Cutlery split from the group. She jogged the long way around the tower. Her smile grew It took her a minute to get around three-quarters of the tower. The other group she estimated only took thirty seconds or so. As she came to the familiar dining hall area she heard their commotion. She slowed and walked along the inner wall.
As she rounded the corner she saw no guards by the doorway. What she did see was the backs of three of the kids standing shoulder to shoulder. Just like that first day, they were blocking the view of anyone behind them. It worked especially well now that they were youths instead of children. One of them was a very wide muscle-bound girl, and the math boy from before had a loose robe. The robe was hanging off his arms like a sheet to dry, blocking the view very nicely. She would have to ask them how they were so good. They were even better than most street rat gangs she had known down in the city.
She walked nonchalantly towards them. Suddenly when she reached the dining hall doors she came to a stop. Now she could hear inside, as well as whatever Clicks gang was doing. Spells went off on the other side of the youth wall and soldiers cursed. She pressed her ear to the door like she was leaning on it and watching the commotion. It was a little awkward, but if she was caught they couldn't blame her for watching. They hadn't told her to stay away from the dining hall either.
Listening intently to the door she heard muted whispers. Blasted doors were too thick. The inside was so large they could be thirty or more feet from these doors. Slowly Cutlery began leaning onto the door handle and it pressed down. Then she gradually pulled away.
As she did, the spells stopped going off. The soldier's curses turned to yells and reprimands. They must have contained whatever was going on. The door came out slightly and a crack appeared. No lock on these things. Why would they lock them? Guess they weren't geniuses, just pretty smart.
She stuck her foot in the crack and leaned back against the door. Any silence from inside had turned to dull whispers. Her hunch had been right, they were guarding a meeting of some sort in there. She listened very carefully through the yelling down the hall to hear inside.
"said FHS, said slivers, asf, these kids, the temple, the been fifths by the time safari..." Cutlery thought she heard Haze's voice saying. It turned to incomprehensible whispers often. She took the final real risk, something she couldn't talk her way out of. She peeked in.
-
Inside the dining hall was set up the same as usual. Haze was seated with another golden soldier at one of the tables. On the table, they had a bunch of complex charts and maps. Mathematical tables, one Silver Sash kid had called that type of writing at Many Home.
Cutlery surveyed the room and saw no guards. Must be a real secret meeting. Nothing was near the door to dart behind. She picked up a few more words as well.
"Rush training, move ahead city exposure, teams, teams, teams, combine, upper slivers, forces, war, wars, future, the weapon, steal, raise, show, festival, contain, protect, watch, end, expand, coast, inland." Haze and the other gold woman said. Cutlery heard this over three minutes or so. During this time grunting, scarping, fighting, and more happened outside. The soldiers asked several times for the wall of youths to leave.
Haze and the other gold pointed at the maps and tables, marking things. She couldn't see any details on the papers, not that she could read well, but maps were easy to read she had heard. At the end of the three minutes of watching one of the mage math boys cleared his throat and glanced back at her, clearing it again. She slowly eased the door closed and walked over to them, pretending to watch the guards.
Click's group had removed as many stones from the floors as they could. Now they were being as dumb as possible putting them back. The soldiers directed them, but they kept putting big ones in spots that would block others from going in. They were down to only a few stones left and they could only act so dumb before the guards threatened to punch them.
A simple, stupid, low-risk plan, man Cutlery loved these guys all of a sudden. Once all the stones were back in the guards yelled at them and went back to the door. Scurrying back to the chill area they launched onto the couches giggling. Cutlery explained to Click what she had heard.
"Sounds like they are on a tight schedule of some kind, to do with training us." Click thought at her. Cutlery wasn't sure what to think but Click seemed to have a big mind for this. She fed him some more details and his antenna twitched, it seemed to be his thinking quirk.
"So we are probably gonna be soldiers. Which could be hard on a short schedule. Interesting, this was worth it. Thank you Cutlery. What will you do with this?" Click thought. Cutlery had zoned out but she considered it.
"If that is true it's likely best to keep learning here till they let us out for some quest. They would be expecting us to run. They'll want some kind of guarantee." Cutlery thought back.
"Indeed." Thought Click. Everyone sat around and thought about it all. Click relayed his thoughts to everyone. He had mentioned some kind of paranoia about spies, so he preferred to speak like this rather than everyone just discussing it out loud. Cutlery wondered why.
For now, she had a question. How had she gotten so smart? For now, she would blame it on the golden goo ritual. Fuzzy memories were all she had of the event. Perhaps she would join Rega's sob nap. That sounded good. Chloe will wake her up for dinner. That also sounded good. Yep, all in a day works.
She bid goodbye to her new gang of spies and hooligans and headed to her room.
-
Cutlery thought quietly on her bed. Rega had sprawled on top of her sheets. She had also flung off her shirt and pants. Leaving little else. Drool dripped off her chin onto her shoulder. Now that she had thought of trying to escape when they were taken to the city, she realized she wasn't sure where else to go. Cutlery stood on her bed and looked through the high window. It had iron bars on the outside. The city below was green from sunset. Everything below merely looked like small dots.
The dots slowly traveled about their stone rivers. Glints of silver sashes caught her eyes every few seconds. They were like flies on food, everywhere in a small cloud above the buildings. None came near the castle. No one here needed anything.
Cutlery plopped back down on her bed. Haze's story from that first day flickered into her outer thoughts. Would the festival for the Temple be just as grand as that one in the coming months? She hadn't been old enough to remember the last two Temple passings when she was one and four. This would be her first real one. She would even be an adult too! Or, a youth to be precise.
She still had rat blood and guts on her at a resonant level. She could just toss her sheets. For now, she was tired enough to not notice the smell. She lay down and her mind whirled. Sure she wouldn't fall asleep, Cutlery tossed about.
-
Rega squealed and jumped out of bed. Cutlery jerked out of sleep. Alas, she was being grabbed and shaken back and forth a second later.
"Mmmmm." Cutlery said.
"Look!" Rega said. Cutlery peaked out of her anti-light fort and saw a new woman in front of her. It was still Rega, but now her shirt had been cropped. It now counted only as a bra. It was forced forward by two large breasts. Cutlery lifted her own sheet. Her chest was now flat and her legs when swung over the edge no longer hit the floor. She had shrunk. Both of them launched toward the mirror. Their hips and shoulders pushed on one another as they fought to look. Rega had grown in every way while Cutlery had done the opposite. Rega looked down at Cutlery. Cutlery for her part couldn't see Rega's chin.
"How did you steal all that?" Cutlery asked. Rega squealed and hugged the much lighter Cuterly. Cutlery for her part almost passed out due to the amount of bosom she was in. After a few minutes, a knock came on their door.
Rega flung it open. Chloe took them in. Rega stood proudly and jigged about in her undergarments. Cutlery picked her nose. Chloe moved past the awaiting Rega and placed a hand on Cutlery's low shoulder.
"I'm sorry for your loss," Chloe said. Then she pulled her into a hug against her armor. Chloe patted Cutlery's head.
"What the fuck. " Cutlery said. Cutlery was fine with her new body but Rega and Chloe comforted her. Rega apologized for not thinking.
"It's fine. I'm fine, what the hell." Cutlery said. Chloe congratulated Rega. The smells of dinner hit the two morphing girls for the first time. They were starving yet again. Rega was happy she could walk with a bounce in not only her feet. Rega did a lot of high skips as she walked. They reached the dining hall doors where Haze waited outside with most of the kids waiting in front of him. He looked mad.
