Lessons

The next morning a Romanesque couch had appeared in the living room, just like the ones at Fort Lascall. Sigh. Aneeka had rushed out of the bedroom this morning, I’ve no idea where she was off to in such a hurry. At least I was still free of the prisoner rack! I’d almost broken down in tears the night before when I’d been allowed to fed myself dinner.

I sighed before allowing Nallen to settle me onto his lap, “Is this something cultural I just don’t understand, this feeding each other so much?”

“No, it actually is important. All having to do with strengthening our relationship-bond. First, simply feeding each other increases trust, that’s fairly minor though. The major part is that we siphon off a bit of each other’s power with each bite. Consuming power like that will slowly make us even more attuned than we already are.”

I shivered, not sure I liked that imagery, sounded like power-cannibalism. I shoved that firmly out of my brain! “Shouldn’t Aneeka take part too? I know she’s part of you, practically your shadow. I already like her a great deal, love will follow.”

Nallen took a deep breath, his chest expanding beneath me, “We should. That’s actually why she ran out of here earlier, she wasn’t sure how much longer she could hold off ... And she wasn’t sure how you’d react.”

“How she’d react? ... To what?”

“Seeing me feed you, And not taking part herself.”

“Well, that’s easy enough! You’ll just have to feed both of us. Not afraid of a couple girls, are you?” I remembered something else I’d been meaning to ask, “How old are you, Nallen, Aneeka? You don’t look that much older but sometimes ... sometimes it just seems like you’ve seen everything.”

He was chuckling again, “I’m actually only a little older than you are, I’m twenty-five. Aneeka is nineteen. I’m guessing it’s a combination of the teacher and my life growing up. Father’s been preparing me my entire life, surprise tests and the like.”

And your father? Mother?”

“He’s proof that high-level thaumaturgy extends life, he’s almost two-hundred. Mother’s only forty-five.”

“Wow, I would have guessed he’s no more than fifty. But you’re his heir? Wouldn’t he have had kids before you?”

“He refused to have children until he found a good match. They met ... very close to exactly nine months before I was born,” another chuckle.

It wasn’t easy but I managed to turn around enough, giving Nallen a very serious look, “There’s something I’ve been wondering. What does being your wife entail, Nallen, am I just a baby factory? Do I have some actual function?”

“Depends on you, how visible you want to be. Baby factory is one option - though I do hope you choose more. Actually, I hope you spend at least some time as a student, the ‘teacher’ can only do so much, particularly when it comes to using skills. It can impart a broad outline of a subject like thaumotology but only practice can teach actually using it. It can obviously do much more with pure knowledge.”

“That reminds me, Aneeka said I need to learn to shoot. And I do mean need, as in it’s a critical point.”

“That’s right, I dare not let you out of arm’s reach outside until that’s taken care of.”

“She also mentioned I should have you take me shooting first, before the teacher, just so I see what a difference it makes.”

“Guess that’s our morning planned for then? Give you an introduction, then the teacher and back to the range once you’ve recovered.”

Another magical doorway that broke every physics law of conservation I’m aware of deposited us someplace I at least recognized from movies, a firing range. I still couldn’t sense how Nallen’s doorways worked but my growing sense of this Thaumaturgic Quantum Energy Field told me we were back at Fort Lascall. This must have been a place private to the family, there were only two lanes, one very much longer than the other.

We went over to the shorter lane, a counter separated the two, its level between my belly-button and rib-cage.

“First, some rules.” Nallen made sure he had my attention, “One, Firearms are not toys. Two, always treat any firearm as though it is loaded. Three, never point a firearm at anything you don’t mean to kill. Four, keep your finger off the trigger until you are actually ready to fire. Five, be aware of what is behind your target. The teacher will give you some others, for some unusual situations, but those are the ones you need to keep in mind right now. Now, what did I just tell you?”

I couldn’t stop shaking, this was a very different Nallen than I’d seen so far. There had always been a faint undertone of amusement - or at least playfulness - but now he was incredibly serious.

At first I could only remember a few words of what he’d just said, I tried pulling from my link getting some more. “One, not toy. Two, finger off trigger. Three, certain of target. Four, always loaded. Five,... , Five...” I couldn’t remember the last, no matter how hard I tried.

“Never point a firearm at...” “at something you don’t intend to kill,” I actually finished over him, almost word for word.

“If this were a formal course after using the teacher you’d have been docked for changing the order and wording. But that was very good considering you only heard the rules once.”

“Is there a reason you keep saying ‘firearm’ instead of ‘gun’?”

Nallen’s amusement was back, a light tickle in my mind. “Your military services have this silly distinction between guns and other weapons. To them ‘guns’ are always artillery. They have handguns - which are mostly revolvers or pistols - and rifles. Some nearly in-between classes as well. Anyway, we actually learned about such weapons from your world and the naming stuck.”

Nallen placed a gun - firearm - on the counter, it looked like the one from my purse. Unlike the one from my purse this was sort of open, the top part was pulled back anyway. “This fires Krungflung forty-three lit, very similar to the nine millimeter parabellum from your world.”

“I’ve heard of that but don’t know what it is.”

“It’s the most common handgun round for your American police. Also, what most of your military uses.”

He placed another opened handgun, much smaller, next to the first, “We’ll actually start with this, Krungflung twenty lit, it’s much quieter and has much less recoil. Now, let me explain how this works.”

He picked up the smaller model, examined the opening in the side before pushing a button on the other side. A box almost jumped out the bottom. Nallen caught it easily. He set both pieces back on the counter before opening a drawer beneath the counter-top, it turned out to hold more of the boxes as well as other equipment I didn’t recognize. One thing I did recognize were targets! Some plain black circles, others that were man-shaped. I was very relieved when Nallen picked one of the circular targets. The boxes like the one that had been in the handle held stacks of something else. I gasped, they had to be bullets!

More amusement, “There’s something else we picked up from your people, a word, that word is ‘hoplophobe’.” I’d never heard this word before - I’m sure I hadn’t heard most Betwan words at this point - but it was easy to tell this had simply been taken, not translated. “It means someone with an irrational fear of weapons.”

“What’s irrational about fearing weapons?” I was almost indignant.

“It’s rational to respect weapons but this pistol has no independent agency. It’s not going to jump off the table and start shooting. There’s a growing segment of your people like that. If it fires, it is because I - or someone - chose to fire it.”

He Messed with the target. There were some clips on an overhead cable, an unseen pulley hauled the page perhaps ten feet away.

Nallen carried the smaller pistol to a black line across the middle of the lane, “Come over in front of me.”

I watched Nallen as he went about whatever it was with the gun - firearm, handgun, dammit! It was soon obvious that he really did follow the rules he had told me. He kept it pointed at either the ground or the sky, usually the ground. His finger was always extended beside the barrel. He never even pointed it at my feet. Perhaps he was exaggerating a little because I was a beginner, perhaps not. He shoved one of the full boxes into the hollow in the handle, there was an audible ‘click’.

I felt very nervous as I walked around from the other side, regardless of how careful Nallen was being I didn’t want to cross between that pistol and the target. He actually nodded in approval! I shook more as he wrapped his arms around me, holding the handgun out in front of me. I relaxed a little, seeing that it was still open.

“Okay, get ready to take it, remember, it /is/ loaded, even if it’s not charged just yet. So you know, it’s probably a bit heavier than you’d guess.”

I took a deep breath, knowing I wasn’t getting out of this, that it actually was important here that I know about shooting. If I didn’t I couldn’t possibly be a citizen in Nallen’s society! It took some fumbling to figure out the exchange, there just wasn’t a lot of room for both our hands. But eventually we managed. I took another deep breath, my hands were shaking incredibly, the end of the barrel was waving wildly even though I felt like I had a death-grip on the thing. Nallen did continue holding my hands, his wrapped around mine. I was very careful to keep my finger clear of the trigger.

“Relax, you’re doing fine,” Nallen’s voice was a soothing rumble in my ear. “See the horizontal piece along the left side? At the bottom of the slide?”

“Mmm hmm.”

“That will release the slide, loosen your left hand - keep holding but do loosen some - and use your left thumb to pull down on the release.”

I did so, almost jumping when the top slammed forward. I heard something else in that motion, something beside the slide hitting its stop, or even just moving along its track. With a start I realized that had to be a bullet being picked up from the stack, moved into position.

“Okay, it is now charged - ready to fire. You see the rocker at the back of the grip, where your thumb and finger meet?”

“Mmm hmm.”

“That is the only mechanical safety this gun has - real safety is between your ears. That part has to be held in for it to fire. Now, I have to let go, the way this works, the slide is going to be forced back, very hard, if I continued holding your hands I’d very likely be injured simply because there’s no room to keep my hand out of the way.”

“Okay.”

“Now, spread your feet about shoulder-width, extend your arms out in front as far as you can. This is the most stable unsupported standing position there is.”

Nallen let go, he remained standing behind me, so close his breath sometimes tickled my neck. I had to push that out of my mind, adopting the stance as best I could from his description. I remembered to tighten my left hand, careful to hold near the bottom so that I was well clear of the slide - if Nallen didn’t want to be hit by the thing there was no way I did!

“Now, hold the top level with your line of sight. You see the bead at the front and the ‘V’ at the back? Do your best to place the bead so it exactly fills the ‘V’. Don’t worry, there will always be some motion. Just breathe normal, do /not/ try to hold your breath, that will make things much harder.”

I took another deep breath, in a strange way this felt a lot like losing - Losing? Ha! It had definitely been taken! - my virginity a couple days earlier. Or even more, the first time I had sucked Nallen, now that had been all me. Regardless, I felt like this experience was about to change me. Just like Nallen’s breath I did my best to shove these unproductive thoughts out of my mind, he had told me to line the bead with the V, I needed to try doing so. It was easy to get close, particularly side-to-side. I had a much harder time holding the top level with the notch.

“Very good. Now, something I should say, when you pull the trigger it’s going to kick. It won’t be very much with the twenty lit but you still need to be prepared for it, don’t let it get loose.”

I nodded, still trying to keep the bead and notch aligned.

“Okay, doing a good job so far. You ready?”

Another breath and nod.

“Rest your finger on the trigger, don’t pull just yet.”

My arms trembled as I slid my finger through the guard. I was holding my finger on the trigger of a loaded gun, what was I thinking?! Another couple slow deep breaths and I was back under control.

“Now, I want you to /slowly/ squeeze the trigger, don’t jerk. Just keep adding more pressure, let the actual firing surprise you a bit.”

I did my best, still trying to keep the damn bead lined up with the infuriating V. It seemed impossible to do both at the same time.

BANG

I was /very/ surprised when it fired, not because of how violent it was but because it really wasn’t much at all. There was a sharp crack and the barrel lifted a couple inches before I could even react but that was about all. I had expected the thing to be nearly ripped from my grip! What had I been so worried about?

I stared down at the target, trying to find where the bullet had gone. I was very chagrined to see a small hole at the top left corner of the sheet, more than a foot away from where I had been aiming.

“Good job.”

“B ... But it’s so far!”

“Doesn’t matter. You’ve followed all my instructions, even now you’re still keeping the weapon safe. Go ahead, try another shot.”

I didn’t take nearly so long this time.

BANG