The start of the next day, just after breakfast Reese once more stood in the library space. Again, it was set up as a makeshift classroom. Only today, Reese had one book instead of three, one of his notebooks. There was also cloth hiding a set of items under it as well. Items he nearly had to fight the halfling Olithma for when he brought them. But that was a different set of problems. Right now though, Feuer was his focus not up tight and fighty halflings.

He knew it would be a struggle to get Feuer to do any traditional schooling, so he had to change things around. The girl loved combat and wanted to be a Knight, seemingly more than anything but there was more to being a Knight than just sword play. If he could get her interested in the more back-end bit of it all, like logistics then maybe he could wedge in a math lesson to back that up. He knew it was a long shot.

Outside the library he could see the sun beginning to climb higher. Tutoring was supposed to start at around 8, but it already looked like it was closer to 8:30. His head fell just a bit, barely noticeable in fact, as he looked over his notes again. A quite sigh escaped him as he tried to figure out what to do next.

However, his hopes were uplifted as he heard subtle footsteps behind him, followed by words from a rather aggressive sounding girl. "So what are you going to try and teach me today?” She sat across from him and folded her arms in defiance.

Clearly, this was going to be an uphill battle, but at least she was willing to come out and fight. That counted for something, after all you couldn’t have a battle if your opponent didn’t even show up. He hoped the fighting would remain metaphorical.

With a smile Reese exclaimed, “Logistics!” as he opened his notebook to a page full of numbers, tables and only a few words.

Feuer frowned. “Math? I hate math."

"Yes! Math, and I know you do. That's why we're going to do something different." With a quick hand he picked up the cloth that was on the table, under it were several dozen taffy candies, and some slips of paper with numbers and some rather crudely drawn shapes that could almost be described as soldiers. If one squinted hard, Reese would probably argue it was late and that he never claimed to be an artist.

Reese’s smile grew as he saw her surprise and confusion. This was just like one of those learning computer games he played in school when he was a kid or rather the last time he was a kid. Only, this was a table top version of that, tailored to Feuer’s attitude and mind set. "In front of you are your soldiers. Your taffy pieces are your coins. You need to support your army, by paying me the correct amount. Every right answer, I'll give you your candies back. But the more you’re wrong, the more I will take and eat. If we get far enough, I’ve even got a mock battle for you to play!"

She looked over the candies, then the papers in front of her, and finally at Reese. "This is dumb… I can eat the taffy?"

"When we're done you can eat whatever you have left, I'll eat whatever I take." Reese wasn’t exactly a fan of these sweets, having tried on a bit earlier. But, he knew they were one of her favorites, and the risk of seeing someone else eat them, might be enough of a threat to motivate her. At least, that was his thought process.

Feuer shifted in her seat, and unfolded her arms. "Ok, what's the first question?"

He outlined a simple example, something he thought Feuer would get quite easily, she didn't. Even after reiterating it, several times.

"No! Again, you have 5 soldiers, you need 2 pounds of food for each of them, a pound of food is 1 silver coin. How many coins do you need? The answer isn't one." He took the piece of candy and ate it. It actually wasn't bad, had a slightly fruity taste, like the chief had used berries to flavor it. But the acidity just didn’t agree with him and, he was already getting sick of them. In fact, he was already sick of them after the first piece.

"Ok, so two." She guessed again for the third time, not bothering to even try and think or work it out.

He sighed and took the two pieces she put in front of him. A sudden worry entered his mind, what if he ate all the candies before she got a right answer? This might have the opposite effect of what he hoped. Even worse, they may not get to the larger game he made up. He spent a lot of time on those soldiers.

Perhaps she was just too embarrassed to try, he thought. "Feuer, you can try counting on your hands. It's fine, I do it sometimes too."

"… I want a different problem." She glared at him.

"Ok.” He sighed and rubbed at his eyes in his own frustration, “Let's go over the right answer first… Each soldier eats 2 pounds, and every pound of food is 1 silver. So each soldier cost… Come-on, I know you know this."

"I don't know, two?" Again, that seemed like a guess more than actual thought.

Still, it was right, he needed to give her at least some encouragement. “Exactly! Two.” Reese realized he needed to twist things just a bit. First he would break it all down, the logic behind what she should have done. “You took the number of soldiers, 1, multiplied it by the amount of food, 2 pounds and then by the number of coins per pound, 1 to get 2. You just didn't realize that's what you were doing. Now, one last step. You have 5 soldiers, you now know each cost 2 silvers, how much will 5 soldiers cost you?"

“… I don’t know.” It almost sounded like she was pouting, but more to the point, wasn’t even willing to try.

“Why don’t you try counting on your fingers then, or use some paper. 2 fingers at a time, do it 5 times, how many do you have?”

“I know how to count.” Feuer complained before beginning counting on her fingers in pairs, until all of them were used. She looked deeply ashamed by the act. "10?"

"Exactly! 5 times 2, 10!" Reese tried to be encouraging. Given her face it may have had the opposite effect.

He pushed one of the candies back to her for the right answer, but she wouldn't take it. "You gave me the answer it doesn't count."

Six questions later, and they were just about out of candies.

Reese dropped his head on the desk in frustration. "Feuer, do you just want to give up for the day?"

"Knights don't surrender." She declared. Looking up, despite her attempt to look strong, there was something under. Maybe shame?

"Ok, then how many days will it take to go through your supplies?" He asked the question again.

"…I don't understand the point." She lied, and tried to deflect.

With another in a long line of sigh Reese shook his head, and then closed his eyes. He knew he shouldn’t be frustrated with her. If anything, this was his failure, he was thinking too much about himself. About what he liked. Feuer seemed to like stories, so maybe, that was where he should start…

"My father was a knight commander, that means commanding knights, ordering them, moving them around, feeding them. Most of his job, was resource management. Knowing how many supplies they needed, how many horses or land dragons, and how much it all costs. I get you don't like math, but you want to win a war you need logistics, which means, you need math." His face twisted as he frowned, this was not going according to plan, and his stomach didn't agree with all the sour sugar he just ingested either.

Across the table, the elf girl continued to literally bear her fangs at him as he stared at the last few bites of sweets in front of him. He had less than no desire to eat them, despite what they had agreed to. So, he stopped.

With a hand, Reese slid the candies towards her. “I'm going to give you the rest of these.”

“They’re not mine, I lost.” She pushed them back.

“I get that, but I don't want to eat any more of them. Besides, I think your willingness to try this exercise is worthy of note. Plus I do think we learned something, even if it wasn’t what we expected.”

She folded her arms in defiance. “Still don't want them.”

This girl was utterly stubborn. “Fine. Then I'm throwing them out because I’ll be sick if I eat any more sugar.”

Before he could get up, she called out “Wait. I'll eat them.” The vague sound of surrender and annoyance creeped in her voice.

As soon as he let go she popped one of the Taffy pieces into her mouth. A faint smile forced itself out as she savored the flavor. Her ears, twitched, or maybe that was just her chewing. Of course, her scowl returned as she noticed Reese staring at her.

Now he was curious, "What changed your mind?”

Feuer chewed and sucked on the sweet for a moment before answering, “Ecman is a proud chef, he works hard in the kitchen. It's not right to throw away his work. He did make these, didn't he?”

Reese shrugged, "I actually don't know who made them. I talked to Hippall about getting something small you might like to eat, said they were one of your favorites. Although, that Olithma guy didn’t want to give them too me… I don’t know what his problem is."

Pausing for a moment, he shook the thoughts of strangling the halfling servant out of his head as he watched her eat another taffy. She should have gotten at least a few of the questions right. But instead, “Why do you guess each answer?” he asked directly.

“…I don’t guess. That number is just what made sense.” Again, she took another candy and tried to savor it.

“You don’t need to be embarrassed but, do you know what multiplication is?”

She rolled her eyes and again seemed mad, a rather common state for her. “Yes. It’s just adding the same number a number of times.”

Stroking at his chin he thought about it, she was clearly right, but was she just reciting what she remembered? Maybe he could test her, it was probably something he should have done sooner maybe even first. “Ok, so if I asked you to multiply 3 and 6 what should you do. Walk me through your steps.”

She glared at him for a second, before answering “… add three, six times in a row. Three, plus, Three, plus, Three, plus, Three, plus… Three? And, I think Three again.” Closing her eyes, it was like she was afraid the numbers would leave her head if she had them open. Opening them she shook her head, “I guess I could add six three times too, that’s probably easier. What does this matter?”

The last part surprised him. He wasn’t expecting that insight from someone who didn’t seem know basic math, which meant, “I mean, you know what to do, and surprisingly why. I’m just trying to understand why you don’t do it.”

"I just don't see why this is important. It’s dumb and confusing." She protested without acknowledging the core question.

So, he switched tracks a bit. “Well, how do you keep track of things, like say you want to buy 3 apples, how do you know how many coins you need so you’re not cheated?”

“If I have to I’ll use my fingers. One apple is 3 coppers, so 3 apples is… 3… 6… 9. 9 coppers.” She counted in front of him, her face growing slightly red when she finished.

While her method worked for small numbers, he could see several problems, particularly with larger sequences. Plus, she seemed so embarrassed that didn’t seem willing to do it at all most times. Also, no normal person is paying 3 coppers for an apple, so she was already prime to be cheated.

“Ok, but what about larger numbers. Like feeding a small army. Say it's not 3 apples but 500. How much then? What if the merchant offered you a discount how do you do that on your fingers?”

“I don't know, I’d have someone else do the math for me.”

The weight of frustration dropped his head to the table, again “But you’re their Commander, it's on you to know and verify this." He sighed. “Also, no apples are going to cost 3 coppers. Not unless it's a famine or something. If you're paying that you're getting cheated.”

“That's what they cost at the market.” Her voice almost sounded like a whine.

Looking up, she almost looked a bit sad, like something he said had really impacted her.

“What market are you going to? I've never seen an apple priced more than a copper and a quarter, and that was during a bad harvest.”

"It's what they charge in the high market, at least. Everytime I’ve gone they’re about 3 coppers, maybe a bit more in the off season, and if you can find them." She still seemed more sad than angry.

"You never felt cheated when you bought something there?”

"No. My guard catches things like that, and… They don’t let me handle my own coins." Again this conversation seemed to be making her ever more uncomfortable.

Reese made some notes in his teaching journal. He wanted to expose Feuer to the market more, untethered by her guard. It seemed possible to give her a better impact and lesson if she was allowed to handle her own coins and even fail at it. Of course, he'd have to pass his plan past Beeson first, though he hoped there wouldn’t be much friction. She clearly knew what to do, he just needed to get her to actually do it.

Feuer smacked her hands on the table, "Look we both know this is a waste of time, can I go?"

Considering the shadows outside, it was probably around 11AM, an hour earlier than he was hoping to dismiss class. Still, the fact that she showed up at all was an improvement. At least according to her father. That she was here for a full two and half hours, well, he was going to take that as a win.

"It's not a waste of time, and on one condition, come back tomorrow at the same time."

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

Feuer rolled her eyes and huffed, clearly, she wasn't interested.

"Look, I promise, I will try to make it easier and better than your last tutors. I just need to understand how you think to come up with a plan that actually works. Give me a chance. You can think of it as a great battle against these diabolical books!"

Feuer stared at him, the fire in her eyes seemed calm, less engulfing, and more twinkling embers. "My father will probably put me in the dungeon me if I refuse…"

He couldn’t help but laugh, "Ha, somehow, I don't think that would stop you."

For a moment, Reese could have sworn her ears twitched and that he saw a smile instead of a scowl. It could have just been the light though.

"Fine. I'll be here tomorrow. Now I'm going to practice my swordsmanship." She stood and walked away.

Reese continued to sit in the library for some time afterwards, writing notes in his own book, and thinking it all over. His pencil tapped at the last line he wrote and then underlined it.

‘Some kind of learning disorder?’

He was growing hungry; the candy had messed with his stomach but didn’t quite fill him. Still, he wasn’t quite ready to leave the library. Looking around it was the largest collection of books he had ever seen in this world. Even Charston’s shop seemed small and quaint by comparison.

Looking over the books on the shelf, he was searching for one he didn’t even know existed., Quickly however, he realized there didn’t seem to be a pattern to how they were stored. History texts, next to a language book, next to poetry, next to something he couldn’t even read, if there was a system here, it was alien to him. Though almost every book he picked up did seem interesting. At least the ones he could read, more than a few were written in various other languages, such as high eleven. He’d have to make a point to learn that, particularly after Fuhen’s comments.

However, the current one he held in his hand, ‘The Fall of Austlan’ seemed very interesting to his own studies. He’d have to make a note of where it was to check out later. Still at the moment though, it was irrelevant. He was looking for something more topical, something on either education or learning disorders. Assuming such a text even existed in the first place, and that it was in this library. This world didn’t seem quite that advanced, but maybe.

He has several suspicions on what to do but just didn’t know for sure. Having a text that confirmed or gave alternatives would have been quite helpful. As it was, he’d have to guess and try different things, and he wasn’t sure that was the best idea. Continued and repeated failure might tank his otherwise tenuous connection with his defiant student.

His mind was so consumed with finding some book to help, he didn’t hear Lueismar entering the library.

“Hello?” The almost sweet-sounding voice of Feuer’s sister’s, broke the silence.

She was clothed in a similar dress as when he first saw her. Large, puffy, frilly, less elegant and more austentaious, at least in his mind. Her shoulder length bright red hair had strong curles to it, and her blue eyes just seemed to fit on her light freckled face. Overall, she did look a bit like her younger sister, but was ‘brighter’ in almost all regards. For some reason, she seemed to want to speak with him.

“Good afternoon, Lueismar. What do I owe this visit. Intrested in a leasson?” Reese chuckled very lightly as he continued to look over the books.

“Honestly, I would love that! But, Grandmother and Father want you to focus on Feuer for now.” She smiled warmly, but there seemed to be a slight bit of sadness behind it. Like she wasn’t happy with the idea of her own schooling being put off.

He continued to smile, “Well, I don’t mind. If there’s every anything you want to know, I’m happy to setup a leason. I’ve found I enjoy teaching.”

“Thank you, maybe... I’ll take you up on that later. But, if you don’t mind me asking, how was today? I noticed Feuer was present for most of the the leason, but left early?”

Reese looked over the index of the book in his hand, and sighed. Given the title, ‘The cost of education’ he had some hopes, but it seemed to be a history text of some colleges. Nothing involving actual teaching methods.

Lueismar tilted her head, perhaps miss-understand, “That bad?” she asked.

“Oh. Sorry, just not the book I’m looking for” He put it back on the shelf. “Honestly, today wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I think I learned more than she did, and, I’m going to have to make adjustments. Speaking of which, I’m looking for a book on education methods but I don’t see how these are organized.” He waved hapazardly to the large tower of shelves, hoping she could help.

But she couldn’t, “Oh! Well, they really aren’t really organized, at least not well.”

“I see... is there at least a record of what’s here?” Reese asked with some hope.

“Father might have something. He’s the one that’s been upkeeping the library since Grandfather passed.”

He’d have to make a note to talk to Beeson about it later. Given the thousands of texts here, this was going to be an exersie in futility without more information on what to even look for.

Lueismar continued, “Sorry, but about Feuer’s leasson though do you think it’s worth continuing?”

Reese picked his head up and looked around for moment, unsure or perhpas unwilling to consider what he just heard. “What? Yes! I think she’s decently intelligent, I just need to find a method of instruction that works for her.”

Lueismar’s eyes shoot open, “I’m sorry. I’m just not sure I heard you right. You think Feuer is, intellgent?” The suprise in her face was a strong as her voice.

“Well, at the very least, I don’t think she’s an idiot. She clearly has the ability to reason and think. She seems to know a lot about the subjects she’s intrested in, just not much else.”

“I see.” Lueismar actually laughed. “Heh, I don’t think anyone has ever said anything positive about my sister’s...intellect.”

While Lueismar may have mean the coment in a positive light, Reese didn’t see it that way, “I mean, that’s not a good thing you know. I think she has a learning disorder. That’s why I was looking through these books, hoping there was something that might help me come up with a plan.”

“Learning, disorder? I though you said she was intellgent.”

He thought for a second, how to explain it, “You can be intellgent and still have a disability. Like someone who’s blind. They obvious can’t read words, but they can still reason, and think. It’s like that. From what I’ve seen she can think, but something else is getting in the way.”

“I guess, I never thought of it like that.” The otherwise bubbly girl looked downward, a mixture of thought and maybe some hurt flickered over her eyes. Like she was blaiming herself for missing it.

The older girl was a possible wealth of information. Reese couldn’t let the opportunity go as he verbally poked her, “Can you tell me what her earlier tutoring was like?”

Reese’s words caused Lueismar to raise her head again, “Hmm, well there’s not much to tell. When she was younger she would sit with all of us and, our tutors would try to go over something with her. But she would often complain and throw the books across the table. Always said the books were enchanted and that made the letter dance and change. Eventually the tutors all gave up, and focused on Virume, Svachgit and me instead. I sometimes think that’s why she became so rebellious, she was hurt that she was always being put out.”

Reese took out his teaching notebook and jotted down some notes. This further helped explained why she was so far behind. No one had found a teaching method that worked for her, and frequently gave up. The dancing and changing letters further added evidence to his guess, no, hypothesis. Looking over his notes, he added another smaller one off to the side,

‘Rebellious because she’s never included?’

Lueismar broke his silent scribbling, “Why are you bothering to go this far? Searching for a book you don’t even know if it exists? I know she’s mean to you and Grandmother and Father only need you to marry her, and even that not for another 10 years?”

“It was always my fault.” Reese whispered to himself, as he thought about his own prior life. Being left out, being put out, never connecting. Suddenly, he felt a connection with the otherwise violent girl.

“What?” Again, Lueismar snapped him out of his trance.

“Nothing.” He shook his head while putting his notebook away, “It’s just an opportunity to be better. I’ll be honest, I never really saw myself teaching other people. It seemed, like something other people should do. Maybe, just a quick way to earn some coins, but nothing is permanent.”

She laughed, “Heh, You sound like an old man looking back on his life.” Her voice and laugh were almost sickeningly sweet, but also at the same time, sincere.

“I guess I’m just an old soul.” His attention went back to the bookshelves, he wanted to try and find something even if it was ultimately futile.

“I don’t know that I ever heard that saying before. I think I like it.” Lueismar could see his attention turned back to the bookshelves. “I would like to have a lesson from you. Later though.”

“When ever you’re ready, just let me know!” Reese smiled as she took her leave of him.

The afternoon would pass, he almost skipped lunch as he dove into those books, but came up empty. Dinner would be the same affair as always, being overly dressed and sitting far away from everyone else at the table while Fuhen and Beeson discussed matters of the city state and their business with the nobles and aristocrats at the table.

As the evening came, he took a break from his lesson planning to work on his mana ‘electronics’ concepts. He had something he wanted to try. He’d need a very thin gold thread, but also a jig to weave it onto. He didn’t have the gold, but did have the materials for the jig. Though it would be a challenge and take several days.

The next day came, and again he sat in the library, rubbing his tired eyes. That jig was going to take a lot more work than he thought. In his hands he reviewed his lesson plan and notes. Yesterday he tried mathematics, today he was going to work on ‘human’ as the language was called. Some seemingly strange fusion of Latin, German and Cyrillic like letters. Despite being strange at first, it had become not a second language, but a first to him.

In Feuer’s case though, it seemed a miracle that the girl could even speak it.

“Ahhh! This is dumb!” Feuer yelled and crumpled up the paper he had asked her to write on.

Not only was she late today, but she was even more unruly than yesterday. Maybe it was the lack of candy, he’d have to make a note about that for later. Right now, though, he needed to make sure she stayed in the library for just a little longer.

“Feuer, I know it’s difficult, but please just-“

“No! This is stupid.” She yelled and crossed her arms, but at least she didn’t get up to leave.

Reese wandered over to the crumpled paper and picked it up.

“Leave it.” She protested as he opened it up to examine it.

“I need to see how you write.” The handwriting wasn’t the best, but legible, however the letters didn’t make and sense. As he studied the note, he tried to make sense of what she was thinking.

“I’m just dumb so stop it.” She reached for the note and pulled it away from him.

For several moments the two sat in silence, as Feuer glared at him. As if challenging him to continue.

“Why those letters?” Reese broke the silence which caused Feuer to huff in response. Still she remained silent.

“I’m just trying to understand. I can’t teach you if I don’t know how.”

“Isn’t that your job though? You’re suppose to know how to teach, if you can’t what good are you.” She crumpled the note and tossed it across the room again.

Turning towards it, he considered picking it up again but decided against it. Instead, he opened his teacher’s journal and wrote down some notes. Feuer took notice of his writing and seemed to frown even more.

He tried not to laugh. Of course, she wouldn’t be able to read these notes. “Feuer, you’re not going to be able to read my notes.”

“Yeah, because I’m dumb.” She crossed her arms in frustration.

As much as he tried not too, Reese couldn’t help but smirk a little, “No, you can’t read them because it’s not in a language you know.”

“What is it, that high elven my grandmother keeps pushing me to learn?” Now she seemed more curious but only glanced at the page, not being able to make any of it out.

“No, it’s something much rarer, I don’t think anyone else here can read it.” He continued.

“Why do you write in it?” Her question seemed honest, without any hostility behind it. A strange thing for the otherwise aggressive girl

In respect to the honest inquiry, he thought about the question and how to best answer it rather than just dismissing it. Human had come naturally enough, and in truth he didn’t have any real reason to keep writing in English, it just “Comes easy to me I guess. I learned it a while ago and, it just comes out. It’s not so much that I write in it, as I think in it.”

He looked over his writings and then turned the book around so she could see it.

“What I can’t read it.” She tried to shrug off the obvious invitation.

“I know you can’t but tell me, do you think these are the same letter?” His two index fingers pointed to a ‘b’ and a ‘d’ on the page.

She looked at the letters for a while as if studying them before turning her head back to meet his. “No. You wouldn’t ask if they were the same.”

Again, a guess but sound reasoning at least, and again, she didn’t answer the question. “But, do you see them as the same?”

Feuer slammed her palms into the table and stood up. “I think I’m done for the day.”

He had pushed too far. Or maybe, she really was exhausted from it. It had been two hours, and a little more than, but less than yesterday for sure. As tempted as he was to keep her, forcing her wouldn’t work. He tapped at his journal again. Too many unanswered questions.

“I need to go swing a sword.” She declared and began to walk out of the library.

His own curiosity got the better of him as he still had questions he wanted to ask her. Also, in truth, he kind of wanted a rematch. "Mind if I tag along?" he asked as he stood up.

"…Why?"

"You're my student. I'd like to get to know you a bit better. Plus, I guess I miss sparing." He smiled.

"Your father was Fortus, right? He would visit my father when he was near the city. You ever spar with him"

"More often than I'd like. Got a couple small scars to prove it." Subconsciously he rubbed at his side.

"He had a bout with me once a year ago, after I practically begged him. I don't think he used even a tenth of his strength, and it was over in a couple seconds." She laughed, just slightly, "My dad was mad he actually hit me… Did he say anything about our match?"

Reese took a moment to think, but had to shake his head, "I… don't remember honestly. But, he didn't usually talk about his missions."

Feuer’s ears dropped ever so slightly, a cue Reese was beginning to pick up on. She continued to walk out of the library, without bothering to turn back around. "I don't care if you come, just don't get in the way of my training."

Thwack.

Feuer’s attacks had energy behind them as she advanced with every strike. It was different from what he was used to from back home.

Smack.

Reese was playing defensive, blocking, and parrying her attacks well, but was losing ground. His strategy was a simple one, don’t get hit. It was working, so far.

Shevana stood watch over the two as they sparred in a bout. Making sure they didn’t hurt themselves too much. especially Feuer who seemed quite insistent on hurting Reese. It seemed she was a little upset that Shevana wanted her to spar with Reese instead of her.

Thwack.

Smack.

Their swords bound together. Feuer couldn’t help but bare her teeth in anger. But that was good for Reese, it meant her next attack was predictable. A full force slash probably from the left. If he was fast enough, he could get the hit in first.

SMACK. THWACK.

He wasn’t fast enough, but neither was she this time

“1-1” Shevana announced as the two moved away, each holding their sides.

He was grateful she didn’t just rush at him. It gave him a moment to try and continue his dialog from earlier. “So, tell me something…”

Holding up her sword, she gave a loud huff. “We’re sparring, not talking.”

“Humor me, I could use a handicap. Anyway-” He was cut off as she advanced on him.

THWACK.

Her sword hit him in the side.

“2-1” Shevana called out. Perhaps she saw what he was trying to do, or maybe she just wanted someone else to continue to deal with Feuer. “Match for Feuer. I think you should do another round. Your right arm is falling against his strikes.”

Feuer looked back and glared at her guard, and then turned back in acceptance face Reese. “Well, what’s your question, taffy man.” She smirked at her new insult.

Reese couldn’t help but smile back a bit. It was better than bookworm, maybe. “I’m just trying to understand the way you think.”

“That’s because I don’t think, I do!” Again, she advanced rapidly.

Thwack.

Smack.

Smack.

He misread her movements this time, she went for his shoulder instead of his side.

THWACK!

It seemed like she was learning his moves now, rather than just trying to plow though him.

“1-0” Shevana called from the side lines.

“Tell me honestly, why do you keep guessing the answers for the problems I give. And don’t say you don’t.”

She huffed and put the sword down a bit, “It’s just, hard. I can’t keep the numbers and letters in my head to work on them. It’s hard to read them as it is, but when I think about them, they get twisted. I see a number, I think it’s a 3, but it also really looks like an 8. When I’m thinking about it I just, forget which is which and… they disappear.”

That was it, dyslexia for sure. The papers early, his journal and now this proved it. Really bad dyslexia at that. But, he had something now. Something he was missing before. He doubted there were any texts on how to deal with that in this world. Back on earth there would have been whole libraries devoted to the subject.

“Stop staring at me and fight!” She yelled and charged him.

Holding his sword he barely managed to block the first few strikes.

Thwack.

Thwack.

But he picked up some tempo as in her anger she became readable.

Smack.

SMACK!.

“1-1” Shevana called.

“Feuer. I think I get it, what’s wrong with you.” Reese wasn’t able to get more of a conversation in.

“Yeah, I’m angry that you keep trying to talk!” She swung her sword at him, again her anger worked against her.

Thwack.

Smack.

SMACK!.

“1-2, match to Reese”

He tried not to smile this time. It was one of the first times he had ever actually won. And she was going to make him regret that.

Feuer almost snarled at him and picked up her sword. “Again!” She practically yelled before charging at him.

His body would be quite sore by the end of the day, and he lost every match after that one. Still, even winning one felt kind of good. Plus, he now knew a lot more about his student. He just needed to do something with what he learned. Even without any other texts, he did have some thoughts. For now at least, the learning games would continue wait. He needed to go back to the basics; this was going to take a while.

In the end he was able to get another agreement from her though. So long as she attended tutoring for four days, on the fifth day, he’d teach her anything she wanted to know. Of course, he already knew what she would want, history and military texts. Specifically, the ones she couldn’t read, and there were a lot in that library. It was a subject that wasn’t completely out of line with what her father and grandmother wanted from her. That carrot was enough for her to tolerate the stick. Well, that and the candies he was now going to bring.