Chapter 3

They danced across the grass, ducking around trees for cover. Their blades flew quickly, metal clangs reverberating through the forest. They met each other blow for blow, neither gaining any ground. Small animals scurried out of their way as they cut a swath through the foliage, never stopping to take even the shortest break.

Charles smiled as he came in at Samona with a series of rapid strikes. She deflected them all, flipping backwards to take herself out of his range.

"I must admit," Charles said with a grin, "I was not aware that Elfish scouts were so highly trained in swordplay."

Samona dropped her guard for the merest of instances, preparing to respond, and Charles took the opening. He came in with a powerful overhead strike.

She had merely been feinting. She rolled backwards as she let the blow strike her sword, driving her towards the ground. She sprung upwards from her shoulders, propelling her legs into Charles' gut. He went flying over her, landing three feet away. To his credit, he got up quickly, his sword ready to defend.

"Nice."

"Thank you," Samona replied with a small curtsy. "I spent most of my childhood sparring with my mother, an elfin warrior. She insisted that I learn how to defend myself."

Charles came in at her again, this time with a cautious probing stab under her guard. His blade was parried away as Samona took a couple of steps backwards. He matched her progress, raining a series of light blows on her defenses, looking for some kind of opening.

He was not sure when it happened, but all he knew was that one second they were just having a friendly sparring match, and the next, he saw something within Samona's eyes that he could not identify. She ran at him, pounding away at his defenses with serious strikes.

Charles half-ran backwards, parrying and blocking for all of his life's worth. Her blows were fast and powerful, and almost certainly lethal. They were apparently no longer sparring; she was aiming to take his life.

"Samona!" he shouted. "What in the name of the Underworld are you doing?"

She just came in harder and faster, her eyes gleaming with an intense hatred. She raised her sword for a powerful overhead strike after knocking Charles' sword out of the way, going for a killing blow. He quickly brought his sword to the same position, the blades meeting with an ear-splitting sound of metal being scraped away. While their swords were locked, Charles grabbed Samona's wrists, flinging both of their blades to the ground.

She backhanded him with all of her strength, a trickle of blood running from his nose. He looked at her with a flash of anger that could have set a bull running in the opposite direction.

His voice cracked with the power of command, filled with intensity and rage. "Stop this now, before I am forced to kill you!"

She immediately fell down, shivering as if she had just had cold water poured upon her.

"I'm sorry..." she mumbled, "please... I am sorry..."

Charles sighed, sitting down heavily. "Would you mind explaining exactly what that was about, Samona?"

It took her several hours to relate the entirety of her story, explaining how she often saw the wizard's face transplanted on to those of her enemies. During the sparring match, she had for some reason come to think that she was fighting her tormentor.

Charles reached out and took Samona into an embrace, both of them staying locked in that position for several hours.

The wizard barely managed to restrict the smug grin that so wanted to spread across his face as he looked through his viewing glass. He had finally located his favorite prey, the half-elfin girl from his home village. She had made such a fun training tool. He was constantly trying to teach himself new ways to break people, and it was certainly appearing as if his new way was working very well. All he had to do was throw a little strife her way occasionally, and he could watch her torture herself with her own dark thoughts. He barely had to do any work to maintain the cruelty. Sometimes, it was just too easy.