I got up in the morning and went to the closet to get changed. I had slept for only brief moments all night, so I was tired and cranky, and didn't say 'good morning' when Kara rolled out of bed. She looked as bleary-eyed as I was, and I don't think she saw it as a good morning, either. She didn't say a word as she stood beside me and changed her clothes. Her embarrassment about being nude in front of me the night before had either evaporated or she just ignored it, because she pulled off her pyjamas without even glancing at me and I saw her bare breasts.

Let me get a couple of things straight. They were not the first breasts I had seen on a woman. Not counting the couple of times from my previous life, I had seen my mother Aida topless countless times, and all I saw was her inherent beauty and appreciated the delicate forms. She had raised me and my brain had firmly and automatically put her into a separate category from other women called 'you can't'.

My guardian Emari on the other hand, whom I had seen completely naked more times than I could count... both inside the shower and out... had been put into the 'you shouldn't but maybe' category. She had taken care of me after I was kidnapped; but, she wasn't related and she was quite pretty. She also had a great body and her casual nakedness had definitely awoken something within me. I would always appreciate her for that. I had been too young physically to do anything about it, though.

Kara Moor was a whole separate issue and I couldn't help but look at her and see her as a woman. A quite beautiful and voluptuous woman, in fact. By this point in my second life, I was mentally thirty years old. I was still immature for that age and physically hadn't entered puberty yet; but, seeing her bare breasts being set free and so close, started to stir things within me.

My eyes kept drifting down to stare at her jiggling mounds, and surprisingly, she put on her pants first and gave me a spectacular view of her chest as she bent down to pull them on. I actually felt a pang of disappointment when she pulled her long sleeved t-shirt on and covered them.

“Don't just stand there!” Kara snapped and I looked at her face. She wasn't looking at me as she grabbed a set of master robes from her closet. “Get your things ready and put on your belt and weapon.”

“R-right.” I said and transferred the few things I had tucked in my old robes into the clean ones, and tossed the dirty ones onto the pile with hers. I tied on my belt with the weapon, and used a small flow of Presence to check it. No water or soap had gotten inside and I relaxed.

“Come along.” Kara said, fully dressed and walked over to the bedroom door, and I followed closely behind her.

“What are...”

“I have council business to deal with.” Kara said, almost angrily.

“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.” I commented, which had been an old saying for someone being grumpy back on Earth.

Kara immediately stopped walking and turned to stare at me with wide eyes. I had almost walked into her and had stopped just in time. She was about eight inches or so taller than me, so I could clearly see the surprise on her face. I wasn't sure what else to do, so I stared right back at her. After a few moments, she took a quick breath and closed her eyes.

“Yes, I did.” Kara admitted with a slight blush and turned around, opened the bedroom door, and started walking across the apartment. “As my apprentice, you will stay by my side at all times, unless I send you to do a task for me. At that point you will have my permission to leave my side for a short... I repeat short... amount of time to complete that task.”

I followed her out of the apartment and down the hallway. “What if...”

“You will return to me and inform me if the task will take longer, then I will decide if you can leave for longer.”

“So, you're going to try and keep me on a short leash.” I said.

“You are my apprentice, Ullir. How can I teach you what I know if you don't stay by my side as much as possible?” Kara asked. When I didn't answer, she continued. “Unless you are with me all the time, you might miss some little bit of information that could change your life, or save it, or help you save others.” She said. “Wouldn't that be tragic?”

“It's feeling kind of tragic now, so yes.” I said.

Kara stopped walking and turned to look at me. I had learned from the last time and had made a small buffer between us made of Presence, and I stopped walking when she did.

“Ullir, my only intention is to help you become the best person you can be.” Kara said. “My goal is to mold and shape you into...”

“No, thanks.” I interrupted her.

“Excuse me?”

“Look. I'll learn everything I can from you, since I know you know a lot more about everything than I do; but, I am not going to be brainwashed into becoming a flunky for The Order.” I said. “So, you can get that thought out of your head right now.”

Kara opened her mouth to say something, then she frowned and turned around. When she walked away, she whispered. “I thought you said you knew me.”

I didn't have a good response for that, so I stayed quiet. I followed her all the way to the council chamber and she paused before the large stone doors.

“You will not speak unless spoken to.” Kara said as she turned to me. “You are not to respond to any provocations, be it comments about you or about other council matters.”

“But...”

Kara put her hands on my shoulders. “Ullir, please.” She said, with a pleading tone in her voice. “Do this for me. Keep your tongue still and don't respond.”

“You're not making this fun for me.” I said with an unhappy face.

“Sometimes we need to do... unpleasant things... in order to get the things that will make us happy.” Kara said. “It could be taking an insult, or being the butt of a joke, or even having to deal with people you despise and need to treat them civilly.”

I blinked my eyes at her. “If I do this, what pleasant things will I get out of it?”

“Is satisfaction that they couldn't bait you not enough?” Kara asked, and I shook my head. “If you need something tangible, then I'll grant you the lunch hour to leave my side so you can do what you want.”

“Really?” I asked, and she heard the happiness in my voice.

“Yes.” Kara said. “So, keep your word about staying quiet and I will keep my word that you will have lunchtime all to yourself.”

“It's a deal.” I said and held my hand out for her to shake. She smiled slightly and took her hands from my shoulders and put her hand in mine. Instead of shaking it like I had intended, she intertwined her fingers in mine, gave my hand a squeeze, then let it go.

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“Remember. No talking unless spoken to directly.”

I nodded, and she turned towards the large stone doors. The guards there opened both of them for us and we stepped inside.

“By the Goddess.” The fluffy puff-ball alien said and covered its beady little eyes with an odd-shaped hand. “The day had started out so well, and now this.”

“This must be some kind of joke.” The scaly alien said as he saw my apprentice robes. “Ullir? An apprentice?” He looked at the other council members briefly while Kara took her seat and I stood behind her, then he looked right at me. “Has our newest council member tamed our resident prankster so soon?”

I leaned forward and whispered in Kara's ear. “Does that count as being talked to directly?”

“No.”

“Dammit.” I whispered, and she covered her mouth to hide her smile.

“Now that we are all here, shall we start today's agenda?” One of the other council members asked, and everyone nodded assent. “First off, we've had a logistics problem with...”

Needless to say, I was bored out of my mind. I stood there for three hours while they discussed everything from new troop transports for the guards to replacing the flickering lights in an arboretum on the far side of the compound. I was more than thankful that I had learned to reinforce my body with Presence years ago. I covered myself in a solid layer of it, then relaxed and let it support me the entire time.

I successfully ignored all the barbs, verbal jabs, and jokes made at random times during the proceedings. When the meeting finally came to a close, I changed the Presence I had used to brace myself from a solid state back into energy, then waited patiently for Kara to keep her word.

“I believe I'll have lunch in the arboretum and inspect those lights for myself.” Kara said and turned to me. “Ullir, you are free to go.”

I gave her a slight bow, then strode over to the large stone doors.

“Meet me at the training grounds after lunch.” Kara said.

I gave her a small wave of acknowledgement and as soon as I stepped outside the council chamber, immediately activated the Presence Run technique and disappeared from everyone's sight. I only had an hour to set up the pranks I intended to use to get back at the council members that had made jokes about me that morning.

I wonder what that fluffy puff-ball alien is going to look like bald? I asked myself and laughed as I headed to his personal apartment to set everything up. This is going to be so good!

The people I passed didn't see me at all and only heard a faint mad laughter.

*

Kara met up with her old Guardian and they went to the arboretum together to have lunch and discuss things. Despite everything her guardian had told her and tried to warn her about, she knew in her heart that Ullir was a good person. All he needed was someone to guide him and show him that people did care about him. Their conversation turned more serious when they finished eating.

“I don't believe you're thinking rationally, Kara. He hates The Order.” Emelle said. “He's twelve now, almost thirteen, and he was only four when his rogue parents were killed.” She said and touched Kara's arm. “Unlike what a lot of other people say about him being too young to remember such a horrible incident, I think he's much smarter than everyone gives him credit for.”

“What are you saying?” Kara asked.

“I'm telling you that he remembers everything that happened.” Emelle said. “Not just that they died, but how they did and that they had been hunted down and executed.”

Kara chuckled. “Emelle, I can't remember what I did at four years old! Do you?”

Emelle sighed and didn't speak for a moment. “Kara, he's not like any child I've ever seen.”

“I have to admit that he is powerful...”

“That's not what I mean.” Emelle said. “I've done a lot of research on him and I've talked to a lot of people. All of them... not some, all... have said that he seems to have knowledge and experience of someone much older.”

“You've been spending time with that crazy pixie Lashina, haven't you?” Kara said, and Emelle nodded. “I admit that he does had something in those eyes when he looks at me a certain way.”

“Kara...”

“I don't know what quirk of genetics he has that he can look like he has sapphire blue eyes in one moment, then he turns his head slightly and they shimmer to emerald green.” Kara said, almost dreamily. “They are quite enchanting, and...” She stopped talking and looked at her old guardian, who had surprise on her face.

“You're in love with him.” Emelle said.

“I am not!” Kara exclaimed and stood. “I won't sit here and listen to my dear friend spout nonsense.”

“Kara, wait!” Enelle tried to call her back; but, her old charge ignored her and walked away.

I can't believe her! Kara thought in exasperation as she walked across the compound to go to the training grounds. Imagine that! Me being in love with my prince! She stopped walking and caught her breath at her mental slip up. I meant Ullir. She corrected and took several deep breaths and then kept walking. I'm not in love with Ullir.

*

I finished setting up three very elaborate traps for the worst offenders from the council meeting, and checked the time on my datapad. I smiled because I had just enough time to get to the training ground before lunch hour was over.

I hope Kara doesn't ask me what I've been doing. I thought to myself and let my smile become a grin. I let the grin fade as I approached the training grounds and saw Kara was waiting for me.

“Let's begin.” Kara said and walked over to one of the buildings used for practice fights. I followed her inside and over to the middle of one of the large circles marked on the floor. “Take off your robes.”

“Excuse me?”

“Until you get more practice controlling Presence, they will only flop around and get in your way.” Kara said.

I just looked at her with raised eyebrows, and she sighed.

“You can leave them on if you want to.” Kara said. “You'll be down a set of robes and will need to get them replaced when we're done.”

I didn't say anything, so she shrugged and unhooked her weapon from her belt and played with the knobs, pulled a lever, then hit the switch. I was surprised when instead of the three inch wide blade of a normal Light Sword, it was only half an inch wide. It was still three feet long and hummed, though.

“How did you do that?” I asked, and she smiled.

“Did you really think that the simple basic components they let a student have would be all that there is to constructing a Light sword?” Kara asked. “As long as you're careful, they can be modified both before and after construction.”

“How?” I asked, genuinely curious. “I mean, I wrote a paper on Light swords and the fundamentals of Presence use in conjunction with...”

“We can discuss things later.” Kara said and cut me off. “Draw your sword.”

“Just so you know, I was the best duelist using practice swords.” I warned her as I activated my Light sword.

“Oh, Ullir.” Kara chuckled and gathered Presence around herself. “The differences between a practice fight and a real fight are like the differences between night and day.” She said. “Are you ready for me to show you some of those differences?”

I gathered Presence around myself and smiled as I took a sword-fighting stance. “I was born ready.”

*

That made Kara think about Emelle's words about him being older than his body appeared, and she smiled. Even if he is older than he looks, he still has a lot to learn. She thought, took her own fighting stance that was very different than Ullir's, then she dashed in close with her sword on a downward arc. As she had predicted, he turned his sword to cross his body to protect himself, so she put a hand on his belly and used Presence Hand to push.

Ullur made a satisfying grunt sound and took a step back, then he bat her sword aside and swung his own in a classic horizontal line in an attempt to push Kara back. Normally that would work, except she had been expecting it and ducked forwards instead to put herself within his swing radius. His eyes widened as she made a fist and drove an uppercut into the bottom of his chin.

Ullir's head snapped back briefly and she turned around and slid her hand down his arm as if caressing it. Before he knew it, he had been flipped head over heels and landed on his back, his Light sword had been claimed, and Kara's Light sword was an inch away from his neck.

“Oh, look. You're dead.” Kara said.

“That was dirty.” Ullir said. “We're supposed to be sword fighting.”

Kara laughed and moved her sword so he could sit up. “Ullir, there's no such thing.” She said and held his sword out to him.

“What do you mean?” Ullir asked and stood up, then took his sword back.

“We are not, nor do we ever, have sword fights.” Kara said. “What we do is fight using swords.”

“But...”

“No, that's not the same thing.” Kara said. “Fighting includes hand-to-hand combat, laser pistols or rifles, and Light swords.” She explained. “None of those are mutually exclusive and it doesn't stop anyone from using any other method.”

Ullir stood there and stared at her as that realization sunk it. “There's no set rules for combat?”

“I believe you're starting to understand.” Kara said. “We can use any means that are necessary to defeat our opponents. Fists, swords, guns, and even Presence.”

“But...”

“Ullir, it's not like people can meet before a fight and discuss what forms they will fight in.” Kara said. “When you go into a fight, you need to expect that everything can and will be used against you.”

“I...” Ullir blinked his eyes for a few moments, and then he smiled. “Okay, I get it.”

“I hope so, because I'm going to attack again.” Kara said and took a different fighting stance.

“I wouldn't have it any other way.” Ullir said and changed his stance as well.

Both of them smiled at each other and lunged.