Ring ring ring ring ring.
A metallic clinking sound wakes me. I'm not even certain when I fell asleep, but I know I don't want to miss the ringing. I quickly put my equipment on. I look outside the door through the bars for any commotion, but there isn't any.
Ring ring ring ring ring ring.
As soon as the sound finishes echoing, the many doors swing open and masked men flood out, I quickly join them, as seamlessly as possible. I follow the crowd back to the gathering room. The wolf-masked Lieutenant is already patiently waiting for the room to fill up, standing on the elevated platform, his hands behind his back, one supporting the other.
Suddenly, the entire room salutes, in same manner as I saw the Lieutenant and Hawk salute the Captain. It only dawns on me after a second or two as I look around, I am the only one still not saluting. I try my best to replicate it, but I am almost certain I didn't get it quite right.
"Ease." says the Lieutenant, the crowd lowers their arms from their masks. "Good morning, recruits." he continues, "As I've said last night, the schedule is mostly unchanged. Exam group - report to courtyard at noon, you're free to prepare until then. The rest of you, proceed to your trainers. Dismissed."
The crowd once again quickly salutes and disperses, in a repeat of the scene from last night. However, I have no idea what I am supposed to do from here on out. I'm once again left alone in the room with the Lieutenant.
"Recruit." He says as he walks up to me, "That was a sad excuse of a salute. I suppose I can overlook it this once. Your welcome was hasty and incomplete due to your late arrival. I am not putting the blame on you or Hawk - it happens." he shrugs, and stops in front of me, his hands still behind his back, maintaining a noblesque posture.
"Starting from today, you will receive training. You will become the Crown's blade. You will be the flickering shadow on the wall. You will be the doublet footsteps. You will be the Crown's ears; if necessary, mouth, fist... so on, so on. I'm sure you were told at least some of it." He says in a sighful, tired, exhaling statement.
Indeed, my memory is foggy from the fatigue, but Captain Bear did gloss over some of what the Lieutenant is saying.
"You will be trained in subterfuge, deception, seduction, skulduggery, the art of remaining quiet and unseen, as well as the fine art of becoming very loud and visible. You will learn how to kill, but also how to not kill; it'll depend on whether it'll please the Crown." He suddenly looks up, but nowhere in particular.
"By the way. Don't tell anyone your real name. Not only it's meaningless, it could become a liability one day. We know enough about you already." His gaze returns back to me. "Follow me."
We leave the room and move through the corridor to another, just a short walk outside the assembly room. I can hear talking inside, but it's too quiet to understand through the thick wooden door. "Well? Go on in."
I nod and swing the door open, entering a very specific looking room - a segment of the floor has animal hides piled up on it, as if to create a carpet. A bald, boar-masked man stands in front of some of the recruits I saw earlier, and interrupts his speech as he sees the Lieutenant enter with me, Lieutenant Wolf walks up to him, and I follow closely behind.
"Sergeant Boar, new recruit in your care. He's as green as they come." The Lieutenant says as he looks at me. I look back at him, then at the Sergeant, and immediately do my best at saluting him.
I can only hear the Sergeant suck air through his teeth then sigh, as he looks at my salute attempt. He clicks his tongue, "I'm doing the deception and persuasion bit, but looks like I'll have to start all the way from salute with you, huh?"
"For now, just finish what you've started. I'm heading back." the Lieutenant says as he turns back. The boar-masked man flashes a proper salute, much like the ones I saw earlier, and says "Aye Lieutenant."
"See that? That's a salute. Get it right next time." he leans into my face and howls out, then walks back to the spot he was standing in before we entered. "And get in the ranks." he says without even turning his bald head back to me.
I quickly look around and see an empty space that formed at the edge of the crowd. I slip in and try to make myself less visible, in hopes of aggravating the short-tempered Sergeant a little less.
The Sergeant then goes on a long-winded lecture, explaining that people need to be told what they want to hear for us to get our way, as well as telling us ways a deception can be concealed and detected. Most of it is pretty obvious and self-explanatory, but even then something new catches my attention that makes me nod in acknowledgement.
Suddenly, I hear a quiet "hey", and look to my side. A man with a wooden owl mask is staring at me, "You're new like me, you're faceless." He says. I tilt my head, a puzzled expression surely appeared on my face as he said that. "Faceless?" I ask.
He taps his mask. "Yeah. I just got here two weeks ago, got my face." He chuckles quietly. Suddenly, 'REECRUUUIT!' bellows out of the Sergeant, echoing off the room's walls loudly enough to make ears ring. I clench my teeth and face forward on instinct, instead of being invisible, I managed to bring the bald Sergeant's attention to myself within an hour. The crowd is staring at him as he barrels towards me.
"YOU HAVE SOME GUTS TO COME HERE, DO A HALF-ASSED SALUTE AND THEN PAY NO ATTENTION WHATSOEVER TO WHAT I'M SAYING, RECRUIT!" He spends at least five minutes berating me on multiple points, as I listen quietly with a tight-lipped expression, after he's done shouting creative insults, "I WANT TO SEE A PROPER SALUTE! NOW, RECRUIT!"
I make my best attempt yet at the salute- "WRONG!" He yells out in my face. Despite the mask blocking his mouth somewhat, my ears ring. "AGAIN!" He demands.
I salute, he either yells 'arm too low!' or 'arm too high!', I salute again, he yells something similar. Eventually, I salute. "Finally." He says, and immediately demands, "Again."
I salute again and freeze. He stares at me, I stare back at him, still tight-lipped.
"You better remember this is how you properly salute superiors." He says, as he turns and walks back to his spot. The crowd stares at him for a moment still, before glancing at me, then again at him. I don't dare to look anywhere but the Sergeant for the rest of the lecture.
"That's it for now. Report to Lieutenant Cat without delay. Dismissed." the Sergeant announces in a dry manner. At least he's not yelling.
As I leave the room with the rest, the owl-masked man attaches himself to me again. "Ah, sorry about that. If it was any other instructor, I'd speak up it was my bad." He chuckles nervously as he apologizes with a plaintive posture.
"The Sergeant is explosive, isn't he?" I ask, showing no grudge for getting me in trouble. I mostly brought it upon myself, anyhow.
"Oh, I'm here only two weeks and I already know Boar is a bastard. The others are rough in their own ways, but nobody beats Boar."
"This Lieutenant Cat, where is he?" I ask as I look around the dim corridor back and forth. "Ah, we're both headed there, just come with me." He says, and adds, "Cat is not too bad I guess. Oh yeah, just call me Owl. You can be new guy for now, until you get your face."
He leads me to the room with Lieutenant Cat, who apparently instructs in lockpicking techniques. Since we arrive together, he tells Owl in a near-whisper to teach me the basics.
As I practice on the training locks placed around the room, it turns out lockpicking is actually really, really easy. I practice with Owl in almost completely silent room, only interrupted every now and then by a sound of feint clicking, or the clacking of a lock opening. The Lieutenant is watching us all like a hawk, though he's not paying any special attention to me or anyone in particular, as he slowly circles around the room, sometimes stopping and whispering something to a recruit who can't seem to open a lock.
The simpler locks might as well not be locked at all - though Owl is rather impressed by what I think is trivial to open. "Damn, not bad. Were you a thief? Burglar?"
"Nothing of the sort. It's the first time I'm holding a lockpick in my hands." I give him a true answer. Other than a few fights here and there, I think I lived a pretty honest and straight life so far.
"For a lock like this, it took me solid ten minutes to open it up. You've got a talent, new guy." Owl says, with the corner of my eye, I notice Lieutenant Cat is quietly observing us, but says nothing.
The quiet practice continues, until suddenly the Lieutenant announces it's over. He instructs us to head to Sergeant Boar for close quarters combat training. As soon as I hear 'Sergeant Boar' a grimace forms on my face, and an involuntary sound, 'hrk!' escapes my throat through my clenched teeth. Owl was right.
As we head back and take as long as reasonably possible, I ask, "Were you ever in a place like this, Owl?"
He shakes his head, "No, I was a garrison guard for a brief while, the drills and discipline were similar, but nothing like this place. How about you?"
I try to look for a similar experience in my past, but draw a blank. Everywhere I went, gold and silver was the motivator and standards were low. Caravan guard for merchants; looking big and tough for unsavory people willing to pay for that, all of it very...
Mundane? Nothing I did was remarkable, everywhere I went, everyone was motivated by something base. No one I worked with cared about anything more than just getting paid. It occurs to me I am quietly walking alongside Owl and staring off into space, who is still looking at me, waiting for an answer.
To avoid keeping him waiting further, I tell him hastily, "No, never. I was considering joining a mercenary company, but I thought the concept of money for blood to be distasteful." Then, something dawns on me.
"By the way, are we going to get paid for this?" I ask him.
"Huh? You say that, and you're in for the money?" His masked head tilts at my apparently conflicting statements, in a manner bizarrely similar to a real owl. I quickly correct myself, "No no no, what I mean is, this isn't charity work, right? We are going to receive some money for the work we do?"
"Mmmm..." he ponders the question loudly, "Actually, I think I overheard something like that. I didn't ask because it's none of my business, but I heard in the mess room someone was surprised how by much he got paid."
"So, the pay is good then?" Owl answers, "Seems so."
Brief silence, interrupted by another question from Owl, "But you're not here for the money, right?" I look at him with ridicule visible on my face, "I didn't even know if we're getting paid, are you serious, Owl?"
"Ah, yeah. Makes sense. Good to hear."
Another moment of silence, broken by me this time, "I'm not here for the money, Owl. I just liked what Hawk told me and thought this is a place for me." I clarify.
"Hawk?" He asks, and I answer, "One of the recruiters. He brought me here."
"I see. Similar story with me. I'm glad we're on the same page." he says as he looks at me, nodding slightly. I can almost hear his optimism evaporate as we realize we are unable to delay the inevitable any longer.
We stare at a door, then look at each other. Owl then gestures me invitingly in. I pull the door to Sergeant Boar's den open, and we enter.
The Sergeant, without a second's delay shouts out, "Recruit, you sure took your time getting here!" We try to hide in the ranks, but he continues shouting, "Perfect timing, actually! I just finished explaining to other recruits we'll be going over throws and takedowns. Get over here recruit, on the double!"
Owl looks at me with pity hidden behind his mask, and I leave the ranks to hastily jog up to the boar-masked, yelling Sergeant. As soon as I join him on the pile of animal hides he's standing on, he shouts out to the rest of the recruits watching, "Now, watch closely!"
He turns his head to me, "Now, I will keep throwing you until you get it right. Salute, recruit!"
The sudden order catches me off-guard, but having practiced before when the Sergeant was screaming at me, I think this is my best attempt yet. I got it right before, so I'm convinced I can get it right again--
Suddenly, my legs fly out from underneath me, the room spins.
Thud. I'm left staring at the ceiling, Sergeant Boar is holding my arm, staring at me from above. I want to ask what happened, but the suppressed snickering from other recruits, my apparent lack of air in my lungs and the fact I'm on my back reveals all I need to know.
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"Get up!" The Sergeant yells at me as he lets go of my arm, I take a pained breath and start getting back up. Despite landing with my back on the hides, they barely did anything to soften the impact.
"As you can see, usage of leverage is vital to quick and efficient throws. If you do not use leverage, the only thing you'll accomplish is you'll get yourself tired and killed." He tells the recruits watching me slowly pick myself up, as soon as I'm up and facing him again, he yells out again. "Salute!"
I do not want to get thrown again. I try to recall what it took the Sergeant to stop screaming at me, and do my best at repeating it. I salute--
Something impacts the rear of my knees as I feel a hand lift me up and away by my throat, I can't recover my balance by my legs, and my attempts to grab onto something or brace for impact only make my loss of balance even worse.
Thud. I'm thrown onto my back with massive force again. I struggle to catch a breath, laying with my back on the hides as the Sergeant tells the crowd of recruits, "And there is your perfect example of manipulating the center of balance. If sufficient force is used, the recruit is helpless and the only way left for him is down." he presents me with his hand. I see an owl staring at me from the back of the crowd.
"Get up." He says as he turns back to me. I start getting up again with groans and grunts. This spectacle continues for a couple more attempts, before I finally conjure a salute that satisfies the Sergeant.
"Recruit Owl! Do not think for one second that I did not see you!" He yells out into the crowd, putting Owl under fire now, "You will take this recruit off my hands. Show him the basics. The rest of you, pair up and practice throws you've seen."
Owl shows me how exactly the Sergeant threw me, or, at the very least, shows me the theory behind it. As soon as I attempt to throw Owl, he doesn't budge. Witnessing this, Sergeant Boar closes in rapidly - almost running, screaming, "THIS IS NOT HOW YOU GAIN LEVERAGE!"
He grabs my arm as I'm still confused as to what's exactly happening, 'GRASP!', he lifts it, 'LEVERAGE!', he shifts his stance, I can't exactly see how, but then he shouts out, 'THROW!'
My legs fly and the room spins again. I land on the animal hides again. Despite the throw being completely unnecessary, I think I'm slowly starting to grasp the basics. When I recover and get up, I try to throw Owl again. 'WRONG!' makes my ears ring. I return to a neutral stance, then try to replicate the Sergeant's moves-
Surprisingly, Owl loses his footing and rolls over my back. I throw him to the ground with all my might, but he manages to break the fall and land mostly on his legs. A far cry from throws I've been subjected to, but it's enough to make the Sergeant cluck his tongue and say, "Work on it." as he leaves disappointed to attend to other pair of recruits.
"You know Owl, I'm fairly confident I'll kick your ass by the end of the day." I tell Owl half-jokingly as he gets up from my semi-successful throw.
He chuckles, and says, "I think you've got a long way ahead of you. How about I first start throwing you back and we'll see if you're still so sure about that?" as he takes a stance fit for grappling.
I grin as I take a similar stance, glad that he's welcoming the challenge, but unfortunately, I end up his ragdoll and don't manage to throw him even once. Worst part of it all is hearing the Sergeant's 'Leverage! LEVERAGE!' being screamed into my ear.
After what seems to be an eternity, and infinite hard impacts on hard stone ground, barely softened by the animal hides, Sergeant Boar informs us we are done for the day, and should head to the mess hall for food.
Owl takes me with him, as I don't know the way yet. All the corridors and doors look the same, definitely intentionally, but I'm starting to remember which one is which by simply passing by them.
We arrive to the mess hall shortly after, and take a seat together. The room is large - possibly the largest one in the whole fortress; the fact it needs pillars here and there to hold up the ceiling only makes me certain of that even more. It makes sense; this fortress is home to a small army, and armies need to eat.
Meals aren't ready yet, though, the room is slowly filling up with more and more masked men and nondescript smell of cooking, it seems Owl and I arrived early. As they come, a murmur starts - something in between being louder than whispers, but nowhere near as loud as the rabble in a city.
"Owl, they're not going to make us pay for the food, are they?"
"No, it's same as the city guard, you eat for free." He leans in, and asks with palpable smugness in his voice "So what was that about kicking my ass? Didn't go so well did it?"
I slump and look aside with a mildly embarrassed grin. He continues, "Well, I used a little trick, so don't feel too bad."
"Trick? What trick?" I perk up, hoping I can recover my honor on a technicality.
He places his fist in his hand, elbows on the table, "Well, you're a good head taller than me, if you know how to use it to your advantage, it would help you a lot." He shrugs, "But you didn't, so it became a disadvantage and you toppled like a log."
I sigh. "That's not much of a trick, isn't it?"
"True, but controlling your posture, grasp and leverage is important, controlling the enemy's posture is vital--"
Tonk tonk tonk tonk tonk. Dull, metallic clanking rings out throughout the mess hall, everyone starts getting up.
"Well, more on that later. Food is ready, come." Owl says as he gets up. We get in line, a long table separates us from the cooks, but its start and middle is the busiest with most activity. Owl and I grab a wooden bowl and spoon and keep moving along, masked cooks down the table fill the bowls, and everyone returns to the tables. Eventually, our turn comes too.
Owl sniffs the filled bowl from under his mask, "Huh. You're lucky." He mutters out under his breath as we sit back down.
"Why?" I ask, puzzled as I stare at my somewhat oily-looking soup bowl.
"Meat soup." He says, as he loosens the string straps on his mask and shifts it slightly, without taking it off. I sniff the bowl, but can't really tell what's in it, other than some indistinct herb and carrots. Though, I'm also fairly sure I can see a carrot, so that's not too impressive of a guess.
As I take a spoonful of it, indeed it does seem to have bits of meat in it, I take a taste...
Unpleasant, to say the least. Owl notices my displeasure, "Not your favorite, is it?"
"Are you sure the meat is fresh, Owl? It tastes off."
"Hm? Yeah. Boar, or bear." he says as he spoons more into his concealed mouth. "Did you never eat game?"
"I used to hunt deer a lot, nothing else wandered onto my land." The word land makes Owl pause hungrily spooning the stew into his mouth and ask, "Land? Don't tell me you're some magnate or better yet - nobility. Should I start calling you lord, my lord?" He asks with jesting tone.
"No..." I answer, but the question makes my mind wander into the past. Despite the time that passed, the smug face of that bastard is still fresh- I stop myself. No sense dwelling on it. Owl is staring, and I notice I'm gripping my spoon rather tight. I think anger surfaced on my face, so I simply tell Owl, "It's a long story. I'll spare you." and continue eating my mystery game meat stew.
"I see." He says as he returns to eating as well. Owl sounds young - barely a man, and despite his simple way of speaking, he has more tact than most merchants, magnates and so called nobles I've had displeasure talking to. He quickly picked up that it's not something I want to talk about, and now we're both wordlessly eating the hopefully fresh stew.
Well, better than dwelling on the past, at least. Few minutes pass, we both finish. "What's next?"
"Now? Nothing." He says, "Now is the so called free time. You can go rest or go practice something. Most get more practice in, but nobody will blame you if you go nap. Just pay attention and make sure to not oversleep the end of day round-up bell."
"Round-up bell?"
"Ah, it's like the morning bell, but you don't need to worry about rushing, someone will walk around and ring it, you'll have plenty of time to get to the assembly room. But don't miss it, you'll get yourself in a lot of shit."
"What are you going to do then?" I ask, "Me? I think I'll go practice archery topside until the bell then go on a nice night walk before bed." he answers, stretching slightly, his armor creaking quietly.
Owl waves me off as he heads for the surface, and I, against my better judgement, go to Sergeant Boar's den to see if there's anybody training. To my surprise, there's plenty of recruits wrestling, throwing eachother, discussing something away from the rest. Some are even training striking.
I spot a recruit watching two others train with his arms crossed, and ask him he can help me practice throws and takedowns. The bat-masked recruit agrees, and we step onto the animal hides.
As we take our stances, I remember what Owl told me and try to apply it. The recruit swoops in quickly - blazingly fast, and makes a good effort to try and trip me, but much like Owl before, I won't budge. We adjust our grips and shift around, that's when he makes a mistake - I effortlessly sweep him off the ground and slam him down. His posture worked against him as he tried to gain leverage. For a second I wonder if this isn't the mirror of my mistake against Owl.
The sound of the recruit slamming on the ground makes the few idle recruits turn their heads to look, but they quickly return to whatever they were doing. He picks himself up, and we try again.
I wish the rest of the training session was as flawless as my first attempt, but the bat recruit managed to take me down multiple times. We weren't counting score, but we figured we're about even. Regardless, I feel like I learned a lot. Perhaps, maybe, because nobody was screaming into my ear.
We take a moment to discuss what we thought we could do better and demonstrate our points, as well as share pointers and ideas. The brief spar with the bat-masked recruit was incredibly valuable, and we thank eachother for the help as the sound of a bell being rung moves across the hallway outside halts everybody's training.
I return to the assembly room with the rest, and Lieutenant Wolf gives all groups their schedules for tomorrow - groups, I didn't even know there were any. Apparently, they're assigned based on the time you arrived. Me and Owl are in the same group, it seems, having arrived recently.
As the round-up ends and everyone disperses, I am stopped by Lieutenant Wolf on the way to my bedroom.
"Recruit, come over here for a moment."
"Yes, Lieutenant Wolf?" I ask, puzzled, as he picks up and shoves a block of wood into my grasp. I look at the wood, then him, then the wood, then him again.
"It's a present. For you." his noblesque posture returning as he moves his hands behind his back. I once again look at the block of wood then back to the Lieutenant a few times, bemused. I'm starting to think it's some sort of practical joke, but the Lieutenant is the last person I'd take for a joker.
"...Lieutenant?" I ask, confusion visible on my face. But the Lieutenant explains, "This block of wood will become your face. You are to carve away a visage of an animal out of it. One you identify strongly with. You have one week, it should be plenty of time." he says, as he turns to leave.
That explains Owl's wooden mask. He carved that himself? Not too bad. Lieutenant's voice interrupts my thoughts as he looks at me from over his shoulder, "One more thing, please - no more wolves or foxes."
"Yes Lieutenant." I reply, as the door he left through shuts. Now it's just me and my block of wood.
Ah, I meant to ask him what's with the metal masks, but no matter. I return to my room and place my block of wood on the small table, and start to think what to carve out of it.
Immediately, a wolf comes to mind. I now understand how this became a problem around here, as I rub my chin. Back in the day I hunted plenty of deer, and antlers would make a recognizable motif, but.
But a deer isn't really all that threatening, it's prey after all. Do I really want my face to be that of a prey? Antlers, horns...
I keep thinking. Suddenly, an old memory comes back. The time I was climbing the mountain next to my land as a kid, when that bastard of a goat almost killed me. The swept horns would definitely stand out visually. I just need to make sure they don't become a handle to grasp at during grappling.
Nodding to myself with inspiration, I grab the block of wood, place it on my lap and carve away the rough shape of the mask. Even with my relative inexperience in arts and crafts, it can't take me longer than three or four days, if I just keep at it for a few hours every day. The dim light flooding in through the small barred window in the door doesn't make the carving much easier, but at least it's enough to see what I'm doing.
An hour or two of sculpting later, I decide to stop. Today was taxing enough, and exhaustion is setting in. I set the block aside on the table and sheathe my dagger, and prepare to rest for the day as I lay in my bed.
Sleep is the intent, at least. Despite everything, I find it difficult to fall asleep. The past few days have been difficult and demanding, but strangely enough, I already feel a sense of belonging. Life here is rapid, hectic, but everyone is doing their best. A far cry from scoundrels that only cared if they were going to be paid.
Funny, Hawk wasn't lying. Everyone here seems to have a higher purpose. I figured he was a desperate recruiter for some mercenary band, so I put on an a thick armor of disinterest, but then he asked me questions that just slipped through the gaps.
"Are you not you tired of everyone chasing coin? Do you not want to serve your country and its good people, instead of someone's profit? Do you not want to be a part of the sharpest, the skilled?"
"Wouldn't you rather do something that matters? With a band of loyal brothers?" He kept asking, as I was taking gulps of my drink, but that last one turned my disinterest into disdainful curiosity, it made me pause drinking and to start asking questions. First, to mock him - after all, who does he think he is? Who does he think I am? What is this thing that supposedly matters more than anything I did?
The more I asked, the more questions I had. He answered everything in a way I didn't expect. "Things you can't ever tell anyone." I remember, word for word.
"The Empire's good people can sleep, because our enemies are afraid to."
"Do you want to find out?" Huh? That's a good hook. Got me good. He has a way with words--
Wait, did he train for that too? Well, too late. He did warn me there's no way out if I agree. Either way, so far everything he said checks out. And I still can't fall asleep. I decide to sculpt away more of my mask until I'm too physically tired to keep going. Once that finally happens, I pass out in my bed and sleep.