Renn groaned as she ran past me again, glaring while she did so.

“Only five more,” I told her as she ran past.

“Keh!” she made an odd sound at me as she picked up her pace.

Smiling at her, I couldn’t help but ponder what could have been.

She would have been enjoyable to have been with in the army. Even as a simple subordinate.

Though… She would not have been like she is now, if she had been there. Neither her personality nor her temperament… And that would have probably made the result much worse… Those last few years would have probably been much different. For me especially.

My smile died off as Renn circled the outer perimeter, leaving my sight for a moment.

“Why does she make me think of those days so much?” I asked myself.

It made no sense honestly. Although I was training her, and thus helping her solidify her own capabilities… it wasn’t to send her to war. It wasn’t to have her fight alongside me in such a way. In fact it was all for the opposite.

I was training her so that she could protect herself, for as long as possible. So that she could then be useful to the Society… Nothing more.

Right…?

As I pondered such a thing Nebl stepped out from the house. I smiled at my friend, who now finally looked somewhat back to his old self. He was still scrawny looking, but that’d take years to fix… if it ever did. He might never return to his massive frame.

He smiled at me and nodded, and then begun to walk towards me.

I stayed seated on the stump, awaiting his arrival.

My friend looked good. He stood up straight now. His daughter and granddaughter had finally gotten his hair under control. It was still a little too long for him, but I knew that was on purpose. They hoped his longer hair would hide some of his weight loss. It was especially obvious around his neck and shoulders.

By the time Nebl had reached me, so had Renn again. Her footsteps were light and barely noticeable even though she was sprinting as fast as she could on gravel and dirt.

“Master!” she greeted Nebl as she passed.

“Renn,” Nebl nodded to her.

“Four more,” I told her.

“Khmph!” she made an odd noise at me, and hurried forward.

Nebl chuckled as he watched her go.

“She’s just upset I’m not running with her,” I told my friend.

“And why aren’t you?” he asked.

“My foot feels a little odd,” I said as I lifted my right foot.

“A… little odd…” Nebl studied my foot, and I realized he was taking me far too seriously.

“It tingled this morning you know? For like a whole second,” I said.

He took a deep breath, seemingly un-amused to learn that I had just been messing around.

Smirking at him, I watched as Renn disappeared behind the buildings.

She did run well. Must be innate. She ran like a sprinter, yet had our strength. Our endurance. A deadly combination.

“Notice her ears and tail don’t move at all as she runs?” Nebl asked.

“I have,” I said.

“Try not to let her lose them, I bet it’d ruin her,” Nebl warned softly.

“She’s not as foolish as Lilly, I think,” I said. I figured it was she he was thinking of.

“Hm… Indeed. A curious one, full of questions and desires… but not anger. She hates no one,” Nebl said.

This wasn’t the first time we had conversed about Renn. But this was the first time he had said something like that.

“I disagree,” I told him.

“Do you?” he asked, a little surprised.

I nodded, but didn’t specify why. Although he was my friend, that didn’t mean I’d tell him everyone’s secrets so willingly.

They weren’t my secrets to give after all.

“I see. Is that why she’s doing this then? She hides it well. I genuinely did not feel that from her,” Nebl said, now sounding a little worried.

“Ah, no. Not at all. You need not worry about that,” I said quickly. Now I felt almost as if I should tell him. Since after all, he was now worried he had just spent two months teaching someone how to forge steel. And I had spent those same two months on how she could use that steel to kill.

He now worried he had made a monster, or at least aided in its creation.

“You know… I actually believe you,” Nebl said softly as Renn came back into view.

The smithy was not a small parcel. Her able to round it as fast as she did was actually very impressive. Especially when you took into account I had her running around most of the farm fields as well.

“Would you tell me if I asked how she ranks?” Nebl asked gently.

“Ranks?” I asked.

“Compared to others,” he said with a gesture of his thick fist.

“Ah… well…” I wondered about that.

She had been very surprising. She learned quickly. Understood things instinctively… but so had many others over the years. Nebl and so many others only knew of Lilly and Yangli, and those like them. They didn’t remember, and had never met, the hundreds of others like them throughout the years. Especially those who had stood to fight in the beginning, before the Society became what it is today.

They’d not know that Renn, although unique and special, wasn’t if one took into account the many who had come and gone before her.

Plus she lacked something very precious.

“As long as she’s keen and stays collected, she’ll never die to a human at least,” I said after a moment of consideration.

“I see…” Nebl sounded disappointed to learn the truth. Although no warrior himself, Nebl understood my meaning.

She would fall in front of a dedicated enemy. One with actual hatred and furor.

Renn passed us, this time without making a sound. She only glared at me with her eyes as she passed.

Three more laps left.

“Does she always act so upset with you when you train her?” Nebl asked as we watched her go.

“Sometimes,” I said.

“She’s a sweetheart with me,” he said with a smirk, as if it was some kind of competition.

“She’s a sweetheart even while angry, so that’s not a surprise,” I said with a wave.

Nebl chuckled at me, and then pointed upward. “It’s spring, Vim,” he said.

“It is. And the passes are clear,” I said.

Well they weren’t. But they were clear enough. Renn and I passing them now would not be seen as weird, just foolish. I didn’t mind being seen as a fool. Fools were sometimes liked, even.

“As much as I enjoy your company… and more so Renn’s, how much longer will you stay? Maybe you will get to see my next grandchild?” Nebl asked.

“I actually intended to leave in a few days. I planned to tell you today,” I told him.

Nebl nodded, and seemed genuinely disheartened. Which was odd. He was never happy or sad for me to leave, but it was simply because he was like me. He knew in a blink of an eye he’d turn around and I’d be standing there again, back from my journey.

Maybe he had enjoyed teaching Renn. Or maybe he had simply grown a little softer, like his body had. His recent near death experience hadn’t been his first one… but it might have been the one to affect him the most. This time he had no one to hate, after all. Only his failure had laid with him in that mine. His and his own.

“Will she be returning with you?” Nebl asked.

Ah. So he had enjoyed teaching her. Good. That only meant Renn was not only diligent, but really was as good-natured as I thought.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“We’ll see,” I said simply.

“That’s probably the best answer I’ll get out of you concerning that, so I’ll simply plan on continuing her tutelage then,” Nebl said.

Renn appeared again. She was still running at a good pace, but I noticed she had taken a little longer to round the path this time.

So. Two hours straight of nearly her fastest pace was what it took to wear her down.

Nebl watched as Renn approached. Once she was close enough Nebl nodded to her. “Just two more times, Renn,” he told her.

“Hmhm,” she grumbled as she ran past, this time not even looking at me.

“I do believe she is getting tired,” Nebl noticed.

“She’s been tired for some time. It’s just now really starting to get to her,” I said.

“Endurance. Have you been training her for awhile?” He asked.

“No. Started here,” I said.

“Really…?” Nebl went quiet as we watched Renn round the building, disappearing from sight.

I studied my friend as his eyes went dull, as he pondered deeply.

Yes Nebl. She was far more inhuman than she looked.

She had the strength, endurance, and reflexes of someone far more detached from humanity. Renn looked human outwardly, except her tails and ears… and a few small things like her teeth and nails, but that was it. Other than those she looked like any normal young woman you’d find in any town. Maybe a little more beautiful than average, but every town had its beauties.

I was mentally comparing her to those from hundreds of years ago. Those who had fought in the actual wars against the humans. She was like them, at least her strength and endurance were.

Yet at the same time she wasn’t like them at all.

She lacked far too many inhuman features to have been in their ranks. She would have stood out as much as I had.

It made no sense. She was too human, at least physically, to be so… not.

Usually those like her were like Nebl’s children. People who were stronger than humans, and lived longer, but not by leaps and bounds. Lellip was strong, but she’d struggle with a full grown man. At least physically, she was likely as strong as a common male laborer. One of the miners in the village was probably a good reference.

“Is she the child of a Monarch?” Nebl asked quietly.

“No.” I had known that from the moment I had first laid eyes on her.

I’d have killed her if she had been.

Though that didn’t mean she wasn’t too far detached from one. A few generations were certain, though, otherwise I’d have smelled it.

“Then is it just happenstance or…?” he glanced at me, searching for an answer.

“Not sure. Yangli is strong like her too,” I said.

“Yangli has scales,” Nebl said sternly.

So? What did a layer of scales change? But I didn’t voice such an opinion, since I knew it was more than just the scales. It was the person beneath them. “Most of us used to be like her, Nebl,” I told him.

“A bygone age. She doesn’t add up. She’s too young,” Nebl shifted a little, as his mind whirled.

“Ages come and go, and leave remnants behind all the time. You of all people should understand that well,” I said, hoping to steer his mind’s thoughts a little. At least away from Renn for a moment.

“Indeed…” he said quietly as he kept himself mostly to his thoughts.

Great. Good thing we were leaving soon.

Renn appeared, and I noticed she was breathing heavily. Maybe the knowledge she was almost done was making her exhaustion take over.

Good to know. It meant she allowed a goal or destination to influence her. Positively and negatively, depending on how it was used.

She really did remind me of days long past. But not the days Nebl was probably thinking of.

Days far older than them…

“Once more,” I told her. As she passed us. She nodded without even a grunt.

“I shall have Lellip prepare the bath for her. Or do you plan to torture her more?” Nebl asked.

“Well I had planned a lot of detestable stuff. Painful stuff. But I suppose a bath is okay too,” I said.

Nebl smiled softly at me, and I was glad he no longer looked… worried. Whatever he had been pondering was now set away, at least for now. “I want you to know I have enjoyed watching you, Vim. With her,” Nebl then said.

“Hm?” I wondered what he meant. Did he mean when I was sparring with her? We had been doing it near the smithy, ever since his return. I had noticed he, and the others, had watched every so often but they had usually only done so for a few minutes at a time.

They were interested, but at the same time scared of it.

“You had been happy when you taught me too,” Nebl said, and then turned away. To head back into the house.

Renn arrived around the time he closed the door, and I watched as she heaved as she slowed upon approach. She groaned as she breathed heavily, bending over and holding her knees as if about to throw up.

“Well done,” I told her.

“Grah,” she made another odd noise, and then slowly knelt down. She sat into the grass near the stump I sat on, and focused on breathing.

She was covered in a layer of thick sweat, and…

Oh, even her ears were drooping. Seems she really was exhausted.

I let her calm down for a few minutes, and I noticed the smithy bath’s chimney started to have smoke expel from it. Nebl or Lellip were already warming the water.

They were kind to her. Noticeably so.

After a few more minutes Renn slowly laid back, lying onto her back and staring up at the sky full of white clouds.

“It’s getting warmer,” she said with a raspy voice.

“Spring is here. It’ll get warm, then rain, and then warm again,” I said.

“I like the rain,” she said.

More like she’d like it to rain right now, likely.

Staring at her as she stared up at the sky, I wondered if she looked any different since arriving here. Was she leaner? More muscular? It was hard to tell.

Our kind did change, as humans did, but it was slower… and usually not as prominent. She could train harshly for years and never actually gain much muscle mass, thanks to her bloodline. It was part of the reason I knew Nebl might not ever return to his former state. He might be too old now to ever get that body back. Odds are he might slowly start aging, even though he really shouldn’t just yet.

Most of our kind were the way we were, and nothing we did do could change it. You got the body you were born with, and it didn’t matter how much you ate or exorcised.

Link was a perfect example. That man had never done anything yet was a walking mountain of muscle.

A waste.

“I got tired near the end. I honestly had thought I could have run the whole time without even breaking a sweat,” Renn said.

“Now you know your limit. Congratulations,” I said. It wasn’t her true limit, but for now it’d do. If life was kind to her she’d never realize the limit she knew now was simply the starting line.

Renn lifted a hand, to stare at it. She narrowed her eyes at the shaky fist she made, as if upset at her own body. Which she shouldn’t be. Her body was unique, and in a good way.

“How long could you have gone Vim?” she asked.

“Want a real answer or one to annoy you?” I asked her.

“The real one.”

“I can run from the Cathedral to anywhere in the Society without stopping for rest,” I told her.

Her balled fist stopped shaking, and she lowered it. She rested it on her chest and turned to stare at me. Her hair and ears looked a little odd, thanks to how she had laid down. They were a mess.

“Do you get tired? Ever?” she asked.

“Of course I do. I’m still a man,” I said.

With a huff she sat up, and I noticed the way her tail stayed lingering on the grass. It hadn’t moved or twitched since she had lain down. She must really be tired. “A man,” she said.

“Parts of me at least,” I said with a smirk.

Renn’s face contorted into a weird mix of annoyance and amusement, then she finally smiled and giggled at me.

Smiling at her strangely tired sounding giggle… I wondered what I was going to do with her.

A part of me had hoped she’d deny learning how to fight. Yet she hadn’t.

Then I had hoped she’d not be good at it.

She was.

And now she had proven that she had the physical body to back it up.

Which meant the only real thing left that could give me a valid reason to deny her attempt at joining me…

Other than to keep training her for what was probably going to be years… was well…

For a tiny moment I thought of putting her through a crucible.

The mere thought of it pissed me off.

“Lellip is good at making shoes,” Renn said as she moved her feet, to showcase her new footwear.

“She did learn from the best,” I noted. Nebl had always been very good at leather-work, even though he preferred metal.

Renn reached out to touch some of the straps that held her shoe on, and I studied the way her fingers played with them. She now kept her nails short, short enough that humans would probably start seeing her as the daughter or wife of a wealthy merchant. Maybe even a lower noble.

Only the wealthy could have such clean looking nails. Even the women who didn’t participate in hard labor didn’t have such nails, at least in today’s era.

Yet how could I tell her not to keep them short and clean? I had been that one to give her that gift, after all.

“They prepared a bath for you, if you’d like,” I told her.

Renn’s ears perked up, no longer drooping, and she turned to look at the buildings. She must have seen the white smoke coming from the bath’s smokestack, since she smiled deeply at the sight. “That’s kind of them.”

It was.

“Are we done then? Can I enjoy a soak or…?” she asked me, hoping for the positive answer.

“You can go bathe. You stink,” I said.

Renn’s brow furrowed as I stood from the stump. As I reached out for her hand, she took it and I helped her up.

Pulling her to her feet, I noticed how light she felt. And she had even pulled back on my hand, as if to try and get me to trip.

She was far too light to be as strong as she was.

“I probably do, look at this,” Renn groaned as she looked down at herself. Most of her clothes were hugging her body tightly, thanks to the sweat.

The spring air was clean, and rather still. I had been able to smell her since she sat down.

She didn’t stink. At least not the kind of stink that would ever bother me. Or well, probably any man. But that was precisely the reason that I had to tell her she stunk. She couldn’t be walking around smelling like she did, who knows what kind of weird men would notice. She already drew eyes enough as it was.

“After you… soak… Meet me in the workshop,” I told her.

“Hm?” she tilted her head, and suddenly I felt a tug.

Looking down, I found that our hands were still connected. She hadn’t…

No…

Looking back up, she gave me a worried smile. She was waiting for me to let her go.

Letting her hand go, I smiled and nodded. “Enjoy your bath,” I told her.

“Oh I will! Enough for the both of us,” she said as she stepped away.

Renn took a few steps, then paused and looked back at me. She seemed to hesitate, and I hoped she didn’t say anything more. Luckily she didn’t, as she nodded with a soft smile and returned to walking.

She hadn’t tried to invite me as to join her.

But the reason was obvious.

As Renn headed into the house, as to bathe, I looked down at my palm.

It was the same palm I had known for years. Countless years. The same old scars. The same discolorations from burns and other wounds. The same wrinkles and cracks and…

Yet it now had sweat upon it. A small layer which was mostly around my palm.

It wasn’t mine, of course. Yet…

Closing my fist, I sighed.

I hadn’t let her go.

And she had noticed.

“Spring came too quickly.”