Armed with her spear, Jane took the lead position. She pushed the door open and scanned the room. Movement to her right made her step backwards. The door stayed stubbornly open. The bundle of fur and claws rushed at the door.
An ice-bolt came from Jane’s right, hitting the rat and slowing it. Jane jabbed at the animal with her spear tip, pushing the animal back and injuring it. Tam cast fear. The rat cowered, trying to retreat. Jane jabbed it again, imbuing her spear with fire. The imbuement helped guide her spear.
The rat collapsed, as the spear punctured something important. Cautiously, Jane reached forward and touched the rat. A small stack of coins appeared next to the carcass. The door was still swinging shut. There was no evidence of any other animal in the room. Jane kept her guard up as she pushed the door open.
This time she did a more detailed inspection of the room. There was no movement and no other doorways. She pushed the door open and wedged the door. The rest of her group followed her into the room. Several members threw light spells onto the ceiling, flooding the room with light.
“Clear,” Jane called, giving her opinion of the room. Four other clears sounded as the rest of the group agreed. All except for Terry, who never entered the room. As rear guard he stayed in the hall, watching for any animals approaching.
“Good,” Todd said from the hallway. “Remember to call and show me any scrap before you pick it up,” he reminded them. Everyone carefully inspected the room contents. Iris called Todd over when she found a piece of iron scrap. Todd made a note in the book he carried, before telling her to pick it up. He returned to the hallway and waited until the group carried everything of value out of the room, setting it in different piles in the hall. Christine, Terry’s partner, skinned the rat as she’d been taught and added the hide to the array. She also harvested the animals claws. Todd inspected their piles, making notes again, before giving them the all clear to pack everything up.
“Ok, I want you to rotate. Tam and Iris, you're making entry, Jane and Alan you’re on rear guard,” Todd instructed.
This was their final test. The group arrived at a huge rest on their twelfth day of travel. Grandmother lined them all up, and each of them touched the crystal. After the arrival ritual they were given a break to explore the rest and relax.
The rest included a barracks room. Their first assignment was to assemble bunks for everyone to sleep on. Alex opened a bag which exploded with bronze tubing pieces across the room. He demonstrated how to assemble the frame for one bunk, before leaving all the rest to the trainee groups. When the frames were assembled. Grandmother opened another bag and withdrew a set of iron sheets and a pile of small attachment clips. After Alex demonstrated how to mount the sheets to make a firm surface to sleep on, he turned the group loose on them again. They were all assigned a bunk where they were complete. There was a hot meal before they all collapsed onto their new bunks.
In the morning, they began a different phase of their training. They marched down to a courtyard entry to the structure. There at a clear wall inscription they were taught to turn lights off. From there three groups went back up to the rest, where they were taught how to tan leather, smelt iron and join wood scraps into planks. The last two groups were escorted through the rooms where they were taught how to safely clear rooms and identify every type of usable material within.
Now they were putting it all together. Each group was required to clear a minimum of nine rooms, gather all the usable items, take them back to the rest and process them. Each entry pair was required to face animals in the room, so they might have to clear even more rooms. They were expected to record any inscription they found along the way, and decode it if they could. Inscription decoding was a bonus subject that only the advanced trainees who already knew something about using their interface were given instruction in. They needed to report unique features too, like rests, water sources, inventory access and sanitation facilities, even if they were in a ruined state.
They went through eight more rooms before they found another one with a rat. Tam held the door, since he was armed with a short sword. He was supported with magic from Iris and Christine, while Terry danced around with his knife looking for an opening. The rat died before Terry got his chance.
Todd called for them to rotate after the room. Christine and Terry were now the entry pair. Two rooms later Terry got his chance. He used shield to push the rat back from himself after his first stab. Each of them had been taught one tier zero spell on the journey. They were given their choice of offense or defense, wizard or warrior. The final spell however was picked by the instructor. Since Jane already knew imbue fire, she asked for a warrior defense spell. She was taught shield, but she was still learning to incorporate it in her fighting.
“Ok,” Todd said. “This is your last room. After you salvage it, I want to see you secure it for the night.” No one warned them they were going to do that. Jane was happy she had all her equipment with her. The instructors drummed that into them. Never leave anything behind. Touch everything you own once a day. Items fall into dust in the halls in days.
They secured the room. Todd questioned them on watch schedules and positions. After he was satisfied they loaded up the last of their finds and headed back up to the upgraded rest. They were the third group back. They started by tanning the rat hides they collected, then moved on to making wood planks and smelting iron.
“What do you think we’ll do next?” Tam asked. Their group was gathered in the bunk room.
“I overheard Grandmother telling Todd that we’ll head home tomorrow. She was asking him to cook something special for dinner tonight as a farewell,” Alan answered.
“I don’t want to go home yet,” Christine said. “Didn’t we just get here?”
“This is day eighteen since we left Home Square. Harry told mom we’d be back in twenty days. She’ll be getting worried,” Terry commented. He looked worried himself. “How long do you think it will take us to walk back?”
Stolen novel; please report.
“We’re taking the transportation system!” Alan said. He’d obviously been holding this nugget back so it would have maximum effect. The group exploded in excitement. They made Alan recite the entire conversation he overheard. Even Christine was thrilled with the idea of getting to use the super secret system.
“Alert, everyone,” Grandmother’s voice sounded clearly throughout the room, even though she was nowhere in sight. “Prepare for travel and report to the main gallery for briefing.”
Everyone grabbed their things, leaving nothing behind. They scrambled down the hall to the main room of the rest. There they found Grandmother standing in the center dip. The instructors were standing with their backs against the wall that faced the crystal. The trainees rushed to get good seats on the steps that lead down to the center section. Late comers crossed over the center section under Grandmother’s eye to sit on the other side.
Grandmother counted the trainees as they all settled into their seats. When all thirty were present she began.
“This is our last night together on this trip. Tomorrow we will take the fast transportation system back to Home Square. All you have done well and exceeded my expectations. I will convey my pride at your performance to your guardians.
“Tonight we will dine at the broken courtyard. Companion, with Alex and Valin’s assistance, will teach you how to play a selkie game. Afterwards there will be exhibition fights between the instructors.” Grandmother paused as everyone cheered their approval.
“There is a bag down here for each group. You are responsible for getting it to the courtyard. Do not open your bag. Deliver it to me at the courtyard, then report to Companion for the game. Usual march order, prepare to depart out the west door.”
The trainees jumped up to arrange themselves. Jane was a little disappointed her group was with Todd today. That meant they would be the last out to the courtyard. The bag they were assigned was surprisingly heavy. They were forced to rotate the duty of carrying it.
When they reached the courtyard Grandmother was already there. A set of tables were set up along one side of the courtyard. The courtyard seemed cleaner and newer than when they visited it the first time. The vines over the light inscription were trimmed back, revealing the six fingered fist. They dropped their packs and weapons off under its watch, before going out onto the grass to join in the game. Sarah and Ellen stood watch over the meadow, armed with their bows, to ensure they weren’t interrupted by wildlife.
Todd joined Grandmother at the tables. She was pulling the components for the last table out of a group bag. The bag at her feet contained all the utensils and stiffened leather squares they would use to distribute the food.
“I left the food on warmers,” Todd commented. “It should be alright for an hour or so.”
“We’ll let them get engaged in their game, then run back for the food. It will make them think it appeared by magic,” Grandmother commented. She looked out at the field where Companion was giving instructions on how the game was played. When Grandmother asked if any of them knew a team game the trainees could play, Companion volunteered one the younglings played in the water square. The true selkie version was played in the water in three dimensions, but Companion assured her it could be modified to be played on land.
“I’ve changed my mind about Companion’s subject,” Grandmother commented. “When we form the school I want him to be the Speedwell’s homemaker.”
“Homemaker?” Todd asked, “What do you mean by that?”
“He is the best of us at working with children. The rest of us deal with them like they are young warriors, but Companion sees the child they still are and offers comfort and joy. This trip has taught me that we will have to limit how many students we accept, especially at the beginning. We will also need a supervising adult for every apartment full of kids. Companion will play that role perfectly, but I also want him to be in overall charge of housing. He will make the school into a home,” Grandmother explained.
“If we stick with the eight to one ratio of the apartments, we will be limited to only forty eight students, fifty six if we count Valin,” Todd observed.
“Eventually I want about a thousand students,” Grandmother stated, surprising Todd with the large number. We’ll set class sizes at thirty, and require two teachers for each class inside the structure. If I assume two thirds of the classes will be on the Speedwell, that comes out to about fifty instructors and one hundred and thirty residence supervisors.”
“Whoa,” Todd said suddenly. “I didn’t realize the numbers involved.”
“Yeah,” Grandmother said. “When I run the numbers with just the six of us, I get we can handle about 120 students and we are short nine residence supervisors. I don’t think I can actually handle spending all day and night with a bunch of children for three months. I can’t expect any of you to do something I think I can’t, so we are really short fifteen residence supervisors. Or if I switch Companion over to housing, then we only have five instructors and the number of students we can handle drops.”
“You mentioned having Benjamin teach baking. Perhaps we can recruit more instructors,” Todd suggested.
“Yes, I was already planning to try and recruit people like Kai and Muriel. I’m hoping that in time graduates from the school will become our future instructors,” Grandmother explained. “With that goal in mind, I’m thinking about offering adults the chance to attend for a discounted price if they serve as a residence supervisor.”
“What about giving a tuition discount for a child if a guardian serves as a residence supervisor?” Todd asked.
“I thought about that, but I think being away from their parents has been a big step in this group's growth. I’m not going to stop someone from taking the job of supervisor if they have a student, but I’ll assign them to a different apartment as far from their child as possible.”
“Adult students will reduce the amount of children we can handle,” Todd observed.
“It will to some extent,” Grandmother admitted. “I hope they won’t need as much supervision and they will be mostly interested in the Speedwell content.
“Setting up the bunks here has also made me realize we need to put together workshops at the Speedwell. We need manual crafting stations equivalent to the magical crafts and a wood fired baking oven for Benjamin,” Grandmother observed. “I think we can convert the old single housing into some of those workshops. Benjamin’s oven will need to go into a new outbuilding.”
“We can use the ovens in the ship's kitchens to start,” Todd commented, “while the wood fired oven is being built. The contrast between the old ways reproduced in the eastern villages and the modern methods of the Speedwell is also something we can teach.”
“True,” Grandmother responded. “Smelting iron is something the villages have never managed to do on their own, maybe explaining how the Speedwell does it is all we need to offer for now.”
“Should we have the students disassemble the bunks in the morning?” Todd asked.
“Yes,” Grandmother responded. “I promised Alex he could have all his bronze components back. There is an upgrade available for the bunkroom with the bunks in place, but I know Alex would be so heartbroken I can’t try it. Having the trainees put them together worked out pretty good for teaching them about components even if they haven’t realized it yet.”
“We’ve been putting all the iron components into the storage room that the students found. Maybe we can put enough together from them to trigger your upgrade,” Todd observed. “Shall we go fetch the food?” Todd asked, changing the subject.
“Yes,” Grandmother agreed. They ran the distance, making multiple trips that the children never noticed.