Mitigating Risk

by Blaise Corvin

  “Alright, fine. Let’s put it to the test.” Gonzo smiled. “We have some padded training weapons. How about you and Nora go outside and have a rematch? A fair one.”

  I asked, “Training weapons? Do you have clubs and shivs?”

  “Fairly close,” answered Gonzo.

  I narrowed my eyes at Vitaliya. “Sounds good,” I said. The situation had gotten out of hand and progressed in a way I couldn’t have predicted. I still didn’t trust Gonzo; doing so would be naive. But for the time being, it looked like nobody was going to kill me. I’d take the respite.

  All that aside, I really didn’t like Vitaliya. The idea of smacking her in the head with a training weapon appealed to me. “Lead the way,” I said.

  I was still pressed for time, but if Gonzo kept his word, the deal would work in my favor. Plus, I thought about what Enheduanna had told me about my natural power. I couldn’t deny the excitement of training with new people.

  My lip twitched as I realized how abnormal I probably was. I’d almost been killed moments before and was currently surrounded by powerful strangers that could just kill me to hide all their secrets. I was on a time limit decreed by a High Priestess of Dolos, my emotional state was fragile, I was still reeling from the traumatic loss, and I was avoiding the enormous gulf of emotion that I hadn’t processed yet. And still, despite all that, I was looking forward to sparring.

  Maybe deep down, there was something wrong with me. Perhaps being a member of the Jackals had truly broken me as a person. Well, either that or living with a survival mindset over half of my life. Could I ever be normal again? I felt like I’d changed a lot, even in the last couple days, and maybe not for the better.

  That thought haunted me as I went to a table that Gonzo indicated, grabbing a training weapon and heading outside. I had a lot of questions and a lot of unresolved issues, but at least it would be fun to smack the rot out of the whiny redhead.

  Hitting a Wall

  The rest of that day was surreal. Gonzo led us outside and told me in no uncertain terms that he didn’t have time to waste watching me. If I tried to steal anything again or tried to run away, it would not end well for me. I believed him.

  So far, Gonzo was treating me honorably—more honorably than I deserved, actually. I knew with the certainty of a former street runner that it would probably be easier for Gonzo and Vitaliya to hide their obvious secrets by just disposing of me. I wasn’t sure about Vitaliya, but Gonzo could probably kill me before I’d even be able to react.

  I’d never met anyone with that kind of power before, and I was still adjusting to the idea. Even the orb-Bonded bounty hunter that I’d fought the day before hadn’t scared me like Gonzo had. The world was definitely a lot bigger than the alleys and dank rooms I’d grown accustomed to back in Bittertown.

  I couldn’t tell yet if my luck had been great or terrible. On the one hand, I’d been caught trying to steal. On the other hand, now I was serving as the training partner for a whiney, unpolished, but undeniably lethal young woman.

  Most of my time the rest of that day was spent sparring with Vitaliya. The flame-haired girl mentioned her frustration about being away from ‘little Aodh’ at least every other hour. Gonzo mostly just watched us while taking notes in a journal, usually only speaking to instruct one or both of us to change practice weapons.

  Occasionally, he would actually show Vitaliya some new attack or disengage, sometimes going over footwork. Most of the basic stuff I already knew, but I wasn’t familiar with all of the weapons my de-facto captors practiced with. I carefully watched how Vitaliya used these weapons while sparring, and how Gonzo taught their use. If I really had the natural power that Duanna had claimed, this would be a great time to pay attention.

  Gonzo was not a martial arts master by any stretch, but he was competent. Even if I wasn’t picking up any new skills, just being introduced to all the new weapons, learning about them was fantastic.

  Getting to beat Vitaliya over and over again was also an added bonus to the training. It seemed that Gonzo believed that some humility went a long way in building a fighter. I thought I understood. If Gonzo beat Vitaliya, she could probably shrug it off since they were not even remotely on the same level. With me though, defeats would be much more real to her.

  From the first time I’d sparred with Vitaliya, both of us using daggers, she’d barely touched me. What’s more, my orb-granted powers were slowly but surely growing. I was getting faster, stronger, and tougher. By the end of that first day, Vitaliya had nearly collapsed, but I’d felt fine. The stubborn girl had been too proud to ask for a break, and Gonzo had been content to let her wear herself out.

  That night, we all ate mostly in silence. The meal itself had been simple but strange. I hadn’t recognized the meat, and Vitaliya had told me it was rabbit. My eyes had flown open, and I’d taken another experimental bite.

  Rabbit wasn’t exactly rare on Ludus. However, they were hard to hunt—wily, smart, and reacted quickly while in danger. What’s more, rabbits tended to live mostly in the monster-infested wilderness where food was plentiful. A few would turn up in the farms near cities, but not often. As a result, most people on Ludus didn’t really eat rabbit.

  Vitaliya and Gonzo had eaten the rabbit and forest vegetables cooked with fancy spices like it had been no big deal. The whole situation had made me wonder again who the two really were, and also reminded me of the year I’d almost starved as a little girl. Recalling those memories had not been pleasant.

  Eventually, I found myself in the room I’d be staying in, previously Gonzo’s. Gonzo himself would be sleeping in the main room during my stay. The arrangement was supposedly for my comfort and privacy…but I’d been caught trying to steal. It was nice of them to pretend otherwise, but Gonzo was sleeping between me and the door to ensure I didn’t disappear after trying to steal again.

  I couldn’t blame them.

  I’d decided that I would sleep on the floor. To sleep in Gonzo’s bed after everything that had happened, after knowing that the man was probably a high rank ‘Bonded…it was unthinkable. After I picked the corner I’d be bedding down in, I sat down with my back against the wall and looked up at the ceiling, just taking time to think for a moment.

  My situation was really complicated and only finally starting to become real to me. Up until this point, I’d more or less just been reacting. Now that I had some time to reflect, it really sank in just how lucky I was to be alive...multiple times over. Wow.

  Even the first fight with Vitaliya had been bizarre. I should have just moved on when I realized that people might have been inside the cabin. My decision to steal had been bad, and by all rights, I should be dead right now. Yes, I was orb-Bonded, but I was absolutely certain that Gonzo could end me in an eyeblink. My luck was pretty rotten; I couldn’t even enjoy being ‘Bonded before the universe slapped me down and humbled me.

  Figures.

  I sighed and took a moment to regroup, listing my goals. At some point, I needed to deal with Arren’s death. I was aware I couldn’t hold this off forever. Now was definitely not the time, though. Just remembering bits and pieces of the horror in Bittertown made my chest start to tighten in grief, and I just couldn’t afford to lose focus. For Creator’s sake, I was a training slave, or captive, or something else equally weird right now. My life was FUBAR. I forgot what FUBAR meant, but my father used to say that word a lot when things got really bad at his work. I assumed it was appropriate for my situation.

  The next obvious thing I had to work towards was fulfilling my obligation to Enheduanna. That particular task had a time limit, too. My current situation made me nervous, but I was lucky not to be dead, and two days probably wouldn’t kill me. Plus, I actually was learning some interesting things. Today I’d learned how to use a longsword and several other weapons by watching Gonzo train Vitaliya. All the weapon the Jackals didn’t really use had been new to me.

  Heading to Tolstey had several considerations. I needed to find the two
people that Duanna instructed me to retrieve, get to Mensk for the airship, and then somehow pay for the trip to Tolstey. One thing at a time, I thought, exhaling heavily. I rolled my neck, trying to release tension and just let my mind go blank for a moment before thinking again.

  The next and arguably most important item on my list was also the most obvious—I needed to learn how to use my orb-given powers. In retrospect, it was probably a good thing I hadn’t really known how to use my new abilities when I’d fought with Vitaliya. That could have ended badly for me. I shivered briefly when I remembered how fast Gonzo had crossed the room and how effortlessly he’d stopped the fight. The mysterious man currently seemed to be treating me fairly, far nicer than I deserved, even. But I knew when I was in the presence of a killer.

  In the future, I might run into people like Gonzo who wouldn’t be so...nice. I was basically working off my debt for trying to steal, and earning a weapon by training a bratty apprentice. But what if Gonzo had wanted me dead?

  I really needed to learn to use my full range of abilities, Flight and Vibration. There didn’t seem to be any better time than the present, so I mentally opened some of the information that had been put in my head after I’d become orb-Bonded.

  My Flight ability had fairly simple instructions. I had to imagine lifting a part of my back, like a muscle I’d never had before. This all sounded strange until I found the spot in my back. My eyes flew open in surprise, and I mentally explored the area for a while.

  I closed out all the information in my head, and tentatively flexed the new portion of my body I could feel. The sensation was strange. The actual thing I was moving was not really a physical part of my body, but I could still feel it there.

  For a while, nothing happened. Then when I put almost maximum pressure upwards on what I decided to call my flight control...my feet barely left the ground. I hovered for a few second before the strain was too great, and I gently dropped back to the ground.

  I rubbed my face with the heel of my hand, my breath coming raggedly. “Really? That’s it?” I asked the wall. Maybe I should have listened to Muffin. Flight was not exactly impressing me.

  Shaking my head, I dismissed that thought. For better or for worse, I’d made my choice. I just had to hope that my abilities could grow and be better in the future.

  Then I moved on to my second power, Vibration. These instructions were much more complicated, but also included a few specific examples of things I could do. I narrowed my eyes as I decided which variation of the ability I was going to try using first. Vibration-blade—that sounded interesting, and it also seemed to be the easiest way to trigger the power.

  First I drew my shiv. Then I concentrated, willing power to flow from my heart, down my arm, and into the shiv. Nothing happened the first few times I tried it, but I knew I’d gotten it right when something seemed to...click inside of me. My shiv began to hum, and my eyebrows crawled into my hairline.

  I was doing it!

  Without thinking about it too much, I stabbed my shiv into the wall of the log cabin, and my bronze blade sank into the solid wood up to a finger’s length with very little effort. I was so surprised, I let go of the handle and stepped back. Then I took a breath, gathered myself, and took hold of the shiv again and pulled, but nothing happened. Now the weapon was stuck deep in the wood.

  I tugged on the shiv a few times, but it wouldn’t budge. Then I ruefully blew out my cheeks as I realized the solution to my problem. Running through the same activation sequence as before, I channeled power from my heart, down my arm, and into the shiv. I knew the moment the power actually took hold, and as soon as it did, I pulled the knife out of the wall.

  Wow. I stared in wonder at my undamaged shiv. This could come in handy!

  Temper Flare

  The next day of training with Vitaliya felt a bit less awkward than the first day had been. Before facing off with her, I’d gotten up, used the facilities, and had breakfast. Then it seemed like I was almost immediately squaring off against the young red-haired woman again. She was still not able to beat me, but had improved a surprising amount in only a day.

  After ‘killing’ Vitaliya for the twentieth time I was getting a little cocky. I actually felt pretty confident that Gonzo was going to keep his word, that this would be my last day of training before I could go free. I’d caught sight of him wrapping a weapon in a cloth earlier, and there had been a new set of clothes outside my door that morning.

  Things were getting better. On top of that, I’d experimented with my new powers the night before. I was feeling stronger, faster, and much more optimistic about the future. My life had been destroyed, but maybe, just maybe, I could make a new one.

  Strangely, Vitaliya seemed least skilled with some of the weapons I was best at, struggling with daggers in particular. As I watched her through narrowed eyes, I realized that one of her problems was that she always tried to avoid all damage. She didn’t fight expecting to get cut. While we practiced, I was willing to sacrifice an arm for the kill. Vitaliya was adjusting, but slowly enough I could tell she didn’t usually train this way.

  It didn’t take a lot of guesswork based on our previous training to realize that Vitaliya probably usually trained to use battlefield weapons. Seriously, who the hell are these people?

  “Best two out of three!” Vitaliya snarled.

  I sniffed and twitched my nose, surfacing from my sluggish thoughts. Beating Vitaliya while training with daggers didn’t require my full attention.

  “It really won’t change anything,” said Gonzo from the sidelines.

  “That was rubbish! I almost had that!” Vitaliya protested, gesturing with the training dagger.

  “So you really want to go best two out of three? You mean best out of thirty then, right?” asked Gonzo, his voice dry. “She’s already beaten you more than ten times with daggers alone.”

  Vitaliya just glared and threw her training weapon to the ground, stomping over to a jug of water and drinking angrily. Gonzo shrugged, and I struggled not to let my amusement show. After a few terrible days, it felt nice to be good at something, even if all I was doing was beating the hell out of a stubborn teenager.

  Once Vitaliya was done drinking, she made her way back, her arms crossed over the chest of her utilitarian clothing. “What about you, don’t you need water?” she snarled at me. “Aren’t you working up a thirst, participating in this nonsense, and keeping me from little Aodh?”

  I made a noncommittal sound and looked away. The truth was, I felt great. My endurance was growing even faster than my strength was.

  Gonzo spoke again, sparing me any further pleasantries with Vitaliya, like hearing yet again about this mysterious Aodh person. “Okay, if you are both ready, let’s do another weapon change,” the tan-skinned man instructed us. “Go grab the short swords. Actually, Vitaliya, the short sword is one of your favorite weapons, you make sure to get a short sword. Nora, you can use whatever you want this time.”

  Vitaliya smiled for a second before she schooled her face into a non-expression. I knew why she’d reacted that way. The girl was still sore about losing the first time we’d met. Especially since she’d apparently been using her preferred weapon at the time.

  I could see the swagger in my opponent’s step as she chose her practice weapon and also picked up a shield. Battlefield weapons indeed.

  The situation made me pause. Over the course of the previous day, I’d learned I really liked a couple weapons I hadn’t really used before. The spear and mace, in particular, seemed to come naturally to me. However, Vitaliya still annoyed me, and I’d discovered that using a short sword wasn’t all that different from the Jackals clubs that had been my go-to weapon for most of my life. In fact, a short sword was easier to fight with in some ways.

  I considered my best option against Vitaliya considering she would be using a shield and her favorite weapon. My most practical answer would probably be a spear to keep her at a distance, wear her down. My endurance was on anot
her level than hers, after all.

  But I really liked the idea of beating her at her own favorite weapon. I didn’t just want to win; I wanted to humiliate the bloodthirsty little whiner. She’d tried to kill me before.

  The more I thought about it, the more I liked this idea. I could even put myself at a disadvantage. If I lost, it would be no big deal. This training wasn’t even for my benefit. Hell, I was a prisoner. But if Vitaliya lost…I grinned nastily for a second while I turned away from my hosts. Then I chose my own short sword and walked back to the training area.

  Vitaliya studied my weapon and lack of shield, her mouth firming. She narrowed her eyes and conspicuously didn’t drop her shield.

  That suited me just fine.

  From the sidelines, Gonzo sighed and said, “Okay, fine. Whatever. Begin on the count of three.”

  Vitaliya and I both readied our weapons, squaring off. Her fighting stance was strange to my eyes. Then again, I had been taught in a completely different sort of school than the young red-haired woman probably had been. I doubt she’d begun learning how to fight by skirmishing with other street kids in back alleys.

  My eyes slightly unfocused as I began to control my breathing. I was fast and strong, but Vitaliya was honestly pretty well trained. The fight the day before when the other young woman had been trying to kill me had been uncomfortably close.

  “Okay, you’re ready? One, two, three, go,” said Gonzo, not even pretending to take the countdown seriously. It worked for me, though.

  I started circling, trying to take the lead. Vitaliya was weaker and a bit smaller than me. She was also carrying a heavy shield. Her defense would be much, much better than mine, though. I would need to fight this duel with my head as much as my weapon.

  My eyes flicked around, still slightly unfocused. I took in my opponent’s steps, her breathing, and even where her eyes landed. Like usual, I thought with my gut, acting on instinct. Hmm, maybe Duanna was right about me after all. The thought was abstract, just noise in the back of my head as I reacted to Vitaliya.