When none came, however, I turned to find a look of shock in her eyes. "Sorry," I said bashfully. For the first time since I met her, she laughed. It was a coarse, grinding laugh, but it was much more evident than her usual, quiet chuckle. "Sorry for what?" she managed between laughs as she doubled over right in front of me. Unsure of what else to do as another fit took over her, Ysevel and I both began to chuckle along with her.
"Egeshe krag, Gravar was right after all," she said, beating my chest with an armored fist. Even with the armor Maikell had forged for me, it still felt like she might break a rib or two. "Ah, it's been a long time since I've had apprentices this talented," she said in a much clearer voice than usual, trying to regain her composure.
As she rose from her doubled-over position, I noticed that the faceplate she normally formed that would cover from the bridge of her thin nose down to the base of her small chin and balanced lips was retracted into two identical slits on either side of her face.
"You really are as strong as he thought you were," she said with a bright, toothy smile and a pair of pearlescent fangs that just barely hung from outside of the corners of her mouth. The light gray skin beneath her face plate was a definite shift from the cold, blackened visage of the kataki plate.
Oh, fuck. Do we tell her that her face plate is gone? I sent Ysevel, being completely caught off guard by the reveal of her real face. I-I don't know what to do in this situation, she sent back immediately with an awkward smile.
"Wh-what. Why are you looking at me like…?" she cut herself off, covering her face with both her hands. "Oh, no. I'm so sorry you had to see that," she said with widened eyes, immediately turning away from us. "No, no! It's alright," Ysevel and I said in unison, waving our hands in front of us prompting her to stop moving away from us.
"A-are you sure?" she asked over her shoulder. "Yes, of course, Lady Kalia," Ysevel said warmly. "You have no reason to hide your face from us," I chimed in with a bright smile. "But my face is weak and frail," she said, looking over her shoulder and quickly flicking her eyes between us.
"Oh, please, Lady Kalia, there is much more to strength than just how you look," I said, taking a step forward. She cowered away for a moment as if I were going to beat her senseless.
It's their culture. Remember what she said about strength in the tavern? Ysevel asked through our mental connection as she looked at me briefly. Shit, you're right, I sent back, finally getting a glimpse of what this could mean to her.
"Please, Lady Kalia. You can trust us," Ysevel said warmly, putting a soft, pale hand on her armored shoulder. "We have no reason to lie to you about that," she continued with a shake of her head.
"She's right, my Lady: We're not hegraphenes, much less ones from the Iron Plume clan," I said with a shrug. "Besides, even if we went through a hundred of the Davu dugo Guva, we would still say the same things we're saying now," I said, allowing Ysevel to comfort her shoulder.
"Y-you're not lying, then?" she asked skittishly. "No, of course not," Ysevel said, prompting me to give her a nod of agreement. Hesitantly, she rose from her cowering position back to her full height without removing her hands as she looked at us with wide, questioning eyes. "It's alright," Ysevel said in a warm, encouraging tone.
Slowly but surely, I could see the soft edges of the skin on her face being reluctantly dragged behind her armored fingers as she lowered her hands. "There, see? It's not so bad," I said, gently spreading my arms. "It's been so long since I've shown anyone aside from Gravar my true face," she said dejectedly. Her voice was much easier to understand, but it still held much of the raspy, grinding noises as before.
"Why do you have to hide your faces? What's the point of all that, Lady Kalia?" I asked bluntly but using as warm of a tone as I could. "I was always raised to believe that if you show others your face and the expressions they carry, then it opens the way for others to use your feelings against you," she said as if it were an obvious fact.
"That's a harsh way to live," I said, slightly taken aback. "It's true. We're taught from birth how to create the face plates and are only ever told to reveal our faces to our mates whom, as you know, we stay with for the duration of our lives," she said with a slight tinge of sadness in her voice.
"What about your own family?" Ysevel asked curiously. "Well, that's an obvious one, but even still, there are those who refuse to relent their masks to anyone," Kalia replied briefly as I digested her answer.
This is going to sound absurd, isn't it? I thought as an idea began to form in my mind.
"How about this, then: We'll treat you as a member of our family so you won't feel ashamed of showing your true face," I suggested, getting both a surprised yet warm smile from Ysevel as a result. "A-are you sure? Do you know what it means to be a part of a hegraphene family, let alone of the Iron Plume Clan?" she asked with visible astonishment on her face.
"Eh, no, but I'm sure Ysevel would agree with me that while we're stuck inside this dome, training with you, it's not so different from what we both went through when being trained by my mother," I said with a shrug. "I think that would be a great idea," Ysevel agreed as the excitement in her voice began to grow.
Kalia seemed confused by the offer but took a moment to consider my offer seriously. "Swear it, then," she said, outstretching her armored forearm towards me with a serious look on her face, catching me by surprise.
"Swear to me that in both victory and defeat, in honor or dishonor, in life or death, and in the wake of the end of whatever wars we wage in the future that we will always stand by each other's side," she said with a finality in her tone that sent a shiver down my spine.
Looking down at the armored hand extended to me and then back up at the firm expression that was hardly softened by her face's fine features, I grasped her arm in mine, feeling my fingers wrap around her forearm almost entirely.
"I don't know the proper response, but I swear that in all of those instances, I will stand by your side as long as I draw breath and even beyond, Lady Kalia," I said with a determined, honest look in my eyes.
As soon as the last word exited my mouth, I felt a pulse of Wraith mana surge through my entire body and my core. While I wasn't entirely sure, I could only guess that it was some kind of binding vow that tied our cores to each other.
"Whoa," I said, blinking rapidly as if I had just hit by a jolt from a Kyr spell. I flexed my hand a few times, though Kalia seemed entirely unphased by it as she turned to outstretch her hand towards Ysevel. "Do you, Lady Ysevel, also swear to the terms I've mentioned?" she asked, regarding her even more seriously than she had me. Ysevel clasped her armored forearm quickly and without any hesitation whatsoever.
"I swear that in all of those instances, I will stand by your side as long as I draw breath and beyond, Lady Kalia," she said with a similarly determined look in her eyes. Reeling from the jolt I could tell she felt as well, she flexed her hand briefly, then gave Kalia a warm smile which she returned to the two of us.
"As it is my right and will to do so, I hereby declare you both, from this day forward, members of the Iron Plume Clan and my family," she said with a warm smile, which we both returned in kind. "We're honored, Lady Kalia," I said with a respectful bow, eliciting a chortle of disbelief from her. "Well, I suppose now you can just call me Kalia," she said after a few moments, surprising us both with the awkwardness in her voice.
Ysevel, however, was giddy with excitement.
"I finally have a sister!" she exclaimed through a toothy smile. Kalia and I chuckled at her childish delight, but words couldn't express how much joy just hearing her being so happy brought me. "Y-yes, I suppose I am your sister, but it is through bond only and not by blood. I feel that would be a bit awkward, given your… situation," she said, darting her index finger between us with a knowing look on her face.
She knows. She definitely knows, I sent Ysevel with an awkward laugh. Of course I did, Kalia sent, surprising us both and prompting Ysevel to suddenly halt her jumping as the blood flushed from her face.
"H-how long have you known?" Ysevel asked bashfully. "Oh, from the moment I met you, of course," Kalia said with a shrug as if that information should have been obvious. Stifling a surprising giggle with the back of her armored hand, she glanced down to the floor and doubled over briefly. "I'm only joking. I found out the moment I felt the sheer strength of your connections in the Wraith realm," she said, putting up a hand placatingly.
If she knows, then that means… Oh, no, my thoughts trailed off as I imagined both my mom and Aurae snickering and rubbing their hands together like some scheming merchants.
"I-I see," Ysevel said, looking away and scratching her cheek with pursed lips. "It's alright. I certainly approve, even though there is still much about you two that I need to learn now," Kalia said, giving me a knowing nod.
She'll get along juuuuust fine with our mothers, I thought, hoping that thought had stayed private.
"Well, now that that's out in the open, I think it's time we start catching Thoma up to reach the fourth stage, don't you, Ysevel?" she asked with a nudge of her elbow. "Absolutely, but since he mostly learns when he's hurt, I don't think you should go lightly on him," she answered wryly.
"I wasn't planning on going lightly on either of you," Kalia said with a malicious look in her eye. "Uh-oh," Ysevel and I said in unison as the malicious glint turned into a fully-formed wolfish grin.
For what felt like the next three months, Ysevel and I trained at a level I didn't even know was possible. Every day, we would start with long practice sessions of learning to draw from the Wraith realm, summoning and throwing the daggers. Those sessions were then followed up by trying to implement them in combat.
Of course, we never managed to hit her with them, but we did come close once or twice after multiple failed attempts.
"It seems I need to push you both a bit harder," she said, dodging one of the daggers I'd thrown that nearly hit her in the shoulder. Panic set over me as I immediately sensed her mana reappear behind me with nothing but pure malice behind the blow she was preparing for me.
As if on instinct, and without the time to react properly, I did the only thing I knew that could block it in time. I reached into the Wraith realm and summoned the tendrils from the sky, forming a scarlet dagger just behind my head, meeting the pommel of her blade that was coming for the back of my neck.
I could sense feelings of both pride and frustration flowing through me as the resounding pwang from her pommel striking the dagger reached my ears. Ysevel, just a few meters away from me, dashed in to try and catch her off guard during the recoil. Kalia, however, was way too fast to be caught out like that and quickly deflected the strikes aimed for her thighs and torso, then backed away in the time it took to blink.
"Not bad! I can tell you're growing more comfortable with it," Kalia said, regaining her composure. "It's a work in progress, but it's much better than the first day," I said, raising my sword above my head in a high guard in hopes of confusing her from my usual stance of raising the hilt to the height of my cheek.
She held a pensive gaze for all of a heartbeat before the wolfish grin returned to her fine features. Ysevel, however, was the first to attack, as she all but disappeared from my sight, transforming into a phantasmal being gently outlined with scarlet mana as she moved in to attack. "Impressive," Kalia said, catching the incoming strike with her own blade.
The look of surprise on her face when she saw my blade slicing through Ysevel's phantasmal form was priceless.
She barely managed to block my attack in time, which sent her skidding across the rune-covered ground to a halt. "Damn it, I really thought I had her," I said as Ysevel's true form returned. "You didn't have to slice through me, you know," she said wryly. "Sorry, but it almost worked, didn't it?" I asked with a light-hearted shrug. "Almost," she said, with a grin as we readied ourselves for her counterattack.
"Enough," Kalia said, raising a hand and reforming her sword around her forearm. "You've both grown significantly during these past cycles, and I can honestly say that I'm proud of your progress," she said with a nod of approval. "Thank you, Kalia," we said, putting our own blades back into their wristband forms.
Kalia looked at me strangely for a moment, then blinked once or twice as if snapping herself out of whatever thoughts she had. "Is something the matter?" I asked, having noticed the strange behavior. "Nothing, really. That guard you were in just reminded me of someone long ago," she said dismissively with a wave of her hand.
"If it's not too much trouble to ask, who was it?" I asked, drawing Ysevel's attention to the conversation at hand since she was watching Irun and Athar spar somewhere behind us. "He was an elf, but that would've been centuries before your time, by my calculations," she said with a shrug. "Heh, he was the one who gave me this during a tournament long ago," she said, pointing to the small cut in the armored plating just above her eye.