Chapter 2: Lessons Learned The Hard Way

Later that day, “no you need to put the poison in after, if you do it first it’s too obvious, see now it’s discolored” Harvin tells Manira, “But if it’s after how will I know it worked?” asks Manira with a happy tone. “You just have to trust it,” it’s like when you bake a cake, if you do it right, you put in the right amount of the ingredients and trust in it, if you don’t the cake will just fall apart because you keep opening the door.” “Okay, but how do I know I or you won’t drink it by accident”, “because that’s why you pay attention,” he says as he ruffles up her hair out of irritation. After the lesson he walks with her over to a nearby forest clearing. “Okay, this is a dagger, I want you to come at me with the blade in your hand, if you get it near to my neck you win, and I’ll make stew with meat in it tonight” she does as instructed, and is so fast she makes a boom in the forest, and for Harvin it feels as though gravity adds pressure, and black surrounded by a rainbow zigzags travel around her feet, the sun yellow dress he gave her is now torn around the frills at the bottom of it, and suddenly the dagger is pressed to his neck. His heart is beating fast, his mind having trouble wrapping itself around what just happened it’s only thoughts, being what fuck was that, the fucking hell was that. Then after checking by means of dabbing at his neck with the back of his hand and inspecting it vigorously to make sure his neck wasn’t accidentally slashed by the sheer force, I’m alive, I’m aliveeeeee, he chirps in his mind with glee while internally crying with tears of joy, mean while on the outside he just looks shaken. “New, rule, new rule” he squeaks now a bit meager, “you can’t move that fast… you have to move like a normal person,” “But I already won, that’s not fair, I’ve already won, you said you would,”, “fine I’ll still make beef stew, but I want you to slow down this time, I need to teach you about combat.”

She does what she’s asked and doesn’t use the speed she did last time, but this time, she jumps over him, floating upside down, and places the dagger on the back of his neck this time. “So you didn’t use the speed skill, but I also said, like a normal person,” he states with an annoyed tone “normal people don’t glide in the air upside down.” She throws the dagger down and stops, gliding but she realizes her mistake too late. He crouches down, by bending his knees, and catches her quickly before she crashes into the ground head first, she sobs loudly in his arms, after scaring herself with the close call to serious injury. “Okay, so please do none of the crazy stuff this time, and I’ll even bake a cake for you if you don’t.” She smiles back and nods, humming, “cake, cake, cake, and when we go back for our break, break, break. “This is going to be a long evening, I can already tell, he mutters to himself.” She rushes at him this time, with no magic active, “see this, he points his dagger at her, and she points hers at him, him motioning to the difference in arms length” this is reach advantage, you can’t get close enough to do anything safely, against your opponent if they have this much of a reach advantage. This not only counts for things like arm length, but weapon length, and weapon type. Since I have this much of a range advantage, what would a normal person do to win? She thinks for about 10 seconds, “sneak up on them” thinking about Harvin was able to save her or make a distraction,” like she did with her scream so that they got away and the manor lord’s wife got caught, “correct” says Harvin, but you can also use something ranged like a rock as a weapon too, and not only as a distraction, or can use the environment to your advantage. “Chandeliers are easy enough to drop on top of a person’s head for example, just loosen it a bit and they won’t suspect anything more than an accident.”

They get back to their home, a little place, not far from town, a cabin, with a small farming field outside. Secretly the hill behind it, is where they grow the poisonous plants used in their assassination concoctions. Inside you can see the fire in the fireplace, Harvin throwing a Log in, both of them enjoying the stew he made over the fire and goods he baked in the brick oven. Harvin, now laughing at the wanted poster he had taken from the town. Curious, Manira leans in close, to see it, he just turns it around to her since she wanted to see it so bad. She doesn’t laugh, and she turns around and just says, I’m going to bed now. “What did the guy scare her or something,” he looks under the poster, and reads the name “Darkum,” his bounty only being a single copper shilling.