Chapter Three: As You Know
As Regina, Reginald, and Chance got older, they all became close friends. While the female school was detached from the male school, they had time after and between classes to socialize and talk. Initially, Regina and Chance’s rapport bothered Reginald a bit. He was very protective of his sister and wanted only the best for her.
When they became teenagers and upperclassmen, they began to have coed classes. Regina and Chance found that they had distinctly different strengths and they began to tutor each other on their own strong subjects. Reginald was pleased that they were learning but became increasingly concerned. Not because he didn’t think Chance was appropriate for her. He knew Chance very well; he was his best friend after all. But he knew even then that the odds of a young crush working out in the long term were very slim. He hated the idea of losing either of them or their companionship because of a falling out.
Sometimes Reginald would watch them from a distance and see how close they were. Chance always found a way to make Regina laugh and smile. Even on bad days. In some ways, Chance was better for her than even he was. He was sometimes jealous, but always seemed to be included in their adventures.
While many of their upper-level courses were coed, they still had their individual gendered classes such as gambling for the boys and various arts such as music and drawing for the girls. One day in the class The Theory of Gambling, Reginald looked over to Chance who was writing furiously in his notebook as the teacher spoke. Reginald leaned over to Chance and whispered under his breath, “I don’t know how you find this so interesting. It’s incredibly boring. We already know how to play dice, that’s second- and third-year lessons. Shouldn’t we be moving on to the harder stuff?”
Chance continued to write and keep his attention forward but managed to respond. “This is harder, it addresses the actual effect of increased probability and randomness on our accumulation of luck. This is far more than just ‘how to play dice.’”
The teacher turned from the board he was gesturing to. “Mr. Alloway, Mr. Thurblood. Is there something more interesting and important than our lesson today?” he said with the resigned annoyance unique to teachers who had disruptive students haunt their nightmares. He longed for the time when he was a student, and you could just hit the noisy child and be done with it. He turned out just fine after all.
Chance and Reginald started at the sudden attention as the class turned to them. Reginald’s mouth went dry, but Chance looked back at the teacher. “No sir, I was just explaining what you were saying to Reginald. Sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb the class.”
The teacher crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. He knew Chance and Reginald were good friends and was highly skeptical. “Oh? And what is it that we are talking about, Mr. Alloway?”
Chance looked down at his notes. “Well, you were describing how the more dice you roll in a single throw, the less likely you are to have a specific desired result. It’s a problem core to the rate that we can accumulate luck. The degree to which you generate luck is proportional to your ‘unlucky’ rolls in these distributions.”
The teacher put one hand on his chin and Chance was unsure if the teacher wanted him to expand. “I was explaining that this is limited by the law of large numbers. The more rolls you make, the more likely you are to end up with an even distribution.”
Chance looked around the class and watched everyone looking at him intently. He could see Reginald out of his peripheral vision, both wanting him to continue, but praying the teacher wouldn’t call on him to explain further. “Though . . . this only decreases the rate at which the luck is generated, not the total amount directly. The ultimately limiting factor here is time. It is the one commodity that, no matter how much we want to, we can’t get more of.”
The class was silent for a moment before the teacher’s child abuse scowl into a soft smile and said, “Someone’s been reading ahead I take it.”
Chance shrugged. “It’s just an application of what you said. In my opinion, though, the addition of additional uncontrolled variables such as more dice or dice with more sides is a sub-optimal method of maximizing the luck generation process.”
The teacher pondered for a moment. “What would you suggest as an alternative?”
Chance stammered a bit. He had reached the limit of what he already could prove with his statistical model, but he answered as best as he could. “Well, I don’t have the theoretical equations done on this, but it seems to me that the most efficient process is to build a game with a significant degree of randomness in the number of available variables but increase the degree to which the players can directly control their performance. Rather than a dice game, something like a card game with a good deal of strategic depth and a variety of available cards? The order of the deck is random, but how they are used are not.”
The teacher rubbed his chin in thought. “I’d be interested to see the math on that. That’s not in the scope of our class today, so I will continue. But I encourage you to think on this further; thank you for your interesting theory, Mr. Alloway.”
The teacher resumed his lesson, and while the rest of the students turned back around to face him, Reginald just sat there staring at him. “What was that? You never told me about this idea.”
Chance looked back and shrugged. He turned his notebook around to show Reginald various notes and drawings about the ideas he had for the potential mechanics and rules for the game. “It’s just math and statistics after all.”
#
The class dismissed and Chance and Reginald went outside to eat their lunch on the grounds in the center of the complex of buildings forming the school. They sat their regular table and waited for Regina to arrive. She approached a few minutes later, having just been dismissed from her aesthetic composition class.
She unceremoniously sat down next to Reginald and pulled off a chunk of the bread he had on the table. Still chewing her first bite she said, “Boy, am I glad to be out of that. I enjoy the artwork. But the academics of the golden ratio, color theory, and historic art styles bore me to tears.”
Reginald chewed the large piece of fruit he was eating and said, “Yeah. I’m the same way with our gambling classes. I don’t mind the games themselves, but all the theory and the equations make my brain hurt.” He took another bite and swallowed before gesturing to Chance. “Unlike this brainiac over here. He’s got a head for numbers I just can’t comprehend.”
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Regina looked up from her meal and smiled at Chance. “See, I told you he was smart.”
Chance flushed slightly at the compliment. “Thanks.” He continued to eat the sandwich he brought for lunch.
Between bites, Regina asked, “So, if I may ask, what makes our golden boy here a brainiac?”
Reginald had finished his food by this point, so he gestured to Chance’s backpack where he kept his lunch, books, and notebook. “He gave a seminar in class about how to increase the rate of luck generation using an entirely new style of game. Some kind of card game.”
“What? Like solitaire?” Regina asked.
“Oh, it’s way more complicated than solitaire. It’s designed to be played with two people, but if you changed the rules around you probably could do four or more,” Chance answered.
“Oh really? A multiplayer card game? Don’t leave me in suspense. How does it work?” Regina asked.
Chance rubbed the back of his neck anxiously. “Well, it’s not really done. It’s all theoretical math anyway. I’m not sure it would even work.”
“Show her the notebook you showed me. It will at least give her an idea of how it works,” Reginald said.
Chance gave Reginald a severe look, but Regina just looked at him expectantly. Chance sighed and retrieved the notebook he had been working on and handed it to Regina. She began to read as Chance described the various rules he had come up with so far.
Regina moved her hands down the page as Chance described it, flipping to the next page when they reached the bottom. When there was a lull in the conversation, Regina asked, “I see all these spells and creatures, but the creatures so far are all fictional. Elephants, alligators, and something called a gorilla? Aren’t these a bit silly?”
Chance shrugged. “It is supposed to be a fantasy-themed game after all. I plan on adding more. Those are just what I’ve made so far.” He pulled the notebook back and put it away.
“You know . . .” Regina said. “I’m supposed to do a series of drawings for my final art project this year. If you’d like, I can do some of them as concept art for your cards.”
Chance beamed at this. “I love that suggestion! It’d give me good motivation to keep working on it.”
Reginald interjected, “I’m sorry to break up this little meeting of the minds, but it looks like the lunch period is over. We have our natural sciences class next and it’s our turn to present our group project.”
Chance swallowed hard and gave silent thanks that he wasn’t the one of them who had to present their findings. He merely had to do all the OTHER work. Together, they stood up and gathered their things. As they walked toward their classroom Regina asked, “So, what’s the game called?”
Chance turned his head but kept walking. “What’s it called? I hadn’t really thought of it yet. The whole purpose is to accumulate luck faster, let’s tentatively call it Gathering the Magic?”
#
Regina and Chance settled in their seats and waited for Reginald’s presentation. The class was held in a large auditorium with a raised dais to speak from. The room was large and dimly lit, only letting a large beam of light through a window illuminating the platform at the far end.
Regina and Chance sat together in the darkened room just far enough apart to not invite gossip about them. But low near the seat, Chance reached over and touched Regina’s hand lightly. She looked down at his hand and turned hers over to hold it. Chance didn’t turn away from watching the platform, but an unconscious smile came to his face.
A moment later, Reginald walked up the steps and place his notes on a podium. Clearing his throat, he spoke loud but clearly, so he could be heard throughout the auditorium.
“Good afternoon! As you may know, my name is Reginald Thurblood. I am here to talk to you today about the nature of our Patriarch’s gift of immortality.” The crowd murmured softly; this was nothing new to them. “The power given to us, blessed by the empire, is tied directly to lineage descending from the Patriarch himself. Boys born to descendants of the Patriarch’s family are gifted with the ability to store and use luck at will for various purposes, along with the ability to transfer their mind and soul into the body of their eldest male child upon their death. As this transfer persists through time, the man’s eye color slowly transitions from their natural color to gray, and then eventually to black, much like the Patriarch’s eyes.
“Additionally, as I am sure you know, girls born of these families are also gifted with the ability to manipulate probability to a certain extent but are unable to likewise transfer into the bodies of their children.”
Regina leaned over to Chance. “Why does he keep saying that?”
Chance glanced sideways. “Saying what?”
“‘As you know.’ He’s said it twice so far, and it means functionally nothing. Why bother to say what they already know? Much less point it out.” Regina replied. Chance tried to ignore her and listen to the speech.
“The field of natural sciences known as heritability has gained significant ground in recent years. Our long history of selective breeding in plants and animal husbandry has made the passing of traits from generation to generation well documented. But when applied to humans, these traits are generally less clear. Traditional historically documented lineage is often very hard to parse with the large number of repeated names and interbreeding within extended families.” Reginald paused for effect.
“As you know, however—”
“He did it again,” Regina whispered to Chance, who continued to try and ignore her.
“A member of the Patriarch’s family with a bloodline of sufficient purity will manifest the distinctive two-toned hair like I have,” Reginald continued and gestured to his hair. “This is much easier to track. Because the church so fastidiously tracks the ancestors of the major houses descending from the Patriarch, we can cross-reference these visible traits of individuals with their parents. This shows a pattern of nearly 80 percent of children inheriting both of their hair colors from one or both of their parents. When we increase this sample to include grandparents, this percentage goes up to over 95 percent.
From data recovered from experimentation on the prisoners captured in the war between Rustang and one of our subjugated client states, Jeranin, we have been able to show a definitive link in their outward physical traits, much as we do with the members of our Patriarch’s own family. Using this data, we can essentially prove that the gifts of the Patriarch are not only heritable in the same way, but likely derived from the same mechanism of propagation.”
The crowd began to mutter among themselves. This speech bordered on challenging church doctrine, which claimed that the Patriarch’s gifts were solely unique to him. Most of the crowd accepted all church doctrine as unquestionable truth.
“Now, as you know . . .” Reginald continued.
Regina leaned over again. “And again . . .”
Chance looked over and quietly said, “Cut him some slack, it’s at most a page or two of expository dialog. It’s meant to inform and set a baseline of understanding with the audience.”
Regina cocked an eye up and said, “Just seems like bad writing to me . . .”
“While the magical ability of the Patriarch is unique, he and his family have persisted since the dawn of time. No other heritable trait is as unique or powerful as those originating with him.
In conclusion, I believe that the principle of hereditary heritability is sound across species. While there are many things that distinguish us from the beasts of the world, the gap between us seems to be increasingly shrinking as we gain a greater understanding of the world around us.” Reginald paused and looked out into the crowd toward Regina and Chance. “I would like to mention and thank my partner and good friend, Chance Alloway. His assistance in gathering this information and building statistical models proved to be vital in this analysis. Thank you for your time.” Reginald finished with a bow and moved off the platform. Chance shrunk a little in his seat as the crowd loudly murmured among themselves, discussing the presentation and occasionally glancing over at him. It proved to be quite controversial among even the serious academics who taught at the academy.
Regina squeezed Chance’s hand hard though, drawing his attention. “I think you two did great. You are really on a roll recently. I hope you stick with the development of your game; I look forward to illustrating the cards for you.”
Chance smiled back. “Thanks. Isn’t your presentation tomorrow? What’s it about?”
Regina shrugged slightly. “Nothing as revolutionary or well researched as yours. It’s about the mineral composition of the newly acquired territories and what potential uses we might have for them. No big thing.”
Chance continued to smile at her. “I’m sure it’s going to rock.”
Regina rolled her eyes exaggeratedly and lightly smacked him on the back of the head. “They’re minerals!”