Avalyne Empire Stories

Bonus Chapter - Brigitte & Kaitlyn

"Damn! Nice moves, Brig!"

I grinned as Kaitlyn punched my shoulder playfully after we'd just finished a sword drill routine that was rather lengthy and exhausting. Thanks to the arrival of the imperial siblings and the whole debacle involving Medrauta, us knights were being worked to the bone.

Well, not that I mind though. The extra practice helped since the summer festival was just around the corner and it looked like Kaitlyn and I were the favorites to win the tourney. Outside of Medrauta that is, but...

...Honestly, I'm not sure if she'll even recover in time. I hadn't even been permitted in the infirmary when she was first admitted after the match, but... Damn. It didn't take a genius to figure out how injured she was after seeing the state she was in before the match ended.

Not only that, but the sudden increase in workload and classes didn't help with getting updates on her condition either. The last I'd spoken to Viviane was during a chance encounter in the hallway, and I hadn't even seen Levant during the past few days either.

It was that busy.

"Thirty seconds left!" Dame Julia's voice echoed powerfully across the training grounds. As the instructor of my class, she was pretty by-the-book so her classes were fairly simple so long as you followed instructions.

Because of that, Dame Julia's class was often seen as the "easy" class, and nearly every knight wanted to be placed into it thanks to the abundant free time they'd have.

There weren't any surprise assignments, sparring exams, or anything that'd make you need to do any extra work outside of following the semester schedule and reading the swordplay manuals.

However, the training grounds were being supervised by an imperial minister who'd come along with the imperial siblings, and Dame Julia decided now was the best time to kick it up a notch. Used to the more relaxed drills and cadences, most of the knights in my class had already ended up collapsed on the ground and sinking into a puddle of their own sweat.

Honestly, if it hadn't been for Medrauta dragging me out to spar on a regular basis, I probably would've been right there with 'em too.

I looked beside me, watching Kaitlyn down a swig of water from her flask. She was sweating, but her breathing was controlled and relaxed. It didn't look like she was the least bit exhausted either. Honestly, I couldn't help but be impressed.

"Want some?" Kaitlyn asked, thrusting her flask toward me.

I shrugged. "Sure. Thanks."

I downed the remainder of the flask and handed it back to Kaitlyn, hurrying to stand and join the line of knights readying up to perform the next drill.

Dame Julia stood in front of us, and I gotta say, her face looked like she'd just shat a live skunk. I don't know what it was we did that pissed her off so damn much, but I had a feeling we were about to find out.

"Salute!" Dame Julia commanded.

The sound of shifting steel and clattering armor rang across the training grounds as we all performed the knight's salute. All of us had varying degrees of confusion on our faces, including myself.

We held the salute for a good couple of seconds before the imperial minister waddled down his observation deck to stand next to Dame Julia. Honestly, the contrast between the two was incredibly jarring.

Dame Julia stood with strength and poise, her wide, tapered shoulders and narrow waist giving her a powerful appearance. Her build was a product of hard work and diligence, and the single scar that ran down her right cheek gave her a rough sort of charm. In other words, she was someone that no knight would have trouble saluting.