Lady of Light #Wattys2016

Chapter 20

Combat training was a lot harder than I expected.

I'm not sure what I expected, but I definitely wasn't ready for how hard Jeffery was working me. That entire first day he spent teaching me basic punches and kicks. No word about offense or defense, just kicks, punches, and combinations of them.

The horrible feeling that I'd gotten at the beginning of the first training session was actually Bree cutting off my life sense. I hadn't exactly gotten used to it, but I could work around it both with the horrible feeling it brought and with other feelings being able to show me where someone was.

Jeffery had me train in the dark, in the bright midday sun, on multiple terrains, and even in small spaces. The workout part was so strenuous that Bree wouldn't even let me run.

"You need to make sure you're not overworking yourself," she said one night. I nodded, exhausted. I was working harder than I ever had in my life. But I knew it was important. This was what it all came down to. This was what would save my life and the lives of others around me.

Whoever the tiny voice in the back of my mind was had also been a huge help over the past week. It suggested new movements and ways to surprise Jeffery. Sometimes, they even worked.

Jeffery was fighting me again. That was his preferred method of teaching. He told me that learning by experience was the point of my exercises with Bree, and he was using the same method. He had learned from many of his instructors the same way. But that day, as I fought, the little voice was pointing out little sounds and movements and leaving me to interpret them. I was losing the fight anyway, and it suggested a sneaky way of getting control back.

After throwing a bunch of punches at Jeffery's face, distracting him, I dropped down to the ground, sweeping one of my legs around to hit his knee in one of the collapse points he taught me. I used the incredible amount of upper body strength that Bree had trained into me and pushed off with my arms, adding an extra bounce with my feet as they were in the right position, so that I landed on Jeffery's stomach before he could get up. Breathless, he attempted to grab me, but I stuck a knee in his chest and put my clenched hands at his throat in our symbol for "I would have you unconscious before you could have gotten out."

There was no way that a true enemy would have been able to grab me before I had smashed my clenched fists into their throat which would, at the least, have taken my enemy's breath again, at most have broken something. Realizing this, Jeffery conceded the fight.

"That's really impressive," he said, smiling, "What made you think of it?" I froze.

"So, there may actually be a tiny voice in the back of my head that has great suggestions," I said quickly, all in one breath. Jeffery and David, who was watching, laughed at my nervousness.

"It's nothing to worry about," David said.

"It's the Lady," Bree chimed in, "I told you she'd be taking care of you." I stopped short. What? There was a goddess in my head?

Your, um, Ladyship? I thought at the part of my mind it occupied. I heard a throaty laugh come out of my mouth.

"Aubree, I thought you were going to leave her be and stop scaring her," my voice, subtly different, said jokingly.

"Oh she's fine now, plus she doesn't think she's crazy," Bree grinned at me, or, rather, the Lady through me.

"And Sofia, you don't have to call me your Ladyship," my voice said, amused. Okay, I told her silently. My mouth smiled. I caught sight of Jeffery and David on a knee behind me. I was horrified that they were kneeling to me, but the Lady was just happy to see them.