A Drop Of Haunted Blood

Chapter Sixteen: Bad Necromance

Arisa and Mason sat on the grass early on Monday morning and watched Felix prepare for his first sword lesson with Hana.

"Are you guys sure you want to watch?" Felix asked as he drew the sword from its scabbard.

"I figured I could help you out with ASL while you talk to Hana," Arisa said.

Mason whittled away at his cherry branch with a knife. "I'm here to see how good you are."

"Not very," Felix muttered.

"Then this will be fun to watch."

Felix sighed. "Great. I love embarrassing myself in front of people. Real cool."

Hana waved a hand. "Are you ready?" she signed.

Felix nodded.

Hana corrected his grip on the sword and walked him through a few basic swinging motions. Then, she had him repeat them until he thought his arms were going to fall off.

Just when he thought he couldn't go any longer, Hana decided it was time for him to fight her.

"Don't worry, I'll move slow," Hana told him. After she was done signing, she extended her hand out in front of her. Her shadow wavered, and darkness pooled in her grasp to form a sword of pure black. She studied it for a moment. It shifted from a dangerous sharp-edged weapon into something much duller, as if it were made of pitch-black cardboard. Felix wanted to be offended, but he was mostly relieved.

Hana swung at him, and he lifted his blade to meet hers. She sped up gradually. Felix managed for the first couple of minutes, but after that, he found himself frequently getting whacked by Hana's weapon.

"Move faster, Felix!" Arisa called.

"I'm trying!" Felix ducked to avoid the next swing of the blade. "I'd like to see you do better!"

"You think I haven't taken sword lessons from my sister?"

Felix held his ground for another minute before a blow to his ankle knocked him onto his back.

"You don't suck as much as I thought you would," Mason said.

Felix lifted his gaze to where Mason and Arisa sat behind him. "Gee, thanks."

"Good start," Hana signed, her expression encouraging. "Get back up and let's try again."

They worked for another half an hour. After that, it was time for Felix, Arisa, and Mason's session with Sebastian. Today, he'd asked them to meet in a classroom on the third floor instead of in the training yard.

Felix waved goodbye to Hana and followed the other two back into the castle.

"I'm just glad we're not doing much physical training today," Felix said as they approached the classroom. The muscles in his arms were getting sorer by the minute. "But I'm probably going to suck at tennis tonight anyway."

"Tennis?" Mason asked.

"You know, where you hit a ball back and forth across a net with rackets?"

"I know what tennis is, dumbass. Where are you playing tennis?"

"My hometown. Kendra's taking me tonight so I can hang out with a friend of mine."

"Ooh, Mister Popular over here," Arisa said. She opened the classroom door and groaned. "This is the mold room."

Felix followed her in and recognized the space from their tour. "I didn't realize they actually used this room."

Mason eyed the patch of mold in the back corner as he entered. "Lovely."