Corvayne whistled to bring the class to attention. He was glad to see a large number of students forming up for an elective, but he had expected, given he was standing in River Run High School, that his class would be mostly high school students.

He would not be surprised if the smallest kid was five and he saw a few gray haired folks in the lineup, wearing workout clothes that reminded him of what Seru had scrounged up from the antiquated clothes on the 6th floor.

The principal was watching in on the lessons, having supplied him with an excuse about how the great emptying had left the school looking for alternate income sources. Corvayne was only annoyed a moment, then brought Leigue in to go ahead and properly figure out if there were some geniuses mixed in they could use.

"Good afternoon class." He spoke while pacing. "Today we are going to do some light PE training then get into reps with practice weapons. I'll help with form just to make sure you don't hurt anything, but getting used to it your weapon the first step to becoming good enough with your weapon to fight. We are starting with holding it and attacking as no matter how much power you get from the rifts, you still need to be able to handle your arms to use that power.

He started everyone off with a few laps around the gym. He was still sorting through who would need a few extra rounds to get their heart rate up and who he wasn't going to push until they had levels. He picked out two fit boys who had finished three laps before most people had finished one and a half, then also pulled a few people who were clearly already winded, then had both groups get their wood weapons. He had put down colored mats for rows that hopefully would prevent anyone from hitting another person with their poor form and had finished assigning the first movements to each group when he spotted a robed figure with a stern face stepping into the gym.

Argyle looked about then saw him and had his eyes narrow, so Corvayne moved towards the monk rather then letting the man step into a group of bystanders.

"I think you would be beyond the level that you needed pointers." Corvayne offered, noting the mans eyes stayed on him. Corvayne hoped his focus meant Argyle hadn't been told by Baron L'Tideru to try to find Preshe.

"I came here to speak to you, because somehow you were pointed out as the leader of the organization." Argyle sniffed at he said that. "I am not sure why they are following a Level 31..."

An older woman in the crowd said "Rude!" but Corvayne saw Argyle was ignoring everyone else.

"But you are the person to speak with. Enemy of my Enemy. A new set of Goule's men are in town and starting to poke around."

"I'm confident we could dismantle them." Corvayne said, turning and blowing his whistle. "Two minute break. Move around, stretch if you need to!" He was pretty sure being in the room with [[Growth]] on acted like a weaker Brines aura. That or Cascadia was more fit then he had thought from when he had worked with Wick and Seru.

Argyle raised an eyebrow. "Dismantle? Oh yes. I know you have associates near or beyond level one hundred. Tch. Why do you think I've kept away? I wouldn't have come to poke the hornets nest if I wasn't worried about myself."

Corvayne felt himself sighing and put his clipboard at his side. "We know you are not with Goule and, heck, I suspect you've been telling the Baron to throw an alliance offer our way."

"You are not the muscle head you... One moment." Argyle's eyes had drifted to the students and he reached over and took Corvayne's whistle and blew it. "In the back! Red sweatshirt! Two laps!" He handed the whistle back without looking at Corvayne, then resumed a pose with his arms behind his back. "What was I saying? Oh. Not a muscle head, despite your appearance. Indeed, I've been trying to get the Baron to at least send both Senior Brines here, as you have been running about with their grandson. I also should remind you that no matter how well you handle a few goons, the threat is that Goule can bomb you and this city from orbit, and I've seen no hints you can counter that."

Corvayne had considered, and his idea how they could gain a possible counter to it was possible, but Mosh had been working on Preshe's hand rather then a moon trip. "The Baron has ships he wants to put into orbit, and is willing to help us in exchange for.... what? Or is it just so he can bomb us first? Our goal is to stay out of fights. If we stick to our strategy, we might not antagonize anyone in Cascadia since we have no fingers into crime.” He paused, considering Dawn. “Excusing a connection to one particular peeler-prone gangster whom, as far as I was aware, hasn't hired us for anything. You know me only because we work with the Nel'Ferralian Empire. The Collective is still dealing with the great emptying."

"You believe that you are invisible?" Argyle said with a sneer. He held up a hand then stopped time, Corvayne somehow tracked him with his eyes as he appeared next to someone who was swinging a weapon. "Your elbow is all wrong, here, and shift your knee in! Is your trainer even trying? GOOD. Better. Do that for your reps. You! Don't keep your arms stiff. You'll sprain something. Tch."

He popped back next to Corvayne with another time walk. "The emptying is just everyone else realizing the noble houses had a head start. It's accelerated their growth too.” Corvayne had to clamp down on the urge to start laughing aloud at that. Argyle didn't notice his struggle and kept going. “It is inevitable they will find a way to stop commoners from simply leaving.”

Corvayne shook his head. “The system is bigger then that. You're going to lose more then a few nobles after they try to enslave their populations.”

“What you think of as adventure, most people think of as terror. When the novelty wears off, people will choose a path that does not involve risk or bloodshed. People are sheep, Corvayne.”

Corvayne looked at the people who were swinging swords. Some of them grandparents, sure, with less life ahead of them then behind and every reason to start gambling them. Word of mouth had spread that levels pushed age back. “A lot of adults already disagree. Do you have the numbers? I'd guess there's flat out half as many people in town these days.”

“They will come back. Could you abandon your friends and family forever if you had to?”

“I've done it once before.” He spoke the truth, but in his heart he found the idea uncomfortable. Even setting off with a few friends, he couldn't have imagined not returning.

Argyle sighed. “Then you are rare, Spear Bearer.”

Shit. This guy is the only person to come up with a good nickname? “It's Corvayne. My name is Corvayne.”

“No need to lie. I did not call myself 'Socks' to throw you off.”

“That's my real name.”

“Are you a vampire?”

“No.” He considered he had some sort of bloodline curse. “Probably not. I also think you are wrong. This system wants freedom... or at least to give people enough freedom to explore it. If your masters want to trap everyone, the Tower will keep boring holes in reality to let them out.” He wasn't sure why he was sure of it, but he was.

“A future where everyone is tied down? It's not what I hope, but reality. They will be back. For comfort. Safety. We all bend a knee to someone, and sometimes it comes down to the less worse option... one moment.”

Argyle grabbed the whistle again. “That's enough! Rest and reflect on your training today while stretching your legs! Anyone who does not have sore arms, push-ups until you do!”

Argyle handed the whistle back. “They are rank amateurs. You cannot work them too long. As I was saying, consider my offer. Being the only noble house on a planet without protection is inviting disaster.”

Corvayne looked at the class, who were looking at him. He shrugged and snapped his fingers. “If you can't do a full push up, use your knees and just lift half your body. Otherwise uhh... do what he said.” Then he turned back to Argyle as the sounds of people huffing replaced the whiffing sound of weapons being swung. “I'll try it my way, but I appreciate the warning with Goule's forces. We'll build some star ships too.”

“It's not that simple to build warships.”

“Perhaps. But if they can't catch us, they can't fight us. We might be the next in the great departure if not being able to deal with space is that big a problem.” The trade off being that if they got tagged by Stabby people inside the tower could track them. Nel'Ferral merging into Cascadia was great for Bell's commute but it took a layer of protection from operating out of a different floor 0.

Or... he could execute his original plan B... and add warp drives to all their hover cycles.

The bell rang and people started standing up to walk out. Argyle nodded at people waving at him and Corvayne. “Good hustle. Good effort. Don't let me see you swinging your weapon at another student unless you are sparring, punk. Good hustle.”

Corvayne looked over at the monk. They were not friends, especially since he could still remember watching his friends get killed by the monk in a previous loop, but they might be enemies of the same enemy.

“Argyle, I found today informative. I understand you need magical cloth to form your clones?”

Corvayne ignored that Argyle was giving him a death stare and summoned one of the fire proof dresses and handed it to the monk who's sour expression froze for a moment before he accidentally let a pleased expression slip onto his face. “Very fine... yes let us continue to share information.”

“Hmmf. If only other noble houses were so reasonable, I'd not be here. I will stay in touch Spear Bearer Corvayne.”

He vanished via time magic, which Corvayne could somehow register where he had moved. Maybe [[Understanding]] doing something?

He took a few minutes to pick up a few weapons from sloppy pupils who didn't think to replace them on the racks he and Preshe had carved. The second class he would teach was going to have more students from this school or other high schools. He was putting forward a plan to have Leigue scout for talent worth trying to develop. He had to stress to his allies and family that he would be fine if they didn't look at anyone in the class. Corvayne was enjoying giving people tools to forge their own fate. He liked watching people train and get stronger. Or seeing generations come together. There was something wholesome about seeing three generations learning to fight with a spear. So what if a weekend warrior grandmother wasn't going to push their current goal to gain power nor help them when Wick's foes organized?

Training others made him happy. He placed the last errant wood mace in it's place, then looked at rows of hand crafted training weapons. The grips on them were almost totally white, and they had yet to get the dings and little chips the wood would have soon enough when he organized sparring. Corvayne finally felt like he had found something he could do after he removed the lingering curses, and maybe sorted out what was going on with the Watchers. Something like this felt like the end.

His second class started to filter in, and he reached for the whistle then realized that Argyle had been using it, and tossed it to pull out a fresh one from his storage ring. He forced himself to look a little sterner. It seemed to work for Argyle.

He whistled and clapped, and tried to sound a little sterner. “Laps first! We are doing light PE then more basics today. I noticed some rolling eyes, but we'll have you throwing out weapon skills before the weekend if you all hustle!”