Chapter 17 - Enforced Lesson
Tymos and Kryslie walked in silence from their father’s suite on their way to their own apartments. It had been a very long day; both were exhausted and feeling sore all over and didn’t feel they had the personal energy to transmit safely and hoped walking would help them unwind. They were not expecting trouble.
Without warning, two figures materialised in front of them; human figures, clad in all black with only eye, nose and mouth slits apparent in the costume.
As one, Kryslie and Tymos pressed the disc on their monitors to summon help, even as they spun around looking for an escape route. Instead of seeing Morov and Delia behind them, they saw two more dark clad figures. Before they could do any more, one of the figures caught Tymos from behind, controlling him with an extremely painful grip. His agony shocked through Kryslie, numbing her mind and making her an easy victim for another of the intruders.
“Let me go,” Kryslie yelled as loud as she could, but the pressure on her arms didn’t slacken. A third figure walked around to face her. He didn’t speak, but a gesture brought the fourth figure into view, and that one carried two light aluminium staves and passed them to the one facing Kryslie. He threw one to her as the figure holding her released her. She caught it instinctively.
Even without verbal instructions, the intention was clear. She had to fight. It occurred to her that the choice of weapon was not mere chance. She was learning to use the staves for attack and defence and she was certain that these four intruders were some of the training instructors. However, that knowledge would not help her at all. Moreover, if it were true, there would be no help coming.
The dark clad opponent attacked, forcing Kryslie to parry it while allowing for the narrow confines of the passage. Awkwardly at first, Kryslie fought back. She sensed the rhythm in the movements and worked with it, preparing to launch an attack of her own. Then just as she was about to land a debilitating blow on her opponent, she felt another rush of agony from her twin. A painful blow landed on her hip, three or four more blows landed in quick succession on arms and legs and even as she spun and tried to protect herself, she tripped on a stave positioned between her feet and fell face down on top of her weapon. She twisted, trying to get up and saw the stave coming at her head and moved just in time, so it only scraped her cheek. Then a weight landed on her back kept her down.
“Do you yield?” her opponent asked. She recognised the voice of Perrin Reslic.
Kryslie had no choice but to agree. “Yes.”
The next voice she knew as well. “Do you still think being wide open to your twin is a good idea?” President Reslic asked her in a voice as hard as stone.
There was only one truthful answer to that. “No.”
The weight on her back lifted and the figure moved away.
“Get up,” Reslic ordered.
When Kryslie had made it to her feet without help, she saw that Tymos was no longer being held and only Jono Reslic was with them in the passage. He had removed his mask to reveal his impassive face.
“Consider this lesson carefully, Princess Kryslie. We will discuss it next evening.”
Reslic strode off and Tymos who had been leaning against the wall, pushed himself upright, and tried not to feel like he had been wrenched out of his shape.
Delia and Morov approached quietly and transmitted them to their individual apartments.
Kryslie was slightly defiant when she accompanied her brother to their appointment with President Reslic next evening. She knew she was in for trouble, even though she had tried very hard to hide her resentment at the previous evenings ‘lesson’ when Perrin Reslic had taken level Zeta for the afternoon drill.
Tymos walked in silence. His loss of control the previous day and the session with the President afterwards were still vivid in his mind. He had received a serious lesson in controlling his emotions.
They activated the chime on the door of the President’s private sanctum and were admitted by Yeven.
Kryslie saw Perrin Reslic standing beside his brother the President and the dual regard nearly paralysed her. It was only the well-instilled sense of protocol that propelled her inwards. She sensed that Tymos had stayed by the door, but did not turn around to confirm it.
“Tell me the reasons for your behaviour yesterday,” President Reslic asked with his usual directness.
“I wanted to help my brother,” Kryslie answered, meeting his gaze.
“Do you consider that a good reason for your undisciplined behaviour?” Perrin Reslic asked sharply.
“He was hurting! Like you were hurting him last night.”
“What good did you do him last evening?” Perrin Reslic asked.
“You weren’t fighting fairly.”
“If we were truly assassins, we would not fight fair,” Perrin Reslic reminded her. “And you would be dead.”
“I knew who you were,” Kryslie told them.
“And that makes it alright?”
Kryslie refrained from answering. Her resentment from the previous day simmered in her mind.
Jono Reslic studied Kryslie’s expression and stance for a while, and then gave his brother a glance. Perrin Reslic left the room.
“Your loyalty to your twin is commendable and the bond between you is a great strength. However – it is also your greatest weakness. As things are now, killing one of you will incapacitate the other. Two for one stroke. Can you see that?”
Kryslie could, but she did not want to admit it, so she said nothing.
“Come!”
Jono Reslic stood and walked to the door that led to his private gymnasium. Kryslie noticed that Tymos was no longer in sight. She let her mind reach out for him but felt nothing.
What she did see was all her other classmates faced off against level alpha students and the older students were not sparing their partners. The gap in skill was all too apparent.
“You and your brother are all that can help your friends,” Reslic told her, picking up two of the aluminium staves and passing one to her.
Kryslie knew he was serious and felt sick in her stomach. Instinctively, she reached for her brother’s mind, and tried harder to reach his and then she felt his pain. While this distracted her, she was unprepared for Reslic to attack. She woke up to the full rules of the encounter when a solid blow landed on her shin.
“You have to block Tymos out of your mind,” Reslic told her as he continued his assault and watched her fumble into a defensive stance. “You will need all your concentration to disable me, before you can help him.”
“How can I possibly do that?” Kryslie protested, hurting from the multiple strikes from her opponents stave and knowing that Reslic was the greatest living warrior on the planet.
“You have to. Your brother and your friends are depending on you.”
Reslic never varied the strength of his attack. He knew exactly how hard he was making his blows. Those that connected would hurt, but not break bones.
Kryslie fought back tears. She hurt all over and her attempts at attack were becoming weaker. She was trembling with the exertion. With a flick of his stave, Reslic tripped her.
“Five minutes,” he told her. “You are missing the point. Do you trust your brother’s skills?”
From the floor, Kryslie nodded. “He’s better than me at this.”
“Do you need to fight his battle too?”
“No.”
“So why are you?”
“He’s hurting.”
“Your friends will be hurt too. Only you can end this.”
Kryslie forced herself to stand, before the five minutes were up. She reached down for her stave and stood ready.
She saw a flicker of approval on Reslic’s face before the duel began again.
More for her own benefit, she thought at her brother, “I can do this, Tym, don’t worry about me.”
This time, she concentrated on her own battle and once again, she found the rhythm of her opponents movements, prepared a counter attack but was ready for the sudden change in rhythm and blocked the blow. The success of her defence encouraged her. She began to acquit herself better. Fewer attacks where getting through her defence and one of her attacks actually scored on her opponent.
“Your friends are losing,” Reslic told her, succeeding in distracting her attention.
Kryslie glanced at the end of the small gym and saw he was right. Keleb was down on the floor and Lexina was climbing to her feet. Guilt at causing this punishment on them caused her to falter.
“Concentrate!” Reslic reminded her, with a solid swipe to her shin.
Kryslie obeyed. She was tired and hurting, but she had to keep going, had to end it.
She felt a surge of pain from her brother; it made her angry. She pressed forward with another attack of her own, forcing Reslic back. He parried with a move designed to trip her, She allowed herself to fall and turned her momentum into a roll, and attacked Reslic from behind. He quickly turned and parried, but his eyes gleamed with approval.
“Cease!” Reslic held out his hand for her stave.
Kryslie had stopped and was trying to allow her breathing to return to a resting rate.
“Find your brother.”
Kryslie found new energy and raced out, glancing around as she ran and following an instinctive direction. She had an idea of the layout of Reslic’s palace; it wasn’t too different to her Father’s palace. Therefore, she made for where she expected stairs to be and found them. Her instinct was telling her that Tymos was up there. She ran up the stairs, her mind busy seeking for her brother. As she reached the top step, she felt something solid between her ankles and was too late to stop herself falling backwards. Instinctively, she rolled into a ball and although collecting more bruises as she rolled down the stairs, she was able to stand up at the bottom and glare at her assailant.
“Fool,” Konn Reslic taunted, not moving from his position. He was there to stop her passing.
Kryslie suddenly laughed and transmitted past him. He saw her rematerialise, but he did not move from his position. He let Kryslie race off.
Caution became her priority. Instead of racing to help her brother, she moved forward slowly, looking around as she went. That was how she spotted the next black clad ‘ambusher’.
“I can see you, Gann,” Kryslie called out.
Gann emerged fully from his hiding place and smiled a mirthless grin. “You still have to get past me.”
Kryslie ran towards him, watching as he moved his stave to block her. She did something unexpected and curled into a ball and rolled under the swing of his stave. Rising, she pushed him off balance, and then ran on towards her brother. She spotted Tymos just as he pressed forward an attack that disarmed his opponent.
“Enough,” Perrin Reslic instructed. “We are to return to the gym.”
Kryslie briefly touched her brother’s mind and felt the touch returned. She knew that her brother was as exhausted as she felt. Neither objected to letting the older man transmit them back and they both collapsed to sit on the floor when they got there.
Their arrival was a signal for the level alpha students to cease sparring with the other level Zeta students and offer their younger opponents a hand up if they were on the floor and words of commendation on their skill.
“Level Alpha, well done. Now help your opponents to the infirmary. Level Zeta, also well done, but there is to be no slacking off tomorrow,” Jono Reslic directed.
As the younger students walked out, they glanced at Tymos and Kryslie. Stenn winked; making sure his father couldn’t see it.
At Perrin Reslic’s urging, Tymos and Kryslie found the energy to walk back into the President’s sanctum and collapse into two chairs. From a side table, he collected two cups of the restorative drink and handed one to each of the High King’s children.
Jono Reslic arrived a few minutes later and took his chair behind his desk.
“Are you willing to listen now, Princess Kryslie?”
Kryslie nodded wearily.
“You both did well. Very well,” he commended. “You each managed to block out the other. What else did you learn?”
“I learnt not to pick fights with people bigger than me,” Kryslie said, then added, “Sir.”
Reslic smiled faintly.
“And that I should keep my wits about me, and I can fight better without the emotional baggage.”
“Prince Tymos?”
“I did what you showed me,” Tymos said. “I was still aware of Krys and her condition, but I trusted her to do her bit. I did manage to hold my own but I couldn’t finish until I felt Kryslie in my mind.”
Reslic nodded. “Tomorrow, I will teach you both some more mental exercises and some other ways to shield your mind. If you care to remain for a while tonight, I will teach you some biofeedback techniques to control pain. It could prove useful in the future.”
Two people in the room decided that the future was right then.