"You need to hit it harder each time. You are building your endurance and strength at the same time; it's not going to be easy," Melani chided, her arms crossed as she leaned against the doorway of the training area.
The moon hung high in the sky over the school's training grounds. Melani was the only instructor who had truly taken on a teaching role for me. As another general who had closely worked with my father, she felt it was her duty to his legacy to help me in any way she could. Melani wasn't soft with me, but she was someone who motivated me to do better every day, even after graduation. It's been almost six years since I graduated from school, and she still trains with me every day.
"You try 200 punches that build in succession and get back to me" I huffed, sweat beading on my forehead, my hair clinging in random fashion.
Melani lifted an eyebrow, "Is that a challenge?"
Icy fear halted me mid-swing. Swallowing it down, I turned to face Melani. Her platinum hair and piercing blue eyes were intimidating. She also had muscles look like they ripple with every step, but her curves are still so feminine..She looks like one of the women in the entertainment guild who men pay just to talk to. I am completely jealous and aspire to be like her when I get older. Her age shows a bit in the corners of her eyes from the ghosts of many smiles. Now, she's more of a stern woman since her combat injury, but she has a soft spot for me. At least, I hope she does.
Giving my best glare into Melani's scrutinizing eyes, I began, "I suppose it i-" A swift kick interrupted any further discussion, heading straight for my temple. I barely managed to duck out of the way.
"Hey!" I started to whine, sending a counter swing for Melani's gut. However, my hand got wrenched away as Melani grabbed it and took me for a journey into the air. I flipped over but miraculously landed on my feet.
"You asked for this," Melani smirked.
I huffed and swept my leg around to kick Melani's leg out from under her, but the move left me off balance. Shit. Eyes wide, I watched as Melani vaulted at me, feet first. I leapt and somersaulted out of the way. Melani always bitches about somersault dodges as being lazy because 'you might as well do a back handspring' but.. desperate times.
"LAZY!" Melani growled and charged at me again.
Taking a second to prepare myself. I prepared to swing on Melani's left side. She favored it from her injury in combat. Once she was close enough, I shot out, striking with a left hook, my only hope of contact. Melani anticipated it at the very last second, but not quite fast enough. My fist connected, but only enough to swipe across the tip of Melani's already very bent-up nose.
"Good job taking advantage of my weaknesses-but I promise you'll find no others" Melani said, nodding in approval as she began to dab the slight amount of blood leaking out of her left nostril.
Suddenly giddy, I let out a quick laugh. Melani raised an eyebrow.
"Did you not realize that was my FIRST time making you bleed? For once! Maybe you're getting sloppy, old lady" I teased.
"I'm just a little tired today" Melani gritted out as she started to charge once again.
In my excitement, I had lost focus and found myself late dodging a kick directly to my shin. Fuck. I keeled over, straight into Melani's waiting knee.
"YIELD!" Melani yelled, victory ebbing from each heavy breath she took.
I twisted out of her arms, shin throbbing, and managed to get back into my stance.
"No thanks" I grunted, wiping sweat from my brow.
Melani smiled and charged again. We spent the better part of an hour attacking and dodging until we both were out of breath. I managed a few more connections (no blood, though), maybe Melani WAS tired.. But either way, I had taken a way bigger beating.
"Come with me- let's get you cleaned up," Melani said as she started picking up her things and making the trek back to her home.
Inside Melani's house is so cozy and warm, in stark contrast with her stern personality. She has a cylindrical home, much like everyone else's in the faction. Because she was a general before she became a teacher, her house is way upgraded per the faction standards. She has three floors of her cylinder home, making her house look like an old castle tower from the books I've found in the city ruins. The first floor is the only one I've ever been in- I've always been curious about the rest but I never dare to ask her about it. The entrance has an area for shoes and boots, and immediately next to it is a room that has green and yellow plushy cushions to sit on next to a small wooden table. There's a kitchen area with a woodstove on the opposite side of the entrance, and a bathroom on the right. Shelves with plants, books, and trinkets littered the walls of the main floor, creating an aroma of wood and eucalyptus.
"Go clean yourself up and I'll brew up some mint tea" Melani said, pointing to the bathroom.
"What? You don't want me stinking up your kitchen?" I feigned wide, surprised eyes. She narrowed her blue daggers at me.
"Hurry up before I change my mind and kick you onto the street." She turned away and got to work cutting fresh mint from her herb bin.
Chuckling to myself, I walked into the bathroom. Anything was more luxurious than our inlet in Safe Haven, but because of Melani's prestige, this was even more so.The bathroom has marble flooring, sleek black cabinets, a giant mirror, and an actual toilet that flushes. The best part? Running water– Both hot AND cold. I turn on the shower faucet to the hottest it can go, and begin undressing. Stepping into the water was amazing until it ran over my new wounds. Hissing, I take a look at some of my newest cuts and bruises. The kick I took in the shin is already black all the way up to my knee. My temple is splotchy red and black from my ear to part of the left side of my forehead. My bottom lip is split, making it bigger than it usually is. Luckily, there's no new bends in my nose- it's just a little crooked from old beatings I took as a child. Hopefully all the scars made it more resilient and resistant to breaks but hopefully I'm fast enough that I never have to find out.
The kids at school used to beat me up regularly, until Melani realized who I was and started teaching me to fight. The beatings stopped around the age of 13, when I broke three kids' noses in one session. There was the occasional bully gunning for me every once in a while, but after my Karma came in people pretty much just ignored me. What I had thought was the end of the world ended up being a bit of a blessing.
After my shower, I take my time brushing out my hair. It's long, almost reaching my hips, but not quite there. I never really know what to do with it, so I just put it in a braid along one side. Exiting the bathroom, I found Melani already sitting on a cushion next to the table. Taking my tea, I started fixing it up with milk and honey. Melani eyed me, biting her cheek—a tell that she wanted to say something
"Which is it this time? That I dishonor the tea that you made by adding my fixings or that it's time for me to get a real job?" I smirked at her.
"I have learned now that you prefer your tea ruined." She glanced at me with narrowed eyes. "When are you going to get a real job with the faction, hm? Join in with the people here. You're not doing yourself any favors by staying at Safe Haven and doing your petty criminal work. Join one of the guilds! I can put in a good word for you and you could have your pick." She gazed at me, fierce but hopeful.
I almost rolled my eyes, but I know that her constant picking at this topic was because of concern. It's in times like these that I know she's fond of me.
"The guilds didn't care when I was still a child, your pupil I might mention, who begged to shadow or intern- not to mention my mother would throw a fit. The guilds didn't even want me to work for free, I can't imagine what they would do if I actually worked there. The entertainment guild would give me a position as a fool if I was lucky, the farming guild would make me clean the poop my entire life even though you're supposed to move up... The merchants? They would probably sell me as a slave in exchange for a single vanilla bean."
"At least vanilla beans are very delicious." Melani spat back, but her eyes told me she was understanding. "I've always wondered why your mother didn't fight harder for you to have a better life but from what I can see she's too busy to really fight for herself," Melani continued.
Anger seared down my chest and climbed up my throat, hot and ready. I opened my mouth, and instead of ripping into Melani, I took a breath. She doesn't understand. Count to ten.
"She's doing the best she can after what happened. I'm surprised she functions at all" I reply, taking care to not sound defensive.
I definitely think that when my mother was first facing the faction after my father died that she could have done more, but how could she have? With the grief of losing her husband that she left her entire life behind would be enormous. Then to find out that you were going to be having his baby, so you were going to be a single mother, AND you get yanked around and treated so carelessly? Wanting to crawl back to the faction would be like wanting to rub your face on a cheese grater.
"Yes she is.. You've grown up to have the same fierceness as your father had. Please look into the other guilds. You can't know if you are making the right decision avoiding them if you don't try."
There are many options for guilds, of course. The manufacturing guilds that oversee the plumbing, homes, travel routes and anything else that you might think would need to be built with sweat and precision. There's also the childcare guild that oversees the schools, teachers, and infants for members of other guilds. There are even more guilds still, but I don't think about them too much.
"I'll look into them and give them the same benefit they gave me, but, for now my more illicit activities are helping my cup to floweth over," I winked.
Melani scowled, but she didn't have the full understanding of why being in a guild would be so problematic. My mother would be pissed, for one, but more importantly it would be terribly hard to hide my third gift, and any notice of it would give the faction the easiest way to cut my life short. It was easier to live like my mother- on the outskirts of the faction's rules. I made a good living doing it, too.
Melani's gaze was hard "I know the struggles that you have endured but it's not an excuse to not try" she said with finality.
I understand her feelings about my work. She is very much a rule-oriented person, but she does bend them a bit, usually for me. She's not supposed to use the training grounds with me, which is why we go so late at night AND she's also obligated to tattle to the council about my illicit dealings, but she hasn't. She definitely loves me.
Knowing that there was nothing else to say on the subject for this evening, we sat in comfortable silence for a while. Sipping our tea, listening to the rain pattering on her windows.
After a while, she looked up at me. "I want to make sure you're honing for your gifts, not just your physical ones. I know your Karma doesn't need any work, but how is your telekinesis? Have you added more pieces to your building yet?"
I have been rebuilding a skyscraper that had crumbled during The Fall. We both agreed it was for the best that my gift doesn't decrease in strength from lack of use, so I use my sight to find pieces of rubble from great distances and my telekinesis to put them together. Two birds, one stone. Melani doesn't know for sure about my Sight, but I have a feeling she suspects. I will never confirm it for her of my own volition- I can't trust an ex-general that much.
"10 stories so far," I smiled "it gets harder with each piece I add but I gradually get used to the constant drain. I'm curious when my powers will fail and the building crumbles back to what it was. I braved walking through it the other day to try and look at the layout that our ancestors had created, but it just seems like big rooms with huge stairways."
Melani nodded, pondering what I was saying. My powers used to fail a lot when I was first discovering them. I'd use too much and run out of juice- kind of like lifting weights, where you increase your weight or reps until you physically cannot continue, magic can hit a wall and fail as well. It can sometimes take up to two weeks for your powers to come back after failing, but I've never had to wait that long. Thank the gods.
"I hope because you're building just a little at a time that you don't ever fail. Your powers should only build... I fear the day when you don't have to hold up that building anymore and someone pisses you off. The entire faction would fall off the mountain," she winked.
"At first, I didn't realize how big the building was going to be. Now, I'm grateful for the slight tug on my power. It feels like progress. It's harder the further away I am, the last time I went to the merchant's market by the sea was when it was only five stories tall. I'm nervous to go again." I shuddered. I tried to put up warning signs to stay out of the building, but an unknowing traveler entering during a time when my powers fail is a big fear.
"You ought to try heading that way before it gets too much bigger. At least go halfway, through the poverty housing. Not tomorrow, though. Tomorrow, everyone has to go to the top of the mountain for the return ceremony."
I froze. I had forgotten that the war guild recruits from my class would be returning from their two year tour. Everyone had to go to the ceremony, and the reception afterwards was always a huge celebration. I've been doing the same schedule every day and the time has just blurred together. What day is it even?
"SHIT! I had completely forgotten! I'll have to go to the market tomorrow early in the morning to get Deirde and Sai their gifts!" I got up quickly and started to clean up my dishes.
Melani eyed me, amused at my rushing. She used to scold me when I cursed but now she's realized that I've got a merchant's mouth. She knows as well as I do that there's no way I'm waking up in time to go to the market and make it to the ceremony on time if I don't go to bed soon. Melani stood up, as well, looking a little stiff, doing wonders for my ego.
"Their gift can be your presence. I'm sure they'll be happy for it. I know when I got home, all I could think of were the people I loved and a hot bath" she smiled.
Although I became friends with Deirdre and Sai after graduation, we still had known each other all of our lives. They were never rude to me, they just avoided me, presumably because I am the black sheep of the whole damn faction. The only foreigner who doesn't have a family member working in the guild and a daughter of an ex-torturer who literally tortured or killed some members that were in the guild.. Popularity and inclusion were never meant for me. However, during our 17 year graduation ceremony, I had snuck up on top of a nearby roof to watch the event from a distance. I brought- well, I stole some fire whiskey from the headmaster's office, in exchange for the years of neglect and trauma, as one is owed and allowed to do.. Sai and Deirdre spied me from the celebration below and managed to sneak up on me. When I saw them, I was scared they were going to rat me out- but instead Sai held his hand out, gesturing for the bottle. I passed it to him, and he took a long, greedy pull. Then, he handed it to Deirdre who did the same. The laughs and talks we shared that night were the first experiences I'd had with my peers that felt normal. They are my first, and only, two friends. I'll never know why they came to find me, but I'm lucky they did.
After graduation, they had both enlisted in the War guild and went to school for an additional 4 years to learn strategies, ranks, formations- all the things you would expect a military member would need to know. During that time, they stayed in their childhood faction homes. We spent a lot of time together during those four years. I helped them with flashcards, and they helped me find some fun trinkets in the ravine.
When they graduated from war school, they were required to go on a two-year tour to get battle experience at some of the safer bases. They wrote letters telling me it was mostly grunt work that the more experienced members didn't want to do, like laundry duty or food service. Now that they've been gone for two years, they get to come back for three months before they are assigned to their duty station. I am desperate to spend as much time as I can with them, but I know I would be competing with their family time and I would never want to intrude.
I finished cleaning up the dishes and wiping up any mess I had made in the bathroom getting cleaned up. I would hate to be a bother to Melani after all she has done and continues to do for me.
"That's fine, Kaya. Just leave it, I can take care of my own home after I invite my own guests over. Please, go get some rest." She said, smiling as I gathered my things to get ready to leave. Normally she's much more stern. I wonder if her age is starting to soften her up? She's got to be at least 50 already.
As I was going to walk out the door, Melani stopped me. She looked deep into my eyes. Is she going to hug me?
"If you walk into the ceremony late again like last year, I will send you to your own very special version of hell." She smiled, but it promised vengeance. With that, she pushed me out and slammed the door in my face.
Laughing to myself, I took off back towards Safe Haven. I made my way back to the inlet under the shadows of a late evening. It had to be just a few hours from the first cracks of daylight. I was surprised to see my mother, stoking a crackling fire when I got home.
"Always covered in bruises when you come back so late. Is Melani still beating you that bad?" She laughed.
She looks exhausted, with shadows hanging below her eyes and a slump in her spine. My mother is beautiful but she doesn't take good care of herself. She is tan like I am, but she has raven-black curly hair that falls down her shoulders. Her cloudy gray eyes that usually sparkle are now dull from the effects of the pain she experiences and exhaustion from using her powers almost to failure every day. Her usually sharp cheek bones were puffy from lack of sleep. I tsked at her.
"Go to bed, you look like an old hag" I teased.
She shot me a glare that would have been menacing if she didn't look so haggardly. I meant what I said, even if I said it in light spirits.
"I just feel like I don't get to spend time with you. I know I've always been so busy with my work but you are my daughter and I want to spend time with you" she said with a little motherly edge.
I smiled sadly "have you been waiting for me long?"
"Well I've only been in the house about ten minutes" she said sheepishly.
I laughed, "Well, I guess let's get ready for bed and stay by the fire for a while."
"That sounds wonderful. "
We went to the bathing area and brushed our teeth and then went behind the curtains to change. We dragged our sleeping mats close to the fire and laid down our blankets and pillows. Laying near my mom like this reminds me of when I was a child. Sometimes she would come home late and just crawl right into my blankets with me. Sometimes she would cry when she thought I was sleeping, but most of the time she just held me until she drifted off to sleep.
I used to be a bit bitter towards my mom for leaving me alone so often when I was growing up. As a child, I would go hungry, lack necessities, and face my fears alone for the most part. It wasn't until I got older that I realized that my mom was doing the best she could and that I was proud of the work she was doing. It's basically her redemption arc, going from giving pain to taking pain. I used to dream that when my gifts came in that we would become a mother-daughter duo of healers, but that didn't happen. Instead, I get to show my appreciation by helping to provide for both of our needs, as well as gather any herbs she needs for her tinctures and alchemy.
Her voice cut through the silence.
"I lost him... The man you found in the ravine. He was too far gone when you found him- already infested with whatever ailments managed to fester in his wounds." Her voice was hoarse.
"Did you know him? You said his name was Jax?" I whispered.
"Yes.. he must have heard to come here from my whispers with the Chaos faction. I feel responsible but... I can't take on the burden" she said sadly.
"You did your best to save him after he went to find a better life. In a way, you already had saved him... Can you tell me about him? What was he like?"
She smiled and started with some stories of when they were kids playing in the ponds near their home. I fell asleep somewhere around the stories of her teenage years with the warmth of the fire kissing my face.