“When Master Vee runs this class you will be expected to engage in a light warmup to reduce the strain on your bodies.” Merida told them, deciding to begin with the absolute basics. “However, as in the real world you will seldom be given such an opportunity, and today is about discerning your capabilities, we will forgo it.”
The three students nodded their understanding, lined up opposite her as they awaited instruction.
“We will begin with sparring. Pain is a good teacher so we will be using live blades. Do not hold back. Any blow I deem likely to prove immediately fatal I will shield you from and end the fight. If I tell you to stop for any reason you will do so immediately and without fail unless you wish to be banned from further classes. Any wounds undertaken during the class will be healed at the end of it. Alec, you will be required to remove your bandoleer and body armour for this initial assessment. Are there any questions?”
There weren’t.
“Good. We will begin with Alec fighting Anesh. Then transition to Holly fighting Anesh. Then finally Alec and Holly fighting Anesh. Yes Anesh, what is it?”
The trainee necromancer lowered his hand somewhat nervously, “Shouldn’t Alec and Holly at some point fight each other?”
“That may well be the worst idea I’ve heard this century.” Merida stated flatly, “Maybe a decade from now, if they do very well in their training, and if they choose to specialise in soul manipulatoin, they might, and emphasise might, be able to strike each other. But I sincerely doubt it.”
She paused, noticing Anesh’s uncomprehending look. “They’re soulbound. A blow to one is to strike the other. Forcing them to spar would be a require a rare and acutely perverse form of sadism on my part.” Merida’s eyes narrowed as she read the faces of her three students. “Which I do not have.”
Ignoring the doubtful looks she was getting she moved to lean against the piled chairs, “Now stop wasting time and begin.”
Despite the archmage’s insistence both Alec and Anesh did in fact waste some time, the two teenagers moving to face opposite each other and drawing their blades. Alec’s trusty spatha felt heavier in his hand than usual as he saluted his oppenent whilst eyeing Anesh’s own blade, his fellow student apparently having retrieved it during the scant minutes he and Holly had been banished to the corridor.
He’d never faced a rapier before but it only took until Anesh reduced his view of the slim blade to little more than a point for him to decide he hated it.
Alec fancied himself an at least decent swordsman, it was hard not to be after months of training and several life or death battles, but one thing he’d never been trained for was how to duel. Or at least how to duel someone like Anesh.
Lutan, murderer of his parents and the man he’d literally been trained on how best to kill, had favoured a suit of magekiller platemail and heavy bastard sword. Any battle between them would have had to be a game of cat and mouse, and Alec had not been cast in the role of the cat.
The only chance he’d have had to win would be to tire the paladin out, find ways to foul his legs and foot and in general stay out of reach of someone who had close to half a foot in height on him until he finally got a single opening to go for the kill.
Anesh on the other hand… Alec could barely see the tip of his blade even is it opened a cut on his forearm in the first few blows and the spatha felt clumsy in Alec’s hands as he hastily deflected the others, giving ground rapidly.
His opponent kept coming, opening up more shallow cuts on Alec’s arms and fast enough that the teenager got no chance to circle and free up more room even as Anesh presented almost no target at all where he was turned sideways to him, one hand behind his back for balance and to stop Alec taking a swipe at it.
The end came quickly. Alec’s back bouncing off the wall as he ran out of room. His blade rose to try and stop the inevitable but too slow, Anesh’s blade stopped on his throat, the full strength of his thrust stopped by Merida’s barrier.
“Enough.” Merida’s harsh voice growled out, “Reset and begin again. And Anesh, I hope you’re holding back right now, because if you aren’t then what I just watched was inexcusable.”
“Archmage?” The dark skinned boy asked with genuine befuddlement, not even sure what he was asking.
“Oh dear. Well we all have our blindspots I suppose.” Merida shook her head in less-than-quiet disappointment. “Now, again.”
The second duel didn’t go any better than the first for Alec, Anesh simply backing him into a wall with his longer, faster blade as the rookie desperately tried to defend, at one point nearly dropping his sword.
“Again.”
By the third time Alec had been forced back against the wall, culminating in Anesh skewering one of his kidneys, he feared the month he’d spent being healed, debriefed and detained had made him painfully rusty. In the final battle at Valda, just before they’d gone to face Charigris, it was starting to feel like a natural extension of his hand, but now it just felt heavy and the point never landed quite where he planned.
‘It’s not you.’ Holly’s voice rang clear in his head. ‘He’s doing something to you. Other than the stabbing I mean.’
‘You’re sure?’ Alec asked, before mentally chastising himself. Holly wouldn’t have said it otherwise, all he’d done was make himself sound like an idiot and like he didn’t trust her.
‘Unless the hand he’s got hidden behind his back normally glows blue… yeah I’m sure.’ The dryad replied waspishly.
Alec considered asking to share her eyesight for the next round but that really was asking for trouble. He could just about manage not to fall over his own feet when managing more than his fair share of senses, fighting someone was an absolute no-go unless he wanted to get skewered. And as the third round had shown him, Merida had been true to her word that it was only instantly fatal blows she’d stop.
Still this time when he engaged Anesh he took extra care to focus on directing his blade where he wanted it, moving slower as a consequence and picking up a hole in the shoulder in the process. This time though, he felt it. Just a slight change in the weight of the sword as he swung. Not much, just putting the sword a couple inches past where he’d intended it.
A couple of inches could be a lot in a sword fight, as Anesh had shown by deflecting his slight overextension even further to puncture his shoulder.
The question was what on Reath to do about it? Sure he could grip the blade tighter so that slight difference wouldn’t have much effect, but that was a very good way for Anesh to jolt the spatha out of his grip with the impact. The rapier might have been a lighter blade, but it wasn’t that light.
Ditto breaking it. It was a common misconception that the long, thin swords were fragile. And they were, but only comparatively. They were unlikely to survive a pitched battle, but they weren’t going to snap from a couple of impacts with a heavier blade unless the owner was dumb enough to try a static block against something like a zweihander. But anyone that stupid deserved what was about to happen to them at that point.
There was also the niggling feeling that even if Alec took the spell out of the equation, Anesh was simply the better swordsman. Still as he was yet again pinned to the wall, this time through a lung – lucky him – Alec resolved he was going to touch the other teenager with his blade at least once today.
Finally he asked himself the most dangerous question. What would Erebus do?
*
Holly winced with half-shared pain as Anesh’s sword took Alec in the chest. The dryad had not been having a good time watching. For all Alec was trying hard not to let the pain flow down their bond, his growing frustration was stymieing his own efforts. The feelings, and the cause of those feelings, hitting her in waves as his control waxed and waned, and waned more with each round.
It was that which had made her tip him off as to what Anesh was doing. As much as Merida might regard it as a breach of her rule that only Alec would fight Anesh at first, it wasn’t Merida being repeatedly stabbed without being able to do anything about it, was it?!
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
Not that she could blame Alec too heavily for the pain being inflicted on her. It wasn’t like he could do anything to stop it either.
All Holly could really do was watch, learn, and try to narrow their bond as much as she could, Alec unwittingly fighting her every step of the way as his emotions (and pain) hit the narrow channel.
She could tell he was planning something drastic, not exactly a surprise, though she didn’t dare open up enough at this point to check his thoughts for what it was.
When it happened it was without warning, one moment she’d been watching the sparring the next sure was in a crumpled pile on the floor, clutching her left side as she tried her best not to scream. Small whimpers forcing their way past her teeth despite her best efforts.
It wasn’t the worst pain she’d ever experienced. That still went to the flesh sizzling sensation of having a nullstone collar placed around her neck, but it was an easy shoe-in for second place. A sharp stabbing sensation in her midriff combined with the burning pain of the many wounds on Alec’s arms as the bond was forced open by a cacophony of sensation of which the pain was just the appetizer.
Most of what was coming through from Alec was triumph and determination, and it wasn’t hard to see why. Over two feet of rapier were currently emerging from his back, one hand holding it firmly in place after he’d purposefully stepped into the lunge. His own blade didn’t extend quite so far out of Anesh’s back, but both were clearly visible from Holly’s crumpled position on the floor.
It was that same position from the floor that allowed her to see the vindication that flashed across Merida’s face for just a moment before the elf clapped her hands just once.
The pain vanished, simply gone in a moment, in a wave of bright green magic that pulsed out from the archmage. “I think I have seen enough from Alec. Come here both of you, you need healing. And don’t think we won’t be discussing that little stunt at a later date boy.”
While the two boys withdrew their blades from each other with rather more hesitancy than had been used to put them there in the first place, Holly took a moment to centre herself.
She wanted to believe that Alec hadn’t known how much that would hurt her, but she’d been able to feel his frustration. And if that was how frustrated she’d felt through a bond slammed as tightly shut as she could manage, she could scarcely imagine how annoyed he’d been.
Annoyed enough that he still hadn’t realized he’d hurt her, the dryad receiving nothing but waves of satisfaction from Alec as he got his wounds healed before bloodloss, or possibly shock, could club him insensate. Certainly the common room floor would need a mop taken to it, or at least it would have if Merida hadn’t turned her attention there next.
With two swift gestures the archmage summoned a ball of crackling fire as all the blood on the floor rose from the floor to surge towards the fire. For a few moments the fire spluttered and nearly died before she reasserted the spell.
“Let this be an important lesson to all of you. You do not leave your blood lying around if you want to live long. There are mages centuries your senior who have been struck down due to a wound they took during their training.”
“Erebus always maintained that those kinds of curses weren’t worth worrying about.” Alec protested.
“Erebus was an archmage who has been in more life-or-death battles than you’ve had meals and could turn the spell back on any thaumaturge trying their luck almost on reflex.” Merida countered flatly, “Which is why, if I had some of his blood, I’d wait for him to sleep and then cast the curse to make his heart explode.”
Alec and Holly didn’t need to be sharing a soul to give Archmage Merida the same doubtful look.
“Now, back to the lesson… do you have a preferred weapon Holly?” Their teacher asked with something close to kindness sneaking its way in.
“Not especially… unless magic counts?” Holly replied hesitantly, still clutching her side where the phantom pain had been stabbing her as if worried it would come back.
“Magic does indeed count, but not today. Today we’re just focused on the physical.” Merida pursed her lips, “If you lack a weapon that could prove a problem. While there will be classes on fighting unarmed, today I’m afraid it would just involve Anesh stabbing you repeatedly.”
“I have a staff?” Holly suggested, brandishing Yew’s stave uncertainly enough that Merida, Anesh and Alec winced.
“While I have no objections to you training to properly use a quarterstaff, both physically and as a spellcasting tool, that staff I cannot countenance.” Their teacher said as evenly as they could manage.
“Why not?” Holly asked, just a little petulantly. Everyone else seemed to get their magical weapon of choice afterall.
“Because I’m not entirely sure I can stop it.” Merida admitted. “There’s a very good chance of you striking and killing Anesh.”
“It’s that powerful?” Holly spluttered. She’d known the staff was a powerful weapon, but not ‘trouble for an archmage’ powerful.
“An elder yew dryad’s heartwood, freely given. That’s not to mention the way its been tainted by use. Which you will not elaborate on to the other students. I don’t think you understand the kind of weapon you’re holding.” The elf half-explained, “If I were to touch it without permission I’d have to sheathe my hands in a magical barrier. If Anesh were to touch it without permission it would rot the flesh from his bones then puppeteer his corpse. That’s without you doing anything. The freely given part is important. It was bequeathed to Erebus, and as his apprentice you were able to handle it, now it belongs to you and you have to give permission.”
Holly nodded, ignoring the way Anesh, who had very much considered touching Yew’s warstaff, had turned an alarming shade of grey, “Then that’s easily solved. Anesh, you’re allowed to touch it.” Her gaze flitted back to Merida, “Will that do?”
“I don’t know.” The archmage admitted, “On the one hand you’ve very explicitly given permission, on the other hand you’re intending to strike him with it so that might revoke the permission. As a dryad you may be better qualified to judge this than I am, however, given a mistake will cost us a rather promising student, we will err on the side of caution.”
As she spoke she pulled over one of the tables with a spell, the wood warping under her attention until a quarterstaff sprang free from the table – leaving it uneven – to land in Merida’s hand. “Use this.” The archmage ordered, more or less pushing it into Holly’s arms hard enough that Alec rubbed at his chest in sympathetic pain.
Holly just nodded, handing off Yew’s staff to Alec before taking what she hoped was a fighting stance. “Let’s do this then.”
The first bout lasted just a few seconds. Anesh’s blade slashed twice, the first swatting aside the staff and the second stopped by Merida’s barrier on Holly’s throat before the dryad’s weapon could even try and stop it.
“Again.” Merida snapped, as if the outcome would change with repetition.
This time Anesh didn’t even bother knocking the staff aside, just thrusting past it for his blade to be stopped by Merida’s spell, provoking a slightly muted sound of outrage from Alec. The archmage had allowed a similar strike to pierce his shoulder and the blatant favouritism rankled.
That he would have felt the strike as well hadn’t occurred to him.
Merida didn’t bother with a third bout, the elf rubbing at the bridge of her nose in carefully expressed frustration, “It appears that Alec will not be the only one in dire need of remedial lessons. How you survived a pitched battle I know not.”
“I was allowed to use magic then.” Holly retorted, “And people had my back.”
“Well there appears little point having Anesh duel the pair of you.” Merida continued, as if Holly hadn’t interjected, “It’s a waste of his talents and I fear will do little to help develop yours. Between you, at least, there’s a competent combat mage. A pity that life is seldom so charitable as to let that be enough.”
“We-” Alec began, but this time Merida wasn’t having it.
“You are all dismissed. You may amuse yourselves for the rest of the day whilst I try to salvage something from your situations. Anesh, remain behind. I will require your input.”
That last bit certainly surprised them, Anesh most of all. But the apprentice necromancer knew better than to question as both Alec and Holly did not quite flee Merida’s presence. “Of course archmage.”
*
“Your thoughts?” Archmage Merida asked simply once she’d felt Holly and Alec wander down the corridor, the elf’s attention an almost physical weight upon Anesh’s shoulders as he withered under her regard.
Anesh took his time in the answering, all too aware he was, somehow, being asked to pronounce judgement upon the two new students as much as give an opinion. There was no other way to interpret the stern and austere words nor the way was only just shy of glaring as she waited.
If he gave the wrong response he could well get Alec and Holly killed. If he gave a really wrong response he could get himself killed. And if he lied to her face… well this was the Necropolis. Death was one of the lighter punishments available.
“They’re dangerous.” He said finally, the words starting at a trickle and ending in a flood, “I don’t know what they’ve gone through, but they’re too jumpy. I’m certain they planned to stab me when I knocked on their door. They walk around in body armour and as for Alec… who deliberately gets stabbed during a friendly spar just to land a blow?! That’s not normal!”
Merida simply nodded, “I see. Thank you for your input. If you hurry you might be able to attend the rest of your normal classes.”
The archmage watched him leave before summoning over one of the chairs, sinking tiredly into it. The lessons had been surprisingly tiring even for someone as powerful as her. Part of it was her own fault, getting carried away getting Holly to guess increasingly complicated mana signatures and insisting that the sparring be done with live blades (and the rather complex barrier spell that she’d been using to selectively stop them.)
That wasn’t how combat training usually went, but she’d wanted to scare the pair, hoping that a little pain - more than a little if she were honest – would push them to seek magical knowledge elsewhere.
Combine that with the hideous difficulty and draining intensity of creating something as potent as chaos from mere mana, a trick she doubted even the fabled Erebus could have done on the fly, and the Archmage of the Myriad Arts was frankly exhausted.
Pretty much every mage to even make it to their journeymanship had external sources of mana, or other energies. But they were almost universally finite resources, even if it was just their own carefully stockpiled mana and Merida certainly hadn’t planned on spending that on a mere lesson.
She was paying for that pride now. Enough so she’d skipped the conversation she’d been planning to have with the duo after the lessons for fear they might see a moment of weakness from her.
Anesh was more right than he knew. Alec and Holly were dangerous and traumatized, but still they would only be out of her sight for a few hours. How much trouble could they possibly get into?