After breakfast, Lady Valerice led Adara and Seryna to the training yard. The floor was made of volcanic sand and the walls were covered with weapons of all kinds.
"Karan loves you, Adara," Valerice said, throwing a heavy wooden staff at her that Adara barely caught. But his love won't protect you from a killer in a dark hallway. Seryna, teach him why Valoria women are feared.
Seryna smiled defiantly and put herself on guard.
—Don't take it personally, elf. But if you're going to be in my family, I'd rather you know how to defend yourself than have to clean your blood off the floor.
The training was brutal. Seryna was fast, a flurry of precise movements that took Adara down again and again. Adara's nobility and purity faced the refined and ruthless technique of humans. However, every time Adara fell, she got back up with a determination that began to erase the mockery in Seryna's eyes.
-Again! —Valrice demanded—. Use your weight! Don't look for elegance, look for survival!
By the end of the afternoon, Adara was covered in dust and bruises, but something had changed. He had managed to block a blow from Seryna and, for a second, he looked at her with an intensity that made the young Immortal pause.
Seryna lowered her weapon and extended her hand to help Adara up.
—You have spirit, Adara. You're slow and too "polite", but there's something about you... —Seryna gave him a look of nascent respect—. Tomorrow I will teach you how to use cunning. If you can't be stronger than an Immortal, you'll have to be smarter.
-But Adara only smiled while she thought, in fact Adara is not weak at all, it is worth saying that the Elves are a warrior race, it is just that Adara is not used to training and much less to doing harm for no reason but I would not explain it to them now, they would realize this later.
Lady Valerice watched from the shadows, nodding to herself. He knew that the rivalry between his daughter and daughter-in-law would become the strongest bond in the house.