“Yes, yes. Very impressive, Vir. You’ll be a master assassin, able to lop people’s heads off with a flick of your wrist,” she said, clapping slowly.
“Maiya, c’mon. Don’t be like that.”
She heaved a great sigh. “I know. I’m happy for you, Vir. I really am. I just feel so antsy about all of this. I want to learn magic! I just… I want to be better than you at something!”
“You mean, like how you can run ten times the distance I can without keeling over? Or how you have a greater and a lesser elemental affinity, while I can’t even use the most basic utility orbs?”
“That’s… I’m sorry, Vir. I didn’t mean it like that.” She cast her eyes to her feet.
Vir chuckled. “No problem. You’ve got a ton of things I’d kill to have. I just feel you’d be happier if you valued that more.”
Maiya let out an enormous sigh. “You’re right. You’re totally right. Anyway, I’m heading inside. We’ve still got to give each other massages today, so don’t burn yourself out training, alright?”
Vir hesitated, then nodded. He’d forgotten all about that. Riyan had forced the unusual task upon them, claiming it was an integral part of the Kalari arts.
“I’ll cook up some dinner, so don’t worry about that,” she said as she walked away.
Thanks, Maiya. He’d be sure to give her an extra nice massage, then.
Both found the massage sessions incredibly awkward at first, but now they could hardly live without it. The soothing therapy loosened their muscles and undid much of the strain of the day’s activities. Before, they’d wake up sore and stiff, and merely making it through the day was a chore.
The days were still long, but at least the massages limbered them up and helped them start the day fresh and ready. Plus, though neither would ever admit it, they felt so good… even if it hurt. A lot.
The inner edge of the disk was rounded to allow the wielder to grasp without being cut, but even so, his palm still touched the bladed side, which was why he currently wore the faded half-finger leather gloves Riyan had given him. Though this set had been blunted somewhat, they still had enough of an edge to make them uncomfortable to his bare hands.
Vir continued to practice with the thrown weapons after Maiya left. The smaller chakris didn’t fly as far and were harder to aim, but as Riyan had pointed out, they were incredibly easy to hide. He could wear the weapons as bracelets, and no one would bat an eye. The chakrams were less concealable, but they made for fine jewelry around his neck… so long as he didn’t mind being stared at. The chakrams were also incredibly stable in flight and could go much farther, making them indispensable in combat.
He’d been experimenting with various grips and noticed when he held the chakrams in a vertical orientation like a wheel, they didn’t fly nearly as far, having a tendency to drift off to the left or to the right. On the other hand, he could generate a scary amount of force when throwing them that way. He pitied whoever was at the receiving end of an attack like that. Even if the blade didn’t cut them, the impact would surely hurt.
A horizontal grip yielded vastly different results. He couldn’t quite put as much force into his swing, but that’s when he’d get the most of their distance capabilities.
Wondering why, he inspected the chakram closely. He traced a finger over the gleaming steel disk to discover that the bottom of the chakram was flat. After running his hand over the topside several times, he was sure of it—the top of the blade had a very slight curvature from the thin edge to the inner ring.
Like the wings of a bird… He’d had plenty of opportunities to inspect avian corpses when he’d plucked their feathers for Rudvik. He’d grown quite familiar with their structure.
While he didn’t really understand how that made the chakrams fly better, it made sense that the disks mimicked a bird’s wing shape.
Out of curiosity, Vir pulled out his old bushcraft knife, took careful aim, and threw it at the tree. The knife hit the trunk, but bounced off.
“I see…” He’d just discovered the crippling flaw with throwing a knife. A knife was dangerous only on one side. If he wanted to do damage with it, he’d have to judge his distance and adjust the number of rotations such that the blade would strike the enemy. That sounded incredibly difficult.
Chakrams and chakris, however, were bladed on all sides, eliminating that requirement. Plus, he could throw them with far less force compared to the knife. Vir had to wonder why more people didn’t use these amazing weapons.
The hours sped by in a blur of thrown disks.
While Vir had to rest constantly to regain his breath, he’d made steady progress, inch by inch. He threw the weapons while ducking and jumping. He launched assault after assault at the tree while spinning and diving.
All of his flashy attacks missed, but his throwing technique was already noticeably improving.
If he stood still and concentrated on his form, he could now reliably hit the tree at fifteen paces away with chakris, and twenty-five paces with chakrams. Not bad for a few hours of practice.
His years of lobbing pebbles were paying off. The muscle memory translated almost perfectly to the chakram arts.
The thought of him reliably striking targets while parkouring and vaulting made him so giddy, he could hardly contain himself. By the time he’d stopped, the sun’s rays had grown long in the sky, and the temperature was dropping precipitously.
I feel like I’m forgetting something here… he thought as he returned to the abode.
It struck him the moment he entered inside. Chala’s knees, the massage!
He returned to his bedroom to find an irate Maiya and a droopy-eyed Neel.
“About time! You fall over with exhaustion a minute into our duels, but somehow, you manage to practice for hours out there in the searing heat, huh?”
Vir looked away sheepishly. “Sorry. Lemme wash off with a quick shower. I’ll be right back.”
He picked out some clean clothes—Riyan had procured several sets of sturdy, simple pants and shirts for them since they’d arrived dressed in rags—and rushed over to the shower.
“Food’s in the kitchen!” she called as he fled the bedroom.
It took every shred of his willpower to wrench himself away from the soothing heat of the shower, especially after a hard day’s effort. But he managed it.
After cleaning off, he raided the kitchen and wolfed down the lentil soup and olive bread that Maiya had rustled up. Though he’d been learning, he still couldn’t compete with her incredible culinary skills. With access to Riyan’s ingredients, she’d made some of the best dishes he’d eaten in his whole life.
The Kalari massage technique Riyan taught them was bizarre, to say the least. Fabric tassels hung from the roof of their bedroom, and a thick rug lay out on the floor. Maiya had already stripped down to her underwear and was lying on her stomach, waiting.
Vir began by applying eucalyptus oil to her back, arms, and legs, being sure to work the liquid into her muscles. The oil’s fresh scent filled the room, creating an aura of peace and tranquility.
He could never get enough of that pungent smell. There wasn’t anything quite like it back in the village. Probably owing to their obscene cost. He didn’t even want to guess how much the oils had set Riyan back.
The next phase of the massage involved the fabric tassels. Carefully stepping onto Maiya’s back, he gripped the tassels for balance and began driving his heel into her muscles, working his way up and down her body.
It was a decent amount of work on his part. Not only did he have to balance himself, he had to apply just the right amount of force in exactly the right places to loosen her muscles. Too little force and the treatment would be ineffective. Too much, and Maiya would strangle him to death for hurting her. They’d both been subjected to some pretty torturous massages when they first began. Thankfully, their skills had improved in recent weeks.