Page 116 of First Ritual
The councilwoman smiled. “Before we start, some housekeeping. You will know of the magus beside me, Miss Tempest Bronte Corentine. She recently displayed unprecedented power in her battle affinity along with proven levels in apothecary and novice levels in divination.”
Someone whistled low. Possessing three affinities wasn’t common. Generally, the more affinities a magus had, the weaker they were in each one. For instance, I’d wager that most of the esteemed and council members only had one affinity, so they were powerhouses in their area.
Winona cast me a look. “Please join me in welcoming her to Vero. I’m sure you’re as excited and hopeful of her being here as I am.”
Were they, though? Some looked reluctant to say the least. If my dedication to Caves was in question, then they didn’t need to worry. This game was my new chosen sanity.
“As a reminder, please be aware that a confidentiality charm coats the entrance of every meeting room you enter while discussing Caves. We’ve found this strategy best to maintain good feeling within the team. This will prevent you from speaking of anything sensitive with Fertim team members or in their presence.”
Totally for my benefit. Good to know—not that I’d had any intentions to blab, but I could imagine the suspicion that might’ve been thrown my way until I’d proved my trustworthiness to everyone.
Winona sat again. “And we begin. Let us start by identifying which territories to seize.” She waved a hand and the individual glass beads detached from the chandelier overhead. They settled on the far wall into a map of the cave system.
Winona glanced at me. “Here is our current occupation.”
Exactly half of the beads on the map lit red in the esteemed, proven, and novice areas. Red beads were scattered through the rest of the caves but congregated heavily in the south and west territories. I’d heard enough of the game to recall that having coven members in novice rooms was considered a “presence.” A “presence of five” meant five novice magus were in an area of the caves. Proven rooms were referred to as a territory, and a team had to have enough novice presence to even try to seize proven rooms. Then, the aim of the game was to capture enough proven territories to then be able to go after the entire quadrant, which would entail claiming esteemed quarters.
The map and layout of the game was making more sense to me now.
My quipu was missing the numbers though.
I focused on the red beads in each quadrant.
Each of the four quadrants—north, south, east, west—was made up of two esteemed wings that housed seven or eight esteemed, four territories that housed twenty-five proven rooms, and then each territory had a presence that housed twelve or thirteen novices. That matched against the numbers I recalled from my coven initiation at esbat. Thirty esteemed, just under one hundred proven, and two hundred novices.
Happy I’d grasped the number of players, I tuned in again.
“Territory claims are only viable in the northwest and southeast,” Sven said, sounding bored. “We have four to choose from.”
The areas Sven had suggested for attack bordered Vero’s current claimed space. “What’s stopping you from staging an attack in the middle of Fertim-held territory?” I asked. “To get some of our magus there.”
Winona answered, “We can only use the magus in the area or bordering the area for an attack. We must move from where we already have numbers.”
Ah, yes. I did recall something about that.
Louder, she said, “Let’s make a list of novices and proven in the territories.” The four areas of the map in discussion zoomed in, and the rest of the cave system disappeared.
I rolled my eyes when Wild and Huxley were the first names to be called out. When someone was done speaking, the beads of the second chandelier in the quarters clinked together to emit a soft ring. Names appeared on a list by each of the four territories.
The proven in each territory appeared along with their strengths and weaknesses. The attack team then moved to novices.
I couldn’t wait to add everything I’d learned in this meeting to my quipu. From the patterns on my artwork, I was already certain that winning was only possible by creating and sustaining a large imbalance.
But who should be targeted to create that imbalance… which specific members of the coven… that was something yet to be discovered.
The hours rolled by as Winona made the call to begin listing their magus in each area. It was the same thing—proven, strengths and weaknesses, novice, strengths and weaknesses.
I preferred this logical approach to the mission to the ploy meeting last week. That had been too complicated for me. Too vague. But this method was something I could appreciate.
“Bronte,” Sven called.
I tore my gaze from the map and lists to him, then realized he’d been adding me to a list. I frowned. “I’m in esteemed quarters.”
“And a proven in ability,” Winona said. “You will be involved in the attack and defense of territories. We’ve assigned you to a proven room for the game only.”
My gaze shifted to the map where a red bead blazed brighter on the outskirts of the south territory.
This was news to me. Did I relish the idea of a good fight in my current mood? Absolutely. “Sounds perfect.”