“Am I going to die?”

“Yes.”

“What? That’s not an answer! When?”

“In a soon-to-come future.”

“Soon-to-come? Are you mocking me? What does that mean? A week? A month?”

“I am sorry, but I do not understand which of those questions I am supposed to answer.”

“I…how can I avoid dying?”

“You can’t. The magic is done, your answers are exhausted.”

Questions not to ask a Truth-teller, Lesson of Sage-Brother Berth.

“I must admit, I didn’t think I would be seeing you so soon.” Marke had just entered the small training room where he had been led into, Nay was already inside, sitting legs crossed on the ground.

The young Legio exited her meditation and stood up in haste.

“Dad…” She ran into his arms.

“Urf, I’m not that young anymore. Ease up a bit please.”

Nay said nothing, only hugging him tighter.

Marke scratched his head with an embarrassed look. “It’s only been a week.”

Nay finally backed off, sniffling.

“Don’t do that, you’re a woman, Ra’fa would make you eat mushrooms.”

“Sorry.” She met her father’s gaze.

He smiled for a short instant, before his face came back to its usual serious self.

“Take a blade, you’ll explain while we revisit Harakos’ botte.”

“How are your beginnings goings?” Asked Marke, dodging a sword strike that would have cut his throat.

Since the previous year they only trained with real weapons, accidents were impossible, they knew each other too well.

“Bad I would say. Or rather…I don’t really know.”

She deflected her father’s dagger and tried to disarm him.

He threw his weapon in the air and jumped backwards to catch it back.

“Yeah?”

“Redrick insisted for the girls to have private chambers. Trinne and Joanna have quite the trouble with the others because of that.”

She did a backflip. A strike she would not have been able to dodge without the Rreico whipped where she had just stood. It was too strong and fast for her to think about parrying it.

“Jealousies?” Asked Marke, not surprised at all with his daughter’s impressive acrobatics.

“Mh. That, and Trinne is good-looking.”

“I see. What about you?”

“Since the third trial, no one even dares to come close.”

“So, bad and good. Can’t you make like, a girl’s alliance?”

Nay grimaced. “We don’t exactly talk, Trinne and I. And since Joanna is always close to her, I’m not invited into their group.”

She looked on her right for a fraction of a second, but threw her dagger to the left, towards her father’s side.

Marke deflected it with the back of his hand.

“Mhh.” He praised her. “Out of a dagger now though.”

“Really? Have you seen me only pick up one?” She said smiling, putting her hand behind her.

He smiled back.

It was a bluff and he knew it, but the doubt would prevent him from using his advantageous situation fully.

“Moreover, as I told you, what I did to Joanna is definitely going to impede her desire to talk to me.”

Marke did not answer for a while. Their exchange of blows had gotten so fast, both had to be completely concentrated on their opponent’s respective Rreico.

So Nay made hers vanish.

And he did the same.

Nay’s sword was hovering next to the master Legio’s throat.

Her father’s dagger had stopped just short of her chest.

“Stalemate? You’re getting better Nay.”

He was complimenting her more and more, and Nay could not help but feel pride at that fact.

“You too.” She said back with impudence.

He sighed shortly before coming back to their previous subject.

“About Joanna, I believe you’re mistaken. There have been rumours about her, Manna told Ra’fa, she told me. If what is told is true, she won’t be the kind of person to hold a grudge. Try to talk to her, learn to know her. She could teach you things I can’t.”

“What are you tal…”

Before Nay could finish her sentence, a Virnyl guard entered the room to inform them their allotted time was over.

Without even time for a goodbye, Nay saw her father get escorted outside the room.

Outside this Academy she could not leave.

The place in itself should have been enjoyable to her. The Academy was big, the forest well-groomed, and even the air felt less heavy than in the Lower-Gite she knew.

But if there were hidden gardens, secret passageways or romantic locations, Nay was just unable to explore them, she had no time for it. Even if she was intrigued by her father’s words, she did not manage to contact Joanna.

Because her position was a special one.

Not only was she following the lessons of the Academy’s first year like everyone else, but she also had to follow the third years’ fighting class. As it replaced archery training, she was quite happy about this fact, but fighting against young adults in their prime, all with more stamina than her, was extenuating.

She was not allowed to talk to them either, for a reason she did not know.

To that was added the Commandare’s punishment. He had ordered her to accept every single training duel that would be asked of her.

So, every night, even after Marke’s training, she would fight a Virnyl guard one on one.

She often lost.

Redrick Darkstar’s men were formidable.

Sometimes she managed to surprise one and win, but they were all dominating her with their physical prowess and superior experience.

After a few months of this inhuman rhythm, something she was dreading since the start came to be.

During the end of the night, as the sun was still beneath the horizon, someone came to knock on her door. In no way like the rumbling of strikes that came to wake her up each morning.

Here, the knocking was strong, but soft.

Nay immediately woke up. She knew who was standing behind her oak door. She felt no Rreico.

Her muscles were sore, her body unusually tensed up especially on her lower back, and she was feeling nauseous. She did not worry about it and stood up.

She hid her nakedness with her sheet and welcomed her nocturnal guest.

A charming adult man, without his usual armour, appeared in front of her.

“Nay? Have you slept well?” Asked Redrick, his arm casually resting on the doorframe.

“Yes Commandare. What gives me the non-pleasure of your visit?”

The scathing words seemed to pass over the man’s head.

“Redrick please, I’m not in service at this hour. Nor are you, or I would have had to punish you for your insolence. I came to tell you about my new morning routine, I believe you could enjoy it now that you’re used the Academy life.”

Nay did not even define what she was having at the Academy as a life. Wake up, eat, train, eat, train, Marke, train, sleep. Those were basically the only things she had been doing for four months straight. With no breaks. If not for the moments with Marke where he allowed her to rest, Nay would have burst in tears in her bed every night.

Redrick looked at her in a way that gave her goose bumps.

“You grew up. You have almost caught up with the duke’s daughter now. You got more muscles, well balanced too. But with Marke and now the Academy, I wasn’t worried about that. You should not sleep naked though, you’ll get a cold, and your room smells of…blood?” He said with an interested voice.

She clenched her sheet closer to her chest. It was hurting her, but she did not show it.

Nay did not understand what his point was and had an aggressive thought that she kept unsaid: ‘He stares at me like a pervert and now he’s delirious. I’m not summoning a demon, if that’s what you think’

“I’m waiting for you outside. You’ve got twenty seconds.” And he closed the door.

She did not hesitate.

She rushed on her clothes, barely paying any attention to what she wore, not looking at the reflection in her private chamber’s mirror. It was bigger and way more qualitative than the one she had in her old room, but she hated it. She thought about Ra’fa, who would certainly have scolded her about that, and Nay smiled.

Arriving on the proving grounds, she saw the Commandare waiting for her, he was doing warmups by hopping in place.

“Good, you don’t have the same issue as the Duke’s daughter. Teachers told me she takes too much time to prepare. You don’t need that.”

Nay thought about the beautiful redhead, always elegant, even at the worst of trainings. During strategy lessons, she was always standing straight, with dignity.

The young Legio was envious of that, but also admirative. The Commandare was obviously not sharing her opinion.

What was not of the domain of fighting did not matter to him.

At least that was what she supposed. And as to prove her wrong, he brought her straight to the courtesan district, the red district of the Duke’s plateau, where appearances were queen.

The road that never slept. She had heard students talk about it in length. Describing quite loudly what they would do there once their first pay obtained at the end of the year.

She continued to follow the blond man that caught all the stares, now scared in more than one way.

Somehow, she felt lucky that Redrick was there, as the women on the street exuding eroticism were not even registering her presence.

The Commandare entered a beautiful mansion, Jarulavian-inspired in architecture, and Nay waited for him outside, asking herself what she had done in her previous lives to warrant her such torture.

A blonde face emerged from behind the silk fabrics that served as a door.

“Well Nay? Enter.” He said joyfully.

“I…”

“Get in.”

She obeyed.

They passed women on their way, and the more she followed the Commandare inside the maze-like wooden corridors, the less clothing those women wore.

They were often accompanied by men with blissful smiles, who seemed to have lost as much brain as they had gold.

Finally, Redrick entered a room seemingly at random, and sat on the ground, on a traditional support of rice stems intertwined together. The only other thing in the room was pillows, and Nay decided to sit on one of them.

Maybe she was just dreaming.

She had little hope of that fact, as foreign pain was pulsing in her core.

“We are here to get rid of your seduction weakness problem. It is perfectly normal at your age, but you are not just anyone. Seductive techniques are common with assassination practices, you cannot afford to be weak against it.”

“Erm…” Nay began against her better judgement. “I’m a girl, why would I need…”

Redrick sneered and cut her off.

“Come on. The way you hesitated against Trinne was problematic, you cannot deny it.”

“But…but…” Was it not normal to be taken aback when someone came around the Selection with barely any clothing on?

“Normal is not enough, I said that already.” He seemed to have read her mind, and she did not know how. She controlled the fearful trembling that was overtaking her.

The Commandare continued: “You should not worry, even if you were seduced and were attracted sexually, that would not be considered a crime in Gite. I have fought for our rights, and won, against the Duke’s opinion.”

“O-Our?”

He looked at her, surprised.

“Marke did not tell you? It is not a secret for everyone that I am famously admirative of men, even though a woman once in a while doesn’t bother me either. I admit being favourable to muscles.”

This declaration made Nay realise that the clothes she was currently wearing were showing hers ostentatiously. She tried her best to sink into her pillow deeper, unsuccessfully.

Redrick, undisturbed, resumed his speech.

“Now that this has been cleared, we will start your training. My chickees owe me services, and I asked for their support.

“Erm…” Why was it that whenever she was together with the Commandare, the situation was inexorably getting worse and worse.

With no signal or announcement, a group of women, all quite attractive and dressed in only layers of transparent silks instead of real clothes, entered the room through a hidden door. One of them laid a tray between Nay and Redrick, with a tea-set placed on top.

Nay did not know where to look anymore.

She decided to stare at the blonde man, which, for once, was not the worst thing she could do.

“Good. Now, my chickees are going to seduce you one by one. But there is one here that is armed, and she will try to murder you. Good luck.”

“Wait, what?” Nay almost shouted.

One of the courtesans stopped the young Legio’s protest by complaining herself.

“Drik-Drik, I like you, and doing it with a woman doesn’t bother me, but come on, she’s a child. That’s really not my thing.”

Redrick brushed her off.

“Jin, she may look like a ten-year-old, true, but she’s technically sixteen. Maybe even more, no one really knows.”

“Mhhh sure but…”

“For me.” He asked charmingly.

The courtesan sighed: “Yeah, sure…You don’t know your own age deary?” She asked directly at Nay.

The girl had the bad idea to look at the woman directly in the eyes, and then to lower her gaze slightly. That last action was out of her control, as if her eyes had their own gravity.

“yes?” She barely let out the word.

Her chest hurt, and her belly even more. She was guessing it was a result of the training of the previous day, but she was doubting that theory more and more.

She felt blood flow in her cheeks, definitely giving her a Grive apple look. Or Tergee, she still mistook both kinds, and Veridienne was not there to help.

The Commandare did a hand gesture, and that meant the end of her nostalgia.

Each of the women, one by one, came to whisper sweet words in her ears, touched her with their hands, lips and body.

Nay had almost forgotten the part where one was going to try and kill her.

Almost.

She felt the attack. The Rreico had been evident, clearing her mind as easily as mistral wind was doing with clouds.

She disarmed the courtesan without even looking at her. The hidden blade swirled in the air before hitting the ground next to the Commandare.

The women exited the room on the spot, one stroking her hand in pain.

“Good. Rreico is quite effective to prevent those kinds of things, I forgot.” The Commandare complimented her.

Nay was astounded.

“You…the Rreico is a secret…only the Le…”

“It is a Legio’s technique? True. Still, you should have guessed that I knew about it considering I am able to hide it.” The chief of the Virnyl guards finished her thoughts in her stead.

“But…how?” Could this monster know everything? Was he truly unbeatable?

“Marke did not tell you? We are…well were friends, you know? We trained with the same master. Even if I have never been able to perceive the Rreico.”

An anvil falling on her would have affected her the same. Friends…? Her father had never told her…he never really talked about his old master nor his past, but hiding this from her? Why? Why not tell her?

“You’ll talk about it the next time you meet, no?” His smile was back.

‘He will break you Nay.’ Her father’s words.

But how was the Commandare going to do that? With truth? What could she do against that?

She was interrupted in her thoughts by the pain in her belly accentuating.

Redrick continued, not noticing the girl’s state.

“In the meantime, let us resume the training. This time, there will be multiple attempts to your life. Some of the girls are more used to it, and their Rreico will be more subtle, stay sharp.”

The pain Nay was feeling had become unbearable. Even the courtesans that just entered, dressed even less than before, did not manage to distract her from the heavy cramps shaking her core.

Redrick finally understood something was wrong.

“Nay?”

“I…” She could not show weakness to this man, she had to…she had to…

“Oh!” A courtesan exclaimed.

He stood up, his smile was gone, sincerely angry.

“What have you done? I said no poison!”

“Calm down Drik-Drik, we’ve done nothing. You’re going to clear the room and let us care of the child.”

Nay felt his Rreico for the first time. She could not have described it. There had to be dozens, no, hundreds of actions budding and extinguishing at the same time. Too many for her to be able to comprehend or interpret.

This should have reassured her. It showed that the man really was one. But a prickling down her belly forced her to curl on herself. She gripped her legs but stopped right away. She felt a warm liquid on her hands. Acrid, metallic liquid.

Ignoring her, the Commandare was still furious.

“She is clearly unwell, and you are the only ones who…”

“Drik-Drik, you may be the most understanding man I know, you are still a man.”

The Commandare’s anger vanished as if it never was, his answer now cold as ice.

“Karmena, I let you have a lot of free reign but…”

But the one who was named Karmena did not let him finish.

“Look from where she bleeds…It is her day of the woman.”

‘My what?’ Thought Nay.

The Commandare’s outburst and emotions dissipated immediately.

“Oh.”

“Yes…Oh. Get out.”

There was a long silence, finally cut short by Redrick.

“Nay, I shall put out a word for you at the Academy, you’ll be exempted of training today.”

“I was supposed to be with fath…Marke tonight.” She pleaded.

Redrick thought about it.

“He will be allowed to come, but no training.” He finally announced before quickly leaving the room.

Most of the courtesans did the same, but Karmena knelt in front of her. She ordered another courtesan to bring some warm water. It was the same one who had protested to the training.

Nay examined Karmena, she who had taken the Commandare by surprise and shut him up. She seemed older than the other courtesans. More confident, at ease, she gave out a kind of charisma that made the other women almost bland, even if she was arguably less beautiful than them.

“I have to thank you, my girl, it is not every day that I manage to embarrass that man. Moreover, helping you gets me out of a favour I owe him.”

Her accent was heavy, though Nay could not establish its provenance, but her words were clear and well formulated.

“I…what is the day of the woman?” Managed to ask the teenager.

Karmena could not hide her shock. “How can you not know about that? It means that after today, you’ll start becoming a woman and will need to be careful about…well you still have time before that.”

Ah, Ra’fa called them periods, Nay remembered now. She had since long abandoned the idea of having them.

“Is it supposed to hurt like that?”

The courtesan gave her a comforting smile.

“It depends on the individual. Considering how late it is for you, I’m not surprised you suffer more than is usual.”

Nay responded with a grunt.

“Let me lay you down, you shouldn’t curl up like that, it tenses your body and accentuates the pain.”

She grunted again.

“You clearly need to get out of the Academy more often. I will talk about it with the Commandare. There are ways only a woman can teach, after all.”

This woman’s Rreico was terrifying, it was like Manna’s, Jasminn’s owner.

The feeling went away.

“Everything is going to be fine.” Said Karmena in a softer voice, bringing Nay’s head to rest on her knees.

Except this strange Rreico, this woman was reminding Nay of someone else. But once again, she could not remember who, the memory was…

Nay fell asleep, her tired body relaxing through this moment of lull.