YP – B1: Finale – Chapter 39

233 Days Until Retribution and The Uncertain End (part 1)

Heiphillia kept her blade up, swinging it, finally getting a hang of the technique that Evester had drilled into her. Now that they had Crass, Phil, and Rayda, the training could be broken up and Evester could focus on Heiphillia in a way that he’d not been able to before. With the individualized instruction her capabilities were blooming in a way that he could not control or match. She had an excellent foundation, brilliant form, and leached off the lessons like the others. The issue was, that she was not suited to be a fighter, or at least not in the way Evester was. Or perhaps she did not have as much experience as Kori, Kony, Trace, and Robee? That could explain what felt off about her movements, too perfect, not enough world experience built into them. Shawn, on the other hand, was the best of them all. He had the most experience and learning the skills Evester had, was easier than his military training. Or so Shawn said, Evester was not sure if it were true.

Evester could tell how it all bothered Heiphillia. She had been the princess of their family, working to protect them when she’d been the only one to kill an Aralax on her own. 

On her own.

That was what startled Evester consistently. That no matter what, this girl was capable of killing an Aralax — even if it was a fluke — on her own. When she’d never seen them before, and when she had no weapons that would work for sure, she’d killed one. Evester knew that it had made her a valuable asset for her family. Leaving her as their final line of defense, and now that she was being over shadowed it was difficult for her. Evester could tell.

Andre watched from the corner far from the training. Layla and Karla were taking care of the kids until Kori or Andre switched with Karla for her to train.

“You just going to stand there?” Phil asked Andre who glared directly at Evester. Andre had never liked Evester under the fake smiles. 

“Nope.” Andre smiled to Phil and started to train himself. A false pretense, Andre was not that invested into it.

“What are you looking at?” Heiphillia huffed.

“You have the best foundation.” Evester spoke to her. “You were trained?”

“When I was a kid. I trained how to fight and taught my siblings and Shawn.” Heiphillia answered. The others were easier to meld with the ideas and concepts, because they weren’t formally trained. They were like Evester, an open book. Heiphillia, on the other hand, was a completely different beast. “What?” 

“Nothing.” Evester shook his head. “I’m just not sure how to train you other than giving you the tools. You are so different.”

“Then don’t train me to fight. I’ll do it myself. Train me in everything else. You can teach me that, right?”

“I can.” She had a point. If he made her up to EverDanger quality in escape, and code then would it matter? He wasn’t sure that it would.

“Hello? Evester?”

“I realize how incompatible we are.” Her incessant behavior drove him up a wall. All of EverDanger was chill outside of Phil, who wasn’t as annoying as Heiphillia was.

“Really? You just realized?” Heiphillia had her holoblade go out. “Now. Teach.”

“Insufferable.” Evester shook his head sitting to the ground. 

“Give up?”

“No. I’m teaching you.” Evester directed her to sit down motioning for her to give him her hands. She did so and with them in his hands he began to teach her different parts of escape that he’d learned. The first about restraints. 

“Evester did you hear that?” Phil called out to him. Turning back to his friend he say Phil and Rayda laughing. 

“What?” He asked.

“Andre asked.” Phil pointed to Trace. “Andre, right? Right. He asked why it was that none of us ever ended up together.”

“Too much drama.” Crass answered for them all. “If we got together and it ended badly, you can imagine the issues with that.”

“It was a rule stipulated by Kim.” Evester agreed. 

“Kim.” Heiphillia stole back Evester’s attention. “She’s your Shawn?”

“My Shawn?”

“You’ve known her the longest right?”

“Yeah. We grew up in Valaria together and she went with me to Ovaria.” Evester figured that by his Shawn, she meant his oldest and closest friend. In which case she was right.

“You love her?” Heia asked.

He thought about love. His parents loved each other? Sometimes he thought they did. Then he thought to how much that love was tested and Evester wasn’t certain they were only together out of benefit. Then all of his other relationships he’d had, had never really mattered? Connecting with other people was like his friends, and adding that unnecessary aspect of emotions wasn’t necessary. Evester could have sex without the feelings, and have relationships without the sex, but the two together? Something about it felt wrong, or perhaps it simply scared him. It wasn’t like the adrenaline that he felt with everything he did. The idea of it made him sick.

“She’s my best friend.” He answered. “Do you love Shawn?”

“He’s my best friend.”

And finally there was something they shared in common.

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