Chapter 26 - The Training.
The morning light barely reached through the cave mouth as Elen walked up to Aren and held out his own sword.
Aren took it in his right hand and looked the blade over, and comparing it with the blades he had seen in Bernard's forge, he knew at once that the sword was fairly old, the metal dulled near the base and the worn wrapping on the grip dried and shrunken in places.
In his time at that forge Aren had held swords more than once, but only for sharpening or polishing.
When he had finished, he turned to Arswald, who stood facing him.
"Ready?" Arswald asked.
"Aren't you going to take your own sword?"
Arswald smirked a little and rested his hand on his belt.
"What for? Do you think our training starts straight away with the two of us sparring against each other?"
Aren said nothing, trying to work out what he had got wrong, while the others watched and smiled.
"First we need to get your stance and your technique in place. Only after that do we move on to paired drills," Arswald added as he came closer.
"I may have said you'd have to give everything you have, and I may have taken you at your word about learning fast, but a foundation of basic technique and stance is always needed."
Aren nodded without a word and looked from Arswald down to the sword in his hand.
"Well then, try getting into the stance you know," Arswald said.
Aren took a firmer hold of the grip, turned his body around to an angle, brought the blade up to chest height and bent his knees a little.
Armund folded his arms across his chest and sized up Aren's position, while Askir leaned forward with interest.
"Interesting... that's an Order knight's stance, and a correct one at that... have you trained with one of the knights already?" Arswald asked, narrowing his eyes a little.
"No, but I saw it at the tournament."
"Come off it, you learned the stance just by watching?" Askir asked with a smirk.
"Don't forget, he held his own against the Aisengard woman," Armund answered.
Askir waved a careless hand in objection and made no attempt to hide his skepticism.
"I'd have dealt with that half-mechanical bitch myself."
Armund answered only with a helpless smile and a quiet sigh, while Arswald stepped back a pace and stood facing Aren, relaxed.
"Attack."
Aren hesitated, at a loss as to how to attack a man with no weapon.
"But you're..."
"Just attack," Arswald repeated without moving from where he stood.
Aren breathed out through his nose, gathered himself and stepped forward, striking in a wide arc.
Arswald slipped aside and avoided it easily, then closed the distance in an instant and knocked the sword out of his hand with one sharp movement, before catching Aren's wrist and putting him down on the stone floor with a leg sweep.
Aren hit the stone and breathed out involuntarily at the pain.
Arswald straightened up unhurriedly and looked down at him.
"You may have learned the stance, but you have no idea how to use it."
He held out a hand to Aren and waited until Aren took it and hauled himself up off the floor with an effort, then picked up the sword he had knocked away.
"Even with your talents, don't be too sure of yourself. A warrior's training never ends, and you must always remember that," Arswald said, holding the sword out to him.
Aren took the sword from his hand and nodded without a word.
"Good, let's go again. Only this time try turning your hand like this..."
Over the next few hours Arswald took the technique apart one element at a time and would not move on to a new one until the previous movement had settled fully into Aren's body.
It started with the grip, and he gave that a great deal of attention.
Arswald explained that the fingers must not squeeze the grip dead tight, and showed the force needed at the base of the palm and the looser hold above it, since the blade had to become a natural continuation of the arm and follow every movement of the wrist.
Several times he corrected the angle of Aren's wrist until the arm and the blade made one straight line.
Once the work on the grip was finished, Arswald moved on to the footwork.
The stance Aren had taken on his own was correct in its essentials, though Arswald moved his center of gravity and made him shift his weight onto the ball of the foot, so that a step forward and a retreat began to feel different in the body.
He showed each movement several times over and made him repeat it until the step had fixed itself in the muscles without any thought.
Then came the strikes, which turned out to be the longest part of the lesson.
Arswald took every arc apart, showing in turn the descending vertical strike, the diagonal from the right shoulder and the horizontal to the body.
Aren repeated the movements again and again, and after every attempt came a short correction.
His arm tired quickly at first, though with every repetition the strikes grew more accurate.
"That's enough," Arswald said.
Aren straightened, lowered the sword and raised his eyes to Arswald.
"Since you pick things up this well, we won't put off the real practice," Arswald said and turned toward the cave mouth.
"Rest for now. Later we'll go into the forest, and there I'll see how you use what you've been given," he added on his way out.
Arswald went out of the cave, and only when his footsteps had died away beyond the rock did Elen come over to Aren and clap him on the back.
"You're something else! I'll admit it, I'm stunned you learned the technique in a few hours when it took me months."
"...You'd never... fought before the hunt, had you?" Aren asked.
Elen sat down on the nearest stone with a slight smile and settled himself more comfortably.
"That's right... Before this I only helped my mother with the work at the tavern."
Aren leaned the sword against the wall and sat down beside him.
"But my father was a warrior, and a strong one. He fought in many glorious battles and even got to see other lands... and he fought alongside the great heroes of Waldruhm during the waking of the Cursed Forest," Elen added.
"The waking of the Cursed Forest?" Aren asked.
Elen gave a short nod and went on.
"The Cursed Forest is another ancient forest, off to the northeast, along the northern borders of Waldruhm and next to the Divine Ridge. A few years ago terrible monsters began crawling out of the abyss that lies at the heart of that forest, and they spread through the whole of it. They turned south, into Waldruhm. King Edmund raised an army and went to war, and the fight against the horde of monsters ran for years as he pushed to reach the abyss itself and root out for good the evil that had come up from its depths."
Aren stared somewhere ahead of him for a long while and turned over what he had heard.
"King Edmund... so he came before Queen Edith?"
Elen smiled a little and gave his head a brief shake.
"King Edmund was Queen Edith's husband."
Aren's brows rose slowly, and Elen's smile widened a little as he leaned back on his hands and went on with the story.
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"They met during the fighting against the creatures of the abyss. While they were trying to break through the first ring of hives, a band of free warriors from other lands came to their aid, and among them was a warrior woman of great power. By all accounts, Edmund could not believe his own eyes when the swarms that had surrounded them were destroyed amid thunder and lightning that deafened and blinded them. When the King opened his eyes, he saw a young, fragile-looking girl standing on a rock in front of him. That was Edith."
"I didn't know the Queen was a warrior... and one that powerful," Aren said.
Elen answered calmly, still propped back on his hands.
"Oh yes, she's one of the Pleiades."
"What are the Pleiades?"
Elen crossed one leg over the other and thought about where to start.
"There's a famous explorer called Marcus Rine. He's one of the few who have been to every corner of Prime and studied the cultures of all the peoples living in our world. He's been through battles too, and set down what he saw in his notes. In one of his last notes he listed the six most powerful women in Prime and called them the Pleiades. Edith is one of them."
"And who are the other five?"
"I don't remember. I only overheard some drunks talking about it at the tavern, since I've never even held a book."
Aren sorted through what he had heard while he looked at the stone wall.
"And what happened afterwards? How did Waldruhm beat the creatures of the abyss?"
Elen lowered his eyes slowly and laced his fingers before him.
"In the last battle... at Augenstadt... it's a small kingdom in neutral territory, just beyond the Cursed Forest... the great mages of Edith's company managed to seal the abyss. But... it cost them dearly."
His hands slowly locked tighter, and after a short pause Elen went on.
"Before the last battle... when they managed to push the creatures of the abyss back for a while... things went quieter in Waldruhm for a time... and it was the perfect moment to gather strength and be ready for the final push. King Edmund and Edith, who had come to love each other over years of fighting side by side, married, even though the battle wasn't over. The happiness in their faces and the love that radiated from them gave the people hope and relief, and gave the warriors faith and the will to have done with the Cursed Forest at last. But... to seal the abyss... the King had to give his life to buy time and protect Edith and her company... and among those who defended them... who stood beside the King... was the former head of the Green Order... and beside them, my father."
Aren slowly turned his head to Elen and looked into his face.
Elen's hair hung down over his eyes and hid them, though his pressed lips showed how much it hurt him.
"So... when I found out my father wasn't coming back... when I found out he'd become a hero... I understood that I wanted to be like him... I want to be as great a warrior as he was, so that my father... up there in the heavens... would be proud of me and know that I carry his name in my heart, his glory, his will and my own love for him... so I decided I'd go on this hunt to become a man at last... my first step toward being as great as my father."
Aren slowly dropped his gaze as he remembered Selma's empty stare, her eyes red from tears and sleepless nights.
"Your mother... she's grieving terribly... everyone thinks you're—" Aren began.
Elen clenched his fist on his knee and dropped his head, while his shoulders began to shake almost imperceptibly.
"I know," Elen answered.
A silence settled between them, and in it Aren could not find the words he needed.
Elen went on, still looking down.
"When you told me what had happened with my mother... I... I understood she'd felt the same pain as on the day we waited for my father and he never came..."
His eyes were still hidden behind his hair, and tears fell onto the stone floor one after another.
"I wanted to be the same support for our family that my father was... and in the end... I only caused more pain... I'm a terrible son... I don't even know whether I'll come back..."
Aren's fingers dug into his own knees when he heard those words, and he did not take his eyes off Elen.
"Went off on a hunt to prove I was a man... and instead I died and caused my mother even more pain," Elen added.
Aren shot up from where he sat and stood directly in front of Elen.
"That's not true!"
Elen slowly raised his eyes, and Aren went on.
"Yes, what she heard may have hurt Selma badly, but that doesn't mean she accepted it!... You know... she may have grieved... but every day she looked out of the window... and I'm sure she's still looking... as if she's waiting for you."
Elen's eyes opened wider and his lips parted a little.
"It hurt Selma, but I believe she didn't break, and she didn't believe you were gone... So you mustn't think that way! The only thing you should be thinking about now is how to get back to her and show her... show her that you're not just a man, you're the one she was right to believe in. You've already saved at least two people! The girl from the Trade League and me! Don't you see... Elen, you're a hero already!"
Elen sat a long moment with his eyes somewhere ahead of him, then hit himself across the face with an open palm, which made Aren flinch a little, and got up and wiped the tears away with the back of his hand.
"Damn... now I have no doubts at all... you're a Greenfield through and through," he said.
"What do you mean?"
"You talk exactly like Elara."
That took Aren by surprise, and he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, as Elen picked up his own sword unhurriedly and slid it into its scabbard.
"I'm glad I met you," Elen said, stepping closer and holding out his hand to Aren.
The two of them gripped each other's forearms and looked each other in the eye.
"Let's find the truth you're after and get out of this damned forest," Elen added, and Aren nodded with a determined smile.
In that same moment a crunch broke the moment, and both of them turned toward the cave mouth, where the short figure of Askir stood gnawing a hare bone without a word and looking at them with a stony stare.
"Yeah... you two are so weird..."
"NOBODY ASKED YOUR OPINION, ASKIR!" Elen burst out indignantly.
"Have you been crying?" Askir asked flatly without stopping chewing.
"NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!"
Aren did not hide his astonishment as he looked at Askir.
"Is that a bone?... he's chewing and swallowing a bone?..."
Ray was meanwhile surveying the ground from the stone ledge above the entrance, and when he heard voices from inside he looked down and said under his breath.
"What's going on down there?"
Later the group left the cave after Arswald and came out into the cool half-dark of the Great Forest, where a few paces on he suddenly stopped and scratched his head.
"Ah, damn, I forgot."
Aren, Elen and the others stopped and looked at Arswald's back, and he slowly turned around.
"What kind of magic is yours, Aren?"
Aren went still and thought about it.
"I don't know."
"How can you not know? We saw you make a magic dome when the Cortexes attacked!" Askir said.
"I still don't know how it works... I just think about protecting myself, and it happens."
Arswald came around to face him fully and ran an appraising eye over him.
"Show me."
Everyone moved apart and cleared a space in the middle.
Aren waited a few seconds, raised his hand and concentrated, but nothing happened however hard he tried.
Armund and Elen exchanged a brief glance as they watched the attempt fail, and Arswald stood facing Aren with his arms folded and did not look away.
"Try to feel how the gift in your body starts to let the energy out."
Aren strained with his teeth clenched and put everything he had into it.
"I'm... t-trying..."
After a few seconds Arswald let out a heavy sigh and shook his head.
"All right, that's enough," he said, and Aren let out a breath of relief.
Arswald moved off a little to one side and rubbed his head slowly, and Armund meanwhile came over to Aren.
"Don't you remember how you managed it last time?"
"That was the second time in my life. The first was in the duel with Schtance, the second with the Cortexes... both of them at a moment when I was on the edge of death."
Armund tilted his head in thought, and Arswald straightened and turned around with an idea showing in his eyes.
Elen glanced at Arswald and caught him starting to draw his sword.
"Arswald? What are you—"
Arswald did not let Elen finish and swung sharply at Aren, who was forced to jump aside at the last second.
"Nobody interfere!" he shouted.
The attacks came one after another, while Aren barely managed to keep dodging and backed further and further away.
At one point he managed to duck before Arswald's blade cut through the trunk of the nearest tree.
The attacks were so fast that Aren had no time left to catch his breath or say a single word.
During another retreat he tripped on a root and fell to the ground, but Arswald's sword, already coming down on him, was thrown off the next second with a ringing magical sound and drove Arswald back.
Aren sat on the ground with his hand raised, and in front of his palm stood a small pane of blue magical energy.
Everyone around them went still, and Arswald stepped closer at once.
"Hold it and don't let go."
Arswald looked closely at the energy that had appeared in front of Aren and prodded it carefully a few times with the blade.
"Hm... it's a kind of magical shield... not bad... I haven't seen this before."
He straightened up and looked at Aren thoughtfully.
"Now focus on what you're feeling. What do you feel? Try to remember it and understand how it works."
Aren shut his eyes, sank into his own sensations and listened to them.
"Now try taking it away and making it again."
Aren opened his eyes, lowered his hand and watched the shield dissolve smoothly into the air, then got to his feet and looked at his own palm.
He stretched his hand out in front of him and shut his eyes again to concentrate on the same sensation as before.
The shield appeared again, the same size.
Elen and the others smiled, and Arswald only gave a short nod.
"Well done. But that still doesn't solve our problem."
"What problem?" Elen asked.
"I'd like you to practice on something less dangerous than a Cortex, a white-stone boar for instance, but you can't get through their stone rind with an ordinary weapon. Their shell looks like white stone, and in fact it's made of magical energy. To break it you need another magical energy, a stronger one, roughly like this."
Arswald covered the sword in the magical shell Aren knew, and the blade lit up with a yellow glow.
Aren slowly lowered his hand, and the shield dissolved instantly.
Arswald turned to Ray, who was still standing on the stone ledge.
"Ray, come down and give him your sword."
Ray put the bow away, came down off the ledge and held the sword out to Aren.
"Now try covering that sword with your own energy," Arswald said.
Aren tightened his hold on the grip with his eyes on the blade and tried to concentrate, picturing the energy flowing onto the metal.
Nothing came of it, for all his effort.
Arswald sighed slowly and shook his head.
"Just as I thought... it was to be expected that your kind of magic is completely different from ours."
"Well, luckily the Cortexes have no magical hide, and we can deal with the white-stone boars ourselves," Ray said.
"That's clear enough, only we're not sending him straight out to practice on Cortexes," Arswald answered.
The pause stretched while they all turned over what had been said, but Aren looked slowly around at them and made up his mind to break the silence.
"I think this is enough for me."
They all turned to him, and he went on.
"We don't have much time. In any case I'm not on my own, and all we need is to reach the Great Tree, get the answers and get out of the forest."
"Have you forgotten already what I told you at the start of the training? Don't be too sure of yourself," Arswald began.
"I know," Aren answered.
"But my gut tells me we can't afford to wait."
They all exchanged looks without a word, and Arswald nodded slowly with a long sigh and took in the rest of them.
"In that case we pack up."
The group headed into the cave for their things, and Elen came over to Aren.
"Are you sure? You've trained for a few hours all told."
"Do we have any other choice?" Aren asked.
Elen thought for a few seconds, then sighed with a smile.
"You know, you're right. I went on the hunt myself without any fighting experience or magic at all."
"What? You can't use magic?"
Elen scratched his head with an awkward smile.
"That's right... I wasn't gifted the way my father or the other warriors were, but I believe you can become a great warrior without magic too."
"...So do I," Aren answered with a smile back.
A few minutes later the whole group had gathered in front of the cave.
Arswald faced the others and looked over every one of them.
"Our objective is to protect Aren and get him to the Great Tree. If it all works, we should have a chance of getting out. Keep your eyes open. If you see tracks, report them straight away. If you feel anything, report it. And... I hope it doesn't come to this, but if we do end up running into Ursus... everyone runs. Immediately."
Every member of the party nodded his agreement, and then Arswald turned toward the forest.
"We move out."