This is becoming a bad habit, Florian thought to himself as he propped himself up on his bed, his head fortunately back to normal. The medic tent was full again, people nursing wounds that varied from those that would heal if given time to those that may prove to be mortal. He caught the eye of the doctor, whose eyes widened like a deer seeing headlights. She walked outside the tent for but a moment, returning at a rapid clip to inspect his wounds.

Assuring her that his head was fine, the doctor took his right arm and checked the bandages, noting that the bleeding had stopped; the bandages remained spotless. She wrapped his wound back in the same bandages, a small smile on her lips.

“Well, the good news is that your arm should be better in no time. From what I’ve been told, your armor won’t be,” she joked. “Still, take it easy for the next couple days.” This she said with resignation in her voice. She knew full well that he, like all the other Warriors in the tent, wouldn’t be able to take it easy.

“You got it, doctor,” he assured her anyway, figuring the white lie would cheer the both of them up, even if both were fully aware of its nature as such. Then the tent flap opened, the sun’s rays brightening the interior significantly until a shadow in the shape of a man blocked it once more. Theo sought him out, glaring at Florian as he approached. The doctor took the opportunity to make herself scare, a decision that Florian wished he could make himself.

Florian could see the frustration in Theo’s eyes when he spoke. “You are done playing warrior, disciple. No more gallivanting about, pretending to possess greater power than you do. You will stay with the other disciples, and you will continue to teach them, day in and day out.”

“That wasn’t the deal, Theo.”

“Master. You will address me as master.” Theo looked down at him, righteous anger lacing his every word.

Florian bit back his retort. He needed what Theo could offer him. “Fine, Master,” he said. “But still, the deal we struck was that I teach one day, and you teach the next.”

Theo rolled his eyes. “Do you still truly believe you are in a position to bargain, disciple? You missed a day without so much as a word, and when I inquire about your whereabouts, I find that you volunteered to leave Leeds to embark on a fool’s errand.”

“It was not a fool’s errand, Master. The carpenters need that wood to repair the gate, and the Warriors had no reason to believe that anything so catastrophic would happen.”

“You must expect the worst, always,” Theo stated, not hearing any of the logic in Florian’s words. “But I accept that you may have been naïve enough to not know any better. I trust that you have learned your lesson, yes?”

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Florian seethed at the uppity wizard in front of him. But his answer was decided for him. “Yes, Master.”

“Good. I will not hear of any more insubordination. You will guide my other disciples through their practice from dawn until dusk, or Wilfred will hear of it and have you expelled from this castle. Do not test my patience.” Theo turned to leave, his piece said.

“What about my leg?”

“Ah, yes, your leg. I will heal that once you have completed your service,” Theo added before leaving Florian to stew in his thoughts. Florian stood up, waving the doctor away when she moved to intercept him. He had to go inform the commander.

It was his luck that the training field wasn’t far from the medical tent, and though he knew it was the afternoon by the position of the sun, there were still a few people practicing on the wooden dummies. Hornbeck was among them. Approaching, Florian watched as Hornbeck released a flurry of strikes against the dummy, moving nearly as fast as Anna but striking with force enough to cause the entire dummy to shake. It was an impressive sight, one that he was happy to watch as he waited for the commander to finish up.

“What brings you here, son?” Hornbeck asked, wiping the sweat from his brow and placing his spear on the ground beside him. “I thought you were still hiding in the medical tent,” the commander joked with him, but the mirth quickly died when he saw the serious expression on Florian’s face. “What is it?”

“I’m sorry, Commander.” Florian said. “I’ve just been told that I can no longer fight with all of you.”

“By whom?”“Theo.”

Hornbeck’s eyebrows scrunched together. “Theo?”

“Theodosius? The wizard?”

The commander nodded, the name ringing a bell. “I suppose Lord Jones and the wizard weren’t happy with you nearly dying?”

“Yes, sir. I’m really sorry about this,” Florian’s fists were clenched.

Hornbeck placed a hand on Florian’s shoulder. “There’s nothing you can do about it, son. Just go and do what needs to be done. If you ever feel like you want to, stop by in the mornings for training.”

Florian nodded, leaving the commander to his training. As he walked away from the training field, he saw a handful of people practicing as if the Devil were challenging them to a cage match, all of them in perfect health but panicked.

He hated that he was losing the opportunity to earn more Hellwolf meat, to slow down the growth of his magical abilities – which he felt had grown again. He hated that he was letting a man he respected down; the commander’s dummy no longer shook, but quaked under the commander’s barrage of strikes. And perhaps most of all, he hated that a part of him was glad to be taken away from the constant fighting and away from the danger that he constantly faced.

Effort lead to success, that was true, but no amount of effort would bring him home if he died in the process. The logging run had proven the danger of fighting as Warrior more than anything. Even the tiniest bit of complacency was enough to end his life.

So he walked away from it all, walking toward the keep’s annex, the hastily-built wooden building where the two dozen or so disciples rested and called home. His stuff was already waiting for him on an empty bed, his stuff consisting of a few packages of preserved meat that he had kept in the barracks’ locker. Bludgeon was missing, though Florian supposed that was intentional. He breathed deeply, sitting down on his new bed. It was comfortable, but not even it could ease Florian into settling his roiling thoughts and emotions. It took him half an hour to finally breathe, and then he began to meditate, feeling the ambient mana in the room and guiding it through his body. He meditated until he could take it no longer, setting a new record for himself in the process. An hour and fifteen.