The lesson went okay. 

Well, not okay. It was passable. 

At least, it wasn’t terrible.

Fine. It was pretty much a disaster.

Captain Alea and a few other guards led the training and started by introducing all the kids to one another. There were two other students, one boy and one girl, looking to be about seven years old. They already knew each other, and apparently had been training together for a while. Both of them looked a little intimidated by me. Considering I was younger and a fair bit shorter than them, I found it a bit funny.

“Alright, this is Leo, and this is Arden,” Captain Alea said. Leo had dark brown eyes and light brown skin, and was a bit taller than Arden, whose freckles were stark on her pale skin in the bright light. Both of them nodded at me. Leo looked vaguely familiar; I thought he might be the son of a pretty important count. I did not know what family Arden was from. But then, I did not really care.

“And this,” Captain Alea turned to me, “is Gardenia.” I looked at her, startled. She always called me ‘Your Highness”. Calling me just Gardenia, not Princess Gardenia, was very strange of her. She smiled at me knowingly. “Everyone in this class is equal as long as we are learning together.”

Arden looked at me defiantly. Leo looked a bit nervous. I shrugged. It sounded fine to me.

“Wonderful. Alright, let’s all get started. First, we will focus on your stance. We spent some time on that last time, right Arden? Why don’t you show us.”

Looking very proud and eager, Arden nodded and hurried forward to step into a ready stance. I looked on, already bored. She was leaning too far back and her arms were also a bit shaky and were up a bit too high.

I told her so.

“You’re doing it wrong. You should lean forward more and have stronger arms. And keep your arms lower.”

She did not like that. Captain Alea looked like she had a headache. Leo looked confused and upset.

I was honestly more confused. This was a lesson, right? Weren’t we meant to be learning? So, shouldn’t we share what we knew? I looked at Captain Alea, feeling almost plaintive.

“Okay. Well, Gardenia, that wasn’t a very kind way to give that advice.” Arden was glaring at me furiously. “Why don’t you apologize, and then we can each try the stance again?”

“But I –” Captain Alea looked at me meaningfully. “Practice,” she mouthed.

“Fine. I’m sorry I told you that.”

Arden did not look appeased. Captain Alea looked pained but hurried us into the next part of the lesson. I could feel Arden’s eyes on me, angry and clearly looking for mistakes that she could point out. At first, I was relieved to know that I didn’t make mistakes. Maybe then she would calm down and wouldn’t be angry, right? She might realize I knew what I was talking about and that I was just telling the truth and trying to help.

Unfortunately, that did not happen. Her glare got sharper and sharper the more I tried to show how good I was. Even I can take a hint, so I decided to try and just do the assignment quietly, but it was too late, and anyway, I still wasn’t making mistakes. The worst part was the look of growing disappointment on Captain Alea’s face. At least, I thought she looked disappointed. I might have been projecting.

Captain Alea had told me both of my classmates were top students for their age. Honestly, I had a hard time determining if that was true. I didn’t have a frame of reference for such things. They seemed to work hard, though, and they corrected their mistakes quickly. That’s what really mattered, and I felt my respect for them grow.

Nevertheless, the class was very boring for me, and as far as I could tell, I was not doing a good job of earning Leo and Arden’s respect. Arden seemed to be very upset with me, and Leo still just looked nervous, as though the signs of conflict between me and Arden were making him even more uneasy. When Captain Alea called for a break, she looked meaningfully at me again, and I realized she wanted me to try to socialize. I didn’t think it was a good idea, but I made an effort.

I walked awkwardly over to where Leo and Arden were standing getting water. “Hi.”

Arden looked at me, then pointedly looked away. Leo looked between us worriedly, then said quickly, “Hi!”

A long pause followed that. I honestly had no idea what to say next. The only thing I knew we all had in common was swordsmanship, so I said the first thing that came to mind.

“How long have you been training?”

Arden’s mouth tightened, and she looked, if possible, even angrier. Leo answered quickly, stumbling over the words. “For about a year now! At least, that’s me. Arden just joined a month ago. Right, Arden?”

Arden turned her glare on Leo, now. I winced, feeling guilty. I didn’t know what to say. “Well, that’s… good.”

“What does that mean?” This was the first time I’d heard Arden speak. Her voice was just as sharp as her glare.

“Nothing, just. Training is fun. So, it’s good.”

“Training isn’t supposed to be fun. It’s supposed to be a challenge. Combat is life or death. Not that you would know that.” She looked at me like I was some sort of idiot and huffed. Leo looked petrified.

“Arden, no. That’s Princess – ”

“No. The Captain said she wasn’t one here.” Arden looked at me fiercely. “Right, Gardenia?”

I shrugged. “Well, I can’t change who I am, but sure.”

That was also the wrong thing to say.

“That’s not right. We are equals here, that’s what she said!”

“Yes, that’s what she said,” I answered, feeling a bit confused. “I heard her.”

“But you don’t agree, huh? You think you are better than us?”

And this is where I really messed up. You see, this was swordsmanship training. And I did think I was better than them – at swordsmanship. I didn’t really think at all about who was ‘better’ as a person – that didn’t even make sense to me. But, you see, I thought we were talking about the lesson.

“Yes.”

That’s when Arden came at me. For someone with a poor swordsman’s stance, she had excellent hand-to-hand skills. Well, for a kid. But she had nothing on me. She did have the drop on me, though, and she managed to get a glancing blow to my cheek that would have been a full-on punch in the eye if I hadn’t dodged.

Less than three seconds later, I had her pinned on the ground, arm behind her back. Captain Alea hadn’t even had time to run over yet.

“Kids! What on earth –”

Arden was crying. I wasn’t sure why since I hadn’t even hit her. It might have just been anger. Leo was crying too. I was not.

“Gardenia,” Captain Alea sighed, “Why don’t you let Arden up? I think we should end the lesson here and talk about what happened.”

“Don’t kill her!” Leo shouted, very loudly for such a timid kid.

“Who?” I asked, bewildered.

“We won’t,” the Captain assured him, clearly understanding something I didn’t. “It happened during the lesson, and Gardenia doesn’t care. Right, Gardenia?”

“Care about what?”

“See? It’s going to be ok.” The other guards there for the training had come over and were now trying to calm Leo down and help Arden up. Leo was full-on sobbing. I still had no idea what was going on. My face hurt a bit, but I didn’t mind it. What really hurt was that everything had gone just about as horribly as it possibly could have, just like I’d been afraid of.

I stepped away, everyone else busy either crying or sorting out the crying children. Captain Alea saw me walking away and handed Leo off to a different guard, running over to me.

“Oh, kiddo. What happened? Are you all right?”

“I don’t understand,” I said, still not crying, but feeling hollow.

“I know. It’s ok. Just walk me through it.”

I told her what happened, and she looked at the sky, taking a deep breath.

“Alright, kiddo. Here’s the thing. When you told her yes, she thought you were saying you are worth more as a person than she is.”

I looked at her blankly.

“That doesn’t even make any sense.”

Captain Alea smiled at me fondly. “Of course it doesn’t. But some people do think that way, and it’s important to understand that. If you don’t believe it, you have the power to do something about it, right?”
I looked at my feet. “Right.”

“Okay. Let’s apologize, and then we will end the lesson here for today.”

I looked up in alarm. “Just for today? We are doing more of this?”

“Oh, yes, kid. We are doing more of this.” She looked at me, dead in the eyes. “It may not feel like it, but you did good today. You worked hard, and you tried. And now you are going to apologize and learn from this.”

I nodded, still not quite understanding, but feeling a bit better all the same.

Apologizing didn’t go great either, but I did my best.

“I’m sorry I said I was better than you. I just meant I’m better at swordsmanship.”

I saw Captain Alea rub her forehead like it was hurting her. Arden scowled, but grudgingly she took her turn to apologize.

“I’m sorry I punched you.”

“It’s okay. You didn’t really, you just tried to.”

Scowling even harder, she turned and stomped away. I looked at Captain Alea, at a loss.

“Baby steps, kiddo,” she sighed.