Chapter 17: Jin
In an instant the room fell silent, unusually so with the novices we were training. I edged closer to the near end of the hallway and waited carefully. My breath came shallowly.
Perhaps I’d better back up and explain where we were. The members of what Edward had whimsically dubbed the Parli Rebellion had taken up temporary residence in the lower level of a nondescript reasonably modern building just outside of the Tournament. How we were managing this I wasn’t quite sure; I made a mental note to ask Kushal when he returned.
Along with the original five of us we had recruited some of the younger previously unaffiliated competitors in the area and, after swearing them to something approximating secrecy, began training them in the ways of Parli. Of course, most of them had a long way to go. The room was lit only by the welled windows in the left and back walls, and by a few high-powered but directional lights hanging over the two industrial tables.
With the discovery of Edward and Elaine’s talents, I was more convinced than ever that Parli was something big. And by extension, that likely meant that it was true about the Hahr Kerr trying to take over and destroy the tournament. With nukes.
OK, he may not have said “destroy”. Or “nukes”.
The noise came again and I decided to investigate. It was here where my talent really became useful. I closed my mouth, stepped fully to the side of the room, and casually walked up the hallway. Even if anyone did see me, they’d simply pass over as if I wasn’t important. True invisibility.
No sooner had I stepped into the passage to the outside than a cloaked figure blew past me. In an instant, despite all my precautions, our eyes met. I shivered.
The rest of the group was unprepared for this intrusion, however. The figure extracted a slip of paper from its robes and held it out. Flora stepped forward to take it, confused, and Christine leaned over her shoulder to read it. Edward and Elaine looked at each other apprehensively.
There was a hollow bell-like sound. I looked up, trying to see where it had come from.
“Resolved,” Flora read shakily, “The Tournament structure should be controlled only by a limited few.”
The figure began to speak in a muffled but obviously male voice. “I affirm the resolution that the Tournament structure should be controlled only by a limited few. For this purpose I offer a Value Premise of Social Stability and a Value Criterion of Permanence, where ‘Permanence’ is defined as being able to stand the test of time, for an arbitrarily long period of said time. Now, onto my contentions…”
Flora stared, then dropped the slip of paper and jumped to the table, scrambling for a pen and paper, now slashing Aff and Neg columns down the pages. Elaine and Edward stood frozen in the corner, and I…I could think of no way to fend off this intruder. My mind had frozen. The novi were huddled at the far end of the room.
It was Christine, for all our preparation, who took a stand. (Let me qualify that statement: I have utmost respect for Christine, but without a partner and without serious interest in Parli it is no surprise she had not mastered as much of the recent techniques as the rest of us. Anyway.)
It was Christine, for all our preparation, who took a stand, stepping forward. “Hold on, Point of Order!” she said indignantly, “The round can’t start until both teams are ready, and besides, what happened to the coin flip to determine sides? Seriously!”
“For one thing, this is LD,” the figure corrected, but it…he…sounded amused.
“OK, what’s going on here?” Elaine finally demanded, though she was looking at Christine for reassurance. Edward clenched his hand and took a half step forward as if adding emphasis.
Flora looked at me, breaking my cover. (I could have sworn she did it on purpose.) Sighing, I stepped forwards from my position diagonally behind the figure and tried to square my shoulders. “Who are you?”
The intruder finally let out a laugh. Not a friendly laugh, not a supervillain laugh (still can’t get that one right), but the somewhat foreboding laugh of a compatriot who you’re never quite sure is on your side. He drew back the hood of his cloak in a most Jedi-like fashion, revealing short brown hair and a face around the age of the would-have-been Avatar of Parli, Yining.
“You have never had a teacher before, have you,” he said. It was not a question, and it made me bristle.
“We have had many teachers,” I replied, holding in my feelings as always. “When learning material thought to be lost, however…”
The man turned his face towards me and I shivered once again. His eyes were incredibly blue and showed the look of one who had once known great power. “You should not be telling that to any stranger who walks into your…classroom,” he said mildly.
Turning back and addressing the room at large, the man went on, not loudly but certainly assuredly. “Fortunately, I am not any stranger. Well, I am a stranger as of yet, but not in the long run. I am your teacher, the first teacher you have ever had.” He paused, and I wondered how he could sound so definitive with such waffling words. His last words were very clear, however. “I am your opponent. For you see, only true teacher is the opponent.”
“And do you have a name, teacher?” I surprised myself by speaking so boldly.
The man inclined his head in my direction and gave a small smile, as if at least partially satisfied. “Yes. It is Daniel.”