“Yeah. I’m fire, you’re water. You’ll just douse my power every time. You’ll win ten out of ten times.”
I cock my head to the side. “True. But what about in hand-to-hand combat?”
“Maybe. But why do that when you can use your magic?”
“Maybe you can get a jump on me before I drown you?”
“Maybe…” She looks off into the distance, pondering.
“Why are we talking about me versus you anyway? We’re allies, not enemies.”
“Yes. I just meant for practice, we’ll probably have to go up against each other.”
“Right,” I sigh. “Well, good luck to you!” I say cheerfully.
“You wench.”
She smiles as she conjures a small fire in her hands, and I douse it immediately. Then she creates another, and I douse it again. We laugh and continue doing it. Her fire gets bigger and bigger, but I put it out every time.
“Fuck,” she says.
“You could really hurt me with one of those fireballs if you actually wanted to though. You know that, right?”
“Yeah,” she sighs.
“Meela? You showed.”
Adrian returns, not hiding the surprise in his voice.
“Yep,” she replies, eyeing me.
Daegan, Raef and the rest of their crew stayed behind at a nearby station that’s lined with various weapons. Swords, daggers, bows, staffs, and a lot more that I don’t know the names of.
Adrian stands in front of us, arms crossed, looking like he’s about to babysit two children. “Okay. What kind of experience do either of you have?”
“When we were ten, we had to take that elemental magic defense class…” I say.
“Uh huh?” Adrian says slowly.
“That’s it,” I say.
“Yeah, same,” Meela adds.
Adrian rubs his hand from his forehead all the way down to his chin. Slowly.
“They really should require us to take more combat classes in school. Elemental and hand-to-hand.”
“Why?” Adrian asks, genuinely curious. “You don’t even need this. Anyone who wants to join our forces has the option to do so, and they get all the proper training.”
“You don’t think regular citizens should learn to defend themselves too? At least a little?” I ask.
“Why?”
“A female was almost raped the other day. In our castle,” Meela adds. I love her.
The air shifts around me. Everyone stiffens.
“Okay.” He shrugs, looking around, unsure what to say. “Maybe we need to take a look at the school curriculum. I’ll bring it up to the king one of these days.” Great. Another reason for my father to get annoyed with me. But still, it’s worth it.
