Chapter 18:

Chapter 18: Learning Through Practice, Learning Through Loss (Eve)

The Heir of the Dragon


Today was going well for Eve. Arranging for a practice test with Professor Reycom for her cohort’s History and Magic Law class had worked out exactly as she intended. Sabine Scarlet was far from an exemplary student. While skilled at practical magic, she loathed book learning.

As expected, she’d done poorly on the practice test, while Eve, of course, had scored perfectly. A fact loudly made known when the professor reviewed the answers in class.

Sabine had rejected Eve’s friendship before, because there was no value in it.

So Eve created that value. And that was how she found herself eating lunch with Sabine Scarlet and her friends, agreeing to help the trio study for their midterms. A practical learner, a ditz, and a muscle head, Sabine, Mindy, and Jasmine could all benefit from having someone like her around.

After all, what were friends for?

Right now, though, Sabine was in a bad mood. Their “friendship” was tenuous, so Eve made sure to keep quiet and nod along with whatever she said. And fortunately, Sabine was a girl who loved hearing the sound of her own voice. So Eve sat back and listened to her rant about Elly, calling her slurs like “knife-ears”, “leafer”, and “ghostie” and stating she was going to make her pay for getting too far ahead of herself.

“Lot of rage in that one, I think she’s my favorite so far! You humans have really colorful vocabulary!” A hooting laugh came from over Eve’s shoulder. The towering red-skinned Sati licked her lips, her crimson eyes glowing with delight as she fed on Sabine’s anger.

“Not now,” Eve growled, dismissing the horned girl with a swat at her robes.

“She’s the worst, don’t you guys think?” Sabine looked at them for confirmation. Mindy and Jasmine gave immediate, if succinct, affirmations, and soon three sets of eyes were turned Eve’s way.

Eve had no opinion about Elly one way or the other and thought Sabine’s obsession was rather pathetic. There were better ways to work out frustration than to use someone else as a punching bag. But she wasn’t about to let her hard work go to waste.

“Totally,” Eve laughed in a fake bubbly voice. Mindy nodded in agreement. As long as Eve could work a “like” or a “totally” into her sentences she’d have the blonde eating out of her hand. “Like, she’s not even cute, and still sucks up to guys like Blake!”

Sabine’s face darkened and Eve immediately caught her mistake. “Like, don’t you think a guy like Blake would be totally perfect for someone as beautiful as Sabine?”

Sabine’s smug smile returned and she sat up a little taller, pushing her chest out. Eve had to resist the urge to burst out laughing. Not even Levi was this amusing to elicit reactions out of.

“Blake’s not baaad,” Sabine agreed thoughtfully. “Buuut, he’s not exactly in my league, you know what I mean? He actually used to be my fiancé, if you can believe that!”

“No way, really?” Eve put on a look of surprise and tried to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

“Back when we were kids,” Sabine boasted while twirling a lock of her hair, “our parents wanted us to get married. Back then he was so cute, following me around like a little puppy dog, staring at me with those big eyes of his, it was adorable.”

“Aww, baby Blake sounds totally adorable!” Mindy gushed.

“…Then House Harker collapsed and we all thought he was dead, so the engagement was annulled,” Sabine shrugged dismissively, like the horrible tragedy was a mild inconvenience.

“Of course, all these years later and he’s still just as enamored with me as he was back then, and can you blame him?” She emphasized her figure and Eve had to admit she had a lot going on there. Sabine had just the right amount of plumpness in the most delicious places, and she was trim enough to tease the delicateness of a lady…

Calm down. Friends don’t drool over friends.

Sabine’s boasts didn’t ring very true considering Eve hadn’t seen Blake speak to her at all, but she was happy to humor the girl. “So, since he’s still alive are you, like, gonna ask your parents to get engaged to him again?”

Now THAT got a fun reaction. Sabine’s eyes widened slightly and her cheeks began to redden before she caught herself, putting her arrogant smirk back on and sniffed snootily at the idea. Eve was amazed, there were actually people who literally turned their noses up at something.

“Unfortunately, now that he’s lost his wealth and status he can’t do much for me.” Sabine almost sounded disappointed for a second. “I’m in the market for a different sort of man, someone like the prince. Can you imagine? Me, as a princess?”

Men, it always came back to men. While Sabine and Mindy began talking about which boys were “worth” courting Eve removed herself mentally from the conversation and nodded along like an idiot. She knew Sabine wasn’t the brightest but was it too much to ask that the girl’s low cunning would be put to slightly better use? Mindy might have made her look like a genius in comparison but Sabine was still a vapid dullard. She was just a little more savvy and ruthless than what Eve had expected from a puffed-up future-marchioness.

After lunch came Physical Training, and Sabine’s first chance at revenge.

Miss Esterwind began handing out wooden practice swords and shields to the students gathered on the practice field. She explained that they would be sparring today, which surprised a lot of people, Eve included. Most of them had never even held a sword before, and they would get started right on attacking each other?

Then she explained it would be practice sparring.

“Our first step is to stand with our feet about a shoulder length apart, like I’m doing. You want to swing is like this.” She turned to the wooden practice dummy and raised her sword up, pointing it at where the dummy’s throat would be. Swung and hit its shoulder.

“Now, what you DON’T want to do is swing your sword like this.” She returned to her stance and swung harder. The sword made a loud “clunk” as it struck. “That sounded loud, but it’s pointless. You don’t want to wave it around like a crazy person. Too many big moves, and you’ll just get tired. A small drop from the elbow or shoulder is enough; gravity and weight will do the work for you. Small movements.”

Eve could tell how talented she was just by watching her blade dance through the sky. Her sword bent and shifted with the slightest pressure of her fingers before coming to an immediate stop. She controlled it perfectly.

“I’ll go through some basic forms with you and check your stance and grip.” Miss Esterwind walked down the line of armed students, adjusting shield straps, fixing finger placements, and kicking legs apart. Eve held the sword out far from her, not liking the way it felt in her hands. Weapons felt so… impractical. At least she held it better than Elly, who could barely hold the tip up.

“Now what we’re going to do is we’re going to brake our swings. The professor held her sword parallel with the ground. She didn’t move her arm but the sword swung forward a few inches.

“Turn your swords like mine.”

They did.

“Now, squeeze the pommel with two fingers like this.”

Everyone’s blades swung, causing more gasps.

“It-It just moved, but how?!” Mindy asked curiously.

“Your fingers have a lot of control,” Miss Esterwind explained, turning back to the dummy. “For a normal swing, you want to squeeze like that and follow through with your body, like so.” She swung and hit the dummy once. “But for a practice swing, we’re going to ‘brake’, or ‘pull’ our blow, stopping like this.” She swung again, and the blade hit with a lot less force.

Miss Esterwind turned back to the class and held her sword in her starting stance. She pointed at the dummy and indicated its shoulder, side, and thigh.

“There are 8 avenues of attack with a one-handed sword. We won’t be targeting the head or the throat, because those are dangerous. Today, for our practice spars, we’ll be targeting areas that we can block with our shields. So that means three types of swing.” She touched the shoulder of the dummy. “Left shoulder,” then the side, “left side,” then the thigh, “and left leg. You’ll take turns to be the attacker and the defender. The attacker will swing in that order, and the defender will block them. Repeat this three times. Then switch roles. The goal is to get used to swinging a sword at your opponent. There should not be any injuries.”

The way she said that wasn’t in the calm tone she’d been teaching them with. It sounded more like a threat.

“Now this is what I’m talking about,” Sati giggled, rubbing her hands together with excitement. “Time to let out all that pent up aggression, Eve!”

Eve ignored her.

“Now, are there any questions before we start?”

Most people were still fooling around with the grip on their swords, but Audrey raised her hand, as did Morgan. “Angelique?”

“How will we determine our partners?” Audrey asked.

“I’ll leave that up to you, find someone you want to pair with,” the teacher shrugged. “But then, you’ve got quite a bit of experience with a sword yourself, isn’t that right?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Audrey said proudly, standing a little taller.

“In that case… I think you and the prince should partner together,” Miss Esterwind glanced at Lancelus. “As the only two students with formal sword training, it wouldn’t be fair to make you face novices. Jallbring as well, you’re from one of those sword schools, right?”

The blonde Est Jallbring nodded his head and opened his mouth to say something, but she cut him off.

“…But I hear you aren’t much good anyway, so no need to worry there.” The boy blushed and hung his head sheepishly. Miss Esterwind ignored him. “And what about you, Okoro?”

Morgan dropped his hand stepped forward, lowering his sword.

“Miss Esterwind, if I may… I would like to sit out this lesson,” he requested, head lowered.

Miss Esterwind tilted her head to the side and walked over to him, an angry glint in her eyes. “Excuse me, can you repeat that?”

“I said, I would like to sit out this lesson.” His voice was louder but his tone no less respectful.

“Oh,” the teacher calmly said, tucking her sword under her arm and rubbing her chin. “I see.” Her voice turned harsh. “Denied! Back in line!”

“I’m sorry Miss, but I won’t.” Morgan was firm. “You see, I… I don’t believe in using a weapon against another person, unless absolutely necessary.”

“…Unless absolutely necessary,” Miss Esterwind sarcastically repeated. “Well, you’re in luck!”

Her voice turned to a growl. “Because this is my class, and it is absolutely necessary.”

“I’m sorry,” he apologized, setting the sword down on the grass. “I won’t.”

Miss Esterwind’s face turned red. Her arm twitched, and for a second Eve thought she might bash his head in with her practice sword. But she didn’t. She took a deep breath, let it out, and calmed herself down.

“If you won’t participate in today’s lesson, you’ll fail for the day.”

Morgan’s face brightened, and he nodded his head. “Yes, Miss.”

She scowled.

“Well, now we have an even number of students, so that works out just fine!” She stomped down the line. “Anyone else feel like sitting out?!”

Elly began to raise her hand, but when Miss Esterwind turned towards her it quickly shot back down to her side.

“Good! Then get to it! Pair off already!”

“My, that one’s got a lot of anger in her, too,” Sati cackled. “Just delicious! So who are you going for, Eve? Want to find someone who you can really wail on?”

“I already know.”

She caught Sabine out of the corner of her eye. The redhead stood menacingly in front of a trembling Elly. She’d cornered her prey. Elly’s friends, Wendy and Melody, were silenced by a single glare. Neither girl was strong enough to stand up for their friend. Pathetic.

Eve pursued her own target.

“Blake Harker, will you be my partner?” she politely asked, walking up to him. Blake’s eyes widened a little in surprise, along with a few other people. Sabine shot her a warning look. Clearly no one expected the quiet and withdrawn Eve Moonshadow, who never spoke to the boys, to actually invite one of them to practice.

“Uh… sure,” Blake was clearly uncomfortable. He was studying her. This would be the third time she’d approached him suspiciously. The first, when she had returned his dragon egg. The second, when she’d saved him in the dragon hunting game. He probably began to suspect she had ulterior motives, but Eve didn’t care. He’d said yes, and that was the important part.

They headed to a section of the field that was far enough away from the others.

“Yeah! Way to go, Blake! Get some!” Rafe Eriksson called. His obnoxious voice made her want to shave his tail.

The sparring began. Blake was… well, awful. His stance was fine, and his swings had a lot of power behind them, but that’s all he had. He was putting as much as he could in each swing, completely ruining his balance by going in full force, and he fumbled at pulling his blows. It was like he couldn’t tone things down. She could see the barely-repressed rage in his eyes, like he had to remind himself it was just a class.

Eve was happy to let him work out his aggression on an illusion while she studied him in safety.

“Oww!”

Eve turned to see Elly tumble a few feet away. She was holding her leg and trying not to cry.

Sorry, Elly,” Sabine said, her tone far from sorry. “I didn’t think you would be so slow you couldn’t block that one.”

It went like that for a while. Blake was nice and contained, swinging at ghosts, so Eve watched the girls spar. But really, it looked more like Elly was getting beaten up. Whenever the teacher would look the other way, Sabine would take advantage of her height and strength to hit Elly in places she couldn’t lift her shield to in time. The half-elf’s arm was trembling as she struggled to raise it, and even though Sabine was supposed to be aiming for the shield, she instead brought her sword down on Elly’s collarbone.

“Come on, knife-ears, can’t you even block a swing?” She cruelly taunted, catching Elly below the knee and nearly tripping her. “How useless! Are all you ghosties so fragile?”

Elly hung her head, too ashamed to say anything back.

“Come on, it’s your turn,” Sabine smirked. “Swing at me! Come on, you know you want to, let’s see if you can even lift that sword!”

Elly raised her sword as best as she could and swung, but it would never get anywhere. Her arms were too skinny. Sabine effortlessly blocked every one of Elly’s strikes with her shield. Then it was her turn to attack again.

“Audrey’s not here to save your little ghostie skin this time, knife-ears!” Sabine growled. “Maybe try and not be such a pathetic failure! Or lay there and cry!”

“AAARGH!” Elly wailed, Sabine stepping back in wide-eyed surprise. She must have put more force into it than she’d meant, because that scream was loud. Elly’s sword dropped from her hand and she fell over, clutching her shoulder.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to see what had happened. Miss Esterwind was already there. She stepped between them.

“You’re supposed to aim for the shield, not your opponent!” She roared at Sabine. “And you’re supposed to pull your swing!”

“I-I didn’t mean to!” Sabine lied, putting her earlier surprise to good use. “I thought she would block it but my hand slipped and…”

The teacher ignored Sabine, helping Elly to her feet. She was almost comforting. “You’re okay, kiddo. Just a bruise, nothing to get too worked up over.”

Elly sniffled and nodded.

“It’s not that bad. Think you can keep going, or do you want to sit this one out and go to the nurse’s office?”

Sabine clicked her tongue and Elly flinched, shaking her head.

“I-I…”

“I can look after her,” Audrey interrupted. “I can show her how to practice her forms a little better, while she’s recovering.”

“Ho, good thinking,” Miss Esterwind nodded. “I suppose there’s not much need for you to practice. Fine, go.”

Elly glanced up at Audrey, and for a second Eve though she saw a flash of gratitude in the broken half-elf’s eye.

“What about me?” Sabine exclaimed in disbelief. “Who am I supposed to partner with, then?! Prince Lancelus? He’s way stronger than I am!”

“Miss Esterwind, I’ll be her partner.” It was Eve’s turn to step in. Miss Esterwind and Sabine both looked at Eve, surprised.

“…Your partner going to be cool with it?” The teacher asked, glancing over at a rather confused-looking Blake.

“Yeah, Blake’s swings were a little… aggressive,” Eve said, rubbing her left shoulder like she was sore from blocking his blows. “Do you mind, Sabine?”

“Fine, whatever,” she agreed with a roll of her eyes, clearly still frustrated that Elly had weaseled out of her “punishment”.

“Good. Moonshadow, Scarlet, you two together,” Miss Esterwind said, dismissing the girls with a wave. Eve could see it in her eyes, there was something else she was interested in. “Eldaria, Harker, you two are together! The rest of you, get back to it!”

Eve could understand the teacher’s interest. While allowing a copy to take the role of sparring with Sabine, Eve followed Blake as he walked over to where the prince was standing.

The two boys traded glares.

“Hello.” Lancelus politely bowed to Blake. “It seems that we’re going to be sparring together.”

“It seems,” Blake echoed, his tone less polite. He clenched his sword angrily.

“You should adjust your grip,” Lancelus warned. “You won’t be able to swing properly that way.”

“Are you going to attack first, or should I?” Blake clearly didn’t care about that.

The prince sighed in resignation. “I’ll attack first, to show you how it’s done.”

Blake blocked the prince’s swing, wood bouncing off wood. Eve studied them. Lancelus’s attacks were more aggressive than she had expected. Blake, she knew, would swing like a wild animal. But when the prince had fought against Reed, he was little more controlled than he was now. Maybe it was because this was just a practice sparring session…

Then Eve caught the prince’s eye, and she saw differently. The prince forgot to pull his blow, swinging at Blake’s side with enough force to break a few ribs at least if Blake hadn’t blocked.

“…Sorry,” Lancelus half-heartedly muttered, pulling his sword back and wiping his brow on his wrist. “I got… carried away.”

He swung at Blake’s leg next, managing to get in under the shield but pulling the blow so it only nudged against him. Then it was Blake’s turn to be the attacker.

Blake swung with the wildness Eve remembered, and it clearly caught the wide-eyed prince off-guard. He raised his shield to block the swing, stumbling a little.

What was that?!” Lancelus exploded.

“A swing,” Blake growled back.

“You didn’t pull your swing at all! What if I hadn’t blocked?! You might have broken my collarbone!”

“…Well, luckily you managed to block it. Besides, I recall a side swing from you that was a little less than friendly.”

“That… that was different,” Lancelus muttered, his face turning hot.

“Those two are really pissed off,” Sati observed.

“I didn’t need the Queen of Wrath to tell me that, Sati, I have eyes,” Eve dryly replied. The two boys continued to spar until finally it looked like Lancelus had had enough. When Blake swung his sword, the prince stepped to the side, avoiding the strike. Instead of shield or flesh Blake’s blade hit nothing, and since he had put all of his weight into the swing he couldn’t keep his balance. He stumbled forward in surprise. The prince seized the opportunity and brought his own sword up into Blake’s chest, flipping him onto his back. He stood over the other boy, panting.

“ENOUGH!” Lancelus shouted. “Calm down! What’s the matter with you?! This is practice! Are you insane?!”

“What’s going on now?” Miss Esterwind growled, storming through the onlookers and stepping between the two boys. She reached to help Blake up but he knocked her hand away with his shield and stood on his own, never taking his eyes off Lancelus.

“Blake was attacking me without pulling his swings,” the prince calmly reported. “So I stepped out of the way and let him face the consequences for his reckless, dangerous behavior.”

“You hit me in the chest with your sword when I was attacking!” Blake shouted back. “What’s the matter?! Afraid to follow the rules in case you might end up looking bad? That would be a laugh, the prince who needs to cheat in order to beat an amateur!”

Something snapped in Lancelus and he lunged forward with his sword raised. Eve fell back, startled, just barely able to keep her illusion intact.

“You shut your fucking mouth!” Lancelus roared, but his blade never hit. Miss Esterwind stepped in front of him and shoved him backwards.

“SHUT IT, THE BOTH OF YOU!” She barked loud enough that anyone who hadn’t stopped to watch was paying attention now. Eve could see the fury in her eyes. She slipped into the circle of students that had gathered to watch the exchange.

Miss Esterwind glared at Blake. “You, you’re just a brat who doesn’t know about how dangerous a sword can be.” She turned to Lancelus and her expression darkened. “But you, you know what you’re doing. You know how much damage you could have caused, what were you thinking?!”

Lancelus hung his head, his face red with shame.

“I-I’m sorry, professor, I wasn’t-“

“Miss Esterwind,” she teacher snapped. She reached up and scratched her hair, shaking her head.

“Listen, everyone. This isn’t a fuc- *ahem* this isn’t a game. I know we went over safety at the beginning of the day, but do we need to do it again?” She grabbed Blake’s sword from his hand and held it up. “This isn’t a toy! It might not have a blade, but it can still hurt people! And the real ones you’ll be using? Those can kill! Easily! When you’re practicing, remember that for all intents and purposes, this is a real sword in your hand, something that can hurt someone. Do I make myself clear?!”

The class said “yes” unanimously.

Miss Esterwind glanced up at the sky and sighed. “We don’t have a lot of time left, so I think we’re going to call the sparring here today. Before we go, though, I want you brats to understand exactly what you’re dealing with when you’re practicing with these swords.

Miss Esterwind tossed Blake’s sword to the ground and turned to Lancelus.

“I’m going to spar with you for a little, kid,” she growled.

Lancelus was shocked.

“What?”

There were more murmurs of confusion among the other students, but they didn’t seem to faze Miss Esterwind. She shooed them all back.

“Simple,” Miss Esterwind’s tone lightened. “You’re confident in your abilities, aren’t you? Think of this as your punishment for losing your cool today. I want everyone to see just how unprepared all of you brats are for real combat. Maybe when you see just how small of an island you’re floating on, you’ll start taking our lessons more seriously and not lose your cool next time, okay?”

“But, a sparring match, how…” Lancelus looked confused, and Eve wasn’t sure what, exactly, the teacher was proposing either. Practice spars didn’t have a winner. And even if they did, the teacher’s level was so obviously above Lancelus’s it proved nothing.

“Simple, you swing at me, I swing at you, first one to score a blow or get the other to yield wins,” Miss Esterwind said, rolling her eyes like the idea of an adult sparring with a child wasn’t ludicrous. “Unless you’re not up to a swordfight with a one-armed lady like me.”

Eve wondered what thoughts were going on behind the prince’s blue-gold eyes. He finally nodded.

“If that’s what you want, Miss Esterwind.”

Lancelus raised his sword and shield. But he paused, and realized the same thing everyone else was noticing.

Miss Esterwind didn’t have a weapon! Her left arm was gone so she couldn’t hold a shield, of course, but she wasn’t carrying a sword, either. She just stood there and stretched.

“You don’t have a sword!” Lancelus protested in disbelief.

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Miss Esterwind said, cracking her knuckles against her chin and smirking. “I’ll just use yours when you’re done with it.”

If Lancelus was as savvy as Eve, those words should have worried him. Eve watched warily as the boy faced down an unarmed woman. Then he struck. He swung for her left, the obvious weak spot, but never came close. She stepped out of the path of his sword, so he continued with another swing, then another. Miss Esterwind dodged them all, ducking, turning, twisting, and pulling her body out of the blade’s path every time.

To Eve’s untrained eye, it was like a dance. Lancelus was swinging at air and the teacher was drawing him in, encouraging him, but never letting herself get close enough where he could hit.

Then it happened. Lancelus swung his sword again, aiming for Miss Esterwind’s shoulder, but she didn’t step away. She did the one thing no one expected, she stepped in to his strike! She turned her body and raised her wounded arm, tucking the appendage behind his neck. She pushed her back against his arm and then twisted to press her other elbow against his chest, grabbing his shoulder. She moved in close and slid her stump down his arm towards his sword hand, then kicked his heel. A light push was all she needed then to knock him flat on his back.

Lancelus didn’t have time to react, she had already pinned him. She planted her hand on the grass and her right knee beside his head, pinching his arm between the crook of her left shoulder and her thigh. With a roll of her shoulder his hand snapped open and the practice sword slipped from his fingers and landed in the grass. The teacher got off him and picked it up. Still dazed from the fall, Lancelus stared up in wide-eyed surprise as she pressed the tip of the blade against his stomach.

“As you all can see, you kids are still kids. Even the best of you doesn’t know a thing worth spit! That’s why you have to follow orders, to make sure you don’t hurt yourselves or someone else!” Miss Esterwind shouted, turning her head in a sweeping glare. “That’s why I’m the teacher. Because I know what I’m doing, and you brats don’t!”

There were no arguments from the class, no responses from anyone that weren’t gasps. Eve was as shocked as the rest that the teacher had so easily disarmed him.

Maybe she’d consider putting more effort into Physical Training.

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