Lord Lucien’s eyes sought out Emma’s, and he smiled kindly at her. She seemed to relax under his friendly gaze.
“First things first,” Lucien announced. “This will not be an easy course for most of you. Weak-minded Arcanea do not survive the battlefield. There is no such thing as fighting fair when battling a monster. You will be expected to play dirty, and keep up with the most brutal of creatures if you wish to preserve your life.”
Lucien took a long sabre off the cart and demonstrated, swooping the sword in long movements. “A warrior must be tough and disciplined. They must stay calm in the most chaotic of situations. And they must be convinced that they will win any battle.”
Lucien threw his cloak over the cart. “Pick a weapon and follow me. We’ll start with drills.”
He headed into the trees. Students ran to the cart to get the best weapons. Emma hung back in hesitation. By the time we got to the cart, there were only a few options left, though Emma seemed overwhelmed by it all.
“There are so many weapons here. I don’t even know what to pick,” Emma said, looking confused at all the different options before her.
“Well, if you’re a beginner, I suggest you don’t pick a spear or a mace.” I rifled through the weapons until I found something sturdier— akarabela.It was a long, curved blade, a thin sabre that was usually used by sorceresses riding their Companions into battle.
I handed it to her, and her arm instantly dropped. The blade sank into the earth. “It’s so heavy,” she said. “My arm’s gonna kill by the time we’re done.”
“Well, yeah, it’s not going to be light.” I smiled at her. “You can handle it.”
She still looked doubtful as we followed the rest of the class to the woods. Lucien led us to a large, flat area and ordered us to spread out. I picked a spot with Emma in the back.
“I thought we’d be studying theory or something, not how to handle swords on the first freaking day,” Emma whispered, flustered as Lucien began to bark instructions.
“It’s sink or swim at Arcanea University,” I told her. “Don’t doubt yourself. You’re stronger than you think.”
“Yeah, right.” Her tone was bland. Lucien started swinging his weapon, demanding that we follow his movements and keep up with them. As he instructed, he yelled at us to keep a wide stance, to stand tall, to be light on our feet and keep our balance all at once.
This was so boring to me. I knew all this. My time was preoccupied with watching Emma.
She was sweating with the effort to keep up. Her first few times swinging the sword, she lost control and fell over.
“You’re going to hurt yourself,” I told her. I ignored Lucien and corrected her stance, my hands burning at the touch of her skin. “You don’t need to put so much force into it. Precision and remaining in control is more important than butchering your opponent. What if you swing too hard and you can’t pull your sword out? Then you’ll be left without a weapon. Practice a bunch of light strikes in quick succession, instead of one big blow.”
“Am I really going to have to kill things while I’m here?” Emma huffed. She struggled to catch her breath.
My expression was utterly serious as I said, “You won’t want to. But someday, you’ll have to.”
She seemed bewildered. I didn’t get why.
Well, I had a good motivator to come to class, at least. Emma was woefully behind on learning weapon play. She’d need more than just Lucien to teach her. I’d have to be here to help her keep up with the rest of the class. The rest of them probably had a blade in their hands the moment they could walk.
“You want to stagger your opponent!” Lucien called over the crowd. “Get them off their feet, and knock them off balance! Imagine your strikes as a star pattern, where you slash your weapon downward or upward diagonally to cause the most damage. Strike vertically from top to bottom to cause devastating hits. Only parry a blow as a last line of defense! When dealing with monsters, always use offense as your first choice, and limit their opportunity to have more time to kill you!”
“They should’ve given us a textbook or something,” Emma panted. I chuckled.
“Textbooks aren’t very good out in the field. Unless you want to bludgeon your enemy to death,” I said.
“Well, it’d be nice if someone gave me the rundown,” she gasped. She swung her sword, and it was a totally sloppy strike. “I pretty much learned about this world last week.”
Wait. She knewnothing?Was she really that far behind?
“What do you mean? You didn’t know about the Arcanea?” My heartbeat picked up.
“My mom kept this world from me. She ran away from the Arcanea when I was born, and never told me about any of it,” she explained to me. “So excuse me for struggling to keep up.”
I couldn’t believe this. She didn’t knowanything?She was an outsider and she washere, learning how to be an Arcanea?
A whiff of her scent passed me by. It was delicious— the smell of freshly fallen snow, a clean smell like ice, and something soft, like mittens. I caught a warm, sweet scent— similar to amber, or chocolate. Her scent drove me mad with want and desire.
But underneath that heavenly scent was something else. It was an intense smell, something heavy. A different combination of chemicals and hormones. The human nose couldn’t detect it, but a Companion could.
