Chapter 23

Now that he knew to look for it, the sword noticed many more people giving him friendly glances and nodding in his direction. He had known that Mei was popular, since he was supposed to have done something good for her, it seemed many people were viewing him in a new light. There were also a few looks that were harder to interpret, something like anger.

None of this made much sense to the sword, they had all been there when he’d nearly lost control of snuff. But their memories seemed to be short, and, since he had agreed to do as Mei asked, he tried to smile back, an unnatural action that made his cheeks hurt. But it seemed to suffice.

Weirdly, once he started smiling, more and more people would talk to him, or drag him into conversations, asked him what he thought of this or that thing, never, unfortunately, on topics he could actually comment on, but small things like whether this bout had been fair, or if that person was really into this other person.

No one asked him if they were dating, but more than once he overheard someone whispering something to Mei, to which she always firmly said they were not. The sword was relieved they didn’t have to pretend to be dating. He didn’t know much about it, but from what he did know, he was extremely uninterested. It seemed to involve a great deal of physical contact with other people.

He faked being a human as best he could, and was disturbed by how well it seemed to be going.

It was another practice session, the air was full of sweat and laughter. The sword was paired once more with the laughing girl.

“So are you going to actually hit me today?” The laughing girl asked him as they squared up.

The sword shrugged. He was still consistently getting on his arms every bout, unless he just focused on dodging. He didn’t need to add figuring out how to attack without hurting his opponent.

“Come on, if you can take on two guards at once, you can handle a practice duel,” she was smiling but there was a sharpness in her eyes, unblinking. “Stop wasting my time.”

He was again seized by the urge to ask her to be his wielder, again he resisted. He needed to be sure before he said anything.

Still, he was getting bored of just parrying.

So when the whistle blew, he took a few experimental swings, making the laughing girl dance backwards.

“Oh that’s much more interesting,” she grinned, before diving into her own attack.

But he quickly found he forgot himself as he attacked. He didn’t know his own strength, and he could feel it when he nearly broke the laughing girl’s stick with his own, though he wasn’t sure she realized how close it had come to breaking, just that it had been heavy.

He didn’t like that feeling, it reminded him of when he had been surprised by snuff, so after that he held back, pretending to be gasping so that his movements were slower, and switching to parrying again, which he should have been practicing anyway.

“Is that really it?” The laughing girl asked when they were done.

The sword tried a version of Arthur’s careless shrug. “Sorry,” he said. “That’s all I can do.”

He was saved from having to say more by the bell, the emergency bell which meant there were enemies nearby. Everyone froze as it went off, then started whispering. The sword’s ears pricked, listening for the sound of drawn blades, but he heard nothing.

Ms. Lopez looked up from her work, “If we have to go, its evacuation zone three, the one behind the dining hall. If you don’t know how to get there, figure it out. Then get back to work.”

When the lines of students reconstituted, the sword was paired with Mei.

She still wasn’t very good, the match was rather boring.

At the break, the sword asked her, “Is it going well?”

“Is what going well?” Mei asked, half turned to go to her friends. After a moment of indecision, she turned back to face him.

“Lying to your friends?”

Mei winced, motioning for the sword to follow her to the water fountain. The line around the fountain magically disappeared as they approached.

“I wouldn’t put it that way.”

“How would you put it?” The sword asked, as she bent down to the fountain and drank. He wasn’t thirsty, but he copied her when she was done.

They walked away to the wall, where most of the students were leaning in groups of three or four, the whispers a little more frantic than usual. Excited about the possibility of a proper fight, the sword thought.

“You shouldn’t trust Layla,” Mei said.

“Who is Layla?” The sword asked. Mei shot him a look that suggested he’d said something stupid.

“The girl you were just fighting,” Mei said, “I can tell you’re interested in her. You don’t even know her name?” The way she asked the question made the sword faintly embarrassed about this.

“I don’t remember many names,” the sword said.

“You seem to remember mine just fine,” Mei said.

“Yes,” the sword said. Mei looked away again.

“She reminds me of the kind of courtier who started smiling one day and forgot how to do anything else.”

“Why is that bad?” The sword asked, his eyes moving to the laughing girl. She was in her small group of friends, they were play fighting between bouts, something they weren’t supposed to do, but Ms. Lopez was not paying attention.

“Don’t look at people you’re talking about,” Mei said, tugging at his shoulder and turning him. The sword nodded, Alice had told him the same thing, he’d just forgotten.

“It means they have fewer tells. Fewer signs they’re lying. They’re harder to predict than other people. They’ve shut down part of their natural humanity more effectively than most people manage to do.”

The sword considered this. None of what she was saying had much to do with the qualifications of being a wielder. If anything, it might make her a better one, she might be less likely to fall victim to the sorts of battle scares that could disrupt even the most experienced warrior.

“Do you think of our classmates as being naturally human?”

She didn’t answer.

“Why are you in pain at the end of practice? Does it hurt for you to get new skills?” The sword asked.

“I’m not in pain,” Mei said.

“Yes you are,” the sword said.

Her eyes flicked, left and right, checking, the sword realized, to see if anyone was listening. She seemed to think about that a lot, in a way that the sword of course never did, but neither did Arthur.

“I’m not getting new skills.”

“But you are fighting,” the sword pointed out, “one follows the other, usually.”

“Not if you refuse them,” Mei said.

“You can do that?” The sword was startled. He didn’t know that. He’d never known anyone who had done such a thing. None of his wielders ever had, that was certain.

“If you try,” Mei smiled grimly. “But yeah it hurts.”

“That’s a strange thing to do,” the sword said.

The bell went off a second time, and Ms. Lopez barked “I’m going to go check things out, nobody leave till I’m back, and don’t hurt yourselves.” She was gone, the door swinging shut behind her, before anyone had a chance to say anything else.

The sword followed the crowd as they coalesced into a blob at the middle of the room; practice ended early even though that wasn’t what the bell was supposed to mean.

People kept shuffling to the side, making sure not to separate the sword and Mei. The sword realized he was supposed, if he wanted to cover for Mei, to stay with her.

But the sword kept looking at the door, wondering if Ms. Lopez was going to use [Thorn Liege].

He decided that he wanted to find out.