Once Lizzy proved that she was capable enough to fight, they dropped the wooden swords and began using real ones. The difference was notable, but by then she had trained enough to spar without much trouble. She wasn’t the strongest opponent, but she didn’t need to be, her blade was enough to slice through her enemies without breaking a sweat. What she needed to focus the most was to be able to dodge upcoming attacks. There were no rules in a real fight, she needed to have the reflexes to avoid anything that would come her way (and that also included her to carry out her equipment as well).

When they were not practicing sword fighting, they were practicing aiming a gun. They didn’t use the silver bullets for practicing, of course, that would be wasteful. The guns that they had at their disposal were old, and their main problem was that each time you shot a bullet you needed to refill the gunpowder to shoot again. Lizzy wouldn’t have the time to reload during a real fight, so the gun was used solely as a last resort, never the first one.

At first, Lizzy’s aim wasn’t great, her arms were shaking and shooting would send her flying backwards, but as she built strength she got better. Holding the gun with her two hands and closing one eye, she would hit the target almost every time. Her aim was good enough to take down an opponent standing still, yes, but she still needed to be able to hit them while she or they were moving. That was another layer of difficulty that she struggled with, they could not make the target move so she had to be one moving instead. She failed many times, but she learned from each error (thanks to her teacher, who was there to tell her what she was doing wrong).

Ultimately, she was rather glad to have Paul as a teacher. He was very patient with her, even when they had practically no time left to lose. If he were any stricter, she might have quitted just to antagonize him. Paul was kind of like a funny uncle or a grandpa, he showed his care without fear and was very jovial. He was also very proud of Lizzy, which made her feel all giddy.

Lizzy never had something she was good at, which is why she didn’t have hobbies besides helping her friend with his chores or going to the market. She didn’t inherited her mother’s passion for painting — which was such a shame, Lizzy loved to go to her mother’s painting room and see all of her paintings. Her father never moved anything from the room, he wanted to have a reminder of his wife, to pretend that she was still there after all this time.

Lizzy also didn’t do well on the subjects she was taught. Partially it was because her teachers were not great at doing their job, they expected too much from her when she was only a child, and they gave up quickly on her. They still did their job of teaching her, but they were not interested in teaching a child who clearly wasn’t a genius. Because of this, Lizzy learned to dislike teachers and books.

However, Paul was different, he knew how to teach and motivate Lizzy. He managed to have her keep going despite how hard it was. Not only that, he managed to have her read books, in one sitting! Lizzy thought it was a miracle, but Paul assured her that she was simply good at what she was trying to learn because she had the passion for it, because she had a reason to do what she was trying to accomplish.

It made her feel happier than ever before. She finally felt like she wasn’t useless, that she could make a difference. And the most ironic part was that she owed her father for it; if he hadn’t prohibit her from going outside, she wouldn’t have gone to the library to rid herself of her boredom, and she wouldn’t have found the passage to meet Paul. Lizzy wasn’t one to believe in destiny, but this surely looked like it was fate!

“Thank you, Paul,” she told him one day.

“Thank you? For what?”

“For everything. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be doing this, I would be instead be trapped inside my room waiting for nothing to happen!”

“You are welcome, lassie! But save the rest for later, the hard part is about to come!”