Chapter 10

Create Mischief

It is approaching the twenty-fourth hour when you are roused from your sleep. A tablet is shoved in front of your face. You blink repeatedly as your eyes adjust. It's 13. He's using 22's writing tablet. He wants you to get up. You laugh to yourself. Is this guy serious? You question where he got the notion that you would even consider getting out of your comfortable bed to oh what the hell, you may as well find out what he wants.

You shove the tablet out of your face and quietly climb down the bunkbed ladder. By the dim light of the tablet, you can make out the faces of 13 and 22 against the darkness. You rub the sleep from your eyes and yawn silently. You give 13 an interrogative glare. What's all this about? 22 is standing beside him, looking a little nervous, gaze shifted floorward.

13 presses the button on the red tablet, and begins to write anew. He had the best idea. The three of you are about to do something crazy. Something that'll get everyone's attention in a way that's totally awesome and cool! Pawns'll be talking about this for days to come! So here's what you're going to do…

This is the stupidest idea ever. As you walk down the pitch-black hallway by the light of 22's tablet, you question for the fourth time why in the name of Skaia's radiant blue sky you are doing this. Why you didn't just go back to sleep. Oh, right. To make sure these two numbshells don't get caught. You wonder why you didn't just go back to bed anyway and leave them to their fates. Or at least try and talk them out of it. 22 would be the easiest to convince, and then 13 would have to stay. He'd never try to pull something like this on his own.

You don't know. At the time, talking them out of it hadn't occurred to you. Your mind is always a little hazy when you first wake up. It was either go with them or stay in bed. It just didn't feel right to you to leave them to it and get caught. Call it a stupid sense of loyalty. And you're not really hurting anyone, either…

13 is holding the tablet facing in front to light the way. You can't see any part of them except their eyes. Their black shells absorb the minimal light that gets to them. 13's eyes are wide open, and focused squarely on the path ahead of him. He's excited. 22 is looking around nervously, eyes darting all around, and occasionally checking behind him.

You arrive at your destination. The kitchen. The place where all the food for the barracks facility is prepared. The door is just to the left of the door to the mess hall. You nervously look around to make sure you aren't being watched. It's really hard to tell. The long hallways that have become so familiar can't be trusted in the dark. A chill runs down your spine.

You hurry your friends into the kitchen, and your eyes begin to adjust to the darkness. 13 and 22 start searching right away. They need to find what they're looking for quickly, or you could all get caught. It's not clear what the punishment is for being out and about after curfew.

You begin to wonder if it's all even worth it. It might cause some confusion and excitement tomorrow, but then again, it might not. After it's all said and done, is anyone really going to care?

In any case, you guess you'd better help those two look. The sooner you can get back to sleep, the better. You check to see if the others have found anything yet. They haven't. You wonder if it's too late to talk them out of it. You really don't want to get caught.

But wait! 13's found them! At the far end of the room, a number of boxes are stacked along the wall. They are labelled according to their contents; things like "Beans" and "Corn" and "Orange Mash." You're doing this, man. You're making this happen.

Phase One: Wherein the cans are all removed from several boxes. The three of you grab eight boxes of various foodstuffs from the stacks. You open their tops, stack all the cans in piles, and leave the empty boxes to one side.

Phase Two: Wherein the cans are stripped of their oh god dammit 22, this is no time for fooling around. 22 has made a square formation out of four stacks of cans. The stacks are almost as tall as he is, and he's found a meal tray to place on top of them. He's looking to place some more cans on top of the tray to make his tower even taller. Actually you think it looks quite fun. "Can Tower" is what you would call it.

No! What are you thinking? You need to put a stop to 22's shenanigans so that you may continue carrying out 13's shenanigans! You drub the back of his head. Startled, he jumps forward, and the whole tower comes crashing down. He looks like he is ready to murder you.

Anyway! Phase Two: Wherein the cans are all stripped of their labels. 22 half-heartedly carries out his share of the duty, regarding each can with a meaningful look. They could have been so much more than just mere cans.

You scoop up all the labels and throw them down the garbage chute. On to Phase Three: Wherein the cans are all mixed up and packed back into random boxes. This should make the next few meals rather interesting. You begin to appreciate the wisdom of 13's master plan. You wonder if any pawns have ever been this daring before. The three of you are so cool, it's almost unreal.

You heft the boxes back up to where you found them. No one will be the wiser until it's too late. You admit, this is rather fun.

You start to hear the sounds of furniture being moved around in the mess hall. Someone's in there, and it sounds like a whole group of someones! Who could be up and about this late at night? You look at your friends and see nothing but panic on their faces. You're sure it shows on your own face, too. The three of you need to get back to your quarters, quickly!

You scurry back to the room and leap back into your beds. Playtime is over. Your heart is racing. Thank Skaia you weren't caught! You can't wait until mealtime tomorrow. You wonder how everyone will react.

Two more days pass by. You live life according to the schedule set by your superiors. Jogging and drills in the morning. A midday break. Sparring and theory in the afternoon. An evening meal. A few hours of free time at night. A ten o' clock bedtime. Repeat.

The evening meals for these days are indeed a little more interesting. Instead of just having one topping to choose from on the bread, you now have three or four to choose from on a given day. The kitchen staff refused to give any explanation for the change, simply calling it "A change of pace." You ate your mash with a sense of triumph. Tastes like victory.

On the evening of your third full day at the castle, the captain tells you that you and several other units are going to march to take Fort Cinereus on the next day. The thought of that scares you a little. You haven't been outside the safe zone in so long! It feels like it's been forever since you got here. You've sort of grown used to the idea of that big purple bubble protecting all of you.

Snap out of it! That's no way for a soldier of the Derse army to be thinking! You must follow all orders without question or hesitation! Fort Cinereus, you say? Consider it captured! You can't wait to get started!

On the morning of day 111, the captain comes in and writes on the wall that he wants you all to report to the mess hall in ten minutes for briefing. Bring your weapons. The order is received with varying levels of energy among the pawns in your unit. Some of them jump right out of their beds, slapping each other on the back and exchanging high fives. Some of them groggily crawl out of bed, retrieve their weapons, and amble toward the door with a sigh. Others do as they're told with casual indifference, displaying no emotion whatsoever. And a few are still huddled in their beds when you leave the room at five past six with your friends.

The mess hall is less than half as crowded as it is during mealtime. You guess that represents how many of the pawns stationed at the castle are going on the mission with you today. Glowing red text on the walls over each table indicates which unit sits where.

Four pawns to a bench. Four benches to a table. Two tables to a unit. You, 22 and 13 get on a bench at one of the G6 tables. Some of the other units that are here include units F6, E6, A6 and D6.

You remember the tragic story that you were told once about unit C6. The battle at the Black King's Haunt was particularly bloody on the day they landed. Not one of them made it to the castle in the end. Survivors of that battle say that they were some of the bravest, most skilled newcomers they had ever seen. T'was a crying shame.

Pawns continue to filter into the mess hall until ten past six, when a buzzer sounds. Several captains enter the room; one for each unit. They line up at the far end of the room and face their seated subordinates.

Captain 0848 starts writing first. He says that the first order of business is to merge some of the units with the aim of creating as many filled units as possible. First of all, the members in B6 are told to join unit A6. There aren't very many pawns in either unit. The captain of B6 salutes his former unit, and then leaves the room. He'll be assigned to a new unit soon.

Second, unit D6 is split up. Pawns number 2206, 2207, 2210, 2215, 2216, 2218 and 2219 are placed into your group, group G6. They move from the first D6 table and move to the G6 tables. Seven of them in total. Seven of them plus twenty-five of you makes for an even thirty-two. One of them takes the empty seat at the end of your bench, just to your right. You do your best to give him a welcoming look. He seems indifferent, and doesn't meet your eye. As if he's trying to ignore you.

The rest of the pawns in D6 are called by number and placed into F6. Their former captain salutes them and leaves.

Unit E6 is an archer unit. Only the pawns most skilled in the bow are placed into this unit. The archers do most of their training outside the castle. Their unit is captained by the twin captains 1162 and 1163. Archer units normally have two captains so that they can easily be split in half and directed independently. E6 is currently full, so it's not interfered with.

Unit A6 is regarded as an elite unit of skilled melee fighters. They've been around for almost two weeks now. For a unit to still have most of its members after that amount of time is pretty darned impressive. You guess the remaining soldiers in B6 must have been pretty good to get merged in with A6.

The four units left in the room now are A6, E6, F6 and G6. The elite fighters, the archers, your unit, and F6, who you reckon must be just a little bit better than yours. The captains lead everyone out of the mess hall, one unit at a time.

The units gather in the field outside the castle. The captains are spaced far apart, so that their units may stand before them. They have you all facing toward the Black King's Haunt, with two square formations to a unit. You stand with 13 on your left, 22 in front of you, and the guy from D6 behind you. The other units are still filing out of the castle and getting into formation.

You look around you and examine the faces of your comrades. 13 is trying to look brave, but is not doing a very good job. The guy from D6 is staring straight ahead with unwavering indifference. He sees you looking at him and glares back. You feel inclined to look elsewhere.

22 turns his head to face you. His deep purple bannerspear leans against his shoulder. He looks worried. You think he's got nothing to worry about. If none of the pawns in your unit could land a hit on him in training, you figure the enemy doesn't have much of a chance, either. Besides, he'll have the captain right beside him to back him up. Just look at those muscles!

When the last pawn from A6 gets into position, their captain has his bannermen sound their horns once in unison. They're ready. Unit A6 turns left, facing CG Alpha as well as all the other units.

Next in line is unit E6. Their bannermen sound their horns, and the whole unit turns left. Unit F6 does the same. When it's your unit's turn to sound the ready horns, 22 almost drops his because his hands are shaking so much.

The captain shakes his head as your unit sounds its horns. You turn to face left. Now you've got 22 on your right, the guy from D6 on your left and 13 in front of you. 13's in the front row now.

Captain 0848 brings the other half of your unit up to the right of your half. The captain of A6 brings his unit to your unit's left, and the captain of F6 brings his unit to your unit's right.

The captains of E6 split their group into two half-units of sixteen archers each. Captain 1162 takes his half-unit behind A6, and captain 1163 takes his half-unit behind F6.

All of the horns blow once. You all march forward, towards Fort Cinereus.