Cai closed the door behind him. He had to get stronger. Did his tutor have time to spare tomorrow?

Cai put his shoes on.

"Where are you going?" Mary asked.

"I wanted to pay Master Fry a visit."

Mary frowned. "Alright. At least let me get your coat from Mae. It's not like she's going to need it while she's in bed."

"Alright."

Mary draped the red coat over his shoulders. "Please be careful. I don't want you to get hurt, too."

"I will."

Once Cai got past his front yard, he began running.

He wasn't able to do anything for his sister. That was so frustrating. He had to do something with that frustration before he did something stupid.

Master Fry opened the door before Cai had the chance to knock. "What is it, son? Why were you running?"

Cai stepped back. He hadn't expected Master Fry to hear him coming like that.

His master sighed. "Come in. Sit down. Have a little rice."

"Were you planning to have lunch before I arrived?"

"Cai. Inside. Now."

Oh... Cai entered the house. His master was getting mad. He should probably listen.

Master Fry pulled out a wooden chair. "Have a seat." He scooped some rice into a bowl. "Eat."

"Master?"

He put some rice in his own bowl. "You would be surprised how much food and some shut-eye can help with solving problems."

After the first bite, Cai shoveled spoonful after spoonful of rice into his mouth.

Master Fry put another bowl in front of him. "Knock yourself out."

Cai then proceeded to scarf down that bowl of rice.

Master Fry held out a cup. "Feel better now?"

Cai took a few gulps before putting the cup down. He wiped his mouth with a handkerchief. "Yeah, I feel better now."

"Where were you before you came here?"

"We brought Mae home from Cillian's."

"The clinic?"

Cai nodded.

"She was sick?"

"We got attacked by some bandits." Cai bit his lip, clenching his fists. "One of them had a poisoned knife."

His master's eyes that were blue at some times and green at others widened. "Are you hurt?"

"M-Mae jumped in the way of the knife."

"Was anyone else with you? Were they hurt?"

Cai put his hands in his pockets. "The crown prince tried to hide his identity as he accompanied us. He had also been struck by the poison knife."

"Where is he now?" Master Fry asked.

"When we left with Mae, he was in a bed and his parents were watching over him."

Master Fry let out a deep breath. "Okay, good. It is not a good idea to get poisoned if you can help it."

Cai narrowed his eyes at his master. Thank you, Captain Obvious.

"And that's why I'm here." Cai balled his pocketed fists. "I want you to give me more training. I don't want to be so helpless again." He glared at the table. "I should have protected my sister. Not the other way around."

"That is definitely a frustrating position to be in. What kind of weapons were those heathens using?"

Cai closed his eyes for a split second. "One of them had the poisoned knife, but most of them had whips. They wanted to find some new slaves."

His master mumbled, "If I had been there, I would have liked to have disposed of that scum, but alas..."

Cai probably wasn't meant to hear that, but he was sure the king felt the same way. Although getting the kids to safety was probably his first priority.

"You were at a disadvantage, because you fight at close range, right?"

"Kaleb did the bulk of the actual fighting, yes."

Master Fry stroked his stubble. "I'll have to think about ways we can mitigate that." He met Cai's gaze. "I will train you, but I can't promise you that it will be tomorrow."

"Why not?" Cai whined.

"Your physical body might be fine, but what you went through isn't easy." Master Fry took a pause. "You need to give your mind time to recover. To fight at your best, you need to be sound in mind and body."

Cai groaned. He couldn't argue about that. His master was very insistent about it.

"Do you know if Maeve has any powers?"

"If she does, they haven't come out yet." Cai furrowed his eyebrows. "Is she even old enough for them to?"

Master Fry nodded. "Most of the kids I work with start around the age of seven."

"I don't know about the money stuff. You're going to have to talk to Mom about that," Cai said.

"Of course."

***

Knock-knock!

Cai ran to answer the door. "Good morning, Master."

Master Fry had a brown bag strung over his shoulder. "Good morning, Cai. Where's your sister?"

Cai called down the hallway, "Hey, Mae! Can you come here?"

Mae was wearing the dress Mary had just finished making for her. Their mom wanted to replace the dress that had been ripped and Mae was growing, too.

"Say hello to Master Fry," Cai said. "He is my tutor, and he's here to meet you."

Mae did a small curtsey. "It's nice to meet you, sir."

Master Fry got down on one knee to be at the girl's eye level. "It's nice to meet you, too, Maeve. Do you know if your magic has come out yet?"

The little girl nodded. "I use it to help Molly after she falls down."

"Where was I when that happened?" Cai asked.

"Not home."

Master Fry ruffled her hair. "That's a good place to start."

Mae smiled.

"Do you know if you have any other magic?"

"Yeah. I can make fire. I've tried to cook with it, but I'm still burning everything."

Cai's face paled. "Don't do that in the house, dummy! That can spiral really quickly!"

"There are probably better ways to learn how to do that," Master Fry said.

Cai mumbled, "You still have a really long way to go..."