Role

Chapter 8

The sound of war drums thrummed constantly and with purpose and for those paying attention had
recently picked up with intensity as Magner stood alongside of Crraya and Aoirse in front of the Bawdy
Old Biddy, Ysaloerye and the Cunning Blade, Verathi, Warlords of the Battlerager Village. For this was
the conclusion of the Rite of War.

Ysaloerye looked at Aoirse and said, so yer shall lead tha village wid tha old moggy as yer drillmaster.

The sting of disappointment slapped Magner in the face upon hearing those words. She had failed to
become Commander and it wounded her pride. It took a few moments, but, she managed to muster
herself enough to shove aside the acidic emotion and do her best to congratulate Aoirse, for she still
held respect for the giant and did not want to insult him in his victory, especially now that he was
Commander.

Besides, she tried to remind herself. Any failure rested squarely on her shoulders. It could be reasoned
that it would have been a tall order for one as young as Magner to defeat a hero like Aoirse in the Rites,
but, she still believed in her heart it was possible. How could she not? She was full of pride and
confidence in herself. But, her mistakes within the Rites had cost her. Not only that, Aoirse was
deserving of the position. He had been in the Village far longer than Magner had. In fact, he had been a
hero when she was inducted and had backed her with his recommendation. His service record was
simply not something that could be overlooked. Because she was still young she truthfully knew very
little of his combat prowess, however, he demonstrated he was dangerous within the Rites and she
assumed that he must do the same in the field.

Her first mistake within the Rites was not knowing her enemy. During her first single combat match
against Aoirse she realized only too late that he was a warrior trained in the ways of Riddle of Resilience
and that her tactic of trying to make him drop his polearm through loss of strength was improbable.

Her second mistake came in the second round of the Rites during group combat. She had been teamed
with Aoirse to fight Crraya and she allowed Aoirse to dictate the strategy, despite knowing it had
shortcomings. She had thought to let the giant stumble on his own two feet in regards to these tactics
but it did not seem to work out this way as she ultimately took credit for the failure. A leader needs to
be vocal, and she failed at this here.