'I need help over here! Anyone, Halzon has broken his foot again.'
'Tell him to suck it up,' another player snarled. 'I've got two cracked ribs, and you don't hear me whining on about them!'
'What happened, Falcrest?' I'd picked up her name off the back of her Runeball jersey. And as I stepped closer, I found myself unable to look away from the disjointed mess that was Halzon's foot.
The tall raven-haired player tossed the ball to me, and I reached for it without thinking.
Violet laughed. 'I can't believe you caught it. There's a first time for everything.'
I just glared back at her; she wasn't wrong though, sports weren't exactly my thing back at school. I wasn't inherently rubbish at playing some of them; I just chose not to participate whenever I could get away with it. Back then, I'd have much preferred to sit under a tree, reading an old book until the sun happened to set. Those were the days.
'Nice catch,' Falcrest agreed, jolting me out of my sweet reverie. 'Now, I need you to hold him down while I get to healing the big ape.'
The second I pressed down on the wound, he roared in agony, and his arm flung out to swipe me in the jaw. I must have flown halfway across the room.
'Easy, Halzon, easy.'
The behemoth did as Falcrest asked, taking several deep breaths to calm himself down. 'Sorry.' He'd taken one quick look at me before collapsing back down onto the bench beneath him. And the metal legs groaned in protest as they warped under the strain of his hefty weight.
'We could use your help over here, Baltar.'
'Leave me alone.' He fired back at Falcrest before sulking some more.
I hadn't even noticed him hiding in the corner, but as soon as I did, I felt compelled to stand up for the man. 'Baltar's just lost his kid, you know?'
'We've all lost people here; that's the whole point. It's how the leadership control us.' She pulled out a bloody rag and began rubbing it over the injury repeatedly.
I winced. 'Won't that make the pain worse?'
Falcrest smiled back while adding more and more pressure each time. Then she stopped abruptly. 'You good now?'
'I sure am,' Halzon replied while hopping up and down on one leg. 'Now, let's teach those Silverskins a lesson they won't forget!'
Falcrest threw a clipboard at me but gestured to Violet as well. 'Sign your names, and pick a number. The halftime break's nearly finished.'
I had to snap my jaw shut. 'We're playing?'
Violet laughed at the look on my face, as did Falcrest. 'Relax, you're on the bench for now. But, given the number of injuries we suffer in a typical game, you'll likely be on the pitch before this one's over.'
'Ten minutes!' The game commentator announced.
'Alright, have any of you ever played Runeball?' There was no answer, so Falcrest exhaled heavily. 'How many of you have even heard of this game before now?'
We all shook our heads, but Violet seemed to clear her throat, looking rather smug. 'I was on the girl's Soccer team back at Feldspar Academy for a while.'
'Where?' Falcrest asked bewilderedly. 'Never mind, I'll start from the beginning.'
I felt a wave of relief flooding over me; at least I'd stand a chance of learning the basics of the game now. Playing it would be another matter, though.
Falcrest pointed at what looked to be an ordinary whiteboard fastened to the locker room wall. The pitch outline was unmistakable, having been drawn with thick black ink, but I had to rub my eyes when the five little crosses, which I assumed were players, began to move around in one half.
Before I could say a word, the Captain started talking again. 'Five players in each team's starting lineup; twelve in total when you include the substitutes. And as you might have already guessed, our job is to score in the other team's goal.'
'Tell them about the runes, Captain.'
Falcrest turned to face the tiny man while frowning. 'I was getting to it, Lockwood. Do you want to be Captain?'
'No.' He muttered, stepping back into the shadows.
'Right. Following each kickoff after a goal is scored, the ball is imbued with an elemental rune's magic - Fire, ice, lightning, water, wind. You get the idea.'
Falcrest took a deep breath before pointing back at the board. In the centre, an image of Runeball armour appeared. 'While preparing for each kickoff, the Captain must also imbue their team's armour with a runic element that might strengthen the squad. Look at this.' She clicked her fingers to turn the board into a projector screen.
It was a replay of the first half. 'I'd chosen the fire magic rune to start with, and as you can see, that didn't work out so well for us. The Runeball had been infused with ice magic which opposes fire, as lightning does to water. Anyway, The Saltmarsh Silverskins were fortunate to have chosen an ice magic rune for their armour.'
'It sounds like they were lucky.'
Falcrest shrugged. 'More like tactful. That decision of theirs had magnified their abilities from the moment they'd kicked off-'
'They kicked our asses.' Halzon finished for her.
Falcrest was biting her tongue, but eventually, she nodded.
I turned away from the video footage for a few seconds. 'Do the referees ever use the same rune type for both halves? For the ball, I mean.'
Falcrest scratched her head. 'Not usually, at least, not if one team is already leading by a few goals... Which, unfortunately, they are. It'd be a little unfair if the winning team were imbued with the same rune magic as the ball for the second half as well.'
I grinned as a potentially brilliant thought came to mind; at least, I imagined it was. 'Have you ever tried to combine every rune? Are there any rules that suggest you can't?'
'It doesn't work! The opposing runes have always cancelled each other out. I'm told the last Captain of this team blew himself up trying to do something like that. The altars can't handle all that energy passing through them.'
Halzon laughed at Falcrest, oblivious to her reaction. 'She believed that nonsense!'
I didn't see the humour. After all, our Captain was right about one thing; runic altars were quite fragile, and if misused, they certainly would do more harm than good. 'It'll work if you link them all together with a magic facilitating rune.'
Falcrest caught the ball I'd thrown to her. 'What's one of them?'
'When pre-school children were first taught magic through rune stones, they were given the tattoo of a facilitating rune to guide them through their studies,' I pointed at her dented armour. 'We can do the same here.'
Halzon was grumbling again; he rarely seemed to smile that one. 'What's the catch? because there has to be one, right?'
I grimaced. 'The pattern of this particular rune is memorable; if we use it more than once, other teams will start to copy.'
'How is it memorable?' Violet asked.
'It's hard to describe, but you'll know when you see it.'
Halzon waved his hand dismissively. 'It won't matter; those players' barely have one brain cell between them. They'll certainly try to copy us, but it'll be a while before they're using the rune correctly.'
Falcrest was glaring at the bigger man. 'But when they are successful, and eventually, they will be. Any players with natural ability will, of course, run rings around everybody else.'
I felt the need to defend my idea. 'Captain, if you want to win this game, this is how you do it.'
She picked up the clipboard with her free hand as she scanned down through the list of names. 'Okay... Jake, get started. But you'd better be quick. We're about to be called back out any minute now.'