Rion

"What in the hells am I doing here?" Rion muttered as he pressed open the door to his office and set down the pile of fifteen Skythe Tactics books he'd collected so far. Nearly six dozen of them sat sprawling across the room, some open to passages that referenced specific parts of the Codex, while others made vague imaginings towards what the sport could be or what it should have been and made broad stroke attempts to paint it as such.

The thing that really confused Rion though was its similarity to-

There was a gentle knocking at the door. Rion breathed a sigh of annoyance and stepped toward the door, yanked it open, and looked out at... nothing.

He heard the shuffling of pages and tactics forms behind him in the office and turned back. A tall, lanky, ghost-like figure was standing in the center of the room making several pages and books float about in no particular order. They seemed to be investigating the process that Rion was going through, and finding it woefully inadequate. 

"No, this won't do. Have you figured it out yet?" The Ghost creature said. Its voice sounded far more solid than its ethereal form presented.

"I'm sorry, but who... or rather what are you?"

"I'm a ghost, dear child." The ghost said. 

"Oh." Was all Rion could manage. "Like a real-"

"Yes a real ghost. I float, can go through walls, the whole works. I don't really feel like thats your issue right now though, do you?"

Rion shook his head, weighing the crazy against the reality. Ghosts weren't common, and they were so rare in fact that most didn't believe they existed. Here was one now, blatantly disobeying the theory that they didn't exist, one that Rion had held for some time, and shoving it in his face. Aside from the general disbelief though, they'd said something that connected. 

"No." Rion said "No the issue is that I have no idea how we're going to win the next game." 

"There he is!" The ghost snapped, twirling around the room in a joyous manner. "Thats the reality that I was hoping would set in."

"You knew?" Rion asked. He didn't really know what he was asking in all honesty, he didn't really know what a ghost could know or not know, or if "knowing" was even possible. 

"Of course I knew. I've been watching you sulk around this stadium the past week with your nose in a book the entire time and having no concern for the team that you're meant to lead. Not to mention you've failed to find the similarity that will make it all click for you." 

"Similarity? What are you talking about." 

"Oh hush," The ghost said. It floated its form across the room and levitated another few books that had been opened, then floated over to the Codex Enchantia, the league registered guidelines for magical use on the pitch, and nodded. "Well you're at least headed in the right direction. Tell me, what were you thinking about before I came in here." 

"What was I...? What?"

"Come now dear boy, you've a lot of work to do and I can't be spending the entire time teaching you everything and back paddling through conversations. Speak, what were you thinking of when I came in here." 

"I... Well, I was considering the similarities between Skythe and..."

"And...?" The ghost motioned for him to continue. "What else."

"Well, it just seems to me that the game shares a lot of tactics with early skirmish techniques, particularly ones used during the early wars of the Expansion to the south. Small teams, mainly built of specialists and experts, each with a goal and battle plan. Enough seperation between the captain and the lower players to allow for individual thought, and though I can't be sure I'd say that likely have combination plays that work well."

"Combination plays? How do you mean?" The ghost asked, a smile perking across its lips. 

"Well, say this player here." Rion pointed to one of the midfielders on the board of possible team lineups, "Say they work the ball through the area, and are talented at the whole 'dribbling' aspect of the game, but they're a terrible striker. However you have a player on your bench who just is no good at the whole 'dribbling' but is an excellent receiver and striker. You'd imagine that they'd team up and work better for the team." 

"Ideally." The ghost said. 

"But it doesn't seem like its working that way with this team at all. Take Coren for instance. He was the only person to come up and talk to me after the initial greeting, and all he did was tell me that I might as well quit."

"Did he now?" 

"Well," Rion shuffled slightly "Well, not really. He did tell me that they weren't going to listen to me if I wasn't going to understand the game." 

"So you set out to learn about the game?" The ghost asked.

"Well, I'm the Head Coach now, no reason I shouldn't know a little bit about what I'm doing." 

"What about Coren?"

"Coren? What about Coren?"

"He was the only one who..." The ghost motioned for Rion to continue. 

"Oh, well aside from the being the only person to talk to me, he's also not the captain. But he should be. From what I've seen over the past week it looks like everyone respects and looks up to him, event he older players, but they've left Taberny as the Captain for the past few seasons and he... just doesn't seem cut out for the job. Maybe he was at one point, but not anymore." 

"Interesting, and you've decided this after watching, what, three practices and seeing things work behind the scenes? Now you think you have an idea and want to put it into practice on the team? Kick Taberny aside and replace him with the No-magic-maniac?"

"No-Magic-Maniac? What, Coren?" 

"One of the very few players in the league that doesn't use any magic from the Codex Enchantia, because of that he serves a very different role."

"Those players are called 'Activators', right? Ones that don't use magic but can amplify the effects of others?" 

"There are other names for them, some less flattering, some more so, but yes. Coren is an Activator and a damned good one at that."

"I don't get it, how are they allowed to even play? Don't they just pose a risk to the team?"

"You've really never spent any time around the sport have you?" The ghost asked.

"No, I haven't." Rion replied, shrinking slightly.

"Well the whole process is pretty simple, I can explain it to you if you'd like." 

"Who are you?" Rion said, raising a hand. "I mean, who were you?" 

"I thought that would be obvious, I'm Leopold Blourg. I used to be on the staff here some couple hundred years ago."

"How would... In what universe, known or otherwise, would that have been obvious?" 

"Have you read the letter from the King yet?" When Rion failed to answer the Ghost, Leopold, gave a little tsk noise and shook its head. "And they said you were the smart one." 

"Who? What?" 

"Look, I'll paraphrase the letter for you. Okay? You'll be getting a staff of people who are going to be here to help you organize and instruct the team. I'm the first of them to arrive it seems."

"Ghosts then? All of you?" 

"We prefer to call ourselves the 'Recently Unalived', but no I believe I might be the only openly deceased member of your staff." 

"Openly deceased? So Zombies and Vampires too?" 

"Who can say, what I do know is that you're on the right track to find the information that you need. And from now on I'll be here to aid in your queries. And you're right about the similarities between Skythe and the old skirmish teams. They're very similar, so similar that it's hard to determine which actually came first."

"How does that help me though?" 

"Come now Rion, they said you had a mind for tactics. Work this out like a problem. If they won't listen, then show them why they should. It looks like you've already got Coren on your side. Or at least he's willing to work with you. That should be a start." 

"But-"

"Ugh, this is going to be harder than I thought." Leopold groaned and floated through the wall.