I Hate Dungeon School

I stood across from Cori as we did our stretches together. We both had on some training clothes, nice and loose but not overly so. I usually liked training in more form-fitting outfits, but that was for weapon training. I liked the loose clothes for hand-to-hand training.

The place I chose was one of the further back training halls. It was quiet, not likely to get a lot of foot traffic this time of day, and it had training dummies of various sizes and practice weapons if we needed. The floor was also nice and padded, which Cori would be grateful for when we got to grappling.

I had to admit, I had never really seen much of Cori's melee fighting outside some dagger work she had used in a training dungeon, and even that happened so quickly in the midst of chaos that I couldn't get a good sense of her skill level.

She was good with her crossbow and some throw weapons, of that I could be sure, but there was a difference in being good at ranged combat and being good at fist fighting.

At the very least, she knew how to do stretches.

We both finished, and Cori stood in front of me, her look was one of pure determination. She really wanted this, and I couldn't blame her. What I was going to teach her would likely be passed on to others, and so on and so forth and they would use this knowledge to try to level the playing field against the knights and mages who treated the borderland villages so poorly.

The cynic in me felt it wasn't going to be enough, but I had to try. If I didn't, something in my soul would feel responsible. I felt the dungeon core resting in the pouch near my heart pulse at that thought. That was interesting. Something to mention to Calderon later.

Cori was an interesting human to me. She was on the short side, a full head shorter than me, in fact, sandy-colored hair, and freckles. She always looked slightly tanned with some lighter patches, like the tan lines from farming under the sun all day in her youth, baked in. She had a few scars I could see on her arms and across her nose, no doubt hard-earned. She was well muscled, likely also from her farming upbringing. I could work with this. I hoped.

"Alright, Cori. I need to know exactly what I'm working with." I led her over to one of the training dummies in the hall. "Show me punches and kicks. About twenty of each should do."

"Any particular location or what?" She asked, squaring up against the wood and cloth opponent.

"No, just show me what you've got." I backed up and let her get to it.

It didn't take long to realize that she had strength and power, but not very much in the way of technique. This would take some work.

My fighting style could generously be called brawling, but if we were to be even more generous, it was a strange mishmash of styles I had picked up from my sister's hellish training, my brothers' more gentle training, learning from the guards, and random folks on my road to Revenstahd. I had started early, for reasons I wasn't entirely clear about. At age 8, my sister got it into her head that I needed to train and train hard as well as fast. This was mixed in with magic studies, too. It was a hard life, but I grudgingly admitted it worked on me in the end.

"Alright, Cori, you can stop. I've got a decent enough idea where to start from." I walked around her, playing the part of the instructor. I won't lie, I enjoyed it.

"Well?" She asked, wiping sweat from her brow. She went all out there, it seemed.

"You've got strength for sure. You even have a decent amount of speed, but you lack technique and stamina. A fight against a mage or knight is more likely to be a battle of attrition than anything. You have to outlast them and whittle them down to size. There is some nuance to that, but we'll get into it later."

"So what do you recommend then?" She asked, sounding somewhat deflated.

"For today, stamina exercises. Once we do that, we'll start doing speed training. And then I'll teach you specific moves and techniques." I explained, hands on my hips. It felt exciting, having a student of my own. I would mold her into a living weapon, or my name wasn't Alta Marchesi!

I taught her some exercises she could do, and told her to try to do them every day, and this time next week, we'd check again. I made sure it was all things she could do without weights or equipment, as the people she would be teaching wouldn't have access to them.

By the time we were done, she was completely exhausted and sweaty.

"You did good, Cori! Just keep that up long enough, and it'll get easier." I said, handing her a towel. She accepted it, buried her face in it, and groaned.

"Why did I think this was such a good idea. This is great for me, but I don't know how this is going to help anyone else! I don't know how everyone will do this and keep up with everything else, plus fending off the attacks from you know who." She sighed and looked crestfallen.

"It's a hard road for sure, but this is just one step. This training may not be for everyone in your village. Maybe some will need to focus on other forms of attack, maybe just making sure everyone knows how to use your crossbow thingy will be the way. But you know them better than I, so I can't say for sure." I put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

She looked up at me, and I could from her expression she was confused. I would have to try this a different way.

"Cori, I can't train your whole village, or the other villages. I can train you. You can train others. You will eventually need to learn as much as you can to lead them in defending themselves. I can only teach you so much, you have to learn from as many sources as possible."

She nodded at me.

"It's a bigger job than I thought, I guess. Thank goodness it's not just me out there. The villages sent a lot of people into the Mortal Kingdoms." She stood back up and stretched her undoubtedly sore muscles.

"That was for the best, I think. Lots of perspectives. Learn what you can, combine knowledge, and hope for the best. Anyway, let's get you to the showers. You humans stink when you sweat." I scrunched my nose at her.

"Sure, you just don't want to see me naked?" She winked at me with a laugh.

"Get going, you perverted stink demon! Go! Shoo!" I rolled my eyes at her and pushed her towards the showers.

It had been nice getting closer to my roommates, but ever since I started dating Eira, the teasing has just gotten silly. I guess I couldn't blame them. There wasn't much else to do for entertainment for a student in Revenstahd that didn't involve drinking. Teasing me was probably the least offensive pastime they could get up to.

I caught a whiff of myself and scooted off to the showers.

Wouldn't do to smell off in case I ran into Eira again!

-

I was craving something hearty for dinner, and made my way to the cafeteria. The common food for this time of year was stews, and despite to middling flavor of most things they made there, their stew was amazing. It was thick with lots of vegetables and meat, plus it was also warm. They also had an inordinate amount of it, so no one cared if you had seconds or thirds. They also included a heavenly brown bread, which paired with it perfectly.

I had no idea why the food got so good during the winter months, but I wasn't one to complain. About good food, that is. I would happily complain about all sorts of things.

I grabbed my bowl and some bread, sneaking some extra for myself, and looked around for any of my friends. The gods had blessed me this evening, as there was Eira. I was so happy I almost missed who she was talking to. I swore under my breath as I realized it was Mariana Togalli, my thrice accursed future sister-in-law, whom I had hated since we were children.

Togalli and I made eye contact, and I glared an army's worth of daggers at her. She had the good grace to look somewhat ashamed and got up and left her conversation. Good. I didn't want to talk to her in any case. I'd rather lick a dungeon slime.

Eira looked my way and waved me over with a big smile. I adored her smile. I adored her, everything really. I quickly made my way over to her, and sat down across from her with my tray.

"So, you've met Togalli, I take it?" I asked before taking a bite of the warm bread, trying to keep my irritation from seeping into my voice.

"Gods, what a piece of work that one is! Just showed up out of nowhere and started interrogating me about how I knew you and our relationship. I could tell she was a few seconds away from a slur too. Venom behind her smiles, that one." She grimaced, recounting the conversation.

"Right? I've known her a long time, and that sums her up perfectly. I wonder what she's snooping around for." I narrowed my eyes with thought. It could be a whole cavalcade of reasons, to be honest. I had intentionally stayed out of the loop with the politics going on in Burgotova, but I had a suspicion.

The upcoming wedding between her house and mine was a shock to many, for a lot of reasons. Not only to Mariana and me, but to many in the Mortal Kingdoms. Two feuding families, declaring their joining out of the blue, and then declaring secession from the crown? And as far as I could tell, nothing had been done about it by the crown either.

Was Mariana trying to use something about me to get back in her family's good graces? I couldn't think how that would do anything. My exile and banishment were a done deal, and embarrassing an exile was pointless.

Was it something about Eira? I couldn't think of anything, it could be off the top of my head. Was Togalli just trying to irritate me? That was more likely, but she never did anything without some kind of ulterior motive.

I didn't like it. I didn't like it a lot.

"You keep scowling like that, your face will stick. It's true, I saw it happen once. Looked like they were permanently constipated for the rest of their life. Very sad." Eira smirked at me.

I couldn't help but laugh.

"Oh, you always know how to keep me from falling down the crevasse that is my brain. How I love you!" I giggled before I stopped realizing what I said. Oh dear. Too soon, too fast? Maybe? Probably?

Eira just smiled and put her hand on mine.

"I love me too!" She grinned and then kissed my hand. If I were a heroine of the tawdry romance novels I pretended not to like, I would have swooned a deep and elegant swoon. Instead, I blushed. I could feel the heat spread straight to my ears.

"Sorry about that, it just slipped out!" I stammered.

"It's ok! I appreciate it. It...it just might be some time before I can say it myself. I do care for you, Alta, but I need more time to get, you know, THAT committed." She explained, still smiling at me.

"I'll be honest, I feel the same. Let's just keep feeling this out, if that's alright." I breathed in and out, feeling my blush recede.

"Exactly. I like going out with you, but let's not start with wedding bells too soon, okay?" She patted my hand. "Besides, you can't have a proper romance on an empty stomach!"

She indicated our cooling bowls of stew. I nodded emphatically.

"On that count, I completely agree!"