Act II, The Free LandChapter 22
Chapter 22: The Office Door
House Baroque, Terrinia. Two years earlier.
Guinevere waits all day outside her father’s door. A year later, a quiet girl tells her she is strong.
Guinevere had practiced the sentence all the way across the city. Father, I took the top score.
Now she sat on a bench in a marble corridor, chin up, a paper smoothed on her knee. She had tied her long pink hair, fading to purple at the ends, in a red bow for the occasion. His office door stood half open. Through the gap she could see the corner of a desk and a dark sleeve.
She was Guinevere of House Baroque. Her family ran one of the biggest companies in Terrinia, and she was its heir. She had refused the job. She had gone to Selrick Academy instead, to prove she could shine without his empire.
As a child she had only her security detail for company. Their chief, Hester, grew tired of being pestered and taught her to throw a punch. “Elbow in. Hip first. Hands home after every punch.” Guinevere had been punching ever since.
The preparatory course, the first year every student takes, had ended with a final combat trial, scored by the instructors. She had fought like a storm. The paper on her knee said she had won the instructors’ trial.
Morning passed. A servant brought tea and took it back cold. Voices came and went through other doors. Nobody passed through this one.
He’ll come out, she thought. He’ll see.
At dusk the lamps came on. She stood, pulled back her shoulders and said it to the gap.
“Father. I took the top score.”
The sleeve did not move.
“Stop being so stubborn and focus more on the family business!”
A chair scraped. A door opened and shut somewhere behind the desk. When she looked again, the lamp in there was off.
She went back to the Academy that night. In the dark training hall she hit the heavy bag with bare fists until her knuckles split. Elbow in. Hip first. Then she called up her drones and trained with them too.
I’ll train even harder, she thought. Until I can’t stand.
Selrick Academy. A year later.
A banner hung over the courtyard: THE ASPIRANTS TEAM-UP DAY. On this day students asked each other to be partners. Aspirants fought in pairs, and a partner decided how far you went. Pairs were shaking hands everywhere. Around Guinevere there was a gap three meters wide.
The placeSelrick Academy
She stood in the middle of it with her chin up. Everyone is scared of my family name, she thought. I’ll never find a partner.
Two students whispered by the fountain.
“Her score was bought.”
“Of course. Her father’s name did the fighting.”
Guinevere’s chin went higher. It took effort.
“You are strong, Guinevere.”
The voice came from the shade of the wall. A black-haired girl stood there alone with her arms folded. It was Vexana. She had not raised her voice, and the whisperers stopped.
Guinevere crossed the gap in six strides. “Be my partner!”
“No.”
Vexana walked away. No one had ever turned down the great lady Guinevere before! She found she did not mind one bit.
She asked again the next day, on the stairs.
“No.”
“You said I’m strong. How would you know?”
“I have seen you in the training hall at night. Bare fists first. Then the drones.”
“You watched me?!”
“Yes.” Vexana went on down the stairs. “The answer is still no.”
That night Guinevere found her in the dark gallery of the training hall, alone again. She had no speech ready. Her knuckles were taped.
“Will you be my partner?”
Vexana looked at her for a long moment.
“Yes.”
Guinevere tried to look dignified.
“Training starts tomorrow. No excuses.”
The grin came anyway.