Mistress Sona took over the narrative. “We have been trying to find those loyal to the temple, more to the point, loyal to the magic of S’Kir. People who can wield magic well. Not even the most powerful, but the most skilled. We are peaceful, but it is always wise to know your strengths.”
“And weaknesses,” Mistress Neves added.
Mistress Maurielle harrumphed and sat near me on the ground. “Needless to say, they’ve nearly all been male. Skilled, loyal magic wielders, but males. We’ve been wondering where the women were.”
“And you”—Mistress Carolee folded her arms and leaned against the rocks—“may have just figured out why they’ve been almost exclusively men.”
Nodding, I whispered. “The Triium.”
“None of us knew about it as more than a legend when we were raised to the robes,” Lunella continued. “Once we were handed those, then we learned about it. It never occurred to me it might be the reason we haven’t found many females. Until now.”
Mistress Ophelia had let me go, let me sit up, but kept a hand on my arm. “And it’s critical, most critical, that we have both men and women to stand with the temple.”
I understood right away. “Balance. Always balance.”
Mistress Neves tapped her fingers on the crystals this time, and they rang, faintly, from the impacts. “Always balance. Between male and female. Vampire and druid. Good and evil.”
Sitting up a little straighter, things started to swirl together in my brain. “Seven and seven.”
Grinning, Mistress Sona tapped her nose.
“So a stronger force would be made of male and female.” I leaned back on my hands and considered the women in the cavern with me. “How on S’Kir would we go about recruiting women to fight? Most are… peaceful.”
“You have not yet had a child,” Mistress Carolee said. “Have you ever seen a mother when her child is threatened? When her home is threatened? It is a sight to behold.”
Leaning forward, resting her head on her chin, Lunella grinned at me. “If we are fighting for the continuation of our own way of life, women will fight.”
Mistress Neves held up a finger. “We have to pick and choose carefully who we train in the Triium magic if they aren’t in the temple. But…”
Mistress Ophelia said, “It’s our job to make sure they can wield both their magic and their sword with equal skill.”
Chapter Five
~ Kimber ~
The feeling of having to teach half the population of S’Kir was overwhelming.
My magic, I doubted.
My sword work, I didn’t. Not even a bit.
While my parents had indulged me when I was younger, excusing me from all kinds of magical and physical activities, they wanted me to know how to defend myself.
Since my father was a prize-winning fencer, he picked the sword for me.
I loved my sword.
Lunella chased me backward, the metal of her sword scraping along the blade of mine. The sound was horrible, but that was the idea.
At the last minute, as I saw her cringing from the noise, I twisted my blade, and she instantly became the attacked instead of the attacker.
I swept the sword up and around, dragging her blade with mine and slamming it into the wooden practice floor, disabling her.
Her spell slammed into the middle of my stomach, winding me, and throwing me backward through the room.
“When are you going to remember to use your magic to block?!”
I groaned at the ceiling, and sat up, staring at Mistress Neves watching our practice. She had a look of frustration that curled her lips downward.
