“Hello, Private Bloomfield. I trust that you’re doing well?” Prince Cole, the glorified intern, asked.

“Doing very well, sir.”

A guard opened the door for me to enter the General’s office and then bowed as I passed. How generous of him, to honor my contribution to the war. Then I remembered all the medals on the prince’s chest. That’s more likely what the guard was bowing to.

A few minutes later, I saluted General Morley. My head spun after another troublesome debriefing.

“Oh, and one more thing,” he called as I stepped out the door. I tried to hide my reluctance to return.

“Sir?”

“We’ve received reports that the Triumdemic wants to infiltrate the army. There may be spies already. If you see anything suspicious, please come to the king or myself right away. Do you understand?”

I opened my mouth to confirm, but he continued. “The Triumdemic might have spies in the army, so let myself or the king know if anything strange happens.”

“Sir, yes sir,” I barked, hand touching my cap just so in the salute. I raised my eyes to the ceiling. Please be done. Unfortunately for me, he wasn’t.

“I mean, let either the king or myself know if you suspect that the Triumdemic might be involved with a soldier. There could be spies out there, you know.”

Yes I do, quite well, actually. “Thank you for your concern, General. I’ll keep my eyes peeled.”

“That’s my boy!” He stood and reached over his desk to grasp my entire shoulder in his massive hand. “You are dismissed.”

“Sir, thank you, sir.” Still saluting, I clicked my heels together and exited the room.

I tried to keep a neutral expression on my face as I left the government office, in what used to be the town hall. The Egron army began their occupation just a few weeks ago. Now, all of the larger homes are barracks. This is the warfront, and fresh squadrons march by endlessly, ready for the battlefield.

They have no idea what they’re getting into.

Percy stood at the ready with two horses saddled. “No train this time? I liked the one we rode on the way here.”

“No, the train is full of wounded soldiers,” I sighed. Why couldn’t he be more observant?

“Don’t they have a hospital here?”

“They do, and all the doctors are working around the clock, but there’s just not enough room.”

“Too bad,” I said. “Let’s go. They say all roads lead to Egron City, you know.” I swung into the saddle on my second try.

Percy smoothly slid onto his horse, and we started down the road to the capital.

Last time I was in Egron City, my alem team and I had arranged to practice. The twelve of us tried to meet regularly at night. I was terrible at alem - I only played so that I could hang out with Princess Chantelle. Of course, seeing as I was a palace servant and Chantelle was, well, the princess, we had to be extremely careful getting out of the palace. We had our routes, and always met a couple blocks away. And of course, our fake names. I called myself Wayne - my middle name. And Chantelle used Tellie, which was a nickname that her brothers used.

“Are you ready to win tonight?” she asked, the hood tight over her head.

“I’m always ready to win. You know me - the most competitive in the room.”

“The court, you mean?”

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“Yeah, that thing.”

We did the special knock on the warehouse door, and it opened. Zollie greeted us. “Hey guys! Long time no see! I thought maybe you two had gone spelunking. Rumor has it the caves around here are eating people!”

“Not this time,” I replied. “I’m scared of the dark. So let us in.”

Zollie laughed and let us slip in to the warehouse.

“It’s been busy,” Chantelle shrugged once we were inside.

“Is everybody here?” I asked.

“Yep, just warming up. We’re excited!”

If you haven’t played alem recently, I guess I should explain. The game originated in Freyland, my home country, but quickly became popular in Egron, too. To play, first gather three teams of four people each and set up a large square court with a goal along each edge. No player can touch another, except for teammates to pass the ball, and the ball cannot touch the ground. To score a point, get one of your teammates to catch the ball in your goal box. The game ends when one team has five points.

I said hi to the people I knew, but there was one missing. “Hey Zollie? Where’s Sidney?”

“Unfortunately he couldn’t come tonight. But I invited another friend. Percy! Come over here!”

A tall, thin guy about my age jogged over and introduced himself. “Hi, I’m Percy.”

Chantelle looked nervous. She’s always worried that someone will report her to the king. Then she’ll be under guard all day, all night, no chance to escape the grand cage of the palace. When we sneak out to play alem, she wears a tight hood to cover her hair, and darkens her eyebrows. Without makeup, she looks different enough that people don’t immediately make the connection between her and the beautiful Princess Chantelle that they see on propaganda posters.

She introduced herself as Tellie, and I used the name Wayne.

Zollie clapped her hands. “Okay everybody, come grab your vests!”

“Let’s get white, for Stars,” Chantelle said to me.

“The Wolves are better, you know,” I told her.

“They are not!” She protested.

We put on the lightweight yellow vests and saw that Toby and Willa were on our team.

“Let’s strategize,” Toby told us. We walked to a corner of the court and huddled. “Willa, you’re the best catcher, you should stay near the goal box and get ready for us to pass it to you. Wayne, I need you to focus on the game and try not to be an insufferable showoff. Just for one game, okay? And Tellie, you’re a pretty good player so just follow my lead. Sounds good?” I rolled my eyes.

“Go team!” we shouted together. Toby was one of the better players, if a bit bossy.

The Booters, in their yellow vests, pitched first. One of their players caught their ball. Toby ran and tried to intercept, but missed. The Booters quickly scored. Next, the red-vested Embers pitched and my team gained possession of the ball through a lucky catch. I caught Chantelle’s eye and readied for our trick. When Toby passed the ball to me, I tossed it straight into the air and quickly crouched in a proposal stance, one knee on the ground. Chantelle ran as the ball began to fall, planted her foot on my leg and launched herself into the air. She hit the ball straight toward Willa, over everyone’s heads, and Willa caught it! The crowd goes wild!

Actually, even though he was excited to score a point, Toby shook his head. “Showoff.”

“You gotta do what it takes to intimidate the enemy and win! What can I say?”

A voice rose above the clamor. It was the new guy. Patrick? Patsy? Percy. “Doesn’t that break the rules? We’re not supposed to touch.”

“Have you ever even played alem before?” I challenged.

“Well, no,” he replied. “But the way it was explained to me-”

“Teammates can touch,” I enunciated very clearly so he knew exactly who was in charge here - me. “If they are passing the ball. I was passing to Tellie. And she made the most amazing goal. Sorry that you’re so sore about it, but I think you’ll be fine.”

“Callum, calm down. Percy, what Callum said, though rude, is correct. Unfortunately.” Toby told him, ever a stickler for the rules.

Percy started to answer, but Zollie rounded everyone up and we began another round.

The Wolves ended up winning, but my team got second place with four points. After drinking some water, Chantelle and I said goodbye and left the warehouse. We went to our secret spot in a nearby alley and talked for hours about everything. It might not seem like we had much in common, but I could lecture you on our similarities for literally days. Well, I would rather talk about Chantelle than myself, but you get the point.

So that’s when I first met Percy. Obviously he hadn’t been drafted yet, and neither had I. Actually, all of the guys in the alem group ended up getting drafted sooner or later. That was our last real game before the war ruined it all.

Now back to our scheduled programming.