The Duel Board
The duel board was on the wall outside the main practice hall, and Cyan
had been reading it every day since his first week.
It was updated every morning. Challenges registered, results recorded,
rank implications noted. The board was the Academy's social mathematics
made visible â€" who was rising, who was stagnant, who was overreaching.
Reading it carefully told you almost as much about the Academy's
internal politics as anything else.
He'd been watching a pattern for three weeks. A Silver-rank second-year
student named Orris had been working his way down the board
systematically, challenging students below his rank â€" technically
permitted, though frowned upon â€" and accumulating wins against
provisionals and low Bronze students who had no real defense against
someone with Silver output.
He'd beaten four provisionals already. The last one had ended the
student's academic career â€" after the duel loss, the student had
withdrawn from evaluation.
Cyan had watched Orris in the halls. He was the specific type of person
who used a system's rules to do things the system nominally discouraged.
Not against the rules. Just unpleasant. The kind of person who
understood that winning within a system was as good as winning outside
it and preferred the protection of the former.
On a Monday morning in the sixth week, Orris walked past the duel board,
looked at it, and then looked at Cyan standing beside it.
Cyan had been there for ten minutes. He'd been there long enough that it
could have looked like he was waiting.
He hadn't been waiting. He'd been reading the board. But he kept his
expression neutral and didn't clarify.
Orris looked at his provisional badge. Looked at the null result
notation.
The thing about people like Orris was they couldn't resist a target that
looked completely safe.
'Provisional,' Orris said. 'Null result.' He said it the way you stated
facts, not the way you asked questions.
'Yes,' Cyan said.
'You know what the duel board is?'
'I've been reading it for six weeks.'
Orris looked at him for a moment. 'I'll put a challenge in for this
Friday. Sanctioned, witnessed, standard rules.' He paused. 'You don't
have to accept. Provisionals aren't required to participate in the board
system.'
'I know,' Cyan said.
He said nothing else.
Orris waited a beat, then walked away. The challenge would go up on the
board by the afternoon.
Cyan stood at the board and thought about what he was doing. He'd
deliberately been visible at the board at the time he knew Orris came
by. He'd made himself look like an easy target. Technically, Orris had
made the challenge. Technically, Cyan had done nothing except stand
somewhere.
He went to find Dain.
Dain was in the common hall eating something he claimed was breakfast
despite it being the fourth hour of the afternoon. He looked up when
Cyan sat down across from him.
'I have a duel on Friday,' Cyan said.
Dain set down his fork. 'Orris?'
'You heard.'
'The board updated twenty minutes ago. There's already a small crowd of
people discussing whether the null result provisional actually accepted
or whether Orris put his own name in.' Dain looked at him steadily. 'Did
you provoke it?'
'I was standing somewhere.'
'Uh huh.' Dain crossed his arms. 'What's your plan?'
Cyan looked at him. 'I'm working on it.'
'You should probably have a plan before Friday.'
'I'll have one by Thursday.'
Dain looked skeptical. Then he pushed his plate across the table.
'Eat something,' he said. 'You think better when you're not hungry. I've
noticed.'
Cyan looked at the plate.
He ate something.