Jin, if she knew about the early morning’s exploration, didn’t seem to care. Training was as strict and grueling as it had been from the beginning without any sign of letting up. In fact, if anything, it was worse because everything we did that day was partner or group based, even the warm up endurance training. And she didn’t let anyone pair up with their normal partners. Out of all the seedlings, I was partnered with Juniper. Perhaps Andhi or Idra would have been worse, but Juniper’s melancholy air unsettled me which was, especially after the morning I had so far, annoying. The highlight of each exercise was that she didn’t seem to be any more inclined to talk than I was. We ran together around the perimeter of the training area, her left leg bound to my right by a piece of short rope, in concentrated silence while Jin lectured on the importance of communication and teamwork. We talked when we had to, like during the blind twig tower building challenge. But there wasn’t point to pushing ourselves beyond that; she had her group and I had my own counsel. Still, Juniper did rise a bit in my estimation for her ability to stay silent and not waste words. The others argued—Idra and Nii had been partnered together—or fell into playful ribbing or seemed to be divulging their entire back stories to their new partner. Only Dera and Ulo as well as Loclen and Prevna came close to completing the tasks with the same single mindedness Juniper and I capitalized on.
Which was why it was utterly unfair that we received nearly as many frowns and narrow looks as Idra and Nii did. We were working together and keeping focused. That should have been enough. Should have been praise worthy, but just because we didn’t want to chat the day away we were being treated like troublemakers. Jin didn’t act on her ill will right away, however. I kept expecting her to prompt us or berate us, but instead she simply watched and seemed to pack away what she noticed for another day.
I noticed things too. Juniper was skilled at making quick decisions and she didn’t seem to get flustered easily. She had the bearing of someone accustomed to authority. How she could have accumulated such authority when she looked younger than me was the real mystery. Her tribe could have been one of the ones who pampered those with bless marks, but the way Idra and Ento deferred to her told me it was likely more than that. My gut was set on idea that it had to do with the pearl she was so used to wearing that it might as well have been part of her body.
However, the girl wasn’t always the calm authority she liked to portray. Jin set me to helping her with the sling and, all in all, she was a terrible shot. She might have had only a few weeks of practice so far, but even I hadn’t hit myself with the sling as much as she did when I was just starting. Needless to say, what stones did make it the distance they were supposed to never actually hit the target and disappointment glittered on her eyelashes rather the frustration I felt trying to teach her. Nor did she ever seem to relax—though, interestingly, she seemed to become the closest to it during the drawing portion of training. When I glanced over at her slate, it was abundantly clear that more of her talent had gone towards that skill than it likely ever would for using a sling.
By the end of the day’s typically training I was grudgingly grateful I had been paired with the other quiet girl even if her sullen air could be grating. The forced company had given me something else to focus on and the silence had helped steady me in a way being paired with Prevna would never have accomplished. She found too much joy in getting under my skin. That wasn’t to say, however, I wouldn’t have preferred being partnerless. A morning full of people followed by an afternoon full of more close contact with only a brief respite during the midday break had left me feeling itchy. I wanted to go grab something to eat quick before disappearing into my nook. As it was I didn’t even get to leave the training platform.
My first lesson about my blessing began with me feeling tired, hungry, sore, and more than a little short tempered. I wasn’t in the mood to delve into any large insights or answer probing questions. My mind was already tired from the effort of keeping my mind off the events of the morning so that I could focus.
Jin held no sympathy, emptily given or heartfelt. She sat lazily on the edge of the grass ring, legs outstretched and leaning back on her arms, and gave me a once over while I stood in the middle of the area. “The whole palace buzzed when we first got word that two girls completed Flickermark’s trial. Hana was adamant that you were a fool who didn’t recognize talent, but she didn’t mention how much you stank of fear.”
That…was not the intro to the lesson I had expected.
Of course, the whisper women would know about the trial when one of their own had started it and brought us a healer at the goddess’s behest. Gossip was sure to spread quickly just like it did in the tribes. And I wasn’t exactly difficult to identify with the mark on my chin. But what did that trial have to do with this lesson? She wouldn’t bring it up without a reason.
I tried to respond quickly but she had ruined the responses I had prepared. My head reeled, dizzy with the dozen of responses that wanted to come flying out. Mentally, I felt sluggish and whiplashed. But emotionally? Those were more than ready to rise up to the occasion, full to bursting after I suppressed them all day. Part of me wanted to spit insults back at her while another shriveled at her assessment but the largest and most outspoken part couldn’t get past the need to deny her claims.
I was neither a fool nor a coward and she was going to know it.
“If forcing a child onto the shadow paths when she can barely walk is talent, then the foolish one is the person who set the bar too low, not me. And I do not stink of fear.”
She huffed out a breath, somewhere between irritated and amused. “Your ability for flowery arguments indicates otherwise. As does your reluctance to connect with your cohort.”
I folded my arms mulishly. “I thought this was supposed to be a lesson about my blessing.”
“Oh? You’re willing to share what it is then?”
“I’m resilient.”
“And I make pretty pictures in the air,” Jin deadpanned. She clapped and suddenly large, heavy roots were dragging me to the ground. “We both know there’s more to it than that.”
I got a knee under myself which kept the illusion from face-planting me into the grass. It didn’t stop my fraying temper from flaring up further. “Get these things off me! I know they aren’t real!”
Jin’s smile wasn’t kind. “Aren’t they, though?”
The roots’ strength doubled and I was wrenched onto my belly, unable to see anything but a patch of needles and branches overhead. I struggled, but the roots kept sliding over me until the nonexistent, infuriating things had all my limbs locked in place.
“Well, you’re obviously not resistant to force or being grappled.” Then as an afterthought, “Or being provoked.”
I fumed but denied her the satisfaction of vocally rising to that bit of bait. She clapped again and the roots disappeared only to be replaced with bone chilling cold that my clothes did nothing to abate. I started to shiver uncontrollably. She cycled through intense heat, muggy weather, damp fog and air so pollen filled it would have made anyone’s nose itch.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Jin let the pollen air fade away as she came to her next conclusion, “Not resilient to terrain conditions.” I started to sit up only to get struck by a needle in my arm. “Nor needles, if not all piercing weapons.”
I glared at her as I pulled the needle out and clasped the wound. “Stop it.”
She spread a hand wide in invitation. “Then narrow down my options. This lesson is for you—I’d suggest making use of it.”
“Why does it even matter?”
Her face was decidedly unamused now. “Knowing the intricacies of your blessing could mean the difference between a dire situation and an acceptable one. It could mean the difference between life and death.”
I couldn’t help it—I snorted as she finished her second statement. I cut myself off before I made a clever retort, but the damage was done. Jin had done this dance with scores of reluctant students before and she was observant. Her head tilted to one side as she studied me.
“So, either you don’t care much about your own safety—which flies in the face of what I’ve seen from you so far—or your blessing deals in more extremes than ‘resilience’ would imply.” Realization brightened her features. “Would you have made it through Flickermark without this blessing of yours?”
I scowled at the grass, but spoke the truth. “No.”
Her clothing rustled as she shifted. “Interesting. What did you survive?”
“Blood loss.”
Jin made a humming noise eerily similar to one of Rawley’s thinking sounds. “Has it helped you survive anything else in the past?”
My mind shied away from the feverish memories. She had already put most of it together; why should I have to relive that rejection just so she could prod me with more questions? I had already relived enough memories for the day. More than enough.
The impulsive feeling that prompted me to throw Fellen’s sling in the river and cut off my healer’s beads and change my name welled in my gut. Why shouldn’t I tell her my blessing? I was going to be the whisper woman who couldn’t die, right? I wasn’t going to get very far with that goal if not even my new mentor knew the truth. Besides, perhaps if she knew Jin would realize how stupid this whole lesson was and she would end it and I would be free to go eat and be alone. Even if she wanted to take advantage of my blessing after that it wasn’t like I had to meekly listen.
And I got the feeling she wasn’t going to let up until she got the truth of my blessing out of me. Better to just get it over with and skip the circling questions and coercion and unpleasant memories. What did I have to be afraid of? It wasn’t like she could kill me.
“My mark doesn’t let me die.”
Jin smiled, intrigued. “From anything?”
“From anything,” I confirmed, voice hard and challenging.
She sighed and spoke to the air, “Well, this won’t be fun, will it?”
And then a needle sprouted from my neck. I coughed and choked as blood welled up. Unthinking, I scrambled to pull the needle out, but once I did the blood only welled quicker. I stared at the dual wide needles in my hand while I tried to stop the bleeding from my neck with the other hand. Jin said something else that I couldn’t focus on and then she was next to me and pulling my hand away from my neck. I tried to stab her with her needles but she knocked them out of my hand.
Businesslike, she pinned me to the ground despite my struggles. “You understand I have to confirm your claim? Knowing the intricacies and all that.”
I did not understand.
But she had the advantage of more body weight, height, and strength. Jin didn’t budge as I struggled to break free and breathe. She frowned. “This’ll take too long.”
Jin freed a wicked looking knife from her belt, shoved my arm further from my side and cut open my armpit. I choked on a scream and felt my body grow cold as blood rushed from the new wound. It didn’t hurt like I knew it should, but the firm, analytical part of my mind that refused to be taken over by thready panic quietly reminded me that was because of shock.
I’m not sure how long it took for my mark to start prickling, but it came as a relief when it did. Like in Flickermark, I stopped bleeding when any more blood loss would have killed me. I renewed my struggle then, but my arm wouldn’t respond and my blessing didn’t make me any stronger. It didn’t do me much good.
Jin said something else that I once again couldn’t pay attention to, but then a few moments or minutes or an eternity later someone else was walking through the grass. A dark skinned woman with black hair braided back into a thick plait and an exasperated expression.
Her mellow voice, so at odds with the situation, cut through my fogged awareness. “I can only do this once a day.”
Jin just looked up at her and the woman sighed before kneeling next to me and placing a hand on my head. She spoke again, more of a prayer this time. “Be as you were.”
A cool sensation flooded through me, radiating out from her palm. It was like dipping into the lake during the warm season or a fresh breeze during hard labor. I shivered and closed my eyes, only opening them again when the sensation faded and she took her hand away. Jin loosened her hold on me and I surged up and slugged her in the jaw. The other woman caught me before I could hit Jin again and it was only after a belated moment that I realized I had hit her with the arm that had been unresponsive moments before. My mark’s prickling was also gone.
I blinked. Struggled to think through the shock and fury numbing my mind.
Had this woman just healed me with her blessing?
I looked down at myself and felt at my throat. Wounds, blood, pain—all of it was gone. My rushing breath flowed through my throat easily and my arm worked as well as it ever had.
Jin sat back on her heels, rubbing her chin where I had hit her, and answered my silent question. “Corrin made you as you were before I ever hurt you. Not healing and far more effective. No need to worry about infection or scars or any of that.” She eyed my clenched fists and stood. “Hitting me again won’t solve anything but get you more work tomorrow. You should be dead now, so it looks like your claim is at least partially correct.”
I ground out, “I’m not going to let you attempt to kill me in other ways.”
Jin shook her head, “No, that would be too costly. Corrin can’t be at my beck and call for all your lessons and if she doesn’t get to an injury within an hour she’s only as good with a bandage as the rest of us. We’ll let your claim hold for now and doubtless it will be proved true or not through non-artificial situations in future. You don’t seem like—”
“You just tried to butcher me.”
“I did what was needed. If you want to try to even the score, you can challenge me in the arena when you gain access to it.”
I didn’t want to challenge her in some regulated fight, didn’t like the idea of everything being on her terms. Just because she was my mentor, it didn’t mean she had the right to attack me and make me feel…helpless on a whim. It wouldn’t be right unless she felt the same I did. Attacked without warning and without the ability to defend herself. I had my own strengths she didn’t know about and she would feel the wrath of them soon.
I glared at her. “Just wait for it.”
Corrin released me and stood before addressing Jin. “Warn me next time.”
It was odd to see her treat what Jin had done like it was nothing more than a rash decision. Jin had just tried to kill me. So either they both had total disregard for muddling about in the goddess’s territory and drawing her ire, or there had been no doubt that I would survive whatever Jin did to me. The first was unthinkable given that they were whisper women, but the alternative…Jin had been testing my blessing with only the guarantee of my word of its ability, so she had to have had thorough knowledge that Corrin would be able to come to my aid in time and that her blessing wouldn’t fail despite the excessive damage. Such an ability was untenable in its own right. How could something that just skirted around being healing be so easily used and accepted? That wasn’t…it wasn’t…
Jin nodded though her tone was unrepentant. “I knew you hadn’t been called today.”
Corrin rolled her eyes. “Of course you did.” She glanced down at me. “You’re a lucky girl.”
That statement seemed so out of place and incorrect that I couldn’t even find my voice to tell her how wrong she was. I would have been lucky if I had been blessed with her skill—but that wasn’t something I was ever going to admit to her. I had my plants. That counted for something.
By way of goodbye Corrin told Jin, “Treat her better,” before she walked away, stepped into the shadow at the edge of the ring, and disappeared.
Jin focused back on me. “Given that your blessing doesn’t lend itself well to being tested and Corrin can’t always be at hand, you’re released from attending these extra lessons unless otherwise notified.”
Then she also stepped into the ring’s shadow, leaving me to fume and pick myself up in sudden solitude.