Games and Duels

Magic stratego

Magic stratego becomes a regular part of the evenings in the First-Year Room, where the table turns into a small, living landscape of mountains, valleys, rivers and forests. Each player deploys their troops by thought alone, and the pieces march, fight and set traps that the opponent can’t see until it’s too late.

Retia almost always wins. She wins through patience, laying her traps early. When she wins five times in a row, one of the others accuses her of cheating. She replies dryly that cheating is impossible in that game.

The duel in the river

In Haltora’s combat lessons the students first practise with wooden swords. For the first duel he takes them down to the river, where a circle of flat stones lies out in the water, so that it comes up to their ankles.

The rules are simple: no swords and no words. Whoever says anything has lost. You may use your hands and what you have inside you, and if you fall or step outside the stones, you have lost as well.

Haltora also has a rule about Amícûs. If your animal joins the fight, you could end up losing it, because in a real fight your opponent would go after the animal.