by Ian Gregoire
“Good morning, honoured friend,” greeted the Sanatsai, with genuine warmth. “To what do we owe this unexpected call?”
Fay’s communication with the Council lasted no longer than five minutes; it was long enough to inform them of her intention to arrive there, in person, that very day. Regrettably, the Sanatsai whom she wanted to speak with was unavailable so the details of her visit would have to wait until her arrival. All she was prepared to convey was that she had a problem with one of the apprentices at Antaris campus; a problem that required a significant breach of protocol, on her part, to address.
The mirror once again held her reflection, and that of the office around her. She stepped away from it, heading immediately to the open entryway to the spiral stairwell in the corner leading up to the rooftop living quarters. She went up to her quarters where she stripped out of her uniform, put on a bathrobe, then spent several minutes manually pumping water to fill the tub in the bathroom. Though she could have employed Zarantar to draw the water, Fay needed a little distraction—no matter how brief. Her mind was preoccupied with thoughts of a precocious apprentice called Kayden Jayta.
Once the bath was sufficiently full, Fay poured in some bath salts then held a hand over the water. Her invocation of Shakbarilsan had steam wafting up from the water in seconds, whereupon she disrobed then languidly got into the tub and laid back, allowing the hot water to submerge her body up to her bare shoulders. As she relaxed, her thoughts drifted back to Kayden. Was she overreacting to the events that played out during the training exercise? Was it really Kayden’s attitude and conduct that was giving her cause for concern? Was it, instead, the adverse effect the apprentice was on having on her own state of mind, with that uncanny ability to get under people’s skin?
Or was it simply that Kayden reminded her so much of someone else?
Whatever the case may be, things would be coming to a head very soon. Kayden’s stint as an apprentice of the Order could be brought to an abrupt, unceremonious end if Fay’s gambit didn’t go as she wanted. If Kayden couldn’t be turned away from the path she was surely heading down, the Council, in response, would almost certainly pursue a course of action more extreme than the mandated expulsion and binding of Zarantar.
Fay did not wish to dwell on that idea at all, hoping instead it could be averted by her intervention. All the same, she knew only too well that if the unruly apprentice proved to be a lost cause, the alternative could be worse…so much worse.
CHAPTER FOUR
Accepting The Challenge
Kayden tied her long raven hair back into a ponytail. She was dressed in the dark blue cotton garb she favoured for exercising and ready to commence her regular morning workout, though several hours later than usual on this occasion. She, along with the failing participants from the group on last night’s assignment, had only arrived back on campus an hour or so before dawn. As a result of their late night exertions the six apprentices were given permission not to attend their morning classes, allowing them to sleep in. Kayden managed to get four hours shut-eye, enough to feel completely refreshed and ready to tackle a brand new day.
Upon waking, she visited the campus library, spending an hour doing some research for her own gratification. With little more than an hour before the lunch hour commenced, she had returned to the women’s dormitory wing on the western side of campus, back to her dorm room. She intended to spend the remainder of the time before lunch going through her habitual exercise routine before running three circuits around the perimeter of the campus.
Kayden glanced casually around the dorm room she shared with nine other level seven apprentices. Of the ten beds evenly spread around the room, only one was currently occupied. Neryssa, who had been a participant during last night’s assignment, was seemingly still sound asleep in her bed on the opposite side of the room; the other apprentices were attending their morning lessons, as normal. After a short deliberation, Kayden determined that Neryssa had slept for long enough so it didn’t matter if her roommate was disturbed by her belated morning workout.
She spent a few minutes doing some stretching exercises before lying down on the floor beside her bed to do some sit-ups. Her movements were executed in a smooth, relaxed fashion: exhaling as she rose up, inhaling as she went down. In short order, she completed a hundred sit-ups without breaking a sweat. Without pausing for breath she turned over onto her front to do some push-ups. As before, her execution of each repetition was smooth and relaxed: exhaling as she pushed up, inhaling as she went back down. Once more, she completed a full set of a hundred repetitions, in short order. The only signs of physical exertion were the few beads of perspiration on her brow.
Rising to her feet, Kayden quickly recovered a rope from the draw at the base of the wardrobe beside her bed. With the rope in hand, she stepped away from her bed—and any other potential obstructions—giving herself plenty of room to jump the rope unhindered. She swiftly attained a steady rhythm, eventually waking Neryssa in the process.
“What time is it?” groaned the apprentice as she sat up in bed.
“Must be about…quarter past…Eleventh Hour…by now,” Kayden panted in reply.
Neryssa groaned again, then slumped back in her bed.
A further quarter-hour elapsed as Kayden jumped the rope; her skipping rhythm never once faltered, her breathing remained steady and controlled. Her skin positively glowed with the sheen of perspiration on her face, a few strands of hair sticking to her forehead. She could have sustained the effort for a considerable time, if she wanted, but she stopped abruptly when the dorm room door swung open, and in walked a willowy female apprentice with shoulder-length, wavy chestnut hair. Kayden recognised the interloper as a level eight apprentice by the name of Danya Shaylanis. She was supposedly the daughter or niece of a nobleman from an influential Mirtanese family, though she was more commonly known as the campus gossip. The books carried in her arms seemed to indicate she had either just finished a class rather early, or was incredibly late in attending one. Whatever the case, it wasn’t her dorm room so she had no obvious reason to be intruding.
“Ever heard of knocking?” snapped Kayden.
Danya ignored the question as she closed the door behind her.
“Which one of you is Kayden?” she asked, casting her gaze between the sweat drenched apprentice and Neryssa, now sitting up in bed having been roused again by the intrusion.
“Who wants to know?” demanded Kayden, making no effort to disguise her irritation.
Casually, Danya leaned back against the dorm room door. “If that bad attitude is any indicator, you must be Kayden.” She looked her counterpart up and down, appraisingly. “So, you’re the apprentice who’s been the talk of the campus all morning?” she drawled. “They said it couldn’t be done; that nobody would ever successfully complete the ‘capture the box’ exercise. But somehow you managed to accomplish it.”
“And yet, I’m just not getting the impression you’re here to congratulate me.” Kayden folded her arms across her chest. “Are you jealous?”
Danya giggled. She looked genuinely amused by Kayden’s front. “I’d heard you were full of yourself. That must be why no one has a good word to say about you.”
Kayden glared at Danya. “If there is a reason for you being here, I suggest you spit it out now…while you still can.”
The casual threat wiped the smile from Danya’s face. She pushed herself away from the door, and calmly walked towards Kayden. If she was intending to intimidate the other apprentice, being four inches shorter didn’t help her cause.
“Don’t you go getting your panties in a bunch, Missy! I’m here to deliver a message.” When Kayden failed to ask from whom, Danya smiled again, before continuing. “It turns out that two of your classmates—I believe their names are Lazar and Vartan—aren’t terribly happy about your success last night; not to mention they both hold you responsible for their own failure.”
“So what’s the message?” Kayden asked testily.
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“They…request your presence at the start of the lunch hour in the old training arena. They would very much like the opportunity to…” Danya paused for dramatic effect, “in their words, teach you a lesson you’ll never forget.”
Kayden couldn’t help but laugh. “They want to fight me?”
From her bed, Neryssa threw off the linen sheets and sprang out of bed. “Kayden! Don’t even think about it.”
“Would you cool your boots, Neryssa,” retorted Kayden, berating her fellow apprentice. “If Lazar and Vartan are so eager for a beating, I’m more than happy to oblige them.”
Neryssa stood at her roommate’s side. “What’s the matter with you?” she asked, exasperated. “Can’t you go a single day without looking for trouble? Why must you needlessly get yourself into bother with other people?”
“Interesting,” mused Danya. “The way people speak about you, Kayden, led me to assume you had no friends on campus.”
“She’s not my friend, Straw For Brains,” Kayden snapped, dismissively. “I don’t need friends.”
If Neryssa was stung by the words, she did not let it show.
“Fine, whatever you say, Missy!” said Danya, raising both hands in mock surrender, while invoking Yuksaydan to prevent the books she had been holding from tumbling to the floor. “Anyway, I’ve delivered the message, now. I’ll return when the bell sounds for Twelfth Hour.” She grabbed hold of the floating books before her, cradling them in her arms once more.
“What for?”
“To escort you to the old arena.”
“Why would I need you to escort me?”
“To make sure you show up, of course.” Danya smiled when Kayden scowled at the not-so-subtle insinuation she could ever be guilty of cowardice. Mischievously she added, “I do love a good punch-up, and I wouldn’t miss this one for all the mango juice in Jedeen.”
Kayden took a threatening step towards the unwelcome guest. “I suggest you leave now or you won’t have to wait to witness punches being thrown.”
Danya promptly turned on her heels, and quickly exited the dorm room without another word. Alone with Neryssa once more, Kayden huffed as she began aggressively peeling off her sweat drenched clothing.
“Kayden, I realise you think you’re invincible, and that the rest of us are beneath you.” Another annoying lecture was under way. “But surely you can see…” Neryssa trailed off, falling silent as Kayden stood naked in front of her.
An amused smirk curled Kayden’s lips upon noticing Neryssa averting her eyes. She fought off the temptation to make a caustic quip at the other young woman’s expense. Instead, she stepped away to grab a grey cotton robe from her wardrobe. “Surely I can see…what?” she prompted, while putting the robe on.
“That Lazar and Vartan’s challenge is obviously a trap.” Neryssa looked comfortable again, with Kayden no longer nude. “After what you did yesterday it wouldn’t surprise me if they intend to do more than just send you to the infirmary. You goaded Lazar into walking into that booby-trap, and the way Vartan tells it, you knowingly set him up to get caught by the Sanatsai who captured him, almost killing him in the process.”
Kayden walked around to the other side of her bed. She pulled out a large towel from the bedside chest of drawers, flinging it onto her shoulder. “Neryssa, you worry far too much for a twenty-one-year-old.”
“You don’t worry enough.”
Kayden didn’t respond. She slipped on a pair of sandals then moved towards the exit.
“You’re not going for your usual run?” Neryssa inquired.
“No. I may as well save my vigour for Lazar and Vartan. I’m going to the bathhouse to soak in a hot tub for a little bit.”
“Oh, all right. Wait for me!”
Kayden slouched her shoulders as she stopped abruptly in her tracks, sighing with obvious irritation. Nonetheless, she waited while Neryssa quickly readied herself. Once her roommate had put on her own bathrobe and grabbed a towel, the pair exited the dorm room together, then leisurely made their way to the women’s bathhouse.
The two apprentices returned to their dorm room shortly before the midday bell signalling the arrival of Twelfth Hour was due to ring out. They were now both fully dressed in their matching apprentice apparel—the black and three shades of grey uniform—similar in design to that worn by full-fledged Sanatsai of the Order. Neryssa sat perched on the edge of Kayden’s bed, while Kayden stood several feet away at one of the windows, staring out at the campus clock tower in the distance, easily visible from the second storey of the dormitory building.
“Nothing I say is going to make you change your mind, is it?” opined Neryssa.
Kayden turned round to regard her roommate. “Change my mind about what?”
“Taking the bait laid out for you by Lazar and Vartan. Sneaking off to the old arena to meet them.”
“No, of course not.”
“But, why?” demanded Neryssa, clearly trying to understand her roommate’s reasoning. “Just what is so terrible about keeping yourself out of trouble?”
Kayden marched indignantly back to her bed to stand over her sitting colleague. “Neryssa,” she said, “people who are foolish enough to allow others to view them as weak and vulnerable, only increase their misfortune.”
“What are you talking about?” The expression on Neryssa’s face made plain her befuddlement wasn’t feigned. “What does that even mean?”
“The strong prey on the weak, secure in the knowledge that there are no consequences for doing so. Those who don’t wish to be victimised must avoid showing weakness, at all cost. It is the way of the world.”
“No, it is the way of animals in the wilderness.”
Kayden threw her hands up in frustration. Neryssa just didn’t get it.
Turning on her heels, Kayden walked three paces from her roommate, stopped, turned on her heels again, then walked three paces back.
“I shouldn’t expect you to understand,” she declared. “You were born and raised in a small, insignificant Mirtanese farming town. Had you grown up in a large Astanese city, like Shali, and walked streets where people can and do behave like animals, you’d realise that a man will knife another man on the pretext that his victim looked at him wrong, just to prove himself a big man who should be feared.” Kayden raised her voice. “Another man will beat to death an elderly couple, in their own home, because he feels entitled to deprive them of all their worldly possessions.” Her voice rose even higher, still. “While another man will drag a woman kicking and screaming into a darkened alley to have his way with her, simply because he can.”
She fell silent to regain her composure, and eliminate the rising anger in her voice.
When she broke the brief silence, Kayden spoke in a more measured, even tone. “The bottom line is, if I were to ignore their challenge it would only encourage Lazar and Vartan—or anyone else with a mind to do so, for that matter—to see me as weak and frightened. Someone who can be victimised without consequence. I can’t allow that. I won’t allow that. So, yes, I will meet them at the old arena, and once I am done with them, neither Lazar nor Vartan will look at me the wrong way again, much less cause me trouble in future.” Kayden frowned at her roommate. “Unless, of course, you doubt my ability to defeat them in a fair fight.”
Neryssa sighed; it was her turn to vent her frustration.
“Kayden, you’re not understanding my concerns here,” she said. “I’m well aware of what you are capable of, so too are Lazar and Vartan. Believe me when I tell you, they are not going to walk into this situation intending to have a fair fight with the possibility they could come off second best. This whole thing is a set-up. You could end up getting seriously hurt, or worse. And if not, all of you could get into big trouble if the Masters find out.”
Kayden had no time to respond to her roommate. The campus clock tower began to chime. Twelfth Hour was upon them, and lunch hour was under way.
Moments after the final chime rang out across campus,
there was excited knocking on the dorm room door.
“Come in!” called out Kayden and Neryssa, simultaneously.
The door swung open and Danya Shaylanis breezed back into the room. “Ah, good! You’re ready, I see,” she said cheerfully, closing the door behind her.
“Ah, good! You’ve learned how to knock before entering, I see,” said Kayden in mock imitation of the willowy apprentice.
“Although two or three times would have sufficed,” Neryssa appended. “Knocking twenty times in quick succession wasn’t really necessary.”
Ignoring them, Danya strutted to the nearest bed and leapt, back first, onto it. She stretched out upon the mattress, hands behind her head, legs crossed at the ankles.
“What are you doing?” asked Kayden. “I thought you wanted to escort me to the old arena.”
Danya rolled onto her side, one arm propping up her head. “Hold your horses, Missy,” she barked. “The bell has just rung. People are leaving classes; returning to dorm rooms; exiting dorm rooms; heading to the mess hall for lunch; leaving campus to go into town on errands.” She spoke as if explaining things to youngsters. “Far too many eyes about campus that might catch us sneaking away towards the arena.” She lay out on her back once more, hands behind her head, legs crossed at the ankles. “We’ll just wait here for a little while until things have quieted down.”
