Brin’s coin purse jingled in time with his steps as he ran ahead of the Lance. They’d woken the Lance up right at dawn, just to punish anyone who’d gone too far with their drinking last night. After Brin and Sion had absolutely fleeced the Lance in their gambling game the day before, Sion had purposely lost the final round after going all in, meaning that the entire winnings of the day were now in a small sack on Brin’s belt.

    Some of the men had chosen to drink their woes away, with Hedrek outdrinking everyone, but since he was a high-Vitality [Knight] he’d woken up fresh and chipper. The others were a lot worse off, and Brin could see them wincing every time that his full coin purse clinked. Aeron and Rhun looked the healthiest out of all of them. Rhun, because he’d only had a single pint of beer, and Aeron because he’d lost every penny he owned to the dice game and couldn’t afford any alcohol.

    Normally Brin would secure any money he was carrying much tighter, and never in a sack at his belt that gave pickpockets an easy target, but today he wanted them all to see it. An object lesson on the dangers of gambling. Or a lesson against cheating for Brych? Or maybe Brin just enjoyed tormenting them.

    They ran a mile, then a second, and a few of the men started looking around like they expected to stop soon. Brin had no intention of that. They circled the keep in a wide arc, running through the stony fields. Four miles, then five. By eight miles even Brin started to feel winded, mostly because of the full plate armor. At ten, he finally let them rest, and stopped by a well so they could all get water.

    Cid took him aside, and tapped a hidden rune on his helmet. Brin felt the activation of sound magic; the helmet was using a low-powered but complex enchantment to give Cid privacy to speak to whoever he was aiming at, a necessity when leading a Lance that included a [Rogue].

    Cid glanced down at Brin’s coin purse. “A bit brutal, don’t you think?”

    “Brych was cheating,” said Brin.

    “Were you cheating, too?”

    “Well, sure, but that’s not the point,” said Brin. Brych had been carefully switching out weighted dice from a hidden pouch under his greaves, which had taken an admirable amount of skill. Brin had just used a cup to roll his dice and switched the dots around while they were covered. He had no idea how Sion had done it.

    “No, it’s not,” said Cid. “The point is that officers don’t generally gamble with their subordinates for this exact reason.”

    “Ok, but a Second isn’t technically an officer. For this exact reason. And can we get back to Brych for a second? We can’t let him go on like this.”

    “But we can let you go on like this?” Cid asked with a smirk.

    “Yes! Because I’m a [Glassbound Invocationist] which is a weird but honorable Class, and he’s a [Rogue]. And even when he becomes a [Knight], people are going to remember he got his start in a Rare Class by stealing things and lying to people. The first time these guys catch him cheating them, he’ll lose their trust forever.”

    Cid looked at the ground, then back up, mouth turned in worry. “That’s fine. We’ll do something about Brych. But... I won’t let you keep that money.”

    Brin shrugged. “I figured I’d buy everyone a treat once they stop being useless, or maybe use it as a prize for something.”@@@@

    Cid’s shoulders relaxed. “That’s fine, then. I’ll talk to Brych. I think this may be a Mr. Nice Guy conversation, as you put it. Oh, by the way, how was he cheating?”

    Brin told him, and then Cid walked over to pull Brych away from the rest of the men. Brin couldn’t hear any of the conversation that followed. He probably could’ve listened in with sound magic, but he couldn’t be sure how well tuned Cid’s enchantment was against eavesdroppers, and this wasn’t worth risking it for. He’d try to work his way around it some other time.

    Even without hearing anything, Brin thought he had a good idea of what was going on. Cid made a show of inspecting Brych’s armor, and then pulled the hidden pouch out of hiding in the gauntlet. It was empty; at least Brych was smart enough for that, and he saw the [Rogue] laughing and deflecting.

    Cid spoke with a calm smile and knowing eyes, not challenging, but also not accepting any of Brych’s excuses. Eventually, Brych’s objections died down, and he said something looking at the ground, looking like he was near tears.

    Cid nodded and clapped him on the shoulders. Then the enchantment died and he heard Cid say, “Good man,” before slapping his shoulder again and walking to the rest of them.

    “Alright, gather round. I’ve spoken with Brin and he’s agreed to give you all your money back, provided that you’ve all learned your lesson.”

    Everyone had been putting on a show of abject weariness, probably so that Brin wouldn’t make them run again, but they perked up at those words.

    “We have, sir!” Aeron volunteered.

    “And what lesson did you learn?” Cid asked.

    “No gambling.”

    Cid tutted. “I’d rather you say something about propriety. A [Knight] is still a [Knight] on his day off. He still represents the pride of his nation and his Order, and poor actions on his part reflect poorly on all of us as a whole.” ra??ОbЕS?

    “Yes, sir,” Aeron said, and the other echoed it.

    “Very well. Brin?” said Cid.

    Brin held up the sack, considering how he wanted to do this.

    Brin’s eye followed them as the two of them walked side by side in silence. Down a hall, then up a flight of stairs, and another, to the highest point in the keep where the lack of a wall on the hallway let them see right out into the world. The sun was setting, and from their perspective they could just barely make out a Lance of experienced knights riding back to the stables after a day on patrol. Though, with his eyes, Brych could probably see them quite clearly.

    “I never liked that they call us Lances. In two weeks, when we combine for joint exercises, the history books will say that one-hundred and fifty Lances came together. That doesn’t sound quite right to me. A [Knight] isn’t a lance. A [Knight] has a lance, but that’s not what we are. In his essence, a [Knight] is a shield. We are protectors. We protect the Order, the people, the innocent, and even each other. Especially each other.

    “You’re right, what you said before. We didn’t grow up the way you did, and we haven’t the experiences that you’ve had. I think that in many ways, the rest of us are somewhat naive compared to you. These boys, they have no defense against things like deceit and manipulation. They will protect us against physical dangers, but when someone makes a plan to destroy a Lance of knights-at-arms, they don’t think about swords and shields. They think about poison and traps. They think about cheating, Brych.

    “And that’s why the Order recruits [Rogues]. You’re my only defense against danger of that sort. That’s also why even the hint of suspicion is untenable. Because you’re supposed to protect me and my men from that sort of thing. Your role isn’t to take advantage of our weaknesses; your role is to shore them up. To be our shield. Will you be my shield, Brych?”

    Brych still seemed troubled, and he gazed intensely at the knights in the distance as if they had the answers to all his troubles, but when he answered his voice was firm. “I will, sir.”

    All in all, it had been a pretty good speech, and Brin would’ve been more impressed if Cid had actually come up with it on the spot. In actuality, it was nearly word for word the same thing one of the older knights had told Cid to say in his meeting. Still, the ability to sit through that bore-fest and actually learn something was impressive in its own right.

    Cid and Brych talked about more casual things after that, and Brin stopped eavesdropping on them. He felt a little bit bad that he hadn’t told Cid about his own abilities. He could spot traps and watch for dangers better than any [Rogue], but he couldn’t just go out and tell everyone he was an [Illusionist]. Besides, the Lance might be better off if he kept it to himself. If Brych really thought he was the only one capable of watching for dangers, he’d take it more seriously and become a better teammate. Or was that just Brin justifying it to himself? He didn’t know.

    He wouldn’t let this backfire. If it ever really came down to protecting his Lance or keeping his secret, he’d protect the Lance. Hopefully it would never come to that.

    Training continued, day after day, and the Lance fell into a pattern. Most days they’d do half a day of conditioning with Brin, and then spend the rest of the time working on something else a [Knight] needed to know.

    Brych’s attitude had improved somewhat, due to Cid’s efforts, but that just had the effect of making it clear how far the rest of them still had to go. Govannon the [Page] was a constant source of self-pity and resentment. Cowl quietly did his duty but never spoke up and never defended himself against the ordinary jests and taunts that come with ten guys living together. Meredydd the [Armsman] questioned everything that didn’t directly benefit him, and constantly tried to get people to pay him a bit here or a penny there for every little thing. Aeron the [Warrior] was competent enough on his own, but had little patience for Meredydd or Govannon. Anwir the [Hunter] was absolutely terrible at melee combat or wrestling, and was convinced he didn’t need to learn since he’d be using a bow. Rhun was a surprising source of dependability, but the worst was Hedrek, who insisted on doing every little thing just slightly wrong, because he didn’t like Brin and he knew Cid wouldn’t call him out on it.

    Cid tried on several occasions to get Hedrek to take over a training, but the only time he’d accepted was with wrestling. Cid thought it was far enough away from sparring that it shouldn’t earn the men too many levels, and it might actually help them get [Squire] since it was the primary way that [Knights] dealt with other [Knights].

    It was quickly clear that the big guy only accepted command of wrestling lessons because he enjoyed pushing other men’s faces into the mud, and maybe because it was the one thing Brin wasn’t better than him at. Hedrek was an indomitable wrestler, even against two opponents at once.

    They spent a lot of time with the horses and Derec the [Horse Master]. He taught them how to act and behave around the animals, and gradually worked them up from simply staying on the horses to actually directing them. They then learned to ride while armed with swords and shields, and then drilled a few simple formations.

    They had more classroom-style lessons, where they learned how to talk to nobility versus commoners, what laws a knight-at-arms needed to know, what privileges they had as minor nobility, and what privileges they didn’t have.

    At Brin’s suggestion, Cid arranged a lesson on how to talk to girls. They disguised it as a lesson of conversational propriety. Lyssa had actually been the one to come talk to them, and Brin had to admit that even he had learned a couple things.

    She talked about the minor celebrity status that knights had in Prinnash, and how that meant they needed to watch their words more carefully in the future. If one of them said something as mundane as “Nice shovel” to a [Farmer], he’d take that as an order to hand over the shovel. Following that line of reasoning, if they ever invited a maiden to come spend time with them, she would either wonder if that was a marriage proposal or be quite convinced that she was being kidnapped.

    Lyssa had each of them roleplay a normal interaction and practice saying everything as indirectly as possible, so as to not accidentally take advantage of people. She ended the lesson by making it extremely clear that since they were all important people now, their parents would arrange their marriages and also that the Order would be extremely displeased if they were ever to find out about any illegitimate children.

    Once, Galan was back in the order long enough to lead a lesson. He gathered six Lances of newer recruits together, and then with no notes and hands behind his back, Galan recited the history of his Order from memory.

    He started with the rise of Iaghaid the Quiet, a nigh-invincible dragon that had terrorized the nation that was now Olland for dozens of years. The Order of the Long Sleep had been built from the ground up specifically to combat this one threat, though back then they were called the Order of the Vanquished Silence. For the actual battle, Galan recited a long string of epic poetry where the basic gist was that the Order had sent wave after wave of armored knights until the dragon couldn’t fit any more in its mouth and it had choked.

    Galan admitted that the recitation was more poetic than historical, and he stopped short of actually saying who had actually dealt the killing blow and how, promising that they would hear more of the story once they’d advanced further in the Order.

    More days came with more training, and soon Brin started to feel comfortable really pushing himself in the weight training, now that he was sure the others wouldn’t slack off if he showed any weakness. The hard work after being idle for so long gave some nice results.

    Strength +3

    Dexterity +1

    Vitality +5

    Will +1

    Athletic Training +10

    Before he knew it, two weeks had passed. The castle grew crowded as many Lances of the Order of the Long Sleep returned to headquarters at the same time, and the fields outside were covered with the tents of other Lances.

    It was time for the joint training. One more day to see how they shaped up compared to the other Lances. Then after that if they made a good showing, they’d finally leave the castle on their first patrol.