Chris took a breath and leaned against the wall.

“Enough!” He slid down to sit. Osburt sat next to him, leaning on his weapon.

“Three to two in my favor,” he announced. “You’re not bad.”

Chris replied tiredly, “We had to train a lot back at school…”

“Ah, yes. I was surprised to hear that training with old weapons is still mandatory anywhere Witches set foot.”

“Yeah… they say it’s a precaution against the Old Empire, but…you know.” Chris shrugged. He didn’t need to finish the sentence; everyone knew that all of the continents that were inhibited by Northern Witches were always on edge against the Union of Islands, a set of countries ruled by the Desert Witches, as much as they were touchy about the English Isles as well. For that reason, many of the mixed schools – as Chris’s was – gave their students the training of mediocre soldiers with a set of monthly rabbit hunts. Chris had heard that in Northland’s more specialized academies the targets varied from rabbits to deer and other larger animals.

The Hach thought for a bit before saying, “I wasn’t the strongest when it came to that stuff, so Ian tried training me back when I had the Jakkovost. I did surprisingly well with it, actually.”

“The Jakkovost is carved with magic, remember that; it leads its carrier’s hands most of the time.”

Chris nodded, his eyes on Daniel. During the whole training session, his friend had watched him, and now when they were done, he was aiming at the targets with the crossbow he’d found.

“Your friend is good.”

Chris smiled. “Hunting was his strongest point. He actually saved my butt a few times when I couldn’t fill my quota.”

Osburt gave him a quizzical look. “Aren’t your hunts monitored?”

“Not as well as here, probably!” Chris laughed. “He shot at all the mechanical rabbits for me and I just carried them proudly to my teachers. It was lucky that we only used crossbows on our outdoor classes, otherwise I’d have been done for. We almost got busted in the fifth grade since they found out I couldn’t hit a running target in spite of my so far perfect scores.”

“You trust your friend, then?”

“Of course I do.”

“That is good, considering your situation.”

“If he wanted to betray me, he would have done it by now.”

This reminded Chris to reflect on something else: if Winter had been so secretive and had to make sure she wasn’t betrayed, then…

“Er, Osburt, out of curiosity… for how long have you known about Winter? That she’s alive and everything?”

The Witch covered a yawn with his hand. “When she came to Northland a few years ago, she tracked me down first and she asked to know where Ian was. I told her I could be of just as much help, but she seemed very keen on making use of his services instead. I told her where to find him.”

“That easily?” Chris’s eyes scanned the hall, passing over Winter herself, who was currently taking apart one of the pistols right on the floor. She seemed to be counting the parts.

“I’d always had my doubts about her death to begin with.” Osburt smiled. “Our whole family did, but she asked us not to tell dad, and I saw no reason to go against that. It’s easier to keep this a secret that way.”

Something about Osburt’s explanation felt off, but Chris decided not to dwell on that. If Winter hadn’t wanted them to talk about it, she wouldn’t have agreed to stay here.