Aether's Apprentices

by Daniel Schinhofen

  “Yes,” Jenn said.

  “I hope you know how to look at… a wider picture.” Hayworth’s pause and slight stress on the words hinted at things.

  “We thought that might be the case already,” Gregory chuckled. “We’ll just have to see if we were right. Well… they will,” he amended.

  “Yes, they removed you entirely,” Hayworth snorted. “Shortsighted. But certain clans raised a fuss over your perceived ability to cheat with your magic, as if you could use it for days on end with little rest.”

  “I don’t mind,” Gregory replied as he started his puzzle. “It gives me an overview of the entire game. I’ve learned a few things by being the coordinator.”

  “I hadn’t considered that position,” Hayworth admitted as he filled in the blank grid. “You truly don’t care that you were the only one singled out?”

  “If it makes it so that, when my class wins, they can’t complain and cast doubts, not at all.”

  Hayworth laughed lightly. “Ah, there it is. Determined to make all other clans look lesser than your own.”

  “No,” Yukiko said. “That isn’t our intent. We just wish to raise our clan up…” She trailed off with a small smile.

  “But if a single clan falls hard, that’s fine, too,” Jenn added.

  “If they fall, my clan wouldn’t mind at all,” Hayworth said. “The loss of face they suffered when Elkit was crushed ruthlessly by Magi-killer was sweet. I was surprised when he extended that olive branch by offering Barlz the position.”

  “You shouldn’t have been,” Gregory said. “Consider how fair and even he’s been this whole time— he truly is just trying to help our year learn proper tactics. As he said, Barlz had the right idea during the game.”

  Hayworth fell silent as he worked on the paper in front of him, his thoughts dissecting memories and thinking on what Gregory said.

  ~*~*~

  When they arrived at the tactics hall, Egil was already there. All five of them greeted him and bowed formally, and Egil motioned to a table. “Have a seat. Once the others get here, we will see who you are fielding and divide you. Those not playing will be sitting here with me. You, Pettit, will be helping one of the games, and it won’t be the one your friends are playing.”

  “I understand, sir,” Gregory said.

  “You’re the only apprentice with a clan who is not playing or an alternate,” Egil said. “Every other class picked the clanless in their group to be the one out.” He snorted. “Shortsighted.”

  “That’s the way the empire is,” Clover said, her usual tone subdued, “but maybe it’ll change in the future.”

  “Hope is good,” Egil nodded. “Now, sit and wait.”

  Before long, the other groups filed in. One was a group that Gregory had been hoping he wouldn’t see. Nick gave Gregory a sneer as his group took their seats. Once the instructors and apprentices were all there, Egil shut the doors, then paused as the sixth bell began to chime. Gregory was staring at Nick’s group, as Chucky Smitty was missing again from their number.

  “Apprentices, your groups are the last of the initial round,” Egil said once silence had fallen again. “There will be a single day off between this round and the next for one of you. Some have complained that this will put your group at a disadvantage going into the next round. To that, I had only a single reply: ‘And?’ No battle, much less war, is fair. As for how we decided who would play who, it was simple— we drew names from a bowl. As much as some of you might feel this is rigged, it was completely random, and Grandmaster Pan was the one who drew the names. If you still feel that way, take it up with him.”

  No one spoke up when Egil paused.

  “Now, Aether’s Guard, who are your three?” Egil asked.

  Yukiko stood. “Myself, Jenn, and Farin, sir.”

  Her declaration drew some murmurs from the other apprentice groups. The instructors just nodded, having heard of Farin playing in the pre-tournament game.

  “Very well,” Egil said. “The first three rooms on the third floor are for you. Wait until I send you all off, though. This way, you get to see who you are against.”

  “Yes, sir,” Yukiko said, retaking her seat.

  “Han clan, who plays for you?” Egil asked.

  The Han clan declared theirs and were told they would be on the second floor. The Hardened Fist set their three and were paired against the Han clan, leaving just one group that hadn’t been called.

  “Eternal Flame,” Egil said, turning to them, “declare your three.”

  “Myself, Parks, and Morlit,” Nick said, gleefully staring at Gregory’s group.

  “You have the other three rooms on the third floor. Your opponent is Aether’s Guard,” Egil said. “One last thing. Wood, which magic are you using?”

  “Earth, sir,” Farin replied.

  “Very well. Instructors, you have your assignments. Alternates, stay here,” Egil announced. “Competitors, dismissed to your rooms.”

  Yukiko, Jenn, and Farin stood. Since they were closest to the stairs, they were the first to go up. Yukiko was having a hushed conversation with them as they went.

  Nick slowed when he passed Gregory’s table. “Now we’ll knock your clan from this competition.”

  Seeing Egil watching them, Gregory didn’t reply.

  Nick snorted and walked off, the last to go upstairs.

  Egil cleared his throat. “My four coordinators, come here.”

  Gregory stood and, after a second, the clanless who’d been left out of the games stood, too. The three paused a few feet from Egil.

  “You will be helping coordinate the games that don’t affect your classes. As you can see, we are missing an apprentice, which means we will be having a guest assist us today.”

  A gust of wind blew around them and, a moment later, Grandmaster Pan was standing there. “Magi-killer,” Pan nodded.

  “Sir, you will be coordinating for Shun’s group,” Egil said, “considering the reasons why we are missing Apprentice Smitty.”

  Pan’s lips thinned, but he nodded. “Understood.” With another gust of wind, he was gone.

  “Pettit, Han group,” Egil said as if the grandmaster being there was normal.

  Gregory bowed, waiting while the others were divided up. He smiled when Mavic was sent to work with his wives and Farin, though a part of him still wondered what Egil had said about Chucky Smitty. Once they’d been given their instructions, they were handed three maps for the people they were assisting, a folder with blank paper, and a charcoal pencil.

  “Go introduce yourselves, and do your best to learn,” Egil said.

  Gregory bowed, the others a beat behind him. Turning, he headed away, giving Clover and Ling a smile as he went. They grinned back at him, having heard who was assisting their class. Mavic glanced their way, but didn’t make any motion to them.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Gregory felt refreshed when he woke up— it’d been a long three days for him. His four hours of rest a night had kept him going, along with the naps he snuck in during rounds. Jenn and Yukiko had it rougher, but they’d still done better than Nick’s group. Farin managed to hold out during his game until Yukiko and Jenn could get to him.

  When he was told that they’d been able to meet up and form a single unit, he’d been thrilled until he was informed that Nick’s group had done the same. Nick, however, hadn’t even bothered with scouts to ‘find’ his teammates, leading to Farin being assaulted by three units until Jenn and Yukiko got there.

  They hadn’t told him much, deciding to do a debrief during the novice class period on their day off, instead. He did know they had won and, by the end, they were in decent shape. They’d deliberately played longer to build themselves up before taking Parks off the board last.

  Jenn stirred beside him, and he kissed the crown of her head. She always slept lower than he did, using him as her pillow instead of an actual pillow.

  “Good morning,” Jenn murmured.

  “Morning,” Y
ukiko yawned as she woke up.

  “Good morning to you both,” Gregory added, kissing Yukiko’s brow. “I think it’s about our normal time.”

  “We went to sleep early and I feel good,” Yukiko said. “I guess we can…” She trailed off as the third bell told them the hour.

  “Time,” Jenn said, sliding out of bed. “Farin will be over at sixth bell so we can talk about the game.”

  “I remember,” Gregory said as he followed her to the armoire. “Nick was pissed.”

  Yukiko snickered as she recalled the yelling. “He was worse when we eliminated him. If Grandmaster Pan hadn’t been their coordinator, it might’ve been worse.”

  “Clover and Ling said they could hear him,” Jenn smiled.

  “I heard him on the second floor,” Gregory added, “and again when you finally won.”

  “We’ll be able to bring at least Ling or Clover in right away next game,” Yukiko said, “but we’ll wait to explain it all.”

  “They were well-rested, at least,” Gregory chuckled. “Egil just lectured on aspects of the game and let them have breaks.”

  “I think they stayed up with the others when we went to bed,” Jenn said, “which is good.”

  “Yes. It’s good to see them building bonds,” Yukiko said as she began to dress.

  “It’ll be nice to just train,” Gregory said. “Did we want to try holding our aether today? We were going to wait until after the solstice, and it’s past that. Or, do we want to wait for the tournament to be over, just in case?”

  “After the tournament,” Jenn said. “It’ll hurt a lot. Trust me.”

  “I’m fine with waiting a little longer,” Yukiko said with an uncertain expression. “Maybe we should wait until we’re initiate tier?”

  “Waiting is a good idea. Letting our channels develop more is the best idea to make sure we don’t hurt ourselves.”

  “We also need to impress on our friends to not try this until they’ve reached the initiate tier, too,” Jenn said. “Maybe longer for Clover and Ling, since their channels will be even further behind.”

  “I was thinking we could write out when we started things, give it to Nessa or Victoria, and let them shepherd Daciana,” Yukiko suggested.

  “We should write it out for Ling and Clover, too,” Gregory nodded, “along with when it might be best for them to try it.”

  “I’ll do it during studying today,” Yukiko said. “Now, let’s finish getting dressed and get going.”

  ~*~*~

  Farin greeted them as he entered the war room, “Good morning.”

  “Good morning,” Yukiko replied. “Glad to see a night’s rest refreshed you.”

  “I had an early dinner, then collapsed,” Farin admitted.

  “We’ll all get a good night’s sleep tonight,” Jenn said.

  “We’re the unlucky group to play in the next round,” Yukiko said. “Maybe they hope it will hinder us, but we’ll show them that we’re prepared for it.”

  “We will,” Ling nodded.

  “Let’s break down the last game and see what we can learn from it,” Jenn said.

  “The pigeons helped us find each other quickly, yet not as quickly as the Eternal Flame did,” Farin said.

  “Harrison was upset about them managing it as quickly as they had,” Yukiko said. “The Grandmaster agreed to let it happen, though.”

  “Gave them an early advantage that proved nearly disastrous,” Jenn said, “which just made winning all the sweeter.”

  “Would explain his rage,” Gregory said. “I know they met up and went for Farin first, but I don’t have any details.”

  “Farin, why don’t you start this off?” Yukiko suggested.

  “Sure. The game mostly took place on my map, so let’s set the board, first,” Farin nodded.

  Farin walked them through the early game, showing them how he’d set up for defense and the awful realization when he saw the combined army coming for him. He also showed them how he’d used all the aether his magi had to reinforce his defenses. He laughed when he got to the part where Jenn and Yukiko came onto the map— that’d gotten the combined force of the Eternal Flame to back off, not wanting to get flanked.

  Yukiko used her shadow magi to personally deliver their plans to Farin on the first turn they were all on the same board. After that, they used pigeons for the real messages and horse messengers for the decoy messages.

  Using the false messages, they managed to trick Nick’s group into trying to cut off a supposed flanking maneuver, giving them the room to rush to join Farin in his bunkered position. That wouldn’t have worked if Nick had been using a master or grandmaster magi. Because he wasn’t, he couldn’t get his fire over the earthen walls Farin erected.

  From there, it was mostly a game of attrition until the second day. Yukiko led them as the commander on the field and directed them to attack not the army, but their supplies. They used the lightest, fastest units they could field, and were able to stress the other side into foraging and having their morale drop from lack of pay and comfort.

  Michelle spread her men out in a direct line to protect the supply line and, in doing so, gave Yukiko the chance to get the first decisive advantage. With morale low, Michelle herself had to position her command unit along the line. Their light scouts got them just enough information to pinpoint Michelle. Using that information, Yukiko used her shadow magi to assassinate Michelle before fleeing back to the camp with the small amount of intel and pay she got her hands on.

  “That was before they started holding their magi in reserve to stop me from doing the same to them,” Yukiko said.

  “I remember Michelle storming past,” Gregory chuckled. “She was upset, but fortunately, she didn’t see me.”

  Jenn took over telling them how the game had gone from that point. They knew archers were useless against Parks and Nick, as were any of the high-value units, since they could stymie or just burn them out. Instead, they went the other route.

  “Massed light foot,” Gregory said with a smile. “And spread out to limit the effect of a fire magi. It made them vulnerable to cavalry, but they didn’t have those units or archers.”

  “With the defensive emplacements, they needed heavy foot to get in close,” Farin said.

  “We ended the second day ready to launch our attack,” Jenn said, looking at the board.

  “Which is why we were surprised on day three when they attacked us,” Yukiko snickered. “It also let me get Nick.”

  Yukiko explained the last part of the game. When they met up on the third day and were getting ready to spread out and attack, they found the Eternal Flame marching on them. Instead of attacking directly, they sent the light foot out to either side. Yukiko prepared to use her magi again, marking Nick’s location when he started decimating the light foot on his flank. Parks shielded his flank with his magi as their heavy foot rushed the defensive walls that Farin had erected.

  “I know from the game how much a fire magi can do,” Yukiko said “which is why I prefaced our counter with, ‘If Nick uses his magi four times, I use mine to assassinate him.’” She smiled. “Harrison actually laughed and made a note, making sure that our coordinator knew how the fight would go.”

  “He did what Yuki thought he would,” Farin laughed. “He was so mad, so mad.”

  “It nearly killed my commander, as well, but with him dead, that broke the morale of their combined army,” Yukiko said. “It forced Parks to break off and retreat.”

  “Good thing, too, as the light foot had been nearly wiped off Nick’s flank, and the heavy foot on Park’s side butchered most of the men there,” Farin said.

  “After that, we just built up some cavalry and used the superior movement to harass and eventually run Parks down,” Jenn said. She showed them the moves on the board so they could visualize the progress.

  “Which also let us build up our supplies and pay,” Yukiko added. “Clover, Ling, which of you is coming in as soon as we start the next game?”<
br />
  “Clover,” Ling said.

  “Li—” Clover had started to say, but she just closed her mouth and nodded. “Okay.”

  Yukiko smiled at them. “It’s good that you both want the other to be the one to join us, but you’ll both likely be in before we finish.”

  “I figured as much,” Ling smiled. “It’ll let me be more flexible during the next match.”

  “What about your commander, Yuki?” Gregory asked.

  “Healed by the time we ended the game. We’re in the best shape we can be in.”