"I promise I won't, I won't lie to you."

I sputtered while clutching my chest. Is that a promise I can keep though? If she knew that I was bladeless I wouldn't be able to guarantee my safety let alone the kids. As long as I was alive I could keep trying. I just needed to survive by whatever means necessary, I could deal with any issues this created later.

"I fell for your lies once. I won't be tricked again."

She jammed the blunt pole of the screaming guandao deep into my stomach and dug it around violently, threatening to mangle my organs.

"Not. A. Trick."

I managed to cough out. She pulled her Animus-blade back a little, just enough to still be uncomfortable without restricting my speech.

"Why did you lie to me?"

Did she have a power that detected lies? If so then no matter how good I was I'd never be able to get past it. What about half-truths or white lies, would she know then? More importantly, was I willing to risk my life finding out? I decided to start small,

"I was afraid of what you might think if I didn't."

That wasn't a lie, it's just vague. She stared at me for a moment before nodding. Okay! I could be vague, it didn't seem like she cared about the answer that much.

"Why?"

Or so I thought, how would I phrase this? Do I push a little further to see what I can get away with? It was a dangerous game but I couldn't think of many ways out under pressure.

"I don't dream like normal people do."

After a moment she nodded again. Technical truths and double meanings seemed fine too. Was she that enraged just by outright lies? Surely the Mistress would punish her for this and yet Olma seemed more than ready to end my life. Or was she assigned to me to make sure that I wasn't hiding anything?

"What weapon is in your dreams?"

That question was a problem. It was too specific and didn't leave me any wiggle room.

"I'm not able to answer that."

It was an awful response but the truth was that I couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Why not?"

I've been caught. In four questions I was backed into a corner that I couldn't see any escape from,

"I refuse to answer."

I closed my eyes and braced myself for a beating, or worse. But nothing happened.

"Answer me."

I cracked my eyes open. She strangely looked at me like she didn't quite understand what I'd just said.

"Answer me."

"No. Unless you want me to lie to you again."

She narrowed her eyes but didn't budge.

"What are you hiding?"

"Nothing that will hurt you."

"That's not what I meant. We can't train unless I know your blade."

I misjudged Olma. I thought I was being smart but it was the other way around, she was just stupid. Stupid and psychotic, a dangerous combination. Lies sent her into a murderous rage but refusing to answer was okay. Fine by me I could work with this. If she asked me questions in front of the Mistress I was finished but right now I had won.

"Then ask me what weapon I want to use."

She cocked her head,

"Isn't that the same question? What weapon do you want then?"

"The flamberge."

"Thank you. Don't lie to me again."

Her guandao disappeared into motes of white light. I didn't think that lying to her would be a problem for now but the more pressing matter was my broken rib. Now that the situation had calmed down, searing pain was shooting through my chest, every breath I took was like fire. The rib felt like it was going to tear a hole into my lungs if I tried breathing normally.

"Come on."

Olma grabbed my arm and tried to yank me to my feet. My knees gave out and I let loose a scream that only compounded my pain. She let me collapse to the floor where I writhed around. After a while, I forced myself to stay as still as possible until the pain returned to just being unbearable.

"I think you broke my rib."

I panted.

"I know I did, I felt it."

"Then you should know that I can't move."

I couldn't believe that I needed to explain this, there had to be limits to stupidity. But she surprised me,

"You've died once then. An attacker won't stop because you're hurt. Get over it."

Get over it? If it was so easy workers wouldn't need to take time off for serious injuries.

"Not going to try?"

Olma asked.

"I told you already, I can't move."

"You can. Is this a motivation issue?"

The way she spoke gave me flashbacks to the carrot and stick discussion with the Mistress. I didn't want to give her any longer to consider potential 'motivation techniques'.

"No, wait! I'll try. Just give me a bit."

I slowly shuffled, scooched and crawled my way to the nearest wall, it was the most physically demanding task of my life just to force myself into a sitting position. I wished that it was enough but Olma waited expectantly. Bit by bit, using the wall to keep my back straight and keep me upright I came to my feet.

It was something that I didn't think myself capable of and there was a great deal of satisfaction to be found in pushing past your perceived limits. But Olma looked just as unimpressed as before,

"Follow me."

The journey was gruelling. Every breath, every step, every stumble, every fall. I needed frequent breaks just to make sure that I didn't pass out from the pain. Sometimes she would walk through a cross intersection of hallways where there was no wall to support me. At first, I crawled from one side to the other but it took far too long and the transition from crawling to standing was awful. Why was the training hall so far away?

Eventually, I started to find ways to limit the pain, my body naturally started finding positions and levels of muscle contraction that minimised the pain of certain actions. My next breakthrough came when I realised that the wall wasn't helping all that much, it was getting me used to moving in an unnatural position and whenever I needed to leave the wall I had to deal with the pain of shifting my whole body around. It was easier just to cut out the middle man.

This was getting ridiculous. There was no way the building was this huge. We had been walking for what felt like enough time to cross the city and yet Olma just kept saying 'Keep following'. Whenever we encountered a flight of stairs a long time would pass before we met another set. Now that the pain was becoming manageable I started to pay attention to my surroundings.

Every wall of the hallways looked identical and there hadn't been a single door or room in sight. Were there hidden doors to prevent captives from easily escaping or was there something I was missing? Just then we went down a flight of stairs when I could have sworn that the last set we travelled went up. Were parts of this place designed like a maze?

Left, left, right, left, right, straight, left, left, straight, straight, right, up…

I memorised every turn, every staircase, every intersection, all of it and I came to a sobering realisation.

... Left, left, right, left, right, straight, left, left, straight, straight, right, up…

We were walking in a circle.

For an ungodly length of time, we were walking in an enormous loop! I didn't even know how many full laps we completed and the design was just convoluted enough that it always felt like you were making forwards progress I was even pretty sure that it looped under itself in a couple of spots. Every intersection or off-shoot led to an easily visible dead end. Except one.

I continued following Olma as instructed up until we encountered the hallway that banked left around a corner. Then I stopped.

"What's the hold-up?"

"I want to leave. I'm tired and I'm hurt. I want to go back to my room."

I said while pointing at the hallway that we kept avoiding. I didn't mince my words. She would flip out if I lied, so I just told her how I felt, the worst thing she could do is say,

"No. Today's training isn't done. You've gotten stronger already."

She spoke matter of factly. I decided that I hated this forge burned woman. I wanted to yell at her for lying to me but I knew full well she hadn't. She never said where we were going and all she told me to do was follow her. I could only assume that this was the 'training hall'.