Free The Fall of Chance by Terry McGowan

bad news. The good news was that if Unt got into the right Order, some of the posts he didn’t want were gone. The bad news was that if anyone else got into the Order before him, there was a better chance they’d get his post.
    The first thing to get his attention outside his own interests was when Bull became the tenth person to be drawn. As Kelly called Bull’s name and Unt looked over, he realised with surprise that his friend looked gripped with terror. Beads of sweat studded the short hairs around his temples, he gripped the bench as though to hold himself in place and Kelly had to ask him twice before he heard the instruction to roll.
    Despite his usual blasé manner, Unt knew how much Bull wanted a place among the Medics. It was strange how someone so brash had such a tender, nurturing side.
    Unfortunately for Bull, his great blocky form didn’t do him any favours. He wasn’t dumb but he wasn’t the smartest either and the Medics were one of the more mentally-driven groups. Bull was going in with an Aptitude Modifier of plus-two which would pull him in the opposite direction to where he wanted to go. If it wasn’t for the fact that their secret had upped his Talent Modifier, Bull would have had next to no chance.
    He rolled. Unt watched the dice, as familiar as his own. Bull’s dice were larger than normal and were unusual in being black and red. The pips of the dice were fuming eyes: red eyes on the black die and gold eyes on the red. Bull liked to think they looked fierce but right now they looked more frightening to him than anyone else.
    The scattering dice trickle-tapped on the dark, heavy wood and settled quickly. Two pairs of eyes looked back up at Unt. Double two: a score of four. He checked Bull who seemed transfixed. A worm-wriggle of a crease played across his brow as he checked and rechecked what that score meant to him.
    “Well?” asked Kelly peevishly.
    “Er, four,” Bull replied. His mind seemed detached from whatever automatic response had allowed him to speak.
    Bull might be struggling to comprehend the score but as Kelly looked to his sheet, Unt’s chest knotted as he worked it out and realisation dawned. Elation and worry wrestled violently under his ribs as Kelly put voice to the realisation.
    “Let it be recorded that Mr Bulton has rolled a four.” Kelly looked sternly at Bull who stared back wide-eyed. “Mr Bulton, you have an Aptitude Modifier of plus-two and a Talent Modifier of three in favour of the Medics. Your Aptitude-Modified score of six is within your Talent Range. You are hereby entered into the order of Medics.”
    So there it was. Bull had scraped into the Order he wanted by a point: one of the two he’d been awarded after the incident at the river. That false credit had got him the position he wanted and now they were guilty of fraud. It had been a kind thing to do and this was the best of outcomes but somehow, it didn’t feel good.
    It didn’t feel bad either, though. The guilt and the gladness didn’t cancel each other out. Unt felt happy and kind, guilty and fearful, and all those emotions filled him to the brim. His feelings were like two vines wrapped around each other, each struggling for ascendancy, pushing off one another and pulling them down in the same motion.
    “Well done, mate,” he grinned and gave Bull a dig in the shoulder.
    The Order of Medics had no specific posts. The Order waited until its recruits had been in-post a while and their strengths and weaknesses had been identified. What Bull’s strengths might be, Unt could only guess, but for now, it meant that Bull had nothing further to decide.
    As Unt’s attention went back to his own problems, Bull seemed to come back to his usual self. By the time the Fall had rolled on past the next person, his mood was buoyant.
    Unt tried to brood over his future but Bull hung around the edge of his perception, a persistent, elastic energy that bounced around like a rubber ball. It irked Unt a bit and