Chapter 474 (1/2)

Chapter 474

Chapter 472: Reckoning

ARTHUR LEYWIN

Nico looked atto be a new one today Another girl Draneeve let it slip this ”

I only shook my head as I proceeded with my stretches to prepare

“I hope she’s as cute as that Maylis girl” Nico watchedabout this stuff always madeupany effort to do so hirin became forced “More than she liked me, anyway”

I rubbed the back of my neck and brushed a lock of auburn hair out ofthe point”

I hated it when he tor he’d always been like that, even in our past life, butweren’t very clear any I’d done, stuck out clearly, but my life itself seemed all fuzzy

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Nico said, rolling his eyes before casting a vacant stare across the training cha for some mythical third Musketeer for our dynamic duo” Nico frowned suddenly, an expression I felt

“What’s a Musketeer?” we both asked at the sa, but I couldn’t release the question quite so easily We often found ourselves drawing on some shared fact or piece of cultural memory from our lives on Earth, but they just as often made no sense to either of us I couldn’t help but ask myself if it had always been like that since my reincarnation, but like the memories of Earth, on and brought me to Alacrya was also fuzzy

I suppose they would be though, I considered I was only like four or five when that happened

My thoughts lingered on this subject, picking futilely at the fabric of those ht into the warm-up Only when Scythes Melzri and Viessa appeared did Nico hurry to followbored while Viessa radiated a constant undercurrent of disappointment

When Scythe Cadell arrived shortly after, I hopped up and stood at attention With hie She had navy hair the color of the deep ocean water I’d seen when visiting the coast of Vildorial with Cadell, but it was her eyes that really stood out They were like two shi+ning rubies inset in her slightly round face

Cadell snapped his fingers, and I jolted to attention, realizing I’d been staring Beside nored hihblood Denoir” Cadell watched us closely, his red eyes dark in coirl’s Aside from his lips and eyes, not a ht as well have been carved of stone “She is descended of Vritra blood, though she has not yet awakened She will be training with you for the next few days This opportunity is a great honor for the Denoir blood” His tone changed as he said this last bit, irl without even looking at her

She bowed deeply, her navy hair falling down over her face “Of course, Scythe Cadell Vritra! Thank you for this incredible opportunity Highblood Denoir will prove its purity to the High Sovereign”

They’re all the sa Vritra-blooded foster child that had been brought to train with us over the last couple months It was hard to see the world fron was this—and so weird—but ave hten even further, then turned his attention to the other Scythes “I’ll leave theto you”

“As always,” Melzri said under her breath as Cadell swept fro and must have heard her, but Melzri was always snide, and he always ignored her I liked Cadell, but I couldn’t i other than completely and perfectly respectful, actually In sorona

Viessa stepped forward and motioned the three of us into a line Melzri took three i blades from their stand and handed one to each of us They were made of charwood, a black wood that was hard, dense, and difficult to ith, but that held ic easily

“Nico, Grey, you will start,” Viessa said, her voice sending a shi+ver up my spine as always “Show Caera the speed and intensity of sparring that we expect Focus on form and proper delivery of your strikes Your equipment will be set to correct sloppiness”

I felt my muscles tense, and Nico stiffened behind me The runes carved into the blades and handles of our training swords helped to track the speed, force, and precision of our movements They could also be set to deliver painful shocks to either the target or the wielder, depending on the perfor, it was often both, and the painfulness of the “correction” was always intensified

“Caera, we expect you to be able to match these little idiots’ pace without the aid of any irl “Pay attention Internalize their speed and style Reether effectively, and that ave Nico a , then don’t hold back, and definitely don’t worry about hurting them”

Caera’s eyes flicked uncertainly toward Melzri for a heartbeat before her expression settled again “Yes, Scythe Melzri Vritra!”

“Co to keep the pout off his face As much as he was happy to be the teaser, he hated when Melzri picked on him, which only made her do it evenarea, spun, and stepped into a tail stance, the blade of his sword facing backward from ly, and he gave a saze kept slipping past h times to know this was already over

Withforward, I let the point of my sword dip down into the fool’s stance and took a breath, letting most of my body relax Then I waited Nico was never very patient, but he was a lotLike when there is a girl around We stayed like that for only a few seconds before he tensed

He opened with a sweeping upward cut, which I avoided with a quick backstep without even bringing up ht to left,the momentum of the heavy charwood, then sliced doardleft, which would have been the natural direction, I ducked ing runted and backed away, gritting his teeth

There was a jolt ofspikes of pain I clenchednot to let the pain show as I looked at the Scythes questioningly

“If your opponent earing armor and had the protection of mana, he would not even have been wounded by the force of your strike,” Viessa explained in her coldweakness in front of her You know better than to think that level of force would be acceptable, boy”

Frustrated, I nodded sharply and reset This time, Nico was more patient, and I went on the offensive first The heavy charwood blades cracked together loudly several tirowl of pain froain

“Better This is the speed we expect” Viessa said to the girl “Any traditional for later that encourages you to break free of established stances, but today, ish to see if you are trained well enough to identify and counter the styles used by Nico and Grey” Speaking to us again, she snapped, “Well? What are you waiting for? Do not waste my tiing three times that many strikess Of every strike that landed, three out of four were ain Nico, on the other hand, started to twitch at each pause after the fifth time his sword shocked hiht the girl forward, and Melzri pulled me to the side She forcedsession with nature so close and only barely restrained, it was difficult to focus on any other sense but that ofsession,” she ordered

I honed my natural senses toward the sounds and irl Their turnshoes scuffed across the floor The skin of their hands creaked as they tightly gripped the leather-wrapped handles of their training swords Nico’s breathing was heavier and faster than the girl’s

“Caera struck first,” I began narrating, doing ht in my h the cha back He”—there was a pulse ofback”

“Good,” Melzri said, sounding slightly bored “Continue”

I kept up a constant narration of the sparring session for the next twenty h or biceps whenever I

But as I listened, I felt irl had clearly trained extensively The problem with these foster Vritra-bloods—from those I had met—was that they were silass Haughty and filled with self-importance and unearned social power, none of them had been focused or put in the work Naturally talented, yes, but well-trained, no

Except for this girl Slightly on the heavy side, she was stronger than even the boys we had trained with, but still fast She only missed a few steps over the whole twenty minutes as she fell smoothly in and out of a dozen or more stances As rin Caelum, he was still better than any of the other kids we’d trained with by aa strike for every one Nico gave her

By the ti ht Perhaps they aren’t all the sa an end to Caera and Nico’s sparring “Grey Go Do not disappoint fully as she handed it over

Having studied Caera carefully over the last twenty minutes, I assuan She surprisedthe fool’s stance I’d adopted earlier against Nico only to feint her first strike forward, step back into the tail stance, spin, and deliver a leaping doard cut at htforward so her own blade was pushed back at her She rotated in the air, her feet flying forward, and she crashed onto her back, her head bouncing off the stone tiles

Nico cursed and spun around to see what happened only to get a strike across the back of his knees from Melzri I instinctively moved forward to offer Caera a hand up and lare from Viessa stopped me in my tracks

Caera rolled over, pushed herself up, and rubbed the back of her head gingerly Her fingers came away spotted with red

“Do you require a healer, girl?” Viessa said, the question sounding more like a threat

“No,” Caera said i She wiped the blood off on her pants, then turned back to htly in both hands “Nice uard with the jump, but—”

“But you sacrificed your ability to adjust your stance and absorb the pushi+ng force fro defensive maneuver,” I interrupted

She only nodded With a coain

Our twenty minutes passed by in what felt like moments, and I realized when it was over that I’d actually been having fun Caera was experienced, but she was also very intuitive Whether due to a balance in our talents or her own quick ability to gauge an opponent and adjust, she matched Nico and I near perfectly, much better than any of the others I knew even before the first hour was over that she would be the one

The thought made h?

“Not bad, you little beasts,” Melzri said, eyeing us with an uncoaze “Drink Take a few minutes to rest and talk We have severalahead of us today” She walked away, taking Viessa with her

I filled three stone cups fro charunted, but Caera took the cup with both hands and bowed slightly to show respect “Thank you”

“So where’d you learn all that?” Nico burst out, failing as usual to compose himself “You’re better than you should be”

Cup halfway to her lips, Caera bristled She slowly lowered the cup and regarded Nico with poorly veiled irritation “And how good should I be, exactly?”

Nico’s eyes widened, and he almost took a physical step back “That’s not—I just meant…” He looked to me for help, but I pretended not to see as I took a deep drink, draining ood is all”

“Of course I am, I’h it was perfectly practiced, there was a hint of being forced that undercut her haughtiness Softer, and with less attitude, she added, “I’ to be an ascender one day I have to train to be ready”

Nico’s eyes lit up, and the tension dissolved as the conversation turned to the ascenders association, the Relictombs, and the accolades that could be found within it I found h the conversation, and hblood Denoir

Ti except the three of us , and tutoring, Caera’s face always stayed in focus As she was te over the following years, her face thinned, never entirely losing its roundness but beco more defined, more mature More beautiful

Her hand was clammy as it squeezed mine She didn’t look at me out of the corner of her eye, but I could feel her attention on me, her desire for comfort and support It wasn’t like her to be so nervous, but then again, this wasn’t exactly a norether quietly in the outer foyer of Agrona’s wing of Taegrin Caelu to break the tension, I si coveredthe framework of bones had been torn and then repaired in a couple of places, and the white scales looked dull and faded in the dion that took me from my family when I was just a boy, the one Cadell had saved lanced at Nico He looked away, but not before I saw the expression on his face as he took in Caera’s hand holding hed, but I didn’t want to break the tense silence

There had always been a coressed faster, trained harder, and received higher-level runes; it was only natural that he occasionally grew frustrated by always co in second I didn’t blah two lives We were bound together by fate, or so I thought But the dynaed when Caera arrived She had been…well, whatever Uncle Agrona was looking for Talented, driven, and striking a perfect balance, socially, between Nico and s

There wasn’t a lot of roos like relationshi+ps in the e lived, and I didn’t exactly get pointers from people like Scythes Cadell, Melzri, and Viessa, ere our pries who served Agrona And I didn’t ever plan for it We just kind of stumbled into it as the mutual attraction between us started to invade into our constant training and schooling We spent alether, after all Maybe it was inevitable

So, though, were Nico’s feelings I knew he’d been sh that door into the training chao He couldn’t help himself, it’s just who Nico was He also, unfortunately, couldn’t help his resent in second to me And he’d pulled back fro eye contact with each other just a little too long

The air pressure in the roorona, dressed si tunic but with his custo up froarded the three of us with a pleased smile “Ah, here they are, the three most important people in all the world Come in, come in, we have ain then slipped her own free, following Agrona first Nico raised his brows and shrugged, falling in beside h a series of lavishly decorated hallways and roo before The heady smells of rich soil and a mixture of many different kinds of plants wafted out of a half-open door that led into a kind of indoor garden Sunlight poured in through a glass ceiling, and water trickled in sround

Plants sprouted up froh one another as if they each fought for their own survival Flowers that looked too delicate to coh thick, thorn-covered bra down the walls, and they recoiled visibly as we entered

Agrona chuckled and reached up to stroke one of the vines “You are very lucky, Caera,” he said His back was to us, but I could hear the smile in his voice “Very few in this world will ever have the opportunity to fulfill their purpose so completely as you”

Caera sed heavily “What is rona paused and turned to look at her, one brow raised above the other

“Uncle Agrona,” she corrected with a sh the roo a petal there “You are the vessel, Caera,” he said, as if that explained everything

I felt , but I knew better than to interject A vessel is so else into…

“Your friends have fulfilled their purpose as anchors adrona said, which didn’t exactly clarify anything “You are going to change the world, dear one”