Chapter 14

Maria did her best to duck as Doron’s sword went sweeping over her head. She raised her own blade feeling clumsy as she tried to counter, only for it to be easily parried. Forced to scrambled once again, she avoided another attack as she tried to catch her breath.

It had been two weeks since the attack on Road’s End. Maria still remembered the morning after Tirr had gotten drunk. She had worried he might be sick but instead he had pulled her out of bed, given her a sword and thrown her at Doron with a smile. Since then every morning for at least 3 hours she had been forced to practice with the blade and combat in general.

The training was a cruel and grueling affair, she had lost count of the amount of times she had fallen unable to even stand anymore. Unfortunately, even that wasn’t reason for her to rest. Tirr would come, telling her to get back to it, and after a brief feeling of that familiar warmth she would be dragged back up and thrown into it again.

There had been many times she had wondered why she had to suffer like this. But whenever she thought of quitting, she remembered the faces of those knights that had cornered her in the grove, remembered what would have happened to her and the village if Tirr hadn’t woken up, and remembered his lonely face as he lay on his alter.

Maria dodged another blow as Tirr cheered from the sidelines, Garm in his lap barking excitedly. He was surrounded by a group of the village’s children, who followed his lead, cheering happily as she and Doron sparred. Tirr had gotten bored quickly in between his occasional help with the training. He had come across the children playing and in no time had named himself as their leader. They ran around the village playing games and occasionally causing mischief. One time she had failed at holding in a giggle as she watched him play like a normal child. Tirr sulked for a whole day, embarrassed at himself, before getting drawn back into a game of tag.

Near Tirr’s group was another group of the village’s young men, and even a few women. They had noticed Maria’s training and had asked to be included. None of them wanted to ever feel helpless again, even though their participation had further grown the rift in the village.

Part of the village lead by Roan, had avoided anything to do with Tirr and his spreading following. Others had joined enthusiastically, remembering how Tirr had saved them and the healing his followers had provided afterwards. Even now Nora and Lina spent much of their day attending to te normal bruises and scrapes that came from the village’s hard living. Many people had also volunteered, hoping to one day receive the blessing when Maria reached the next step of mid stage Disciple.

The split had caused a tense atmosphere as the days passed and everyone waited for someone from the Kingdom to arrive. A few families had even fled, though mostly those who had only moved to the village in recent times.

Maria fell for a feint and realized she wouldn’t be able to dodge the coming real blow. She raised her sword roughly, relying on her Blessing to give her the strength she needed. She managed to block Doron’s sword and felt a bit of joy at her progress, but quickly felt her control loosen in her excitement. She felt the warmth in her body surge and saw her sigil light up briefly as she pushed Doron back, throwing him away to land hard on the ground behind him.

The surge left her quickly and Maria felt her strength falter as she fell to the ground as well. Nora and Lina had been standing nearby and went to help Doron up as Tirr went to Maria. As she sat, she tried to apologize to Doron but was waved off, as Doron was more than used to it by now.

Tirr had explained that all the blessings naturally strengthened their holders’ body, increasing in effect as they grew stronger. The Life Blessing was special though, in that it was the only Blessing that could be directly used to strengthen the follower even more, allowing for extraordinary feats of strength.

It was difficult to use though, more tiring than simple healing and hard to control properly. Maria had found herself accidently using too much strength often during training. Leading Doron, who as a Devotee couldn’t control his Blessing at all yet, to often be on the receiving end of her troubles.

Maria felt Tirr’s hands press against her back once again and sighed as the warmth spread through her body. “I just feel so clumsy with a sword…” She said as her strength returned.

“Your strength and speed have grown a lot, thanks to the constant breaking down and healing, but true swordplay can’t be rushed.” Doron said plainly as Lina helped him up. “It’s going to take a month before you even feel comfortable with holding it, let alone actually using it.”

“It doesn’t matter if it isn’t right, if you cut them hard enough, they’ll die.” Tirr added his opinion, calling Maria back to his own rough way of handling a sword.

“No point in using a sword if all you'regoing for is strength. Something blunt would have a better effect and be less likely to break.”

“Swords look better though.” Tirr said frowning, “She needs to look dignified and awe inspiring since she’s my Apostle”

“Blunt weapons can look good too.” Dorn said, having grown used to what Tirr focused on. “I imagine if Maria gets as strong as you say she will, swords won’t work in the end anyways. She could use a mace or maul to knock her way through doors and walls, but sword would just break.”

“We only have the swords and spears we took off the knights though…” Maria said, standing up now that she was feeling better. The thought of cutting someone was bad enough, but using a blunt weapon on a person? Just the thought made her somewhat queasy.

“I think I still have a mace I got on a battlefield somewhere.” Doron said grinning, “I’ll look for it tonight.”

They were talking a bit more about the change as they set up to continue, when they heard a voice yelling towards them from the distance. It was a young hunter, one Doron had sent to watch the road towards the village. They could guess what he was saying before he got close enough to hear him.

“They’re here! They’re coming!”