"And why do we have to do this again?" Faris sighed as he nursed the bruise on his forehead. Bergan and Ismira stood over him, sardonic grins over their faces as he slowly got up. Venka wasn't doing much better, fighting back tears as she slowly healed the bad bruise on her arm from Ismira's blade. Of course, she couldn't do it for free, Bergan was attacking mentally at full force and it was all Faris could do to hold the experienced mage back mentally while defending from attacks from Ismira and him. Faris was lucky that his bruises weren't as numerous as they could be, and that none hit him hard enough to slow him down too badly. For his part Bergan had a welt on his left hand when he blocked a dulled dagger, and Ismira's clothing was dirty from the few times she had been tripped up. Bergan chuckled at Faris's face, which betrayed his irritation.

"You never know when an enemy mage and assassin could attack. And you can't use the excuse of lack of sleep to rescue you, for the rest of our trip you could be attacked at any time by me, you need to be ready at the drop of the hat, it will protect you both from surprise attacks, and from harassment from the students." Bergan began. "I'm the only mage here who can compete with you on a mental battle, so you should consider yourself blessed to be both so skilled and with such a willing teacher."

"Gee lucky me." Faris said sarcastically.

"But why is Ismira here?" Venka said, her arm healed. She gave Ismira a sour look.

"Because…" Ismira began before slicing her blade down at Venka's forehead, barely stopping before hitting her temple. Venka's reaction was terrible, flinching and flailing awkwardly before falling flat on her butt. Bergan laughed and Faris used the opportunity to try and go for a quick thrust, which was deflected easily.

"Good effort, but you'll have to try better than that, Ismira is here because she's a good deal better of a swordsman, err, swordswoman than you two combined, but she's not at the level where either of you can't surprise her with ingenuity."

"Good luck though, I'm with you for the long haul." Ismira laughed, hanging her sword by the shoulder. "Father gave me the permission, after a word from mother."

Bergan eyed the soldiers, who watched them with some interest. "Yes, well the added manpower helps out quite a bit as well." He said, turning back to Faris. "Anyways, prepare yourself, it's going to be a painful two weeks."

And so, they began their training sessions, Faris would get the bulk of combat training, learning to parry and dodge and counter attack Bergan, Ismira, and sometimes both, while Venka learned more practical magical lessons till the point of nausea. After that they'd be forced to undertake grueling physical drills while concentrating to do several spells at once. Faris was a good deal better than Venka in this part, but he was forced then to do more, exhausting himself far more quickly. For Venka, while doing a lighter workout, she had to concentrate and lift a boulder, something she could do all day if not for the exercise breaking her concentration, which made her use more energy than she needed, she sometimes collapsed in physical exhaustion, her magic reserves though remained. Faris on the other hand had way more physical endurance, and his concentration was superb, he couldn't lift more than a large rock for an hour or so with magic, but it was no trouble while training, of course he was then expected to hold 4 or 5 at the same time, and make them make unique formations and move in elaborate ways, he sometimes lost conciousness when he ran out of magic.

That wasn't the worst part though, after getting up from this grueling exercise, they had to face the combined effort of Ismira and Bergan, who had spent the time the two kids trained to rest, relax, and make casual remarks. The worst part being the longer Faris and Venka could last, the more rested Ismira and Bergan were for the final training session. After the torture they would be given a high energy meal and delicious rest, but they would always wake up sore. Faris wanted so badly to get back at them, as did Venka. But no matter how desperately they fought, they didn't have the energy to do more than last a few minutes defending and reducing as many bruises as possible.

"I can't handle this anymore!" Venka scowled as she ate her stew and chewed angrily on her bread.

"I feel you, but I'm too exhausted to get back at them, I don't have the magical stamina to keep up." Faris replied, he had already cleaned out his bowl and was taking sips of water from a waterskin.

Venka finished her meal and stuck her hand out, Faris dutifully handed her the water skin and she drained its contents, before tossing it back to him. She let out a content burp, Faris grimaced slightly.

"What?!" She asked, smiling angrily, "Are you upset I'm not a prim and proper lady?!"

"What are you talking about?" Faris asked.

"Yeah! Are you upset you're stuck with me and not someone as skilled or beautiful or lady-like as Ismira?!" She pulled her knees up and face down. "I can't compete with her, it would have been better if she had this magical power, she wouldn't have botched up as badly as me, her parents would still be."

Faris put his hand to her mouth. "Don't say that! Look, you've got a lot of problems sure, but I don't think anyone else is better suited to your power as you!"

Venka looked at him. "Oh… a lot of problems huh!"

Faris felt panic as her voice rose. "Look! You know what I meant."

Just as Venka was about to chew him out one of the soldiers standing guard piped up.

"Ya know, it'd be convenient if you could split your skills or something'"

Faris turned to him quizzically. "What do you mean?" Venka turned to look at the soldier as well.

The soldier, on the spot now looked to the side embarrassedly, "I mean, it's just a joke, but what if you were able to split your strength. And she was able to split the magic power, thingamabob."

Faris and Venka's eyes widened in unison. "That's actually fantastic." They said simultaneously. The soldier looked in surprise.

"What?! Really!? It was just a joke though." The soldier said, confused.

"No, no… you see, the Elves do it all the time, and most human magicians do it, hell, the Du Vrangr Gata did it in the war." Faris looked at Venka, who looked back at him, excited at an opportunity for vengeance. "Alright look, this is going to require us to connect our minds, um… it's going to be a little difficult, we have to keep the connection, no matter how embarrassing."

"Sure, let's do it." Venka stated excitedly.

"No, Venka you don't understand, it's gonna share everything we will be thinking, good or bad." Faris began again, "Some things might make you mad."

"I'm fine though!" She said. "Come on we have to get used to doing it."

Faris felt a familiar mind reach out to his and began lowering his walls. He shivered as their minds touched, it had happened before, but only shortly, and normally so matter-of-factly for a quick purpose, so they never had to worry about leaving lasting thoughts before. He saw Venka shiver too, and began feeling excitement and nervousness, matching his own. They looked at each other in the eyes, both determined to hold the connection.

"I am the will."

"And I am the power."

"…."

They giggled for a bit over the lameness of their statement.

"And we're going to kick some ass."

.

.

.

The morning training was going at normal pace, it was the last day, so it seemed like Ismira and Bergan were paying a bit extra attention. When it came to the point of combining physical exercise with magical concentration, Faris and Venka pooled their combined will and magical energy, with it they went an hour longer than the last session, with will and energy to spare, but didn't show it. Ismira and Bergan came to see what looked to be an exhausted and irritable pair of youths, who must have put their all in for hope that the last bit of training wouldn't be as torturous as it had been.

"Good effort children." Bergan stressed the word to try and get on their nerves. "But we're still going to come at you with full force. He dulled Ismira's blade as well as his own. Faris doing the same for his and Venka's weapons. As he watched Faris do it he noticed a bruise on his left cheek.

"Oh? Had a lover's quarrel?" He said, trying to rile Faris up.

"Something like that." Faris replied absentmindedly, taking up an attacking stance. His limbs were no longer shaking from exhaustion.

Ismira for her part noticed that Venka's stance was a lot better than before, drastically so, as if she had put in 3 months of training into the night of rest. "So, I see that the trainings finally imprinting on you?" She asked slightly mockingly.

"You can say that." Venka laughed. Ismira narrowed her eyes, Venka's confidence in her stance was also dramatically different, it was almost as if she was a different fighter.

Bergan began with a lightning fast overhead swing, preparing to shift its momentum when Faris parried and dodged it, he was surprised when Faris instead blocked it, and held. Ismira on the other hand widened her eyes as Venka seemed more adept in parrying and retaliating to her attacks.

"So, you had a bit of juice left? Smart! But that won't stop me from-!" Bergan began before he began to lose balance as an entire section of the earth beneath him began to shift and slide like an earth quake, in this imbalance he barely blocked an attack from Faris, who had come in with a magic augmented leaping attack.

"Hiding your magic?!" Bergan yelled.

"No!" Faris replied, before pushing Bergan back with a wave of force. "Just borrowing from a friend!"

Venka for her part continually kept up with Ismira, Faris's connection with her allowed her to convert her magic energy into physical ability subtly, while she couldn't control it as best as Faris could, she felt pride as her blade always moved quickly enough to block Ismira's blows, even getting a few glancing shots at the older girl.

Bergan shook his head in amazement, he had been training these two at their limits to toughen them up for whatever they would face, and they ended up blowing his expectations. Of course, neither of them could hope to be this skilled alone, but he shivered at the thought of a Venka given Faris's temperament and training, or a Faris with Venka's power. Even as he struck at Faris, he fought mentally, trying to severe their mental bond, seeing though that their minds were intertwined like a binding rope knotted in at itself, you could see neither the beginning, nor the end. As he observed closer, he realized though that Faris's end was a bit larger actually, there was a good bit of his mind and memories still closed off it seemed. He attacked that section to try and break the hard connection between Venka and Faris, only to have Venka almost break his arm with a stab, and Faris push him back with a kick to the chest, knocking the wind out of him. He now defended against the two of them, who's fury and humiliation over the training sessions mounted into this full-on onslaught, with the goal of giving Bergan the taste of retribution.

"You know!" He said, shouldering a strike to the shoulder prematurely as he blocked a simultaneous strike aimed for his cheek. "You're doing really good, in fact, if you were focused on killing or defeating only me you would have won." Another strike caught his off hand, and he was forced to back pedal, barely blocking their strikes with a single hand. "But you forgot something it seems."

Faris turned too late to see Ismira kick him, forcing him to fall over, just as Bergan caught Venka, enduring two blows to the face as he tossed her high in the air and kicked Faris after her with a magic powered kick before collapsing. Ismira ran up to him.

"I can hold them for 1 minute."

"Good." Bergan began. "I need to exhaust the two of them, this is an important lesson."

Before Venka hit the ground Faris rolled and caught her, as they tumbled down the hill their mental bonds began to lessen as the physical pain became a source of distraction. Ismira ran down after them and struck with a devastating downward cleave that was blocked by the combined effort of Faris and Venka.

"You guys sure look cute together, when's the wedding?" Ismira asked lightly.

Shit, Faris thought as the connection between him and Venka severed. When they had first connected, it had almost erupted into a fist fight, the embarrassment of their surface thoughts, especially in relation to each other was almost too embarrassing to bear, so they had done their best to ignore any of those thoughts. It had certainly not helped that they slept in the same carriage, and it just made their morning awkward, especially when it came to Faris having to explain normal biological processes, which then got into an even more awkward conversation, which they chose to seal away. Venka had then made the mistake of mentioning how they were closer than a couple at the moment, which after the thought reverberated through their shared connection led to the altercation in which Faris had the bruise on his cheek.

As their conciousness split Faris immediately began to feel the lethargy begin to come upon him, without Venka's wealth of magic to rely on, his exhaustion was setting in again, Venka for her part still had the magic to spare and was able to push back Ismira for a bit, before the older girl outmaneuvered Venka, who no longer had the extra eyes or fresh access to martial expertise Faris had to offer in their connection. Faris felt himself lock up in a vice like grip as Bergan slid down the hill, sword in hand. And Venka was tripped up and scraped her knee, any attempt to heal or regroup was broken by Ismira repeatedly smacking her lightly with the flat of her sword, keeping her from concentrating.

Bergan reached the bottom of the hill, breathing in exhaustion, his left hand looked broken due to its swelling and colorization, he looked at Faris, who had been constantly switching from left to right hand the entire fight to throw him off guard, then to Venka, who had been holding her own against Ismira, who was an extremely competent duelist.

"You… pass… For now." He breathlessly blurted out, before taking out his emerald and healing his and Ismira's wounds and fatigue.

"You guys clean yourselves up and head to bed, we've got to get into Ilrea early to avoid an uproar." He finished.

Ismira looked at the two, who lay exhausted, sympathetically. "For what it's worth you almost got us." She left the pair, shaking her head in humor.

After a half an hour Faris leaned up into a sitting position, and turned to Venka, who was facing away from him.

"Venka…"

"…"

"Venka…"

"…"

"Venka!"

He turned her over to see she was extremely red. Faris sighed and extended his hand, after a few moments she gingerly took it, the attempt to connect their minds was not as deep as the last time, so Faris had to concentrate as he borrowed her energy to heal the wounds she did not know how to yet, leaving the rest for her, which she did easily.

"Hey…" He began, "are you okay?" He smiled wryly. "Or is the thought of us getting married that repugnant."

Venka laughed, she and Faris both knew how they had reacted to Ismira's teasing. She was both relieved and lonely without the connection to his mind, though she had felt there was a large part of him that he had hidden from her, he for the most part revealed his mind except for whatever that large swath was, and didn't extend into her mind that deeply. She was thankful for that, he had been so kind to her, and she didn't want him to realize it. Despite what she said, she resented him deeply for what happened to her parents, but she also cared for him, and had begun to care for him when he had grabbed her hand and led her out of the nightmare that was her house. She both despised and liked him, and couldn't really fully reconcile those feelings yet, nor decide which one she truly believed in.

Faris for his part had already promised himself in the ancient language that he would protect her. That language was the binding word of truth, Venka's feelings about him did little to change his feelings on the matter. He grabbed the dagger laying by his side, Bergan had thrown it back to him when he had declared himself winner. Sheathing it to the side he gingerly got up. And held a hand for Venka.

"Hey…" He began gently. "Tomorrow's a new day."

Venka after a few moments smiled, taking his hand. "You say 'hey' too much."