Clay was standing next to a large table when Orn reached the office in the old library. The other boys had gone back to the barracks for the night when Tack sent him to talk to Clay. The older boy gestured for Orn to come closer as he peered at the map in front of him.

“As you can see is the map of the school. The way I see it at any rate,” Clay waved at the map that covered the table. “The round tokens represent students, the color their barracks, and the number their year.”

Orn nodded looking at the map to see tokens stacked in buildings across the campus. One token stood out, as it was by itself. A the tokens marked with a ‘?’ was by itself on the other side of campus surrounded by red tokens.

Clay noticed Orn’s gaze and picked up the token. “This is what the campus looks like when you are in your class for nobles,” Clay picked up the token and tossed it to Orn. “This is you.”

Orn caught the piece, and looking at the small colored disk.

“You have a question mark because there has been a great deal of debate about what rank you should have.” The older boy started to point at tokens with other marks. “Stones are teachers, their color determines how likely they are to intervene to help a knight student. The small figures represent barracks head boys and their officers. Red tokens are old bloods, the ones with swords are dangerous ones,” Clay continued his rundown of the pieces on the map.

“Do you understand what I told you so far?” Clay asked, and waited for Orn to nod.

“Good,” Clay smiled before continuing. “The debate is what kind of officer to make you. The other barracks are not comfortable making you a lieutenant, even if you would only work for Tack. They were not particularly keen on the idea of a first year suddenly being able to give orders. So we need a different position for you. You will still work for Tack and only take orders from Tack or myself. But we also need to make up an office that would not allow you to give orders to others.”

“Tack has an idea, but I want your input as well. You will have to wear whatever we come up with,” Clay then pointed down to the map. “While we are here though, what do you think the purpose of this is?”

Orn considered the general’s piece in the old library. “This is a battle map. You are making sure the students get to and from class safely. Is it really that bad? “

The older boy laughed, “Thankfully no. Usually, it is a matter of students being mocked. Some times they get shoved around or scared. It is really rare that someone gets hurt.”

“So the other day,” Orn let the question hang.

“Was extreme, and unexpected,” Clay finished for him. “Bron was trying to bait us, and me in particular. That was unexpected. While that was extreme he has never been above harassing students when he had the option. While the old bloods are jerks, only a handful of them are as confrontational as Bron.”

Stolen story; please report.

“It will take him a while to get a new set of blades. This will give the other head boy’s and lieutenants a chance to knock some sense into our first years before they try to do what you did. I am sure you can guess how that would end,” Clay paused and pointed at one of the groups on the map. “We usually avoid these issues by keeping students in groups led by officers and older boys. This is likely why the other barracks objected to you being an officer. They do not trust you to lead a group around safely.”

“They no not believe I am trustworthy,” Orn summarized when the older boy stopped speaking.

“It is more that they are not certain you could avoid a fight or get them where they need to go,” Clay replied. “Trust is part of it, but this map is something the barracks treat as a life or death matter.”

“I can understand why they might think that. They do not know me and I got into a duel on the first day,” Orn sighed. “But, I am confused. You said it is a matter of being mocked or shoved. How is it also a life or death matter?”

“Your first day was a lot closer to what used to happen. Five or so years ago it was a not just shoving or name calling,” Clay paused for a moment before he continued. “It was before I stated, but there were a lot of duels and students getting hurt. The older students said it began as the number of non-noble knights began increasing.”

He looked at Orn “We used to be in the old bloods dorms like the nobles. When our numbers grew they felt they were being pushed out. Then things got rough, knight students were being harassed constantly. The old headmaster tried to solve this, by using the barracks to house us separately. I think he meant for that to help, but it just made the divide real to many.”

“Eventually, a knight student was killed. I do not know the exact details, but I know an old blood did it. The victim was an orphan so it was not terribly hard for the old blood’s family, to cover it up. The school made it clear that this was not going to happen again and the old headmaster retired quietly. But the knight students did not trust anything to change, so this is the system they made,” Clay gestured at the map.“It has helped us a lot. By keeping together and having an older boy nearby it keeps trouble from starting. It also seems to polish our skills when we treat it as a life or death matter. Sorry, that was a long answer, but I hope it makes the entire situation make more sense.”

“Anyway, I have completely gotten off topic,” Clay cleared his throat. “We need to come up with a name for an officer position. Dealing with the map showing you as alone in enemy territory is my problem.”

As Clay spoke an idea occurred to Orn. Grabbing the pen used to mark the tokens he rubbed the question mark off his token and started drawing. “I think I can solve both. Soldiers are sometimes alone in enemy territory. They could be scouts, or if they are in the heart of enemy territory” Orn placed the token with a bad sketch of a dagger on the noble’s side of the campus. “raiders.”

Clay shook his head and reached into his pocket. He sighed as he pulled out a tiny metal pin of a dagger. “Tack said you would say something like that. He said a ‘blade’ similar to how we mark the dangerous old bloods, but raider works as well. Pin this on your left shoulder and head back to the dorm. I have to pay a certain smug major the small silver he just won in a bet.”