Twelfth of Learning 1142
They didn’t train during the day. They wanted to be mentally rested for whatever happened that night, and Eric was clearly not himself. Chari had been angry at Dahr’s resistance to her plan, but had been mollified by Eric giving it a chance. She knew she was being contrary, but leveling was amazing, and it was too tempting not to try it again, at least just this once.
If they leveled, she’d be happy to turn her energy to training. If they didn’t level, they might at least get to fight undead again. It wasn’t like practicing in the yard, because you never felt safe in the Other Realm. It felt dark and dangerous– like you could actually get injured or even die. The fear, the need to rise to the occasion, had been exhilarating. It had driven her to a higher level, not just literally but figuratively. With the potential for real consequences, she fought harder. She put more into it. Chari was aware she was at least adequate in the training yard, but on some level, she knew it was training. She understood it was necessary. What it wasn’t was engaging. But fighting the undead? That she wouldn’t mind trying even in real life. And if veresh was a danger she had to brave to get that feeling back, she was willing to risk it.
And in truth, despite what Veloran had told them, Chari didn’t believe they had been in danger. Not from the undead in the Other Realm and not from veresh. The gods wanted something from them, and they weren’t going to let them die in training. Veloran might have thought that leveling quickly was dangerous, but where did levels come from? Did he know more than Sheba, because she was the one who had given at least Eric and her those levels in the first place. Surely she wouldn’t have done that if they couldn’t handle it. Sheba would protect them at the very least until she got what she needed from them. After that was anyone’s guess.
Chari wasn’t like Dahr and Eric. She didn’t blindly believe that Sheba wanted what was best for them. The goddess had an agenda. Chari loved what Sheba stood for, but she blindly trusted nobody, and that included the goddess of honor. What was she after? What danger was coming for them? Why them? She was certain it had to do with the princes. Whatever was coming, she wasn’t the target. She was just an ordinary princess, if such a thing could be said about any princess. But Eric and Dahr weren’t ordinary. Two half-brothers with different unique classes that no one had ever heard of. One of them without fixed skills, the other with two holy weapons, both favored by Sheba. What madness was she marrying into?
It didn’t matter, because it was a madness she had chosen of her own volition. She had chosen Eric before Sheba had said they should marry. She had chosen Eric above all others, because she knew he was good and honorable, or Sheba would not favor him. And she knew he would try to protect her, because she’d seen him do it more than once during her transition. Not that she needed his protection. That she’d have to teach him over time. Just as he was a devotee of Sheba, so was she. And she could fight her own battles. She had a feeling that might be the hardest obstacle she had ahead of her. She needed to fight her own battles.
The day passed slowly, with Eric saying little and Dahr talking nonsense as he often did. Kalutu only spoke when someone asked him something. Meals were eaten in relative silence. They really needed this time off. She wished Eric would talk to her about what had happened in the Other Realm, but she had to trust him. He’d speak when he was ready. Which better be soon, or she’d kick him.
What could have so put him off? Why had his experience differed so much from her and Dahr’s? The frustration of not knowing, and her concern for Eric, was taking a toll on her focus. Well, that and fatigue.
It seemed like night would never come, but it did eventually, and then they were all back in the anteroom of the princes’ quarters. Everyone took the same position as the night before, but Eric procrastinated, taking longer to get ready than was strictly necessary. She was sure Dahr noticed as well, but neither of them mentioned it.
Dahr distributed potions and downed his. Chari followed suit, but Eric just stared at his as if it were a poisonous snake.
“You going to drink that?” she teased.
“I was thinking about bathing in it,” he quipped halfheartedly, then he downed it and lay down without looking at either of them.
They all lay back and closed their eyes. They didn’t find sleep, but rather embarked on a soul journey. There would be no turning over, no restlessness, no being disturbed by loud noises. Their souls sojourned in another existence, while their bodies remained motionless, doing the minimum required to stay alive.
As before, Dahr and Chari ended up together. It was the same place as last time, or a very similar place at least. With everything constantly changing, it was hard to tell.
They waited for a while and, when nothing happened, started walking, this time Chari taking the lead. There seemed to be no animal life at all. A few trees. Some rocks. Everything changed, as before, growing and shrinking, pulsing, shifting colors, strange sounds and scents on the breeze that changed direction constantly, but nothing else.
At first she was tense, but nothing attacked. By the end of the first hour, she was bored. They hadn’t spoken much, both expecting an attack that had never materialized.
“I guess we should take this time to get to know each other better. After all, you’re going to be my brother-in-law.”
“I am?”
“Sure, when I marry Eric.”
“Do you love him?”
She smiled. “Not yet. It’s too new, Dahr. Love, real love takes time. But I think I could come to love him, and that’s all you can really ask with an arranged marriage. I believe he’s a good man, and that’s a good start.”
Dahr nodded. “I guess I won’t be marrying a princess, being a bastard and all.”
Chari thought about it for a moment. “Maybe, maybe not. I think you’ll be lucky if you get to choose who you marry though.”
Dahr shrugged. “Probably too early to talk about it. I’m only fourteen.”
“But you have transitioned, and that’s all that it takes. If your father finds a profitable match for you, you could be married tomorrow.”
Dahr glanced at her sharply to see if she was teasing him, but she looked serious. When he saw she wasn’t, he dropped his gaze to the ground. She could barely hear him over the various noises that surrounded them.
“I still have so much to learn.”
She chuckled. “We all have a lot to learn, Dahr. Being two years older won’t cure you of that. And you know, when you’re old, like thirty or something, you’ll still be learning. It’s like that story your mother used to tell you. What was it...the Book of Lost Wisdom? The search for knowledge never ends.”
“Yeah,” said Dahr. “My mom was pretty wise for a commoner, huh?”
“I don’t think being noble makes you any wiser than anyone else,” said Chari. “I mean, look at my dad.”
They both laughed and then went silent, each lost in their own thoughts. But nothing attacked them, and nothing changed about the area around them that wasn’t already in the process of constantly changing. It seemed the gods had decided that training was what they needed after all. Chari never liked being wrong, but she had been, and she would have to live with it. Though she wasn’t happy that her decision had wasted time that could have been spent more productively.
*
Eric tried to open his eyes but couldn’t. He couldn’t see, but he could hear. He wasn’t where he had been yesterday, that much was obvious. He was elsewhere...but where? Another part of the Other Realm, maybe?
Eric heard a sound that he didn’t recognize yet could name nonetheless. A low beeping, regular and monotonous kept him grounded in the darkness. There were hushed voices in the distance. He wasn’t alone. He tried to move but couldn’t. He could barely feel his body at all. People moved back and forth, but he couldn’t make out anything anyone was saying. Then a closer voice, a woman’s voice, spoke.
“Good afternoon, Danny. I’m going to read to you now, if that’s okay.”
No one replied to the voice. It started reading what sounded very much like a children’s story. As soon as he realized it, Eric stopped paying attention. Instead, he was straining to move. Trying to force his eyes open. The voice stopped reading.
“Danny?”
“What is it?” asked another voice, also a woman.
“I thought he opened his eyes for a second.”
There was a pause, and he heard someone move closer. “It can happen. It doesn’t mean anything. You can’t get your hopes up.”
“Danny, can you hear me?” asked the first voice. “Danny?”
“Mrs. Bradsworth. He’s been in a coma for over two years now. You know that. The odds of him coming out of it at this point are…”
The second voice cut her off. “I know what you’re going to say, Suzanna. But I can’t abandon my son. I won’t. He’ll come back to us, I know he will.”
The second woman didn’t answer, but he felt something move over his body as if someone was adjusting a duvet. The first woman, Mrs. Bradsworth, started reading again.
His consciousness faded and when he woke, he was back in the anteroom. Dahr and Chari were still out. Kalutu came over to him.
“Are you all right?” asked Kalutu.
Eric shook his head. “Not really. I had one of those nightmares again. It was so strange. I have to start taking my medicine. It was so real, like I really was somewhere else.”
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“Like the Other Realm?”
“I don’t think so. Maybe...another world?”
“It seems unlikely,” said Kalutu doubtfully. “I mean how could you dream about a world you’ve never been to?”
“That’s the thing,” said Prince Eric. “I’m not so sure I haven’t been there before. There was something familiar about it. There was a woman, her name was Mrs. Bradsworth, and another named Suzanna. Somehow, I know those names. I don’t know how, but I know them."
“Curious,” replied the familiar. “Perhaps we should ask one of your tutors to see if they can help you figure it out.”
“Yeah, maybe. Kalutu...what if my dreams weren’t dreams at all?”
“What else would they be?”
Eric shrugged. What else indeed?
*
Thirteenth of Learning 1142
When Dahr and Chari awakened, Eric told them about his nightmare. He didn’t mention that it was related to the nightmares he used to have, because it didn’t mean anything. Not yet– maybe not ever. He didn’t know anything for certain, and everyone had studies to focus on. He felt the burden of doubt and mystery on his shoulders and didn’t think it fair for anyone else to carry that load. He was even sorry he’d mentioned it to Kalutu, though it didn’t seem to affect the were-owl.
Eric tried desperately to remember his old dreams, but the combination of time and medication had driven most of those memories out of his mind. But he was absolutely certain that Mrs. Bradsworth and Suzanna had been in them. Not when he’d been lying in a bed, unable to see or move. He felt like he should have been able to picture them and felt guilty for not being able to, like an orphan who could no longer remember what his parents looked like.
Ridiculous, of course. Eric knew who his parents were. Which didn’t stop him from feeling a strong connection to Mrs. Bradsworth and especially to Suzanna, who had sung to him and read to him and played games with him…no, that wasn’t right. He remembered his childhood and had never met anyone named Suzanna, nor ever heard the name before. And yet, a part of his mind almost remembered another life, another time when he had known her. He had no idea how that was possible, but decided he absolutely wouldn’t share that with anyone else until he understood more. If nothing else, he didn’t want people to worry about him.
The nature of Eric’s thoughts were so intense, and he was so focused on them that he started at a sharp rap on the door. Chari and Dahr hadn’t noticed his reaction, but Kalutu had. Eric placed a hand over his mouth, hoping Kalutu understood what that meant. Dahr walked to the door and opened it. Maynor stepped into the room. If he disapproved of Chari being there alone with the boys, you couldn’t tell from his expression, and he didn’t say anything about it.
“So, you’ve all leveled. It’s time to move to the next stage of your training then. Not that you couldn’t benefit from more of the basics, but I’ve been informed we don’t have the time. I have to say I’m not comfortable with this accelerated schedule, but my comfort isn’t of particular concern to King Terrence. I hope you’re all awake and ready to go, because we’re doing something different today.”
Maynor didn’t wait for a response but turned and left the room. Eric, Chari and Dahr stared at each other before hurrying to catch up. It was immediately obvious that Maynor wasn’t taking them to the practice yard. Instead he brought them to a small salon, with a table and chairs, but instead of food and drink as they would normally have available when Leata was teaching them, there were paper, quills and ink pots in their place. Maynor waited until they were seated to begin.
“You have a variety of skills now. But the skills you’ll be using in combat today aren’t the same as the ones you used in the Other Realm. They’ll be different. Does anyone know why?”
“They’re practice skills,” said Chari quickly, happy to get the jump on the boys for once.
“Practice skills?” asked Eric. Though he looked to Maynor, it was Chari who answered him.
“Sure. I mean all skills come from the power of the gods. The gods give you those skills to help you in dangerous situations. Shield Bash is pretty powerful. Do you really want to be using that at full strength while you’re training?”
“Wait, are you saying the gods know we’re training so they give us weaker versions of our skills to use?
“Yes.”
“Why have I never heard about this before?”
Maynor took over. “Because until recently, you haven’t had enough skills to use them in training, and because you were learning the basics and didn’t need to know it. There was no need to tell you, because Sheba wouldn’t let you hurt anyone, even if you did use your skills.”
Maynor turned his attention to Dahr. “You’re going to be the hardest to train, because I don’t know any of your skills.”
“You’re in good company,” muttered Eric, under his breath. Maynor ignored him and continued to look at Dahr expectantly.
“With all due respect, Maynor, you’re not capable of training me. My class…” Dahr didn’t know what he could or couldn’t say, but he remembered George talking about people being smart enough to figure things out. “I think I might just watch today.”
Maynor shook his head. “Dahr, you have to train, even if you just practice blocking or dodging.”
Dahr nodded. “That I can do. But I won’t be using skills.”
Maynor regarded him unhappily but nodded. “So what I need now from Princess Chari and Prince Eric is a list of your skills, so we can have a strategy session. We’ll see what you know about each of your skills, and add in what I know about them. Then we’ll do some brainstorming and see how they can work together.”
“That sounds fun,” said Chari.
Maynor shrugged. “Some people find it fun, but make no mistake. It’s hard work. Whatever we learn or figure out today won’t be useful long term. It’s just a first step. Good teams work with each other, constantly modifying what they do together, increasing their synergy. The way they work together. They find new ways to use their skills that they may have never considered. Sometimes a group will get a new member, and suddenly they have to integrate all those new skills into their existing strategies. The higher the level, the harder it gets, because there are more skills to deal with.”
“Can you give us an example?” asked Eric.
“Sure. We’ll start simple. Imagine a skill that creates a pit trap. You could create a trap with spikes in it or poison right under your enemy. The trap opens, they fall in and suffer whatever secondary effect that trap springs on them, in addition to the expected damage from the fall. That’s the skill working as intended. But what if another member of your team had a skill that pushed foes back. Then instead of creating that trap under the enemies just in front of you, you’d want to create that trap under the enemies behind them, so your team mate could push them back into it, and your trap becomes twice as valuable.”
“That’s awesome!” said Dahr.
Maynor smiled. “It is. Still want to watch from the sidelines?”
Dahr grew serious. “Do you think I like being left out of this, Maynor? Do you think I’m not aching to tell everyone about my new class? George gave me strict instructions to keep certain secrets and gave me at least some reason why it was important I do so. It doesn’t have anything to do with what I want. What I want is not to be involved in this upcoming danger at all, but no one asked my opinion on the matter. The reality is that I’m a mostly untrained fourteen year old with very little experience, about to enter a dangerous situation that I’m not likely to be able to avoid and might not survive. Following my god’s will is maybe, just maybe, the only way I get through to the other side of this with my skin intact.”
Maynor stood stunned. He had thought of Dahr as just a boy. Prince Eric’s young servant. He was too young to have gone through his transition, but he had in fact transitioned. This wasn’t the outburst of a child.
“I’m sorry, My Prince. I meant no disrespect.”
“I know. It must be hard for you, seeing us change so fast from what we were… but we are changing. And you’d do well to remember that.”
Maynor gave him a long, considered look, before nodding and moving on with the lesson.
“Okay, let’s get some skills down and see if we can’t get some sort of strategy on paper. Then we’ll test the strategy and see if we can’t improve it. This is what adventuring teams do, and even though adventuring teams are different from squads of soldiers, the logic behind how they formulate strategy is largely the same, with one difference. Soldiers tend to move between battalions a lot and so their tactics aren’t designed around individual skills so much as replaceable roles that anyone could learn or pick up, skill or no skill. But they still work together to figure out strategies that work. If someone leaves they’re easy to replace, because the individual skills matter less. It’s why the Soldier class tends to get skills from a fairly small pool.
“There are three types of skills. Passive skills where you don’t have to act at all, skills that are good in almost any situation, and skills that are good in only very specific circumstances. Take your shield bash skill, Eric. You wouldn’t use that all the time. Can you tell me why?”
“Because if I knock something away from me, then I can’t reach it with my sword.”
“Precisely. Good. So let’s get those skills on paper.”
Dahr sat up straight. “Maynor, may I be excused. I have something to do.”
Maynor looked frustrated. “Would it matter if I said no?”
“Not really,” said Dahr, a bit sheepishly.
“How long will you be?”
“I don’t know. But my god requires my attention elsewhere.”
Maynor shook his head, but his words betrayed the gesture. “Fine. Off with you. But get back here as soon as you can.”
“I will.”
After Dahr left, Maynor looked at Eric. “Do you have any idea what that was about?”
Eric shrugged. “George works in mysterious ways.”
Chari giggled. Maynor shot her an annoyed look.
“Well, we still have work to do. Chari, you start. I know about the skills you got during your transition; Amazing Strength, Frenetic Defense and Puncture. How familiar are you with these skills? Have you used them?”
Chari thought for a moment before responding. “I’ve used them all, Puncture and Amazing Strength more than Frenetic Defense, though.”
“That makes sense because you fight more offensively. It might not hurt to work Frenetic Defense into your routine. Tell me what your skills do."
“Amazing Strength is pretty much what it says it is. It has a bit of a long recharge time, so I tend to reserve it for critical moments in the fight. Puncture allows me to pierce armor or thick shell with a thrust of my sword. Frenetic defense is for fast blocking.”
“Good. Can you think of anything else to do with puncture?”
Chari’s forehead wrinkled, and she pursed her lips. Eric knew she wanted to answer the question, though he thought he had an idea. He didn’t speak however, giving her a chance to answer. After all, Maynor hadn’t asked him.
“No,” she said finally, and there was a note of defeat in her voice.
“How about you, Prince Eric? Can you think of anything?”
“If it’s just a strong thrust, with a different weapon, say a shield, could it be used to knock an opponent away from you?”
“Good answer. A strong thrust with a blade will puncture. But if you had a shield and used it, it would push back foes. That’s the kind of thinking you need to use with your skills. An adequate warrior can use puncture to pierce armor. A great warrior can find other uses for it. This is true of all your skills.”
Chari smiled at Eric, but he knew she felt bad that she hadn’t come up with the answer herself. He didn’t want there to be competition between them, but he realized that Chari was competitive, and that it was something he’d have to grow used to. It shouldn’t be too hard. He’d always competed with Dahr. Of course, with Dahr it was easier, having a two year advantage. Well, it was easier for him. It probably wasn’t that great for Dahr, now that he had taken the time to think about it. He realized that Maynor was talking again and hurried to catch up. Maynor had asked her about her other skills, the ones she had gotten when they revisited the Other Realm.
“There were three of them, one for each level,” Chari was saying. “The skills are Shred, Frenzy and Tremendous Leap. I’ve used them all, and they seem pretty powerful. I was thinking from what you said earlier, that I could combine the skills, use Shred and Frenzy at the same time to get a hard attack that goes much faster.”
“Good!” Maynor almost shouted the compliment, then continued. “This is the way I need you to think. But remember, it’s not just about knowing the combinations of your own skills, but how your skills will interact with Eric’s and Dahr’s. I’m really not sure what Dahr thinks he’s accomplishing by keeping the skills from me. You’ll both see them at some point. I don’t understand the need for secrecy.”
Chari and Eric shared a glance, but it was Eric who replied. “Dahr needs to follow the will of George in the same way I must follow Sheba’s. We don’t get to decide our actions. Well, we do, but hopefully we decide right. George and Dahr are linked as I am linked to Sheba. I understand his desire to obey. And though it may not come easily, I suggest, Maynor, that you trust in the gods as well, because that really is our only hope. Whatever happens, I get the strong impression that neither you nor my father will be there to save us. Whatever we have to do, we have to do on our own. That’s what all this training is about.”
Maynor nodded. “I know. But how can I train him if he won’t tell me his skills.”
This time, it was Chari who answered. “Maynor, I know this may be hard to believe, but of all of us, Dahr is the one who is in the least amount of danger. I can’t tell you his skills, but I can tell you that he’s the one you won’t have to worry about. Worry about training me and Eric. George will provide Dahr with all the training he needs.”
Maynor frowned but didn’t challenge her. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“We don’t,” said Chari. “But we have to trust the gods do.”