Sunblind Serpent: The Zodiac Without A House

Venielle allowed Marek to observe Mara’s training openly after that. She explained that keeping routine exercises behind closed doors would only give him room to imagine something worse happening inside. Marek did not argue. He took a place near the greenhouse wall while Mara stood before three mirrors and a single metal cup.

Mara studied the setup for several seconds. ”That’s it?”

”For now,” Venielle said.

”It somehow looks stupid.”

”It is supposed to look simple.”

”Those are not the same thing.”

Rhovan had claimed an overturned planter as a chair and seemed comfortable enough to remain there for the entire lesson. Venielle ignored him and placed the cup on the table before the center mirror.

”Move it without touching it.”

Mara looked at the cup, then at Venielle. ”I’m Gemini, Lady Venielle. Not Aquarius.”

”Move the correspondence.”

Mara turned toward Marek. ”Do you understand what she means?”

”No.”

”Good. At least I’m not alone.”

But Marek felt a strange sense of déjà vu. Rhovan had done something similar when testing him—give him just enough instruction to start, then leave him to figure out the rest. ’I wonder if Venielle thinks the same way he does when it comes to training.’

Venielle waited until Mara faced the mirrors again. The Gemini patterns across both of her palms brightened as she focused on the reflection to the left. For several seconds, nothing happened. Then, the reflected cup shifted a few centimeters while the physical cup remained exactly where Venielle had placed it.

Mara frowned. ”That was wrong.”

”Incomplete,” Venielle corrected. ”You moved the reflection, but you did not maintain the correspondence strongly enough for the physical cup to follow. Try again.”

On the second attempt, the left reflection moved farther. The cup on the table remained still, but the right mirror briefly showed a second cup beside the first.

Marek stepped away from the wall before he realized he had moved.

Venielle raised one hand. ”Stay there.”

The second reflected cup disappeared almost immediately.

Mara stared at the empty space it had occupied. ”What was that?”

”A correspondence you created without enough support to maintain it. At your current level, it collapses quickly. At higher Cycles, an unsupported correspondence can have consequences outside the mirror.”

Marek folded his arms. ”How high?”

”That is not relevant to her current exercise.”

”That wasn’t what I asked.”

”Marek,” Mara warned without turning around.

He stopped there. Venielle reset the mirrors and made Mara begin again.

The third attempt failed before anything moved. The fourth shifted only the reflection. On the fifth, the physical cup trembled but stayed in place. During the sixth, Mara slowed down enough to keep her attention on both the reflection and the physical cup in front of her.

The reflection moved first.

A moment later, the real cup scraped across the table and stopped roughly three centimeters from where it had started.

Mara stared at it. ”I did it.”

”Good,” Venielle said. ”Again.”

Mara turned her head. ”You could sound a little happier.”

”You asked me earlier to say good when you succeeded.”

”I didn’t say you had to sound disappointed while doing it.”

Marek hid a smile behind one hand.

The exchange reminded him of the apartment parking lot when Mara had been seven and learning to ride a bicycle. On the first afternoon, she had ordered him to keep one hand on the back of the seat. He eventually let go without telling her, and she made it several meters before realizing he was no longer holding on. The realization distracted her badly enough that she drove straight into a hedge and accused him of betrayal afterward.

The next afternoon, Marek did the opposite. He kept his hand on the seat even after she had found her balance.

She had yelled at him for that too.

He watched Mara reset herself in front of the mirrors and understood the problem more clearly now. Holding on too long could interfere just as easily as letting go too early.

Rhovan glanced at him from the planter. ”You are thinking too loudly.”

”You cannot hear thoughts.”

”No. Your face is simply becoming easier to read.”

Marek gave him a brief look before returning his attention to Mara.

She failed the next two attempts. On the ninth, the real cup moved left while its reflection moved right. Venielle stopped the exercise immediately.

Mara objected before Venielle had even finished lowering her hand. ”I’m fine.”

”You are tired,” Venielle said. ”Exhaustion makes it easier to lose track of which correspondence you are maintaining. That is when mistakes become harder to recognize.”

Marek handed Mara a bottle of water. She drank, frowned, and inspected the label. ”Still tastes like metal.”

”It’s bottled water.”

”Then, something is wrong with the bottle.”

Marek took the bottle from her and smelled it before checking the seal. Nothing seemed unusual.

Mara watched him. ”You believe me now.”

”I believe you’re tasting something.”

”Close enough.”

During the break, Rhovan approached one of the older mirrors but stopped before touching the frame.

Venielle noticed. ”You learned.”

”I have always been capable of learning.”

”Being capable of it and choosing to do it are different things.”

Marek looked between them. ”You’ve met before.”

”No,” Rhovan said.

”Not properly,” Venielle answered at the same time.

Rhovan turned toward her.

Marek caught the difference immediately. ”Interesting.”

Rhovan returned to the planter without answering.

Venielle’s expression barely changed. ”The House of Leo produces many famous people. Rhovan has managed to become known well beyond it.”

”That sounded almost complimentary,” Rhovan said.

”It wasn’t meant to be.”

Mara returned before Marek could push either of them further. Venielle had told her to rest for ten minutes, but Mara argued and insisted on seven and somehow walked away with nine, looking far too satisfied with herself.

”You taught me that,” she told Marek.

”I did not teach you to negotiate rest periods.”

”You negotiate everything,” she remarked.

”Because people give bad terms.”

Mara nodded as though that proved her entire argument. ”Exactly.”

When the lesson resumed, Marek stayed near the wall even when the left reflection moved too early. Mara noticed the mistake herself, released the correspondence, and started over without Venielle having to stop or guide her.

Venielle did not rush her or correct every movement. She waited until Mara either found the mistake or reached the point where she was unlikely to find it alone.

Marek found himself watching Venielle almost as closely as Mara. The training was dangerous, especially under someone operating at Venielle’s level, but this was not the same as throwing Mara into a result and expecting her to survive whatever happened. Venielle knew what she was watching for, and Mara was being taught to recognize the danger herself.

After another successful attempt, Mara glanced over her shoulder. ”Are you going to watch every lesson?”

”Probably.”

”Why?”

Marek thought about the bicycle again, especially the second afternoon when he had kept holding the seat after Mara no longer needed him to. ”Because I want to know when I’m supposed to stay out of the way.”

Mara stared at him for a moment before facing the mirrors again.

This time, when the cup moved, Marek stayed where he was.

The final exercise of the light period required Mara to make one reflected movement answer another while keeping the physical cup completely still. It sounded easier than what she had just done, but the timing made it worse.

The right mirror repeatedly answered too early. When Mara compensated for it, the left began responding too late. After several attempts, she blamed the surface.

Venielle made her stop and said, ”Name the mistake.”

Mara took several breaths before answering. ”I’m watching what I want the mirrors to do instead of what they’re actually doing.”

”More precisely?”

Mara looked between the two reflections. ”I’m trying to force the result before I’m sure the correspondence can support it.”

Marek’s hand moved toward his notebook before he consciously decided to write anything.

He had done the same thing with Cases. More than once, he had decided what a Case should contain before properly checking whether the boundaries supported the conclusion. The wording was different, but the mistake was familiar.

Mara noticed the notebook. ”Did my failed mirror lesson just become one of your medical notes?”

”No.”

”You started writing right after I failed.”

”Coincidence.”

She stared at him.

Marek closed the notebook.

Venielle reset the mirrors one final time. Mara positioned herself again and did not rush the opening movement. The right reflection waited until she established the first connection. The left answered only after the second was ready, while the physical cup remained untouched on the table.

Nothing extra appeared in either mirror, and nothing moved before Mara asked it to.

Venielle watched the reflections settle. ”Good.”

Mara smiled.