The knock came earlier than he expected.

Damon barely had time to lay down on the bed, wanting to rest his eyes for a while before a loud two knocks came from the door of his room.

When he opened the door, he saw Ning Xiaoyu standing before him, wearing her armour with her sword on her back.

"Train with me," she said.

It wasn’t a question, not quite. It sounded more like a request, and judging by the shifting expressions on her face, that already took a lot of courage.

"Why?" he asked flatly.

"Because you’re strong... And I want to get stronger."

It wasn’t much of an answer, but it was good enough. Damon already had excess free time, and so he wouldn’t mind wasting some of it.

’Better than sitting in a room all day,’ he reasoned to himself as he followed Ning Xiaoyu down the corridor.

She took him to a courtyard on the eastern side of the citadel, which was clearly utilised as a training hall, judging by the racks of weapons scattered around it.

The cloud layer sat below the walls on every side, the sky above them pale, cold, and completely empty.

The girl didn’t waste time.

She drew her sword the moment they arrived and struck the second he drew his.

Although he saw it before, Damon couldn’t help but admire the girl’s speed, which was almost equal to his.

’I need to keep in mind to check her class later,’ he thought as he sidestepped a strike that would’ve beheaded anyone that wasn’t him.

His blade struck her longsword before she could regain composure from her last strike. Using the large opening, he simply took a step forward and tapped the girl’s shoulder, letting her know he could’ve ended it right there.

Ning Xiaoyu took two sharp breaths before speaking. "Again."

They went for an hour.

She adapted faster than anyone he’d fought against, adjusting her approach after every exchange with the quiet efficiency of someone who processed defeat as information rather than failure.

By the end, she was anticipating his moves well enough to force him to vary the timing more than he was used to, which, on the contrary, helped him improve at the same time.

But despite her talent for swordmanship, it wasn’t enough, and with the next strike, Damon knocked the sword out of her hand.

Ning Xiaoyu wasn’t willing to accept her loss just yet. She grabbed his wrist and, with one quick and completely unexpected motion, threw him to the ground. Damon grabbed her at the last moment, which pulled the girl with him, and she landed right on top of him.

"I win," she said, but just as she finished her words, she felt a sharp, metallic object press against her side. Damon’s blade.

"You lost the moment you lost the grip on your weapon," Damon said.

She let out an exhausted sigh, her composure softening slightly.

It took the girl a little while to realise she was still sitting on top of him, and she quickly jumped to her feet.

"...Again", she murmured, this time her tone a little softer.

Their training continued until the sun began to set.

They were both drenched in sweat, with how fast the girl’s skills improved, Damon had to soon actually focus not to lose, which made the time fly by unnoticed.

The two of them returned to their rooms in silence. But this time, the quiet was a little less awkward and a bit more comforting.

Ning Xiaoyu paused before her door, turning toward Damon, who was about to enter his room.

She looked like she wanted to say something, but couldn’t quite bring herself to until Damon caught a glimpse of it.

"What is it?"

"There are no showers up here," Ning Xiaoyu said.

Damon blinked.

It made sense. Their citadel had functioning plumbing because someone had a class for it. Up here, clearly nobody did, which meant everything ran on what the castle had originally been built with.

"There’s a bath underground," she said, not quite meeting his eyes. "I’ll be going. If you want to join..."

He looked down at himself. His clothes were soaked through, sweat-drenched from hours of training, his hair damp against his forehead. He could feel the dried effort of the day across his shoulders and arms.

He couldn’t reasonably argue against a bath.

"Lead the way," he said. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

***

They reached the underground bath through a narrow staircase behind the eastern tower, and the stone walls that had been cool through the citadel quickly changed. The air grew warmer and heavier as they descended, carrying the faint mineral smell of natural hot water.

The cavern opened up at the bottom.

It was a single large pool carved into the rock, fed by a natural spring that kept the water at a steady heat, steam rising from the surface in thin currents that drifted toward the high dark ceiling above.

The stone floor around the edges was smooth and worn, the walls lit by a handful of small lanterns set in carved alcoves, their soft and amber light catching the water’s surface in long, shifting lines.

They moved to opposite sides without even discussing it, a quiet understanding passing between them.

With their backs turned to one another, they slowly began to set their clothes aside, and the dull sound of them dropped against the stone echoed across the cavern.

Then came the sound of water moving as they both stepped inside. They turned around only once the water had risen to just below their shoulders.

There were roughly five meters of steaming water between them.

The lantern light moved across the water’s surface in a slow and steady rhythm. The cavern was quiet except for the faint sound of the spring feeding the pool somewhere beneath their feet.

Ning Xiaoyu’s gaze now remained on Damon without the earlier hostility or distrust. Her cheeks were a little flustered from the heat around them, and her eyes had a look of something faintly familiar.