Khi’nai sat curled up on her bedsheets, her claw tracing over the cover of tattered diary. The words had been gnawing at her all night. Last night’s play had done nothing to calm her nerves—she barely remembered any of it. Her mind churned, replaying what she had read about I’lain and his master.
In a nightmare she found herself in a pitch-black void, weightless. I’lain’s spectre hovered before her. The words burst from her mouth: “Why me?”
I’lain’s spectre stood before her motionless, “You’re gifted, Khi’nai. If anyone could outwit my teacher, it was you.”
She protested, “-but I didn’t outwit him? He outwitted me. I didn’t leave a scratch on him.”
“Why do you suppose that is?”, he mused.
“I don’t know anything about fighting. I’m just a student,” she shouted back, tearing up.
“I didn’t expect you to protect me, in fact I recall telling you to run away.”
She snorted, rubbing her eyes, “Yes, but I couldn’t just-”
“-leave me? Even when I told you to. Even when you lacked the skill to fight my teacher?”
“You taught him, didn’t you? So why call him your teacher?” She frowned at him.
I’lain smirked. “We all have our roles. His was the teacher. Mine, the handler. How we played them… that’s another story.”
She snorted, “So, it’s just the role you played? What’s my role? Why was I ever part of all this?”
He shrugged, “How should I know? I’m not your handler. You meddled with our affairs even after I told you not to, how is any of this my fault?”
She groaned, she felt a frustration inside of her that she couldn’t shake, “So this is all my fault?” Khi’nai’s voice cracked, her vision blurring with unshed tears.
I’lain sighed and shook his head, “You tried to meddle with a fate I was prepared to meet-”
“I didn’t want you to die-”, she snorted, shuddering.
“-that was not for you to decide. It’s best you accept that and move on. What happened, though tragic, cannot be undone-” He shrugged.
She had, had many nightmares about what happened before, but this one felt the most visceral. Before the events of that day, it had never occurred to her that the Academy hadn’t taught them much in the ways of combat. A few odd self-defence lessons perhaps, but nothing truly offensive.
The kingdoms had been mostly at peace since the battle at the Water Kingdom. Her mother spoke about how her uncle, Nawru, had defeated a great dark beast with the aide of his mate Sayah and her brother Teal. The whole thing had earned their family some degree of notoriety at the time though the hype had largely died down over the years.
The in the wake of this event peace had come over the lands and over time the Academy had deemed real combat training, unnecessary.
Sadly, she was one of them, a generation of students rendered weak and inept at defending themselves.
She stuffed the diary into her book bag under a few of her textbooks. A few last low-impact sessions remained before the Academy ended its classes for the year. She had heard a speaker was coming to one of her classes, a rather common occurrence for this time of the year. She sighed and muttered to herself, “another ‘join our art movement’ or ‘don’t get too drunk during the holidays’ speech”.
