“Oooh… Failed again!” Li Na taunted, calling out to Chris’s back and he shoved his way past and into the food hall. The three of them started back to the dorm rooms to get their armor.
“Are you sure about this?” Lauren asked. “We have to duel properly, there won’t be any holding back.”
“I’m sure. I’d rather you got my ribbon than Chris. Besides, I’m sure he was planning to do more than just ‘not hold back’. And it’s not like I can rescind the challenge anyway.”
“Fine. I’ll check the arena availability and pick a time. There should be a lot of openings this late in the month. What type of challenge?” She asked. Lauren was looking straight ahead and avoiding looking at Yaric when she spoke.
“Uh… I hadn’t thought that far. How about unarmed? It’s what I’ve practiced the most.”
Lauren nodded, continuing to face forward.
The three of them fetched their armor and helped each other get fitted. Lauren was quiet the entire time, and stayed that way even as they made their way down to the training fields. Even Li Na was quieter than usual.
They started their laps almost as soon as Hiawatha turned to face them, bringing a smile to the Battle Mage’s lips. Half way around the training ground, Yaric couldn’t take it any longer. “What? I know it’s a proper duel and everything, but we will have to fight in practice and in the tournaments. What’s the big deal with my challenge?”
Lauren looked over at Yaric for the first time since he issued his challenge. “Nothing… Fine. I’ve been trying to avoid Chris for just this reason. I thought if we weren’t around Chris outside of training, then he wouldn’t think of challenging you. Out of sight, out of mind. Now I'm the one that will be fighting you and taking your ribbon. And I’ll be the reason you miss lunch every day.”
Neither Yaric nor Li Na batted an eye when Lauren stated that she would be taking Yaric’s ribbon. Both knew it was true.
“So? It was either you or him, and I’d rather it was you. Besides, you’re not the reason I’ll be missing lunch.”
“I know what you’re going to say, but Chris would have been the reason, now it will be me. He won’t have anything to do with your ribbon being taken.”
“Chris isn’t the reason either. I am. I’m not good enough to defend myself. Instead, Chris is chasing after me for an easy ribbon, and because he thinks fighting me will be fun. Not hard, not a challenge, FUN! Because I’m not good enough to even put up a fight. He doesn't have the slightest concern. Even you guys were just trying to keep Chris away. Thanks for that by the way.”
“You could have challenged me!” said Li Na. “Then Chris wouldn’t get your ribbon and Lauren wouldn’t feel guilty.”
“You just want an easy ribbon,” Lauren replied, before shooting a quick look at Yaric and adding, “No offence. You’re still too new.”
“No, I know I am. It could have been either of you, you were just closer. And anyway, are both of you forgetting the look on Chris’s face when he realized I’d challenged you just before he could challenge me? That alone was worth it!”
Everyone laughed at that, even Lauren. The mood had also lifted a bit as they rounded the corner into the last stretch before their starting point. Everyone knew to keep quiet here, it wouldn’t do to let Hiawatha see that you could still speak. But the silence felt a lot more friendly as the three of them continued their run, this time suffering together.
“I still don’t understand his problem though. He’s going very far for someone who only just met me. You’d think we were childhood enemies or something.”
“We tried explaining it to you already, you’ll understand as you get to know more people like him. His reasons are also just excuses though. It’s really just who he is as a person. If you weren’t new or getting private lessons, he would have other excuses for why he acts like that. Or a different target. People like Chris are always getting less than they deserve, or always having to put people in their place. That’s how he sees the world anyway, it’s just how people like him are.”
“Stupid nobles!” Yaric spat.
Lauren and Li Na both burst out laughing, before catching themselves in a panic and looking back to see if Hiawatha noticed. Luckily, he was busy with much older students.
Li Na laughed, “Chris isn’t a noble!”
“I thought you knew?” asked Lauren.
“Sven told me he was the son of a merchant, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a noble. Wait, no, Sven told me he wasn’t as rich as he acts. Chris told me he was the son of a merchant. But he is still a noble as well.”
“No Yaric, he’s not,” Lauren replied gently. “His family have no title at all, and had no hope of getting one. Part of Chris’s attitude might even be because he’s the reason his family might become nobility. They could have enough influence that adding a Mage to the family might be enough, though Chris would have to become a very well known Mage and contribute a lot to the Kingdom for that to happen. But he most definitely wasn’t raised as nobility. He would have grown up in the city like any of us.”
“Speak for yourself!” said Li Na. “My family didn’t have half as much money as you. And no where near what Chris had!”
“I just mean that he had no special privileges. No title, nothing to make him important. The way he acts is all himself.”
“Well don’t say any of this in front of Sven,” Li Na snickered.
Yaric raised his eyebrow as they continued their run, looking pointedly at Li Na who just giggled to herself.
Lauren finally stepped in to answer when it became obvious that Li Na was ignoring Yaric. “Sven is nobility.”
“What?! Sven? But he was so helpful?”
Li Na started giggling harder and even Lauren couldn’t keep a slight smile off her face. “He’s the only noble in our year. There are a few others in the other years, but most are like Sven. All those stories you hear growing up usually have the big, bad, arrogant nobles, but most of the ones I’ve met are actually really nice.”
Yaric just started at Lauren in disbelief.
“Really, it’s true! I had the same reaction as you, but think about it. We all grew up with normal schooling, playing with other kids around where we lived and doing our own thing. We grew up seeing bullies, crime, dealing with petty thieves, gangs, things like that.”
“Like you ever had to deal with gangs,” Li Na grumbled quietly, but loud enough that it was obvious she meant for Lauren to hear.
“Shush you… But nobles like Sven never had any of that. He had special tutors, private houses, he even had protection when he left his family lands. But he also had servants helping him, servants he grew up with and got to know personally. He learned about the personal lives of people who did things for him every day. Their hopes and dreams, the difficulties they faced. People who prepared his food, washed his clothes, cleaned his room - they were his friends growing up.”
“And don’t forget that he also would have had etiquette classes. Things like manners are very important to most nobility. From what Sven has told me there is some truth to the stories, but that’s mostly kept within upper-class society, between themselves. There can be a lot of judgement between nobles when they don't behave properly. It doesn’t matter if a noble thinks they are superior to commoners, or if they just think that their position means they should set the example; most of them try to act according to their own ideals. And even for those that don’t, the rest of the nobles still judge each other according to those ideals, which helps keep everyone in line no matter what they really think.”
Yaric was quiet as he thought over everything Lauren had just told him. It didn’t line up with anything he’d ever heard about nobles. And there were almost never any good nobles in any stories he’d heard. But he had never knowingly met any himself, and now that he’d found out he actually did know one, that person was actually one of the nicest people he’d met. Now that he thought about it, the only time Sven had ever seemed to take charge of something was when Yaric had just arrived. Sven had made sure things with Chris didn’t escalate too much, and then he had introduced everyone in their class.
“So you’re saying that Chris wants to be a noble, and wants people to think he’s a noble, so he behaves the way he believes nobles behave?” Yaric asked.
“Ha! No, that wasn’t what I was saying. But that kind of makes sense too. Even if that is really convoluted logic. I just don’t like how that idea makes excuses for him. You really should stop worrying about it. You keep looking for reasons to explain why he doesn’t like you – there aren’t any. Why is it so hard to accept that he just isn’t a very nice person?”
“Because everyone has a reason why they behave the way they do.”
“Yeah, and Chris’s reason is just that he is an asshole.” Li Na interjected.
“Ok, but that doesn’t explain you two. Why are you guys the same?”
Both Lauren and Li Na whipped around to face Yaric, shocked. Yaric paled when he saw their expressions. Li Na even looked hurt.
“Not like that!” he said in panic. “I worded that really badly!”
They both looked at him expectantly, clearly feeling aggrieved. Yaric felt like he was about to be judged on how well he could dig himself out of a hole.
“I just meant why you guys are helping me! Like Chris tried to start a fight with me when we had only just met. You two have both been helping me even when we had only just met. You’re still helping me now. Hell, you’ve been changing your schedules just to help me avoid Chris, and without even telling me what you were doing. I just don’t understand why? Neither of you knew me any better than Chris did.”
Lauren at least had a smile teasing the corners of her mouth by the time Yaric had finished, though Li Na had a smirk that made Yaric more nervous than relieved.
“Because as much as Chris is an asshole, we’re amazing!” Li Na declared.
Lauren threw a smirk Li Na’s way before she answered, “Why shouldn’t we help? You had a rough start. And you looked like you needed the help.”
“You looked like a lost puppy.” Li Na laughed, with both her and Lauren starting to alternate their answers.
“And you were clearly targeted right from the beginning. We know you didn’t do anything to deserve it.”
“You were like a stray dog that wandered in. How could we ignore a stray?”
“You were trying really hard all year before you joined us. And you’ve been trying to catch up the whole time since you have.”
“I thought you had been dropped on your head too many times when you were a baby, and you didn’t know where you were. I couldn’t just ignore someone who looked so scared and confused.”
“Not everyone is like Chris. Why couldn’t we help you just because you needed it?”
“Yeah, and now you owe us. I need someone to clean my armor after practice.”
Even Lauren threw a glare at Li Na for that one, and bumped her shoulder hard enough to knock her sideways before throwing out one last comment herself. “Even if you like shoving your foot in your mouth. I had no idea that helping you made us the same as Chris!” Lauren smirked.
“I said I was sorry!” Yaric interjected.
“Actually, no, you didn’t,” Li Na laughed.
Yaric was confused as he thought back to exactly what he had said. “Crap. You’re right. Well, I am, I didn’t mean it to come out like that.”
“You should have learned that by now. I’m always right!”
“And I’ve only just pointed out where you like to keep your foot!” Lauren laughed as Li Na joined her.
“But that’s kind of my point. You’re still helping me even after what just happened.”
“Eh,” Lauren shrugged. “So what? You seem ok. And it’s not the same as Chris. We have started to get to know you, and we chose to keep helping you. How about just saying thank you instead of the 50 questions?” she smiled.
“Thank you,” Yaric answered quietly after a moment of silence.
The rest of the lap was run without another word said, but the rest of the run wasn’t so easy. They had just come past their starting point for the second time when Hiawatha’s voice boomed out. “Students who can laugh while doing their laps aren’t running properly! If you need to be funny, you will run funny! You can run this next lap backwards!”
Yaric, Lauren and Li Na knew he was talking to them, so they twisted around mid-step with a sigh, and ran the whole lap backwards. This pushed them in a whole different way, and by the end of the lap Yaric felt a deep burn at the top of his quads. The trio were also struggling with stiff necks from looking over their shoulders for so long, forcing all three of them to constantly look away so they could stretch the kinks out.
The rest of the practice went as it had the day before, starting with the whole class practicing different techniques across various weapons. Yaric was pulled out slightly earlier, this time when they started to practice with their short swords, as Hiawatha still had more to teach Yaric before he could catch up with the others. Private lessons continued with the shield as before.
Yaric took his time and enjoyed his lunch. There was no rush anymore and it would likely be his last for a long time. Neither Li Na nor Lauren commented when he got himself a second helping.
Sparring started after lunch like the first day, but it was much harder this time. Yaric had been paired with Frederick, which had been great while they practiced the different techniques during the morning. As he had finished in the top 8 during the Winter Solstice Tournament, Frederick was very skilled and gave excellent advice. That being said, he was very skilled, and he gave excellent beatings when that skill was directed toward Yaric while sparring. Yaric struggled even more than he did when sparring with Keagan, with most spars finishing within 3 strikes. He gave it his all despite how impossible the fights were, hoping they would give him some advantage later.
Formation training was just repetition after repetition, Hiawatha constantly drilling the students in forming up quickly. They did nothing but form up, present spears, and repeat for almost two hours. Everyone was sick of the practice by the time they finished, even though no one could claim that they were starting to form up properly yet.
After they were dismissed, Lauren led the trio to the arena and signed Yaric and herself up for a challenge match at the next available spot, the very next evening. Unarmed combat, with a ribbon to the winner.
Neither of them were looking forward to it, and all three ate quietly before Lauren and Li Na headed off to going to bed. Yaric had his new classes.
He ran to get to the classroom in time, and found it to be one of the smallest rooms he'd ever seen within the campus grounds. Just eight desks filled the classroom, in two rows of four. There was a small table in front of the blackboard mounted on the wall, but there was no other furniture in the room, not even a desk for his instructor.
Instead, his instructor was standing beside the small table, reading though one of the text books she had laid there. She was almost as tall as Yaric, and appeared to be in her mid-twenties, with her chestnut hair adding several more inches, being bound up in an intricate knot on top of her head and held in place with two short, glittering sticks.
"Prospect Yaric Miller?" she asked before he could say anything.
"Yes, ma'am."
"I am Mage Rayne, I will be your tutor until such a time as you have caught up with the rest of your class. They have classes twice a week, but they are far ahead of you, so you will have to put in real effort to catch up. Are you ready to work hard?"
"Yes Mage Rayne," Yaric replied, forcing himself to keep from smiling at her introduction.
"Take a seat then. You will only need the first year math book, we won't be using anything else for now. Today will simply be a test to determine where you stand and what you already know, after which we will focus exclusively on your math. That subject can stand alone, but you will need to understand the math in order to learn any of the sciences. Let's at least ensure that you can catch up in one subject first, shall we. Once you've moved onto the 3rd year book, we can start to catch you up on the sciences. There's no need to carry those books around with you until then. Now let's get started."
Mage Rayne walked up to the blackboard, and began to write, putting increasingly complicated equations on the board. Yaric was able to follow the first few easily, he even worked most of them out in his head, and the same thing occured when his tutor started changing to algebra. The equations soon got far more complicated, however, leaving Yaric clueless as to what they even meant. He sighed internally.
'It's going to be a long time before I catch up...'
Yaric felt worse when he remembered that this was just the math he'd missed, he still had to catch up on all the other subjects. Chemistry and physics were particulalry detailed, and his geography books were filled with maps and diagrams. The biology books had more diagrams than geography. It all felt hopeless...
"Right, take this piece of paper, and I want you to try to solve as many of these as you can. This is all we will be doing tonight, as I cannot make your lesson plans before I know where we stand. Get started, and let me know when you're finished."
Yaric was proud when he made it more than half way through, though it was clear that the difficulty escalated rapidly toward the end. He spent over an hour answering as many questions as he could, but he eventually reached a point where he could only do the first part, then got stuck.
He handed his paper in, said goodnight, and headed off to bed.
Not to sleep. He still had to use his cube, but at least the lightning aspected arcana flowing through his arms helped to keep him awake. He completed the full 30 minutes, and only then, finally, did he get to go to sleep.
Nothing had changed the next morning, with the trio quietly getting their breakfast, gearing up, and starting their run. No one said much the entire day, so things felt a little awkward by the time they were walking down to the arena for their challenge.
“Look, I know this is your first challenge. And I know you don’t have nearly as much practice as I’ve had, but we both need to do our best to win. The instructors don’t allow any half measures in these challenges. They’re always on the lookout for better fighters winning extra ribbons, then throwing matches against friends to pass them on.”
“That’s ok, I don’t expect anything else. The better you fight the sooner it will be over anyway.”
Lauren smiled at that. “It won’t be that bad.”
“Ha ha ha!” Both Yaric and Li Na burst out laughing, causing Lauren to smile a little wider. “Yes it will!”
“Well whatever happens, it’s just a challenge. I’m only going to do what I have to do to win.”
“Don’t worry, there won’t be any hard feelings. Don’t forget, you could break my jaw, and if you tell me afterwards that it’s a normal thing to happen, I'd believe you. I’ve never done one of these before.”
Lina started snickering. “That’s a good idea. I need to remember that one. But stop worrying about Lauren, you’re the one about to get his ass kicked. She’s just feeling guilty because she feels like she’s going to be beating on a cripple.”
“LINA! What the hell?”
“Ok, fine. You feel like you’re going to be beating on a toddler.”
“STOP! You’re insulting so many people at once, you can’t say things like that! And that’s not it at all! He’s our friend!”
“Yeah well, soon he’s going to be our black and blue friend.”
“Stop it! You’re going to make Yaric think he’s always going to lose every fight.”
“No, you are. I’m not the one who’s going to beat him up.” Li Na took off as Lauren lunged at her, only to keep on teasing Lauren from a safer distance. “I’m going to be watching him do his best, from the stands, like a friend. I’m going to be cheering him on, like a friend! And I’m going to laugh at him while he gets his ass kicked, like a friend!”
Li Na moved to the other side of Yaric, but both Lauren and Yaric were smiling at her antics. The mood was lighter as they walked into the arena, looking around for the instructor who would be their referee. Unfortunately, the first person they spotted was Chris, standing on the sidelines with his sidekicks.
“You didn’t think we would miss this, did you?” Chris laughed. “I’ll get an even better view of your beat down from over here. Then we can all go to dinner together. Oh… wait… you will be eating somewhere else this evening won’t you?” The whole group started laughing, but quickly stopped just a couple of seconds later, while looking over Yaric’s shoulder.
Yaric was confused until he looked back to the entrance. Hiawatha was just walking in. 'Hiawatha?'
“Good! You’re both here already! I saw the booking and thought to myself, I’ve got to referee this one. My trainee’s first challenge! This will be fun!”
Lauren and Yaric glanced at each other before making their way to the sidelines with Li Na, intending to take off their armor and give it to her to watch. She already had both of their ID cards.
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“And where do you two think you’re going? The field you will be using is the one I’m standing on.”
“Uhhh… I’ll be fighting Prospect Lauren unarmed, Instructor, so we’re just taking off our armor quickly.”
“And why are you doing that? Do you think you will get the chance to take off your armor if you’re disarmed in battle? No! You came here in your armor, so you will fight in your armor. Come back here and ready yourselves.”
Both Lauren and Yaric jogged the short distance to where Hiawatha was standing. Hiawatha looked Yaric directly in the eye. “Now, I understand you were the one who issued the challenge? And you chose to challenge Prospect Lauren, the number 2 ranked student in your year, arguably the number 1?”
Lauren blushed at the unintended compliment while Yaric’s mind raced, trying to think of an acceptable answer.
“Or perhaps it’s not so much who you did challenge, but who you didn't, hmmm?” Hiawatha asked softly. “You can’t run from a fight Prospect Yaric.”
Yaric looked down guiltily as Hiawatha stared at him thoughtfully, Lauren standing awkwardly to the side.
“BUT, you also shouldn’t run head first into a fight you can’t win. Finding a way to escape is an acceptable response. Unfortunately though, this does not count as such an escape, as you’ve simply avoided fighting a large dog by running into a cage with a tiger. Good luck!” he added with excessive cheer and a big smile on his face while he stepped to the side.
“This is a challenge match between Prospect Yaric Miller, the challenger, and Prospect Lauren Silver, the challenged! The stakes will be one meal ribbon! Begin!”
Lauren immediately moved forward, catching Yaric off guard as he wasn’t expecting such a quick start to the fight. He did at least manage to back up quickly enough to get his guard up.
Lauren stepped forward with a quick, low roundhouse kick to Yaric’s knee from her back leg, but as he started lifting the leg to protect the knee joint, Lauren twisted her hips further while lifting her own leg, changing the target to his ribs. The kick winded him even through the armor, and Yaric was forced to back up further.
Another lunge forward along with a front kick to his solar plexus put Yaric on his back. The surprise of landing on his back so soon quickly turned to panic when Lauren appeared over him, dropping her knees onto his shoulders and landing two kick palm strikes to his forehead.
“Match!” Hiawatha called.
Lauren stepped off of Yaric and held out her hand, which he gratefully accepted. He was still winded and starting to feel slightly sick. The adrenalin from a proper match was completely different to normal sparring.
“Take your positions!”
Yaric’s head snapped to Hiawatha as Lauren walked back to the middle. “What?! But Lauren won!”
“It’s ‘Instructor’,” Hiawatha admonished. “And ‘Prospect Lauren’ to you. This is a formal match.”
“My apologies Instructor.” It only took a couple of seconds of Hiawatha staring at Yaric for him to get the message. He turned to Lauren before adding, “Sorry, Prospect Lauren.”
“Good! Now to answer your question. It would seem that you are not aware that all challenge matches are the best out of three. Prevents wins through cheap tricks. And everyone gets three times as much practice! Win win! Now, begin!”
Yaric was ready this time, and chose to catch Lauren by surprise with a sudden advance right from the start. Lauren wasn’t surprised.
Yaric almost moved straight into her first punch, but somehow managed to deflect it at the last moment. He did not manage to stop her follow up strikes though, first choking as he took a strike to the throat, then two more near simultaneous strikes to the head immediately after. Yaric never even saw the sweep that took his legs out from under him.
“Good! Prospect Yaric will learn much from this. Again! Reset and take your positions.”
Lauren was helping Yaric up when Hiawatha added the last bit, and she turned to him as she pulled Yaric up.
“Instructor? That was my second win. I’ve won my 2 out of 3?”
“Yes! Yes, you have. But I have decided that Prospect Yaric must fight all three rounds no matter the result. He needs the experience.”
Chris and his friends could be heard laughing from the sidelines, only pausing to whisper something to each other before they burst out laughing again. The four of them had nothing on Li Na though, who shouted over the entire group.
“Go Yaric go, go Yaric go! Next time hit Lauren, not the ground! You know that you aren’t supposed to block with your head right?! Go Yaric go! Can I have your ribbon next time?!”
Yaric smiled in spite of himself. There might have been a few surprises, but the challenge had gone mostly as he’d expected. And now he only had to survive one more round.
“Begin!”
Lauren immediately skipped forward, lifting her leading leg for a front kick that would carry the full force of her momentum. Yaric moved to block, but Lauren quickly stepped forward onto the leg she had been raising, swinging her rear leg up and around in a roundhouse targeting Yaric’s head. She caught him as he moved forward to try to intercept her front kick, hoping to block it before it could develop much force, but now his center of gravity was also pushed forward and his guard lowered.
The first thing Yaric noticed was that he couldn’t see. Then he realized that he could hear voices, but for some reason he couldn’t make out what they were saying. Finally, the fog cleared enough for him to realize that he was on the ground, and he remembered his last moment of panic when Lauren successfully baited him. A moment later he felt a cool liquid sensation rushing through him.
“Good! That will do it. You had a mild concussion. And Prospect Lauren managed to crack a rib in your first round, but you are all healed up now!”
Lauren looked alarmed at the mention of the cracked rib, but Yaric laughed it off.
“So I survived?”
“Yes you did! Not by much, but you did survive!” Hiawatha laughed. “We clearly need to keep working on your unarmed skills though. You are further behind than I thought!”
Yaric paled slightly at that. “But there is no other time to add unarmed training, Instructor? Am I going to be skipping weapons training?”
“Ha ha ha! No, of course not! Every day, your fellow classmates will be going to eat lunch. And you will not! Did you perhaps think that you would be spending that hour warming up inside, or lying in the shade come summer? No! You will train! I will not have a fourth-year student who can be beaten by most third years in my class!”
Li Na handed Hiawatha their ID cards, and Yaric watched from the floor as the ribbon disappeared from the card on the left, while a second ribbon appeared on the card on the right. He handed them both back to Li Na.
Hiawatha paused as he looked down at Yaric, who was still lying flat on his back in the deepening gloom. “I will train you personally,” he announced, as if Yaric had won a great prize. Which Yaric supposed, in a way, he had. It definitely seemed that way going by Chris’s face. He had been laughing and quietly making jokes the entire time, but shut up the instant the personal training was mentioned. Now he looked more like Yaric had just kicked his puppy.
“Thank you, Instructor!”
“Don’t mention it, just be prepared to hurt. The training won’t be pleasant! For you. Ha ha!”
Hiawatha walked away as Lauren helped Yaric up for the third time that evening. Lauren didn’t say anything, but she looked very concerned as she pulled him to his feet. Li Na skipped over, being Li Na. “How many fingers am I holding up,” she asked, acting very seriously while holding up her hand, all of her fingers extended. “What is your name? What is my name? Do you remember how much money you still owe me? I’ll give you a hint, it’s a lot!”
Lauren smacked her hand down. “Quiet, maybe I’ll challenge you next!”
Chris had just marched angrily up to them, and paused as he looked to Li Na while frowning in thought. Li Na caught this and calmly stared directly back with a small smirk. Chris quickly thought better of challenging her and acted like nothing had happened.
“You!” he shouted at Yaric, jabbing a finger in his chest. “What’s your excuse now, huh? You’ve joined our class already, why do you get personal training with a Battle Mage? Even Sven has to spend points for a single hour in the mornings. He came first in the tournament, and he only has enough for 2 months. YOU get the same hour for NOTHING! When you are nothing! Look how badly Lauren swept the floor with you!” he spat.
Lauren looked even more apologetic and blushed in embarrassment. “He fought ok, this was his first ever challenge.”
“Oh shut it, don’t defend him! You aren’t getting personal training either! I’m not the only one being cheated!”
Li Na strode forward angrily, walking right up to Chris without pause, forcing him to step back. “Oh, and how are you being cheated? Do you think you would be getting personal training if he wasn’t? Are you stupid? Your training wouldn’t be any different whether Yaric gets personal training or not, so how exactly does his extra training ‘cheat’ you?” she asked icily. Yaric had never seen this side of her, and he almost felt bad for Chris.
“He’s cheating all of us!” Chris blustered. “You have to win an entire tournament to get just part of what he gets! All he has to do is LOSE!”
“Again, how does that ‘cheat’ you? How are you affected?”
“How can any fight with him be fair! He gets personal training with Battle Mage Hiawatha!”
“Ah... so that’s it!” Li Na was sounding positively cheerful again. “You’re afraid of him beating you!”
“What?! No! I’ll take a challenge from him any time! No one is scared of that loser! But I won’t just stand here while he gets special treatment!”
This time it was Lauren who jumped in. “Of course he’s treated differently, he hasn’t even finished his first year, and he has to keep up with us when we’ve already started our fourth year. The Academy isn’t going to just drop him in a group with three times as much experience and hope he makes it. That would be unfair!”
Yaric had had enough by now. “Thanks guys, but please just ignore him. Nothing you say will make him happy. He’s clearly envious.”
Chris turned red, and tried to go around Li Na. Li Na just stepped calmly to the side, blocking him again. “Envious?! Of you?! Why would anyone be jealous of you? I know you’re just some stupid orphan! The instructors probably just feel sorry for you!”
“Sure, that’s it. Happy now?”
Chris spat at that. Literally spitting on the ground between them. Li Na had to jump out of the way to avoid some of the spray, her disgust made clear by the look on her face. “You think you’re so special! Poor little orphan boy! I bet I know why you’re getting special treatment! I bet your mother was some Duke's side bitch and he…”
Yaric didn’t know what happened next. One second Chris was insulting him, and the next he was suspended in the air, held still by some spell while straining to get at him. Yaric only had an instant to take in the sight of Chris. He was lying on his back, flat on the ground with his face already swelling up and blood pouring from both his nose and a split lip. Then an absolutely furious looking Hiawatha was in his face, glaring at Yaric with palpable anger.
Chris scrambled back to his feet. “He jummed me! He jusht attacked me wish no warning!”
“Explain yourself Prospect.”
Yaric hung in midair as the fight drained out of him. “I have no excuse, Instructor.”
“Like hell you don’t!” Li Na interjected before catching herself as Hiawatha turned to look her way.
“Explain.”
“Well, Instructor, Chris was accusing Yaric of getting special treatment from the Academy. He was claiming that Yaric was cheating him.”
Hiawatha turned to Chris and raised his hand, which began to glow with an intense white light. A second later it dimmed, and Chris was standing there with no injuries at all.
“Is that true? I will know if you lie.”
“Yes, but she’s making it sound like I was accusing the Academy of wrong doing.”
“Were you?”
Chris looked panicked, but Hiawatha turned back to Li Na without waiting for Chris to answer. “So you would have me believe that Prospect Yaric here attacked Prospect Christopher out of righteous fury, simply because he insulted me and the Academy?”
Chris turned white at the implication.
“No Instructor,” Li Na mumbled.
“Then what do you believe made him assault a fellow student?”
“Chris was accusing him of cheating, then claiming that he was getting special treatment because he’s an orphan, and then when he called Yaric’s mother a bitch, Yaric dived on him. I couldn’t stop them in time, sir.”
“And what exactly did Prospect Christopher say with regards to Prospect Yaric’s mother?”
“Uhhh… he said something about her being… I’m quoting what Chris said… he said she was a Duke's side bitch. But he didn’t finish what he was saying because that was when Yaric tackled him.”
Yaric clenched his hands into fists again, ignoring the crunching he felt.
“I see.”
Yaric was slowly lowered to the ground, and a bright light washed over him as he stood up straight. Both hands made clicking sounds as bones popped back into place.
“Prospect Yaric, you will present yourself at the training grounds one hour before classes start, every morning. Starting the day after tomorrow. You will be wearing your armor. Understood?”
“Yes, Battle Mage Trokhym.” Yaric looked at his feet, too ashamed to look Hiawatha in the eye.
Hiawatha didn’t take his eyes off Yaric, but he stuck his hand out to the side, palm up. “Prospect Christopher, your ID please.”
Chris had looked happy as he listened to Yaric’s punishment, but now he was ecstatic as he stepped forward and placed his ID card in Hiawatha’s hand. His ID had four ribbons already, with space for only one more.
All four ribbons disappeared.
“Sir?” Chris asked, alarmed. “I’ve lost my ribbons? But I was the one who was assaulted!”
Hiawatha finally tore his eyes away from Yaric, as he turned his head to face Chris.
“Prospect Christopher. You’ve insulted both me and the Academy, and you are upset that you only lost four ribbons?”
Chris went white yet again. “No instructor! I just….” Chris trailed off, and didn’t continue even when Hiawatha raised his eyebrows while staring pointedly, leaving everyone in an awkward silence.
“Still, that is not why you lost your ribbons.” Hiawatha said finally while turning back to stare at Yaric, who kept his eyes locked on his feet. He contemplated Yaric for a few more seconds while everyone waited in silence. “What I tell you now is not really for me to say, but no one can be punished without knowing what they are being punished for.”
Hiawatha turned fully to face Chris again. “You ridiculed this student for being an orphan, though being an orphan has no shame. Then you insulted his mother. What I’m assuming you don’t know, and for your sake I hope you didn't, is that young Yaric here was made an orphan by a Mage.” Hiawatha’s voice became much gentler as he continued. “A serial killer who preyed on the Unconnected for centuries. The Academy spent hundreds of years chasing him while he went around murdering innocent people, until finally, he murdered both of Yaric’s parents while Yaric was just a toddler. Then he effectively kept Yaric prisoner, using him as a slave to earn him money by day, while using his magic to torture Yaric at night.”
Hiawatha was much more stern when he added, “That is also why no one discovered his magical talent until he was older. And why he needs special training to catch up the years he’s missed.”
Yaric felt like his face was burning with shame as his life story was laid out to everyone, and his eyes teared over in rage and humiliation as he listened again to the fate his parents suffered. He couldn’t see anymore with the hot tears blurring everything, but he didn’t miss the gasps from Lauren and Li Na when Hiawatha told them about his parents. Fortunately, he did miss seeing Lauren lifting both her hands to her mouth in shock when Hiawatha mentioned the torture. He would have been too ashamed to have to see that as well.
“This Academy owes young Yaric a great deal; we let both him and his family down, in the worst possible way. And now you insult him over what he lost? Would you like to raise a complaint over your punishment?”
“No Instructor!” Chris stammered.
“Good. You and your friends are dismissed. Go.”
Hiawatha turned back to Yaric as Chris and his friends jogged back up the path to the Academy.
“You cannot just assault another student, no matter what has been said. I expect better from you in future. Understand?”
Yaric continued to look down, but nodded his head, causing large droplets to fall.
“Now go get your dinner, you need to eat tonight.”
Yaric nodded mutely again, and immediately started jogging around Hiawatha and out of the arena. He never looked up once. He could hear Hiawatha speaking behind him, but he couldn’t hear what was being said. He also didn’t care.
Yaric found the run up the hill to be easy, as he was completely distracted with his own thoughts. He wasn’t brought out of his thoughts until he heard footsteps running up behind him, causing him to speed up.
“Yaric! Wait!” Li Na called.
“Stop!”
He pulled up abruptly, but didn’t turn around as the footsteps came to a stop right behind him. “Just leave me alone. Go get your food.”
Yaric turned off the path and started jogging again, heading for one of the parks scattered around the campus. The sound of running footsteps started up behind him again.
“No, wait!” Lauren called.
“I said stop!” shouted Li Na.
Yaric pulled up again. “Just go!”
“No! I’m not leaving. Lauren isn’t either.”
“We’re sorry all of that was made public the way that it was. And obviously also that it happened in the first place! I can see that you’ve never told anyone before. But there’s no reason to run off.”
“Not after how you knocked Chris on his ass!” Li Na laughed.
Yaric just started walking away quickly.
“No, wait! I’m sorry!” Li Na called after him.
A hand grabbed his shoulder and spun him around, and Yaric only had a moment to note it was Lauren before she pulled him into a hug. Yaric just stood still, breathing heavily from the run and trying to keep the tears burning in his eyes from spilling over. He had been humiliated enough already.
“Just stop running,” she whispered. “Come.”
Lauren grabbed his hand and pulled him deeper into the park, with Li Na right behind. She found a bench under a tree, which caused the three-quarter moon to cast a darker, nighttime shadow over the whole area. The three of them sat down, and after a few minutes of silence, both girls gently prodded him to tell them about his parents. Yaric sat with his face obscured by the deep shadows, and hesitatingly started answering their questions. He spent the next few hours talking about his life. Yaric told them about the mill, about Clery, about his friends, about Lloyd, and about the man that was not his uncle.
And for the first time ever, he told someone about his parents. What he remembered about how they looked. The games they played. The walks they took. The meals they liked. His home.
Not one of them ended up having that dinner. Not one of them moved when the lights around campus started going out. And not one of them left that dark patch of night until long after the moon had dropped below the horizon.
Not one of them even noticed...
----------------------------------------
"Yaric! How are we this evening?" Faruk asked, just as Yaric stepped into his office.
Yaric sat down without a word, just shrugging slightly.
Faruk frowned, looking Yaric over. Yaric had been quiet and withdrawn when he stepped into Faruk’s office for the first time, and it had taken weeks to get Yaric to show much emotion. Especially positive emotions. Things had finally culminated after Yaric had witnessed his first Tournament, showing real excitement for the first time. Just after that he’d started making friends for the first time in a year, and really seemed to be coming into his own.
The thick shell he’d carried all year had finally been put away. He usually only spoke about the past, though, with a lot of effort, Faruk could drag the conversation to the present, but Yaric had started talking about the future for the first time during their last session, and Faruk had become hopeful that Yaric was moving forward.
Now he looked much like the same teenager that had first stepped through his door.
“Yaric, has something happened?” Faruk asked gently.
Yaric kept his eyes down, refusing to look up, and gave another half-hearted shrug. Faruk kept quiet, waiting patiently.
An awkward silence fell, before Yaric’s eyes darted up briefly, and he finally muttered his first words. “I got in a fight, was given my punishment, and now I’m starting an hour before everyone else. It’s just extra training.”
“You got in a fight?” Faruk asked, his concern etched in his face. “If you were punished, I have to assume that you started it?”
Yaric nodded once, still not looking up.
“Look, I understand that you may have some strong feelings about this, but I’m surprised a fight has affected you so much. You fight within the rules every day, what was so different about this fight?”
“It was Chris. He got in my face after that challenge match I told you about, and he started insulting my mom!”
“I’m sorry, Yaric, truly. You shouldn’t be forced to deal with that, and I’m not going to pretend that it’s harder for you than it is for most other people. But you do understand that it’s rather common for people to insult someone’s mother when they fight, right?”
Yaric didn’t respond, but Faruk decided to continue, hoping to draw Yaric’s attention to his goal of protecting people in the future. “It’s one of the most common attacks there is. You’re very likely to hear it again in the near future, and I’m sure you don’t want to be vulnerable to this again. If other people pick up on how you react to something so specific, it’s going to become the first thing anyone does in a fight with you. Do you recognize that this student does not know what happened to your mother?”
“He does,” Yaric whispered, barely audibly even in the quiet room.
“Excuse me?” Faruk asked, surprised by Yaric’s revelation.
“He knows everything.”
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware that you had told anyone about your family Yaric. Being betrayed by one of your classmates does indeed make it worse.”
“I didn’t,” Yaric hissed, clenching his fists.
“What didn’t you do?”
“I didn’t tell him. Or anyone. Not until after.”
“And yet this student already knew?”
“No!” Yaric spat. “Hiawatha told him!”
“Hiawatha told him about your mother?” Faruk asked, his voice carrying equal parts shock and disbelief.
“Hiawatha told him about everything,” Yaric replied, his voice rising with every word, finally looking up to meet Faruk’s eyes with his own, smoldering gaze. “He told him about how my parents were murdered, and how Virgo used me as a slave and tortured me!” Yaric was shouting by the end, his whole body quivering. “In front of everyone!”
Faruk was visibly taken aback, and took several seconds to formulate a reply.
“He specifically mentioned murder and torture and all the rest?” he eventually asked, speaking quietly.
“Yes…” Yaric ground out.
“Yaric, I’m sorry. I believe you, I’m just having trouble understanding why he would do such a thing. I’ve know Hiawatha for centuries, yet I have no idea what would have driven him to...”
“He said he had to,” Yaric growled.
“And did he say why?”
“He said that Chris had the right to know why he was being punished…”
Faruk just stared at Yaric, his mouth slightly open. When he finally gathered himself, Faruk dropped his head and exhaled loudly.
“Ok, I think I understand.”
Yaric looked up sharply, causing Faruk to quickly raise his palms placatingly. “I certainly do not agree with him, I simply understand what happened.”
Yaric glared at him, waiting for the explanation.
“It sounds like this altercation put Hiawatha at a crossroads. It is true, he simply cannot punish someone without explaining why. No one on this campus can ever come up to and give you any punishment of any kind just because they feel like. That left Hiawatha with a choice.
“One. He could let this student go. Or two, he could punish this student, but to do so, he would have to tell him why. We both know which choice he made.
“Hiawatha is a good man. He’s one of the greatest Battle Mage’s I’ve ever seen. But you need to understand, he’s a soldier through and through. Discipline and rules are a cornerstone of his being. I’m not excusing him!” Faruk quickly added, seeing the look on Yaric’s face. “None of what I’m telling you excuses anything. I’m merely giving you the reasons for his action, right or wrong.
“Letting this student go without punishment would have gone against every fiber of his being. Moreover, the things that happened to you, like it or not, are public knowledge…”
Yaric’s eyes grew wide, and they quickly started darting around the office, taking everything in.
“Not from our meetings! Yaric, you know that anything you say here is private. Have I ever broken your trust?”
Yaric slumped back and but shook his head, but still watched Faruk warily.
“It’s ok, you’re feeling very betrayed right now, it’s only reasonable that you would see something similar happening right now. But nothing you say within these walls ever leave here. What happened to you is public knowledge because much of it is contained in the report Lloyd filed when he returned. You remember our first meeting, when I told you that Lloyd briefed me based on what he had to put in his report. Well, those reports are open to the public, so anyone can reference official findings, and it allows many metrics to be tracked. That’s not important, just know that this information is already out there.
“I’m not going to pretend that other people would have found it, just because it’s available doesn’t mean anyone would read it. We’re all people, whether human, dwarf, elf, or any other kind, we’re all flawed. There will always be ‘should haves’ and ‘why didn’ts’. Hiawatha would not only have felt compelled to make the choice he did, I’m sure he also felt that the information he gave was already available anyway, and so not that big of a deal.
“Which it was!” he quickly added.
“You’re angry. I would be too. And incidentally, I agree with you. It is rather plain to me that you do not want to talk, but you also did come to see me regardless,” Faruk said, giving Yaric a small smile. “So what I propose is this, instead of you doing most of the talking like we usually do, I’ll do most of the talking this evening, and you…” Faruk paused to push the cookies closer to Yaric, “can eat cookies and sit quietly for a few minutes, or until you decide you want to leave. Is that ok with you?”
Yaric reluctantly nodded, but he didn’t touch the cookies.
“There are three big things I want you to keep in mind about this fight. The first is simple. Look at the other things we’ve spoken about since you arrived at the Academy. Look at all the things that you went through in your home town. Are these events really so bad that you can’t overcome them?”
Yaric sat thoughtfully for a moment, but eventually shook his head.
“I don’t want you to think that this downplays what happened. Having had worse things happen before does make these things better. It just means that you know you can deal with them, because you’ve dealt with worse already. It’s not the end of the world, and there is a way forward.
Nothing changed in his expression, but Yaric wasn’t sitting as tensely as he had been. Even if the change was barely perceptible.
“Second, while I can’t speak for this student, Chris was it?” Yaric nodded once. “While I can’t speak for Chris, I do know Hiawatha very well, and I can assure you that he had no malicious intentions. I have no doubt that he felt he was doing the right thing. Nothing he did was wrong according to any rule or law, and the same would have been true if he had made the other choice. He was in a grey area, and he made the choice that he felt was right. I’m afraid that we both have to accept that there are many others who would agree with Hiawatha, even if we don’t. Just like there are many others who would agree with us.
“I do want you to note one fact, however. Hiawatha was obligated to punish you. How did he go about it?”
“He’s given me an extra hour of training every morning,” Yaric grumbled.
“Hiawatha gave you training? As punishment?”
Yaric looked up quickly, comprehension dawning.
“Yes,” Faruk said, smiling, “Hiawatha has already pushed many rules to help you catch up to the rest of your class, and while he punished this Chris, he used your punishment to help you even further. Or at least, in his own mind he did. I think even you know him well enough to realize that Hiawatha avoided truly punishing you and twisted things to your benefit.
“But have you realized yet what else this changes?”
Yaric thought for a moment, before shaking his head, still staying silent whenever possible.
“When you first joined your class, you mentioned that you almost got in a fight with a Chris, I take it that this is the same person?” Faruk only paused long enough for Yaric to confirm before continuing, “Well if memory serves, you told me that it was because he saw your extra training as preferential treatment. That seems to be the root cause of much of the conflict between you. What Hiawatha has now done is twist your extra training into ‘punishment’. Do you think that Chris is angry about your extra training, or gloating?”
Yaric was sitting upright now, and looking far more relaxed. “Gloating,” he said quietly.
“I told you there were three things to keep in mind, and I think we can put them simply as past, present, and future. The first point was the past, with how your past should give you confidence in being able to handle the present. The second is present, as your biggest issues in the present have been catching up with your friends, and dealing with the students that resent your remedial lessons. We’ve just gone over what Hiawatha has done for you, to help with both.
“The third thing to keep in mind, we haven’t discussed yet. You mentioned that you didn’t tell anyone about what happened until after this fight. I take it that you discussed these things with your friends?”
Yaric nodded, looking upset again, but Faruk just smiled.
“Yaric, I want you to think about this before you answer me. Really think. How close were you to these friends before the fight? And how close were you after you’d told them about your past?”
His eyes shifting rapidly, Yaric couldn’t help but go over the recent events in his mind. Remembering how he felt that night made his chest feel tight, but remembering how they had stayed with him all night brought a contradictory smile to the corners of his mouth. Just barely, the merest twitch, but enough for Faruk to notice.
“My job is to listen,” Faruk said quietly, “I’m not used to talking this much. Why don’t you give this 2,000-year-old man a break, and tell me how things went when you told your friends.”
“You already told me you’re almost 2,000 years old, you can’t claim benefits that you haven’t earned,” Yaric joked weakly, and rather cheekily.
Faruk chuckled anyway. “Humor me.”
“There’s not much to tell,” Yaric began quietly, smiling slightly and with a distant look in his eyes. “We just sat in one of the parks. Lina had been running to catch up, so when she…