When Xerxes found himself facing his teacher, his heart started pounding. There was something about her, perhaps just the steely look in her eye, that made him realize she was vastly superior to his old Master back on Mannemid. His nervousness must have shown on his face, because she grinned and said, “Calm down, Xerk. You’ve done great so far. You have nothing to be nervous about. Start in Skyward position and do your best to strike me.”

Wood clattered against wood as she deflected his blow.

“Good. Again, but from the other side.”

He struck. She deflected.

“Now switch to Reaping guard and strike upward.”

Strike. Deflect.

“Keep going.”

A rhythm developed, and before he knew it, he was sweating.

“Switch,” Rabya said.

Rabya took about ten minutes with each of them, then said, “Alright, get some water and rest for five.” When they gathered around a few minutes later, she continued, “I see some very good things. But some bad things too. We have a lot of work to do, and we’re going to start by going back to basics.”

Enusat and Jad groaned.

Rabya chuckled. “Don’t worry, it’s not going to be easy. And once you make a few corrections here and there, you’ll have a much stronger foundation to build on.”

The first full day of class left them all so exhausted they decided to skip evening meditation. That evening after dinner, they were too tired for banter and fell asleep immediately.

The next day, they found that Rabya wasn’t set to lecture them. Instead, it was Archon Adonia. It was then that they learned Rabya was only scheduled to take the lead on Firstday, Fourthday, and Fifthday. Sandwiched between would be rotating lecturers.

Archon Adonia wasn’t as fun to listen to as Rabya, but somehow she didn’t seem as boring as the previous times Xerxes had attended her lectures. Training that day focused on battlefield formations.

The next day, the guest lecturer was a High Mystic from another starisle, who talked about geography. It was boring. Practical training related to survival techniques. Also boring. But Xerxes paid attention nonetheless. He wasn’t going to repeat the same mistake that led to his poor performance on the assessment.

During the days that passed, Xerxes learned a little about Katayoun. A very, very little. It was impossible not to get a few tidbits with her in such close proximity. She liked to drink something called coffee, which Xerxes had heard about but never had a chance to try. She’d been raised by the waterfront—so had he! Maybe that was something they could talk about. And apparently, she’d once had a sibling, who died only a few years before.

The downside to everything was that they were so busy he couldn’t find a chance to get Katayoun alone. How he longed to sit across a table from her and have a personal conversation.

Unfortunately, she seemed virtually attached at the hip to Kishar, with the two of them eating together, going to the restroom together, and seemingly never being apart. He didn’t get the sense they were romantically attached. Just extremely close.

When he muttered about it after lights-out on Thirdday evening, Jad somehow heard him.

“You want to know the best way to impress a girl and get a moment alone with her in this place?” he said.

“How?” Xerxes asked.

“Just sneak into the girl’s dorms at night and knock on her door.”

“Shut up,” Xerxes said.

“I’m serious. Remember Inatli?”

Xerxes wracked his brain; though the name sounded familiar, he couldn’t place it. “Sorry.”

“The other Seer from Jehannemid. A girl.”

“The one with buck teeth,” Enusat added.

The description clicked for Xerxes. “Right, I remember her.”

“I ran into her the other day and chatted for a minute or two. She told me it happened just two nights ago. Some fellow from Ashlultum snuck over and hooked up with a girl from Sin-Masu. Right in the fucking dorm!”

“No way,” Enusat said.

“I’m serious. The girl’s piercings were making music like wind chimes, if you know what I mean.”

Enusat chortled.

Xerxes shifted his head against the pillow and looked at the ceiling stones only a few feet away. “So you’re saying I should sneak over and knock on Katayoun’s door? Then what? After the earring thing, I’ve barely said two words in a row to her.”

“Aw, come on, Xerk-man,” Jad said. “It doesn’t matter what you say. It’s the action that counts. In fact, you don’t even have to say a thing. Bring her a flower or something. A cookie. Who cares? When she opens the door, just hand it to her. Look in her eyes. Wink. Then walk off into the night. Trust me, she’ll be all yours after that.”

“Don’t do it,” Kashtiliash said.

Jad sat up in bed. “Hey now, Kash, don’t be so negative. I’m telling you, it’s a good strategy. Once I make some progress with my short-haired broad, I’ll do the same thing.”

The bearded mage snorted. “Too risky.”

“Don’t listen to Kash,” Enusat said. “Jad’s right. You sneak over there, it’ll make a massive splash.”

“But there are guards,” Xerxes said.

“Unsighted guards! We can run way faster than them.”

“I heard that one of the Harmu mages got caught trying to sneak off campus the other night. He was kicked out or something.”

“That’s not true,” Jad jumped in. “I mean, he got caught, but not kicked out. I guess the idiot forgot the outer walls are all protected by spell formations, so they nabbed him long before he ever left the school. They just docked his stipend and restricted him to the campus for a couple months.”

Xerxes thought about it for a moment, visualizing what it would be like to knock on Katayoun’s door. He could imagine her expression of surprise and delight when she cracked open the door and saw him standing there.

“For you,” he’d say, holding out… a flower? A cookie?

He frowned.

“I can’t give her a flower,” he said. “That’s too cliche. And no cookies. It’s got to be something better than that. Like… jewelry or something.”

“Go shopping,” Kashtiliash said.

Jad made a tsk-tsk sound. “I thought you said it was a bad idea.”

“It is. But Xerk’s right. A flower’s bad.”

“Fine,” Jad said. “I just said flower for lack of anything better. Look, rumor has it we’ll be able to go off campus again on Restday. How about this: we’ll go back to Gula Bazaar and help you find something good. Then come Firstday, you make your move.”

Xerxes envisioned himself offering some bauble to Katayoun.

“For you,” he’d say, holding out the glimmering jewelry.

She would hold her hands up to her chest. “For me?”

As she took the jewelry, she would clasp his hands in hers, pull him toward her, and kiss his cheek gently. No. As she took the jewelry, she would clasp his hands in hers, pull him toward her, and their lips would meet.

“Fine,” he said. “I’m gonna do it. Bazaar on Restday. Then sneak into the girl’s dorms on Firstday.”

“‘Ey,” Enusat said, “this is gonna be the first major Swordmasters mission! We should come up with a name for it.”

“Operation: Too Risky,” Kashtiliash said.

“Shut the fuck up, Kash,” Jad said, laughing. “No. Operation… Dormfiltration!”

“What the ‘ell is a dorm filtration?” Enusat said.

“No, dormfiltration. Instead of infiltration. Get it? Because it’s infiltrating a dorm….”

Kashtiliash groaned. “No. Just… no.”

“Her name is Kat,” Xerxes said. “Something with Kat in it. Operation: Kat… Nap? Kat Nap. No, that’s dumb.”

“Operation: Kat-astrophe,” Kashtiliash said.

“I swear to the Pontifarch, Kash,” growled Jad. “If you don’t get serious about this, I’m going to beat you black and blue next sparring session.”

“You can try.”

“Operation: Kat Walk,” Enusat said.

Everyone else fell silent for a moment.

“That’s not bad,” Kashtiliash said.

Xerxes had to agree. “Yeah, it’s pretty good. Operation: Kat Walk.”