Tales of the Throne: Queen

Chapter 26: Training

Katherine's POV

"Steady your sword, you're in control, not the other way around," Lucian said as he swirled his sword around his hand. The first few months of training with him weren't as bad as I expected.

Even the day where I would just watch and study his techniques was enough to drastically increase my skills in not only hand to hand combat but in sword fighting.

Over the past few months, the majority of my time was spent learning from Lucian. We hiked high up on the mountain and trained there for days on end. I felt stronger, not just physically but mentally, being accustomed to the life I was currently living was inevitable.

I grunted as I landed on my back and rolled over to pick up my fallen sword and I continued to swing my sword with the technique Lucian had taught me, the most important thing was keeping a balance.

We finished training a few hours after the sunset and walked back down the mountain, "Your endurance has improved,"

"Only because I have an admirable teacher," I laughed as we stepped down the stone stairs.

Lucian smirked then chuckled while he turned back to look at me, "Nice try, you're still going,"

We had gotten significantly closer over the past five months, as detached as Lucian was most of the time, I no longer feared him nor disliked him like I once did.

"Katherine!" Elizabeth exclaimed. She ran through the ground floor halls and towards the entrance of the main building. Ever since my training got more intense I barely had time to hang out with everyone else.

It was such a relief seeing Elizabeth, I felt a bit of me revive and become full of life. Prior to Lucian taking his leave, he nodded towards me and said "Come see me later this evening," he didn't wait for my response as he already left.

"I need help packing, I have so many clothes, it's impossible to do all of it by myself," Elizabeth whined as she held my hand.

"Why are you packing so early?" I mean Elizabeth was the exact definition of a drama queen, she was way too overly excited about things.

She looked at me with wide eyes, "Early? We leave next week."

"Okay but what does it matter what you pack, you'll still be the belle of the ball," Elizabeth had dyed her once blonde hair, dark brown, a few shades lighter than mine.

I asked her why she did it and she said something about needing a change in her life. Honestly, I prefer the dark hair on her, I almost didn't recognize her when I first saw it. She looked more daring compared to the innocent look the blonde hair gave her.

"It matters because of the number of officials and highly ranked supernatural that will be attending this ball, think of it as a welcome home party," I couldn't help but roll my eyes at her analogy.

"The castle has never been my home," I tried getting in contact with Lady Morgan using the number she had given me but the line had been disconnected. She must have really meant what she said about that being a goodbye.

"It will be," she let go of my hand and stood in front of me, "When you're down speaking with the devil, I'll be in your room," who was she- oh she meant Lucian, I snickered at her remark before making my way up the stairs to his room.

By the time I got to his room, I noticed that all the training was paying off, walking six flights of huge stairs was such pain before but now I barely felt it.

I knocked on his door, and soon after a voice from the other side of the door spoke, "Come in,".

He looked as handsome as ever, as he sat down behind his desk while scanning the documents in his hands with his square-framed glasses that helped highlight his features.