by Brian Keller
With this realization, Cooper was thinking, “Not much chance of getting a nap at this point. I haven’t visited Master Loril in awhile, and he’d said he would spar with me once Mister Skran started teaching dual handed fighting.”.
Almost every time Cooper ever went to see Master Loril he was forming something at the forge. On this occasion, however, he appeared to be tending the stock in the quartermaster’s shop. It looked a little comical to see this huge bear of a man sorting tunics from dungarees and putting them in separate bins. As soon as Cooper entered the room, Master Loril’s voice boomed out, “Mister Cooper! Good of you to drop by and see old Loril. It’s been awhile.”. His back was to Cooper and he hadn’t turned to face him, Cooper still wondered how he did that. “Good evening, sir. I would come by more often, but I’m being kept pretty busy.”. Master Loril turned to face him, “Yes, five classes daily will do that. And it seems like you’re taking on a little extra from time to time as well…”. Cooper wondered at that, “Sir?”. Master Loril chuckled, “Master Darius brought a sketch to me along with a projected components list and asked me for an estimate on time and materials. Very intricate. He said it was your idea. He must be impressed with you, or he’d never have bothered to mention where the idea came from. I spent most of the night putting an estimate together. He seems intent on presenting it to the Council at the next meeting, which is a little over a week away. I figure it’ll take a couple months just to get a working model assembled, if it can even be made to work the way you think it will. But making it work isn’t up to you, it’s up to the machinations of Master Darius, and he is a Master of the intricate. I’m sure you’ve experienced the lock he designed himself…?” Cooper nodded and Master Loril continued, “But I’m sure you didn’t come here to discuss activities in Master Darius’ class. Tell me, how are you progressing with your combat training?”. Cooper replied, “Well, I think, sir. Mister Skran has begun training us on dual hand fighting…”. Master Loril chuckled again, “And you’re here to collect on a promise I made to you earlier? Tell me, have you started sparring in Mister Skran’s class? Dual handed sparring?”. Cooper felt his hopes come crashing down, “Not yet, sir. Sparring starts tomorrow.”. Master Loril still looked cheerful, “Yes, I know this. Skran asked me to come in tomorrow to assist. It seems he is occupied with Kolrem’s recent Manifestation…. Still, no reason we can’t get you started a little early. It might make my job tomorrow that much easier, if at least one of you already knows a little.”. Cooper felt a quick surge of adrenaline and almost wanted to clap his hands. The older man went to a workbench and picked up a couple pairs of daggers, “These are some of the blunted blades Skran commissions from me every year. I’ll be bringing these with me to the Training Room tomorrow, along with another dozen of them. These haven’t been ‘tested’ yet. They shouldn’t be used for training until they’ve been tested properly, wouldn’t you agree?”, he winked at the boy then continued, “Alright. Let’s practice a few sequences first so I can assess what you’ve been taught.”. After a few minutes of strike-block-counterstrike-block exchanges Master Loril stopped and asked, “How fast are you?”. Cooper shrugged, “I’m not sure how to answer that. I’m sure I’m not as fast as you.”. Master Loril considered that and said, “These blades are blunt, but they can still hurt. Let’s keep this safe. You attack me as fast as you like with any strikes you want. I will focus purely on defense. That way, neither of us is as likely to come away with any new marks. Remember how using a weapon in each hand changes your stance. And make sure to keep a good rhythm with your breathing. When fighting with both hands, rhythm becomes almost as important as footwork.”. He dropped into a fighting stance and Cooper advanced. The boy realized that the purpose wasn’t in scoring a hit, he just wanted to work on improvised sequences rather than scripted drills. He started with a series of well-rehearsed strikes and mixed in some additional slashes and jabs where they felt natural to fit them in. Master Loril kept moving and his blocks were well positioned and well timed. He never left any obvious openings to be exploited and Cooper continued to change position and press his attacks. Soon both fighters were moving very quickly and Cooper found himself working towards trying to create an opening in the older man’s defense, but every time he thought that he’d have an opening, Master Loril would adjust his position and interrupt his progress. After about ten minutes of uninterrupted flurries, Cooper let his hands fall to his sides and said with a grin, “I guess that’s why they call you a Master…?”. Master Loril let out a short laugh, “Maybe so. I suppose I might’ve imparted a bit of knowledge to Skran as well at some point.”, he said with a wink. Cooper had a sudden inspiration, “You used to be the Combat instructor, didn’t you? Mister Skran replaced you..?”. Master Loril nodded. Cooper couldn’t help wondering, “Why? You’re certainly not too old to teach!”. The older man shrugged, “I enjoy smithing… shaping the metal. Also, it’s good to have more than one person capable to teaching a course. If something happened to Skran, I could step back into that role and the students wouldn’t lose any time. Most classes have a few qualified people capable of teaching them… except Master Darius. Sure, we can all pick locks, but he’s pretty much one of a kind.”. He paused in thought for a moment and then looked back at Cooper with a glint in his eye, “Are you ready to defend?”. Cooper shrugged, “I doubt it, sir, but I’ll certainly try.”. Master Loril started with a series of familiar strikes which he easily defended against, then the older man repeated the sequence at a faster pace. He then broke the rhythm, slowed slightly, and began a series of improvised strikes. Cooper had to keep adjusting his footwork to maintain proper distance so he could keep Master Loril centered in his view. Apparently, Master Loril noticed this behavior and began to move in ways that forced him to accommodate. It almost became a distraction for Cooper, the constant requirement of attending to his distance and footwork. After a few minutes, Cooper’s frustration must’ve become apparent since Master Loril spoke while striking, “Why do you think you need to keep me directly in front of you? As long as you can still read my movements, why would our positions matter?”. Cooper disengaged and backed away. “Sir, I’m still trying to get used to keeping my vision unfocused. If I let you get too close or too far to one side then it gets too awkward to keep my awareness wide and I start getting drawn in by details.”. Master Loril was nodding and became thoughtful, “Keeping a wide field of view under a variety of circumstances will take some practice, but it’s necessary. It will serve you well in more than just fighting. It gets easier with practice and you can work on it anytime, even just walking down the hall. A few more rounds and I’ll need to get back to work. Does that suit you?”. Cooper nodded, “Sure. I don’t have anywhere to be until eight, sir.”. This caught Master Loril’s attention, ”What’s at eight?... Master Brais?”. Cooper nodded. “Well then,”, Master Loril rolled his shoulders, “we don’t want to wear you out beforehand, but a few more minutes shouldn’t matter. Attack or defend freely and as needed.”. Cooper did worse than he’d hoped but better than he’d feared. Master Loril was impossible. He seemed to be without weakness or vulnerability, still Cooper learned much in those last fifteen minutes of sparring with the Fighting Master and Blacksmith.
Cooper still had at least an hour before he needed to return to the Arena. He hadn’t made much progress on Miss Camilla’s book lately, and he returned to his sleeping bay to work on that now. He found Aden and Osrim in the room. Apparently the girls had already departed on their nightly outing. He greeted each of the boys and explained that he’d be leaving again shortly, and watch out for him to make sure he didn’t fall asleep. In the next forty minutes or so, he managed to copy the text of three pages. He needed to concentrate while copying the drawings, so it didn’t make sense to try working on diagrams when he’d always have to be checking the time.
Cooper left the sleeping bay and arrived at the Arena ten minutes early. He took the time to stretch and see if he could get a glimpse of Kolrem’s progress. His
classmate’s posture suggested that he was both frustrated and sore. Master Brais had him transitioning from a solid balance beam, across a pendulum beam and onto a platform. Last week, Kolrem could probably do this with his eyes closed. In the span of five minutes he’d fallen from the pendulum beam four out of four attempts. He was able to achieve some impressive speed but gravity is a constant force. Kolrem was moving so fast he couldn’t make adjustments. He couldn’t seem to compensate. As he was rising from his fifth plummet into the netting, Cooper heard Kolrem cursing and muttering and he could hear Master Brais speaking, “Yes, you fell, but you are learning to adjust. Each time you have fallen you have improved. It seems like you are failing repeatedly, because you are focusing only on the fact that you’re falling. You are learning from each mistake. As such, the reasons that you are falling are varied, but with practice you are learning to compensate. It will improve over time, but you’ll need to learn to manage your balance and timing regardless of your speed. Unfortunately, that will result in a few more falls… quite a few, I would expect.”. Before Kolrem started climbing back up to where Master Brais was standing, his teacher waved him off. The teacher then looked across the room and called out, “Rukle, finish this circuit and then class is complete.”. He turned back to Kolrem, “Consider checking in with Miss Camilla. She may have something to help with the soreness.”. Master Brais dropped down from the platform and walked over to where Cooper was on the floor stretching, “Are you rested?”. Cooper was about to relate how his evening went but realized he just needed to say, “Yes, sir.”. Master Brais nodded, “Do you have any idea what we’ll be doing tonight?”. Cooper shook his head, “No sir, but I’m guessing that we’ll be stealth training outside.”. Master Brais stood straighter, “Exactly correct. Any further ideas?”. Cooper shrugged. He’d actually been thinking of little else for the last hour or so, “Can I suggest or request a location for training?”. He saw Master Brais’ eyebrows pull together, “It’s a bit irregular. Where would you like to train?”. Cooper answered, “The Dregs, sir. I am already familiar with other areas of the city, except maybe for Lakeside or the Wharf City. Assuming the Palace is off limits, of course.”. His teacher chuckled, then appeared to consider this for a few minutes then nodded, “I suppose the Dregs is as good as anywhere. The Palace is indeed off limits, and the Wharf City is unsuitable for stealth training. We’ll be meeting someone on the roof. Are you ready to go?”. Cooper stood, squared his shoulders and asked, “What will be expected of me? Are we just moving around while remaining hidden? Or are we doing something more than that while we’re out?”. His teacher said, “Follow me. I’ll explain as we go.”. He turned and started climbing up to the upper course, “As we move around the Dregs, we’ll identify the next location where we’ll meet up. I’ll move to a spot where I can observe you as you move. Once it is obvious that you’ll make it there safely, I’ll move to join you. Then we’ll repeat the process. For tonight, we’ll keep things basic. In the weeks and months to come, as you gain skill and confidence, we’ll begin selecting more difficult locations and may even define the routes you must take to get there.”. For Cooper, it sounded almost bland considering he’d already managed movement through the Trade Quarter and The Grid under Skaiven’s instruction. He didn’t mention any of this, since he really didn’t know what to expect from Master Brais. There could even be some obstacles or acrobatics involved, so he’d keep his presumptions to himself. As Master Brais climbed onto the platform he reached up and pulled down an opening to a hatch. As the hatch came open, three ropes dropped down. His teacher grasped one of them and started to climb. He looked over his shoulder at Cooper and said, “Pick one of the other two. They all go to the same place. It’s about a fifty-five foot climb that ends at another hatch to the roof. The hatch is locked at all times. Once I reach the top, I’ll need to unlock the door, so don’t crowd me.”.
Two minutes later they were sitting on the roof. Cooper looked around as Master Brais closed and locked the hatch. A voice came out of the dark, “So tell me, sir, where are we going tonight?”. Cooper had to catch his balance after spinning to face where the voice came from. A boy of about thirteen stepped out from a shadow of one of the chimney stacks. He walked towards Cooper extending his right hand for a handshake, “Good evening, roomie. I’m Evan.”. Cooper felt his jaw drop a little but he recovered immediately asking, “You’re Evan?! The kid that has the empty bed in the same room as me?” Evan chuckled, “That’s me, and now you know why I’m seldom there.”. It was dark enough that Cooper couldn’t really tell what Evan looked like. He was taller than him and had short cropped hair that appeared dark. He appeared to have a pronounced brow and a strong chin, but it was difficult to tell in the darkness. Master Brais joined them saying, “I see you have already managed introductions. The last few weeks have had a few challenges. Evan has recently Manifested. With stealth training, it isn’t like starting over the way it feels with movement training. Evan has started re-training for Movement in the mornings after Stealth. That way it doesn’t interfere with other training.” Cooper interjected during a pause, “Manifested? I never heard about it.”. The teacher nodded, “You wouldn’t have heard. I watched over Evan in private as he Manifested. He has an affinity for Air and Nature. We were hoping for a little more. A touch of Earth would have made him complete in the role he’s been selected for.”. “And what role is that, sir?”, Cooper inquired. Master Brais considered his question then answered, “I am training him to, some day, replace me.”.
He positioned himself so that he was addressing both boys, “We are going to the South Warrens… The Dregs.”. Evan grunted, “Really? Sir, are you trying to challenge my concentration by surrounding me with stench?”. The teacher continued as if Evan hadn’t spoken, “The Dregs will pose challenges of its own, besides the stench. While the community is not tight knit, like the Wharf City is, outsiders are certainly noticed. Also, trying to travel using a ‘high route’ can be problematic since the architecture cannot be trusted. Moving at ground level is a challenge, especially for Evan who is trying to come to grips with his new Talent. When in doubt tonight, Evan, avoid using Manifested speed unless you feel confident of your ability to control your speed and balance.”.
Since they were already at the boundary between the University and the Trade Quarter, it was a short movement to reach The Dregs. They glided silently from shadow to shadow. Upon reaching the edge of The Dregs, Master Brais directed the boys to a rooftop on the edge of the Trade Quarter. He then pointed out a two-story building in the Dregs that had a lantern hanging above the door. The teacher whispered, “We’ll meet around the back of that building next. Move carefully. The Dregs haven’t been safe for several months. Don’t take unnecessary chances. You are both armed?”. Cooper placed a hand on the pommel of his dagger. Evan nodded. Their instructor turned but before he left he spoke over his shoulder to the boys. “Wait at least three minutes, but no longer than five, then start your movement. That’ll give me time to position myself.”. He departed, and the boys tucked themselves deeper into the shadows as they waited. Evan asked Cooper, “Do you want to go right, or left?”. Cooper shrugged, then realized that a gesture was useless in total darkness and answered, “I don’t think it makes any difference. I’ll go whichever way you don’t.”. They waited another couple of minutes and split up.
As Cooper moved through the darkness he remembered how it had been for him all those months ago, living in Batter’s Field. He had no experience in The Dregs, but plenty of experience moving through filth. He knew that Master Brais was keeping watch, but it was unlikely that he’d found a position that would allow him a continuous field of view. He’d be hearing more than he could be seeing. Cooper moved from one shadow to the next, slipping in between buildings when it suited his purpose. On one occasion, he had slipped through a gap between two bushes and had needed to reach to unhook himself from a branch where his tunic had snagged. Once he’d released himself he needed to lie flat against th
e side of a building while two drunks staggered past. He waited until they’d passed from his field of view, then broke away from that spot and flitted soundlessly across to the next building. He found a deep shadow along the side of the building where he could view the spot where they were supposed to meet and he paused there to observe the last twenty feet he’d need to cross. He saw one shadow separate from a space on the backside of the building and recognized Master Brais before his instructor slipped back into the darkness to conceal himself. When Cooper joined him, he saw that Evan was already there waiting. The boy now wore a black cowl that concealed all of his features except his eyes. Cooper gave him a nod of acknowledgement and waited for his instructor’s next set of instructions. Master Brais spoke almost immediately, “A dozen or so buildings straight west of here is a tavern called ‘The Wounded Stag’. It is a common meeting place and is still open for business for the next couple hours. To the north of that tavern is a well with an overgrown patch of weeds and grass around it. We will next meet in that patch surrounding the well. Give me my customary three to five minutes, then select your routes.”. Having said that, Master Brais stepped away from them and within a dozen steps had vanished from sight. It reminded Cooper of the conversation he’d had with Master Worthan about his own disappearance during his stealth assessment. After waiting a few minutes Evan gave Cooper a nod and departed to the right side, leaving Cooper to select his route along the left. Cooper had carefully moved from shadow to shadow and soon found himself looking out into a wider thoroughfare. He leaned out of the shadows enough to look up and down the street. The entire expanse of the street was dimly lit but the street was almost devoid of people. Movement caught Cooper’s eye and he watched an almost impossibly thin man stepping out from the tavern accompanied by a stouter man. The thin man was dressed in a gray cloak with the hood drawn up. It concealed his features except for his long nose and slightly protruding chin. The two men turned and walked down the street in Cooper’s direction. Cooper crouched down and backed into the nearby shadows. He resisted the urge to Channel in order to help him disappear and waited for the two men to pass. The men were still engaged in conversation. They were too far away and their voices too hushed for Cooper to make anything out except for the nasal tones coming from the thin man and the raspy, deep voice of his companion. In the dim light he could tell that the thin man’s cloak and boots were of good quality which identified him as an outsider in the Dregs. The stouter man’s raspy voice became raised for a few words and Cooper was able to distinguish, “You can…my House to deliver as promised….. nothing to be worried….”. Cooper couldn’t help wondering. Usually if a grown man made a reference to ‘my House’ as if it were a living thing, he was likely a House Father. Cooper took hold of the roofline of the low building that had concealed him and pulled himself onto the roof and then lay flat to hide his silhouette. He watched the two men walk further down the street then pause at the front of a building. The thin man was gesturing vigorously, cutting the air between them with his hands. The broader man made a placating gesture and then waved an open hand toward a door which he then stepped over and pulled opened. He stuck his head into the doorway and shouted something unintelligible from this distance. Within seconds a heavyset boy stepped out and the two men entered the building. The boy crossed his arms and leaned back against the door. Cooper’s expression tightened and he pressed his eyes closed tightly for a moment and looked again to make sure he wasn’t imagining things. Before pushing himself back away from the edge of the building to resume his training, Cooper muttered to himself, “Well, hello Egil… so this is where you are when you’re not killing defenseless kids from Batter’s Field… see you soon.”.