Chapter 53: Body Conditioning (Part 3).

“At least watch where you’re going! I think that’s just basic etiquette.”

I looked across at the girl in her fine uniform. She was also on the ground, the dirt covering her clothes. Her nose had a slight upwards tilt, as if she were trying to look down on me even now. “You should watch yourself, human,” I said. “I was watching for other people who ran. I was not watching for idle pebbles along my path.” The girl’s nostrils flared. I ignored her as I tried to rise to my feet. Almost, I made it up. I landed on my knees again. I would have tried again immediately, if I’d thought the result would be different.

“You-!” The girl pointed one finger at me. “You’re the half-demon who broke the Arbiter!” The girl had proper indignity to her voice. It was the indignity of a Queen. The effect was marred by her uniform being dark with sweat. The girl tried to rise herself. Her legs shook. She did not make it as far as I, before she stumbled.

I did not answer her. Footsteps found me from behind, before they came to my side. A group of three students eyed us as they passed. Their gazes flicked over me, and then at the girl next to me. A boy in the group laughed. The two girls next to him smirked. Only when their backs were to us did I find enough energy to rise.

I took a deep breath and forced myself up. My legs protested. My back ached. Still, I made it back up to my feet. I swayed, and corrected myself as soon as I did. There was dust on my uniform. I wiped it away with my arm.

“I did expect more from the half-demon who broke the Arbiter. Have to say, I’m a little disappointed.”

It was a petty jab, from a diminutive girl. It should not have bothered me as it did. The sound of my own harsh breathing was difficult to ignore. “The Inker called you remarkable, if I recall correctly.” I looked at the girl. “Perhaps he meant unremarkable instead.”

I started to run again, or as close to it as I could manage. I heard the blonde girl spluttering behind me. A moment later, there were footsteps behind me, and on my right. Followed by the sound of labored breathing. The girl was next to me now. In a few strides, the girl was ahead of me, if only just.

I forced my legs forward, forced my stride to lengthen. I did not pull ahead of her. I only kept pace. The indignity of it burned the tiredness away. We marched in silence for a time, though I tried to do much more than march. Sweat ran down my temples, ran down inside the uniform, left in a small trail in my wake. Each time I would pull ahead, even by a stride, the girl would match me. Each time she got ahead a step, I would find a reserve of strength I hadn’t known was there.

More and more students passed us. Sometimes a lone boy or girl, but often it was a small group of two or three. I ignored them. “Stop following me,” Alisa said.

“I am not following you. We happen to be on the same track. Perhaps you would prefer to stop and let me pass.”

“Let you pass?” She almost laughed. There was no breath behind it. “You can barely stand. A mild breeze would do you in. You won’t get up a second time, will you?”

“And yet I am ahead of you.” I was not ahead of her. We were perfectly level, and had been for some time. I saw Alisa’s jaw tighten. She pushed forward by half a stride. I matched her before the stride was finished.

“Your form is terrible,” she said. “Who taught you to run? A crippled horse? Perhaps a trollkin on its last legs?”

“Nobody taught me. It appears nobody taught you either, given that you can only barely keep pace with me.”

The girl’s neck reddened. I should not have been wasting breath on insults. It was the strangest thing. I had commanded armies and silenced courts with a single word, and now I was trading barbs with a girl who could not lift her own feet.

Two boys passed us, their strides long and even. One of them was whistling. I had never wanted to kill a whistler before. “I thought the Earl’s daughter was supposed ta be faster!” One of them said as they moved past us.

Earl. I knew little of human titles. I knew only the ones that were worth remembering, and even they were hardly worth that. King. Queen. Emperor. Duke. Those were hardly comparable to my own, but I knew them, or had bothered to remember them. This ‘Earl’ was a title I had not heard before, but it could only be a title. There was a weight to titles that no simple words held, even those said in mockery.

“You’re the Earl’s daughter.” I said between breaths. The word sounded strange. I wondered how this Earl compared to an Archon.

“I am glad you remember.” The words came out strained. I had not remembered. Her chest heaved beneath the Essence Weight, and strands of blonde clung to her temples. “You though- you are the half-demon with the ridiculous name.”

The word ridiculous almost made me break stride. “It is- a name fit for royalty. What would you know of such a thing, girl?”

“It’s a name used to frighten g-gullible children, at best. And do not call me ‘girl’, we are the same age. Perhaps your eyes are older than the rest of you?”

That was perhaps the most accurate assessment anyone in this Academy had made of me. I did not tell her so. We walked. Or shuffled. The motion made my mind wander. I could not stop moving because I was a Queen, and because that foolish Inker had thought something like this was above me. I did not know why this girl hadn’t.

“This is your first class?” I asked. The question was between breaths. I did not know why I asked it.

“Been coming here- for almost a week.” Alisa said. “Since I came here.”

Almost a week. I had been here for days. “And it is still this difficult for you?”

The girl’s chin rose. Even with her legs barely holding her upright, the chin rose. “I do not see how that is any of your concern.”

“It isn’t. I am merely observing.”

“Then observe in silence.”

“You should heed your own words, girl.”

We did not observe in silence. I had always liked silence. The moments where none of my Generals hounded me. Or at least, hounded me with more restraint. They had been corrupted lately. Corrupted by the humming of the Ember Core, and now this weight on my chest that would not move.

“You run like a newborn fawn,” Alisa said after a time. “No, I-I am certain they would be surer on their feet.”

“At least I don’t run like you. Poorly, and with little ambition.”

“With little ambi-” She almost stumbled. Her right foot caught the sand and she lurched forward, and for one moment I thought she would go down. She caught herself. Her face had gone from red to a deeper red. “You take that back.”

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“A Queen does not take things back.”

“You are not a Queen! I can call myself Egwene. Doesn’t make it so!”

Egwene had been one of the three rulers of the human nations during my reign near the end. She had been the greatest of them. It seemed her legend remained still.

“Believe what you will. A small mind…can only accept small things.”

The sentences between us grew shorter. There was simply less air for each word. Full thoughts became fragments. Fragments became clipped exchanges that cost one breath each, and then half a breath. Perhaps this was my punishment from the Pantheon, delivered at last.

Footsteps found me from behind, faster and far surer than mine. Faster than anyone’s who had passed us before. I knew those footsteps. Strange, that I knew her just by the sound of them.

Ash passed on my left. Her stride was long and even. The weight sat on her frame the way a pack might sit on a mule’s back. Heroes really were good packmules, if nothing else. Though Ash was far more besides.