Standing in the dark of the early morning, it was difficult for Thalos to label it anything besides dreary. The apprentice Couriers had scraped themselves out of bed and moved like zombies to gather in front of the dorm, where Roose was waiting for them by of a mid-sized trail trolley, two trailers hitched to its rear. He had on his familiar red-trimmed priest’s garb, but he’d added a thin black sweater over top his normal cassock. Autumn cold was just working its way into the wind, and, so early in the morning, before the sun had even come up, it was hard to feel anything but uncomfortable. Next to Thalos, Cliff looked to be on the wrong side of miserable – his hair was a mess and angry bags drooped under his eyes. And, looking around, he wasn’t the only one among the apprentice Couriers who couldn’t be called a morning person.
“Good morning everyone!” Roose beamed, showing that he, at least, was immune to the difficulties of waking up early, “I hope you slept well and ate a hearty breakfast, because you’ve got a big day ahead of you.” Some porridge had been prepared for them in the dorm’s dining hall, but Thalos was pretty sure, considering the hour, most of the class had skipped it. “Doctors Harkin and Ignis here will be our onboard medics for the day, so be sure to thank them – especially if you end up hurting yourselves!” He gestured behind him were a pair of instructors were waiting silently. For the record, they also appeared to be quite sleepy, though not so much as the students.
One of the pair, Dr. Harkin, nodded casually to the class, puffing dutifully on a cigarette. The other students would recognize him from their first day of spars, but he was also Thalos’s instructor; the perpetually-disheveled doctor taught the elective medicine class. The other doctor, Dr. Ignis, he assumed, was a middle-aged woman neatly put together, an odd contrast to Dr. Harkin’s disarray. Thalos didn’t recognize her, but he knew there were many doctors who worked at the academy.
“It’s a pleasure to be working with you boys and girls today,” Dr. Ignis said, her tone rather affectionate and matronly.
Templar Roose shot her a smile before turning back to the class. “Now, without further ado, it’s time to leave.” He paused, scanning the group. “Be sure to check that you have everything – it would be a real shame if someone forgot their PMT and I had to fail them.” Beside Thalos, Cliff made a noise, but before he could say anything, Thalos shot an elbow into his side. He held up the two PMT cases he’d brought with him. Knowing Cliff’s hatred for mornings, Thalos had been almost positive he would forget something. He’d decided to take the liberty of making sure that his PMT at least would not be forgotten. Cliff grinned sleepily at him, smacking him in the back hard enough that a few of their classmates shot them annoyed looks.
“Up on the trolley,” Roose said, gesturing towards the vehicle behind him. Of the trolley’s trailers, one was designed for storage, and the other for passengers. They hadn’t been told to prepare much, so most of what they’d be using that day had to be provided for them. Roose and the pair of doctors climbed the little ladder, taking the front seats. Turning back to them, Roose called, “Shake the ice out of your veins and get up here. I’ll explain what we’ll be doing today while we ride.”
***
“Today, you will be completing your first contract as Apprentice Couriers,” Roose said enthusiastically. By the expression on his face, he expected applause, but his audience didn’t seem willing to provide. Undeterred, he continued, “Well, more specifically, you will be completing a simulated delivery contract. Each team will be dropped in the wilderness with a package and a rendezvous point. Your job is to deliver that package by sundown without damaging or tampering with it – simple enough, right?” This did provoke a response, and around the trolley the students started muttering about the activity, hastily planning and discussing. Thalos glanced to his side where Cliff had, unsurprisingly, dozed off. Thalos sighed, giving Cliff a quick kick to the leg and turning back to Roose, who hadn’t stopped his explanation. “
The goal is to give a rough microcosm of what a Courier contract might look like for you,” he said, “my hope is it will allow you to come up with and execute a plan of action while exploring your dynamic as a team in something like a real-world situation.” He scanned the class. “Any questions so far?”
Immediately, Loria’s hand shot up, and Roose pointed a finger her way. “Yes, Loria?”
“Three questions,” she started, her tone rigid and businesslike, “First, how large is the package, and how fragile? Second, what nature of monsters can we expect to encounter? And third, what sorts of terrain will we be traversing?” She tallied the questions on her fingers as she spoke.
Roose’s smile widened. “All good questions. For the first – the package is small enough to be carried by one member – it’s each team’s decision as to who that should be. I don’t think you need to be too focused on its fragility – it’s not liable to be damaged at the slightest movement – at the same time, take care not to mistreat it – tossing it around, dropping it from high up, things like that. As for your other two questions,” he glanced behind him, “they make an excellent segue into the good Dr. Harkin’s safety briefing. Doctor?”
Roose sat down, and Dr. Harkin stood up, dragging a wooden crate to the center of the cart. He glared around at the students. “Alright,” he said, fishing his cigarette from his mouth and extinguishing it underfoot, “first things first – weapons. You will be provided with the weapons registered as your preference for today’s training. Please note that these are not training weapons. That mean’s the edges are sharp and the popsticks are calibrated to kill. Clear?” He scanned the students with narrow eyes until he was satisfied the severity of his statement had sunk in. “You have each been cleared for use of certain nodes in your PMT. For today, diagnostic tools are not being provided to you. That means no tuning of your PMTs, period. No swapping nodes, no removing nodes, nothing – just keep the damn things closed and we won’t have any problems. Any report of misuse of weapons or PMTs will be taken seriously, and, at a minimum, you will fail this training exercise. Recklessness will result in expulsion.” Thalos swallowed. He and Cliff had both registered a preference for a rifle, and he’d never shot anything besides the ones they used in training. Rationally, he knew if he followed the safety procedures he’d been taught there would be no risk of injury, but in the back of his mind lurked the fear of accidentally shooting someone.
“As for monsters and terrain,” he continued, reaching down into the crate and pulling two folded up sheets of paper. “Today we’ll be trekking through land owned by the academy. It is specifically maintained for training exercises like this, and a list of monsters expected to be active will be provided to you.” He paused. “Here,” he said, shaking the two papers in the hand, “I have a topographical map and a magigraphical map. You should have covered how to read these maps in class, but in case you were too stupid to take notes – a topographical map shows elevation and a magigraphical map shows the density of magic. Use these two in concert to plan your route – you should aim to stay within the low level areas indicated on the map, but that’s up to your team.” He put the two maps back into the crate, pulling out a small, handheld device. “This leads me to my next point – engineers, your main job for the day is to record your team’s magic exposure hourly. This,” he said, holding up the device in his hand, “is a magetool that tracks such exposure. We’ll be zeroing it when your team is dropped off, and you are requried to check it every hour and record the results. Should you fail to do this, or your team’s magic exposure surpasses a certain threshold, your team will automtically fail. This should not be an issue unless you choose a particularly dangerous route, but do keep it in mind.” Thalos looked over at Cliff. He seemed to be wide awake now, and he was staring at the device in Dr. Harkin’s hand with an intensity he reserved for Magetools he’d never seen before.
Dr. Harkin glanced at Roose behind him before scowling around to the class. “And, for some reason, your instructor has told me to clarify that it is strictly prohibited to tamper with this device – do not disassemble it in an attempt to discern its functions. Just use it to record the magic exposure, nothing else.” Dr. Harkin sighed. “Would have thought that would be self-explanatory, but apparently your class has some characters.” At his words, nearly everyone turned to look at Cliff, whose expression had shifted suddenly to disappointment.
Dropping the device back into the crate, Dr. Harkin continued. “As for food and water, each team member will be provided with one light meal and one full meal. You can eat whenever you want, but I don’t recommend skipping eating to save time. On the trail, it can be difficult to gauge how much energy you have left. For water, you will be provided with two standard-issue canteens. Drink at your own rate, but please stay hydrated.” Thalos frowned. That would be more than enough water for him for the day. He always seemed to drink slower than his friends, and he’d be surprised if he even finished one of the canteens. Cliff, on the other hand, went at water like he hadn’t had a drop to drink in three days, even if it’d only been a few hours. For him, two canteens might not be enough. It worked out then, Thalos supposed. He could just give his extra water to Cliff.
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Dr. Harkin reached down into the crate, pulling out a pair of long, skinny tubes, one green and one red. “Finally,” he said, “each team will be given two flares for use in emergencies. Should you find yourselves unable to complete the task for whatever reason, point the flare into the air and pull the chain. The green one-” He held up the green tube. “Will launch a green flare in the air – use it for minor emergencies, such as being stuck or lost or receiving minor, incapacitating injuries. After launching the flare, stay where you are and someone will be sent to find you as soon as they are able.” He held up the red tube. “The red tube is for life-threatening emergencies. If there is an imminent threat of loss of life, launch the red flare, and within ten minutes someone will be at your position.” He paused, his gaze sharpening in severity as he continued. “If you need help sooner than that, prioritize saving yourself, but try to keep close to where you launched the flare.” He paused to let that heavy thought dangle in the air before he continued. “Please note that misuse of these flares – especially the red one – is grounds for expulsion. However, do not let that cause any hesitation when deciding whether to make use of one. As long as your intentions align with what I’ve just explained, you will not be punished..” He sighed again, dropping the flares back into the crate and drawing a little packet from the pocket of his stained lab coat. “That’s it from me,” he said, plucking a cigarette from the packet, “Are there any questions?”
***
The trail trolley lumbered away, Roose waving happily at Team B as they huddled in a group to get their bearings. Team A had been dropped off twenty minutes prior, and presumably Team C’s starting point would be twenty minutes further down the trail.
Loria was spreading the maps on the ground with Nym beside her while Cliff examined the Magetool he’d be using to measure their magic exposure. After a moment, Thalos’s roommate nodded, stuffing the tool into his pack and extending a hand towards Thalos.
“Can I see the package?” he asked. Thalos weighed the little cube thing in his hand. It was maybe twice the size of his fist, small enough to carry in a single hand but with enough mass that doing so would quickly get annoying. It felt much like a chunk of metal, but it was wrapped in a cloth sack that made examining it impossible in any way aside from feeling it through that outer layer.
“Don’t open it,” Loria snapped, her head shooting up from where she was kneeling on the ground, looking over the maps. “I’m not gonna-” Cliff started, cutting himself off with a sigh, “Listen Loria, I heard the explanation, same as you – I’m not going to just immediately break the rules.” The two firebrands of their team glared at each other for a moment before Loria reluctantly nodded.
“Just be careful,” she said, looking back down at the maps.
“Yeah, yeah,” Cliff muttered, taking the package and flipping it over in his hands.
“Nice job keeping your temper,” Thalos said, too quiet for Loria to hear.
“My momma didn’t raise me to go back on my word so easily,” Cliff replied with a humorless smile. The night before, Thalos had dragged a promise out of Cliff that he would do his absolute best to get along with Loria, at least until the training was over. “Not sure how long I’ll last if she keeps taking shots at me like that, though.” After a brief, casual examination of the little package, he handed it back to Thalos.
Shooting a glance towards their commander, Thalos shrugged. “Just do what you can.” He wasn’t really expecting Cliff to last the whole day, not with Loria looking and acting so tense, but the longer the peace lasted, the better.
Cliff grunted acknowledgement before speaking again, louder, “you sure you’re good to carry it all day?”
“Should be,” Thalos replied, sliding the dense cube into his pack, careful to avoid squishing the two meals inside. As quartermaster, Thalos was in charge of managing the package. If it was much larger, he’d have split the duty of carrying it with the rest of the team, but as it was, he could handle hauling the little thing for the day.
Heaving his pack onto his shoulders, he tested the weight. It was more than manageable, and after a few adjustments to the straps, he followed behind Cliff towards where the women of their team were plotting their path.
“How we looking?” Cliff said, squatting down across from the pair. Thalos stood behind him, looking over his shoulder down at the two maps.
“We’re here,” Nym said, tapping a finger on the topographical map, pointing to a red dot in the south that marked their starting location, “and we need to go here.” With her other hand she tapped another spot to the north, this time marked in blue. “It’s roughly nine miles as the crow flies, but the main problem is that there are two mountains in the way.” Again she tapped the map, pointing out the two short peaks that stood between them and their goal. Thalos had noted the two mountains on their ride into the wilderness. They weren’t especially large, but they certainly would affect travel by foot.
“So we either go around the mountain or we climb the peak,” Cliff replied with a nod.
“Right,” Nym continued, dragging her finger along the map, where various concentric lines indicated a sharp change in elevation. “Things get pretty steep, though, so I think we should go for a longer, flatter route.”
“I agree,” Loria said, “Look here, there’s a narrow pass between the two mountains – the distance is manageable, and it should be safe, easy walking.” She sketched a rough line on the map with her finger, drawing a curve that passed between the two mountains to the east before coming back west to the rendezvous point.
“Hold on,” Cliff said, adding his own finger to the mix, “wouldn’t it be faster just to skirt to the west? We’d just be wasting time and energy by going that far east.”Looking closer at the map, Thalos realized Cliff was correct. The positioning of the mountains meant that they could avoid most of the height and distance by walking in an arc that bent to the west – distance-wise, it was maybe two-thirds the length of Loria’s proposed path, with less elevation change. It would save them considerable time.
“That’s why I said safer,” Loria said, grabbing the magigraphical map. It had a similar look to it, but the lines sketched across it indicated magical density instead of elevation. “Your route is shorter, there’s no question, but look here.” She tapped a finger on a stretch of angry yellow that cut through the middle of Cliff’s proposed path. “It’s mid-density for a good stretch there. We were advised to stay in low-density areas, so we will.”
Cliff clicked his tongue. “Yeah, that was their advice, but Dr. Harkin specifically said that it was up to our team’s discretion.” Using the joints of his index finger, he roughly measured the distance it would be to cross the mid-density zone. “It’s maybe two miles – that would leave us well within the threshold for magic-exposure.” He looked up at Loria, a stubborn glint to his eye. “We’re being graded on time, here. I don’t see a reason why we should throw away any advantage for unnecessary caution.”
“Caution is an advantage, even if you refuse to see it,” Loria said. “Traveling through higher density zones means we risk running into stronger monsters. We’re low on combat experience and unfamiliar with the local wildlife. Looking for trouble is sheer foolishness.”
“We all read the briefing on the monsters common in the area,” Cliff said, “even if we do come across something, it won’t be unexpected.”
“And do you think you could fight a Slate Slinger just because you read three paragraphs about it?” Loria pressed. Thalos recalled the monster from the briefing packet – it was a fox-like thing that shot chunks of a jagged rock from its mouth. They weren’t actually slate, but alliteration always won out over accuracy when it came to naming things.
Cliff seemed to be chewing on a response, but he didn’t say anything, so Loria continued. “Considering the – let’s say limited combat options you and Thalos currently have access to, putting ourselves on a path that invites danger is simply out of the question.”
“Even if we’re useless in a fight, you and Nym could take care of things easily, right?” Cliff argued, “I’m surprised you’re content with going for a lower grade, Loria, I thought you had more ambition than that.”
“Cliff,” Thalos said sharply, hoping his roommate could remember his promise. It was fine if he wanted to argue with Loria about their plan for the day, but that last comment had clearly just been tacked on to provoke her.
“I have ambition,” Loria said sourly, “but I also have sense. I’m in command here, and I say we take the safer path. Any objections?” She looked steadily at Cliff until he muttered quiet agreement, rising to his feet and walking away from their huddled circle.
She watched him go, a satisfied quirk to the edge of her mouth, before looking at the other two. “Anything, Thalos, Nym?”
Thalos shook his head. “None,” Nym said quietly.
“Good,” Loria said, folding the maps quickly and putting them away. “We’ve wasted enough time talking, it’s time to get moving. We’ll head to the pass between the mountains. Nym take point and set our path – keep us going at a good pace. Cliff and Thalos stay in the middle, and I’ll take up the rear. Keep your weapons at a ready and your eyes peeled for signs of any monsters. Cliff,” she called to their irritated teammate. “Do not forget to measure the exposure every hour – set a timer if you haven’t already.”
“Already done,” Cliff replied, frowning stiffly. Thalos was surprised that he didn’t add some kind of condescending tag like ‘princess’ to the end – just more proof he took keeping his promises seriously.
Ignoring Cliff’s outward bitterness, Loria nodded. “Let’s go, then. Everyone, keep hydrated, and call for a break if you need one. We’ll take lunch in three hours.”