I waited another month before I realized mother wouldn't return for our tutoring sessions. She took her meals in her chambers and avoided interaction. Looking back, I see this was her way of grieving the loss of her family. At the time, I felt abandoned by the one sanctum in the Hell I circumvented. And I knew one course of retaliation.

"Father, I wish to train with Amolot."

Umbra stared at me with his mouth open, and the food in his fist dangling aloft. Amolot grinned broadly behind his place at the head of the table. I let my words linger as my legs swung in the seat, too short to reach the floor.

Father slopped the mess back onto his plate. "Your mother wishes you to study a while longer. Has she reconsidered?"

"I am not concerned with her, father. I said, 'I wish to train.'" My plate untouched, my cup full, I exhausted my young mind ruminating this decision. The longer my father took to respond, the more I feared I wasted my anxiety and time. I clenched my fists below the tabletop as I waited and tried my best to appear calm on the surface.

After an eternity with his hands folded against his lips, Umbra said, "You begin tomorrow." He turned back to Amolot, and they whispered to one another.

A lump of despair sank in the pit of my heart and landed like a leaden weight in my stomach at my successful betrayal. What would mother think? What would she say? Would she even care? I withered in my chair as I feared her disappointment far more intensely than my father's ire. Losing her to my pettiness terrified me. But the excitement in Amolot's eyes as she locked onto mine terrified me almost as much.

Savis woke me the next morning when she sat on my bed. I expected her scorn, outrage, or anguish. She brushed my hair away with her soft, sure hands. Smiling gently, she said, "We are both much older now, are we not?"

"Bene!" I cried in her arms, never predicting her forgiveness.

We said little else as she prepared me for my first instruction with extra thick wrapping beneath my robes. She sang a Verse I couldn't place while tying back my hair. We walked hand-and-hand to the training circle father fashioned on a veranda. The unenclosed venue posed no threat to him and Amolot with their wings, but I had yet to mature into them. I feared the crush of the ground below.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"I will observe today's instruction," Savis announced.

Father leaned against the castle wall with his arms folded. He gestured his agreement with barely a wave. Mother stepped back and clasped her hands behind her. She shrank a bit as Amolot stepped onto the veranda.

The stout woman approached me in the center. I stood as tall as her thigh. The huskiness of her voice startled me at first. She rarely spoke around me. "Your father said you have watched us train for some time now. Is that true?"

I hid my wince. I wanted to leave my mother in the dark regarding that curiosity. "Yes, Amolot."

She backhanded me. Faster than I could see. No chance of dodging. I slid to the edge of the banister with its balusters too far apart to stave me. My mother cried out. I heard her fight with my father to save me. Thinking quickly, I pulled a stick from my hair and jabbed it into the porous rock. My legs hung from the edge, and my fingernails bled from the abrasive stone.

Amolot called to me as she took her time walking my way, "I am General to you, Night Prince, until you draw my blood."

"How can you let her treat our son like this?" Savis cried. She struggled hard to free herself from father's arms.

He paid no notice and wasted little effort on his grip. "Respect is paramount in a warrior. Heathen will not disrespect Amolot again." He released her, and she tore from his side to glare at him. "The lessons here do not differ from his sessions with you. Do not interfere because you dislike the instructor." Father gripped her by the chin. "If you try again, I will teach you an unforgettable lesson."

Mother looked back at me. Amolot stood over me as I flailed to pull myself up. I was weak and recovering from my concussion. I whimpered in my struggle. Savis declared, "If she hurts my son irreparably, I will kill you both."

Even in my naïve youth, I winced at her words, for I knew what followed. I loved her for meaning it.

My father's eyes stayed on her as he called out, "Amolot, continue the exercise. Make Heathen strong like his mother, but beat the respect she clearly lacks into him. I will do the same."

He clasped mother roughly by the arm and led her inside. She turned back as I stood in the center of the circle once more. I tried to smile for her. To reassure her. But as I looked up at Amolot, I couldn't find it in me before he whisked her away.

The General fell into a stance. I mirrored her.

The promulgation horns crooned from the castle's northern side.

The female warrior circled me. I imitated, clumsy and unsure. I stumbled at the first distant crack of the whip and my mother's scream that echoed throughout the valley. While I stupored in horror, Amolot swung at me. The blow broke my jaw.

With another crack of the whip, a resounding cry followed. This time, a barrage of voices cheered. They continued to do so in time with the blows.

The second strike hit me below my ribs. The breath rushed out of me, and I fell to my knees. She kicked my head like a sports ball. I fell back with a spectacular spray of my blood.

Gruffly, the Valkyrie ordered, "Cover your head with your arms. Tuck into yourself, tightly. This will prevent the most damage."

Amolot kicked me while I gripped my necklace and prayed to Elden that my mother's screams would stop. Even as I feared the alternative to her silence. Her death or mine.