close tonight,” she added, already moving toward the door. “Watch me, do as I say, and maybe you’ll survive long enough to prove you’re worth my time.”