Another week came and went. They stuck to their routine and felt like they were making progress with their training.
“They should be here shortly,” Gregory said, looking toward the front of the archive.
“I wonder how Victoria did with Indara,” Yukiko said questioningly.
Daciana was a few paces ahead of the others as they came into view of the table. She had a large grin on her face and was bounding their way. “Thank you!” she said, bending down to hug Jenn from behind.
Jenn blinked, caught by surprise. She didn’t have time to object or even say anything before Daciana let her go, went around the foot of the table, and hugged Yukiko. Yukiko chuckled as she patted Daciana’s arms.
“Glad to hear you had a good day off,” Yukiko said.
Daciana went from Yukiko to Gregory. She hesitated for a moment before giving him a very brief hug. Her cheeks were tinged with color when she let go of him. “We did.”
“We did, indeed,” Nessa said as she got to the table with Victoria beside her. “Thank you from us, as well.”
Jenn shifted in place so she could see them. “You’re welcome.”
Victoria glanced from Daciana to Jenn. “Are hugs acceptable?”
Jenn shrugged. “I don’t mind, though I do prefer to know I’m getting a hug before it happens.”
Daciana’s cheeks heated more. “Sorry, Jenn.”
“It’s fine,” Jenn said as she gave Nessa, then Victoria, brief hugs, “but you should always make sure it’s okay before grabbing someone.”
“I understand,” Daciana nodded, going to sit beside Jenn. “I’ll do better.”
“Good.”
Nessa and Victoria went around the table to give Yukiko hugs, then approached Gregory. When they hesitated to hug him, he gave them an awkward smile.
“You don’t have to,” Gregory said. “It’s fine.”
Nessa swallowed, but she gave him a quick hug before she moved to sit beside Yukiko. “I just wasn’t sure you were okay with it,” Nessa said, her cheeks red.
“I’m fine,” Gregory told her.
Victoria hugged him— not as briefly as the other two did, but equal to how she’d hugged Jenn and Yukiko. “It was a difficult day, but it was good. Thank you, Greg, and you both, as well, Jenn, Yuki.” When she let him go, she went to sit at the other end of the table, wearing a smile on her lips as her cheeks lightly dusted with color.
Gregory was surprised by her more forceful hug after the two quick ones, but he wrote it off as her being more comfortable with him, since they were both from the fringe. “Tell us how it went.”
“We had an early lunch with our parents and told them about our chance to have personal training,” Nessa began. “They were sad that we’d miss seeing them so much during our days off, but they accepted that it would help us.”
“Dad was being difficult until Mom stopped him,” Daciana said stiffly. “Kept asking who and where. After I repeated for the third time that I couldn’t tell him, she slapped him down for me.” Seeing their expressions, she waved a hand. “It’s okay, he always does that. He’ll leave it alone now that Mom told him to.”
“Which is good,” Nessa said. “We were greeted by Elsa,” Nessa smiled softly. “She was very formal and gracious in accepting us.”
“The other children are precious, too,” Victoria added. “They were happy to have us there to practice with.”
“Indara led us through the Peaceful Fist. The children were doing it, too,” Nessa went on. “When the meditation came to an end, she made the children step back and had us show her what we could do.”
“I was a failure,” Victoria sighed, “but I didn’t give up until she told me to stop.”
“She was glad that Daciana and I didn’t slack in our training,” Nessa said. “And Victoria is wrong. Indara didn’t call her a failure. She was actually surprised that she knew how to fall correctly.”
“The only thing I could do,” Victoria sighed again.
“She had Daciana and I take turns sparring with Victoria. She stopped us and walked us through each match to show us where we could do better, and to explain it to Vicky at the same time.”
“She had the kids practice falling,” Daciana interrupted. “Baylyss watched and helped correct them while Indara worked with us.”
“Elsa was ecstatic to get some training on fighting, too,” Nessa said. “Indara said she would be there early to train the children before we showed up. That made all of them very happy.”
“I learned a lot,” Victoria said when Nessa stopped. “These two abused me a lot, but I learned. Maybe I won’t be the worst trained novice by the tournament.”
“Far from it, with Indara training us,” Nessa told her. “As she said, if you apply yourself, you’ll be a surprise they aren’t expecting.”
“And I will,” Victoria replied. “I have a feeling that our dedication to training will be reported to the people it matters the most to for us to get into a specific clan.”
“That could be,” Yukiko smiled. “We have Magi Squares and studying to get to. I am glad that your day off was good for you.”
~*~*~
“Didn’t expect the hugs,” Gregory said as they got closer to the tactics hall. “They were all happy, though.”
“Of course,” Jenn chuckled. “They’re getting instruction from Indara. They know that every little bit of help they get will help them in the tournament.”
“That’s fair.”
“They were very happy,” Yukiko smiled, “even Victoria.”
“I remember what it’s like to always get thrashed and feel like you’re failing,” Gregory said. “I know what she’s feeling right now.”
“And, like you, she’s accepting it and working on improving, which speaks well for her.”
“Unlike Chucky,” Jenn said, changing the topic to their upcoming class. “I don’t know if he’ll ever be happy with anything. He has no one to blame but himself, but he just won’t accept that.”
“I thought he was going to throw things yesterday,” Gregory said. “Of course Ling was doing better— she actually pays attention. He wasn’t listening to Yuki, either.”
“He ignored every piece of advice I gave him,” Yukiko shrugged. “That’s his prerogative, but as Imel, one of my father’s drivers, used to say, ‘You can lead the horse to water, but you can’t make it drink, though if it keeps pissing you off, you can at least drown it.’”
“I doubt Paul would let us drown Chucky, even if he wants to do so himself,” Jenn snickered.
“The normal saying doesn’t have the second part of that added on,” Gregory laughed. “It’s a little dark, but I like it.”
Making their way up to their classroom, they were surprised to find Ling and Clover already there. Both women were wearing happy smiles and greeted them.
“Good morning to you, too,” Gregory grinned. “Something up?”
“We made it to the ninth rank,” Clover said, pulling her medallion out.
They congratulated the two apprentices.
“We’re comparing our growth rates,” Ling said. “We were holding consistent until we began classes this year. Clover and I should’ve been another couple of weeks away from obtaining this rank. I think it’s because of the extra studying we’ve done on the game, and the tutelage you’ve given us.”
“You’re both on the mind path, aren’t you?” Yukiko asked.
“Yes,” Clover nodded. “Using the archive after class has helped. Thank you for suggesting it.” Her exuberant nature suddenly dimmed, and she bowed formally. “We’ve had little help since we came to the academy. We never thought that you three would help us as you have. Our deepest thanks.”
“No need to thank us,” Yukiko said. “Why wouldn’t we help you?”
Ling spoke up, “Because you’re champions, have a clan, and…” She hesitated before continuing, “There were certain rumors going around about how you all hated everyone else. We can see them as lies now, but we didn’t know better earlier.”
“Fucking Nick…” Gregory sighed.
“Have you two been helping each other this entire time?” Jenn asked.
“No,” Ling said. “We only started talking to each other during weapons training.”
“You were both in my group,” Gregory said.
“Yes,” Clover nodded. “Things got a little harder after you left. Klim didn’t have anyone who could help her demonstrate as well as you did. When it came time for the tournament, we were thrashed soundly. When it was over, no one approached us. The two clans we approached turned us down, too.”
“Because of…” Ling trailed off, her cat ears twitching.
“We understand,” Yukiko said. “How have you been training without a clan?”
“During the novice year, we didn’t have a lot of time to train extra,” Clover said, “and the little we did have, we put toward physical training, not that it did us any good.”
Ling nodded. “During the break between years, we studied, but I feel like we didn’t do enough.”
“Are you only reading?” Gregory asked.
“Yes,” Clover nodded.
Gregory opened his bag. He pulled out a Magi Squares sheet that he’d set up for the novices, but hadn’t given to them because they’d already made their own. “This is Magi Squares. I suggest looking into them to help with your mind training.”
Clover took the page, and Ling moved up beside her. “This will help us?” Ling asked.
“Logic puzzles can develop the mind path,” Yukiko said. “This is a way to help. We do one every morning. Once you get a feel for them, it helps if you create one for each other, then solve it.”
“We can do that,” Clover said, studying the page. “We should look into these more tonight.”
“Yes, yes we should,” Ling agreed.
“Keep it,” Gregory said. “I’m glad to help.”
Both women looked up from the page to him, then bowed their heads. “Thank you,” they said, then bowed to Yukiko and Jenn.
“Thanking them?” Chucky asked, coming into the room. “For what? It’s not like they’re really helping us learn.”
Clover opened her mouth to speak, but Ling clamped a hand on her shoulder. Ling turned to him with a feline smile in place. “They’re trying, if one can learn to listen.”
“Correct,” Paul said, having come into the room silently. He was standing two feet behind Chucky. “Take your seats.”
Chucky had gone white when Paul spoke, then red when Paul sided with the other two. He took his seat and was frowning at the gaming table.
“I have news for you. Tomorrow starts your first week off. Your next class is in seven days. Use it as you see fit, but when you return, we will be starting the games in earnest, and with variation,” Paul said.
A knock on the door had them all looking toward it and, a moment later, Egil entered the room. “Pardon me. I came to watch the class today. Carry on as you normally do.”
“Sir,” Chucky said, standing abruptly, “I wish to be removed from this group and placed with a different one.”
Paul’s face went cold, clearly angry at the apprentice for the outburst.
Egil went closer to Chucky, staring down at the young man. “Why?”
“The instructor doesn’t listen to my problems, and the advanced apprentices don’t help us learn.”
Egil glanced at the others before he nodded slowly. “I see. Do you think I picked people at random to match them?”
“I can’t say, sir. I just know that I will not grow in this environment.”
Egil nodded his head. “Very well. Gather your things and step outside.”
Chucky looked like he’d won the world as he gathered his things. “Thank you, sir.”
Paul stared at Egil, unhappy to have his class disrupted so easily.
Once Chucky left the room, Egil shut the door and gave Paul a small bow of his head. “I apologize, Magus. I’d hoped that he would learn a little tolerance. Yours was the last class for me to spend the day with and, as such, this festered longer than it should have.”
Paul blinked. “You knew?”
“I placed a handful of the worst in places they could learn if they tried. Two of them have settled in and are improving, but the rest are like him,” Egil sighed. “They won’t survive past their adept year, but at least I tried. You’ll have a new student in a bell or two. Hopefully, this one will settle in.”
“I’m sorry,” Paul said, bowing formally.
“No. I will never blame a subordinate for questioning me, if they do it correctly, which you did. You know as well as I do about his kind. We could try to beat sense into him, but we both know how rarely that works.”
“Indeed,” Paul agreed.
“I shall return and watch from that point,” Egil said. “If I might suggest having these two,” he motioned to Ling and Clover, “play today? I wish to see how they do.”
“Very well. They’re playing without aid today.”
“Good. I prefer to see them unaided or hindered. I shall return.”
When Egil left, Paul turned back to the class. “Well, that is done. You both get your pick of magi. Gregory, Jenn, Yukiko, start setting the board. Inside the empire, and with hills and stands of trees.”
“Yes, sir,” all of them said.
