I ran through the open grassland, sweat dripping down my face from my exertion. Brietta had come to my room shortly after I had fled there. I knew she must be angry for my recklessness and the damage it caused, but she was gentle with me. Asking me if I was ok and saying that things would be alright. I don't know why, but her forgiveness of my mistake made me feel worse than if she'd just yelled at me. Punishment is what I understood. Mercy? Not so much.
Brietta seemed to quickly catch on that I didn't want to talk about the fire incident and had left me alone in my room. After about five minutes of pacing I couldn't take it anymore. I fled outside. Fortunately for me the region had been declared demon free a few days prior so the mana barrier had been taken down so as to not waste precious mana. I ran right out of town and kept running.
I paused to catch my breath, annoyed once again by the limitations of the human body. I felt an overwhelming sense of claustrophobia. I felt stuck in this body, in this situation. I glanced around at the rolling sunlit fields. There wasn't a soul in sight.
It couldn't hurt to transform back to my true form for just a little while. Maybe that would help clear my head. I gathered my mana and let it flow over me, washing away my humanity. I stretched out my wings happily. It was good to have them back. I ran my fingers over my horns, relieved to be back to normal. I knew I couldn't stay like this for long or the Cluniacs might detect my presence, but it was nice to be back.
I itched to fly around, but while I was reckless, I wasn't that reckless. That would just be asking for someone to spot me. And knowing my luck it would probably be Kivani who would see me and come to finish me off with his holy fire.
I might as well walk around for a bit before I go…
Samara! Where have you been! Get back here at once!
Icy fear doused my senses. How could he contact me here? I was in a completely different realm!
If you come back now I may be generous enough to reduce the severity of your punishment. A deep velvety voice growled in my head.
Answer me! If…
Before he could finish I transformed back into my human form. My head remained silent and I gasped in relief. And then the magnitude of what I'd just done sunk in. I'd just directly disobeyed Cifer's command.
I had just gone against the wishes of Lucifer. The King of Demons.
I stood frozen for a few minutes dreading the return of his voice in my mind. Fortunately, there wasn't a sound besides the violent crashing of my thoughts. It seemed like he couldn't contact me while I was in human form. Why? I wasn't exactly sure. I didn't even think it would be possible for him to contact me at all when we were in different realms.
This was bad. While I had wanted to be rebellious, I had always imagined I would go back to the Demon Realm and Cifer eventually. Of course I hadn't exactly considered what kind of punishment Cifer would have waiting for me. But now. Now I could bet that whatever punishment he had chosen for me was about to get some dangerously drastic revisions. My mind swirled as I contemplated transforming back into my demonic form and then begging Cifer for forgiveness. Promising him I would find the next tear and come back immediately. Or better yet I would just go to the dead zone so I wouldn't have to gamble on when the next tear would occur.
But Cifer detested begging. At this point the damage was done. He was already furious. Maybe if I stayed away long enough his anger would fade. I knew that was a foolish hope, but it was technically possible even if it was severely unlikely.
I didn't think he knew exactly where I was even if he had been able to reach me telepathically. Plus there was no way he would be able to fit through just any tear. It would have to be a huge breach between the dimensions, otherwise his extreme mana levels would interfere with the transition between realms.
Deciding that avoidance was my best bet at the moment I retreated back to the town slowly, my stomach swirling with anxiety.
On my way back toward town I noticed a squat building and a sandy clearing located about a quarter mile outside of town. Pairs of men seemed to be sparring and a few others looked like they were working on archery, shooting arrows into colorful targets. The border of the sandy fighting arena also seemed to be equipped with elements for people to practice their magic with. Pools of water, mounds of rocks and dirt, and large braizures burning with fire.
Needing a distraction from my spiraling thoughts I decided to check it out. As I approached I noticed some of the Clunaics I'd seen on the day of the demon breach. But there were also other men that seemed to be training there as well. Of course there were no women present, which at this point didn't surprise me anymore.
I walked up to the building. That must be where they stored weapons and equipment. I leaned against the brick wall surveying the training area. The Clunaics seemed to have decent fighting skills with one pair fighting with wooden practice swords and another pair fighting with wind and ice magic. Another one of the Clunaics was shooting targets with a bow with scary accuracy despite the targets being so far away. The Clunaics aside, the rest of the men's skills were dismal at best. I could have easily beaten like ten of them at once with nothing but my sword. When I was like eleven.
I was so distracted by the training bouts that I didn't notice Kivani until he spoke.
"Enjoying the show?" He asked, leaning against the building beside me. He gave me a gauging stare as if wondering if he should bring up the events of that morning. Fortunately, he made the right choice and avoided the subject. Though in light of the recent events regarding Cifer, the kitchen fire this morning seemed significantly less important.
"No, I'm just waiting for a sparring partner. You don't seem to be doing anything useful. Care to have a bout?"
"Are you sure about that?"
"You the one who was curious if I was a warrior? What? Are you too afraid to fight a girl?" I asked in a mocking tone.
"No, I'd be happy to spar with you if you really want." Kivani still looked hesitant. Almost like he thought I was just being reckless. Something I'm sure he thought was a character flaw for me after the incident with the demon breach as well as the kitchen fiasco. And well, I'm self aware enough to know that recklessness may be a slight problem for me. Only a slight problem. But in this situation there was nothing reckless about it. I knew I was skilled and could fight so I had no reason to gamble with the odds of my success.
Kivani disappeared briefly into the brick building and returned with two wooden practice swords. He handed one to me and I tested the balance of it. It was definitely nothing compared to my trusty angelite blade, Lamentation, but it wasn't terrible. I guess it was probably for the best that we were using wooden swords. That way I'd be less likely to accidentally kill him.
"How about we stick with no magic for this bout." Kivani suggested as we walked out to an open space in the sandy clearing.
"Works for me." If magic was allowed I'd be at a severe disadvantage since I could only use fire magic in order to keep up my ruse. As we'd seen in previous instances, I was a little lacking when it came to my mastery of fire magic. And also as previously seen, Kivani seemed to be significantly skilled with his fire affinity. Though I wouldn't think too highly of him since I could easily pulverize him with magic if I could use my natural affinity. It wouldn't even take ten seconds, even if I was still stuck in this human body. And it seemed like I would be stuck like this for the foreseeable future if I wanted to avoid Cifer.
"Alright then, let's begin!"
Kivani and I began circling each other, our swords raised. I decided it might be more fun to string him along rather than just beating him too quickly so I purposely made my form sloppy. Kivani on the other hand had perfect form, though I suspected based on his expression that he was planning on going easy on me.
I smirked at his stupidity and lunged. He easily deflected my haphazard strike and quickly pushed me back with two strong hits of his own. I was a little surprised by his strength. I mean, his strength wasn't anything otherworldly, but it was enough to be a little bit of a struggle in this weaker human body.
We traded a few more anticlimactic blows. Once I was sure that Kivani was thoroughly convinced that he was just humoring me. Once he believed I wasn't particularly skilled in swordplay, I made my move.
I attacked in with a ferocious set of brutal moves Cifer had taught me, catching Kivani off guard and forcing him to stumble back awkwardly. But I didn't give him time to breathe, quickly pursuing him with more quick precise strikes. Rapping him in the side, the thigh, and even the back of the head with the flat of my blade. Kivani, seeming to realize that he needed to take this fight seriously if he had any chance of winning, started fighting back with more intensity. He really was a good swordsman, but I'd been trained by the best. I'd lived and breathed combat for the last decade.
I let the match go on, enjoying the adrenaline of the fight. And despite my human body starting to flag sooner than I was accustomed too, I sort of relished the feeling of pushing back physical exhaustion. That feeling of going a little longer or a little farther even when your body is protesting, was a high I'd become addicted to.
By the time I'd knocked Kivani to the ground, my sword pointing at his chest, we were both sweating.
"So, would you say I'm a warrior? Or am I just some weak woman?" I said patronizingly.
Kivani blinked up at me from the ground. "I think I would have to say you're a warrior. And a great one at that."
I don't know why, but his acknowledgement of my skill. His respect. It felt good. I wasn't exactly sure what I found so satisfying about being praised by him. I'd already known I was the better fighter. I'd already known what the outcome of the fight would be. But still I couldn't help but feel a rush of satisfaction.
I offered a hand to help him up and he took it, heaving himself off the ground. He held my hand a little longer than was necessary after he stood up so I pulled it back feeling a little awkward.
"You know, I think my men could learn a thing or two from you."
"I bet they could learn more than just a thing or two." I said, inspecting my fingernails nonchalantly. "And what about you? Do you think you could learn a thing or two?"
"Definitely." I was surprised by the genuine seriousness in his voice. It made me feel a little bad for putting on such an arrogant act. But only a little. For the most part I was thoroughly enjoying lording my victory over him.
"Well how about this. I'll help you and your men with your sword skills if you train me how to use fire magic."
"You have a fire affinity?" He asked. And then I could see the gears in his mind turning as he recalled the events of the morning. "Oh, I guess that makes sense." He answered for himself. "Sure, I'd be happy to train you."
Now before you go getting any ideas about me being so charitable to offer up my superb training services, let me set you straight. In between thoughts of how to bask in my victory, an idea had been growing in my mind. Kivani, as I'd seen the first day we'd met when he'd so rudely burned me, seemed to have a holy fire affinity. And that wasn't exactly normal by any stretch of the word. Did he have some sort of connection to the angels? Did he have other angelic abilities? Was he an angel in disguise? That last idea I seriously doubted. I mean Kivani was nice enough, but he didn't exactly seem angelic. Though given what Cifer had taught me about the angels, they weren't exactly virtuous beings so I guess I wouldn't rule out the possibility.
But anyway, whatever the reason for Kivani's strange ability, I was going to get to the bottom of it. Because if there was one thing I knew, it was that Cifer was obsessed with the Angelic Realm. That meant if I could bring him back some juicy information about the angels, he might be more willing to forgive me. Because as much as I enjoyed being in the Human Realm, it wasn't my home. I didn't want to be stuck here in this body forever.
"We have a deal then. What time do you normally do your training?" I asked.
"We do patrols in the morning so we usually train in the late afternoon."
"Works for me. I'll see you tomorrow at training."
"See you then. Have a good evening."
I turned to walk back to town, noting quite a few curious gazes. I wondered how many of them had seen my match. Well, if they hadn't seen this one, there would be plenty of beat downs in the future for them to enjoy.
I felt lighter as I made my way back to the church. Sure, it hadn't exactly been the best day, what with the kitchen disaster and Cifer's concerning telepathy message, but at least now I had a plan. A purpose. It may not be a watertight idea, but I wasn't just wandering around aimlessly anymore. Things should work out just fine. Right? Right. Hopefully.
***
"Alright, so tell me a little bit about your fire affinity so I know the best way to train you? Which subaffinity do you fall under?" Kivani asked.
We were in the sandy training arena again, the other Clunaics and men packing up their equipment around us. The afternoon training session had just ended, and despite being a little tired from all the beat downs I'd been serving up, when Kivani offered to do our first magic training lesson I'd immediately agreed.
The men had been wary of me at first. With some of them seeming uncomfortable with the idea of fighting me and others outright taunting me. Kivani did his best to stomp down on any rude behavior, but many of the men still muttered discontentedly. The Clunaics seemed to follow Kivani's orders quickly, though the other men were more difficult to get under control.
From what I understood, this area was a public training ground open to any men in the village. That meant we had a variety of ages and skill levels as well as varied motivations. Some men wanted to be stronger to protect their families, others thought being a good fighter might attract some ladies, and still others were youngsters who dreamed of trying out for the Clunaics.
Kivani had paired me with one of his Clunaics, a disciple named Nicolev for my first match. It was fun to see the change in the crowd from the beginning of the fight to the end. The transition from skepticism and concern to surprise and disbelief. There were also a number of men who seemed to think it was unnatural for a woman to be so skilled. Some even claimed that I must be the spawn of the devil. If only they knew how right they were.
The training session then consisted of various men challenging me to a bout. Each one seemed to be under the impression that the previous fighter had simply gone easy on me for being a woman and that they would be the one to finally put me in my place. To be honest I quite enjoyed it when they assumed they could win. It made flaunting my victories all the more glorious.
By the end of the session I was sweaty and tired, but also invigorated. I hadn't realized I had missed training so much. I'd definitely been feeling burned out recently from Cifer's training, but something about a new environment and new sparring partners made me love it again. Also the fact that I had yet to lose probably also boosted my mood.
"I'm best at combustion but I can manage a little bit of fire manipulation." While this was an honest answer in regards to my mastery of fire magic, it of course left out the fact that fire wasn't even close to my natural affinity.
"What about you, what aspects of fire can you use?" I asked him.
"Fire manipulation is my base affinity, but I've also mastered all the other subaffinities of fire magic. So I can definitely help you with combustion."
"You've mastered all of them?" I asked, hoping he might elaborate on what that 'all' might include. Namely, holy fire.
"Well, my lightning and lava skills could definitely be better, but I at least know the basics."
I considered being more discreet, but we all know patience isn't exactly my thing so I just decided to go the direct route.
"So does that mean you know how to use holy fire?" I asked innocently.
He scoffed. But not before I thought I caught a spark of surprise in his eyes.
"Unfortunately holy fire manipulation and summoning isn't possible." He stated confidently. Well, I could at least give him props for his lying skills.
"Anyway, before we start working with fire, let's go over the basics of utilizing your mana to the fullest."
I almost wanted to roll my eyes. I'd had the mechanics of mana use drilled into me by Cifer over and over again. He had put me through grueling drills to help me widen my mana channels and allow me to access more mana at once and for longer. When it came to magic, my mana access was never the issue. But my finesse with some of the affinities was sorely lacking. As we have seen previously, just throwing more mana behind your magic doesn't always have the intended result if it isn't directly properly.
Kivani rambled on and on about magic theory and how I could train over time to increase my mana levels. He sounded like he was some sort of inspirational speaker. Going on about how no matter how little mana you were born being able to access, there was always room to grow, it just took more dedication. I managed to nod along to give the illusion I was listening, but in reality, by the end of his spiel I had pretty much fallen asleep with my eyes open.
"Ok, now let's try some exercises so I can gauge how much mana you're working with. I want you to use your combustion ability to start a fire in that grate there." He waved his hand over one of the braizures that burned with fire along the edge of the arena, extinguishing the flames and giving me a place to start my fire.
I walked over to the braizure and paused. Not because it was difficult to force the mana in the air to combust into flames, but because I wasn't exactly sure how much mana I should put behind the fire. I didn't want my mana levels to be suspiciously high, but I also didn't want to fence myself in terms of how much mana would become my new normal. If I sold myself too short it might make training with Kivani slow going since he would think I needed more work building up my mana.
"Could you demonstrate first?" I asked. Maybe he could help set the standard on what a normal about of mana release was. "And don't be modest, I want to see how strong a Clunaic's mana is."
Kivani obliged, creating a blazing column of fire that stretched a good ten feet into the air. He raised an eyebrow at me as he swiped the flames from existence again.
"That flashy enough for you? Now will you stop procrastinating and just show me your magic already. It's ok if you don't have control, I'll be here to keep it from getting out of hand."
I raised my hands toward the braizure. Hand gestures weren't a requirement for using mana, but it did help with directing one's magic, especially when one's control wasn't great. I pulled some of my mana to the surface and willed it out, forcing the air above the braizure to combust. Flames shot up, licking toward the sky. I quickly pulled my mana back, realizing I'd inadvertently let out too much. The flames fell back down to a more reasonable height, but not before Kivani had seen them shoot up higher than his had gone.
Kivani's eyebrows were raised as he gave me a surprised look.
"Well, I guess we won't have an issue when it comes to your mana levels." I winced internally at my mistake, hoping he wouldn't think too much into why I had so much mana. Fortunately, everyone else had already vacated the training area so I only had one witness to worry about. Of course this witness was the most worrying of all, him being the one to have fought me as a demon before.
But Kivani didn't make a huge deal out of it to my relief. He spent the rest of the lesson instructing me on how to better sense the mana currents that were unique to fire. He was pretty good at explaining and my training with other affinities made it fairly easy for me to grasp the concept of sensing the unique mana signature of various elements. But while I understood the concept behind the skills, that didn't mean it was easy to actually master. It was like the difference between reading about how to fight and then actually fighting.
After a while Kivani announced that we were done as the sun was already retreating below the horizon. We started making our way back to town.
"You're a fast learner," Kivani praised.
"Yes."
"Wow, I'm loving the humility."
"Yes, I am quite skilled at humility." I teased. Somewhere along the way, talking to Kivani had become comfortable. Yes, there was always that underlying unease that he might discover my secret and kill me with Holy Fire, but that unease was slowly getting buried. I wasn't sure if that was necessarily a good thing, but nevertheless I was too lazy to go digging to scour up a sense of disquiet.
"I can tell."
We passed the walk with playful banter and I couldn't help but sort of enjoy it. I'd never had anyone I could talk to like this. Someone who treated me as an equal. Sure Brietta was great, but there was always a barrier between us. She was my healer so I always sort of wondered if her kindness to me was just her doing her job.
And sure there was always Cifer. Despite his harshness at times, I still enjoyed talking with him. He was pretty much the closest thing I had to a father. But we were not equals.
And any training partners Cifer had assigned to me over the years had never seemed open to friendship. Most of them had seemed to only be there because they were too scared to defy Cifer.
Don't get too comfortable. I scolded myself. I just needed to focus on getting information from Kivani so I could go home. I was only getting close to him so he would let his guard down and tell me his secrets.
We arrived at the church and I was about to head to my room when Kivani gestured for me to wait.
"Hold on a second. I made a dessert for you, as per our previous agreement."
"It's about time. I was starting to think you might not be a man of your word."
Kivani placed a hand on his chest giving me an exaggerated expression of mock hurt.
"I can't believe you would think so poorly of me!"
"Oh, don't be such a princess about it, just give me my food!"
"Don't be salty just because you're jealous that I would make a lovelier princess than you!"
"Yeah? You going to start wearing your hair in pretty braids?"
"Maybe I will."
"Well, then be my guest, princess."
Kivani gave me a smile over his shoulder and then hurried off to retrieve my bribe. I leaned up against the outside of the church building, closing my eyes and enjoying the warm breeze. Moments like this made me question why I was working so hard to get back to the Demon Realm.
"Did you hear about that woman who was fighting at this afternoon's training?"
"Yeah. That's just downright unnatural."
Annoyance prickled at my senses. I gave both of them a light mental smack to which they both looked around confused before quickly hurrying off muttering about some evil spirit lurking about.
Just as the men had retreated Kivani returned to my side, holding something wrapped in a cloth. He unwrapped it with a flourish, brandishing a circular looking pastry with a hole in the middle.
"May I present to you a donut."
I took the donut, wasting no time before taking a big bite. It was glorious. The bread was light and airy and a glaze on the surface added a sweetness that mingled perfectly with the bread. I managed to suppress a moan of delight as I quickly demolished the donut, disappointed at how fast it was gone.
"So I take it you like it?"
"I'm not sure I can give it high marks since it had a huge hole in the middle. I was basically deprived of my full dessert. I don't think we're even yet."
"Oh so I'm still indebted to you, am I?"
"Well, obviously. I'm appalled you would serve such a skimpy dessert to me."
"My sincerest apologies. I guess I should have reserved more than one donut for you. But alas my men have already eaten all the rest of the donuts."
"You mean to tell me you let those heathens eat donuts that should have rightfully gone to me. They better be ready to face my wrath tomorrow at training." I was only partially teasing. I really could have eaten a dozen of those sweet little treats and they had deprived me of that opportunity. I definitely had no plans on pulling my punches tomorrow. Not that I had ever planned on going easy on them.
Kivani bid me good night and retreated to his quarters. I made my way to my room, still fantasizing about eating more donuts.