Frances ran down the stairs ready for a nice breakfast. She knew that she was probably going to have to start training for the Winter Tournament, which was going to be in exactly a two weeks and six days. Still, she liked training, especially since her mother was undoubtedly going to be involved in it—

She blinked and stared at the sight in front of her. Ayax, who’d been up a few minutes before her, several of her cousins, uncles and aunts, her mother, and Eleanor were seated in front of a huge table of food.

Or to be more accurate, there was a table of food, and then two table settings where eggs (ranging from boiled, scrambled and sunny-side up), sides of bacon, pancakes, crispy pork belly, toast, Dale-brick fries (Frances had shared the recipe with her family earlier) and just… lots of breakfast food lay. It would look like something out of a buffet, but there were also roasted fish, stir-fried vegetables, and something deep-fried that looked like a samosa.

Ayax was sitting in front of the other table setting and she arched an eyebrow at Frances and pointed to the seat.

Frances nodded slowly and voiced the question on her mind, “Is that all for us?”

Edana, looking up from where she was having a heated discussion with Eleanor said, “Unfortunately, yes. If it’s the one thing my mother and I can agree on is you both need to eat a lot of food. You need to bulk up and that means eating all of that.”

Frances’s eyes widened at the food before glancing back at her mother and grandmother.

“Tough luck. You don’t have time to worry about your figure. Right now you need to eat huge fatty meals every meal. Three weeks is the perfect time to start,” Eleanor said.

Edana rolled her eyes at her mother’s tone and smiled at the two girls. “We drain energy from our bodies when we use magic, Frances. That doesn’t mean we drain fat itself, but without gaining some weight, using your magic could prove dangerous in the tournament.”

Swallowing, Frances sat down and poured herself a glass of milk. She hoped she wasn’t going to regret this.

When she’d tottered from the dining table, feeling more stuffed than she’d ever been, Frances and Ayax went to one of the smaller courtyards in the Windwhistler complex. There, Eleanor had them cast every single spell they knew as quickly as they could.

Most of their family had dispersed to go home after the gathering. However, Eva, her older brother Ecbert, Eric, and Nobbo had stayed behind to assist in the training. They were mostly awestruck by Frances’s sheer power, particularly her lightning spell.

And yet, Eleanor, while at first looking impressed, was frowning by the end of Frances’s demonstration. This wouldn’t be so odd, but she’d been smiling with Ayax’s.

“Right, so here’s my honest opinion.” Eleanor gestured for the two girls to sit down. “You, Frances, have some excellent power, but you are trained for war magery, not mage duelling.”

Edana, who was standing by the girls, crossed her arms. “There isn’t much of a difference mom.”

Eleanor waved her hand. “Same basics, but different focus. You are throwing spells as quickly as you can, but in war magery, your opponent doesn’t usually have information on you. There will be several rounds in the tournament. Preliminaries where mages are grouped into a round robin stage of combat. After that it’s a tiered bracket. Your opponents are going to have a lot of time to figure out ways to counter that lightning spell of yours. Moreover, most war mages don’t have magic rings, so you’ll need to be trained on that. Hmm, I wonder why not.”

Edana pinched the bridge of her nose. “Because rings are very expensive, mom. The only reason why they’re so common in Erlenberg’s Winter Tournament is because each family is so wealthy.”

“Alright fair, but why not magic cards,” Eleanor asked. “Enchant a bunch of shield or fire cards before hand and then walk into battle.”

“Because they’re such a finite resource. They wear off in a month or less, and so they are so situational. So we war mages just prefer to eat hearty and adapt to the situation,” Edana explained heatedly.

Eleanor nodded, before suddenly smirking. “Alright, fair, but I think I made my point which is: war magic is not magic duelling.”

Frances blinked as her mother’s mouth and eyes did the impression of a gobsmacked goldfish. Finally, she groaned and nodded. “Fair. So you’re saying Frances’s arsenal of spells is powerful, but a bit too generic.”

“Yes, firecracker. Very good,” said Eleanor, looking extremely proud of herself. “Ayax on the other hand…” She walked up to the troll girl, eyeing her a little too much like a lioness eyeing its prey. “You are very promising.” She suddenly whirled and pointed at Eva. “Granddaughter, why is your cousin so promising?”

Despite being called on, Eva stood up eagerly, her green eyes bright. “Ayax can use both Words of Power and Song Magic with equal skill. While her arsenal of spells is focused on boosting her close-quarters combat potential, she has enough long and mid-range spells to control the range.”

“Mm-hmm. Good. Ayax, your weakness would be your power, and a degree of inexperience. Though, you’re very good. Have you been training in secret?” Eleanor asked. At the troll’s short nod, the Windwhistler matriarch grinned. “That’s the spirit.”

Edana began to pace. “Right, so Frances, we can train you to focus on increasing the existing power of your spells, or diversify your arsenal.”

“No, we need to diversify her arsenal.” Eleanor scratched at her chin and like her daughter, also began to pace. “Right now Frances, you can probably overpower most of your opponents. That lightning spell of yours is powerful. However, you and Ayax have three problems in the form of Ophelia Voidsailor, Robert Windstorm, and Jeffrey Seaskimmer.”

Frances had no idea who these people were aside from Ophelia, but the other family members seemed to react with grimaces and angry mutters. As for Eva, her head was bowed and her fists clenched. There was something more than simple competition involved.

“Why were you so hard on my daughter then?” Edana asked, arching an eyebrow.

The snarl that warped Eleanor’s face was to put it kindly, menacing. “Because as she is she will beat everybody in the tournament, but those three. And I have no intention of letting those assholes gloat over her.”

“Yes, they are real clodthrogs,” Ayax whispered into Frances’s ear.

“Clodthrogs?”

The Windwhistler matriarch’s attention snapped away from Edana. “Frances where did you learn that word?”

She didn’t mean to do so, but Frances instinctively pointed at Ayax, who instantly looked guilty.

“Because that is an excellent word to call them. Anyhow let’s get this training started!” Eleanor exclaimed, smirking, making the two girls audibly gulp. This was not going to be fun.

Training was indeed, not fun. It comprised of Frances and Ayax fighting multiple one-on-one duels with each other, and every member of the Windwhistler family that had magic. This included their cousins such as Nobbo, whose wind magic Ayax found infuriating. (He had a tendency to just whip her hair into her face and call up these winds that would lift her in the air and away from him). It however, also included Edana.

Needless to say, whenever they fought Edana, Frances and Ayax found themselves flat on their back, or sometimes facedown out of the ring. Despite how Edana didn’t use magic rings or cards, her casting was fast, hard, and rather creative.

Frances fared better, mostly because she had more power and she had a better read on her mentor. Ayax had a lot of trouble, though. Fast reflexes and good instincts were nothing when your opponent would snag your clothing, cause your shoes to unravel, or set your staff on fire so you instinctively drop it. Frances was used to these tricks, and the torrent of fire and hail of white hot magic her mentor would throw at her.

What Frances found most aggravating were her duels with Ayax.

Every duel would start with the two trading spells. Frances trying to keep Ayax away from her. The troll girl would use quick spells cast with Words of Powers or Magical Cards to pressure the Otherworlder. Frances would try to hit her cousin out of the ring or knock her down with more powerful spells. Quite a few times, one of Frances’s big spells would connect and Ayax would be sent flying.

But other times, Ayax would do something unexpected.

One time, she blinded Frances with a flash of light, closed the distance and slammed her out of the ring.

Another time she baited Frances into stepping onto a card she’d discarded, which exploded.

Oh, and Ayax had also tried just wrestling Frances’s wand away from her. This didn’t work, usually, because Frances stopped her from getting too close. But the one time, Ayax had managed to get close enough, she’d ripped a protesting Ivy’s Sting from Frances’s hands far too easily. Frances did have the opportunity to punish her cousin with her rarely-drawn estoc, until well, the troll had thrown her out of the ring.

It was actually beginning to get on Frances’s nerves she was falling to these… these tricks, but she didn’t want to say it. Ayax wasn’t breaking any rules. She was just winning the way she could.

“Right, we’re taking a break,” Edana declared suddenly as the two girls rose to their feet for another match.

“No, they can go on for longer.” Clapping her hands, Eleanor grinned. “Come on girls. Show us what you got.”

A shake of her head and a flash of green signalled Edana’s growing concern. “Mom, they can only spar for so long. They’re getting frustrated and we need to debrief.”

“We don’t have time to rest around, daughter.”

Everybody was staring as the two women squared each other up, forming oddly strange reflections to one another.

Frances steeled herself. She had to say something before another argument broke out.

“Um? I’m sorry Grandmother, but I am feeling a bit… annoyed with myself right now.”

She spoke truthfully and somehow, that distracted her mother and grandmother from glaring at one another to looking almost thoughtfully at her.

Only, it also brought a smirk to Ayax’s face. “You’re pissed at me.”

“Am not!” Frances squawked, but tired as she was, she couldn’t quite hide the pout that was forming.

“But you are!” the troll giggled.

Frances crossed her arms. “Well, yeah. I mean, I’m glad, but your tricks are so annoying!”

Eleanor snorted. “They’re effective, that's what. Get used to seeing them, Frances. The Winter Tournament is just as much about showing how powerful our houses are as much as a test of magical skill. You’re going to fight mages equipped with magic rings, bombs, and Named Wands and Staves.”

Frances blinked and glanced at Edana who pursed her lips for a moment, and nodded. Clearing her throat, Edana gestured for her daughter to come to her.

“Frances has the allegiance of a Named Wand,” Edana said in a measured tone.

You could practically see the ripple effect of that statement. Heads turned, eyes widened, some jaws even dropped open. Eleanor was somehow beside Frances in an instant and it was clearly only by some extreme act of will that she didn’t just seize the wand in her granddaughter’s hand.

“May I?” Eleanor whispered.

Frances hesitated, and sent that question to Ivy’s Sting. She got a quick response.

“You may examine, but do not touch,” Frances said, proffering the wand to her grandmother. “Her name is Ivy’s Sting. Um, we don’t know what her specialty is.”

“You don’t?” Nobbo, a total researcher-face on, sidled up beside Eleanor, but didn’t crowd Frances. “My reading has suggested that Named Wands are very eager to show their special abilities,” said the half-goblin.

Ecbert, Eva’s brother and an apprentice researcher nodded. “We can check the records to find out what her abilities are.”

“Ivy’s Sting’s former masters abused her abilities. Also, I think there’s a good reason she isn’t telling us.” Frances shut her eyes as her wand spoke up in her mind. It didn’t come so much as words, but more like a cross between a thought and a sensation. “Yes, she says there’s a very good reason and that you should not research her.”

Eleanor nodded, her green eyes showing a calculating light. “We will respect that.” She glared at Nobbo and Ecbert who looked terribly disappointed. “Unfortunately, we don’t have a Named Wand or Stave for you, Ayax.”

“Hold that thought,” Edana narrowed her eyes at Ayax, sizing her up. “I might be able to make something appropriate for her.”

“You can make a Named Staff?” Ayax gasped.

“Nothing that powerful, but as Frances knows, I can enchant objects quite well.” Edana smiled. “Give me a few days.”

Eleanor nodded. “Thank you, Edana.” Almost uncomfortably, the matriarch sighed. “I suppose the girls do need to rest and they definitely need a debrief. Ayax.” The troll girl stiffened. “You need to work on your timing and footwork. They’re good but they could be better and you’ll need both to close in on your enemy.” Eleanor pointed at Frances. “You, on the other hand, are well-rounded, but too reliant on your power. You need to mix up the power of your spells and your range. Take your break, we’ll work on them tomorrow.”