With our training stepped up in each session, the remaining week and a half go by in a blur of activity. I wake the Thursday morning before our second Performance Review to insistent yet hushed knocking at our door. Caither rolls over and stuffs her head under her pillows when I get up to answer it.
Wick, Eveia, and Kaz are there.
"Is it time to work out already?" I yawn. From what I can tell, it's still dark outside.
Kaz shakes his head, his eyes lit up with excitement. "The trainers are fighting for placement in choosing their recruits this morning. Shark told me we could watch. He's fighting Kiira right now."
I pull on a hooded sweatshirt and follow them down to Shark's gym, fumbling my hair into a hurried ponytail as we go.
Briar and Hejae are squared off when we arrive, each holding one of those fighting sticks they had the previous mornings during their work out. Kiira sits off to one side of the bleachers, her arms and legs crossed, looking pleased with herself.
Shark is scowling in his seat at the other side, slumped a little. Kaz leads the way and we sit behind Shark.
"Did Kiira hand your ass to you?" Kaz claps Shark's shoulder as he passes behind him.
"You try fighting your Potential and winning without hurting her." He grumbles a little more under his breath.
I'm surprised; I didn't know Shark and Kiira were together. Kaz doesn't seem too taken aback, though. Judging from the way he interacts with Shark, they seem pretty close, so this must not be news to him.
"I wouldn't have let her win," he says. "She would've had to work for it."
"Psh, I would!" Wick leans back and drapes an arm casually around Eveia, leaning it against the bleacher seats behind them. "Kiira's almost as scary as Eveia!"
Eveia punches him lightly. "You wouldn't have to let me win."
They seem a little more comfortable with being associated "together" now that everyone has stopped teasing Eveia. Their relationship is sweet, in a playful way.
I wonder if that isn't more important than the passion the Viry encourage. And, come to think of it, the light that enters Eveia's eyes when Wick sits a little closer than necessary, or the way Wick looks at Eveia when he thinks no one sees him—I don't think I've seen passion like that the few times I've been surrounded by Viry.
I wonder briefly if Milo had ever looked at me that way.
Then there's a wooden smack and one of the sticks drops to the floor. I refocus my attention to see Briar holding his right arm, Hejae grinning. Briar bends to pick up his stick in his left hand. It's obvious Hejae has a major advantage now: two hands securely on the stick, while Briar's grip is very loose with his right hand.
"You and I both know she belongs with me," Hejae says.
I wonder if he means me.
"Yeah, and yet when given the choice, she picked my floor." Briar swings his stick at Hejae, who jumps backwards out of the way.
"This is going on forever." Shark rubs his hands over his face. "Hurry up and beat him, Briar, so I can take third place."
Hejae's grin widens. "Yeah, come on, Briar. You're the weapons master. Beat me already." He glances our direction and raises his eyebrows.
It's like he's telling me I can be skilled in weapons and still not choose the path of Weapons Master. Like Hejae.
The slight lapse in attention costs him, though. Briar jabs the end of his stick into Hejae's abdomen. He swings the stick again while Hejae is doubled over, but Hejae manages to dodge it and brings his own up to catch Briar under the chin, hard enough to break skin.
"Finally," Shark mutters. Then he calls, "That's one!"
"Yeah, yeah." Briar backs of and wipes the blood from his chin.
Hejae advances. Briar waits a beat, then swings the stick behind Hejae, catching him behind the knees and knocking him to the floor. Hejae recovers immediately, using the momentum to roll himself over and pull the stick with him, smashing it into the side of Briar's head.
Briar crumples. I stand up. Hejae swears and crawls over to Briar; Shark has already left his seat, and Kiira is making her way over, too. She pulls a bracelet from her wrist and opens a cylindrical charm. When she waves it under Briar's nose, I realize it must be the smelling salts. He rouses.
"What just happened?" He puts a hand to his head.
"Damn it, dude. We got beat by a couple of girls," Shark says. Kiira slams her elbow into his chest.
Hejae stands up, arms crossed. "Say what you like. I got Nadia." He winks at me when he turns before swaggering out the doors.
"Kiira, please take Nadia first," Shark says through wheezes. I wonder if he knows we can hear them. "Hejae's a kunder."
I'm pretty sure that's a harsher phrase than "donkey"; Eveia confirms this when she giggles.
Kiira raises an eyebrow at Shark. "I've already got my first choice."
Briar sits up slowly. "Hejae was right; she could be valuable to the Kuzabn if he teaches her everything he knows." He looks over at us then, eyes locking on mine. There's an apology in his, as if he let me down somehow. I lift a corner of my lips in a smile, hoping he understands it's okay.
"Well aren't you Ms. Popular?" Eveia waits until we've left the auditorium before laying into me. "I want her, no I want her. No, me!"
"Hejae said something when I first got here, about never forgetting where I came from. Maybe he wants to train me because I'm Viry."
Kaz huffs a short laugh. When I look at him, I'm pretty sure he's just finished rolling his eyes.
"What?"
He takes a deep breath, a sarcastic smile pulling his lips, then exhales. "Nothing."
I look at Wick and Eveia, who both shrug. They look like they understand Kaz, but don't want to share. Maybe I'm just paranoid.
Breakfast is awkwardly quiet. I can feel the tension between all of us, but I don't know how to fix it. I'm pretty confident it's my fault, or as much my fault as it can be that both Hejae and Briar want me on their teams.
*
The tension follows me to the double morning session of combined weapons and force. Eveia and Kaz are also in my group this session. Briar sits on a table piled high with the sticks he and Hejae had used. His right eye is smudged with dark shadows around it, and the cut on his chin stands out against his pale skin.
Shark, I hadn't realized earlier, has a cut on his cheek, and his nose is red, some crusted blood still clinging to his upper lip. Some of those around us whisper about their appearances, wondering if Briar and Shark got in a fight. I feel a little closer to Eveia and Kaz, bonded by our knowledge of the real events. Eveia grins at me, which makes me feel even better.
They pass out the "Bo staffs" and go over techniques for handling them. Though they seem pretty self-explanatory, Shark has us practice spinning them, to get comfortable with their momentum and range of motion. Then he lets us attack our dummies. Briar stays seated for a lot of the first half, probably still a little disoriented.
The second half of morning session, we're divided into pairs, one from Briar's floor paired with one from Shark's. I'm relieved when I get partnered with Eveia, but part of me wishes I were paired with Kaz. There's still a touch of sarcasm behind his expression when he looks at me, and I don't understand why. I'm sure a good beating would knock the answer out of him
Shark hands us each a stick similar to the ones we've been training with, except these have large foam pads wrapped around the ends.
"We learned this morning it's probably not a good idea to let you all have at it with the real things just yet." Shark claps Briar on the back, making him grimace. "We don't want any dead bodies, during training at least."
He releases us to face off with our partners. I don't really want to hit Eveia after seeing what can happen this morning, but then she grins at me, a wicked smile that makes me reconsider my reservations.
The foam hits me in the side of the head, knocking me a few stuttered steps to the right. I'm relieved to find it doesn't hurt too much, thanks to the pillows on the ends. I swing mine at her arm, laughing at the dull fwump sound. She laughs, too, and jabs at my torso. I dodge and swing around, coming up behind her and hitting her in the kidneys.
I glance over and see Briar watching us, nodding with approval. Eveia tries Briar's move from earlier, knocking my feet from under me. I catch myself on the wooden floor with my elbows, certain they'll bruise by tomorrow. Eveia comes to my side and hacks the foam into my stomach as if swinging an axe for firewood. Then she drops the stick and thrusts both fists in the air, victorious.
In our final floor meeting after lunch, Briar doesn't give us much of a speech like Hejae did. He explains that tomorrow will be similar to the first Review, except that we will have a written exam on survival techniques, and that the weapons and force aspect will be combined. Rather than the Tap Out, the fights will go to Second Blood drawn. I wonder if we'll be using the Bo staffs tomorrow, like the instructors had.
Then Briar gives us some disconcerting news. "Because your training has become more specialized, your skills will be matched and judged most closely to how those with similar training fare. Therefore, you will be fighting someone in this room."
He passes out slips of paper. "This has your individual slots for the obstacle course and Second Blood, as well as the name of your partner for the fight. Good luck, everyone."
I read the name on my paper, my stomach sinking. When I look up, Caither is staring at me.
I don't need to ask whose name she got.
I know her paper says Nadia JustNadia.
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Weeeeell, at least now Nadia can take her aggression out on Cather?
Short chappy, sorry!
Til next time,
x zuz