by Andrew Rowe
That was probably the point.
A classic exercise in figuring out who I could trust.
That might have been fun if I wasn’t already actively playing that kind of game every day of my ordinary life.
***
I pulled Kathy to the side before we left the building to ask her a couple quick questions. “My assignment refers to ‘elimination’, and you mentioned we’d be sent home if our sigils were damaged to the point that the alarm went off. What if I just took off my sigil monitor?”
“Not allowed.” She shook her head. “The sigil monitor is set up to send us an alert if you take the monitor off.”
“...And if I disabled that function, or turned the shield monitor off entirely?”
“Wow, you really like to skirt the rules. I like the cut of your jib, kid. But nah, that’s cheating. Sorry.”
I pondered that. “What about taking the sigil off entirely? I mean, we’re going to have to take it off for brief periods of time when we bathe and change and stuff anyway.”
“Sure, people will take them off for a few minutes here or there. That’s guaranteed. But you’ve gotta sleep with them on, and you can’t take them off just to avoid a way of being eliminated, sorry. If we find you doing that on purpose, you’ll be sent home. And I’d advise you to bathe with your shield on out here, even if that means just pinning it to your undergarments and keeping them on. There are actual monsters out there, and you need to stay safe. I’ll tell the others the same.”
Kathy paused. “Look, I know you’ve got to be nervous about your test scores. Everyone wants to pass. I want you to pass. Sometimes finding little tricks can make a test easier, I get that. But here? You’re working with a team. You’re not doing them right if you’re just trying to save yourself. Put that brain of yours to work on the mission.”
I nodded. She had a point.
A point that I fully intended to ignore.
My questions had never been about trying to save myself in the first place.
I just wanted to know what variables I had to work with in terms of methods of triggering and avoiding elimination.
I couldn’t ask her too many more questions or she’d get suspicious of what I was up to. “One last question. I brought my own supplies, but does this facility have a general store or something we can go to before we leave?”
“Yep. You’ll all get a chance to stop there and buy a few things before we head out if you need to.”
Excellent.
I was beginning to form the foundations of a plan. I’d brought a ton of supplies in the Jaden Box, but if I had a chance to shop, I had a few more things I wanted to pick up now that I knew what we were up against.
I headed back to the group.
I couldn’t work while I was being observed, but I could think.
And, if I was going to stay ahead of all my potential adversaries, I had quite a bit of planning to do.
***
As promised, we had a chance to shop for about an hour before we departed. Most people bought extra food, warm clothing, or other small supplies they’d forgotten at home.
I bought other things.
I considered trying to find the time to talk to some of my platoon members in private, but we didn’t have a good window to do it while no one from the other team was around.
From the suspicious glances I was picking up, though, I could tell at least a few people had been given similar information to my own.
Jin and Roland in particular seemed to be paying a lot of attention to everyone else...but I couldn’t tell how much of that was just my own mind playing games.
I couldn’t trust Jin about anything after what he’d done, and he’d always been mysterious.
And Roland had been missing for weeks — that clearly could have been because he’d been assigned to the Spider Division and decided to prioritize those assignments.
Of course, it could have just meant he’d dropped out of the dueling class elective. That was the only class we shared, and I didn’t keep track of him outside of class.
And even though those two seemed to be paying a lot of attention to everyone else, that didn’t mean they were Spiders...it could just as easily mean they were like me, and they’d been given an assignment to find the Spiders.
I’d be able to check them for visible tells if I confronted them, but that would let the Spiders know I was aware of their presence...and that would make me a target.
I had to weigh the advantages of talking to any individual person against the risk that they would be a danger if they were a spider.
Or, of course, I could find another way to check that couldn’t easily be traced back to me.
That would be my first move.
***
An hour later, we headed into the forest, now escorting a pair of wagons drawn by horses.
The wagons were filled with boxes of supplies. Given the sheer number — I counted twelve large crates per wagon — I suspected the settlement had to consist of a large number of students. Probably a hundred or more.
Since we’d presumably be joining the “settlement” once we arrived, it was in our best interests to ensure the boxes were intact, even aside from it being responsible for some of our points.
My first order of business was gathering information.
I activated my attunement and scanned the group.
Marissa, Patrick, and I currently registered as Carnelian.
Sera’s aura was colorless. She’d been Carnelian, but with her mana level as low as it was, she was registering as Quartz right now. Presumably, she’d hit Carnelian again soon, but that did mean she’d have to be careful during this assignment.
Jin’s aura was clear. I knew he was stronger than that, but he was apparently playing it safe and keeping his shroud suppressed while others were around.
On the other team, Roland and Kyra were showing up as Carnelian. The other three were either Quartz or suppressing their shrouds.
I had a hard time seeing any aura on Loria Marshal at all. Either her attunement was particularly weak, or maybe she had an item to conceal it. I did see a couple auras from magical items on her belt, but they were faint, too.
Both of the second-year students had brilliant orange auras that meant they were Sunstone-level. That put them toward the top of their class; hitting Sunstone as a student was relatively rare. I presumed we were assigned two of the stronger students because our own aggregate mana levels were higher than average.
We also happened to be two of the groups consisting of finalists from Teft’s dueling class. That probably wasn’t a coincidence. Maybe Teft had selected our two teams to match us against each other? That sounded like the type of thing he’d do.
Aside from that, I picked up on several magical auras from items the other students were carrying.
I knew the equipment for my team pretty well — no surprises there. We hadn’t coordinated with Jin, but he was carrying at least some of the things I’d enchanted for him earlier in the year.
The other team had fewer magical items, but I did notice a handful. Roland seemed particularly well-outfitted.
I could see several Carnelian-level auras emanating from things he was wearing, including a pair of canes in holsters on his hips. Upgraded dueling canes, most likely.
Was he an Enchanter himself?
That...actually would be a pretty good explanation for why he’d been skipping so many dueling classes. Dueling was hard as an Enchanter, and he might have needed to spend time on studying runes and manufacturing items for other classes.
I couldn’t confirm it right this second, but maybe it was worth asking him directly at some point. He hadn’t volunteered the information, but it was a reasonably harmless question.
I also tried to pay attention to the location of everyone’s attunement marks. That would be relevant if I had to figure out how to fight them later.
And there was very little chance I was getting out of this without a fight.
/> With that information in mind, I turned off my attunement and headed to the front of the wagons, where most of the others were walking.
The second-year students were the ones driving the wagons themselves. This was good for saving us the trouble, but it also meant that all the students were free to roam and observe each other. Pulling someone to the side was possible, but if I did it this early on it would be conspicuous.
I decided to wait just a little bit before trying to have any private conversations. Instead, I found a cluster of people looking at the map toward the front of the group.
“Looks like it’s about thirty miles to the settlement,” Kyra was saying. “Wagons are going pretty slow. What do you think it’ll take, two days to get there?”
“Low as a day and a half if we can keep up a good pace. Depends on how much we stop to rest. Could be more like three days if we get hit by monsters.” Sera replied. “Or Tails.”
“What kinds of precautions can we take for that?” Patrick asked.
“Might want one or two people riding in each of the wagons at all times. The weight probably wouldn’t slow them down much and they’d be able to defend against any invisible attackers that show up inside.” Kyra offered.
Patrick frowned. “Are invisible attackers really what we’re worried about?”
“It’s what I’d do.” Kyra grinned, cracking her knuckles. “I know you’d probably just throw a fireball at them or something, but we’ve got three Elementalists and a Shaper. I’m not worried about conventional assaults. Sneak thieves are far more likely to do us damage.”
“Uh, not to be too under confident here, but I don’t think having a bunch of Elementalists means we’re guaranteed to stop a magical attack from a distance,” Patrick argued. “They could hit us from any angle at any time.”
I was hesitant to jump into the conversation. I wasn’t particularly comfortable dealing with the number of strangers that were around, especially with the knowledge that we had a traitor among us. But I needed to contribute, and not just to finding the Spiders. “I can enchant the wagons with shields when we stop for the night.”
Kyra turned to me. “You can do that to wagons?”
“Sure. I can enchant pretty much anything, as long as it has a high enough mana capacity. Most types of wood don’t hold as much as metal, but given the sheer size—”
“Okay, I get it. Good. Shields on the wagons. What about the boxes?”
I nodded. “There are a lot of them, but I could probably get to them eventually.” I paused, considering. “Assuming there’s nothing volatile inside the enchantments would interact with.”
Kyra frowned. “Define volatile.”
“Some particular materials react badly to enchantments, but I was thinking more in terms of other magical items. I doubt we’re shipping a bunch of magic swords, but there’s a good chance there are alchemical goods in some of the boxes. If that’s the case...”
“Case. That’s a box pun.” Patrick snickered.
It hadn’t been, but I chuckled anyway.
I continued my explanation. “The simple answer is that I probably shouldn’t enchant any boxes with magic stuff in them. Other boxes are fine, assuming I have enough mana to get to all of them. Might not be able to tonight.”
“Okay, that’s good. Useful. Should we start putting people in the wagons now?” Kyra turned to Sera.
Sera shrugged. “Probably a little early to bother with it. We’re not likely to be attacked immediately.”
“How do we know?” Patrick asked.
“We can’t say for sure, but that would imply a team has been camping out waiting for someone to leave the base. That’s possible, but it doesn’t sound efficient, unless they were told our deployment times.” Sera brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. “Although it would be nice to get an idea of what level of information our attackers do have, and what their goals are. That might help give us some idea of when they might strike.”
“Don’t think we’ve got much of a lead on that, unless someone’s got info on the Tails in their packet?” Kyra looked hopeful, but we all shook our heads. “Didn’t think so, but it was worth checking. I’ll ask the others later. Maybe someone has a lead.”
“In the meantime, I suspect our best bet is to take a look at the map for likely ambush points. Maybe here,” Sera pointed a finger at a crossroads a few miles down the road, “Or any similar area. Or just right near the settlement. If they’re supposed to be harassing any team, as opposed to our team in specific, their best bet is to set up near the settlement itself.”
“Good point. We should definitely plan to be on the alert when we get close, then, and any time we’re nearing a crossroads or another major point of interest.” Kyra waved at the map. “You holding onto that for now?”
Sera nodded. “I’d like to, if you don’t mind. I’d like to study it for a few hours at least. I can pass it to you later tonight?”
“Sounds good. I’ll go check in with the others.” Kyra waved as she walked away.
It was just Patrick, Sera, and me walking with the map at that point.
I glanced to the side to check on Marissa, just to make sure that Rupert wasn’t harassing her. Fortunately, she just seemed to be chatting with Jin.
I still didn’t trust Jin entirely, but Marissa could take care of herself. She was the only one of us I suspected could reliably handle Jin in a physical fight. As long as she was watching him, I didn’t have to be hyper vigilant about what he was up to.
With that worry dismissed for the moment, I had other worries to contend with.
I already had a few strategies in mind, but it wasn’t time to deploy any of them just yet.
Any sort of traitors would be likely to act either during the middle of an attack by the tails, during a monster attack, or while most of the students were asleep.
If there were multiple of them, they’d also be looking for chances to communicate with each other.
My opportunities to counter them were going to be similar. Anytime people were distracted or asleep, I could try to gather — or place — information.
Any time I could get a single person alone, I could try to interrogate them, directly or indirectly.
I had a few key decisions to make before I made any major moves.
One, I needed to decide if I could trust any of my friends implicitly. This wasn’t a question of whether or not I could know if they were Spiders — I’d decided early on that I couldn’t prove that immediately.
Rather, it was a question of if I trusted anyone enough to cooperate with them regardless of whether or not they were a Spider.
That decision was difficult, because I did not know to what extent we would have mutually exclusive winning conditions. Was it possible for both the Spiders and the non-Spiders on the team to earn enough points to count as a success?
If so, no problem. I could work with the Spiders to ensure we each had a partial success, and enough points to graduate.
If not, that would largely disqualify any sort of cooperative plan. I was not going to let myself fail for a friend, especially if that would mean sabotaging the majority of the group to do so.
So, I needed to know if a cooperative victory was possible before making any decisions in that regard.
Unfortunately, I had no way of knowing their goals yet, and I also didn’t know the exact details of how we were scored.
That meant I’d need to anticipate how the grading process worked and try to bet around that if I used that strategy.
I judged that strategy to be too much of a risk, at least for the moment.
My second decision to make was whether or not I was going to pretend to be a Spider.
I didn’t know if the Spiders were aware of each other’s identities or not. Similarly, I didn’t know if they were aware that people knew there were traitors in the group.
If they already knew each other, it was unlikely to work. Period.
If the Spiders didn’t know who
each other were, and they were also unaware that there were people who knew about them, pretending to be a Spider and luring out the other Spider(s) somehow was potentially a viable strategy.
If they didn’t know each other, but they did know that other people knew about them, it was possible I could still pretend to be an additional “undisclosed” Spider.
For the moment, I considered the risks of that strategy too high for the potential rewards, but it was definitely an option to play that way later on.
We continued walking for a few hours. I chatted with people a bit, but not about anything important.
Desmond Vyers was apparently the leader for the other team, but Kyra was giving all the orders and he didn’t seem to care. I didn’t read too much into that; it wasn’t suspicious on its own.
Since Kyra was taking the role of coordinating the other team, she spent a lot of her time talking to Sera. They decided that we’d just have one person riding in each wagon at a time after realizing just how little room there was for anyone to sit with the boxes.
The first shift was Marissa and Jin. The leaders decided they wanted as many of the ranged combatants as possible outside, just in case they had to deflect magical attacks. It wasn’t a bad call.
The hours pressed on without incident, at least at first.
We stopped for a mid-day meal after several hours of walking. Kathy took care of feeding the horses.
The rest of us strategized.
I found Sera talking to Kyra again. Sera waved me over. “We’re talking about sending Vanniv to scout ahead.”
I considered that. “That’s definitely a way to get us some information. I’d be worried about how visible he’d be if he’s flying, though. If he comes back to you to report, it could give away our location.”
Kyra pointed up, and I followed her gesture. The tree cover was pretty thick. “People don’t usually look up very often. And even if they did, they’re going to have a hard time seeing through that canopy.”
I nodded in agreement. “Fair. Might be wise to have him circle around and land behind us or something, though, then fly low to the ground to get back to us. Just in case.”
“I can do that,” Sera replied. “He’s probably going to be happy just to be able to do anything. It’s been ages since I’ve summoned him for anything other than training.”
