「CONTINUATION」
Count Viremont waited while G6 shifted the borrowed sword in her hands, keeping it sheathed. Lord Nash stood several paces away, listening with his own weapon held safely at his side.
"You are really good with a sword, Lady Reise," Count Viremont said. "I thought we might talk about the style of the South Kingdom. That is, if you are okay with it."
G6's ears twitched. "You mean Vester Kingdom, right?"
"Yes." Count Viremont nodded. "Is Lady Reise interested?"
"I am." Her voice was still flat, but there was something lighter beneath it, something almost like hunger.
Count Viremont looked down at G6's footing.
"Your stance is ready to attack. I would like you to learn something before you do."
"I can do both."
"So I've heard."
Lord Nash made the mistake of smiling. Count Viremont turned toward him, and the lieutenant immediately found something to correct in his own footing.
The borrowed sword remained at G6's side. Behind her, the strips of wood left from the Wind lesson lay scattered over the grass, some split neatly and others thrown farther apart than she had intended. She had stopped looking at the last pair. Lord Ron had not stopped looking pleased about them.
Count Viremont moved several paces away from the group and drew his sword. Charlene stayed beside Lady Sienna, close enough to see without standing near the blade. Marquess Henry caught Jake by the collar when he tried to improve his view by walking directly into the lesson.
"From here," the Marquess said.
Josh quietly stepped back beside his brother.
Count Viremont lowered his sword until the point hovered above the grass. His leading knee softened. The rear foot stayed grounded, and his shoulders settled without collapsing inward. When he advanced, the first foot slid only a short distance before the other followed. He stopped with enough room beneath him to move again.
"Shuffle Stance. Don't watch only the sword."
G6 watched his hips instead.
He shifted left, then back. His feet never crossed. Each movement left his weight supported rather than requiring another step to recover it. There was nothing impressive about the distance he covered. The useful part was how many directions remained available when he stopped.
Lord Nash copied him, taking a longer first stride.
"Shorter," Count Viremont said. "You're closing on an opponent who isn't there."
"Habit."
"A useful one in the right place."
G6 repeated the step. The Count watched her return to her original position, then nodded toward her weapon.
"Keep that sheathed for a moment. First, you need to understand what you're trying to use."
"Uncle, will you show me what aura is? Is it like mana?"
Fuck, calling these old fools "uncle" just felt natural.
"Mana powers it," Count Viremont said. "But before it can become aura, we must combine it with vital energy."
G6's attention settled on his blade.
Count Viremont lifted it. No chant followed. A close, steady gleam of pale gold gathered along the steel, and when he turned his wrist, it remained against the edge rather than moving with the sunlight. He brought the weapon through a short cut. The grass beneath the tip parted along a line the metal had not quite reached.
G6 looked from the cut grass to the sword.
An edge beyond the edge.
Lord Nash leaned forward. There had been no Wind running through the sword's groove, no elemental current trailing the movement.
"What's vital energy?" Josh asked, looking from the sword to Count Viremont.
"The energy tied to your health and stamina. You spend it through exertion and recover it through rest and care. Cultivation teaches us to gather and compress it deliberately."
"So you make yourself tired?"
"If you use too much, certainly." Count Viremont lowered the blade. "And if you keep taking after exhaustion tells you to stop, you can damage your health. That is why we strengthen the body alongside the practice."
G6 watched the pale gold remain steady.
"Mana does the work. Vital energy makes it safe to use?"
"It takes part in the change," Count Viremont replied. "Mana powers your magic when you cast. For us, mana and vital energy combine to manifest aura. We call the controlled process filtration. Simply forcing more mana through will not produce the same result."
"Where does the vital energy go?" Lord Nash asked.
"Through its own pathways. They run close to the mana pathways you already know. Finding them requires you to turn your attention inward far enough to distinguish one from the other."
Lord Ray's gaze sharpened. "They are already there?"
"Yes. But someone who has spent every lesson following mana may keep following it, even when asked to look for something else."
G6's eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
Convenient habit to discover while holding a sword.
"And the Aura Core?" she asked.
"We cultivate it by gathering vital energy and compressing it into a distinct center. Your Mana Core supplies the mana. The cultivated center holds what you have gathered and becomes the place where you maintain the compression and filtration."
Lord Nash glanced down at his chest, then back at Count Viremont.
"Do we have to rebuild it every time?"
"No. Once established, the core remains. What demands your attention is the work within it. Holding the compression. Maintaining the combination. Keeping unfiltered mana out of the vital pathways."
"And if it slips?" G6 asked.
"The pathways burn."
The answer quieted even Lord Ron.
Count Viremont let the aura fade before continuing.
"Mana belongs in the network built to carry it. The vital pathways can carry the properly filtered combination. Raw mana entering them is another matter. Lose control, and the very channels you depend on for the technique become the ones you injure."
"So more mana isn't always an advantage," Lord Nash said.
"Not if you cannot handle what you admit."
G6 knew another way to put power around a blade. It answered her easily now, raw mana taking a shape she understood. What Count Viremont had described required her to resist precisely that familiar answer.
Mana Form would skip the entire dreadful process.
And teach me nothing about this one.
Lady Sienna folded her arms. "Is that why you chose those two?"
"For this part of the lesson, yes. They fight with their bodies as well as their weapons. That conditioning gives them a useful foundation." Count Viremont looked toward her. "Mages need stamina too. But having enough to sustain spellwork does not mean your body is prepared for repeated sword exchanges while you maintain another demanding process."
Lord Ron glanced at G6. "And if the rest of us trained?"
"Then we could begin with your preparation. There is no virtue in injuring yourself to avoid it."
G6 tipped her chin toward his sword. "The color. Does it always look like that?"
"Pale gold. With less vitality to sustain it, the manifestation grows thinner and dimmer. Near exhaustion, it may flicker or break." He met her eyes. "Poor control can make it waver too. Do not decide how much strength someone has left merely because you saw an unsteady edge."
So no convenient way to gauge it.
"An Aura Core is cultivated," Count Viremont continued. "Understanding the explanation will not establish one for you. Neither will knowing how to swing a sword keep the filtration steady through every swing."
"Then why start with the feet?" Lord Nash asked.
"Because your control will have to survive your movement. If you can hold an edge only while standing perfectly still, you've learned something. You haven't learned enough to fight with it."
Lord Ray folded his arms. Lady Sienna, who had appeared ready to dismiss the lesson as a matter for swordsmen, was watching the Count's blade rather closely now.
He set G6 and Lord Nash a few paces apart. Their weapons stayed sheathed while he guided them through the beginning of the exercise: small movements, steady breathing, attention turned inward without forcing their bodies rigid. When Lord Nash raised his shoulders, Count Viremont asked him to release the tension and repeat the step.
"Breathing helps you keep your attention steady," he said. "It does not do the compression for you. Don't spend the lesson holding your breath and waiting for your sword to light up."
Lord Nash exhaled through his nose.
Behind them, Lord Ron abruptly looked away.
G6 had no difficulty with the stance. Her body already knew how to keep a weapon aligned with the force moving through it. Finding the unfamiliar pathways demanded more attention.
She turned inward.
Mana answered immediately, immense and familiar. Its movement was the easiest thing to follow, and twice she caught herself doing exactly that.
Not you. Tsk.
Count Viremont guided her back to the quieter current beside it. He fed nothing into either student, only corrected their approach when they described what they could feel.
G6 stopped preparing a construct.
For several breaths, she kept her attention on what normally disappeared beneath the presence of her mana. The sensation was faint, but it changed when she deliberately gathered it.
There it is.
She drew a little of that vital energy together. It resisted the effortless shaping she expected from raw mana. When her attention slipped toward her sword, the gathered current loosened.
Her jaw tightened.
"Leave the weapon alone," Count Viremont said. "Keep the center."
She began again. Smaller this time. She compressed the current until it held apart from the familiar flow of her Mana Core, a slight, concentrated presence that required her full attention to establish.
She waited before shifting her weight.
The center remained.
G6 went very still.
"Tell me what changed," Count Viremont said.
"It stays gathered."
"Without drawing it back together?"
"Yes."
He studied her for a moment, then spoke more carefully.
"Then leave its size alone. Allow only a little mana into the process. Keep the vital energy engaged as you combine them."
A little was an irritating instruction when so much answered her. G6 obeyed it anyway.
She felt the two meet. Her instinct was to push the mana onward; instead, she held the compression and followed the change before letting the resulting current enter the unfamiliar pathways.
The work was continuous. The center stayed, but the moment her concentration shifted, the process within it began to falter.
Found the container.
Still have to do the fucking work.
She steadied it again.
Count Viremont glanced at her hands.
"Now draw the sword. Slowly."
Lord Nash stopped his own exercise to watch.
G6 slid the blade free, held it low, and completed the short movement the Count had shown them.
A thin, translucent gleam of pale gold caught along a fraction of its edge.
It held through the beginning of the cut. Then her wrist turned, and the gleam scattered before the point stopped moving.
Nobody spoke.
G6 stared at the ordinary steel left in her hand.
That's it?
"Again," she said.
Count Viremont's expression had changed, though only slightly. He looked at the blade before meeting her eyes.
"That was your first attempt at manifesting it?"
"You were standing here."
Lord Ron made a noise that suggested he had several things to say and could not decide which deserved to escape first.
Count Viremont raised one hand before anyone turned the moment into a celebration.
"A beginning, Lady Reise. A very unusual one. Keep it small."
G6 tried again. The pale-gold trace appeared nearer the hilt this time, wavering when she lifted her elbow. Increasing her mana would have been effortless. Keeping the compression and filtration steady while her arm moved required actual attention.
She eased her grip instead.
The gleam steadied for a breath and failed when she attempted a second cut. The small center remained within her; the manifestation did not. She had lost the process while watching the blade.
Count Viremont nodded.
"You can find it. Now you need to learn to keep it."
Lord Nash looked down at his own weapon. Nothing unusual had appeared along it.
"I dislike taking lessons beside you, Lady Reise."
"Get used to it."
"I was afraid you'd say that."
The Count returned to Lord Nash's stance without promising him the same result. The lieutenant listened, adjusted his rear foot, and went through the exercise again. Familiar swordsmanship helped him follow the movements. It could not produce a cultivated reserve merely because his cousin had managed a flicker beside him.
G6 practiced the short cut while Count Viremont watched them both. Sometimes she steadied the combination immediately. Sometimes the blade stayed stubbornly ordinary. The result interested her more than she cared to admit.
I can hold a killing line through a moving target.
I should be able to hold this through one fucking swing.
She slowed down.
That helped.
Charlene ventured a step closer to her father when he called a pause.
"Can I learn the steps too?"
"Of course."
He sheathed his sword and placed her beside him, well clear of the two students. Her first attempt brought her feet almost together. Count Viremont moved with her, showing where the following foot should stop.
"Like this?"
"A little less. There. Now you can move again."
The twins immediately began copying them. Marquess Henry looked down at their widening stances.
"Neither of you has been told to occupy the entire hill."
Charlene smiled. G6 saw it before looking back at her blade.
Lady Sienna had been watching the little girl.
"So she doesn't need Wind to learn it."
"She needs training," Count Viremont replied. "You do not need an innate magical affinity."
He demonstrated the step again. Charlene followed more carefully, and he nodded without making a grand declaration about what she might become.
G6 lowered her sword.
There was something unexpectedly tolerable about the way he taught. He corrected what was wrong, showed why it was wrong, and let them try again. Nobody was expected to be grateful for an explanation deliberately withheld.
At least someone here answers a question properly.
❈.❈.❈
The lesson should have ended when Count Viremont put his sword away.
Lord Nash looked across the flattened ground instead.
"We've spent the morning learning how the techniques work," he said. "It would be useful to see how they work together."
Marquess Henry's eyes narrowed immediately.
"No."
"I haven't proposed anything yet."
"You looked at her sword."
"It's a good sword."
"It is mine," Lord Ray said.
G6 turned the weapon once in her hand. The faint aura was gone. Her interest was not.
"A team match," Lord Nash continued. "Limited ground. Controlled attacks. We can use the Wind lesson as well."
"And His Grace's prohibition?" Count Viremont asked.
"That concerns the adults fighting," Lord Ron said promptly. "You could supervise."
Lady Sienna looked at him. "You realize you're an adult too."
"You know what I mean, smartass."
Marquess Henry folded his arms. "Your uncle and I did not escape an entire procession of greetings just to explain a second disaster to His Grace."
Lady Sienna glanced toward the manor. "Still better than another round of greetings, isn't it?"
"Ask me when this is over," Marquess Henry said.
Count Viremont smiled and said nothing.
G6 slid her blade into its sheath.
"Then watch. I don't need an audience giving a boring speech."
Lord Ray sighed. Lord Ron looked delighted.
After considerably more discussion than G6 considered necessary, the permitted exercise acquired rules. The children would watch from well beyond the fighting ground, behind the raised shoulder of the hill. No attack would be directed toward that side. A call to stop ended the exchange. The aim was to force a surrender or drive the opposing team from the practice ground.
Marquess Henry and Count Viremont would stand with the teams, initially as instructors, to correct positioning and halt an unsafe exchange. Neither called it sparring with the younger relatives.
Both had heard the Duke's restriction. Neither had forgotten it.
Lady Sienna knelt and gathered seven lengths of grass. She concealed their uneven ends in her fist, leaving the tops level.
"Long blades on one side. Short on the other. And no looking at the roots through my fingers."
Lord Ron withdrew his head.
"I wasn't."
"You were practically breathing on my hand."
They drew in turn. G6 pulled a short length and looked at it as though a piece of grass had personally insulted her. Lord Nash held up another short one. Marquess Henry drew the last of that size.
Across from them, Lord Ray, Lord Ron, Count Viremont, and Lady Sienna compared their longer blades.
"Four against three," Lord Ron announced.
"You can count," G6 said. "Congratulations."
"We can draw again," Lord Ray offered.
"No."
Lord Nash grinned beside her. "I agree."
Marquess Henry looked from one face to the other.
"I foresee a deeply exhausting quarter of an hour."
Before taking their places, he walked the children to the sheltered viewing position himself. It gave them a view over the low rise while keeping them out of a direct line across the clearing. Charlene stayed between the twins. Count Viremont crouched long enough to ensure she understood that she was to remain there even if her father moved out of sight.
"Josh, Jake, you two can make yourselves useful. You can cast Sevenfold Rampart, can't you? Go on. Maintaining it will help build your stamina."
"Leave it to us, Father! We'll be invincible up here!" Jake replied proudly.
"Yes, tell me that after you've survived those barbarians," Marquess Henry said, glancing toward G6 and the others.
"SEVENFOLD RAMPART!" the twins called.
Angled layers of Wind rose between the children and the fighting ground.
G6 watched the layers settle.
Barbaric? What a tasteless old man.
But making them defend themselves and taking it as an opportunity to train their stamina? Smart.
The eastern side of the practice ground sloped into an empty stretch of rough grass and exposed stone. They agreed that any attack which could not be stopped safely would be directed there. The manor lay beyond the opposite approach, out of their lines of fire.
Lord Ray drew a spare sword from his Dimensional Vault, keeping it sheathed as he joined his brother.
Lord Ray and Lord Ron took the front of the larger team. Lady Sienna stood behind and between them, far enough back to see both shoulders. Count Viremont remained several paces to their right, sword still sheathed.
G6 faced her brothers from the other end. Lord Nash stood on her left. Marquess Henry waited behind them, his arms folded with the air of a man determined to remain sensible.
"Don't chase Lord Ron," he told Lord Nash. "He wants room to turn you."
"I heard that!" Lord Ron called.
"You were meant to."
G6 glanced at Lord Nash.
"Keep my left clear."
"You intend to do something troublesome."
"I'm standing here, aren't I?"
Count Viremont raised his hand.
"Begin."
"GALE LOOM!"
Lord Ray's Wind swept across the clearing. Grass tore loose and spun through the interwoven currents, concealing Lady Sienna behind a shifting screen. Lord Ron disappeared around its western edge.
G6 caught the movement of his boot through a lower opening.
"Left."
"WIND BLADE!" Lord Nash answered.
The cut ripped across Lord Ron's route. He checked his stride as a strip of turf peeled up in front of his boots, then drove through the shower of earth before it settled.
G6 met him halfway.
Their sheathed swords cracked together. Lord Ron pushed down, trying to trap her guard; she turned her wrist, slid free, and drove her shoulder into his chest. He staggered one step. His scabbard came around before she could follow.
She ducked. The covered blade swept over her head.
"Already trying to hit your brother?"
"Still talking?"
G6 struck his wrist hard enough to make his fingers loosen. He recovered his grip just as Lord Ray stepped through the screen behind him.
Two against one.
Her mouth curved.
Finally.
Lord Ray thrust toward her ribs. She turned his point past her, but Lord Ron was already coming around her other side. G6 gave ground between them, forcing their approaches closer together. Lord Ray checked his second strike to avoid his brother's arm.
That hesitation cost him.
G6 kicked him above the knee. His leg buckled, and she twisted out of the narrowing space as Lord Nash crashed into Lord Ron's guard.
The lieutenant's impact drove Lord Ron backward through the edge of Gale Loom. The currents scattered around his shoulders. Lady Sienna's hand rose beyond them.
"FALCON'S RETURN!"
G6 saw the cutting arc pass her and begin its turn.
She dropped low and drove inward. The spell hissed behind her shoulder, taking a strip from her sleeve before biting through the grass. Lord Ray's scabbard came down toward her back.
G6 rolled across his leading foot. His strike hit the ground beside her, throwing dirt against her cheek.
She came up smiling.
"You missed."
"Stay still, then."
"Make me."
Lady Sienna kept moving behind the brothers while her interval passed. G6 tracked her between exchanges, counting until the mage's fingers lifted again.
"PARTING GALE!"
The current struck between G6 and Lord Nash and opened violently. G6 slid toward the eastern edge of the clearing. Lord Nash was driven the other way, straight into Lord Ron's waiting attack.
Wood slammed against wood. Lord Nash caught the first blow and took the next across his upper arm.
"Comfortable, Lieutenant?" G6 called.
"Delightful!"
She raised her free hand.
Her Gale Loom spread too tightly at one crossing. G6 felt the pressure catch, released that section, and left a wider opening than she had intended.
Lord Ron saw it.
"Thank you, Rei!"
He broke from Lord Nash and charged through.
G6 stepped outside his strike, smashed his scabbard downward, and drove the flat of her covered weapon into his shoulder. The impact turned him sideways. His boots ploughed two untidy furrows before he caught himself.
"Dead," she said.
"Clean touch," Count Viremont corrected.
"Same shit."
"Very different. And mind that filthy mouth," Marquess Henry said.
Lord Ron rolled his shoulder. His grin had lost a little of its confidence.
From behind the Rampart, Jake cheered. Josh loudly disputed whether the strike counted, since he had seen only Lord Ron stumbling out of the Wind.
G6 glanced at the thinning screen.
He saw the hole. Good. Next time someone else might see it too.
Lord Nash came alongside her, rubbing his arm once before settling his grip.
"No chasing?"
"Now we chase."
He lunged at Lord Ray. G6 went for Lady Sienna.
Lord Ron turned to intercept her, but she cut across his approach and forced him to circle his own teammate. Lady Sienna's eyes widened as G6 cleared the screen.
"SEVENFOLD RAMPART!"
The angled layers rose between them.
G6's gust struck the nearest surface and tore sideways. She followed its deflection around the barrier, sword low, watching Lady Sienna retreat behind the shifting angles.
Better. Make me work for it.
"Rei!" Lord Ray called.
She heard the invocation before she saw him. His Parting Gale slammed across her approach, and G6 turned with it rather than let the shove catch her squarely.
Lord Nash used the opening Lord Ray had left.
He drove straight toward Lady Sienna's exposed side.
Count Viremont moved.
His sheathed sword caught Lord Nash's weapon close to the hilt. One short turn carried it outward; the Count's shoulder followed into the lieutenant's chest and stopped his charge cold.
Lord Nash stumbled backward, dragging a sharp breath into his lungs.
"You're supervising."
"And you were about to run past me."
Across the clearing, Marquess Henry unfolded his arms.
"That looked rather like participation, Count Viremont."
Count Viremont lowered his weapon. "Then correct my position."
Lord Ron's grin returned.
Marquess Henry glanced toward the distant manor. Count Viremont waited, looking entirely too pleased with himself.
"One exchange," the Marquess said.
G6's mouth curved.
Ha, someone hates losing.
Good, that makes the two of us.
The scabbards came off.
Count Viremont reminded them of the stop command and the empty eastern slope. Nobody needed the rest of the rules repeated. Lord Ray looked briefly toward the children's Rampart before drawing his blade.
Lady Sienna took a long breath.
"If Their Graces ask, I argued for restraint."
"You haven't," Lord Nash said.
"I'm doing it now."
G6 drew Lord Ray's sword. Pale gold gathered unsteadily along the edge, then trembled as she raised it.
She let it fade.
Steel first. New trick when I can actually hold it.
Count Viremont inclined his head at the deliberate release.
"Ready?" Lord Ron called.
G6 was already moving.
<
She reached Count Viremont with a downward cut that rang against his guard. He yielded half a step. Her blade slid along his and missed his coat as he turned the pressure past his hip.
G6 recovered in time to catch his return.
The impact jarred her elbow. She stepped inside his reach and drove her knee toward his stomach.
Count Viremont shifted just enough to take it against his thigh, then shoved her back with his sword still engaged against hers.
She landed on her rear foot and came at him again.
That fucking shuffle.
Should I just slice his feet off?
To her left, Lord Nash invoked Speed on the run. Two seconds later, Strength carried his next blow into Lord Ray's guard hard enough to knock the blade aside.
Lord Ray retreated. Lord Ron came across his shoulder.
"GALE LOOM!" Marquess Henry called.
Wind cut across Lord Ron's route. He took the nearest opening, emerging where Lord Nash was already turning to meet him.
The lieutenant caught his sword and drove it across Lord Ray's returning blade.
"Thank you, cousins."
"You're welcome to try that again," Lord Ray answered.
Lord Ron immediately changed sides.
Lord Nash followed his shoulders. Lord Ray followed Lord Nash.
Steel clashed above the lieutenant's head. He bent under the crossed blades, shoved Lord Ray's wrist outward with his free forearm, and took Lord Ron's knee against his side as he fought his way clear.
"Oh," Lord Ron said brightly. "It works both ways."
Lord Nash spat out a strand of grass.
"Lovely estate."
"Do stop eating it," Lord Ray said.
"FALCON'S RETURN!"
Lady Sienna sent the curved cut behind Lord Nash, driving him toward the brothers again.
"Behind you," G6 called.
Lord Nash dropped without looking back. The spell swept over him as he caught himself on one hand and swung his sword low. Lord Ray jumped back to save his shin. Lord Ron's next strike met empty air as the lieutenant rolled clear.
Marquess Henry laughed.
"Better!"
Lady Sienna clicked her tongue. Her eyes shifted past Lord Nash toward the open flank.
He nearly looked.
"Try someone else, Sienna."
"I was."
Behind him, Marquess Henry had turned.
Lord Ray's next Parting Gale hit the Marquess across his footing. He braced, but his boots slid far enough to leave Lord Nash's side exposed.
Lord Ron came through with a grin.
The lieutenant caught his blade inches from his ribs.
"Uncle!"
"I saw it," Marquess Henry said.
"Afterward!"
Count Viremont gave G6 no time to enjoy the argument.
His first cut forced her guard high. The second came beneath it. She pulled her stomach back, felt steel catch her clothing, and struck down against his wrist before the blade could follow her.
He turned his hand. Her counter slid away.
Pale gold extended beyond his edge.
G6 threw her head aside. A loose strand of hair parted beside her cheek.
Her eyes narrowed.
"Oh?"
"You asked to learn."
She drove into him.
Their blades locked. G6 stepped across his lead foot and tried to turn him over it. Count Viremont shortened his stance before she could finish the trip, absorbed her shoulder against his chest, and brought his hilt toward her jaw.
She caught his forearm. His pommel stopped a finger's width short.
For a moment, neither moved.
Then G6 released his arm and kicked away from the bind, buying room for the sword already swinging back toward her.
Annoying. But useful. But still annoying.
She kept him occupied near the stony eastern shoulder, listening to the fight behind her. Lord Ray and Lord Ron were covering each other's casting intervals. Lady Sienna waited behind them, making the lieutenant pay whenever he pursued either brother too far.
Lord Nash could beat one cast. He could not keep turning his back on the next caster.
That's why.
The private spells were only part of it. The bastards knew exactly where another Worthon would be standing.
"SKY SUNDER!"
Marquess Henry's first cutting plane ripped through the ground ahead of the brothers. They sprang back. The second crossed the line of their retreat.
"SEVENFOLD RAMPART!" Lord Ray shouted.
The first defensive layer burst under the impact.
The next caught it at an angle and sent a shrieking current toward the empty slope. Lord Ray dug in as the remaining force drove through the overlapping surfaces. Lord Ron caught his brother by the upper arm and hauled him away from the breaking edge.
Earth struck their coats.
Jake's cheer rose from behind the distant Rampart.
Marquess Henry's smile widened.
"You've improved."
"You haven't become gentler," Lord Ray said through his teeth.
Lady Sienna's Wind Dart struck beside the Marquess's leading boot. Stone chips snapped against his trouser leg. He stepped clear, collided with Lord Nash's retreat, and swore as Lord Ron attacked through the confusion.
"Not so comfortable when there are four of us, is it?" Lord Ron asked.
Lord Nash slammed his blade aside.
"Comfort is overrated."
G6 heard the clash behind her. Count Viremont's sword was too close for her to turn.
"Lieutenant. Back two."
Lord Nash moved.
Her Parting Gale struck the gap he had left. One current spread wider than intended, shoving Lord Ron toward his brother. G6 cut the spell short before it could wrench the two of them off their feet.
Lord Nash surged into the separation. His shoulder hit Lord Ron beneath the guard and sent him sprawling.
The lieutenant lifted his sword briefly toward G6.
She answered by returning her attention to Count Viremont before his next cut took something more important than her sleeve.
Something inside her had become unpleasantly interested in doing that again.
"Switch?" Lord Nash called.
"Now."
G6 disengaged as he came in from her left. Count Viremont's descending blade met the lieutenant's guard and drove his elbow down.
Lord Nash staggered, recovered, and ducked the pale-gold edge passing above his shoulder.
His grin disappeared.
"Oh, you're much worse up close."
"You asked to learn."
"That seems to be going around."
G6 went straight for her brothers.
Lord Ron started to welcome her. She cut across his leading foot before he finished, forced him back, and caught Lord Ray's interception against the strong part of her blade.
She turned the contact outward and kicked Lord Ron in the stomach.
He folded around the blow and stumbled into his brother's path.
"Finish your sentence," she said.
Lord Ray shoved him clear and came at her hard enough to wipe the smile from her mouth.
Their swords struck twice. He let the second contact slide, changed the angle, and dragged a shallow cut across her wrist before she pulled free.
G6 stepped in to punish the opening.
Lady Sienna's hand rose behind him.
G6 remembered the curved attack, saw room for its return, and shifted to deny it.
"GUST WIND!"
The blunt rush hit her side instead.
Her trailing boot slid. Lord Ray drove the flat of his blade against her upper arm and followed with his shoulder, sending her backward through the torn grass.
G6 caught herself on one knee.
For a heartbeat, she stared at him.
"Got you," he said, breathing hard.
Lady Sienna lowered her hand with exquisite satisfaction.
"Were you expecting something more elaborate?"
Lord Nash made a strangled sound behind them. He was either laughing or discovering something unpleasant about Count Viremont's guard.
G6 rose slowly.
Oh, you smug bitch.
"Again."
Lord Ron had recovered enough to grin at her.
"You could ask nicely."
She attacked before he finished smiling.
❈.❈.❈
"One exchange" had ended several exchanges ago.
There was no longer enough unbroken grass to hide the paths of their feet. Lord Ron had dirt down his collar and a red mark spreading beneath his cheekbone. Lord Nash's sleeve hung open at the shoulder. Lady Sienna kept drawing deeper breaths between casts, refusing to leave the position from which she could ruin somebody's next attack.
Marquess Henry finally tore off his coat and threw it beyond the fighting ground.
"That was a gift," he informed Lord Ray.
Lord Ray glanced at the cut across its side.
"You should have taken it off earlier."
"WIND BLADE!"
The Marquess's next cut sent both brothers running.
G6 laughed under her breath as she turned away from the scattering earth. Lord Nash passed her, heading back toward them, and gave her a solemn nod toward Count Viremont.
"All yours."
"Scared?"
"Enlightened."
Count Viremont rolled his shoulders and raised his sword. Pale gold held steadily along its length.
So you were enjoying yourself too, Uncle.
G6 gathered her own thin edge. Keeping the compression steady while closing the distance was considerably more irritating than doing it with nobody trying to hit her.
Count Viremont received her first cut near the hilt. Her aura wavered, and she withdrew before the pressure could tear it apart.
"Don't force the amount," he said.
"I heard you the first time."
"Your hands are arguing with me."
Lord Nash laughed and immediately had to fling himself away from Lord Ron's sword.
G6 shortened her step.
Her next cut met the Count's blade without losing the pale-gold line. She felt it hold under pressure. Count Viremont turned his wrist, and the change pulled her attention toward the weapons.
The manifestation broke during her recovery.
"Tsk."
It had worked just long enough to make failure more offensive.
"FALCON'S RETURN!" Lord Ray called behind the Count.
The curved cut drove Lord Nash toward Marquess Henry. The Marquess's Rampart caught it along their exposed side, and Lord Ron swept around the outer edge before the deflected attack struck the slope.
Lady Sienna moved to support him. Her attention fixed on the gap between Lord Nash and the Marquess.
G6 advanced on Count Viremont again.
This time, she matched his short shuffle and brought her sword up beneath his guard. Pale gold returned along the steel.
He turned his blade downward to receive her.
She saw the angle change. Her attention followed it, and the filtration faltered. The edge thinned precisely where she needed it to hold.
Her old reflex answered.
Raw mana surged down her arm, far more than she had meant to release. She had tried to reinforce the failing edge while still forcing the unfamiliar compression to hold. Her mana answered faster than she corrected the mistake.
Crimson flooded the blade, swallowing the thin pale-gold outline. The power was already driving into the stroke when she realized how much had escaped.
Count Viremont's gaze sharpened.
G6 felt the difference at the same instant. A brief, familiar heat followed the slip. She had endured far worse; it did not interrupt her movement.
Oh shit.
This is dangerous.
She stopped feeding it.
Their swords were already meeting.
Count Viremont pivoted toward the unoccupied eastern shoulder. G6 followed the turn instead of fighting him, redirecting her committed stroke away from the others. His cultivated edge caught the force along its side, guiding what neither of them could simply pretend had not been released.
Steel struck with a violent, ringing crack.
Then the hillside answered.
—BOOOMMM!
The impact tore through the exposed stone beyond them. Turf lifted in a broad sheet before breaking apart. A wedge of the slope burst outward, scattering rock and soil into the empty ground below. The remaining earth collapsed into the cut with a grinding roar, leaving a raw hollow where the shoulder of the hill had stood.
G6's boots skidded across loose dirt. She lowered her center of gravity and let the recoil carry her back rather than lock her knees beneath it. Count Viremont stepped with the shock, his sword held across the line until the last of the force had passed them.
"STOP!" Marquess Henry roared.
Every remaining attack ceased.
Lord Ray caught Lord Ron's sleeve and pulled him away from the collapsing edge. Lord Nash turned his face behind his raised forearm. Lady Sienna had already lowered her hand, the spell she had been preparing abandoned before it formed.
Dust rolled through the clearing.
Beyond its western boundary, loose fragments struck the outer layers of the children's Rampart and fell short. The sheltered ground behind the rise remained intact. The twins' excited voices had stopped entirely.
"Stay there!" Marquess Henry called. "Do not come down!"
Charlene held her father in sight through the drifting dust. Count Viremont raised his free hand toward her before she could mistake his stillness for an injury.
G6 looked down at her sword.
The crimson had vanished. So had the thin aura she had been trying to maintain. The weapon was still whole, though the vibration in her wrist had not yet settled.
Her first instinct was to check the blade again. Instead, her eyes moved across the clearing.
Lord Nash was standing. Her brothers were both upright. Lady Sienna coughed into her sleeve and waved away dust with her other hand. Marquess Henry was already moving toward the children.
Three small figures waited behind the Rampart.
Only then did G6 look back at the hole.
Fuck.
He probably saw it. Didn't he?
Beside her, Count Viremont studied the last ordinary gleam along her sword.
He had seen the brief change at contact. Something had entered the edge she had been struggling to sustain, far beyond what her first, uncertain manifestation should have carried. The pale gold had been overtaken by crimson. Whatever had entered the strike had not behaved like the aura he had just taught her to form.
He did not know what it was.
His eyes rose to her face. Before she turned toward him, he looked at the ruined slope instead.
Whatever question had occurred to him remained unspoken.
Lord Ron emerged from the dust, stared at the hollow, and slowly lowered his hand.
"Rei."
"What?"
"I think you removed the hill."
"Part of it."
Lord Ray closed his eyes.
"Mother and Father will chew us out, won't they?" G6 asked.
"Oh, big time," Lord Ron answered.
Count Viremont sheathed his sword. The movement was careful, unhurried, and offered the others nothing unusual to examine.
From the direction of the manor, voices were approaching at a pace that did not suggest leisurely greetings.
Marquess Henry heard them.
He looked at the crater. Then at his abandoned coat.
"Oh, dear."
❈.❈.❈
The Duke reached the clearing with the Duchess close behind him. Knights followed at a distance, then stopped when they saw who was standing in the wreckage.
Nobody on the hill appeared pleased to have an audience anymore.
The Duchess's gaze moved first to the children. Marquess Henry had brought them from behind the now-dismissed Rampart and was checking them despite the absence of a scratch. Count Viremont took Charlene's hand. Both twins stood unusually close to their father.
Next, the Duchess looked at G6.
G6 stood straight. There was dust in her hair, a shallow scrape along one wrist, and a borrowed sword in her hand that suddenly seemed more conspicuous than it had during the fight.
Then the Duchess looked at the great missing section of hillside.
The Duke said nothing for several seconds.
That was worse than shouting.
"Line up," he said at last.
Lord Ron moved first.
Lord Ray followed. Lady Sienna stepped beside them, brushing dirt from a sleeve that would not become presentable by wishing. Lord Nash joined the line with the expression of a man reporting for a disciplinary hearing he had personally requested.
G6 remained where she was.
The Duke looked at her.
She didn't particularly care, but she knew she was in big trouble. She walked over.
Marquess Henry cleared his throat. "Your Grace, perhaps I should explain—"
"You too."
The Marquess stopped.
The Duchess extended one hand toward the end of the line.
Count Viremont passed Charlene gently to her and took his place beside Marquess Henry.
Seven adults stood before the Duke and Duchess with the ruined hill behind them.
Jake opened his mouth.
His father looked at him.
Jake closed it.
"I asked you," the Duke said to the two older men, "not to join their sparring."
Marquess Henry folded his hands behind his back. "We began with instruction."
"And ended with excavation."
Lord Ron made a small sound.
Lord Ray stepped on his boot.
Count Viremont bowed his head. "We allowed the exercise to go too far, Your Grace."
"We?" Lady Sienna muttered.
The Duchess looked at her.
"Yes. We," Lady Sienna said immediately.
The Duke's attention settled on Lord Nash. "And whose idea was the match?"
Lord Nash opened his mouth, but Lord Ron answered beside him.
"It was a group decision."
G6 glanced at her brother.
He had been quite willing to mock Lord Nash a moment earlier. Now he stood with his chin lifted just enough to make the answer sound firmer than his expression deserved.
"The adults agreed to it," Marquess Henry added.
Count Viremont nodded. "We did."
Nobody pointed at G6.
The scrape on her wrist stung. She shifted the sword to her other hand and looked at the exposed stone beyond the Duke's shoulder.
I can explain my own mistakes.
The Duchess stepped closer, brushed a clump of dirt from G6's hair, and examined her wrist. G6's shoulders stiffened. She allowed the inspection anyway.
"Is anyone else hurt?" the Duchess asked.
A collection of replies assured her that they were not.
Lady Sienna produced healing potions for the minor cuts. No one argued about drinking them. Lord Nash swallowed his while watching the Duke, then took the empty vial from G6 when she finished hers and handed both back to Lady Sienna.
G6 let him.
Behind the Duchess, Josh could apparently contain himself no longer.
"Father was very good."
Marquess Henry looked briefly grateful.
"He made the big crossing cuts, and then Count Viremont and Lady Reise—"
"Thank you," Marquess Henry said.
"But I haven't finished."
"We noticed."
Charlene pressed her lips together. Her father looked away, unsuccessfully concealing the beginning of a smile.
The Duke saw it.
Count Viremont's smile disappeared.
G6 lowered her head. The movement hid the small, treacherous pull at the corner of her mouth.
Idiots. All of them.
The Duchess caught the expression. For a moment her own face softened, though the condition of the hill remained far too visible for anyone to mistake that for forgiveness.
"Tomorrow," she said, "our relatives will gather for Veneration. Today, I would like to get you through lunch without losing another part of the estate."
Nobody offered an objection.
"Back to the manor," the Duke ordered. "All of you. We will discuss the repairs there."
The line began moving with remarkable obedience.
Lord Ray reached for his sword. G6 returned it hilt-first, and he checked the blade before sheathing it. Lord Ron leaned close enough to whisper.
"Worth it?"
She looked at the dust in his hair, the dirt on Lady Sienna's skirt, and the two older men walking ahead with their shoulders unusually straight beneath the Duke's attention.
Count Viremont did not look back. Whatever he had noticed remained with him.
G6 fell into step beside her brothers.
"Ask me after lunch."
Lord Ron turned his face away to hide a grin.
I'll let you keep that stupid grin.
Just this once.
— To Be Continued… —