If Stratagor Ziras doesn't kill me, my training program will!
Every day I wake up and go through the motions, but they've figured out that I'm not a Knight. I can't ride, I can't fight, I can't do magic, and worst of all, I can't see whatever it is...
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Albína has a bath waiting for me, but I have no time to relax because she won't stop knocking on the door, rushing me. Everything hurts. I smell like a barn and want a nap—a long one. As soon as I emerge she guides me to a little table that has a tall, powder-blue, four-armed creature standing next to it.
"This is Freja. She's going to give you a..." Albína pauses, trying to find the right word. After a moment, she gives up and says, "She'll rub your sore muscles. She and you will be working together every day because your training is so intense."
"Massage," I offer.
"Yes. That's it. Massage. Thank you. I'll be staying in the room because Freja doesn't speak English. Let me know if you need anything."
Freja's quite a bit taller than I am and has a thick blue tail peeking from under her long white robes that are so thin they should be transparent. She has no hair and no visible ears or nose. Her only features are two sphere-shaped dark eyes on the sides of her head, a mouth that looks like a sideways beak and two long, wiggly antennae. Her head reminds me of a praying mantis or an alien.
Freja's four warm hands touch my shoulders and I'm out. I wake up some time later lying on my back. I'd been so deeply asleep, I don't remember rolling over. My foggy brain barely manages to communicate with my wobbly legs when I follow Albína to the table with my lunch on it. I feel surprisingly better after I eat. My legs and back are still stiff, but my little nap helped refresh me.
Jonah appears standing near my closet with his back to me. "Jonah!" I run over, but I pass right through him and hit the wall of my closet.
"What are you doing?" Albína yells from across the room.
"Jonah?" I ask weakly. I can see his wide red eyes glowing brightly under his hood but he doesn't acknowledge me.
"Who are you talking to?" she asks calmly.
I point up at Jonah and look at her. "Him."
She looks to where I'm pointing and then at a rectangular blue diamond that's glowing brightly on my nightstand. She picks it up and shrieks.
Jonah's eyes widen with concern when he turns to her. "What's the matter?" he asks.
It hurts my feelings that he doesn't say hello to me.
Albína points in my direction. "She saw you."
He squints his eyes at her. "I don't understand."
She hands me the blue diamond that's the size of my palm and Jonah's image realigns to face me.
"What's going on, Agatha?" He sounds confused and worried.
"I don't know. Why didn't you talk to me, or at least say hello?"
"When?"
"When you showed up. When did you get here?"
His eyes slant like he's angry, but I think he's just confused. "When I showed up? I'm not here. Or there, I mean...I'm using this." He holds up a blue diamond like the one I'm holding.
