by Travis Kerr
"If you're more interested in fiction, collections of made up stories, there's a pretty decent selection over against that wall there," he continued, pointing to where he indicated. "Are you interested in learning something, or just something to pass the time? I can recommend a few things for you either way."
Bane decided on a fiction story, and Raiste pulled a few selections off of the shelves that he thought the young man might like. Bane had never read a fiction story before. He had never thought that someone would take the time to write such a thing. He had heard a tale told by a story teller in the town near his farm once before, however, and suspected that these made up stories here must be similar to that.
He picked up a book called A Tale of Two Cities out of the books his friend had suggested. Opening to the first page, he glanced at the words written there.
'It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.'
Here’s a man who can’t make up his mind, Bane thought, promptly closing the book. Maybe I’ll come back to this one sometime later, he decided.
Instead he settled on a book called Arabian Nights. From what he could tell from a quick inspection, it appeared to be a collection of short stories, linked together under the premise that a slave woman told them night after night, so that her owner wouldn’t have her killed.
Even if one of the stories isn’t that interesting, I won’t have to read long before it goes into another, possibly more interesting tale. It should be worth giving it a chance at least, he decided.
He took the book into the living room and, after depositing the oil lamp back in the holder on the wall he had taken it from, fell into one of the chairs. Raine appeared to have fallen asleep on the couch where she had been lounging. Trick, who had been on the top of the couch behind her when he had left the room, was nowhere in sight.
Likely the dragonling had flown up into the rafters somewhere. The creature seemed to like high places. Raiste had already returned to the chair where he had been sitting previously, pouring over the book on magic he had been reading.
After he had read for perhaps an hour, he finally had to put the book down. His eyes were already starting to droop. He had nearly dropped the book more than once when he had come close to falling asleep. He looked over at Raiste, who was still reading his magical history with intense concentration.
How does Raiste continue reading after so long without tiring, Bane wondered.
"What is the watch rotation going to be tonight?" He asked. Raiste was so engrossed in his book he had to be asked a second time before he finally looked up from his reading.
"I'm sorry, what was that?"
"I was just wondering what the order of the watch was tonight?" Bane repeated. "I'm guessing you're taking first watch; you're still reading after all. I'm ready to fall asleep now, and Raine is already out. I can take second watch or third, doesn't matter to me. Did the two of you talk about it earlier?"
"We don't need to have a watch posted in here," Raiste answered with a light chuckle. "If someone finds this place, they'll have to get in first. They won't make it through the door without us hearing them. I've already locked it from the inside. If they break out a window instead of going through the door, we'll still hear them. We should be safe enough. Besides, if they find this place, I'm not sure if there's anywhere in the world that we'll be safe."
Bane shrugged. The assassin was far better at these sorts of things than he was. He had no reason not to trust the man's judgment. He left the book on the table and headed for the door.
"You might as well wake up Raine before you leave," Raiste said before he reached it. "If she stays down here tonight, she'll be impossible in the morning. She'll be a little grumpy if you wake her up now, but she'll be better off after a good night's rest in a bed. Just be careful waking her."
Bane knew exactly what Raiste meant. The last time he had to wake her she nearly took his head off. He cautiously prodded her foot, staying just out of kicking distance.
She woke groggily, shaking her head for a moment. Suddenly she was on her feet, apparently searching for a weapon. "What's wrong? Are we under attack?" she asked Bane, seeing him first.
"All's well," Raiste assured her from his position on the chair. "I just thought you would rather spend the night in a comfortable bed instead of on the couch, so I had Bane wake you. It might be easier for you to hunt tomorrow if you're not sore from sleeping in a bad position. Sorry if we startled you." His wolfish grin, however, told a different story than the words he spoke.
He’s not really sorry at all. Not in the slightest.
For a brief instance, Raine looked as if she was going to hurtle a wicked retort at Raiste, or hurtle whatever might be handy for that matter, but then seemed to decide against it. Instead, she simply stood without a single word and headed through door.
Bane hurried to catch up with her. He didn't want her angry at him for what seemed to be a joke that Raiste was playing on her. He caught up with her just as she reached the bottom of the stairs.
"Wait, Raine. Sorry if what I did angered you," Bane said sincerely. "Raiste told me I should wake you up, and his reasons seemed good. I didn't know that he was playing some sort prank on you. I just don't want you to be angry with me."
She stopped in her tracks, pausing a second before turning to face him. "I'm not. He wasn't wrong either. I should be sleeping in a bed instead of on the couch. It doesn't mean I have to like waking up. Don't worry about it. You haven't done anything wrong."
"That's a relief. I thought you might have been upset with me. It would be a long winter here together if you were."
This woman can hold a grudge better than anyone I’ve ever met, he recalled.
She chuckled. "Even if I had been a little upset with you, it certainly wouldn't have lasted all winter. You would have to do something pretty outrageous to get me to hold that sort of a grudge. I'm just tired, and a little grumpy. I'll be fine after a good nights rest, which I probably wouldn't have gotten down here. So you did me a favor really. Raiste just knows how I get when someone wakes me up unexpectedly. That's why he had you do it. He knows I'm less likely to punch you in the face."
"You would really punch him in the face?" Bane asked skeptically. It wasn't that he didn't think that the feral woman was capable of it. Far from it in fact.
I wouldn’t want to see how that fight would turn out, he thought.
Raine shrugged. "I did once before, but he really had it coming that time. He woke me up by dumping a cup of water on my head. Needless to say, I didn't take too kindly to it."
"Why did he do that?"
Or why would anyone want to do something that suicidal for that matter?
Raine laughed. "I got so drunk in a bar one night that I passed out at the table. He could have carried me up to the room, but figured I wouldn't have learned a lesson if he did that. So instead he woke me up hard and quick. I didn't like it much, so I punched him."
"I've seen you drink before. You never seemed like the type of person to over-indulge. You really got drunk enough to pass out?"
"Like I said, he was teaching me a lesson. Needless to say I learned it. Doesn't mean that I wasn't going to show him my appreciation for his teaching method. That was the last time I drank like that. I learned not to drink so heavily, and he learned not to try to teach me lessons by dumping water on my head. I guess we both learned something that night."
"Sounds like you were both just goofing off," Bane commented with a chuckle.
"Pretty much," she agreed. "Our work is a bit too serious, even for us, so we try to enjoy ourselves as often as possible. We'll be busy over the next few days, but once all the work is done we'll be able to relax some. If I know Raiste, he already has a few pranks in mind. At least I hope he does anyway. To be honest, he's been unusually somber since we left the city. Normally he loves coming here. It's just about the only place he ever feels like he can let his guard down. For some reason he just hasn't been acting like himself lately, and co
ming here didn’t change that like I expected it to. He pretends that everything is fine, but I've known him for too long not to see the difference. I'm thinking that everything that happened has gotten to him more than he is willing to admit."
"I've noticed that he doesn't seem to be joking around as often as he was on the way to the city, but then I haven't known him as long as you. I've always just thought he was a bit manic. One minute he's laughing and joking, the next he's the most serious man I've ever known. I just assumed he was always like that, or that he was hiding how he really felt underneath a playful facade. I've noticed you tend to do the same thing, or at least that's how it's appeared to me anyway."
"You're not really wrong," Raine admitted. "We do tend to act out the part of jokers, even when we don't feel that way. In Raiste's case he really is a joker much of the time, and I have to admit he's rubbed off on me quite a bit. I used to be a very serious person before I met him. I still am sometimes, but now I've found a bit of a playful side too. When you have someone who's joking around all the time with you, it's hard not to laugh. Before you know it you're joking around yourself, just to make the day go faster. I don't know if I ever really properly thanked him for that, but I'm fairly certain he knows already. Just being around him gives you a feeling like, no matter how bad things might get, in the end everything will be just fine."
"I wish I could feel like that," Bane commented. "Everything that's happened has been, well, kinda crazy really. I found out that, apparently, I can use magic, which I certainly never expected. I also made an enemy of the ruling mages, which frankly scares the hell out of me. I never expected anyone could go through so much, especially not someone like me. I've lived my entire life on a farm. I don't know if I'm really equipped to handle this kind of lifestyle. So far you and Raiste have basically been carrying me along. If it wasn't for the two of you, I would likely have been dead a dozen times over already."
"Not nearly so many times as that. Besides, most of those situations you might not have been in to begin with if you hadn't been with us," she pointed out. "Since we’re the ones who got you into those situations, the least we could do is get you back out of them."
"Some of them maybe," he admitted. "The first time though, when I was being pushed around by that trog, I was already in plenty of trouble all on my own. If Raiste hadn't stepped in, I would be sitting in a prison cell right now, and that's if I'm lucky. Since I haven't had much luck in anything else, I'm guessing that he probably would have killed me right there in that bar."
"It's possible," she agreed. "Still, we could have let you go on to one of the other cities. If we had, you wouldn't have had all the troubles that you have now."
"I don't think of it that way. I decided to go with you entirely on my own, don't forget. I'm sure that Raiste had a large part in pointing me in that direction, don't get me wrong. He seems pretty good at getting people to do what he wants them to. Still, he left me enough chances to get out if I wanted. I don't even think of the things that have happened as troubles. Not really anyway. It's just not the sorts of things I would ever have expected to happen to someone like me."
"It's not the way things would normally be for anyone really. I suspect that there's going to be a lot more people getting involved with all this before it's finished. I didn't know about Raiste's past until just now, but now that I do a lot more has become clear. I can only see this ending one of two ways. Either we find a way to fight back against the ruling mages, or they kill us. I'm not too happy about either option, but frankly there isn't any other way for this to go anymore."
"You're probably right about that," Raiste said from the doorway right behind Bane, startling the sorvinian man. As usual he never heard a sound.
The man walks like a ghost, Bane thought.
"This is only going to end when the ruling mages are no longer hunting us, and that's not going to happen as long as we are alive. Either they die, or we do. This would happen eventually anyway. Even if I hadn't started all this, someone else would have. The mages have been squeezing people for more than they can handle for far too long. They've been providing the fuel for this fire for a while now. The only thing I've done is light the match."
"How long were you listening to us?" Raine asked him, irritation evident in her voice. It wasn't that she had said anything that she wouldn't want him to know. She just didn't like the thought of people listening in on her conversations.
"Long enough to know what the two of you were talking about," he replied vaguely. "The two of you haven't said anything that I hadn't already thought of myself. One way or another, we'll find a way through this. Give me a few days to figure out our next move. We'll just see where it goes from there. No matter what I decide, Bane will be staying here this winter for certain, and I would like you to stay here with him Raine."
Just us?
"I was assuming you were planning on staying here as well," Raine said, mirroring his thoughts. "The mages, particularly Bloodheart it seems, are after you. They are probably watching out for Bane as well, I'm sure, but we don't really know how much they know about him yet. They are definitely after you though. Why would you want to put yourself anywhere they can find you? I would think that you would want to stay here, at least until things die down a bit."
"I haven't decided what I'm going to do just yet. You're not wrong, I would prefer to stay here. If for no other reason than because I want to help Bane with his training. However, something will have to be done about the horses, and it would be a good idea to find out what they know about us. We're not going to find that out sitting here. Sometime soon, one of us is going to have to go to one of the cities and find out what they know about us.
“I know you would be happy to volunteer, but I have more contacts than you do, and as a human it's easier for me to disguise myself than it would be for you. They might not know anything at all about you yet, but I want to be certain of that before I'm willing to risk sending you into the lion's den. I'll let you know once I've made up my mind about what I'm going to do next and when I'm going to do it.
“You two will have me around for at least a few days longer. I might stay as long as two or three weeks, depending on how much feed we have for the horses. Either way, I'll want to take them to one of the cities to sell. Probably Miani, I think. It's not far from here, so I can be back in a few weeks, and it's at the far reaches of Bloodheart's territory. Chances are good that he hasn't sent word there to watch out for me yet. I also have people there that I know I can trust, something that we are in short supply of right now."
"I get it. I would try to talk you out of it, but I know that I wouldn't be able to. As usual, you're right. I'll help Bane in his training while you're gone, assuming you want me to."
"I've been thinking about that actually. The style I've been teaching him isn't the type of fighting that will work best for him. There are a few other fighting styles that I think will work better. In a few days I'll start showing him the basics of one of those styles. If you're going to help him in his training, you'll have to follow that program. I'm sure that won't be a problem for you. Even if you don't know the style yourself, I'm sure you'll be able to understand it easily enough."
"Why, what's wrong with the style you have been teaching him?"
"The style he's learned focuses on changing your momentum back and forth, using your opponents blocking weapon to propel your next attack. You and I both use variations of that sort of style. Bane, on the other hand, has a weapon that, with his magic, cuts straight through their defense. There won't be a rebound with that weapon. Instead, his best style is going to be one of continuous, flowing motion. I've studied a few such styles. Now it's just a question of which style, or combination of styles, is going to work best for him."
"You're going to have to train him then," Raine told him. "I've trained in a few different techniques, but nothing like that. I wouldn't really know where to begin."
"True, but you can still provide him with a spa
ring partner. Most of the time he won't be practicing against an opponent. His style won't allow it safely, especially once he learns how to use his magic. However, he's still not invincible, and he'll need work on his defense. Only a worthy opponent can help him with that."
"Sure, I can spar with him. I'm interested in seeing what he can do against a good fighter once he figures out how to use that magic of his. From what the two of you told me about it, I'm certain it will be a lot of fun."
"Only spare with him to help him with his defense," Raiste admonished. "It would be too dangerous for you if he was using attacks against you. I know how good you are, don't forget, so I'm not saying this lightly. I saw what he can really do during that fight against Sloan's men, and he wasn't even fighting a style that uses his abilities to their full potential. Once we find the right style for him, he'll be next to unstoppable."
"Um, I'm still standing right here," Bane put in, not happy about his friends talking about him like an object while he stood between them.
"You're just as much a part of this conversation as the two of us." Raiste said, unperturbed. "If you have something to add, by all means spit it out Bane. I wasn't trying to leave you out. I've been reading about battle mages while we relaxed in the living room. While there was quite a few different abilities listed, and no two were exactly alike as far as I could tell, there was one thing they all had in common; Their fighting styles were not something that they learned. It was instinctual, or something very similar anyway.
“Some of the movements you made in that fight were not things that I've taught you. In fact, as near as I can tell, it slowed you down when you tried to stick with the techniques you've learned. The movements I'm planning on teaching you are not standard techniques for me. I'm not even very good at them. These are movements that are very close to the way you were fighting naturally. I'm hoping that, by learning something similar to whatever your style truly is, it will help you discover it on your own."
"So you're saying that my style is basically something I already have but can't use?"
