The following day Jasmine skipped breakfast and instead got Helen to don her dagger across her waist to go to the training grounds early. She was accompanied by the usual suspects, Sir Darius and Helen. They got there just after all of the knights, all back from the war, finished a sword training exercise. Each knight had a wooden pole in front of them buried into the ground with two wooden arms sticking out the sides. They were set up into six different groups with a drill Sargeant calling out combos and orders for the knights to follow.

Jasmine walked down the stairs, alone after telling Helen and Sir Darius to wait at the top for her, along the battlements down to the courtyard and over towards where Matt was sparring with one of the knights. It seemed that Matt continued the trend of training shirtless despite the cold morning air. He was wielding his black sword again, but he wore greaves on his shins and forearms. This time he was also. His opponent was in full armour wielding a battle-axe and a round buckler shield painted with white clouds on a black background. The knight's long blonde hair was dangling out the back of his helmet in a long single braid.

Matt was swinging his sword in an underhanded grip, repeatedly slamming into the knight's shield, and with one last push, Matt sent him sprawling onto his backside. Jasmine chose this moment to interrupt the fight. "Hey, Matty!"

Matt swung his head around so fast that it wouldn't be surprising if he got whiplash. "What in God's name are you doing here?" he asked, raising one eyebrow.

She unbuckled her dagger from her waist, belt and all, and tossed it at Matt. "Look at what my brother got me! Do you know how to use it? 'Cause if you do, you are 100% teaching me how to fight."

He pulled the knife from its sheath about an inch or so and inspected the blade. "It looks like it's made out of a dream. Are you sure you even want to learn how to fight? It's not like it's a piece of cake, and even if you are sure, you'll need to get permission from the king or one of your brothers first. I don't want to commit treason when I whoop your ass." he finished with a smirk.

The knight Matt was fighting before had stripped most of his armour off now, including his helmet, and walked over to where Jasmine and Matt were talking. He dropped to one knee and bowed his head before speaking. "My lady, it is an honour to meet you. My name is Sven Sorrensonn. I am from Asvaldr, your mother's homeland. Her brother was my mentor while I was growing up." he finished standing up.

Jasmine had rarely ever heard people talking about her mother's homeland or her relatives there, much less meet any of them. "Nice to meet you too." She gave him a warm smile. He was muscular but was around the same height as Jasmine. "You said you know my uncle? What's he like? If you don't mind me asking."

"Of course not. For lack of a better word, he was amazing. He was one of the most honourable men I've ever met. He was massive, easily double my size, and the axe that he wielded was even double that. He was also one of the sorest losers I've ever seen. Even during sparing or games, he could never accept a loss. He used always to tell us, the trainees, that " If you aren't cheating, you aren't trying hard enough. He taught me pretty much all I know about fighting and how to be a decent human being."

"Wow, he sounds amazing," Jasmine replied with a twinge of what sounded like longing in her voice."Thank you for telling me."

He smiled warmly."It was my pleasure. If you will excuse me, my lady, Matt." He added with two petite bows and strutted away to a group of other knights on a break.

"Must be nice to have people coming up and greeting you at all times of the day. Oh boy, I wish that was me!" Matt said sarcastically through the side of his mouth. Before Jasmine could respond, she was tugged backward right into someone's chest.

"What might you be doing down here?" She knew that voice. Darion. Of course, it was Darion.

Jasmine looked tilted her head upwards to look at Darion. "I'm trying to figure out how to use this dagger that you gave me, and I wanted to ask my new friend to teach me how to use it."

"You have friends?"

"Yes, I have friends, so stop being annoying!" She finished by elbowing him in the stomach.

Jumping back and barely dodging Jasmine's elbow Darion responded while laughing, "Relax, Jas, it was just a joke. So is this your friend?" he asked air quoting 'friend.'

Smoothing the back of her hair that Darion ruffled, Jasmine said, "Yes. Darion - Matt, Matt - Darion. So now that that's over with, Matt, come show me how to use this knife."

Matt was standing there, still with the dagger in his hand, staring at Darion. "So you're the prince? Honestly, you're smaller than I expected."

"Big where it counts, I assure you, but who are you to speak to me like that?" Darion asked, slightly puffing his chest.

"Nobody too important, I promise, but I would like to spar with you unless you're perhaps scared?" Matt replied, obviously goading Darion into a fight.

"Would you please save your ego contests for later? I want to use my new present." Jasmine said, using her shortcut always to get what she wanted: puppy eyes.

This seemed to get to Darion because he relented and said, "Fine, but you have to train with me and not the cocky pretty boy."

Knowing when to accept a compromise, Jasmine conceded, "Whatever, just show me how to use this thing."

Jasmine and Darion walked away from where they were standing with Matt after a small wave from Jasmine and went to the corner of the pentagonal-shaped training ground. They arrived at a pretty much-untouched patch of land and, before starting training, signalled Helen and Sir Darius to come down and meet up with them. They made their way across the training grounds and delivered Jasmine's improvised armour. It was nothing special. A dark brown, almost black leather chest plate grieves for her forearms, shins, thighs, and a black steel helmet lined with matching black fur. She also got Helen to braid her hair a long braid quickly.

"The first thing you need to know about using that dagger is that you will be at a disadvantage in almost every fight, that is, if you are fighting them head-on. You are disadvantaged in pretty much all areas of fighting; reach, leverage; strength; skill. , So basically what I'm saying is don't fight someone head-on. If you need to fight, always try and find a way to use your surroundings or outside factors to give you the advantage. Of course, this is all purely hypothetical. A lady such as yourself would never even be in a situation where she would even need to use a dagger, right?" He winked. "First, we're going to go through the basic motions; body position; footwork; hand position Etc. Then when you've mastered that, we'll move on to all the fun stuff."

Being the impatient person she was, Jasmine couldn't help but ask, "How long will that take?"

"Optimistically? About two months, maybe less if you're a quick learner."

"Can't we just skip all that stuff and get to the cutting," she paused to swing the dagger through a fake enemy, "and slashing and stuff?"

"Well, considering that you look more likely to slash your toes off than anybody else's, no, you need the basics. Desperately."

"Fine, what are we starting with then?"

***

After what seemed like hours of strenuous training, Jasmine stumbled her way back to her room with the assistance of Helen and Sir Darius. As soon as that got to the room, she had Helen strip her of her new gear and got Sir Darius to fetch dinner from the kitchens. Helen took all the dirty clothes to somewhere Jasmine was too tired to bother knowing and then came back to physically peel Jasmine from lying on the bed and drag her to the bathroom to bathe. While she was in a comatose state inside the bath, Helen brought the dinner into her room. Just the smell of it made her stomach growl like a wolf.

After she finished her bath, she dressed in a simple gown and went to where the platter of food was served, as well as a letter emblazoned with her father and mother's seals. The meal was similar to last night's; chicken served with boiled root vegetables and a side of brown rice. There was also a small bowl of raspberry frozen yogurt as dessert. She dug into the meal and simultaneously opened the letter from her parents.

Jas,

Tomorrow we will be hosting the delegation parties from Lorencio and Nynniaw. There will be a banquet, and you will be expected to try at least and be friendly. So do whatever you want in the morning, but you must be ready by the time they arrive, which will be sometime in the late afternoon if the information we've gotten is somewhat accurate. Rest well tonight.

Love,

-Your favourite dad

She fiddled with the thick piece of paper in her hands and then read the letter a second time. Some might think that rereading a letter as simple as that one twice would be foolish, but Jasmine loved the tradition that she and her father devised. One day, when Jasmine was a little girl, her father visited the different villages and towns in Tzitanu. Every time he stopped at a new place, he would make sure to send her a letter. These letters were nothing much, just menial details of his travels and little bits of information about things he saw. Jasmine still had these letters saved up, collecting dust in her closet. She often brought them out and reread them when she missed him during the war.

Jasmine finished her dinner and then brought the new letter to her closet to add to the collection. Unfortunately, the stack of papers was buried underneath some old boots at the back corner of her walk-in closet. The letters were bound with a single string of brown leather tied in a bow. After sliding the letter onto the top of the pile, Jasmine tied the bundle back up and returned the package to its spot underneath the boots.

Instead of going to the table where her meal was, Jasmine went to her bedroom and picked up the book that Matt had brought her, Sea of Stars. Helen would be back at some point to clean up her meal and make sure that Jasmine would be fine so she didn't need to worry about falling asleep. She had almost finished the book when she heard Helen enter her room and clean up her dishes. A couple of minutes later, Helen peaked her head into Jasmine's bedroom and asked, "Do you need me for anything else, my lady?"

Jasmine, too tired to form words, settled with an "mhmm."

She heard the door lightly click shut as Helen left her room. She was lying on her stomach, face down on her pillows, and could feel the book she was reading pressing faintly into the side of her body. She scooched her body sideways like a caterpillar trying and failing to move the book but only making it dig further into her side. Finally, getting frustrated, she rolled over and pulled the sheets taught, knocking the book onto the floor. Mission success. Now on her back, she nestled into her bed once more, ensconcing herself within a nest of pillows and blankets.

Her dream tonight was something different from what she usually had. It started in a barren plain of ice and snow with no buildings and structures insight, except for some small shrubs and vegetation native to tundra climates. She was gliding across the ice, not seeming to have any weight to her body, when she came across what appeared to be a bottomless pit sloping down at a steep angle. Not bothering to proceed with caution, she slid down the make-shift slide made of ice and after about half a minute, she slammed feet first into a barrier of what felt like snow. The pit cut off almost all light from the surface; she couldn't even see her hand when she held it in front of her face.

She stumbled forward, blindly shuffling her feet along the ground instead of stepping. She was shuffling along, moving with her hands out in front of her when she first heard it. At first, she almost thought that she imagined it until it happened again. It was a sort of high-pitched squeaking noise like someone was whistling. Moving towards the source of the noises was difficult because they happened at sporadic intervals, and Jasmine couldn't see where she was going. Still, eventually, her roaming hands bumped into a wall.

She slid her hands up and down and across side to side, still moving closer towards the source of the sounds. After some more searching, she found a small latch. It was freezing to her touch. She did the only logical thing anyone would think of. She yanked it as hard as she could to no avail. Wait, never mind. She opened it the first try(it definitely wasn't a push instead of a pull). After opening the door on the first try, she walked through the entrance. A slight faint glow came from the ceiling, but she couldn't see any light source. Slightly raised on a pedestal in the middle of the room was a Block of pale blue translucent ice and inside that ice was a...

"My lady! Wake up!" Jasmine's shoulders were being jerked from side to side, and when she opened her eyes, she saw Helen leaning over her face staring at her.

"What do you want?" is what Jasmine tried to say, but it probably sounded more like "whaddayouwant?"

Helen took a step backwards and sighed through her nose. "You were groaning and rolling around like someone was torturing you. I don't know what was happening, but you missed breakfast, and if you still want to train with your brother, you'll need to hurry down to the training grounds before the delegation gets here."

Right, her training. She needed to learn how to use her dagger. She nearly jumped out of bed and ran to her closet to find some clothes to wear. But, instead, she grabbed the closest thing she could, ran back to her room to grab her protective gear and dagger, and then ran out her door right past Helen, ushering her to slow down. Despite her strange dream, she couldn't help but think that today would be a great day.