Chapter 27
Preparations
It was before noon and Ariyah was alone at the Empire in the warrior’s training room. For the past few days she’d been training extensively with her custom golden mace. She had injured herself a few times as her face, arms and legs were cut from the pointy spikes. But she didn’t care; she was going to master this weapon. She spent hours upon hours feverishly practicing and swinging it in a rhythm. She whipped it from all angles, throwing and catching it; adding her own moves. Her hard work was paying off as she was doing well with it. She watched the reflection of her shadow on the wall, making sure she was effectively striking her invisible adversary. She studied her moves intensely.
Suddenly, the bang of the hard wooden door swinging open behind her startled her. She turned to look, breathing and sweating profusely. It was Orraco. He didn’t know she would be there. They locked eyes and he turned to walk back out of the room.
“Orraco, wait. Come.” He stopped in his tracks. He didn’t want to come to her. He wanted to walk out of that room and slam the door behind him, but she was the queen so he couldn’t be so rude. He slowly turned around, clinching his jaw. He stared at her unenthusiastically.
“I haven’t seen you in awhile. You haven’t been here to help me train these crazy folks. Are you ok?” She chuckled, getting closer.
“I’ve been around” he answered shortly.
“I’ve missed you around the palace. You haven’t been talking to me.” He couldn’t talk to her. It was too painful. Her smile, the brightness of her eyes, her positive energy. It was too much, knowing they weren’t his. She could sense his sadness.
“Orraco, can’t we be friends?” She pleaded grabbing his hand and gently squeezing it. He stared desperately into her eyes. He could never just be her friend. It could never be like how it was. He’d rather walk away than face her daily knowing he couldn’t have her. He watched her face, looking hopefully back at him. He bit his lip and looked around indecisively.
“Be careful with your face.” He said solemnly as he caressed the fresh red scars on her eyes and cheeks. He turned and walked away. She was hurt. She felt guilty. She had lost one of her best friends and it pained her deeply. But she didn’t have time to sulk; she had a class to teach. She could hear the loud footsteps of people gathering into the hallway. The door opened and the cheerful Grandenites began to pile into the warrior’s training room, fully dressed in their brown jumpsuits training attire. They were excited to see their queen, since they hadn’t seen her in awhile. They greeted her with love and admiration. That was enough to get her out of her funk. She smiled at the full class of dedicated people ready to work.
“Alright let’s get started. Today we are going to work with something we have never used before. Thanks to Mr. Demi we have another great weapon to master.”Ariyah’s students stood at attention. She went to the podium and pulled out a small orange package. She un-wrapped it to reveal a black dagger with a loop at the end. It looked a small black pine tree with a loop.
“This, my people, is called a letal. It’s amazing. There is no other word for it.” Ariyah smiled. Ooh’s and aah’s came from the class as they all marveled at this small piece of iron. Ariyah instructed two men to remove the mirrors at the end of the room. The husky men obeyed, removing the double mirrors and revealing five wooden faceless dummies against the wall. These mannequins were only used when introducing children or the elderly to stagitto and ryhan. Ariyah strolled over to the dummies and dangled the letal in front of them.
“It is better for me to show you than to tell you.” Quickly Ariyah whipped around and with all her might she threw the letal at the dummies. As she threw it, 10 individual daggers zipped out from it. Within seconds, one dagger was in the middle dummy, eight in the others and two in the walls behind them. The class all looked puzzled.
“Can anyone see what happened?” Ariyah tested.
“You threw one dagger and more came out” a student answered,
“Exactly. When you throw the letal, 10 more come out, striking multiple targets at once. If you master this, it can be done at different angles using different styles. We will be training with these today so let’s split up.”
The class broke up into groups to spar, to use their usual swords and to practice the letal. One student in particular caught on very fast to the letal. Michal, who was a young 18 year old boy and often trained with Orraco and Rashad’s class, was fascinated by the letal. He began to use it effectively. He was able to use the weapon from different positions and angles. He mastered it very quickly. Ariyah was surprised and proud. She patted him on the back, took a moment to look over her groups and then continued to practice her mace.
Outside of the classroom, Orraco watched Ariyah through the cracked door. He knew he should’ve been inside training as well but he wasn’t feeling into it. He was feeling lonely and even missed Phyliscia. He hadn’t seen her in the past few weeks, but he was so devastated by Ariyah’s rejection that he hadn’t even noticed. He decided that if he could find her again, he’d make it right with her and marry her. After all, at least she loved him. He walked away and went to find Rashad.
Meanwhile in the old training room at Ferocities, Phyliscia was standing in front of a group of men. Men that used to abuse her family and friends, men that used to starve her and her family, men that used to make her sleep in cages as a child. She was now in charge of them. They stood attentively, fully suited in their armor wear, as she paced back and forth before them. She was wearing a metal cobra on top of her head signifying her as the Queen of Ferocities. She also wore a seductive violet gown, with silver crystal lining adorning her breasts and slits running up to her full pale white hips. The soldiers were attentive, but more so for her appearance than her lesson. But they dared not show it, for Kalos was watching them closely.
“We are at war, gentlemen; we must be prepared for the battle” Phyliscia said, staring down each soldier intensely. “They are strong, but we are getting stronger. They can fight, but we have magic on our side. We will get the medallion back. But perhaps in the process we can conquer Grandelyn, and it will be our land.” As she preached, her icy eyes grew wide with excitement. The soldiers smiled as she paced back and forth. They were excited by her words but they were even more enamored by the sight of her ample bottom, which jiggled with every stride she took. They were smitten by her…and she was smitten by the power. Kalos sat on a throne behind her, watching his queen reveling in her newly found power. He stroked Noire slowly as he watched her in action, a chilling smile hidden underneath his mask.
“Get ready, my men, for we will conquer all. Now in position!” She shouted. “Punch! Punch! Double punch…Barge! Again!” Punch! Punch! Double punch…Barge! Again!” She was screaming so loudly that she was becoming hysterical. She said it faster and faster as the men struggled to keep up. She began laughing uncontrollably. Kalos observed and stroked Noire all the harder. The evil was filling him up again. He was no longer admiring his queen or his men in training, but dreaming of what was to come. He believed that this time the battle was at hand and the outcome inevitable.