The Spade Chronicles Book 0: Eagles Rising

The weekend went by swiftly, a blur of dancing and practicing my magic. I was able to consistently create a sword and occasionally a halberd. Although, when I did make the halberd, it looked a little different than the one in the sparring hall. This halberd looked more like a long double axe. The axe on the outside was bigger than the one on the opposite side, and both the top and bottom ended in a spear point. Whenever I could form the halberd, I headed straight to the Sparring Hall so Snapdragon could teach me to wield it without killing myself on accident.

On my way to lunch one day I ran into Blackthorn in the hall.

“Hello Allie, I’m glad to see Kyrie is doing well,” he said, seeing her once again on my shoulder.

“Yeah, she was lucky.” I said, and was halfway down the hall when I heard him call out again.

“Allie, I really am sorry I couldn’t do anything about the note, but you must understand such letters are not uncommon. More often than not just fanciful roleplaying,” he said apologetically. “Besides,” he continued, “I doubt I would be mistaken in thinking that you and your friends might find a way to handle a real threat,” he winked, and continued down the hallway without another word.

When Monday came around we met back in the Map room. Once we were assembled, Robin lead us down a series of passages until we reached a vast chamber filled with chests, racks, and closets filled with weapons.

“Blades,” muttered Daedalus, “You could arm a whole battalion in this one room.”

“Daedalus,” I said, “That’s the point.”

“One might wonder if it is wise to arm teenagers.” Atalanta mused, looking about the room.

“It’s Spade philosophy.” Kennedia explained. “We believe that one of the ways to suppress violence is to conquer it. The logic is that if someone can fully comprehend and master force and the damage it causes, they will be less likely to use it.”

“There are also the practical applications,” Continued Robin, “People are generally less likely to attack someone if they know they are just as likely to fight back.”

We finished up in the armory and continued to the South wing to view the bunk room. It turned out to be a series of smaller chambers branching off of an even larger main area. We decided to use the main area as a makeshift sparring hall. We spent the rest of the hour moving weapons to the South Wing and putting tables along the walls where we would fill them with desserts and hot cocoa.

We spent the rest of the week making sure everyone knew about the Friday night meet and were pleased to find that the vast majority were looking forward to it. We also made great care the teachers didn’t know, because I severely doubt what we were doing was allowed. When Thursday night arrived, we were ecstatic as we were going over the final details for tomorrow night.

“You know,” Daedalus said through an eclair, “I feel like we should have a name for ourselves.” We looked up from our list of weapons to stare at him.

“What do you mean?” Atalanta inquired, and he shrugged.

“If we’re going to found an organization on that grand a scale we should adopt a name.It’s daunting, but I think we can do it if we use our skills correctly. We’ve got an encryptor and a navigator,” He gestured to Kennedia and Robin, but before he could continue, Robin interrupted him.

“I’m actually a healer too.” He said, and explained that his magic allowed him to see various wounds and ailments and if he directed some of his energy to it, he could heal them.

“That’s even better, so now we’ve got a directionally gifted healer, a brawler and a weapons expert,” He pointed to himself and Atalanta, “and Allie is our team leader. We even have a secret headquarters!”

“Hey wait a minute,” I interjected, “since when am I team-”

“So what do you suggest?” Kennedia asked, warming up to the idea, and Daedalus quieted for a moment, then said very seriously.

“Queen Allie and the Knights of the Round-”

“Very funny, and when did we decide I was leader? Shouldn’t we hold an election or something?” I asked, and everyone just looked at me for a second before continuing.

“How about the Order of Blades?” suggested Robin

“No, that’s too pretentious.” protested Atalanta.

“Yeah but it sounds cool.”

That’s how we spent the rest of the hour, bouncing ideas off of each other until we began to nod off. In the end we decided to call ourselves the Eagles after the name of the Observatory we gathered in.

The next night came in a flash and my Eagles and I had just finished setting the sweets on the table when the other students started to file in. At first it was a bit awkward and the students kept to their respective years, but soon enough when they began to eat and drink they started to open up. Within the hour, students from the Flock were singing and playing their music for Dancers while League members started to play the games that they brought with them.

After I danced a for a few songs I was introduced to a few games. Daedalus convinced me into being one of his pawns in the Spade version of chess. This version involved people taking the place of pieces on the board, which was a massive grid drawn on the floor. The king was the player that dictated where the others moved. When to players met on the board, they would have a sparring match in which the loser was captured and taken off the board. The main objective of the game is for the king to take into account the different strengths and weaknesses of the players below them.

Hilarity often ensued when players kept trying to influence the king’s thinking.

“Why did you move me here! I can’t do anything from here!”

“No don’t put me against her, I can’t fight her, now him I can beat, put me there!”

“I can’t believe you sacrificed me just so you could get the bishop!”

“What do you mean I’m expendable?”

Daedalus, as it turned out, was quite the king. He put me up against a Fledgling that didn’t really have a knack for hand to hand combat. He maneuvered Atalanta, his knight, and Robin, rook, to clear a path for me to the end of the board. Once I was a queen I was able to checkmate the enemy king by knocking her queen off his feet.

“You’re not bad, Hatchling. What’s your name?” He asked as I helped him up. He was a senior, or Dragon, named Zephyr.

“Allie Sage.”

“That’s right, you’re the one who started this whole thing right?” I nodded

“My friends and I did, yes.” He laughed.

“You did a good thing here, Allie. I wish I had thought of it. If you ever need anything I can help with, let me know.”

It was well past midnight when people finally started to sleep. When it was a few minutes before dawn I went with my friends to fetch more food for breakfast. We found that the pantry filled itself, and when we looked through some shelves, we found that there were more than sweets. We grabbed whatever breakfast food we could and went back to set everything on the tables before the other Spades woke up.

The night was a success by all means, everyone everywhere was saying how much they were looking forward to the next one, and many volunteered to help with the set up. As implausible as it might have seemed, we were gaining the trust of the other Spades while uniting them into one student body. I began to feel a sense of hope, we might be able to pull this off.