Things had returned largely to normal in the two weeks following the events at the training grounds. Granted, normal for Pip had become the regimented hell that was the mousey girl's training schedule. Never could Pip have imagined the girl being such a slave driver when the time came for training. The otherwise kind tones and words that were sprinkled about only served to make the harsh reality of her training more difficult.

Catherine had even forced Pip to run a loop around all of dockside without the use of her 'apostle' which had been proving more of an issue than she had expected. Without the bodily amplifications of a chosen, she was severely lacking in any sort of endurance at all. She would scarcely be able to run up a particularly large flight of stairs, let alone the entirety of the Dockside district.

Of course, it was still worth all of the pain in the world to see Catherine smile after the fact. Even after running herself near to death Pip was more than able to appreciate the clear happiness that Catherine radiated after a grueling training session.

It was so much better than how she had been after the fight.

Alongside the simple endurance training, there was also some team-based training. Both of them would fight (Non-lethal) duels against other chosen. They had picked the same training hall as there last eventful encounter, and neither of them had mentioned exactly what had happened.

More often than not, Pip was able to provide adequate support for Catherine, who took out both of their opponents with nothing but her martial skill. It was slightly terrifying to see the bright and mousey girl that had been too nervous to ask the clerk where the bathroom was, suddenly begin to vicious beat their competition to near-death.

The change was startling, as if a lever were pulled and a brand new Catherine came out of nowhere to beat up everyone that got in their way.

It was shocking, and also somewhat awesome.

Pip understood Catherine wasn't really one of her chosen. She didn't have the apostle of shadow, after all. But Pip couldn't quite help herself from the feeling of responsibility and pride she saw in Catherine. She was awesome, and she was her friend.

It was exactly as she had imagined what it was like to watch her chosen flourish, in all of those lonely hours watching over the mortal world. She could hardly wait to see what it would be like to watch Catherine win the upcoming tournament.

A few hours of painful running later, Pip arrived outside of Catherine's room. Her door, made of the same wood that was the mark of every other door in the first hall, was carved with a list of names.

At the top, Catherine Mauser, spelled in the common tongue. Next to it, with carved hearts and stars, was a name crossed out. The name below, too was crossed out, decorated in the same manner as the first. By the fifth name, there were no more hearts or stars to be seen. By the tenth, the names were no longer entirely scribbled out at all. Instead, a single line was carved through them.

Three hard knocks at the door was enough to get almost anyone's attention, according to Pip's vigorous experiments. She had tried different amounts of knocks at different strengths, and three hard knocks were so far the most successful. The people behind the doors that had received twelve knocks were not pleased.

Pip shivered as she recalled that particular memory. It hadn't been her fault that the Gods didn't knock when they came in her room in the Hall of the Gods. How was she supposed to know that humans cared about whether or not they were clothed in good company? What kind of rule was that? Nipples were not that interesting. Although, she was surprised to find out that pink was a colour that was apparently common. At least she wasn't alone in that for a change.

“Coming!” Catherine shouted from the other side of the door, her voice muffled by the thick wood of the first hall.

Pip liked the wooden building of the first hall, more so than even her room in the Hall of the Gods. There was never any ceremony to the rooms, or even decoration. They were simple. Cozy. They spoke not of opulence, but simple, warm, homeliness.

There hardness was not the unforgiving utility of stone, but the warm protection of nature, and somewhere deep inside that resonated with Pip. Perhaps it was her nature as a lesser God, connecting her so with the world of mortals. Perhaps the shadow Goddess inside of her remembered the shadows of the trees.

Perhaps she just liked wood. Pip liked that thought the most.

The door opened with the familiarity of creaking hinges that Pip was growing accustomed to. Hinges in the Halls of the Gods had never creaked. It was certainly a novelty to see ones that did, if somewhat annoying. Apparently there were parts of the mortal world that even she disliked, it would seem.

Catherine's freckled face came into view with a beaming smile, causing Pip to share one of her own in turn. There was something about the energy of the girl that Pip found simply contagious. It was almost impossible for her to see that wonderful face and not shoot her a smile of her own.

Even the slight gap between her two front teeth, barely noticeable to anyone but those that looked closely, was simply adorable to Pip.

“Hi, Pip!” She shouted at her. Even being only a foot away did not seem to curb the girl's voice. A small, tiny part of Pip missed the quiet girl that she had been at their very first meeting. She had been adorably shy then, and Pip did somewhat miss the comforting silence. Another, much louder part of her wished never to see Catherine quiet again. Though, maybe a little more quiet would be alright. Just a tad.

“Hello, Catherine,” Pip said cordially. She had watched more than enough greetings in the mortal world among the powerful that a simple, cordial greeting was among the best ways to avoid an armed conflict. Not wanting an armed conflict with Catherine, it was the obvious choice.

“Are you gonna come in and join me or what?”

Without further ado Pip walked into Catherine and her roommates shared room, peeking around the place as she had done each and every other time she had entered.

It had at first surprised her that Catherine did not have her own private room, as Pip had, but instead shared a room with her roommate. Catherine had explained that it was Pip who was the strange one, and that having a private room was something usually reserved for the second and third all.

Apparently there was another exception to this rule somewhere in the first hall, but that Catherine hadn't seen the boy around for some time, except in class where he would usually make an appearance every so often.

Both girls sat on Catherine's bed, despite the second bed not having seen use in weeks. Apparently Steven was yet another name to be crossed off on the front of the door.

“So, how was your training today?” Catherine asked, sending Pip a smile that managed to both allure and terrify her at once.

“It was... hard,” She replied somewhat meekly. Being questioned was not where her confidence shined. In fairness, it was uncommon for the questions to be coming from a cute girl, and more common for them to come from an angry greater or true God. Still, it was something she should probably work on if she was going to guide Catherine to the heights of the mortal world. Perhaps they may even make it to other worlds as well. That would be a treat.

“Hard? It wasn't too extreme, was it? Maybe we could cut down the amount of laps of the city?” Catherine asked.

Pip hadn't the heart to tell her that she had barely completed her first lap of Dockside and had completely ignored the other eight. There was just no way that her body would be able to take it.

“That might work...” Pip said nervously. It would not be good if the taskmaster in front of her suspected that she had been shirking her training duties. Each and every hour of training had to be properly regimented and accounted for if her schedule was to go well, so if there were deviations they would need to be corrected quickly.

“Yay! Let's make the changes now, then,” She said quickly, leaving Pip nearly no time to respond.

“How about instead of eight laps, we cut it down to six. That should be enough, right?” The wide eyed stare of the adorable girl was simply too much for the lesser God to take, and with a slight sigh, she nodded in the affirmative. This was likely to be a long revisionary meeting.

…

Pip had been wrong. Long was an understatement. Two bells may seem like a long time to some, and they would be correct in saying so, but it was woefully inaccurate to call the ordeal that had transpired in Catherine's room 'long'. In fact, Pip would go as far as to say that torturous might be a more accurate description.

Between bold-faced lies and slight mistruths, Pip and Catherine had managed to cut down on her personal training to a point that even a middle of the road bone ranker might be able to succeed.

Pip, as a lesser God with no binding and no chosen, was incredibly far off being capable of matching a mid-ranked bone ranker. She would be more in line with a lost girl of about her age. If it weren't for her 'apostle' and her skill with utilizing it, she would be more in line with the poor wretches of the lower hall than with those in the first.

So Pip internally cried for her weary bones as she looked into the smiling face of her only friend on the mortal plane.

“Ok, I think that should be a bit better for your level. Next thing on the list is about training together,” Catherine really did have a list. She had wondered about where the girl had learnt to read and write the common tongue, but apparently she had learnt in the lessons the priest taught in class.

“I think out current schedule for group training is adequate,” Pip said. She had no trouble in keeping up with the occasional duel that the two of them entered, and when they sparred against one another the result was rarely a simple win or loss for either of them. So long as Catherine used only her martial skill, at least.

Catherine looked suspiciously at PIp, wondering if what she said was true or if it was only meant to mollify her. Deciding that she didn't mind being mollified, she loosened her gaze and smiled.

Tertifying. Completely terrifying.

Pip wondered if she had developed a fear of her friend, but pushed that thought aside with urgency. There was no way she was going to be afraid of the first friend she made on the mortal plane. Even if she is slightly terrifying. With the ability to blow apart those at an even higher rank than her. And a mysterious past. But that was fine.

“If that's the case, I think the current schedule will be good enough,” she said with a smile. Pip cheered in her heart for the freedom she had just bought herself. There would be no more two bell long talks of training for her. At least, until the tournament drew nearer. There were already only one-and-a-half months left until the preliminary round of the tournament, and only two weeks after that it would be Pip and Catherine joining the fray.

Pip was unsure of their chances. True, Pip was more skilled than most stone or iron rankers when using their apostle, but skill was only a small fraction of what made a chosen more powerful. Raw strength and speed were factors that were difficult to ignore, but so was the chosen's own connection with the shadow of their God. As a God herself, Pip should have had no trouble in matching this requirement, but her lack of a binding was once again a detriment.

Her connection with her 'apostle' wasn't deepened by understanding or connection as a mortal's were, but by the strength of her chosen and her binding. No chosen meant no connection. No connection meant no advancement.

Pip certainly believed Catherine would be capable of defeating any bone ranker they encountered, but even she doubted her ability to deal with not one, but two earth rankers.

Catherine looked at Pip's face as it began to wrinkle in worry at that thought, and as though she knew exactly what she was thinking, threw one of her sweetest smiles Pip's way.

Catherine did that a lot. Smiling.

Pip didn't think she had ever run into someone who smiled quite as much as the the girl in front of her. At least, someone that wasn't half way mad. Or all the way mad.

Pip had no idea what Catherine thought behind that smile. She imagined it a smile of warmth and understanding, but for all Pip knew, it was a thing of condemnation and mockery. Looking into the kind eyes of her first mortal friend, it was difficult not to ascribe them a hint of mockery.

When Pip looked at the genuine eyes of Catherine, she began to see a cunning manipulator in place of her friend. Was it possible that she had found out Pip's true nature as a God so quickly? A simple bone-ranker should never have been able to figure out Pip's secret. She admitted that her horn would make an obvious tell to those that possessed the right knowledge, but Pip doubted that Catherine would have access to that kind of information.

Pip shook herself from those thoughts. She cast the doubt from her mind and looked again at Catherine. She had looked away to attend to whatever had drawn her attention for the moment, and Pip stared blankly into her back.

Those thoughts had been niggling at the back of her mind for the past weeks. Her doubt of her friend. The one she called a friend. Pip had only hoped that her doubts were in vain.

Catherine had seemed so normal. She had been just another mortal in a sea of them. A random bone ranker among trillions. Another face in the crowd. Seeing that random face in the crowd, standing above the corpse of her adversary; a painted hall of red viscera the backdrop. It changed things. Pip still felt the warmth of Catherine's presence in their conversations together. She still thought fondly of the girl. Nothing had changed on the surface, but a worry had been implanted.

She doubted her friend. And she was her friend. Pip would not go as far as to deny that fact. No matter what her mind might tell her, Catherine was her friend despite anything. Any doubts that might tell her otherwise were not worth the thought to entertain.

But there were other doubts. Those were the ones that worried her. As she watched Catherine's attention draw to a book - some piece of fiction or other - she wondered what her friend thought behind those kind eyes. She wondered what other capabilities she was hiding away from Pip.

Pip would just have to find them. It would take more than a dark past and some questionable abilities to hide away from Pip. She would not let her first true friend be taken away by an idle suspicion.

No matter her doubts, Pip would stay close to Catherine. For her own sake, she couldn't let her go.

“Since you're still hanging around, should we go for an extra lap around Dockside? It should help your body build up some endurance. Prayer doesn't do all the work, you know,” Her cheerful voice said.

Pip wondered if her decision had truly been the right one.

___________________________________________

Catherine fell into the rhythmic jogging motions like a trance. Breathing in and out in time came to her as naturally as standing. She felt at home during the hours she spent exercising in the early mornings.

There were no other people around. No orphans to shun her, no priests to order her, and no enemies to fight her. There was simply the song of birds and the cheeping of the nesting wyverns. It was peaceful. A time without expectation or questions.

It was the time that Catherine felt all to herself. She could finally relax into herself. Without the worry of friends or enemies, of tournaments or even survival. She could simply thrust the thoughts from her mind and focus on the rhythmic breathing that consumed her world.

Two weeks had already past since the incident with Pip.

The purple chosen had been naïve that day, but it was no more than she could expect from an outsider. She clearly didn't come from Saxlaw, so it was to be expected that she didn't know the customs in Dasgad. It had been... sad that things had turned out that way.

But those were thoughts for non-running.

She would worry about that later. For now, she needed to run. She had a lot of things to avoid. Despite her best efforts, it had happened again.