LENA
Empty but for me, and a current teacher of mine — Lucien — showing off advanced combat moves, which I had been grappling with because you try doing all that fancy footwork while pregnant.
“Start again,” he encouraged, as I wobbled on strike. “Your center of gravity is in a different place now. your position needs to be worked for.”
“I’m trying,” I said, annoyed that my body was transforming daily to make techniques it had learned a mere week ago difficult. “But then the baby makes everything worse.”
"Then we adapt," Lucien said. “Magic should augment what you can’t do physically. You’re not like a normal fighter, Lena.” Stop trying to be one."
It was true but also difficult to admit, as though it revealed a weakness. I had so completely dedicated myself to learning how to be stro
