[Training] find a way

D e i m o s

Send a heartbeat to the void that cries through you
Relive the pictures that have come to pass

“What were you all doing in there anyway?” The curiosity churned and turned over him as he maneuvered the blade within his fingers, allowed it to dance and simmer on his calloused hands, recalling the earnest feeling of steel in his hands, singing across the battlefield as it lanced and lacerated. His eyes flickered back to Jigano, an obvious, calculating measures stoked and fueled behind his eyes, incapable of hiding it no matter the reserve, the diffidence, or nonchalance more often brewed in the outset. But then they were on new allies, on new blades, on new teams, because the world changed, altered, so frequently that there was hardly any honor in things staying the same – he expected erosion and alteration as much as he presumed predilections and threats. It’d been a learning curve, those few, bountiful moments of peace shattered within a moment’s notice, taking what he could when he could, savoring repose, when he had once blended so easily, so seamlessly, into parallel shadows and menace. He nodded at the bard, who had no intentions of letting broken arms waylay him – not with the smoke and fire brimming on the horizon, on a monarch who called herself merciless. What would happen when she met the unrelenting? The dance wasn’t particularly complicated – he’d marveled and practiced it day after day, evening after evening, along barracks and training yards – but none of the other participants had been maimed and snapped. At first glance, it appeared as though Jigano had meant to defend on reflex alone, and the arm that would’ve blocked or parried was currently stuck in a sling. The Reaper brought his blade up to rest on his shoulder, tilting his head to examine the conundrum, perceive what was to be done about defenses. “You will have to retrain your brain. Make it become muscle memory.” After a while, it was instinctive, innate, the sword an extension of his arm, an extension of himself. He altered his commands, quieter, solid, steady, and sure – not pressing, not demanding, but reaching out to provide aid and assistance. “Use the sword to block mine.” He followed through on Jigano’s request, bringing the wooden weapon forward again, stepping to the left, and bringing the blade straight down, towards his right shoulder once more – slower, so the bard could see the movements, the motions. For now we stand alone, the world is lost and blown And we are flesh and blood disintegrate with no more to hate