Mastering Illusions

1

While the knock comes with no noise preceding it, I can't say it's not expected. Despite the sun still being asleep, it's become part of the new normal that followed my victory in the Contest of Champions, and I had no choice but to accept it.

I'm lying on the cold floor of my room, black tunic cast to the side. But despite the cool floor on my back, I'm still sweating. My insomnia's been getting worse ever since I got back from the Contest, my restlessness preventing me from getting much sleep.

So when the knock comes, I'm fully awake and rise to answer the door, knowing before I open it who will be standing there. Dressed in her normal dark jacket over her sparring tunics, Veers gives me a semi-sheepish smile as I open the door. She lifts an eyebrow at seeing I'm only wearing my trousers, my tunic still on the floor where I had tossed it earlier in the night.

"Can't sleep?" I ask, already knowing the answer.

Veers shakes her head. "Wanna fight?"

I cock my head at her and stay silent for a moment. "Let me grab my tunic," I say eventually. Veers nods and I step back inside my room, snatching up my shirt and tugging it back on, securing it with my belt before taking my daggers up and leaving my room.

Veers and I have been doing early morning fights since we got back from the Contest. My mother frowned on it at first, but since both of us sleep very little and we spend the rest of the night pacing or pondering on the past, she accepted it as a coping mechanism.

It's just routine, now. And especially today, when we're hours away from starting the Champion Tour.

We walk down the old corridor and exit into the gardens, winding our way down to the fighting arena. Dawn isn't far off and it's still dark out, the air cold. I take a deep breath, relaxing as the coldness washes over my body and continues to cool my body temperature.

I enjoy my mornings with Veers for this reason. Not that I don't enjoy her company – I do. It's just that our friendship was formed under such strange and slightly awkward to look back upon circumstances, lending me some hesitation as our relationship progresses.

What began as a friendship, an alliance, was quickly turned into a romance that never was completely real, on either side. Both of us liked the other, but the whole couple thing grew old quickly after the conclusion of the Contest and we drifted away from that. So now Veers and I have returned to just being friends, although everyone outside of my family still believes we're a couple.

Reaching the fighting arena, Veers and I enter, walking on the hard packed sand. At this time of morning, the arena is empty. I prefer it empty; it means no one to watch us and judge us about our unorthodox "relationship."

I take up a spear from the weapons rack and take a few practice jabs at empty air. Veers eyes the weapons, like she does every morning, and runs her hands over the traditional styles, swords and spears and shields. But she doesn't select one and I know it will be hand to hand today, so my spear goes back on the rack.

We move into the center of the arena, circling around each other as we prepare to duel. Our eyes are locked, and the corner of her mouth twitches up into a slight grin. I know she loves this time of the day.

Then we begin.

Veers throws the first punch, moving forward as I deflect her first blow, knocking her arm down and to the side as I step closer to her, within her reach. Each of us move swiftly, throwing punches and launching kicks and each trying to get the upper hand over the other. It is so similar to what I did every day before the Contest, so close to it it's like I taste it every single morning.