[Training] keep your eyes down

”Tal?” Alys called from the kitchen. ”Can you help me?”

A few weeks had passed since Sascha’s death, and Alys had floated through the time like a ghost. This would mark the first time that she’d wanted to do anything since her companion’s death, and Tal would no doubt recognize the importance of the occasion.

When her partner found her in the kitchen, she would be dressed in dark, comfortable clothes better suited to exercise than lounging, her dark curls tied back out of her face. She carried a few practice daggers beneath her arm, all of which were too dull too cut but were certainly hard enough to bruise. Her eyes were still glassy with grief, but her face was resolute. She was still devastated, of course, but she had also, over the past few days, grown increasingly angry. At the yeti, at the tundra, at the Void and the Family and the world at large…

But mostly at herself.

If she’d been better, stronger, faster, more prepared… Sascha would still be here. And while Tal insisted that it was the yeti’s fault, Alys had never really accepted that the blame lay anywhere other than squarely on her own shoulders.

”Can you help me train?”

Alys

"Sure, gimme just a sec," Tal called from the bedroom, where he was putting away their clean laundry. He tucked a last pair of shirts into a drawer and then hurried out, rolling up his sleeves as he went. He'd heard his partner's voice from the kitchen and had assumed it would be something food related--

His eyes went immediately to the dull knives and then to her face, weary and wounded but determined, too. There was a spark in her eyes that echoed the smoldering flame in his own heart, carefully banked but carefully tended. An ember of anger, vengeful and tempered hard as steel. He assumed it was aimed at the same foe, and at her request he sucked in a breath of surprise that lasted for only a second before he nodded emphatically. "Yeah, of course." Something in him unwound a little in relief to see his love taking control of her life again. Moving... if not past her loss, then at least forward with it. "Let's shift th'table out o' th'way..."

They cleared the common room enough to work. The quarters were tight, but it was too cold to do anything outside, so they would make do. Tal accepted one of the blunted daggers and tested the heft of it before he planted himself in front of his partner and raised the knife defensively. "First, y'gotta be willin' t'hit someone." He patted his chest, where his Vest clinked softly beneath his hand. "An' get used t'how it feels. Y'won't hurt me through this. An' even if y'do, we've got enough healin' between us t'fix any bruises these'll leave."

Something in Alys’s heart unclenched as Tal accepted her request without comment. She felt his relief through her magic, but she was grateful that he wasn’t making a big deal out of it. She wasn’t sure that she’d be able to bear it if he had - just as she was sure that he knew that. He knew her so well, after all, that he’d been able to anticipate her every need since Sascha’s loss, not even questioning when she decided that she needed to stay home for a little while rather than continuing to travel.

In any case, they cleared away furniture and decor enough that they would be able to work. As Tal grabbed one dagger, Alys took the other, shifting its weight from one hand to the other. She’d been practicing with daggers for a while, but not with a sparring partner, so he was probably right - she had to be willing to hit someone for real. Suddenly nervous - and very much not wanting to attack her partner - she said, ”Okay. Whenever you’re ready.”

When Tal gave the signal, Alys darted forward, her dagger slashing at Tal’s chest, aiming what would, if it hit, be a glancing blow above his heart. At the last moment before impact, though, she flinched slightly - giving Tal the perfect opening to avoid her blow.

Alys

The sad truth was, neither of them had much energy to make a big deal about anything these days. Sorrow left them both exhausted, and Tal knew that if their positions were switched he wouldn't want to be coddled or fussed over for making a decision that was only common sense. All that mattered was that Alys had made it, and that he would support her in any way she needed.

He nodded once, encouragingly, and set himself to accept her attack. It was only at the last second that his eyes widened, sudden knowledge washing through him like ice water and giving his limbs a life of their own and the speed of a striking snake. He flicked his own dagger up as Alys flinched, knocking her strike off-target with a little more force than he'd intended. "Shit, sorry, time out--" He backpedaled to put a little space between them, holding his empty hand out to her to stop her from following. He transferred the dagger to his mouth and hurriedly struggled out of the Vest, tossing it onto the back of a nearby chair before spitting the weapon back into his hand and returning with an apologetic grimace.

"Sorry, I didn't even think. I forgot about th'lightnin' stripes on it. If you'd hit me, it would've shocked you. So, uh... yeah. Sorry." He winced and tapped his chest with the blunted tip of his dagger. "Try again, an' I'll be ready t'heal it with my Ring as soon as y'do." Not that he thought it would hurt enough to require it, but he knew that Alys would worry over the bruise until it was taken care of and he didn't want to cause her any more pain than she was already in.

Tal’s reaction to her attack startled Alys - so much so that she pulled away a little too sharply, and the sudden motion combined with Tal’s flick of his dagger set her off balance. Before she had really realized what had happened, she was sprawled out on her rump on the floor, blinking up at her partner with eyes as round as saucers. ”Oh,” she said dumbly. Then she let out a strangled sound that might have been a laugh, if only things were different. As it was, she wasn’t sure that getting shocked would have been such a bad thing. At least she’d have felt something, anything other than the endless void of numbness and despair.

Shaking her head, she clambered to her feet and reset her stance, balancing decently on the balls of her feet. ”I’d forgotten you’d done that to your Vest,” she admitted, pausing to wipe sweaty palms on her thighs. Now that Tal was unprotected, however, she was less inclined to hit him, even with blunt practice knives.

Still, she wasn’t going to learn anything by standing here staring at him, and so she waited for a moment to be sure he was ready to start again. While she paused, she thought - she couldn’t try the same move again, as he’d be expecting it now. He was stronger and more experienced than she was by far, so she’d have to try and out-think him rather than attempting to use brute strength that she didn’t possess. When she was ready, she held the knife in her right hand and lunged towards Tal’s right side, aiming to “stab” him in the thigh.

Alys

"Shit, sorry, sorry--" The babbled apologies tumbled out as Alys went backwards and landed on her rump and Tal paused in unbuttoning his Vest, ready to offer her a hand up. The not-laugh caught at his heart, twisting it as much as her silent tears did while she slept, and his fingers clenched into the hard planes of the armor for another breath. By the time he released it she was already halfway to her feet and he hurried to shrug the rest of the way out of the garment before they both took their positions again.

"I've gotten so used to it, I don't even think about it anymore," he admitted with an apologetic grimace. "An' usually th'folks I spar with are hittin' me from a distance so it doesn't matter." Magic-slingers like Sah, or Flora with her thrown daggers didn't have anything to worry about from his Vest.

It no longer felt quite so weird to be the experienced one, and his pale eyes picked out her hesitation. He tried to think like a trainer rather than her partner and drew in a breath to encourage her to attack--

She came in suddenly and low, and Tal started to twitch left on instinct, knowing he could dodge it. But dodging wouldn't help her, and he braced himself as he forced himself to lean right and sink down, deliberately putting himself into her dagger so the blunt-edged weapon sank into his side rather than his thigh. He grunted at the impact, feeling the sharp spike of pain into his muscles and organs even though the dagger was too dull to draw blood.

And brought his own knife in towards Alys's ribs with more restraint. He knew what it felt like to sink a weapon into another body, and he didn't want to hurt his partner accidentally. If he hit she would receive a light bruise but hopefully nothing deeper.

In any other moment, this would have been amusing: Alys, sitting on her rump in the floor of their home, staring up at her partner with wide eyes as she grasped a blunt dagger in her right hand, her left splayed out behind her to keep her somewhat upright. In another time, they’d have laughed at this. But this was now, and in the now, Sascha was gone, and the only reason they were doing this at all was to protect Alys from future attacks. And that reality pressed on her mind like a physical thing, leaving her able only to rise from the floor to try again.

Tal could have dodged her strike. He knew it, and she knew it - and what was even more strange was that she felt his decision to let her hit him, his emotions telling her that he was allowing her to be successful. A part of her raged at this, insisting that he shouldn’t take it easy on her, that she needed to be able to defend against all that was out there, but it was quickly overtaken by a sinking feeling in her stomach as he grunted at the impact.

”Sorry -“ she offered with a wince, rapidly withdrawing her blade as his emotions reacted to the pain of her strike, her words a quiet gasp as she grappled with her own feelings and his on top of the spar itself. But none of that seemed to matter as Tal brought his own blade towards her, aiming for her ribs. And because she’d been distracted, she didn’t dodge as fast as she should’ve, and his blow hit just enough to glance off her rib cage, smarting a bit, but thankfully not hitting deeply enough to do any real damage. She didn’t even think she’d have a bruise when this was done.

So her dodge was unsuccessful, but the movement took her dancing away from the blow that had landed, and she followed the motion to skip out of reach. Circling, she waited for an opening, and when she thought she saw one, she tossed her knife into the air in an attempt to catch Tal off guard, then used her telekinesis to send it shooting towards the arm holding his blade.

Alys

"Don't be," he wheezed reassuringly. Or maybe not reassuringly? But either way he offered a flicker of an apologetic smile as his own strike came in and caught her off-guard. He managed to control his sympathetic wince - his own fresh bruise was throbbing like a bitch, even if he'd been careful to keep his return cut light - and gave an approving nod as she danced nimbly back. "Just 'cause you've stuck someone doesn't mean they'll stop movin'. If they're used t'fightin' an' takin' hits, they'll take advantage o' how close y'had t'come t'hit 'em even while they're bleedin'."

It wasn't that he was taking it easy on her. If anything he was starting her out with a harder set of lessons out of respect for the experience she already had.

And she repaid his faith in her a moment later, though he didn't realize it at first. Her knife left her hand and Tal let out a strangled squawk of dismay, drawing breath to berate her for letting go of her weapon--

In the next moment the knife was arrowing towards his own hand, perfectly under control thanks to her telekinesis, and he realized what her plan was too late to do anything about it. The dull blade hit his wrist, and though the shock wasn't enough to make him lose his grip he dropped his training dagger anyways. IF the knife had been sharpened it would have done a lot more damage, and he rolled with the pretense that it was a 'live' blade.

But now neither of them had a weapon in hand, and Tal scowled in concentration as he launched himself at Alys in a physical tackle, attempting to knock her down onto the rug-softened floor.

Honestly, Alys was a little surprised that had worked.

Her dull blade flew through the air, aiming squarely for Tal’s knife hand, and hit. Her partner dropped the knife, and Alys’s brows snapped together in concern. If she’d hit him hard enough to make him drop his weapon -

But no sooner had Alys taken a step forward to check on Tal than he lunged for her and tackled her to the ground. Fortunately, there was a soft rug to cushion the blow somewhat, and her landing failed to knock the breath from her lungs. But now she had a bit of a situation on her hands: her partner was larger and stronger than her, and in a wrestling match, he was almost certain to win based on that alone. Not to mention she wasn’t nearly as skilled at hand-to-hand combat as she was other things.

So maybe it was sneaky, but she called forth her telekinesis again to pull one of the discarded blades towards her, flipping the dagger into her hand. She wasn’t really sure where to aim, so she simply stabbed, and in doing so hoped to hit somewhere in Tal’s side.

Alys

He'd been expecting - hoping - that Alys would dodge, but her instincts brought her towards him rather than away. He hit her with as much control as he had as he took them both down, trying to keep a little of his weight off of her as they hit the floor. It was a lot different than wrestling with Sah; Tal felt vaguely guilty about using his height and strength against someone smaller than him, even if Alys had asked him to.

But down they went regardless, the courier landing on top and pinning his sparring partner. He winced at his own success, but started to push himself up to claim the victory--

He saw the flicker of the knife moving through the air from the corner of his eye and instinct moved his body. Even as he straightened he twisted, trying to avoid the blade or knock it away. He had seen it too late, however, and the dull dagger stabbed right into the bruise that Alys's first attack had caused. Tal let out a strangled oof and grabbed for the weapon as he toppled to the side - freeing Alys as he gave a more theatrical groan. "Y'got me! Y'win! Mercy!" he begged, looking at his partner with pitiful eyes that he had definitely learned from Boreal.

Tal's strangled noise was enough to make Alys wince, and as he rolled off her, she followed, sitting up on her elbow as she looked him over worriedly. "I don't think I like sparring with you very much," she commented as she reached for the hem of his shirt so that she could check on the bruise that was sure to be forming. "Not because you're not a good teacher - you are - but because I hate hurting you." Even if it was just a bruise, Tal's wounded expression tugged at her heartstrings all the same.

She healed him quickly with her magic, tracing a finger gently over the spot where the bruise had been until it faded. Something akin to bitterness flickered in her eyes for the briefest of moments as she realized that however much healing ability she had, it hadn't been enough to save Sascha, who had been gone the moment the yeti had struck her. She might be good, but she wasn't a god. She couldn't bring someone back from the dead.

Shaking her head to clear it, she dropped Tal's shirt back into place. "Thank you," she told her partner, leaning forward to rest her forehead against his. It wouldn't bring Sascha back, but it was something she could do to learn, to improve, and to hopefully keep anything like this from happening in the future.

fin

Alys