AUTHOR'S NOTES: In which Claude basically invents "Fire Emblem: The Board Game". There is a recurring theme of 'moves and countermoves' throughout this story, and this chapter takes that literally. Petra is not out making enemies just yet, but she is absolutely sizing up those around her, just as they are sizing up her.
Happy Reading!

PART TWO: WHITE CLOUDS

CHAPTER 009: A SCHEMER'S GAME OF STRATEGY

=Garreg Mach Monastery, 10th of Great Tree Moon, Imperial Year 1180…=

The bruises Petra received from her spar with Felix were not long lasting, and after a little catnap she felt as good as new. She was still endlessly curious about the layout of the monastery, and was determined to make it reveal its secrets. The Knights of Seiros did not look at her with the same level of apprehension that the Enbarr Royal Guard often had, and indeed, if the rumors were true about the Crown Prince of Faerghus and the heir to the Leicester Alliance were attending the academy this year alongside Edelgard, then it was clear that this was an apolitical zone the way all of her studies had told her it was. She was surprised to learn that such a place existed in Fódlan, but it was not an unwelcome surprise.

It seemed that the day was not through with its surprises, however. Petra had barely taken ten steps out of her room when she found herself nearly face to face with a young man only slightly taller than her, with a bright smile and green eyes that complemented his darker hair and swarthy skin tone. The yellow motifs on his uniform told her what she needed to know.

"I had heard that the Princess of Brigid was attending the Officers Academy this year," there was a calm and easygoing tone to his voice, and yet for some reason, Petra did not feel at ease around him, almost as if his smile did not fully reach his eyes. "Seems the rumors were true, as such 'rumors' are often wont to be."

"Yellow is the color of the Leicester Alliance, yes?" Petra asked. "You are Claude von Riegan then I am assuming."

"It's dangerous to assume," Claude chuckled lightly, "But I won't play games with you. That's me, heir to House Riegan and leader of the Golden Deer House."

"Yes, I am knowing some of the Golden Deer students," Petra smiled, "so you are knowing my name too then?"

"Actually, believe it or not, I don't," Claude admitted with a lighthearted shrug, "I've done my research on the Princess of Brigid, but it turned out surprisingly difficult to discern her name. Now why would the Empire do that, I wonder…"

"Why indeed," Petra chewed her lip, "were you needing something, Claude?"

"Well," Claude flashed a flirtatious grin, "short of calling you 'Princess' every time I talk to you, can I get your name, or are you too cautious to even share that with me?"

"Cautious?" Petra put up a facade, but the way she fidgeted made it clear that Claude was seeing right through it. She felt naked; exposed, as if Claude could see right through her clothes even, and it embarrassed her that her defensive walls she had kept up all throughout her sojourn in Enbarr were falling so swiftly. "I am seeing you analyzing me, Claude von Riegan."

"My mother always told me that the people of Brigid had fiercely sharp eyes," Claude flashed a dazzlingly white grin. "No liar, she."

"But you are not striking—not hitting the sharpness of your words." Petra paused, "the… the point. Yes, I am meaning the point. You are not hitting the point, Claude."

"It means," Claude almost sighed, "that sure I'm analyzing you. That makes it seem so harsh though. I'd call it… studying. I might have felt bad, but with all due respect, Princess… I can see you studying me just as well."

"Okay," Petra threw her arms up for a moment, "you have correctness. Please be forgiving me. I have been forced to have much caution for the last many years, as I was living in the Empire as a hostage. I am coming to the academy to be learning and growing with much strength and smartness. Am I having correctness in guessing you are doing the same?"

"Close enough," Claude nodded, "but you're dodging the point now too, Princess. You told me half your life story, when really all I was asking for was your name. I'll learn it soon enough, either from one of my classmates or one of yours, probably, but come now; we can be civil with one another, can't we? We do have a lot in common I've realized."

"Ah, I was trying to have some joking, but I do not think I was doing it right." Petra corrected herself, and Claude saw enough truth in her claim that he did not contest it. "I am Petra Macneary, Princess of Brigid."

"The irony here is that you gave me far more information in trying to protect your name, which I would have eventually found out anyways," Claude laughed, "but this shouldn't even be a game of lies and secrets, Petra. The houses might have a friendly rivalry here that comes into play a couple times during the term, but it's not like it's full-on battles to the death."

"That gives me much relieving—much relief." Petra corrected herself with a smile. "I do have much enjoyment for strategy though."

"In that case, want to stop by my room for a little while?" Claude offered with a waggle of his eyebrows. "We can be alone together and do nefarious deeds together such as…" he paused and whispered into her ear, "engage in a game of strategy."

"Are you flirting with me, Claude von Riegan?" Petra pushed him playfully, but she almost seemed a little flattered by the advance. "Is that a turning of the phrase?"

"As a matter of fact, it's not." Claude chortled, clearly enjoying the way he had just rattled Petra, "I haven't thought of a good name for it, but it's similar to chess, where you have a board and pieces that move different ways and that do different things to your opponent. Frankly I'd rather sacrifice pieces on a board then soldiers on a battlefield, so this will be a bloodless conflict."

"Oh, you are having the joke!" Petra laughed, "Alright, take me to your room and be showing me this game of strategy. I harbor much curiosity and very much interest!"

"Your wish is my command, Princess Petra." Claude winked, and soon he had practically whisked her away to his room, where a small table with an ornate board was laid out. He shut the door behind them and pulled out a box of ornately carved pieces that were painted in the likeness of people that Petra recognized. She noticed a big burly piece in the likeness of Raphael, another one with a sword and distinct hair that was clearly Felix, and even one that looked like a miniature version of her.

To Claude's slight surprise, the Petra piece was not the one she picked up first, but instead she had gone for one carved in the likeness of Edelgard.

"Are these the classmates of Garreg Mach?" she looked up at Claude. "Where did you get these? How did you get them? You are having a piece that has much likeness to me and you do not even know my name?"

"Calm down there, Princess," Claude shook his head and hands, "the short version is, one of my classmates is an artist with a very keen memory." he brandished a piece carved in the likeness of a small bespectacled boy with pale yellow-green hair that almost looked green. "Ignatz is his name, and he painted these himself."

"Ignatz is a young man with much talent," Petra carefully handled the pieces resembling Hubert, Claude, Caspar, and Felix, treating them with a careful near-reverence. "So you said you wanted to be teaching me how to play this game? Is it a game with newness?"

"In a sense," Claude shrugged, "I'm still working out some of the flaws, which is why we're in here instead of out in the open where we'd draw more attention, but I figure that a keen-eyed strategist like you could help me turn this into something fun and challenging. Are you in?"

"You want my assistance in creating this game of strategy then," Petra's eyes widened, "aye, I would be liking that very much! You will tell me how to play then, yes?"

"So the goal is fairly simple," Claude explained, "you can either seize a vital point on your opponent's side of the board, work to defeat the opponent's leader not unlike checkmating a king in chess, or the total war option of not stopping until every opponent's piece is captured or removed from the board. There's a few other methods I want to try, but we'll work with these three for starters. You interested?"

"I have much interest in all of these types, but if I am picking one first, I want to try the one where you defeat the enemy leader." Petra requested, "That is often one of the ways people are winning in real wars, so it is giving me curiosity."

She thought back to the reports of how swiftly morale had fallen after her father had been killed in the Dagda and Brigid War, and how a conflict that had lasted several months was over in less than a week after the death of the one leading the charge. Soon someday she would lead Brigid, and while she had no desire to invade Adrestia, especially if Edelgard were its ruler, she knew that she would be the one tasked with leading her people to safety and prosperity, and so she knew she could not let them down.

"Alright then," Claude gestured, "each player gets 12 pieces. For convenience, each player picks a house and we divide up the remaining one. I assume you'll want the Black Eagles while I have the Golden Deer, so we'll take turns divvying up the Blue Lions for this game."

Petra tilted her head slightly as she picked out the pieces marked with the insignia of the Black Eagles on their base.

"Don't give me that look, it's just a game." Claude shook his head, "of note, the pieces marked with an L on the bottom are the leader pieces, so Prince Dimitri and his retainer Dedue are off the table for this round. Instead, pick a teacher. As fortune would have it, we've only got the two for now, so that makes it easy."

Indeed, two of the pieces depicted an older man and woman, and Claude took the former and left the latter to Petra. "And if it's any consolation, sometimes students do switch houses, so it's not like we're going to literally feud and tear the Faerghus students' class apart. Bear with me; I told you we were still working out the kinks here."

"I will be bearing it with you, Claude," Petra giggled, "I would have appreciation if you could share what you are knowing of these students. At the very least, I would like to know what each one does in this game."

"I'll give you the entire rundown; no secrets." Claude promised, and to Petra's surprise, he did exactly that. He had somehow learned most of the names of most of the students as well as the two teachers. Petra wondered about who the third teacher might have been, or who it would be, but even Claude only seemed to know that "they were looking for a replacement."

"Mind you," Claude remarked as he began setting up the pieces, "don't take my gossip as gospel regarding who these kids all are—go and meet them for yourself. In the meantime, pick three of the Blue Lion students. Remember, House Leaders and their vassals are off-limits."

Petra nodded and took a look at the remaining pieces, before opting on a small silver-haired boy, a larger boy with red hair, and a young woman with billowy blonde hair.

"I will be having these three." Petra looked up at Claude. "Is that okay?"

"Absolutely," Claude nodded, "feel free to ask any questions if you don't recall the rules. Otherwise… ladies first."

Petra moved her pieces in a slow and calculated fashion, her eyes darting from the board to Claude and back again. "I am coming for you Claude von Riegan." she warned with a coy smirk as she moved the piece resembling Hubert forward. "Are there penalties for losing any of the other pieces?"

"Ideally, you'd want to keep as much of your army alive as possible," Claude gestured as he prodded a little redheaded Blue Lion student piece forward, "but in this mode? As long as your commander is still there when you capture your opponent's commander, you win."

"I have understanding," Petra nodded as she carefully moved an archer piece, visibly impressed by the detail put into the figure's messy purple hair. "Your move, Claude."

"No acts of derring-do with your own avatar, hmm?" Claude seemed to be almost talking to himself, "then I guess it's time I took the offensive."

Claude's pieces began to assemble into a deadly formation over the next few turns, forcing Petra to arrange her pieces more defensively as if she was on the back foot.

"You're in a precarious position, Petra," Claude warned, moving the pieces resembling himself, Raphael, and a small white-haired girl to nearly flank Petra's Edelgard. "The future Emperor is a powerful woman and a powerful piece in this game, but she and Caspar can't hold the line forever, especially not by themselves."

"I have understanding," Petra nodded, carefully picking up the piece resembling herself and looking it over. Whoever had carved it had put her into a unique stance that was surprisingly accurate to the ones she had used against Felix earlier that day. Someone had done their homework on Brigid sword fighting techniques, it had seemed.

"Sometimes, there are necessary sacrifices made in war," Petra placed the piece down to strike at a slight weak point in Claude's line, although at the cost of putting her piece in danger. Sure enough within two turns, Claude had removed the Petra piece from the board.

"You sacrificed yourself for glory," he looked amused as he glanced over at the three pieces Petra had taken in her final struggle, "a common pitfall."

"I was having temptation to be sacrificing Caspar due to the way you said this piece can be moving and attacking," Petra actually did nudge the aforementioned piece forward a square, "but instead it was a sacrifice that was giving me an opening to be doing this!"

From the corner of the board, Petra used half of her remaining pieces to bring the little purple archer forward, striking right at Claude's own piece and removing it from the board with a cheeky little grin. "That means I am winning, yes?"

"Ha!" Claude's eyes widened, but it turned into a grin after the split-second of shock had abated, "so you didn't sacrifice your own piece for glory; you sacrificed it to achieve a larger goal. Would you make that kind of sacrifice on the battlefield, Petra Macneary? Would you lay down your life for your friends if you knew they would succeed?"

"I am thinking that I would," Petra nodded, "But it is hard to be knowing with certainty. War is very dangerous and has much chaos. This makes it have great difficulty in trying to guess correctly how it will go. It is one of those things you would need to be acting with much swiftness for, right there in the moment."

"Well you beat me at my own game," Claude slowly clapped. "I might have to fine-tune some of the actions some pieces can do, but otherwise I'd say it went pretty well. It was telling, if nothing else. You want to play again?"

Whether it was intentional or not, Petra and Claude played several more games, each finding the other's company to be rather enjoyable despite their internal suspicions that they both still maintained. Petra's movements kept Claude on his toes, and just when he thought he had her figured out, she would surprise him again. He managed to claim a few victories in between, but she seemed to learn just as much about him from her defeats as he did from her victories. Of particular interest to Claude was that they switched pieces several times, with both of them trying each set of pieces at least once or twice.

"It's true what they say," Claude quipped as he finally began to carefully put his game pieces away, "Scheming and strategizing are important parts of warfare and even general combat. Learning how your enemy will behave or is likely to behave can be the difference between victory and defeat. Far be it from me to be the one to teach you that though."

"That gave me very much insightfulness," Petra smiled as she stretched to loosen up her muscles, "you had much wisdom in knowing when to attack and when to retreat, and you often tried to save as many pieces as you could."

"One of my strategies in this game as well as chess is that you should never lose a piece until you are ready to lose it." Claude gestured with a win, "although given your performance, I'd say you already knew that, or something close enough to it."

"I am having understanding, yes." Petra giggled, "sometimes you can have the victory through deception, and other times the victory is won through strength. There are many ways to be having it, and you harbor as much interest as I do in finding these ways."

"That's the gist of it," Claude nodded, although the slight change of inflection tipped Petra off that he was back to holding his hand close to his chest.

"I have understanding!" she beamed, deciding to play right along. "I will be seeing you more to have more practice if that is okay. I must be improving my strategy."

"Any time," Claude smiled, and this one almost reached his eyes despite his tone shift a moment earlier, "within reason of course."

"Of course!" Petra giggled again as she returned to roaming the Monastery. The afternoon sky was starting to just barely dim, but she still had time to take in the sights and sounds, and perhaps meet new students. Her games with Claude, both physical and abstract, were firmly on her mind though, and she knew that she could not rest easily so soon, even if she had triumphed against Claude more than he had triumphed against her.

"For Brigid…" she reminded herself, "I find strength to carry on."