Page 30 of Spears and Shadows (Defenders of the Light)
“I am a Warrior. It is my job to train all the new Warriors in the Eteria.”
Nora squinted up at him as she pulled an arm across her chest to stretch her shoulder.
“But I thought everyone here at the sanctuary was a warrior?”
“We all fight against the Shadow, but not all of us are Warriors. Warriors are one of the four orders of the Eteria, charged with defending the Light in battle and known for our physical prowess. We wear red to symbolize our position in the Eteria.”
Nora glanced down at her own red tunic. “Am I a Warrior now?” she teased.
“Most definitely not.” Ezra’s scowl deepened a fraction. “Most of the training tunics we have lying around are red, since the Warriors do the most combat exercises.”
Nora contemplated, envisioning Adam’s skill with a sword in the museum, and asked, “Is Adam a Warrior too?”
“No,” Ezra scoffed. “Adam is a Defender. He has the basic combat training that all members of the Eteria receive. He’s more a librarian than a fighter.”
Nora blanched, imagining what the Warrior’s skills must be like if what Adam had done was “basic”. She also thoroughly appreciated the image of Adam as a librarian but jumped to distract herself before she fell into a hole of library-based fantasies. Nora grasped for something else to ask.
“Thad was wearing green yesterday. What order is that?”
“Healers wear green, and before you ask, the last order is Smiths, and they wear purple.” Ezra pointed accusingly at where Nora was now sitting cross-legged at the ground squinting up at him. “Now are you done stretching, or are you just going to sit there and interrogate me?”
Nora pried herself off the ground with a barely stifled moan. Despite her minimal attempts at stretching, she knew her muscles would feel the day’s exercises when she woke up in the morning.
“I’ll ask you more later,” she said, and Ezra glared. “I have to get home and answer some emails anyways.”
“I’ll see you back here at the same time tomorrow. You have a lot of work to do. And by Zeus, eat some meat tonight. You are going to have to put on a lot more muscle if you are going to stand a chance against the Shadows.”
