80: A Day In The Life Of Maiya (Part Two) (Patreon)

Note: And here's the second part, which dives into the magic system. Def recommend reading it! Releasing this one early; we'll take a 3 day weekend, so next chapter's on Monday.

Even with Maiya’s practiced efficiency, she’d been too slow for the wicked witch. A part of her suspected the head handmaiden lied just to make her suffer.

One day, I’m gonna wipe that smug look off your wrinkly old face.

The woman had taken a special interest in Maiya, giving her far more attention than any of the other handmaidens in training.

Maiya didn’t know whether to be proud of that fact, or to weep in self pity. She did both.

She entered the changing stall, quickly disrobing and changing into her Imperial mejai combat armor. Dyed in the Kin’jali blood red that matched her hair, it was a light fitted brigandine cuirass over black gambeson. Just enough to protect her vitals, while still allowing her plenty of range of motion. With her red mejai aiming bracer fitted atop her right arm, she found it quite striking.

Wonder what Vir would say if he saw me in this. Or in my handmaiden outfit. Would he think me pretty in that dress, I wonder?

Maiya retrieved her shining steel half helm along with her blood rods and took her place in line to fight. The first phase of her combat training involved sparring with Imperial knight instructors. The second phase would have her travel to the Kin’jal Three garrison on the Ash Boundary to fight against Ash Beasts that make it past the wall… but she was thankfully a long way away from that. She dreaded that day.

Standing in line, she observed the other handmaidens’ fights. Their forms varied, but most were unrefined and crude, showing little prior training.

It’s no wonder. Who’d expect handmaidens to train with knights in combat?

Some handmaidens were mejai, but most only had Lesser affinities, restricting the usefulness of their magic in combat. And none of them wove their magic into their combat arts like she did. It was a point of pride for her. One of the few things she outstripped all of her peers at.

She stepped into her ring. It was a circular space a few dozen paces in diameter, covered in dirt. Across from her was a knight instructor, clad in brigandine and plate, including pauldrons, gauntlets, and greaves. Exemplifying the Kin’jali standard, he wielded a greatsword.

Kin’jal combat style varied drastically from Riyan’s Kalari arts. Kalari flowed like water and heavily emphasized mobility. Somersaults, jumps, and even flips were common. It worked well, but if Maiya was honest, it was flashy. Exactly the type of art that suited Vir.

Kin’jal’s Balarian Arts were almost the exact opposite. It favored stability and relied on armor and shields to create soldiers whose primary strength was their durability and discipline. It was far more suitable for soldiers in an army, while Kalari was better for individuals fighting on their own.

“Rods, please,” her mustached instructor said, extending one palm out. Sweat trickled down his tanned face, but if the man was tired from his earlier battles, his movements certainly didn’t show it. His other arm held his full plate helm, tucked under his armpit.

Maiya carefully handed her glass blood rods over. This was an entirely new concept to her. What Tanya had said was true—most mejai used their powers to support squads of warriors in an army. While they were also expected to fight alongside their comrades, very few fought alone.

Her instructor slotted her blood rods into empty cuirasses arranged nearby.

Mejai were the treasure and lynchpin of a squad, and often took the role of commanders and squad leaders, and it was all thanks to blood rods. Sure, they could launch flashy spells, but their real utility lay in their ability to enhance their allies’ weapons and armor with magic.

Tanya had always said as such, but after seeing this strategy in action, she’d been overwhelmed. An A Grade Blizzard might end an entire company of regular soldiers, but a mejai-enhanced squad armed with the proper orbs would be essentially invincible against even that devastating attack.

Besides a slew of protection orbs against each elemental affinity, Sharpen Edge, Enhance Durability, Enhance Edge Retention, Piercing Protection, Slashing Protection, Blunt Force Protection were all orbs that magnified the efficacy of a squad. At C grade, they enhanced the lethality of a warrior by half. At B grade, they tripled it, and A grade support orbs more than quintupled a squad’s deadliness.

Mejai were called force multipliers for a reason.

Yet all of this would be impossible, normally. Mejai had to hold orbs to do magic. Thanks to Vir, Maiya understood it was because mejai sucked blood out of their hands to create a ‘suction’ effect that pulled prana of that affinity in from the air. Any prana passing through an orb would be trapped, thereby charging the spell.

Mejai could not cast magic unless the orb was in contact with their body—or more specifically—their blood.

Rods filled with a mejai’s blood acted as conduits. A mejai’s blood was their blood, regardless of where it lived. Utility orbs attached to the rod kept the blood inside alive, and through this, a mejai could remotely project her affinities at a distance.

As Maiya had found, the farther apart she was from her blood rods, the harder it was to control the prana inside the rod. Ten paces was ideal, but higher-ranking mejai could go up to fifty.

Her dueling partner returned to the ring and bowed, then donned his helmet. Maiya bowed in return, wearing her own half helm that covered her skull and neck. While it left her face exposed, it offered her far greater visibility and neck mobility. She’d chosen this option over a full helm without hesitation.

“Usual rules. One minute round. You win if you last the round without stepping outside the ring or yielding. You lose if your armor orbs lose power,” the mustached knight announced.

Maiya nodded. All the handmaidens kept track of their win/loss record on a leaderboard. Right now, Maiya was the leader, and she intended to keep it that way.

For this round, she’d need to keep the Blunt Force Protection orbs in each of the five cuirasses active at all times while other knights took turns attacking them with mauls and war hammers.

She’d been surprised to learn that combat support orbs were compatible with all affinities, though certain affinities synergized well with certain effects. For example, Ice was particularly effective at dealing with slashing attacks, while Wind was good for blunt force. Ice was poor at enhancing blunt force protection, though, which was why they’d chosen that to make things harder for her.

Maiya retrieved her dagger from its drop leg holster, spinning it with a flourish. She cracked her neck. “Let’s do this.”

“Not that I care, but I hardly think your head handmaiden over there would appreciate such uncouth words from your mouth?”

Maiya’s eyes went wide as she flashed a look at the old crone, who watched her like a hawk. She could feel the woman docking points off her performance for speaking like that.

The proctor took advantage of her surprise to make his first move. He stepped in, planted himself, and swung his greatsword horizontally, forcing Maiya to duck and somersault away.

The head handmaiden didn’t approve of her Kalari arts, but Maiya didn’t care. She’d found a way to synergize the strengths of both Balarian and Kalari arts, flowing from a Kalari roll to a Kin’jal dagger thrust with her dagger.

The basic Kin’jal form didn’t take her long to learn. After having picked up one set of arts, the second came easier to her as she applied lessons learned from Riyan.

The knight twisted his sword, nullifying Maiya’s strike. Fundamentally, daggers were awful weapons against greatswords, but she wasn’t allowed to use anything else. Daggers could be concealed under a dress. A greatsword could not.

It didn’t matter. Maiya had her magic.

Icicle shot forth, slamming into the knight’s armor, pushing him back. Maiya used the opening to close the distance. While the greatsword had far greater reach, once she was right up against him, his range of options were restricted.

But before she could plunge the dagger into the knight’s neck, her connection to the cuirasses along the wall quivered, forcing her to split her concentration to recharge the cuirass orbs.

The knight slammed a palm into her chest the moment she hesitated, sending her tumbling back.

She allowed her momentum to carry her into a reverse somersault, springing back up with another Icicle. The knight dodged, bringing his greatsword down for a thrust.

Maiya couldn’t avoid the attack, and her Icicle hadn’t recharged. But that didn’t mean she was out of options.

She stomped her heel, deploying a hidden blade out of the front of her boot as she swung her leg at his neck.

Ping!

“Time!” her opponent said, halting his strike just inches away from her shoulder. But it wasn’t his win; Maiya’s bladed boot was right up against his neck.

“Your victory, Maiya. Well done, indeed,” he said, sheathing his sword and extending his arm.

Maiya removed her helm, wiping beats of sweat from her matted hair before grasping his forearm with her other hand. “Thanks!” she said with a grin. “That was fun. I like these spars.”

The knight chuckled. “Most handmaidens find this training quite grueling. I am pleased that you’re enjoying it. Combat is the purest expression of one’s self, after all.”

“Uh, huh,” Maiya agreed. She’d initially found these battle maniacs’ devotion to combat creepy. These people trained in the arts of war from the moment they could walk, but now that she was here training with them, she was starting to understand. Fighting was fun.

Especially when you were winning. Especially when you completely overmatched the enemy and decimated them with a hailstorm of magic and blade—Maiya shook off those thoughts. She was becoming a bit too much like them.

She felt sorry for the poor fools who ever went to war with them. The fact that the Altani military wiped the floor with them really drove home just how powerful a country full of mejai could be.

For Maiya, the hardest part of these duels was maintaining enough battlefield awareness to keep her blood rods powered while also fighting herself, but she’d been developing an intuition for how long orbs generally lasted. These fights had been growing easier.

Finally, maybe I can take things easy from now on, she thought. She could use a vacation… And she missed Vir. She missed sparring against him, though she usually lost. Would she lose now, though? She had to wonder.

But there was something else, too. A pain in her chest whenever she thought of him. She’d felt nothing like it before. As if a part of her was missing, a void that only Vir’s presence could fill. She wondered what it was. Soon, she could finally start searching for him. The thought filled her with warmth.

“Good.”

Maiya spun around to find the head handmaiden walking up to her.

“You are ready to fight Ash Beasts. From tomorrow on, you will transfer to the Kin’jal Three Garrison on the Ash Boundary.”

No! Maiya’s face lost all of its color. Just like that, all her hopes of searching for Vir went out the window. Nonono!

“I—I’m afraid I’m not ready, madam.”

“You are,” came her curt reply. Maiya could swear she saw an evil glint in the old hag’s eye.

Vir… I miss you.