Ignite the Sun
Chapter 48: Frenemies

Chapter 48: Frenemies

"I didn’t know that sir Vandrel was so... apathetic." Elita admitted.

"Yeah, he’s not particularly great at expressing his emotions, I think I only saw him smile once during the fourteen years I’ve known him." Calen chuckled.

"Really?" She looked surprised. "What made him smile then?"

"It was when Cass won a sparring session with the vice-capitan of the city guard."

Isara raised an eyebrow.

"I didn’t know he fought with Graham. He should have said something, winning against someone like that is a pretty big achievement."

"He didn’t get a chance, it happened only a few days before Vandrel became sick." He explained. "Enough about his last duel though, let’s get back to his, and mine, first one..."

***

During the strength training Calen noticed that Cassian’s punches and jabs lessened - the boy seemed to be more focused at performing the exercises than their rivalry.

In turn, Calen also weakened his attacks and started paying more attention to the instructions from Vandrel. Soon enough they weren’t fighting at all, only training earnestly - Cassian to impress his father, Calen to not waste such an amazing opportunity.

When their training session came to an end Cassian approached him on his own to propose an unusual truce:

"I’m still going to wipe the floor with you when the time comes you filthy rat, but let’s try to keep fighting to the minimum until then."

The raven-haired boy gingerly offered him a handshake, and Calen’s gaze lingered a few seconds on the small palm.

"You’re a pompous prick, and I will enjoy beating you up - but I agree."

As the boys shook hands, neither had any idea that it was a start of a lifelong rivalry and friendship between them.

***

"I thought you said he was a ’pain in the ass’ until the duel, but you agreed to not fight until then?" Elita was confused.

"Shush, I’m getting to that..."

***

After that first day of training the relationship between the boys changed dramatically in some areas, but remained exactly the same in others.

Since they didn’t want to fight physically, especially during the training, they turned to the next best thing for any kid - calling each other names.

Before and after every session, they would spend at least half an hour yelling at one another. One would assume that exchanges like that would quickly get repetitive when involving two young kids, but that was not the case.

Not only were they very creative, but they learned new terms between every lesson, Calen from the older kids at the House of Dawn, Cassian from what he overheard from the Guards.

Soon enough both of them were swearing like sailors, and putting their vocabulary to a good use - at least in their opinion. The most tricky part of this was to do all of this without their mentor noticing, as he would surely chastise them for using such words.

Well, it was supposed to be tricky, but Vandrel was strangely oblivious to their half-whispered spats. Not that they complained - in fact they have competed who can insult the other the loudest without attracting attention on multiple occasions.

Since neither of them ever held a sword before, the amount of training they had to do before they could duel properly was enormous, so naturally the boys spent a lot of time together.

Because of that, theor interactions started to change gradually - the mocking and name calling didn’t stop of course, but every now and then a genuine conversation would slip in, letting the boys learn a bit about each other.

Calen was surprised to learn that Cassian lost his mother when he was two, while the fact that he admired his father and wanted impress him so that the man would praise him made him a little sad.

Cassian in turn was quite intrigued by the information that Calen knew his name only because it was written on a piece of paper that was found with him on the steps of the House of Dawn. He also seemed a bit jealous about Calen having friends back at the orphanage, but he tried to not let it show.

Slowly but surely, the boys bonded over their common likes, their widely different lives and the brutal training inflicted upon them by Vandrel. They didn’t became friends yet of course, but the name calling changed from ’trying to piss each other off’ to ’using annoying nicknames’.

When the time finally came for them to pick up wooden swords, and attempt a spar, their animosity seemingly returned, but it was very sort lived - the next day they were back to normal, as if they didn’t just try to kill each other using glorified sticks.

Their bouts revealed that they were both quite talented when it came to wielding a blade, but in different ways: Cassian was much better at remembering the footwork and various techniques, while Calen excelled in adapting during combat and improvising.

This distinction put Calen in the lead at the beginning, but he knew their position would be reversed as they learned more and more. It was only a matter of time before Cassian would overtake him, so he resolved himself to do better.

And he tried to - but so did Cassian.

Their sparring sessions failed to bring out the resentment they held for each other, but it did well in fanning the flames of rivalry, making them hotter than ever before.

A side effect of their competition was the ridiculous rate at which they improved their swordsmanship - half a year in they were both on par with the recruits that came to join the city guard, at least in terms of technique.

While it doesn’t sound that impressive, those recruits were almost thrice their age, and went through preliminary tests.

From Vandrel point of view, they were both prodigies - but he never praised them, their drive to get better was born from contempt, and he would never applaud a reason like that.

When the time for their duel finally came, almost seven months after Calen bumped into Cassian, he was overwhelmed by a mixture of strange feelings:

There was anxiety - for some reason Vandrel decided to invite people from the House of Dawn, as well as the city guard to attend their fight, and just the thought about that made him nauseous.

Then there was the confusing nature of the duel, it was something they agreed upon so long ago, and they have fought many times since then, so what was the point of this show?

Finally, there was what Cassian told him right before they split up to get ready...

"Listen weirdo-" The boy but his tongue. " I mean Cal, this fight is... really important to me. Not because of that stupid situation from back then, but because father will be actually paying attention for once."

Calen raised an eyebrow, it wasn’t the first time Cassian called him by his name, but it certainly didn’t happen often.

"Are you asking me to throw the fight blockhead- Cass? I don’t think your father would be very impressed by that, if you want to him to respect you, you need to defeat me properly."

Cassian didn’t respond, but then a shadow of a smile crossed his lips.

"I want to give you an easy way out, but it seems like you’ll have to learn your place the hard way."

Calen grinned.

"You wish."

A few minutes later they were standing in the middle arena, accompanied by Vandrel who was re-explaining the rules to everyone gathered - and there were quite a few people.

As a facility designed for the city guard the building was equipped with a sizeable space for spectators. One of the sides was occupied by excited children of various ages, led by Miss Berk and a couple of her helpers, while the other hosted a few members of the city guard, who looked rather bored.

"It will be the first time these two will be fighting with metal swords, so the duel will end when one of the sides yields, or suffers large enough damage."

Vandrel looked at each of the boys with a stern look.

"The blades of the weapons are completely dull, so it’s unlikely you’ll be able to actually endanger each other’s lives, but if I sense any malicious intent from either of you, the fight ends and your opponent will win. Understood?"

Both boys nodded vigorously in agreement.

"I hope this duel will end this ridiculous scenario."

"...will you keep training us afterwards father?"

Calen did not miss the "us" instead of "me", this choice of words brought him a strange comfort.

Vandrel’s face was blank when he responded:

"That will very much depend on the results of this duel."

Huh, Calen didn’t expect that answer.

To be completely honest he thought that his apprenticeship would end right after this fight, but it seemed like there was something more to his teacher’s plans.

"Enough talk, it’s time for that duel of yours. Ready?"

Seeing no objections, he brought his hand down.

"Start!"