I batted away the offending hand that pinched my nose.

“Not now,” I mumbled. “Let me sleep…”

I knew I had dreamt of something pleasant, but it was already slipping away. I yawned—and a pillow slammed into my face, jerking me awake.

“Shh, it’s alright,” Devi whispered as she choked me with the pillow. “Sleep now…”

I pushed her off me, jolting upright. My first instinct was to look at the clock, then I remembered that we didn’t have a clock, then I realized that I didn’t understand the clocks in this world anyway. Devi must have guessed my thoughts however, because she uttered the two words that I hated the most.

“Training time.”

I groaned, then slumped back down to the bed—and froze when I saw Devi raise her pillow again.

“You’re not funny,” I said as she started giggling. Her silvery-white hair was tangled up from sleep, and framed by her crown of horns she really did look like the devil herself. My morning devil.

I sighed, then clambered out of the crowded bed. Imaya had cried herself to sleep on the other side of Devi, but the Sylven girl’s attempt to murder me hadn’t even woken her up. Teva’ryn was awake however, watching us from the sofa. I bid him good morning as I made my way to the kitchen area, washing my face and cursing this world for not having coffee. I hoped I wouldn’t find out later on that the Inspectors had intentionally banned coffee, because then I’d be truly angry at them.

I changed into the same beige shorts and faded shirt I had worn when I arrived to Fortram, while Devi donned her leather armor. We let Teva’ryn know that we’d be back soon, then slipped out into the cool morning air. The city was more quiet than usual, and so I could hear the fall of our footsteps as we strode toward the nearest carline. Devi hummed a happy tune that sounded vaguely familiar. I felt my lips curl upward as I listened to her.

I was becoming rather fond of Devi, unfortunately. Not only was she smart and gorgeous, but she appreciated my sense of humor too. She had an innate fire within her, a constant desire to improve herself that I admired a lot. Sharing a room with her wasn’t unpleasant either, except for the mornings. She could be really annoying in the mornings. Stubborn too. Actually, she was stubborn as a mule all the time, but especially in the mornings. Devi was also surprisingly naive and clueless about certain things, like a human man’s need to sleep in the mornings, but those kind of things could be chalked up to the cultural differences between us.

All in all, I cared for her a lot—which was something that the Inspectors could easily exploit. Just one more hook into my flesh in case the collar around my neck wasn’t enough. Worrying about what the Inspectors could use against me was pointless, of course; I didn’t want to let this fear define my life. Nevertheless, it felt like they were pointing a gun at my head each time I thought about my relationship with Devi—which was pretty often, nowadays.

Our relationship was ill-defined as of yet, and not just because of my hesitation to commit myself to it. I faced other hurdles too, like Devi being an alien with differing customs … and possibly emotions too. Finding a partner was all business for her kind; courting the woman for a short time, getting married, having children. I didn’t get the feeling that Sylven men and women enjoyed each other’s company all that much, let alone hanging out and going on dates. The men usually did manly things together while they locked their precious women safely away. I found it alarming how difficult it had been to explain Devi what romance meant, only for her to say that they had no word for it. I wasn’t even sure anymore that Sylven people were capable of feeling love the same way humans did.

That said, Devi and I were totally dating each other! She just wasn’t aware of it yet.

Waking up hellishly early just to beat each other with dangerous sticks under the guise of training was definitely a date, for example. It wasn’t the kind of activity that I would have chosen, but these things always happened when I let the woman pick the time and place. There was a training yard for the City Watch just a short streetcar ride from home, and Devi had found out that Players could use it freely. I had been a bit surprised by this at first, until she explained that without training yards Players tended to vandalize their neighborhoods as they practiced their skills. The city was better off in the long run if it provided an outlet for Players.

The training yard itself was a wide patch of trodden earth surrounded by tall fence. Nothing too special, though so much free space in this city could certainly be considered a luxury. A few squads of the City Watch were practicing on the training dummies, so Devi and I chose a spot on the opposite side as far from them as possible. Our spars always attracted a few eyes, but we tried to avoid standing out.

I then started stretching. That had been a weird experience too, the first time I did it; I knew that I needed to loosen my muscles, but I had no idea how—until I suddenly did. Soul Eater supplied me with the knowledge and I went through a series of exercises as if I had been doing them my whole life. The same went for the sparring itself, actually. It turned out that I was an expert of any weapon, knowing instinctively how to wield and use them. My body was not always up to the task though, so I tended to fare better with lighter weapons. Still, at this point I was certain that I could hold my own in a swordfight against anyone in this training yard.

This didn’t make me proud by any means; I knew I was a fake. I would have felt worse about myself if I intended to make a living with my fighting skills, but fortunately for everyone involved, I didn’t. I had no intention to become the world’s best swordsman or risk my life more than necessary. My only goal was to improve my stamina and help Devi train, and there was no shame in using unearned fighting skills for that—or so I told myself. It made me feel a bit guilty anyway.

“Ready?” Devi asked, doing the final adjustments on her pauldrons. I liked the way the dark leather armor looked on her; it was sturdy and covered her nicely, yet it was clearly made with a woman’s body in mind. The armor’s conjoined sections fit her well while having enough flexibility that they didn’t hinder her movements too much. I could approve this part of her shopping spree—however, the same couldn’t be said about the other piece of equipment she had bought, Silverfang.

The silver-blue dagger hanging from Devi’s belt was the cause of our biggest argument so far. I disapproved her spending thousands of credits on a single, flashy weapon—but of course she thought that I was being hypocritical, since I already had Soul Eater. She refused to change her mind even after I told her that I would give Soul Eater to her anytime.

Gripping the dark blue hilt with her left hand, Devi drew and raised the silvery blade at me. Ardent light coalesced around it a moment later, forming a buzzing mass of energy that took the shape of a straight sword. I teleported Soul Eater into my hand in response, shaping the obsidian blade to match Devi’s weapon. Although I was fairly sure I wouldn’t hit her accidentally, I made sure to blunt Soul Eater’s edges.

Silverfang was, by its definition, an energy weapon. It was sharp enough in dagger-form already, but with its energy blade activated it could cut through basically any material—with Soul Eater and the edge of Devi’s portals being the only exceptions we had been able to find. Devi could also control the length of her energy blade, with the option to overcharge it and make it as long as a spear for a couple of seconds. It was, indeed, a ridiculously dangerous weapon to swing around. Whoever thought it was a good idea to spar with Devi like this was clearly foolish.

“Ready,” I said.

Devi attacked immediately, opening with a Weapon Skill called Lunge. With a few points on her Dexterity attribute it allowed her to move faster than her body would have allowed to—but it also made her movements entirely predictable. We stepped aside nimbly, letting her sword pass by our left side. When Devi’s Weapon Skill ended she wanted to swipe her blade at us, but we grabbed her wrist first and kicked at her legs, swiping her feet our from under her. We held onto her wrist as she fell to the ground, making sure she didn’t cut herself with her own sword.

“Stop using that Weapon Skill as an opener,” we said. “It’s predictable and leaves you off-balance.”

It could be worth something for Players with lots of attribute points on Dexterity, but Devi wasn’t quite there yet. Her goal here should have been to learn from these Weapon Skills, to observe how to hold the sword and how to move properly so that she would be able to do it without the collar’s assistance too. Weapon Skills didn’t teach much in the way of defense however, and neither did they give any foresight about when to use them.

Devi wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and got to her feet, grinning. I couldn’t really comprehend how she was able to enjoy this, but there she was, more determined with each defeat. She always attacked me with the intention to kill, trusting me to defend myself, and trusting me to not hurt her. She certainly had more faith in me than I did—though I felt weirdly conflicted about my capabilities. Somewhere deep inside we knew that we had nothing to fear. Devi was too weak to hurt us, and we wouldn’t hurt Devi because we found her more useful alive.

“That’s a weird thought,” I mumbled, frowning.

“Round two!” Devi said, attacking us while she thought we were distracted. This time she didn’t use any Weapon Skills, opening with a series of jabs of her own. We parried them all with Soul Eater, edging backward as she pressed on. Her stance was full of openings that would have gotten her killed in a real duel. Devi fought way too aggressively, but it was good exercise for our body and Devi seemed to enjoy letting loose too.

“Attack back already!” Devi said when we completed our second circle by constantly backing away. She launched an upward slash that would have carved us up from hip to shoulder, and we instantly recognized it as the beginning move of a three-hit Weapon Skill combo. We ducked out of the energy blade’s path, stepping closer to Devi and tapping her stomach with the flat of Soul Eater’s blade. Her second move was a vertical slash downward, but we pivoted out of the way and rapped our sword lightly against the back of her knee. Her third move was a forward thrust, a complete joke since we were already behind her. We slapped our free hand hard against Devi’s back, making her stumble to break her out of the movements of her Weapon Skill.

“Finally,” Devi said with a laugh, whirling around to face me once again. She raised her sword with renewed vigor and we swung Soul Eater at it, slapping it aside. We kicked at her side and she was too slow to react, doubling over when our boot hit her. The armor she wore protected her well enough, we supposed, though she might still gather some bruises if we weren’t careful. Devi raised her sword again once she recovered, and we attacked her again. She barely caught our blade in time, blocking so awkwardly that her energy blade almost bit into her own shoulder. Realizing her mistake, she hopped back and adjusted her grip.

“Stupid weapon,” we told her.

Anger flashed in Devi’s eyes. “Silverfang is not—”

Her sentence was cut off as we swung Soul Eater at her, catching her off guard. We stopped the blade right before it touched her neck.

“Not fair,” Devi said. “I was not ready.”

“Try saying that to the person who kills you,” we said, taking a step back. “You’re too easy to taunt.”

“Only if you call Silverfang stupid,” Devi said, pouting. She did point her sword at us however, and so we resumed sparring.

We went at each other for some time, both of us getting increasingly tired over time. Devi moved much more than we did, but she had the better constitution, so we were evenly matched in that regard—except for the fact that being exhausted was much more dangerous for us than for her. Mental strain taxed us too. A single lapse in concentration would have left us seriously injured. We were just about to call it a day when Devi pulled a trick on us; she slashed at our chest, but when we raised Soul Eater to block her strike, she deactivated her energy blade. Her dagger slipped past our sword and even though we twisted out of the way quickly, she landed a small cut on our shoulder.

“Yes!” Devi cheered, while I looked at my wound in shock.

It stung! This was the first time in a while since I had actually bled, and it hurt a lot. Not a crying-in-pain lot, just a surprisingly-painful-for-a-small-cut lot. My shirt was torn open, soaking up the blood. My crimson-colored blood, mixed with a little bit of honey-like liquid. Damn. That couldn’t be very healthy.

“Your dagger isn’t poisoned, is it?” I asked, touching my shoulder gingerly.

Devi had told me about the orange veins under my skin that had appeared during our fight in the Dungeon, but I had always been careful while sparring with Devi not to get exhausted to that point. But this orange substance … would I be able to shape my flesh like Soul Eater? The orange veins seemed to be the key for it.

I watched my wound, willing my skin to mend itself. Nothing. The bleeding had stopped though, but I wasn’t sure it had been my doing. I focused on the cut once more, then made it start bleeding again. Yep, it was me. Ouch. I covered the cut quickly with my hand.

“Randel?” Devi spoke.

“That’s enough practice for today,” I said. “And we’re sparring with wooden swords from now on.”

“What? Come on, it is just a scratch!”

“You’ve become too good with that blade already, Miss Swordswoman.”

“The greatest Sylven Swordswoman!” Devi preened. “Fine, Randel. I match you with wooden sword tomorrow.”

“The day after tomorrow,” I corrected her.

“A-ah! New weapon, new schedule.”

I groaned, but didn’t gainsay her; a wise warrior knew when to retreat.

As the two of us left the training yard, I noticed two Players watching us by the fence. A young guy wearing a feathered hat and an older man with a scarred face, knives stripped all over his armor. We gave them a wide berth, and they left us alone. Part of me wondered what they made out of me, but it was just a background thought; I was too preoccupied with my newfound existential crisis.

Could I still be considered as a human? A human on steroids? A mutant? It would have been good to know how this honey-like substance in my veins affected my body. I shivered, suddenly feeling very itchy under my skin. What if this stuff had some side-effects? Had the Inspector known what she was doing when she stabbed me in the chest with Soul Eater? Probably not. She had even mentioned that I was the first and that the bond might not be perfect.

“Watch out!” Devi said just as a small figure collided with me, making me stumble. I caught only a glimpse at him – a frightened Thardos child – before he disappeared into the crowd. And what a crowd it was! People, golems, skeletons; so many them that they were spilling out to the road, the narrow sidewalk not enough to accommodate everyone. I couldn’t even be properly annoyed by them, since they were just so interesting. Even after several days of living here, I could spot new and foreign and curious things all around. A lizard-man with an enormous nose-ring here, a guy holding a frost-covered bird on his shoulder there, a merchant selling eye-wateringly odorous food over there.

As Devi and I waded through the crowd, I noted with approval that she kept a hand on the hilt of her weapon. A smart move, considering that pickpockets thrived in this city. I fiddled with the sheath on my belt absently, thumbing the empty spot where Soul Eater had been before that Ratkin child bumped into me.

I had an idea.