“Here,” Christof sighed, handing me a long shaft of wood with a handle, “you are
untrained, essentially. It is not proper for you to hold a sharpened weapon in this
arena.”
1 cocked my head at him and Damien just shrugged.
“This place,” he gestured, “has certain rules. We feel inclined to follow them when
we are here. It was easier to just train you with your own sword, but here that is
not how it is done.”
“We had to earn the right to sharpen our blades,” Kein said wistfully. The men all
chuckled at the memories. Training had been hard work. They reminisced about
bonding and learning together. It had been something they enjoyed.
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“You will respect the blade more when you have earned the right to use it,” Evan
informed me as he gestured to the center of the field.
The “training” we had done in the past was markedly different from what we did
now. The men had found giving me a blade fun and treated it Like a game
before. In this place, sword work was taken seriously and there were rules we
had to follow.
The first night I learned how to hold a sword and how to stand with one. There
were standardized positions the men moved me through. The slow motion
exercises were excruciating.
Over and over again we moved through the prearranged pattern. Bane told me
the movements would eventually be rote. My muscles would move me through
them in fluid synchrony.
“When you have Learned them well, we will go faster,“ Bane promised as we did
a slow step-turn combination. “They will be so ingrained you will not falter when
you must strike.”
It felt like I was doing the Tai-chi movements I'd seen my grandmother do at the
gym. I did understand the motions grandmother did were for fitness only, but I
was learning to fight. Still the memory of my grandmother made me smile as I
worked.
Boys from inside the Child Keepers wandered out to watch us. They sat in front
of us in the stands and I dropped my eyes to avoid looking at them. Damien
noticed the second I did it and expressed his displeasure. He got right in my face
to explain.
“You are family,” he said sternly. “We do not stare at the ground in the presence
of others. You can't fight staring at the ground and you will not train doing that.
Keep your eyes where Bane instructs them to be.”
I shook my head and pleaded with him. “The boys will not understand. They will
be confused. They are just children.”
Damien didn't care. My argument fell on deaf ears. I would act honorably.
Several groups of boys sat in the stands watching us as the sun fell in the sky. At
first they seemed confused. As they watched my little display, I heard them
snicker and Laugh. I had to agree, this probably looked silly to them.
One group finally got bold enough to come down into the arena with us. I heard
their friends placing bets on how long they'd Last. The boys all thought Damien
was going to beat this young family down for watching and now approaching his
slave.
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The five youngsters drew closer to us
and I judged them to be in Ibey older
teen years sth base clear to me
he! the beings on this planet aged,
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but that's how they appeared to me.
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The young men walked with
confidence, so I assumed they must
be a more powerfuhfayly.Bahe had
a
F ,
me occibiet So wasn't able to pay
too much attention to them. I did
notice how familiar one of them
seemed, though. The content is on
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chapter there!
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« . ” . .
Damien,” the lead boy said seriously,
Hope 9
it is an honor to Re (Mardos [0)9)
2 7 ne
i trainipgrofing “We wish you a
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The little family stood and stared at Bane and I as we trained.
“It is no Longer day, Tyle,” Damien told the boy while motioning to the darkening
sky.
The kid took Damien in stride and thanked him for the rebuke. They stood silently
watching as Bane moved me through the poses.