Kingdom of Rust Chapter 39

“You ready?” Master Thea asked as she stood in the doorway to my room.

“Almost,” I sighed. I was stuffing the last of my gear in my bag, the same bag that I had gotten from my father and that survived the rigors of the ancestral city. It had a few more scratches from those adventures but it was still intact.

“Why such a sad face? You couldn’t ask for a better traveling companion.”

I stopped and looked up from my packing. She had a wide grin on her face and I gave her an exasperated look. “I’m sure you are a wonderful traveling companion. It's not the journey that has me down, it’s the bit at the end. You know what Holton’s like, right?”

Master Thea’s smile faded, “I did. Long ago. He’s a hard man to like because he expects everyone to be as driven and dedicated as he is.”

“You two were close?” I asked what seemed obvious considering her tone. Normally I wouldn’t have asked this sort of question but I felt we were close enough that it wasn’t inappropriate.

“I suppose it doesn’t hurt to talk about it. I was in love with him at one time. This was long ago;  before he became a Chosen. Before I became a Chosen. I was a wide-eyed girl, the daughter of a magistrate. My father thought it would bring in revenue to hold a tournament. Local experts of all kinds came to showcase their talents. Holton was one of these experts.”

“Love at first sight?”

She snorted, “no, not even close. I thought of him as a pompous ass and the whole tournament as a waste of time and energy that could have been better allocated to helping the city. But I was just the daughter of a magistrate so nobody heeded my words. As for Holton, he can be a very suave and convincing man when he wants to be. Over the course of the tournament, he managed to convince me to spend more and more time with him until I woke up next to him one morning. I thought he was my soulmate after that. A foolish thought from a foolish and naive little girl.”

“No, I don’t think it was foolish. You thought he loved you.”

“Perhaps,” Thea replied bitterly. “The tournament continued and Holton made it to the semi-finals. A man by the name of Braxis Lin was his opponent. Braxis was a younger and far more talented swordsman than Holton.”

“Wait… Someone was more skilled than Holton?”

Thea chuckled. “Holton may act like he was the best but even during those days, he wasn’t. It was only luck that got him to that position in the tournament. Holton was getting older, I think he was in his mid-thirties at the time. His peak had come and gone but he didn’t want to acknowledge the truth. Braxis used the fight to thoughtfully embarrass Holton. I later learned that Braxis was a former student of Holtons. The fight left Holton wounded in body and pride. I tried to console him but he pushed me away and one day he just disappeared without so much as a goodbye. It was only months later that I found out where he had gone and that was because he had returned and challenged Braxis to another match. Holton made a spectacle out of it, killing the man in front of his family on the premise of reclaiming his lost honor. A load of horse shit. The man was embarrassed by the loss and sought retribution. Of course, he got away with it only because he revealed the fact that he was a Chosen.”

“Yeah, that sounds like Holton…but you said this happened before you became a Chosen?”

“As I said, I was a young girl, foolish and in love. I thought I could win his heart back and stand beside him if I became a Chosen as well. It took me time to figure out how he did it. Once I learned what I needed to, I slipped away from my father and I snuck into the city that the tower controlled as I couldn’t make my way to the city that Holton used. Somehow I survived. When I told Holton what I had done, we had a heated argument and he refused to have anything to do with me after that.”

“Is that how you got the scar?” I asked, using my finger to trace an invisible path on my own forehead.

She shook her head, “Holton is a lot of things but he isn’t a woman beater. No, this scar is a remnant of my trip into the city. With time it will fade but it will always be there to remind me to think before I act.”

I simply nodded. While my gift had gotten rid of any damage internally, it didn’t get rid of my scars, they only faded. I could still feel the lump of flesh on my calf from where the corrupted bear had gashed me. There was also the jagged scar on my cheek from when an occultist nearly killed me, only now it was a thin white line instead of the ugly red it had been. And let's not forget the reminder that Gan left for me. I absently rubbed my hip at the last memory.

“Enough reminiscing, are you ready to go?” Master Thea asked, breaking me from my memories.

“Almost. I want to congratulate Rebeka and Quimby before I leave”

“Best hurry then, Estos will be taking both of them with him until I return.”

I thanked Master Thea and quickly went in search of my friends. I found Rebeka in the library, reading.

“Rebeka, or should I call you Master Rebeka now,” I joked as I approached.

“I don’t know,” she replied sassily, “that does have a nice ring to it.”

We both chuckled.

“I just wanted to congratulate you before I leave with Master Thea.”

“Oh, where are you off to?” she inquired, closing the book she had been reading.

“Training with Holton Aloo.”

“Ah.”

“Yeah.” I had spoken to my friends about my former teacher…and may have vented my feelings about the man more than I had wished.

“Well, like Master Mgumba says, use any opportunity to get stronger. The stronger you are, the better you can protect the people.”

“I will, and stay safe out there.”

“You as well,” she replied back.

I left the library in search of Quimby. He was a bit more difficult to find. He wasn’t in the usual places, I eventually found him in the armory. I wasn’t allowed inside without a chaperone so I just waited until he finished so I could speak with him.

“Bakus, I assume you are here for me?” The man spoke in his usual dour tone as he exited the armory. It wasn’t that he wasn’t excited, he just had issues expressing his feelings.

“I wanted to congratulate you on your promotion to master in training.”

“Thank you for your consideration. I was surprised at the promotion myself if I’m honest.”

“Why was that?” I asked as we walked together toward the training yard. I assumed he wanted to practice with the armor he was now wearing.

“I’ve only been here three years. Normally they don’t let you become a master in training until you have completed five years of the basics.”

“Really?”

“Did you not know this?” he asked.

I shook my head, it hadn’t really come up, not that I was in a hurry to become a Master.

“It’s probably due to the mission we had to go on. I can’t see a better way to judge if a person is ready to join the ranks of a master than to go up against the Father’s minions and survive.”

“That was my assumption as well. But does that mean Matteos was not ready?”

“No, I don’t think that’s true,” I replied thoughtfully, “he was as ready as the rest of us, he just got dealt a bad situation. It could have easily been any of us.”

“Perhaps you are right,” Quimby conceded.

We stopped at the entrance to the training yard.

“Rumor has it that you are leaving for training as well?” he asked.

How did rumors fly so fast around the estate, seriously?

“Yes, more training with Holton Aloo. I told you guys about him.”

Quimby nodded, “You did. I hope you have a safe journey and uneventful training,” he replied, cracking a rare smile.

I snorted. “You too, brother.” I clapped him on the shoulder before I returned to my room to grab my bag.

Thea was already gone, likely waiting with the horses. I double-checked that I had everything and almost cursed at my forgetfulness. I would need my weapon if I was going to be training with Holton. I found Thea and told her my problem. She agreed to escort me to the armory to grab my gear.

Was it weird that I only felt whole when I had a weapon strapped to my hip? I was starting to think it was.

Thea didn’t grab any weapons from the armory, she already had a long knife and I had seen what she was capable of doing with just that. The last item I grabbed was a bow and some flint-tipped arrows.

“Why the bow?” She asked curiously.

“Well, you know my pool of energy is rather limited, right?”

She nodded, “That is normal for a newer Chosen.”

“Well, with my power, I can throw items at high speed. But that drains me rapidly. I don’t want to lose two weeks of training while on the road. With this bow and arrows, I can practice while using minimal energy and getting us some food. It’s a win-win.”

“Fair enough. Let’s get moving though, I want to be in the foothills before dark.”

I nodded as I tucked the bow and the rest of my gear into the saddle straps. I stuck my foot into the stirrup and easily mounted the horse as it danced sideways in anticipation. This wasn’t the old nag that the Magistrate had given me, as far as I knew, that horse had been sold. A shame, she was an easy horse to ride. Unlike my new horse. It danced to the side and pawed the dirt. It wanted to run and was bred for speed. I had to control its impulse to immediately break into a run until we made it out of town. Then it was hard to keep it from racing down the road.

The road cleared of traffic and Thea gave me a devious look. “First one to the foothills wins, the loser makes supper.”

Without waiting for my reply, she urged her horse into a run. I sputtered indignantly as I did the same. My horse raced after her, tearing over the distance with long, fast steps. I could hear her laughing as the wind whipped past my ears.

The conclusion of our impromptu race was never in my favor. Her horse was just as fast as mine and she knew that. The sun was already setting by the time we made it to the foothills. This late in the year, it wasn’t much of a surprise.

Master Thea clapped me on the shoulder and laughed, “better luck next time, initiate Bakus.”

I grumbled, “you cheated.”

She pressed a palm to her chest and gave an over-exaggerated intake of breath. “What a scandalous accusation to make against a Master, have you no shame.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, yeah. You want rations, or something fresh?”

“Well, you brought the bow, might as well start practicing now.”

“Fair enough, I’ll be back shortly.” I grabbed the bow from my saddle and strung it before heading off into the thin scrub grass that surrounded us.

Finding game was easy, the area teemed with rabbits and boar. I saw a whole pack of boars but I decided against taking one of them down. While I knew I could, we didn’t need that much meat.

I spotted a hare in the distance and took aim. The animal must have been spooked by the sound of my bowstring and began to sprint off. I willed my power into the arrow and pushed the tip slightly. Instead of missing, the tip tore through the animal's side. It wasn’t a clean hit so I quickly ran over and finished the animal off.

There was definite room for improvement to be made on my nudging of arrows. I hadn’t ever really thought of controlling my ability to this level before. The few times I had used it was to make sure I wasn’t hit by a weapon or claw. Even during the fight with the Father’s minions, I would just aim and hope.

The next rabbit was farther away, this time when I took aim and fired, I imparted a push to the rear of the arrow. Oh, it went faster, that was for sure. The arrow tore through the air with an audible shriek before breaking apart. The rabbit bolted at the sound and I cursed.

“That’s gonna need more practice,” I mumbled to myself.

My failed attempt to push my arrow faster had scared off all of the wildlife. So I returned to camp with only the one rabbit. Master Thea had set up the tents and had a small fire going when I returned.

“Looks like it worked,” she said, looking at my catch.

“Not really, this was more luck than anything. At least it won't take long to cook.”