Learning my trade

There was an interlude during my apprenticeship that I will talk about another time, during which I did virtually nothing.

When it was over, I received what I remember as the first formal lesson of my apprenticeship. (Doubtless Troaliss would disagree, but we disagree on many things.)

Troaliss surprised me by waking up early. During this time, he had gone to the yard of a blacksmith, coming back with a large, quarter-inch-thick scrap of tempered steel.

He gave it to me with these words: "Fold it in half."

When I couldn't do it, he got pissed and called me a weakling.

He never did explain why he did that. Such is his nature; he usually didn't.

In hindsight, I understand.

The test was to see how quickly I could bend it, and thus how much he would have to catch me up with before the real training began. When I couldn't, he realized that what he was duty-bound as a master to do - instruct me as a student of the Kumate Chorjish Iron Lion Legacy - was never going to happen.

He could have sent me away then, judging me rightly unfit to be a Strong Studious Son of his Style, and continued looking for an apprentice.

He instead chose to teach me - as best he could - a style that could make me strong.

I did not carry on his Legacy. If I was ever asked my style, I would say that I was taught by a son of the Kumate Chorjish Iron Lion Legacy, but claim none as my own. I will never bend a quarter-inch plate of steel in half.

But I can defend myself. To some degree, this is the result of Troaliss teaching me.

It was the greatest act of kindness he ever did me.

It may also have been the only one.