Hell Hath No Fury - Book One

A Secret Exposed

"Tuni wants to train me. She thinks I would be good as a healer," Ava boasted, "Can I?"

"What's wrong with being a cabin girl? Too much fun? Or is that it's just so much work," Theo teased and walked over to the desk, "What if you don't like it?"

"Liking it won't be the problem. Actually being good at it will be," Ava made fun of herself, "Couldn't I just go back to being a cabin girl?"

"Sure if the spot isn't filled by then. There is a waiting list of people itching for the job," Theo laughed at her joke, and Ava couldn't help but join in. Theo beamed, "What are you doing tonight? Wanna go watch me test out some new weapons I got in Undis?"

Theo held out her hand and Ava took it with a cheeky smile. If Theo went to the training room, it meant Ava would get a lesson or two in a cool weapon. Over the past suns since she had been seeing Theo again nightly, they had spent quite a long time in the training room. Ava mostly sat on the side and watched as Theo repeated perfect moves over and over, obsessing over nonexistent flaws. Ava didn't mind, most times she was too preoccupied with watching Theo move about the room, swift and deft with most weapons she chose. Every once in awhile Theo would let Ava try a move.

Between the small exercises, Theo taught her and the almost daily training, she was getting good at handling her sword but it wasn't enough. Ava wanted to train the way Theo did in the mornings, the way she saw them train when Theo got injured. High stakes. More than training, Ava wanted nothing more than to be on the vanguard. She wasn't trying to inflate her ego but with only about a cycle of training, she had advanced far more than most girls on the ship. They arrived at the training room and Ava took her favorite spot. It was the corner by the maces and flails, she dragged the only chair in the room over to it and sat down.

Theo slowly paced around the room, arms behind her back, looking at the selection in front of her, all new and straight from the shops at Undis. Theo always trained with two weapons, her falchion, and another random weapon; so there was always variety in her training. When Ava had asked her why, there was a pretty logical explanation. In case her weapon fell or was lost in battle, she would be ready to adapt to whatever weapons she found discarded. Theo finally settled on a larger blade than her falchion, Ava wasn't sure of the name of it even though she had been told before.

She watched as Theo attacked the straw dummy, pieces of hay flying out of it on strong hits. Ava watched from her curled up position on the chair, waiting to find the guts to bring up being on the vanguard again. While Theo trained and Ava watched, all Ava was able to think about was being trained by Theo; bred into the fiercest fighter the Scorned Woman had ever seen. She wanted to ask so bad but her fear of rejection kept her from doing so. Every time Ava so much as breathed a word about vanguard or personal training it was immediately shut down.

Theo kept telling her that she needed to train to be on the vanguard, she needed to study the art of combat before a position of being a fighter was even considered. But Ava got shot down every time she tried to bring up training too. She would ask to be on the vanguard, Theo would say she needed to train. She would ask to train and Theo would tell her she wasn't ready or it was too risky at the time. Ava was starting to suspect Theo had other reasons for keeping her off the vanguard, she believed the problem to be a lack of faith in Ava's ability to perform. Theo was too nice to say it but Ava had a feeling her constant failure at other jobs had ruined her chances of ever being a fighter.

Every time they would come down to the room and Ava watched Theo train, the cogs in Ava's head would turn. She was thinking of the perfect way to bring it up again, one that wouldn't get her rejected. For a few suns, a small voice was nagging her. It was telling her to use the weapon in her arsenal. Ava had leverage, or at least she thought. Throughout her time with Theo she had begun to notice small things, all of them adding up to an accusation that she needed to be careful with. She was sure of it, having already done her own tests to prove her theory, but she needed to be cautious about how Theo would react. Ava tapped her finger against her leg anxiously, eyes following Theo's fluid movements.