The corridor outside the classrooms is chill with late-afternoon air, and the distant thud of boots from the sports field stays far enough away to feel merciful.
C. S. Lewis keeps pace beside John, books tucked under his arm, while the other boys thin out ahead of them toward the changing rooms.
C. S. Lewis
You said there were hidden truths here. What do you mean by that?
John
I mean the school is loud about its rules, but quiet about what rules people actually live by. Those are not always the same thing.
John glances toward the far end of the passage, then slows as if he has chosen the safer walls for this answer.
John
If Lewis is asking, he is already seeing through the performance. Better to be plain with him.
John
You can spend years here learning the timetable, and still miss the real machinery of the place. Who has power, who pretends not to, who is watched, who is left alone.
The bell has not yet rung, and for one brief stretch of stone passage they have time enough to breathe, walk, and talk without hurrying.
✓ Quest Accepted
Understand the school’s hidden rules
“Lewis asks why the staff turn such a blind eye to everything”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +1)
John stops by the window arch and tips his chin toward the corridor, as if the stone itself might overhear. The air feels thinner here, stripped of chatter and boots.
C. S. Lewis
Why do the staff look right past so much of it?
John gives a small, humourless breath. A chair scrapes somewhere deeper among the stacks nearby, then goes still again.
John
Because some things are convenient to miss. And because the men above us prefer order on paper to justice in practice.
John
Lewis can hear it now, the shape of the place under the rules.
He glances toward the far end of the passage, where movement can still be glimpsed by the changing-room doors.
John
If you want the real rule, watch who is allowed to be cruel without being corrected.
“Lewis sighs. He has already been watching that. He is just still trying to figure out what he can do about it short of armed revolution. Which he has also thought about.”
Lewis lets out a slow breath, and John sees the look on his face turn from thought to understanding. For a moment, the corridor seems to hold itself still around them.
C. S. Lewis
That is the rule, then. Not justice, just permission.
John
Yes. And once you see it, you cannot quite pretend otherwise.
“Lewis asks what can be done about it though? There has to be a way.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled -2)
C. S. Lewis
What can be done about it, then? There has to be a way.
John
There is. Not by asking the rule to be fair, but by learning where it bends. Who is watched, who is spared, who is safe to answer back.
John’s caution sharpens into something practical. He turns his head toward the corridor’s far end, as if measuring who might appear there, and the answer seems to settle into place between them.
John
If Lewis sees this now, he may survive it better than I did.
A chair scrapes somewhere deeper among the classrooms, and both boys still at once. The sound is small, but it empties the corridor of comfort.
John
Listen for that. If a Blood is near, you will know by the silence before he comes.
Quest Complete
Understand the school’s hidden rules
New Gift: Observant Scholar
“I tell John he misunderstands me. I'm wondering how to tear the whole thing down and rebuild it. I'm asking how I strip the Bloods of their power and upend the heirarchy.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +0)
C. S. Lewis
You have me wrong. I am not asking how to endure it. I am asking how to break it and build something else in its place.
John’s gaze fixes on Lewis for a beat, then shifts past him to the corridor, as if weighing the danger of saying more aloud.
John
That is the right question.
John
Then do not strike at the whole thing at once. Take away their certainty. Make them answer where they think no one dares.
The chair scrapes again, nearer now, and the sound is followed by the soft tread of someone approaching from the classroom end.
John
If a Blood hears a junior asking that, he will punish the asking. But he cannot punish what he cannot pin down.
John leans in under the window arch, one hand half-raised as if drawing a map in the air, while the shadow at the far end of the corridor lengthens toward them.
✓ Quest Accepted
Strip the Bloods of their power and upend the hierarchy
“Lewis nods and asks more loudly which sports have next after lessons?”
SUCCESS (Superb Willpower, rolled +0)
Lewis lifts his chin and asks more loudly which sports come after lessons. The corridor takes the sound and sends it down the stone passage, clean and plain.
John
Cricket, if they have their way. Football when they can force it. Sometimes running, if a master thinks boys look too comfortable.
John
He says it as if naming weather, but his eyes keep measuring the end of the corridor.
The approaching footsteps slow. The chair scrape comes again from deeper within the classrooms, nearer than before, and the sound of a voice turns muffled behind a door.
John
That is the point, Lewis. They make the day into a net. Games, lessons, watching, all of it.
A pair of younger boys cross the far junction and glance toward them, then hurry on. The corridor feels briefly wider, as if the school itself is listening.
John
If you mean to break anything, begin by learning which part of the net they cannot see tightening.
At the classroom end, a dark sleeve appears around the corner and the footsteps stop. Whoever it is has heard enough to decide whether to come on.
✓ Quest Accepted
Keep John talking and read the school’s next move
“I ask John which sport he thinks it will be today? Lewis is disappointed they haven't ridden horseback in awhile.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +2)
C. S. Lewis
Which sport is it today, then? I am getting tired of the ones they force on us. I wish we had horses again.
John
If they choose, football. If a master is in a mood, running. Horses are rarer, and kinder, which is probably why they do not care for them.
John
He glances past Lewis, then back, as though weighing whether the joke is safe.
The voice from the classroom corner does not come on. The sleeve withdraws. The corridor breathes again, but the silence now feels chosen.
John
You see it? They listen first. Then they decide what sort of boy you are allowed to be.
A distant chair scrapes somewhere deeper in the rooms, and John lets out a short, dry smile.
John
Come on, then. If we are to survive their rules, we may as well learn them out loud.
Quest Complete
Keep John talking and read the school’s next move
“As John turns away Lewis stops him with a hand to the shoulder and says he has a more personal question. He asks if he can count on John to help him look out for Parsley. Lewis is really worried for him. More than he lets show. But he thinks John already knows that part.”
SUCCESS (Superb Willpower, rolled +3)
Lewis catches John by the shoulder before he can turn away. The corridor’s tension has already thinned, and the boys stand in its wake, close enough now for honesty to be quiet.
C. S. Lewis
It is a more personal question. Can I count on you to help keep an eye on Parsley? I am worried for him.
John
Yes. Of course you can. If Fribble starts sniffing around him again, I want to know.
John
He lowers his voice, as if the corridor itself ought to be trusted less than Lewis does.
John’s answer comes at once, and with it a small, practical certainty. The chair scrape still stirs somewhere deeper in the building, but here the path between them feels set.
John
We keep watch together, then. If the school has its little hunters, it also has boys who can warn one another.
He glances toward the classroom end and then back to Lewis, half-smiling now, as if he has just given him something useful and not merely kind.
“Lewis asks with a blush, if also John thinks Lewis is too obvious regarding Parsley.”
SUCCESS (Superb Willpower, rolled -1)
C. S. Lewis
John, am I too obvious about Parsley?
John
Only if you mean to be. You look after him plainly, that is all. Malvern notices care faster than it notices cruelty.
John
He gives Lewis a quick, sideways look, weighing the question with real care.
The corridor feels narrower for a breath, not with danger now, but with the strange relief of being understood.
John
If you are asking whether it marks you out, yes. If you are asking whether it makes you foolish, no. It makes you readable.
C. S. Lewis
The answer lands cleanly. He can be read.
John
And Parsley is not the sort to mistake kindness for weakness. He will know what you mean.
“Does John understand Lewis fancies Parsley?”
NO (Likely, rolled 80)
C. S. Lewis
He does not see it. He thinks I am merely a boy who has found a cause.
Lewis watches John, waiting for a flicker of recognition that never comes. John simply nods, his expression steady and entirely focused on the mechanics of their shared survival.
“Lewis tells him that Parsley isn't just a cause to him, he more than that. And if John is his friend he wants to trust him with that truth.”
SUCCESS (Superb Willpower, rolled -1)
C. S. Lewis
Parsley is more than a cause to me. If you are my friend, I want you to know that.
The words settle between them in the corridor, plain and unadorned. Lewis does not flinch away from them.
John
Good. Then he is speaking honestly, not performing it.
John
Then I will take that as truth. It changes how I see you, in the right way.
John’s shoulders loosen. The boy in the window arch straightens a fraction, as if a weight has been set down.
John
You are not the only one trying to keep him safe. We can be careful together.
Somewhere deeper in the building, a chair scrapes softly among the stacks, then stills again. The corridor remains quiet, but the silence now feels watched.
“Lewis nods and they walk on.”
Lewis nods once, and they move on together, books tucked in against their blazers. Their shoes begin again on the stone floor, the corridor carrying them toward the next classroom while that distant scrape in the stacks sits somewhere behind them.