We were assembled based upon our age group. I happened to be within the lower age-range. There were exactly fifteen people among my group.

The events of last night were moving through my mind as we walked forwards. The mask was still somewhere, I could feel its magic roiling across my skin, practically pushing into my veins. Something about it felt distinctly wrong to my brain. Like I was filtering against an impossible force, forever pushing its way deeper into my body. I moved forwards with the group all the same, trying to keep the thoughts in the back of my head.

"You're going into the military too?" Said a kid beside me, holding a knapsack full of clothing, "My dad used to be a soldier before they let him retire. He fought in the war for thirteen years and still survived!"

I looked towards the kid for a couple of seconds. He seemed purely admiring, which likely meant he wasn't that smart. Well, considering he was here, it likely meant that he wasn't smart at all. Especially if his father was a soldier, he should've known better than to draft himself into the war. Yet here he was walking steadfast with a strong head. I wouldn't be surprised if that attitude broke down quickly.

"Why did you sign up then?" I asked, looking away from him.

"Huh? Whadyamean?" He replied, looking at me with a dubious expression.

If that didn't prove the hypothesis, I didn't know what would; there was really only one way to deal with this sort of thing, "Why would you join the military if your father was in it? Did he tell you anything about the way that war goes? Just because your father survived doesn't mean that you will. Signing up is practically choosing suicide,"

At that, I saw a couple of the other kids pale. But it was true. We were all likely to die. I mean, I might be less likely to die, because of the strange magic that I seemed to have inherited, but that hardly changed too many of the facts. There would be generals above us, and some of them were bound to give orders that were stringent upon us having absolutely no care for our own lives. They'd use us like pawns, and quite a couple of us would die in the end. That's just how things worked.

"Like. Some of us are in the military because we don't have a choice. And yet you made the choice to get yourself killed. You've committed suicide just because your father tried to, and failed," I finished.

"Hey, maybe chill out a bit? I heard another voice say, this one looked a bit tired, as if he'd been walking for days instead of hours, "Even if it's true, it doesn't mean you have to say it,"

"And why shouldn't I say it?" I said, diverting my attention, "I mean, look at the Generals in-front. They haven't disagreed with me. And do you even know what they're gonna do to us if we step out of line? A good soldier is one that follows orders, right? If we disobey, they're likely to chop our heads off in the middle of a battlefield, just to show our enemies how ruthless we are, even to our own soldiers, if they don't obey,"

"Look, I don't care about any of that. You're being an absolute asshole, and scaring some of these other kids. They're likely here for the same reasons as y-"

"I doubt it," I said with almost the slightest bit of a laugh, "Look at their clothes. They've got the newest cloths against their fucking skin. I've been wearing this shirt for three weeks whilst I try to find a way to clean the others. My hair hasn't been washed in a month. Meanwhile, mistery my-father-was-a-soldier seems to have perfectly primmed hair, and doesn't look like he had to cut his hair with a knife yesterday evening just so he could look the part of a soldier,"

"Yeah okay, your situation wasn't great," The boy snarled, "But that doesn't mean you need to make life worst for the rest of us. At the rate this is going, I'd rather slit your damn throat than have to spend the next couple of weeks training alongside you,"

I opened my mouth to retort, but nothing came out. Something seemed to be gnawing at the side of my mind. Like a tidal wave of unexplainable emotions, at the forefront of which appeared to be a brewing rage. When the moment passed, however, the emotion dimmed, and I felt my breathing begin to calm.

"Do it then," I heard myself say, "Go ahead, if that's how you feel, act on it,"

The boy stared at me open-mouthed for a long second. He blinked for a moment, before ruffling his collar, and looking away from me. His back straightened, and for just the slightest of moments, I thought that would be the end of the conversation.

"No," His voice was quiet, "If I did that, I'd be working in the way you expect of me, wouldn't I? Just some other person you can blame for everything wrong in the world. Maybe that's why you're going to become a Knight, so you can persecute all of the people that you believe wronged you,"

"I'm becoming a Knight because I don't have anything to live for, you dumbass," I retorted, "That, and so I can have a working shower for at least a couple of weeks before I get myself killed. Maybe even something that tastes better than the slosh my brother had to cook for us,"

Before the other boy could retort, a voice in-front of us shouted, "Listen Up! For the next few weeks, this is where you'll be living," A motion towards the gigantic castle, it looked like a modified prison.

The man talked about other things. Most of which were things that I already knew. We'd be practicing with a sword, learning how to use the modified Warlock weapons, things that could be used even by people without magic, but would certainly be amplified if you did have magic. We would be exercising and also going through a very fast and rudimentary educational system. The educational pieces would just be about specific orders and what they meant.

After that, we were taken to our room for the next five weeks. It was the ground. More specifically, a hollowed out porition to the side of the castle that looked like a cave. It was explained to all of us that the castle wasn't for us. It was for the Generals and the higher in command, and that there were already too many people for them to waste time on building an actual room for the Knights.

Some of the others seemed disgruntled after the General left, but I climbed my way down into the small hole. I took my bag, and threw it into one corner, proclaiming that this part of the hole was mine. No one disputed my claim, and I got about laying down. The dirt felt softer than then bed back home if you punched into it a couple of times.

-7

A man was screaming at us to get up. Dad had done that a couple of times, so my reaction was swift. I was pulling myself up, and running towards the back of the hole. I tripped at least once, before grabbing at the ladder and pulling myself up. My vision was still blurry when I made it into broad daylight, but I rubbed at the grime in my eyes, and stared towards the thick-chested man above me. He was staring at me with just the slightest rise of his eyes.

My body was still flooding with adrenaline, as the man stared towards me. For a second, I thought i was about to get shoved back down. But the man didn't do anything of the sort, he merely stared towards me for a few seconds, before shouting back down in the hole. It took a couple more minutes before everyone else managed to pull themselves back up in the same manner.

When everyone was up, the General in-front of us began walking. Everyone began to follow in a slight congregation. None of them came too close to me, though. We made our way through a list of different areas. In one, I saw men drawing back bows. In another, I saw colliding swords. In the third, I saw people flinging forces of unimaginable power with ease. In a fourth, I saw men and women in different exercising positions. We went passed all of them, however, and out into the bounds around the castle.

"Five laps around the entire castle," The man bellowed.

The castle was gigantic. Thousands of integrating chambers, and even tents sitting around the outer walls. An entire lap would take a quarter of the day. Five laps would take an entire day, plus a portion of the night. To my surprise, however, one of the kids was already running. The General stared towards the rest of us, and I got the cue.

Some of the others didn't, and I could hear yelling behind me.

Through my running, I managed to catch up with the kid who had started off first. It took a surprising amount of effort, but I managed to get there. He had the same sort of clothing that some of the others did, but a different look about him. He didn't appear as 'posh' as some of the other did.

"You took off first," I said in-between slight pants.

"So I did," He had a strange accent, one I didn't happen to recognize.

It was difficult to put into words, but there was something about him that I enjoyed, "You're used to following orders," I told him.

"So are you," His paced was measured, and so was his breathing, his arms were swaying at his side in an even sort of way, instead of flailing about in the way that mine were, I tried to copy that at the best that I could.

"I...What's your name?" I asked as I steadied into pace beside him.

"Tim Semestriz, yours?"

"MIne's Verice," I replied, "I don't have a last name,"

The boy nodded, "I see. I assume your family is poor?"

"However could you know?" I replied with just the mildest bit of sarcasm, "It's not like I'm wearing poor people clothes, and kinda advertized that yesterday or anything,"

"I apologize if I offended you," The boy said curtly; it seemed practiced.

It didn't seem practiced. It was practiced. From what I could tell, the boy had grown in riches. Yet for some reason, he was jogging here beside me. Which likely meant quite a couple of things. Either they were rich, but not rich enough to just bribe him into being a General, or they wanted their son to have to fight in the army and rise into a General. It took a sort of cruel parent to think that way.

"You didn't offend me, I just found the obvious obervation," I searched for a word, "Amusing,"

"I would suggest working upon your social skills, if half of Observia didn't respond in the same way that you did,"

Observia. The city of 'fame and 'fortune' as any poster pasted upon the brick walls would have you believe. If you lived anywhere other than the slums, that might be true. For the rest of us though, it wasn't. It was the city of Disaster and Havoc to anyone else.

"I would say it's more than half. I'm assuming you live in the Rich portion of Observia?"

"It's not like me wearing rich people clothes, and speaking in a proper manner wouldn't have advertised that to you," The boy said, mimicking me from earlier.

I chuckled, "Good point....Anyways, what business does a Rich Kid like you have being in the Poor People Army?"

The boy frowned slightly, "My mother and father believe in Proper Competition. They trained me from a young age to be a General, and yet believe I should go through the, quote unquote 'due process' to get there,"

"So your parents are as bad as I was hypothesising," I replied, slowing down at the same time as he did.

"You could say that. They would say that they're 'optimizing my success' if presented with that argument, I believe,"

I smiled, "I would like to have an argument with your parents some time. I've been told that I'm really good at those,"

"I would believe it!" The boy replied with a smile of his own, "I would like to have you know, however, that my parents would sooner have your head chopped off than admit that you'd won against them in an argument. I don't believe that I'd enjoy seeing such a thing happen to you,"

"Oh? How nice," I said mockingly, "Who are your parents anyways?"

"None other than the King and Queen of Observia," The boy replied.

I stared towards him for a couple of seconds, as pieces connected. I almost laughed out loud, but then had the mind to keep myself together. The boy seemed to frown slightly, which likely thought he meant I was going to treat him differently now.

"Well, your royal highness, I hope you don't expect me to act as one of your servants," I said, with a polite, but purposefully vicious smile.

"Of course not," The boy replied, but there seemed to be an air of relief around him, "It is for that exact reason that my parents told nobody that I was coming,"

"But," I scratched at my head, "If I might ask a question? You aren't the oldest, are you?" I knew little of how royalty worked, but it made little sense to send your heir to get murdered in battle.

"Oh heavens above, no!" The boy proclaimed in what looked like absolute shock, "Mother and father would never,"

He didn't need to go any further in his answer, I started laughing at that. It became such a problem that I needed to slow down, and put my hands against my chest. The other boy slowed down too to stare at me, but I couldn't stop the laughter that simply filled my lungs.

"I'm sorry," I practically cried, "You sounded like such a pompous jackass! 'Mom and dad would never'. Really?"

He stared helplessly towards me for another couple of moments.

After a couple of minutes, of which some of the other kids finally started to appear in the distance, I got myself together, and straightened up. We started jogging shortly after.

"I apologize if I offended you," I said, echoing his earlier sentiment, but probably meaning it more than he had.

We descended into silence for a long moment. Just when I thought the conversation was over, however, the boy spoke up.

"Did I really sound like a 'pompous jackass'. Like..." I looked over to the boy, who seemed deep within contemplation, "It's the way Gabriel spoke. It's the way most royals speak. Do we really sound..."

"Yes," I replied, speaking before a thought could go through my head, "I mean...A lot of royals sound like...Like they've never relaxed a day in their lives, and they just have to keep acting all high and mighty, and it's just..."

"I've never actually thought about it," The boy said when I failed to produce another sound, "I certainly wasn't offended, it's just, considerably surprising,"

I was extremely relieved that the boy didn't happen to be offended by what I'd said. More relieved than I though I'd be. I felt my muscles relax the slightest bit, even with the burning that was finally begainning to start up in them.

"Hey, I don't know if like, we're going to be in the same places during the war, but at least for the couple of weeks that we're going to be here, do you wanna be like..." It was difficult to articulate exactly what I was trying to say in that exact moment.

"Friends?" The boy boy replied, his pace slowing.

"Yeah, friends,"

-7

It was late in the night, and the stars were out. In-front of the hole, were exactly eleven plates, with eleven ribs slapped upon them. Small glasses of water were sitting around the plate. Slowly, I walked up to one of the plates, and collapsed beside it. Next to me, was the person that I'd managed to keep pace with for the entire run. He wasn't as shaky as me.

We ate quickly, well, at least faster than the other kids. After drinking our water, we jumped into the hole. I almost collapsed as I fell in, but managed to steady a hand against the wall. Pushing my way towards my bed, I fell almost immediately into a slumber. Only, just before I fell into sleep, I had a smile upon my face. I'd made my first friend.