Maxen: Is it my imagination?
Orieclass="underline" He hasn’t looked away.
Maxen: But is it you or me, or both of us, he’s staring at?
Orieclass="underline" Split up a little, so we can see.
Obediently, Maxen picked his way through the crowd so he could get a closer look at the green planks, which had words written in Earth language on them, and two clasps on one side, which seemed to be for keeping the plank attached to boots. Once at a sufficient distance, he looked stealthily back toward Arden Ruuel, still standing a little down slope, staring fixedly at Maxen’s sister.
Maxen: Looks like he wants you for lunch.
Orieclass="underline" This is too awkward.
Thankfully, the time to begin the snow fight was upon them. Kaoren Ruuel briefly set out the day’s schedule, possibly purely for Oriel and Maxen’s benefit, although he didn’t look in their direction.
"Elimination requires a clear hit from two different people. You’ve a choice between fortification or ambush. Wait until the signal before beginning. Any pre-emptive strikes will face an ice water down the back of the neck penalty after lunch."
This was said entirely seriously, but the people around Maxen laughed, so it was probably intended to be a joke. Then they all streamed down the hill’s south-west slope to the flatter western region of the island, where bare-branched trees rose over clumps of snow hiding bushes. Although there were numerous open spaces dotted through the area, it proved to be very easy to lose track of even brightly-clothed competitors, for the terrain was full of dips and mounds.
"We got no chance winning," Julian said, as Team Sky Wing forged as best they could through very soft and deep snow. "Even without all Sights, too many stupidly fit people who dodge things for living. Only way score any point by setting up fort, make them come to us, no chance sneak up. Then bombard."
"Sound plan," Oriel said. "Though the day will be long if everyone does that."
"Nah. Lots of Setari happy hunt everyone down. Kaoren probably do it all by himself. Siame and Arden competing with him get most kills." He looked back at them, goggling his eyes comically. "SO glad you came. They were going make me be on Team In Laws. Siame order me about and Arden act super pleasant while laugh at me."
Maxen briefly considered asking if Arden Ruuel always stared rudely at people, but decided to drop the problem in case the answer threatened the fun of the day.
"You have any psychic talent?" Julian asked.
"Low level Combat and Path Sight," Maxen said.
"Combat Sight only." Oriel paused to survey behind them, smiling faintly. "Nothing compared to Setari, of course."
"I supposed to be telekinetic, but can’t move anything even with Cass enhance. So unfair. Up here spot I scouted before snow."
Maxen approved the location, which was slightly up the slope of the hill, set flush against the boundary of the combat zone, and shielded by a ring of snow-covered bushes.
"Height advantage, a natural barrier, and if we circle up to it rather than heading directly there, even a level of disguise to our location—for anyone who isn’t laden down by Sights, anyways," he said.
"No chance," Julian repeated, but smiled and said: "Give it best shot anyway."
Team Sky Wing met Oriel’s expectation of putting up a good show before being efficiently defeated by superior forces. She was pleased they’d scored hits before being eliminated. And she was even better pleased when, after tramping back up the hill to the collection of tables intended for lunch, a far less formal "losers' party" developed, gleefully hurling snowballs at each other. This delightfully enthusiastic small war involved fewer of the combat-trained Setari, and laughter instead of points. It grew ever more chaotic as more defeated arrived, and was excellent for making Oriel thoroughly anticipate lunch.
Julian and Kaszandra’s mother, Laura, brought Liranadestar to talk about Red Exchange, dancing a delicate line between avoiding story developments while explaining how the game mechanics evolve.
"With five people you’ll be able to handle all of the early game and most of the mid-game," Oriel said. "But there’s content you won’t be able to access at all with a small group. It’s not mandatory to progress the main storyline, but you won’t grow quite as strong if you skip it all."
"Those birds you were flying on, how are they won?" Liranadestar asked.
"The first Every Element Challenge," Maxen said. "Repairing damage that requires teszen of each element. It’s possible to do that in a small group, but only after you’ve collected several teszen each. You could even do it solo if you had an enormous number of teszen, but it would be an intense fight. At your level, you won’t have experienced the energy cost of calling out teszen."
"They supposedly feeding on our blood, after all," Julian put in, and grinned at Liranadestar. "That Nimenny of yours is little vampire."
Liranadestar stuck out her tongue. "Your teszen are boring and ugly," she said.
"My teszen rare and powerful," Julian retorted, then laughed. "But, yeah, slug-thing and mushroom-thing don’t exactly make look cool. I mad envious Tzatch’s snowbird teszen. That super rare, hard to get."
Oriel’s fears of an afternoon of playing awkward outsider dissipated in face of Liranadestar’s keen interest in everything about Red Exchange. The two kalrani, Allidi and Haelin, joined them for an interrogation of all the best ways to gain rare teszen and mounts, methods to evolve teszen, and the parts of the game you had to actively seek out.
The lunch crowd drifted off to attempt sliding on the green boards, which looked more enjoyable than Oriel had expected, but there weren’t nearly enough boards for everyone, so she encouraged Maxen to go, and stayed sitting at one of the tables watching, and thinking over the day.
The scene before her only made her regret even more the guild Snow Day she had been planning. She had hoped to strengthen bonds, to shore up her and Maxen’s place on this new world. But it was pointless lingering on could-have-beens. Basic training started in two days, and there would be a larger group of people to deal with. Some would undoubtedly be like Jaxa—friends only so long as you didn’t cost them anything—but the training intake was large and surely not every recruit small at heart.
She watched Maxen making a wobbling descent on a board, his whole body radiating delight. Perhaps it reminded him of flying, his one true passion. He stood at the bottom of the slope and laughed up at Julian, tumbling after him. Had she ever seen her younger brother so relaxed?
Behind her a lazy voice asked: "Why the military? Hierarchy, orders, saluting on command. Isn’t it the opposite of freedom?"
Oriel, who had thought herself alone, stiffened, but at the final question rather than her lack of awareness of a second person remaining at the table. She turned to consider a faintly smiling Arden Ruuel, and reminded herself that one of the names given to Arcadia was Sight Sight Island, for the concentration of that talent among the residents. This person who would know nothing whatsoever about her, had a talent that could lay secrets bare at a glance.
"The idea with saluting is you do it before you’re told to," she said, before the pause stretched too long.
"A standing command." The man’s tone was pleasant, his expression suggesting a mild warmth, but Oriel was not fool enough to believe that smile.
"Perhaps I like the idea of eventually giving orders myself," she said, which was true enough.