Inaki walked into the training hall.

He held his metal sword over his shoulder, still ecstatic about owning it. It had been a few days since the main festival day.

Everyone in the training hall of all ranks were in a frenzy of training. Inaki had arrived in the afternoon, when usually they were being taught, but now they were free in the garden and all sparring. All of the Woodens stood in a circle in their part of the garden, watching the fighters.

“Why’s everyone sparring this early?” Inaki asked.

“You don’t know?” Jonar said. In the ring Yaraval was locked in combat with one of the woodens that Inaki hadn’t interacted with much.

“Nope,” Inaki said.

“The Festival tournament,” Jonar said. “It begins next week.”

“Oh,” Inaki said. “You think they’ll allow a swordsman into the tournament?”

“Not sure,” Jonar said. “Why don’t you ask Lord Yan the next time y’all are training.” There was more than a slight hint of jealousy in Jonar’s voice.

“I will,” Inaki said. “Anyways, just gonna go to the Iron corner and try to duel with some people who can actually challenge me.”

“I don’t know about Farrow, but I certainly will defeat you before you leave Gael,” Jonar said.

“What happened the last two times you said you’d defeat me at something,” Inaki said, then walked away from the Wooden corner of the garden.

The Garden was divided into three corners, one big one for the Woodens, a smaller one for the Irons, and one even smaller one for the Silvers. The Gold’s and above had their own gardens, and didn’t have to share like this.

Inaki crossed the chalk-border between the Iron corner and the Wooden corner, and saw as the Iron spearmen were somehow even in more of a frenzy to train.

In the Wooden corner, everyone was stopping to fight the two who were sparring, here there was no such thing. Some were practicing spear katas, and others were locked in combat.

Trish was dueling Nilun, and it seemed to be going about as well as for Nilun as Inaki would’ve expected. Nilun fought better than the previous times he had seen the two siblings spar, but once again, Nilun lost.

“Hey, Inaki,” Nilun said, spitting grass out of his mouth, and standing up.

“Hey,” Inaki said. “I think it’s finally time I challenge the Irons.”

“Great,” Nilun said. “Now that you’re finally done hanging out with the kiddos, let me introduce you to the adults.”

“I am their age,” Inaki said.

“When did I say you weren’t a kiddo.”

“Hey guys,” Nilun said, “Inaki is here, and he’s looking for someone to spar with, who wants to spar the swordsman?”

“Why don’t you spar with him first,” A tall spearman said. He looked like someone had taken Jonar and somehow made him even bigger and taller. He was two heads taller than Inaki, and had the proportionate amount of muscle. His beard was bushy and thick, and he looked to be in his mid-thirties.

“You can ignore him,” Nilun said. “He’s just a bit grumpy because he didn’t become Silver in this year's exams.”

“I am not grumpy,” The man said. “I should’ve passed, but the judges cut my score on the kata for no reason.”

“Sure,” Nilun said.

“What’s his name?” Inaki asked Nilun.

“You know you can just ask me,” The man said. “My name is Irouk, and I will definitely become Silver after the tournament.”

“Sure,” Nilun said.

“Can you increase your rank in the tournament?” Inaki asked.

“Yes,” Nilun said. “You can join the tournament for one rank above yours, and if you’re able to defeat enough opponents, they promote your rank.”

My only way of becoming Iron before my fight with Farrow.

“Now I have to join this tournament,” Inaki said.

“A swordsman,” Irouk said. “In the Gael festival spear-tournament, is that even allowed.”

“I hope so,” Inaki said.

“Well anyways,” Nilun said. “Let’s stop wasting time and have some duels.”

“Why don’t I spar with you first,” Inaki said.

“Sure,” Nilun said. “I just wanted to see you win against someone else, so when I defeat you, it makes me look better.”

“You’re saying he’s better than us,” Yenife spoke up this time.

“I don’t know,” Nilun said. “Come on, let’s just fight.”

Inaki stepped forward, with a wooden sword. Nilun held a wooden spear with some rubber and cloth for a spearhead.

“How many points do you want to do,” Nilun asked.

“How about three,” Inaki said.

“Sure,” Nilun said. “Then we’ll get this done quickly.”

“Begin?” Inaki asked.

“Begin.” Nilun said.

Inaki rushed at Nilun, closing the distance as fast as possible. The Bullstance was perfect for this. He used The Bull’s Charge. Nilun just barely blocked with his spear held upright, then slammed the bottom of his spear up. Inaki jumped to the side, but Nilun’s spear anyways hit him on his leg. Inaki hit the ground.

Inaki quickly threw himself up from the ground, not letting Nilun get the advantage. Inaki jumped, switching to Tigerstance. He used the jumping cross-slash, but Nilun blocked it with the haft of his spear effortlessly. Inaki quickly jumped back.

That was a mistake.

Nilun was much faster than the Woodens and hit much harder. Now that Inaki was out of range, Nilun unleashed a barrage of stabs, not letting Inaki close.

Inaki tried moving forward, and blocking or dodging, but when he did he lost a point. Inaki jumped over a spear thrust to his foot, then landed on Nilun’s spear. He slashed his sword at Nilun’s head, but he ducked under it, and pulled his spear from under Inaki’s foot.

Inaki jumped forward, and unleashed a barrage of his own. The two of them were fast. Inaki pushed himself as hard as he could, his arms feeling tired as he swung ceaselessly, but Nilun was fast.

Nilun ducked under a slash to his neck, then planted his spear into the grass and jumped, twisting with his spear and kicked Inaki in the chest. Inaki stumbled back, Nilun hit the ground, and slammed his spear into Inaki’s chest, then jumped and spun, hitting Inaki with his spear on the back.

“At least you win against someone,” Trish said, as Inaki fell to the ground, aching from his newly gained wounds.

“That was fun,” Nilun said. “Not there just yet, but getting there.”

Inaki got a strange sense of deja vu as he fought the Irons. It was like when he had fought the Woodens on his first day in the training hall. But here at least he wasn’t completely helpless, he was at least swinging his sword well.

He sparred with Trish after that, who didn’t take even a few minutes to nearly kill Inaki with a brutal stab to the chest that made Inaki feel like his ribs were bruised.

After that, he sparred with an Iron that had become Iron in their recent exam—a muscular woman with long hair named Risha—Inaki barely clinched the victory in that fight, but it was close enough that it could’ve gone either way. After fighting a fourth opponent—a skinny bald man with some blonde fuzz on his head named Inoir—and losing, Inaki felt tired, and fell to the grass.

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“Come on,” Nilun said. “Training with us doesn’t have to mean just sparring.”

And so Inaki stood up, and began doing katas with the spearmen. Inaki began the Tigerstance kata, and he was doing much better. It would’ve been completely passable if he was an Iron performing the kata in this way.

After some time of serious training—doing katas, and some other exercises—they of course began goofing around.

“Why don’t we spar,” Nilun said. “But with us using the sword, and you using the spear.”

“Sure,” Inaki said.

But instead of sparring first, they just tried katas. All the spearmen picked up some of the wooden swords that the training hall had, and Inaki did the same. At first they tried teaching Inaki the Fundamental Five spear katas. Inaki did them better than he had expected—by that he meant he didn’t fall down, or hit himself with his own spear, or both—but he still wasn’t good.

Inaki then tried teaching the Iron spearman the Fundamental Five sword katas.

“You Irons becoming swordsmen,” one of the Woodens shouted from across the chalk border, as they watched the ten or so of them practicing with the sword.

“And Inaki is becoming a spearman,” Nilun said. “Care to join?”

“No, we’re fine training for the tournament seriously,” Jonar said.

“Enjoy then,” Irouk said. He was also taking part in their shenanigans, which Inaki hadn’t expected from him. In fact he was one of the better at the sword there.

“This is easy,” Irouk said. “You just swing it around fast. No worry about balance, or timing.”

“Then try this kata,” Inaki said. He began the Tigerstance kata, and surprisingly Irouk was doing it at the level of competence of a Wooden at the sword.

Inaki sparred a few of them using the spear while they used a sword, and it was as hilarious as one could expect. Their strikes all went wild, and Inaki found himself falling over when he attacked too quickly, his spear dragging him to the ground.

“Time for me to go get my free drinks,” Inakis said, just as the Woodens were about to leave.

“We still need to train,” Nilun said.

“See you then,” Inaki said. And left them. “Hey wait for me.” Inaki yelled at the Woodens as they walked away. Jonar turned behind, saw Inaki and said, “Run.”

They all began sprinting. Inaki began running behind them. They had underestimated Inaki, forcing himself to run as fast as he could nearly every morning meant that he caught up with them plenty easily. When he caught up, he slapped Jonar on the back.

“Too slow,” Inaki said.

They all laughed. All of them walked into the tavern. The tavern was mostly empty, so they arranged the tables as they did so that all twenty or so of them could sit.

“Bring on the free drinks,” Inaki yelled, slamming his fist onto the table.

“Today’s drinks are for Inaki,” Jonar said, lifting up his glass. “Who instead of getting whipped up by us, now gets whipped by the Irons.”

They all raised their glasses, laughed, and then began drinking and chatting.

“You don’t deserve this,” The disembodied voice in Inaki’s mind began whispering at him again. After about half an hour, someone walked in the door.

Inaki looked up, and saw that it was Yaz, she held a bottle in her hand. “Today’s drinks are in celebration of Inaki getting his sword back aren’t they? So let us celebrate with something good instead of this cheap ale.”

The bottle was a really nice wine. She went around, pouring it into everyone’s glasses. Jonar was in the middle of his drink of beer, and she accidentally mixed the wine into his beer, Jonar didn’t seem to mind.

“To Inaki,” Yaz raised her glass, giving a second toast.

They all continued chugging down their drinks. Yaz joined in on the talking, and whispered context into Inaki’s ears when they spoke about stories about people who Inaki did not know.

She was a blessing to him. Inaki held her hand and looked into her eyes, almost forgetting that there were other people there.

“Stop,” Yaz whispered, as all eyes were on them. It didn’t seem like there was any secret when it came to Yaz and Inaki’s relationship, but it didn’t make it any less absurd, that Inaki was going out with the sister of the man who was going to kill him in a month.

“You don’t deserve this,” Inaki’s mind whispered to him for the millionth time.

Inaki’s mind silenced, when the door flew open with a loud thud. Standing over there was Farrow, his spear in hand, and rage painted on his face.

----------------------------------------

Farrow planted his spear to the ground and jumped. He stood in the air, and stabbed his spear down. On the ground he had placed a few targets. Out of five targets, he hit two.

Okan’s bloody balls, Farrow thought.

“You’re doing better,” Nalan whispered in Farrow’s mind.

“Not good enough,” Farrow said. “Not good enough to beat Hassai.”

“You can take your time,” Nayan said. “You won’t be fighting Hassai for a long time.”

Farrow stood in the private training room where only Yaz and him trained. He needed some more opponents. He left his training room and walked through the castle. Farrow didn’t know why they needed such a castle, half the rooms were empty. He exited the castle, and walked out to the temple which was quite closeby. He needed to find some opponents to duel. He didn’t know any of the disciples, he would just pick the one that looked the closest to becoming Silver.

Farrow stood just outside the training hall when he heard a sound. He looked to the side, and saw that Yaz was walking with a wine bottle in her hand towards the tavern.

Is she going to meet that bastard, Farrow thought. Farrow didn’t know the happenings of the world, but he knew at least what was the talk about his sister, and it certainly didn’t go out of his attention that his sister was rumored to be courting Inaki. What Farrow did not know if this was just a rumor.

He had spent the main festival day training, he didn’t have time for watching fireworks. He would gladly watch a fountain of Hassai’s blood, but that was the only display he wanted to see.

Instead of entering the training hall, Farrow turned the other way. He began following Yaz. He trailed her with his spear in hand, and found himself getting more and more infuriated with her.

She had lost all of her hair, a great shame to the clan. Farrow suppressed any anger he had until after he had confirmed it to himself that she was actually going out with that weakling.

“Do not underestimate him,” Nayan whispered in Farrow’s mind.

He’s basically a cripple, Farrow thought. Whether father trains him, or Okan himself comes down to teach him, he’ll always be a cripple.

Farrow thought he was going to kill that bastard today itself instead of waiting for his duel if he was going out with his sister.

Soon enough, they reached. Yaz walked into the tavern. Farrow hung back. He was almost too scared to find out. First his father had betrayed him, and now his sister.

Why did his family pick Inaki over him?

Farrow sat down outside the tavern, his rage boiling within him. Ultimately he made his decision. He stepped to the door and threw it open, still holding his spear in one hand. Over there he saw a bunch of the Gael disciples, he didn’t know their rank, and didn’t know any of them.

“Yaz, what the fuck are you doing,” Farrow screamed.

“Farrow,” Yaz said.

“Just because you hairless bitch couldn’t get a real fucking man you went ahead and fell on this failure’s dick,” Farrow said, walking to her.

“Fuck off, Farrow,” Yaz said. “I have nothing to say to you.”

“Nothing to say to me,” Farrow said. “You’re betraying me for this asshole. The son of the man who killed our grandfather.”

“He didn’t kill our grandfather,” Yaz said.

“He’s done worse things,” Farrow said. “He is exactly like his father.”

“The same man who came back and washed the feet of all of the surviving soldiers and family members.”

“Washing father’s feet doesn’t bring grandfather back,” Yan said.

“And does killing Hassai bring him back,” Yaz said.

“We’ve had this conversation a million times, you bald whore. Killing Hassai won’t bring grandfather back, but it’s the best I can do to honor his memory.”

Inaki was sitting silent. Farrow felt like stabbing the bastard. He looked so pathetic. When Inaki had first heard about him he hadn’t imagined this pathetic man who showed all of his emotions on his face.

He had expected a reserved man, one who looked superior. He had been excited for a chance to duel Inaki, but now he just wanted to get it over with.

“You want to have our duel now, you crippled asshole,” Inaki said.

“Leave him out of this,” Yaz said.

“Shut up. I still can’t believe that your loneliness drove you to being with him. For god’s sake you’re in your mid-twenties, all you have to do is wear a fucking wig, and then a decent man would want to fuck you.”

“Why should I wear a wig,” Yaz said.

“So you won’t have to go around with dickless bastards like this failure,” Farrow screamed.

Everyone else in the tavern was silent, all motionless, the air was thick with consternation.

Farrow yelled out and kicked an empty chair. It flew across the room and shattered when it hit the wall.

“I never believed the rumors,” Farrow said. “I know my family hates me. I know my family doesn’t want me to get my revenge. But getting in bed with the enemy? I didn’t know you would stoop that low.”

“Just shut up,” Yaz said. She looked to be on the verge of tears. She was so good at hiding her insecurities from the world. A strong spearwoman, who didn’t need anyone else’s validation about her looks, but inside she was pathetic. Such a disappointment.

Farrow couldn’t help but be disappointed in his family. His father, even as a Sage, was impotent. His sister, who jumped on the first hog that didn’t call her ugly.

Yaz could not hide her insecurities from her brother.

“Would you go out with him, if any other man in Gael wanted to even look at you,” Farrow said. “Would you have betrayed me like this, if you didn’t look like a man with tits?”

“Stop,” Yaz said, sitting down, tears welling in her eyes. And there it was. The weakness, the fountain. Inaki showed his anger on his face, he was holding the hilt of his sword.

“And you, Inaki,” Farrow said. “How dare you use my sister. I know what kind of man you are. Everyone knows how you treated your brother. Everyone knows what you did to Shinra’s grave. Stay away from my sister.”

That impotent bastard’s grip on his sword tightened.

“Draw it,” Farrow said, stepping forward with his spear in hand. “I dare you. If I don’t kill you by the time your sword is out of its sheath mark me Clanless.”

Farrow wanted to kill someone. The violent urge rose within him like an ache. . He wanted Inaki to provoke him just slightly more. He wanted an excuse to spill his blood all over the tavern floor.

“I knew it,” Farrow said, as Inaki’s grasp on the hilt of his sword weakened.

“Yaz,” Farrow said, as he turned around. “You truly are pathetic.”

He turned around, and closed the door behind him. All of this betrayal, it didn’t matter. In a month, Farrow would kill Inaki, and then in one month and one week, he would kill Hassai.

He walked back to the training ground. But he didn’t walk to the Irons to pick his sparring partner. He walked to the Silvers.

I will become Silver by the time of our duel, Farrow thought. Let’s see that bastard Inaki try to play catch-up now.