Aether's Apprentices

by Daniel Schinhofen

  The fourth bell began to chime and Ben nodded. “The appointed time to begin.”

  “I’ll start,” Clover said. “I move across the river. I know it’s clear for at least a turn, so I can cross without stressing my army. The hounds will keep the screen ahead of me, with orders to retreat if they encounter anything more than a scout.” She moved her pieces. “That’s all I can do this turn.”

  “It’s fine,” Yukiko said, all too aware of Clover’s fingers fumbling her pieces a little. “We’re planning on staying back for this turn. We have the money to upgrade our heavy cavalry to elites, and that will take three turns. I’ll give the men a small bonus for their good work, which will help offset any loss of morale as Farin is…” She paused when Farin snored in the corner. “As Farin is recovering his aether.”

  Gregory made his notes. “Okay. We should be good, then.”

  “Interesting,” Ben said. “Cautious. I expected you to be aggressive at this moment.”

  “No,” Ling said, shaking her head. “They’ve had time to be prepared for us. They’ll be expending resources, expecting us to be upon them this turn or next.” She went to motion at the board to illustrate her point, but her hand slapped a few pieces, scattering them. “Sorry,” she said as she picked them up and reset them.

  “I understand,” Ben said. “Not many would think that way. They would’ve just smelled blood and rushed forward.”

  “And into traps,” Yukiko said. “We hold and wait for our upgrade, and then we’ll advance.”

  “I’ll go wait for Mavic,” Gregory said.

  Gregory slipped into the hall and waited. It was a tedious wait, but after about ten minutes, Mavic stepped out of her classroom.

  “Morning,” Gregory said.

  “Morning,” Mavic replied dully. “Are you ready?”

  “I am, but you don’t look like you are,” Gregory said.

  “Body path,” Mavic said. “Not mind, like them. They think they can catch you unprepared.”

  “I’m sure they do,” Gregory chuckled. “Why don’t you start this time?”

  “Okay,” Mavic said, then smiled. “No movement.”

  “Shocking,” Gregory snorted. “Okay, here’s the movements from our side.” Gregory showed her on the map.

  “But… oh, they aren’t going forward right now,” Mavic snickered. “Okay. Well, nothing left to discuss for this turn.”

  “Did you sleep okay?” Gregory asked.

  “As good as I expected to with the short time we had,” Mavic said before her stomach grumbled.

  “Missed breakfast?”

  “Yes.”

  Gregory pulled out a piece of jerky. “Have a piece. I had breakfast.”

  Mavic took it and popped it into her mouth immediately. “Thanks,” she said around the meat.

  “Let’s just hang out for a second,” Gregory said. “No need for them to know you had a bite.”

  “Thanks,” Mavic said, chewing slower. “You look more rested.”

  “Body path refreshes your body, but mind refreshes your mind,” Gregory said. “Like them.”

  “I might have made a mistake taking body,” Mavic mumbled around her food, then swallowed.

  “In the long run, it’ll help you survive,” Gregory said, “but the tournament is probably going to strain you.”

  “Yeah,” Mavic sighed. “Thanks again.”

  “See you in a bit,” Gregory grinned.

  “They aren’t going to know what to think,” Mavic snickered as she turned away. “This will be funny.”

  ~*~*~

  Gregory stood in the hall, waiting. Mavic had been slower and slower coming out each turn, but he knew why— the Han clan was panicking. When he heard raised voices, muffled by a door, he was sure he knew where they were coming from.

  “Guess I still have a bit of time,” Gregory said, leaning against the wall.

  The farthest door opened and a group of apprentices came out, followed by a stern-looking older woman. Gregory pulled foresight up and waited as the group got closer to him. With a quick movement, he sidestepped just as Jason’s fist shot out. Instead of hitting Gregory, he hit the wall.

  “Stop!” Ella barked with iron in her tone.

  Jason glared at Gregory. “Can’t keep foresight up all the time.”

  “You’re right,” Gregory said evenly. “Nice to see Jenn being kind and not breaking your head open like a melon earned us some goodwill. Next time, maybe she won’t be kind, since you obviously aren’t going to be.”

  Ella pushed her way to the front of the group and glared at Jason. “Argon, move. The rest of you, keep going.” She was obviously upset.

  Jason’s lip twitched. “Of course, Instructor Voulaz.”

  More doors opened and other instructors, including Paul, poked their heads out. With the Eternal Flame moving away, doors shut again. Paul said something to his class, then stepped into the hall, closing the door behind him.

  “Pettit, what happened?” Paul asked.

  “Argon tried to break my face,” Gregory said. “I stepped aside.”

  “At the same time the punch was thrown,” Ella said. “You expected trouble?”

  “With them? Always.”

  “With good reason,” Paul snorted. “The Eternal Flame has lost to him and his wives every time they have fought. Some would back off and reevaluate, but they just keep charging forward.”

  “I think he’s upset that Jenn brained him,” Gregory said. “Normally, he’s calmer than that. Or…”

  “He was testing how cautious you are,” Paul said, then looked at the hole in the wall where Jason’s fist had connected. “Possibly both.”

  “Agreed,” Gregory exhaled. “Sorry to disturb your group, sir, ma’am.”

  “They are petulant children,” Ella snorted. “Even the previous clanless are now swaggering like the world owes them.”

  “I’d wondered how that had happened,” Paul said. “They accepted them?”

  “Second day,” Ella shrugged.

  “Hmm...” Paul said. “Thank you for stopping the fight. I need to get back to the room.”

  “How is their game going?” Ella asked.

  “The report will be given later today, I’m sure.”

  “Like mine,” Ella yawned. “I’m going to rack out until this evening. Good day.”

  “Good day,” Paul said as Ella left. “Gregory, we’ll be out in a moment. They’re still debating the best course of action.”

  “Won’t matter,” Gregory shrugged. “Next turn ends the game, unless they have a major surprise.”

  “We will see,” Paul said as he headed back to the Han classroom.

  ~*~*~

  Gregory was proven right two turns later.

  Mavic looked at her notes and shook her head. “Might as well get them so we can call it done.”

  “Sure,” Gregory smiled. “It was good to work with you.”

  “Thanks,” Mavic sighed. “They’re going to ream me, though.”

  “They would be wrong to do so,” Gregory said, “but we know they’ll look to lay the blame away from themselves.” He dug out some jerky. “Delay it a moment?”

  Mavic gladly took the offering. “Sure.”

  When the jerky was gone, they both retrieved their instructors and laid out the battle. Paul and Ben went over the stats and modifiers before nodding.

  “Looks like we can return to our respective classes and end the game,” Ben said. “Your students are a treasure, Erichson.”

  “I wish I could say the same, but the last few turns have been nothing but arguments and recriminations. They’ll seek to blame Mavic.”

  “Yes they will, and I will pull apart all their faults,” Ben said with a gleam in his eyes. “Mavic, give me your notes.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said, handing the folder over.

  “Pettit?” Paul asked, holding out his hand.

  Gregory handed over his notes. “Thank you for your understanding, sir,” he told B
en.

  “If I had twenty of your friends, I could rest easily for the next few decades knowing that the borders would be safe,” Ben said before he motioned Mavic over to him. “Let’s go break the news.”

  “Let’s go explain the finish to them,” Paul said, striding away.

  Chapter Nine

  With the game over, Paul dismissed them for the day, telling them to be in the main room tomorrow morning. It was nearing midday, so the five apprentices made their way back to the clan hall.

  “Training today is going to be rough,” Ling said as they walked.

  “You’ll be a little slower and off-balance,” Yukiko was saying. “I’m sure that Inda will take that into account.”

  “You all seem like you had a full night’s rest,” Clover said a little slower than usual.

  “Once you get to train like we do, you’ll be the same way,” Jenn said. “Body can refresh the physical and mind the mental, but spirit lets you meditate-nap and feel like you had some sleep.”

  “Oh, Aether, please let it be soon...” Clover murmured. “We’ll be a detriment in the tournament during a long game, otherwise.”

  “You’ll be like everyone else,” Gregory said. “We’re the oddities.”

  “Maybe, but we want to be able to stand with you,” Ling said. “It’ll be hard to do with our training being so inconsistent.”

  “This year is proving challenging for training,” Yukiko agreed.

  “Apprentices, welcome back,” Dia greeted them when they reached the clan hall. “Physical training is going to be a little lighter today— not much, but some. It’ll be three hours instead of four. The missing hour will be so you can do the Peaceful Fist. That will be before training at the twelfth bell.”

  “Yes, Dia,” Gregory, Yukiko, and Jenn replied right before Clover and Ling.

  “Which means you have enough time to drop off your bags before coming back down,” Dia said.

  Clover and Ling headed inside, but Gregory and his wives just took seats on the other bench beside the door.

  “How did they do?” Dia asked.

  “Very well on the first day and decently this morning,” Yukiko replied. “Once they truly begin the Peaceful Fist, we think they’ll do even better.”

  “Yes, though they might not see the benefits for a month or more,” Dia said.

  “Hopefully, it’ll be before then,” Jenn said.

  “If they push, maybe Aether will bless them,” Gregory said.

  “Perhaps,” Dia smiled as she exhaled a smoke ring. “He did bless me with the channels widening again, so maybe he’ll bless them with a speedy acceptance of the spirit path.”

  “They’re back,” Daciana said as she came out of the building. “Did you win?”

  “We won,” Yukiko said. “The Han clan did well, but they were a little slow to adapt to what we were doing. The next time we face them, they’ll be harder to beat.”

  “They’ll have had time to collect themselves and learn,” Nessa said, following her excitable friend.

  “Exactly,” Jenn smiled.

  “But you won’t use the same tactics against the same opponent, will you?”

  “Not if we have a choice, but we might use something similar,” Yukiko grinned.

  “To lure them into thinking they know what will happen,” Victoria said. “I see.”

  “Our youngest members are quick to learn,” Dia said proudly. “As I informed the others, physical training will be shortened by an hour, as from the twelfth to thirteenth bell, we will be doing the Peaceful Fist.”

  “To help Clover and Ling,” Victoria said.

  “I was thinking we might need to switch that last hour we normally study to doing the Peaceful Fist,” Gregory said. “That’ll help them the best, as we already study in the morning and learn during tactics class.”

  “We understand,” Nessa said quickly, touching Daciana’s arm to stop her from speaking up. “Helping them catch up is important.”

  Daciana looked at Nessa’s hand, then smiled. “I agree, Ness.”

  “We thank you for that,” Ling said, coming out of the clan hall. “You’re further along in training in that way than we are.”

  “But we’ll train hard and do our best.” Clover’s enthusiasm, though diminished, was still infectious.

  Twelfth bell began to chime and they went down into the yard. As they did, Bishop, Inda, Indara, Hemet, and Leah came out of the building to join them for the Peaceful Fist.

  ~*~*~

  Gregory moved through the motions. The aether flame in his cavern sent off the haze of resonance even as he worked on the Magi Square the fire produced. When the puzzle was complete, another didn’t appear. That was fine for him, as Gregory wanted to consider the Empire’s Gambit game that he’d finished.

  Considering each turn in sequence, Gregory worked through what the Han clan had done, trying to understand what they might’ve been thinking. He was surprised when the flame changed, becoming the map from the game.

  “This is new,” Gregory smiled. “Can we go turn by turn?”

  The map went from empty to the initial setup for his class. The money reduced and the upgrades Yukiko had lobbied for at the start took their places.

  “She was right,” Gregory told the flame. “They did try with scouts in the places she thought they would. The hounds were the right counter, and that let Clover get to her spot.”

  The pieces appeared and then were removed after clashing.

  Each turn came and went as he moved through the pattern of the meditation. The last few turns were a flurry of motion as Yukiko and the others charged in, killing off the bulk of the enemy and taking the others captive.

  When the game ended, he found himself back in the yard as meditation came to an end. He was surprised to see they’d been joined by the other instructors and Gin.

  “Good. I’m glad that training was delayed a bit,” Gin said. “Now, we’ll go to the roof, stretch and run.” He looked at Ling and Clover as they went past him and nodded slowly.

  Yukiko walked beside the two women. “Feeling better?”

  “A little,” Ling said. “I don’t feel as disconnected to my body as I did before the meditation.”

  “Me, too,” Clover nodded rapidly.

  “Good,” Yukiko smiled.

  ~*~*~

  Training and dinner came and went. With all of that done, the apprentices and novices stepped back outside to do more Peaceful Fist. Gregory was smiling as the hour-long meditation came to an end— he’d worked on Magi Squares.

  Ling looked puzzled as she stood there. “Do memories come back with the spirit path?”

  “Yes,” Yukiko said. “Normally before the cavern.”

  “Yay! Me!” Clover said, doing one of her small dances.

  Everyone smiled at the excitable woman.

  “Was it a good memory?” Daciana asked.

  Clover calmed for a moment, thinking. “No... It was a painful one, but it reminded me of why I’m always so positive.”

  “If you want to talk about it, we’re here,” Victoria said.

  Clover blinked and her smile came back. “It’s okay. Ling, you had one too?”

  Gregory noticed her deflection. Yukiko caught his eye and shook her head an inch.

  “Yes. Like you, it wasn’t the best memory. It was when I was a child. My mother is more eurtik than I am, but as you can clearly see, I am obviously eurtik-blooded. We stayed with the other eurtiks in a section of a large town. When it came time for school, we went to the closest hall, meaning we ended up with others. The memory was of my first fight because of their words and how my mother had to explain why I couldn’t just lash out.”

  Clover sniffled and lunged to grab Ling. “Oh…!”

  Ling caught her and held her, struggling to hold back her own emotions. “Sharing helps...” she said softly.

  “Like you...” Clover sniffled again, “except they beat me. Dad told me that I needed to just stay happy. Happy and silly w
ould get them to leave me alone.”

  Yukiko, Daciana, and Nessa were the first ones to step forward and hug the two already holding each other.

  “Dad told me to stand my ground,” Daciana said, “but Mom told me to pick my times to do so. I fought a lot.”