Klaus was yanked unceremoniously from sleep by a hand around his bicep, dragging him up into a sitting position. He slapeed ineffectually at the hand, his eyes still closed.

Whatever maid Klaus' father sent to wake him could fuck right of. He was still tired. Yesterday -"It's 6:30. I already gave you an extra half hour to sleep. It's time for training."

Klaus forced his eyes open and looked up into Bridget's impassive face. "Yesterday happened," he muttered sourly.

Something in Bridget's face changed and yet she was just as emotionless as before. "Yes, it did. And now today must happen."

Klaus sat up under his own power, shaking off Bridget's hand. She willingly let him go and stood watch by his little cot as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

After a few seconds of pressing his fingers into his eye sockets in the hopes that it would wake him up from the nightmare, he felt something hit his thigh and bounce off.

He moved his hands to look down at the strange, artificially blue thing on the bed. He picked it up. It seemed to be… something wrapped in a strange feeling blue paper with the word protein on it and a + symbol. Klaus looked up at Bridget, "what the hell is this?"

Bridget crossed her arms over her chest, "breakfast. You need to eat something energizing before training…" She paused for a second before tacking on, "it's good for you."

Klaus glared down at the 'breakfast', his nose wrinkling. But before he could refuse it, his stomach growled. With a sigh of defeat, he tore open the blue paper and took a bit of the dark brown bar inside. It was dry but surprisingly tasty; salty with a mild sweetness.

"How'd you know not to eat the wrapper!?"

Klaus jumped, looking over at the door where Giovanna was standing, glaring at him with pursed lips. Klaus raised an eyebrow, "I'm not an idiot."

A blush bloomed across her tan cheeks. The wood of the door frame creaked as her hand tightened around it. Then her eyes, narrowed, "I can't believe I got up early and don't even get to see you eat plastic." Giovanna turned and stalked away, the glass on the bottom of her shoes clicking on the hallway floor.

Klaus stuffed the rest of the bar in his mouth and flopped back down. "What are you doing?"

Klaus rolled over to point his back at Bridget, "going back to sleep." Klaus closed his eyes, lips quirking up in a slight smile.

Then an arm wrapped around his midsection. After a few disorienting seconds he opened his eyes and found himself six feet off the ground, slung over her shoulder. "Wh- what do you think you're doing?" he stammered out, face red.

"It's my job to train you so I'm going to train you," she answered calmly.

Klaus tried to wriggle free but despite Bridget's slender figure, she was stronger than him.

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She marched through the narrow hallways, past a dozen or so strangers that stared. Klaus hid his face, cheeks burning, and spoke muffled through his hands, "alright! I'll train! Just put me down!"

"I don't trust you," she said, continuing on her way.

After a few humiliating moments of being carried through the maze like halls with his face buried in his hands, not looking, he was roughly dropped on sandy ground. Some sand immediately found its way under the waistband of his pants. His hands dropped away from his face and he groaned, "fucking seriously?"

For some reason Giovanna was standing next to Bridget. Once Klaus' hands were no longer protecting his face and his eyes and mouth were open, she kicked sand at him, laughing sharply as he coughed and sputtered and spat.

"Giovanna we don't have time for your pettiness." Bridget said.

Klaus rubbed at his eyes and Bridget told him, "don't do that, you'll scratch your eyes." Klaus felt a warm hand with long fingers cup the back of his neck. "Move your hands and open your eyes as much as you can. I'm going to flush them."

Before Klaus could ask what the fuck that meant, water was being sprayed at his eyes. He tried to jerk away but Bridget's hand kept him firmly in place. After hat felt like many long minutes, she stopped and let go. Klaus wiped the water from his eyes and finally got a look at his surrounding. He was surprised to see that despite not hearing any doors open or close, they were outside, on an actual beach.

To his right was a huge, dark wood building lined with stained glass windows depicting various land and skyscapes and an arch entrance with wide open double doors. Clearly the Hall of Mirrors and its surrounding labyrinthine hallways. In front and behind him was miles of pure white sand only occasionally broken up by large rocks. Giovanna lounged on one of these rocks a few feet behind him, her hands laced behind her head and her legs crossed with one foot bouncing in the air. Klaus relaxed marginally, seeing her so far away.

And to his left was a rising sun, shining on a glittering silver sea. Though the wind wasn't blowing the sea, stretching out empty as far as the eye could see, the water was choppy. Squinting at the strangeness and against the brightness, Klaus stood and took a couple steps towards it. Only for Bridget to grab his arm and stop him. "Don't get too close to the sea, it's dangerous."

He shook her off and for once she let him. He crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at her, "dangerous? Like sharks or…?"

Giovanna laughed, "it's the Shattered Glass Sea, dummy."

Klaus turned to face her, his hands moving to his hips, "I don't know what that means."

Giovanna sat up, waving one of her hands at the sea, "that shit ain't water, it's endlessly moving shards of glass. Touch it and it'll drag you in and shred you."

"Really?" Klaus asked Bridget.

She nodded, "Giovanna's not exaggerating. Get too close when the tide comes in and losing your feet would be the best case scenario." She jerked her head towards the Hall of Mirrors, "let's move up the beach and get started." She pulled a cloth headband out of her jacket pocket and started putting it on, pushing her thick, tight coils out of her face. She took a few steps up the beach, shrugging off her jacket and tossing it towards a rock. She widened her stance and raised her arms in a prepared defensive stance. Jagged mirrors on the backs of her hands grew larger, like small shields. "Ruel taught you how to summon your weapon, right? Pull them out and attack me, show me what you got."

Klaus rolled his eyes and walked towards Bridget. He raised his hands up to his ears, using the second knuckles on the first two fingers of each hand, he grabbed the shards in his earlobes and ripped them out. He winced at the pain and the arc of blood as his hands snapped back to his sides. He twirled the shards in his hands as they grew bigger until he was standing there holding two swords of jagged glass that were narrow where he held them and grew wider at the other end. He kept walking towards Bridget, until he was right in front of her then took a swing at her with his right sword. She easily knocked it aside with her shield and kneed him in the stomach. He dropped to his knees in the sand, gasping for breath.

"Attack me like you mean it."