His father was waiting for him in the garden behind the house. Orn was breathing heavily from running the entire way but managed to greet his father.

His father turned from staring out into the woods behind their home. After a quick glance at Orn, he gestured to the table next to the house.

Orn was thankful for the seat and collapsed into it.

“Are you sure you are ready to do this? You are barely out of the house, and you are already exhausted.” His father stared at him looking for a reason to stop.

“I am fine.” “Orn said slowly catching his breath. “I just ran the… “

Orn stopped mid-sentence and looked at his father. “Please do not mention that to Mother. I need to push, or I will not get stronger. “

His father looked at him, before shaking his head in exasperation. “I will not say anything, but please be careful. I know your path means you need to do things differently. But you should consider how your mother feels. She worries about you.”

“I know.” Orn nodded, “I am trying to get stronger, so she will worry less.”

“We both know that will never happen. But,” he made a dismissive motion, “that is not what we are here to do.”

His father then tapped on a mug on the table. “Grab something to drink. I had some water brought out.”

Seeing that his father would not let him do anything else until he did so, Orn grabbed the pewter mug. Sipping the water, he watched his father.

“You mentioned wanting to try a variety of weapons, so I grabbed a few different ones from the armory that you were able to pick up the other day.” His father then proceeded to set the weapons on the table. “I started with the lighter ones.”

Orn looked over the weapons on the table and did a mental inventory. Dagger, short sword, sword breaker, dueling rapier, side sword, bow and arrow, quarter staff.

“Father do you know how to use any of them?”

His father nodded, “I have a skill for dueling so I can use the dueling rapier, and sword breaker. I can use a couple others such as the broadsword, but those are a bit… heavier.”

Orn nodded he was not sure how well he could use even the light weapons his father brought. “Can you show me how you use those then?”

His father nodded and slid the sword breaker into his belt before picking up the dueling rapier. “Are you ready?”

Orn nodded and followed his father across the open area to one of the rose bushes along the fence.

“You said you wanted me to show you, but you cannot just use a skill. I must have a target to use this skill. So…” His father then tapped a few dead flowers with the rapier. “I will be using the rose bush. But I do not know if this will really work.” He then stepped back until the sword tip was a few inches from the bush. Then without warning he shot forward. Orn could see the rapier as only a blur.

A moment later his father stopped, and half a dozen flowers lay on the ground in front of the bush.

Orn was speechless, “How did you do that?”

His father smiled slightly and scratched the back of his head with the tip of the sword breaker. “It is as I said before, skills just happen. I just picked the target and tried to use the sword. It did not work very well though, I could feel I was not moving right. I am sorry Orn.“

Orn gulped. If that is not even a good example of the skills… Am I doomed?

Shaking the thought away he considered what his father said. “You mean you did not have to think about what you were doing? Your body just moved on your own?”

“Yes and no. Dueling is easy with an actual opponent, they do not just give you a lot of openings. I had to focus on wanting to cut the flowers. If it was a person, I would barely need to think about it at all. In a duel, my body would just move, and I would cut at whatever I was aiming at. Not that I have used it much, even fighting to disarm or first blood can be very dangerous.”

“You have to think about blocking at least?” Orn asked. It cannot be that easy for everyone, can it?

“No that just happens.” his father shrugged “It is why I have the sword breaker. I can block with the dueling rapier, or sword breaker. But the sword breaker only blocks.”

“Why not use the sword breaker to attack?” Orn asked surprised, the tool looked like a pair of dagger blades in a ‘V’ shape. It looks sharp enough.

“The sword breaker blocks or catches the opponent’s sword.” His father’s brow furrowed as he looked at the weapon, “I have never seen anyone attack with their off-hand.”

“If you could tie up the other persons rapier, why not use your sword breaker to attack instead of just defend?” Orn pointed at the sharpened points used to catch the opponent’s sword.

His father considered what he said and turned back to the rose bush. Again, he stepped froward in a blur, but this time the sword breaker shot forward. The breaker sank deeply into the bush a few inches from one of the roses.

“Ouch,” his father muttered under his breath as he pulled his hand out of the rose bush. Slowly picking a couple thorns out of his hand, “I did not think that would work, but I did not expect to fail that badly. “

As his father pulled a loose thorn from his hand, Orn was struggling with what he just saw. If his father could only do what the skill allowed did it mean he was acting like a marionette?

Backing away from the bush his father sheathed the weapons. “This seems like a good time to quit for now. I am sure your…” He paused “actually she is already here so it must be time for lunch.”

Orn looked to see his mother approaching. He smiled and was about to waive when he noticed her expression.

“I see you decided to hack up my roses.” she said in a way that made a shiver run up Orn’s spine.

Orn and his father glanced back at the rose bush and noticed that a large branch had shifted, cut by the sword breaker. Looking back to each other they both had the same thought We. Are. Doomed.