Chapter Twenty-Four - Accomplishment

“Do you really have to leave already?” Elea looked at Arette and Liz, who had packed their things and were ready to return to Redhall.

Elea and Zenon had more or less made up after their rescue at last second - it had involved more than a handful of squabbles and things being thrown around, but eventually, their love was too strong to be overshadowed by anger.

Arette and Liz were quite proud of themselves, even though Zenon was still pissed at Arette for meddling so much.

They had stayed with the once again madly in love couple for two weeks now, more out of courtesy than anything else, but eventually, Arette had about enough of the sugary sweetness that oozed from them.

Right now, they stood together in front of the teleportation gate of Gera, ready to return to the lives they’d interrupted with this journey.

“Yeah we do,” Arette blurted out before Elea managed to talk Liz into staying again - she’d done that twice before, “We’ve already overextended our leave from school and I really need to get back to my training.”

Liz nodded hastily to agree with her and Elea gave a defeated sigh. The three women had grown quite close in the last week, mostly because Elea was an amazing person and both Arette and Liz had found themselves quickly gaining a new friend in Zenon’s true soul companion.

But they couldn’t stay in a backwater village forever. At least, Arette couldn’t and Liz didn’t want to leave her, so that was that.

“Alright,” Elea said with a sad smile and moved to gather both of them in a tight hug, “Thank you so much for doing this for us. Without you, I would be Harker’s slave by now and Zenon would still be moping around at Redhall.”

She grinned and hit her lover playfully in the side, who only gave a disgruntled murmur as a return.

Yet, when Zenon’s eyes fell on Arette, he softened as well.

With a swift move, he drew her into a hug.

“She’s right. I owe you a lot, Arette. Thank you,” he said with a smile as he released her and she bumped her first against his shoulder softly.

“We’re friends and this is what friends do, don’t they? You also helped me out a lot, so let’s just consider it even.”

She grinned and he accepted it with a chuckle before pulling Liz into an equally warm hug. He said something to her as well, which made her blush, then he retreated back to the side of his lover.

“You need to visit us!” Elea insisted.

“Of course." Both of them gave their most reassuring nods.

“Goodbye.”

They gave the couple another wink and then, before either of them got a spell of weakness and gave in to Elea’s offer to stay for another while, they stepped right through the giant teleportation gate in the middle of Gera’s central marketplace.

“Redhall, Fall’s End,” Liz shouted.

That was the last thing Arette heard before the world dissolved into colours and dizziness.

She came to in her bed in Redhall, feeling dizzy and sick.

Sitting up, she pushed down the urge to throw up and grabbed for a glass of water that someone knowingly had placed on her drawer.

She downed the entire thing and then took a few breaths before the world stopped spinning and felt halfway normal again.

“Feeling better?” Liz’s voice reached her and she looked up to see the young woman sitting in a chair huddled into the other corner of her small room.

“Yeah…” she groaned and held her head, but at least the world had stopped spinning, “What happened?”

Liz gave a sympathetic smile, “I forgot it was your first time teleporting. The first time, everyone gets knocked out by the process. It’ll get better after a few times.”

“Urgh, I’m not sure if I ever want to do that again,” she blurted.

Liz chuckled and shrugged, “Well you don’t have to. But by now, I manage it with only throwing up once, so I can assure you it does get better!”

“That’s not really reassuring,” Arette threw her a withering gaze. Liz chuckled again.

“I know.”

They both laughed when suddenly a booming voice entered the room.

“You’re up, I see.”

Throwing the door back with a loud bang, Nex strolled in. Despite the fact that she was small compared to even Liz, not even speaking about Arette, her presence instantly made silence descend into the room.

Arette jumped up and saluted her.

“Yes, sir!” she yelled but grinned at her instructor. Nex gave her a scathing glare, but Arette saw the mirth sparkling behind the sternness.

“Well, if you’re fine enough to joke, you’re fine enough to train. I expect you to be in the forest in five minutes. And if I find out you’ve been slacking off on your little vacation…”

She didn’t need to finish the threat to sound imposing.

“Aye, aye sir!” she yelled after Nex with another grin. She’d picked up the wording from another student in her martial arts class who used to be a soldier in his past life and couldn’t get rid of talking like that after she found out that it pissed Nex off like nothing else.

She was probably the only one in class who dared to tease their instructor like that, but then again, she was also the only one who enjoyed the extra training that Nex dished out as punishment.

“I really don’t know how you put up with that,” Liz said with a sigh, staring after Nex with visible wariness.

Arette just shrugged and changed from her travelling clothes into fighting gear and grabbed her sword.

“Well, I’m off to torture!” she laughed and waved before sauntering out of the room. Liz gave her a wave back and just like that, they quickly returned to the routine they had developed in the previous month.

And just like that, time passed.

Spring soon turned into summer and summer passed into autumn as Fall’s End bloomed in all the colours that it was famous for.

Both Arette and Liz were mesmerized by the city’s beauty, even though Liz had seen it quite a few times before. They wandered the autumn streets of the city for days on end, admiring the reds and oranges and golds of the trees that were fluttering through the air until Nex discovered Arette’s slacking and dragged her back for training and Liz begrudgingly returned to the library.

After that, the weather got colder and Arette finally moved from the garden into her room, even though she still insisted on spending her most time under the stars.

By the time that snow fell onto Fall’s End, both Arette’s and Liz’ knowledge had increased in lots of ways. Liz had almost memorized all of the books in Redhall, spoke now three dialects of the Plane of Gods fluently and most of all, had gained a minimum control over her powers.

As long as she didn’t delve into negativity again, she at least didn’t harm anyone in her vicinity, something that both her and Arette considered great progress.

Arette meanwhile had long ascended to the top of her class. With the relentless training from Nex and her own will to improve, the talent for weaponry that she showed back when Neiro had offered her his sword to hold unfurled and transformed her into a fighter that could hold her own against most.

By late summer, she had managed to surpass the strength of a mortal and by the end of autumn, her body had the capacity of a trained Sovereign of Combat. At the end of winter, she was already scraping at an Ascendant’s strength, but as of yet, her physique hadn’t quite caught up with the rank her amount of power put her in.

The one thing she still struggled with was reading, but after she was able to decipher the most basic signs, Liz finally left her alone with the constant bickering and they reduced their sessions to once a week instead of once a day, something Arette was endlessly glad for.

Winter soon abated and the snow melted and the day approached and passed that marked the one year anniversary of Arette and Liz' friendship.

It was shortly before the end of spring, which marked the beginning of a new year in the fiftieth province, that their days at Redhall were nearing a close.

In fact, Liz had long been ready to leave the school. She knew more than the teachers and with her power under a minimum level of control, she had no real reason to continue hiding at a school meant for freshling Immortals that couldn’t yet survive on their own.

Arette had by now also gained a basic understanding of the Plane of Gods and with her strength being higher than most of the teachers to begin with, both of them knew that their stay would soon come to an end.

The catalyst finally came on New Year’s Eve.

Arette and Nex were sparring, as they always did in the evenings, but a lot of things had changed since they first began fighting. Arette had long grown too powerful to be matched with other students and so the fights between the top disciple and the instructor had become an attraction for many residents of Redhall.

But today was different from their usual fights.

Because for the first time, Nex, Ascendant of Physics, was actually at a disadvantage.

Not many people knew it, but Nex had actually kept an ability from her past life called ‘Intuitive Physics’ that allowed her to walk the path of Physics far easier than a normal Immortal could. The ability gave her an innate understanding for relations in nature. Be it formulas or abstract theories, it took Nex one look to understand them.

In battle, her ability enabled her to read every vector of a movement within the fraction of a second it was initiated. That was how she stayed unbeaten for so long - her accuracy of guessing the next move of her opponent was nearing one hundred percent and the efficiency of her own attacks was deadly close to perfection.

But today, she was at a disadvantage.

It wasn’t because her power failed or because she wasn’t in top form. It was because her opponent, her very own student, had finally managed to scrape at her potential.

And Arette’s true potential was frightening.

Even though Nex knew where the next blow was coming, she couldn’t avoid it. Arette’s sword arts were sharper than hers, even though she’d taught them to her and Arette’s speed topped hers with ease.

So the moment she saw that Arette had aimed for her left, she barely managed to swerve away before the weapon scratched her skin, almost hitting her. Nex grit her teeth and darted around, using every bit of experience she had from this life and her former.

But she couldn’t find an opening.

Arette’s eyes gleamed with excitement and thrill as she pounced into another attack and Nex could only defend against her with all she had. There was no way to switch into offense and defending against attacks so fast that even her instincts had trouble keeping up was wearing her out quicker than ever before.

They’d been at it for over half an hour, only breaking apart for seconds to catch breath. In the beginning, Nex had had the advantage, but today, Arette had been more focused than usual and she quickly used every trick she had against her instructor.

Now, Nex was scratching at her limits and Arette knew it.

The crowd around them cheered, half for her, half for Arette, but the noise faded to background yelling as she tried to gather her wits for a final attack.

But before she could do anything, her brain suddenly screamed at her in warning.

In the last second, she stepped backwards and the blade aimed for her throat swung through air, hitting her sword instead.

The force of the blow knocked her weapon from her hand and before she knew it, it was Nex who had a blade pointed at her throat.

“I concede,” she yelled and Arette lowered her sword, face glowing with happiness and accomplishment.

And instead of feeling disappointed or frustrated, all Nex could feel was pride.

The first time she’d fought against her, she’d have never thought that this girl would be able to beat her within the next ten, twenty years. But now, little over a year later, she had to admit defeat against the very same person.

And it didn’t even surprise her. Arette’s talent was far, far greater than her own. If it hadn’t been for her intuitive physics, she would’ve lost far earlier. But it wasn’t just talent - it had also been Arette’s determination. None of her students had ever trained that hard.

Without ever complaining, Arette had completed a training she wouldn’t have been able to do herself and she did it every single day, continuously striving to improve herself and her techniques.

All of that combined was what had led to her loss today.

She couldn’t have been more proud of her student. She had never told Arette about the fact that she thought she was incredibly talented, knowing that such things could easily go to the head and hinder the amazing dedication the girl had towards swordplay.

But today, she would make an exception.

“Well done, Arette,” she said with an acknowledging smile.

Arette’s face lit up like a shooting star, a wide grin illuminating her features.

“Thank you, sir!” she quipped, still teasing her with the military talk as she’d done right from the beginning. Nex scowled at her, but had already grown so used to it that she didn’t even feel angry at being addressed like a man. After all, it wasn’t as if she was very womanly either.

“Arette, you have talent and I’m not good enough to teach you anything more than I already have. Don’t waste it. Hone your talent. Get better. Get stronger. I will do the same.”

Nex raised her chin and found her own determination again.

She might have lost today, but she would never lose without demanding a rematch.

Arette’s eyes gleamed when she saw the challenge in her.

“Let’s meet again in twenty years. We’ll see who is stronger then,” Nex proposed, her face hardened into a serious expression, but inside, her desire to fight burned as strong as the fire in Arette’s face.

“Agreed,” Arette shook her hand to confirm and for a moment, the two of them stared at each other.

Then, each gave a nod and they walked into opposite directions.

At that point of time, neither had any idea about how much time would really pass until they’d meet again.

“Let’s travel.”

Arette’s voice ripped Liz from the book she’d just been holding in her hands. Startled, she looked up at her best friend who was standing over her with a vivid grin.

“What?” she echoed, not following.

“Let’s travel. Let’s get out of this place,” Arette repeated, eyes glowing with new ideas.

Liz put her book away and looked at her queerly.

“What, like, visiting a few cities or what?” She still didn’t quite understand it, even though part of her already dreaded what might be the answer.

“No, not like that,” Arette shook her head, “Let’s leave Redhall. I mean, Liz you can recite almost every single book of this library word by word and just today, I beat Nex and she told me she couldn’t teach me anything more and -”

“Wait, stop. You beat Nex?” Liz gaped, thinking about the overbearing martial arts instructor. She didn’t know of a single precedent - had never heard of a single time one of her students managed to beat her and certainly not after only a year!

“Yup!” Arette grinned happily, “With swords only, though, she’d probably still kick my ass with any other weapon. But I don’t really want to fight with anything other than swords, actually. So...yeah, I don’t really have a reason to stay here anymore.”

Liz had to gulp at that, once more being reminded of how monstrous her best friend was. Arette might suck at making plans or at learning how to read - the last year had been a disaster in that aspect - but her talent at swordfighting was immeasurable.

If you added to that the fact that she could control fire like it was a part of her, Arette was on her way to becoming invincible. Sometimes, it scared Liz how far away Arette was from her.

She’d never be able to reach her, not in this aspect.

“But Ari, what about your studies? Your other class?”

Arette had joined her in History of the Plane of Gods after Elemental Control was impossible, but had always hated it. The teacher knew it, Liz knew it and she also knew that her argument was weak.

“Oh come on Lizzy, you know more than that teacher. If there’s anything I need to know, you can tell me. Don’t you feel stuck in here?”

Arette began to pace up and down, agitation in every of her steps.

“I never wanted to stay here for longer than necessary. And now I’ve learned all I wanted to learn. I know enough to survive out there - and I don’t want to be stuck in here for another year! I want to see the world, see different places and meet different people and just...get to know the world. Don’t you?”

Her eyes were so hopeful, filled with so much yearning that Liz couldn’t say anything.

She didn’t exactly feel the same way. Sure, seeing the world sounded amazing, but she always preferred safety over adventure. And travelling through a world without any truly defined laws or any international punishment seemed like walking straight into death for her.

But Arette was burning with desire.

“Ari…” she sighed the nickname she’d found for her friend over the last year and earned herself another pleading glance.

“Come on, Lizzy, you can’t be happy being stuck in this place either! There’s a world out there for us to see!”

Yeah, a world for them to see and be devoured by. And Liz had no wish to die after she’d only found her will to live a year ago.

But looking at Arette, she knew that her friend would leave, with or without her. It was Arette’s nature to wander, to go out on an adventure. Even in the last year, Arette had never managed to sit still for long, always off exploring or training, always doing one thing or another.

Liz wasn’t like that. She liked books and libraries and the quiet solitude of a ceiling above her head and walls around her.

But Liz also liked Arette.

Arette had pulled her out of her deepest darkness. When she thought she was all alone, without something to live for, Arette had offered her a hand to free her from all the loneliness.

She owed her so much.

And she really didn’t want to be apart from her and sink back into her depressive routine.

She didn’t want that at all.

So Liz made a decision that would change her life forever.

“Alright. Alright, let’s travel. We need to take on quests for money, but you can fight and I have a lot of knowledge, so we should manage. Let’s do it.”

Arette’s eyes lit up as if she’d just given her the world.

“You’re the best, Lizzy,” she squealed and drew her into a tight hug.

Liz felt herself blush with the sudden contact but also felt incredibly happy in that moment. Arette would be worth it - her company, her friendship would be worth doing things she didn’t like.

A week later, they left Redhall for good.

Leesha saw them off with a proud smile on her lips and a promise to meet again, while Liz tried to hide the fact that she’d stolen not a few books from the library.

Arette didn’t have much to pack - she was only filled with incredibly excitement towards her new adventure. As of yet, she had no idea about what was to come.

But then again, no one really did.

END OF PART TWO - STARLIGHT NIGHTS AND RISING STARS