Bright red eyes gred into my only slightly darker ones. It was rather obvious in hindsight, but I had completely forgotten about this girl. And now she was standing in front of me, not looking very pleased at all.

  “Well? Answer me?” Violet continued. “What the hell are you doing back here?”

  “Your father invited me,” I said cautiously. “I am here as a guest for some time.” Did he seriously forget to mention something like this to his own daughter?

  Violet either didn’t hear me or didn’t care. “I asked, Why the hell are you here?” She folded her arms and gred at me. Her pupils looked like angry slits. She was wearing a white dress. That was genuinely shocking. I’d expected her to go around in armor.

  “I needed to stretch my feet. They are quite stretched, and so I am going to return to my room.” I said pointedly, making to move past her. It was just as I was about to cross her that I stumbled, fell, and caught myself before I’d hit the floor. She had tripped me.

  Rather annoying, and rather childish at the same time. I picked myself up, smoothed the folds of my dress.

  Violet was giving me a shit-eating grin. A grin that slowly faded when I started to walk away again. “The hell is wrong with you? Do something.”

  Now that I thought about it, she had tried to do something simir st time as well. “Do what?” I folded my arms and looked at her. “I merely tripped, and now I’m standing again.”

  Her grin faded at that. She stepped closer, far closer than anyone would consider proper. “Don’t tell me you don’t have any goddamn pride.” She was poking my midsection with a finger, none too gently. Now that we were this close, I saw that she was taller, even if by the thinnest of margins.

  It was childish, but I was actually starting to get annoyed now.

  Click.

  The annoyance was stamped out under the weight of my Gift. Violet’s grin spread again. “You fucking did something again, didn’t you? I fucking knew it.”

  Damn it. She had been able to tell st time, too. It was always the little insignificant details that were impossible to remember.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said pinly. “I channeled mana, if that’s what you’re referring to. Anyone would if someone with a hammer got up in their face.”

  Violet clicked her tongue, pointedly shook her head. “Channel mana?’ She snorted. “You must think I’m some kind of idiot. Nope. You did something. A Gift, right? A Gift that isn’t obvious and common. Something mental. Hmm….”

  Violet Indri suspecting something was annoying but not consequential. My shadow hearing of it and reporting it to Duke Indri was another matter entirely.

  “I can turn my hearing up or down,” I said finally. “Do guess which option I would choose in your company.” I might have gone with Pain Nullification, but around these people? Gods no.

  The red-haired girl took a step back. Took in a deep breath. Was…was she seriously going to do what I thought she was? I scrambled to reach for my Gift.

  Click. Click.

  I turned my hearing down, right as Violet Indri screamed at the top of her lungs. If my hearing had been anywhere close to normal, I might have winced. Perhaps reached to cover my ears. As it happened, all I heard was a sound that was a little annoying, but nowhere near painful. Violet paused only a couple of seconds ter, staring at me.

  She looked at me, tilted her head, and said something I didn’t hear.

  Right.

  I turned my hearing back to normal. She had her arms folded now, staring at me with somehow both more disdain and more interest at the same time. “I guess that really is your Gift.” She muttered. “Rare, I guess. Might even be a little useful sometimes for all the fancy politicking and shit. But with your mana…fuck me, that’s boring.”

  She seemed to think for a moment. I took that moment to try to make my exit. A hand on my shoulder stopped me in my tracks. There was real strength behind it. I didn’t even think the girl was channeling mana yet.

  “Hold it. Who said you can just go? I guess your Gift is kind of a fucking waste, but you might still be fun.”

  “Err…excuse me?”

  She stepped forward, grabbed my arm, and proceeded to start dragging me along with her. The Girl really did have a stupid amount of strength, enough that I couldn’t immediately pull away from her grasp. I channeled mana into my arms, tried to use it to make up for my own ck of strength.

  Violet didn’t even break stride.

  “Where in the hell are you taking me?!” I finally shouted.

  Violet looked back at me, the same damn grin on her face. “Oh, I’m just going to have a little fun.”

  At least I didn’t end up getting dragged for too long. Violet didn’t care about any of my protests as she dragged me into what I could only assume was a sparring room. Why did I assume this? The many holes in the walls and the floors gave it away. That, combined with the pce having essentially no furnishings, told me this was one of the pces Violet often came to.

  “I am not going to fight you.” I had tried telling her that quite a few times already. “I’m here as a guest. I don’t think your father will be too pleased when he finds out about this.”

  Violet hummed to herself as she did a series of stretches a few feet away from me. “He’s not here right now.” She said almost casually. “So, I’m the Lady of the manor or whatever the hell. So, that means you’re supposed to do what I say.”

  I wasn’t quite sure that was how it worked. I was, however, sure this girl in front of me didn’t care.

  “I am not going to fight you.” I went and sat down on the floor. “If you’re bored, that isn’t my problem. I’m sure you have people here who’ll fight you if you ask. Go bother one of them instead.” It really felt like arguing with a goril.

  “Nah, they all suck.” She said ftly, now moving into a series of squats. “They’re too afraid of hurting me, and when they do try, they get so embarrassed they don’t fight me again.”

  Well, that was just lovely. “And after telling me all that, why in the fuck do you think I’m going to fight you?” Damn it, I was starting to lose some of my facade around this strange girl.

  “Ooh, you can talk like a normal fucking person.” Violet gave me a thumbs up. “Who knows, maybe you eventually won’t be creepy as hell.”

  Approve.

  I frowned. Of course, that thing was going to approve. What in the hell was that supposed to mean anyway? I am not creepy.

  Calm down, Esra. I took a deep breath, rose. I had heard enough. Even if Duke Indri wasn’t here, I doubted there was any way this girl could actually force me into anything.

  “You tried to use mana earlier, right?” Violet said almost casually.

  “What?”

  “You tried to run, so you used mana. Didn’t fucking work, did it? And here you have a lot more of it than I do. Isn’t that kind of pathetic?”

  I felt my eyes twitch. “And your point is?”

  “It’s a fucking crime. It's pissing me off. Let me guess, you’re the type who wants something out of everything, right? Well, I’m going to take out some of my boredom, and maybe you’ll learn something so next time a girl with a fifth of your mana won’t be able to drag you anywhere she wants.”

  That did make me pause. It wasn’t even remotely what I was here for, and yet it wasn’t like I could do anything else today either. “You’re saying you’re going to…train me?”

  Violet ughed. “I’m saying I’m going to beat the hell out of you, and you’re going to learn something unless you really like people beating the hell out of you.”

  I hated to admit it, but I was actually considering this. I shook my head, snapped out of it. It was a potentially appealing offer, maybe. The only difference was the time, pce, and…the instructor. I moved for the door.

  “That guy isn’t here, you know,” Violet said casually, having switched to push-ups now. “He knows I can see him. I think it makes him nervous.”

  I froze. A thousand thoughts ran through my head all in an instant. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Shut the fuck up.” Violet snorted. “Don’t tell me you didn’t notice. With your Gift, you could probably hear his heartbeat or something.”

  That…I suppose that was technically true, though I preferred using sight instead. There was just something about being able to see something that was infinitely more reassuring than hearing it.

  “You know why he’s following me?” I finally asked. No point pretending anything else.

  “Meh, he's new. Daddy has him follow any guest tely. He’s weird like that.”

  “How cautious.” It was a little surprising that Violet seemed to offer this much information so freely. Though I suspect that’s because she simply didn't know that the information was worth protecting at all. Actually, who was I kidding? She probably just didn’t care.

  “Why?”

  Violet grinned, jumped to her feet in one smooth motion. “If you want to find that out, how about we go for a few rounds. Tell ya what, if you actually interest me, I might have some answers for ya.”

  God damnit. “Fine.” I moved to take off the dress. Anias was going to give me a piece of her mind if I got it dirty.

  “What the hell are you doing?!”

  I looked up at her, confused, my hands already reaching for the folds of my dress. “You expect me to fight you in a dress? I have a shift underneath.”

  Violet’s face was, confusingly, red. She shook her head. “Good point, I guess. At least warn me first. Fuck, you’re weird.” She moved to take off her own dress. Her corset was made of...ptes?

  I was sure I was the least weird person here.

  Violet Indri had not been joking or exaggerating in the slightest. She was going to attack me, and it was up to me to try not get beaten to a pulp by her.

  Violet dashed in, twisted, and swung her right leg so high it came right at my head. I barely got up an arm in time, only because she had done this to me before. There was a dull thud. An ache went up my arm, one that was hard not to reach out and dull with my Gift. I skidded back on the floor.

  “Wrong.” She said proudly, before dashing in again.

  This time, I tried swinging for her instead. I waited for the moment when she twisted away, using that moment to charge in and try punching at her face. Instead of the spinning kick from before, Violet sank down into a split so fast I almost tripped over her. Shit, I had to channel mana into my stomach and-

  Her arm shot out, an uppercut that hit my chin so hard my vision went white for a moment. Then, I fell right on my back.

  Weak.

  The Godbde whispered. I did appreciate a second voice in my head telling me what I already knew.

  “Booooringgggg,” Violet called out loudly, the sound muffled to my ears. My vision was swimming, and my ears were ringing.

  God damnit, but I really wanted to turn at least some of this down with my Gift. Except, if I did, it would be all but announcing to this unusually perceptive girl that there was more to it than I’d let on. Fuck me.

  Violet’s blurred form moved into view. I stared up at her as she reached down, grabbed my arm, and yanked me to my feet. I swayed for a second, shook my head. “Think that makes it…seven to me and zero to you?”

  “I am impressed you can keep count,” I grumbled. My jaw was aching. Hopefully, that pain would fade away soon.

  She rolled her eyes, picked up the hammer leaning against one of the walls, and started moving towards the door.

  “You aren’t forgetting something, are you? You were supposed to answer a few questions.” I gred at her back.

  She turned, grinned. “That was only if you managed to interest me. You didn’t. So much mana, and you don’t have the first goddamn idea about how to use it. Talk about learning to run before you can crawl!" Then, she proceeded to stick her tongue out.

  It was a little hard to argue, considering all I’d managed to do was get thrashed around. The worst part was that I was sure she was going easy on me. At least she hadn’t used that stupid hammer. Now that I think about it, I’d been relying entirely on the Godbde tely, and before that, I’d been trying to learn to use my Gift. Basic mana manipution had kind of just fallen by the wayside a while ago.

  “So…how do I fix that?” I asked finally.

  Violet paused, tilted her head, and inspected me. “You’re actually asking? No smartass comments?”

  I didn't make that many smart ass comments. “I am.”

  Violet sighed, moved towards me, then turned around. “Punch me. Wherever you want.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Violet stomped her foot down. “Did I stutter? Just fucking do it already. Come on, it’ll be the first time you hit me all day.”

  It…was an odd request, to put it mildly. “This is going to hurt. You didn’t even tell me where to punch you.”

  “I am seriously going to walk away now.”

  God damnit. Well, whatever. I channeled mana into my fist, twisted on my hips, and smmed it into her back. Only as I swung did I realize I’d put way too much into the blow.

  Violet staggered forward a step, then turned around. “That was somehow even more pathetic than I thought it’d be.”

  “How?” I stared. I was pretty sure that blow was going to really hurt, at the very least.

  Violet yawned, stretched her arms as she made for the door. “You think you’re so fucking smart, don’t ya? Figure it out.” She waved at me as she left. “Or I’m going to beat the hell out of ya next time too.”

  And people had the nerve to call me strange.

  Wait, next time?!