Kain looked at the speaker shocked. On further recollection it was obvious it would not be his mother, she wouldn’t even know where to find him and no one would tell her. They would have sent someone to call him instead. He was an idiot for thinking it could have been her.

Letting out a light cough to compose himself, he replied, “My apologies, Ma—your dad isn’t here. We finished training over an hour ago.”

“I know.” She smiled, “I came to see you.”

The smile was beautiful. She was beautiful. Unfortunately, it meant nothing. Kain was already well aware of what she and her mother were trying to pull. He had hoped they gave up on their little scheme. He only saw Madam Fortem during dinnertime and he hadn’t seen either of her daughters in weeks. Alas, one look at her gorgeous, radiant smile and he instantly knew the games were back on.

Invite her in.

Are you crazy? I want nothing to do with her.

And I want to be human.

Ugh. Not in this context.

Oh, shut up. She walked all the way here to see you. Indulge her.

Kain returned the smile, “Uh. It's an honor, but I’m afraid I don’t have much to off—”

She cut him off, “Don’t worry. Your company is all I ask. Can I come in?”

Kain.

Shut up! I get it.

Kain move to the side of the doorway and gestured inside with this hand, “Of course.”

The arberdir looked unsettled, but now that Kain had invited her in she couldn’t do much. Unable to refuse her entry anymore, she let her enter the gym and merely closed the door behind her. When she thought about it, it was the best outcome. This way she wouldn’t get in trouble for disobeying Sir Fortem’s order or ignoring Julia’s request.

—————

Kain followed Julia as she walked into the gym. Even though he listened to Kaige’s wishes, he didn’t really have a plan. There was nothing in the gym besides equipment. The only way for them to entertain themselves would be to chat. While Kain was confident in his conversational skills, he was woefully inexperienced as far as flirting goes. Last time they met he hid that fact by playing the piano. It worked brilliantly then. Apparently neither her nor her younger sister had ever seen someone play the piano before. They snuggled up close to him trying to figure out how he was doing. In hindsight, it was all probably an act at first. It didn’t matter though, it still accomplished it’s task. Now, walking to the center of a gym full of nothing but weapons, armor, dumbbells, and other equipment, he couldn’t think of anything he could use to impress her.

Hmmm? I tho —

Shut it.

Julia stopped walking and turned around to face him. Having recoiled from the shock of seeing her again, he finally got a proper look at her outfit. She wore a red and grey dress. It was made with silk and velvet. The light grey of the silk contrasted beautifully with the deep red of the velvet. The velvet only featured sporadically however, serving as accents for the predominantly light grey dress. Unlike the elaborate gowns Kain often sees her mother wearing, Julia's had an incredibly simple design. That’s not to say Kain wasn’t allured by it.

The silk texture added a beautiful shine and the ruffles going down the dress made for a very elegant feel. Flowing down from her collar to her waist were two thin strips of red velvet. The top half of the lacking in any design whatsoever, save for small frills at the shoulder, the velvet strips added welcomed dynamism to the dress. The bottom half followed the same formula. The overall design being rather simplistic, with a few streaks of red flowing down the dress’ ruffles stylishly. Thankfully for Kain, it was non-bustled too. It was nowhere close to form fitting—from the waist down that is—but Kain still preferred the look.

“..ou listening? Kain?”

Kain snapped out of his daze, “Oh. Um..my apologies. I was..uh..its..it's not often I’m privileged with the presence of someone so beautiful.”

He bowed slightly after..

Julia giggled in response, “Stop it. You flatter me.”

Kain quickly rose, “I do not. You are the most be—-”

Julia took a step towards Kain and covered his lips with her finger, “Enough about me. I want to talk about you.”

Kain silently nodded.

“Good.”

She walked towards some chairs resting by a wall and sat down. Patting the seat next to her, she called Kain over. Kain swiftly took the seat.

Resting her head in her palm she looked up at Kain and asked, “How’s training with my f—dad?”

Kain avoided eye contact, “Training? Um. Yeah...it's been great. Your dad’s a fantastic teacher.”

“What do you guys do?”

Kain was a bit shocked by the question, “Exercises and stuff. You uh..you wouldn’t want to know.”

Julia chuckled, “I wouldn’t ask if I didn't want to know.”

Kain chuckled along with her, “Right, right. Let’s see..it's largely endurance training. We’re out in the snow most of the time. Even when I’m not running, like lifting weights, for example, we still have to be outside. Plus, If I’m unlucky enough for it to not be snowing on that day then I have to train practically naked too. It’s torturous, literally. The only ‘breaks’ from that are when we move inside to spar, but honestly that's not much better. He just constantly whoops my ass and calls it ‘practice’. Its li-” Kain noticed Julia’s face growing uninterested and cut his response short- “My bad. I didn’t mean to have a whole monologue like that.”

Julia immediately pulled out the most beautiful of smiles, “No don’t apologise. Keep going. I want to know more.”

She’s faking…

Kain and Julia kept talking for several more minutes. Julia, to Kain’s bemusement and discomfort, kept the conversation about his training and stories about what it was like practicing with her dad. Even though Kain would have much rathered talk about topics a girl would find interesting, he went with her flow. He tried his best to put a comedic twist on some of the stories and even got a few laughs out of her. As the conversation went on, he grew more comfortable and Julia’s facade seemed to break.

“...when that happens the first person I’m fighting is your dad.”

Julia smirked, “Oh come on!”

“Come on nothing. He’d deserve it. After the torture he’s put me through, it’d be a taste of his own medicine.”

Julia laughed, “If I didn’t know any better. I’d think you hated my dad.”

“I don't hate him at all. I just think his shoulder could do with some dislocating. It’s called poetic justice.”

Julia lightly elbowed him, “More like revenge.”

Kain acted flabbergasted, “What? Revenge? Me? Noo. Of course not. Nothing of the sort. It's more of a...a graduation ceremony.”

Julia stifled her laughter for a moment to ask, “What’s a graduation ceremony?”

“Right uhh. It's a ceremony you hold when you’ve completed something. Like if you wanted to celebrate moving up from an apprentice to a fensir you’d throw a graduation ceremony.”

“Oh..”

Julia’s mood visibly plummeted. A solemn expression momentarily replaced her joyful laughter. It had happened more than a couple of times during their chat, but it never lasted too long. Before Kain could try to question her about it, she always moved the discussion onward. This time though, Kain was determined to get and actual response out of her.

He held her hand, “Julia. Wh—”

She immediately tried to cut him off, “Nothing. Le—”

Kain didn’t let her, “No. Something’s wrong. What is it?”

Kain held her hands firmly, seeking some eye contact but Julia avoided it and the question.

“Was it something I said?”

“No!”

She turned to him for a moment, but turned away immediately after.

“No. I was just thinking about something. You didn’t do anything.”

Kain sighed, “Why doesn’t that sound true?”

Julia gasped dramatically in response, “You dare accuse me, daughter of Sir Maleek Fortem, great malsir of Bruyn, of lying?”

The dramatic response forced a chuckle out of Kain, but he quickly restrained it. He wouldn’t let her distract him again.

“No. I’m asking Julia Fortem, the most beautiful girl in the whole world, why she won’t tell me the truth.”

You’ve called her beautiful 11 times. Find a new word.

Find a new head to complain in.

…

“Duel me.”

Kain shook his head lightly. Talking to Kaige seemed to have distracted him.

“I misheard. What did you say?”

“I said. Duel me.” She used her head to point towards the direction of the weapons rack.

Kain looked over at the weapons rack, then back at Julia, then back at the weapons rack, then back at Julia, then back at the weapons rack.

Settling on Julia again, he shook his head again, “What?”

—————

Three Days Later.

Maleek stood a few kilotelks outside Bruyn as he watched the convoy approach. They were no more than 15 minutes away at this point. Beside him stood twenty soldiers, the rest waiting inside the town. The wall hadn’t been completed yet, but the bulk of the construction that did occur, occurred on the eastern side. Fortunately, there was enough stone placed there for the soldiers to hide behind. Maleek and the soldiers waiting beyond the town’s wall sat on horseback. If negotiations went poorly, mobility would be key.

After ten of so minutes, the convoy slowed to a halt a few strides in front of Maleek. The carriages had varying colors, but they each flew flags with white wolves on them.

They fly the flag of a practically extinct animal.

After a few more minutes, seven people on horseback approached him and his men. Unlike his men however, none of them wore armor. They all wore suits, tuxedos. As they got closer Maleek could tell they were expensive too. They all had odd, intricate designs or textures. Almost all of them at least, the man in the center’s suit was plain. Noticeably plain. He was Imurian as well.

Hmm.

As soon as they were within a few strides of one another, the man called out to Maleek.

“Maleek Fortem. Former Imurian soldier, current vice-captain of the Bruyn’s garrison. Malsir. It’s an honor to make your acquaintance.”

Maleek was shocked the man knew so much about him, but he didn’t let it show. These were negotiations. He couldn’t let his emotions be swayed or shown. He needed to gain information though.

“I believe it’s customary to introduce oneself upon making an acquaintance.”

The man smiled, “My deepest apologies. You may refer to me as Zar.”