A/N Has anyone else heard about "The Hills have spies" yet? Mag and Amilie's son is an Animal Mindspeaking spy…Hm. An Animal Mindspeaker as a spy. Novel concept.

Looking forward to it!

Chapter 10

The few candlemarks they had managed to eke out fled quickly and maddeningly unproductively. Cydris managed to read a few of the files, but had no insights to add. In the end, they simply added her notes to the stack and agreed to work on it as time permitted.

As winter settled it's white cloak around the city, Kyminn began to see a respite. The rehabilitated horses were gradually dispersed and the Guard required less and less of his time. Even now, with winter in full force, goods, men and animals were beginning to move from the city towards the south.

Freed of the need to make the long treks several days a sennight, Kyminn willingly took on other tasks. He took on two groups of senior Trainees, adding an Ethics seminar and a class on Rehabilitation to his schedule. At Delassia's request, he began to work with her on expanding her writings on the healing of Companions. Unsurprisingly, the Heralds and Companions he consulted found him rather more congenial than the brilliant but irascible Senior Healer.

Also benefitting from Kyminn's extra time was Renya. The Dean had decided that she would be moved to full time studies by spring, but in the meanwhile, there were still large blocks of her time unclaimed. Kyminn's suggestion that she begin equitation lessons was enthusiastically accepted. His other, rather more serious, suggestion that she begin self-defense classes, was much less welcome.

As a Healer Trainee, weapons work was by no means mandatory, and although Kyminn was her guardian, he had no grounds to insist. It wasn't that she had any fundamental opposition to the idea of using weapons. She was actually fairly indifferent in that regard. No, her reluctance hinged on two different points.

The first of these was that she had no interest in the activity. The idea of spending several candlemarks a sennight getting hot, sweaty, and sore held minimal appeal, and like most 10 year olds, she saw absolutely no reason to do something so unpleasant if she didn't have to.

The second of these was more understandable, although Kyminn wasn't sure if her objection to the Karsite Weapons-Second was entirely due to that worthy's heritage or if it was simply an excuse she'd attached in order to avoid the whole task. Given what the Tedrels had done to her family, he had no choice but to take her objection at face value and accept that she may well have qualms about working with anyone from Karse.

The resulting discussions took nearly a fortnight to resolve and resulted in their first significant fight. Whether it was multiple argumenta or one that simply lasted for a fortnight - that part he never did figure out. It was the first time in years that he'd dealt with a child's temper and his first real test in the role of quasi-parent. He had a sudden wish to apologize to his own parents for the sins of his younger self.

"Ren…" Kyminn grabbed his temper with both hands and tried to throttle it. Matching her volume would NOT help the situation.

"Ren," he tried again. "This is something that you need to do."

"I don't! Healers and Empaths don't have to do weapons training! The Dean says so!" She glared at him, daring to challenge the Dean's authority.

"The Collegium", he emphasised the word, "doesn't require Healer Trainees to take weapons training. It does, however, strongly encourage it. In addition," he raised his voice to drown out the shout he saw her about to unleash, "the Dean agrees with me that you should take the self-defense training."

"But whyyyyy….?!" It was a drawn out, petulant wail. "I don't want to!"

Kyminn hesitated. Both he and the Dean agreed that they had no idea why someone had tried to interfere with Renya's training. They were still unsure whether she had been a target of opportunity or if she had a dedicated foe. They weren't even sure if she was still at risk. Should he tell her that both he and the Dean wanted her to be able to defend herself just in case she had a singular, committed enemy out there somewhere? Would it seem prudent or leave her living a life where she jumped at shadows?

"It's a skill that may come in useful," he temporized. "You know that Healers often end up working far from help and unfortunately, not everyone respects our uniform. It's a skill that could save your life some day." And dear gods, how he hoped that such an eventuality was years yet in the future!

"Could. Some day," she pounced on the qualifiers and brandished his words like trophies. "I might not. And I could change my mind and do it next year. Or the year after."

"But you have the time now. It's too cold for us to walk in the gardens and this is something we could do together." He wriggled his cane and added "I haven't done any training since the accident and even then, I was too busy to get in much practice. I've got a lot to relearn."

"You train. I'll watch. But I don't want to do it and I don't have to do it. So I'm not going to." The stubborn set of her chin and her hunched shoulders would have been comical if the whole thing wasn't so infuriating.

"I will train. And you will participate." His glare matched hers.

"Or what? You can't make me!"

He shrugged. "Alright."

She had her mouth open to retort and instead closed it, giving him a wary look. "What?"

He shrugged again. "I said alright. You don't have to do anything that the Collegium doesn't require as part of your studies."

"So…? What….?"

"Well, if you're not going to do things that are not required, then that includes your equitation lessons." It was calm.

"You...you...wouldn't…" her jaw worked but no other words came out as her indignation overtook her speech.

"I can and I will." Kyminn leaned forward and his voice was firm. "Renya, I am doing my best to help you build the best life for yourself that you possibly can. That means giving the tools and skills you need to be successful. And part of that includes riding and self defense. If you won't take the one, you can't have the other."

As he expected she would, she burst into tears. "That's not fair!"

"I expect that it seems that way to you. And maybe, in same ways, you're right. But I believe that it's absolutely necessary. I talked this over with the Dean. He agrees that I can have a lot of input into the open parts of your schedule and this is what we came up with. Renya...there are very good reasons that Healers are not required to take weapons training. A lot of it has to do with reasons of mental health, but it includes ethics as well. Those reasons are burdens I'm not willing to put on your shoulders just yet. Those concerns do not apply to you and, under other circumstances, you would be enrolled in the defense classes as part of your training. Maybe not weapons work, but the defense classes - for exercise if nothing else.

"However, we are at war and no one knows what the future holds. So I'm going to do my best to make sure you are as best prepared as possible. For anything."

"It's still not fair!" The frustrated sobs had diminished and he hoped her fundamental good sense was starting to reassert itself.

"Life is not fair. Life is...life. We do our best and sometimes it's hard." A resigned shrug. "There's absolutely nothing I can say or do to make that any less true."

"But what about the Weapon's Second? The Karsite? Will I have to take lessons from him?" It was small.

"The Weapons-Second, Herald Alberich", the tone was a warning, "is just that - a Herald. Companions cannot Choose wrongly. This man, this Herald - he's not your enemy. He could not be a Herald if he were. He is simply a Herald who was born far away from here, in a different place. He's not Tedrel, he's not someone who makes war on us. Just a Herald."

"I...the idea frightens me…" uncertain words from her tear-streaked cheeks.

"Renya, the idea of getting in a serious fight or a battle should frighten you. It should never be something you want, it should just be something you learn to handle as safely as possible. You don't go sticking your hand in a fire - you learn to control it and use it as a tool. This is the same idea."

"And if I do this I get to keep riding?" A hand scrubbed her wet cheeks.

He nodded. "Yes. Let's give it six moons and then we'll see. There will still be a lot to learn on both fronts, but at least we'll have a good idea of where to go next."

"I still don't think you're being fair," a final, petulant mutter.

"Fair enough. I'll see you tomorrow after lunch at the salle. Wear an old uniform, you'll be getting dirty."