Chapter 217 — A New Focus

Chapter 217: Chapter 217 — A New Focus

~ Raven ~

Two days after the incident at the training court, Raven had learned that Valerius students could watch the same recording fifty times and still find something new to argue about.

The videos had spread everywhere, attracting an impressive amount of attention. Some students were more interested in the damage Cassian and Dante had done to the court, while others kept replaying the moment Raven had commanded them to stop, comparing it to what had happened during the Founders’ Hunt.

Her advancement to Tempered had only given them another topic to discuss.

Raven had stopped reading the comments after the first dozen, having decided that she had better things to do than entertain people who seemed to possess entirely too much free time.

As for the two idiots responsible, the academy had issued formal reprimands, deducted points and temporarily restricted their training privileges. According to the notice circulating that morning, neither Cardinal was permitted to engage in unsupervised sparring until further review.

Raven doubted those restrictions would last very long, considering who they were and the influence their Houses possessed.

Still, somebody had made the effort, and better yet, nobody had summoned Raven to the Headmaster’s office to demand an explanation.

For once, the academy had managed to punish the people responsible without somehow dragging her into another disciplinary hearing.

She was grateful for the change.

Unfortunately, she hadn’t seen Cassian or Dante since leaving them at the court, and keeping them out of her thoughts had proven more difficult than she’d anticipated.

Occasionally, she caught herself remembering Cassian’s request to speak with her or the expression on Dante’s face when she’d told them how disappointed she was.

Whenever that happened, Raven deliberately pushed the memories aside.

They were wolves, for Goddess’s sake. Whatever bruises they’d earned would heal, and their punishment was their own problem. She’d spent enough time worrying about those two.

Besides, the Renewal Concord was approaching, and she’d arranged additional training sessions around her ordinary classes. If she was going to stand against vampire competitors, she needed to learn what being Tempered actually allowed her to do.

Unfortunately, the academy instructors seemed delighted to demonstrate just how little she knew.

~~ ~~

"Again, Rivers."

Raven gritted her teeth and returned to the starting mark, resisting the urge to tell the instructor precisely what she thought of that particular word.

The woman had barely raised her voice throughout the session, which somehow made the endless corrections worse.

Across the training floor, Adelaide Fenn was completing the same exercise without losing her rhythm. The women occupying Fourth and Fifth Seats weren’t having much trouble either, while Isolde’s continued absence left Raven as the highest-ranked woman participating.

That distinction did absolutely nothing to help her.

The exercise sounded simple enough. She was supposed to reinforce her legs with essence, cross a series of marked positions, change direction on command and maintain the reinforcement without interrupting its flow.

Raven had managed the first stretch so quickly that she’d almost smiled.

Then the instructor ordered her to turn.

She shifted too much essence into her leading leg, pushed off harder than intended and nearly stepped outside the boundary. By the time she recovered, the reinforcement in her other leg had weakened.

"Stop." The instructor approached and indicated her stance. "You’re trying to overpower a movement that requires control."

Raven straightened, still catching her breath. "I was controlling it."

"You nearly crossed two marks in one step."

Raven glanced at the distance she’d covered, then reluctantly pressed her lips together.

Fair enough.

"Reduce the flow before you turn," the instructor continued, gesturing toward her legs. "You don’t need to force every movement simply because your body can withstand it."

Raven nodded and tried again, managing two turns before making an entirely different mistake.

By the fourth attempt, her legs were burning, and she was beginning to wonder whether somebody had deliberately designed the exercise to make her miserable.

She’d expected her newly advanced body to make training easier, not leave her exhausted while Adelaide finished another round looking infuriatingly composed.

The instructor sent her back to the beginning.

Raven stared at the starting mark for a moment before walking toward it without arguing.

She was beginning to hate that bloody mark.

~~ ~~

Brielle turned out to be even less merciful.

Raven had arranged to spar with her after training, expecting her increased strength to make their exchanges considerably more competitive.

It did, for approximately ten seconds.

Then Brielle slipped past an attack, caught Raven’s extended wrist and used her momentum to send her stumbling across the mat.

Raven recovered before falling and turned around, already raising her hands. "Again."

Brielle merely lifted an eyebrow before returning to her stance.

On the next exchange, Raven held back her essence and tried to wait for an opening. Unfortunately, Brielle feinted toward her shoulder, and Raven reacted a fraction too soon.

Before she could recover, Brielle swept her leg from beneath her.

This time, Raven hit the mat.

"Oh, for fuck’s sake!"

Brielle stepped back, giving her room to rise. "You’re getting angry."

"Really?" Raven demanded, pushing herself onto her elbows. "What gave it away?"

"The language, mostly."

Raven glared at her and climbed to her feet, trying to ignore how much her backside hurt.

Sparring with Dante had been frustrating in its own way, but he’d guided her through the movements, correcting her stance and making sure she understood what to do next.

Brielle wasn’t doing any of that while they fought.

Every opening Raven failed to recognize became another opportunity for her friend to put her on the floor, and the irritating woman seemed perfectly content to let Raven discover her mistakes the hard way.

Raven tried watching Brielle’s feet, then her shoulders, paying closer attention to how she shifted her weight before attacking.

For a moment, she thought she’d figured it out.

She stepped forward to counter.

Unfortunately, she’d moved too early.

Brielle slipped around her guard and caught her off balance again, sending Raven sprawling onto her back.

Goddess, this was humiliating.

Brielle appeared above her a moment later and offered her hand.

Raven considered refusing it on principle, then decided she’d embarrassed herself enough for one afternoon.

"You know, we can stop whenever you want," Brielle offered as she helped her stand.

Raven brushed the dust from her uniform and immediately raised her fists again.

"Not a chance. Again."

~~ ~~

Over the next three days, Raven discovered that determination was considerably less impressive when it involved waking up sore and voluntarily returning to the same exercises.

Her mornings belonged to classes, while her afternoons were spent training with academy instructors or sparring with Brielle. Most evenings ended with Raven bent over her Sigil Writing notes, struggling to keep her eyes open while Tessa reminded her that sleep was also considered useful.

Thalia started complaining that Raven had replaced her roommates with instructors, and Brielle merely asked whether she wanted another beating after dinner.

Under ordinary circumstances, Raven would have thrown something at both of them, but she was usually too exhausted to bother.

At least the work was beginning to pay off.

She stopped flooding her legs with essence whenever she needed to change direction, gradually learning to maintain reinforcement through an entire exercise without exhausting herself halfway through.

The instructor still corrected her frequently, but Raven was no longer being sent back to the starting mark quite so often.

Brielle, unfortunately, remained a considerably more difficult problem.

During their next spar, Raven resisted the urge to charge when her friend stepped into range. She watched the feint, waited until Brielle committed to her actual attack and finally managed to catch her across the shoulder with a clean counter.

Brielle blinked, visibly surprised.

Raven couldn’t help grinning.

Unfortunately, her satisfaction lasted only until Brielle recovered and took the next exchange.

Raven still lost the spar, but that one successful counterattack was enough to improve her mood considerably.

She hadn’t defeated Brielle yet, but she was beginning to understand the difference between possessing strength and knowing how to fight.

And for once, she could actually see herself improving.

~~ ~~

Advanced Sigil Writing, thankfully, was proving far kinder to her pride.

Berry had given the class another defensive inscription to repair, this one containing several damaged connections that needed to be corrected in the proper order.

Raven studied the board before touching her inscription tool, remembering the mistake she’d made during their previous lesson.

She’d rushed to repair the first obvious fault without examining how it affected the rest of the structure, and Berry had ensured she wouldn’t forget that particular embarrassment.

This time, Raven traced the connections from the anchor outward, carefully following the flow of essence until she identified another damaged section that would become unstable if she restored the first too early.

She hesitated over the correct order before adjusting her approach and beginning the repairs.

Nothing extraordinary happened.

She hadn’t experienced that strange, effortless concentration of her first Advanced Sigil Writing lesson again, when she’d reproduced two unfamiliar patterns so perfectly that even Berry had been surprised.

Nevertheless, Raven understood considerably more now than she had then, and she found herself recognizing principles that would have confused her only a few lessons earlier.

By the time she closed the final connection, the inscription was glowing steadily across the board.

Berry stopped beside her table and examined the work, following the repaired lines before looking toward Raven.

"Well done, Rivers."

Raven looked up, surprised by the praise.

"You corrected the sequence without being prompted," Berry continued, studying the inscription again. "And considerably faster than I expected. You’re learning remarkably quickly."

Raven couldn’t quite stop herself from smiling.

"Thank you, Instructor."

"Don’t look too pleased with yourself," Berry added, straightening. "You still need practice before I’d trust you with anything complicated under pressure."

Of course.

From a nearby table, one of the ranked Court women made a quiet remark about the difference between learning quickly and possessing real expertise.

Raven glanced over to find Adelaide watching Berry with a tight expression, while the other women suddenly seemed unusually interested in their boards.

Berry, however, hadn’t missed the remark.

"Experience matters," she said, looking across the tables. "So does the ability to learn from instruction. I expect both from everyone in this room."

The woman lowered her gaze, and Berry continued inspecting the remaining inscriptions.

Raven returned her attention to her board, doing her best not to smile again.

She was still thinking about the lesson when she and Tessa stepped into the corridor a short while later, with Raven feeling considerably more pleased with herself than she’d been after her latest combat session.

Several Linkslates chimed almost simultaneously.

Raven barely looked up, assuming the academy had found another reason to interrupt everyone’s afternoon.

Then a familiar, altered voice filled the corridor.

"Dear listeners, I’ve spent the last several days attempting to piece together a truly unreasonable amount of material, and I have one person to thank for the difficulty. Raven Rivers."

A ripple of laughter passed through the nearby students, and Raven stopped adjusting the books beneath her arm.

Wait wha—?

"First, there’s the Renewal Ball and her little romantic scandal involving two Cardinal heirs. Then those same two gentlemen decide a training court is the perfect place to attempt mutual murder. And as though that weren’t enough, our beloved Second Seat has somehow found time to advance her Power Class. Honestly, at this point, I may have to charge her for the extra work."

More students reached for their slates, laughing as Bellringer continued his commentary.

But Raven had stopped walking.

She knew that voice, and more importantly, she knew exactly who was speaking behind the sigil that disguised it.

And the last time she’d seen Isolde Marchmont, the First Seat had been lying unconscious in the infirmary.