Scarlet Soul

Chapter 8: Farewell

She could not ask him now, could she? Faerendal went as far as dropping the topic to allow her to confront the boy about the name without him hearing it- after all, if he heard the boy's natural name Edrich would have been in even greater danger than the one he was facing now.

The two men left for the same place they have trained in the previous day and Kayla was surprised that the boy did not object given how strained his muscles were. This time, although she was left alone, she could not afford to waste time. She will face the boy when he returns, she decided, and now she must do her best just like him.

Kayla was no master when it came to combat but she was not bad no matter how you looked at it- the advantage of her empowered body was not all there was to it. Kayla had went through three years of grueling training- an attempt to make her strong enough to protect herself against the grown vampires (that will certainly come after her once the secret of her blood is revealed). She never stopped training, even after being separated from her master, which made that day's training this much easier.

Kayla's weapon of choice would have been a bow but she did not have one at the moment so she settled on the sword she looted from the man Edrich killed. The hilt did not fit comfortably in her small hand but she was determined enough to overlook this issue and leave the house with the blade in hand.

It felt so foreign that she delayed the training session by a whole hour just to warm up- she lifted her arm and started moving the sword backwards and forward from the wrist. She was left handed so she had an advantage against unsuspecting enemies believing that her dominant hand was her right. Kayla made sure to warm up both of them so that they will both be capable of wielding the sword.

When she was done, her arms were aching and begging for relief but she was not going to grant herself said pleasure- she began training using the familiar pattern she was taught as a child. She swirled and turned, fighting an imaginary foe and cutting through trees that were too thin for her liking. You'd think that a girl as graceful as her would make the movements seem like a dance of sorts but that was absolutely not the case- Kayla was making so many useless movements that she herself could spot some of them. All her elegance was gone the moment she picked up a sword and wielded the blade the way she was taught to.

She was never any good with weapons that were too close-ranged. Kayla loved the art of archery and she enjoyed using a spear, too, but swords and knives have always been her worst enemy. She avoided practicing those whenever she could and at some point her tutor gave up on motivating her to learn the arts behind them properly.

There was not much to do, actually. There was no one who would correct her so the only thing she could do was exert her body on a daily basis to at least build up some endurance. Training for one day would bear no fruit- it'd be a mere waste of time really, and she did have better things to do if she was going to drop it too soon.

While the vampire did her best in her own way, Edrich went through the same training that he faced the previous day. He was, of course, getting frustrated- both by the fact that the training had nothing to do with magic and by the way Faerendal ignored him sometimes. It was as clear as day that something happened between him and the vampire that was related to Edrich somehow and it was probably not something he'd like to hear.

He returned to the house conscious this time. He was as exhausted as he was yesterday but he somehow held on to reality for just a little longer so that he could reach the house safely without burdening Faerendal any more than he already had. They did a lot of meditation this time: an attempt to ease the burden on his damaged regeneration system. Kayla had already hunted down a deer for dinner and the wizard began making the meal without delay. Kayla spoke to the boy about the day's occurrences and her amusing experiences and complained about the aching of her arms.