Chapter 23: Chapter 22 Hanging From Her Thread

(Feydon’s point of view)

An alert ping from my comm woke me up. 

The message came from an unknown sender and only had three words. ‘GET TO CLASS!’

I was still in a bit of a haze and wasn’t sure what to make of the message at first, then I realized it was nine in the morning and today was supposed to be my first day in the knights of valor class.

I was grateful that my room had already been fully furnished, but also my closet was stocked with a full supply of uniforms. I was already late, luckily I had showered the night before. I rolled out of bed and put on a fresh uniform, then darted out the door.

Sky Haven, with its twelve towers, was a crown shaped building. The knights training area was a combat field located inside the open area between the twelve towers.

Knights of valor wasn’t the only class held there; the open space was divided into quadrants. First class, knights of valor and dust mage all had their own training fields. Each field was further divided into classes and ranks.

Conveniently located in the remaining quadrant, was a large domed building, the beast keeper building, where any tamed breasts were kept and raised. Even if a student had a companion beast, it would have to stay in the beast keepers house except during training and missions.

I had to pass the beast keeper house and the dust mage practice field, which looked as if it had never been used.

The first class training field was right next to the knights of valor, with no real separation between the two. When I arrived it looked as if the two classes were training together. They were divided into groups for soaring, I assumed based on rank and level. By watching a match for a few seconds it was very easy to tell what level the combatants were on.

I found my class near the back of the field, next to an older combat arena that I wasn’t sure would function properly. They were the one of the only groups not actually sparing, or doing any sort of training really, and I had no clue who the commander was.

When I spotted Cole and Carletta sitting together, though away from the class, I made my way over.

I was happy to see that they’d been released from the medbay, although I had expected they would be since they were with enforcers during the fight with the strange creature, still it was nice to see familiar and friendly faces.

Carletta sat on a smooth stone stump, while Cole wrapped her wrist and arm in a bandage. I couldn’t be sure what happened to her, but by her demeanor I guessed she blamed Cole. 

Cole was uninjured and while he seemed concerned for Carletta, he also appeared somewhat annoyed. He was saying something to her when I arrived, but they stopped talking before I got close enough to hear. 

Despite her injury, Carletta wore a gentle smile and greeted me cheerfully. Cole, however, remained moody and only offered a simple “hey” for a greeting. He moved away from Carletta and paced under the tree, clearly brooding over recent events. 

“What’s wrong with him?” I asked Carletta, but she shook her head and turned away.

“She was being reckless. I told her to stay behind me, that I could handle it myself!” Cole began, spit flying and hands waving in grand gestures, “but of course she didn’t listen… then that brute battered her around like an element ball and we lost the duel.” His expression soured. At first I thought he was glaring at me, then I realized he was actually focused on a girl behind me. By his countenance I guessed she was responsible for Carletta’s injury.

The girl was stretching near a practice dummy. She didn’t look brutish to me, she was lean and limber with an athletic build. Her clothes were form fitting, it was the same uniform all female knights wore, though on her, it was far less distracting than it was on Sydney.

I winced at the image of Sydney’s last moments. It had taken nearly all night to get the image out of my head and already it was back again. Frustrated by the intrusion, I clicked my tongue.

“You better not be taking his side in this, I did my job!” Carletta shouted, then turned towards Cole, “and if you had done yours, instead of treating me like an inept, we wouldn’t have lost.” 

Ouch…

I knew her words weren’t intended to hurt, but they still cut like a razor blade. 

“I was protecting you!”

Standing up from the stump, she yelled back, “I don’t need protection, so stop treating me like a glass vase or if you can’t see me as your partner, then you should get another one!” 

The atmosphere around them felt more tense and hostile than I was comfortable with.

Carletta huffed and positioned herself beneath the tree, looking away from Cole towards the distant beast keeper building. 

Cole stood in stunned silence for a moment, then sat, with crumpled posture, on the stone stump. 

Occasionally Carletta looked over her shoulder at me, possibly to see if I was going to comfort her or maybe she just wanted to make sure I wasn’t comforting Cole.

Either way, I felt ill equipped to handle the situation. I cautiously retreated from them, then wandered around looking for Mai, Audrey or even Fin.

“Umph.” I stumbled back a step after bumping into someone. 

“You’re late.” A familiar voice sent chills down my spine.

It was Emilia, looking as Innocent and kind as ever, but I knew what a sadist she really was.

If I’d known she was the instructor for this class I never would’ve risked going to bed without an alarm, actually I probably wouldn’t have gone to bed at all. 

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“S…so…sor—” I struggled to get the word out, but it didn’t matter, she cut me off anyway.

“You better be!” She huffed, crossing her arms. “Honestly, I’d think you’d have learned better by now.”

I nodded vigorously and prayed she’d be merciful since we had an audience today. She was right though, I knew better, and I was fairly confident that Cole was about to gain new perspective on what it meant to get battered around. Whatever happened to Carletta would be a mercy when compared to what I was about to endure. 

“Emi, don’t harass the fresh meat. They’ve got enough to worry about without you scaring the piss out of ‘em.” A somewhat tall man said as he strode over to us. “You must be Feydon Ray, is that correct?”

I nodded, although I wondered how he knew my name.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Menaius Black, but you can call me commander.”

His words set my mind at ease to some degree. If he was my commander that meant Emilia wasn’t my instructor, rather it actually seemed she was also a subordinate of commander Black, or had been at some point.

Emilia, brushing a strand of hair from her face, smiled. “I won’t bother your students. I just came to congratulate my little daydreamer for making it this far.”

Nope, the commanders right! You should leave. I thought, but didn’t dare say. 

“Oh, so this is the boy you’ve been training?” Menaius inquired with a crooked smile.

Emilia nodded.

Instinct told me to run away right then, but Emilia’s widening grin kept me locked in place. 

“Well in that case…” the commander began while looking around the field. “Gavin! Come over here.” He called with his eyes set on the back of an average boy. Then he turned to me. “How about you demonstrate your skills with a little duel?”

I figured that a simple duel wouldn’t be a big deal and perhaps, if I performed well then Emilia might even forget about me being late. So I nodded and said, “yea sure. That’ll be a good warm up.”

Then a burly boy, built like an orc, pushed past the kid I had assumed was Gavin. The orcish boy stopped next to commander black and gave me a quick glance before scoffing. “You want me to face this scrap of beast meat?” He spat, spraying just as much as saying. “Isn’t he the one they said has no magic?”

The commander chuckled back, “yea, and he’s also the worm that stole your chance to train with our esteemed Emilia.”

I had expected to be looked down on and cast aside, but it still felt like crap to be discounted and mocked in front of the class.

Gavin looked at Emilia with a dejected countenance. His eyes searched her face for some sign that it was a joke, but she only smiled back at him.

“You know what else? This brat actually thinks sparing with you will be equivalent to a warmup.” Added the commander.

I shook my head and hands, “wait no, that’s not what I—”

Gavin’s brows furrowed in frustration as he barked, “shut up, scrub! Emilia, why have you been wasting time on this scrap when you could’ve been training me?”

She giggled, “who knows, I suppose I thought I’d be interesting.”

I swallowed uncomfortably as his death glare settled on me.

“You want a handicap kid? I can go with no weapon, a hand tied behind my back or I can fight you without taking a single step if you like.” Gavin boasted arrogantly.

I was about to say no thanks, but Emilia spoke before I could. “That’s nice of you to offer, but if you did any of those things then when you lose you’ll complain that it wasn’t a fair fight. Instead I think that Fey should do the first two things you suggested but instead of having him stay stationary, it’ll be your victory if you can land any blows at all.” Emilia declared enthusiastically. At first I thought this was her way of punishing me for being late to class, but then she added, “that ought to give you a small chance of victory.”

She was goading him and I realized that she fully expected me to win. For her, this was some sort of contest, or perhaps it was my punishment for being late. 

My eyes felt like they tripled in size at her words. Just looking at Gavin made me feel like an insect; I wasn’t sure how Emilia expected me to win with all those limitations but I didn’t want to find out what she’d do to me if I didn’t.

Everyone that heard Emilia’s words had a similar reaction to mine. Some laughed, others began joking and mocking me, Gavin at first broke into hysterical laughter until he realized that she was serious; then he straightened his posture and glared at me with dour determination.

Menaius Black however, kept a straight face the whole time. I couldn’t make sense of the relationship between him and Emilia, she didn’t seem much like a subordinate anymore and he seemed entirely too careful with his words for them to be equals. 

The two senior knights locked eyes and it was like they understood each other. He knew she was serious and wouldn’t back down so he turned to Gavin and said, “If he was trained by Emilia then he should have at least some talent. However, why don’t we take this opportunity to make a bet?”

Gavin, knowing where the commander was going, let his lips curve into a clever grin. “I’ll accept your conditions but when I beat this pup you’ll have to accept me as your new student and send him scampering back to whatever trash heap you found him in.”

“With pleasure.” Emilia smiled.

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