“Are you ready?” he asked.

“Ready,” Maude replied.

“Come at me!” he shouted.

Maude felt the buzzing of her augment ability starting up. She blocked a couple of Jaspar’s lunging blows as it powered up. Though she’d started on the defensive, as soon as her ability was fully activated, there was no doubt that it was Jaspar who was struggling a bit to keep up with the speed of her sword.

“Speed doesn’t matter on the battlefield, does it?” Maude asked, mocking his words. “Seems to me as though you are struggling to keep up.”

Clang, clang, clang, the swords hit one another.

“It certainly matters, but the power behind the blows matters too,” Jaspar exclaimed. He took an opportunity to gather his strength as Maude was pulling her sword away from him. Maude could see he was tensing his muscles to put everything into his next blow. She grabbed her sword tightly with both of her hands. If he had no problem keeping up with her speed, then his power was likely to be formidable. The last thing Maude wanted this early in the duel was to get disarmed and have her sword flying. The last person she’d lost to that way had been her sword teacher, and it had been years since anyone had been able to pull it off with her.

She blocked his oncoming blow. Screech! She felt the reverberations of his blow all the way up to her shoulders. If she hadn’t been paying attention to his movement, he would have easily disarmed her.

“As expected, you are an astounding swordsman,” she complimented him, still feeling the tingling in her hands and arms from his strike.

“Why thank you, Maude,” he said with a warm smile. She smiled back and then gritted her teeth. It didn’t seem as though he was having to work all that hard at all, but she was already pouring sweat. At this rate, the duel very well could be won by attrition alone.

I have to get aggressive with my attacks if I want to win, Maude thought. I can’t be so worried about hurting him.

She let out a sigh as she slashed at him. He easily blocked it with a smirk on his face.

He’s so smug, she thought. Does he really think he has this in the bag when last time it was a draw? Or does he have something nefarious up his sleeve?

The second thought made her stutter a little which caused her to block one of his attacks only at the last second. His smirk grew wider.

I have to focus if I want to win, she thought. He knows that he falls a bit short of me. He is waiting for me to make a mistake so that he can win.

Maude took a deep breath, calming a bit of the swirl that was going on in her head.

She felt her focus tightening, and started using her enhanced vision to better predict where she’d best be able to stop his blows. She focused her movements on her speed, and was able to start putting Jaspar back on the defensive. The smirk was starting to get erased from his face. He was going to have to change tactics if he wanted to win.

“You saw what my plan was,” he accused her with a grimace.

She let out a small laugh. “Of course I did. You are fighting a sword saint after all.”

Maude saw a brief hint of a smile on his face. “Don’t get too cocky, now,” he warned her. He slashed near her left shoulder and very nearly injured her.

I almost just lost, she thought. He may even be better than me.

She narrowed her focus back to predicting his movements in advance. She started looking for an opening. It was time to end this before she lost. Time seemed to slow a bit. His moves were very practiced, with little room for her to be offensive. There must be something, she thought. A little something, somewhere that I’d be able to…there.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

She held her sword up to his neck, proudly. His blade was nowhere near hers this time.

Jaspar looked taken aback. “You won!” he exclaimed. His voice sounded as though he was simultaneously overjoyed and disappointed all wrapped together.

Maude’s heart was pounding in her chest, and she was struggling to catch her breath. “I- I won!” she replied.

“I guess I still have more to learn,” Jaspar said, a goofy grin spreading across his face.

“What do you mean?” she asked, sitting on the platform, and crisscrossing her legs. “I only just barely won. And I’m the sword saint. I clearly am rusty and in desperate need of more practice.”

He laughed, sitting down near her. “You are by far the most challenging opponent I have come across,” he said.

“Same to you,” she answered, feeling herself smile crookedly.

“I can tell that you’ve been working very hard to incorporate the new moves,” he said. “You’re doing great.”

“Thanks,” she replied, meeting his eyes. For a brief moment, he kept eye contact with her, and it felt as though they were the only two people in the world. Even the bird’s chirping seemed to fade into the background. Maude felt her face heating up from the extended eye contact.

He broke eye contact, and Maude felt like she could breathe again.

“So, uh,” he cleared his throat. “Now that we are steadily moving into spring, balls will start becoming more frequent.”

“Is that so?” Maude asked. “I didn’t realize there were seasons for balls.”

“Yeah, something about how it’s much harder to keep gowns cleaner during every season except winter,” he said, waving it off as though it was not all that big of a deal. “The first one I’ve been invited to is in two week’s time. I was wondering if you’d like to come and be my partner for the ball,” he said.

Maude looked at his face. He wasn’t looking at her. Maude swore his cheeks looked slightly pinker than usual, but it was hard to tell.

“What about Fronica?” she heard her voice asking against her better judgment.

He looked up and met her eyes. His face was full of surprise. “How do you know about Fronica?” he asked.

“I met her at the tea party,” Maude admitted, not really sure what else to say. This whole conversation was now going down a path she hadn’t expected in the least.

Jaspar sighed. “I am sorry about that. Fronica is a bit of a rabid dog.”

Hearing the words come out of his mouth made Maude laugh out loud unexpectedly. She also noticed that her heart undeniably felt lighter. So Fronica wasn’t as big of a deal as she’d made herself out to be.

“I guess that’s one way to describe her,” Maude replied.

“Just to set the record straight, she and I are not engaged, and I’m doing everything in my power to make sure an engagement between her and I never comes to fruition.”

Maude didn’t even realize her heart could feel this light. She wanted to get up, cheer, and dance. She felt like she wouldn’t even care that both Jaspar and Jakob would see her acting like this.

She did everything in her power to try to keep her face as impassive as possible. “Why are you doing that?” she asked, almost cracking a smile.

“It’s just not a good match,” Jaspar replied. “Fronica is the most power hungry woman I think I’ve ever met. Outside of the king and the prince, the most powerful man in this country is me.”

He is right, Maude thought. I hadn’t even thought about how powerful he was, but he’s absolutely right. He probably could have had me executed without the king’s permission if he’d wanted to. Maude suddenly felt very lucky that he was a kind man.

“She already abuses the power she has now, so giving someone like that even more power is asking for trouble,” Jaspar continued. “Plus I don’t like her very much at all.”

Maude snorted. “She definitely didn’t come across as the likable type,” she agreed. “She was quite possessive of you, to the point that I worried for my future a little.”

Jaspar sighed again, shaking his head. “One of the only reasons why the engagement has not gone through is because I have been working with my mother to prevent it. Of course, my mother has had a few conditions of her own, but so far we have come up with plenty of reasons to keep delaying the engagement for the short-term.”

“Wow. You’re so lucky that your mother is willing to do that for you,” Maude said. “Most of the mothers I’ve met have been dying for their children to get married sooner.”

Jaspar laughed out loud. “So what say you to the ball then?” Jaspar asked. “Did I assuage your fears?”

Maude felt her heart flutter in her chest. “Very much so,” she said. “And I’d love to go with you, Jaspar,” she said. She felt a grin blossoming on her face, against her better judgment.

“Wonderful!” he exclaimed, getting up off the platform, a smile filling his face. “I will let Helena know to get you prepped for the ball on that day.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Maude replied with a smile.

“Unfortunately I need to get to work for the day, so I shall be heading out. I will see you later.”

“See you later,” Maude replied. They smiled at one another, and Jaspar got down off the platform, and started striding away.

It was just Maude and the birds again, who were still happily singing their songs.

I don’t know if he feels the same, Maude thought. But I’m starting to feel like I might actually have a shot. I don’t know if I could make it work, but maybe we feel the same way. Maude smiled, looking up at the trees above her. Do I dare let any hope into my heart?