Track 13: One for One

The final week of February rolled in with an eerie whisper and an expected and also fulfilled promise of pain. It had been two days since my talk with Xander, and I had kept to my word with my best efforts since, hovering near Camilla and Lorraine as much as I could while earning the ire of both in the process; Camilla for her part scorned my presence and avoided me as much as she humanly could, while Lorraine didn't really talk to me; I didn't really "spend" time with her as much as I brought my Tomes to her room (she had been moved back recently) and sat on a desk in the corner while furthering my own work; Lorraine didn't talk much to me, though I had actually seen her cracking a bit recently, or at that was my optimism speaking at the absolute least.

On another hand, Bernard began this week with sparring sessions among us after our usual laps around the field, some more stretches and finally the weapon exercises. We were assigned patners which would be changing members regularly. As of now we had changed partners a few times already, with the current match-ups having Leo paired with Bismarck, Azura with Gunther, Xander with Norbert, and finally Camilla with yours truly.

Great. Except not. The day was about to end, and I was pretty much completely done for.

These actual training matches among us had been a rather recent addition to our drills, and were meant to test our mettle amongst each other. Bernard and Gunther were by all means the most powerful combatants among us, but neither of them skimped nor relented, though they did their best to actually teach a bit rather than outright thrash us (they did thrash us regularly anyway). There's nothing better than applying your knowledge on the field, right?

Sidestep and stab. My attack is parried. Damn. Pull back immediately before a counter.

Camilla grunted irritably and hopped back as well, pointing her blade diagonally up from the hip in a standard guard, with both hands firmly holding the hilt of her dulled Bronze Sword and her legs perfectly arched. She didn't give me any respite, pulled her hands slightly to her left and charged again with a powerful horizontal slash, which I preemptively dodged with yet another retreating step combined with my own sword intercepting hers, but my sister didn't concede and followed up with a rising diagonal slash, which I was forced to deflect with my buckler rather ineffectively, with my fingers and wrist protesting at the impact; I didn't have time to object to the pain nor really a reason to, so instead I managed to score one good hit on Camilla's gut when inertia took ahold of her and gave me an opening. My sister bent over slightly to a side with gritted teeth.

"You little…!" She growled. "Stop skirting like a coward!"

I ignored her outrage and bashed with my shoulder before finally scoring yet another good hit on her sides, all while hiding the pain of my aching left hand under a mask of cold serenity… or as serene as I could between ragged breaths and silent whimpers. I was exhausted after 4 matches to the best of 3 on top of the drills. I had been matched against Leo, Bismarck and Gunther already, and thankfully it didn't seem like I would need to make a last stand against Norbert or Xander, thank fuck. Everything hurt, from the muscles to the hairtips, and the least said about my performance, the better.

"Did you really think I would just… stand there and take it…?" I retorted humorlessly. "You're too strong for me to take head-on… and you know it."

"Tch! Not only with magic, you also use the sword like a coward." She spat venomously as she gathered her bearings once more.

"If it works, it works..." I sighed tiredly, stretching and cracking the fingers of my left hand behind my buckler, which I point towards my sister to hide them.

"It's on!" She jumped back into the fray again.

I had to do train with Camilla like this. Her physical strength had been growing monstrously throughout the years, and I was pretty sure that in a pure physical contest, she could even give Xander and Norbert both a run for their money; however, even if she had such monstrous strength, she was still lacking in many areas, such as keeping her head cool in combat. But with me tired as I was, the playing field just stacked worse against me.

Camilla charges with a vertical cleave, which I sidestep to my right and try to counter in the gap, and I realize my mistake just an instant soon enough to avoid being slashed at the feint by awkwardly pulling my buckler towards my stomach. Insanely, the parry works yet again, and I have to make a mad dash to create distance, dash which Camilla doesn't let me make as she pursues me like a swooping bird of prey.

Though she really had the stamina to match anyone, there was so much she could do when her aim was all over the place. Xander was still peerless and undefeated by all of us siblings, Camilla being no exception; our eldest had an impregnable defense and the skill to overcome the gap in strength by meeting Camilla's charges head-on, disarming her at her own game each and every time, with the occasional improvisations doing no good. Then again, Xander was Xander, and I certainly wasn't Xander, so when it came to me, I had to play hit and run and always keep my toes about myself, because if she scored one single good hit it would be over, I have a lot of bruises to my name to prove that.

Occasions just like these.

My face met the ground after a rather nasty pang against my shin that made me stagger, which Camilla dialed together with a hit to my left bicep way above the buckler, followed with a kick to my ankle to finish opening me up, and one final thrust to the chest that took the air out of my lungs and made me collapse, all in one nasty combination. Bernard ordered her to stop beating my miserable self before she jumped in for the overkill, command she thankfully obeyed.

After having overcome the fear of getting hurt (something I still struggled on), it was a matter of leading the pace of the duel and make Camilla unknowingly follow along, one dangerous gamble to play towards every single time, which like right now, often ended in me taking severe damage from a single hit which then spiraled down into a flurry of additional pain (that rained down with a lot of interest). I'm sure she sprained my wrist, ring and pinky fingers at the very least with the slash I parried with my buckler with the earlier exchanges, but nothing got seemingly dislocated yet. The difference in a physical contest had become all the more apaprent recently, with Camilla already displaying her brutal disposition for battle, disposition I still hadn't been able to match nor hoped to replicate anytime soon. Camilla was by all means the most relentless of all of us and unmatched in that area.

If things go like this, she'll truly become some sort of beast at some point. I had to be truly smart to not get squashed by her, as even then she still beat me 7 out of 10 matches every time like just now, magical duels included.

Fucking Iago displaying those records to the four winds. Hate you too.

A maid came over to me with bandages on a tray, and after inspecting my left hand, she wordlessly snapped my fingers back in place with a swift movement. I don't even get the chance to grunt, because as soon as the twisting ended, she showered me with the soothing light of the Heal staff. Ouch.

The ground seemed awfully comfy right for a moment there…

It's actually a bit interesting knowing that Camilla and I have similar talents. The both of us practiced both physical and magical combat, with her showing a disposition for Axes and myself to Lances, though Bernard hadn't allowed me to truly embrace the "jack-of-all-trades" approach I wanted to take for myself as I was to follow my training regimen one step at a time, no shortcuts, so I couldn't feasibly wield both magic and a weapon at the same time at my level ( didn't really have the skill to keep track of both either), so it's safe to say I wouldn't be pulling a Robin anytime soon, and even then, Bernard had forbidden me from disregarding my sword training completely, because I must be ready to wield Siegfried at any point and all that jazz. The saving grace was that I actually had a little bit more magical firepower compared to my sister, while she had a much better physical condition, so in the end I was a better rounded fighter.

Note that being better rounded didn't necessarily mean a better fighter overall, hence me having a fistful of dirt in my mouth and a bruised ego at the moment. She'd been particularly relentless in these past few days, but since today she actually has the chance to retaliate, well…

Hello darkness, my old friend…

Today was also the very last day I'll wait for Xander's answer, and they've been absolutely soul crushing. For the first time since Victor's death, Xander's cold mask has been all I've seen him direct at me, and though he's been perfectly cordial, so far he's deflected every single attempt for us to talk about the situation, and I've been understandably frustrated about it, as you could imagine.

Being near Camilla and Lorraine while neither of them want me around at all has been understandably horrible as well, which resulted in the former's cranky going worse state and quite a lot of stress for the both of us. I've been terribly stubborn of not losing sight of either, so it's just been a bad time overall. Neither of them wants me around and I am going fully against those desires. Add that on top of exhaustion, overall stress and lack of sleep and you get one cranky Ignis.

"I want a rematch. Magic this time."

Camilla further reaffirmed her disdain.

"…Come again?"

She shot me quite the dangerous glare and the most indescribable of smiles I had seen from her yet, which served as a reminder me that she indeed was Alraune's daughter. She dusted her leather armor and brought her Grimoire out without waiting for anyone's approval, fingers itching to start blasting me off with the elements of nature. My sister was by all means not done yet and quite literally ready to rumble.

All to hurt me with extreme prejudice of course. Well… maybe extreme is exaggerated, but she absolutely did want to hurt me.

Bernard meanwhile contemplated the idea, his fingers twirling around his ridiculous moustache. I'm sure he spent more time on his moustache that he did grooming any other part of his person.

"Do you have any objections, Ignis?" He asked for my approval, quite surprisingly.

"…Come again, Master Bernard?" I produced a sound that was somewhere between a hurt whale and an agonizing housecat in return.

"Boy, I asked a simple question." Bernard shrugged humorlessly.

"I mean, I heard you loud and clear, but…" My eyes danced unsurely towards my sister. "Isn't the rematch the loser's-"

"What is it, big brother?" Camilla mocked me, calling the title with sarcasm and breaking the figurative dam. "Can't take the heat?"

Neither of us quite enunciated the following.

"This is for Xander and Lorraine, isn't it?"

"For that and much more."

I gulped. Fight or flight, it'll end being a shitfest either way.

"Nope." I denied. "Not doing this."

Bernard shot me a disapproving glare.

"Is that so?" He sighed rhetorically.

And I may have gotten away with it… if it wasn't for fucking Iago. With a furious glare, he stepped next to Bernard.

"You will accept the duel, Prince Ignis." He ordered. "After your shameful displays with the sword today, you have no right to deny your sister a magic combat."

"What the hell is that kind of logic?" I grunted irritably… and gulped immediately afterwards, for our magic teacher promised me an even worse pain with his eyes if I refused this.

Like a deer caught in headlights, I started trembling, looking to Bernard for support, who just gave me a disinterested side glance, then to Camilla, whose smile was growing too eerily similar to her mother's, and Iago's smug mutt face.

I weighed my options. A thrashing with interest from Camilla, or from Iago?

"Single chants only." I surrendered.

"That will be plenty." Camilla presented a perfectly clinical smile.

"If I may." Iago interjected before we went our own ways. "I will not allow any shameful displays from my teachings either, Prince Ignis. You know full well what I'm talking about."

"What!?" I protested. "Oh come on!"

"Break that vow and I promise you'll get your just desserts, Prince." Iago warned. "It's about time you took your training seriously."

"But I'm-!"

"Are you saying you can't take little old me without your trickery, big brother?" Camilla sing-sang. "You hurt me!"

What the actual fuck…

"Goddammit…" I muttered under my breath. "Fine, I'll do it the hard way."

Sweet Naga, what have I willingly walked into?

Iago smiled arrogantly and hurried us to get ready; for the most part was back to being insufferable these days, even more since live combat was added to the repertoire of activities, though to be fair he was shitty to everybody. Bernard meanwhile gave an exasperated sigh, for while he wasn't privy to all the details, knew us well enough to know that Camilla really wanted to vent a bit, and for better or worse, her way of destressing aligned with the promise of pouring me with a bit of abuse.

Just a bit, hopefully. Either our dear teacher martial thought I could take her on, exhausted as I was, was sadistic enough to let my miserable self be thrashed a bit more before the day ended, or he didn't care; probably all of those combined. Meanwhile our magic teacher maybe just wanted to kick me down a few notches for being such a complicated student.

I heaved back to a bench and picked my Grimoire out from my satchel. Nowadays the magic able children carried them with them at basically all times even when not training or studying, now even more than in the past (Iago was less tolerant on these matters nowadays), and though our recompilations were still subpar for true, live combat standards, the lowest grade spells had been studied well enough and allowed for training. Nohr is quite a savage country in some ways, after all. The single-chant spells wouldn't be lethal unless we really shot to kill, which I hoped Camilla was seriously not contemplating.

I took my buckler off and whimpered silently at the protest of my digits as I cautiously flexed them, then pulled my shoulder blades back, earning a crack that was not all that refreshing, and after taking a good deep breath, I braced myself for the last match.

For any advanced mage worth their salt, even more in our case since we were Royals, we had to prepare our own Grimoires and load with the spells and circles we had mastered, and their purpose was twofold. In their pages we would have to put the absolute best of our runework as well as condense the information we studied under Iago. While normal mages could pick up any Tome, having a personal tome is something that is more practical in the long run for dedicated mages, because having a connection to your spellwork increases their effectiveness, provided you spent the time and resources to make one (which we were facilitated, nepotism ahoy). Camilla, Leo, Bismarck, Lorraine and I had all been compiling our respective Grimoires for about 5 months now, with Camilla, Leo and me having the more extensive ones due to our age for virtue of being the eldest for Camilla and myself, and Leo for his talent and fervor. While a good two thirds of the pages were still blank, the ones that were good to go contained almost everything of the Fire line, with Leo already midway through Thunder and Camilla and I treading not far behind him. Yay for almost being able to cast electricity without self-inflicting nerve damage!

"Ember only, please." I pleaded.

"Spark." Camilla sing-sang. Aw crap.

Spark was the equivalent to Ember in the Thunder line, the weakest spell available there. Which admittedly I was already familiar with, but still…

Iago signaled for one of the maids overlooking the training grounds to activate the wards as Camilla and I made our way to the magic ring at the edge of the training field. It was just a small 18 by 15 meters long square of polished stone dotted with rods of the same material at the corners, and in each stone rod, no taller than a meter, stood a vibrant purple orb that would dispel any offensive magic from leaving the area. Ever since we started delving deeper into Thunder and Bernard officially added sparring to the curriculum, he had seen through that we had this training ready for use at any time, as he expected us to finish Thunder this year and start with Fimbulvetr by December, and there was no better way to test our efficacy than with practical application, the absolute madman.

Camilla hastily took for the left side of the stage while I did the same for the right, with both of us taking a small flight up the stairs of each edge, ending up in opposite sides; we stood in front of each, Tomes under our respective left arms and about the full length of the stage between us. Soon enough I felt the air of the area shift as the wards sealed this area.

"Ready when you are." Camilla said with a pleasant smile, hiding well any sign of exhaustion, if any. She raised her Grimoire up to elbow level and laid it horizontally, and it immediately opened on its own. Drawing upon the pages of the aforementioned spell, diminutive wisps of golden electricity came to life around her right hand while the ink also lit up with a soft glow of alternating emerald, red and gold. She pushed her right leg forward into the standard offensive stance.

I didn't get a chance to get ready.

"Spark!"

"Oh fu-!" A discharge of electric power twisted the space right in front of me, which I partially avoided by pulling back, a move that cost me dearly since I didn't really have space to fall back to, being that I was basically at the edge. "What the fuck, Camilla!?"

My answer was yet another discharge. "Spark!"

"That how you wanna play!?" I cried, willing my Grimoire to also open onto the first page featuring the Spark spell. As soon as I regained my footing, I pulled my right leg back into a defensive posture. "Spark!"

The air around Camilla twisted not too dissimilarly to what had happened in front of me before, and she also received a clean hit. She staggered, and I took my chance to cast again. The pages of my Grimoire flipped in response to my will.

"Ember!"

A small marble of fire came to life in my palm, and shot towards my sister when I extended that palm in her direction. The small flame hit again, and I took a moment to regain my footing. I had done well on the first volley, but knowing my sister…

"Tch! Spark!" She growled and promptly retaliated. I wasn't able to dodge completely, and my left shoulder cried in protest.

"Grk!" I grunted, and prepared my counterattack. "Ember!"

The minuscule flame was a lot weaker compared to what the standard issue Fire spell would produce, but still stung like a bitch. Magical energy ignited the air in my hand again and shot towards Camilla like a dart. She managed a last second dodge.

Ember was a lot faster than Spark, so a showdown involving it came down to reflexes. Back when we first began all of us got a lot of burns because we simply weren't fast enough, and as the training continued, it reinforced the belief that "Dodge, Deflect, Guard and Take it" is the best hierarchy in any form of combat, with the last one being the least desirable outcome.

In a case like this, in which Spark was also allowed, we needed to be careful with which spells we used at which times. Between Spark and Ember, the casting time was almost minuscule, but we had been taught to capitalize on every instant possible.

In the next window, I switched to Spark and fired as soon as possible. It didn't work. Camilla did see the pages turn and immediately took it as a sign to step to a side, avoiding the golden discharge with ease.

But I wasn't done just yet.

"Spark again!"

A copy of the spell came to life not too late after Camilla's hop and zipped with the same speed as its predecessor, scoring a clean hit on her chest. I did an internal double take.

"You disgraceful-!" Camilla cried indignantly. "You said single chants only!"

"It doesn't do anything!" I cried, and it was true… technically. Putting more words in the same spell would certainly alter the effects slightly, but in this particular case it didn't really amount to anything, as it was a placebo to basically cast the same spell faster, which would be the same as shouting 'Spark!' twice.

"Oh then, it's on!" Camilla grinned a savage smile.

"Don't you dare-!"

"Strike, Spark!"

Aw crap. I received a stronger discharge from that in full, as that single addition increased both the strength and speed of the spell itself, that though it would have meant nothing in live combat, at my age and current Resistance it was enough to both shake and hurt me a small but significant margin more compared to the minimized Spark spell.

I had to bite down the twitching in my hands to stop myself from dropping my book.

"If that's how you wanna play, be my fucking guest!" I growled irritably, switching to an offensive stance. "Kindle, Ember!"

A slightly faster fireball shot towards Camilla, who managed to avoid it in the nick of time with a deft jump to a side.

"Strike, Spark!" She repeated. I barely dodged.

"Ember!" I countered, but she dodged as well.

"Strike, Spark!" Camilla casted faster than I expected, and the spell struck me at the left bicep almost completely. I staggered at the hit, and managed to catch Camilla's neutral face out of the corner of my vision.

I fiercely shook my left arm and hand to regain control of them, then extended my right hand backwards slightly below my waist, and with an incomplete circular motion, I enunciated my next spell while ignoring my stinging skin and the warm leather. A small electric ball came to life and shot towards Camilla in an elongated arc rather than a straight line. "Arch, Spark!"

And I just knew I had earned myself Iago's punishment anyway even after coming this far without "breaking" my promise. To be fair though, that was a dirty move from my part as well as a questionable one regarding practicality.

I was a lot more liberal and experimental with my spellwork and Iago's greatest point of disdain for me, (which in the beginning almost gave him some aneurysms until I showed some promise), and though I still didn't know the full extent of how much I could tamper with the more complex incantations (and I was afraid of even trying this nonsense with the actual Fire spell), so far I had been able to produce some "modifiers" of my own for my spells, with the best developed one being the aforementioned 'Arch', though it still was a work in progress.

By adding Arch to the beginning of a single chant spell, namely Spark and Ember, I could slightly modify the trajectory of a spell into a curve, as if I were shooting a sling or hurling a ball rather than firing a gun while still not making the projectile completely obey gravity. It had no true potential on its own as it was, being that the spells I could cast with this modifier flew slower compared to a normal chant, but it served to catch my siblings off guard when I mixed it up among the standard spells, as with a bit of good aim I could hit unexpected places. Speaking bluntly though, it was just a cute parlor trick.

What's the difference between my personal modifier and the normal incantations? Every single spell carries a "structure" in its incantation, which when broken down by cutting words in places while still keeping some form of "sense" within the sentence would still allow the caster to activate the spell while weakening the effect somewhat.

Camilla demonstrated a bit of this.

"Strike my enemy, Spark!" Camilla growled the full incantation. As soon as I heard the words "'my enemy', I braced myself to dodge the fuck out of that.

I desperately jumped to my right, only feeling the air twist and a smell of charcoal reach my nostrils, managing to avoid being blasted by the full chant. I crossed my casting arm (the right one) towards my chest, and willed the magical power to bend to my will.

"Strike, Volt!"I caved in to the pressure and versed two chants. I managed to catch my sister by surprise with this. She received the electricity on her left side and staggered for a moment in which we both stopped casting and looked at each other like cowboys who had already drawn their revolvers.

"You went and did it." Camilla's gaze told me. "You went and freaking did it."

I mustered all my bravado. I didn't dare look at Iago outside of the ring.

"Bite me, sister."

And all hell broke loose.

"Spark!"

Hit.

"Burn!"

Avoided.

"Spark!"

Incomplete evasion.

"Seek, Volt!"

Another incomplete hit.

"Kindle, Ember!"

A full hit.

"Arch, Volt! Volt!"

"Ember! EMBER!"

"SEEK, VOLT!"

"KINDLE THE ROAD, EMBER!"

Fire and Lightning kept flying back and forth along with the most disgraceful of dances I had displayed recently. There was no lead in this duel, we darted around like agonizing grasshoppers around the stage, which was already getting charred with each unsuccessful hit, with the wards resonating and gleaming when the badly aimed spells hit them, preventing them from leaving the area.

I was too tired and barely made do, while Camilla tried to rear her anger back as to not commit a basic mistake, and while her job wasn't splendid, she kept enough restraint to keep her barrage consistent enough to not let me find footing.

Soon enough, I miraculously made a full evasion, though I knew I needed to change the status quo of this fight and knock her out as soon as possible, so I dodged completely to the right for once. I didn't have much stamina left, so it would have to end soon.

"Burn!" I fired another marble of fire towards, which she tanked head on by rushing towards me, damage be damned. My sister was well aware of my intentions, and decided to make a chicken game out of our respective Resistances.

I chickened out first.

"Spark!" Camilla roared, and I twisted my torso in an awkward diagonal angle at the last second, grazed by the discharge but still damaged by it.

"Burn!" I countered, hitting her in her in her left elbow, as she had used her arm to shield her torso.

"I hate your dumb words!" Camilla roared as I deliberately started running away from her, Grimoire still open and firing spells like a madman. "Face me rightly you coward!"

"No thank you! Burn!" I shrieked, managing to clear space. I wanted to change the status quo, but not like this!

There was no real difference between "Burn" and "Ember's" effect, as was the case with Spark and Volt. They were the same basic spells, but I further weakened both by actually changing the catalyst word. My reasoning? The number of syllables. Burn and Volt are just one syllable long while both Ember and Spark were two, and this minute difference meant the world for me who still skirted around the basics. If the standard, complete Fire spell was a 10 in power, A complete Ember was about a 3, a minimized one a 2, and "Burn" about a 1.5 give or take; truly a worthless spell for true combat. Thunder meanwhile would be like a 13 in comparison to Fire, with Spark about a 4, and "Volt" a 3, or at least that would be the case for the single chant spells.

After all, all basic spells have a "flight distance", or "impact time", in which the space between the target and the spell's framework would affect the time it would take for the spell to actually connect, which is why sniping with magic wasn't really possible with standard spells, though from what Leo's told me, there actually is long ranged magic, it's just obscure as hell. Wonder if there's something like a Bolting or Meteor Tome hidden under some forsaken library or hermit's study?

Ugh, no time to think about that. I managed to avoid one more Spark from Camilla once before I retaliated with an Ember of my own. I took advantage of the second dash I took, and by pulling my right arm to my left, I prepared an Ember to try and finish this. Do or die for once, I have to do it.

Iago despised me for butchering his teachings like that, as he told me that casting speed would only get me so far. I used magic like a toolbox. And he didn't like it. For him it was a sacred art, but for me it was a means to an end. I wonder if that was the mindset of an arrogant scholar who hadn't seen the battlefield.

I felt my hand heating up in response to my tome and will. Ember was really cost-effective in the sense that it was both easy and quick to cast at the cost of basically non-existent firepower. Any true mage that used it for live combat would be deemed either a fool or an arrogant asshole, but for us children, it would be plenty, and like any other tool, could be rightly dangerous if used correctly… or incorrectly.

"Kindle the road, Ember!" I growled as my right arm unfurled from below my left and towards Camilla, the marble of fire burning and ready to fly. I saw Camilla's face widening in a combination of surprise and frustration, as she quickly took a defensive posture.

Camilla stumbled and lost her balance, falling on her buttocks against the hard stone, Grimoire still open in her left and an electric sphere twisting erratically on her right. I rushed in towards her position.

"YIELD!" I didn't order so much as I cried frantically, pointing my hand towards my downed sister with an Ember primed. My heart was beating like if it had been put through a mixer, and that mixer thrown downhill, ready to burst at any moment.

Camilla's snarl didn't retreat, though I managed to decipher that something other than anger was now beginning to reflect in her face. It wasn't quite fear.

I struggled to keep my arm raised, and though I tried not to, it wobbled. I was sleepy, I was exhausted, mentally and physically, I was tired of a lot of things.

"YIELD!" I growled once more, as Camilla hadn't dispelled her Spark yet.

My vision swam, and I lost focus. Not now…!

My right shin soon protested, and I found myself stumbling again, and out of the corner of my vision, a golden light engulfed me, and behind that blinding shine, with a disgruntled expression that showed a combination of bewilderment, anger, and desperation, Camilla casted once more.

"Seek my enemy, Spark!"

I would be spending a bit of time in the infirmary after that…