Welcome To My Dark Side

Chapter 3 Demoted

A meeting had been arranged for a handful of officers. Lord Patrick had organised the meeting since he wanted to talk about the idea of using code names. He wanted to make sure that his officers agreed with this idea because he did not want to make it easy for the opposing army to intercept and interpret messages. The officers had now agreed on this idea, however this had now led to an interesting conversation about what code names everyone should be given. "Hmm what about the code name stable boy?" Lord Patrick asked. Seeing that everyone was confused by this he decided to explain why he had thought of it. "No one would suspect stable boy to actually be a code name for the grandmaster and besides I do love working with the horses." He explained clearing up any confusion. "How about lapis lazuli for Lady Azura?" Officer Siphon suggested. "Yes, that's a great idea. I think everyone will be able to remember that." Lady Azura said liking the suggestion.

Captain Lyria was also attending the meeting and until this point she had been incredibly bored. "How about ancient debris for Commander Hilda?" She laughed quietly so that only her mentor could hear her. Appalled by Lyria's comment, Lady Azura decided to give Lyria a taste of her own medicine. "And why don't we call you what's that as a code name?" She whispered. "Why what's that?" Lyria said, puzzled. "Because your curiosity often gets the better of you." She explained to her. Lyria was still confused since she didn't consider herself a particularly inquisitive person. "No I don't. Besides, even ancient debris is a better code name." Lyria argued back. "We are not using that code name and that is final!" Lady Azura snapped back. "Ok fine but what about netherite as Commander Hilda's code name?" Lyria said a little louder than their previous whispers. Unknown to the pair, almost everyone had chosen a name apart from Commander Hilda and so when she had heard Lyria's suggestion she thought netherite was a good name. "An excellent suggestion. Now I am not the only one without a code name." Commander Hilda announced, rather pleased with this name. "I also agree with you Commander. Netherite describes you as a good strong leader and a valuable member of the Frostbourne." Said Officer Vimir.

Lady Azura on the other hand did not agree. She knew that everyone else was unaware of the context of which had made Lyria come up with such a name. Not wanting to offend Commander Hilda, she had come with a way to replace the name. "Commander, do you not think that netherite might be a bit too obvious. Would a code name like shepherd not be better as it would still represent your strong role as a leader but it would be more discreet?" She asked. Commander Hilda thought for a moment before she eventually decided to go with shepherd instead of netherite. "What about me? I still don't have a code name yet." Captain Lyria said, panicking slightly as it seemed like she had been forgotten about. "How about little monkey for when you are well behaved and cheeky monkey when you let your more playful side take over?" Said Lady Azura. Everyone agreed with her suggestion after Captain Lyria's trouble making. "Fine." Lyria groaned seeing she had no choice but to accept it. She could always try and persuade them to change it later.

With the meeting now drawing to a close, Lord Patrick granted permission for everyone to leave apart from Captain Lyria. "Captain Lyria you are to stay." He ordered. Despite showing no signs of nervousness, Lyria was nevertheless concerned by why Lord Patrick had chosen her to remain. She was about to ask him what he wanted her for as soon as the last person left the room, however he spoke up before she did. "Captain Lyria I understand that you will probably want to know why I have kept you here, although I think you can probably guess why." He said. She was puzzled by his statement. Lord Patrick noticed that Lyria did not understand and so he decided to explain. "Officer Agatha informed me that you have mixed up all the documents by doing a lazy job of sorting them out. She also told me that you had swapped the labels on the different colour inks." He began before continuing. "I am also aware of your 'little jokes' however, these are not anywhere near the harmful consequences that could come out of your sloppiness with organising documents." He added. Lyria remained silent as she continued listening to the grandmaster seated on the other side of the war table.

Lord Patrick spoke up again since Lyria had not wanted to share any of her thoughts. "I have also been told by many other soldiers that you forced them to complete the ridiculous amount of chores you had asked Lady Azura to give you yesterday. While they did complete your minor chores, they were able to complete their more important assignments." He took a deep breath before he carried on. "I believe you have abused your rank lately and for this reason I will demote you. I shall promote you back to captain once you are responsible enough for that role. I am only demoting you to the rank of lieutenant as I do believe you are capable of being given a high rank, although should you continue misbehaving in such a manner, I will have you completely demoted to a private. Do you understand?" He said sternly. Captain Lyria or now Lieutenant Lyria chose to speak. "Yes." She said coldly. Lord Patrick was a little surprised by Lyria's lack of respect as she had not at all addressed him in her answer. He assumed that was because she was devastated. "You can be upset." He said. "I am not upset but I am hungry." She told him, however while she showed no signs of emotion she was indeed upset. "Well in that case you are free to go and for the time being everyone is to address you as Lieutenant." Lord Patrick dismissed Lyria since he was unable to pick up on her feelings.

When she had left the war room, she was no longer sad about her demotion. Lyria was now angry that had it not been for Officer Agatha telling Lord Patrick about the documents, then she probably wouldn't have been demoted. She was also annoyed that someone had noticed the mess so quickly and had remembered that she had been the one who had been ordered to sort them out. 'I should teach Officer Agatha a lesson.' Lyria thought, trying to come up with an idea to do so. She had come up with a scheming plan to get back at Agatha without her knowing who had done it. She was going to try and hide puffer fish, which were known for their unpleasant side effects upon consumption, inside Officer Agatha's lunch. The Frostbourne were to have fish soup for lunch, which meant that concealing a puffer fish in Agatha's food would be even easier. Lyria just had to put it inside the soup while no one was watching, although as a scout who was professionally trained to be sneaky, this wasn't exactly going to be difficult.

Agatha began to feel like the whole world was spinning around her. Her sudden dizziness ended as quickly as it had started. "Are you alright Officer?" Asked a foot soldier that she was sitting next to. "I think so." She replied as she continued eating her soup. Once again she felt unwell. "Are you sure you are alright?" He said again now that it was more noticeable. The other soldiers seated at the table were also concerned. "Perhaps I ought to go to the medical camp." Agatha said as she stood up to leave, only to find herself being caught by one of the men when she started to fall over. "I think it's best if someone of us were to accompany you." He said. Agatha nodded in approval as they helped her get to the medical camp.