Chapter 12

Arya swung her two swords around.

Being a dual sword user was uncommon but not unheard of.

Elijah happened to be a dual swordmaster and he taught Arya his dual swordsmanship.

Arya had originally trained with one sword but she moved on to dual swordsmanship once she was more familiar and comfortable with using a sword.

Arya didn't really feel like it mattered too much to her if she used her left hand or right hand.

She was capable of using both hands easily to write, draw and wield a sword.

Ambidextrous. That was what her condition was called.

Catalina also had the same condition as well.

That explains her skill and ability to use both hands during sparring.

Early morning training was the best when you didn't want to have to work out in the hot sun.

After a few laps around the training court to warm up, it was time to get started.

Practice sparring with Elijah and Catalina was the first on the list.

Elijah and Arya fought with swords. Swords clanged and rang as the two fought on equal grounds.

Catalina and Arya fought in a battle that pushed each other to the limits.

Individual training came next as Catalina and Elijah went on to do their own training. It was important to both Elijah and Catalina that Arya developed a sense of self-discipline so they would have her train all by herself so she'll learn to keep up with her training without anyone watching her or telling her to do so.

Elijah was tearing through a swarm of training dummies wielding wooden swords. Slashing, dicing, parring, blocking and attacking. He moved quickly and efficiently to take out dummies.

A swig beheaded two training dummies at once and a ball of fire set three dummies on fire.

Catalina was turning those dummies into her own personnel punching bags with quick and powerful punches sending dummies flying back several feet and kicks that behead dummies.

Arya was sweating now as she continued to practice the basics. Up, down, left, right, slash, stab, jab, slash. Arya stabbed, jabbed, and slashed faster and faster, she moved her feet and pretended as if she was also dodging and invading the attacks and the sword of an invisible opponent. She moved to the right, a slash, moved to the left, a quick jab with the point of her sword. 

Scars and slash marks started to appear on the dummy and Arya suddenly dropped her swords and she raised her hands up.

The dummies fly 10 feet into the air before Arya lets it drop down to the ground with a loud thud.

Training was shut shirt when Myna came rushing over, her skirts billowing around her.

Apparently, Myna got word from the king that he needed Catalina and Elijah to see the both of them for an important mission.

…

Arya wanted to tag along with Myna to go to the marketplace and Myna agreed to let her come. Arya was cooped up for months now in the concubine mansion and she wanted to get out and explore.

The pantry was running low and Myna decided today was the day she was going to restock.

Arya washed up and she sat down in a chair in a white bathrobe.

A book was in her lap as she waited for Myna to pick out her outfit.

If Arya had things her way, she would wear pants and shorts all the time.

Not that she hated wearing dresses or skirts. She just liked being able to move more freely and easily and pants and shorts were perfect for that.

However, pants and shorts were out of the question since it was only socially acceptable for girls to wear "men clothing" during training and/or exercising. 

She thought that was a stupid rule.

But if she doesn't want to attract attention, she'll just have to play by the rules.

Dressing up really wasn't her thing but Myna refused to allow Arya to take one step outside of the royal grounds unless she was "dressed like the princess she was".

Myna was taking her job as a princess's personal maidservant seriously. Arya thought this was a little bit overkill when she was just just tagging along with Myna to do some shopping.

Skirts and dresses hung in a closet that was big enough to be used as a horse stable. Forget using it as a horse stable, Arya thought, you could put an entire carriage in here and still have enough room to build an indoor training court. 

Dresses and skirts of all colors, made from silk, velvet, soft cotton, trimmed and decorated with frills, lace, ribbons and small jewels filled the closest. An explosion of color hit Arya when Myna threw up the doors and started to look through the choices with the same energy as a hungry wolf attacking its prey.

Blue, purple, pink, red, white, pale yellows and greens, pastels.

By comparison, her white and brown training outfit consisting of a white shirt, brown pants and a pair of lath boots looked drab and ugly by comparison.

Arya was reading a book while Myna searched for the perfect outfit.

Arya trusted Myna's fashion sense as she had none of her own. 

"Found it!!!"

Arya looked up from her book and saw Myna holding up a lovely white frock with pale pink roses.

Little pink roses decorated the hem of the skirt and the sailor collar.

A pale green ribbon belt that tied into a ribbon on the back.

Angel sleeves that were flowy and light.

Arya admired herself in the full-body mirror.

Myna's taste was as good as her cooking skills.

"It's beautiful, Myna."

Myna only smiled.

"Thank you, my princess. Now who's ready to go shopping?"

….

A pair of thugs stood locked and loaded, eyes scanning the crowds for potential prey to kidnap and sell off. 

Their targets were young and beautiful girls who would fetch a high price in the dark market.

A hidden underworld filled with crime and lawlessness. Where gambling, prostitution, illegal trading, drugs and other such outlawed activities took place.

Well, they didn't target just anyone. 

Not if they wanted to draw attention to themselves.

They looked for girls who nobody would miss or look for. Orphan girls, girls living on the streets, girls from common backgrounds, girls who were poor and desperate enough that they could easily be fooled and tricked with a few promises and sweet words of hope.

They were professionals at what they did for a living. 

Sometimes, they would disguise themselves as servants of noble households, going around pretending that they were recruiting for a noble household, luring in country girls with promises of a good paying job where they would be housed and fed, only to sell them off in the flesh market for the highest price they could fetch. Or maybe they take advantage of the poverty and desperation of the lower classes who would sell off their own daughters for a few gold coins. 

Whatever they did, they would always deliver whatever it was that a client wanted. A girl that would suit the customer's tastes and preferences.

Pretty and young girls were always high in demand and made a lot of money so that was what they were here for today.

The trio tucked themselves into a dirty and dark alleyway, causally scanning for a girl that would fulfill all the requirements.

"That one. I think she'll do."

A very tanned and muscular bald man with a scar over his left eye pointed out a young servant girl out and about doing her daily tasks.

"She's pretty!! Should be worth at least 10 gold!!"

A piggy-looking man with greasy, shoulder length dark blue hair and beady black eyes was licking his lips and looked at the woman his friend had pointed out with lustful eyes.

The baldie frowned. Yes, that girl was beautiful, but she was too old. She was no girl but a woman.

And there was the fact that that woman was too boyish and thin. She had no curves or roundness to her-she was all bones and straight lines.

She was not pretty. She was average looking and plain. 

But wait….there was another girl walking beside her.

A pretty girl with short brown hair and the most brilliant and beautiful doe-like eyes he had ever seen before: Dark green and bright, glittering like jewels. She had beautiful and soft looking skin and delicate features.

She looked to be someone that would grow up to be a great beauty when she grew up.

It looked like she was dressed in a beautiful white dress that looked expensive. But these days, even a farmer or house servant could afford to dress up their little girls in nice and pretty dresses as long as they had the money to do so. 

The girl tugged at her sister's hand and pointed at a food stall before dragging her sister towards it.

A pair of sisters but only the younger one would be worth anything on the flesh market and far more profitable for them. The older one was too plain looking to be worth much on the flesh market. Maybe she'll be good as a house slave to do domestic work or work in a "sweatshop". But those slaves were cheap and plentiful-not worth anything more than maybe 2 gold coins. 

The cost of feeding and housing them far exceeded the money you could make from selling them.

The real money was made by selling "fancy girls" or pretty girls who would become sex slaves or eye candy for whoever could pay for the beauty.

The bald man hooted and laughed.

"Perfect!!! She's the one!!"

A target was selected.

Yes, she would be the one they would sell off.

….

People chatted and laughed as they went about their business in the market place in the royal capital. The streets were filled with all walks of life from red-blooded servants who were poor and illiterate to greedy and pushy merchants and businessmen eager to make a sale to the upper crust of society with gold flowering through their veins to the beggars who begged for money and scraps of food to peddlers and prostitutes who went about looking for potential customers.

Stalls selling street food and other wares while stores that sold everything from jewelry to makeup to hair care products were fighting for customers. People called out the vitutes and boasted about the products in hopes of attracting potential customers.

"The finest silks in the Kingdom! Fit for the King himself!"

"The highest grade tea leaves you'll ever find!! Buy some now before it's all gone!"

"Fresh vegetables for sale!"

"Meat that came from a tender young pig! Freshly killed!"

"Perfumes! Bracelets! Necklaces!"

"The most delicious roast chicken in the World! I guarantee it!"

"I swear his face cream will make you look 10 years younger!!"

"Finest pearls and diamonds in all the kingdom!!"

"Half off special for all our dresses!! Don't miss out as it's a limited time offer!!"

It wasn't just the farmers and merchants and store owners who were busy trying to lure in customers. Restaurants were also packed full and offered everything from tomato soup to roast duck to the finest wines and delicacies to their eager and hungry customers. Beauty shops that sold everything from dresses to cosmetics to jewelry flattered and appealed to the vanity of all rich women and girls everywhere in hopes of selling their products. Every store was busy and the streets were bustling with people.

Everything from cakes to jewelry to books to fresh produce ot live animals were being sold and Arya heard customers trying to bargain for cheaper prices, music from the street musicians that played for the crowds, talking, laughing and 

Myna navigated her way through the crowded streets with Arya holding onto her hand.

Arya held on tight because she didn't want to lose Myna in this unfamiliar place.

Still, being outside felt amazing after being stuck inside that mansion for almost 5 months now with her only going outside for daily training or on nightly scrolls around the garden.

The aroma of something cooking that smelled good caught Arya's attention. She followed that smell towards a food stall selling meat skewers. She tugged at Myna's hand and pointed it out to her.

"Myna, I'm hungry. I haven't eaten anything since breakfast and I'm starving now."

Her stomach started to rumble as if on cue in order to add more weight to her statement.

Myna laughed.

"Sure, why not. I was going to ask you what you wanted to eat since I'm hungry too. I think we have the money to afford a snack to eat while we shop."

Myna brought some meat and vegetable skewers from a street vendor and soon the two were devouring them as they walked along the stalls.

Chicken chuckled and screeched from inside their cages while a tied up goat whined and fussed and pulled at its rope leash.

Red and green apples freshly picked from the orchids. Plump and juicy oranges picked off the tree. A bunch of little reddish-purple fruit bunch up together that were called "grapes". A butcher stall selling fresh meat with a muscular looking man chopping up slices of fresh beef and taking orders from customers.

Toys and books. Homemade cheese and freshly baked bread. A bakery selling sweets and desserts. All of them were on display on glass windows in the front of the stores in order to entice customers into buying them.

Stalls and stores that seemed to sell almost anything you could possibly want or need.

Arya took it all in as she followed Myna around the market place until she stopped by a stall being runned by an old woman. 

Myna picked out vegetables and fruits from a produce seller and started to examine them, making sure they didn't have any blemishes or spots.

Arya's eyes wandered off to a stall selling books.

It was located in a far corner of the market but Arya was sure that Myna would still be able to see here.

Arya tapped Myna on the shoulder.

Myna looked up from the carrot she was holding.

"Myna, I'll be over at that book stall over there. I want to check it out."

Myna looked at where Arya pointed out the stall.

"Alright, but make sure you stay there and don't go anywhere until I finish shopping. I'll come get you when I'm finished."

Arya waved goodbye as she headed off in the direction of the stall.

"Thanks, Myna!! I promise I won't go anywhere!!"

….

Arya noticed the man walking up from behind her. Creepy and unsettling. It was more like instinct to her and a sixth sense when it came to spotting danger. A gut feeling in her told her that this man had malicious intentions for her-and her gut feelings had saved her life more than once on the streets before.

Of course, it could just be a coincidence at first so she decided to put that theory to the test and see if he'll follow her.

She made a quick detour from the path to the book stall, walked past a farmer holding two chickens under his arms, weaved her way past shoppers before she ducked into the alleyway between a small cafe and clothing store.

He followed her. So he really was stalking her. She also knew why he had been following her.

Pervert, Arya thought. She saw men like him all the time while she was living on the streets as an orphan.

Bad men who prowled the streets at night, attacking and forcing themselves onto helpless women who were out at night-mainly prostitutes and maid servants and homeless women and girls or just any girl who looked weak and vulnerable with no one to protect her was fair game.

She was luckier than most girls and that she was able to avoid them. Cutting off her hair and keeping a low rader helped along with having a body smoothed and thinned by hunger that made her look way younger than she really was and kept any man away from her.

She didn't do anything to draw attention to herself and she made sure to look as childish and unattractive as she could. She would smear dirt and grime onto her face each day and she made sure to arrange her hair in a way that would obscure and veil in order to hide her features.

Hunger made her look boney and sickly which was a blessing in disguise for her, now that Arya thought about it. 

Of course, her hair had grown out slightly past her shoulders now in the last five months and her body filled out and her sharp angles rounded and softened thanks to Myna's care and attention to her diet. 

No hiding herself this time. 

There were actually three men, not one, as Arya thought there was.

A miscalculation that could have been fatal because Arya was outnumbered three to one.

Arya narrowed her eyes and she readied her powers to fight these street thugs.

Power coursed through her body and she kept her eyes on the men. 

Remember to always keep your eyes on your opponents, little princess. Never let your guard down no matter how weak your opponent may look.

Three men slowly surrounded her and blocked her only way out of the alleyway.

She was trapped as behind her was nothing more than piles of garbage and a dead end.

A very tanned and muscular bald man with a scar over his left eye with greed in his eyes.

A piggy-looking man with greasy, shoulder length dark blue hair and beady black eyes was licking his lips as he looked at Arya.

The leader, a rather handsome man with cropped blond hair and piercing dark blue eyes and a single gold earring hanging from his left ear, smiled widely in a way that did not ensure her at all. 

She watched as the three men-well, only the piggy bastard and baldie- started to eye her up and down like she was a piece of meat being sold off at the butcher's stall. Arya noticed one of the men-the piggy bastard- staring a little too much at her chest and she turned red and angry.

He was touching her shoulders and stroking her cheeks and Arya wondered where he came from.

How in the world did he get so up close to her without her noticing? She swore that he was standing in front of her just a second ago.

"Pretty girl!! She's prettier up close!!"

He tried to kiss her on the lips.

Arya exploded. 

The man was yanked upwards when Arya lifted him off his feet by his neck and started to choke him. The man squirmed and his feet kicked helplessly as they were not touching the grounds. Arya dropped him and left him choking and gasping for air as his companions stood there helplessly, in shock of what they just witnessed.

Arya stood there cold and still as if she was a statue. Her green eyes were cold and hard like pieces of emeralds. There seemed to be a chill in the air even though it was perfectly warm right now in the late afternoon.

"So? Are you gonna do anything?"

The two men snapped out of their daydreams and attacked Arya.

Arya was surprised as she thought that her display of power might scare them off and they would run off.

She wasn't prepared to fight.

But that didn't mean she wasn't a capable fighter.

The bald man had a knife and he tried to stab Arya with it but his arm remained frozen stiff and still, suspended over his head like an invisible hand that stopped him from stabbing Arya. The man tried to fight whatever force was keeping his arm in that position but he was weak and powerless to do so as Arya was much stronger than he was.

Arya focused all her power and she snapped and broke his arm with her telekinesis.

The sound of bones breaking and snapping filled the alleyway, drowned under the sea of the noisy marketplace.

The bald man screamed and dropped to the ground, cradling and holding his broken arm while moaning in pain.

"Impressive. I thought you needed help but it looks like you don't."

A man, a rather handsome man with cropped blond hair and piercing dark blue eyes and a single gold earring hanging from his left ear, was standing in the alleyway.

Strangely, he didn't look scared or alarmed when Arya had nearly strangled one of their thugs to death and broke another one's arm without touching them at all.

In fact, if anything, he seemed in awe and impressed by what he had just seen.

Arya noticed a glittering covering around him, sparkling and reflecting the little light that was able to come into the alleyway. It was faint but her sharp eyes noticed the invisible shield he had around him.

Arya took off one of her slippers…..if her guess was right, then…

She threw her slipper the same way she threw knives: With accuracy and precision at its intended target.

It never hit him as it bounced right off the force shield and hit a wall instead.

The man smirked.

"Man, no one had ever caught on to the fact that I have a force field all around me. You're the only one to spot that."

Ah, it hit her now. Who he was. Catalina and Elijah only briefly mentioned him once and never spoke of him again. Claimed it was too painful and sad for them to speak about him.

"Jasper Malva. The eldest son of the House of Malva but you were disowned and disgraced after you nearly killed a fellow student at the Royal Academy in a "fit of rage". You left him in a near death state and in a 3 month long coma."

Jasper stopped smirking and his smirk turned into a nasty grimace. Arya seemed to have rubbed him the wrong way.

"Elijah and Catty, wasn't it? They told you all about me, didn't they?"

Arya only nodded, her eyes on Jasper. Analyzing him and watching him.

From her lessons with Catalina, Elijah and Baron Pax, she learned that most ability users tend to have poor combat skills and relied solely on their abilities. That meant that they lacked any real fighting abilities like hand-to-hand combat skills or how to use a weapon like Elijah and Catty or she did. There were some golds who trained their bodies physically but only golds with physical abilities-super strength, super speed, etc-did so. Most only trained their abilities.

Okay, he seemed to rely a lot on his force field shield as protection. Maybe he would be rendered helpless and vulnerable without it as he didn't know how to fight at all.

Jasper's eyes turned cold and hard as if he was reliving a bad memory. But Arya saw sadness in them as well. Sadness and loneliness. 

His dark blue eyes looked directly into Arya's green ones.

"I don't regret it-almost killing that scumbag. He deserved it after what he did to my little sister, Catty and my little brother, Elijah. Justice was denied and what I did was what he had coming for him."

Wait….Catalina and Elijah were brother and sister but…they had an older brother as well?

Arya's eyes glanced over at the knife on the ground that lay abandoned next to the bald man still whimpering and crying in pain. The piggy bastard had recovered at this point but he pinned himself against the dead end and seemed to be trying to hide himself among the garbage. Shaking badly and Arya wrinkled up his nose because he apparently had wetted himself as well.

The knife twitched and flitched as Arya used her telekinesis to summon it to it. It flew into her outstretched hand and she pointed the blade at him.

"They never said you were their brother. They talked about you only once but they said it was too sad and painful for them. Mentioned that that memory brings up a lot of bad emotions for them. Seems like they still remember you."

Arya's eyes never wavered and she held the knife steady at his throat.

Jasper smiled.

"Thank you. That's all I needed to know. Are they doing well?"

Aryas nodded.

Jasper's eyes were teary and he wiped away at them.

"I came here to warn you. If you really do have access to Elijah and Catty, or any relationship to them at all, please tell them that I love them and that monsters and evil is on the rise again and that war is coming-he's coming back and he's stronger than ever now-Damn it!! Gotta go now! They're here!!"

He info-dumped too much on Arya and Arya was about to ask him a few questions but he was suddenly gone in a flash, melting into the crowd of people.