Black Heart Chapter Ten

The blades carved deeply into her forearms, scoring lines of white-hot pain as they ground against the bones where Malicia had thrown them up to block while backstepping away from the most recent swinging arc of steel in her direction.

It wasn't ideal, but when she wasn't in a position to fully dodge Malicia was left with little other choice in the matter beyond the snap decision as to where she should take an inevitable injury.

Taking a blow to her arms made it difficult to strike towards the butler, Jack. That was true. But if Malicia was speaking frankly on the matter, she was in little to no position to land blows against the man to begin with, and so that hardly mattered compared to other places that the blades could score against.

Her legs, she needed to move and get out of the way. Allowing herself to be hobbled was much, much worse than taking a wound to the arm. Cuts to the belly or torso could mostly be endured. The face was bad. Not because Malicia believed any of the scarring would stick when she was constantly circulating energy through her body, but because cuts to the face were significantly more painful than they had any right to be and if blood got into her eyes then it would impede her vision.

Jack did not aim his blades toward her neck. This was, Malicia felt, more a mark of his contempt than anything else. A statement that, without words, said 'I don't believe that you could heal this fast enough if I were to land a blow, so I will abstain'. To be fair, Malicia would be genuinely concerned for her life if he did aim for her throat or her nape... with the critical vessels, the air passages, and her spine all constrained in those narrow confines, a stray blow biting too deep could prove disastrous indeed. Setting that aside, as an Executioner, Jack's class pushed towards heavy finishing blows like decapitation, and Malicia didn't believe it was in her power to heal from her head being removed entirely from the rest of her person.

However, while Jack might well be unwilling to actually kill Malicia, it did not change that he was a sadist who personally disliked her. He would still make strikes that showed that they very easily could have been directed toward her neck.

Instead, they were aimed for Malicia's hair.

The humiliation of Jack's heavy, cleaving blades cutting away ebony locks in their passing was, Malicia felt, far worse than any physical pain that she might suffer through. She dreaded to imagine coming out of this forced to wear a short, boyish cut until her hair grew out once more. She, well... she might well be driven to murder in response. Haha. As though she didn't want to snap this jerk's neck to begin with!

"I'm glad that you find your predicament so humorous, miss Malicia." Jack commented in response to the giggle that she was unable to restrain. "But for the sake of inquiry... I've said my piece on which is the more generally valuable in combat situations. Perhaps, though, you have established a difference of opinion. Which do you feel is more important to you at this moment? The healing ability your Class grants, or the fact that your Status is high enough to directly engage in fisticuffs. Do tell."

Malicia said something very un-ladylike indeed in response to his commentary.

In turn, Jack smiled, and the glinting arc of a blade dragged a furrow of red across Malicia's cheek too swiftly for her to deflect it.

"They told me you were a clever girl at that orphanage. If that is true, well, I've yet to see the proof of it. Surprising, and not in a good way." Jack commented. "Oh, how impressive indeed that you did not need your hands held through your chores! As a member of the noble class, that shall hardly matter for you for the duration. Did you pick up your lesson material quickly? Slowly? Honestly, I can hardly tell if it was any different from the average. What I recognize, primarily, is that I stated quite clearly that you were selected for a healing ability and at multiple occasions... some of which I have elected to censure you for and others which I have chosen to ignore... you have disregarded the fact that healing is what you are intended to do. Not melee."

Jack frowned.

"If I may speak frankly, I feel as though I have been lied to. I rather detest that feeling." he noted. "If your matron were present now, I think I should have rather stern words for her. Sadly, she is not present. No matter. Have you caught your breath, miss Malicia? Very good."

Then, without missing a beat, Jack kicked out. The sole of his shoe impacted with Malicia's belly with enough force to launch her across the courtyard... but not before her knuckles grazed against his shin. Not quite fast enough, with not quite enough force in the blow. Not to hear the satisfying snap that she was hoping for.

But it seemed like it was enough to provoke a grimace as Jack tested his weight on the leg.

She had hurt the bastard. With the way that this 'sparring match' was going, that would have been enough of a petty victory to prompt a smile... if, that was, Malicia was not already grinning from ear to ear.

"That distasteful leer of yours... how revolting." Jack said, with a disdainful click of his tongue. "It's not about how smart you are or aren't at all. You're just intoxicated by the thrill of battle... how gauche for a prospective noblewoman. It's a matter of stubbornness."

The edges of his blades ground against one another, striking sparks for a moment before the battle was rejoined.

...

"You might as well be drooling on yourself. Disgusting." Jack stated crisply, looking down his nose at where Malicia lay collapsed across the ground. "I see now that I was mistaken in doing this... rather than a punishment or a warning, this is a reward for you."

Malicia wanted to object, but if she had that kind of energy then she would be using it to stumble back to her feet again. Instead, she once again spat something very un-ladylike indeed in Jack's direction.

He tactfully elected not to kick her over. But he did visibly consider it, lip curling.

The devil of it all was that the man wasn't even doing a bad job at this. If Malicia had had no foreknowledge... no hints, in advance, of what Sophie seemed to have been utterly convinced that the future would hold? If she didn't have that outline of what developing a fixation, an obsession, on becoming a better healer no matter the cost would lead to for her?

Malicia suspected that she could be swayed to it with tactics such as this. Doubly so if she had come into the adoption with expectations and hopes for what the word 'family' might mean in this context. If she had suspected from the beginning that she might be the problem, and that if she tried harder and changed?

Malicia almost wanted to thank Jack for being such an utter, unmitigated and unflinching asshole about this. His clearly presenting himself as 'the enemy' meant that there was no time or reason to indulge in that sort of self-doubt, as she might well have if the situation had led to his keeping his clear distaste for Malicia just a bit more well guarded. Or, rather, if the opportunity to indulge in his distaste had never arisen, because Malicia had managed to restrain her instinct to fight and defend herself when pressed.

Oh, she could bend, of course. Even if she didn't develop the seeming obsession with a class-change and eventual potential saint-hood that Sophie's writings had predicted, Malicia could probably just suck it up and quietly endure whatever injuries Adrian's training left her with before he got around to finishing off all the monsters. It would have grated to not even block or deflect stray attacks that wound up landing on her person, but when it came down to it her energy circulation would make it very difficult for such a stray attack to seriously harm her. By this point, though, it was more that she was just...

"Stubborn." Jack affirmed with a click of his tongue.

Malicia couldn't help but faintly chuckle at that spoken truth. Jack exhaled sharply through his nose at that, clearly annoyed at the difficulty he was experiencing in attempting to grind her down into model obedience and simple focus on the one thing that mattered.

"Well. You may yet have your chance to wade into melee as a vanguard, fists swinging dumbly, or to use your body as a shield for others, if the gods smile on your thick-headedness." Jack said crisply. "The mistress has taken pregnant, you see. They have yet to spread the word, but it will not be long yet before she begins to show. I suppose that only time will tell."

It was a statement that managed to cut off Malicia's chortles, rendering her silent. Not only was it going against the implied intent of the elder Ravensworths to tell her this, if it had yet to be formally announced, there was no reason at all to confide the fact in her beyond simple and spiteful cruelty.

A statement that, reading between the lines, said something like 'Perhaps the child will be born with the right Class, and then all the time wasted on you can be written off and brushed aside'.

It was the sort of thing that could deeply injure an innocent young girl's feelings. Doubly or triply so, if Malicia had chosen to focus herself on the pursuit of healing, only to be surprised with a 'real', by-blood daughter being born with the right qualifications to see her set aside and eventually dismissed.

Malicia would have, once again, said something very rude indeed to Jack were it not that for the moment she had been rendered entirely speechless.

He seemed satisfied with that, at least, the asshole.

"The weather seems fine and clear for the night. Drag yourself back to bed or do not, so long as you are presentable for breakfast." Jack said dismissively, before turning to stalk away.

And was he very slightly limping? Oh, Malicia hoped so. If he was, then she hoped it was permanent, long as the odds of that were. She certainly wouldn't be healing his leg unless he swallowed down his pride and his bile for long enough to ask, after all, and fat chance of that... so if he was hurt and it wasn't just Malicia's wistfully hopeful imagination, he would have to rely on natural healing and potions.

The stars were twinkling merrily overhead, and it wasn't the first time that Malicia had wound up sleeping outside by far. Given that it just didn't seem worth the effort of hauling herself all the way to her room so that she could lay down in a soft bed? The grass of the courtyard was fine and good enough.

Malicia drifted off into slumber to the happy thought of Jack the butler needing to lean on a walking cane.