“Mankind is the favourite creation of the Gods.

But each God has its preferences.

Sometimes, when a human gained a specific God’s favour, the divinity offers that human a part of Its power. The chosen, the God-Touched, they are those who can accomplish either the greatest miracles or the worst disasters. The most famous of them was the Conqueror, the Church recognized him as Ja’s favourite. It gave him powers so terrifying even his own allies feared him.”

“Was that the one who vanquished the Firantes?”

“Exactly! Very good Nay. It is indeed the one who ended the War of the Firantes. The creatures are shrouded in mystery, most documents about them have been destroyed after the war. The only thing we know for sure is that they were extremely aggressive. Without the Conqueror, the world as we know it wouldn’t exist. Unfortunately, the power of Ja is too much for a human being, and the Conqueror lost his mind using it. Some say he’s still alive, roaming inside the Last Citadel of Leïn, looking for more Firantes to kill. I do not believe in this theory though, the only human who could live this long is the Imperatrix, as she was given a prolonged lifespan as gifts from the Gods.”

Lesson from Sage-Brother Berth.

Nay’s mood darkened further and further over the weeks. It felt like a shadow was pursuing her, dragging her down, weighing her every step and eating her smile. The lessons with the Sage-Brother were the only activity she could still express enthusiasm for, but even this was slowly changing for the worse.

Training with Marke had restarted after her week of forced recovery, but it became less frequent than before. The future director and teacher was having to take care of the preparations of the school’s opening, and Nay was often left to train alone. She executed, absent-minded, with cold repetitiveness, the same techniques and stances in the empty cloister. There, her mind meandered. She sometimes dreamt about climbing the cliff in front of her. She missed the excitement of the first climb. But each time, her thoughts ended with her falling to her death. She fell, crashed on the ground, and splattered in gore and pain.

Marke had not asked how she had come to meet the Commandare. And he never spoke about what happened on the plateau either.

Nay did not know why, but she knew her luck wouldn’t last forever.

Not that she really cared anymore.

Ra’fa often brought Nay to the baths and showed her the city, while Marke trained her much more harshly when he had the time. Both were trying to help their daughter. Both felt useless.

One week before the official opening of the school, Ra’fa prepared Anette Crayfish. Nay remembered the meal and the ingredients well; she had been surprised to see what was rumoured to be awfully expensive food, right there on their table.

The little family had eaten in silence, as they usually did, until Ra’fa cut it short.

“I am pregnant.” She had announced with no warnings.

Marke, who was biting quite voraciously in Crayfish meat, became blue in colour.

Nay was looking with fascination at his painful grimaces. He was choking, which explained why the blue on his face was slowly transforming into violet.

Ra’fa helped him by hitting him quite sharply on the back with an exasperated look.

The Legio regained his breath, then finally smiled. He stood up and kissed her deeply.

This was the first time Nay saw such an obvious display of affection between her parents.

“Does it mean I’m not needed anymore?” She asked, anxiously.

At first taken aback by her question, Ra’fa answered with fury.

“What!? Of course not you idiot! It just means you’ll have a little brother or a little sister? I talked about it with Manna at the Jasminn, did you not understand? Your home is here. Do I have to repeat it?!”

Her blazing words sounded soft to Nay’s ears.

Marke, thoughtful, was staying silent.

“Well! Say something! You can’t let her believe such a thing!” The tall woman ordered, her anger turning against him.

He went and crouched in front of Nay.

“You are part of the family and now you are going to become a big sister. Which means you’ll have new responsibilities. The school’s kitchen and helping with the baby most certainly.” Marke said to his daughter softly.

“What are you talking about? That’s not the important part right now! I’ll get help for the kitchen; it’ll give me time to…” Retorted Ra’fa.

Marke raised his hand to signify he wanted to talk. Ra’fa obeyed, but was clearly boiling inside. He continued.

“You’ll have to be worthy of your new title. Less free time, taking care of your brother or sister. That is what a family does.”

Ra’fa looked at him, a bit surprised now.

Marke answered her unasked question: “She’s been lost Hani, it has been weeks now. But you cannot be lost forever. Especially not with children, they are too loud, they take too much of your time.” He had a smirk. “I know what I’m talking about.” He stood up again and looked at his wife: “I think it’ll help her; I think it’ll make her better.”

“But I’m okay!” Nay said vehemently, understanding the words behind the words.

Ra’fa thought about it, then answered her daughter.

“I think Marke is right. And no Nay, you’re not well at all. Barely eating, waking up screaming. If you take care of your sister with me, you’ll have to pull yourself together. For your sake but also for hers, you need to change.”

Nay was puzzled.

“My sister? Not my brother?”

Marke’s eyes widened.

Ra’fa also seemed a bit surprised.

“Oh. Yes, I guess it’s your sister…I just know.”

The expecting father laughed heartily.

“I believe you! A woman knows these kinds of things. Such a tragedy for me though, only man surrounded by women!”

Ra’fa gave him a stern look.

“Really, it is something that bothers you now? I seem to remember an evening in Gartia where…”

The Legio coughed loudly.

“Erm, we should finish our meal, the Crayfish is going to get cold.”

The fearful look on her father’s face made Nay laugh. So hard she was giggling and crying at the same time.

The sound of her laughter felt liberating.

When she stopped laughing, her tears continued to fall for a bit.

Her parents looked at her, their smiles illuminating their faces.

They had gotten their daughter back.

The school’s opening was a hellish experience for Nay. There had been a short ceremony, where she had been pampered and forced to wear her blue frilly dress. Looking in the mirror, her appearance did not bother her that much this time. The make-up and the complicated braids done by her mother made her look like a normal little girl.

She still seemed three years younger than she felt, but looking back at it, Nay did not hate the dress. She had not noticed it was cute before.

However, when she and the other children had assembled in the cloister, and that she had seen what the other two girls wore, she immediately felt ashamed of herself. She looked like the city moats in comparison.

She was relieved to see other girls at first, even though both where younger than her, but now the feeling was replaced with only grief.

They looked older even if they were not. One of them had short, flaming red hair, and wore a magnificent dress of amber colour that, on its own, had to cost more than the whole school.

She did not listen to anything her father and the Sage-Brother said. She barely noticed the new teacher and the short speech done by the Duke himself.

Her head had stayed low the whole time.

As soon as the ceremony was over, she slipped away to the showers to change back to her usual training garbs.

“Well Nay? What were you doing, you’re late to class.” The Sage-brother had admonished her softly as she finally entered the classroom. He continued before she could apologize. “Don’t worry about it, you’ll take the last free seat.” He pointed at a desk at the back of the classroom, next to a window giving to the cloister.

She walked to it with heavy feet; she usually sat with the Sage-Brother at the front.

Once seated, she forgot her embarrassment as she was too curious about the other students. She had never seen so many children together before. All had between six and twelve years old. In total, she counted sixteen, thirteen boys and three girls if she counted herself. A logical ratio if you considered the school’s main vocation was military work. It was easy to differentiate noblesse for bourgeoisie just by the quality of their clothing or if they were wearing jewellery or not.

Her curiosity was quickly replaced with worry. She had such a strong desire to make a friend her age, but she could not see the two other girls wanting to be friends with someone like her. She sighed.

She continued her observation. One boy was standing out. Sitting at the front, he had turned around once, and she had immediately been stricken by his cherubim face and enormous green eyes. He had to be eight years old, and his clothes were as simple as hers. He was clearly neither noble nor bourgeois.

Marke had told her about his friend’s child coming to his school. That had to be him.

He saw her looking at him and gave her a smile.

Nay smiled back, not really caring about being spotted staring. Internally she was relieved, he was quite beautiful, but more than that, he seemed friendly. Maybe she could be friends with him?

The Sage-Brother had started his lesson. It was the same as Nay’s first lesson, about Gods and how to write your name.

She realized she was going to have to go through everything a second time, and sighed.

Theory classes were not the only lessons they would receive that day.

Their schedule was like this: In the morning, theory with the Sage-Brother, late morning endurance training with the new teacher. The meal during noon was quite elaborate, prepared by Ra’fa. It had to be good, as they could not just serve soup and bread to noblesse children, even if the school was there to prepare them to the military Academy. In the early afternoon was another theory class, and the end of the afternoon was devoted to train with Marke. He was teaching them tactics and swordsmanship.

All in all, the schedule was like what she already did before, except for the new teacher’s classes and the fact that she was not doing the schedule alone anymore.

She was surprised to see a Virnyl guard as her new late morning teacher. She recognized the square face littered with scars of the bald man. He was amongst those that had watched her in the Capri arena. She did not know his name, even though he had probably introduced himself during the opening ceremony.

He did not even look at her.

“Bunch of virgins! You are two minutes late, which means two more laps. Total of eight! Come on, get running you lazy-ass vermin!”

Nay sighed for the third time of the day.

‘What an unexpected teaching method…’ She thought with irony. ‘Do all soldiers or ex-soldiers feel the need to shout like they are talking to Yae’s? Why can’t they try the Sage-Brother’s method?’

One of the children, a bit on the round side, asked confusedly: “Eight laps sir? Of what?”

“Running! You have to run eight laps! And do not call me sir, I’m Tiër.”

“But I’m not dressed to run…” The boy complained.

As he very justly remarked, except Nay and the boy with green eyes, no-one was wearing anything appropriate to physical activity. The two girls were still wearing their beautiful dresses and the boys their layers of coloured fabrics.

“If you’ve got spare clothing, you can go and change…”

The boy sighed in relief.

“But every minute you waste is another lap added to your total.”

The children had a frightened look all of the sudden.

Then Tiër added. “And all this talking is giving everyone one more turn.”

The kids hurriedly went inside the changing rooms, except Nay.

She was surprised to see the green-eyed boy leave as well.

“Can’t run with that?” She asked as he passed next to her.

He grimaced.

“Those are my best clothes. My mother would kill me if I tore them.”

She looked at him.

Simple vest and trousers. Basic shoes, good quality leather though. He was probably coming from an extremely poor neighbourhood.

He cut her train of thoughts. “I have to go. I don’t want to do forty-five laps. My name is Massimo by the way.”

“Nay.” She answered with a sympathetic smile.

“Happy to meet.” And without waiting any more, he ran behind the other kids towards the changing rooms.

Nay hoped they all remembered where the rooms where.

She turned around, facing the Virnyl guard.

He finally looked at her and gave her a carnivorous grin.

“Nice scar.” He pointed at her throat.

Her hand flew to hide it from view.

“I have to thank you for the exhibit, it was nice to watch.” His tone of voice had completely changed.

“Thanks.” She answered, a bit perturbed by his strange behaviour.

“But unfortunately for you, I don’t like show-offs. Start running, you will stop when the last kid finishes his last lap. As you’re the Legio’s daughter, it’s rather generous, don’t you think?”

She clenched her teeth shut, then nodded and started running.

Endurance had been her father’s first training as well. For hours sometimes. Then doing the same basic technique, one hundred, two hundred times…

She never got used to it, as each time she was beginning to get it, Marke was upping the difficulty. And as it would seem, it did not look like she would be spared by her new teacher either.

In the middle of her second lap, the kids emerged from the school building.

“Well you slugs? Five minutes to change? Were you playing princess? Six laps for you all, for a total of sixteen, the extra one is because I don’t like your face, fatty.” He pointed at the round boy that had spoken before. The boy looked red, mixture of shame and anger.

“How dare you? I could ask my father to…”

“Your father is the one who told me to call you fat. Because you are.” The Virnyl guard retorted.

The boy’s mouth closed and reopened in shock.

“…What?”

“Yeah, he’s tired of looking at a piggyletto in his house. Get muscles, be a man. Now run, or I’ll add another lap.”

So everyone began running.

Looking at them, Nay doubted they had ever run before.

Three started sprinting right from the get-go, most likely thinking it would let them finish faster, only to get wheezy after two laps. Contrary to those three, the green-eyed boy, the girl with the red hair and the round boy were all going at a good, steady pace. It surprised Nay to see the latter so collected. Their teacher’s insults and taunts had not gotten to him. She was impressed.

“Are you playing tourist Nay?” Shouted the guard, noticing her meandering gaze. “You’re too slow, run faster!” He continued.

‘I’m already going faster than most of the others!’ She thought, offended.

But she did not retort anything, continuing to grit her teeth. She knew all too well how men like him worked. A big mouth would only bring trouble upon her.

“And you slothy…!” Tiër had already lost interest in her and was shouting at another child.

After ten minutes of what felt like unending motion, Nay realized she was in a predicament.

Some of the children would never finish the assignment, and as such, she would not either.

She thought about how to help while on her eleventh lap.

She stopped next to the second girl, the golden-haired one who had started too fast, and who now could only barely walk.

With no spoken words, Nay grabbed her shoulders and started pushing.

“What the…?” Asked the girl weakly.

“I’m only allowed to stop when you’re all finished. So please, just run.” Said Nay factually.

“But you’re, ow, pulling my hair you savage!”

Nay stared. It was true she was doing exactly that by pushing her shoulders, so she smiled and apologized. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to harm such beautiful golden hair.”

With Nay’s help, the girl quickly finished her laps. Her face what tomato-red at the end though.

Nay then ran towards the next child who had had enough, helping one after the other the slowest children.

Most were grateful, but not the other girl, the one with the short red hair. She may have started with a reasonable pace, but she evidently had not trained her endurance before at all.

“I do…not…want you…to help me…commoner!” She shouted when she saw what Nay was trying to do.

Nay did not react to what she supposed was an insult: she had no idea what it meant anyway.

“As you wish.” She answered with calm before going to help the chubby boy.

At first, she thought he would refuse her help as well.

“Getting…helped…by a girl…I…”

“If you…don’t want to…” She started to answer, her own endurance finally beginning to crumble.

“I…didn’t say…that. But promise… me. It…won’t cost…a favour…”

“Promise.” And without wasting any more energy, she began pushing him forwards.

Massimo, the green-eyed boy, did not need her help. He was first to finish.

When finally, the last child was done with his laps, she stopped and sat down.

She was completely spent. Sweating profusely and trying her best to catch her breath, her whole body hurt.

Still, a Legio’s lesson resounded inside her head.

“Showing weakness is like showing Rreico, if someone catches it…What happens when someone catches your Rreico, Nay?”

“You lose.”

“You die. Nay, you’re dead.”

She stood up and took a deep breath. She showed a large smile and got closer to the teacher and the other children.

The red-haired girl looked at her weirdly. She had gotten through her laps with pure will, and her knees were shaking.

The strange gaze was most likely because the sweat on Nay’s flushed face made the attempt to hide her tiredness ridiculous.

The teacher stood taller than everyone else, clearly trying to dominate them with his size. He oozed authority as he spoke.

“With me you’ll learn endurance and skills with most weapons. Teacher Marke will instruct you in the ways of hand to hand combat and of course, swordsmanship. To make it simple, my lessons are here to make your life the un-kind hell of Trayx. If you want to play with blades, it’ll be afterwards.”

Then, before anyone could catch a break, he ordered them to stand up. The children all obeyed of course, too scared to do anything else, even if it was difficult for most to stand on their feet.

“Today, in honour of the girls in the group, we’ll use a girl’s weapon, and transform it into a deadly weapon. Go in the armoury and take a bow, a quiver, a glove and some arrows. They are in the wooden chests…GO ON! FASTER!”

Nay knew where the room was, but she had not entered it before. It was where armours and training weapons were stored.

Quickly, the students ran towards the armoury door to get the requested objects.

She wanted to take her time though to get some rest. The room would be too small to let everyone in anyway, and she decided to go in last.

She felt the other children gazes upon her. Glances, nothing more, but as she glanced back, she saw fear or admiration, she was not sure which. She did not really like either. The green-eyed boy and the round boy smiled at her when they exited the armoury a bow in hand.

She entered the dark and narrow room with no windows. It was filled with dangerous-looking things. No wonder she had not been allowed inside before.

She grabbed a bow, a quiver, and the three remaining arrows. It took more time to find a glove, and then she went back outside.

“Not in a hurry?” Asked Tiër menacingly.

She only raised her shoulders. Someone had to be last in the end and she did not understand his annoyance.

“I see, a rebel, uh? An example then, come, you’ll demonstrate. Stand next to me.”

She did what he said.

He turned around to face his students.

“Can some of you mongrels tell me why a glove helps novice bowmen?”

Only one hand rose in the sky.

“Yes?” Tiër pointed at it.

“After shooting numerous times, the rope can hurt your fingers.” It was the short, red-haired girl who had answered.

“Good! A girly weapon, no wonder it’s the girl who knows the answer!”

His insulting tone worked, as she fumed in anger, but cleverly, she did not retort a thing.

“Nay, hit the dummy.” The teacher instructed, not caring for the murderous gaze that the red-haired girl was sending him.

“But…I have never shot a bow before?” Her response escaped her lips. She was wincing even before he started shouting.

“Argue my orders one more time and you’re not getting anything to eat at lunch and you’ll be using that time to run instead!”

“Yes Tiër…”

She wore her glove and cocked an arrow. It took her two tries before managing it. Then, as she started pulling the rope, she felt her muscles tense fiercely under the strain, it was not a girly weapon at all!

She concentrated and aimed. She saw the dummy, what seemed like its face. She inhaled, exhaled, then let the rope glide away from her fingers.

“…Impressive…” Said the teacher.

She was only looking at her incredulous result.

“I’ve never seen a shot worse than this one. If you were trying to kill someone on the Meridional road three hundred feet in the air? Even then, it would have been a horrible shot.”

The arrow was now stuck on the natural wall, thirty or forty feet up in the air.

“Very well Nay, you can start doing push-ups as an apology. In the meantime, let me explain what you did wrong.”

She grunted but lowered her body and started going up and down with her arms.

“Count them.” He ordered.

She could feel the gaze of the other children looking at her with pity. It was not much better than awe or fear. She grunted again.

“That’s not a number!”

“Grr…One!”

“So mongrels. One! You cock an arrow in one swift movement, not four thousand like the little rebel here, the enemy is not going to wait for you.” He accompanied his words with a demonstration with his own bow.

“Two! You aim with one opened eye, not both. Three! It is not necessary to pull the rope that much with such a close target, you’ll just tire yourself out for nothing. Four!”

Nay was already at ten.

“Why the hell did you close your eyes after you shot!? And Five! Your stance…it’s so bad, if you continued doing that when using a bow, you’d become a cripple after the third shot. Do you get it?” He was speaking as slowly as possible, and even though he was reprimanding her, he was clearly explaining everything so that the other children could understand as well. Still, she answered.

“Fifteen…yes!”

“Get up.” He instructed. She did as he asked.

Then he continued. “Let me show you. Then all of you try to do the same.” He looked at the target. In one fluid movement, he nocked an arrow, pulled the bow’s string then let it go. The arrow flew directly towards the dummy and entered the soft hay of its torso.

“You share one target with another, stand sixty feet away, that’s this line here, if one manages to hit the dummy, the other has to do ten push-ups. If none of you hit it before the end of the exercise, thirty push-ups for you both. COME ON LADIES GET GOING!”

This training proved disastrous for Nay. She was usually a fast and proficient learner but now, she was reduced to just watching the others train. Tiër had decided to put her on the bench. After shooting two more times, he judged it would be better for everyone’s health and safety to remove the bow from her hands. Of course, she had to do push-ups in the meantime.

Lunch break was her salvation.

The young students carried themselves towards the largest room in the school, the refectory. It could handle four times as many as they were. It was simple in appearance but Nay knew it was more than that after having seen the construction of it with her own eyes. The floor had been made in a rare northern-imported white yew wood, the tables had been hand crafted by a rather well known woodworker, which had costed a fortune, and the large windows were specifically designed to let the largest amount of light enter. The whole school was built with the same philosophy. It needed to be luxurious and qualitative to please the rich families, but also be austere enough to reproduce the idea of a military academy.

She took a seat next to one of the big windows. None were the same, some were simple, others coloured. This one had beautiful orange specks inside and seemed to represent the sun.

Shortly after, another student joined her, a poshly-dressed boy who had to be the same age she was. He smelled of sweat. He had the typical Gite noblesse look: blonde hair in a bun and green eyes.

“Did you really beat a guard in a duel?” He asked, curious and apprehensive at the same time.

Before she could answer, other children joined him to ask their own flurry of questions.

“Is your father really the Sergeant-General Marke? The one who served under the Imperatrix?”

“How old are you? How did you manage to run for so long?”

“Did you fail the archery lesson on purpose?”

It was the red-haired girl who had asked her that last question.

Submerged by her sudden spike in popularity, Nay did not know what to do. She decided to answer what was asked last.

“No…It was just my first time, that’s all.”

“Cannot be good at everything, right? My name is Trinne, and I’ll become the first female Virnyl Guard in history.” She almost said that aggressively.

“Erm? Okay?” Responded Nay quizzically.

“And the guard? Did you really beat him? I’m Trevier by the way.” The boy with blonde hair tried his question again.

“I…He was careless and underestimated me, I just surprised him that’s all. I couldn’t even hold my ground three seconds against…” She never managed to finish her sentence, as a large “Oooooooooooh!” cut her off.

“I’m Gervier.” Said another golden-haired boy, this one with brown eyes.

One called Gervier and the other Trevier, both with the same hair. Nay grimaced, she would never differentiate them.

Everyone began giving their names, and Nay felt woozy.

Her mother saved her as she entered the room in her reminiscent white apron.

“Silence! Everyone sits or no-one gets to eat today!”

Immediately, the children scattered away.

Massimo, the chubby boy, and the blonde girl stayed and sat around her. Ra’fa brought nice looking plates filled with warm-looking food to each table, not even giving Nay a glance.

She was thankful for it.

“Thank you for your help during training.” Began the round boy once served. “My name is Fredere, and you are Nay, is that right?”

She nodded.

The others introduced themselves as well.

“As I said before, I’m Massimo. Your father and mine fought together.” The green-eyed boy held out his hand and she shook it.

“…I’m Veridienne, I also need to give you my thanks…” Nay barely heard her talk. She gave her a smile, and the blonde girl almost pushed her face inside her plate as only answer.

“You are rather famous now in upper-Gite. A normal citizen beating a Virnyl guard, it’s quite unheard of. This school was the perfect opportunity to leave my house.” Fredere seemed quite friendly as he spoke.

“You’re coming from a noble family?” She asked.

“Did you think that because of my clothes? No, my family is just rich.”

Nay saw Massimo’s beautiful traits fill themselves with disgust.

The chubby boy noticed as well.

“Massimo, your family is from the northern lower-Gite, isn’t it? Sorry to be so direct with our differences, but just as you can’t do anything about it, I can’t do anything about it either. It’s not all pretty for me too you know. I’m never allowed out of the house and I can’t meet other children my age. I had to be the one to beg my father to be allowed to come here, and if it allows me to lose weight, well, that’s a plus!”

Nay could not help but respect the boy’s maturity. He had to be eleven at most, and here he spoke like an adult.

Massimo answered with venom in his tone.

“Well, where I’m from, weight cannot be gained, ever. Only lost. So sorry if I don’t care about your ‘problems’ rich-guy, it just makes me want to puke.” He then stood up and left the table with his food to sit at the table with the red-haired girl.

Fredere looked at him the whole time, before speaking his mind out loud.

“Strange how one can criticize one’s wealth, then go and sit next to the wealthiest of them all.”

“Who?” Asked Nay. She had not liked Massimo’s tone and was not bothered he left. She would rather try to make friends with the mature one.

“Trinne. It’s the Duke’s daughter. He came to introduce her personally during the school’s opening…” Veridienne informed her with a timid voice.

“Oh…” Nay answered, not really interested anymore. She asked a question directly at the chubby kid. “If you’re the one who decided to come here, don’t you find it strange that your father asked for you to be called fat?”

His eyes widened. “True, now that you say it, my father didn’t care much at all about what the school was…”

Nay thought about it.

“Tiër lied, I guess.”

“What?”

“Why would he speak to your father, or the opposite? Tiër just wanted to annoy you.”

Fredere stared at her for a while, then changed the subject.

“I know you’re not from a rich family either, what do you think about eating with a rich bourgeois and a little noblesse lady?”

Nay hid her surprise when understanding that Veridienne was indeed noble. She thought that the girl was the bourgeois one, and the boy the noble one. Appearances were deceiving.

She bit in the steak in front of her, it was starting to cool off.

“Don’t care.” The food was luxurious, she had never eaten meat so tender and juicy.

“Oh?” Said Fredere, interested.

She spoke with her mouth full. “Marke always says that you judge someone on his actions, not his title or origins.” The sentence did not sound so profound when it was said with a mouth full of juices and meat.

“Your father seems a rather intriguing man. I’m quite excited to see what he’ll teach us this afternoon. Can’t be worse than with Tiër.”

Nay looked him up and down, stopping upon his unfortunate physique.

“I don’t think you should be excited. I assure you.”

Nay sighed and yawned the whole afternoon. Sage-Brother Berth’s lessons were still retellings of his older lessons, and she had eaten too much. She dozed off the whole time. Then, when they began the lesson with Marke, she had to do the same things she had done for years, but at the same speed as the others. Which meant way too slowly. She felt slightly better when watching the poor Fredere, who seemed on the verge of passing out every few minutes.

She was not the most unfortunate here.

She came back home in a sour mood.

She had to talk to her father, who was speaking with Ra’fa in the living room.

Her mother saw her daughter’s dark look, and for once, decided to retreat.

“I’m making dinner.” She announced.

“Why do we have a guard as a teacher? Why is he so much harsher with me than with the other kids? Why do I have to do the old training with you?! I don’t need it anymore!” She shouted in anger at her father.

Marke smiled. “So, you don’t want to be treated differently during Tiër’s lessons, but you want to be treated differently during mine?”

She groaned.

“Don’t dodge my questions! You know what I mean!”

“I’m not so sure.” The Legio answered, still smiling. “If you want to know, the Virnyl guard was recommended by Redrick, probably to keep tabs on us. But he’s a decent soldier and has teaching experience, so it’s a good deal. A known spy is less dangerous than a hidden one.”

“He’s going to watch us and report to Redrick? And you just let him? He’ll steal your techniques!” Nay was lost.

Marke laughed softly.

“Oh, he can try, and even if he did, we’re not enemies, merely rivals, it wouldn’t be that bad. And if he’s hard on you, it’s because I asked him to be. I’d like for you to make friends with the others. I don’t want them to think you’re treated better because I’m your dad. You need friends, the one from the bath doesn’t count, she’s much older and you rarely see each other.”

It was true that Nay spoke with Feryn often when Ra’fa and her went to the Jasminn. She liked the company of the adventurous teenager, but she didn’t know if they could be called friends.

“And for the exact same reason, you’ll be treated the same as everyone else during my lessons.”

The Legio’s explanations made sense, which did not please Nay at all. She also spotted a conniving look between her parents, as if Ra’fa had been involved in the thought process. Which she definitely had been.

“But…but…I’ll stagnate! I’ll stop improving!” She tried to counter.

Marke’s expression became serious.

“Basics, you never master them enough. To be honest, I think it’s the best way for you to get better. Start over, again and again.”

“This is crap!” Immediately she put both of her hands on her mouth.

“Crap? Where did you learn that moat-cat word, miss?”

She tried the angelic smile to get out of trouble. It had no effect.

“Ra’fa?” Said Marke.

“Yes Hani?”

“Did you hear?”

“I did. I’ll add mushrooms to today’s soup. I heard it helps with politeness.”

“Nooooooooo…” Exclaimed Nay in an agonising shout.