“Are you hurt?” Nettal called from across the sparring field, with her hands cupped around her mouth.
“I’m ok!” Addie dusted off the remaining sand sticking to her pants. She spat a bit to get some of the granules out of her mouth, but it didn’t help. She tried to close her jaw and unpleasantly crunched down on one of the pieces of grit.
“Here,” Christena offered Addie what looked like a suspiciously solid, yet roiling bubble of flowing water. Seeing Addie’s hesitant face, Christena clarified, “It’s illusory water. Good enough to wash your mouth but not enough to actually help any thirst. If you get thirsty, let me know and I’ll quickly grab you some real water.”
Addie looked into Christena’s gentle face for a moment longer, trying to determine if her intentions were sincere.
In response, Christena simply used her hand to usher forward the offering.
With suspicion in her eyes, Addie hesitantly reached out to grab the water bubble. Luckily, it didn’t explode or anything when she finally grabbed it. It felt strange. There was something off-putting about being able to hold water even though it was still liquid. She squished and pulled at it, the texture almost like dough. “Ew,” Addie mumbled with morbid fascination. She pulled on it even harder, and the whole thing burst all over her hands. Her hands got soaked but dried off almost immediately as the magic dissipated.
Despite the weirdness of it all, there was still sand in her mouth. “Can I have another one?” Addie asked.
Christena snorted, “Alright, but don’t break this one. Right after this, We are getting back into it.”
“Ok.”
This time, Addie put the offered water bubble directly into her mouth. It didn’t burst like it had when it was in her hands. Instead, the moment it entered her mouth it felt no different than regular water. She swished it about, feeling some grains of sand unpleasantly get in between her teeth. Once she got as much of the sand as she could, Addie spat the water out, where it dissolved into nothing before it even hit the ground.
“Ok Addie, are you ready?” Christena prompted as she got into some kind of fighting stance.
“I’m ready.”
Christena came at her like a whirlwind. Addie didn’t have time to think about counterattack, all she could do was dodge.
Christena’s right fist came at Addie in a jab, just like last time. Addie dodged the same direction, and then when Christena’s follow-up hook started coming in, it felt like an exact repeat of last time. This time knowing what was coming, Addie jumped backward to get out of Christena’s range.
Addie felt her feet stumble in the sand for a moment, as she slid more than she expected. Christena whipped her front leg out at Addie while she was still recovering from being slightly off-balance.
The kick landed on Addie’s upper chest, again feeling more like a shove since Christena slowed her kick down just before impact. Addie wheeled her arms around in the air for a moment and then toppled backward, her bum planted firmly back in the sand. Luckily, her face didn’t hit the ground at all this time, so at least she wouldn’t get more sand in her mouth.
“That was better Addie!” Christena praised with a bright smile. “You’ve got really good instincts. Now, we just need to sharpen them with better technique.”
Addie turned her head as Squishy spoke up through the bond, “Can you ask Christena if she can teach me, too?”
“Um, Squishy wants to learn too,” Addie said as she stood back up from the sand.
“Don’t worry, Fluffy can help him. I wouldn’t know where to begin trying to teach Squishy martial arts!”
“Why not?”
Christena frowned, almost as if Addie asked a silly question, “Well, he’s got a different type of body than us, doesn’t he? I’m not sure how best to make use of his claws and such. Fluffy will be able to train him much better than I can.”
Addie nodded her head, “That makes sense.”
“Alright!” Christena clapped her hands together, “I think that’s good enough for the warmup. I’ve got a general idea of your current progress. Let’s start learning some drills and exercises I want you to practice each day.
“Nettal, can you come over here? I want you and Addie to practice together.” Christena called out.
“Okay!” Nettal hurriedly picked an indignant Fluffy up under the arms and put her on the ground. Lotty lifted his head up out of Nettal’s lap, and Nettal stood up. She jogged over to stand next to Addie, with Lotty following close behind her.
“Alright, girls! Has anyone ever taught you how to punch?”
Stolen novel; please report.
Dread wormed its way inside Addie at Christena’s malicious-looking smirk. That was the smile Christena made when she was plotting.
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
“Five more!” Christena barked out. Despite her stern tone, she was still smirking. She had been smirking for the past hour.
Addie’s arms trembled as she tried to push her body up for the tenth time. How could she possibly do five more! She had only done ten, and she was already at her limit. Addie gritted her teeth and groaned as she pushed against the gritting sand with her hands as hard as she could. Her arms shook, and her entire body wobbled as she came to the top of the push-up. She finally reached the top and just about let out a big breath.
“You didn’t keep your back straight enough, and you still aren’t going all the way down. Start over.”
Addie completely collapsed into the sand. “I can’t!” Before this, they had already gone on a thirty-minute run, and done plenty of other exercises. None of them had anything to do with fighting!
The Binary beat down on Addie’s back as she lay her stomach down in the sand. She didn’t even care if it got in her mouth anymore. She was just focused on pulling in one gasping breath at a time.
Turning her head to the other side, Nettal didn’t look much better. She hadn’t collapsed yet, but based on the shakiness of her arms Addie didn’t think she could last too much longer.
“Come. On, Addie.” Nettal paused for a moment as she pushed herself to the top of the pushup, “You,” she gasped out a shaky breath, “Wouldn’t want... to lose. To me, would you?” She managed out.
Of course, she didn’t want to get beaten by Nettal! But, the sand somehow felt so comfortable now. It spread out around her aching body in a gentle embrace. Maybe Addie actually loved sand, after all.
“Get up!” Christena barked, “Look at Squishy, he’s still doing his best.”
Addie dragged her chin through the sand so she could look behind Christena. Squishy also looked worn down and rugged, with Fluffy constantly nipping at him or pushing him around. She could feel how exhausted he was through their bond. But something else rose up within him even stronger than the exhaustion. His entire spirit resounded with determination. He jumped out at Fluffy again, only to burst through another illusion. How did she fool his spatial sense?
Didn’t matter. Addie shook her head. She put her hands down into the sand again and bent her elbows. She dug the toes of her boots into the sand and kept her back as straight as she could as she pushed her body up.
She made it to the top of the pushup with pride and a smile.
“Good, now do five more.”
Her smile faltered.
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
Addie walked into the mansion right behind Nettal. Christena held the door open for them, which was a good thing since Addie’s arms might as well have been jelly.
Not only were her arms unbelievably exhausted, but they were also bright red binaryburnt.
“Hi, girls!” Auntie called out from the living room. “How was your day?”
Nettal grunted but didn’t say anything. Neither did Addie.
They both walked into the living room with Auntie. Nettal somehow managed to make it to the couch and sit next to her mom, but Addie just bonelessly flopped right down on the rug.
She felt the cool soft touch of the furs up against her cheek as she laid down stomach first.
Addie heard Christena walk into the room behind her. Without moving her head, she glanced her eyes up, but Christena was too far behind her to see.
“You girls make sure to eat a lot tonight, ok? You’ll have to get something in to help those tired muscles.” Auntie declared.
“Nettal’s a cheater,” Addie mumbled into the rug.
“I am not!” Nettal rebutted. “You are just jealous that I can heal my muscles so they aren’t sore.” Addie heard the smugness in her tone. Then, in a quieter voice, Nettal continued, “Doesn’t help with the tiredness, though. Lotty says it’s because our muscles are all out of energy.”
“Why don’t you heal my muscles too!” Addie glared up at Nettal.
“I already told you! I’m all out of magic...” She trailed off and looked at the floor.
Addie just huffed again.
“So, Christena and I have been talking,” Auntie began to say, “And Addie has to go home in just three days.”
Addie’s heart dropped.
“But Christena and I were thinking— Nettal, would you want to go with them?”
All of the tiredness in Addie’s body washed away in an instant. She jerked her head up and scrambled off of the floor to fully face Auntie. She scanned Auntie’s face for any hint that she wasn’t being serious but didn’t find any.
“Really?” Addie and Nettal asked almost at the same time.
“That would be great!” Addie said.
Surely, Nettal would be just as excited, too! But when she looked over, Nettal had a thoughtful expression as she stared off into the distance.
Addie felt like she had to act immediately, “Nettal, you’ll come too, right?” Addie walked over to her and held onto one of her hands with shining eyes.
Nettal moved her eyes to meet Addie’s and gently smiled, “Ok, I’ll come.” She nodded her head.
She didn’t seem as excited as Addie would have hoped for, but at least she would be coming!
“I’ll send a letter to Mr. Lomain,” Christena said as she began to leave the living room.
That prompted Nettal to jump off the couch and follow Christena out. Addie just stood there in the living room watching them go. She idly wondered for a moment why Nettal needed to follow Christena to write the letter.
“It will be lonely here, all by myself,” Auntie spoke up, grabbing onto Addie’s attention. “Maybe I’ll have to go bother Mr. Owlcharge some more to stave off the boredom.” She mumbled, almost to herself.
“I thought you always got into fights with him,” Addie remembered how they wouldn’t ever use the proper titles for each other, always being so rude.
A boisterous laugh escaped from Auntie, “That might be true! Even more reason to go pester him, then!” She continued laughing for a bit, but Addie didn’t really get why.
She stopped laughing with a long drawn-out breath. “Have you been practicing your transcendent loop?” Auntie asked.
That felt abrupt, and Addie had to process the subject change for a moment, “Not that much.” She eventually answered.
“You should. Christena will work on it with you and Nettal some more this coming week. Have you ever wondered what keeps Area Lords so powerful?”
“Bonding with the land?” Addie thought she knew the answer, but didn’t see how it related to the transcendent loop.
“That’s right, but we must first temper our souls to be strong enough to withstand it. Your first goal will be to keep one layer of the transcendent loop active at all times, even when you are sleeping, or resting.”
“How many layers do you have?” Addie asked.
“That’s a great question! I’m glad you caught on to the fact that I may have more than one. It’s tough and takes a lot of willpower, but I can have nine layers of transcendent loop simultaneously.” A glint caught the corner of Auntie’s eye, “Will you have the strength to get past nine, I wonder?”