I kept waiting for my soul to cross over to the other side, but the days passed and life continued as normal. Was this the paradise after death I heard so many speak of over the years, or was I only unconscious, clinging to the last thread of life somewhere in the destruction of Castle Ash? Either way, the days turned to weeks, and then into years; I spent as many of them as I could with Sophie. I saved up all the coin I made working odd jobs in addition to all my scribing work and on the eighteenth anniversary of her birth, with her father's blessing, I presented her with a ring and a promise of marriage.

I was the happiest man alive when she accepted. She was as high-born as one could be in our little town—the daughter of Commander Leon Rend, Guildmaster of The Silver Talons, Slayer of the Aquahydra, and Liberator of Braidwood. Commander Rend's blessing came with a condition. I must agree to be trained by the guild's battlemaster and join the Silver Soldiers—an elite force of highly trained and skilled guards. This time around, whether real or a figment of my imagination and desire, I was going to make our life everything it should have been.

On my first day of training I arrived at the yard early, in hopes I would also be able to leave early too. Sophie's music lesson would be over just after mid-day and I was thinking about meeting her for an early supper and taking her to watch the sunset from the beach, but as I opened the doors, my hopes of leaving before sunset crashed into the dust. Hundreds of young men gathered in the center of the yard. I wondered if they were all here to join the Silver Soldiers, surely the guild didn't need this many.

"Attention!" I heard the shout from across the arena and those who were sitting scrambled to their feet.

"Line up, maggots! Twenty to a line, ten lines. Go go go!" The battlemaster yelled as he inspected the formation. "Does this look like a line to you, maggot?" The Battlemaster screamed in the face of the young man in front of me, he was one step ahead of the person next to him and when the boy looked down the line he recognized the error and corrected it, but it was too late.

"Drop, Maggot, push-ups, now!"

"How many, Sir?"

"Sir? Does it look like I'm sitting in some fancy office pushing parchment?" The battlemaster shouted.

"No, Sir… I mean, No!" The recruit replied while still pushing."

"That's enough, get up and get back in formation, Maggot."

I don't know why, but the battlemaster calling him Maggot, rubbed me the wrong way. I started to step forward to say something about it but the man standing next to me reached over and grabbed my arm. His look of warning gave me pause and with subtle movement he shook his head to tell me 'no.' The look on his face said 'don't be stupid' so I stayed where I was and faced forward as the battlemaster walked down the formation.

"I am battlemaster Haldor Thorne, but you will refer to me as just 'battlemaster', for example, when I ask you a question, you will respond with 'yes, battlemaster, or no, battlemaster' understood?"

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"Yes, battlemaster." Only half the recruits responded.

"Company, front leaning rest position… MOVE!" he shouted. When no one moved because they had no idea what he meant his face turned twenty shades of red.

"Front leaning rest means you will drop to the push-up position and start pushing until I tell you to stop, and company means all of you, maggots! What are you waiting for? PUSH! For Nine Hell's sake, I didn't think you all would come here knowing nothing at all. It's like teaching a group of infants." Battlemaster Thorne grumbled.

Everyone dropped to the prone position and presented their best attempt at pushups. Some could only manage a few before the muscles in their arms failed. I was able to complete about twenty-five before mine became weak with strain.

"Right now, you all are a pathetic bowl of wet clay. It's my job to mold you into something that resembles a soldier and fire you up to make you strong. You will not like me. I am not here to be your mommy or daddy, I won't hold you hand, nor do I possess the patience to deal with incompetence. This will be the most difficult training you have ever gone through. Some of you will be fighters for the guild, traveling the world, facing down monsters you can't even imagine, others will be sent to the city guard, and a few of you will be moving on to the Silver Soldiers. No matter where you're headed. Right now, you're mine and I can send you home a failure, disgraced from the guild if you turn out to be unteachable. Are we clear?"

"Yes, Battlemaster!" we shouted.

"Good, get up and find a partner. We are going to start with hand-to-hand combat."

The recruit who had saved me from becoming the battlemaster's next example turned to me. "Want to spar with me?" he asked.

"Sure," I replied.

"I'm Logan, by the way."

"Gabe."

We didn't have time for more than a brief introduction as we heard the battlemaster's first instruction.

"Fight!"

We looked at each other in disbelief, surely he didn't intend for us to—

My thoughts were cut short as Logan's sucker punch sailed into my gut. I doubled over in pain unable to catch my breath. I gasped as I tried to fill my lungs with air.

"Way to sell it, buddy, come on, hit me back." Logan faced his palms up and pulled his fingers toward him in 'let me have it' fashion. I drew back and tried to return a punch to his stomach but he anticipated the strike and blocked it. I tried to jab him in the nose but he bobbed his head away from my fist. When I attempted a cross, he weaved away from it too. My only chance was going to be to catch him off-guard. I sent a punch toward his stomach anticipating his block and when he left his face open I landed a left hook to his jaw. He ducked down and before I knew what he was doing, my legs flew out from under me and I was flat on my back.

"Attention!" The battlemaster yelled to the company.

Everyone stopped fighting and scrambled to return to formation with their legs together, hands to their sides, and their faces forward in a statuesque pose.

"You, tell me what you did wrong," he said pointing to a recruit at the other end of the formation.

"I dropped my hands and left myself open for attack, Battlemaster." The boy answered.

"Good, you know and I don't have to point out your failure. Next, what did you do wrong?" He continued down the line asking random recruits what mistakes they made. Some knew, some didn't. When he got to our end of the formation he looked at me.

"How about you? What did you do wrong?"

"I didn't anticipate my opponent's movements, Battlemaster."

"No, recruit, you did not. You all need to be two steps ahead at all times, anticipate changes and always expect your opponent to fight dirty. Change partners and fight again," he yelled.

By the time training ended for the day, I had sparred with almost half the company. My body had never felt more broken and bruised. I couldn't wait to go home.