He smiled and walked past me. I followed him towards our small practice area. He picked up a sword and handed me a small one. I noticed it was heavier than my fencing sword.

“We will be practicing with real swords today. For this, you will need to remove that eye patch. The King is not here, and to be honest, that will be a hindrance in learning.” I gently touched the patch. I had not opened my eye since I removed my patch a few days after Elizabeth told me to wait. I learned very quickly why. The man that had tried to kidnap Johnathan, appeared in my window. If it hadn’t been for Freda, he would have pulled me out the window. She was able to cause the shadow though to become distracted and fell through the window as I quickly covered my eye back up. I remember shaking all night wondering if he was still near me. I remember calling out for Elizabeth to protect me and kept apologies for not listening.

I opened my eye slowly and took a few moments to get it to focus. Freda came down from the sky and sat on one of the posts nearby.

“Have you got it to focus yet?” He asked. I nodded and raised the sword up with him, “Good. Now remember, the key to fighting against another with a sword, is to properly defend yourself, till you see an opening.” I nodded and he lunged towards me. I blocked with my sword and dropped it to the ground after. I picked it back up when he stepped back. I noticed a shadow start to appear behind but couldn’t make out who or what it was. I took a deep breath and held the sword back up. He swung a few more times and I blocked each blow. He continued till finally he lunged forward causing me to trip backwards. I got back up to my feet and noticed him shaking his head in disappointment, “I thought fencing taught you to stay on your feet better. You would be dead right now. He walked over and set his sword down. Practice your footing. I will be back and try again. He walked away and I looked around to see the spirit had vanished from where Eric had been standing. I looked at the sword in my hands and sighed.

“He’s so weak.” I turned around to see a young boy in his teens sitting on one of the posts near Freda. He had short black hair and his eyes were red as blood.

“Who are you to speak to me like that?” I asked as I faced him. He looked surprised for a second and got to his feet.

“You can hear me?”

I hesitated suddenly and lifted my sword at him, “Stay back.”

“You can see me also?” He looked to be excited and walked closer to me till he was almost touching my blade. He looked me up and down for a second, “Wow. You look a girl. Such a small body. “He walked around me and picked up a sword and smiled, “Well this is new.” He pointed it at me, “Block.” He started to lung at me and I quickly blocked all his blows. I noticed them getting more aggressive then the next till finally he was able to fling my sword in the area and I watched it go into the ground. He pointed his blade at my neck and laughed. “I haven’t been able to do this is forever.” He looked the sword over and looked at me. He put the sword to his side and got closer, “Don’t you usually have a patch over that eye? It looks different then your other for sure though.” I noticed he had no breath as he was almost nose to nose with me. I felt my face starting to turn red and quickly backed up.

“Don’t you know about personal space?” I asked.

He rubbed the back of his head, “Hey, if you were as confused as I am right now, you would understand.”

“Who are you?” I asked as I picked up my sword again.

“My name is Edward. King Edward or I was King.”