If I had the air to spare, I might’ve laughed. “You're doing great,” I encouraged.
“Nope. I'm done. Cooked,” she disagreed, laying down on the floor fully with arms flopping. Her skin was flushed and sweaty all over.
“You sure you're not,” I gritted my teeth as I stood back up from yet another lunge, my thighs burning, “just taking a break so you can try harder in a few minutes?”
Sarina shook her head, “Nope. My legs are on fire.” Mine were too, but I kept it to myself. She eyed Veridiana while shecaught her breath and I completed a few more sets. “Something isn't quite right with that one,” she muttered.
Something came out that sounded more like a huff than a laugh. Veridiana had been here as long as we had, and hadn't shown any real signs of fatigue yet. I hadn't told Sarina what I had seen Veridiana do during the Mistrun, but it felt like Sarina liked her even less than I did.
“What makes you say that?” Izaiah asked from beside us where he was doing sit-ups.
“That is just...” she grimaced, “Too much weight for any human to be lifting.”
My eyes flicked up to Veridiana again as I slowly lowered myself back into another lunge. The weights looked heavy, and the ease with which she lifted them irked me. Her gleaming onyx hair, pretty face, and voluptuous body had nothing to do with how much she bothered me. Nothing at all.
“I could watch her lift weights all night,” Izaiah pushed sweaty hair off of his forehead where it had stuck to his skin. He'd used enough volume that I was sure Veridiana heard him.
“This ought to be good,” I muttered.
Sarina dragged an arm over her face. “Just when I thought you couldn't be more of a pervert, you rise.”
“What? The only fun we're allowed to have around here is the horizontal kind. And strong women are hot.” He hadn't lowered his voice at all. I continued watching this drama play out, Veridiana was doing remarkably well at not reacting to his comments.
“You think all women are hot. Hell, you'd think a tree was hot if it had enough curvature to it.” I declared with similar volume, and Izaiah shot me a dirty look.
“She's right,” Sarina added. “I mean, she's wrong about a world of other things.” Now it was my turn to send her a dirty look. “But she's right about this. You live like you’re in a storm,and any port will do.” Sarina turned her head toward me from her spot on the floor. “You should take a break, though. You look even worse than I feel.”
“I feel great,” I lied, my legs trembling as I forced them back up again. They were starting to lock up from overuse like they had during the Mistrun. I stood heaving for a few seconds to catch my breath.
I could do this. I had to. I had to get stronger.
This wasn't a choice, it was a necessity. At least, that's what I told myself.
Passing the midterm was required. And if it involved running, swimming, climbing, or any manner of other movements that required strong legs, I couldn't risk coming up short. The instructors had been distressingly silent on how we were going to be judged, and about how many would pass.
I stayed up late each night either training myself physically or studying that material from lessons. My inkling was this midterm, like that lesson in the bamboo forest, would be a challenge requiring some degree of improvisation, and a great deal of physical strength if training was any indication.
Falling short wasn't an option. And breaks were only cutting into the limited time we had each night for additional training.
“Well, I'm going back to our room,” Sarina announced, peeling herself off the floor. “If you need to borrow any of my notes later, help yourself, but don't you dare wake me up with any questions.”
All I could manage around the wheezing breaths as I started another round of lunges was a wave. She almost-crawled her way out of the Fitness center.
The lesson material was difficult to understand and memorize, but Sarina possessed a talent for concentrating that I did not. We'd compared our notes from some of our earliestlessons and discovered she had about three times as much written down. Since then, I'd been borrowing her notes to study instead of relying on my own.
“You really don't look so good,” Izaiah commented. “You're very red.”
I spared a few seconds to rest after coming up from another lunge. “Didn't ask,” I retorted.
Lowering myself down, I prepared for more push ups. They’d be a nice break for my legs from squats and lunges.
“I wonder what it’ll be like being a Voyager,” Izaiah mused.
“Can’t be worse than being a trainee.”
“True.” He laid flat to rest after another set. “I’ve always wanted to see the outer isles though. Nobody ever talks about them.”
Because they couldn’t. Like Skinscript, it was knowledge the Ascendancy kept a lid on.
