I ducked under the elbow and rolled back to give myself some breathing room. Unfortunately, that gave her breathing room, too, and she unleashed a side kick into my midsection, causing me to land on my back in a sprawl worthy of Peaches. I rolled to the side and back into fighting stance.
How was she seeing me?
“At this point you’re wondering how I’m seeing you,” she said, stalking me around the circle. “Yes?”
“The thought did cross my mind.”
“It’s actually quite easy,” Jen answered. “Would you like me to share?”
“There are many things I’d like at this moment,” I said, parrying a thrust, avoiding a feint, and rotating around another slash. “Doesn’t mean I’ll get them.”
“It’s…simple…really,” she said with a grunt as we locked blades again. She stepped inside my guard, bent her knees, rotated her body, and flipped me over her hip and into the ground—hard. “I just close my eyes so that I can see better.”
Stars danced across my vision. The body slam had forced the air out of my lungs as I crashed into the ground at her feet. I had no time to adjust, and rolled before Jen was plunging the knife downward, into the ground, where my chest had been a moment earlier.
“Just close your eyes to see better?” I asked, taking short gasps. “Answered just like a mage.”
Jen laughed, then grew serious.
“If you don’t figure it out, you’re going to die here, Simon. I’m sorry.”
“Not dead yet,” I said, backing up. “Where are your shoes again?”
No answer—which, for me, was an excellent answer. Monty’s words came back to me: Use your observational skills, and break that connection. That is the only way you get through this—alive.
“You never mentioned what kind of mage you were,” I said, working out the trajectory of using the walls for my next attack and feint. “See, little Cece is an ice mage. Makes sense, considering she’s a Jotnar. Monty, I’ve seen use fire, water, and air.”
I wasn’t going to mention the blood magic. I figured that would make Monty look bad, and he didn’t need any more negative press.
“You forgot the blood magic,” Jen said, sliding in. “I expected no less from a shieldbearer.”
“Dammit,” I said under my breath. “How did you know?”
“It taints him,” Jen said. “Like you, he will have to confront that aspect of who he is eventually. It is inevitable.”
“He’s not a dark mage.”
“I never said he was.”
“This whole thing with Toson, the Earth’s Breath, and your being from the Red Mountain only leads in one direction for an elemental mage. You use the earth in some way.”
“Well done,” Jen said. “That was much sooner than I expected. Not that it will save you.”
“This whole circle is a Kobayashi Maru, isn’t it? There’s no way for me to win.”
“You have to die, yes,” Jen answered, coming at me. “I’m glad you’ve made peace with your demise.”
“Well, shit.”
I turned and ran at the wall. She was a few feet behind me and closing. I managed three steps up the wall and pushed off, reversing direction. The moment I was airborne she froze, searching for me.
I buried my blade in her side before I landed next to her. Her reaction was immediate. She grabbed my wrist, crushing it, and trapped me next to her. She slid, planting a foot behind her and rotated her entire body into the perfect hammer throw—with me playing the part of the hammer. I flew across the circle at what felt like terminal velocity and crashed into the far wall. It was time for the feint.
I lay perfectly still and focused on my breathing. This was one of the early exercises Master Yat had beat into me. Control the breath. Control the fight.
His words rushed back even as I made myself one with the ground, the energy of the circle, the vibrations in the air. I emptied my mind and became no thing and everything: Simon, mushin no shin—the mind without mind—is the state you must achieve when you fight. You must be constantly flowing without stopping anywhere. The moment you stop this flow…you will meet Death.
It was the hardest paradox for me to understand…until now. By stilling myself, it allowed me to connect to the flow of everything around me. For a few brief moments, I altered my frequency and camouflaged my energy signature to such a degree that I disappeared—it also helped that I was near unconsciousness from being flung into the wall. I had, for all intents and purposes, died.
Jen approached, crouching down next to me. She lay her kamikira near my head, placed a hand on her wound to stop the bleeding, and the other on my chest. I felt the energy at the edge of the circle drop. To her credit, her reaction time was phenomenally fast—just not fast enough.
I reached up and hooked a hand behind her neck while flinging a leg around her waist, causing her to pitch forward. She outstretched an arm, stopping herself, reached to the side for her blade, but was too late. I held it to her neck.
“Well done,” Jen said as Ezra, Monty, and Peaches approached the circle. “You have passed the examination.”
I let her go, fell back, and laid in the grass, admiring the cloudless azure sky.
“That sucked. No offense.”
“What have you discovered about yourself today?”
I sat up slowly. The warm flush of healing I was accustomed to was missing, replaced with a dull ache all over my body.
“After much self-evaluation, I’ve realized that deep down, I really, truly, dislike examinations.”
She chuckled and then grew semi-serious.
“Well said,” she answered. “I, too, dislike them.”
“Really? That’s not what was coming across as you were pounding me all over the circle. It seemed like you were enjoying yourself.”
“Well, a little,” she
