Fay did not go straight for her things like Radeon had told her.

She lingered instead, half behind a pillar, pretending to fuss with a strap as she listened to Radeon and Claudius speak.

Then she heard the words. Other beings watching. They settled in her stomach like cold water.

Her teeth clattered before she could stop them. She expected two pairs of eyes to swing her way at once.

Fay forced herself to look up. Radeon and Claudius were not watching her. Both of them had their faces tilted toward the sky.

Fay saw nothing. No shape. No crack in the clouds. Nothing but empty air and distance.

Still, her gut told her they were holding up the sky itself, bracing something heavy with methods she could not begin to read.

The thought made her throat tighten. It made the world feel unfair in a new and sharper way.

She clenched her fist. Nails bit into skin. She swallowed the complaint that wanted to become a scream.

Claudius and Radeon exchanged a look. Claudius, in particular, studied Radeon with a faint surprise, as if he had expected less and found more.

For a moment, something like unease crossed him. A notion. That Radeon was a man abandoned by heaven itself, and still standing.

Fay finally returned with her belongings, breath steadier, shoulders squared too tight.

Radeon did not praise her for listening. He did not scold her either.

" Follow me. Drop those here for now," he pointed beside him.

She set the items down. Before she could ask what came next, Radeon placed a bracelet in her hand.

Bones. Dark and smooth. A snake biting its own tail, the circle unbroken.

She stretched it and found it held together by a rubbery band that felt like plant fiber.

When her finger brushed the green string, it pricked her skin like tiny thorns.

As the bracelet stretched wider, she caught glimpses of small embedded crystals under the bone.

They were tucked where an eye would slide past, unless it knew to look.

Fay tried to probe it with her qi. The meridians answered, the current rose, then stalled.

The bracelet did not give. The sensing slid off it like water off wax.

She looked up at Radeon and managed a sheepish smile, half apology, half admission.

"Drop your blood into the snake's mouth. Then feed it your energy." Radeon said.

Fay pricked her pinky clean and snapped the wound shut at once, just as Radeon had drilled into her.

No lingering. No wasted blood. A small discipline, but in this path small disciplines kept you alive.

She drew in breath and channeled her qi. Ghost, nature, and fire answered together.

The three currents reacted, braided, and slid into the bracelet like keys finding a lock.

The bone snake in her right palm stirred. It coiled, tightened, then began to grow.

In a dozen breaths it was no longer a bracelet. It had become a whip.

Four meters of pale length and hidden crystal weight, the plant band now a living spine under the bone.

Fay swung it once, cautious. The motion was smooth. The whip did not lag.

It moved like an extension of her arm, obeying thought more than muscle.

Radeon watched without comment. Then he placed a buckler into her other hand.

Its surface was polished and glassy, meant to catch and throw light.

It looked delicate, but Fay could feel the density in it, the kind of hardness that did not announce itself.

As she stood there with both pieces equipped, her eyes drifted to the training arena walls.

Weapons hung from racks and hooks in every corner. Spear. Knives. Sword. Bow and Arrow.

Radeon did not explain. He did not warn. He reached to the rack, took up a sword, and pointed it at her.

"One more spar before we hit the road," Radeon said.

Fay took a stance at once. Feet planted, knees loose, buckler up, whip hand low and ready.

She watched Radeon's shoulders and hips more than his eyes, because eyes lied and bodies did not.

Radeon charged. Fay angled her shield toward the slice of sun spilling into the arena.

Light flashed off the glassy surface in a hard beam aimed for Radeon's eyes.

Radeon shifted his head aside without breaking stride, the beam skimming past like a thrown blade. He wants to get close.

Fay started flicking fast. The whip snapped and blurred.

Short afterimages chased each other through the air, defending a wide flank, threatening any line he might take.

Fay expected him to dodge. Radeon parried.

Steel met bone again and again, Radeon's sword moving with the same intensity Fay was putting in.

She saw an opening anyway. The tip of her whip held a hooked shape.

Fay cast it, caught the sword's blade, and felt the satisfying bite on the edge.

For a heartbeat she thought she had it. Radeon stepped closer instead.

He let go of the hilt and pinched the sword's fuller with his bare hand.

Fay saw his feet braced for a hard tug that would strip her whip from her fingers.

She withdrew at once, snapping the whip free before he could take it. Her breath hitched. Not fear. Respect.

Radeon retreated two steps, calm as if he had been strolling. Then he set the sword aside and took up a spear.

Fay's stomach tightened. The distance game changed.

Radeon lunged. Fast. The spear came like a line drawn across the air.

Fay narrowed her eyes and waited until the last clean instant, then poured qi into her whip.

Her strike landed on the spear sharp head with a sharp crack.

The spear halted for half a breath. That half breath was everything.

Fay followed with a cutback, snapping the whip back along a new angle, aiming to rake his hands and break his rhythm.

Radeon sprang into the air to dodge, knees tucking, body turning just enough to let the lash whistle under him.

While airborne, he put strength into his arms and threw the spear.

It came end over end, not a simple toss but a killing throw.

Fay angled her buckler and let the spear brush past the shield's rim, deflected by a sliver.

The wind of it tugged at her sleeve. If she had been a fraction slower, it would have opened her from shoulder to hip.

Despite all that, Fay kept her eyes on Radeon.

Knives spilled from his sleeves next, a rain of narrow metal.

Fay surged forward instead of back. She read each flick of his wrists, the tiny shifts that gave the throws away.

She used her whip to slap some aside while her buckler took others with dull thumps that numbed her forearm.

Then an arrow hissed in. Flying curved toward her.

Fay saw it too late. She twisted, trying to make it miss, and the arrow's point was about to lodge in her abdomen.

It stopped in midair. Just there. Hanging. A finger's width from her skin. The training arena fell silent in the wake of it.

Radeon lowered his hand. Claudius, watching from the side, gave a slow clap.

Sweat matted Fay's arms, her scalp, her forehead. Her chest heaved.

Radeon did not even have a sheen on his skin. He beckoned her with two fingers.

Fay followed, legs still humming with adrenaline, and she forced herself to swallow the pride rising in her.

Praise was a sweet poison. Radeon had warned her of that more than once.

She reminded herself again as she walked behind him.

'Do not let it get into your head.'

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