With the game over, Paul dismissed them for the day, telling them to be in the main room tomorrow morning. It was nearing midday, so the five apprentices made their way back to the clan hall.
“Training today is going to be rough,” Ling said as they walked.
“You’ll be a little slower and off-balance,” Yukiko was saying. “I’m sure that Inda will take that into account.”
“You all seem like you had a full night’s rest,” Clover said a little slower than usual.
“Once you get to train like we do, you’ll be the same way,” Jenn said. “Body can refresh the physical and mind the mental, but spirit lets you meditate-nap and feel like you had some sleep.”
“Oh, Aether, please let it be soon…” Clover murmured. “We’ll be a detriment in the tournament during a long game, otherwise.”
“You’ll be like everyone else,” Gregory said. “We’re the oddities.”
“Maybe, but we want to be able to stand with you,” Ling said. “It’ll be hard to do with our training being so inconsistent.”
“This year is proving challenging for training,” Yukiko agreed.
“Apprentices, welcome back,” Dia greeted them when they reached the clan hall. “Physical training is going to be a little lighter today— not much, but some. It’ll be three hours instead of four. The missing hour will be so you can do the Peaceful Fist. That will be before training at the twelfth bell.”
“Yes, Dia,” Gregory, Yukiko, and Jenn replied right before Clover and Ling.
“Which means you have enough time to drop off your bags before coming back down,” Dia said.
Clover and Ling headed inside, but Gregory and his wives just took seats on the other bench beside the door.
“How did they do?” Dia asked.
“Very well on the first day and decently this morning,” Yukiko replied. “Once they truly begin the Peaceful Fist, we think they’ll do even better.”
“Yes, though they might not see the benefits for a month or more,” Dia said.
“Hopefully, it’ll be before then,” Jenn said.
“If they push, maybe Aether will bless them,” Gregory said.
“Perhaps,” Dia smiled as she exhaled a smoke ring. “He did bless me with the channels widening again, so maybe he’ll bless them with a speedy acceptance of the spirit path.”
“They’re back,” Daciana said as she came out of the building. “Did you win?”
“We won,” Yukiko said. “The Han clan did well, but they were a little slow to adapt to what we were doing. The next time we face them, they’ll be harder to beat.”
“They’ll have had time to collect themselves and learn,” Nessa said, following her excitable friend.
“Exactly,” Jenn smiled.
“But you won’t use the same tactics against the same opponent, will you?”
“Not if we have a choice, but we might use something similar,” Yukiko grinned.
“To lure them into thinking they know what will happen,” Victoria said. “I see.”
“Our youngest members are quick to learn,” Dia said proudly. “As I informed the others, physical training will be shortened by an hour, as from the twelfth to thirteenth bell, we will be doing the Peaceful Fist.”
“To help Clover and Ling,” Victoria said.
“I was thinking we might need to switch that last hour we normally study to doing the Peaceful Fist,” Gregory said. “That’ll help them the best, as we already study in the morning and learn during tactics class.”
“We understand,” Nessa said quickly, touching Daciana’s arm to stop her from speaking up. “Helping them catch up is important.”
Daciana looked at Nessa’s hand, then smiled. “I agree, Ness.”
“We thank you for that,” Ling said, coming out of the clan hall. “You’re further along in training in that way than we are.”
“But we’ll train hard and do our best.” Clover’s enthusiasm, though slightly diminished, was still infectious.
Twelfth bell began to chime and they went down into the yard. As they did, Bishop, Inda, Indara, Hemet, and Leah came out of the building to join them for the Peaceful Fist.
~*~*~
Gregory moved through the motions. The aether flame in his cavern sent off the haze of resonance even as he worked on the Magi Square the fire produced. When the puzzle was complete, another didn’t appear. That was fine for him, as Gregory wanted to consider the Empire’s Gambit game that had finished.
Considering each turn in sequence, Gregory worked through what the Han clan had done, trying to understand what they might’ve been thinking. He was surprised when the flame changed, becoming the map from the game.
“This is new,” Gregory smiled. “Can we go turn by turn?”
The map went from empty to the initial setup for his class. The money reduced and the upgrades Yukiko had lobbied for at the start took their places.
“She was right,” Gregory told the flame. “They did try with scouts in the places she thought they would. The hounds were the right counter, and that let Clover get to her spot.”
The pieces appeared and then were removed after clashing.
Each turn came and went as he moved through the pattern of the meditation. The last few turns were a flurry of motion as Yukiko and the others charged in, killing off the bulk of the enemy and taking the others captive.
When the game ended, he found himself back in the yard as meditation came to an end. He was surprised to see they’d been joined by the other instructors and Gin.
“Good. I’m glad that training was delayed a bit,” Gin said. “Now, we’ll go to the roof, stretch and run.” He looked at Ling and Clover as they went past him and nodded slowly.
Yukiko walked beside the two women. “Feeling better?”
“A little,” Ling said. “I don’t feel as disconnected to my body as I did before the meditation.”
“Me, too,” Clover nodded rapidly.
“Good,” Yukiko smiled.
~*~*~
Training and dinner came and went. With all of that done, the apprentices and novices stepped back outside to do more Peaceful Fist. Gregory was smiling as the hour-long meditation came to an end— he’d worked on Magi Squares.
Ling looked puzzled as she stood there. “Do memories come back with the spirit path?”
“Yes,” Yukiko said. “Normally before the cavern.”
“Yay! Me!” Clover said, doing one of her small dances.
Everyone smiled at the excitable woman.
“Was it a good memory?” Daciana asked.
Clover calmed for a moment, thinking. “No… It was a painful one, but it reminded me of why I’m always so positive.”
“If you want to talk about it, we’re here,” Victoria said.
Clover blinked and her smile came back. “It’s okay. Ling, you had one too?”
Gregory noticed her deflection. Yukiko caught his eye and shook her head an inch.
“Yes. Like you, it wasn’t the best memory. It was when I was a child. My mother is more eurtik than I am, but as you can clearly see, I am obviously eurtik-blooded. We stayed with the other eurtiks in a section of a large town. When it came time for school, we went to the closest hall, meaning we ended up with others. The memory was of my first fight because of their words and how my mother had to explain why I couldn’t just lash out.”
Clover sniffled then lunged to grab Ling. “Oh…!”
Ling caught her and held her, struggling to hold back her own emotions. “Sharing helps…” she said softly.
“Like you…” Clover sniffled again, “except they beat me. Dad told me that I needed to just stay happy. Happy and silly would get them to leave me alone eventually.”
Yukiko, Daciana, and Nessa were the first ones to step forward, hugging the two already holding each other.
“Dad told me to stand my ground,” Daciana said, “but Mom told me to pick my times to do so. I fought a lot.”
“I ran… always ran,” Nessa whispered.
“And I was taken on the road to avoid as much of it as I could,” Yukiko said softly. “You aren’t alone now.”
Jenn was the next one to join them, “It was the same for me. It wasn’t as bad, but still the same. I was told to defend myself, but not start fights.”
Victoria was there a moment later. “I never had your troubles. My village didn’t have eurtiks with it being so far out on the fringe. I’m sorry that my friends had to endure any of that.”
Gregory was last. His voice was soft, but held a touch of anger, “It’s all rotten… Maybe we can show them what it should be like. Raise our clan up, raise it up until it’s the shining example that others should follow. If that means changing the empire… well, for my hearts and my friends, I’d try.”
His words touched the group. They all swallowed hard, then Gregory was dragged into the hug by Yukiko and Jenn, then pushed into the middle with Ling and Clover. The two hugged him, their hearts a little lighter for his words.
“Will Aether bless us? Will he help?” Clover’s whisper was clear to all of them.
“If we have faith, he will,” Yukiko said with conviction. “We’ve all seen the oldest art. Humans, elves, dwarves, and eurtiks all working together… that’s what Aether wanted. I’m sure of it.”
“We’ll follow his path, combining all three paths. We’ll show him that we’re his guard.” Jenn said, her hand tightening on Gregory’s arm.
“Is everything okay?” Dia asked as she stepped out of the hall.
They broke apart. As everyone wiped their faces, Gregory cleared his throat and spoke for them, “We’re fine, Dia. Just helping our friends deal with some unkind memories.”
Dia took a seat, lighting her pipe with her finger. “The spirit path will bring good and bad memories to you. All of us with eurtik blood have dealt with the harshness the empire holds for us, even me. If you need an older ear, I will listen. My juniors are always welcome to unburden themselves to me.”
“Thank you, Dia,” Ling said, having composed herself. “Maybe in the future?”
“As you wish. It is nearly—” She was cut off as nineteenth bell chimed. When it was finished, she smiled. “It is about time when you normally retire.”
They thanked her and trooped inside.
Dia held out a hand to stop Gregory. When he paused, she pulled a scroll out of her pouch. “This came for you earlier. I’m sorry that I forgot to give it to you this afternoon.”
Gregory took the scroll from her. Seeing the marks on it, he swallowed. “Thank you, Dia.”
“Of course. Have a good night.”
Scroll in hand, Gregory followed his wives up to their room, saying good night to the others when they broke off. Closing the door behind them, Gregory looked back down at the paper in his hand.
“A letter from home?” Yukiko asked.
“I believe so,” Gregory said.
“Why’re you hesitating?” Jenn asked.
“Because it’ll hurt me…” Gregory said softly. “No matter what it says, it’ll still hurt me.”
“And we’ll be here to soothe you,” Yukiko said, going to his side.
He gave them both a weak smile. “Thank you.”
Taking a seat at the table with his wives beside him, he broke the seal and opened it.
Greg,
Your father made it back. We were all surprised when he left to attend the tournament. He told us all about it, that you lost to your friend and clanmate. He said you made up, too. That’s good. Wish I’d been there to see it.
He’s still staying with my parents and hasn’t touched a drink. Whenever I see him, he just has juice or tea. He helped the Delarosa’s when their roof had trouble. Before they could even ask for help, he was there.
Your dad told us about the wedding. It sounds amazing, and I wish we’d been there with you. I hope she’s at least half as good to you as El is to me. I doubt you’d love her if she wasn’t, though.
We had a girl, and we’re already working on having another. El said she wants to have three kids, and I’ll give her anything she wants. I hope one of them is a boy. We named our daughter after your mom— we hope you’re okay with that.
Ria’s kid is a girl, too. She and Stan got into a fight over her name, but in the end, they named her Bridget, after Stan’s grandma. Seeing her, well… my hope was dashed. She has Stan’s eyes, not yours or Ria’s. Don’t know if you had secretly hoped the kid was yours, but she isn’t.
I know the admission you might never come home had to hurt you. It caused a lot of anger here. Not with me, I understand, but Ria was upset, and El sided with her when I tried to take your side. It took your dad talking to Ria for her to mellow on it.
We all hope you’ll come back, but if you never do, we understand. I’ll keep sending you letters once or twice a year, and I expect the same. If you don’t, I’ll have to come find you, magi or not.
Keep your chin up, and remember to show them what an Alturis man is all about.
Your friend forever,
Gunnar
Gregory swallowed, choking back his emotions.
“You and Ria?” Jenn asked softly.
“We were friends for all my life,” Gregory replied, his voice thick. “I saved her from the bane wolf and before I left… yeah.”
“And she promised to move on, and did,” Yukiko said, rubbing his back. “Did you wish…?” She trailed off not waiting to ask.
“No,” Gregory said as he pulled them closer to him. “It would’ve been bad for her, and it would have hurt you both. It’s a relief to me, but… I feel bad for her, too. It’s obvious that she’d hoped for it.”
“I’m sure she did,” Jenn said. “Any woman would be proud to have your child.”
“That doesn’t even include them knowing your soul,” Yukiko added. “Come, dear one.” She stood and pulled him to his feet. “Let’s go to bed. After we show you our love, we can sleep.”
Gregory gave them a small smile as Jenn and Yukiko pulled him toward the bedroom. Sorry Ria, but it’s for the best, he thought before letting go of that thought to focus on his wives.
