There were so many classes! Ssiina and Kyrae had gone headfirst into sigilcraft ones, but I did manage to get them to all agree on a pre-Empire history course so we could all share a time.

  I expected we’d have to spend a bunch of time learning about the Temple, but it turned out those lessons were optional if you weren’t ssyri’ssen. There were typical rites and observances expected, but nothing I wasn’t used to doing anyway, even if I’d probably need to be a little more public.

  Kyrae stopped me from asking too much about ablutions.

  Farula and I signed up for the entry-level martial course—apparently they were grouped into weapons, but only after a certain threshold. Phaeliisthia had taught me short blades, but only to a certain degree, so I wondered how I’d measure up. I also signed up for an elven history course too, which seemed to surprise the scroll-keepers appending the class lists.

  With that, though, I had plenty to occupy my time: martial training, history, and more history. With Ussyri Tahaksa leading the show, I wondered if the elven history course would be at all accurate. And about tonight. For history, Phaeliisthia’d given us a surface-level summary, and it hadn’t painted us lamia in the kindest of lights. But Farula, who signed up after me and also forced Kyrae to sign up, would probably be able to make sure I didn’t walk out of there a revisionist.

  That meant Kyrae was taking a similar spread of sigilcraft, history, and history. Ssiina surprised all of us by taking a survival course. Her reasoning? Kyrae and I could survive in a city, we would probably end up somewhere remote at some point, and she only knew how to survive when there were multiple servants. Farula was already in that class apparently, though from the embarrassed look she gave, I got the feeling she wasn’t doing particularly well in it.

  Funny, she looked the part of someone who knew that sort of stuff.

  “So when do we start?” I asked as we left. For now, I was speaking Elvish. We all were—I figured Farula knew Lamian, but didn’t care for it, and words were words.

  Kyrae sighed and shook her head. “The classes for this season are already underway, Issa.”

  “Yeah, but when do we need to show up?”

  Farula giggled. “Whenever you want!”

  “Really?

  “No!” Kyrae cut back in. “We should catch up where we can today, then go starting tomorrow.”

  “We’ll need to do extra work to catch up in fact,” Ssiina added, slithering closer even as Farula moved away.

  “We do need to do a lot of research,” Kyrae added with a sideways look at Farula.

  Never mind the crowd who’s also listening; I get it sis! Still though, it made me consider my words. “Well, there’re bound to be libraries and repositories, right? Wouldn’t it make sense to be able to study some of the pre-Empire relics up close?”

  Ssiina nodded. “That would make sense.”

  “Then we should ask Eis or the Ea’Ssyri if we can find her,” Kyrae said. “Perhaps one of our instructors.”

  “R-right. But we don’t have to tonight, right? Or maybe we could go somewhere and talk to someone?” I looked pleadingly at Kyrae.

  “The ablution tonight?” She asked softly.

  I nodded, harder than I intended.

  “Oh, it’s nothing!” Farula cut in, literally popping up between us and stopping short. “Uhm, if… well I didn’t mean to… sorry.”

  “What’s it like?” I asked over Kyrae’s loud glare.

  Eyes wide, the small elven girl started speaking so quickly I could barely understand her. “They just pour some water from the Spring over you and there’s some incense to hold and a really easy prayer that they get mad at you if you say in Elvish but only sometimes it depends who's doing it.”

  “Tahaksa,” I said. “Remember?”

  “Oh yeah! Okay it might suck. She’s never been to any of mine but I heard she’s really strict about it and sometimes makes people stand there for hours. She’s probably gonna make you stand up until the sun comes up or something she seemed really mad.”

  I gulped. “So… just water and incense and prayers?”

  Farula shrugged. “Yep!”

  “Okay.” Deep breath. “I can do this.”

  “Want to take your mind off it? We’ve got time, right?” She looked at Kyrae. “I’m not gonna steal your sister, just borrow her.”

  Kyrae heaved a sigh. “If she wants to, but why?”

  “Us delinquents gotta stick together, right?”

  “Don’t hurt her.” Kyrae voice was suddenly serious and Farula’s grin disappeared like loose leaves in a typhoon.

  “I’m not gonna, okay? ‘Sides, you three are alright, for snakes and a snake lover.”

  “What did you just call us?” Ssiina hissed.

  “Sorry! It just slipped out I promise! I didn’t mean anything by it.” Farula bowed, the first time I’d seen her genuflect at all.

  “Just don’t do it again, okay?” Ssiina looked at me and Kyrae.

  “What?” I asked. “I mean, I don’t mind that much.”

  “Issa, when she says it like that—”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “I know what it means! It’s just, I dunno. Heard it so much I don’t care? She could call us way worse.”

  “Don’t brush it off, though.” That was Kyrae, glaring at Farula.

  “Look, I’m really sorry!” the other girl blurted, face blushing. “I won’t do it again, I promise!”

  “It’s fine!” I reached out a hand toward her but stopped, unsure. “Look, me and Kyrae got called everything growing up and fired right back. It’s the sort of thing that gets into your language and just kinda happens, right?”

  “She’s right, I guess,” Kyrae admitted, her eyes still narrow for some reason. “But you should have had a tutor for this sort of thing, right? If the wrong person hears…”

  “I…” Farula trailed off. “Well…”

  “Let’s drop it,” I suggested. “Only the right people heard, yeah?” I didn’t look at the crowd around us, but they didn’t seem to be paying attention. “Besides, if you’re comfortable enough to talk like that to us, then that means we’re friends, right?”

  “Friends?” She looked up at me, eyes wide and damp, then nodded rapidly. “I’d like that, yeah!”

  Kyrae sighed for some reason and I glared at her again. She shook her head and gave me a “we’ll talk later” look.

  Ssiina inclined her head and smiled. “I suppose I can’t be mad. Kyrae?”

  “Sure.”

  “Kyrae!”

  “Look, she’s… I’ll explain later.”

  Farula jolted and looked back at Kyrae. “If it’s about that, it’s because of my family. We’re all trained to hunt from when we can walk and I’ve slept out in the forest a lot.”

  “Aren’t you nobility?” I asked.

  “Ussen Farula Moondance, but please don’t call me that! I mean, you’re not already but don’t change that. A-anyway, we’re a lot different than you… lamia in the palace in the capital. And the Sunstrikes in Greatwood. We spend most of the year moving around. Or did, until I got sent here.”

  Even I could tell she sounded bitter, so I tried to change the subject. “Is there anything you want to do for today? I need to take my mind off tonight, so…”

  “Can you fight?”

  I blinked and thought about my powers before I thought about Phaeliisthia’s training and the scraps I’d gotten into growing up. “Uh… maybe?”

  “Great! They’ve got a place we can go. I mean, if you’re okay with that—it’s all wooden weapons and there’s sigil constructs so no one really gets hurt and I know I like to either tend to my plants or go hit something when I’m anxious so I thought maybe—”

  “Let’s go!” I interrupted long after she should’ve run out of breath. “I, uh, you want to join us Kyrae? Ssiina?”

  Ssiina shook her head. “I think you two will be safe enough. We should find Eis and update the Ea’Ssyri before she leaves, right Kyrae?”

  My elven sister finally seemed mollified. “Alright, I guess. Be careful you two, and we’ll meet back at…” she looked at Farula who nodded. “My place. We’ll meet back there tonight before you have to go, Issa. Just in case.”

  “It’s just water and a bunch of nonsen-eremony—ceremony. She’ll live!”

  I shivered involuntarily in the morning heat. Yeah, I’ll live. Right?

  Farula reached for my hand, pausing just before grabbing it. I snorted and grabbed hers. Truthfully, I would’ve dragged her, but I had no idea where we were going.

  She did though, and several streets and many odd looks later, we arrived at a dingy-looking, secluded arena of sorts. A half-open covered area housed crates with a variety of battered wooden weapons.

  “Do you get a lot of odd looks normally?” I asked, trying to choose between a weapon with a deep-looking chip and another that’d somehow gotten bent.

  “It’s because I’m with you. Big lamia in nice clothes being led around by that weird girl who talks to plants.”

  “Do you?”

  “Some of them! There’s some types that like the sound I think, maybe it just seems like running water or something or maybe they see me as prey, but they grow towards the sound.”

  I blinked and chose the bent training sword; off-balance was better than broken after one hit. “I wonder if Phaeliisthia had any plants like that in the garden? I never saw any, but I didn’t exactly try talking to any plants.”

  “Phaeliisthia’s your former tutor who’s a dragon right? You’ve gotta tell me that story.”

  “It’s a long one, but the gist is that we needed to learn and be safe, and a dragon’s home was a good place to do that.”

  “That just makes me want to hear more!”

  “Ask Kyrae tonight.” I gave the “blade” a practice swing and looked at the two small ones Farula had chosen. “I’m not really in a good place to think right now.”

  The small elf nodded, eyes glimmering despite the pout she was putting on. “Fine, I get it, yeah. Thanks for not getting mad at me for rambling. Or calling this place a dump.”

  “Who’d call this place a dump? It’s fine. Out of the way and open.”

  Farula nodded. “Exactly! Aaanyway, I’m not gonna bore you with details, so let’s get into it! Or do you want to warm up first, do some stretches?”

  “I should stretch, yeah, but I can’t focus. Let’s just go, okay?”

  Her smile took on a predatory edge and my grip tightened reflexively. Right, small and deadly.

  She walked out into the circle to the opposite side. “First to three points wins; stay below the shoulders. On my count of three.”

  I slithered after her and coiled loosely into a fighting stance. Opposite me, Farula was on the balls of her feet, one “dagger” in a reverse grip. She’d be able to move her whole body quicker, but I had reach.

  She counted down with a smile, and when she finished, I lunged forward in a feint. Farula sidestepped nimbly, pivoting on one foot so fast I barely managed to pull my upper body back in time.

  One dagger barely missed, the other darting in low even as she ran for my ground-bound lower body. I blocked the slash, wood sliding on wood, and flipped my main coil like a pendulum, weight turning over to show underbelly before spinning back.

  She darted in, but I had enough space to twist my upper body around, pincering her between my tail and training sword. Farula’s response was to jump higher than she was tall, leaping over and scoring a stinging slap to my midsection. I hadn’t even had a chance to swing…

  “Point!” she shouted, and I nodded.

  We pulled apart, me slithering frantically, and Farula dipping back out of lunging range.

  No powers, no tail, no constricting, no fangs. Right now, my size was a liability. But I still had striking speed; Kelaniel were part viper after all.

  Playing the fool, I lunged again. Farula bounced back to the edge of the area, unwilling to commit to a feint. But I was a lot bigger than she was used to, and she didn’t make it out of range.

  She blocked with one blade, but I twisted my entire upper body and the blade twisted and slid past, catching her in the shoulder.

  She stumbled, and before I could figure out where I’d gone wrong, I felt a stinging pain as her other blade rapped me on my offhand’s wrist.

  “Point!” we both shouted.

  Two to one now.

  Instead of pulling back, Farula dove forward. She tensed her legs and I moved high; she pitched forward and rocketed in low. Even with my speed, I barely pushed one rod-tip away. The other rammed straight for my underscales and I bent my spine as far as it’d go without my powers.

  “Point!” Farula shouted.

  “What?” I whipped around, coiled and ready.

  “Not my fault your scales are so thick!”

  Keeping Farula in my periphery, I checked the spot. Sure enough, right where underscales shrank and darkened, higher up than I’d let touch the ground, there was a rough smudge of wood splinters and dirt.

  The area stung faintly, but not like the dull pounding of my wrist.

  “Damn. Match’s yours then.”

  “Yes!” she threw her fists up, training blades still clutched in them. “You’re not bad though; you’re crazy fast and huge too.”

  “Not as fast as you apparently.”

  “Aw, come on! Don’t sulk! We’ll be partners in class! Maybe, probably.”

  “Aren’t you already in the class?”

  “Well yeah, but I’m not gonna show them how my family fights for free.”

  “Have you… ever gone to your classes?”

  Her jaw snapped shut. “A couple times! Their tutor’s gonna be worse than mine was anyway!”

  “Mine was a millennia-old dragon, and I’m going to show up!” I countered. Mostly to beat the stuffing out of a training dummy.

  “I, uh, alright, that’s a pretty good point! Anyway, wanna go again? I’m not even sweating!”

  I laughed. “Well I don’t sweat, so sure.”

  “Really?”

  “Nah, we do. Just the elf-looking part though.”

  Farula laughed, chittering like a small angry mammal. “Three again?”

  “Sure! Time to get even.”

  My opponent stopped laughing and started the count.

  By the time we were spent, it was sundown and my abolished dread slammed into me all at once. It was time.

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