The Students from Prefecture 21

“You seem upset,” Eil said, grinning and leaning back on a tree.

Halia stood next to him, though with enough distance to silently assert to the rest of their assembly that she’d have preferred having nothing to do with him. In fact, she wanted that distance to also inform them that had they not all grouped up with people from their fellow villages and left her with no recourse, she would have happily stood by their side to glare at him. As it were, being isolated would present her as even weaker than aligning with Eil. However, Eil knew that the only message such a distance sent was the dissonance among the pair.

“Have you not noticed?” she asked, and he could feel undercurrent of a bitter remark awaiting the aftermath of his reply.

“Noticed what? Everyone staring?” He gazed across the other groups. “You think they’ll kill us for everything our village did to theirs.”

“Do you think that’s why they’re staring?”

“It’s why I would.”

“Is it? Grim. They didn’t grow up killing the way you did. It’s not the first thing on their mind.”

“You think that because no one’s ever killed anyone you care about. If they had, you’d think like a killer, too.”

She frowned. “That’s not why they’re staring. If I hadn’t been forced to stand here next to you, I’d be staring because you’re the only one here smiling while we’re all wet with bloody water. Blood, need I add, of our classmates.”

“Is that it?” He looked around again, meeting eyes this time, his voice reaching every ear. “Haven’t you realized we’re all still alive, in spite of the odds?”

“For how long?” Tall Boy barked. He had the biggest group, five of them total. Talented little village.

“Exactly,” Eil beamed. “For how long? We could be joining them by the time the sun falls! Why be sullen with the little we have left?” No one took to his blind optimism.

“Be grateful; if either of my brothers had died, and I’d heard you say something so callous, I’d have your life the way you Kasaians have taken so many of ours,” Upper Band said.

Eil waved his hands around innocently. “I’d wager you’d be smarter saving your first blood for the bandits who've killed half of us, and left the other half to starve. Or in this hypothetical scenario, for the bandit who would've killed your brother.” Eil stepped forward. “Besides, unless one of you has a hidden knack for murder, something my sister here says you lack, I believe I might be our only hope of surviving.”

“I think our big friend here would disagree,” Snark said.

“Oh.” Eil turned to Tall Boy, dumbfounded. “Is that so? Will you go on and retrieve our food then? Run through their spears with your bare hands? Is that a skill you’ve inherited from your commendable girth?”

“Why do you think you’re our only hope of survival?” Cautious asked, the only one unbothered by Eil's condescension. He must have had the freshest memory of a Kasaian invasion, and yet he alone lacked animosity in his voice when he spoke to Eil. Of all the other students, he frightened Eil the most.

“I will happily answer that question. Before we do that,” Eil kicked up dirt and it flew a short distance into the face of sleeping Sami.

Within the next second, Eil had his hands up, grinning broadly, and yet sweating nervously, a hand wrapped around his throat.

“The prefect isn’t here to protect you,” she said. Any previous injury Sami feigned had vanished.

He tried to speak but found his throat in a knot. She loosened oh-so slightly. “You’re right. Please don’t kill me. That was a dumb mistake. My apologies.”

“Killing you would be an innocent crime," she said in a low voice. "Someone else will probably kill you, sooner rather than later, so why not get it over it. I don’t think any of them would care, particularly when they learn about the source of your confidence.”

Eil dared not move an inch. “Again. Right. In fact, you could buy their silence both by leaving them to die here - starving or slaughtered by those bandits - as will inevitably happen if they don't get help; or, you can assist them and ensure their loyalty belongs to you. Though I'm guessing the consequences of being found out for the latter wouldn't be real pleasant.”

“Are you trying to convince me to kill you?”

“No.” He shook his head. “Of course not. I just wanted to say that I understand your dilemma. You’d stand to gain a bit by killing me.” He spoke up to the other recruits who were holding their breath to hear the conversation. “I just want you all to know that I didn’t choose my advantages or disadvantages in life. I might have chosen a cozier life in our sovereign kingdom had it been up to me. But I won't renege my privileges because you all detest that I have them. In any case, you can all see this game is rigged against me the same way it’s rigged against you. They'd prefer it if most of us don't make the institution.”

“You’re saying the attack was intentional,” Cautious asked.

“Intentional? Maybe not. But they knew it was a possibility, and clearly Sami isn't here to protect us, just guide us. Our forests are filled edge to edge with bandits: bandits who failed to make it to the institution as we very well might end up, bandits who’ve tired of living a life serving our sovereigns, bandits' leftover from the endless battles we have trying to satiate our sovereigns. Now, they send a caravan containing fifty kids, only a woman among them, and enough food for multiple days journey? You won’t find a better opportunity all year for easy gain. I’d wager across our country there are many more like us going through the same ordeal. It’s simple probability. Some luckier, and some unluckier than us. Some who will arrive unscathed, and some who will arrive a single body, starved but alive. How was it when you tried, animist?”

Sami glared, then let go of his neck. “He’s right. You’re all on your own. They don’t care if you make it or not. Some will. That’s enough for the institution. They don’t want soldiers, they want weapons, and a weapon takes a lot of refinement.” She walked away and sat cross-legged in front of a tree. She whistled and from the sky, her owl arrived. “Like he said, my only purpose here is to guide you towards the institute. Would you like to go there now?”

“And starve to death on the way there?” Snark asked.

“Or later?” Sami continued.

“I think we’ll take later,” Middle Band said.

“That brings us back to why you’re our only hope of survival,” Cautious said.

“Right. Well, we’re two dozen kids without a single weapon in hand, trying to take back a caravan full of food from bandits who kill and steal for a living, each with a spear to their name. Bandits are a problem all on their own, but that giant of theirs is something else. Not even Tall Boy here would measure up to him. I, however, can kill him.”

Snark snorted. “With your bare hands?”

“With this.” Eil crouched onto the ground and drew a circle in the dirt with a character none here, but Sami, could recognize. He took note: who was shocked, who was curious. Sami frowned. Cautious, he noticed, was the only one not caught off guard. Cautious was just like him, he quickly concluded. This begged the question: who had taught him? And, curiously, why had they not been there defending during their attack on Andora?

Eil closed his eyes and lost his grin. He was sure he was making an ugly face right about now. He pressed his hand against the symbol imprinted into the dirt and pulled out a hardened spear from the ground, much in the way his uncle had. He opened his eyes again to wonderment, and his grin returned.

“I can kill their giant given the opportunity.” Magic Boy was what Akilo had called him, and now the name would come true.

“How did you-“ Snark said. He might have to find a new name for her, didn’t seem so snarky then.

“I don’t have time to explain, nor could I teach you, because I know you’re wondering. Sami could, of course, but you wouldn’t be able to do it even if you knew how, at least not immediately.”

Kilo was the one who taught him, but this was never a lesson he’d ever knowingly taught. No, Kilo did not know that Eil could even do it. It had taken a long time for Eil to understand how Kilo was able to manifest a spear from the earth. Kilo wasn’t particularly cautious about keeping his secret hidden, which is how Eil had come to learn that there was a tattoo on the palm of his hands; a tattoo of the symbol Eil had drawn on the ground. Initially, Eil had used his own blood to test it, though the idea of mutilating himself each time he sought to manifest the spear seemed impractical. He would go on to learn that the means of communication mattered little. He could draw the symbol on the ground, and it would work. He’d quickly concluded that the reason Kilo had tattooed the symbol onto his hand was for ease of use, and nothing more. That had made him immensely curious, but to satisfy that curiosity, he knew he’d have to make it to the institution.

“Can you make one for each of us?” Cautious asked.

Eil scratched the back of his head. “Not exactly. I’ve only a certain amount of..." he searched for a word they'd understand, "energy, and while I could attempt to make as many of them as possible, I’d likely faint from exhaustion, and I couldn’t say for how long. I don’t quite trust all of you enough to do that, but beyond even that, I wager none of you have ever killed anyone before, and as some of you now realize, I have. Plenty.” Again, he met eyes.

“How many of them can you make?” Halia asked, breaking a momentary silence.

“Good question-“

“Are you about to sidestep it?” Snark asked.

Eil giggled. “Not at all, I can provide six spears in total. I understand, that’s far from enough for everyone. So, we’ll have to decide who gets to hold one of these. I know I can take care of our biggest problem, the giant. But there’s the matter of the rest of them. Anyone get a good count?”

“About a dozen,” Tall Boy said.

“There were fourteen,” Middle Band corrected.

“He’s right,” Cautious confirmed.

“We can all agree that Tall Boy gets a spear?” Eil said. No one had any problem with that. “She gets one," he pointed to Halia. "She’s from my village, I can’t let her die.” Halia’s face swept through a dozen uncertain reactions. Some wanted to object, but no one bothered. “That leaves three unaccounted for.”

“I’ll take one.” That was Lank; silent and long-limbed. There were three more from his village at his side.

“What makes you think you should get one?” Snark asked. The three behind him tensed, but she didn’t back down.

“She’s right. You owe us at least that,” Cautious chipped in.

“Of course. My village mates can attest to this. Having once been a victim to Kasai’s rampant thievery and murder, and having known that this happened across our prefecture, our village chose not to wait to be plundered and made to suffer the whims of our prefect once again. They've trained me, through our village’s greatest combatants and through the foreigners willing to take the coin, since birth so that I may slay Kasai’s great warrior once he shows himself.”

“How will they feel now that your survival depends on the very people you were meant to slay?” Eil mused, then shrugged. “Maybe that’s not enough for everyone else, but it’s enough for me. A spear for Lank.”

“My name is Mas.”

“That’s Lank, Tall Boy, Halia, and I. Two more. How about you Cautious? You seem smart.”

“I’d be useless with it; however, I would suggest one of the triplets. We already know they’ll work to keep each other alive; it would not be a waste if it may save the lives of three instead of one.”

"That works for me. And for our last lucky contestant?” There were four villages, barring Cautious's, who did not have a spear-wielder amongst them. Snark was alone from her own village, and there were three other groups of four. Everyone could just about guess which way he would go. “Snark. Happy killing.”

“Are you sure? That spear might end up in your back,” Snark said.

“I’d remind you that the rest of you would die without me but I don’t think you trust the legitimacy of that statement. I’ll course correct. Do you think I’d give any of you a weapon if I thought there was a chance you could kill me with it?”

Snark frowned. “It was just a joke, Magic Boy, relax. Anyways, six spears isn’t exactly going to take down a group of bandits.”

“They will if they’re sleeping,” Cautious said.

“That’s right. Kasai attacked when your villages least expected it; bathing time, middle of the night, dinner time. We struck when your guards were down.”

“Like cowards,” Lank piped up.

“Their cowardice made sure they lived. Perhaps we should’ve set aside our prides as well,” Cautious said.

“Don’t give yourself credit like you chose to preserve your pride. All of your villages would’ve done the same given the opportunity,” Eil said, immediately cursing his own pride. That did not sit well with them. Eased tensions intensified once more. “You are right, though, we have to attack while they’re sleeping. Which leads us to the first thing we have to do: find where they’ll be sleeping.”

“You know how to track too? You’ve gone on hunts?” Lower Band asked.

“He just has a little bit of common sense.” That was Bite-Sized, and she was easily the tiniest person here. Ironically, it was her small stature that made sure she stood out among them. “The giant left some equally suitable giant tracks when he started dragging a caravan full of food across the forest.”

“That’s right. As long as we’re quiet, this is going to be the easiest part. Find where they’re hiding, and come back. On the other hand, if we’re caught, well, I don’t imagine it’ll be very fun. So, who’s coming with? I take it you can stay quiet?”

Bite-Sized frowned, but nodded.

“And how about you, Cautious? You seem like you can keep things to a dull roar.”

He bit his lip. “No.”

Eil frowned. “Why not?”

“I’m afraid.”

“And you’d judge me brave?”

“I’d judge you suitably prepared. That can make a person brave.”

Tall Boy cleared his throat. “I don’t trust you, Kasaian. You’re scum. Worse than scum. But I take it from the way our animist is looking at you, and the way Cautious looks at you, that they think you know what you’re doing. I’ll happily follow you if it gets us to the institution alive. But that means everyone has to do their part, and if they do not, then perhaps they don’t deserve to come along with us to the institution. Perhaps I’ll ensure they do not.” He folded his arms and looked directly at Cautious.

For his part, Cautious did not show whatever fear he professed to have. “I suppose my hands are tied?”