My everything hurt.

  I gulped air into my lungs as I panted while keeping my eyes on the beautiful taskmaster in front of me.

  “In through the nose, out through the mouth!” Her stick smacked me in the left arm. “And your posture is horrible! Bend your knees! You can’t move if you’re standing up straight like you’re at a piano recital!”

  I wiped the sweat off my face with the back of my sleeve. Despite the nostalgia, as well as the thrill of the occasional physical contact, I found myself questioning the wisdom of training with Leen.

  She’d shown up yesterday at six in the morning and insisted we start the day with stretching and yoga. Then it was a morning run, a smoothie for breakfast, then an hour of sparring, followed by another run, then some instruction on throws and holds.

  We’d gone through the routine again today and the bath that I’d taken after she left for work had done very little to soothe the bruises and aching muscles that I’d accumulated the day before. At this rate, I’m going to be too sore to move tomorrow. I grumbled internally as I raised the stick to defend myself.

  A confident smirk flashed across her face before she struck.

  I’d thought I was fast and in a straight footrace, I could outrun her, but she had stamina for days and her agility and dexterity were unlike anything I’d ever seen. When it came to our sparring with sticks, the best I could hope for was to block most of her relentless barrage of strikes, stabs, and slashes.

  She swung overhead, forcing me to raise my stick. I braced with my right leg behind me as I prepared to lunge the moment her stick connected. It was obvious that I was far from beating Leen in a contest of skill, but if I could grab her, then most of the time, I could grapple her into submission.

  Our sticks never connected as she dropped to a crouch and kicked out with her leg, swiping my left leg out from under me. I fell on my side and felt the stick leave my hand as she smacked it away with hers. Her foot came down on my wrist and the tip of her stick stopped less than a finger-width from my nose.

  “You can’t stop. You stop, you die.” She tapped my cheek with her stick, then got off my wrist and offered me a hand.

  I took it and stood up. “You stop, you die?” My lungs burned and were tight enough that I was surprised I could speak at all. If I’d landed on my back instead of my shoulder, I would have had the wind knocked out of me. “What kind of post-apocalyptic scenario were you training for?”

  She tucked her stick under her arm as she walked over to the slide and grabbed her pink water bottle. She threw mine to me, then took a long drink before answering.

  “Death comes in many forms.” She pointed at where I’d fallen. “Your attempt to beat me died right there.” She tilted her head. “One wrong move and your hopes at a trophy are gone; that’s another form of death. It’s not just about your heart stopping.”

  “True.” I sat down and took a drink. “But that’s a little intense.”

  “If you want to be the best, then anything less has to be unacceptable.” She put her water bottle back on the top of the slide. “And if you’re not doing it to be the best, then why are you taking the field?”

  “To have fun?” I wondered what type of coaches she had to have had to give her that hard of a ‘do or die’ mentality.

  “Pick-up games at the park are for fun.” She shook her head. “But when you take the field to compete against other athletes, you’re disrespecting all the blood, sweat, and tears that they’ve put into their training if you don’t bring everything you have out there to throw at them.” She touched her pink sports bra just below the collar.

  I hadn’t seen the pendant at the end of the gold chain since I’d been back, but it was something that she’d worn back when we’d been kids. It was an animal of some sort, but I couldn’t remember which, but I knew her mother had given it to her, which made it special to her. It wasn’t the first time that I’d seen her touch it for comfort while we’d been training.

  “I can see what you mean.” I groaned as I stood up. My legs had started to fall asleep while I’d been sitting. “But isn’t this all for fun?”

  Her brown eyes bored into me as she stomped up to me. I was a good six inches taller than her, so even on her tiptoes she wasn’t able to look me in the eye.

  “I thought you were serious about training.” The icy tone of her voice clued me in that she was a little upset.

  “I am.” I fought the urge to boop her on the nose. I knew exactly how dangerous she could be, but there was something about the way that she was trying to seem bigger than she was that felt adorable. “But I’m also enjoying spending time with you again.”

  Some of the icy edge drained off of her face. “You should always be serious about training.” She fished her phone out of the back of her flowered yoga pants and checked the time. “I’ve got an early shift today, so I’ve got to go shower.” She spun on her heel and grabbed her water bottle. “Same time tomorrow?”

  “I’ve got a thing tomorrow.” I swallowed as my mind scrambled for an excuse in case she pressed it. “But I’m down to meet up on Monday?”

  “Oh.” She paused midway to the apple tree.

  “You know, you could just use the gate.” I pointed at the house. “I’ve got it unlocked.”

  “The tree’s more fun.” She glanced over her shoulder and winked at me, a smile crossing her face. “I’ll see you Monday bright and early, Lawless.”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “See you then!” I waved at her as she scrambled up the tree and vaulted over the fence.

  Once she was gone, I gathered up the sticks and headed back into the house. The moment I shut the door, the hologram appeared in front of me.

  “Aren’t you worried that someone is going to see you?” I dropped the sticks on the kitchen table.

  “Impossible.” Grandpa motioned at the window over the sink. “All the windows have been treated with a liner that makes it impossible for anyone who isn’t in the house to see me.”

  “Which means that if someone does look in the window, they’ll see me talking to myself?” I shook my head. “Great, all I need is for Leen to think I’m crazy.”

  “While I applaud her efforts to train you, she’s a threat to the dream in the long run.” He grumbled as he followed me to the stairs. “You would be better off hiring an outsider than risking everything falling apart once she learns what you are.”

  “She’s not going to figure out about…” I gestured at the house. “Everything. Because I’m not going to tell her.”

  “That’s a relief.” He sighed. “Now, we need to talk about tomorrow.”

  “After I shower.” I stopped at the door to the bathroom and pointed my finger at him. “Alone.”

  “I hardly see the issue; it’s not like I didn’t change your diapers.” He folded his arms across his chest. “And it’s not like I’m alive, so it’s really no different than you bringing your phone in there.”

  “My phone doesn’t talk back to me.” I glared at him as he opened his mouth to reply, but I cut him off. “Yes, I know that my phone can respond to me, but you know what I mean. It’s not… intelligent like you.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment.” He puffed out his chest.

  I turned to go into the bathroom but stopped and turned back to him. “What I don’t get is how someone who couldn’t work the DVD player was able to upload his consciousness into this house before he died.”

  “I didn’t capture my dying breath, if that’s what you think.” He shook his head. “Alistair had his memories downloaded into that wrist pad years ago and would go every few months to get the newest ones updated.” He sighed. “I was also able to add some memories simply from observing him during those last few months.”

  “They say he had a heart attack. Is that really what happened?” I glanced over at the stairs to the basement before looking back at the hologram. “I find it hard to believe that someone with access to magic would have died from something as simple as a heart attack.”

  “You want to know if it was complications from the games?” He shook his head. “Your grandfather stopped competing before you were born.” The hologram shrugged. “As to whether or not there was something sinister that triggered his early demise, I don’t know. I don’t have access to the last few months of his memories and he usually kept me at the house when he went off-world, unless he was updating me.”

  That’s not unsettling. I tapped on the doorframe with my fingers as I thought about the implications. “You know, it gets very confusing trying to keep straight whether you're my grandfather or just an echo of him.”

  “I can see how you might be confused.” He grinned. “I assure you, I have everything that made Alisair who he was, but if this is too strange for you, I won't be offended if you insist on thinking about me as just a repository of his memories.”

  “That doesn't really clear up anything.” I sighed. “Let me get a bath and then I'll meet you down in the basement and we can go over our strategy for tomorrow.”

  “Bath?” He wrinkled his nose. “You said you were taking a shower.”

  “I changed my mind.” I rolled my shoulders and stretched my arms. “After that beating, I want to relax in the heat for a bit.”

  “Heat isn't what you need right now. An ice bath would do more good for you.” He motioned at the kitchen. “The fridge stores enough ice—”

  “I'm good.” I cut him off. “I just want to relax for a bit before we dive into the technical stuff.”

  “Do what you want; it's not like I could stop you.” He whistled as he headed for the door to the basement, walking through the door like he was a ghost.

  You could totally turn the water ice cold if you wanted. I waited for him to vanish before I closed the door. Not that a door would keep him out. The hologram was essentially part of the house, so it was tied to anything electronic, which included the thermostat for the bath.

  I set the temperature on the electronic thermostat to 102 and turned the water on. Unlike most baths, which cooled as soon as you stopped adding water, the tub cycled the water, keeping it at the desired temperature. It didn’t have jets, so I didn’t think it fit into the category of a hot tub, but considering how high-tech it was, it wouldn’t have surprised me if it was a space-age hot tub.

  While the insides were probably more complex than anything on the market, the dial looked local enough that I didn’t worry too much about a guest wondering where I’d gotten the tub. It wasn’t the same one that we’d had when I was younger, but a couple of the appliances had been updated with versions that I had a sneaking suspicion were unavailable to most people on Earth.

  As tempted as I was to soak in the water for a while, I dragged myself out of the water, dressed, and headed down the basement stairs with my dirty clothes in under an hour.

  I tossed the clothes in the washer, then turned back to the main room when I heard the stones folding back so we could use the gate.

  “We’re going to the ship?” I dusted off my hands as I walked towards the ring.

  The hologram pointed at the cabinet as the portal sprang to life. “Make sure you grab the wristpad.”

  “Can’t we get back without it?” I grabbed the device and headed through the gate. I didn’t wait for it to close before I walked into the hall. “Which room are we going into?”

  The portal snapped shut and Grandpa walked through the wall to my right. “That one.” He pointed at the door on the wall beside him, then walked through the closed door.

  “Of course he walked through walls just to show off.” I muttered as I touched the door to have it slide into the wall.

  The room on the other side of the door reminded me of a two-car garage. I didn’t pace it out, but I had a feeling it was a similar size to the one at the house. Also, like the one at the house, there were a large number of boxes and totes scattered about the room, so despite the ability to house two cars, you wouldn’t be able to even get one into the cluttered space.

  “Open this box.” The hologram walked over to a wooden crate the size of the twin bed I’d slept on as a kid and put his hand on the digital keypad. A green light flashed, the lock beeped, and then the lid popped open just enough for me to get a finger under the lid.

  The crate came up to just above my knees. I knelt down in front of it so I wouldn’t have to lean over. I gestured at the other crates scattered around the room. “Is there armor in those crates too?”

  “Focus on the task in front of you.” Grandpa smirked. “You’re not ready to wear those yet.”

  “Why not?” I tilted my head. “Wouldn’t it make sense to walk it with the strongest armor I can wear?”

  “Gear is rated based on the defensive capabilities.” He folded his arms against his chest. “Your combat ability is at the lowest end of the rating scale, so we need you wearing gear that’s rated at the same Tier. When you get better at fighting, then we’ll open some of the better crates.”

  “Okay…” I flipped open the lid and looked inside. A smile split my face as I looked at the armor inside. I looked over at the hologram. “I think I’m going to like this.”

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