Discordant Note | TBATE

Chapter 10: Training

Lady Dawn hummed. "Very well," she replied. "And once you are within the depths of this forest, I will lend my aid in your training," she said, looking me up and down. "You are pitiful as you are, Contractor."

I winced but didn't deny the phoenix's statement. I hadn't dared to hope that she would help me: the woman had been pretty hands-off with my new life so far. But being trained by an asura could go a long way in helping me improve as a warrior, as that was what I would have to be.

A familiar anger began to rise in my stomach as I remembered why I had bargained with the phoenix in the first place. Blood Joan had eradicated the remnants of Toren's family, and decades later kicked their fallen foes while they were in their darkest days. Like a child breaking his toys because they weren't 'fun' anymore. The recent dream had brought those emotions back to the forefront painfully.

I exhaled slowly, envisioning my anger leaving with that breath. It helped somewhat; brought me back to a more stable state of mind. Lady Dawn lingered, sensing that I had more questions. "Why do you not communicate over our mental tether?" I asked, sensing the bond I shared with the phoenix. But all I could feel in my mind was that the bond existed: no emotions or thoughts traveled over. "It seems really convenient. I've never had any sort of telepathy before."

Lady Dawn's face darkened perceptibly. "I will not touch your mind, nor any others," she said with iron. "No matter the benefits."

I opened my mouth, then closed it. Lady Dawn had expressed hatred of mind-altering mana arts. I could guess why: Agrona's tried and true tactic of warping people's minds with his runes and magic made me shiver to read. But that was when this was all fiction. Now, in reality?

What had this woman experienced? I knew she had been imprisoned by Agrona an unknown number of years before the main story of The Beginning After the End began. And now that Toren's memories had merged with my own, practically everything I knew about Alacrya from the novels lined up with what Toren had experienced.

Except for the existence of Lady Dawn. I didn't know what she had been through; not exactly. But it was certainly hell.

"Okay," I said softly. Then another thought crossed my mind; something I was hesitant to ask. But needed to, desperately. Everything I had known had been ripped from me; everything I thought to be truth flipped on its head. And it all centered around one fundamental question. I rolled my tongue around in my mouth, anxiety building. I tapped my fingers on my leg. "I need to know," I said, pushing out the words that burned as I spoke them. "How am I in this world? What brought me here?"

When I met the phoenix's eyes, I was surprised that I was able to read them. For all that they were blazing pits of fire, I could decipher her expression changing; the twin suns warning me of the answer. They were reluctant to give it, for a reason I couldn't understand.

Fear pooled in my gut then. I had asked the question on the spur of the moment, without thought or contemplation. I wasn't afraid of not getting an answer. No, I realized. I suspected parts of the answer. I was afraid to get it; to have my inklings of suspicion confirmed.

Lady Dawn was silent for a long, long moment. "Why, Contractor, do you know so much of this world and its future?" she said in turn, an answer unto itself. Her eyes of inferno seemed to dim under the weight of knowledge.

I clenched my eyes shut, my anxiety ratcheting up several notches. Lady Dawn didn't expect me to answer that question, but it had implications. Whatever brought me to this world would have an answer equal in weight to how I knew of this world's impending wars and crises.

I feared that answer more than ever before.

—

I walked into the weapons shop feeling more than a little nervous. I was in West Fiachra now, the middle-class district. My clothes were clean, but they were still of noticeably lower quality than the average pedestrian. Standing out so blatantly unnerved me: Norgan's murderer had promised that the masked brat would exact retribution on me soon.