Chapter 543: Scored Accordingly

Nyx called the rest day before anyone else could argue for one.

That was probably the only reason it happened.

Usually, suggesting a day without forward movement triggered at least ten minutes of debate about food, distance, urgency, and whether sore legs qualified as an actual reason to stop.

Nyx prevented all of it.

"We’ve been practicing on ourselves for a month."

Ashe looked up from where she was stretching one leg against a fallen trunk.

"That sounds unhealthy."

"It probably is."

Nyx pointed toward Vane.

"Especially in his case."

Vane frowned.

"What did I do?"

"Stillness."

"I’ve improved."

"Badly."

"That isn’t how improvement works."

"It is when the starting point was dramatic enough."

Isole made a sound suspiciously close to a laugh.

Nyx continued before Vane could defend himself.

"I want to see whether any of this survives contact with someone who can hit back."

Ashe lowered her leg.

"That’s what the walk north was for."

"No. Walking north tests whether we can walk north."

Nyx folded her arms.

"This tests which of us has spent the last month lying to ourselves about how much we actually learned from Kest."

That ended the debate.

Mostly because nobody wanted to be the first person caught arguing against being tested.

Mara produced a ledger before anyone had finished stretching.

A new one.

Smaller.

Valerica stared at it.

"You brought a scoring ledger."

"It’s already here."

"That doesn’t answer the accusation."

Mara pulled out charcoal.

"I’ll be scoring."

"On what criteria?"

"Mine."

Valerica blinked.

"That’s not a criterion."

"It is currently the only available one."

Mara opened the book.

"You may file a complaint."

"Where?"

"In the ledger."

Valerica narrowed her eyes.

"And you’ll score the complaint too."

"Obviously."

Nyx nodded approvingly.

"This feels extremely fair."

"It isn’t," Valerica said.

"Noted," Mara replied, and actually wrote something down.

Valerica looked offended before the first match had even started.

Vane went first.

Against Ashe.

Nobody suggested the pairing.

Nobody needed to.

They both stepped into the cleared patch at roughly the same time, which was enough to make Nyx grin from the sidelines.

Mara drew one line across the page.

"Begin."

Vane settled.

At least, he attempted to.

Ashe waited.

He waited too.

For perhaps two seconds, it went well.

Then Ashe’s shoulder shifted.

Barely.

Vane read it as an opening and moved.

Too fast.

Too much.

Ashe turned with him, redirected his arm, and put him on the ground before he had fully registered what he had committed to.

Mara’s charcoal moved immediately.

"Point against Vane."

Vane looked up from the dirt.

"Against?"

"For enthusiasm exceeding competence."

"That isn’t a real category."

Mara did not look up.

"Everything becomes a category if recorded before appeal."

"You recorded it after."

"Appeal denied."

Ashe offered Vane a hand.

He ignored it and stood on his own.

"Again."

"Sensitive," Nyx observed.

The second exchange started slower.

Vane made himself wait through the first false opening.

Then the second.

Ashe tested his guard with a small feint.

He did nothing.

For half a beat, that felt like success.

Then Ashe found the actual gap he had left while congratulating himself internally and touched two fingers against his ribs.

Mara wrote again.

"Point Ashe."

"For what?"

"Precision. Correctly applied."

Ashe stepped back.

"That’s flattering."

"It’s descriptive."

"That’s less flattering."

"Scoring usually is."

Vane reset.

The third exchange lasted longer.

Then the fourth.

By then, neither of them was really trying to win in the ordinary sense.

Ashe kept reducing force when force would have ended things faster.

Vane kept refusing openings he could have turned into brute exchanges.

Both of them were visibly thinking too much.

Isole noticed first.

"You’re both working harder to stay inside Kest’s rules than to beat each other."

Vane kept his eyes on Ashe.

"That sounds correct."

"It probably is."

Ashe circled left.

"Kest would call that the point."

"Kest isn’t here."

"No."

Ashe smiled.

"So she also isn’t here to disqualify me."

Vane’s eyes narrowed.

"For wha—"

She closed distance while he was talking.

A shoulder check broke his balance.

Her foot took his ankle.

He hit the ground.

Mara wrote for several seconds.

"That was cheating."

Ashe looked down at him.

"It was distraction."

"You started a conversation."

"You participated."

"That doesn’t make it legal."

"There are no rules."

Vane looked toward Mara.

"There are apparently enough rules for her to score me on enthusiasm."

Mara kept writing.

"Match concluded."

"Who won?"

Mara closed the page.

"Information withheld."

"That’s not how scorekeeping works."

"It is now."

Ashe offered her hand again.

This time Vane took it.

She pulled him up with considerably more force than necessary.

"You held the stillness longer."

Vane brushed dirt from his clothes.

"I noticed you noticing."

"That means you broke stillness to notice me noticing."

He paused.

"That feels unfair."

"It probably means Kest was right."

"About what?"

"That we’re both overthinking everything."

Vane sighed.

"At least she isn’t here to say it."

Ashe rolled one shoulder.

"No."

Then, thoughtfully:

"Imagining her being disappointed in both of us is surprisingly motivating."

Vane hated that she was right.

Valerica went next.

Nyx volunteered before anyone could choose a partner for her.

Valerica should have been suspicious.

She was not.

For approximately twenty seconds.

Then she became very suspicious.

Nyx stood loosely across from her, hands relaxed, expression completely unhelpful.

Valerica watched her shoulders.

Nothing.

Her hips.

Nothing useful.

Her eyes.

Possibly worse.

Nyx moved.

Valerica reacted late.

The exchange ended almost immediately.

"Again," Valerica said.

Nyx shrugged.

Second exchange.

Valerica watched harder.

Nyx gave her a tiny shoulder twitch.

Valerica shifted to answer it.

Nyx went the other way.

"Again."

Third exchange.

Valerica lasted longer.

Not enough.

Nyx touched her shoulder from an angle Valerica had been certain was closed.

Valerica stepped back.

"I can’t read you."

Nyx smiled.

"Yes."

"That wasn’t praise."

"I took it as praise."

Valerica pointed at her.

"Everyone has a tell."

"I have several."

"Then why can’t I see them?"

"Because most of them are fake."

Valerica stared.

"That’s cheating."

Nyx’s smile widened.

"That’s literally information control."

"This is supposed to be Kest’s training."

"It is."

"How?"

Nyx gestured vaguely toward the ground.

"Kest’s whole point was that you stop demanding the world announce itself in forms you already understand."

Valerica’s expression tightened.

"You’re saying I’m reading you like I read the settlement."

"I’m saying you’re trying very hard to turn me into something predictable."

Nyx tilted her head.

"I’ve spent years making that annoying."

"You’ve succeeded."

"Thank you."

"That wasn’t praise either."

"It keeps happening."

Mara scratched something into the ledger.

Valerica looked over immediately.

"What did you write?"

"Nothing relevant."

"That means it was about me."

"Not necessarily."

"It absolutely does."

Mara finally looked up.

"Match scored as a draw."

Nyx frowned.

"I won."

"Yes."

Valerica folded her arms.

"So why a draw?"

Mara answered without hesitation.

"Watching you get dismantled by unreadability was worth exactly as many points as Nyx’s actual victory."

Valerica stared at her.

"That makes no sense."

"It made excellent sense when I wrote it."

"I want to appeal."

"Already scored."

"How?"

"Poorly."

Nyx laughed hard enough to sit down.

Valerica did not appreciate this.

The ruling remained.

Isole and Mara went last.

That surprised everyone.

Including Isole.

She looked at Mara.

"You want to spar?"

"No."

"Then why are you standing up?"

"Because apparently I am sparring."

Mara closed the ledger and handed it to Ashe.

Ashe brightened immediately.

"Oh, I have power now."

"You have temporary custody."

"Same thing."

"No."

Mara stepped into the clearing.

Her stance was technically a stance.

Barely.

Isole looked at her.

"You don’t actually fight."

"I fight when necessary."

"That sounded defensive."

"It was factual."

"You don’t need to beat me."

"Good."

"Just don’t let me land anything clean."

Mara nodded.

"That sounds manageable."

It became less of a match than an experiment.

Isole moved first.

Gold threaded around one hand.

Dark gathered around the other.

Months ago, using both at once had carried visible hesitation.

Now they appeared together naturally.

Gold feinted high.

Dark curled low.

Mara stepped exactly between both.

Isole blinked.

"Again."

Second attempt.

Isole varied the angle.

Mara shifted before the dark current fully committed.

Third.

Same result.

Fourth.

Isole almost caught her.

Almost.

Mara pivoted away by inches.

Fifth.

Nothing.

Isole lowered both hands.

"That’s unfair."

Mara looked genuinely confused.

"How?"

"You’re predicting me."

"I’m observing you."

"You moved before I did."

"Yes."

"That’s predicting."

"That’s engineering."

Isole stared at her.

"That sentence explained absolutely nothing."

Mara pointed toward Isole’s shoulder.

"You load there before directing the dark current."

Isole immediately looked down.

"You also shift your right foot when you intend to use gold defensively instead of offensively."

Isole looked offended.

"I do not."

"You did it six times."

"Five."

Mara paused.

"That was a test."

Isole’s eyes narrowed.

"You’re enjoying this."

"Marginally."

From the sidelines, Ashe called:

"Isole, score her on smugness."

"I would."

Isole glanced toward the ledger.

"But apparently she owns the state."

Ashe hugged the book protectively.

"For the moment, I do."

Mara looked over.

"Do not write in it."

"I thought everything becomes a scoring category if it gets written first."

"That principle has limits."

"That’s not fair and you know it."

Nyx applauded softly.

Mara walked over and reclaimed the ledger before the situation deteriorated further.

By late afternoon, everyone was sore.

Good sore.

The particular soreness that came from failing safely enough to understand why.

They ended up scattered around the doused fire pit, packs used as pillows, weapons lying within reach mostly from habit.

Mara sat upright.

The ledger rested open on one knee.

"Final results."

Valerica groaned.

Mara ignored her.

"Most improved: Vane."

Vane looked pleased.

"Marginally."

He looked less pleased.

"That qualification was unnecessary."

"It was statistically relevant."

"Best applied theory: Ashe."

Ashe nodded.

"Correct."

"Most unfair exploitation of an existing advantage: Nyx."

Nyx placed one hand over her chest.

"I’m honored."

"You shouldn’t be."

"I still am."

"Best use of an advantage nobody realized existed: Isole."

Isole looked toward Mara.

"You mean your inability to fight?"

"I mean your simultaneous control."

"Oh."

She considered it.

"I’ll accept that."

Mara turned one page.

"And worst sport: Valerica."

Valerica sat upright.

"For arguing with a scoring system you agreed to before losing."

"I did not agree."

"You participated."

"You announced the system."

"Participation implies acceptance."

"That is not how consent works."

Mara wrote something.

Valerica pointed.

"You’re doing it again."

"Additional evidence."

"Against what?"

"Worst sport."

"This system is corrupt."

"Noted."

Nobody had enough energy left to continue fighting about it.

That probably saved Valerica several additional penalties.

The six of them remained where they were as the strange light softened around the leaning forest.

Bruised.

Sweaty.

Tired.

Nothing depended on the score.

No settlement waited behind them.

No Imperial force pressed toward a line.

Nobody’s life rested on whether Vane held still for one second longer or Ashe spent less force or Valerica correctly read a false tell.

For one afternoon, failure had consequences measured in bruises and Mara’s increasingly illegitimate ledger.

Vane found he liked that.

Nyx lay flat on her back.

Ashe complained that her shoulder hurt.

Mara immediately marked something.

Valerica threatened to burn the ledger.

Isole laughed.

And with absolutely nothing riding on any of it, they stayed there until the light began to fade.