“Come on, Arenya.” said Ya'el. “Didn’t you tell me you were in good shape?” She held up her sword - a long, thin blade of a sort Arenya didn’t recognize. “Another round, let’s go!”

Arenya gave Ya'el a look somewhere between a glare and a grin. “Yeah, for tending trees and picking fruit! Farming didn’t require a lot of swordfighting.”

The two of them stood in one of the school’s various sparring chambers. This one was on the third floor of Malkhus Hall, and wide windows near the top let in sunlight. A door near the side led out to an an empty balcony, for students who needed some air. The gray stone floors and walls were covered in scratches and scuffs from previous matches.

There was a slight hum in the background, courtesy of the enchantments protecting students from serious injury. Cartalis had inspected the enchantments and called them a work of art, and Arenya could only just recognize some things she’d seen in her classes, layered and combined such as they were. Cartalis nevertheless assured her that she could go all out testing Shamir without any worry of hurting herself or Ya'el, before taking a seat next to Drav by the benches in the corner and taking notes.

“And anyway, when I was working on the farm…”

The enchantments, useful as they were, did have a consequence, though.

“It was never this hot!”

Arenya was covered in sweat. Her dress stuck to her, and she kept almost tripping over herself. The room’s enchantments kept in heat, and it would have been uncomfortable even without the windows near the ceiling letting in so much sunlight. She kept trying to use her wings to fan herself, but it didn’t help.

Nevertheless, she channeled power through her sword and flung a bolt of mana at Ya'el.

Shamir looked rough, figuratively and literally. The edges needed more sharpening, and the metal wasn’t a smooth, clean shape. Each stripe was a bit misaligned, and the thickness of each channel wasn’t quite uniform. Spells focused through him were sometimes jagged. He wasn’t a perfect sword, or a perfect focus - but each time Arenya held him, she filled with a bit of pride that she’d forged his blade and filled his first three channels.

“Ya'el, recall that we are not here to see who the better fighter is,” said Cartalis. Her voice was slightly distorted from being on the other side of the protective enchantments. “We are here to see how Shamir holds up under strain and what steps shall be required when reforging.”

Ya'el immediately tried a high blow that would bite into Arenya’s neck were she struck. Arenya’s arm still ached from the last time she tried to block such a strike - the enchantments prevented death or serious injury, but not pain. “You really shouldn’t be training in that dress,” she said as Arenya ducked the strike. “I’m hot enough in just this.”

Arenya barely ducked under the blow. Ya'el, the brave soul, had a point, she admitted - Ya'el looked uncomfortably hot also and was wearing much less - but Arenya still squirmed at the thought. She arose from her duck and attempted an amplified strike, filling the blade with mana to improve its sharpness. It could provide a burst of momentum and even increase range a few inches if released at the right time, so she heard, but the timing was too difficult for Arenya to manage.

“I couldn’t dress like you! My smallclothes are more modest than your outfit!” Ya'el wore what seemed like a few straps around her chest and what could generously be described as black shorts. The straps prevented much movement, but scarcely hid a thing, and the shorts ended so far up the leg that Arenya blushed even to think of wearing them. Despite this, Ya'el seemed to have no embarassment at all, even with Drav right there.

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“Yeah, but who’s the one who can barely fight?” Ya'el held up a hand to indicate a moment’s pause. “Come on, just roll up your sleeves at least.”

Arenya paused, considered, looked at Drav… and then hesitantly began to roll up the sleeves on her blue dress. “This does give me more freedom of movement,” she admitted.

“You can also try hiking up your skirts!” called out Drav. “It must be hard to move around in that dress and your legs must be smoking!”

Arenya looked at him while Ya'el tried not to laugh. “How far up?” she asked. “They are hot, but I’m not going higher than just above my knees while you’re here. And I’d say given the kind of heat, they would be steaming, not smoking. There's no fire that would -”

Arenya saw Cartalis glare at Drav out of the corner of her eye. “That was a double entendre, I suspect. The term ‘smoking’ is often used to indica-”

“Oh, no…” Arenya buried her now-crimson face in her free hand as the meaning hit her.

“I think he meant up to here,” said Ya'el. Arenya glanced through her fingers to see her gesturing all the way up to her hip. Ya'el's smile proved she was teasing, but Arenya still swung at her with all her might.

Ya'el's eyes opened wide and she barely blocked the strike. “Drav doesn’t really care, you know,” she said after regaining her balance and launching a counter. "Our concerts get wild sometimes. Heck, he's seen Ya'el and I naked before. Why are you so upset by showing a little skin?”

Arenya focused another mana bolt through the sword, hoping to catch Ya'el off guard with a ranged at point-blank, but was so startled by the admission of nudity that the bolt fizzled before it properly formed. “Why does everyone here have so little modesty? Boys are going to be lusting for you nonstop. Doesn't Zelzad care that Drav has seen you like that? Doesn’t that make you uncomfortable?”

“Umm… no? I love it when guys fall over themselves for me.” Ya'el feinted a few strikes before a swift side blow that Arenya barely blocked. “As far as Zelzad..." Ya'el let out a wicked cackle. "She thinks it's hilarious. And anyway, you've got wings and a tail. It doesn’t matter what you’re wearing; you’ll always be drawing more eyes than me.”

CLANG

“But a different kind!”

CLUNK

“No, people are after you.”

BANG

“All the more reason not to dress like I’m trying to sell my body!”

“Nobody cares, Arenya! People won’t think you’re a harlot just because they can see your legs.”

“It’s indecent! I don’t care how hot it is. I’m already showing too much since Drav can see my arms.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Arenya saw Drav stand and walk towards the exit. “I’ll knock before entering so you can be decent. Only girls in here without me. I could go for a smoke anyway. Will that help?”

“Don’t bother. I’m not going to hitch my skirt up no matter who’s here.”

Arenya flapped her wings to gain a burst of speed and closed in on Ya'el, flinging another mana bolt as she did. She barely managed to strike Ya'el on her torso. A massive grin spread across her face as she realized it was the first in their training she’d landed a hit.

Ya'el grunted. “Nice one!” She paused for a moment, breathing heavily. “Damn it all… you know what, it’s too damn hot for this.” She began to pull off the wraps around her chest.

“You will do no such thing!”

“Ya'el, we shall have some shred of decency here today!”

“All right, ’El, go for it!”

Arenya and Cartalis both stared at Drav, paused by the entrance to the room, with shocked expressions.

“Oh, come on,” he said, chuckling. “She’s my bandmate. I can say things like that.”

Ya'el burst out laughing. “Seems you’ve been outvoted.”

Drav made a show of looking disappointed.

“Oh, poor Drav…” said Ya'el in a slightly mocking tone. “If you’re really that desperate, when we’re done here, I’ll really need a shower, so you and Zelzad -”

“So Cartalis!” Arenya yelled. “What are the results so far?”

Cartalis, trying not to burst out laughing, skimmed over her notepad. “Overall, performance is solid. The glow flickers when you are firing mana bolts, however, which suggests that it may need another soaking. I also think we could straighten the channels.”

Arenya blinked. “Isn’t channel straightening not possible after we fill them?”

Cartalis hid a smile. “Not with traditional methods, but I found that if you attempt another filling with an uneven amount throughout, channels made of a softer material can be bent a bit. I will show you. But for now…”

Cartalis wrinkled her nose as she looked over at Ya'el and Drav, who now appeared to be finding ways to discuss inappropriate topics using bizarre metaphors Arenya didn’t understand. “There is one thing you two have in common. You could use a shower.”

Arenya laughed.