Song: Reaper// Jordan Frye

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"Are you ever gonna open your bloody mouth and tell me what the heck is going on?"

"Are you ever gonna shut your bloody mouth and quit badgering?"

Avyanna rolled her eyes at Kingsley, who was getting more and more exasperated by the minute. He kept having staring showdowns with Diem and it was getting excruciatingly disturbing the way he made it evident he hated the blond for some reason, but declined to say it.

"Okay then. I'll just go ask Diem about it."

Kingsley immediately whipped his head around from the man-torso dummy which he was jabbing at tactlessly with a fencing sword. He looked frantic at first, but then a smug smirk settled over his features.

"If that's how you wanna play it, I'm gonna go to pretty boy Ace."

"You are a giant arse."

"Yours truly."

This was pointless! However much Ava tried to leave it be, the more inquisitive she got as to what could be so heinous that Kingsley was hell-bent on keeping it buried. She made a mental note to do some sleuthing and find out the Kingsley-Katz shared history.

The doors of the weapons room swung open and the man Ava had seen earlier with Esmeralda entered. Average built, muscular, and his hair graying from the roots, he walked with purpose to the center of the sparring ring. Sounds of chirping crickets trickled in through the window and the incandescent stones at each corner of the room were lit up, leaving colored lights dancing across the room at dawn.

The grey-haired man clapped his hands twice to get everyone's attention, the sound bounding off the walls and echoing hollowly in their skulls. All indistinct chatter ceased until it was only the chosen assassins looking at the man.

He motioned them to surround him in a half-moon and once he could see everyone without turning around, he began.

"Good Morning and welcome all to the Westbrook Training Center. My name is Clarence Ó Cleirigh and I am going to be polishing your skill set. I know you are all just kids, some younger than others. Maybe you've never even had to hold a blade ever in your life, maybe you don't even know the basics of sparring. But what you do have, is burning passion. Determination. Madness, even. And if you truly possess that, well then, welcome to the fire."

A bout of silence was a shared, the last phrase evoking anxious glances.

"Don't worry if you are not excellent at sparring yet, I take the responsibility upon myself to train all of you. However, if you don't show any progress after remarkable training, I'm sorry to inform you but we'll be letting you go. This mission is of utmost importance and we cannot afford any slip-ups. I cannot stress on this enough but this has to go right. Alright now," He added, rubbing his palms together, "I'm going to pair you up in partners to spar. You will be sparring with people you don't know well, so you cannot predict their moves. But you have to try."

Avyanna leaned over to Ace and whispered, "You better pray to God you don't end up partners with me."

"Oh trust me, I'm calling in all favors." Ace replied, a mock-serious face on.

Ava chuckled lightly at this and drew her very volatile attention back to Clarence, who had begun picking up random people and sending them off to spar. When Diem was called up, for a moment she hoped he'd get paired with Hector, just to make him mad, but immediately felt guilty for thinking that.

Hector had the same apprehension, as could be seen from the way his jaw muscles tensed up and how he clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white. Honestly? Ava wouldn't trust him alone with the snow-haired boy.

But her eyes grew wide as Clarence called her up. She froze to the spot only to be nudged ahead by either Kingsley or Ace, though she highly suspected the latter.

Diem and Ava took a position on either side of each other, cautiously circling each other. Diem scoffed at Avyanna's defensive stance.

"Already decided you wanna play the scaredy-cat?" He scoffed, his melodic voice at odds with the venom in words.

"Yeah, well this cat can scratch your eyes out!" Ava spat back.

Diem only laughed at this mockingly, which angered her further. Out of rage, she threw a blow at his head which he dodged easily. He lifted his leg to perform a side kick but Ava caught his leg before it could hit her and twisted it, throwing him off balance. Instead of falling, he caught himself and scoffed her moves.

"Just as I expected. Sloppy and tactless." Ava's blood boiled and her hands ached to slap him in the face. But sparring didn't allow slapping so she did the next best thing. Faking a roundhouse kick, she swung her leg halfway, causing Diem to duck. But as soon as he bent to escape the blow, her fist connected with his nose. Diem staggered backward, holding his nose. When he withdrew his palm, Ava could distinctly see blood.

Diem, now infuriated beyond expectations, began to see red. He stumbled a bit, his eyes watering from the hit. From the corner of his eyes, he glimpsed the weapon's rack. A lunge later, he stood equipped with a basic training sword and charged at his unarmed opponent. Ava's eyes widened in realization of what he was attempting to do. She ran to the rack and picked an unsheathed blade, blocking Diem who was seconds away from slicing her neck.

Diem sneered at Avyanna as they both assumed a high guard, and threw an overhand cut. Ava parried quickly, reflexively. Diem cut from the other side, and Ava parried again. They moved, back and forth, until, realizing she wasn't dead yet, Avyanna started to think, to act instead of react. Diem kept throwing overhand cuts. She could use this.

With the next cut, Ava threw her hands up, and parried high, with her point towards Diem's face. In her pleasure at success, she nearly missed the moment to thrust but thrust she did. Diem, surprised, leaped backward, slapping her blade aside. Ava did not fight the blow, but turned the deflection into a moulinet and cut at Diem's head.

Diem parried, and cut against her. Ava dodged to the side, throwing a crooked cut at Diem's hands. The blond stared in shock at his pinky finger, bleeding scarlet against the gold hilt.

Wasting no time gawking herself, Ava pressed in, keeping her blade against Diem's to close the line, and pressed her point against his throat. Diem glared daggers at Avyanna but said the required words.

"I yield."

"Of course you do, you bitch," Ava replied coldly and attempted to walk off in style but walked into Clarence. He was glaring at both of them, obviously mad for some reason. He pointed at the two of them accusingly and asked,

"Are you trying to murder each other? This was supposed to be a hand to hand combat, not a sword fight!" He yelled.

"It was reckless and moronic of you to take jabs at each other. Goddamnit you almost cut his finger off!" He told off Ava.

"But she started it! We were sparring and SHE charged at me with a sword!" Diem lied.

"You bloody liar! Everyone could see you plunging at the weapon's rack because you are too much of a coward to fight unarmed. I'd rather lose honorably than win through deceiving."

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"You and Katz had a pretty heated sparring session. I would have loved to see you chop his head off," Kingsley declared.

"I would have loved to chop it," Ava replied, absentmindedly playing with a strand of her dark hair. Her head hurt from waking up at the crack of dawn and she desperately needed coffee. She stood up and trudged at a zombie pace towards the kitchen.

"Where are you going?"

"I need coffee." She stated matter-of-factly.

"Oh, pretty boy just went in there," Kingsley replied, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"Oh, Joy!" Avyanna didn't even bother turning around as she snapped back, sarcasm oozing. Rolling her eyes, she blew her hair out of her face, too tired to even use her hands. She was greeted by the sight of Ace pouring black coffee into a mug. He turned around at the sound of her footsteps and smiled.

"Morning, Miss Irvine. What brings you here?" He greeted, sounding mock formal.

Avyanna pointed at the coffee and made grabby hands. "Gimme the mug."

Ace shook his head and held it to his chest. "No, that's mine."

Creeping up to him, she snatched the mug from his hand and climbed up on the platform. She took a sip of it, claiming it before she sat down, legs hanging from the edge of the platform. She smiled cheekily, looking at Ace for his reaction.

"Thief. Get your own coffee next time." He said, shaking his head.

He poured himself another cup and climbed up beside her. They sat in silence for a minute, sipping and swinging their legs occasionally.

"So," Ace began, "You and Hector...?"

Ava choked on her beverage and coughed, almost falling off the platform at that preposterous suggestion. She laughed at his naivete and cluelessness

"Oh god, no! If anything he plays cupid!" She stated, still laughing.

Ace smirked softly and said in a whisper so low, Ava almost missed it.

"Okay, that means he's available."

It took her a good minute to figure out what he actually meant and was so taken aback at his response that she spat a mouthful of coffee back into the mug, eyes widening in realization.

"What, you have a problem with that? Are you gonna kick me out for being me too?" Ace said, a sad smile on his face.

Avyanna, afraid that she had offended him, immediately resorted to damage control.

"No no no, I didn't mean it that way! I just- I was a tad surprised, I have to say I did not see that coming... But I don't have a problem, why would anyone?"

"Tell that to my family... They were so afraid that I'd get them into trouble with the monarchs, they kicked me out. I lived at a friend's for a week and then caught a whiff of the Selection Ceremony, got selected, blah blah blah, here we are!"

He tried to sound cheerful, but Ava could see the hurt in his eyes. Losing your family was one thing, but them shunning you is a whole new level of messed up.

"So what's your story?" Ace nudged her.

"Erm, well let's see... there isn't much to tell, to be honest. My father fought in the war and lost his life battling, my brother was supposedly an Assassin and he's been missing ever since I was four. My mother probably hates me for running away..."

"You ran away?!" Ace questioned, clearly surprised at her guts.

"Yeah... My mother was against my leaving and I just had to... I would've gone psycho if I stayed."

Avyanna smiled a sad, half-smile, and swirled the coffee in her cup, watching the dark shades twirl, the liquid tiding and ebbing like waves against a shore.

"But if you don't like Hector, who do have an eye on?"

"No one."

"Is it a certain blond bitch?"

"Katz? Oh hell no!"

"Hey, no one's judging."

She slugged his arm and glared at him. "He makes my blood boil..."

"He is pretty shit."

"Someone should pat him on the head..." Ava began. Ace looked at her, confused.

"With a spiked club!" She finished. A smile broke out on both their faces as they imagined bashing him to death.

Ace nodded in agreement. "True. Talking to him is about as pleasant sitting on a nail while your toes are on fire."

Avyanna laughed at the hilarious comparison. But then another thought took over her. Sure, she detested Diem, but Hector seemed to have a more specific reason to hate him.She glanced at Ace, who was fiddling with his sleeves, which were a tad too long for him.

"Hey, Loughty,"

"Hmm?"

"Do you know what's the feud on about, between Kingsley and Katz?"

Ace hopped off the platform and put his mug on the counter. Looking out the window thoughtfully, sucking on his teeth.

"Well, I don't know the full story, but from what I've heard, Kingsley used to live in Wyvern, with Katz. They used to be close but Katz is the worst influence possible. He and Hector would get into the worst kinds of troubles. But one day they got caught in the act. I don't know what it was but Kingsley was forced to leave Wyvern and shift to Amberhall. Diem, that sly bitch, got off scot-free because-"

"Because he is a Katz..." Ava interrupted.

"Well, yeah, his family kinda runs the show around here so can't say I'm surprised."

"But I believe God was on crack when he made that pesky, blond, arrogant, loathsome piece of filth. He ma-"

"Makes your blood boil. Yeah, heard that one before." Ace rolled his eyes and Ava stuck her tongue out a him.

"Yes, that looks very ladylike and becoming on you." He teased her, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Surprise, surprise! I am backkkk! Let's rejoice woop woop!

Alright, now that that's out of the way, Whaddup? I have officially made a new writing schedule which means I should be able to post almost every alternate day!

Hang on for the next update!

Until then,

Toodles Cinnamon rolls 😘😘!