As I found out over the next three days, Vaozey slept very little, and when she did sleep she had a tendency to talk during it. Thankfully, she also seemed wary of the caravan group and refused to sleep anywhere near us, so she didn’t disturb the sleep of everyone else. My ears, however, were quite sensitive even while I was asleep, and so every time she would begin mumbling I would be roused from my rest and have to fight back the urge to go shut her up. This is worse than Koyl’s screaming, I thought, at least that wasn’t every single night.
On the afternoon of the fifth day of the journey, we finally encountered bandits. Five men with swords and crossbows jumped out from behind some bushes near the road and demanded money from us. Zhervaol attempted to talk them down but negotiations failed, leading to a small skirmish. Three of the five men were killed in the ensuing battle, two by me and one by Aedey, and though we could have chased the others down Zhervaol told us to let them go. As we policed the bodies, Vaozey demanded that I give her the shortsword from one of the bandits, refusing to take it unless I handed it to her. Recalling the strange Uwrish customs around looting, I complied, and she gave me no thanks in return.
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Later that night, as Koyl and I ate our rations, I watched Vaozey as she went through various sword fighting motions on her own. Her movements were crude, much like my own when I had first bought my sword in Frahmtehn, but due to her size and strength I doubted she would have many problems in combat. Apparently sensing or suspecting my gaze, Vaozey looked over at me, then hissed under her breath. A few moments later, she walked over to the fire Koyl and I were sitting at and pointed at me.
“You, spar with me like you did with him,” Vaozey demanded. I sighed, halfway through eating my food, and Koyl looked at me expectantly. It’s not that I don’t want to fight her, I thought, I just know this is going to end in some kind of argument.
“Let me finish eating,” I replied. Vaozey stomped over between the fire and me, then snatched my skewer and threw it into the flames. I didn’t try to stop her since I didn’t much like the taste of the lizard I was eating, but her gesture was still rude.
“Now,” she demanded, stomping off to take up a spot far enough away from the fire that we wouldn’t end up stepping into it. I stood up, took off my gambeson, put it where I was sitting, and walked over to meet her. Vaozey didn’t remove any of her clothing, which was odd, and it took me a moment of mental debate before I spoke up.
“Are you planning to wear that?” I asked. Vaozey snorted derisively.
“You want to see what’s under it?” she taunted. I didn’t reply, and just waited for her to make some kind of further move. In a huff, Vaozey began unwrapping the scarf she wore around her face. In the distance, I saw Yaayowjh steal a glance at her burns before looking away. Vaozey didn’t stop with the headpiece, however, and took off the toga-like robes on her chest as well. From the quiet sounds the other caravan members made, I realized why she kept her body hidden.
Underneath her clothing was a heavily-muscled torso that looked as though it had been melted. A thin strip of fabric bound the remainder of her breasts to her chest, but aside from that, all the uncovered skin was pink or dark purple. Her arms were similar, thick with muscle covered by pink and purple scar tissue that looked like melted wax. Not even her hands had been spared the flames. Yellowed nails grew unevenly from her fingertips, and her left middle finger lacked any nail at all, though it had a nail bed. Vaozey watched me, seemingly expecting some visible reaction from me when I saw her, but all I did was draw my sword. With a grunt, she drew her own blade, getting into a ready position.
“Was that supposed to shock me?” I asked, partially to taunt her back for attempting to provoke me and partially out of curiosity.
“Shocked everyone else,” she remarked. I looked away to see Koyl staring, then looked back just in time to dodge Vaozey’s first slash aimed at my head. She followed up with a kick that I resisted with force magic, making her push herself back.
“Aren’t we supposed to start on some kind of signal?” I asked.
“You’re not supposed to be using magic,” Vaozey growled, swinging at me with her sword again. I stepped back, letting the blow whiff past me. “But you can use it if you think you aren’t strong enough to beat me under your own power.”
“Even if I use physical strength alone, it won't improve your chances much,” I taunted back, punching Vaozey full-force in the nose. Her head snapped back briefly, then she took another swing at me, catching my left wrist and severing my thumb’s tendon. However, she compromised her stance to get the hit, and I punished her mistake by driving my blade deep into her left abdomen. Even as she gritted her teeth through the pain, Vaozey didn’t relent, and struck once more, chopping into my right shoulder as I tried to pull back and avoid her blade. Interesting, I thought, even without the armor, she still fights like she can’t feel pain.
“Stop taking it easy on me,” Vaozey spat. I wanted to raise my sword, but my shoulder’s tendons were still in the process of re-attaching.
“This is just a spar, right?” I asked.
“If it wasn’t, I’d be fighting harder,” Vaozey snarled, then she jumped back in with more wild sword strikes. I jumped out of the way of the first two horizontal strikes since my arm was still immobile, then deflected a clumsy overhead clop and sent it to my right. Vaozey had massively overcommitted to the attack and stumbled forward when it failed to connect, nearly falling face-first into the dirt. As I moved to bash her on the back as a counter, she revealed that the stumble was actually a feint, elbowing me in the kidney and stomping my foot. However, it wasn’t enough to stop me, and my double-handed smash connected, winding her and throwing her to the ground.
“You’re dead,” I declared, putting my sword to her throat. The bones in my foot crackled and popped as they re-set themselves into place, and Vaozey spat phlegm out onto the ground.
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“You seytoydh cheated,” she gasped back, trying and failing to manage a snarl.
“I didn’t need to,” I replied. “You’re fighting like you still have armor on, and you have no idea how to use a sword. I am hardly a skilled swordsman and even I outclass you in that regard. Your loss is a result of your skill not matching your equipment. You need more practice.” I finally took the time to look around and saw that everyone, Zhervaol and the driver included, were watching from their fires. Vaozey, in a fit of rage, screamed and threw her weapon at me when I looked away, but I managed to catch it by using my left hand and force magic to soften the impact.
“Nihweyl ihvaoeyl ngaozmngoyth,” she yelled, introducing me to yet more curse words I didn’t know the meaning of. Her tantrum was almost childlike to my eyes, reminding me of a hormonal juvenile warbreed who had yet to master their violent impulses.
“Do you want to fight again?” I asked. Vaozey just answered with a guttural roar, then pounded the ground with her fists. “If you would rather have a more relaxed match, I can give you your weapon back.”
“Yuwniht, maybe you should just leave her,” Koyl suggested from the fire. “I’ve got another lizard for you if you’re still hungry.” Looking back at the raging woman on the ground, I shrugged. As long as she doesn’t try to kill me in my sleep over this, I thought. I debated holding onto her sword, but then placed it on the ground and walked back over to the fire. Another lizard sounds tasty, actually, I chuckled, I worked up an appetite in that fight. I should clean all this blood off first though.
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“You cheated,” Vaozey said, breaking my concentration and causing a snapping sound between the coins I was touching. She had spent the entire day after losing our spar sulking behind the caravan, occasionally shooting me glares when she thought I was paying attention to her. When we set down for the night, Koyl was too tired to talk, so I decided to practice electric magic. I had been using it on and off since I figured out the trick to it, but I still wasn’t very good at it.
I didn’t have the ability to measure exactly how much energy I was able to discharge in a single bolt between the coins, but I knew it was enough that I could at least inflict pain and moderate numbness on someone if I had to. In fact, I found that I didn’t know much about how electrical energy was measured outside of the basics of battery packs and generators. Since I was working with static electrical charges and discharges, it was difficult for me to conceptualize how much current or voltage I might be able to create once I managed something besides static.
Electric current itself was something of a mystery, magically speaking. I attributed the issue mainly to the fact that I lacked any wire and simple resistors to experiment with, but part of the problem was also the visualization. Every time I tried to just move electrons, I ended up doing what I had been doing before, which was either ‘nothing’ or ‘physically moving near-zero masses.’ Trying to create an electric field that caused electrons to flow didn’t seem to work well, but whether that was because my body made a poor conductor was yet to be determined.
“In what way do you suspect I cheated?” I asked, putting the coins away and standing up. Maybe I can measure their heat somehow as a way to tell how strong the bolt was, I thought as I felt their warmth.
“You used magic when we sparred,” Vaozey accused. “That’s why you didn’t fall down, you used it to stabilize yourself so you could follow through and knock me down.” I looked at her silently for a moment, then raised my left foot from the ground and stood on one leg.
“No magic required,” I replied, and her eyes narrowed at me. “Is it really so difficult to accept that you were beaten when you lacked your normal equipment? It was not an even fight, I will openly admit that. You were at a significant disadvantage from the start, so you lost.”
“Only because you cheated,” Vaozey sneered.
“Is that what you were mumbling about last night?” I jabbed back. “You sounded quite angry during the half-night you were actually asleep. Were you dreaming about the fight?” For some reason, my response gave her a moment of pause.
“Just admit it,” she said, “I know it, you know it, there’s no reason to pretend like you didn’t use magic. Is this some stupid pride thing with you?” On the one hand, I was completely ready to lie in order to make Vaozey stop bothering me, but on the other hand, I had some strange impulse to defend myself. Something from this human body, I thought, it instinctively dislikes being called a liar. What a strange instinct to have. I considered both options, then chose one.
“It seems more like you need to admit to yourself that you lost,” I countered. “The spar doesn’t mean anything anyway, I don’t see why this upsets you. I didn’t use any magic because I didn’t have to.”
“Prove it then,” Vaozey snapped.
“Prove I didn’t use magic?” I asked incredulously.
“You heard me,” she growled.
“Is there some way to do that?” I asked, sarcasm turning to genuine curiosity for a moment.
“No,” Vaozey replied, “that’s my point. It’s not fair that you can use something like that, but I can’t, and there’s no way for me to tell if you’re subtle about it. I know you used it, so just admit it. At this point I won’t even be angry with you.” What is wrong with this woman? I sighed.
“If it bothers you that much, why haven’t you learned how to do it yourself?” I asked, keeping my tone calm. “Is it just laziness? Some misplaced cultural practice? Regardless of your starting point, you've had years of combat experience, you should have picked something up by now.” I hadn’t quite realized it, but I was becoming angry and it showed in my voice. I crushed the emotion down, chastising myself for my lack of awareness. Vaozey scowled, bearing her teeth at me in anger.
“Does it feel good?” she snarled. “Does being a npoyt to me and pretending like it's my fault make you feel good about yourself?”
“How is it not your fault?” I pressed, once again forcing my tone to remain even. “I've seen you heal. You can do magic.” Vaozey’s left lower eyelid twitched, and she bared her teeth in anger.
“What the seyt does that have to-” she snapped, before being interrupted.
“Can you two morons stop yelling?” Koyl grumbled, rolling over on the ground to look at us with tired eyes. “I’m trying to sleep over here.”
“I can put you back to sleep right now if you’d like,” Vaozey snapped, waving her fist threateningly.
“Please do,” Koyl replied, “as long as I don’t have to listen to you yelling.” Vaozey raised her hand as if to strike him, and Koyl rolled back over, ignoring her.
“What the seyt do magic and healing have to do with each other?” Vaozey hissed, turning her attention back to me. “What kind of dumb ngaozmdoym are you spouting off about? You think I didn't hear enough mockery growing up to know it when I hear it now?”
“Magic and healing come from the same source,” I explained, keeping my voice low. “I’ve used the effect myself to limit my own healing when it was necessary. Depleting all of the magic energy in your body will make you unable to rapidly heal yourself.”
“Magic energy?” Vaozey asked, frowning. “Don't tell me this is some jheyyseyt religious dogma from your homeland or- wait, rapidly heal?” I might have said too much, I thought, I should end this before she starts asking questions that are difficult to answer.
“I’m going to sleep,” I declared. “You’re right, I did use magic in the spar. Then again, maybe you did too. Now, unless you’re looking to lose again, I need at least a few hours before you keep me up with your mumbling.”