Kayn shuddered. His lips were firmly closed, refusing to make a sound despite the sharp pain in his arm. He was kneeling on the ground, his head bowed as he tried so hard to control his unstable breathing, holding his trembling left hand.

“Again”.

Zed's voice always sounded strangely hollow behind his mask. As if there wasn't a man in there but a being of shadows, something that had surpassed the mortal binding of flesh. Kayn quietly obeyed.

He stood up with some difficulty but hastily, with a mix of eagerness to please his master and fear of not doing it quickly enough. Zed stood in the centre of the training field, stoic and imposing like the statue of a spirit god. His armour glistened under the sun, and his red cape fluttered slightly behind him, waved by the breeze.

Around them, a chorus of acolytes observed the fight with an unusual reverent silence. Men and women, young and old; their eyes were all fixated on the master as he taught his lesson. They could all learn from Kayn's mistake.

Zed wasn't supposed to intervene in the training that day. He had been sitting, carefully supervising the exercise of his students. The older and the skilled trained the younger and inexperienced in a mutual exchange of knowledge and abilities.

Kayn had though that he was better than all of them. He had defeated his first opponent, a boy not much older than him, with barely a swing of the kodachi. His second opponent, a young, black-haired woman, shared the same fate despite being much taller and stronger than him, forced to yield when the boy put a chain around her neck.

The third opponent was one who had already been introduced to the Order of the Shadow's secrets. Proof of that were the shadow marks in his arm; a sign of his control over the shadow magic that inspired respect on the other acolytes. But Kayn didn't hold respect for anyone except Zed. The master observed the fight attentively.

The boy had grown rash with his previous victories, more audacious. He smiled as he wielded the twin blades, as his feet moved like the wind over the sand. The older acolyte had the advantage at first but with every passing minute, with every new move he made to subdue the boy, less able he seemed to win. His shadows were weak against Kayn's determination and talent.

The young acolyte drove his blade against his opponent three times in that battle. One in the hand to make him lose his weapon. One in the leg, to make him kneel. The third one went to the neck, but the knife never reached the skin. Zed had got up and held Kayn's hand with an iron grip.

“No”, had been Zed’s single command, heavy like a tombstone.

The boy had turned his face, startled for a second, until his eyes were twisted with a more fierce emotion. Admiration, confusion, defiance. Nobody could deny the talent Kayn possessed; a rare gift that made him able to perfect a technique three times faster than the average warrior. But that, also, made him arrogant.

He had protested. Why stop, why deny his victory, why make him face the weak. He was proud of being able to bring an older and more skilled acolyte to his knees, to show his power. Such a Noxian way to think, Zed had noted. Kayn hadn't taken the words kindly.

Attempting to murder another member of the Order was a punishable crime, but instead of locking him in the Shadow Dungeons, Zed decided on something more fitting for the situation. Kayn wanted strong opponents, so he would grant him his wish. He would face the boy himself.

And now, Kayn was on the ground again, coughing as one of the Shadow Master's blows had snatched all the air from his lungs.

“Again”.

Kayn tried to do as told, but fell on his knees at the first attempt, gagging and holding his stomach. Another acolyte tried to approach him and help him, out of sympathy or impatience, but was stopped by Zed's firm and silent gesture of the hand. The acolyte quickly bowed his head and went back outside the ring.

The master stood patiently as he saw how the boy, slowly, stood up. He staggered for a moment, and it seemed he was going to fall again, but managed to remain firmly on his feet. He took a deep breath and straightened up, wiping the blood on his mouth.

In response, Zed raised his arms, not saying a word, as he readied himself for battle. Kayn didn't look startled by the menacing figure of his master, not anymore. His brow was furrowed in concentration; all of him was focused in one single thing: to win, to surpass even his master.

He looked around. There were various types of weapons scattered around the battleground, from spears to swords to even maces. Kayn knew how to wield all of them, but that didn't mean they would be of use to him against the Master of Shadows.

Before he couldn't pick up one, Zed attacked, fast, without making a sound as his feet shook the sand on the ground. Kayn jumped to the left, rolling on the ground and kneeling up immediately after, taking hold of the weapon closer to him. The kodachi was back on his hand, and he raised it in time to stop Zed's blow of his arm blades.

The impact send a painful pang to his already hurt arm, and Kayn gritted his teeth. Only one second he was able to contain the strength of his master before the blade was inevitably deflected to the ground. The boy let go of the hilt in that same moment, striking Zed's arm with his open palm in an attempt to change the direction of the attack as he evaded it. He was not fast enough, and the steel still cut him on his left side.

Kayn yelped, but still managed to stand up before Zed caught him by the hair with his free hand. He tugged his braid with such force the boy feared for a second that he was going to pull it out. His fingers dug intro Zed's gauntlet as he screamed and thrashed, until he was dragged to the ground again.

One would consider that another defeat, but Kayn was not willing to give up so easily. He bent his legs, bringing the knees to his chest, and kicked his master's head with both feet. The metallic sound the strike made, added to the almost indiscernible grunt that came from inside, awakened a chorus of gasps from the other acolytes.

Kayn managed to escape thanks to the distraction, evading the hand that raised hastily to catch him again by just an inch. He put some distance between him and his master, feeling the chest and feet heavy but very light in the head, even forgetting the injuries on his body. It had been the first time he got to hit Zed. An excited smile twisted his lips, as he picked a new weapon from the ground.

The sickle of the kusarigama glimmered his hand, bringing back a memory from the past that made that new encounter feel fated. Zed might have felt something similar, because suddenly, without even moving a muscle, the air around him changed as his red gaze was fixated on the weapon.

The shadows shifted. Kayn felt it more that he saw it. Just a trickle of black that quickly dissolved into thin air. He knew that this was going to be the last strike, but the though only made him more excited about it. He readied his weapon, still smiling, and took a step forward.

Zed instantly disappeared, leaving only a volute of shadows in his place. The boy searched for him with his eyes, but before he could even start to register what had happened something hit him from behind. He felt how something inside him creaked. Air got stuck into his lungs.

Kayn found himself getting pushed forward, almost falling flat on his face but miraculously managing to remain on his feet. The second blow, directly to his neck, was what finally drove him to the ground.

He gasped as he battled for breath, with his vision blurry and a ringing in his ears. The pain in his column was so intense that for a few seconds he feared that it might be broken. He didn't feel his hands.

“Enough”, came Zed's voice from behind him, stern, without giving room to any reply. It was an order, but Kayn disobeyed it.

Grunting, he tried to raise himself on shaky hands, only to be dragged again to the ground by tendrils of shadow.

“No!”, he protested, yelled, implored, as he tried to get free from the black tying without any hope on succeeding. “I can still go, Master! I can still fight!”

There was a strange desperation in his voice, his face twisted with a mix of fear and rage. As if he was begging for his life, Kayn refused to be left on the ground. Zed quietly observed his struggle and then, slowly approached him.

“What was the sixth mantra?”, he asked. But the boy didn't seem to have listened to him, too entranced in his personal fight against the shadows. With an almost inaudible grunt, Zed made a gesture and the tendrils tightened around his apprentice's limbs, making him yelp.

“Kayn”, Zed called him, an this time, the boy's eyes went to him. He asked again: “what was the sixth mantra?”

Kayn remained silent for a few seconds, panting, until he wet his lips.

“Kill the mind”, he answered, with a shaky voice. “Build the mind, free the mind”.

“Kill the mind, build the mind, free the mind”, Zed repeated. The rest of the acolytes, as if they had received some kind of invisible signal, chanted the mantra after their master. “Do you know what that means?”

Silence was the best answer the boy could come up with.

“It means that you have to get rid of all that restricts your mind and poisons your thoughts”. Zed's words were slow, clear, but exempt of any sort of warmness. “Your hate. Your rage. Your pain... Emotions that, despite natural, have been binding you. They have to be under your control, be the foundations of the warrior you seek to become not the will that draws the blade to the neck of your comrades”.

“B-But I...”, started Kayn, without knowing exactly what he wanted to say. He felt exposed, confused. Zed read his emotions more clearly then he himself did; the boy only saw his ambition, the master saw what fuelled it.

“You cast your name and your heritage aside to become Shieda Kayn”, Zed interrupted him, sharp as a knife. “You are a ninja from the Order of the Shadow now, not some embittered child; don't act like one”.

Kayn felt as if he had been hit again, deeper and harsher than before, like a knife to his guts. He gritted his teeth, hiding his face between his hair and the ground so no one could see his shame. This, was a defeat he would remember.

New Post has been published on https://www.booksbycarolinemiller.com/musings/a-universe-without-tears/

A Universe Without Tears

Title: Child Beating

Word Count: 368

Summary: A majority of parents beat their children. Many school teachers punish childrento correct them. They do it to teach them properly and make them good citizens of this world. How many of these parents and teachers themselves are good citizens of this world? How many of them themselves know what is right and what is wrong? How many have the knowledge of…

Title: Child Beating

Word Count: 368

Summary: A majority of parents beat their children. Many school teachers punish childrento correct them. They do it to teach them properly and make them good citizens of this world. How many of these parents and teachers themselves are good citizens of this world? How many of them themselves know what is right and what is wrong? How many have the knowledge of…