"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
~Oscar Wilde

I'd never been good at physical exercise, so I dreaded my training session today. Iris promised me in a short amount of time, my endurance and strength would increase exponentially. She explained my body was already going through changes now that I was on Vasileia. I appreciated her trying to ease my conscious, but I knew I'd be sore tomorrow.

And the day after that.

And the day after that.

My first lesson was with Killian. Iris hadn't been joking when she said his muscles were twice the size of her head. He wore a shirt that seemed to a tad too small, but it defined every perfect feature of his body.

"Lilly, this is Killian Rogers. Killian, this is Lilly Snow," Iris introduced.

"Hello, sir," I greeted. He smiled at me, shaking my hand.

"Welcome to Vasileia, Lilly. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Thank you. Um, I didn't quite know what to wear, so I hope this is okay," I said, glancing down at my workout shorts and tank top.

"It's absolutely fine. There are no strict rules on workout gear here, so you work out in whatever you're comfortable in."

"Just out of curiosity, how long will training sessions be?" I inquired.

"Depends on your skill level. Since you're a beginner, it'll be an hour to an hour and a half for each lesson. Today is just to see where you're at in skill level."

"Oh no," I muttered.

Killian laughed. "You worried about something?"

"I'll tell you right now that my endurance is terrible, and I'm out of shape. Also, all my strength is in my legs. I have practically no upper body strength."

"Good to know. We'll know what to work on. You'll start with me every day Monday through Friday. Afterward, you'll meet with Caleb's brother, David, for weapons training. He'll train you, see which ones you're good at and not so good at. Then you get the great opportunity to train with Iris's brother, Jax. Then it's stealth training with Ella, and last but not least, terrain training with Iris."

"And it's an hour to an hour and a half each? So it'll be five to seven hours of training?"

"Give or take a few. Depending on how fast you go and how fast you learn, it could actually be less than five hours, or it could be more. Once we place your skill level, you'll have more set times. For today, it's just to see where you stand."

Lovely. I thought.

"I have to go train, but I'll see you later, okay?" Iris said. "Killian, take care of her."

Iris walked out of the room, and Killian turned to me. "Let's do some stretches first, get your muscles loosened up to prevent you from being too sore tomorrow."

"Where do we begin?"

Killian sat on the floor; I followed in suit. For about twenty minutes, we did a bunch of stretches, some super easy, some super not. Killian promised me I'd be able to do the harder ones in less than a week. After stretching, he led me to a door. Upon opening it, I was greeted by a beautiful park.

Killian explained, "This is the path most of our runners take. It's a run through Queen's park. It's two miles long. You ready?"

"We're going to run two miles?" I asked in dread.

"Take as long as you need."

"I can barely run a mile in under ten minutes..."

"You're stronger than you think, Lilly. Trust me on this. You can go as slow or as fast as you want."

I nodded, mentally preparing myself for a two-mile jog. I never liked running for the hell of it. If I was going to run, then it should be in a sport. I'd always told Vivienne that if she ever saw me running, she should start running too because something was after me. That always made her smile.

I set off at a reasonable pace, which for some people was actually fast. My long legs meant I had longer strides than some, but Killian had no problem keeping up. To my embarrassment, when we were barely half a mile in, I was already panting and sweating like a pig. He'd hardly broken a sweat. To keep my mind off how much I just wanted to stop and lay down on the ground and relax, I asked, "How many miles can you run? Iris told me your power is strength and endurance?"

"I can run about a hundred miles now. I'm trying to beat the record of a hundred twenty."

"You can run a hundred miles?" I demanded. "How long does that take you, and how does that not kill you?"

"It takes me a few hours, but with the right music, it's easy. My power is super strength and endurance."

"Can you have two powers?"

"It's rare, very rare, and usually ends up badly for the person."

"How so?"

"I don't know the science behind it. You're friends with Caleb, right?"

"Yes."

"Ask him. He can explain it to you much better than I can."

"I swear I've asked him about a hundred questions already."

"Caleb loves it. He loves talking about powers and science. I like it too, but not to the degree he does."

I stopped talking, mostly because I could barely catch my breath. I did manage to puff out the question of how much longer I had. To my dismay, we had one more mile. It felt like I'd been running for ages before I was finally done. Killian glanced at his watch.

"You did that in... twenty-eight minutes. Not half bad for a girl who says she's out of shape," Killian told me with a smile.

"Thanks," I wheezed out.

"Let's go grab some water and cool down. We'll use the remaining twenty minutes to test your strength." He opened the door, walking to a fridge, and grabbing two water bottles. I knew it was probably a bad idea, but I chugged mine down.

"So, strength training?" I asked.

"Strength training. Follow me."