My heart pounded in my chest as Bhaltair marched towards me in slow motion. He didn't wear it on his sleeve… But he was pissed. I knew what he was going to try and do to me…

Even before time resumed I could feel the blood vessels in my nose and ears burst from the intense strain holding it frozen took on my body. Thanks to whatever my father did I seemed to have more control over it, but it still felt like if I continued, my head would explode.

‘Bhaltair… Lets fight…’

I sent time spinning back to its normal pace and instinctively dodged as he reached for my hair. He used his right hand, instead of his left, but that didn't affect my plan. The general concept was still the same.

He paused for a moment. “You little!” he grumbled before reaching for my wrist.

‘I knew it!’ The excitement I started to feel only fueled my adrenaline even more. At the last moment, I yanked my arm back and slipped through his fingers, but just barely. Even knowing what he was going to do I was almost too slow to react.

Time froze again as I hesitated to make a decision.

The knife was right there. I could grab it and stab him. ‘I could cut his hand… Or even go for his throat…’

Despite everything he had done to me, murder was off the table almost right away, so the only question that remained was whether or not I wanted to hurt him.

The answer was of course, Yes. ‘I said I was going to give you a knife someday, didn't I?’

My manna was draining quickly, and I could feel myself getting lightheaded, but I only needed to stay conscious for another few seconds.

Time resumed. I grabbed the knife, moving my hands as fast as I possibly could. His hand was left exposed on the table as he slammed it down to try and threaten me. Without hesitation I stabbed the knife straight through his palm, pinning it to polished wood…

‘I did it!’ A mixture of pride, fear, and other emotions swept over me as I saw blood splatter around the wound.

My head jerked back as I was lifted off the ground. Before I could even look at his hand he had already freed it, removing the knife with his teeth.

His face didn't even flinch. It was cold and lifeless.

“You’ve gotten bold… You know what happens to bold people that can’t back themselves up?” The adrenaline only rushed harder through my body as his words shook me to my core. I must have looked terrified. I could tell by his smile. “They die…”

His smile turned to a snarling grimace. Like a wolf going in for the kill. One look and my blood ran cold.

Still, I wasn’t done. Without even realizing it myself, I had grabbed a second knife with my other hand.

‘Even a shallow cut can be pretty deadly if it’s in the right place…’

I kicked my legs up around his shoulder, taking the knife and stabbing it into his arm as deep as I could. His skin and muscles were so dense it only went in maybe an inch, but that was deep enough. In one clean movement and with all my might I dragged the knife from his wrist to his elbow. ‘I got you…”

I pulled the knife out, expecting him to finally let go, but his arm stayed strong. Before I could even try to get away he slammed me into the stone wall, cracking it, and dislocating my shoulder.

My chest felt heavy as I struggled to breathe, dangling before him just like before. ‘Just one move… Can he really win in one move?’

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Blood dripped from his arm to the floor, slowly pooling as his eyes widened further. It wasn’t out of shock or pain though the look on his face was something else. It was the look of a predator about to devour its prey.

My whole body felt numb after hitting the wall, but I could still move, and somehow I was still holding onto my knife. Time froze. ‘I can't reach his body… And I can’t make him drop me… I’ve lost… Still, I have a knife, and I’m a pretty good shot. Maybe I can at least give him a scar on his face…’

In my field of view, I saw the perfect trajectory and my body knew exactly how to move. ‘Let’s see how you like it…’ Time flew forward at what felt like double speed as I hurled the knife, slashing his cheek wide open.

‘After all, what’s he going to do, beat me more…’

The scowl on his cold face vanished, and what was left was an expressionless man with eyes as blank as if he had died long ago. “Now die…” Blood dripped down his cheek as his whisper sent shivers down my spine.

‘He’s not… actually going to kill me right?’

Time froze again as he raised his fist to hit me. ‘His right hand is raised and he is about to throw a punch, but I can see exactly where it's aimed. If I move properly I can at least block or deflect his first strike. He should only be able to get one in before Mara opened the door–’

Time shot back to full speed as my flow of manna came to a complete halt. It wasn’t just a standstill, more like it was all gone. I felt colder than death, but I already had everything I needed. ‘I just need to take one hit. One hit and I’m fine.’

My instincts were telling me to try to get him to let go of my hair, or to try and cover my face in fear, but I fought through them, lifting my left arm to block a shot to my stomach.

I felt a slight grin appear on my face, ‘predictable, of course, you'd strike there, that's where you always teach the first strike will be.’

As his fist connected with my bandaged arm I felt its full force pin it to my body and drive straight through me, shaking me to my very core and even crushing a couple of my ribs.

A loud crack bellowed through the building before he threw me to the ground. All I could do was scream, cradling my arm and gritting my teeth to try and muffle the noise.

The door crashed open but I only continued to groan in pain. I couldn't hold it in. No matter how hard I tried to stop myself. It was over, he won.

My arm was bruised when sparring, and then again when training with Mara, it was shredded by the heavy string from the war bow, and then beaten brutally by Bhaltair. Finally, under the weight of one final heavy blow, I was sure that it had been broken. I couldn’t even feel my hand anymore.

“What's going on here!” Mara shouted in a commanding voice. I bit into my thumb to try and stop myself from screaming anymore but I was still groaning with every shallow breath.

“Just teaching her a lesson,” he said, turning to walk back to his seat.

After assessing the situation she seemed to calm down and furrowed her brow. “Sometimes the best way to learn is through showing not the consequence, but the proper action.” she turned around and kneeled “How badly are you hurt?”

Her voice was as cold and callous as her expression, maybe it was just the relief I felt that she stopped it from going further, but for once I was glad to see her.

A part of me wondered if she was only asking so that she could judge how effective her training was. Flashes of the conversation I had with my father just moments ago came to the forefront of my mind.

In this situation… When push came to shove, who was on my side? My father should have been in the next room, yet even after my screams, he was nowhere to be seen. Airsidh and Lu stood completely still, not even moving an inch as the scent of blood filled the cold air.

Sure, I mean technically I had Agis, my so-called patron, and people like Elsie who were kind. But in the end, where were they when I needed them?

My thoughts made my words catch in my throat. Tears welled up from inside of me as I suppressed the urge to scream. The only thing I could manage was a soft wheezing sound that managed to escape as I Curled up on the ground “I-”

“If she is hurt from such a weak blow then there is no chance she will survive the academy. I should kill her now, since you’re obviously too weak to… You should have beat her harder yesterday like Father told you, maybe then she wouldn’t be mouthy at least.”

Another chill coursed through my body as I remembered my father saying my training wasn’t hard enough, and then the image of Mara screaming at the balcony after beating me. ‘That was him too. I guess… That makes sense…’

My mind was too flooded to fully process everything, but all of the implications tying themselves together were enough for it to begin to shut down completely. I finally lost the urge to scream, but my breathing was still shallow, every breath more painful than the last as the adrenaline slowly wore off.

‘No one… No one’s on my side. After all this time it was Mara who was too weak to kill me? So that’s why I’m alive? It's not because anyone wants me to live… It's just because of a “Flaw” in someone’s character.’

I looked Mara in the eyes. “I'm fine…” I snarled. ‘If that’s how it is then I’ll stand on my own… Even when I believed in my father he was never around. I was never able to truly lean on him anyway… Nothing changed.’

I slammed my good fist into the wall beside me and staggered back to my feet. “NEXT TIME I’LL AIM FOR YOUR THROAT, THEN WE’LL SEE HOW LONG YOU CAN KEEP UP THAT SMUG ACT!”

I was screaming words I wasn’t sure if I even meant, trying to threaten him as much as possible while my eyes watered, making me feel like nothing more than a hurt puppy, yipping at his heels.

He paused in the doorway, not even so much as looking back to acknowledge me. As he walked out I could feel Mara’s cold hands poking around the wound, my arm dangling at my side. “Broken…” she muttered.

‘Is it really broken so badly that she can tell by feeling it?’

“Siya?”

I looked down at my arm, it was bleeding, and I could see one of the bones sticking out. Her voice began to echo and my vision faded to tunnels. my stomach twisting in knots as I tried to wrap my head around how everything I was seeing was real.

“Siya, are you alright?”

I knew I was going to pass out. All I could do was chuckle. “You're not going to ask how the other guy is?”

I was trying to sound tough, but I was afraid the never-ending stream of tears meant that if she felt anything at all when looking at me, it was probably pity.

She followed my eyes to the bloody knives on the floor across the room, and I lost consciousness, The limp numbness in my hand spreading to the rest of my body. I never hit the floor though.

Instead of a dull thud, I felt her arms wrap around me just before my eyes closed shut. ‘She caught me…?’

Everything went black.