In some ways, I could not ask for a better student. She is attentive, diligent, and clever- often teasing out a lesson’s point before I can finish it. She is a raw beginner when it comes to physical training, but she is graceful, which helps, and open to correction, which helps more. I know she must be sore (I am sore, and I’m primarily watching and commenting), but she never complains. We have shifted our training to more of a night-schedule, so as not to alarm the servants. As far as they are concerned, she never leaves the house, and spends most of the daylight hours in pious prayer. And, for all I know, she does. I would not put it past her to be able to pray in her sleep.
It has been three weeks, and I can see the physical changes beginning in her body- soft curves of childhood flesh burning away in favor of sleek muscle. It is making her more beautiful still. Or perhaps it is the quiet sorrow in her eyes. She does what is required of her, but as of yet there is not joy in it. Perhaps, if she is Called, that will change.
Or perhaps I should take her on a Hunt.
I must say, Bethulia is surprisingly free of the supernatural, evil or otherwise. It’s puzzling, because usually Slayer Potentials are discovered in hotbeds of mystical activity- often near Hellmouths themselves. But there is no real threat within these walls, no monsters, no vampires, not even a dark magic user. Nor a light one, for that matter. To be honest it’s so mundane that it makes me suspicious. Perhaps their god has taken a special interest in this town, and placed it under his direct protection, or perhaps they have deeper safeguards I have not seen or could not recognize. Either way, if I am to take my Potential hunting, we must go beyond the city walls, into the wild mountains around us.
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