The next day was Grayson's first day of training. He dressed in his clothes and tabard, jogging the two and a half kilometers to the temple of Marrati as a warm-up. He arrived a little early, not knowing exactly when they considered "dawn" around here. The Crusaders standing guard at the doors let him in with words of encouragement. He was met by Harren, who greeted him formally as his teacher.

  Grayson bowed and followed her to the same training yard that they used two days before. As they walked, she told him about the plans for training.

  "You have some knowledge of technique with your sword, but you obviously hadn't used it in an actual battle before last week. You know the techniques, but have no muscle memory to actually use them. When you limited yourself to my speed, you were hopelessly outmatched. When you used your own speed, you used no technique. This is where we will begin. To start with, I will run you through a sword kata to teach you how the techniques flow together."

  They reached the courtyard. Harren led him into the center of the training field. They started with stretches, then began teaching a sword kata using dull practice blades. Forward guard, raise to high guard in a move that can simultaneously block or parry, thrust, recover to the other side, raise to a similar high guard on the other side of his body, thrust, then recover to forward guard. He stepped forward with each move. After each repetition of the kata, he rotated, switching his feet. After twenty repetitions, Harren stepped in, performing a counterpoint to the thrusting kata.

  Harren's counter kata focused more on sweeping strikes. From a high guard, a diagonal downstroke blocked by Grayson's shift to high guard, recovering while deflecting the thrust, transferring to a low guard during Grayson's recovery, a diagonal downstroke from the other side blocked by the shift, recovering and deflecting, then moving back to the high guard again. The pair walked back and forth, switching who was performing which kata, who was stepping forward and who stepped back. Within an hour Harren was shifting her attacks as they moved through the kata, forcing Grayson to modify his guards and parries.

  Grayson was learning quickly. His neural network let him keep the neuroplasticity of a child, letting him learn far faster than most adults. He started changing his own moves in the kata, making Harren modify her own defense. Before long they were sparring properly, the steps of the kata changed to a real back and forth as they exchanged strikes. After the first hour of training, Harren stepped back, lowering her practice sword. Grayson followed her example, relaxing slightly.

  "I still don't know how you learn so damn quickly, but this is good." Harren said, shaking her head. "Normally it would be a couple of months to get you to proficiency. I think you'll be as good as I am in two weeks if you keep this up."

  "It's a kind of gift from home. Your language literally doesn't have the words to accurately describe what it is. Stuff in my brain that helps me think is about as close as I can reasonably get." Harren stared at him.

  "I've seen you twice and I already have this feeling that I won't get used to the things you say," she muttered.

  The next pair of katas focused on horizontal and vertical strikes. Instead of resting at the guard positions, they transitioned through them straight to the next attack. Grayson began from a high guard with a horizontal right cut, into an upper horizontal block, switching to a horizonal left cut into a low parry before returning to the high guard and repeating the kata, but with the strokes reversed. The second run through started with a high guard on the other side, cutting left, blocking high with the blade on the other side, before cutting right, and then performing the low parry again. The opposing kata that Harren displayed for him started with a close vertical block on the left with his hands high, into a vertical downstroke, a second close vertical block on the right with hands low, rotating the blade for force into a vertical upstroke, then repeated on opposite sides.

  This pair of kata were more niche, Harren explained as they moved through the steps. Typically, they would fight at a greater distance, keeping space between them and their opponent, allowing them to backstep from attacks. However, that wouldn't always be the case. These kata were focused on helping to keep momentum and speed while wielding the sword in close to the body. It allowed fighters to use longer blades in tighter spaces like caves or buildings where someone with a shorter blade would have an advantage. As they stepped back and forth this time, their bodies were only three feet apart, much closer than the five feet of distance from the first kata.

  The spar started more slowly this time, the lack of space making it more difficult for both of them to break out of the moves of the kata. Horizontal and vertical strikes became diagonals and the precise positions of the guards they moved through shifted. Neither had room to thrust this time, as they simply didn't have an opportunity to pull the blade back far enough. They stopped and started several times over the next hour. Each time, they returned to the original kata when their spar deviated past a point that Harren considered useful to the exercise.

  The third hour was spent on individual strokes and guards. Harren taught Grayson the names of various strike and guard positions, then called them as he advanced or retreated around her. The fourth and fifth hours were spent doing the same thing, but with Grayson using his left hand instead of his right. He was clumsy at first, knocking the dull edge of the practice sword against his shin and calf a few times, but became more fluid as the sun approached noon. Grayson was allowed to eat in the temple dining hall as Harren told him of her plans for his next day's training.

  "I really don't know how long it's going to be worth me teaching you," she lamented. "I wish all students could learn this fast - I know, I know. It's some weird thing from your own world so nobody else can do it, but sheesh. It's like you're born to do everything you do."

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  Grayson, who had opened his mouth to protest, closed it and shook his head.

  "Where I came from, a lot of what I have was normal. We aren't born this way, but we grow up with all these advantages. Part of it is just making sure that we can learn as fast as children learn for our entire lives. Others are remembering everything, having something mentioned in passing stick in our heads like we learned it from a textbook. There was a long time when we were getting things to do our thinking for us. It almost broke us. We almost lost the ability to think for ourselves..." Grayson trailed off. It was ancient history to him in his time, but he'd gone back and watched it. He'd seen the wars it had sparked.

  "Anyway, we learned from it. Instead of getting something to think for us, we got something to let us do our own thinking better." Grayson finished.

  "You're so vague about it," a Crusader two places down the table said. "There a reason you can't say what it was?"

  Grayson sighed and began the explanation of where he came from for what felt like the twelfth time. He was surprised at the response.

  "Bullshit," coughed one of the Crusaders at the table. Grayson actually considered that a pretty fair response, even if Harren's expression made it seem like he clearly shouldn't. His claims were ludicrous to say the least, unbelievable and something that most would consider simply impossible. Hell, if he wasn't living it, he probably wouldn't believe it even if...

  Lady Marrati?

  I wondered how long it might be, Grayson Ketter.

  I suppose it was probably inevitable. At least for you and Oris. Mareshi as well if I try to go after the Muric empire.

  And I have no doubt that more of us will be involved one way or another. Lorath certainly... At least for our dealings.

  Anyway, I figured that this would be as good a time as any for us to discuss this.

  So that you can prove a point to my chosen, you mean? Tactically sound, so I will allow it.

  That opened up a whole extra line of inquiry that Grayson would be thinking about later.

  Yes, I am the Goddess of Fighters, but really that encompasses all individual competition, and all members of team competition. When a merchant and customer haggle, is that not a battle of wills and wits? Do they not fight, if only metaphorically? And is that not merely an extension of physical combat?

  Well, shit.

  There was a feeling of divine amusement at Grayson's reaction.

  Your interactions have mostly been with Perimis, but you were told by your friend that there was more to each of us than the mere name suggests. Perimis is relatively straight forward. Her concept really is quite narrow, which is why you were such a great find for her. For me? It's funny. You really weren't a fighter until that night. Now, you're ready to kill without a second thought if that's the only way to save innocent people. A not undesirable trait.

  Not unpacking that now. What, exactly would be the nature of our oath? As you say, my desire to fight comes more to protect people than to be aggressive. Even my desire to attack the Muric empire comes from wanting to end their slavery. But you'd find thousands of people ready to do the same. What makes me important enough to bond to you?

  You're getting the hang of this. Yes, there are certainly thousands who embody my concept at least as well as you. You're unlikely to become one of my favored. But what none of them have is your knowledge of forms of combat completely new to this world. Cyber war, Karate, Judo, the siangham, the rifle. All of these are unknown to this civilization and many more. For the knowledge you can bring to my temple, I offer you my power and presence when you need it.

  Then in exchange for my civilization's forms of combat, I accept your power and presence. Though I doubt cyber war would be useful to anyone here.

  Yeah, we can skip that one. An hour in each of your lessons will be devoted to this price for the time of your study with Harren and any others of my priests you learn from. If you are ever bored and feel the inclination, my priests will always be willing to learn these forms from you.

  Your generosity abounds, my Lady.

  The internal conversation took barely a second. Grayson turned and looked to the Crusader that had spoken, his eyes glowing the same blood red that Harren's did two days before. When he spoke, the voices that came out of his mouth were his, and the rich feminine voice of the Goddess of Fighters.

  "I can assure you. He speaks the truth," Marrati said through Grayson's lips. Grayson moved his hand over his tabard, blood red light forming the shape of Marrati's icon in a space directly above the icon of Perimis. A sword, spear, and staff crossed behind a shield emblazoned with a scroll appeared, embroidered in blood red and steel grey on the dull grey tabard. Afterwards, Grayson blinked, the glow receding until it was just a spark, resting beside the brighter golden spark in his pupils.

  "Well, at least that settles that," groaned Harren, letting her head fall on the table. The rest of the room was dead silent, everyone having stopped eating to stare at them.

  "I, uh... I'm sorry. I apologize for doubting your word," the Crusader down the table stood up and bowed formally.

  "If I wasn't living my life, I'd call it impossible too," sighed Grayson. "I'm surprised so many people have accepted it at all. This is the third or fourth time I've had to invoke a Goddess to get someone to realize that my existence is even possible."

  Conversation slowly started up around the room again. Grayson turned the topic of conversation at his table over to the local shopping area that the Marrati clergy had access to. It turned out the concourse that Fera had taken him was frequently used by the temples on that side of the quarter that held the knights compound and the twelve temples. The other temples used a completely different area on the other side of the quarter, with a completely different selection of stores. He got a long list of places to take Fera to later as well as a couple of elbows when he asked for places that she might want to see.

  The atmosphere was a lot more welcoming than it had been that morning. Grayson was happy that his relationship with Harren was a little less formal. That afternoon, he'd be saying "sir" a lot.