Chapter 49: Rivals

{Kohaku}

I still wasn’t sure how any of this was supposed to get me a win over Aldric. Even if I trained twenty-four hours a day, he’d still be leagues above me. But Cassian had to have a plan, so I went along with it.

Day one, he had me run.

He stood at one end of the west yard and made me sprint the length of it. When I got to the far side, he said "back." I sprinted back. Then he said "back" again. He never gave me a number. I asked twice, and both times he just said "back."

By the eleventh trip, I had a working theory that he hated me personally and all this was an excuse to see me suffer before the match.

"Why," I managed, hands on my knees, "am I running? Aldric isn’t going to chase me. He’s going to stand there, and I’m going to fall over."

"You’ll fall over faster if your legs are garbage."

Around the twentieth trip, I noticed Lily up on the low wall at the north end of the yard. She had a book open, and she wasn’t reading a word of it.

I waved at her mid-sprint. She waved back with both hands.

"Eyes forward," Cassian said.

Day two, I hit a post.

He stuck a wooden post in the middle of the yard and told me to hit it with Coating until he said stop. That was the whole drill. He didn’t correct my form once. I complained about that and he told me form wasn’t the point today.

"Then what is the point today?"

"You’ll drop the Coating somewhere around fifty hits. I want to see how long it takes you to get it back."

He was right. I got to fifty-five and the layer came off me. My arms went from hurting a lot to hurting in a completely different, more educational way. I stood there for eight full seconds trying to push mana back out through my forearms.

"Eight seconds," Cassian said. "In eight seconds Aldric hits you four times. Again."

"Can I have some wa-"

"Again."

I got it to six seconds. Then five. Around noon I got it down to three and he went quiet for a moment.

Lily was back at the wall with a different book, by that point. She had a water skin with her this time and she held it out toward me a little.

I waved and she waved back. Then a rock hit the post next to my head.

"Focus," Cassian said. He already had another one in his hand.

Day three, he brought a practice sword and started putting me on the ground.

That was the drill. He came in slowly, tapped my guard aside, knocked me over, and said "up." I got up and we did it again. He kept his speed at about half the entire time and he never hit me anywhere that would still hurt in the morning.

"You flinch on the reset," he said, somewhere around the fortieth one.

"I flinch because you keep hitting me."

"Everyone flinches. Aldric’s whole style is built on it. The Stellaris-Vane technique isn’t complicated. It’s just fast enough that most people spend the entire match reacting to something that already happened." He stepped back and rolled his shoulder. "You can’t out-speed him. You’ll have to stop reacting to him. Up."

[Rude, but that’s actually useful.]

I got up.

Lily was at the wall again with no book at all this time. She just sat there with her hands in her lap and watched me eat dirt for two hours. I waved. She waved back very slowly.

Soon, once we were done, Cassian went "same time tomorrow" and left.

---

I limped over to the wall and dropped onto the grass at Lily’s feet.

"So," Lily said. "How’s the training going?"

"I’m going to die."

"You said that yesterday."

"It’s worse today." I lay flat on my back. "Everything from my shoulders down is on fire and I can’t make a fist with my left hand anymore."

Lily was quiet for a bit.

"He’s very... committed," she said.

"He’s a lunatic."

"Mhm. And you’re with him the whole day, every day."

"Six in the morning to sundown, yep."

"Right." She smoothed her skirt over her knees. "That’s a lot of time. The yard’s empty, too, so it’s only the two of you."

I sat up.

[Hang on. Is she wondering if I like him?]

In three whole arcs of me shoving men at this girl, Lily had reacted to exactly zero of them.

And now she was fishing about a male lead, on her own, without me arranging any of it.

[This is the best thing that has ever happened to me.]

"Lily," I said. "Can I be honest with you? He’s kind of impressive."

"Is he?"

"Yeah. He’s in the yard before I’ve even woken up. He’s patient. He explains things properly, he doesn’t talk down to me, and he’s been doing this for free, for three days, for a girl he barely knows." Every word of it was true. "And he’s got that whole quiet thing going on. Some people find that appealing."

Lily looked out at the yard for a moment. Then she stood and offered me her hand.

"We should get you to bed," she said. "You’re going again at six."

And that, right there, is how you talk a guy up.

[Ah, another bit of brilliance by yours truly. Now Lily gets jealous, and the ship sails.]

---

{Lily}

I hated it.

I sat on the wall from a little after six with my hands in my lap and watched Cassian Holloway put my roommate on the ground thirty-one times before the sun was properly up. I counted. He’d knock her flat and say "up," and she’d get up, and he’d do it again. Every time she hit the dirt my chest went tight.

He didn’t heal her once, either. He had her limping by the second hour and he kept going anyway. When she asked for water he told her "after." What the heck is that about!?

[Two more days of this and she won’t be able to lift her arms at the match. Does he know that? He’s supposed to be the one who knows things.]

Kohaku got up off the ground again, rolled her shoulder, and looked over at me.

"Morning, Lily!"

"... Good morning!" I called back. I smiled as wide as I could and waved with both hands. She waved back and turned around. I put my hands in my lap and went back to being furious.

It went on like that all morning.

At about ten he started her on the post again. She got forty hits in before her Coating came off, and then she stood there with her arms shaking, trying to get it back, while Cassian counted the seconds out loud.

"Four," he said. "That’s worse than yesterday."

[She’s tired! She’s tired because you ran her into the ground yesterday!]

Kohaku glanced my way.

"Doing great!" I said, with a thumbs up.

"Thank you, Lily!"

She turned back to the post. I lowered the thumb.

I’m not an unreasonable person. He’s helping her. He came to our door and offered, and nobody else did, and he gets up at five in the morning to do it. I know all of that.

But he doesn’t know how she moves. He doesn’t know that she plants her left foot too wide when she’s tired, or that she says "I’m fine" in a particular voice when she isn’t. He’s known her three days! Or something.

I’ve been washing her uniforms for weeks!

He gave her a break a little before noon. She came over and sat down against the wall by my knees, and I handed her the water skin. She drank half of it in one go.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Mm-hm. Never better. Everything hurts and I think I’m hallucinating a bit, but that’s normal for day four."

I took a breath.

"I want to be the one training you."

Kohaku stopped drinking.

"...Sorry?"

"I want to train you. Instead of him, or as well as him, I don’t mind which, but I want to do it." My hands were fidgeting in my lap. I made them stop. "I know the forms. You’ve said yourself that you’ve seen me use them. I could show you the sequences properly, slowly. And I can heal you between sets, which he can’t do at all. You wouldn’t lose whole days to being sore."

She was quiet for a second. Then she answered gently.

"Lily, that’s really sweet of you."

[Oh no.]

"But here’s the thing. Cassian’s watched Aldric fight. Actually watched him, up close. He knows the house style. He knows what the recovery step looks like from the wrong end of it." She patted my knee. "You’d probably beat him in a straight fight, honestly. But he’s the one who’s studied the guy I have to push over a line in two days."

It was a good argument. I understood every part of it.

I looked at her.

"Don’t do that."

I kept looking at her.

"Lily, I’m serious, don’t-"

I looked harder.

Kohaku opened her mouth, then closed it. She looked at the yard, then at Cassian, then back at me. I kept my face exactly where it was.

"Stop looking at me like that."

I said nothing.

She held out for four more seconds. Then she groaned and let her head fall back against the wall.

"Fine. Fine! Evenings. You get evenings, after he’s done with me."