In This Life And The Next
Chapter Sixteen

The next morning after breakfast, Aurora caught Liam as he left the hall, rushing to his own wing to speak to the generals there.

"Liam!" Aurora called out, catching up to him.

Liam paused and turned, his face brightened up when he seen it was Aurora.

"Walk with me." Liam said and gestured to the hall, in a soft swirl of skirts Hazel was there as well, slipping her arm through Liam's and Caspian joined their group.

"I was wondering if I could ask you something?" Aurora began slowly. She felt strange asking even more from the Valour's.

Liam's grin widened. "Ask it, Ro, and I will see to it that it is done. I have never seen Alec so happy. You are the cause of it."

Aurora ducked her head. "I love him, he is the best man I could have asked for."

"You sicken me." Hazel teased, cheerfully.

Liam patted Hazel's hand.

"I wish to learn how to fight." Aurora said. Liam stopped abruptly, dragging Hazel to a stop with him. Aurora's forward motion made her stop a few steps after and she turned to face them. Three younger Valour looked terrified.

"I have to go...sew...something." Hazel mumbled and left.

Aurora stared at her retreating back.

Caspian turned and ran after her.

"I-" Liam started. And he looked up to the heavens. "Should I die without having married Lady Jessica, I will haunt you for the rest of your life."

"Why would you die?" Aurora asked, confused.

"Because Alec will kill me if I teach you how to fight." Liam hissed.

"So, will you?"

Liam sighed and changed course. He saw Blake and waved at him. He gave Blake the papers and straightened up. "Come." He motioned.

They ended up behind George's small shack, with the old man looking on in a decidedly judgmental way.

"Have you ever held a sword before?" Liam asked as he handed her one.

"Never." Aurora replied, testing the weight in her hand.

"Ok, so we'll start with the basics." Liam informed. "A defense move called binding. We'll start with soft binding. You lift your sword and block mine but do not try to power it into me." He moved back and brought a slow arching attack. "Rather, let the blade down as you move out from under it and away."

Aurora nodded and moved to bring up her own sword.

When she did it though, she felt a sharp ache, a burring chill down the length of her arm, that stabbed and ached, she gasped and dropped the sword.

Liam immediately sheathed his own sword and stepped forward but George beat him to it.

"What is it?" George demanded.

"When I lifted the sword I felt-" Aurora stumbled over the words.

"Like someone shoved a two foot long nail up your arm?" He guessed.

"Yes." Aurora whispered.

"Do you mind?" George asked and gestured towards Aurora's shoulder. She shook her head and George tugged her shirt aside and laid his rough fingers against the tendons and muscles at Aurora's shoulder and neck.

"Hmph." He said and tugged Aurora's shirt back in place. "Just what I thought. The dirty old cunt you used to live with-"

Liam snorted under his breath.

"Did he do something here?" George asked.

Aurora remembered a shard of glass and Josh stitching her together after.

She nodded

"Saw the same thing in the first war to a young solider. Poor kid never was able to bear the weight of a broadsword again."

Aurora rubbed the tender spot on her shoulder. "So I won't learn to defend myself." She murmured, an old anger rising in her chest. Even dead, Phil's actions followed her.

"Not with a sword. Too heavy." George replied with a shrug and turned back to his shack. Aurora assumed that the end of their conversation but George returned a moment later. He had in his hand two short blades, longer than daggers and deadly looking. Their gleam in the sun was enticing. "These on the other hand..." George nodded to himself. "These, I believe will do nicely. Liam get your ass out of here. You don't know how to do this. I'll teach the kid."

"Sure, George." Liam said and left with a bright smile at them.

George handed one of the blades to Aurora. And she tested the weight of it. "Where did you get these?" She asked.

"Damnedest thing." George muttered. "It's like they fell out of the sky. I have no idea where they came from."

"You can teach me?" Aurora asked, hopeful. She wanted to learn, she needed to. She wasn't going to let herself be defenseless like that ever again.

"Kid, this is just the beginning." George responded and Aurora wasn't sure if she trusted the grin on his face.