Self hesitated at the doors, looking through them, and back to the hallway behind. Self's room would be back that way, left turn, pass two intersections, right on the third, second door on the left. And back through these doors, lay the courtyard, with the accursed sky. It was blue, with clumps of white and gray, although Self deliberately avoided looking directly into it.

It wouldn't do to keep waiting. A djinn stood at the front of twelve students, Fan and Sidou among them. On the edges of the courtyard were bundles of clothing; the students had disrobed, and each held a long brown cylinder, slightly longer than they were tall. Self stilled the vibrations with a steady breath, and stepped out, moving to the bundles of clothing; at the end was another of the cylinders, which Self picked up, disrobing and setting the clothing in a pile next to the others, before moving to stand at the end of the line.

The djinn in front of them would be Hvare, according to Efre. This lesson would be in the spear, which Self didn't understand, but that would be the point of the lesson. Hvare was somewhat taller than most djinn, with long, spiraled horns, and facial features that seemed somewhat too close together. A recognizable face, at least. The state of disrobe meant that Self could identify Hvare as having the female form, as did half the students, Sidou included. Fan had the male form.

Hvare started speaking as soon as Self's eyes turned back, having joined the end of the line. "Today you learn the spear. It's a weapon which is simple to learn, I can teach any child to wield it. Mastery is harder. Now, the thrust."

Hvare demonstrated the motion with the cylinder. The students attempted to copy, and Hvare began moving down the line, having them repeat the action with a gesture, and offering short corrections to each. "Straighten your shoulders. Your feet are out of place. Face forward. Keep the staff straight." Self listened to each correction, observing the students, until it was Self's turn to repeat the gesture. "Straighten your back." And Hvare moved back to the other end of the line, and had each student repeat the motion.

After several repetitions, Hvare called out "Good. Ten laps. Go." And the students dashed to the side of the courtyard and began jogging a circuit around it, Self lagging for a moment to observe the others to see what to do. They ran, feet slapping the stone tile ground, Self following at the rear.

Ten laps left the other students breathless, panting heavily, sweat rolling down their light red skin. Self was aware of the concept of physical exhaustion - Firou had been quite exhausted chasing down Self's stray green balls in the early days of that training - but had not, or did not, experience it. Self maintained position at the rear of the increasingly lagging students, until they reassembled in the center of the courtyard, a few, including Fan, leaning their weight on the staff.

Hvare moved back to the front of the line. "Thrust." And the corrections began anew, until satisfied, they were sent for another ten laps, followed by demonstrating the thrust again.

"Rest. Six minutes." The djinn all collapsed, laying on sides and backs, the noise of their panting, occasionally grunting gasps filling the courtyard. Self sat cross-legged, feet hooked over thighs, looking around at the other students and contemplating the experience. Well, that was why they had taken their clothes off, Self had been somewhat curious about that; they were all soaked in sweat.

"Rise." Groans, but they rose, picking up their staffs. "Partner up. You will practice a simple parry. One thrusts, the other knocks it aside, then switch. Continue until I call halt."

Self rose, turning to the nearest djinn, a male-form with a single short, flat horn, whose name was unfamiliar. It would be important to control the strength of the thrusts, as when throwing the ball. The other djinn began with a thrust, and it hit Self in the chest. What was the parry? Self glanced at other students beginning. Okay.

Self thrust. The other student tried to sweep it aside. The staff connected with the end of Self's, and Self felt the pressure of the staff against the hands holding it, but didn't let it move. The end of the staff connected, shoving the other djinn backwards.

"Halt. Loop-bound, to me." Self walked to Hvare, noticing that there had been a student without a partner who had been looking around with a nervous expression, who then immediately partnered with the djinn Self left behind. "Do not let the staff break." And then Hvare began.

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The first thrust was fast, and the staff connected with Self before Self's staff had finished moving to parry; Self saw the wood in Hvare's hands bending, and took a step back. Hvare moved to the parry position, and Self tried a thrust; the wood bent as the parry connected, and Self had to let the staff fall off target.

"Good. Stay here." Hvare walked away, moving between each pair, stating problems and moving on. Hvare returned, and Self's practice continued, Hvare intermittently moving away to give the other students corrections.

Ten more laps. More thrusts and parries. Ten more laps. More thrusts and parries.

Self didn't actually manage to touch Hvare with the end of the staff, nor to successfully parry, although one parry at least connected with Hvare's thrust, albeit too late, by the time another halt was called.

"Good. Now overhead strike." And Hvare demonstrated another motion, with one hand in front with palms splayed, and the other hand holding the spear.

This was another individual lesson, which was followed by another partnered lesson, using parries.

The number of laps dropped to eight, as the students struggled to complete ten, and then six, as they struggled to complete eight. Overhead strikes were followed by a sweep, which required a block as opposed to a parry; this was the hardest for Self, and Self finally had to go fetch another staff after breaking one. Stopping at the moment of impact - if Self stopped sooner, Hvare barked a correction - was difficult.

Finally, they were sent to the baths to clean up. Self collected clothing, and followed the other students through another door in the courtyard, which opened directly into the baths. It was only stepping into the baths that Self realized that the activity had been distracting enough that the sky hadn't been an issue.

Fan and Sidou came over to Self in the farthest of the baths; there were twelve in the room, in four rows and three columns, and Self always chose this particular corner of the room, although it had taken a few seconds to figure out which corner it was, as Self hadn't come from that door before. The water came to Self's waist, and the round bath was about twice as wide across as Self was tall.

"So that wasn't as bad as I was expecting, eh? Fucking exhausting, mind. I haven't run that much since I was little." Fan was using a scrap of faded blue fabric to scrub clean, somewhat haphazardly, moving from legs to shoulders to waist ; Sidou had sat on the edge of the pool and begun cleaning more systematically, moving from scalp, to face, to neck, to shoulders, always down, as Self had been taught, pausing occasionally to dip the rag in the water.

"The students did have trouble keeping their breath." Self was nearly finished washing.

"Not you though. Do you even get tired?"

"No." Self paused. "I don't think so. What does tired feel like?"

"Well ... " halting for a few seconds, as the rag covered Fan's mouth, " ... it's like ... tired. Your muscles hurt, but it isn't really pain, and you just feel like you could lay down and fall asleep. Only there's an energy to it, too, so you couldn't fall asleep."

Self pondered this briefly. "I don't sleep. What does pain feel like?"

Fan and Sidou both stopped, identical expressions as they looked at Self. Sidou spoke, then, voice quiet, but carrying an even deeper timbre than Harabi, "Pain feels like it needs to stop, like you must make it stop."

"Yeah, like that. Sometimes it's sharp, like if you get cut, and sometimes it's dull and flat, like a bruise. It feels kind of like heat. Do you really not feel pain? That's weird." Fan started speaking almost before Sidou had finished, both starting to scrub again.

Self didn't ask what heat felt like; exhaustion felt like pain, pain felt like heat. Heat would feel like something else, which would feel like something else.

"I feel dizzy. Have felt dizzy. The sky makes me dizzy. I don't like the courtyard, the sky doesn't have a distance." Self offered, instead.

"It has many distances, when you can see it. The blue is light from the sun reflecting off the air, which goes up for miles and miles." Sidou responded absently, still washing. "It's very far away, though."

Self took that in. "Sun?"

"The big bright thing in the sky?" Fan replied, voice rising in pitch slightly, something Self associated with smiles. "It's where light comes from. That and lanterns. You should look at it, only not too long, that's bad for your eyes. Or maybe not. You haven't been outside much? I guess if the sky made me dizzy I wouldn't either. How long have you been loop-bound?"

The chatter continued, again mostly Fan contributing. Sidou generally only spoke if a subject or question came up Fan didn't know the answer to, which was more from the quiet djinn than the night before.

The three finished bathing, and got dressed. Fan and Sidou had another lesson now, but the rest of Self's day was free. As the two departed, Fan giving their farewell, at length, Self was left with a question.

How to spend the rest of this day? Indeed, many of these days, as Self's new schedule had four days of martial training, with nothing in the evenings.