**[The Next Day]**

Horace grimaced at the bright lights shining through the room. He was sweating from the heat and his proximity to Aiden. They were sharing the bottom bunk while Rita took the top. The room was twice as long as it was wide, and nearly all of the space was devoted to bunk beds. There were nearly twenty in total, but many kids were still stuck sharing like he was with Aiden. It seemed like a lack of forethought by their allegedly thankful government.

Other draftees were already moving about preparing for when they would be summoned by the soldiers to march out of the city, and he was not surprised to find his team still sleeping soundly. Horace had never seen the 'Last March' himself as he had always been working and unable to make the trip, but he knew that they would be paraded through the city and would spend the next week walking through towns to join up with the other groups of draftees near them. Since there were six districts in their kingdom, not all of the thousands of children were sent to the same army bases at the border. Only two districts would be sent to the front nearest their city, and Horace hoped there would not be able problems when the groups were merged.

He stretched long in the bed, his muscular frame nearly pushing Aiden off as he flexed, before rising. Like those around him who were also awake, he got himself ready to start walking at any moment. Paranoia and distrust of the system ran strong in all root faction children, and given the knowledge of Rita’s father’s disinclination to aid them, Horace began some last-minute contingencies. Rifling through Rita’s bag, checking first to make sure she was still sleeping, he grabbed some ribbons at the bottom. He took two of the pilfered books and the ribbon to make a crude harness under his baggy shirt. It looked quite awkward without his shirt on and felt strange since the ribbon secured one book tightly to the curve of his back and the other to his gut. It functioned surprisingly well. He shifted around to make sure the books would not come loose as he moved. He had chosen one medical book and one war manual, but with only a basic grasp of reading, he had little knowledge of their actual contents and was hopeful they would be useful. Next, he took the wand from her bag and placed it in his pants against his thigh to hide it, using another ribbon to make sure it didn't move. I really hope nothing happens, and I can just sneak this back into her bag later. If not, I will die of embarrassment, he thought to himself. That done, he put on another shirt and stuffed his pockets with vital items, but only to the degree where his full pockets were not noticeable to the casual observer. After a few minutes of this hurried preparation, he felt like he could relax. Sitting on the dusty floor beside the bunk, he settled into a meditative state to continue his practice from the day before.

**[Aiden]**

Loud stomping in the distance woke him from what had been a lovely dream of making dumplings with his father. His stomach rumbling let him know that the days of dumplings were in the past, and he sat up to see what was going on. The first thing he noticed was Horace leaning against the bunk near him and how alert the other kids around him were. He put on his shirt and stood to see a soldier in dress armor enter. Horace also must have sensed the new person since he stood up to stand beside Aiden. Realizing Rita was still quietly snoring above them, Aiden poked her sharply in the shoulder while covering her mouth to avoid attention on them. Her gasp was wet against his palm, and he felt her fight against him for a second before she stilled. Making eye contact with her, he gave a nod to the front and removed his hand. She bobbed her head in understanding and started straightening her hair while the man called attendance. Aiden spoke for his team's presence while Horace held up a blanket for Rita to change behind. Only one person was unaccounted for, and the soldier gestured them to move out of the barracks.

He held tightly to his bag and snacked from the food they had collected earlier to sate his grumbling stomach. In the sand-covered training yard, he prepared himself for the stares they would receive during the march. He had attended them in the past and remembered staring awkwardly at those passing and wished he had paid them more respect at the time. His group moved to try and get into the middle of the procession forming, but a shout from near the Keep caught everyone’s attention. A guard came right up to the soldier who had summoned them, and a heated disagreement broke out. Aiden could only hear a few words but got the impression that the new man meant to search some of them. Sharing a startled glance with Rita, he noticed Horace hand her his bag and shift away from them into the crowd. He did not understand why Horace would try and abandon them until the soldier let the man through. The muscled stranger came right up to them and threw him to the ground. Sand grated at his exposed flesh as he hit the ground. The movement had been so unexpected that he simply let the momentum bring him straight down without any attempt to lessen the force. Rita screeched as she was pushed down as well, though gentler than he had been. After seeing the books, the man took their bags and gathered everything up and tossed it in a pile behind him. It took all his self-control to keep quiet, and he trained his eyes to stare down the mean-spirited veteran before him, taking a small amount of pleasure in the man's crooked nose. It was not surprising the guard had been punched before if this was how he acted, especially towards his Lord's own daughter.

He aggressively nudged Aiden back to his feet and glared around, “Who is their third partner?” The soldier from before pointed out Horace, who was pushed next to Aiden. He could feel the boy's shaking body touch his. Horace looked completely different from a moment before. His posture was hunched, and meek with wide brown eyes lowered to the ground in submission. The guard smiled at his behavior and joked to the soldier who still looked unhappy at what was happening, “This one knows his place. Say, root-rot, got anything to hide?”

Aiden could see Horace’s eyes align on the man’s chest, and Horace stuttered an answer, “I am your humble s-ser-vant s-sir.” His posture sank even lower than before following that, and the man mocked him with a cruel bark of laughter before completely dismissing the awkward boy as beneath him.

Aiden and Rita, on the other hand, were not so lucky. The man grabbed them and shook their bodies against one another. Rita's sharp elbows and knees jutted against him painfully. The guard was about to search Rita when the soldier stopped it, “Hey, we are already late because of you. The stolen items have been retrieved, and your job is done. Please allow us to start the march and stop abusing your authority by mistreating my charges.” The soldier’s worth rose significantly in Aiden's mind at his steely words. The man begrudgingly left with their bags held snugly in his hand. “Alright, folks, sorry for the delay. We will begin our march out of the city and through the surrounding area. There will be no talking allowed, and noises are to be kept at a minimum. Let’s move!”

Aiden’s heart was breaking as their luck turned once again. He had always been blessed with good fortune and could not understand why the world seemed out to get them. Rita had shared about her curse, but he did not see luck as working that way. It created options, bad or good, that would not have existed otherwise. It was up to each person to make use of those opportunities or, in Rita's case, avoid them, yet this didn't seem like a crossroad in any way to him. He could not think of anything he could have changed to avoid this. Rita looked just as downtrodden as he felt. She had tears in her eyes and failed to put on a brave face for the crowds they were approaching. Glancing over to see how Horace was taking the news, he jolted forward as he saw the nearly hidden but very smug smile on his downturned face. If Aiden wasn’t gifted with reading people, he might have missed it, but there was an undeniable self-assured vibe coming from the strange boy beside him. He stooped down to catch Horace’s eye, and the wink he caught made his stomach flip. Had Horace been the one to harness their luck. He had missed what their moment of opportunity was? Or was he imagining all of this? He tried to see if Rita was catching onto the strange vibe, but she was off in her own world with her chin up, looking every bit the arrogant noble and pointedly ignoring the throngs of people watching them. “What was going on?” he thought to himself, confused at his partners’ very different attitudes.

**[Rita]**

Rita was pissed. Her own father had screwed them over and taken the very items that might have made survival possible. Her brother, who hardly paid attention to anything, knew that she could not cast magic without a wand or a large amount of focus and had made sure she had one. Now his kind gesture was meaningless, but she would remember him fondly for as much time as she had left. If she were honest with herself, she would admit there was a strange feeling of relief that came over her with the knowledge they had little chance. She was sure they would never pull a rank one dungeon that they could actually handle with her luck. They would probably end up in a rank three, which are the most numerous. God forbid they get a rank four even if some claimed they were better. “If we do pull a four... I will end it the second I enter. The things survivors have said about those dungeons…” she shivered as her thoughts brought memories of seeing deranged madmen in cages on her father’s plush carpet brought solely to educate her and Ivan on the dangers of dungeons. At that level, they could turn seasoned adventures into animals after a few weeks. She hated to imagine what they could do to her. Death was the better option compared to torture, and her mind calmed at the decision.

She was hardly even looking while walking through the city she had called home. Years of attending this march allowed her to imagine the contrast between the colorful houses and the somberly dressed people without requiring her actually to look towards them at all. Her eyes held unshed tears she refused to let fall, and her chin wobbled ever so slightly from her grief. A poke to her ribs shattered her thinly held composure, and a single tear trickled down her cheek. Aiden looked embarrassed to have caused her to cry, but he kept her from going back to her misery by giving a nod over to Horace. She was confused as to why until she saw Horace tap his fist over his heart and realized that the sound was definitely not one of a fist hitting flesh. It took a moment for her to comprehend the potential meaning of that and her eyes teared anew but in relief this time. She gave the crafty young man a searching once over and noticed slight bulges around his body that brought smiles to both her and Aiden’s faces. They might still have a speck of a chance as scary as the thought was. She doubted he had managed to squirrel away any weapons, but anything was better than going in helpless like she had been imagining.

***

It took hours to get out of the city’s vicinity and their resting place a few miles outside. Everyone was tired, dirty, and over stimulated from the stress of the last few hours of walking in silence while being judged by thousands of eyes. She was happy to be able to speak freely once again at the campsite, and while no one referred to Horace’s actions for fear of being reported by another draftee, they both took turns hugging him until he looked like he was about to pass out. “Don’t look too happy. We are supposed to be empty-handed and pathetic. I doubt your father won't hear about a sudden shift in our attitude,” he said quietly. They both tried and mostly failed to adopt a haggard appearance once more. Fortunately for them, everyone was too worn out to notice. Lying on the cold ground after a speedy meal of flavorless gruel, Rita stared at the stars while trying to settle enough to rest. She could hear the breathing of those around her even out, yet her mind would not relax enough to allow her to do the same.

Minutes passed, possibly over an hour, before she began to drift off, but a horse neighing in the distance caused her heart to stutter into a fast rhythm once again. She knew her horse’s whinny better than her own parent’s voices. Henry was out there; she was sure of it. Only the officers at the head of their parade had had horses, and they were staked relatively close. The sound she had heard was farther off. Not wanting to wake anyone or draw attention to herself, she acted as though she had just woken to use the hastily dug facilities near the edge of the camp. She walked as slowly as possible, and, after actually using the bathroom much to her disgust, she waited nearby. Nearly a half-hour passed, and she began to wonder if it had all been imagined, but then a dark shape appeared from the blackness surrounding them. The familiar form of her attendant came into focus. “Julia!” she aggressively whispered while throwing herself at the woman who had raised her, “I missed you so much. Where were you?” The woman who looked to have aged years in the day they had been apart responded with the grief of a mother, not a servant, “Your father had me sequestered to my house after the announcement. Once I got word from the maids, he was not going to aid you. I made a plan to come to see you myself. I had no idea he would be so callous. Your mother will be furious when she hears.” Rita could only smile sadly at her. She knew that only Julia would truly miss her and soon would forget in favor of the next child she cares for. However, it felt nice to be loved, even if for just a moment.

The hug lasted a long while before Julia broke the silence, “I could only bribe the guard to give us a few minutes and need to leave soon, sweetie. I love you and know you can come out of this. Remember everything the Magnus told you and do whatever you need to do to survive. In six months, I plan to see you right here, you understand?” Rita could only nod her agreement, tears, and snot, making it difficult to even see Julia’s faint outline in the twilight. Grabbing on as tight as possible, she squeezed until Julia pried herself free and disappeared into the night. Rita remained crying there beside the pits for a while until she calmed enough to rise. Her foot caught on a lump near her, and it almost sent her stumbling into the waste-filled holes, but she stopped her momentum at the last moment. Reaching down to grab the offending lump, she nearly squealed when she felt the shape of a sword on the side nearest to her. Fumbling around, she realized there was at least one wrapped sword, three daggers, and numerous other small bundles inside two lying side by side near her. She couldn’t stop fresh tears from falling at the realization that Julia had bought it all for them. The chamberlain had likely spent most of her savings to do this, and Rita’s heart ached at the meaning behind it. Her team now owed their increased chance of survival to the strict but loving woman. She would not forget this debt. They would make it through the six months, and she would personally see to it that Julia never wanted for anything again.