Dim Mak’s deal with the local government included a house near Galipan, at the far edge of the Cerró El Avila, the large mountain range surrounding the capital. She said they offered her a large mansion in the city, one to rival even the president’s for her to enjoy her retirement, but she declined. Instead, she asked for a simple one as removed as possible from everyone else, whose location only a handful would know.

“That way I know who to kill should anyone come after me here,” Dim Mak said casually when explaining all this to Reina.

They hiked their way up the mountain, something Reina had never done before, especially when there was a perfectly good cableway system to get you to the top that the country was famous for. After three hours, they continued until they reached a small house with no others in sight, but a great view of the ocean on the horizon.

It was at least nicer than the ranchos people usually built in the mountains here, with actual walls and a red tiled roof, and big enough to have at least two rooms inside. “Is this it?”

“Not to your expectations?” Dim Mak asked, not seeming to care either way.

“Just not sure why you’d want to live here,” Reina said, critically.

“People with too much money are spoiled, and your father should have known better than to raise you that way.”

Reina felt her temper flare up, it was one thing to accept this woman had killed him doing the same work he did, but she didn’t want to hear her talk badly about him.

“Oh, you’re angry,” Dim Mak said, noticing her expression. “Don’t worry, I don’t mean to single out your father for this particular flaw; it is sadly too common. In fact, I’ll praise him for teaching you English from so young, or else we wouldn’t be able to talk at all.”

She walked over to the house and opened the wooden front door. Reina followed her inside and was surprised to see the place had already been furnished and filled with what was clearly Dim Mak’s specifications. Most notable was the training area, complete with a wooden dummy, where the living room should have been.

The kitchen became their social area, and on the first day, Dim Mak carved some Chinese characters into the rock wall at the bottom that read “光说不能煮米饭.” When Reina asked her what it meant she said:

“‘Talk doesn’t make rice’, it’s an old Chinese proverb and a good reminder for you.”

“Why? Aren’t you going to make the rice?”

“Perhaps on a special occasion if you earn it, but you’re the student here, and if there’s one thing Chinese people and Venezuelans have in common, is they both love rice.”

“So I have to make it every day?” Reina gasped.

Yes, after you attend school,” Dim Mak replied cooly. “I will ensure it is nice a one, and every afternoon we will train and practice until it’s time for dinner. We will do this until you are at least competent, then we can start a more advanced curriculum.”

“How long is that gonna take?”

“At least ten years if you have the talent your father did.”

“What? That’s forever! And wait, how am I gonna get to school if we’re living up here?”

“That should be obvious, you’ll climb down and make your way there.”

“On foot!”

“Of course.”

“But it’s like an hour to get down from this mountain!”

“And I imagine close to the same once you’re down there to the school, but it’s not so bad.”

“Not so bad? Miss Dim Mak, I don’t know that I-”

Before she could utter another word, Dim Mak placed two fingers on her mouth to shut it with her unbelievable speed. There was no hostility in the act, but Reina had seen what she could do with those two fingers already and gulped.

“The only people who know me as Dim Mak are the ones who hire me or die by me,” Dim Mak said, her voice low, but she commanded Reina’s attention completely. “From now on you will call me only Sifu, is that clear?”

Reina nodded, and Dim Mak moved her fingers away.

“This will be our new home, and I will train you into my most worthy student. That is the contract between us, Reina. You will do your utmost to get there, and what you do with your life after…is entirely up to you.”

She was right in that Reina had no choice, but perhaps she could see this as an opportunity. Learning from the world’s greatest fighter was not something anyone got to do, and it could give her the chance to follow in her father’s footsteps. She always wanted to be able to fight like he did, with Dim Mak she could be even better.

“Yes, Sifu,” Reina said and awkwardly bowed her head in respect. It felt wrong to do so after what she did, but she remembered how her father told her it was best not to make things personal in their world. Dim Mak was an assassin, the same as he was, and in their own messed up way, had reached this agreement for her future despite that. The least Reina could do was honor it.

“Did you also  have to walk an entire mountain to school every day?”

“Something like that,” Dim Mak answered with a fond smile. “Now stop complaining. You’ll see it gets easier with time, the same will be true with your training.”

***

“What’s wrong now?” Dim Mak asked, her tone barely concealing her exasperation.

“I still feel bad for the tree,” Reina said miserably, her leg aching after repeatedly hitting the hard bark.

They had been at it for over an hour after Reina got home, already exhausted from the daily climb, and then expected to endure her sifu’s harsh training. Today she was learning how to kick, and apparently how to best break her leg from hitting an old tree that felt like it was made out of cement. 

“It’s a tree, Reina. It feels nothing.”

“Well, it’s making me feel a lot, mostly mind-numbing pain.”

“You have to push through it.”

“The tree or my pain?”

“Yes,” Dim Mak said simply. “Like this.”

Before Reina could blink, Dim Mak swung her leg and hit the tree right in the center, followed by an explosion of splinters and chunks of wood in Reina’s face. Her eyes widened when she wiped them away and saw the large hole that took a quarter of the great trunk.

“You see, I simply focus my energy and punch the tree with all my strength at its breaking point. It’s not as difficult as you make it.”

Reina looked down at Dim Mak’s leg, bewildered, and while it was covered, it was also clearly not broken or smashed into a dozen fragments as she expected. “How the hell do you not feel pain?”

“Who says I don’t?”

“Whoa,” Reina stared in awe. “Is there a trick you’re going to teach me?”

“There is no trick, little queen. You always feel the pain.”

Dim Mak lifted the hem of her white pant sleeve to show Reina her leg, it was unblemished, and when she touched it, it felt almost harder than the tree.

“I have trained my body to the very limits of endurance, strengthened the bones in my hands and legs by breaking them, and the pain still comes every time. What you need to learn is to not let it break you.”

Reina looked at her with genuine admiration. None of the women she had met had ever displayed such power or felt as dangerous as Dim Mak did. “Women endure far more pain than men, whatever they like to believe. This world teaches us that as soon as it can. The best you can do is learn to take the hits…and to hit it back.”

To emphasize her point, Dim Mak turned around and delivered another fast kick that completely broke the rest of the tree in half. The crack was like a gunshot had gone off, and the trunk fell to the side with a hard thud that still left Reina speechless.

“You can do this too, Reina.” Dim Mak said, holding her leg high in the air as if to show she felt nothing from the impact. “We are martial artists…always remember the art. We have technique and training to overcome the limitations of other people, and a quick mind to think on your feet and work around any weaknesses”

Reina collapsed to her knees, not even minding the pain in her right leg anymore. She felt like Dim Mak might as well ask her to fly; it seemed so impossible to reach that level. “I don’t know if I can ever do that.”

“Life is a struggle,” Dim Mak lowered her leg, looking displeased by her answer. “Those who do not are spoiled into uselessness or lying to you. Your father almost turned you into that, and he should have known better than most, coming from nothing.”

“Mi papa just wanted the best for me,” Reina said defiantly and getting angry.

“Yes, a common flaw from those that manage to climb out of that hole. They wish to shield others from that same pain, but they fail to realize that pain was what molded them into who they are.”

“Is pain all you know?” 

Dim Mak smiled amused at the question, and Reina thought she was pleased by it.

“Most of what I am is pain” she answered, with a humorless smile. “To receive and give it, although only mostly the latter now. Make sure you know which side of pain you want to be on, Reina.”

Without another word, Dim Mak turned around and left for the house. Reina sat there for a while, her hands shaking angrily. It was frustrating to hear her talk that way about her father while seeing the justice in her point.  

For all her father’s skills it didnt save him in the end, she knew she had to be better, and stronger, even if it meant learning from the woman who killed him.

***

Before Reina knew it, a year had passed, and it was the hardest of her life. The training was grueling, and she was so exhausted that she spent most of her time in school trying to stay awake. It didnt allow much time to make friends, but even if she had, there was no free time to see them. Dim Mak pushed her past her physical limits every day.

“Esto es una mierda!” Reina grunted, barely holding back the pain.

“No swearing, not even in Spanish,” Dim Mak said.

“You’re gonna split me in two!”

They were practicing a stretching technique used in Taekwondo to achieve maximum flexibility. This technique involved Dim Mak pushing her legs open as far as she could with her own.

“Many of the styles I teach focus on kicks, so we need you to be as limber as possible and this is the fastest way.”

“Argh! Why is that so important?”

“Women are naturally more gifted kickers, so they’ll be a good weapon for attack and defense. You'll be ready when you can lift them straight over your head and break down a tree like I did.”

“Ready for what?”

“Anyone and anything, now relax.”

Reina let out a scream instead, as her threshold reached its limit. The rest of the routine wasn't exactly a breeze. This included upside pushups, which Dim Mak could perform with just two fingers on one hand while remaining perfectly balanced. Reina struggled to hold herself steady with both hands and could not manage more than eight pushups at first.

“Find your balance, Reina.”

“How long before I can find the ground and just lay there for a bit?”

“When you have reached thirty of those.”

Reina cursed in Spanish again, her favorite way to do so, but she mumbled it instead.

“Everyone in the world knows what "puta" means, so either get creative or keep it to yourself,” Dim Mak said with little patience, motioning her to go lower, and Reina shot her a dirty look as she did. They repeated all this the next day.

“Your form is pitiful, your technique weak, and your ancestors would cry at your posture...and what do we say?"

“Thank you for not killing me today,” and then she added some swearing to that in her mind.