Gregory woke with a happy sigh, the memory of his time with his wives while Darkness watched still fresh in his mind. A soft snore from Jenn got him to smile down at her. Jenn’s head rested under his right pectoral, her breathing tickling him slightly. Yukiko shifted with a content sound, her leg tightening on his.
“Good morning, my heart,” Gregory whispered.
Blinking as she woke up, Yukiko gave him a small smile. “To you, as well, dearest. I see we grew two ranks again.” Her hand tapped the medallion on his chest.
Gregory looked at his medallion, not having paid attention to it before now. Nine circles were illuminated sunflower yellow. “Yes, which will fuel the rumors about our growth. Next year, the clan might be flooded with novices hoping to join.”
“They’ll weed them out during the tea ceremony,” Jenn murmured sleepily. “We won’t be here, either. Our novice friends will have to help guide them.”
“Good morning,” Yukiko said when Jenn looked up.
“Mmm, good morning, our guiding wife,” Jenn giggled.
Yukiko snickered, then leaned over to give her a kiss. “I’m happy to bring you joy. You will be our stalwart warrior, but also our pliant lover.”
“And he will be our heart, holding us and the others together,” Jenn added.
“Yes. We will hold his heart and shower him with all the love he can stand,” Yukiko smiled.
“I will never stop you from showing me love,” Gregory said. “And I will listen if you say someone should join us. I have a feeling that won’t be soon, though.”
“Not soon, dearest,” Yukiko agreed. “I’m thinking past this year.”
Gregory exhaled slowly. “Okay. That makes it easier to accept.”
“Do you think our friends have grown as much as we have?” Jenn asked as she rolled out of bed.
“I want to find out,” Yukiko said as she kissed Gregory’s chest. “Come on, dearest, either you move or I climb over you. We both know that you prefer we didn’t tease you in the morning.”
Gregory reached up, catching her delicate chin between his thumb and finger, and tilted her head to meet his eyes. “Correct.” He kissed her softly, then slipped out of bed.
Yukiko exhaled a wistful sigh before following him. “Since we weren’t told about playing today, I have to assume we aren’t in the first round of the tournament. I wonder how they’re going to manage the games? If one of the class is not playing at all, and only three players per class are playing to start, is just that one person going to be the coordinator for all three games?”
“That’ll slow the game down drastically,” Jenn said. “Hmm… that might be one of the points, though. The tournament will start slowly, but I expect it will become harder the longer a class is playing.”
“I was thinking,” Gregory said as they began to dress, “if, for example, one of you three loses, they might place one or both of you against the winner of the other team until one side or the other is gone.”
“Multiple fronts of the same battle…? Hmm,” Yukiko looked distant. “We need to talk to the others. We have to decide which three of us will play. Also, I want to use scouts quickly at the start. I have a suspicion about what we’ll be seeing.”
“Expanded front?” Jenn asked.
“We’ll talk with the others, but yes,” Yukiko nodded.
Third bell chimed as they finished dressing.
Clover and Ling were just about to the stairs when the trio met them at the landing. “We grew, we grew, we grew!” Clover chanted when she saw them. She broke into one of her silly dances with a wide grin on her face.
“Two ranks,” Ling said, watching her friend with amusement. “We’re at the fourth rank now.” She pulled out her medallion, showing off the glowing, sunflower yellow circles.
“We ranked up, too,” Jenn said, showing them her medallion.
“Aww…” Clover’s excitement faded slightly. “We’d hoped we’d started to catch up.”
“You will in time. The ranks are supposed to be harder to gain as we advance,” Yukiko said, looking a little distracted as she said it.
“That’s supposed to be true,” Ling said slowly, “but since we’ve known you, we’ve grown faster. We match the majority of our class now and outrank the clanless.”
Gregory said, “But you know why we grow faster.”
Ling bowed her head. “We follow Aether’s Path. I will follow as you lead. It feels right.”
“Do you think the others gained two ranks?” Clover asked suddenly.
“We should go see,” Jenn said.
They found the novices coming their way when they made it to the next floor.
Daciana rushed forward with her medallion out. “Ninth rank.”
“Two ranks for you, too,” Nessa said, seeing Jenn’s medallion, which was still outside her clothes. “And you, as well.” She smiled at Clover.
“We all grow so strong!” Clover beamed.
“Indeed. Our young magi will be the talk of the academy again,” Dia said. “Are you going to breakfast?”
“Yes, Dia,” Yukiko said, motioning the others to start moving. “We just paused to greet each other.”
“Ah, very well. I, myself, am quite hungry, as Aether smiled upon me last night.” She slipped her own medallion out. Nine cyan circles were glowing on her medallion. “Lightshield left me some alchemical aides that helped push me over the edge last night.”
“Congratulations, Dia,” Gregory said a second before the others echoed him.
“Thank you,” Dia smiled. “Let us go share our joy with the others.”
When they made it to the dining room, they found Bishop already there, smiling broadly. “Novices, Apprentices, Dia,” she greeted them as her smile grew. “I was fortunate last night…” She trailed off when she caught sight of all their medallions, including Dia’s. “Ah, I see you all grew as well.” She pulled her own medallion, illuminated with six bright, cyan circles.
“So much younger than me, and yet not that far behind,” Dia said. “You were always fast in your growth, but as you can see, our current students are growing even faster.”
“Yes,” Bishop said, her eyes showing true happiness. “You will have your work cut out for you in the coming year and beyond, Dia.”
Dia bowed her head. “Yes. It will be challenging, but rewarding.”
“Breakfast will be ready shortly,” Ravol said from the kitchen.
“We don’t have a tournament game today, do we, Dia?” Gregory asked.
“No, which means you will be training today.”
“Can we ask that Farin be brought over so we can discuss tactics with him?” Jenn asked. “We have to decide which of the three of us will be the first players for our class group.”
“A good idea,” Bishop said. “Building strong alliances is always good.”
Dia nodded. “It is, indeed.”
“I’ll go after breakfast, but he might decline,” Bishop said.
“Understood, Bishop,” Gregory said.
“I think he’ll be willing,” Yukiko said. “He’s as focused on winning as we are.”
“He is,” Clover nodded.
“We will see,” Bishop said.
“Breakfast,” Ravol smiled as he pushed the cart to the table.
~*~*~
Coming back to the clan hall after the archive, the apprentices smiled and waved at Farin sitting on the porch. Farin bowed to Dia, then stood and waved back to them.
“Thank you for inviting me to your clan hall,” Farin said when they were close enough to talk. “I must ask, do you mind if I share the basic tactics we discuss with my clan?”
“No, as long as it’s nothing specific,” Gregory said. “I’d rather have the Iron Hand go to the tournament than some of the other clans.”
The others agreed with Gregory.
“Thank you,” Farin exhaled. “I’d also like them to be there.”
“We were going to use the war room,” Jenn said. “This way.”
Once they were inside the war room, Yukiko spoke up, “We need to decide which of us will be in play first. On top of that, I believe our individual games will combine into a joint battlefield.”
Farin frowned. “But Egil said we wouldn’t be on the same board…” Trailing off, he considered things.
“Connected boards,” Ling said suddenly. “Oh… I can see that. Pigeons to scout for the others?”
“I knew she’d get it,” Jenn grinned.
Clover’s eyes widened and she nodded. “Oh, I get it! If we send messages to each other, we can help or even combine onto a single board. Then, we walk over the single opposing magi, then turn and do the same to the others.”
“Unless they do the same thing. This might also be wrong,” Gregory said. “This is speculation, but investing in pigeons and sending them out should be a low-cost investment at the start.”
“It would explain why we’re being separated into different rooms,” Clover said. “Most will think it’s one-on-one matches for the first round, at least.”
“Unless I’m wrong, then you winning just means you have to face the winner of the other team if one of your allies loses,” Yukiko said.
“Most will want to play a little more defensively at the beginning, since your army is what you keep moving forward,” Farin said. “I like the idea of pigeons to check for allies at the start, if they don’t cost too much. If they cost as much as normal messengers, I’d opt for the light horse messenger.”
“That’s a good point,” Jenn agreed.
“How do we pick who plays in the first round?” Clover asked.
“Most will expect us to field three of our clan,” Yukiko said. “We should opt for the best combination of magi we have.”
Clover and Ling agreed, even if they looked disappointed.
“But we should see about getting the others into the game as quickly as we can, too. Might not be the first game, but if the army and pay chest carry over, it would be easier to get them in, then,” Gregory said.
“Agreed,” Farin said. “If it does become a combined fight, the more magi we have, the better. We don’t need to place first, either, just in the top three.”
“I expect Egil to throw another twist or two into the tournament,” Gregory said. “So don’t overcommit, but make sure to bring enough force to bear.”
“Okay, so we’re agreed on who and the idea of looking for each other?” Clover asked to make sure.
When they nodded, Ling spoke up, “Okay, starting tactics— we should discuss what each of you is likely to do given each terrain type.”
