It had taken a few days for Evie to get used to fencing with Amelia. She was used to traditional Shinai, the practice bamboo blades used in Kendo. Amelia was much shorter and heavier, which Evie brought up at every opportunity she could.
Claro was not skilled in fencing. However, the trainer only tolerated a few rounds of humiliating defeat before passing Evie off to Formad, the trainer who normally worked with Lubanzi. Formad favored a shorter, padded blade with a slight curve to it, and his technique was like nothing Evie had seen before. His skill matched Evie’s almost perfectly, and it was impossible to predict who would win each round. Unless Amelia attempted to help. The umbrella would frequently try to interfere while they sparred with mixed, but usually negative, results. Evie suspected that with time and practice, she and the umbrella could learn to work together and come up with a formidable technique, but that would take time. For now, they had another plan.
Evie and Formad circled each other in the sparring ring. They had been at it for almost an hour, and both were out of breath and coated in sweat. Formad darted forward, and Evie parried his quick flourish of blows, looking for an opening. She still wasn’t used to his unusual technique, but thankfully, that disadvantage worked both ways. He had as much trouble predicting her movements as she did his. She stepped forward and struck at one of his shoulders, but he twisted gracefully out of the way and retaliated with a jab at her ribs. Evie brought the umbrella down to parry, but before she made contact, Amelia’s canopy snapped open, knocking Formad’s blow away at an angle neither opponent could have expected. Formad recovered first. His blade whipped around and snapped back at her. Evie tried to block, but Amelia was still open and cumbersome. Before she could raise the umbrella, Formad’s blade pressed to her throat, and she sighed in defeat.
“Good match!” Formad said, smiling cheerfully at her.
Evie nodded and tried to look convincingly annoyed at the umbrella. “Amelia,” Evie said gently.
“You’re welcome,” Amelia replied. “He would have had you two moves earlier if I hadn’t helped.”
Evie watched as the edges of Formad’s mouth twitched with amusement. “I appreciate you trying to help, Amelia. But I think, maybe, it would be useful for you to watch us spar without interfering. That way, you can learn how I fight on my own.”
Amelia sat silently for a moment. Evie prayed that her reaction wouldn’t be too over the top.
“You want me to just sit back and watch?” the umbrella replied finally, trying to sound hurt.
“Yes. For now. Once you know what I can do by myself, we can start working on techniques that include you.”
“Do you have any idea how hard it is to watch a sword fight from the perspective of the sword? It gives me a massive headache.”
“Isn’t that what you’ve been doing?”
“Yes. But it was worth it, because I was protecting you! I don’t know if I can force myself to pay attention if all I’m doing is watching. The pain will be too much!”
Evie winced. The umbrella was laying it on a little thick. She looked at Formad out of the corner of her eye, but he didn’t look suspicious, just amused.
“Maybe you can use a practice blade, and I can watch from the sidelines?” coaxed Amelia.
“No,” Evie said immediately. “I need to get used to working with your weight and unique shape. A practice blade won’t replicate that.”
Evie paused for a moment, waiting to see if Formad would take the hint, but he said nothing.
“Gee. It would be so convenient if there was something me-shaped lying around that Evie could use as a practice weapon,” Amelia said, her voice louder than it needed to be.
“Oh!” Said Formad, suddenly struck with an idea. “You know what? I think we still have all the parts for your original umbrella in storage. I bet the engineers could put it back together and adjust the weighting. You could use that!”
Evie inwardly sighed with relief. “Really?” She asked, widening her eyes and gazing up at Formad. “That would be amazing. Then we can spar, and Amelia can watch and learn how I fight. Once she feels ready, we can re-integrate her!”
“What a great idea, Formad. Truly brilliant,” Amelia said. The sarcasm in her voice was just a touch too obvious for Evie’s comfort.
“Why don’t we call it early today, and I’ll go talk to the engineers?” Formad smiled at them. “I think they should be able to get a practice umbrella together in a day or so. You still have a few hours before lunch, but I’m pretty sure no one is using the Stealth Room right now. You can finish out the afternoon there. I’ll give Huaken a heads up that you’re coming.”
Evie had to fight to keep a grimace off her face. She had only been subjected to two sessions in the stealth room, which was another new exercise they had introduced after the Weapons Ceremony. As the name of the room implied, its purpose was to teach them how to move around the Honrad without being noticed. It was also the first exercise Evie had really struggled with.
She steeled herself, said, “That sounds good. See you tomorrow,” and quickly pulled Amelia away and out the door before the umbrella could say anything else.
As they walked down the hall, Amelia rose and twisted, positioning her speaker directly next to Evie’s ear.
“Can you believe how easy that was?” she attempted to whisper. “He believed all that nonsense about it being hard for me to pay attention while you sparred! Just ate it right up!”
Evie shot the umbrella a dirty look. “You’re lucky you didn’t tip him off. Your acting is terrible.”
Amelia flicked her handle at Evie, jabbing her gently in the chest. “Shut up. He wouldn’t have put two and two together if I hadn’t nudged him. Don’t be salty just because I was right.”
Evie rolled her eyes, but had to concede that the umbrella had been correct. Evie had been skeptical that this ploy would work, but it had, and just like that, they had access to a decoy umbrella.
“I still think we could have just asked.” Evie mumbled sullenly.
“We went over this. If you had asked for it, the Skonarians might have guessed what we actually want it for. Hat agrees they won’t allow you to take it to Honrad if anyone remembers it exists. Since it’s Formad’s idea, no one will pay it a second thought.”
Evie knew Amelia was probably right, and having a decoy umbrella on Honrad opened up a lot of possibilities. Hat was confident they could sneak it with them, assuming no one remembered the ‘practice umbrella’ and got suspicious.
They rounded a corner and entered the Stealth Room. It was another space that had appeared after the Weapons Ceremony, manned by a soft-spoken Skonarian named Huaken. He nodded at them as they entered and gestured for Evie to take her place at the end of the room.
The medium-sized room was long and rectangular, though she noticed it changed shape with each exercise. Inside, the lighting was low, casting the room in a perpetual twilight. The Honrad didn’t see well in darkness, and Huaken had explained that he would keep the lighting dim until the assassins got better at maneuvering around the room unseen. Different pillars and other shapes sprouted from the walls, ceiling, and floor, providing places for the assassins to hide. These also changed shape and location, and their frequency was another sign that the room was in “easy mode”, as Huaken put it.
At the end of the long room, barely visible through the collection of obstacles, was what they were hiding from. A white, life-sized sculpture of a Honrad grew from the floor. Evie knew that as soon as the exercise started, the figure would come to life and begin aimlessly pacing around the room. The Honrad golem, as Huaken referred to it, was programmed with the same sensory inputs as an average Honrad. It had a surprisingly wide field of vision and was incredibly sensitive to movement.
If the Honrad saw her–and so far it had always seen her–it would attack. Huaken always stopped the exercise before she had a chance to try to fight the golem, stressing that the point of the exercise was stealth, not combat, at least for now. Evie knew this was just like any other skill, and practice would help her improve, but that didn’t make the experience less frustrating.
“What are we doing?” hissed Amelia painfully into Evie’s ear as Evie searched for a good starting position.
“See the blue target on the far wall? We are trying to reach it without alerting the golem.”
“Why don’t you just kill it?”
“I’m not supposed to fight it. Just sneak by.”
“How dull. Fine, let’s race.” Before Evie could object, the umbrella yanked herself out of Evie’s hand and floated away towards the ceiling. Evie turned to call after her, but froze as she glimpsed movement at the end of the room. Swearing, she pressed her back to the nearest pillar. As quietly as she could manage, she edged around until the pillar stood between her and the Honrad, listening intently to the creature’s movements.
Evie found this exercise an unusual combination of extremely stressful and mind numbingly boring. She was constantly on edge, trying to pinpoint the golem’s location and predict its movements. But that meant that she mostly stood completely motionless, occasionally slipping from one location to another. Each time she got a window to slip by the creature, she would either hesitate for slightly too long, missing her opportunity, or it would somehow sense her presence and turn in her direction, forcing her to retreat backwards into the shadows.
Stolen story; please report.
After what felt like an unbearably long time, she had had enough. Her arms and legs were shaking from their state of constant tension, and her mind was going numb. She peeked around a corner to see the Honrad about twenty feet away, facing away from her. On the wall behind it, about the same distance away from Evie, was the end point. She went for it, darting across the space as quickly and silently as she could.
The Honrad swung around before she had even crossed half the distance, locked its milky eyes on her and charged. She stopped, throwing her head back in frustration and turning towards the creature rushing towards her. She expected the Honrad to freeze, and therefore was completely unprepared when it barreled into her. It knocked her backwards and off her feet, pinning her to the ground with unsettling, wiry strength. She finally reacted, starting a form that would throw the creature off her, but before she could, it leaned down and viciously clamped its jaws around her shoulder. She screamed, thrashing wildly and trying to prevent its tombstone-like teeth from grating their way further into her flesh. All the self-defense training she had ever learned fled from her, leaving only terror and pain.
Then the terror ignited into white hot anger. She reached up with her other arm and plunged her fingers into the golem’s eye. A small, dormant part of her brain felt surprised when they sank in, easily penetrating through the artificial cornea. Now it was the golem’s turn to scream. It jerked back, and its jaws loosened a little on her shoulder. She dug her fingers in deeper, hooking them under the creature’s eye socket and jerking it backwards and away from her. Its teeth finally ripped free, taking a sizable chunk of skin and muscle with them. She kicked its legs out from under it, toppling it onto its side, and extracted her fingers so she could jump to her feet and stomp down on the creature’s neck. The first blow didn’t kill it. It writhed and screeched like an animal beneath her, but she struck it again and again, willing it to fall still.
Suddenly, it froze. She looked around and saw Amelia, handle pressed to the blue target.
“Interesting strategy.” Haucken said, emerging behind them. “Using yourself as a distraction so that your weapon could get by.”
It took a moment for Evie to come back to the present. Panting and wiping the sweat out of her eyes, she looked in confusion between the trainer and the umbrella before remembering where she was. What they were doing. As the rage and adrenaline faded, she felt pain throb through her shoulder.
“Why didn’t you stop it?” she asked, wincing as she raised a hand to her injury before pulling it away just as quickly. She couldn’t bring herself to look down at her shoulder, but out of the corner of her eye, she could see that the uniform covering her torso and upper arm was saturated with blood.
“Because only one of you had been spotted,” Hauken replied. “And your weapon was in an excellent position to complete the exercise, though it took its time about it.”
“I wanted to see if you could beat the thing!” Amelia chimed in cheerfully.
Evie took a few moments to calm her breathing. She was lightheaded from blood loss, and couldn’t decide whether she wanted to scream or start laughing.
“Strategy aside, we need to work on some things, Evie. You still don’t have any idea how to move without catching the Honrad’s attention. You can’t rely on your weapon for everything.”
Amelia floated over to Evie. “I must be malfunctioning. Did I just hear that overgrown lizard make a sensible observation?” Evie couldn’t summon the energy to respond. The throbbing in her shoulder was becoming harder to ignore, and the edges of her vision were starting to blur.
“Go to the Med Bay and get yourself cleaned up. When you get back, we’ll go over a few exercises, then try that again, this time by yourself,” Haucken finished.
Evie nodded and stumbled towards the door. She exited into the hallway and had to lean against the wall to prevent herself from falling. As she dragged herself forward, she smeared a red trail in her wake.
Then she felt Amelia’s handle gently hook her under her good arm and pull her into the air.
“If I had known this would turn into a Carrie reenactment, I would have finished the exercise sooner. You humans are disgustingly leaky.”
Evie relaxed and let the umbrella carry her away. She looked down at the rapidly expanding red stain and giggled. “Another shirt ruined,” she mumbled, then blacked out.
Evie knocked on the wall outside the doorway to Lubanzi’s room. Var had fixed her up, and she had changed into a clean uniform before returning to the Stealth Room. Now it was lunch break, and she had seen Lubanzi entering from down the hall. He had continued to avoid her since the Weapons Ceremony. She wanted to give him space, but it had been almost a week, and she was worried.
After a moment, his voice drifted out to her. “This isn’t a good time, Evie.” She hesitated, then pushed the curtain aside and entered anyway. He was on his bed, eating. Amiya perched on the side of his bowl, helping herself. Lubanzi looked up in surprise.
“You barged in on me once without asking,” she said, trying to lighten the mood. “It’s only fair that I return the favor.”
“I didn’t ignore an explicit instruction to go away,” he grumbled, setting the bowl down and glancing away from her.
“I’ll go if you want me to. If you still need space, I’ll respect that, but I wanted to make sure you knew that I’ve missed you this last week. I hope you’re ok.”
He looked away, but didn’t tell her to go.
“How has your time in the arena been going?” Evie asked before the silence became awkward.
He shrugged. “It’s ok. I can do some serious damage with this thing.” He tapped the bowling ball sitting beside him on the bed. “We’ve started working on my aim over long distances. You’d be impressed by how far I can throw it.” Evie nodded and walked to the bed, taking a tentative seat on the edge.
“How’s the robot umbrella?” he asked.
“She’s a pain in the ass, but I think we’re figuring things out. She‘s only dropped me once.” Lubanzi snorted, but it sounded forced.
Evie tried to think of a way to steer the conversation around to what she actually wanted to say.
“Evie, you don’t have to pretend. I know what you must think of me now.” Lubanzi said, staring pointedly down into his lap.
She raised an eyebrow at him, and responded softly. “Lubanzi. What you did was an accident.”
Lubanzi’s head snapped up. His eyes were full of pain, and to her surprise, anger. “So you would excuse a drunk driver? Or someone who pleads intoxication after taking advantage of another person? Don’t downplay what I did, Evie.”
Evie hesitated, unsure what he wanted from her. He had a point, but for better or worse, it didn’t really matter now. She weighed her words carefully. “You’re right. What you did was horrible. Your careless actions resulted in the death of your friend.” He flinched away as if she had struck him. “Back on Earth… I don’t know what I would’ve thought. But we’re not on Earth. Dwelling on the things we did to get here won’t change our situation. For now, let’s worry about surviving.”
Lubanzi shut his eyes and clenched his hands into fists.
“Look,” Evie said after he didn’t respond for a minute. “As far as I’m concerned, we don’t need to discuss this again–“
“His name was Jabari,” Lubanzi interrupted, taking a deep breath. “We were best friends for almost a decade. He had just turned eighteen, which is the legal drinking age in South Africa, and he started bringing booze with him when we hung out. It was so much fun, Evie. Testing our limits, egging each other on…” He stopped, momentarily overwhelmed.
“We did the same thing when I was your age,” Evie said quietly, remembering the first time Mildred had snuck a bottle of blue raspberry vodka home after school. They had stayed up till dawn, wandering around the suburbs, dancing in sprinklers and being a general nuisance to everyone except each other. Both of them had puked their guts out by the end of the night. It was one of Evie’s most cherished memories.
“I didn’t believe I’d done it,” Lubanzi whispered.
Evie sighed and swung her legs up on the bed, folding them under herself and facing him. “I get it. It was hard to process what I’d done too, after I killed the man in Singapore-“
“No, you don’t understand. I don’t remember what happened.” Lubanzi’s gaze met hers, his eyes brimming with barely controlled tears. “The last thing I remember that evening was getting to the bowling alley. We had been drinking for hours before we went. Then I woke up in a cell. The police explained what I had done, but I thought they were lying. I still didn’t believe it, even when no one came to my defense. Then Azur showed up and gave me the option to come here.” Lubanzi pulled his legs up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, squeezing. “But now… I can’t deny what I did anymore. I killed Jabari. I shouldn’t have accepted the Skonarian’s offer. I deserve to rot in a cell.”
“Lubanzi…” Evie stared at him, disbelieving. “You didn’t remember anything? But your nightmares...”
“I have nightmares about the aftermath. About being told that I had killed my best friend. About spending weeks in a cell being treated like a criminal for a crime I swore I didn’t commit.”
Evie took a deep breath, her mind spinning. Finally, she reached out and put a hand on his knee. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad you’re here. If we survive, then we can worry about facing our demons back on Earth. Heaven knows, I’m not blameless either.”
“I saw,” Lubanzi replied, “I was a mess, but I saw. At least you were defending yourself.”
Evie laughed bitterly. “I could have stopped before I killed him.”
“Why didn’t you?” Lubanzi asked.
Evie hesitated. Lubanzi had trusted her with his story. It only seemed fair that she returned the favor.
“Have I ever told you I had a twin sister?” she asked. Lubanzi shook his head. “Her name was Mildred.” Lubanzi raised an eyebrow skeptically at her, and she laughed despite everything. “Our mom had a thing for old lady names. She named our dog Maud, so I guess it could have been worse.
“Anyway, Mil’s was a very successful model. If I showed you a picture, you would probably recognize her. There were a few years where I couldn’t go a day without seeing her face in an ad, or on a magazine cover.”
“Wait a minute,” Lubanzi broke in, his eyes going wide. “Mildred Williams? The model on the cover of 2018’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit…” Lubanzi choked on his words, and his face went beat red.
Evie couldn’t help it. She laughed. The magazine cover in question had been one of Mildred’s most risqué. “Yeah, that was Mil’s. Don’t worry, she loved that cover. I never understood, but she said she found shoots like that empowering.”
Lubanzi smiled sheepishly at Evie, his face still flushed. “My mom was furious when she found that magazine. Mildred Williams… that’s crazy. Is she still modeling? I haven’t seen anything with her in it for a few years.”
Evie’s smile fell, and she looked down. “No,” she replied finally. “She was… kidnapped. On a world tour with a group of other models, right before the pandemic. Two of the girls she was with escaped and gave evidence-” Evie choked on her words. She clenched her fists and forced out, “she’s assumed dead,” praying Lubanzi wouldn’t ask for details.
Evie felt Lubanzi’s hand settle comfortingly on her knee. She rubbed her eyes. Tears hadn’t helped then, and they wouldn’t help now. “So I guess what I’m trying to say is that I overreacted when that man started harassing me,” she finished lamely. “All I could think about was Mildred. About how that was what must have happened to her. And I just snapped.”
They sat in silence for a long moment. “Aren’t we a sorry pair?” Lubanzi said sadly. “Who would have thought that of the three of us, Haruto would end up being the most noble?”
Evie laughed softly, thinking back to her conversation with Haruto. At the restraint he had shown. “I won’t hold it against you, if you don’t hold it against me,” she said, relaxing and meeting Lubanzi’s eyes. “What we did on Earth is behind us. For better or worse, we’re here now.”
Lubanzi nodded and sat up. He straightened his shoulders, drawing himself up to his full, considerable height. Amiya clucked with approval and flew to Evie’s shoulder to give her an appreciative nibble on the cheek.
“You’re right, Evie. None of that matters now. For the next few months, we are going to train our asses off. Then, when we get to Honrad, we’ll put on a show no one will ever forget. And when we make it out of the Sim and back to Earth, I’m going to help you hunt down whoever took your sister. By then, we will be unstoppable.”
Despite herself, Evie grinned up at him. “That sounds like a deal!” She stuck her hand out for him to shake.