The first day of class was exponentially more enjoyable than anything to date.

Before the assessment, having Katayoun only a few cubits away in class would have been profoundly distracting. Now, though, it had a different effect. Instead, knowing she was nearby somehow made it easier to stay focused.

The smaller class size made things more tolerable as well. It felt different having the teacher right there looking you in the eye. Mystic Rabya’s style of lecturing helped as well. She wasn’t preachy, nor did she make cringy attempts at humor. Instead, she was dry and sarcastic.

The morning lecture, a time period when Xerxes would previously daydream or outright sleep, sped by. And when Mystic Rabya announced it was time to break for lunch, the students groaned.

“I didn’t realize I was that interesting,” Rabya said. “I’ll try harder to bore you.”

The Seers laughed as they gathered their materials and left.

“Regroup here after lunch,” Rabya called after them. “I plan to make you cry during the practical training!”

Yet another aspect that made things tolerable, and even fun, was the group of students itself. They were a diverse bunch from a variety of starisles. Of the fifteen students who made up their class, three pairs shared a home planet. Jad and Enusat; Teucer and Lax; Katayoun and Kishar. All of the other Seers were lone representatives. Despite that, the entire group immediately clicked. They had a similar sense of humor. They seemed interested in the same things. And nobody annoyed anyone else.

“The short-haired ones are the smart kids,” Jad noted during lunch.

“Arwia and Kuri?” Xerxes said before stuffing his mouth full of spiced lamb.

“Yeah,” Jad replied.

“Why the ‘ell do Al-Ga mages shave their ‘eads?” Enusat asked.

“Ask them,” Kashtiliash said.

Jad nodded. “Good point. Just ask. They seem pretty normal. Not all smart kids are, you know.”

Enusat sniffed. “Yeah. Like Randy Gandy. No offense, Xerk, I know you and ‘im go back.”

“It’s fine, I get it,” Xerxes said. “Gandash has always been a bit of a stiff.”

Kashtiliash sucked a lamb bone clean. “True. He flaunts money. Annoying.”

Come on, he’s not that bad, Xerxes thought. But he didn’t want to create tension with his new friends, so he just put some more food in his mouth.

By this point, it was becoming clear that though Kashtiliash had been voted the leader of the Swordmasters, it was really Jad that everyone looked to for leadership. “Forget Randy Gandy,” the tall mage said. Then he looked around, lowered his head and quietly said, “We’re in a bad situation here.”

“Oh?” Kashtiliash said.

“Yeah. If you’ve been paying attention, you probably noticed that the boy-to-girl ratio around here is pretty even. I mean in general. But our class got shafted. We have ten bros and five broads. Of course, one of them is taken already.”

“The redhead belongs to Xerk ‘ere,” Enusat said. “That’s set in stone.”

“Right,” Jad continued. “So that leaves only four to split up between the rest of us.”

“It’s fine,” Kashtiliash said. “You and Enusat, one each. The other two for me.”

They all laughed.

“I call Dasi,” Enusat said.

“The one with all the nose rings?” Xerxes said.

“Yeah. But I tell you what, I wasn’t looking at her rings, if you know what I mean. She’s got it going on where it counts!” He made a crude gesture at his chest level.

More laughter.

“Alright fine,” Jad said, “that means that between me and Kash, we have our pick of Arwia, Ningal, and Kishar.”

“Arwia is the short-haired one, right?” Xerxes said. “Who are the others again?”

“Ningal’s the stick-thin girl,” Kashtiliash said.

Jad chortled. “Yeah. Ningal’s about as tiny as my kid sister. So I’m passing on her. Kishar is the red-head’s friend. Don’t tell me you already forgot, Xerk-man.”

“Oh, right,” Xerxes said. “She’s pretty, but not on the same level as Kat. And not as smart either.”

“But did you notice ‘ow wide Kishar’s mouth is?” Enusat said, “You know what that means….”

“Heh.” Jad, having finished his lamb, leaned back in his chair and started picking at his teeth with a sliver of wood. “Alright Kash, that means you can have stick girl and one other. Who do you want? Short hair or big mouth?”

As Kash deliberated, Xerxes tried to keep his expression neutral by focusing on eating. Truth be told, he didn’t much like how his friends were talking about the girls in their class.

But at the same time, it made him consider his feelings for Katayoun.

What the hell do you actually know about her? he thought. She has red hair and she’s pretty. But what does she like? What does she hate? You have no idea, do you?

“Sticks aren’t my thing,” Kash said. “I’ll take big mouth.”

“Good choice!” Enusat said, nodding dramatically.

Xerxes’ mouth twitched as he forced himself not to frown.

I can’t be this shallow, he thought. I need to talk to Kat. Learn about who she is inside.

With this new resolution in his heart, he tried to steer the conversation away from girls.

“Hey guys, I have a question,” he said.

“Oh?” Jad replied.

“Did any of you notice a place that sells longswords at the bazaar?”

“Nope,” Kashtiliash said.

Jad rubbed his chin. “Now that you mention it, I didn’t either. I saw some shops selling weapons. But no longswords.”

“Mystic Rabya probably knows the best places to go,” Enusat suggested.

That afternoon, practical training focused on horsemanship for the first half, then weapons for the second half. During that second half, Mystic Rabya gave the class members their choice between generic training options, and joining her and the Humusi Swordmasters for focus on longswords—she didn’t actually call them the Humusi Swordsmasters though. When Mystic Rabya made the offer to the other students, Xerxes snapped off a quick prayer to the Monad, asking that Katayoun join the class. He wasn’t completely convinced that the One Faith was right about the Monad, though, so he repeated the prayer and addressed it to the Pontifarch as well. Just in case.

In the end, neither prayer seemed to do much, as Katayoun joined the rest of the class for ordinary training with an Unsighted colonel from the army.

Well damn, Xerxes thought. Screw you, Monad. And screw you too, Pontifarch. You’re both useless.

As they got in line and started doing warmup exercises, Enusat asked about where to buy longswords, and Rabya rattled off a list of eight dealers. Five were in the bazaar, but only two of those were what she called ‘licensed’ dealers. And the shop she recommended was outside the bazaar, on the other side of the city.

“I’ll take you there one day,” she said. “But for now, we’ll be using wooden practice swords from the armory and nothing else. Let’s go through some basic stances and guards. I want to see what we have to work with. Start in Longfacing.”

The Swordmasters held their swords out in front of them.

“Jad,” she said, “keep the pommel pointing toward your midriff. No. No, higher. Yes, good. Xerxes, look at your feet. Do you see that?”

He looked down at his feet but wasn’t sure what she was talking about. “Uh….”

She stepped over, squatted, and put her sword flat on the ground. Then she slid the blade along the ground next to his lead foot. The tip quickly bumped into his back foot, near the heel.

“Now do you see?” she asked.

“Right,” he said, scooting his back foot out to make room for the sword to slide all the way through.

“Good. You should be able to make a line like this and not be stepping on it. The way you were standing before was unstable.”

After making numerous minor corrections to their stances, postures, and general ways of moving, she had them spar.

Jad versus Kashtiliash.

Teucer versus Enusat.

Rabya versus Xerxes.