I spent the next few days practicing alone. Hess had said that they would find someone to teach me, but that didn’t seem like it had progressed in any way. In any case, I used the straw dummies to practice swinging patterns. There was no way to do blocks on my own, so at first, I just did them against an imaginary opponent. Then, maybe after feeling bad after looking at me for so long, Typhen decided to help me out with blocking. He attacked me with his daggers, but still managed to be faster than me at most times.

As for the magic classes, they had stopped for now. The night usually used to begin with Sylvia coming to my tent, and us walking to Kaisel’s. But she had been actively avoiding me ever since Wellath’s death. From her perspective, she probably felt like she had misjudged my character this entire time. That was a given, based on how badly I had dealt with my teacher’s death. So, no classes with Kaisel. I had rarely seen him in all that time, so even he hadn’t talked to me. After two o’clock, I practiced nature magic alone in my tent.

It was difficult, indeed. Much, much more than the other two had been. It had taken me a few days of practice to even visualize it, and now I was working on stabilizing its appearance. That was just the basics of the basics of nature magic. According to what Kaisel had told me, its true potential lied in its ability to recreate any inanimate object found in nature. That meant everything from grass, roots, flowers, rocks, to even the largest of trees were not out of question. Learning and perfecting it was a difficult task, but definitely worth the time.

Between practicing those two, however, I did nothing else. That was all that I dedicated my time to. Almost nobody in the entire camp spoke to me, and neither did I try to talk to them. There was no point in them getting to know me if they couldn’t even put their trust in me. I had broken all of it with Wellath, and now I needed to build it up somehow. I didn’t understand the meaning of the story’s name yet, since I had forgotten to ask it to anyone. But nobody else seemed to be talking about it, so chances were that I was the only one who had been seeing a name. It would be the smarter thing to tell someone, so as to not get into the same situation again. Maybe I’d do it after Ginzari was willing to talk to me once more.

It was the twenty-seventh day of the story, and a bit late into the evening, I was still on the training grounds. Typhen had just left a while back, and I was finishing up on the number of swings for the day. That was when Prince suddenly decided to come and talk to me.

“Hey.” He startled me for a bit.

“Huh?” I turned and looked at him, a bit taken aback, “Hello.”

“You’ve been training pretty hard. Everyone is talking about it, you know?” He spoke.

“Really?”

He nodded, “Yup. Almost everyone I happen to come across. The regulars are getting pretty impressed with your dedication. Keep it up and you’ll be properly welcomed into their band.”

“Welcomed?”

“Yeah. Like, a party and stuff to celebrate your entrance.” He explained, “They do it for all the new recruits who prove themselves worthy. Normally, it would have happened when you came back after the hunt. But you know…”

“Yeah.” I whispered, and turned back to practice my swings again.

It was nice of him to come and talk to me, but it would have been fine even if he didn’t. In fact, based on the time, he should have been helping the chefs prepare the day’s dinner. He shouldn’t even have been here in the first place.

“I’m sorry, but why are you here?” I asked.

Prince laughed, “What? Am I not allowed to go and check on a kid? Even Ginzari would go mad over not being able to talk to anyone, eventually. The key word being ‘eventually’, of course, because he does spend days inside his tent sometimes, preparing stuff and doing work.”

I snorted, and then stopped myself before asking, “Can I talk to him?”

“He doesn’t want to talk to you yet. That job was passed on to Hess, so she is the one who you need to prove yourself to. I’d say you’ve got two or three more days before she makes her decision.”

“Decision?”

“She’s been watching you every single day. Today, she’s on a mission, so I’m here. You don’t even need to talk to her and tell her anything. I’m pretty sure she has taken note of your hard work too. Even if you are still pretty weak compared to everyone else here.” Prince explained.

“I’ll get stronger.” I assured him.

“I know. You will.” Prince smiled, “Just continue for now, though. I’ll leave and hide in the bushes to record your progress and tell Hess.”

He slowly walked away from sight and went and bent down in some nearby tall grass.

I laughed before continuing to practice swings.

Later, I went back to my room and started reading a book that I had taken from the armory tent. One day, as I had been looking for one of the old wooden swords, I had stumbled upon it. It was some kind of guide to sword fighting. This was my teacher for now.

I wasn’t sure what time it was. Prince had brought me dinner, but that had been quite a while back. The utensils I had left outside the tent had already been picked up by someone. The mercenaries ate dinner for a minimum of an hour, so it was probably late now. But I had decided to finish the eleventh chapter before I went to sleep. It was dedicated to blocking, and I wanted to use some of the tricks against Typhen tomorrow.

They recommended things which were very similar to what Wellath had taught me, which made me look up the writer of the book. I didn’t recognize the name. Maybe he had read this book and learnt from it too. One of the parts essentially asked to focus only on dodging and blocking when in a situation like that, and leaving the attacking up to your unconscious sense. Some of the parts went into some examples and theories of historical battles where something like it had been seen. The idea was that if your consciousness was fully focused on the opponent’s attacks, your unconscious would have time to look for any openings, and take advantage of them.

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Of course, the practice with Typhen did not explicitly include the part with me attacking back, but I used to do it anyways. And he usually parried me pretty easily. Until now, however, I hadn’t known about this particular technique. Maybe it could turn the tables for once.

I flipped the page and saw an illustration. It had some arrows and stuff to point out what they meant. It looked good, at least according to the time and technology of the people here. At least it was comprehendible.

Someone was outside my tent.

I looked through the corner of my eye and saw a shadow that I recognized pretty well. I hadn’t expected her to actually show up anytime soon, based on her conversation with her brother. Anyhow, it made me a bit happy.

I opened the flaps and she was a bit startled. She hadn’t actually made me aware yet, so she must have been gathering her thoughts.

“Ah, I’ll open it again.” I tried to be funny, but she did not give any expression, so I stopped.

“Kaisel asked me to tell you to not practice tomorrow. Wellath’s family will be arriving by then, so we need to prepare for the funeral.” She said in a monotonous voice, “It will be in the evening, and you’re expected to attend.”

She turned and started to walk away.

“Sylvia.” I said, “What happened?”

She turned her head just a bit, “I’m seeing you trying, Ryworn. Don’t let me down tomorrow. Tell me I didn’t make a mistake by vouching for you to Ginzari.”

“I won’t.” I replied, “Look, I get it now. I’m not going to make the same mistake twice. Just…don’t suddenly stop talking like that. It feels bad.”

She sighed, “I knew Wellath pretty well, you know? He was a good man. But you must have heard all that a million times already. Hopefully I’ll talk to you tomorrow, and then never have to stop like this. Until then, though, I’ll go.”

Without waiting for a reply, she went back towards her tent.

I closed the tent, and went back to the chair to continue the book.

There were four pages left. One was the illustration, so three. I could do that in a matter of minutes. So, I flipped a few more pages and checked the next chapter. That one had twenty-one. Maybe I could finish that one too. There was no practice tomorrow, so I could sleep a bit later than usual.

I pushed through the first two pages, and then got halfway through the third one before the thoughts about Sylvia overpowered me. I shut down my mind and finished the remaining page before closing the book and keeping it aside.

I had done this before. With Wellath. I had turned away to think about other things and focused on the real thing that was bothering me. I could not do that again, especially when I was trying so hard to get better.

I kept my head on the table and sighed.

I hadn’t realized it till now. Sylvia was the only member of the mercenaries who had been with me before I asked Ginzari to let me join them. Logically, he must have talked to her about whether I was capable or not. And for some reason, she had told him I was. That much was evident, because I was sitting here.

After what I did with Wellath, I hadn’t considered her position in it. She was the one who had allowed me to enter the band, in a way. I had just added to the pool of dead people she considered herself to be the one at blame for. Through me, she had killed one of her own people. It didn’t matter if it was valid or not. She believed it to be true, and she would beat herself down for it anyways.

Whatever was supposed to happen tomorrow, I needed to make sure not to let the situation get worse.

Current Story – Jillesha

Character – Ryworn

Role – Major

Stage Directions (Day 28) –

Attend the funeral

I woke up late that day, even though I didn’t end up reading the twelfth chapter.

There wasn’t much to do in the morning, but I wasn’t able to get myself to calm down without practicing a little. So, I brought some of the wooden swords from the armory and did some swings in my tent. The angles weren’t ideal, but this was the only option that I had right now.

That continued till around the afternoon, when Prince came to my tent and told me to get ready for the funeral. He also gave me some new clothes that everyone was supposed to wear. They were brown-black in color. I thanked him and had a quick bath before putting them on and going out of the tent to join all the other mercenaries.

On the training grounds, there wasn’t much noise. Ginzari was in the corner with a group of four people that I had never seen before. They seemed to be crying, while he told them something. When I entered the area, he gave me a quick glance before taking the four people somewhere else. Must be Wellath’s family.

The rest of the mercenaries were divided into groups and talking in hushed voices. In the middle of the grounds was an octagonal structure made out of wood, covered from the top. It was surrounded by four swords standing on the ground, and was shining in the now-setting sun. Kaisel came close to it and bent down for a moment, looking at it, and then stood back up and went away.

Every single person in the camp had gathered here, including the blacksmith and the other cooks. There were also a few other people I had never seen before, but they seemed to be a part of the non-fighting staff. I tried to count the people there to make sure that nothing was wrong. Because for some reason, I felt like I was seeing movement in the forest behind the training grounds. Then again, I had been training for quite some time, and my eyes had been burning.

Around ten minutes later, the funeral began. I was told to stand at the very back of the group, so that the family members did not notice me. The other mercenaries, however, were a bit taller than me, which caused me to miss most of the ceremony. I sighed and stayed back, waiting for it to end so that I could find Hess and talk to her about what I needed to do to prove myself to these people once more.

“It takes a couple hours.” Someone in front of me whispered to another mercenary.

Alright. I’d just stand here till then. That was the least I could do in this situation.

There seemed to be some kind of a priest-like mediator who was handling the ceremony, and he was saying something. I, obviously, couldn’t make any of it out due to the low volume of his voice.

The sun had almost set at this point, and my eyes weren’t getting better. The fatigue was beginning to set in. I usually rested for an hour or two after practicing, so this was something my body had not been ready for. Neither had I. It felt like it had been an hour, at least, so I hoped the rest of it wouldn’t feel that long either.

Right then, Hess suddenly pulled me away from the area.

“Come with me.” She was whispering.

“What happened?” I whispered back too.

“You saw the shadows?”

“As in?”

“The ones in the forest.”

“Oh!” I exclaimed, “I did think I see something, but I was sleepy, so I wasn’t sure.”

“Well, be sure now. There is certainly someone in the forest. You want to become one with us again? Then go solve this without letting it disrupting the function.” She spoke.

I could do it. Yes. But was she sure she trusted me enough?

Before I could ask her that, she answered it, “I’ll be right behind to cover up any mistakes. Go and see what’s up.”

She pushed me to the other side of the camp, which circled around to the place where I had seen the movement. I nodded, and she threw my sword to me. I picked it up in the air and started to run in. Even though I couldn’t see her, I could feel Hess following.