Spring was coming earlier as if to erase the memories of this year's terrible weather. As the end of the year approached a warm breeze from the south brought thawning.
The end of the year celebration was simple but agreeable. I got some days off from palace duties to go help at the temple for the pantheon's daynight on the 24th of Festire.
It was nice to get to see them again. Sansho fed me and Gupta and Orzhov had a sparing session with me. The bruised they gave me were a harsh reminder that I wasn't training enough these days. Climbing a mountain wasn't the same as sparring.
I also reported my recent actions to Patiyar and Nutusi. They weren't happy with how things unfolded but couldn't make any reproach. If they had been able to help, I wouldn't have been snatched by the lord. Nutusi was showing some interest in my teaching of the princess. This could be a way to spread the alphabet in higher circles.
It was both good and bad for her. Bad because it meant more people would be able to decipher her spies' messages, she would need to train them in cyphers. Good because it would allow her agents to read the messages that blades and free citizens were exchanging. In time, the hall of whispers will benefit from the alphabet diffusing in the higher circles.
The last night of the year was spent at home. Without either of my grandparents, the house felt a bit empty. My youngest sister, Ederia, wasn't old enough to participate and was put to sleep early.
Gelcaria joined us for this last meal of the year.
With my salary and the recently lifted blade's taxes, we managed to buy some foods for a decent meal. It wasn't a feast as food prices were still higher than usual, even more so during this period: celebration and dearth weren't a good match.
Since my grandmother wasn't here to cook or help my mother I decided to help in the kitchen with Gelcaria. Thanks to our contacts at the fishing pier, I was able to get eggs, buy enough fish and oil to make something close to breaded fish with fries. Oil was the hardest thing and costliest item to find.
It turned out quite nicely. The taste was still a bit different from what I aimed for but everyone loved it. Fish and chips were a new recipe for celebratory days.
That night, Gel and I watched the Lightworks of the palace together from my attic. Just like last year, the Shieldlord's castle's sky was set ablaze with lights of every colours, green, blue, and red flames joining yellow beams of light to push away the darkness of this moonless sky.
I took the opportunity to probe Gel's feelings about becoming a palace servant. She was quite happy with her new life.
Sure many were looking at her badly: a young commoner, with purple eyes, joining the princess' entourage was ruffling a few feathers. But she was used to the scorn and more resilient than even I might think.
The sparing sessions with the princess were great. They had trainers and Hamy to give them pointers and the princess was quite fun to be around according to her. I've yet to meet the “fun princess”, during our tutoring session on the contrary I try to keep the “serious princess” rather than the fun one.
On duels, she would wipe them. Princess Moatimu could already use chi thanks to her status, which gave her the edge. Only when Melodi tagged with Gelcaria would the girls manage to get the upper hand on the princess.
I was relieved she was fine with our “punishment”, I was the one who dragged her along. In time, I'll find a way for her to not just end up as another soldier sent to the front line.
* * * *
Now that the princess knew how to read and write, I was turning more and more into a real tutor. I was to make sure she understood what she was reading.
Her grandfather was capitalizing on the fine relationship I had with the princess. I was younger and it came with both pros and cons. She was less likely to obey me but at the same time, I wasn't a figure of authority or one of those “dusty scholars” she despised. This made her more likely to listen to me and learn what she had to in all these books. I was more a not-so-fun friend than a teacher in her eyes.
Now that we had copied quite the amount of books and that the inflow was dying up, Balout and I had more free time in the mornings. With lord Iroto's authorisation we joined the girls in their sparring sessions every other day.
We were outmatched.
Balout could sometimes overpower his opponent in a burst of raw strength but I couldn't. I was made fun of as “dodge boy” because I was evading more than I was retaliating. At least my footwork and agility were worth the praise.
My strategy would work on Melodi, the girl would lose patience and pounce on me at some point, leaving some openings for my blunt sword to reach her.
This didn't work against Gel or princess Moatimu. Gel knew me too well, she could predict my movements and intentions. Whenever her lilac eyes locked with mine it was over for me, she would find her way to put her sparing sword right under my throat.
The princess had a harder time but could wear me down. When I was getting slower as my stamina was running low she would just tap in her Chi to overpower me.
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The fencing in this world was a bit different than what little I knew about fencing on earth.
They relied on Chi to have more stamina. It meant they could make quicker and stronger moves for a longer time or use heavier weapons. It wasn't unusual for the princess to wield a club or a maul, very different from the delicate sais she had on our first meeting.
They also had some frenzied footwork, always moving around in large strides. This was to avoid magic users. Magic attacks were deadly and had to be avoided at all costs. Being on the move constantly was the first counter-measure and thanks to chi they could make strange moves like Gupta was able to. Seeing someone drifting direction mid-air and violating all the Newtonian movement laws was a strange experience.
In the mornings we weren't training, I was doing maths with Balout in the garden. The boy was naturally gifted with numbers and I was getting a bit jealous. Juggling between hexadecimal and decimal was quite bothersome and at some point I had him migrate to decimal when teaching him equations. If he wanted to convert those to hexadecimal I would let him do it on his own. I was getting tired of the hexadecimal system anyway.
This finally caught the attention of the old lord and I was able to introduce him to the decimal system. It didn't interest him as much as I expected.
Instead of asking me to teach maths to the princess, he came up with a strange request for me.
He had received many demands from various people to learn my writing technique. He had spoken highly about it, plus the fact that the princess who was famous for her hard time learning ideograms had mastered it in a short time caught the eyes of many.
There were demands from a bunch of blades to have their kids taught but also free citizens and even foreigners, merchants, and scholars from afar. The old lord had quite the varied network.
Even if this was like a dream come true, the changes I wished for would get implemented faster than I could have dreamed about, I knew Nutusi would push me to accept.
This impression grew even stronger when Lord Iroto told me that cardinal Fortmo gave his approval.
This also meant that there was probably a bunch of future spies among my students.
My first class was made of a hex of young adults. It was quite strange to have them listen to me, a child barely six springs old. Yet they were briefed beforehand. They knew the teacher was going to be young but was supported by the old lord and my students were hand-picked by him. So they made no trouble for me.
Among them were four priests of Shinpilo that shared a look of connivance with me, two scholars from the southern free cities, a Beastkin turtle from the Beastkin empire, and a merchant from the empire's capital city. The rests were officials and scholars from our city.
They were studious but teaching them took more time than with the princess. Older people learn new tricks more slowly. The turtle-kin was the fastest. The Beastkin writing system was based on a similar syllabic system after all. They had more than a hexhex (256) of signs to make all sounds but he got the hang of my alphabet quite quickly.
It took a bit more than a month for all of them to be able to read and write fluently enough to be able to exchange messages between them.
I was appointed for some “night classes” to teach some cyphers to the four Shinpiloites next. They weren't meant to become scribes.
* * * *
After my first graduates, a next batch was immediately provided. Lord Iroto had a group of twenty or so kids and teenagers rounded up for me. Those were children of blades, local rich free citizens and even the second prince was among them...
Smelling trouble from afar I requested for either the old lord himself or Shizu to be there. Otherwise, I could already see how things could turn badly for a young commoner having to enforce authority on a class of young nobles full of despise for a street urchin. Not ignoring a siscon prince among them.
With Shizu sitting sternly in a corner of the “classroom” (I was teaching in the Jade garden), everyone kept in check.
This was a bit different from my previous teachings. Gelcaria and the rest were my age and younger and accepted my teachings naturally, they were blank pages. The scholars from my first class were briefed and mature enough to accept knowledge wherever it was coming from but those children were a harder nut to crack.
They wouldn't openly face me with Shizu being around but I could feel the reluctance. They weren't fond of studying and having to learn yet another thing that would impair their earlier learnings furthermore displeased them.
Having to follow a commoner was even more a problem for them, especially since I was younger than any of them. The youngest was looking as old as the princess, so either 9 or 10 springs old and the oldest was almost an adult of hex springs old.
I had the Lord provide me with a big enough slate blackboard and some chalk which brought back some memories. At the end of one of the sessions, as I was tidying up the place, one of my “students” came to talk to me.
This was quite rare, they would usually ask their questions during class, trying to have me make a fool of myself or uncover a loop in my writing system. If only they knew how many books Balout and I had transcribed in many different languages, they would know we had already proof-checked it.
The teen was one of the older students, a teenager of more than 14 springs, probably on his blade training to become one of the local lordlings judging from his martial robe and the shortsword hanging at his waist. Only blades of the higher ranks would be allowed to carry weapons in the palace.
He was tall for his age, at least double of my current size and quite handsome with his grey eyes full of confidence and his square chin.
“Sorry to bother you but I thought I ought to introduce myself.” he started. He was towering over me, I'd have to stand on a chair to look him in the eyes. I nodded to invite him to go on.
“I am Khinra, son of Luatotsi, head of House Duarch.” this brought a cold grasp around my heart.
He was the son of the man who killed my grandmother for his little feud. Sensing my cold stare back, the teenager kept going uneasily: “I know there were some troubles brought on you by my father's actions. I just wanted to explain in his stead that this wasn't against you personally and I hope you won't hold any grudge against us. We are the blades protecting your family after all so let's get along well.” he offered.
This filled me with a wave of freezing anger. Not the furious outburst of wrath but rather the meticulous call for vengeance. They were protecting us? Where were they when we faced the monstrous tide in the cellar? Where were they when Yoli got dismembered? Where were they when my grandmother was spitting blood?
“I understand. I'll let you know that your “protection” and your father's little “trouble” cost us the life of my grandmother.” I coldly replied. I was tasked to teach them, not become friends with them. It was high time blades learned that their decisions had real consequences on us commoners.
This caught him by surprise. At least the young man was either honest or a really good actor and he was stumbling to find his words. “I, euh? What? I didn't know, I'm sorry...” he babbled.
I waved a hand in front of him to silence him up, it must have looked quite the funny sight for out-lookers: the tiny child silencing the big one. “I don't want your excuses. They are coming too late. They won't bring the dead back. I do not want to hold a grudge against you but would you get along with the one that caused the death of one of yours?” I followed up, as cold as the blizzard from last winter. It was a bit petty from my side, the boy wasn't to blame for his father's deeds but it was allowing me to vent some steam out.
“I, hum. I'm sincerely sorry for your loss. I'm sure this wasn't what he wanted.”
Seeing the young man struggling to find his footing back finally decided me to let it go. He had nothing to do with it and blaming him won't bring my grandmother back from Otik's gardens. “It is fine. I understand you had nothing to do with it. Just know that I hold your father responsible for that.”
It took him some time to process the information. He finally was relieved “You are far wiser than a kid your age should be. I don't know how I'd react in your shoes?” He surprised me by bowing at 90 degrees in apology. This attracted some curious stares from his blades friends waiting for him.
“Please rise. You're embarrassing yourself by bowing to a commoner.” I reprimanded him.
“My family failed yours as blades. This was the least I should do. I'll have to talk to my father. Again, I hope we'll get along well.” He hurriedly said before leaving.
I felt slightly remorseful after seeing how honest he acted but if excuses could make amend for everything, there wouldn't be the need for tribunals or police.