by P. S. Power
Sleep came almost as soon as her head touched the pillow, and even though it was early she...
"Argh!" It took an act of will to sit up, and more to stand. She had a class. It wasn't for half an hour, but if she slept that wasn't happening. It was tempting to think that Doris would understand, but the fact of the matter was that she needed the lessons still. It was easier to control her rage now, but not perfect.
Until it was, she couldn't let up. If anything she needed to be doing way more work that way, not less. It was just so hard to motivate herself for it.
The sad thing there being that the second she closed her eyes to meditate, she'd sleep anyway. That would make the meditation master feel loved, wouldn't it? She was another Ancient too, though no one had really told Tiera about that clearly. She looked old, wrinkled and gray, but that didn't mean she hadn't been around for thousands of years, did it? Lyn Red could do that too, she'd heard. Look any age she wanted.
Rather than risk falling asleep, she walked to the meditation room and entered early, going as quietly as she could so as to not interfere with the other students that were there working. It wasn't a large class, and was mainly made up of builders. Totally in fact, except for her. Most of them weren't in the Lairdgren Group, so she didn't feel half as out of place as she might have otherwise. Doris just sat at the front and pointed at a potted plant, meaning that the goal for the evening would be to try and touch it with her awareness and think of nothing else. It was really hard, since, in her boredom, she kept falling asleep.
It was that jarring kind of thing you did when truly gone into exhaustion, head tilting and body lurching suddenly, leaving a person feeling like they didn't have control over what they did. Over and again it took place. Doris just watched her, without comment or seeming to be overly concerned. Most of the other instructors would have screamed if a student fell asleep in their class.
Then, she realized suddenly, pushing her mind back toward the plant in its clay pot, she wasn't sleeping, but falling asleep, which was different, since she was obviously trying to do what she was supposed to.
The others left after about twenty-five minutes, when the bell rang, and the next class came in, which was smaller. There were only three others in fact, meaning two were gone. One of the boys, a builder that she knew, Sam, bowed to the woman slowly.
"Master Doris? Kyla and Brian won't be back. They've left school, due to the rebellion. Their parents have announced themselves against the King, and they didn't want them to be held hostage here."
The boy looked young and was, only fifteen, and in his second year, but knew things like that, having been the replacement for her brother at court when he went off to first the Ancients summit and then into hiding from assassins. The King had probably just contacted the boy directly about it. Or the headmaster might have, depending on who knew first.
Doris... didn't care.
Bowing back she gestured calmly for him to sit, even though he hadn't been in the evening session before. He did it, meaning that he either didn't want to fight with the woman, or he was there with her now. That wasn't the best news she'd ever gotten, since the man was a bit set against her already.
At least it wasn't Mark Sorenson, who was probably going to hate her, after she beat his brother for having a jug of piss dumped over her head. That was something else to do, and a thing to think on later. For the moment she went back to the plant, trying not to let herself drift off. It was nearly impossible, and her legs fell asleep, making it even harder to do. She didn't stop, but out of each minute she probably thought about the plant less than half the time. It was more "considering" than "meditation".
She smiled gently and had to force her attention back into place, then did it a thousand times before the next bell rang. When everyone else got up, she stood, a bit awkwardly and made her way to the door, only to be called back.
"Tiera, please shut the door and come here." It wasn't upset sounding at all or anything of that nature. Then, it wouldn't be. If she had the idea right, her Instructor lived in a constant trance, and her words showed that, being calm and measured.
For a long time the women just observed her, taking in everything about Tiera's form, as if absorbing what made her unique and different. Or possibly just looking really hard. It was too hard to tell the difference at the moment.
"I noticed that you had trouble staying awake. Is there a cause for that?"
"I've been short on sleep for a while. A few weeks, and missed last night all together. Other than that, I can only point at laziness and my general lack of focus." She sounded tired too, so forced a loopy grin onto her face, her mind going blank.
She wasn't certain that the Instructor couldn't read minds. In fact, from what she understood on the subject, she very nearly had to be doing it, unless she was trying to ignore the information on purpose. The first thing you did to read a field was simply clear your mind, after all. Even Tiera could do that. You had to in order to make a copy of anything too.
"Ah. Well, I hope you sleep well tonight? I appreciate your extra effort. Feel free to come early, and double the class length. I look forward to seeing you."
The soft and calm words were maddening, since it was clearly an order to increase her class time. How was she supposed to have a social life with all these distractions going on? The idea tickled her more than it should and she smiled, almost happy about it all. She had the time.
"I might need to miss for a day or two soon. I'll try not to, but if I do..." Then what? The woman just gave a single nod. It said a lot, like she understood, but that didn't seem likely. They hadn't discussed her murdering people, had they? Perhaps Kolb had with her? Not knowing what else to say, she just explained her plan.
"So, the Count first. I'll attempt to hold my mind clear while doing it?" She was being a bit of a snark, but the woman bowed to her a bit, taking her off guard.
"That has been the custom of many warrior cultures through the ages. I do not know if it made them better killers, but it would likely make it easier to live with, after it was done. Taking a life can be difficult, for some." The words seemed right, but the woman kept going. "Not as much for you perhaps. When I designed you, I placed in several dampening conditions, so that you might act without fear or too much pain from taking a life. It would not do to become complacent however. Thank you."
It was a signal to leave, and the strange speech hadn't told her anything that was new. It was just odd hearing the woman admit to having helped create her.
"Um, all right, mother, I'll take that under advisement?"
There was no answer, of course. Just an insanely peaceful smile.
Chapter five
Sleep. Tiera decided as she slowly woke up, about six hours later, was truly one of the best things in life. She could think again, for one thing. Her head was still a bit fuzzy, but it wasn't that sense of failing, or being forced out of reality that she'd dealt with the day before. It was warm, and kind of relaxing.
Before going out she ate, just sitting on the edge of her bed. It was only a few handfuls of dried fruit, mainly apple, since it was always the cheapest for some reason, and a strip of dried meat that she thought was pig, but couldn't prove it. That was stiff and hard to chew, actually taking work to eat. Salted though, so it had more flavor than it might have.
Then she got a quick scrubbing up in, using the girls wash room. It was tempting to use one of the big wooden tubs, since they all had heaters on them, magical ones that looked like Tor's earlier work. Copper plates, all more than a bit corroded by being damp all the time, and green sigils to tell people what to do. She used the shower instead, which was also warm, since she'd need it again later in the day. It was the problem with being her. She just exercised and trained so much that bathing and cleaning up were nearly a constant thing in her life.
The early morning routine was about back to normal, lacking only her regular work with Havar, who still stood away from her, watching, but not approaching at all. They'd wor
ked well enough together the day before, but he'd been distant even then. Professional and detached. More to the point, they hadn't spoken really, even when in arms reach of each other.
It was sad, but there was little she could do about it.
So, to kill time while everyone else got there and warmed up, she started swimming laps in the little pond. It was a good skill to have, and while the water was frigid her temperature amulet left her feeling like it was about body temperature, at least after the first instant shock of cold against her flesh. On the twentieth trip, when she'd planned to stop, someone threw something at her.
It was a metal blade. Not a real one, one of the rounded things that they used for pell work at times. She snagged it out of the air, but it instantly tried to make her sink, even though it was a smaller one, weighing only about ten pounds or so.
"Keep moving. You'll need to kick harder if you want to keep breathing." It was Kolb, of course. The only really interesting part of the whole thing was that, ten minutes later, Mitchell joined her, screeching when he hit the water, but holding his own metal blade.
"What the... cold!"
He tried though, and made two trips without stopping, struggling even in the shallow water. Then he had to get to shore. Tiera followed him and cycled her clothing amulet several times, to help her dry more quickly. It did nothing for her hair, but it got the worst of the wet off. Then, when it was about as good as it was going to be, she handed her temperature amulet to the boy.
"Just for a bit, it's freezing out here." Literally. There was a fine sheen of frost on the ground in places and a lot of the others had used their clothing amulets to make heavy layers.
Mitchell made a face at her and looked disgusted.
"And here I thought you were just showing us all up again. Cheater, using magic like that." There was no real menace in the words, and after he got himself dry and racked his weapon, he changed into warm looking clothing and then gave her the amulet back. "Thanks. So, I guess I should ask next time, before hurling my tender flesh into a lake of liquid misery, huh?"
Kolb waved to them, his face stern looking, but verging on blank, rather than rebuke for their playing around in the water.
"You two, I want an attack on the practice square in fifteen minutes. Use shields and hand weapons, no magical weapons for this. Try to subdue everyone you can as quickly as possible. Use full force, but no blows to the head." Then, without explaining anything else, he stalked off. This time he looked a bit angry. It was in the set of shoulder, rather than anything else, she decided, watching him.
Mitchell grabbed a shield from the table, the small coin shaped amulet on a sturdy hemp string. He should have had his own, but shook his head when she looked at him.
"Where's yours?"
"In my room. I forgot to put it on this morning. I know, stupid, you don't have to tell me, but... I grew up with magic being something my parents kept in a locked room, for the most part. No one in my family makes it and... you get the idea. I was always taught that you had to keep it safe, so that no one would steal it. Now, here, I'm supposed to just wear it around like jewelry. I can see the need for it, daily." There was a look of misery then, which Tiera thought she understood.
He expected her to tell on him, which would mean extra chores or perhaps a beating to remind him not to forget again.
"Well, I'll help you out with that. From now on, if you don't have it with you when I see you, I'll punch you in the kidney. That should do it, right?" She was actually joking, since it wouldn't take that kind of thing to remind him, she didn't think, but the boy, normally one who was soft and more than a bit lazy...
Nodded.
"Thanks. I won't forget. I enjoy not peeing blood. A hobby of mine actually."
Then, together, which had to look a bit suspicious, they started to walk out of the square. Karen called out to them, her voice sounding at least as stern as Kolb's face had been.
"Tiera, where are you going? It's practice time."
She nearly froze, since the attack wouldn't work at all if everyone knew about it. They were so good as a group that it didn't have a lot of chance anyway. Worse, a good third of the people had turned to watch them. Mitchell blushed even, which looked incredibly suspicious too.
"Um..." It was a less than brilliant lie so far, so she scrambled, saying the first thing that came to mind. "I bet Mitchell that he wouldn't go in the water, so now I have to pay off. We're just headed to the wood pile." It was where they split the old pells when they eventually broke. People took turns splitting it up, since the actions used in doing that were good training for fighting.
Karen looked suspicious, and sounded it too.
"Oh? But there's no wood to split there right now..."
Tiera rolled her eyes. That would just be the case, wouldn't it? No one wanted to stand around in the cold, so all the work got done, even if it was stuff like that. She looked at the ground and then shook her head slowly.
"I'm... that wasn't the bet. Now don't ask questions, or it will be indiscrete. We'll be right back. Or, well, not right back, you know..." She had to look pretty embarrassed, but no one laughed at her at all. In fact they mainly just went back to work, as if it made real sense.
Karen, for her part still didn't seem convinced.
"Fine, we'll all go then." She gave the two younger people a vulpine grin and gestured for them to move out. "I'm sure you won't mind an audience?"
Tiera started walking, taking Mitch by the hand and shrugging.
"You know me too well for that Karen. Is something going on? We really aren't headed to the tavern or anything. For one thing, I'm pretty certain I'm banned from there."
"Heh, except that I saw Kolb talking to you, and know what that means. You have a mission. What is it, really?"
Tiera looked away and shook her head, actually feeling a bit angry. She let it show on her face and turned on the woman after they made it around the wall.
"He just wants us to work full force later. Only shield on shield grappling. I don't really know how to make that work, and we'll probably look like morons. I really, do have to... You know, with Mitchell here now." She was trying to get the other woman to leave them alone. It didn't seem to be working, since they ended up at the irregularly shaped wood pile too soon to convince her of anything.
Karen just stood, smirking at them, not believing a word of it. She was right of course. The boy wasn't her best friend or anything and she'd have never made that kind of a bet with him, even if he were. It would have been really inappropriate for a training session and it was so cold out that he wouldn't want to be naked anyway. Not even enough to do anything fun.
She was a bit trapped now, since Karen wasn't really there to teach her fighting, but social graces and manners. Particularly, how not to be a Doretta. Now that she'd claimed what she had, there was no way out of it. So she slipped off her temperature amulet, which was still turned on, the sigil glowing a cheery red, and handed it to the boy, making her own clothing heavier and warmer. Then she got to her knees and moved close.
She wasn't good at this yet, but had actually done it a few times now, so could manage well enough. Karen stared, clearly not believing that anything would be happening at all. Finally, after half a minute, Mitch started to work his clothing down, and actually moved into her, so she could do it.
Thankfully it didn't take all that long. A good enough time that he didn't look too bad, about ten minutes, but they still had time to start the attack. Tiera wiped her mouth and stood, waited for all the clothing to go back into place and got her amulet back.
"So, as you can see, I don't back out when it comes time to pay off bets. Also, not a Doretta. That's the important part, of course. Remember that one when people are bad mouthing me later." Clearly a slut, at least by the standards she grew up with, but by noble rules, she was fine still. Word might even be getting around finally that she wasn't a horrible person.
Karen uncrossed her arms at least and seemed to think i
t was a good enough effort.
"So, it wasn't a set-up? Amazing. Here I thought I was actually learning Kolb's signals. Oh, well. Let's get back then." She led the way, and rounded the corner before they did, which let Tiera run back, fast, and pick up two of the four axes that were sitting in the little covered box, holding the handles and kicking the heads off, because not everyone would have a shield on, even though they were supposed to...
Which was probably the point. Kolb wanting a few of them to understand that.
She signaled to Mitch, who'd lagged behind and carefully tossed an ax handle to him, his taste still in her mouth and on her lips. It wasn't bad, but it seemed like a bit much, having to do that, just for a regular training exercise. He snagged it from the air, with a grin and nodded once, when she pointed first to herself and then the stone wall. She'd go over it, near the pells, to take people by surprise.
It took some guess work, but they managed to attack at nearly the same time, hitting at anyone that got too near. It was interesting, since Kolb and five others were actually on their side it seemed, swatting everyone that didn't have a shield in place. It was most of them. Twelve of the twenty bodies there at least.
Including Karen, who she subdued with several solid blows to the legs. Havar had his on however, and so did Keras, which meant they were both busy thumping poor Johan pretty well for a while.
This went on for a good ten minutes and Kolb called it over before anyone had more than solid bruises.
"Magic on, all the time. I know that this is different for many of you, but it will be done. Understood?"
There was a pained chorus of "yes, sir" from almost everyone. Karen stood up and looked at her funny for a bit, then, in pain or not, looked proud of her.
"So, that was all to throw me off guard? Brilliant. A lot more than I would have expected of you. Now, get your shield off, since I'm taking my revenge. You too, Mitch."
He got to go first, and they worked a lot harder than normal, but not brutally. Karen was too well trained to let her emotions guide her that much, not over something that they'd been ordered to do. Some of the others seemed upset, but they also avoided her, for some reason, even though, she figured, working with Tiera had to be a good time fun fest, didn't it? She was the least skilled person there, even though she was improving, and while she tried to hang in there with everyone, her short arms and legs made it a lot easier to fend her off than not. At least empty handed or with sticks and swords.