Girl of Dark Flames | DISCONTINUED

Thirteen: Dark Silence

I pursed my lips at that and held the swords with a relaxed wrist. My veins were wound up tight and my fingers were tired from squeezing so much around the hilts. More cuts and slashes and jabs and arcs with the swords in blinding flashes of starlight reflecting from the silver. Each of them deflected, except for a single skim of my blade against Ezra's shoulder, a single touch before it was thrust to the side by his longsword.

"That's three minutes," he called out and I nearly collapsed to the ground in a relieved heap. I braced my elbows on my knees, panting and pushing a sweaty swath of hair out of my eyes.
"You've improved a lot."

I smiled tiredly in acknowledgement.

"...but you need a lot of improvement as well. Warriors in Ealyndris are much better trained than I am ― trained since birth, skills constantly honed. I...don't want to bring you down, but at this rate, you won't be able to survive by yourself. Your magic is strong, but you'll have to keep a low profile."

I sat down on the ground with my knees in front of me and thought for a moment. Something was still bothering me. "Does everyone expect me to defeat her?"

He blinked. "No, they don't expect you to..."

I tore my eyes from his gaze. "But they still expect me to try."

"It's up to you. You can keep a low profile and stay out of her sight. It isn't your world. It isn't your responsibility."

But it was, wasn't it? It was my world and it was my responsibility. She was my mother. And I would never know if she would discover that her own daughter was in the same world as her. I would never know. I didn't want to live out the rest of my life trapped in a world that I barely knew a thing about, alone and with nothing. Especially while running from a woman that I didn't know.

"Then whose responsibility is it?" The warriors of that world did not ask for it. Neither did the kings and queens whose power had long since been hewn. And certainly the people did not call upon a sorceress to make herself their queen.

There was silence from Ezra. "It isn't your responsibility, regardless. You can stay low and maybe the portal will open again."

We both knew that wouldn't work.

But I lied to myself anyway. I didn't have the energy to face the truth.

―

We sparred for exactly twenty-eight minutes more, me gasping for breath in between each strike and him barely breaking a sweat. I could tell that Ezra was trying to be positive in that wrapped-up, closed-in way of keeping things hidden.

"How are things going?" I wiped my forehead and aired out the back of my shirt as we walked together back from the Atrium along the dusty trail.

"It's...going." A slight grin. "Almost forgot ― Kira and Helen said that they would meet us tomorrow for training...or rather, tomorrow night."

That was new. "Magic or no?"

A shrug and his coppery brown eyes flickering in the night. "Maybe, maybe not."

"Do you train with Helen and Kira?"

"I used to quite a bit. Then things...fell out of hand and Helen no longer showed up."

That was probably also around the time that Kira and Ezra grew closer.

He slid me what could pass for a smile. "Your training is going well, I swear it, no matter how bad you think you're doing. I've seen many people, and you've progressed in leaps and strides."