I’d gone out for spite.
My father had forbidden me from taking a lesson in swordsmanship with my three brothers. They thought it was funny. My mother, dutifully, failed to come to my defense. What need would I ever have to handle a sword?
My brothers, they would come to use their skills in many different endeavors in the years that followed. I won’t lie and pretend that I didn’t get a special fulfillment when they took up a life of crime and were finally caught robbing a governor’s carriage and hanged in the town square. They used their learning for destruction. I’d only wanted it for defense. Not that I felt particularly threatened. I was just hoping for a way to get a handle on my fear.
So, I’d gone out for spite, snuck through the front door in the middle of the night. What I was hoping to find, I’m not sure. I was just angry and wanted to disobey.
It was my first and only act of defiance.