Mirror, Mirror

2.05 Training Begins

I feel like I never got the chance to fall in love. Not truly. Not with Yeh-Han, and certainly not with myself.

Meanwhile, I watch Crystallia with envy. Don't get me wrong— she's had it rough too. Still, I can't help but watch with jealous eyes as she marries the love of her life. They'll have kids and grow old together, and I'll be a memory.

❖

And so, Rayna took Starla's place in her rigorous training schedule, and Starla accompanied her as a transition coach. It made Starla furious that this girl was going to replace her. They only had one year for her to get trained and ready to save the world, something Starla had trained over a decade for.

Today was their first day. Once it was just the two of them alone, she didn't say a single word to Rayna. The whole walk to class was silent.

First, was martial arts training. Starla felt her classmates eyes on her. She ignored them.

"Everyone, welcome our new princess, Rayna," the trainer said. "Please, come in. Come in."

"As I'm sure Starla has already told you," the trainer said (no, she hadn't), "in the past we used to only teach our Ice Princesses magic. Now, however, our curriculum has expanded to be holistic. We believe a successful Ice Princess to be well-rounded, even if the skills she learns don't directly relate to Ice Princess duties. She must be strong of body, mind, and spirit. Body, including self-defense, endurance, strength, and wilderness survival. Mind, including literature, history, music, and art. And finally, spirit, which includes one class: magic. You'll see other students in several of your training classes. That's because our training program became renowned, so we have expanded our education program to train other young women and even some young men as well. We really care about empowering young people."

"The ones who are absurdly rich," Starla heard Rayna mutter under her breath.

"Say again?" the trainer said.

"I said, that's wonderful, tell me more," Rayna said with a sweet smile. Starla narrowed her eyes at her.

"As a woman, self-defense is essential to learn," the trainer said. "Men will try to take advantage of you, whether you're a princess, a sorceress, or a plain old lady. Learning how to defend yourself is important to your own safety." Starla noticed Rayna fidget at this. The trainer continued. "And you cannot always rely on magic to protect you either. Secondly, and specifically to you, Rayna, you need to learn how to defend yourself against the wild, which is why your later assessment will be to fight an animal. We've had wolves and bears in the past. You'll know closer to the assessment."

Starla turned to Rayna to see how she was taking all this information. Then, her eyes fell on the stitching of her name on Rayna's training suit. For some reason, seeing the name "Rayna" spelt out plainly made something click in her brain.

My little ray. That's how the Queen ended a lot of her letters.

Starla felt her blood freeze.

"Alright, now that we've gotten some fundamentals down, let's launch straight into some sparring just to get some practice," the trainer said. "Starla, remember to go easy on Rayna."

Starla wasn't listening. In a few seconds, she had swiftly knocked Rayna flat on the floor and had her arm twisted back in a submission hold. Starla caught Rayna's eye in the reflection of the training swords lining the wall. For the first time, Rayna's guarded look was nowhere to be found, replaced instead with fear. There was an understanding that passed between them as they locked eyes, Starla on top of Rayna. That understanding was, Rayna may have magic, and she may be Starla's replacement, but Starla was the real one with the power here.