When Mendax came back, Aureum had tied the flower ribbon onto the spear. He looked at it as she put her hair up with the ribbon Lacuna had bought her.
"It might get ruined that way," he said.
"What?" She spoke as she glanced back to look at him, then at the spear. "Don't a lot of spears have tassels? I can just get another one."
Finishing her hair, she picked up the spear.
"Do you know where we're going to train, or is that just gonna be another discovery for the day?"
"I have an idea."
Does it have to be a discovery for me? Why do you think people ask questions?!
But another thought struck her.
"What about Vitreum?"
"What about me?" Vitreum said, looking up.
She was on the floor, brushing Snowfluffles.
"It's still the weekend, so let's leave her with Sitis. But in the future, I don't see the problem with taking her."
"It depends where we're going," Aureum said.
"It's not so bad a place!"
Mendax's sudden enthusiasm did not hide his guilt. He avoided looking in Vitreum's direction.
"Am I going to Situs'?" Vitreum whined.
"Seems like it," Aureum said. "Pack it up, kiddo."
"Nobody told me…" Vitreum grumbled as she began putting her stuff away.
They dropped her off at Situs' dorm. Stoic Situs was all smiles with her, which was how the big fellow normally was around Vitreum.
"I was going to meet Lacuna today," Sitis said. "Can I take her?"
Is this guy seriously putting off his date at the drop of a hat just to babysit?
Aureum couldn't understand him, but she appreciated him.
"I don't think Lacuna would do her any harm," Aureum said. Thinking further about how the two had met, she continued. "Make certain Vitreum doesn't give her too much trouble."
"Of course," Situs said.
It felt like he might salute. Aureum and Mendax chatted a little but left quickly after that.
They walked through the university's campus with sunlit green leaves overhead.
"Should we start thinking about her education?" Aureum said.
Mendax looked at her askance.
"At this point, she's going to be staying with us long enough that it could affect her life if she doesn't form her pearl soon," Aureum said.
"You're not wrong, but unless she's of the element of ice or wind, we shouldn't teach her anything."
"Are you serious?" Aureum said. "We're minutes from one of the greatest libraries studying pearls in the history of maybe forever, and you're saying we can't?"
"She would still need to be taught how to feel and direct her mana by the right element. Books can only do so much."
"She's probably of stone mana, going from her family, and Situs is right there. It's enough to get her started."
Mendax sighed.
"You can't assume that bloodline tells everything about a child's mana tendencies. She isn't even their blood relative! It has to be tested. Besides the fact that it isn't within our right to make such a decision for her."
I'd forgotten about her bloodline. But still, so we get her tested, then we go from there! It's easy enough to do!
"Is it normal for you to be difficult, or is it because we're not friends yet?"
"Seeing as I'm teaching you for free, I thought we were plenty friendly. I just don't want to ruin the future of a kid I was never supposed to be responsible for in the first place."
"Do you want to get paid?"
Mendax shook his head.
"That's not what I meant! No matter what you do, I suggest you don't go too far in forming her pearl. Getting her familiar with mana won't do much, but forming a pearl in haste could hurt her more than a delay could."
Aureum took a moment to calm herself.
He's right. He's being irritating about it, but he's right.
Her goal wasn't to harm Vitreum.
"Fine."
They took the path away from the exit for the university's grounds and headed to an odd corner. Most of the university buildings were planned for direct travel, but this path felt like an afterthought for placement. Not to mention the path was thinner, too.
A few small and old buildings came into view. A small and dusty training ground lay between them. Getting closer, Aureum confirmed those posts were definitely dummies, even if they were without any stuffing.
"This is…?"
"The original grounds of the university, when it first opened to the public. Situs said no one uses them these days."
That explained the dilapidation then.
"You could have just told me," Aureum said.
"I didn't want Vitreum announcing it."
"Don't we have permission?"
"Not exactly, but we haven't been forbidden either. We're using it as a space to swing a stick around without anyone to get hurt in, not a secret party ground."
"I'd be disappointed if some of the students didn't have parties in it," Aureum said. "Looks creepy and perfect for it."
"Come on, let's get this over with."
There wasn't any fresh sand on the training grounds. Only a square patch of hard dirt that the grass hadn't reclaimed, despite its best efforts.
Mendax stood in front of her, his arms crossed. He'd actually taken off his coat and rags for this.
He stood in all his malformed glory, but Aureum mostly noticed he was built more than she expected. The skin was the same as his face, and hardly a surprise anymore.
No wonder I could hardly move him.
He held out his hand.
"Give me the spear," he said.
Aureum held it closer.
"No? It's mine now. No taksy backsies."
"I need to show you how to hold it."
"Shouldn't you have prepared your own?"
"For someone who asked to be taught, you're being pretty rude right now."
Aureum gave it to him without any further trouble.
He held it before her.
"Today is the first day, and you're not completely healed, so all I've got planned is teaching you how to stand and hold it."
Aureum waited, and he nodded.
"First, when standing, you need to be stable and strong. Spread your feet apart and bend your knees."
He showed off the stance as he spoke. Aureum did her best to imitate it.
"That's too much for you. A little less."
She took another step as she adjusted. Mendax circled her. He tried to make certain her stance was good, but her long dress obscured it a bit.
Mendax rubbed his face as he came back before her.
"That looks fine for now, stay like that as I show you to hold the spear."
He held it before him, a bit exaggerated for Aureum's benefit. The spear was taller than he was, like most of its kind. He held his right hand closer to the bottom end with a tight grip, and his left hand was held loosely some feet from the tip of the spear.
It struck Aureum why Mendax thought of the spear when she asked for distance.
"How am I supposed to imitate that when you have it—
Mendax tossed the spear at Aureum. She grabbed it.
"Now you try."
She tried. She gripped both hands tightly onto it.
"Loosen your left and pull it more from the tip. Keep your legs bent. Why are you leaning forward so much?"
Aureum tried to adjust as Mendax directed, but each time she moved her hands, she got her feet wrong, or bent her back wrong, or her legs were bent correctly, but her hands were wrong.
"Are your hands connected to your knees? Hold them like this!"
He put his hands on her knees to move them in place. Aureum stiffened from the shock of it, but he let her go quickly without any deeper meaning. His expression held nothing but frustration.
"Keep them like that! No, don't move them again!"
Aureum refocused on her task doubly. When she finally managed to have a few moments where she held the pose to Mendax's satisfaction, the strain of it settled in.
Mendax backed away to his original position of crossing his arms and glared at her in concentration.
Nice cheerleading there, buddy. No pressure at all.
Aureum's legs began to shake as the seconds ticked by.
How long does he expect me to hold this?
Aureum didn't consider herself weak, but nothing she'd done seemed to cover all the muscles this pose wanted to use.
She looked at him, but his marred face was impassive.
How long?
She began counting in her head just to focus on something else.
"That's enough."
Aureum crumbled in her stance. She didn't fall to her knees, but her spear dug into the ground as she leaned on it.
"Being able to hold the stance is a good start, but can you get back to it without me showing it to you?"
"No," Aureum said, "not unless you give me a few more minutes of a break."
Mendax's brow furrowed.
Is this that hard? He thought.
"I'll give you five," he said, and gave her more distance as he went to look at one of the wooden dummies.
A bag of wheat wouldn't be so hard to get. He could tie it to the dummy so she'd have an easier time when she practiced stabbing.
He glanced behind him. She had sunk to her knees now, resting her head against the spear. He looked away.
When he'd learned the spear, he was just revisiting things he'd learn with the longsword. How to stand and how to stab.
There were differences between the two weapons, but the fundamental ideas were the same. Step forward and put the weight of your body into a stab. Stand in such a way that you can't be knocked off your feet. His teachers had hammered the longsword into him, so they taught other weapons in reference to it.
He tried to remember if he skipped any steps in teaching it.
His time on it was brief. He had picked it up quickly, but his body was already trained for it by the time he started.
He had gone slow for Aureum's benefit, but apparently it hadn't been slow enough.
She always acts as if she's immortal, but I shouldn't use her standards to train her.
Still.
Overworking her is a problem, but she did manage the first step. Once she can hold a stance and the spear, she'll be halfway there.
He looked up at the sky.
What was I even worried about?
He'd been worried about many things. Maybe the most minor of these was teaching a woman as a man, but that hadn't mattered at all.
Of course not.
She was pretty to him, but all that came to mind when he looked at her so far while training were all the things she needed to be corrected on.
And assuming she'd be distracted by me is nonsense.
He felt himself relax as he weighed the options of different grains for stabbing. Maybe the other would turn out to be just as nonsensical.
Aureum glared at him from her spot.
What a sadist!
She wasn't certain how long she'd been told to stand in that awkward pose, but it had to be more than eight minutes.
What have I done in choosing him?
Dancing classes, which had familiarized Aureum with far more strenuous poses, still only held such poses for a minute or two. So this was again against Aureum's expectations.
Not that it didn't make sense.
A spear fighter may have to keep in stance for the duration of a battle. Whether that battle was ten minutes, four hours, or two days.
It might be impossible to hold that stance for two days, but the second the fighter failed in the impossible, they opened themselves up to death.
Not that the strains or stamina of a dancer could be snubbed, but dancers constantly moved their bodies. Their stamina was always strained, but while certain parts of their body were overworked, other parts could rest.
Felixia or her friends would still have put Aureum to shame.
Have I gotten so out of shape?
Aureum had also just gotten off a few weeks of bed rest, with the day before having considerable strain, and she did not have a chance to recover from it.
It's his standards that must be warped!
She felt sweaty and sore, but mostly embarrassed. It felt pitiful to be so tired over such little inactivity.
Aureum forced herself to smile. She knew it already. Oftentimes, the tougher the training, the better the results. She pulled herself up again.
"Are you ready?"
"Yeah!"
Aureum tried to bend back into the stance, but Mendax held out his arm and stopped her.
"This was good enough to start, but there are a few problems."
He pulled Aureum back into a normal standing position.
"I'm not certain if your legs are correct. That might be making this more straining. I need you to wear a pair of leggings and a tunic. You can go back to wearing dresses during the training once I'm confident in your posture."
"Huh, alright."
"Also, tell me how you feel tomorrow. We're not so much in a rush that we have to break anything."
"Mmmhmm. Then is this it?"
"Just about. You should absorb those two pearls you have. Then I might discuss how you'll use the spear bit. I guess we should take the time to buy a few things we'll need."
"All right, Mr. Mendax!"
"What?"
"Shouldn't I be more respectful to my teacher?"
Mendax chuckled.
"Sure, Miss Aureum," he affected a feminine and teacherly tone, "Now pack up your bags and be a good student as you leave."
Aureum laughed.
The pearls Aquila had given her were absorbed. They both gave her a few years of wind mana easily. She was left with crumbly bits of dust in her hands when she was done.
At this point, she was adequately at a teenager's level of mana. The beginning of when she could start to really get into trouble if she wanted to. She stood up and pushed out a gale of wind that whistled as it burst by.
Mendax turned to look at her before turning away.
"Was there a point to that?" he murmured.
Aureum chuckled.
Afterwards, they walked towards the market. On the way, Mendax asked her what she would do if she met archers from a distance, or if three thugs surrounded her.
He listened to her answers and gave suggestions of his own. It didn't feel formal enough to be a quiz or a lecture. Although she did learn to get her back to a wall if she was surrounded, none of her answers were berated, even when they were wrong.
After that, they got what they would need for future training sessions before picking Vitreum up and heading to the inn.
The first day was a quiet success.