Ravens of Eternity

115 Bladedancer

Eva took a jog around yard to start out the cycle. She and Miko had just finished up a call with the family back on Earth. Miko’s parents were doing better, especially now that her mother was taking care of their channel.

She was certainly doing her best to edit the videos like Mack did, but added her own Japanese flair to it. Plenty of their viewers loved the changes.

Eva’s grandparents were also doing alright, and their faces were still smiles, but it was clear that it was harder for them to actually do. They both spoke slower than before, and were clearly nearing the end of their time.

She knew it wasn’t going to be long for either of them, and she steeled her heart as best she could. But it still trembled when she thought about their mortality.

Eva wiped a stray tear from eye and absentmindedly upped her running pace. It wasn’t long until she began to blow past other joggers along the path.

Her thoughts turned to Mack, who couldn’t make the call since he was still recovering. Because he was in isolation, he was only allowed to talk to visitors every so often. But her grandparents told her that he was doing better bit by bit. It just took longer than normal, for some reason.

He always did have an addictive personality, and she shouldn’t have been surprised that he fell as hard as he did for opiates.

Addiction was something that she was also guilty of, at least in her old life, and so she could easily relate to his situation. She never had to deal with the heavy consequences of withdrawal, especially considering she was reborn into the thing she was addicted to, but she still understood the pull that it had on her life.

She wished she could do more for him, but all she could do now was simply hope for the best.

.....

Her pace slowed naturally as she came closer to their sparring circles. Her start-of-cycle jog was pretty much a part of her routine, as was her sparring. Normally, she would find a bunch of Federation service members tussling against each other while a number of Drogar guards cheered them on.

To her surprise, things were far different this cycle. No-one was fighting, and no-one was cheering. Everyone, human and Drogar alike watched an emerald-scaled Drogar with rapt attention from just outside the circle.

That Drogar was in the middle of a sparring circle by herself with her blade drawn, and was performing a number of moves with incredible dexterity.

Unlike most other Drogar, she wore what appeared to be a tight dark grey wrap rather than loose robes. It looked closer to the guards’ uniforms than anything else. It offered her absolute freedom of movement, even as she performed multiple acrobatic moves one after the other.

It looked as though she was dancing with her blade, and it absolutely transfixed everyone around her, Eva included.

The emerald Drogar swiped at the air with graceful, sweeping movements, and punctuated them with strong, accurate thrusts. She hummed and sang as she performed her kata with elegance and power.

Eva noticed that her notes and breaths were sharpest at the presumed point of impact, where her blade’s arc or thrust would have hit an opponent.

Once her kata drew to a close and the Drogar sheathed her weapon, Eva decided to break both the trance and the silence that surrounded them.

“That was beautiful,” she said.

The emerald Drogar perked up and turned towards Eva. A spark of recognition flashed across her face as her smile filled it.

“Thank you!” she replied. “You look like you’re Freya. I’m Talyss. My bladesisters Severas and Doleth told me all about you!”

A murmur spread among the Drogar guards when they heard her say her name.

“What?” exclaimed a guard. “You’re Talyss? As in the Obsidian Justicar Talyss? The Grand Reaper?”

“Bladedancer Talyss,” she corrected him. “I’ve been neither of those other two for over a decade. All I am now is a teacher.”

She turned back towards Eva and beckoned her into the ring.

“And a great many favors were traded so that I could teach you how to fight with a knife in your hand.”

Eva grinned widely as she walked in. This was the two Justicars’ contribution, their investment. And they certainly paid out in spades.

As she walked up to Talyss, she realized just how much larger she was. Even though she seemed lithe, she was extremely sinewy. She exuded power simply by standing there, and even Eva felt pressure from her presence alone.

“I’m honored to learn,” Eva replied. “And I thank you. This means a great deal to me. I need a ton of training. At least ten years’ worth over the course of a few weeks.”

Talyss chuckled modestly.

“Well, we’ll both try,” she said.

“Say, would you be able to teach some of the others as well? Nothing crazy, just how to defend themselves, and so on.”

Talyss shook her head solemnly.

“Unfortunately, I only take on one student at a time. I find teaching a class dilutes my technique. And besides, nothing stops you from teaching them yourself, once you’re familiar enough anyway.”

“Fair enough,” said Eva. “Do we start now? Or... next dawn or something?”

“Now’s good. Come.”

Talyss beckoned her towards the edge of the ring, where a small canvas bundle sat next to the rest of her equipment.

“Great! No time like now. How long do we have? Or, rather, when do we stop?”

“There’s no set time for the first lesson,” replied Talyss, “usually it’s however long it takes you to collapse from either pain or exhaustion.”

Her voice sounded dead serious, which gave Eva pause.

As a refugee player, her stamina had become machine-like in terms of capacity and regeneration. Weariness was something she felt more often, but unlike her old life, she didn’t need sleep to get rid of it. She realized early on that her stamina recovery time was ridiculously fast – much faster than before.

More critically, she learned that both her capacity and recovery rate improved over time. It improved greatly when she was at the academy, and somewhat more moderately all other times.

She felt a significant difference between her stamina now, and when she first respawned.

“That could take a really long time,” she said.

“You clearly don’t know about my training methods. Just know I’m not going to take it easy on you just because you’re a human.”

“I can handle it.”

On hearing Eva’s resolve, Talyss bent down and unrolled the canvas cloth, which slowly revealed various blades on the inside. They all looked relatively the same – beat up metal blades that had seen years of use and abuse. Though all were curved, some were shorter, wider, or thicker than the others.

All were dull and had zero bite. But Eva was certain getting hit by one would definitely hurt.

“Pick a few up,” said Talyss. “Get a feel for them. We’ll start when you find one you like.”

“Should I be looking for anything?”

“Hmm. Maybe grip, weight, balance in that order. Honestly doesn’t matter too much right now. Just go for comfort, and we’ll fine-tune your blade along the way.”

Eva looked over all of the weapons with Talyss’ advice in mind. She first looked at the grips that were too large and automatically filtered them out. She then put her hands on a few of the smaller ones until she found ones she liked.

Those she drew out of their scabbards and tested them. However, they all felt ultra-light to her, so she ultimately chose one of the longer ones.

After she confirmed her choice, Talyss showed her how to tie it around her belt, and how to properly grip it. Then the two of them went back to the center of the circle.

“Tell me Freya,” said Talyss, “Do you do any dancing?”

Eva shook her head in response. She always felt stupid and self-conscious when she danced, as though she was mindlessly flailing around with no rhyme nor reason. After her first few embarrasing tries, she simply avoided them as much as she could.

“I’ve thought about dancing – does that count?”

Talyss laughed heartily.

“Well, you’re about to learn how brutal bladedancing can be. The first thing you need to learn is your opening stance. Stand back and watch me carefully.”

Talyss stood up straight, then slowly moved her body as she drew a thin baton from her beltknife’s sheath. As she did so, her body moved into a fighting stance with simple, smooth movements.

She stood in that position for a few seconds, then sheathed the baton and went back to the beginning.

“Once more,” she said.

This time, she did the exact same thing, however slightly faster. As far as Eva could tell, it was exactly like the first time. Talyss then performed the blade draw a handful more times, each time faster and faster, until the last time was all but a blur.

Eva felt power radiate from Talyss. The simple act of her drawing her baton and getting into position was more than enough to produce waves of energy.

“Now it’s your turn,” she told Eva. “Copy my movements as best you can. Draw slowly and surely so you can burn the movements into your muscles. But don’t sheathe the knife. Draw and stay in that position.”

Eva nodded. She inhaled as she got into a ready stance, then slowly exhaled as she drew her blade and extended her body into a fighting stance. Then, she held the position as best she could.

Talyss moved around her with a hyper-critical eye.

“Wrong!” she yelled.

She honed in on every mistake that Eva had made, and struck each body part that was even slightly out of position. The baton fell on her left thigh, right forearm, right shoulder, and many other spots all over her body.

After each strike, Talyss would adjust that body part until it was in the exact position it needed to be.

Tears welled up in Eva’s eyes from the sting of each strike, but she grit her teeth and bore on. This was the Drogar way, and she wasn’t going to shy away from it. Sure, it was painful, but that was the best way to learn sometimes.

“Again!” yelled Talyss.

Eva nodded, then repeated herself.

She once again exhaled while she drew her blade and moved her body into position. She did her absolute best to land the right stance, but...

“Wrong!”

Eva’s body was once again lashed multiple times and repositioned by Talyss. The pain of each strike resounded throughout her body – it had yet to recover from the pain of the first set of strikes!

“Again!”

Eva nodded without complaint. Instead, she concentrated on every muscle, every fiber of her being, and drew her blade as perfectly as she could.

“Wrong!”

The others who were watching were struck with awe and horror as they saw the brutal spectacle unravel before them. They winced every time Eva was struck by Talyss’ training cane. And once they realized it was going to happen for hours, many simply left.

Whispers went around the Drogar guards, about how Reaper Talyss was the Justicars’ most fearsome trainer, whose methods had killed more students than anyone else before. Or since.

“Again!”

.....