“That was an excellent answer,” the examiner smiled at him. Next to her, Felix’s spurned elven history teacher nodded in agreement.

  “Thanks,” Sam said with a chuckle, rubbing his scalp, and using all of his willpower not to add, “I guess,” like he did roughly ten minutes ago, when the examiner gave him her second compliment of the test after he had given his second answer. He was very much not used to receiving such straightforward, not to mention immediate (should he mention positive?), feedback during an exam. He wasn’t sure that he liked it.

  “Next question,” the examiner said, “compare and contrast between the kingdom’s foreign policy towards the Harmonic Accord before and after the First Epirak Invasion.”

  “Uhm…” Sam hesitated. “Does that include the royal family?”

  “No need to get into that much detail, Sam,” Felix’s teacher (he forgot both of their names) said. “For simplicity’s sake, the material for the third course does not differentiate between the two. Even when the difference is indeed significant. Focus only on official, and officially documented, government position.”

  “Right… So I want to start by discussing the kingdom’s relationship the Accord before the Epiraks entered the picture. But to do that, we first need to note the shift in the Sarechi foreign policy at large that started with the Noble Agreement. Because even though it did not produce any immediate shift in Sarechi attitude or behavior towards the deshar, it did lay the groundwork for the state of Sarechi-deshar relationship prior to the First Epirak Invasion and it heavily impacted the relationship afterwards. So, with the inconclusive ending of the Sixth Minor Conflict…”

  Forty-five minutes later, he sat down with a tired sigh in Dan’s office. “How was the exam?” Dan asked him with a smile, handing him a glass of cold water.

  “Fine. Pretty easy overall. Even more so than I expected. I passed, obviously. But apparently an actual grade will take longer in coming?”

  “Yeah…” Dan chuckled. “They’re—the academy’s administration, I mean—waiting for you to do the rest of your oral exams. Then, provided you’ll pass all of them, and wouldn’t need a redo, they’ll tally up the grades and decide whether it’s high enough to give them to you or whether you’re better off with just a nondescript passing grade.”

  “That seems needlessly convoluted.”

  “They’re just trying to do right by you, in their own way. Plus, there is some thinking to be done on how exactly to grade you. Since you are the first to be tested in this fashion.”

  “Yeah, I get that. Still, don’t see what that has to do with… ‘doing right by me.’ How does that affect me either way?”

  “Say you’ll get a perfect score on this exam, yes? You’ll be happy, right?”

  “Sure, I guess.”

  “And if you’ll only get a barely passing grade, you’ll be less happy, no?”

  “If you say so.”

  “They do. So their logic is to wait until they have calculated all of your grades. And if all of them are good enough to ‘make you happy,’ they’ll give you an actual grade. If some, maybe even one, of them are not, they’ll just give you a ‘completed their duties’ and send you on your way.”

  Sam nodded. “Ah, I see. Well, alright. Not sure how much sense it makes, but I don’t care enough to delve too deeply into the subject.”

  “Fine with me. So what about your other courses? Are you up to do their exams?”

  “Yeah, I suppose so. If we space them out. One every week or so, that sort of deal. I should be able to rush finishing the textbooks on any given subject even if it’s next week, but still, try and keep the hard stuff for last, alright?”

  “The hard stuff being?”

  Sam rolled his eyes. “The stuff I had never studied before I got here.”

  Dan stared at him with a blank smile.

  “Officially studied. The military stuff, alright?”

  “Oh! That. Of course. No problem. Those courses will be last on the rota. I’ll ask them to slot you in for an ethics exam next week and we’ll go from there, yes?”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  “Sorry I’m late,” Sam said as he joined his friends for dinner.

  “Your fault or Dan’s?” Sarah asked him.

  “Squarely on me this time. Wanted to finish running through all the new tracings with him, since tomorrow’s Saturday.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I expected. So how was your test?”

  “Pretty good. Passed. Easier than I thought it was going to be.”

  “What were the questions?” Yvessa asked.

  Sam told them, and at Yvessa’s prompt, also gave the short version of the answers he gave. “And that’s pretty much it. They told me well done, that I passed and goodbye and thank you.”

  “No grade?” Felix asked.

  “Not yet.” Sam explained the reasoning as Dan had given it.

  “Hm… not sure I like that.”

  “Come off it. I thought you weren’t competing in grades.”

  “It’s the only thing I can compete with you right now. I got to have something.”

  “I suppose you do. Alright, I’ll keep you updated, then. Try to do my best to get good enough grades in order to get grades.”

  “Does doing your best also include going back to studying on all evenings?” Sarah asked.

  “Not yet. At least I don’t think so. Maybe in a couple of weeks. We’ll see.”

  “Good. You need to space out your… returns to full workload.”

  Sam nodded, both in agreement and placation. He had gone back to cultivating every night just last Sunday. And even though that proved to be (so far) not as difficult as he had feared, it was still a considerable weight added back onto his schedule. So spacing out sounded good, especially since he was back to being well ahead of Dan’s schedule. “I’ll keep that in mind. And besides, you can rest easy knowing that my Saturdays aren’t going to change anytime soon.”

  “True. I’ll make sure to thank Farris for that next time I see him.”

  “Ha ha. Very funny. But like I keep saying, that has nothing to do with Farris and his erratic schedule. It’s my own choice.”

  “You’re saying that your choice isn’t affected by Farris and his erratic schedule?”

  “I didn’t say that. I just said that, at the end of the day, it was mine, and due to my own considerations alone. Now, are some of those considerations impacted by me liking an orderly schedule and needing to accommodate my other obligations on Saturday? Some of which might take place at times chosen by complete chance? Yes, they most certainly do. But it’s still my choice. And it would’ve remained the same, Farris or no Farris. Besides, with the recent trend of our meetings becoming much more… educational, you shouldn’t be that happy about my meetings with Farris.”

  Sarah shrugged. “Eh. The way I see it, I still come out ahead overall. Half a Saturday once every two weeks compared to a full Saturday every week. Oh, which reminds me, I won’t be coming to dinner tomorrow. Me and Maurice are driving to Transit for a lecture.”

  “On a Saturday?” Felix asked.

  “It’s in Pyllan. Six Web Communications rooms have been made available and they’re filled to the brim.”

  “The brim being?” Sam asked, already running mental calculation based on the rooms he was familiar with.

  “Fifty-six people.”

  “Jesus Christ. So how does the communication actually work? I’m guessing that the lecture doesn’t take place in a parallel room on Pyllan?”

  “No. It’s at Selvitz University. The room we’ll be connecting to has a live internet connection to the actual lecture.”

  “That seems… like a lot of work. Why not just watch it once it’s finished?”

  “Why do people watch anything live?”

  “Academic lecture aren’t anything. And I’m not sure that I even have an answer to that question.”

  “Well in any case, if we watch it live, we can send in questions to be answered at the end of the lecture.”

  “Now that I get that. Well, on a general level. It still wouldn’t get me out of the house.”

  “What if the lecture was very interesting?”

  “Notice how none of us has asked you what the lecture’s about?”

  Sarah tsked with a laugh. “Fair enough. So what live event would get you out of the house? Or even just out of the current internet tab and into another?”

  “And that doesn’t have anything to do with you or people you personally know,” Felix quickly added.

  “Well hold on there, buddy,” Sam said. “If you’re already adding addenda, then you ought to be the one to answer first.”

  “Why? I’m not the one with an aversion to live events. I’m personally big fan of the live factor. I’ve been to music shows, some sport events, magic competitions.”

  “Alright, now you go.” Sam indicated to Yvessa.

  “What do I have to do with this?” she asked.

  “I don’t know. We got on a topic. I want to have the opinion of all us represented before we move on.”

  “That’s very noble of you,” Felix said. “Go on, Yvessa.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I don’t know. I guess that, besides the obvious reason of wanting to find out what happened first and immediately, if it was something where the atmosphere was important, like a cultural or political event.”

  “Now see,” Sam said, “that’s an important distinction because if it’s atmosphere that drives you, then it’s only for events where you join other people. Ergo, it must be something that gets you out of the house.”

  “Just answer the question, Sam,” Sarah said.

  “I’m afraid I can’t do that. The question got much more complicated. Following Yvessa’s examples, what counts as a political event? And under what reasoning does it fall? Say it’s the inauguration of a new Prime Minister that you and your friends really like for some reason. OK, so that’s atmosphere and you want to watch it live with them. But what happens if that PM later gets assassinated? You’ll want to watch it live because of the first reason she gave, to find out what happened immediately.”

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “OK, so what you’re saying is that an assassination is something that you’ll want to watch live?”

  “An important enough one, sure. Maybe. Like I probably would’ve watched Walter Cronkite taking off his glasses if I had lived back then. But I’m not finished yet. Because Yvessa’s examples bring me to the question of what actually counts as a live event.”

  “Oh, here we go,” Felix moaned.

  “Pipe down there, Polaris. I’m building up to a joke.”

  “Are you?”

  “So let’s continue examining the classification that is ‘political event.’ Now what counts as a live political event?”

  “Get on with it.”

  “Fuck off. Is a protest, a live political event? Because if it is, then I have been to a couple of live events in my past. Gladly and willingly.”

  “You’ve been to a protest?”

  “OK, first of all, what’s with the astounded tone? Is it that unbelievable that I’d get out of the house for what I perceive as the greater good? And second, yeah. I have. How do you think I’ve got these scars?” He stretched his right arm and pointed back and forth across it with his finger.

  “What scars?” Sarah asked.

  “Well, you can’t see them, obviously. But on that first day of the protest, when I went out on a whim while carrying nothing but myself and my phone (and earbuds), I also didn’t bring any sunscreen with me. Or a hat. Or water. So I got some serious sun damage that day. Scars beneath the skin. Molecular damage.”

  “But your body got remade,” Yvessa said. “Whatever damage was there, even if does count as scars, isn’t there anymore.”

  “That’s true. But as a… whatever philological school best applies here, I believe that the physical corresponds to and leaves its marks on the mental. So I’m still carrying those old scars on some level.”

  “That wasn’t a very funny joke,” Felix said.

  “Eh, it was fine.”

  “What did you protest?” Sarah asked.

  “You know what? After all this time, I’m not even sure. Might’ve been trees… or disease… I don’t know.”

  “Why are you so smug all of a sudden?” Felix asked.

  Sam shrugged. “Just remembering how I helped give it back to the man. Win back our country.”

  “Which country was that?”

  “Well it was a worldwide phenomenon, really. We were part of a global movement. Protests all around the world.”

  Sarah laughed. “And if we don’t count protests as live events, did you still go to any?”

  “Yeah… sports games. When I was young and my dad ‘forced’ me. But I really think there should be a discussion about what exactly counts as a live event. Does the physical combat competition counts as a live event? If not, surely the end-of-year three competition does, yeah? So if I’ll come watch you, would that count as me getting out of the house?”

  “‘If you’ll come and watch me?’”

  “My bad. When I’ll come and watch you. When we’ll come and watch you… But does participating in the competition still count as going to the live event? Surely not. There has to be an element of choice there. Watch it live or afterwards. Can’t participate afterwards.”

  “Mhm.” Felix nodded. “Maybe. But that would mean that your protests don’t count as live events.”

  “Yeah, I guess they don’t. How’d we even get on this topic?”

  “Sarah explained why she’s not coming to dinner tomorrow.”

  “Oh right, yeah. Well, have fun. Learn a lot or whatever.”

  “I’ll try to, thanks.” Sarah smiled.

  “We still on for dinner, then?” Sam asked the other two.

  Yvessa nodded. “I want to eat early, though. Are you two fine with meeting an hour earlier?”

  Sam shrugged. “Fine by me.”

  “Sure, no problem,” Felix said. “Any particular reason?”

  “Yeah, I have a three-way call with Erianna and Marin. We’re working around his schedule, so I want to make sure my evening’s open.”

  “Wow, a three-way call? What’s the occasion? I don’t think you’ve ever had one before.”

  “We did once. After Erianna’s birthday.”

  “What about your birthday?”

  “That wasn’t necessary. Marin was on Maynil then, so he could simply join Erianna’s call.”

  “Nice,” Sam nodded with a smile. “Now that’s a balanced friendship.”

  “So I’m assuming tomorrow’s call is due to Marin’s birthday?” Sarah asked.

  “Yeah, it’s on Monday.”

  “Oh, man…” Sam moaned. “Don’t tell us that.”

  “Why? What’s the problem?”

  “I wouldn’t want some random people to know when my birthday is.”

  “You didn’t want us to know when your birthday is,” Sarah said.

  “Yeah, exactly.”

  “Well Marin is not exactly like you,” Yvessa said. “Not to mention that you’re not exactly random people. I doubt he’s going to have a problem with me telling you about his birthday.”

  “I certainly wouldn’t,” Felix said. “And tell him ‘happy birthday,’ from us, by the way.” He turned to Sam. “That’s what polite people do. And I know that Marin is polite because both he and Erianna used our good friend Yvessa here to congratulate me on my birthday.”

  “If either of them congratulates me on my birthday,” Sam said, “you’re all dead to me.”

  “Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me,” Yvessa said. “But I will be passing your well wishes on to Marin tomorrow.”

  “I don’t see the point of sending well wishes to someone I’ve never met—nor receiving them, for that matter—but I don’t care enough to fight you guys on this. You do you.”

  “You don’t see the point of someone you do know congratulating you on your birthday,” Sarah said.

  “Exactly.”

  Later that day, after he finished his nightly cultivation session, he opened his phone to see a message from Farris notifying him that they were going to have a meeting tomorrow. And at an incredibly annoying hour at that. Or it would’ve been, if Yvessa hadn’t brought forward dinner by an hour. As it was, the meeting was a perfect fit, allowing him enough time to cultivate and study with ease and head to dinner straight from it. And it was all thanks to Marin, that nice birthday boy.

  “And speaking of nice boys…” He messaged Felix, asking him whether he wanted to join his meeting with Farris tomorrow as it wasn’t designated “Sam only.” Some time later, after he got out of the shower, he saw that Felix replied back with a thumbs up. It seemed that Sarah was going to be the only one of them to spend tomorrow without talking with Sarechi royalty. Not that he cared about completing a certain set like a certain someone kept saying. Not at all.

  He got up the following morning with a spring in his step that wasn’t slowed down in the slightest by the heavy-duty training session with Lin, nor by said training session stretching longer than usual. In fact, that was one of the reasons for his relatively good mood. While he still wasn’t as far away from his old self as to truly enjoy his combat practice, he did manage to enjoy certain aspects of it. First and foremost, the clear certainty that he was getting better at something that he had to be getting better at.

  Of course, he was under no illusion that he was anywhere close to being a good fighter. The gap between him and even the worst performing first year cadet was still large enough to ensure him losing a thousand times out of a thousand. But, wide as that gap may be, he was certain that it was smaller than the gap between his current fighting ability to the abilities he displayed in his first session with Lin. He could actually assume the appropriate stances correctly right off the bat, move with sufficient enough speed to not count as an immobile target, and most importantly, he could fight with intention, with thoughts and reasons guiding his actions. Some of the theory Lin had spent a not-insignificant amount of their time together trying to teach him was finally starting to seep into his brain.

  “Alright.” Lin raised his hand, calling an end to their last spar of the session. “Good effort today. Really good.” He then furrowed his eyebrows, staring motionlessly at the wall.

  “Everything alright?” Sam asked.

  “I’ve made up my mind. You’re practiced enough to start sparring on your own.”

  “Really?”

  “Don’t get ahead of yourself. I’m only giving you the go ahead to spar with Sarah Khan, Yvessa Smith, or Felix Polaris, as we’ve discussed before. Which means with all the stipulations that I’ve covered then.”

  Sam counted on his fingers. “Don’t spar too much. In a private room. Without any magic for either of us. Anything I’ve missed?”

  “Yes, your friends should avoid trying to teach you. Ideally, it should just be the physical act of sparring. I know that some amount of discussion and advice is unavoidable, but you should try to keep that to a minimum. The spars are meant to help you by giving you more time spent fighting under your belt, not by teaching you how to be a better fighter.”

  “Fair enough. I’ll remind them to try and keep the… teaching to a minimum. Anything else?”

  “Yes. If you want to invite them to spar with you during our sessions, that’s alright. But let me know beforehand.”

  “What about sparring under the watch and advice of other people?”

  “Other people? Like other combat instructors at the academy?” Lin wrinkled his nose. “I suppose that’s alright. As long as you don’t mean going to the classes themselves?”

  “No, I actually didn’t mean any instructors here at the academy. I was just thinking about having Farris judge me and Felix, for example.”

  “Ah. Then, of course. If General Ninae wishes to impart his own lessons onto you and your friends, then there’s nothing wrong with that. If he has the time.”

  “Some times he does.”

  “Really? Well I can’t find anything wrong with a better spearfighter than me giving you advice. I suppose as long that he’s not a completely awful teacher, that advice can’t be too bad.”

  “I don’t think he is.”

  “No, of course not. Then, by all means, ask him for advice and judgment. The more expert help you receive, the faster your progress will be.”

  “Great. I’ll ask him what he thinks of that idea when we meet today. Luckily Felix is already coming. That’s why I asked, actually.”

  “Yes, I see. Then good luck. Do you need any help with your recovery tracings?”

  “Nah, I feel pretty good. I’ll be fine to just trace before bed at the end of the day. Thanks.”

  “Of course. See you on Tuesday.”

  “See you then.” They parted ways outside of the practice room, Lin leaving the gym and Sam heading towards the shower. And while he wasn’t lying when he said that he felt fine enough to not need to trace anything to help speed his body’s natural recovery, he would be lying if he said that the warm water didn’t feel incredibly soothing to his weary body. “Hmm… maybe I ought to trace after I finish cultivating? Just in case I do end up sparring under Farris’ tutelage… Will I have enough time? I suppose I can also trace under Farris’ watch. Even if he ‘can’t’ give me advice from so far away. Fuck, I really can’t wait to find out how threads actually work.”

  He ate breakfast in Sarah and Maurice’s company, at her insistence, of course. She had the time, so why wouldn’t she want to have at least one meal in his company today? Was how she put it. And she had the time because she and Maurice were leaving for Transit straight after their (late for Sam) breakfast together so there was no reason for Sarah to skip breakfast, like she often did on Saturdays, and just eat in her room while continuing her studying.

  “That’s great!” she said when he gave her the news about his new allowance from Lin. She wagged her finger at him. “Tomorrow. There are some exercise rooms here in the hospital. I’ll work out early and we’ll meet after you wake up and come here. That way, we’ll have plenty of time to spar before your therapy appointment.”

  “Really? Because that would fall under my free time. So I’m not sure that I want…”

  “Oh, of course. I forgot. Obviously we—”

  “I’m just joking. Meet you downstairs. Just have to make sure to keep the practice to a light exertion so I won’t sweat a lot.”

  “I’ll take care of that,” Maurice said. “I have a free morning. So I can be there to trace your body into a resting state every couple of minutes.”

  “Really? Is that healthy?”

  “Sure, if, like most things, not overused. That’s what they do in athletic competitions.”

  “Huh. Wow, I never actually thought about those kinds of things in a world with magic. So how do they actually work?”

  “It’s very complicated. And depends on the competition and type of event. But generally…”

  A very long explanation later, Sam bid Maurice and Sarah goodbye, wished them luck on their knowledge-seeking journey, and headed towards his room. He had also got the tracing corundum out of the way by tracing swiftly and with abandon to his energy during Maurice’s explanation after he had asked the good doctor to refill his core before they left. So that’s that taken care of… Should have no problem to spar with Felix later if Farris has no problem with it. Anything I’m missing? Nah, I don’t think so.

  His cultivation and studying time turned out to be a little more snug than expected but he still managed to finish both (he skipped lunch, which was fine because breakfast was late and dinner would be early) five minutes before he had to leave for the Web Communications complex. He used that time to trace for recovery with some actual thought and precision. But it was the most difficult tracing he could successfully trace, so, and since he had shit consistency with it, he ended up wasting almost the same amount of energy as he did at breakfast.

  “Yeah, it’s a pretty tough tracing,” Felix said as they entered Sam’s assigned room. “And its complexity does not match its worth. But you need it for another tracing down the track, which is worth it.”

  “Are you talking about the Banesha Recovery tracing?” Farris asked as he and his desk materialized.

  Sam nodded. “Yeah. I was just complaining about barely getting anything out of the five minutes I spent tracing it. Only managed to complete it twice out of the seven tries.”

  “Well, it’s all about the speed and you’re just not there yet. No need to worry. Especially because, like Felix said, it’s not worth all that much by itself. It’s the Banesha-Tsofal tracing that makes all the complexity worthwhile. But, speaking of places where you are at, congratulations.”

  “So you’ve read the report?”

  “I always read the report before we meet. That’s the whole point of having it be sent to me early. You don’t have to ask me about that. You can just say, ‘Thanks Farris, it’s all because of you,’ and leave it at that.”

  “Alright. Thanks…”

  They stared at each other in silence for a few moments until Felix cleared his throat and asked, “Congratulations on what?”

  “Lin gave me the go ahead to spar with you guys. Sarah already made plans for us to meet tomorrow before I have therapy.”

  “Oh man! If I knew you were able to spar with me, I would’ve made plans for us to do that today.” He turned to Farris. “You wouldn’t have a problem with us sparring during these meetings, right? It would still be mentoring Sam, especially if you give him notes.”

  Farris crossed his hands. “Oh… sure, no problem. It’s not like I have anything important to teach Sam. Please, feel free to use a significant amount of my limited time with him to do something you can do at any other part of the day.”

  “Oh, of course. My bad.”

  Sam shook his head and clapped Felix on the back. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. He was lying.”

  “I wasn’t lying,” Farris said. “I was being sarcastic.”

  “You were lying about your sarcasm being real. You were lying sarcastically. You don’t have a problem with me using some parts of these meetings to spar with Felix, or anyone else.”

  “Yeah…” Farris shrugged. “At the very least, not meetings like today. But not the whole meeting, mind you! I still need to do and say certain things during the meeting to keep the whole mentor facade alive in my psyche.”

  “Well there you have it.” Sam turned to Felix. “We’re free to spar with each other today.”

  “But none of us has brought any training spears with us…” he said before pointing at himself. “And I’m not exactly dressed for sparring.”

  Farris clapped his hands. “Both things that are easily mediated. But I’ll tell you what, Felix, just so you don’t feel so down on yourself. How about you—you and Sarah, come to think of it—join me and Sam for an impromptu meeting next week as well? A sparring focused meeting, if you will. Which will mean, of course, that we’ll have to have a meeting three weeks in a row, I’m afraid.”

  “Of course we will,” Sam said. “Fine. It’s alright with me.”

  “Excellent. Now”—Farris turned to Felix—“the problem with lacking spears isn’t very drastic. You can both use your hands for some old-fashion styled sparring and anyway, Sam has plenty to work on in the footwork department. As to your fittings… are you wearing the kind of underwear that allows for high-intensity movement?”

  Felix smirked and gave a thumbs up. “Always.”