There is a point where everything changes, when what went before belongs to an old life and what comes after belongs to a new life. It is like taking a turning on a crossroads, where the new road takes you off at an angle from the old road. You were on that old road and now, because of that moment of choice at the crossroads, you are on a new road.
It was that moment when it changed.
I looked down at him, moments before he had been alive, and now his blood was draining from his lifeless body into the dust at my feet. I looked down at the sword in my hand, feeling the sudden weight of it. Moments before, when the body at my feet still lived, that sword had felt light, almost non-existent, an extension of my arm that was itself an extension of my intention, just as I'd been taught.
I felt the weight of a heavy hand on my shoulder and I turned.
'You did well,' Yondrel spoke softly.
'Y... you taught me well.' My voice came from some new place, as though in that moment between my opponent’s life and his death I'd moved sideways into some new world. When I'd dodged to avoid his blow, and instinctively responded with my own blow, something changed inside me. That blow, my instinctive response, killed him. His blood dripped off my blade as I held it up to see the bright spring sunlight glint off the blade.
'It is always strange... the first one.' Yondrel took the sword from my hand, knelt down to the body and wiped the blade clean on a loose scrap of the soldier's tunic. He sighed as he stood up and handed me back my sword. I could see the age in him.
'Does it get any easier?' My mouth felt dry as though I was the one who'd lost all the moisture from my body.
Yondrel shook his head and led me away, back to where our horses waited, sunning themselves in the sudden spring sun and tasting the sweet new grass.
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