Chapter 3: Your Honor This Man’s an Idiot!

The recruit unflinchingly stared at me and responded, reciting as if through memorization. "A challenge is when a full blade or handle may challenge the master for the supremacy of the court. A grand challenge is challenging. Leadership of the entire court rather than just a branch. A lesser challenge is a challenge for a position in The Court. It challenge-"

I held up my hand, cutting him off. Okay, it was good to know that there were three levels of challenges, and this seemed to be a minor challenge or a mid-level challenge. Does that mean I was the leader of this branch and not the entire court? I pointed to the one next to them. "Continue. What does the challenge consist of?"

"The challenge consists of three trials. Knowledge, skill, and combat." I moved down the line, cutting the recruit off. "Explain to me the knowledge."

The next in line was ready and started answering immediately. "The challenged party will ask questions of the challenger for one hour. The challenger must answer correctly and expediently to be judged by the challenger and a panel of the handles and blades present. Any hesitation or failure to answer properly will count against them."

"And if they succeed"? I asked the same person.

"Then, they move on to the next trial."

Thinking it would be too suspicious, I move on to the next one. "The trial of skill. Explain to me how this works."

This time, a definitely feminine voice answered in a slow and sultry drawl. "We use an obstacle course. The challenger hides while the challenged searches. If the challenger can avoid detection or capture for 30 minutes. The roles switch."

"And what are the victory conditions for each side?"

"Incapacitation for the hunter and the hunted avoiding detection, if detected but not incapacitated, is considered a draw."

"And how many must the challenger win to continue?"

"They must win at least one of the rounds to continue."

"Very good." I had no idea if it was good, but the way they said it sounded like they were aware of all the rules and I was getting good information. However, none of them seemed at the least surprised based on my questioning of them of material they should already know. So perhaps my method of asking questions as if I was teaching was a good way of learning for myself, after all. And moved on to the last one in line.

"And combat?"

A croaking, raspy voice answered. "Combat to the death. Weapons. No poison."

I parsed the simple words and nodded. That this recruit was very much having trouble speaking was a bit of an issue because I had some follow-up questions. It was going combat to the death, assuming the challenger made it that far. If I was being honest, it most likely would, as I had no idea what I was doing. I could only pray that my body could fight.

Stopping, I took a deep breath in the most subtle way I knew how. I might die. Examining my thoughts I found that it didn’t bother me as much as it probably should have. I didn’t see away out so I would have to just do my best and take the opportunities as they were presented to me.

It is interesting because that would mean that the challengers were the most effective operatives. And they would end up dead if the leaders were doing their job. Only if someone failed the challenge earlier was their death not guaranteed. Though they could probably be killed for failing, they'd just go back to their duties. But if the challengers were good enough at the other stuff, then they would die at the hands of the more experienced assassin.

This didn't seem like a very sustainable way of running an organization. All of our most talented members would be killed to prevent a change in leadership. I suppose that might be a stable way of maintaining leadership, but the turnover of effective assassins must be great. The only solution would be if the leader had to be so good at the first two challenges that no one ever reached the third challenge.

That might actually be the point. The first two rounds keep pure brutes from gaining power. And they make it much easier for older people to keep their edge as long as their mind still works. Still, it seemed rather sociopathic.

Coming out of my thoughts, I addressed the waiting recruits, "Good. I want you all up front, watching carefully".

One of the assassins raised their hand ever so slightly, and I indicated that they could continue with a question. They seemed surprised but cleared their throat and spoke anyway. "Ahead of the Blades, sir?"

"No. Off to the sides." They nodded as if that was a natural thing to say. I assumed, based on their question, that sitting in front of the Blades would either be dangerous or stupid, possibly both. Telling them to do it anyway seemed like a bad idea. I looked to Nine and asked, "What did they miss?"

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Nine frowned thoughtfully, and I watched her dark black eyes cloud over as she thought, trying to figure out what the students had missed. There was no way she would be able to figure out what I was expecting as an answer. I didn't think they missed anything, but I figured this would be a good way of testing both them and her. We all waited in silence for a little bit as she thought.

Finally, she spoke, "I don't think they missed anything about the challenge rules per se, master. But they didn't mention that this was a blade challenge and not a handle challenge. So. Perhaps they can consider missing specificity."

I nodded, "Good attention to detail, everyone. It's the little things that get you killed."

I hoped that sounded sufficiently ominous and intimidating, but I didn't get any reaction whether or not it was just because that's how they were conditioned or they were so used to things like this. Whatever it was, I must have been playing my part well. And right on cue, other people began to appear in the stands.

I was in the unenviable position of not knowing where to stand, as over the course of a few minutes, the stands became full of people. There were multiple different groups, the largest of which were the Blades. They were all dressed something like Nine, in dark clothes and with forgettable postures. And without asking my permission, she went and sat with them.

Was Nine one of our premier assassins? That seemed kind of odd, but I just went with it. The second largest group was also dressed in black but didn't have nearly as much killing intent wafting off them. As their faces were not in the same amount of shadows, I assumed these were the Handles. Not really seeing a spot for me to sit, I simply stood in the center of the arena, calmly watching everyone.

People took their places, and there was a decent amount of muttering. As we waited for everyone to show up. I carefully noted where everyone sat and tried to learn and memorize as many faces as possible.

Eventually, everyone settled down, and a single man walked in through the door, shadows seeming to curl around him as he stepped into the brightly lit arena. He walked up to a spot next to me, and I sensed something from the man. A whisper of a thing that I didn't understand. On top of that, I also felt palpable danger coming off of him. It was not like the other assassins sitting with the Blades. I wasn't sure if it was because he was focused on me or my body was just telling me that this man was a true threat, and I did not want to fight him.

Suddenly, my plan for... Well, waiting until I could win in the fight of the challenge didn't look nearly as appealing as it at first had. My faith in my own body's training might have been misplaced if this was the man I would have to face.

Everyone sat silently, watching the two of us eye each other. There was probably something I needed to do to kick this off, but I had no idea what it was. Asking some basic questions of the students was normal would work, but I forgot to ask about the general ceremony, though that might have been a bit too suspicious. So I decided to just go with it.

Hesitation was probably more suspicious than doing something slightly off. I remember that a panel was how the first challenge round was refereed. So I called out, "Who stands for the panel?

This wasn't exactly the right thing to say, but apparently, it was close enough as four of the Blades and four of the Handles all stood up and bowed before they moved to the half of the arena across from the recruits and sat in a line. Not knowing how to stall any further, I simply wanted to get this over with.

"Are you ready?" I asked the man across from me. The man gave me a toothy smile.

"Are you sure you don't want to just hand me your position? There's no need for you to die over this." He said in a smooth tone that carried a hint of mockery in it. Instantly, I disliked the man, and I wasn't exactly sure why, but my instincts were telling me that if I handed him the position, I probably would not walk out of this room. I simply gave him a small, tight-lipped smile and assumed that was a yes.

"Very well. For my first question, what are the core tenants of the court," I asked. The man bared his teeth. And his eyes pinched with anger.

"A blade in the night. A handle. The wielder. And a purpose," he recited in a singsong voice as if it was a mantra he had said many, many times. I answered his mocking smile. Well, if he was going to get upset over such a simple question, perhaps he would get even more tilted over...

"Describe the political situation of the country we're in," I demanded.

This time, he snarled as he answered. "Are you mocking me? You motherfucker!"

A clap echoed from the panel of judges. The man stopped mid-insult and turned his glare to the side.

"There shall be no delays in answering the question." The panel said in a monotone voice. I smiled mockingly at my challenger. Well, if I could get him really, really angry, maybe I could get him to make a mistake.

"Fine," he said. "Of course, I know this. In Leona currently, the King reigns with a shaky coalition made up of his younger brother, Duke Willis...."

He continued on describing several noble houses and their positions for and against the King. When he stopped, I looked over at the panel, but they didn't seem to object to his answer. I wasn't sure if that was because it was complete or if it was that I hadn’t called him out on being wrong. It was probably to prevent me from asking questions that even I didn't know the answer to. It's probably the latter. So I asked to follow up: "What role does the Court play in this political game? You didn't answer that."

At this point, the man looked like he was about to spit blood with how angry he was, but he gritted his teeth and answered the question directly.

"The Court takes no sides in the political maneuverings of this tiny backwater." He spat out. "All sides use us evenly. But all sides, at least the most important players of all sides, pay protection money from assassination. We are essentially a non-factor but get everything we want from the current administration."

That was very interesting, and I was glad that he was willing to play along. Let's see, what other information could I wring out of this man? Perhaps he could tell me more about the court.

"Give me a brief history of the last two decades of the court," I demanded.