Morningstar

Chapter Chapter XII: Spears to the Heart



“We are going outside today,” Icarus says. “The trial is in three days, and even though I think that I have trained you well on these past three days, I think that we should focus on the physical part today.”

“Trained us well?” Tilray asks. She is tired of him. He has not done anything. “I have only played chess!”

“I was referring to all of you as a team,” Icarus says.

“I agree with Tilray,” Shin says. “You’ve had trained with some of us, but not with all. That is called preference.”

“Call it what you want,” Icarus says. He does not care what they have to say. That irritates Tilray even more. “If I may continue talking, we are going outside.” He places the apple on the desk and heads outside. He then enters with a brown bag that has spears coming out from it. “We’ll be using spears.”

“That’s not training for any of us,” Phoenix says.

“Yeah,” Killam answers. “It might be training for that kid,” he points at Lexan, “since he uses a spear, but we do not. How are we supposed to get better if we are not using our weapons?”

“You won’t always have your weapons,” Icarus says. “There might be a trial where they choose your weapon for you. You need to be prepared for everything.”

“Would Morning really force us to work with something new at the trials?” Hakea asks.

“The trials are created by all of the Times, not only Morning,” Icarus says. “And if Night forced me to participate at the assassin’s trial after shattering my leg the previous night, anything is possible.”

“You never told us how you survived the trial,” Lexan says.

“And probably never will,” Icarus says. “Out of the room. Now. Pick your spear on your way out.”

Tilray is not the first to stand up and give in. The first one to do is Agrion. After him, the rest start standing up. She gives in eventually, before Phoenix does. She grabs a spear from the bag and leaves the room without looking at Icarus. She follows everyone outside of the room and towards the forest.

“Using a spear is not as easy as everyone might think,” Icarus says, once everyone is at the forest. “You cannot swing it like a sword because the blade is at the top.”

“We know how to use a spear,” Tilray says. “Even a ten years old kid knows how.”

“Really?” Icarus asks. “Come on. Throw your spear at me.”

Tilray moves away from the group with her spear. Throwing a spear is not as easy as it sounds. If you don’t throw it directly without movement, it might wobble and end up landing elsewhere. But she knows how to use one. She plants her feet on the ground as hard as she can, separating them. Then she separates her arm and with her whole body, she launches the spear.

It flies swiftly, how a projectile must do. Icarus watches as the spear approaches. Then, he grabs the spear and twirls. He lets go of the spear, letting it fly back. Tilray jumps to the side to evade the spear. She knows what he did. He used the momentum of the spear to redirect it. He did not apply any more force.

“Does any one of you know how to do that?” Icarus asks. No one answers. “Perfect. We will start by that. Take a partner, separate from the rest and begin practice.” Tilray pulls her spear out from the ground. “Tilray, a second.”

“What do you want?” she asks.

“Can you repeat the way that you stood when you threw the spear?” he asks.

Tilray groans as she stands sideway. She separates her legs again, almost burying them into the ground. She separated her arms, holding the spear with her right hand that it is behind her.

“Stop,” he tells her before she throws the spear. “Don’t move.” He walks around her, scanning her. “You throw the spear with your whole body.”

“That’s how you are supposed to throw it,” she says. Does he know anything?

“I know, but you place your feet on the ground in such a way that it makes the whole force of the throw come from them,” he says. “Why?”

“Because how would I throw the spear if my feet are together?” she asks. “It is obvious that you need to be anchored to the ground before throwing it.”

Icarus continues to look at her feet. He nods. “It looks like I have something to teach you alone after all. Go. Practice what I told you to.”

***

Zanna is throwing the spear at Phoenix, who tries to catch it in the air but fails. When she throws it back, Zanna catches it but stops it in the air instead of throwing it back. How did Icarus manage to twirl with the spear? He sometimes wonders Zanna.

“So,” Phoenix says, “you have been spending so much time with Wither.”

“Icarus wants me to play chess with him,” she says as she throws the spear back.

Phoenix does not manage to catch it. “And? Tell me something about him.”

“Oh, he is cool, I guess,” Zanna says. “He is not much of a conversationist but he is smart.”

“As smart as you?” Phoenix asks.

“He might be,” she says.

“And what else?” Phoenix asks as Zanna grabs the spear again.

“There is nothing going on,” Zanna says. “We don’t talk outside of practice, but he might be someone interesting to be friends with.” She throws the spear. “What about Icarus?”

Phoenix is twirling the spear when she hears Zanna ask and she drops it. “He is an ass,” she says as she moves to pick the spear.

“But do you like him? Does he like you?” Zanna asks.

“Does it matter?” Phoenix says. She throws the spear with such fury that it goes over Zanna. “Nothing is going to happen. It is over. It did not even start.”

“Why?” Zanna asks as she picks the spear.

“For someone who hardly talks, you are asking a lot of questions,” Phoenix says.

Zanna shrugs. “Who knows if I will have a shot at love. At least I can live through you.”

“Tragic,” Phoenix says. She manages to catch the spear. She twirls and lets the spear go. It does not fly directly towards Zanna. “Because he has kissed me, his body has let me know that he wants me, but he does not say it. He denies it.”

“Ah,” Zanna says. “He is like me. He does not like talking about feelings.”

“No,” she says. “He is more complicated.”

Icarus stands next to Zanna as she picks the spear. “You are doing great, Zanna, but when the spear is arriving try grabbing it by the middle. That way it will give you enough space to twirl.” Zanna nods.

“What about me?” Phoenix asks.

“Just keep trying,” he says.

“Is that all?” she asks. “Aren’t you going to suggest something more? Aren’t you going to be the mentor that you must be?”

“All right,” he says. “Lexan! Switch places with Zanna. Phoenix needs a lot of help on her technique and you are the best at wielding a spear.”

Zanna sees Phoenix ready to blow up, but she leaves before Phoenix does. She passes Lexan and finds herself with Lexan’s partner, which she should have known that it is Wither.

“Hello,” he says. “It seems that we end up together no matter what.”

“I don’t mind,” she says. “You are fun to be around.”

“Me?” he asks. He looks really surprised. Has no one ever told him that before? He scratches his black hair with his free hand as he looks down. He is embarrassed.

“Of course,” she answers.

“Um, well…” His black eyes look at her before backing down quickly. “You are easy to talk to.” He looks at the spear in his hand, realizing what they are supposed to be doing. “Um… Here I come,” he says before he throws it.

***

“Do you think that there is something going on?” Xeon asks Hakea. He has been taking glances at Zanna. He was all right when she was with Phoenix. He even wished that they were talking about him, but now she is with Wither. He is shyer than Xeon. How come he is now making Zanna giggle?

“No, I don’t think so,” Hakea says. He throws the spear; which Xeon does not even try to catch it. “You could talk to her.”

“No, no,” he says. He fetches for the spear. “I wouldn’t know what to say.”

“After all of these years, you don’t know?” Hakea says. “How about a simple hello?” He looks at Wither. “Hey, Wither! Would you like to change partners?”

Wither stops from throwing the spear. His smile disappears quickly. He does not look at Hakea when he speaks. “I-I rather not…”

“What did you say?” Hakea asks, wanting him to reconsider.

“We are fine, Hakea,” Zanna answers. She turns to Wither again. “Throw the spear.”

Hakea turns to Xeon. “Well, I tried.”

Xeon does not say anything. He adds all of the fury to his hand and throws the spear to Hakea. It almost hits him. No matter how hard he tries, no matter how many times Hakea helps him, Zanna never pays attention to him. She does not even look at him. It makes him wonder: Does she even knows his name?

***

Slier receives the spear from East. She sees it fly towards her. She has become a master of close-range weapons while East has become a master of long-range weapons. This trick should not be something difficult for her. She plants her feet just how she saw Icarus do it. Her right foot is not supposed to move from the spot; it is only supposed to turn around in the same place.

When the spear arrives, she grabs it. She makes her turn and lets the spear go. It flies back towards East, who grabs it in the air. He isn’t able to turn around fast enough. He stops with the spear in his hands.

“Excellent, Slier,” Icarus says, appearing beside her. “It is no wonder the other mentors were fighting to get you and East on their team.”

“They did?” Slier asks.

Icarus nods. “They thought that it was not fair that I chose both of you. I did not care. Morningstar is not a fair place.”

“How come you were able to choose both of us?” East asks. He has walked towards them. “If everyone was fighting for us, chances are that we would have ended up in different teams.”

“The perks of being the assassin on the first trial is that I am allowed to choose my team first,” Icarus says. He then does something that catches Slier off guard. He launches towards her.

Slier moves back, trying to see what is going on. He has a dagger in his hand. He slashes the dagger, but Slier evades it. He continues slashing the same dagger, not taking a single moment to breathe. He is testing her.

She hits his arm, stopping the dagger from reaching her. She tries to grab his wrist to twist it and make him drop the dagger, but he is faster. His leg is already high, ready to kick her on the face. She let his arm go and lowers herself. As she does, she extends her leg and turn, hoping to kick his only leg on the ground.

He jumps, turning his legs on the air. She gazes at how easily he moves on the air as if he has complete control of his body. She stands up, but she sees him moving his leg to kick her. She feels the kick on her right side of her face a little too late. She falls.

East rushes towards her, but she stands up on her own. She pushes his hand away. “I should have seen that coming,” she grunts.

“Don’t be hard on yourself,” Icarus says. “You stood your ground.”

“Yeah, for a few seconds only,” Slier says. She should have lasted more. She should have at least landed one hit at him.

“Which is better than I expected,” Icarus says. “You forget that I’ve had more years of practice. In a few years, I am sure that you can win against me.”

“I must get better,” she says. “I must get better now. The second trial is three days from today. We won’t win anything if I don’t become stronger.”

“Patience, Slier,” Icarus says. “You and East are both ready for this trial. We’ll prepare for the third soon enough.”

Slier watches Icarus leave. “I don’t know Icarus at all,” East says, “but he sounded confident that we will pass the second trial.”

“I hope so,” she whispers.

***

“It does not matter what we do, we might never win with him,” Shin says as he walks with Killam, Tilray, Norm, and Ilya to the lunchroom.

“You are pretty useless too,” Rin says as she walks past by with Phoenix and Zanna.

“Fuck off!” Tilray yells at them.

“I don’t think so,” Norm says. “I think that he might be doing a good job.”

“No, he isn’t,” Shin answers. “I heard from Erika that Quin is making them run eight miles every morning before practice. Thiele told me that Demetrio made him pull piles of cinderblocks. Even Luc was thrown blindfolded and with his arms tied by his mentor, Leen, at the middle of the lake and he had to find the way to the coast.”

“That sounds like torture, not like training,” Ilya whispers.

“Why don’t you give an opportunity to Icarus?” Norm asks.

“Have you forgotten?” Tilray says as she stops on her tracks. “He killed Urho!”

“He killed a hundred people, Tilray,” Norm says. “Yes, I am sad that Urho is gone, and I hate that he killed him, but he did not have much of a choice.”

“He could have chosen to not be the assassin on the trial,” she says and resumes her walking.

“Then another assassin would have come, and who knows? Maybe we would all be dead,” Norm says.

“Or maybe we would have killed the other assassin,” Killam suggests.

“That’s unrealistic,” Norm says. “No one at Morningstar has killed the assassin before.”

Shin decides to ignore Norm. He likes to argue the other person’s point of view. He hardly supports their point of view. Shin is not the only one to ignore Norm, no one else continues talking about the subject.

As they make their way to the lunchroom, Shin spots Ollie. “Be right back,” he tells them.

He makes his way towards Ollie, who is standing with Jas and Fill. When they see Shin approaching, they chuckle and walk away, leaving Ollie behind. Shin has never liked Jas and Fill. They are douchebags, but they are also Ollie’s best friends. He wished that Icarus would have killed them on the trial, but that would have made Ollie sad, and he did not want that.

“Hey,” he says. Ollie is a small woman, almost Ilya’s size, who is the smallest of their group apart from Norm. She has a dark skin and light blue eyes. She is beautiful, more beautiful than anything that Shin has seen. Shin leans in to kiss her, but she turns her head away gently. “What’s wrong?”

“We should break up,” she says.

“What?”

“We should break up,” she repeats.

“What-What did I do wrong?” Shin asks. They have been together for two years now. They have had their ups and downs but Shin always thought that they were going to move on from that.

“You did not protect me on the first trial,” Ollie says.

“You said that you wanted to be apart from me!” Shin says. “You wanted to face the trial on your own with Fill and Jas. You said that you didn’t want me to drag you down.”

“Oh, come on Shin,” she says. “I said because you did not want to leave your friends on the trial. You wanted to be with them.”

“Of course, I wanted.” Shin finds himself yelling, just like her. “They are my friends! But we could have all been together on the trial.”

“Sure,” she says sarcastically. “Your friends will always come before me.” She looks at her nails. “It is better if we break up. The trials are coming up and if something happens to us, it is better if we are not together.”

“Ah, I see,” he says. “You are scared of facing whatever happens to me.”

“That is not what I said,” she says. “Don’t place words in my mouth.”

“Then talk to me,” he says. “Tell me the real reason.”

“I don’t need to explain myself to you,” she says and turns to walk away.

“Ollie,” he calls.

“Bye, Shin,” she says as she walks towards where Fill and Jas are standing. When she arrives, they continue walking with her. Jas turns his head to look at Shin. He winks, pulls his tongue out and then grabs Ollie’s bottom. That is enough for Shin to know Ollie’s real reason.


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