Project Empress 006

(Chapter 3 continued) 

After they had their dinner, they were back up on the roof again. Natalie was in a very good mood. 

”You’ll love this Cara. I have to say Walter has quite the set-up here, which allows me to give you some first class training. I hope you like classical music.”

“You mean like Mozart?”, Cara asked.

“No, the newer stuff.”

“More like Beethoven or Debussy?”

Natalie stopped and turned to to Cara. “No not the old stuff, the new one, early 21st century. Do you know 1200 Micrograms? Tragic musical heroes from the very beginning of our century.” 

“1200 micrograms of what?”, Cara asked.

“Of music? I have no idea. It is the name of the group of composers. Never mind. Now you will not only improve your fencing but also your level of culture. Prepare for: “The Apocalypse”.”

Cara’s eyes grew wide as she heard that. “Is that one of your secret techniques?”

Natalie frowned. “What? No, that’s the song you are going to be training to.”

“To music?”, Cara asked. 

“Yeah. I want you to feel the music, the rhythm, the flow of it.” As she was saying this, she had walked over to a little shed like structure, that stood in one corner of the rooftop garden. “Feel it and move your sword and yourself to it.” She now had produced a metal ring with various key-cards dangling from short chains, rifling through them. 

“OK…”, Cara said, she took her sword, waiting for whatever it was what Natalie was trying to do. Natalie tried another card.

“Access denied.”, the voice said. Natalie looked annoyed. it took her several  tries before the voice finally changed its mind saying: “Access granted.”

Natalie went inside. A few moments later several batteries of lights fixed to the beams above between the windows, the central green was now brightly illuminated. A moment later some form of strange electronic music rang-out from hidden speakers all around Cara. While she was wondering if running a wine bar was incredibly profitable or what could possible motivate someone so wealthy to open one, Natalie had reappeared again.

“What are you waiting for?”, Natalie asked. “Use the slow part to get into the grove, it won’t stay that chill for long. Chop, chop. Start moving.”

Cara wasn’t sure what was expected of her, but she did as she was told and started moving slowly to the strange beat of the weird music, chaining her attacks together as she moved forward. Natalie was watching her, arms crossed. ‘This is kinda fun., Cara thought as she moved. The music did help her get into the flow and right now it forced her to slow down, her moves more controlled and deliberate. When the music increased in speed, the rhythm becoming more pounding, she also sped up, her moves more forceful.

By the time the song was over, Cara had started sweating and was a bit out of breath but happy. 

Natalie was still standing next to the shack, arms crossed looking at her, her head tilted ever so slightly to one side. Cara waited. Natalie nodded to herself, moving slowly towards Cara, scratching her chin with a little black remote control she had taken from inside the shack. 

“You really do move like clockwork”, Natalie said, half to Cara, half to herself.

“Is that bad?”, Cara asked.

“No, it’s not bad, it’s not good either. It is what it is. It’s also a bit strange.”

“Strange?”

“Yeah…”, Natalie said, “I told you to move to the music and freely move your sword. What you did was, chaining one attack after the other, all very nice and neat by the way”. Cara blushed at this, she had never been complimented for her technique like this, much less in passing. “And you moved along some invincible straight line. Also very neat, strangely precise”, Natalie said, adding, “like clockwork”, as if that explained everything.

Cara didn’t know how to react, so she just stood there and waited, hoping that Natalie would add something that helped her understand where Natalie was trying to go with her alleged lesson. 

“I wonder,” Natalie said. ‘Me too.’ Cara thought. “Why the straight line?”

“I don’t understand your question…”, Cara said squirming slightly.

“All your movements and all your attacks. When you execute them, you always move in a perfect line.”

Cara blinked. “Yes, of course, I stay on the fencing line.”

“The what?”

“The fencing line. Imagine us duelling”, Cara said changing her position so that she now stood right in front of Natalie. “The fencing line is the line connecting us.”, she gestured with the tip of her sword from her centre line directly to Natalie. “The shortest path between us, the quickest way for my attack to connect.”

“Okaaay…”, Natalie said, “Wait a second, I’ll get my sword.” She turned around, went to her bag and pulled her sword out. An old battered but elegant steel weapon. Cara instantly recognised it as a traditional training sword by its blackened blade.

Natalie stopped a few steps away from Cara, taking care of standing in the middle of the assumed fencing line. 

“I want you to attack me, slowly, your blade will touch me but only lightly, to see if the the distance between us is the right one and to see how good you are at gauging the distance between us.”

“Hit you? With my sword?”, Cara asked.

“Yeah.”

“But you aren’t wearing any protection”, Cara said taking a tiny step backwards. 

“Hence, why I told you to touch me lightly…”  

“But…”

“Cara”, Natalie said. “Are you capable to move your sword in a controlled manner, so that you can touch me with it without causing me any harm?”

“Yes?”

“Good, for a moment there I was afraid that I had to cover the absolute basics with you”, Natalie said. “Come on then, the sooner you move the sooner we can start your lesson.”

Cara gritted her teeth and forced herself to move her sword in a careful motion arcing from above down onto Natalie’s shoulder.

“Good work”, Natalie said with a smile that to Cara’s surprise didn’t carry any hint of sarcasm. “That wasn’t so hard now, was it?”

Cara just shook her head.

“Come on, try a few more. Both sides, rising attacks and add some stabs too. You can use a bit more force than right now. Don’t worry, you have good control over your sword and if you hit too hard I will tell you”, she nodded.

It was very uncomfortable at first. Manfred, the only other master she had ever known, would have murdered Cara, and anyone else for that matter, who dared to even point a steel weapon towards another pupil. ‘No contact without protection`, was one of the most fundamental rules in her salle. 

However, after a few moves and Natalie just moving along with Cara’s attacks, Cara started to relax. 

“There you go”, Natalie’s smile broadened. “One fundamental concept on the Path is that your blade will never harm anyone, unless you want it.”

“The Path?”, Cara asked.

“Yeah. The eternal path towards true mastery”, Natalie said. “When you take up your sword or any other weapon really, you start walking the Path and all the things you do to become a better martial artist move you further along on it.”

Cara just nodded, concentrating on her moves.

“Now you are ready for your lesson”, Natalie said. “Stop please. Take a breath, clear your mind. Now, you will attack me again, slowly with the intention to hit me, only this time I will parry your attack. I will also move slowly, OK?”

“OK”, Cara said. 

Natalie walked a few steps back, lowering her sword, the point directed to the ground.

Cara stepped forward, her raised sword descending towards Natalie’s head. Natalie, matching Cara’s speed, pulled up her sword, her point directed at Cara’s face. As she raised her blade, she moved slightly towards Cara’s sword, blocking it. 

Cara stopped before she could finish her attack, eyes crossed fixing the point of Natalie’s sword hovering in front of her nose. 

“Boop”, Natalie said moving her sword a tiny bit forward gently touching Cara’s nose. “Again.”, Natalie said.

Cara attacked over and over again, always with the same result, her sword being blocked by Natalie’s and getting hit over and over again. 

“You are really good”, Cara said.

Natalie laughed. “Thank you, but right now, it’s not my skill that is saving me but your ‘fencing line’. Your shortest line of attack, also happens to be my shortest line of defence. You are actually just walking into my counters. You can do the same. Come, let’s do it the other way round. I will attack you and you just wind into your defensive postures.”

Now, Natalie attacked Cara with slow measured attacks, Cara did as she was told and countered with the usual high and low guards. To her great surprise this led to her automatically countering all of Natalie’s attacks.

“See?”, said Natalie. “That’s what these guards are for, they keep you safe and present a very good point to your enemies encouraging to rethink the error of their ways. Now we change it up a bit.” Natalie continued her attacks but suddenly it was much harder for Cara to block them, and even when Cara was safe, her point was now no longer threatening Natalie.

“So what changed?”, Natalie asked. 

“I don’t know…”, Cara said.

“We’ll just keep going and you’ll see”, Natalie said with a smile that didn’t quite manage to project its confidence into Cara. At first Cara, was just confused, because as far as she could tell, nothing had changed, apart from the small part of her counters failing all of a sudden. Yet after a couple more moves she started to notice something… she had no idea why but her counters started to improve again. 

“Very good.”, Natalie said nodding. “You are adapting.”

“I am?”

“Yes. Also have a look around you. Do you notice now?”

Cara looked up taking in her surroundings for the first time in a while. They were still standing on the green of course, but they had drifted towards one side and were now close to the corner nearest to the shack. 

“We left the line”, Cara said, looking over to the spot where they were supposed to be.

“Yes!”, Natalie beamed. The lack of reaction from Cara dimmed her expression slightly.

“When I left the direct line I broke you defence, as I stopped moving right into your point, which by the way is also the space where you project most of your force to. But you actually felt that, so you started to shift your position too, adapting, thus reestablishing your counter.”

“Yeah, but I left the fencing line, one should never leave the fencing line. Moving out of it is slow”, Cara recited the words she had memorised from her training.

“Who the fuck said that?”

“Master Brumotti von Burg”, cara said.

“’Master’ Brumotti is an idiot then…”, Natalie said with a shrug. 

“But…”

“No buts”, Natalie said. “The shortest line is also the shortest line to your own death as you saw yourself right now. Also, in a way you are moving on your fencing line. Look.” Natalie stood in front of Cara. “Where is the fencing line now?”

Cara pointed out the line between them. 

“Right”, Natalie said, shifting two small steps clockwise around Cara. “Where is your fencing line now?” 

Cara, again pointed forwards, only now there was no one in front of her.

“Exactly”, Natalie said. “While my ‘fencing line’ goes straight to your flank”, she stepped forward, giving Cara’s shoulder a light shove, causing Cara to stumble a step to the side, “the Path is always in front of you.”

Cara nodded.

“OK, now we are going to try that with the music again. But now I want you to forget your moves and techniques for a while and just move, OK? I’ll show you so that you get the idea and then you do your own thing.”

Natalie took the small black remote control out of her trouser pocket, started the music again, shifting through the tracks until she found a song that agreed with her.

“Watch.”

The music again was some strange electronic music from the golden age of the European Union, something with strong pounding beat, to which Natalie started to move. First with normal attacks, which quickly shifted to wide circular motions, crouches, jumps and turns. Sometimes wielding her long-sword in only one hand, sometimes in both, at one point she even held it by the blade or in a reverse grip. 

“Hey!”, Natalie said as she rushed past Cara, “I said, you too. Move. Have fun.”

Cara started with one of her favourite combos. It never worked in a duel but it flowed well. 

“That’s still clockwork”, Natalie said, flowing past her from the other side. “Leave your lane.”

It took Cara some effort, but after some time she managed to move outside the line she had been bound to for the past four years. Then, she started to break out of her usual patterns of attacks and techniques.

“Almost there, Cara”, Natalie exclaimed from the other end of the green, where she was now tumbling from one side to another, turning circular swings into stabs.

Now Cara started smiling. She just threw her sword into this direction and that, following her blade where it led her and then it happened, she was having fun.