Book 3 Chapter 6 - Pride by Proxy

Personally? Yes. I think Violet cared about Kiera.

Do I think she cared about her as an equal? Do I think she ever truly respected or valued how Kiera genuinely felt about anything?

Of course not.

But in the manner of a person with a prized possession?

Yes. 

Violet cared deeply about her best friend.

—Vernon Vale, Personal Interview

“I giv—” Zach started, but Violet’s stave hit him in the ribs before he could finish surrendering. She quickly followed it with a jab to the sternum before flipping it around and hitting his left leg. He grunted as he fell to one knee, and Violet swiftly gripped the stave and delivered three rapid hits to his chest. Again, she didn't hit nearly as hard as she could have.

But this time, that didn't matter. He fell to the dirt and hit his head against the ground. If she hit him again, it would be obvious she cared more about bruising him than sparring. She clicked her tongue as she dropped the stave and crouched next to the groaning boy. She held one hand out to offer him help, smiling as she did.

“Good match,” she said cheerfully. “You really kept me on my toes!”

It was an obvious lie. He knew it, she knew it, and the few students watching knew it. Whatever Zach's talent of the day was, it was obviously terrible for this particular training. It was possible they weren't combat-related at all, or they were too dangerous to use in a non-lethal exercise. Either way, he’d needed to rely on the dull daggers he used to train his preferred fighting style.

But Violet was getting good with polearms, glaives, and similar weapons. Her stave was actually an incomplete scythe, but that was effectively the same thing. She was learning quickly, largely thanks to her upbringing. Her parents had only wanted her to find a calling, but their attempts to force it had a lasting effect on her. She was used to needing to pick things up quickly. She wasn't particularly good at mastering anything, but she was excellent at reaching basic competence on record time. 

She liked fighting, which helped a great deal. Largely because of moments like this, with the beaten and lightly bloodied man crumpled at her feet.

She couldn't get away with using Fatal Flaws, technically. Since it might reveal more personal information than Zach's weaknesses in the fight. Even Sharp Eyes, the talent she was pretending to have, was illegal to use on other people. So on paper, the fight should have been fairly even. A talent for weapons was still an advantage over carrying them, but Violet was supposedly two degrees lower than Zach.

Everyone involved knew Violet had thrashed Zach with little effort. Everyone expected it, even.

That was alright. Sometimes, being caught in a lie was the point. No one would blame her for beating Zach a little too brutally. Not if they saw how amiable she was, and how willing she was to spare his pride. It wasn't like she'd been showboating. She simply hit hard where it would hurt the most, and pulled punches when the fight would end too early. 

Zach rubbed his jaw, then accepted the hand she offered. She pulled him to his feet in a swift, fluid motion. He grunted as she did, the apparent aid far less gentle than it should have been. 

“I was trying to fucking surrender,” he grumbled. 

Violet paused and gave him a concerned look. “You mean before that last hit?” she asked. “Oh my gosh! I completely missed that! I’m sorry! I assumed you were trying to taunt me or something silly like that! I guess that's what happens when you jump to conclusions. I feel like a jerk.”

She watched closely to see if Zach would wince at the words. It was admittedly hard to tell, since he had so many other reasons to make such a pained expression. But Violet thought the message had gotten through on some level.

Throw accusations at Violet’s friends, and white flags would not be an option.

Of course, some people were dim, and Violet understood that. Zach could have been the sort of person who took every interaction at face value and skipped through any implications that weren’t immediately obvious. So she'd keep teaching the lesson exactly as she had been. Eventually, he’d know better than to open his mouth around her.

“Well, can you pay closer attention next time? Fucking Christ, that hurts!” Zach complained.

Violet smiled with an open mouth and nearly closed eyes. “Definitely,” she agreed. And she very much meant it. It seemed Zach was going to require regular attention.

But later. There was a commotion across the field, and the gasp of several students drew Violet’s attention. Everyone who finished their spar was allowed to watch the remaining fights, and it seemed there were only a few left. The bout drawing the most attention, however, was Kiera and Kassie. That was... interesting.

Violet had hit Zach just above the elbow in the middle of the fight. It was one of the most painful strikes she'd delivered during the spar, and it had prevented him from using one of his daggers from that point forward. It was definitely badly bruised. This was the spot she grabbed with one hand before delivering a comforting squeeze. “I’ll be careful from now on, I promise,” she said. 

He grimaced with pain, but she was already walking away.

She caught up with the crowd and pushed her way in next to Masaki. The boy was practically drooling while watching Kiera fight. Not in a lustful way, of course. Violet knew her classmates by now, and Masaki's interests had been unwavering since she’d met him. Rather than ogling anyone’s original body, he was interested in the students with crystal appendages granted by their callings. He was a scientist at heart, even if his calling didn’t agree. He was here to study hedron above all else, and had actually volunteered for the lancers. Humans with hedron-esque qualities seemed to fascinate him.

Usually, Angelo attracted the majority of his attention on account of the impossible halo. But as Violet looked past the few people standing in front of her, she immediately spotted what had grabbed his attention.

Kiera was her usual self, confident even in the face of a much stronger opponent. Cocky, even. Which perfectly encapsulated the fox, considering she was obviously losing. Or, “kitsune” would’ve been the better word now, since Kiera very clearly had two tails now. One remained its usual deep red, and the other was a brilliant orange, much like the ears on her head. Kiera had been at red ten for about three weeks now, so Violet knew her friend would break into orange soon. That was incredibly fast for most people, but Chromatic Academy wasn’t joking about pushing this class through the categories. Everyone seemed to spend less time at each degree than expected. Even more than the rest of the school.

Mathematically, this still meant decades of growth before anyone reached Category Violet. But it also meant such a lofty goal was considered possible for everyone in the class. Probably only one would actually make it that far, and Violet thought it was obvious which one, but the possibility was enough to be worth the intense and dangerous training. One violet would make up for hundreds of dead yellows.

In any case, Kiera had been the first among Violet’s friends to break into orange, because of course she was. Violet felt a strange sense of pride watching Kiera move. Like a parent when their child succeeds. Kiera would’ve been pissed if she knew Violet had such a thought, but that only fed the condescending affection in the reaper’s heart. Kiera would also be pissed if at least one of those tails didn’t disappear after the fight. From what Violet had read about similar callings, it probably would. But if it didn’t... Kiera was already grumpy as fuck about needing either scissors or a tailor to get clothes to fit. Not to mention sitting sideways in chairs and never sleeping on her back. A second tail would essentially be hell for the poor girl.

For the moment, though, Kiera seemed to be having a blast. Violet had missed the beginning of the fight, but the fact that it was still happening at all was impressive. Kassie was an orange ten, and Kiera had been red ten at the start of the day. But Violet could see why. 

Aside from the fact that Kiera had reached orange mid-fight, the flow of combat was far different from what Violet expected. Kassie’s standard orange mist was filling the air around the two, but it only targeted Kiera. Everyone in class could make the fight out well enough, since it wasn’t anything like the actual mist. This was usually how Kassie beat everyone she fought with almost no trouble. It was difficult to fight a person when your brain refused to acknowledge their presence. Kassie’s talent also seemed to skew aggression, and made it difficult to want to hit her. Even if her opponent managed to acknowledge her presence. 

It wasn’t foolproof, and there were tricks to avoid it. But any tricks were distracting, and Kassie was practiced in using that distraction.

As the two girls fought, however, Kiera didn’t seem affected in the slightest. Both were moving extremely quickly, if not as fast as Violet at her peak. Each had their own version of claws and crystal armor—Kassie from her talent and Kiera from her calling—but Kassie’s was obviously the better skill. Kiera’s was mostly an extension of the same furlike crystal on her tail. Kassie’s was more similar to tree bark, covering her skin like armor. 

Each was scoring hits on the other, which actually made Kiera the first to manage such a feat against Kassie. Violet even caught a red stain along a ripped shoulder on the druid’s uniform. The skin underneath was unmarred, but that wasn’t surprising, given the healing talent Kassie was famous for. It told a story all on its own, however. For how supportive the blonde was, it was obvious she hadn’t taken the fight seriously at the start, and Kiera had drawn first blood. 

From each jab and Kiera’s occasional burst of flames, the rest of the fight was obvious. Kassie had taken a few hits from Kiera’s claws and fire, but adapted quickly and was now only taking glancing blows.

It was a war of attrition by the time Violet made it to the crowd. Kiera was surviving, but her animalistic moves couldn’t match the dexterity of Kassie’s dance. Violet winced with each hit Kiera took, and there were four for every strike she managed to return. Violet frowned at that, but she wasn’t too put out. This fight had drawn a crowd for a reason, and Kiera was fighting ten degrees past her means. 

Violet was impressed.

Unfortunately, the fight couldn’t continue forever. Kassie dodged to one side, caught Kiera’s arm, and leveraged the attack to point the follow-up burst of flame toward the sky. Kassie then turned on her heel, grabbed Kiera by the back of her uniform, and lifted her in the air in an impressively quick throw.

It looked like the spar was finally going to end, and Violet was already stepping forward to congratulate her friend on advancing. It didn’t even bother her that Kiera had lost. In fact, Violet expected to be annoyed that Kiera outperformed what Violet herself could have done. Especially since she was, objectively, so much more dangerous than her friend. But it didn’t. She was simply happy to see Kassie humbled a bit, especially since she didn’t need to overcome that annoying mental block and do it herself. This was technically a win on Kassie’s end. But considering the degree gap, needing to fight that long and getting wounded might as well have been a loss. It would help prevent Kassie from surpassing Violet in their classmates’ esteem.

But Violet jumped the gun. The fight had one last surprise in store, since Kiera managed to land on her feet instead of taking the full impact of the throw.

This was possible, of course, because she actually become a two-tailed fox, both in size and form. She was orange now, after all. And that meant a new talent. Her arm had vanished from Kassie's grip in an instant, and she took no damage from the fall at all.

Kassie immediately started laughing as Kiera began darting back and forth. Like a rodent was biting at the druid’s ankles. She left a trail of fire in her wake, and managed to mark Kassie's unprotected calves with a few new scratches and burns. 

She’d drawn blood again, at least.

It wasn’t enough to actually win, but it was hilarious to watch and ensured Kiera would be the only person talked about in class over the next few days. Even Violet started laughing as Kiera literally yipped when she was finally caught by the druid. She laughed more as the fox tried blowing fire in her captor's face. She did manage to singe Kassie’s hair, which was probably the final victory.

Violet decided to buy Kiera dinner.