Dancing Darkness

- chapter ten.

"Pelle sub agnina latitat mens saepe lupina." — MAJOR AFENDRA'S GUIDE TO THE RIDERS QUADRANT.
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She strikes first.
Her footwork is sluggish and unbothered, and it's messing with my head. She is always so put together, it wouldn't make sense for her to be so careless.
I spin away, landing a swift punch to her kidney before bouncing back on my heels and pausing again, seeing how she is just.. staring.
Waiting.
For something that she won't find.
The rumors of her poisons in the food of her enemy's are not wide-spread. Barely noticeable, but I had to take caution. I haven't eaten since yesterday morning, which was doing absolute wonders for my mood.
But the look on her face made it worth it.
Sorrengail palms a dagger with a clammy hand, meeting my eyes with no hesitation.
She has guts, I can give her that.
Sorrengail lunges forward and slashes precisely— she has some good skills with a blade— and I quickly sidestep, spinning away with my hands up. We do that for a few more rounds, and I land a few jabs, hardly getting past her dagger.
She growls low in her throat as she misses me again, and her hand flies towards my cloth mask. It grabs at the fabric before I can react, tugging on the black fabric where it hangs around my nose until it hangs around my neck.
Silence.
Such eerie silence.
Blood is in my ears and in my face and my hands are twitching and oh god they can see me they can see me they can see me.
My hair covers my eyes, so no one could notice my rebellion relic. It wasn't even a spec on anyone's radar.
Until now.
The cover shielded everything under my nose, including my neck until skin is hidden under my brown leathers.

(Authors note: just search up a neck gaiter if you want a visual!)

And as I look up
and see their faces
I realize why
my face was hidden in the first place.
Sorrengail has backed away from me now, eyeing the long claw marks trailing down my skin. Burns etch into the skin along my neck, ugly and painful.
A scar than ran so deep in my skin that it infected my heart.
And for some reason I don't care about my teachers prying eyes or the recognition flickering in and out of Bodhi's eyes.
I can only think about the blonde that stands at the corner of the mat.
I drop to the ground and kick out with my foot, which lands square in Sorrengail's chest, sending her backwards. She hits the mat with a thud, and I'm already above her.
"Hit her, Vi!" Rhiannon yells, knowing on her fingernails.
Sloane snorts.
I look up, for just a second.
And it's enough time for her to send a fist straight into my cheek and roll out from under me.
Her eyes sparkle with violence. "I thought you would know better than to let your surroundings get the best of you, Riorson," a mocking smile, "or are you worse than I thought?"
I wipe at the blood rushing out my nose and down my mouth, painting my face with a faint ruby red. It trickled into my parted mouth and I knew as I smiled with my teeth that they saw it. All the gore.
Sorrengail swerves the wrong way this time and I catch her, taking her to the floor. The mat smacks her face, and I position my knee so it is digging into her back as I pull her right arm behind herself.
"Yield." I murmur against her ear.
She knows that she can't. Yielding to a first year is mortifying. "No." She gurgles.
Stubborn as hell.
Even through it all, she is lacking common sense.
I pull her arm farther. She cry's out as I few the ligaments in her arm stretch, shred, then pop.
"Damn it, Sorrengail, yield!" Imogen commands.
"Yield!" Rhiannon shouts.
I can't help the small smile that tugs on my face.
She is gasping, struggling, clawing for breath against the weight of me on her back and it amuses me.
And I know it's not right.
But than why does this feel so gods damned right?
"She yields," Emetterio's voice echos through the large training space. "That's enough."
I pause.
But before I let her go, I lean down so, so close to her ear again. So close I know she can feel my breath. "You are either on my side, by my side, or in my fucking way," I whisper, putting more pressure on her arm until she shrieks. "Choose wisely."
A sickening crack fills the air.
And she is out cold.
A few of her friends rush on the mat— most of them glare at me like I invented murder— but I couldn't care less. I tug my mask right back up and walk back off the mat.
I was too rusty back there.
Aaric is wearing a small smile, which is practically a large grin for him, bumping my shoulder as if I'm a child in need of validation. "You won!" He claps me on the back, throughly avoiding the mask situation. "Unlike.. a certain someone." He sends a pointed look in Sloane's direction.
Who can't stop staring at me like I know the secret to reincarnation.
And I can't help but wonder how she felt when my mask got ripped off, and I had never cared what anyone thought before.
So why now?
As the last fights of the day rolled around, I also realized something else.
I didn't want to know.
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"Did you hear what happened this morning?" Aaric murmurs, his voice low and smoky. He has been maddening today— perhaps more so than usual.
We stand in our usual spot in Emetterios training room, hidden in a dark corner. The quiet was soothing, almost calming. Until it was ruined.
"No," I drawl, tapping my quill against my paper, watching the ink spread and hide the words underneath it. "And I don't know if I want to hear, so please do me the courtesy of keeping it too yourself."
Aaric quirks a brow. "It's about Vio— I mean, Sorrengail," he chimes, ignoring my blatant statement. "She almost died because of Varrish. Apparently, she didn't follow orders."
I watch Sloane stumble around the mat like a baby horse. "Why?"
"Why what?"
I shoot him an exhausted glance. "Why didn't she follow her command?"
"Oh," he shrugs, rolling his shoulders. "Her dragon— uh, the yellow one, didn't show up of flight training." Aaric glances at Sorrengail, but it isn't with indifference or malice. Something close to fondness, maybe even friendship.
Sloane is thrown into the mat again, and I can feel the collective wince from Sorrengail's posey, which wasn't even supposed to be here. I didn't like them at all, but they seem to care about Sloane.
And for some reason I respect them for it.
I am only watching because Sloane has less skill than a fetus. I was hoping to see that she has improved over the past couple weeks.
She hasn't.
"Why do you think she didn't bring the Feathertail to the field?" Aaric said quietly, still nosy as ever.
"I don't know."
He scoffs, his posture straightening. "Well, aren't you a bundle of joy."
A toothy smirk grows from beneath my mask. "When am I not?" I turn my head to him and tilt it to the side, a mocking gesture that always manages to piss him off.
"Keep your eyes on your opponent!" Matthias shouts at Sloane from the sidelines just as Sloane does he exact opposite, glancing down as she nears the edge of the mat, and that's all her opponent needs, landing a swift jaw-cracking punch that sends Sloane sprawling.
Violet and Imogen flinch.
Aaric scrunches his nose. "I feel like an embarrassed parent."
I snicker, the sound coming out low and smoky.
"This is sparring, not a challenge! Come on, Tomas!" Matthias snaps at a squad leader from Second Wing.
I still can't remember their names.
"Sorry, Rhi. Pull it back, Jacek," the squad leader chides.
"Damn." Aaric shakes his head and folds his arms. "I get that Jacek's channeling some serious anger, but I've never seen him hit that hard."
My eyes snap to his. "Jacek? As in Navil Jacek?" The second-year was listed on the death roll a couple days ago— and the only reason I remembered his name was from his girlfriend breaking down and sobbing on the floor after his name was called.
It was very uncomfortable.
"That's his younger brother on the mat," Aaric says. Unlike me, he is really good at remembering names. Places. Dates. Practically everything.
"Let's end it," the squad leader from Second Wing suggests after Sloane gets knocked onto the mat again.
"Im fine!" Sloane staggers to her feet c wiping blood from her mouth with the back of her hand.
Aaric is attempting to catch her eye, frantically shaking his head and mouthing no no no like a broken record.
"Are you sure?" Matthias asks, her time implying it's absolutely the wrong decision, which we all know it is.
She coughs. "Definitely." Sloane takes a fighting stance against Jacek.
Sorrengail and Cardulo are murmuring right in front of us, but I can't even pick up on what they are saying.
"I don't understand." Aaric shifts on his feet. "I thought everyone that was.." he glances at my hidden eye. "..marked was trained to fight."
"Depends on where we are fostered." I move forward to get a better look at Sloane. "And after.." I swallow, my hand twitching again and again until I fist it and stuff it into my pocket. "..after Riorson started climbing the ranks, some of the families in charge stopped training us all together."
Aaric huffs. "Good thing she wasn't on the challenge board this week."
Jacek pits Sloane of the mat for what feels like the hundredth time, then brings his knee to her throat, making his point. If this were real, she'd be in a world or trouble.
"Her first is on Monday, and she's going to her her ass handed to her if not worse." Sorrengail twists around towards us. She unsheathes a dagger and flips it, catching it by the tip, like her skills can help Sloane in any way when she won't even speak to her.
"Monday?" Aaric and Cardulo turn slowly to look at her. "And how would you know that?"
Sorrengail hesitates. "Long story, but.. a book my brother wrote."
"Who is Sloane up against?" I murmur, mostly to myself, pivoting towards the mat once again.
"You're not going to ask about the book I shouldn't have?"
"No. I, unlike some people, don't feel the need to know everything someone else seems private."
Aaric scoffs at the obvious dig. "She's not sleeping with you."
I scoff, raising a brow. "She wishes she was my type. I'm phenomenal in bed.
It's been a while since I have been able to bicker like that. With someone else in such a care free manner.
My nose scrunches when Sloane face plants on the mat. Again.
"Seriously. Who is she against?" Cardulo sighs.
"Someone she can't beat." Sorrengail whispers, glancing around.
Cardulo pauses. "I've offered to help her," she says quietly. "She won't take it."
"Why the hell not?" Sorrengail catches her knife, flipping it with total muscle memory.
Cardulo grumbles. "No fucking clue, but her stubbornness is going to get her killed."
Me and Aaric share a look. They think of Sloane as a child, not another fellow rider. And that is their downfall.
"I'll do it," I find myself saying. "I can train her."
I have always been a person of balance.
But I have this weird feeling in my gut ever since that blonde entered my world.
A feeling that my balance is going to be ripped to shreds—
Very.
Very.
Soon.