by Heath Pfaff
"How long will this training take? Will I be allowed to return home when all is done?" They were not the questions that I found most pressing, but all those I would have asked if I'd had my free will were beyond the scope of what Kyeia was willing to answer.
"The training time varies, depending on how apt you are at the work. I would say no less than a year and no more than two. Once your training is finished," She paused here, seeming deep in consideration about how to proceed. "...once you've finished your training, you could return home, if you wanted to. None of the others have."
"The others? When will I meet them?" I asked, curious to see what I was being trained for.
She shook her head. "I don't think I can talk about that."
I thought for a moment, my eyes lingering on hers, and the beautiful shape of her face. Despite her eyes, so foreign and strange, I felt myself once again inexplicably wanting to lean forward and kiss her. I turned away from her, trying to break the hold she seemed to have over me. It was foolish to let my mind wander down such avenues. I knew very little of her, and her only concern with me was her duty, which I felt she would perform no matter what that meant to me. How little I truly knew of her.
"How long am I to remain locked in?" I asked, deciding the time for tact had failed. If she was surprised, she didn't show it.
"You will be released later this evening, but you shouldn't try to leave, Lowin." She said. I wasn't sure whether this was a warning or a friendly pleading. "They won't let you go, and things will be much harder for you if you run."
I tried not to show my disappointment, but I felt my shoulders slump. I was, indeed, a prisoner. I had hoped, foolishly, that perhaps the medical ward was kept locked for other reasons or that Kyeia would deny that I was caged when I made the accusation, but such was not the case. Any appearance of freedom I might have for the next year or two would be false, and what would come after that? I couldn't begin to guess.
"Will there be any others in training with me?" I asked, hoping that I might, at the very least, find a companion to share my time with.
"No, Lowin." Kyeia answered with what I thought might be sympathy, in her voice.
I nodded, suddenly feeling more alone that I'd ever felt in my life. I fell back into my bed, defeated. "I have no more questions," I said, and while it wasn't exactly true, I found myself not wanting to know anymore. I hoped that maybe, by not knowing anything else, I might somehow avoid any more bad news.
Kyeia stayed a few minutes more, quiet, as though there was more to be said or she expected something else from me, but I ignored her. In truth, I wanted to ask her to hold me and tell me that she would be my friend, so that I might have at least one person to turn to in my new hostile world. I said nothing and after a time she got up and left the room. I am not ashamed to admit that I cried then, for a long time, sobbing like the boy I still was. By society's standards, I may have been a man. However, I was still just a child lost in a world of frightening adult concepts, friendless and adrift. Merrywin came in later, to bring my lunch, and though she was cheerful and attempted to make conversation, I turned my back to her and let her go about her work. She must have felt sorry for me because she told me that she would come back later and check my wounds, and then departed, leaving me in the perfect silence of my cell.
I was, of course, being foolish. It accomplished nothing for me to alienate the few people who would actually talk to me, and I knew that. We all want to be saved, and at that time that is what I wanted most of all. I wanted someone to force me to care about the world, to show me that things were going to be all right. There was no one left to do that for me, I knew that as well. I passed several more hours then, wallowing in my own self-pity, waiting for the day to end. When my door opened next, I had every intention of ignoring whoever it was. I guessed it was Kyeia, back to try to talk with me again, since it wasn't yet time for dinner. Therefore my shock was complete when I felt someone grab me by the back of my shirt and lift me from the bed, swinging me around until I was looking into a pair of intense black eyes. At first I thought it was Tempest, come to beat me for ignoring Kyeia earlier in the day but I realized quickly that I was looking into the eyes of someone else entirely. The gaze that met mine was that of a woman. She was tall though, taller than I, and strong. The arm that protruded from her Lucidil Cloak was fur-clad like Tempest's, a claw with articulate digits ending in razor-sharp knives. Her hair was fiery red, tied back from her face severely and though there was beauty in her features it was overshadowed by a brutal ferocity that chilled me to the bone. As for the rest of her form, it was impossible to distinguish beneath the shifting surface of her cloak.
"I understand you will be starting your training soon." Her voice did not ring with the same terrifying rumble as Tempest's. I thought it might be a distinction between males and females of her race, none the less her voice held command and I answered though it hadn't been phrased as a question. I quickly forgot about my own self-pity.
"Yes," I answered, feet scrambling for some purchase on the ground but finding none. She gave me a sharp shake and I stopped fidgeting. As I did so, she dropped me to the ground, my knees very nearly giving out on me.
The woman-Devil looked at me, and I was sure she was looking at parts of me that no other could see. I reflexively tried to shrink away. She sneered. "Don't be a coward. Whether I am more powerful than you or not, there is no benefit in showing your weakness to anyone- friend or foe." At that I made myself stand up straighter and did my best imitation of gathering my courage. She let out a breath of exasperation. "They talk about you as though you're something special, but I don't see it."
I was looking at her more closely now, attempting to understand her. I guessed that she was perhaps five years older than me, maybe less, but she carried herself like a seasoned warrior. There was a firmness about her that dared anyone to take her less than seriously. I opened my mouth, shut it, and then, remembering the conversation I'd had with Kyeia the day before, spoke. "I will be the best." It sounded ludicrous to me as I said it, partially because it came out in a waiver, and partially because I knew nothing of what I was going to be "the best" at.
She laughed sharply, there was no humor in it, "We shall see. You will report to the training yard by sunrise tomorrow." With that, she spun in place with an audible crack of her cloak and walked out the door, slamming it in her wake. I let out a breath I'd been holding while she was in the room and fell back on my bed. I didn't know where the training yard was, or how I was to be up before first light tomorrow, but I intended to be there on time - one way or another.
The night passed quickly and the pre-dawn hours found me ready to leave my room and find the training yard. It would be easy to say that I was anxious only because I had been cooped up in my room since I'd arrived, but the truth was a good deal of my rising anticipation was the fear generated by the black-eyed woman who had come to my room the night before. I managed to wait almost another twenty minutes before I finally got up from my bed and opened the door. There were a pair of boots sitting just beyond the door and I surmised they had been left for me. I put them on, noting that they fit like they had been custom crafted for my feet. I walked down the corridor to the door that had been locked the day before and put my hand on the handle, expecting to find it still locked, but it turned easily under my hand and I pushed the door open. The door, to my surprise, lead directly into an open yard. I stepped out into the darkness and only once I was fully outside did I notice the figure standing just beyond the portal. I jumped, startled by the presence of the figure in the shifting cloak so near at hand. The cloaked figure was neither Tempest nor the woman from the night before, making it the third Black-Eyed Devil I'd encountered at close range. This one, though I knew it had seen me pass, made no motion as I walked by. He was of average height, most of his features hidden by his cloak, hood, and face mask. I swallowed hard and forced myself to speak to him.
"Sir, I am looking for the training field, do you know wh
ere I might find it?" I decided that being as polite as possible seemed the best course of action.
The cloaked figure lifted a hand, a surprisingly human hand that featured none of the fur and claws I'd witnessed on Tempest and my visitor from the day before, and pointed off into the darkness in front of me. Where exactly he meant I could not be sure, since the sun was more than an hour away and the night was particularly dark.
I bowed, as I might have to a customer of the library while I was still working as a loremaster's apprentice. "Thank you, sir." I did not bother to ask for clarification. I didn't think he would offer any, and I would just as soon find my own way. I began to walk into the night. Now out in the open, I could see that I was in a large, fenced-in compound. There were many buildings around me, not all of which I could determine the nature of. The building I had been staying in was one of the smaller but there were many others of near the same size. The largest of the buildings appeared to be a fortified mansion but it was in the opposite direction from which I was walking so I could not see much of it, especially in the darkness. The direction I had been pointed appeared to be away from the bulk of the buildings. I could see the wall to my left as I went and I guessed that it was in front of me as well, but I was too distant to make it out.
I thought of the Black-Eyed Devil I'd seen outside my door and the so-very-human limb he'd shown while pointing out my path. I wondered what could account for such a range of differing physical traits in a single race. The female of the night before had not had the same razor like teeth or earth-shaking voice that Tempest had but she'd had the fur clad arms and clawed hands, which the guard beyond my door had not. I wondered if they were all of different, but similar, races. Tempest, the woman, and the guard at my door had all had the same black eyes and stoic mannerism. There was still a puzzle there to be deciphered. As I made my way along I had to stifle a yawn, tiredness seeping in on me. I had slept very little the night before, worried about what was to come, but the early morning was chill which helped to keep me moving. My eyes scanned my surroundings, looking for some indication that I had reached the proper place.
Ahead of me I could make out a small building, smaller even than the one that contained my room and I made my way toward that structure. I reached it quickly and was still looking around when I felt a touch on my shoulder that caused me to jump so hard I nearly fell over. I spun around in terror, almost striking out with a fist. Of course, had I done so I would have accomplished very little if not managed to injure myself further. The guard from my room was standing behind me. He gestured to indicate that I could stop walking. I had, apparently, reached my destination. Breathing heavily from my fright, I apologized, "I'm sorry, Sir, but you very nearly scared the life right out of me." He pulled down his shifting veil and there was a smile on his lips, open and surprisingly friendly for one of his race. I noted that his teeth were quite human in proportion, nothing like the line of knives inside of Tempest's mouth. There was yet another strange dissimilarity amidst the Black-Eyed Devils I'd met so far.
I had arrived early, though not by much, because I only had to wait another ten minutes before a figure appeared in the slowly brightening morning, seeming to materialize from the fabric of the night. It was the same woman who had come to my room the night before, though it took me a moment to realize this because she was fully adorned in her shifting cloak, hood up and mask in place. As she came near she nodded to the silent figure standing at my shoulder that had been guarding the building which contained my room. He returned the nod before turning and walking back the way I had come. Obviously, he was going to resume his post, having seen me to where I needed to be. The woman who faced me now pulled back her hood and slid down the mask covering the bottom half of her face, once again presenting the contrast of beauty and grave, tightly controlled, fury.
"I am Malice." She began. "You will address me as such, with no honorific. I don't enjoy titles. They are pretentious and wasteful." Her black eyes glanced over me, assimilating my entire condition quickly. "You are prompt, which is a trait I can appreciate, but you fail in all other regards. You are skinny, weak, slow, and you lack confidence as well as grace of movement. Of those I've trained you are, undoubtedly, the worst. On top of that, you are currently injured. Have I missed anything?"
I opened my mouth to reply, to argue that I was not so completely unfit and worthless, but I closed it quickly. The truth of the matter was that I had never needed to do physical chores or labor. I could read and write fluently; not a common skill, but I would likely lose a physical confrontation with most men of my age. As pained as I was to admit it, I was every bit the lost cause she'd just described. I thought for a moment more and decided to add to the list, "I've also never so much as held a sword, or found myself in a position where I had to physically compete with another person."
Malice nodded, a less than friendly smile on her face. "Do you still plan on being the best? You don't even know what you're attempting to become the best at..." Bringing up my words from the night before raised my ire but I bit it back, knowing there was little I could do to defend myself in the current situation. She was stronger, faster, and had a sharper tongue than I did. The most I could accomplish would be to make myself look more foolish, though I felt that would be difficult to achieve at that moment. "Hmmph, at least you know when to keep your mouth shut. That is a trait in short supply." She approached me, coming within just a few inches, bending over so that her eyes were level with mine. I was beginning to grasp the nature of this woman and so I resisted the inclination to take a step backward. I held my ground. She came closer, so close that I thought for a moment she might brush her lips against mine. Instead, I felt her hand go up the side of my shirt and this time I really did step back, or attempt to. She grabbed me fiercely and held me in place with one arm while the other pulled my shirt up and my pants down. I struggled uselessly in her grip, but there was no look of strain on her features, and her arm never wavered. She was, I realized belatedly, looking at the wounds along the side of my body. After a moment she let me go, apparently having seen what she wanted to. With no shortage of embarrassment I pulled my clothes back on, muttering random curses under my breath, some I'd never said aloud and some few of which I didn't even know the meaning.
She ignored me. "We'll have your stitches out today. Tonight I will send some equipment to your room and I want you fully geared and here at the same time tomorrow morning." She turned her back to me as she finished talking. "Ethaniel has come to see you. He'll be ready to meet with you at noon today. Silent, the Knight who guards your room, will take you to see him at the appropriate time. I recommend being prompt. Ethaniel is a busy man, and not a patient one. Other than that, the rest of the day is yours. I recommend you use it to do what you will, because after today your time is mine and I believe you've a measure of what that will be like." With those parting words, she walked away, leaving me to my embarrassment and the cool morning air.
I made my way back to the building that contained my room, doing my best to contain the anger and shame I felt. I dreaded the thought of having to deal with Malice day after day for what could be a very long two years, if Kyeia's prediction about my training was correct. Kyeia had never come back to see me the day before and though it had not surprised me, I was distressed. I desperately wanted to speak with her again, to apologize for ignoring her the day before. I wondered if she would even bother coming back at all. I supposed that her responsibility to me had ended when we reached wherever it was that we had reached. Even as that thought occurred to me, I realized that I still had no idea where I was. I would have to ask next time there was someone around who might answer a question for me. Maybe, I thought, whoever Ethaniel was, he would be able to tell me. He must be someone important. Even Malice had spoken his name in reverent terms, and she struck me as the type who was reverent of very few.
When I reached the building that contained my room, Silent, as Malice had called him, was standing in his place at the doo
r frame. He nodded his head to me as I came into range, but made no other move. I stopped before entering the building, "Thank you for seeing me safely to my destination." I told him, to which he nodded again, and I thought there may have been a smile beneath his hood and veil. Silent, it seemed, was true to his name, for he uttered not a sound. He was not hostile toward me and I was relieved for that. Silent made me almost believe that the Black-Eyed Devils might have something in common with humans after all. If some of them could smile, perhaps they weren't all frightening monsters. Malice on the other hand.... I retired to my room, exhausted from a sleepless night. The bed was welcoming, the blankets a warm invitation that I had no intention of passing up. I kicked off my boots and sunk into sleep. It came to me mercifully quickly.
I awoke to a firm pressure on my shoulder. I turned to see what it was and came face to face with Kyeia. She was leaning over the bed, her arm extended to nudge me awake. I smiled as I saw her, for I had thought it unlikely that I would ever encounter her again. If nothing else, her presence there proved she was a far better person than I. I reached out and touched her arm as she withdrew it from my shoulder.
"I am happy to see you again," I told her, wanting her to know that ignoring her the day before had been a foolish act on my part. I supposed that apologizing may have been a better reaction but I wasn't sure how to go about doing that. She withdrew her arm from my hand and took a quick step back, a faint blush coming to her face.
