“No, do not look at my blade or my hands! Look at my torso, my shoulders!” Leandro instructed as he landed another blow on David's arm with his wooden stick, who groaned from the hit.

  His body felt like a giant bruise; his instructor was not pulling his punches. “Pain is the best teacher.” He'd told him.

  Yeah, right. He just enjoyed beating the shit out of people; why would he be smiling so much otherwise?

  David did his best to parry, as he'd been instructed to, but his muscles were sluggish and his concentration fleeting. The man had him run to exhaustion before going straight into “Light sword fighting lessons”, because “A fight really only begins when you start being tired.”

  And so, for the past two bells, he'd been getting taught, bruise by bruise, just how much his sword-fighting skills had degraded from eight years of disuse.

  Leandro's stick stopped and lowered. David's eyes eventually rose to look at his instructor, trying to understand what was going on.

  The man grunted. “You have better stamina and resolve than I thought. I meant to lay you low, but you are still standing two bells later.” He gave him a look. David blinked. Had he just seen a hint of approval?

  Leandro pointed at the log they'd been using as a bench. “It is time for a rest, drink back all that water you lost.”

  How sweet those words were. He dragged himself forward and plopped down on the ground, using the log as a backrest, and taking the water gourd Leandro was offering him.

  The man himself was barely sweating...

  He chugged down the lukewarm water and leaned back, closing his eyes and focusing on his panting breath.

  Second day of his training, out of who knew how many. He shook his head; thinking about it wasn't going to help. Think about why you're doing this.

  Or rather, for whom.

  As ragged as he was, the thought of her still drew a smile on his face.

  “Oh? Enjoying the exertion?” Leandro said. Peeking at him from one eye, he saw the smirk on his face.

  “I'm thinking about better company,” David replied, letting his eyelid fall back down.

  “Hmm. I must say, today's breakfast was as enjoyable as yesterday's. If anything, she will cajole your stomach!”

  “She's so much more than a cook.” He replied with an edge to his voice.

  “Bwa ha ha!” David almost tumbled over from the shoulder slap he received.

  “Boy, no need to throw your anger! To have tied you down as she did, she has to be a great woman! A mighty warrior of the heart!” Leandro exclaimed.

  “The greatest.”

  The veteran's tone lowered. “Is that so? Tell me, boy, you said you trusted her with your life and with your secrets, but did you trust her with the whole truth?”

  He felt a large hand clamp on his shoulder.

  “With what you were meant to be?”

  David looked at the hand, then up to Leandro's hard glare.

  “She knows I have Azurean imbuements.”

  The man humphed. “Azurean imbuements. Boy, I have Azurean imbuements, thrice as many as a normal soldier, and compared to what you have, I might as well be a child.”

  David frowned.

  The large man sighed, shaking his head. “Tell me, what do you know of your Azurean imbuements?”

  The courier searched Leandro's gaze before looking at his own hands, answering the question.

  “That I received deeper imbuements than most, and more of them.”

  There was a pause, as Leandro seemed to wait for him to continue.

  The knight frowned. “Is that all? Is that all they told you?”

  “I... yes? Why? What did they not tell me?”

  Leandro narrowed his eyes, uncertainty on his face. He got up, looked around, and motioned for David to follow him.

  His head slumping, he grunted as he got up, following after the man as they walked further into the surrounding ruins.

  They walked for around five minutes, until Leandro appeared satisfied and stopped within a roofless stock structure, which might have been a shop decades ago.

  His voice was restrained, almost quiet, when he spoke. “David, it is almost certainly not my place to tell you this, but I judge it a great injustice that your family did not deign to inform you of the fate they had chosen for you.”

  Leandro dipped his head once, resolved to continue.

  “Understand, you were the last missing piece of a plan set in motion hundreds of years prior. It could have been any one of the line, but that particular blessing, or maybe curse, fell on you.”

  “Leandro, what are you getting at?” David asked, pressing his lips together.

  “Patience, boy. It is not easy for me to put into words.” The veteran said, releasing a deep breath, before continuing.

  “Your mana aptitude, boy. When they measured it and the result came back the highest they had ever seen, that was the missing piece.”

  “My mana?” David asked, eyes narrow.

  “Yes, your great mana reserve. You might not know this, as I assume it was never an issue for you, but every Azure Guard struggles with mana usage. Our imbuements, as strong as they are, consume a vast amount to activate. It is why we train so hard in their use, and why most guards only receive a basic set of imbuements.”

  He nodded, answering David's silent question.

  “Yes, because most simply do not have enough mana to power anything else. It is why we train so much to be as efficient as possible. Even I, who has much more mana than most, only received a few more layers of runes, and if I am not careful in combat, I will quickly reach my limit.”

  That was... news to him. News to anyone. Azure Guards were touted as relentless warriors who knew no limit. And it didn't make sense, he'd seen them in combat, never seeming to tire!

  He snapped his eyes up at Leandro, about to question him, but the man beat him to it.

  “I know what their reputation is, and before you let the wrong idea invade your mind, it is a well-earned one! When I say we struggle, I mean we have a limit, but we train endlessly to never have to face it in battle. Azure guards are, and will always be, the greatest fighting men and women of the continent!” An amount of pride coloured his words.

  He leaned forward, eyes locked onto David's. “What I am telling you is a secret, because I need you to understand. All those imbuements you received? The ones all the way to your bones? Half of them were never given to anyone. Ever.”

  He straightened back up, huffing. “And why would they? Nobody would have had the mana reserve to use them properly.”

  Leandro planted his hands on David's shoulders.

  “But you, when they saw the number the measuring device gave back, you are the first one since the creation of boosting imbuements that could use all of them.”

  He removed his hands and tucked them into his belt.

  “So, after your measuring on your seventh birthday, the family heads ordered the Arcanosurgeons to retrieve the old tomes, containing the experimental and theoretical imbuements developed over the years, and tasked them with making them a reality.”

  Leandro stood up a little straighter. “When they asked how many of them, they were told, all of them.”

  “David, etched upon your flesh and bones, you have the potential to become the world's greatest warrior. Fuelled by your immense mana reserve, with the necessary training, nothing would be able to stop you. Man, beast, even the saints, there is not a single thing you could not overcome.”

  David's head was spinning. His legs trembled, struggling to keep him upright.

  Leandro stared at the young man. “You were meant to become the ultimate living weapon. Do you understand, now?”

  He... didn't want this. He didn't want to be the world's anything. He wanted to be David, the Free Courier, who didn't have responsibilities, no one he could fail with lasting consequences.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  His breath shortened, his vision blurred.

  Wild-eyed, he looked up at Leandro. The man returned his stare, worry creasing his hard features.

  “David, I – I apologize, I might have told you too much, too quickly.” He reached a hand toward David's shoulder.

  David batted it away reflexively. He looked at Leandro's hand, eyes shaking, before turning and running away.

  The Azure Knight made to step after him, but stopped himself. As guilty as he was for burdening the young man with it, there was nothing he could do to help.

  David ran.

  He had no destination; he only had an origin, one he was trying to run away from.

  Leandro's words kept chasing after him.

  He ran from them.

  His father's words, the last time he'd seen him, joined the chase.

  “The time and money our family has invested in you as its heir will NOT be thrown away on fleeting weakness.”

  He ran from them.

  The half-repressed memories of the weeks spent strapped to the operating table, his body split open, the old men and women carving runes into every corner of his being.

  He ran from them.

  The guilt and shame he had borne with him since his expulsion from the family, for being too weak to endure the burden of rule, the legacy of his family, for failing his father.

  He ran from them.

  He ran to where he would be safe from all of the wolves nipping at his heels.

  The door to Niala's brewing room slammed open. She nearly dropped the box of potions she was holding as she turned her head and saw who it was, a smile beginning to form on her face.

  Then she noticed the fright in his eyes, his mouth hanging open, panting, the cold sweat staining his visage, and the trembling that gripped his body.

  She let go of the box, several potions shattering as it hit the floor, as she flew toward him, smashing into his body, her arms already embracing him as tightly as she could.

  He stared ahead, pupils pin-pricked, his own arms rigid at his sides.

  She grabbed his face, forced him to look at her, and poured all the love and support she could in her gaze, hoping for at least a tiny sliver to reach him.

  Where was he? What was this place? Why had he run here? Who was that woman? Why was she holding him? He was trapped within her arms. He had to get away, run from the wolves! He...

  He saw... big, glistening, beautiful amethyst eyes, battering past his walls, boring deep into him.

  All the way to the small, scarred boy within his heart, curled upon himself, shivering, under the only beam of light that shone in this dark place, hiding from the circling, hungry wolves, prowling within the darkness.

  A tiny hand, ever so gently, landed upon his back. It was warm. So, so warm...

  The hand became two, and then arms followed in their wake, as they embraced him.

  Within those arms, a place of safety, inured from the wolves, keeping them at bay.

  A place where he could stop being strong.

  A place where he could finally cry.

  Niala kept squeezing David into her, head resting upon his chest. She heard his heartbeat slow down, from a frantic cascade to a rhythmic pulse. She felt his muscles relax ever so slightly, his arms coming up to embrace her in turn, with barely any force at first, gaining in strength to begin crushing her.

  She felt droplets of water land on her head. She looked up and met David's watery eyes, his gaze locked upon her, those of a drowning man searching for something to grab onto.

  She stretched her neck and planted a kiss on his mouth. A small, short one, but heavy with intent.

  It sparked a lightning bolt that shattered David's mask.

  His tears flowed, unrestrained, for the first time in his life.

  Shared with the only person who had ever made him feel it was ok to fail, because she would be there to help him back up.

  The rain, as all things, eventually passed.

  David rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands and looked down at the catkin girl still glued to him, meeting a pair of glinting amethyst eyes and a smile that could melt sand.

  “...Hi,” He meekly said.

  “Hi David. Welcome back.” Niala rubbed her head on his chest a few times before looking back up to him, unlacing herself from his body, and taking his hand.

  She brought him out into the garden and had him sit on the bench. She joined him, curling up against his side, her ears limp and bobbing, as she moved her cheeks up and down his arm a few more times.

  It felt so very warm, tucked as he was under her blanket of love.

  He took a deep breath before speaking.

  “Niala, I'm so-”

  “No.”

  He blinked and looked at her, his eyes going wide when he saw her intense stare.

  “I'm-” he tried again.

  “No. Don't say you're sorry. You've been holding this in for a long time, haven't you?”

  He had no words. He managed to nod.

  “And you ran to me, to me, to let it all out. Don't say you're sorry!” She uncoupled and pivoted over him, kneeling on the bench, straddling him. She put her hands around his face, forcing him to look at her.

  “I am so happy! So happy that I was your choice! The person you chose to be with at the most vulnerable time you've ever been! And I love you! And I want you to know that you can come to me any time, anywhere, whenever you feel sad or weak or sick or you want to cry again!”

  A few tears escaped her eyes.

  “Because I love you, and you love me, and I want to be there for you, like you're there for me.”

  She wiped away at her cheeks with the back of her hands.

  “So never say you're sorry for choosing me when you need to feel safe and loved, ok?” She smiled, blushing, with unbidden tears trailing down her face.

  David could only stare. Wings on his heart, dizzy from the sensation of freedom that spun him around like lovers in a dance, he could do nothing but lose himself in those amethyst eyes.

  “Niala... I love you.” He whispered and kissed her, pressing his lips onto hers until not even air could escape the seal they formed.

  And later, once the storms on their sea of emotions had abated, he told her everything about himself. His family, the runes they had carved on him, his exile, up to and including what Leandro had revealed to him.

  And he added one thing that apparently nobody knew, not even his family.

  Leandro had said David's family had measured his mana reserves. Vast as it was, they thought it to be finite. They'd expected him to be able to conquer the world with that vast, but limited, amount of mana.

  He was pretty certain he didn't have a limit.

  If they think I can take over the world with a vast amount of it, what can I do with a limitless supply?

  Niala smiled at him, lifted her arms around his neck, and simply said.

  “Whatever you want to do, I'll be there with you.”

  The thought didn't bother him so much afterwards.

  As exhausted as he was, physically and emotionally, David had trouble finding sleep that night. He lay in bed looking at the ceiling, one arm holding Niala, who was, as usual, snuggling tightly against him.

  She remained awake, watching him, a hand over his belly, feeling it rise and fall as he breathed.

  “Do you want something to help you sleep?” She asked.

  He looked at her from the corner of his eye before planting a kiss on the top of her head.

  “Thanks, I'll be ok. There's just one thing that doesn't make sense.”

  “What is it?” She asked, her ears standing up.

  “Why did my parents throw me out of the family? If I were meant to be some sort of super weapon...”

  “You think they'd have forced you to stay and do as they said?” She asked.

  He stared at the ceiling, emotions battling logic, looking for an answer.

  “...I don't know. I've always thought they just threw me out because they had no use for weakness, but, if I'm to believe Leandro, I'm rather unique.” He frowned.

  “And the Wardenfel isn't a monolithic family. My father might have been the patriarch, but there is an entire ruling council that even he had to at least placate, if not outright obey, sometimes.”

  Niala scrunched up her face, ears straight. “If that's true, maybe throwing you out was a better choice than the alternative?”

  David's eyebrows rose, looking down at Niala's pensive face. “What are you thinking?”

  “Just... I dealt with a lot of nobles and rich people back in Majestic before I...” She trailed off, grimacing.

  “Anyway, I've seen enough of them self-sabotage just to keep something out of the hands of their competitors or rivals, like, sure, it hurt them, but I guess they thought their enemies having whatever resources they couldn't keep for themselves was a worse deal?”

  “...huh. That... might make sense. And opens up more questions.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like, why did they not remove my name from the peerage? Or why not throw me in prison? Or even had me killed? If they threw me out to keep me out of the hands of other factions, what's stopping them from kidnapping me anyway?”

  She let her gaze linger on him, the tip of her tail twitching, her lips pursed.

  “...tell me?” He asked.

  She kept to her silence for a few heartbeats more.

  “You won't like my theory.”

  “I'll still like you.” He said, smiling.

  The corners of her mouth rose, her cheeks tinting red.

  “If, IF, I were your cold and calculating noble parents, and I had an asset that I couldn't use, but that I also didn't want my enemies to use, I could still use it as a bait against my enemies.”

  David's brow creased as he tried to understand what she meant, and then he did, and his lines hardened.

  “They put me out there to tempt their enemies with actually kidnapping me, still their noble son, and a noble kidnapping would be very damning to whoever did so...”

  He scowled. “Those pit-born bastards! It's not enough to throw me out like garbage; they still have to keep their claws over my life?! Use me to lure their enemies into incriminating themselves!?”

  Put Niala in the line of fire?!

  He slammed a hand on the mattress, huffing, fighting back his rage.

  She put a hand on his cheek and turned his face towards hers. The fire within him retreated to a small, cold corner.

  “It'll be ok, David. You and me, together, we can do anything, right?” She told him softly.

  “...you, me, and a lot of training.”

  She blinked. “Training?”

  “My training. There's an easy answer, no matter what my pit-bound family had planned. If I really can get as strong as Leandro says, then nobody will be able to touch us.”

  Her eyebrows fell to the sides, sadness creeping into her eyes. “David, you don't need to-”

  “I think I do.” He looked into her eyes.

  She sustained his stare before laying her head on his chest. “Just promise me, you'll remember this isn't just your fight anymore, I'm here as well.”

  “...I'm sorry. You're right. I don't need to be the only one fighting.”

  She raised her head back up, a smile on her lips once more, and a bit of pride in her eyes. She pushed herself up and crawled up along his body, bringing her head level with his, noses nearly touching, staring into his eyes.

  Her words floated to his ears. “That's right. It's our fight, so you train, and I'll train in my own way, and if anyone or anything comes for us, we will meet them, together.”

  “Together.” He repeated, putting a hand on the back of her head and bringing her mouth to his, as she let the rest of her body follow suit.