Charlie

  They still had a little time to kill before leaving for their dinner plans, so Charlie was roaming the house on Bleedy’s back. Merlin’s head had started hurting again, so he went to take a nap, and Vetica was sharpening her knife in the kitchen. Obie excused himself to go and change for dinner, so Charlie was exploring a bit. He heard heavy breathing, and noises that sounded like something slicing the air, so Charlie went to investigate.

  He found a shirtless Arkady in one of the spare rooms with the door cracked just far enough that Charlie could see inside. Arkady had pushed all the furniture against the wall and now worked with a single dagger in the room’s center. Hexes appeared, and he’d swing his dagger through the center of each of them. Sometimes he’d punch instead, other times he’d opt to kick. He was faster than Charlie imagined, and his body glistened with the sweat of a heavy workout.

  Orb jumped in the air. “Look at those abs! I gotta start working out more. I’m getting a little round myself.”

  Arkady was indeed more fit than Charlie imagined. He had a lean, toned build. Though Arkady had proven himself capable while giving chase to their wagon back in the forest, so he shouldn’t be too surprised.

  “Hah! Ooo! Hayah!” Arkady went through the motions of his fast-paced training regimen.

  Normally Arkady fought with two daggers. Charlie wondered why he trained with only one. “Practicing?” Charlie asked. The answer was obvious, but it was the only way he could think of starting a conversation.

  “I am,” Arkady said without pausing, continuing to flow through his routine. “Just wanted to warm up a little.”

  Charlie tilted his head. “Do you think we’re going to have to fight tonight?” he asked.

  Arkady laughed and paused his training. He turned to look at Charlie. “Hah, no. I don’t think so, we’ll be fine. In fact, I’m actually really looking forward to it.”

  “Because of the girl?” Charlie asked.

  Arkady groaned. “Merlin just can’t shut his big mouth, can he?”

  Charlie giggled. “He told me to keep an eye on you!”

  “He told the baby to keep an eye on me? Great, it’s nice to know he trusts me.” He sighed. “I’m joking, Charlie. You aren’t just any baby, you’re special, and don’t you dare go forgetting it!”

  Charlie smiled. “You trained a lot while we were in the forest with Richard, too. Why do you train so much?” he asked.

  Arkady sheathed his dagger. He walked over to a towel lying over the arm of a chair and lifted it to wipe beads of sweat from his face. “You telling me a strong guy like you doesn’t train, Charlie?” he asked.

  “No, I do. But you train a lot. Like all the time!” Charlie said. It was true. Anytime they had free time in the forest, Arkady had slinked off to train. He’d trained with Richard, he’d tried to train with Vetica, despite her always refusing, and he’d train alone. To be honest, Charlie admired it. He wasn’t asking because he had a problem with it. He just wanted to know Arkadys why.

  “I guess I don’t really have hobbies. So, when I don’t know what else to do, I train.”

  “How come?” Charlie asked.

  “Because I’m weak.”

  Charlie shook his head. That…he hadn’t expected. Arkady had been really intimidating both times he chased them in the past. Twice he’d forced them to run away. Sure, they’d also just left fights that pushed them past the brink of exhaustion not long before Arkady had come after them, but still, it was a testament to his strength. Richard had acknowledged him, taken him on as a traveling companion even. There was just no way Arkady was weak.

  “You don’t seem weak to me,” Charlie said, a frown on his face.

  Arkady’s head sank back, and he stared up at the ceiling as if he could see something scrawled within it. Maybe a memory, maybe something else. But he wasn’t quiet for long. “Scarlet hexes aren’t the best suited for combat. They’re useful, sure. You have any degree of proficiency in a scarlet hex, and most guilds will let you right in. People are always searching for something. Other people. Treasure. Monsters. Random objects they’ve lost. A scarlet hex can do a lot of things, but it’s not meant to be used offensively. My hex…well, it’s kind of weird. It doesn’t work on any of those other things. Just weaknesses. It tells me where to strike, but it doesn’t give me the power to hit harder than any other guy off the street.”

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “So, is it a unique hex or something?” Orb asked. “If it works that much differently than all the others, it has to be, right?”

  Arkady smiled, but the smile didn’t quite reach his face. “No. A lot of people refer to them as specialized hexes. Hexes that still fall within the normal categories, but operate slightly differently. They’re rare, and not always a good thing. In fact, they’re often seen as…well, curses. There are hundreds of ways to make a hex useful. The base hexes have developed in humanity as long as we’ve been around. We’ve figured out every odd way under the sun to make use of them. But a specialized hex is a unique hex without the power. A hex that fits within the mold, but can’t benefit from generations and generations of shared human knowledge. A specialized searching hex? Even worse. Imagine someone who can only search for incredibly specific objects. Toothbrushes, seashells, earwax—”

  Orb turned a sickly shade of green. “Earwax? Dude…”

  Arkady laughed. “Just an example. Someone like that wouldn’t be very useful. I got lucky, I can search for weaknesses. If I’d been born with a second hex, something that gave me some real power, sure I’d be a monster. But my whole life I’ve had to rely on other people to get the most out of this. When I was younger, I could see where to hit someone to bring them down, but I couldn’t hit hard or fast enough to actually make use of it. It made me reliant on others. I had to reveal those weaknesses to people much stronger than myself. That’s why I joined a guild, even though I wished I’d looked a little harder for a place I fit in. For people I didn’t feel sick working alongside.” He looked down and stared at Charlie. “Ran with those guys for a long time, way longer than I should’ve. Until Richard pulled me out, that is.”

  “I’d been stagnant for a long time, but I had the foresight to start training at least. I strengthened my body, and I leaned an important lesson. You can bring down someone much stronger than you if you just hit them in the right spot the right number of times,” Arkady said.

  “Ah, a real David among Goliaths,” Orb said. “Have you ever considered using a slingshot?” he asked, floating a few inches closer to Arkady.

  “No. My daggers are my weapon of choice. Perfect for exploiting weak spots. Anyway, Richard helped me take my training to the next level. Taught me techniques, and practicing against someone as strong as him helped me get a lot stronger. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity. But even after all that, even at my peak, I’m so much weaker than people born with stronger hexes than me,” Arkady said.

  Charlie stared at him. It seemed Arkady wasn’t quite finished; he had something else to say. Charlie just listened.

  “There’s going to come a day where no matter how hard I’ve trained, I’m going to lose a fight. I’ll face an opponent I couldn’t possibly overcome. But before I get there, there will be fights where the amount of training I’ve done will make a difference. So, I train for those fights. I’ll win every battle I can, as efficiently as I can. I’ll train for the fights I can change, and I’ll keep pushing forward until I run into that wall that I was never was going to be able to overcome, no matter what I did to prepare for it,” he said. There was a steely determination in his voice now. He spoke with such conviction.

  Charlie didn’t know how he felt about the idea that there might be a fight that he was never meant to win. Actually, he hated it. He wouldn’t accept that at all. But he admired Arkady’s conviction. Arkady believed there was a hard cap on how far he could go with his training. Despite that, he was pushing forward all the same. A lot of other people would probably give up in those circumstances. But here Arkady was sweating in a room all by himself, fighting to get stronger.

  Arkady laughed. “I’ll probably run my mouth. I’ll make a bad joke that pisses off the wrong guy. Or maybe I’ll get myself into some stupid situation I had no business getting involved in. But when that day comes, when I’m completely outclassed and nothing I do makes a difference, I’ll remember the fights where it did. That’ll be enough for me,” Arkady said. “That’s gotta be enough for someone weak.”

  Charlie crawled forward and patted Arkady on the foot. “I don’t think you’re weak, Arkady. And I think you’re forgetting something about that big fight in your future.”

  Arkady’s head leaned back. “You do? And what’s that?” he asked.

  Charlie grinned, looking up at him. “If you ever run into a fight you can’t win alone, just ask for a little help. Richard would help you. I would too! Maybe there is some big bad guy in your future, but there’s no rule that says you can’t count on your friends! I count on mine all the time. If I didn’t have them, I wouldn’t have made it this far. So, just remember you aren’t alone!” Charlie said.

  Arkady’s lips parted, and he turned to stare at the ground. “You really are special, Charlie, you know that? Don’t worry. I’m not giving up or anything. I do think there are some obstacles I can’t overcome, but that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna fight like hell.” Arkady grinned. “Even if a lifetime of training only buys me five extra seconds, if my comrades are depending on me, I’ll train for that. I’ll train to buy them even five more seconds with my life. Sometimes, that’s the difference between victory and defeat. But…I’ll keep what you said in mind. Just remember, you offered to help me take down a bad guy or two in the future, okay?” He knelt down and offered Charlie a hand.

  Charlie wrapped a baby hand around Arkady’s finger. “Deal!”

  Arkady laughed. “Well, that’s settled, so how about we go get ready for our dinner party? What do you say?”

  Charlie nodded. “Tonight was going to be fun!”