5: Steel rang against steel. Then scraped. Then clinked faintly to the accompaniment of a foot sliding backwards. Calyx had been doing this far too long to let Nataku-sensei so easily maneuver her into a corps-a-corps, where his greater muscle mass would trump her advantages of size and speed. The trick, though, was to get her blade out of the hilt lock. They exchanged blows for a few seconds longer, and then the smallest hole opened up in his defenses. Knowing that it could be a feint, she nonetheless lunged forwards, driving the point of her rapier towards his heart -- And the buzzer sounded, a fraction of a second before it could strike home. She turned her head slightly to see, through a corner of her wire- mesh mask, the edge of sensei's blade resting calmly where her neck met her shoulder ... where, if it weren't covered by padding, her jugular would be. After what seemed like a very long moment, they returned to 'at ease' positions. Nataku-sensei slid off his mask first. As always, she was struck by the contrast of the single white lock in the midst of his otherwise dark blue hair. "Impulsive as ever, Ms. Empyria. If this were a real fight, it would have gotten you killed." The sparkling good humour in his eyes took most of the sting out of his words. "On the other hand," Calyx replied as she removed her mask in turn, "if this were a real fight, there wouldn't have been a buzzer to stop me. So we'd both be dead." "True enough," he granted. "*And* that move would get you kicked out of any competition." "Also true. All the same, Calyx, you must realize that I could have easily lowered my aim to a more legal target ... you side, for example." "So why didn't you?" she asked as they walked over to the benches which lined the side of the gymnasium. "Why indeed?" he asked, smiling faintly. Calyx let out a quiet sigh as she settled down onto the bench and began toweling the back of her neck. Again, answering a question with a question. A dedication to the Socratic method was all well and good, but it could be very wearying; especially when, as now, she was already tired and still a bit anxious. "Because I haven't been practicing enough lately, and you're trying to tell me that's the kiss of death if I ever hope to be a serious fencer?" she guessed. He blinked, clearly startled by her reply. "Calyx, believe me, I don't blame you for missing our practice sessions. I know that they're usually scheduled against the rugby team's practices --" "-- and if I don't attend rugby team practice, I'll get kicked off the team, and I'll lose my scholarship, and I'll have to hitch-hike back to Averoigne," she concluded the litany of woes that ran through her mind whenever she considered her status at the Academy. "And continuing the forecast of rain on you parade ..." "Ah no." "I met with the Bursar yesterday --" "Nooooo..." "And even though we're just barely into the new school year, it doesn't look as though the fencing team's budget for *next* year will be enough to offer a scholarship." "Espece de salaud," Calyx muttered, lowering her head onto her knees. "Harsh assessment, but not really unjust. I can't understand their attitude ... you competed in the last Budokai, for heaven's sake, the only classical fencer ever to do so. You'd think the administration would want the prestige of having you attached to the school's fencing team. Instead, it's almost as though they're trying to punish us for something." She rolled back so that her hands rested on the back of the bench. "Great. So I've got to either keep going out for a rugby scholarship or somehow qualify for an academic --" She abruptly burst into laughter composed of equal parts hysteria, bemusement and despair. "It's not that implausible, surely," Nataku-sensei interjected. "I've seen your transfer marks, and they're quite respectable." "Respectable for L'Ecole Polytechnique de St. Jirel, maybe, but in competition for a scholarship with the cream of the crop of the whole damn planet?" She almost shouted the last words, and regretted doing so at once when she saw the hurt on his face. " 'm sorry," she muttered, letting herself dangle down with her hands touching the floor. For a long moment, there was silence. "Calyx," he began again, somewhat delicately, "even before this ... unpleasantness ... it seemed there was an unusual tension in you." She nodded, pulling herself up into a regular sitting position, as she considered how much she ought to tell him. /My girlfriend dumped because she thinks I'm a `playboy'. Junior high school kids won't stop trying to chat me up. My best friend's aunt is missing and he's freaking out over it. And --/ "Sensei ... are there any ghost stories about this school?" To his credit, he only stared at her in confusion for a moment. "I don't think so. We've only been in operation for a few decades, and there hasn't been a lot of tragedy in that time." She sighed in relief. "Although there's this one legend I've heard. I don't credit it myself, but ... well, this is the tale, and I'll let you decide for yourself. "A long time ago, the land on which this school was built was part of another school. And at that school, there were two princes -- twin brothers different as night and day. To that school, to those brothers, came a princess of strength and nobility. "The good brother fell in love with her; the evil brother lusted for her. And the princess was not wise enough to tell the difference between them, and so chose to love the evil brother. In time, he came to love her too, for all his cruelty and wicked ways. Yet when she learned of them, her love turned to horror, and she tried to flee ... but in his fury, the evil brother killed her, and then himself. "The good brother found their bodies, and wept as he burned them beneath the rose garden where first they three had met, to spare the princess' name. Yet so foul and terrible were the roses which blossomed there thereafter that all fled their sight. Many years later, the sun herself was so disgusted by what had grown there that she opened up a great rift in the earth and punged the garden within, to hide it fro her sight forevermore. And that was the end." He looked askance at her slack-jawed expression. "I realize that I'm not much of a story-teller, but --" "Uh, no ... I mean, no, you're a good storyteller, sensei ... but anyway, the thing is: I saw a garden just like the one you described, here on campus, and it spooked me a bit, so --" "Oh, that." She slowly turned to look up at him, mouthing the words. "The dark garden? Basically, the fellow who owned most of the land on which the Academy was built included a rather odd condition in his will when he bequested it. There was a small garden in the middle of it, where he and his wife had spent many happy hours, and he insisted that the Academy not tear it down but rather build around it. "Unfortunately, by the time they did so, all the flowers had died during the Black Moon Crisis. Since the Academy would forfeit any claim to its grounds if that eyesore was removed -- or even changed -- the Faculty just tries to steer people away from it. Embarrassing, really." She smiled and shook her head. "I should've known it'd be something as ... well, as prosaic as that. Thanks a lot, sensei. Now, if I may be excused, I'm going to hit the showers." "Good call," Nataku-sensei replied. "Hope to see you at a few practice sessions, at least." "Me too," Calyx called back over her shoulder as she left the room. He waited a few moments after she'd gone to pull his communicator out from under his padding and enter a certain priority code. "Nataku here. Whatever you're planning, speed it up. She's seen the garden." Then, "What do you mean, that's part of your plan?" Angrily, "We had a deal! She was not to be harmed!" And, "You --" He lowered his communicator, staring at its silent speaker with naked fury written across his face. In as voice as slow, cold and hard as a glacier, he whispered: "I won't let him hurt you, Calyx. I won't let him hurt you. "Even if I have to kill you to stop him." TBC