Aether's Apprentices

by Daniel Schinhofen

  “Now, Shining Light, second floor, the last three rooms,” Egil said.

  Klein and two of his clan members stood up.

  “Swift Wind, second floor, the first three rooms.”

  Hayworth and two of his clan got up, watching Klein as they followed the others up the stairs.

  Jason was wearing a hateful smile as he stared at Gregory’s group.

  “Eternal Flame, third floor, the first three rooms,” Egil called out. “Aether’s Guard, third floor, the last three rooms.”

  Yukiko stood with Jenn and Farin, and Jason had risen with Fureno and Petak. The two groups stared at each other for a moment before Yukiko spun and walked away.

  “Who are my coordinators?” Egil asked.

  Gregory wasn’t surprised that it was all clanless with him before Egil.

  “Pettit, Shining Light,” Egil said.

  Gregory bowed and headed away as Egil called the next person.

  Klein’s group had taken the very last room as theirs. “Pettit,” Klein greeted him when Gregory entered the room.

  “Armit,” Gregory said before turning to the instructor. “Magus Klim.”

  “Pettit,” Klim replied, inclining her head. “Now that you are here, we may begin. Shining Light, you may place your units on the southern edge of the board.”

  Klein looked at the board with a detached air. The board had a large forest between the two sides of the board, and a road that ran north to south in the middle of it. The forest itself was a mixture of heavy and light woods.

  “The western corner?” Klein asked his clanmates.

  Both of them nodded, agreeing that the thicket of heavy woods there was the best choice.

  Gregory was surprised at the variety of troops the team placed down. They hadn’t focused on any one type of unit, and the sheer number of troops was also surprising. He had thought that Yukiko had stacked their team before the end of the last game, but Shining Light had a few more units than they did.

  “Who did you face in the first round?” Gregory asked.

  “Yamato Shipping,” Klein replied.

  “Didn’t take them out quickly?”

  “We let the last member of their team survive for nearly an entire day before we won,” Klein said. “We prepared for today and beyond.”

  “You are well-prepared,” Gregory said as he started to take notes. “Give me a moment to get all of this marked down.”

  Klein nodded absently, as he was still studying the board. “Hayworth isn’t stupid, he’ll have done much as we have. I believe his command unit will be here.”

  Floxin stared at where Klein indicated, nodding slowly. “Yes. It’s the best part of that side of the board.”

  “He might have set up here,” Gula countered, pointing to another section of woods. “It gives just slightly less cover and puts him in a prime spot to find a scout checking your guess.”

  Klein nodded slowly. “Either of those spots is likely. Gula, we’ll use you here so you can recover for later.”

  “Agreed,” Gula said, looking at his magi. “Three turns, I’ll be out. Wind, scout the first location.”

  As Gregory was making notes, he was remembering how they played, as his friends might face them in the next round. “Which path are you scrying?” Gregory asked.

  “I’ll barely make it to that location,” Gula said, “but let’s go this way.” He pointed to the path his magi would ride the wind, as he might spot scouts or others on the way.

  Gregory marked out the path on the map provided to him. “Is that it for this turn?”

  “No, we’ll be bringing in another,” Klein said. “I’m thinking Nilum.”

  “He’s the best choice,” Floxin said. “We’d been considering adding him to the clan. Let this be his test.”

  “Dunn would approve of that,” Gula agreed.

  “We spend the vela to bring Nilum onto the field,” Klein told Gregory.

  “Okay. I’ll go let Magi-killer know,” Gregory said, making a note. “I believe he arrives at the start of the next upkeep. Right, Klim?”

  “Two upkeeps,” Klim replied. “You go meet with the other coordinator, and I’ll go inform Nilum and Magi-killer.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Gregory said.

  Gregory stood waiting for a few minutes in the hall. When the other apprentice came out of the far room, they met halfway between them. “Did you want to start?” Gregory asked.

  “No, I will go second,” the clanless apprentice said.

  “I’m sorry,” Gregory said. “I don’t recall your name. I’m—”

  “We all know who you are, Pettit,” the man said with a put-upon expression. “Hard not to know the champion of our year. You, Warlin, and Bean are known to everyone.”

  Gregory bowed his head. “Fair enough. I was trying to be civil.”

  The man hesitated, then bowed his head back. “I’m sorry. I’ve just seen too many use their names to lord it over us.”

  “Yeah, they exist,” Gregory sighed. “Is Jason doing that?”

  “All of them are.” The apprentice looked away from Gregory. “Being clanless is difficult.”

  “It can be, from what I’ve heard,” Gregory agreed. “Maybe one of them will take you in after the tournament.”

  The apprentice nodded slowly. “Yeah. Umm… your clan… is it accepting more members?”

  “You’d need to approach Magus Dia and ask her,” Gregory said. “Truthfully, it takes a lot of faith.”

  “Faith?” The apprentice looked up quizzically.

  “That Aether will return,” Gregory said simply. “If you don’t believe that in your soul, then you wouldn’t enjoy it in the clan.”

  “Oh, I see.”

  “We should compare notes,” Gregory said suddenly.

  “Right. Uh, I’m James Tocks.”

  “Nice to meet you, James. Call me Greg,” Gregory said. “Okay, not a lot for me to go over with you. They’re scouting using this path…”

  ~*~*~

  Hours passed with no real movement from either side. Scouts had gone out from Hayworth’s side, finding the rough outline of Klein’s camp.

  Gula had again used his magi to scout Hayworth’s side— letting them catch and butcher the last set of scouts— before they changed their camp location. With that done, Klein’s group set out pickets to catch and kill any other scouts coming in.

  “Okay, now we begin the slow shift,” Klein said. “The army will move slowly to decrease our chance of being seen. The outliers will keep doing their jobs to catch and kill the scouts. Nilum will join our forward unit with his men. Remember, two spaces only. That way, we can move to assist if you end up in conflict.”

  “I remember,” Nilum said levelly, his weasel eurtik features muted, but still obvious. “I’ll have the pigeons ready to send if the attacking force is more than a scout.”

  “At the end of this turn, you’ll need to occupy the next room,” Klim told Nilum.

  “Understood.”

  “Is there anything else to note?” Gregory asked as he wrote.

  “No. This is where we’ll pause for the turn,” Klein said. “I’m surprised you’ve been so quiet, Pettit. Do you not have any comments about our strategy?”

  “It isn’t my place,” Gregory said. “I’m just here to coordinate the game.”

  “He is correct,” Klim said.

  “But he’s going to know what we’ve done. He’ll take this knowledge to his clan and, if they survive this round, they’ll have an idea of what we have and can do,” Klein said in his normal drab tone, clearly holding to his meditation.

  “Hmm... I’ll raise the point with Magi-killer,” Klim said. “He’ll likely say that rumor always precedes an army. Besides, there’s nothing stopping you from using an entirely different strategy if you fight them.”

  Klein bowed his head. “I accept that.”

  “Nilum, to the next room, as your unit is moving this turn,” Klim said. “Gregory, go meet the other coordinator
.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” the two men said in echo.

  Gregory paused in the middle of the hall, waiting for James, when he heard a faint, angry yell from above him. A smile touched his lips as the scream had been masculine, making it unlikely to be any of his friends that were upset.

  “That sounded bad,” James said as he approached Gregory.

  “Probably the Eternal Flame being thwarted,” Gregory grinned. “The downside to being part of the clan is that the Eternal Flame really hates us.”

  James shuddered. “That’s a good point.”

  “Did you wish to start this turn?” Gregory asked to push them back on topic.

  “Sure. I think another scout is going to get butchered again,” James said. “They’re traveling this line…”

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Gregory woke to a knock on the outer door of the suite. Dia informed them that it was time to get up if they wanted food before they were due at the hall.

  Yukiko was the first out of bed. She yawned as she led the way to the armoire. “We’re more rested than most of the others, at least.”

  “Except the Shining Light,” Gregory said. “They take small meditative naps while I’m out of the room. The clanless that joined them is doing his best, but it’s obvious that he just started the spirit path.”

  “How’s their game going?” Jenn asked.

  “The bulk of the fighting will likely go on today. They were far more aggressive than I thought they would be, but for all that, they’re not exposing themselves. It’s going to end up a war of attrition in the woods.”

  “How is Hayworth’s side doing?” Yukiko asked as she got dressed.

  “They started badly. Their scouts were getting butchered for most of yesterday. They took the opposite stance, though, digging in and creating a hard defense. It’s going to be interesting when Hayworth and Klein come to blows.”

  “Oh, good point. Double spatial magi,” Jenn said.

  “How’s your game going?”

  “Okay, but not great,” Yukiko said. “We’ll go into detail during breakfast. The others will want to hear about it, too.”

  Gregory nodded and focused on dressing. On their way downstairs, they greeted Ling and Clover, then found their novice friends waiting for them.

  “Breaking routine today?” Gregory asked them. He already knew the answer, as they’d done it before.

  “We’re supporting our seniors,” Daciana grinned. “A little less studying this morning is fine to bolster their spirits.”

  “We appreciate it,” Yukiko smiled. “Who knows? Maybe your juniors will do the same for you next year.”

  “We’ll teach them the ways of the clan,” Victoria said. “Aether will be venerated and his path will be followed as we follow it now.”

  “Breakfast should be ready,” Dia said from above them on the stairs.

  “We’re going now, Dia,” Gregory said.

  Ravol nodded to them as he finished cooking. “Just a minute and I’ll have it ready for you.”

  The group thanked him and took their seats.

  “As I was telling Greg,” Yukiko said as she sat down, “we knocked out one of the Eternal Flame yesterday. They had him going to the river crossing early, but we’d sent Farin and Jenn that way.”

  “It wasn’t Jason, sadly,” Jenn sighed. “It didn’t cost us many troops, either— he had conscripts only. It must have been someone they’d just added. They were probably going to use him as an early warning of the flank.”

  “I remember hearing the scream,” Gregory chuckled.

  “We pulled them back, but set a chain of hounds down that flank to give us warning if they moved in force,” Yukiko said. “We’ve been building up heavy cavalry. They don’t have the same area damage or denial that Nick’s team had.”

  “And a few archers,” Clover added. “We’re also putting money aside so we can add Ling in for the last game.”

  Ling smiled at her. “Focus on this game, first. I don’t need to play at all.”

  “If one of us gets knocked out, we’ll still bring you in next,” Yukiko said. “We’d like all of us...” She paused, giving Gregory an apologetic look. “All of us, who are allowed to play, to get the chance to hone their mind.”

  “I’m honing mine by seeing what everyone else is doing,” Gregory said. “I think about what I would do or argue for if I was playing.”

  “A good use of the time,” Dia said. “Do you think the other coordinators are?”

  Gregory hesitated, considering it. “I think Mavic might be. James… maybe? James might approach you, or he might not. He asked about the clan, but seemed to back off when I told him the clan requirement.”

  “I will speak to any of them, but yes, they must have faith,” Dia replied sadly. “It’s why we never had more than a few novices or apprentices at a time. Since the solstice is past, we’d take them to the tea house to see if they are determined or not.”

  “Belief in Aether is required,” Yukiko said softly, her eyes on the women across from her.

  “Breakfast,” Ravol said as he pushed a cart over to the table.

  ~*~*~

  Klim gave him a nod when he entered the room. “Good morning, Pettit.”

  “Magus Klim, good morning to you, too.”

  “Do you think you’d be interested in another sparring match before the end of the year?” Klim asked with a smirk.

  Gregory chuckled at her. “I would be glad to test myself against you again, but my clan would need to approve. It would also require that you were free during our week off.”

  “If your clan approves and that can be arranged, your answer is yes?” Klim asked with a wider smile.

  “Why?” Gregory asked her back.

  “Because you’re the most talented fighter with the naginata I’ve ever faced,” Klim said. “I enjoy the challenge you present. I’d gladly face either armsmaster, as well, but getting them to agree is far harder. Besides, you’ll face me with all five weapons, which helps me stretch my skill with them, too.”

  “You’ve always been helpful and forthright with me, Magus. If it’s all agreed to, then yes, I will. Hopefully this time, there won’t be a sleet storm to ruin our footing.”

  Klim laughed ruefully. “There is that. I was mollified that it wasn’t just me that had that happen to them.”

  Gregory rubbed at the back of his head, a sheepish smile in place. “Yeah. I felt bad that Egil won that way. I should offer to face him again, too.”

  “I’ll speak with him,” Klim said. “Then again, maybe your clan will win this tournament, and then you’ll get the chance to face him many times.”

  “Perhaps,” Gregory conceded.

  The sound of people stopped Gregory from adding more. A moment later, Klein led his group into the room, exchanging greetings with them.

  When the sounds of the fourth bell died off, Klim cleared her throat. “The game resumes now. Nilum, off to your room.”

  The part-weasel eurtik bowed his head to Klim. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Did you join their clan?” Gregory asked, catching sight of the emblem on Nilum’s kimono.

  “Last night,” Klein answered.

  “Congratulations,” Gregory said.

  “Thank you,” Nilum replied with a smile on his lips. “I’m very happy to be given the chance.”

  Klim cleared her throat, and Nilum rushed out of the room.

  “Sorry, Magus,” Gregory said, bowing to her. “That was my fault.”

  “No harm done,” Klim said. “Let the game commence.”

  ~*~*~

  Gregory knew the turn would likely be contested, but he wasn’t positive, so he waited for James. Standing there, he caught sight of movement from the corner of his eye, and turned to face the stairs. He met Fureno’s eyes as the upset man came stomping down from the floor above.

  “Pettit,” Fureno sneered. “At least they know not to let a potential cheater into the tournament.”

  “
Potential cheater?” Gregory laughed. “Ah, I see your clan is still out of touch with reality. Some of us don’t try to cheat, trick, or murder our way to the top.”

  Fureno’s eyelid twitched as he advanced on Gregory. “What are you insinuating?”