On the Rymchaeld Sea

I woke that morning at 0600 to find a slip of paper next to my bed, telling me to report to Mistress Dalya's office at 0730. When I arrived outside her door at 0728, there were a few other people there. The first was a girl, taller than me, and much prettier. I mean, I'm not /bad/ to look at, but she would stand out anywhere. She had long brown hair and big brown eyes. I recognised her from my dormitory - she was the quiet one at the back who didn't mix much, kept to herself. The second girl was older, a little smaller, and stood kind of warily a little apart from the pretty one. The last person was a boy, nondescript brown hair and rough hands.

A minute later Mistress Dalya opened the door, ushering us inside. She was an elderly woman, kind but very disciplined. I'd been in there before, although not too often - I wasn't a regular troublemaker. We stood a little apart from each other in front of her desk, waiting as Dalya took her seat.

"This is Decurio Maloniel," she said, gesturing to someone in the shadows. The figure moved forward. She wasn't much older than us, but looked as though she'd seen a lot of battles. Her uniform bore the marks of a Decurio, the captain of a squad of legionnaires.

At that point there was a knock on the door. "Enter!" Dalya called.

The door opened, and another boy strode into the room. His clothes were fancy, and his face bore an arrogant sneer. I disliked him already. Rich upper-class scum.

He bowed to Dalya, but didn't apologise. She raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything about his tardy arrival.

"You have been summoned because-"

Another knock interrupted her words. "Enter!"

The door opened again, two new figures entering the room. The first wore a Legion uniform, its markings that of a Praefectus. He was a large man with a beard, and looked dangerous. The second figure was tall and tanned, with straight black hair and bright green eyes. He was not in legion uniform, instead dressed in simple greens and blues. While the first man looked fairly old, the second seemed quite young, no more than a few years older than me.

"Ah." Dalya smiled. "Novices, this is Praefectus Werner and Shendir."

Werner nodded brusquely to Dalya and Maloniel.

"Praefectus, if you would start."

"Of course," the older man said. "A few weeks ago, we received word of black ships raiding along the coast. They were described by witnesses as large, twice the size of merchant ships. After a few raids, they moved off into the Gorge."

He stepped to the side, the other man moving forward a little.

"Shendir, if you would," Dalya said.

The man nodded and smiled. "Around that time, my companions and I were in the region of Lamordia," he said. "We happened to notice a most unusual occurrence. A large black castle was floating through the air and landed on Mt Tepest. A short while later, the black ships arrived, and rendezvoused with the castle. Then they started building a bridge across the Gorge."

"You have been chosen because we have no full Legion members to spare, and you are the most promising among the Novices," Dalya says. "You will be working together in a squad under Decurio Maloniel. Your objective is to go to the castle and find out who is manning it, what they're doing, and what they want. You will have no contact with the Legion during the mission as you can't be connected with us. This means no Legion equipment, but you will be supplied with money. It also means that if you are captured in this mission, you will be on your own."

She glances among us. "You will spend the next week training and preparing under Decurio Maloniel and Praefectus Werner. You may go now."

After we leave I find out the others' names - the pretty girl is Kalika, the other Eliane, and the boy Aldo. The arrogant noble is Valmar.

We spend the next week training.

[May be edited later; Shendir has to check his dialogue]

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