Cypher wiped his brow as Molly walked in with a small tray of food. She looked at him with an expression of worry and confusion but hid it quickly as she set the tray down on the small table next to his bed.

“What’s the matter, dear child? You look gaunt and exhausted! Your duties have never worn you out like this before. Were you training with Sir Jelroy again? I thought you had the week off?” she asked, the worry returning to her face once again through the barrage of questions despite her best efforts.

Cypher shook his head and exhaled, “I’m okay Molly, I’m just tired from working out a little in my free time. I wanted to warm up a bit before training starts up again tomorrow. It’s harsh enough, and all this downtime has me feeling a little sluggish.”

Cypher didn’t like lying to her but he couldn’t possibly tell her the truth of what was going on. Still, she didn’t seem to question him and gave him a little hug.

“Well, how about you eat your dinner, take a bath and when you get done I can read for you before you go to bed. How does that sound?” she asked, a warm smile lighting up her aged face.

Cypher returned the gesture and nodded happily.

“That’s a good lad. I’ll be back once your water has warmed up. Eat up! You’ll need your strength!” Molly dusted off her apron and adjusted it before heading out the door.

Cypher dipped his head and sighed after she departed and began to eat his meal slowly. He hadn’t considered that he’d have to hide his fatigue from Molly. The training he was going through left her worried but not overly so. After all, it was mostly exercise and study, nothing a young boy couldn’t handle. However, throwing learning this spell on top of it…

Cypher hadn’t realized how awful he must have looked after straining his mind so much. He knew that he couldn’t tell her anything about this. The less she knew the better. If he was caught the punishment would only fall onto him. However, if she found out about it she would likely try and take the blame for him instead, or at least the brunt of the punishment, and that was something he couldn’t allow.

The stew she had brought him made him feel a lot better once he had finished it, and he let out another exhausted sigh as he laid back on his bed. What was he doing? He had never been this motivated before. Something inside him had changed but he couldn’t place what it was. All his life he had been an outlet for Eiden’s frustrations, a servant to clean or help cook, or anything else that the Galvans required of him.

With this opportunity he finally had a way out; a way to make something of himself. Thinking about it, it was also a way out for Molly. She had only ever cared for him and it pained him to know that she too was just another servant in the eyes of the Galvans. But did that mean he had to push so hard? Did he really have to resort to learning this spell on top of everything else?

Surely training with Jelroy and rising the ranks to becoming a guard would lead to a path of freedom for them both. Why on earth did he also have to risk everything by stealing that book? The questions welled up in his mind and he sighed again. Molly returned in the middle of his contemplations leaving him unable to focus on them very much.

After his bath, she read to him before leaving him to drift off to sleep. However, sleep didn’t come as easily as he thought it would and he was left to his thought once more. Eventually, the dawn came, and with it, the end of his time of relaxation. Cypher dragged himself out of bed to meet with Jelroy and Eiden.

The morning dew clung to the grass and a chill morning breeze blew around them chilling Cypher in his clothes. Jelroy silently threw the pair a couple of wooden swords and straightened his robes before clearing his throat.

“Up until now, we’ve gone over basics, history, and a few of the finer points of combat. I’ve also done my best to instill some level of discipline into your bodies. With that said, today will be an actual combat drill. I want the two of you to come at me and show me what you’ve learned so far. We’ll be using only the basic forms, myself included. I expect the two of you to land at least two blows on me each,” Jelroy said, a stern look upon his face.

“I hope you’ve not only taken the down time I gave you to recuperate your bodies, but to hone your minds as well. I may be holding back, but I will not go easy on either of you. Prepare yourselves and come at me!”

With that Cypher and Eiden looked at each other and gripped their wooden weapons. Eiden’s face held a look of overconfidence. It was clear that he thought the advantage was on their side given that it was two-on-one. Cypher on the other hand wasn’t so sure. He glanced at Jelroy and took note of his stance.

During their training so far Jelroy had taught them three basic forms of swordplay. Fenn was the first and focused on jabbing and parrying the opponent with quick precise motions. While it was true that more slender blades worked best with this form, any sword that wasn’t too heavy could get the job done.

The second form was Brodd. This form was more aggressive and relied on large sweeping motions as well as hacking and slashing. It was the more common of the three basic forms and was widely used by most swordsmen according to Jelroy. It was easy to learn and equally easy to counter but offered more versatility than Fenn.

The final form he had taught them was Eine and struck a fine balance between the two other basic forms of swordplay. However, it was also more defensive and tasked a swordsman with keeping a sharp eye on the opponent at all times. It was however the slowest of the three and relied entirely on the opponent making the first move.

It was this stance that Jelroy had taken before them. Cypher could see no openings in Jelroy’s stance. He was fully prepared for either of the two boys to attack first. Although, Cypher noticed, that if they attacked together then they might just be able to find an opening to strike him.

“Eiden!” began Cypher. But before he could even say anything else Eiden had strode forward with an opening strike from Fenn and had driven his blade forward towards Jelroy’s torso. Cypher spat in frustration and quickly followed suit with no other option. There was no turning back now.

Jelroy scoffed and easily knocked Eiden’s jab to the side, his wooden blade sinking into the damp ground as Jelroy’s kick sent the young heir sprawling to the ground. Cypher opened with a slash from Brodd, gripping his wooden sword tightly in his left hand. Jelroy’s attention had just been on Eiden so Cypher thought that he might be able to land a cheap blow in that instant.

However, Jelroy brought his blade back across the same trajectory that he had parried Eiden with, and knocked Cypher’s blade aside as well. Cypher spun on his heels, keeping the momentum of his attack going, and brought it back around for a second sweeping strike. But Jelroy had expected as much and stepped back avoiding the blow.

Jelroy then switched into the Fenn stance and jabbed forward with his own blade. The tip slammed into Cypher’s gut and sent him to his knees breathless. Eiden roared in annoyance and slashed downwards several times but to no avail. It was only a matter of seconds before Eiden was flat on his stomach gasping in the dirt alongside Cypher.

“That was pathetic even for a pair of novices. You two are going to have to do much better than that if you wish to strike me. Now, get up and try again!” Asserted Jelroy as the two boys dragged themselves to their feet once again.

Jelroy had seamlessly switched from Eine to Fenn and back to Eine in only a few instants. In that time both of them had been hastily defeated and had it been real combat would be dead or dying. They would absolutely have to work together if they were going to land the needed strikes against Jelroy.

However, once again Eiden strode forward and attacked, this time switching up his movements to Brodd. Eiden swiped his blade back and forth three times and each was either blocked by Jelroy or dodged. Cypher swept in as well, striking forward with a jab. Jelroy quickly spun his blade around and knocked Eiden’s aside sending it flying into Cypher’s own strike before dropping and sweeping his leg low.

The two boys collapsed on each other with a groan and Jelroy smirked as he looked down at them.

“Watch what you’re doing bastard! I could have had him if you hadn’t gotten in my way!” roared Eiden in frustration.

“It wasn’t my fault you got parried, Eiden! We need to work together on this or we’ll never succeed!” replied Cypher angrily.

Jelroy let out a mocking chuckle and spun around to return to his starting location.

Eiden narrowed his eyes and leaped forward to strike while the man’s back was turned, pushing Cypher down again as he did so. Jelroy brought his blade behind him and blocked the incoming attack before swinging his elbow right into Eiden’s cheek sending the boy to the ground once again.

“Not good enough!” scoffed Jelroy. “We’re not stopping until you two manage to accomplish the tasks I gave you so come on! Hit me!”

This bout continued well into the day. Each time the boys found themselves in the dirt with a new throbbing wound upon their bodies. Around noon their strength was completely depleted and several bruises could be found on each of them. Jelroy was precise in his attacks and almost always made sure his strikes landed in the same place during each of his counterattacks.

Not once had Eiden bothered to try working with Cypher. Likewise, Cypher had always tried to back up Eiden’s attacks and force teamwork into the mix. Neither strategy had worked very well and as they lay panting on the ground Jelroy let out a sigh. He could only look at them with disappointment, although in truth, he wasn’t very surprised.

He had expected this from the beginning but had hoped that they might do something different.

“Tell me, what went wrong?” asked Jelroy as he looked down at the two.

“You’re just too strong! Not to mention that bastard kept getting in my way!” replied Eiden through his heavy breathing.

Cypher sat up and rested an arm across his knee. “Tsk… If you ask me it was because Eiden refused to work with me and brute-forced his attacks the entire time.”

“Fuck you,” spat Eiden. “You should have stayed out of my way! There’s no chance that I’d work alongside a bastard like you. You should have known your place and taken the blows for me so I could use that opening to land a clean blow!”

“Hmm I see,” began Jelroy, disappointment clear in his voice.

“At the core of the matter, you think I’m too strong,” he said pointing at Eiden.

“And you place the blame for your failure on Eiden,” Jelroy said looking at Cypher.

“In truth, I was fighting at a level both of you could have handled. Yes, Cypher is correct that if you two had worked together you would have been able to easily overwhelm me and land clean strikes. However, a battle will rarely be so clean and two swordsmen might not have the synergy to fight in unison.”

“See!” exclaimed Cypher.

“Fuck you” replied Eiden.

“On the other hand, you could have adapted your own fighting style to match your partner’s,” Jelroy said looking down at Cypher.

“Hah! I told you!” scoffed Eiden.

“Silence. Using a fellow swordsman as a shield for your own body is a tactless and cowardly way to fight. There are times on the battlefield when one must lay down their life for their fellows, however, this was not such a time. Furthermore, such callous language is far from befitting one of noble heritage. Mind your manners young Eiden.” Jelroy brushed his greying hair out of his eyes and rested a hand on his hip.

“You’re both at fault for your failures today. Therefore, tomorrow we’ll be doing this again, and every day after until you both manage to strike me twice. As for the rest of today’s lessons, you’ll be committing yourselves to book studies. Of course, that’s only after you’ve both run twenty laps around the mansion.”

“Twenty?!?” exclaimed Eiden. “I can barely move after all that!”

“Yes twenty,” replied Jelroy. “Ten for your own failings and ten for that of your partners. Chop chop! The day waits for no one!”

The two boys reluctantly dragged themselves to their feet and ran the laps as instructed. Because of their exhausted state, it took them roughly an hour and a half to complete the task. Of course, given that they were only children, they were allowed to eat a hearty lunch afterward, and it wasn’t long after that before their faces were buried in scrolls and books as Jelroy watched on sternly.