Wizardly

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Tension

I woke up to find Lilliana asleep next to me. I vaguely remember her coming to lay with me sometime after I had already passed out. I didn't expect her to still be here when I woke up though.

Deciding to let her sleep I carefully got up and got changed, before heading down for breakfast. Since I was starting training right after breakfast I chose not to eat too much and just grabbed some toast with jam on it.

"Still doing some training again today I see. You think your going to get the hang of it today and move on to whatever he has planned next?" Max asked joining the table. I shrugged.

"I hope so, I get the feeling Captain is growing impatient. If I don't get it today, then I think he might actually force me to sit this fight out one way or another," I said.

"That might not be such a bad thing though, Tyrian," Mara said.

"No, I need to fight. This is all because of me and it wouldn't be right for me to sit this out and let everyone else fight for me. I just can't do it," I said.

"What do you mean by that?" Candice asked. Which reminded me I haven't told them about that yet. I told them all to meet me - in the same room as before - after lunch so we can talk then. If Dustin was a spy, then who knows who else might be one. I can't risk talking about the sword while we were around all these people.

Once I was done eating I excused myself and headed back to the training room. Captain was already there waiting for me. He nodded to me and I nodded back. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths. I needed to calm my mind and ready myself. If my nerves get too worked up I will surely loose focus and get hit.

After a few moments I headed back into the room. I have to get this today. Even if he's willing to give me one more day, I wasn't willing to take any longer. We just don't have the time and I want to fight this battle, no I need to fight. Like I said earlier to my friends, this is because of me and my actions and it wouldn't be right to stand by and let everyone else fight for me. I am no coward and I will fight my own battles.

I dodged and dodged and dodge, until I didn't think I could go on and still kept moving and dodging. When he called out that it was lunch time I was surprised and managed to narrowly dodge another projectile. It's becoming instinct now, even when I can't see it I can sense it coming towards me. It's almost like when I sense magic, but it's more complicated than that.

It's like my senses have become so heightened that I can hear and feel the disturbances in the air and I can react quickly to it. This must be what this training is meant to do. I continued to dodge traps as I made my way out of the room and as soon as I stepped out my body gave out and I hit the floor breathing heavily. I dodged for a little over three hours and I was sore and exhausted.

"You did well today, not even a single scratch. I think after lunch we can move on to the next stage of your training. Meet me on the training field lets say two hours after lunch," he said and without another word he walked away.

After about ten minutes or so I was able to get to my feet and head towards the dining hall. I'm glad he gave me two hours, that gives me time to talk to my friends as well as rest a little bit before we start again.

I got a couple sandwiches loaded with meats and joined the others at our table once again. Mara was the first to ask how my training went this morning and I told them all I finally passed it and would be starting my next training later this afternoon.

"Not going to lie, I kind of expected you to say you failed and that you were told to stay out of the fight. I have mixed feeling about it, a part of me wished you'd have a reason to stay out of the fight. Yet the other part is glad things worked out for you and you can fight as you wanted to," Nash said. Everyone else kind of agreed with his statement too. Everyone except Naxos.

"I think that's because there has already been enough death because of this fight. However, as someone who actually witnessed him fight seriously before, I have to say that I'm glad he's with us on this," Naxos said once everyone quieted down.

"I have to agree with Naxos on that one. As someone who fought with him seriously, one on one, I have to say I'm not too worried about him fighting with us," Dustin said as he walked up and joined us at our table.

"Four experienced magic users died by these people already, what can a normal human do against them. He will just get himself killed," Mara said, "I don't want to loose any more of my friends, not ever again. Especially not to those evil people."

"We should take this conversation elsewhere," Max said and agreeing everyone finished up their food and we headed to our meeting spot.

The table and chairs were still there from our last meeting. I grabbed a chair and sat in it as I waited for everyone to get situated. To my dismay Dustin pulled one of the other chairs next to mine and he sat down as well. Was he making sure I didn't say anything about him or was he planning on telling them? Shrugging it off I turned back to my friends.

"You asked me earlier what I meant by saying this was all because of me. Well, it came to our attention that not only were they responsible for the train incident, but it's very likely they were the ones behind Shay's murder as well. Since that is the case they must be after the sword I now possess. So they're after me, however I don't think they know who has it exactly. They somehow know it is here though," I said rubbing the back of my neck. Good I explained it a bit without actually giving too much away.

"How did we find out so much about this? I mean I thought your Guild Master wanted to keep the other guilds out of it," Nash asked. Leave it to him to ask a tough question. As I was trying to come up with a vague answer Dustin surprised me when he spoke up.

"That's because I told both him and Captain. They've been blackmailing me to spy on the guild. But I haven't told them anything that could ruin our plans. That said I'm sorry about your brother and his boyfriend. That was a miscalculation on my part," he said and I could tell he really felt bad about it. However, Nash got pissed and attacked Dustin in the blink of an eye. The others stood to stop him but I waved them off.

After he hit Dustin a handful of times I got between them and held Nash back. He tried to swing at me as well saying, "And you knew but you let him near us!" I easily dodged his punch and threw him to the ground.

"He had no choice, Nash. They're holding his sister hostage. You need to calm down or I will stop you myself," I said.

"You, stop me? You really have gotten big headed haven't you. I'll knock you down a peg or two," he said swinging at me again. I stopped his hand.

"Think about it would you. He didn't fight back nor did he stop you from hitting him. Why do you think that is? It's because he feels bad about it and he let you hit him because he felt he deserved it. I will not however sit back and let you kill him. If you hate me for this then so be it, but it's against the law to attack another member of a guild. All ill willed fights between members of different guilds must be done with both Guild Masters present. I let you hit him, now you need to stop before this gets out of hand and your arrested. Then you can't fight the people who actually killed them," I said and got off of him. The others just stood there surprised.

"You really are a meddlesome friend. I apologize for acting so rash," he said as he dropped his fists and just laid there.

"When this is all over and you still want to fight me I will gladly accept a duel from you. For now I hope you can forgive me for my actions that resulted in this mess," Dustin said sitting up from where he was.

"I can't forgive you, however we have the same goal for now and that's enough for me to call a truce," Nash replied back and got up. Since that was settled I sat back down and sighed.

"Man you've always been so hot headed. If I knew Dustin were going to tell you all the truth I would've warned him. That said I'm kind of glad he chose not to fight back, he can be just as hot headed and lethal as you," I said and they both shot me a glare. After a silent moment they both sighed and I laughed it off. Still, it was true this could have gotten much messier if he had continued and/or if Dustin chose to fight back.