Inch by Inch

The path led through a valley in the earth. It was not a deep one, perhaps a meter below the norm at its lowest, but that was enough to form a trough and narrow the way for any passersby.

This was not a natural formation. No, thousands of feet had worn down the ground here. They had compacted the soil under their weight and force until it became tougher and dense enough to be brick. Stronger or not, still the feet had fallen. Bricks, even stone, could wear away under so many impacts, and these feet were more than eager in their passage to carry their spoils away. Yet they were careless, caring little for one prize when another step brought more.

Small particles of dust drifted through the air ahead of Ana, Jay and Kane. They didn’t need to fight against the press of bodies in this gulley, but they were not saved from the aftereffects of the marauding. The crowd and its rhythmic panting and frantic footfall were out of their reach. But for the first time, the sight of the perpetrators was not. Disappearing into a gate ahead was the fourth-to-last straggler of the dog track.

“Nearly there,” Jay called. “We’re so close. Just need to keep it up.”

Experience had taught him that it was best to use ‘we’ and not single anyone out in particular. He brushed a bead of sweat off his forehead and tried not to consider how much of it was alcohol.

Beside him, Kane bobbed his head to a song only he could hear. Not a hint of moisture to be found on the smooth angles of his face. Kane’s eyes were unfocused, and this close to Lauchia’s grand wall, Jay couldn’t find it in himself to complain. Not when Kane, the fittest among them, maintained a pace that saw him making short, uncomfortable steps instead of his preferred loping gait. He was slowing himself down for them. There would be no answer to Jay’s encouragement from his quarter.

“Hnngnh.”

Nor an intelligible answer from their teammate on Jay’s other side. In her defense, Ana needed all that breath to keep running. Talking was frivolous right now.

As the gate grew ever nearer, he took solace in the fact it seemed to have worked. Ana was flagging, but no faster than before now that they weren’t chasing the dog’s tail any longer.

The three of them sighed, relaxed and stumbled in relief as they crossed through the gate and felt the cool touch of the wall’s shadow. Jay kept his motivational attempts to a minimum as they raced that final distance to the bureau. Ana had started the race incredibly determined, and he didn’t want to ruin that.

They didn’t come close to catching up, but there were still adventurers waiting and recovering on the street when they arrived.

“Incredible-”

Ana sank to the ground, laying down on her back. She paused her panting only to moan her appreciation of the cold cobblestones.

“-work,” Jay finished with less surety. “Are you okay?”

Ana groaned and shook her head. Her chest heaved with effort, and her legs shook as she forced her knees into the air to form a triangle with her legs. Like the rest of her clothing, Ana’s exercise outfit was fitted and quite dangerous at that moment.

“Ne-huhg-never-huhg-again.”

“Want some water?”

Ana made a very rude gesture with a trembling hand. He went and got one of those cups from the fountain.

The air stank of something sour that made Jay wrinkle his face when he got back. It didn’t take him long to figure out why, with how Kane was gathering nests of Ana’s hair with both hands as she coughed. Strands of brown sprung out between his fingers in uneven clumps. It was a poor attempt to protect the hair.

“Shit, here.” Jay placed the cup down in front of Ana. She grabbed it to gargle and wash her mouth out.

“Neeeever again,” Ana promised, sitting back on her shins and tapping Kane’s hand to get him to release her hair. The straight locks fell down around her face like a pail of water had been thrown at her back.

Jay had to admit he might have judged Kane a little harshly as Ana struggled to prod the shoulder length strands back into a semblance of order. Looking away, he grimaced at the lumpy puddle on the ground.

“I’ll collect our pay and see if they have a mop.”

It took longer than usual to collect the six bronze. Some stragglers had taken their time chatting and stretching after the run. It felt good to queue, which was new for Jay. None of those queueing were from recognizable guilds, but they were an impossible sight just weeks before.

It wasn’t that every guild recruit was in top form, some would have found themselves unprepared just like Ana, but the dog track was for more than exercise. Over time, the event had grown beyond what the bureau and city intended it to be. When it became a spectacle, it became an opportunity for the guilds. Locals watched, and they remembered. A spectator today was a customer tomorrow. There was a reason why Bedrock and the Marching Orders led the runners off. Few guilds would send members out if they couldn’t make the guild look good.

Jay collected his team’s bronze and a cleaning bucket and walked out with a smile on his face. Some days it was great to be independent, and any day he could avoid politics was one of those days.

Outside, Ana was back on her feet, and gently being led through a series of stretches by Kane.

“Cooldown on the way back to the dorms?” Jay suggested, stepping in beside them to join the stretch.

Kane interlinked his hands over his shoulder and behind his back. “Hm, I need to get some things from outside the walls.”

“What?” Jay asked, curious.

“Some stones and twigs. Material for training later.”

“Really?” Ana asked, attempting the same and struggling to grasp her own hands. “You want to go out again? You couldn’t have picked that up, I don’t know, anytime in the last hour?”

Kane shrugged, his face impassive as he faced down the tired and angry Ana.

Ana rolled her eyes and started to complain under her breath.

Jay’s grin would not be contained. He had never felt such a positive connection with his teammate. It was almost enough to kiss him, coast-style, right there. If Kane had been aware enough to sing while running, he’d been aware enough to remember to grab stones. The often oblivious man hadn’t stepped away because he didn’t want to discourage Ana.

“I’ll go with you,” Jay announced, to both his teammates’ surprise. “Let’s leave from the north-western gate.” That dorm was conveniently on the way to that gate.

He turned to Ana. “You can take your time cleaning up, and decide where to get breakfast if we take a long time.”

She was suspicious as always, but the temptation of a long break was too much to resist.

It was a slow walk back to the dorm, but Jay was walking on clouds the whole way.

| i i i ¦ i i i | i i i ¦ i i i |

“Did something happen last night?”

Jay brushed a pebble free of dirt and threw it into the pile. The clack as it struck the other rocks was useful for drawing his companion’s attention, but it didn’t appear needed as Kane let his own digging lapse to face him.

“In what way?”

“Ana. She was extra motivated this morning. It’s not a bad thing, but...” She’d puked. Getting sick wasn’t uncommon after a tough workout, but it wasn’t healthy either.

Jay was also searching for something to say. The silence after Ana had left was starting to bug him.

“She met Abby last night.”

“Oh.” Abby, his and Kane’s mutual training partner at the guard’s sessions, and Jay’s friend. Abby, who’d joined the Marching Orders. “How’s she doing?”

Kane shrugged. “She appeared overwhelmed. Ana and her stepped away and spent most of the night talking.”

“Huh.” He dug another pebble from the dirt. Maybe he’d ask Abby about it when he saw her. Lauchia was big, but they had to run into each other at some point. “How was everyone from Bedrock without Ana? They didn’t spend all night badmouthing settlements or anything, did they?”

“Fine.”

The response came quick. Too quick. Jay half squinted at Kane. “You can talk about them around me, you know?”

Kane grunted something and turned, but not before Jay caught a hint of color in his cheeks.

Whatever, Jay thought. Overreacting to the whole mess was nothing to get embarrassed about. He was a little sore about how the group was acting, but there was no need to try and hide their existence.

A good ten minutes passed by. They’d created a twenty-one centimeter pile of pebbles and were collecting twigs and dried leaves before Jay felt the urge to break the silence again. He didn’t have anything to say, so he just went with the first thing on his mind.

“You have to gather it in a tail.”

“What?” Kane asked, looking down at the twigs and leaves in his hands.

“Hair.” Jay mimed the motion with his hands. “You have to gather it into a tail when it’s long. Trying to hold it separately never works. In case it happens again. With Ana.”

“Oh.” Kane was staring at the twigs now. His hands twitched. “How did you learn that?”

Flashes of reality nightmares run through Jay’s head, of late nights, his crying and cursing sister Suko, and far too much puke in far too many places.

“Training,” he blurted out. “Sometimes the morning runs got a bit much. We all got queasy. Kate and Abby too.”

Kane nodded and went back to scouring the grassy patch for more material.

Jay shuddered and shoved those sickening memories away.

| i i i ¦ i i i | i i i ¦ i i i |

The afternoon sun cast shadows across coarse, curly hair. He stood in a circle of nature; stone, wood and plant in equal measure and piled at his feet. In one hand, Kane held a representation of each; a cold blue stone, a twisted red twig and a dried brown leaf. In the other, he offered a strip of undyed cloth. His face was serious and proud.

It was artistic; it was posed; it was dramatic.

Ana and Jay looked at each other in confusion. What on earth was their teammate doing?

“You want us to put that on you?” Jay repeated, gesturing at the strip of cloth. He didn’t recognise it, but that didn’t stop him from praying that Kane had received it from Ana and not... somewhere else.

Kane nodded. “I will spread the materials out, and you will need to approach me. If I hear you, I point and you lose.”

Ana’s eye flicked between the blindfold and the circle around Kane until her face settled into shocked understanding. “How did you even think of this?”

Kane let the blindfold fall to his side. “It is how I was taught. We used to play-train with it when I was younger.”

Jay and Ana met eyes. There was a lot to unpack there.

“Stone, wood or wheat?” Kane asked, starting with a different practiced tone, but switching when he realized he was making it.

“Stone?” Jay offered. It was the only material they could really use twice.

Ana shrugged. She was close enough to Jay that he could hear what she whispered next. “I don’t see him grabbing any dried cattle dung.”

They both helped Kane spread the pebbles across the section of the training yard that they’d claimed for themselves. This was going to be a painful exercise to clean up and reset.

It was also a painful exercise to do. For their pride, at least.

Jay crept forward, stepping down toe first. It required utter concentration, but if he gently nudged that pink branch a little to the left, there would be space for his foot. It would bring him that extra step closer, almost to his record.

The chatter of a group entering the training grounds broke his concentration and nearly made him stumble into a left on his right. It wasn’t for nothing. He seized the distraction, trusting the group was loud enough to cover minor mistakes. Jay hurried through three steps and reached out to-

Kane’s hand nearly poked his eyes out before he could tap his teammate. The nail on his middle finger scraped at the recently healed skin on Jay’s cheek.

”Ow, ow,” Jay muttered, stepping back with a loud crack that boded poorly for the clean up later.

“Close,” Ana announced with a muffled laugh. “But it doesn’t count if you cheat!”

Kane turned to her with unerring accuracy. It was much weirder with the blindfold on. “Using the sound of animals or the wind is not cheating.”

She rolled her eyes.

“You try to do better with it,” Jay said, leaving the circle as quick as he could while leaving it intact. Ana’s eyes darkened with concentration. She was always one for a challenge. He clapped his hands as she stalked around Kane, picking a spot to enter. When she took her first step into the circle, he stopped.

“Jay.”

It took Jay a few seconds to recognise the man addressing him. He looked different from when Jay had last seen him in Kavakar.

Eric didn’t wait for a response. “We’re even now.”

Behind him, the rest of the group he’d arrived with began to do pushups while an older woman scowled at his back.

It took Jay a second to find his words. “Hello Eric, and what?” Bakti’s warnings hadn’t prepared him for whatever this was.

Eric narrowed his eyes and looked down at Jay. In the last few weeks, Eric had changed his hairstyle, cutting his blond hair shorter and slicking it back. It suited the man, but Jay was reluctant to admit it. Especially while under that glare.

“I don’t know how you did it, but it won’t happen again.” Eric spat out the words like they’d been festering in his mouth for months.

Jay took a step back, away from both Eric and the circle. “Eric, I have no idea what you’re on about.”

Eric didn’t follow, but he gave no sign that he had heard Jay’s words either. “I heard what you were doing, cozying up to those Bedrock recruits. You don’t get to sneak your way in, not after what you did to me. You ruin my chances, I ruin yours. Now we’re even.”

“Those Bedrock...” It clicked. Peak. “You went around telling people about my Word? Making up rumors about me? What the fuck?”

Eric sniffed. “Fair’s fair.”

Jay shook his head, stepping forward. “No, don’t brush it off. Why would you do that? What the fuck Eric?”

Eric stepped back, sneering now. “Fine, act that way. Just don’t try anything. You won’t get me again. I will Oppose you.”

Jay watched him leave, too flabbergasted to say anything. Even the small delight he got watching the older woman who’d been counting down the group’s pushups gesture angrily at Eric wasn’t enough. Bakti had said that Eric was causing issues with his own guild. That mess didn’t stop him from causing issues with Jay as well, it seemed.

“What did Eric say?” Kane asked.

Jay turned to shrug at them, only to double take as he saw that Kane’s blindfold was still on and Ana was retreating from his outstretched hand.

It was the last straw after all those failed sneaking attempts. “No. No way you both remembered his name and recognised his voice.”

There was a moment of silence. Kane looked away.

“I... peeked.”

Ana’s laughter was sharp and contagious.