**ADDIE'S POV**
I had known that the banquet following the mock battle was going to be busy. Having been the victor and sole female participant, I knew that I would draw the attention of several people. And this meant that a lot of people were going to want to talk to me. And not all of them were going to be very nice about the ways that I had won. That was just a fact of life in the world that we lived in.
As free as women were in Athea, and in general here at the academy, there were nations in this world that didn't like women to have a lot of authority. And one of those nations was Ursool, the one that Hollis was from. I had known right away that his father didn't like me. And that was going to hurt the relationship that I had with him as one of my best friends.