I walked to a long table that seated about twenty, plopped my plate down and began eating. I’d made sure to sit between two large guys so maybe Taylor would find another seat.
Sure enough, as soon as Taylor walked up the guy on my right quickly picked up his plate and left. What the fuck was going on around here? Taylor sat beside me, placing a large cup of water beside my plate. I looked up at her in question.
“You need to hydrate before training,” she blushed again, ducked her head and began eating.
This was getting ridiculous. I’d given her no encouragement whatsoever and what was with these people moving with only a glance from the girl? She was a good fighter but not that good.
I heard Damien speaking to someone as he walked into the room. Glancing up, I saw Hayes by his side, headed for the food.
Damien helped with training, giving advice and tips as needed but always deferred to Hayes when he was present.
Hayes hadn’t shown up for three days after we arrived and when he finally did, even with our advanced healing, he was carrying himself carefully. His punishment must have beensevere for him to still be in that kind of pain. I tried to talk to him, but he wasn’t having any of it, telling me that he wasn’t a pussy like I was and to get back to my training. He wasn’t a sharing is caring kind of guy.
Since his return, he’d been involved in mine and Taylor’s training. His teaching style reminded me of Grumpy’s. Both were assholes and had no problem pushing our limits; excuses weren’t accepted. I’d trained extensively with Reverie’s parents but never with weapons. Swords were entirely new for me, not to mention the other weapons some people here used. I was continuously shocked by the mix of futuristic and ancient that was Aurathia.
Many of the warriors didn’t need weapons due to their abilities. Mine was impressive, but I required much more training to use it lethally against other Aurathions. Hand-to-hand combat could become a bit tricky and, in some respects, I’d be at a disadvantage. When fighting a more experienced opponent, they could anticipate my moves and they would be on me before I had reoriented from my blink. Hayes dipped his head in greeting as he passed by but didn’t stop. I felt I’d earned some of his respect because of my willingness to train for long hours and listen to instructions. My ignorance of this world occasionally gave him pause, but he never mentioned it or asked any questions. I still didn’t completely trust him, so I kept my head down and mouth shut.
I’d collected a lot of disturbing information about this world that led me to believe drawing attention to myself would be dangerous. That wasn’t as easy for me as it might be for others because I naturally stood out in a crowd.
Most of the warriors who had been here for more than a year were assigned to a Faction. (I understood the wording now that Hayes had used.) Apparently, new warriors were studied for the first year and then the Factions made their choice of whom toinduct. It didn’t sound like much choice was involved, at least for the warriors. A few, I’d learned, were sent here by their Faction to train and earn money in the coliseum. They seemed to consider it an honor.
I disagreed.
“When do you think we’ll finalize the schedule for the coliseum?” Taylor inquired, continuing to shovel food into her mouth. With only a short time allotted for eating, we had to make the most of it.
“I don’t know. You can talk to Hayes about it when we get to the training yard,” I kept my eyes on my plate, trying to interact with her as little as possible.
This was probably how Reverie felt when I was chasing her. However, I was much smoother at it.
“That’s a good idea.” She looked at me like I just gave her the secret to world peace. “We need to spend as much time training and discussing strategy as possible since we’ll be battling together in the coliseum.”
I could see her looking at me out of the corner of my eye, waiting for a response. I shrugged and continued eating without comment.
Hayes sat down across from me and started eating without saying a word. I was surprised to see him there until he looked up and said, “You’ll be fighting in the coliseum at the early performance on Saturday. We have a lot of work to do, so eat up.”
He returned to eating as if he hadn’t just dropped a giant bomb on me. Taylor nudged me with her shoulder, misinterpreting my surprise as fear.
“You’ve got this. I’ve never seen someone become proficient with so many weapons as quickly as you have.” She smiled and fluttered her lashes.
“Do you have something in your eye?” I asked innocently. She pissed me off by thinking I was afraid to fight… I was the tiniest bit, but that wasn’t the point.
The smile dropped from her face, and she looked at me in annoyance. Maybe she’d finally get the hint. “Girl, you’d do well to worry more about yourself. Eat your food and quit coddling the boy,” Hayes scolded Taylor, then returned to shoveling food into his mouth.
She narrowed her eyes at him, but continued eating. Taylor was a strange girl. Sometimes, she seemed innocent and shy. Other times, I could swear there was a hint of malice in her gaze when she looked at people.
I wasn’t worried about my upcoming performance. I was so angry about being kept away from my Nexi that I had a lot of aggression to work out. My ability had finally become more stable, and I was ready to fuck some shit up. Maybe if I won a few battles, fucking Emberhold would consider my initiation complete and bring me back to the academy. I’d kill whomever I needed to make that happen.
I finished my meal before Taylor and headed to the training yard to stretch. I’d barely started when she showed up and began her warmup.
“What do you want to start with today? I don’t think I’ve seen you try using a bow. I can help with that, if you want. I’ve had lots of training with it, and I’m more than adequate.”
“I appreciate it, but Damien offered to help me yesterday.” I stood and walked away quickly before she could ask to join me.
Okay, note to self… subtlety is wasted on Taylor. The gloves were going to have to come off. I knew I was irresistible but damn, get a clue. Now, to find Damien and let him know he’d offered to assist me with my bow skills.
The massive training yard with equipment and obstacle courses made Emberhold’s look ridiculous. Nothing we’d doneat the academy could have prepared me for what I was dealing with here. I’d established that nothing about this initiation was normal, and I needed to gather as much information as possible. The situation here was fucked. I wish I knew why Emberhold had sent me here and what I was supposed to be looking for.
I saw Damien standing next to a rack of weapons, talking to a guy I’d seen around but never spoke to. That wasn’t saying much because I avoided talking to everyone as much as possible.
