Though a saner individual might have given up after Xarakas kept his promise to beat the absolute hell out of her for three straight hours, the experience had the opposite effect on Asha.
His admonishments and nasty remarks about her physical capabilities may have set her teeth on edge, but they clearly weren't unfounded. She had a long way to go. Hell, she was afraid it was too long.
Which meant she needed to throw herself into it like she'd never done before.
After that first lesson, she'd cleaned herself up enough not to draw too many eyes and dragged herself to Kat, who'd taken one look at Asha and healed her injuries without question. Katze had even agreed not to mention how bad she'd been to Shax, even if she wasn't particularly happy herself to hear Asha's new combat instructor was to blame for her condition.
But the angel knew Shax's tendency to overreact better than anyone, and she and Asha had always sort of had an understanding when it came to things they thought it was better he not find out about. Like Kat leaving the palace alone to go on a flight occasionally or Asha's secret life.
They'd just quietly helped each other for years.
But mercifully, Asha didn't need to go back to Katze in the same condition again after that first day.
Xarakas remained a demanding, uncompromising instructor, and he didn't pull punches, but their lessons started to feel more instructive, albeit slow to yield significant results.
It wasn't a week before Asha realized she needed to do something. If this had been any other subject, she'd scour the library for reference materials and dedicate hours to studying. But no amount of reading was going to help with this. She needed practice, plain and simple. She needed to push her body the same way she would her mind.
Which was how Asha had come to the decision to double the exercises he'd assigned her to do every day.
It had been hard enough to find time for the regular amount around her busy schedule, but after careful analysis, Asha decided it was doable—if she was willing to cut a significant chunk of sleep from her schedule and eliminated a few breaks, the most time-consuming of which were to eat.
That had been a little over a week ago, and she wasn't sure she'd ever felt more miserable in her life.
Everything felt off somehow, fuzzy even, her body ached and seemed strangely heavy, and focusing was hard. It only got worse every day, but that was the way these things went, right? You always felt a little bad at first, and then it got better over time. She just had to wait out the adjustment period.
So she showed up to training every day and put her all into it and desperately tried not to show how she actually felt.
Which was why she was confused when, one morning, she opened her eyes to find that the sun was already up, and there were voices across her room.
Katze, saying something about making sure word didn't get back to the king. And then a response… Xarakas? What was he doing at the castle so early? And in her room of all places?
God, was it actually later than she thought?
Asha jumped up, trying to push back the fuzziness enough to think straight as she stumbled for her closet. "I'm up! I'm up! I just need to dress! I'll be ready in two seconds!"