Duncan had been comfortable with the exercises Cinder had put him through that morning. Well… maybe not comfortable. He didn’t think anyone could be comfortable while training to exhaustion over and over again. Familiar. Yes, it had been familiar after years of similar training.

  Now, he wasn’t just comfortable or familiar. He was at peace. He was in his element. He was home.

  Sword met sword as Duncan was forced to abandon his strike to parry a stab from Cinder aside. The elvish man flowed with the new motion, rotating his wrists just enough to move his sword to the opposite side of the parrying blade. Their momentum continued, and Cinder added to it with a brief application of force. Duncan’s blade was turned aside, and Cinder’s was against Duncan’s chest.

  For the first time since his mother had disappeared, Duncan felt no hope in winning a sword fight. Every move he made was fueled by everything he had learned and mastered over his years of endless training. Every move eventually led to failure.

  Duncan had never felt more alive.

  They had been sparing for more than an hour. They had said nothing, letting their swords do all the talking for them. And Cinder’s sword had a lot to say.

  The elf was incredible and knew what seemed like an endless number of styles. He was currently using a style that relied on an unbreakable position, almost like there was something behind him that he had to protect at all costs. No matter what Duncan did, the elf would not be moved from his chosen ground, only allowing his tight footwork to move him in a small circle around his imaginary safe zone.

  Duncan had been slightly worried about his choice during the Choosing, but now he knew the O’Leon family wasn’t known for their skill with blades for nothing.

  “Enough.” Cinder’s word broke the hour of mutual silence between them. “I’ve seen enough for now.” He stepped away from Duncan, sword held down at his side.

  Duncan nodded. “What now?” he asked.

  “Now, we decide on the direction of your training. And by we, I mean the three of us.”

  A brief moment of confusion was all Duncan was allowed before he heard a smooth, feminine laugh from above them. His eyes followed the sound. Sitting in the same spot Cinder had used on the roof of the apprentice quarters was the most beautiful woman Duncan had ever seen.

  She was an elf. If he’d met her on Earth, Duncan would have guessed she was no older than 35. Her light skin and light brown hair were a complete contrast to Cinder’s darker shades in both. They did, however, look startlingly alike.

  “You ruin my fun, grandson. I wanted to observe the boy a little more before I revealed myself.”

  Grandson? Duncan’s chest tightened. This was the matriarch he’d heard about.

  The woman’s silver eyes shone with amusement at Duncan’s obvious realization. “Well, we might as well move inside. The boy doesn’t have the tiers to fend off the chill without proper clothes now that he’s not moving.” She dropped from the roof, landing gracefully in front of Duncan. Now that they were on the same level, Duncan noticed she was actually taller than he was. “Come along.”

  The matriarch led them back into the apprentice quarters, then addressed Duncan. “Why don’t you go clean off and change clothes? We’ll wait.” Duncan thanked the woman, then, very calmly, without any fleeing involved, went to do as she suggested.

  Ten minutes later, Duncan emerged much cleaner and a lot warmer than before. He found Cinder and the woman sitting in two of the chairs around the now-lit fireplace. Their discussion died as he sat down on the couch between the two chairs.

  “Duncan, this is my grandmother, the matriarch of the O’Leon family and clan Kunora, Orneta O’Leon.” Cinder had a mischievous grin on his face as he introduced the most powerful person in the city.

  The glare the woman sent her grandson’s way was intense but also playful in its own way. Then she turned to address Duncan. “If you ever call me Orneta, I’ll throw you off Mount Myphen. It’s Neta or Master if you insist on being formal. I prefer Neta, though.”

  Duncan was more than a little surprised at the familiarity with which Neta addressed him. This was likely the most powerful person he had ever met. She had more to worry about than a tier zero like him. Cinder had given off a feeling of pure power and authority the first time he’d met him. Though now that he thought about it, he’d only done that when it was likely appropriate and aided the ceremony of the Choosing. All the O’Leons he had met had treated him with kindness and familiarity, much as the matriarch seemed to be doing now. Culture starts at the top, as is often said on Earth.

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  “I’ll call you Neta, then,” Duncan said with more confidence than he felt.

  “Good.” Neta smiled back at him. Then her face turned serious. “I’ve been watching you and Cinder since this morning. I agree with your decision to focus on combat over fitness, grandson. It is clear our young apprentice has more than enough motivation to continue developing his body on his own.”

  Cinder nodded his head in the chair opposite Neta. “Yes, it is. It is also clear to me where his training should start.” Neta once again smiled, then nodded for him to continue. “Duncan. Where do you think the biggest gap in your training is?”

  It took Duncan only a moment of thought to come up with the answer. He’d known it since his early classes at the Academy, ever since he’d learned about the dangers that awaited him on Dintarnum.

  “I don’t know how to fight monsters. I’ve only ever trained against other people. Not only that, I’ve only ever fought against other humans, as there are no other intelligent races on Earth. I’ve researched and practiced what I could on monsters, but the Academy didn’t focus on that since it was something we’d be learning once we reached Corvelin.”

  Cinder nodded his head. “That’s a good answer. Most of what you fight here and throughout the Realms will be monsters. Hopefully. Their size, aggression, and toughness can all be abnormally enhanced. Almost any monster of the same tier as you will be physically stronger than you. It will come down to your tactics, Ability use, swordsmanship, and equipment to overcome that disadvantage.”

  “However, that wasn’t the answer I was looking for. Out of everything you will gain once you have your Subject, what do you think will change the way you fight the most?”

  It only took a few seconds for Duncan to realize what Cinder was likely referring to. “Abilities,” Duncan replied.

  “Correct. Without a Subject, the only way to interact with magic is with enchanted items. Once you have a Subject, you will mostly use magic through your Abilities.’ It is a completely different aspect of combat. Based on what you’ve told me about your training and the restrictions on mana in your world, it seems you’ve had little chance to train with enchanted items.”

  “That’s true,” Duncan replied. “We typically only got some minor enchantments added and usually only when actually sparring. Most of the mana to recharge items went to mages and their wands.”

  “We will give you some experience with various enchanted weapons and armor to imitate some common Abilities. It may not be the real thing, but it will give you some experience learning how to incorporate new Abilities into combat. Once you have the basics down, we will incorporate different sword forms and sword types into your training. More options means you can tailor your approach to different opponents, be they monster or person.”

  “I agree,” Neta said. “Duncan, you have a clear preferred style that has served you well. But you need more. It will be our job to train you to face the variety of opponents you will encounter.” She looked over to her grandson. “Cinder, I will leave his training in your hands for now. If he decides to stay, we’ll start him on minor monster hunts after a while and see how that goes.”

  Monster hunts? “Wait,” Duncan blurted out. “Monster hunts? You mean I get to fight monsters before I have my Subject?”

  Cinder and Neta looked at him in confusion. It was Neta who spoke first. “Why wouldn’t you? You will need to get used to it if you are going to pass your Subject trial.”

  Subject trial? Duncan remembered Cinder saying something about that when he had been laying out Duncan’s options the night before. “What’s a Subject trial?”

  “Did they not teach you about unlocking Subjects in your academy?”

  “They did. They said we would visit a monument in the Corvelin Capital. There, as long as we were old enough, we would get to choose our Subject and advance to tier one.”

  The looks on Cinder’s and Neta’s faces turned from confused to understanding. “Ah. I see,” Neta said. Her expression then shifted to annoyance, but it didn’t seem like she was annoyed with Duncan. “It seems the politics of Corvelin are alive and well, even in their vassal realms.”

  “I’m sorry,” Duncan said. “What do you mean by that?”

  Cinder took up the explanation. “There are multiple ways to unlock Subjects. The way you were taught is the most common way. Once your body can handle the magic of a Subject, you go to a location with high natural mana; that’s what that monument you mentioned likely is. There, you are able to essentially bathe in the high environmental mana to increase to tier one and allow Subject selection. The reason grandmother mentioned Corvelin politics is because there is a different way to do this, and a lot of Corvelin nobles and powerful families try to prevent others from doing so.”

  “Why don’t they want other people to use this other method?” Duncan asked.

  “Because it lets you choose more than one Subject,” Cinder responded.

  Duncan’s jaw dropped. More than one Subject? What?

  Laughing at the look on the boy’s face, Cinder continued. “If you do it the usual way, you only get to choose one Subject, either a combat or a non-combat Subject. After that, you’re on the path of progression. There are some ways to change your Subject, but it’s only possible by leaving all your previous progress behind. The higher your dropped Subject is in tier, the more difficult the process is on your body.”

  “The second method to unlocking your Subject, or rather Subjects in this case, is what we call the Subject trial. It allows you to choose both a combat and a non-combat Subject. It doesn’t double your tier or anything; it just lets you have more Abilities focused on different areas. There can be some synergy between the two, which usually gives people with both an advantage over some with just a combat Subject. That’s why many Corvelin nobles, who are famous for their greed and love of power, decide not to allow most people a chance at the Subject trial.”

  Duncan was still stunned. He had always been told he’d have to pick between the two and stick on that path for the rest of his life. He’d never bothered to learn a craft or anything a non-combat Subject would encompass because he never thought he’d be able to have one. This also explained some of the things he’d heard over the past few days. Tork had said something about people who only worked on their non-combat Subject, and the announcer at the Choosing had said some things about participants wanting to pursue a non-combat Subject.

  “You said combat and non-combat Subjects can synergize. What does that look like?”

  Cinder smiled broadly at Duncan. “Well, if you haven’t guessed it yet, my non-combat Subject has to do with cooking.” The annoyed look Neta gave her grandson only made him laugh as he continued his explanation. “One of the things it allows me to do is create food that provides different benefits to anyone who eats it. Those benefits will always be better for me than anyone else.”

  Ideas flooded Duncan as he thought of different crafts he could combine with his swordsmanship to improve his capabilities.

  “I can see your brain working from here, boy.” Neta smiled over at Duncan. “For now, we will start with the enchanted item training, then see how things go from there. Remember, you still need to decide if you will stay here. Focus on that before you start thinking about non-combat Subjects.”

  Then, her face turned severe, and she made sure Duncan was genuinely paying attention to what she was saying. “No matter what you do, if you decide to leave for Corvelin, don’t reveal you know about the Subject trial. They will likely kill you for it.”

  “Uhh,” Duncan hesitated. “I still don’t really know about the Subject trial. You never told me what it actually was.”

  Neta’s serious look vanished, and she broke into a grin. “It’s nothing too difficult. You just have to clear a tier one temporary realm… alone.”