Eliona's War 2: Veiled Healer

Chapter 60

Severance lifted his head, and looked. The ruined building that had been designated as his "target" had never seemed so far away. He'd never reach it. Not like this.

But he took an unsteady step forward anyway. Rasin hadn't stopped until he was dead. So neither would he.

***

Time Elapsed: 2:19:24

Severance spun around the tree, his fans slicing into the bark in quick slashes. The trunk had been marked with small white circles meant to represent targets. He hit two of them before instincts twinged and he leapt back.

A small throwing blade, similar to Batin's, struck the tree and embedded itself in one of the targets.

He turned and gave Dhin a dark look. "You trying to hit me?"

He'd already had his share of that with Batin. He didn't need that from Dhin.

Dhin flashed a mischievous smile. "Just making sure you were paying attention. Now, let's see how you did."

He came over to the tree and took a look at the targets. "Well, your accuracy is pretty good, but these cuts are shallow. You'll cut unprotected flesh, but you're not getting through armor."

"But if I were in Sky Dance-"

"You're not always going to be in Sky Dance," Dhin interrupted. He grabbed the knife and tugged it free. "You might not have time to use a Dance, or maybe you're in the other one for healing. You need to learn how to properly fight in any situation. Here."

He offered the knife, hilt first. A little skeptically, Severance shifted his fans to one hand, then gingerly took the knife. His mind flashed back hot sands and broken fingers, and he grimaced. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

"Look at it, for one thing." Dhin sounded a bit exasperated. He pointed at the blade of the knife. "This one has a tapered edge, and is meant more for stabbing than cutting. It's a lot like your fans in their closed state, right?"

Yes, Severance could see the similarities. When closed, the tips of his fans lined up into a compact layered blade a few inches long. Each layer was perfectly aligned and set snugly together. At a glance, he might as well have been holding a knife with a long, oddly shaped handle.

"Okay," he said. "But I knew that. I already stabbed some things in Ascendence with them like this."

"I'm impressed, Twiggy!" Dhin clapped him on the arm. "That's very good! Then let me show you some fun techniques."

The smile he had was a little too wide for Severance's comfort, and he quickly learned why.

A few minutes later, he stared at a new target, made out of an old sack of straw sitting on a pole. He felt a little green. "Is this the first thing you teach the kids?"

"No, it's the second thing," Dhin quipped. "First, they learn how to tackle intruders, and then they learn how to slit their throats. Now come one, stop being a baby. If the throat is unprotected, it's one of several targets you can go for. And since it happens to be the most obvious, we're starting there."

Severance stared at the sack. He imagined it as a person. That was a mistake, because it only made him feel ill. How had it come to this point, he wondered, where he was learning how to kill people?

He was on a dark, twisted path, and it was frightening to think of where it might lead him.

***

Time Elapsed: 03:01:47

"How are you doing?"

It was merely a pleasantry, Severance suspected, but to him, it was a loaded question that he wasn't sure that he dared to answer. He didn't know how he was doing. His insides were all twisted up into a confusing mix of emotion and thoughts, and to untangle them would require monumental effort.