Nadine

134. The Ranks

3 hours later I'm in Dipak's old advisor office. I've nearly got everything done.

The clothes maker promised one of the boys dress coats will be done in the morning. So we can look at it all done with the red on it.

I look at the everyday outfit for the village and it's not bad really. I just want it different a little and extremely different colors. I'm going to put the boys in a black button down long sleeve shirt. Black undershirt. Black underwear and pants. The only red they will have on them is the belt that goes over everything with their sword holder and their patches. And now they'll have black shoes as well.

But the everyday coat will be longer. I'll have it go down to between their ankles and knees. It's going to have the red trim on it. All the way down the front and around the wrist openings.

The commander patch will be a red rectangle with commander written in black. The Ankh will be just red. Then I want to do something for the pirates too. I design a black patch. With only the compass rose in red. I don't really want to write pirate on it. So just the red compass rose for now. I put Captain above Dipak's though.

I sit down and think. The patches will be, dragon eye on top. Then king or prince crown. Commander, magician, pirate. I really should come up with a rank title for Dracul and Frode. I think I'll go with Ambassador. Then anyone over 1000 will be an Guardian. Everyone at the table should get a council patch.

Dipak walks in. "Woman you're late for dinner."

"I'm trying to do the patches and ranks. Just eat without me."

"I'm not going to eat without you. What do you have?" He sits beside me.

"Well for ranks. King is on top. Then commander. Then ambassador. I was thinking Frode and Dracul for that one." He nods at me. "After that maybe guardian, or keeper and everyone should get a council badge."

"Council thing is a pin baby. It's on my collar. That means council. You can make it red."

I look at it and nod. "Yea, I like that little pin."

"I really like the ambassador rank for Frode and Dracul. Not sure about guardian or keeper. I mean if you're just going to rank everyone at the table that, you might as well take the pin off."

"No I like the pin. I'll just stick with the pin for now."

He smiles at me.

"So the badges would go. Dragon eye or eyes on top. Then the king or prince crown. Daddies would say king. You boys are like kings in holding, so you can have other ranks too." He laughs for a second. "So then would be your title under the crown. So like commander or ambassador. After that would be the row of extras magician and pirate. And everyone gets the pin."

He nods. "I do like the idea of adding more ranks than just commander and ambassador. What all did you have?"

"There's like elder, guardian, keeper, hunter, officer, advisor, defender, warlord."

Tre and Tye walk in. "Are you 2 coming to dinner?"

I shake my head and they sit down at the conference table with us.

"Well we can't really use advisor. Everyone is that." I nod. "I like elder, guardian, keeper, and warlord."

"What are you talking about?"

"New ranking system."

"I really think people should only get 1 rank. So it would be like commander, ambassador would be like placed only. Those 2 shouldn't be something anyone can get." Dipak nods at me. "Then the ranks people could get or earn somehow would be keeper, guardian, warlord, and elder."