"A few years ago? You mean his brother's not here now? I thought you couldn't leave."
"Elstrin, we're soldiers. What are soldiers good at?"
He opened his mouth to automatically say 'fighting', but the other part to that answer came to him two seconds too late. "Oh," he said quietly.
Snow shook his head with a small frown. "It happens. It's just a shame he never got to see his little brother finally in the army. Anyway. Swords."
Elstrin let the topic drop and moved into the fighter's position he'd learnt at school, but he was given no further prompts. "What, we just start like this?"
"You start. Try your best to kill me. Go."
He blinked at Snow's unguarded voice and body language. Shrugging, he bent his knees a bit for better agility and held his sword ready. Snow didn't move. Feeling a little awkward, he lunged and brought the sword down to the lieutenant's side. It never landed, as he raised his sword so quickly Elstrin almost missed it and parried with one arm, the wood smashing together with a sharp clack.
Elstrin twisted on one foot and spun down low, faked an attack and stabbed at his left shoulder. Again, the blunt blade was knocked aside. Snow hadn't even moved his feet yet. Infuriated, Elstrin closed the distance between them and attempted to lock blades, but two seconds later it became clear that the lieutenant was much stronger. He pushed back and kicked out, forcing Snow to step back a tiny bit, but he was still parrying gracefully with his other arm hanging by his side for balance he barely needed.
"Not dead yet," he said after ten minutes of letting Elstrin jab at his flawless defences. Elstrin ignored him and continued to duck and weave around him, trying to find gaps where his sword could go. Didn't happen.
Fifteen minutes into the spar, he was getting extremely frustrated as Snow continued with his mild comments. "Aren't you supposed to be training me, not standing there being a goddamn wall?"
"I'm assessing your skill level," he replied, blocking Elstrin's next swing. "Nearly done."
"Now you just sound like a computer." Snow laughed faintly and clashed their swords together, the first attack of the morning, and twisted the blades skilfully so that Elstrin had to let go to avoid dislocating his wrist. His wooden sword went flying and Snow caught it neatly with one hand. Elstrin snatched it back with a huff, catching his breath. Duelling with a wall was hard work.
"All right, you're pretty fast and balanced, reasonably strong, but you don't know how to handle a sword. Over your training you'll cover a huge range of weapons, both archaic and modern. Swords are an easy start. I'd personally like cadets to train with real swords, not wooden ones, but HQ doesn't want that." He raised his weapon. "I'll show you a few basic moves and parries, and I want you to practice them to perfection. What I also want, though, is for you to improvise. Combine the moves, find a rhythm that you like and polish it into your own unique fighting style. Ready?"
Elstrin nodded. It made sense. He got into the guard position, spent a while correcting it, and repeated in slow motion a swing and thrust that targeted two different parts of the body at once, forcing the opponent to step back to parry. They practised that for a few minutes until he got the hang of it, then Snow let him try it on person. He still couldn't get past his defences at all.
An hour later, he was done with all five of the attacks and a water break was called. He blinked and looked around the field—cadets in various states of dustiness and tiredness were walking to a temporary stand beside the field, where stacks of bottled water were waiting. Snow sighed. "I'll go get it for you," he murmured, giving Elstrin his practice sword.
He was gone before Elstrin could protest. Clicking his tongue, he wiped the sweat from his forehead and paced around a bit, running the moves over in his mind. Swing and thrust. Spin, slash, duck and stab. Feint to the left and sweep the sword up at a sharp angle, change directions and—
"Hi," Vel said, suddenly next to him. "How's training?"
"Where did you come from?" Elstrin said, arching an eyebrow. "I like it. I'd rather metal than wood, though."
"Yeah, but—"
"This is water break, cadets, not recess!" Stag shouted from the other end of the field, somehow having miraculously spotted them talking. "Get back to your instructor!"
Vel gave him an apologetic grin and walked back to where he trained. Snow arrived a moment later, tossing Elstrin a bottle of water. "I have legs too, you know," Elstrin grumbled, taking an icy gulp.
"A flaw of yours," Snow said. "You focus so hard on one task that you blank out everything else. Try to at least notice what's going on around you, it's a useful skill. Concentration is good, but don't overdo it."
"Oh." He realised that he hadn't even glanced around the field at the other cadets as he was training. "I'll keep that in mind."
Snow drained his own bottle quickly—that made it two in scarcely a handful of hours—gave him a couple more minutes to rest before they took the empty bottles back to the stand. "There are five more basic blocks to counter the attacks you just learnt. We'll do those until morning break, and between then and lunch is a combination of both and some actual sparring. Sound good?"
"Sounds like I'll collect even more bruises, but yeah, sure." Snow smiled and started the lesson much like the way he had for the attacks. Elstrin understood the theory and slow-motion easily, but when Snow faced him with his sword held up and ready, butterflies began to flutter in his stomach. Even with a block of chipped wood, the man was intimidating.
Snow began with the first swing and thrust, his movements scarily fluid, and Elstrin barely had time to bring his own sword up to combat the attack. His block was sloppy, but it did its job. Snow stepped back and repeated the move a tiny bit faster (as if he wasn't already fast enough) and Elstrin blocked. Repeat. Block. Repeat. Block.
He got better slowly, but the problem was Snow seemed to notice this and tweak up the difficulty every time he made a semi-good parry. Painstakingly, Snow guided him through all the attacks, always hovering on the border between impossible and just possible. Elstrin peeked around every once in a while and found that most of the other boys were struggling harder than he was (with the exception of Vel, who looked like he was giving his lieutenant a difficult time, he was so fast). That gave him a little more hope, but seriously, the guy was infallible. It took all his concentration to react quick enough to not get bruised too badly.
"Why the fuck are you so strong?" he said through gritted teeth, scarcely swiping away Snow's blade before it came around again to smack down on the side of his shin. He jumped aside, blocked the next attack, spun around to avoid the tip that slashed at his shoulder and found his arms pinned in an iron-tight grip and a sword across his throat, his back pulled flush against Snow's chest. He froze, heart pounding.
"I've got you trapped and struggling will kill you," Snow murmured, white strands of hair tickling the top of Elstrin's cheeks, perfectly calm. "I'm an overconfident soldier, stronger than you, but I want to play a bit first. I lose interest in two minutes. What do you do?"
Elstrin stared across the field, eyes wide as he tried to think of a way to break loose. He saw Colonel Stag about fifty metres away. The cadet that he was training with stumbled, tried to block his sword but got whacked on the shoulder instead, but then Stag noticed them and paused. A slow grin spread across his face as he watched.
"I—um, I have no idea?" Elstrin said feebly, testing his arms. Snow might as well have put him in handcuffs.
"I'm taller than you," the lieutenant hinted. "I'm not paying attention to my pose. I don't think you have a chance in hell of escaping. One minute."
Elstrin failed to see how any of that could help him. "I could—I could feel you up to distract you," he muttered desperately, wriggling his trapped fingers a bit and brushing against what felt like Snow's thigh. Across the field, Stag's grin exploded into wild peals of laughter and the colonel clutched at his stomach, doubled over with hilarity. A couple of other lieutenants chuckled; apparently Elstrin had stumbled into a
well-known inside joke. The cadet looked down at him doubtfully then back at Elstrin and Snow.
Snow laughed quietly. "Stag tried that once upon a time. I gave him a black eye."
"So if I don't grope you, I die, and if I do grope you, I get a black eye but I live?" Elstrin rephrased. He smirked. "Are you trying to get me to grope you, Snow?"
He tapped his fingers against his thigh again, running them along as much black fabric as he could. Snow sighed. "No, what you were supposed to do was to throw yourself backwards, away from your source of danger, catch me off-guard and use your height as an advantage to unbalance me." He took the sword away. "Then kill me," he added as an afterthought.
"I'd rather grope you, though," Elstrin said wickedly, wrenching one hand away from Snow's relaxing grip to slide his palm up the back of his leg, riskily close to his ass. Snow shoved him away so quickly that he almost fell, but it didn't stop him from laughing.
"All right, calm down," Snow muttered, picking up Elstrin's dropped sword. "Touching your instructor isn't a necessary part of training."
"You should write that in the rule books, sir, I didn't know," he sniggered.
The rest of training lasted without further unwanted physical contact from Elstrin, though the incident kept him cheerful. Recess rolled by and they were given more water and a ten-minute break. No food, though, much to his displeasure. They weren't allowed to sit or even stop walking, but he knew it was because some people wouldn't be able to drag themselves back up if they rested now. Vel came over again. He seemed to have taken a liking to Elstrin. "Y'know, that thing I said before, about giving your lieutenant a try? I didn't mean it thatseriously."
"I'm frivolous by nature," Elstrin claimed, still in good spirits, the shadows of last night chased away by the exercise. "Shouldn't you be with your boyfriend?"
"Why, is my company not appreciated?"
Before he could reply, Snow showed up and tapped Vel on the shoulder. "A word, Matthews, if you don't mind."
Puzzled, Vel followed him to a less busy part of the field. Elstrin saw them talk, then Vel pointed to a vaguely familiar face in the crowd of cadets. Snow nodded, said something else, and abruptly Vel's body language changed. He looked down, shoulders drooping; suddenly, he seemed tired. He muttered something. Snow clapped him on the back and walked off to the rest of the lieutenants. Vel stayed where he was, staring at the ground. Elstrin approached him hesitantly. "Vel? What did he say?"
Vel glanced at him but looked away quickly. He gave a forced shrug, studying his boots. "Nothing. Just… my brother wanted to pass me a message. He's not here; only one colonel looks after cadet training, and obviously Stag got the job."
"Oh. Lucky him. Your brother, I mean. I wouldn't look after us if I had a choice."
"Yeah." He smiled sadly and kicked his boots against the dirt. Something flickered in his grey eyes; his voice came out a little choked. "He's dead."
"I know. Snow told me. I'm sorry."
"He—what?" Vel looked up, surprise momentarily covering his grief. "Why?"
"Dunno. I asked too many questions, I guess."
"Oh." He heaved a sigh and said absently, "You don't have to comfort me or whatever. I've got Andrew for that."
"Okay."
"And speaking of comfort. What the fuck were you doing in my bed this morning?"
A bit of Vel's usual mirth had crept back into his voice. Elstrin, conversely, tried to avoid the topic. "Um. Sorry. I was being… stupid."
Vel threw him a sceptical glance. "Uh-huh."
"I won't do it again."
"That's not what I asked." He scanned the field and, to Elstrin's horror, instantly located the blond man from last night. "That guy. I saw you go with him. Only thing is, you didn't return when he did."
"I was tired. I went to bed."
"My bed?"
"No. Look, something just freaked me out, okay? I don't know."
"What did he do?"
"I—I don't know," he repeated helplessly. "He didn't drug me or anything," he added hastily, seeing the look of alarm on Vel's face. He ran a hand through his hair. "It's not his fault. I just… didn't want to be alone after that. You seemed like a nice enough guy."
"I am nice," Vel said suspiciously. "Why me? Don't you have a roommate to cuddle with?"
"No. There's someone on the name list who's supposed to be there, but he hasn't showed yet."
"Oh. I didn't mind it, Elstrin. Don't get the wrong idea. But if he did… things, don't keep it to yourself. Trust me; it's best to tell someone."
"But—"
"Recess is over, cadets!" Colonel Stag yelled. There were groans of complaint all around the field. Elstrin jogged back to Snow gladly, relieved to escape from Vel's questions, but he knew in his heart that he was being a coward. He'd need to work on that.
Chapter 6
Weeks passed and still Elstrin's roommate didn't arrive. The closing date for army applications was drawing close, and the number of cadets was reaching its maximum limit of three hundred, filling up all eight barracks with young men. They were concentrating on sword training now: every day from six in the morning to six in the evening, he would spar with Snow, concentrating on perfecting the things he had a natural advantage over: agility and speed instead of brute force. Every now and then he was ordered to spar with another cadet to see how well he was holding up against someone of the same skill level. It looked like they were pretty even; Elstrin thought he was pulling ahead a little, but he dismissed it as wishful thinking. The fact that he was finally equal with everybody was already good enough. He didn't need an inflated ego to ruin all his hard work.
He spent his mealtimes with Vel and Andrew and a few others, the beginnings of a group of friends, though Elstrin was still literally too new to this sort of situation to know what to do or say. He didn't know movies or bands or sports, so he mostly stayed quiet and listened to them talk. Thankfully the conversation wasn't ever too enthusiastic, because they were all exhausted from training, each of their instructors having coached them as relentlessly as everyone else.
It was on Friday afternoon that Elstrin finally brought up the topic of his missing roommate, more as an excuse than actual concern (he quite liked having a dormitory all to himself), just to sneak a brief break into the training. He was tired, god dammit, and Snow was in one of his I-am-a-wall moods again, commanding Elstrin to spar as hard as he could using every bit of strength he had, while blocking all his blows easily, maddeningly.
"When do they stop accepting new cadets?" he asked, panting under the blazing sun, flexing his hands against the rubber grip of the sword in an attempt to ease the pain that flared along the half-healed blisters on his fingers.
Snow raised a pale eyebrow, unimpressed. "Keep going."
Elstrin groaned and attacked half-heartedly; found his sword swept aside for the millionth time. Snow glared at him. He gritted his teeth and dove back into the duel, spinning and striking, jabbing and lunging in flurries of movement. A while later Snow disarmed him effortlessly. Elstrin refrained from flipping him off and wiped his forehead on his sleeve, catching his breath.
"Your roommate is on his way," Snow said, idly examining the chipped edges of the swords as he waited for Elstrin to recover. "Otherwise his name wouldn't be on the list."
"Yeah, I saw. Kana Skax," Elstrin said, recalling the other occupant of room 310 printed on the list outside the apartment. He wrinkled his nose. "It's such a weird name."
"He's from Lupalia." Elstrin glanced up, surprised, and Snow explained, "I read his file. He sounds like an interesting guy."
"But isn't Lupalia—like, the country of crime? I know it's far away, but I've heard—things." Like the rumour that the black market there sold anything from sex slaves to phoenix eggs. He didn't mention it, unsure if such information was even supposed to be spread or kept secret.
Snow shrugged. "Coming from somewhere doesn't necessarily mean he'll reflect the worst aspects of that place. He's a citizen of Mernot, and
we wouldn't have let him in if he wasn't suitable. Cadets' files are confidential, so if you want to know anything else you'll just have to ask him."
He handed the sword back. Elstrin recognised the end of the conversation, and with a reluctant face, began sparring again.
x
Kana arrived on Sunday night.
Elstrin had been up in his room by himself, reading an old novel he'd found in the library. They were allowed to borrow books any time they wished, but they were returned during the routine room checks performed at the start of each week. He preferred to spend his weekends like this; his room was more comfortable than the musty and slightly forlorn library, and quiet, allowing him to ease into whatever written world his eyes consumed line by line. Literature had been his one escape at school during the lunch breaks when he had time to kill—he would hide from the bullies and spend every minute of the half-hour greedily reading, temporarily avoiding reality and the problems it brought. It was one of the more harmless habits that had stuck to him since coming to HQ, one that he didn't mind keeping. Solitude didn't bother him, and it was kind of the only thing he could do anyway: Vel seemed to love the drum kit as much as his boyfriend, and he and Andrew mostly spent their time together in the music room.
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