From being an Abandoned who had rarely left the Hollowed Grounds, to embracing the call of adventure, to dying and being reborn first as an Ascended and then as an Ancient, Maea has gone through quite the amount of changes in her life. One thing remains common, though, in her attempts to find out just where she belongs; she’s always had a craving for knowledge which has brought her to so many places and to meet so many people here in Caido. We can’t wait to see what else is in store for her!
Congratulations, Maea!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
Skinning and hosting by the epically talented Kaons, and functionality fanciness by the coding magic of Neowulf. If you ever see either of them around, make sure to show them some love!
Sah had elected to bring Trinket to the indoor training grounds of the Academy when they met at the rendevous point that was Halo's skyport. The Acamdemy was built to handle wayward magic of every kind. Hopefully it would be able to withstand whatever the young demigod had to offer. At the very least, it would keep the damage contained and away from innocent bystanders.
Leading Trinket in, Sah brought her to a rack of axes. There was a vast array of sizes and styles. "Alright. We'll start with choosing an axe. You have to find one that you can comfortably lift over your head, even without magic. An axe is useless if you can't even wield it without magic." He nodded toward the rack, "Give them a try, see if one of them catches your eye."
"I have an axe," Trinket said. She pushed back her cloak to reveal a small hand axe stuck through a loop on her belt. It was small, barely more than a hatchet to a grown up, though quite heavy in Trinket's hands. She needed both hands to lift it comfortably. The axe was brand new, never used, with a sharp blade on one end, and a deadly spike on the other.
She hefted the axe to her shoulder, huffing a bit with the weight of it. She set her doll down. The doll stood there, watching the entire scene, its porcelain face blank. It still bore a dried bloodstain over its right eye, tainting the glass eye red. It stared up at Sah, weighing him, judging him.
Trinket looked around at the various people training in the yard. "Which one is going to try to kill me?" she asked. "I don't want to split open the wrong person's head."
Sah pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a sigh, sending a silent prayer to Safrin for patience. "None." His eyes meeting Trinket's he restated his earlier lecture. "When it comes to weapons, you train. Meaning you attack training dummies.." He pointed to the straw and wood ones on the field, "...or you spar non-lethally with someone. That's what we're doing today. Training is not meant to result in an actual death."
Hoping Trinket understood, Sah used his telekinesis to bring the dummies to them, encircling them around the duo. "I'm going to use my magic and have one at a time come at you. You won't know which target it is, until it moves. Your job is to hit it with your axe with a strong enough blow to make it stop moving. Got it? Once you get the hang of it, we'll start aiming for the dummies' heads."
Assuming the Demigod agreed, Sah flicked his wrist and a dummy on Trinket's left began to surge toward her at the pace of a fast walk.
Trinket listened carefully. She had some doubt about the ability of straw dummies to teach her how to split open her enemies' heads. Dummies didn't bleed or cry or scream. They would be harder to kill.
When the dummies came at her, she started swinging the axe with all of her tiny strength. Her swings were wild and clumsy, the unfamiliar weight of the axe too much for her to bear. She clipped a few pieces of straw off one of the dummies, but it was more random chance than anything else.
When she ran out of breath, she dropped the axe to the side, the handle dangling from her fingers. "Killing is hard," she said between huffs of air. Her face showed no signs of the exertion she had been through, her expression still blank, though beads of sweat dotted her brow.
bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones.
You've encountered the OG random event! This allows you to skip one levelling requirement with the character in this thread. (Unfortunately does not count for characters over level 10, how sad.)
Sah used his magic to make the dummy draw back. He nodded at her observation, "It is. That's why we're training with dummies because they can't truly hurt you." It was clear that Trinket had yet to even begin her training, if her form was anything to go off of.
The Abandoned grabbed one of the adult axes and dropped into a stance. "Mimic me." He went through the motions of swinging the axe slowly so as to let her observe. "Make sure to keep your grip like I am, it'll make it easier on your shoulders." After she seemed to get the basic motions down, he continued his demonstration. Using his telekinesis Sah began pull a dummy toward himself at the same speed as prior.
One it was within range, he demonstrated the motions at full speed, the axe piercing deep into the dummy and revealing the wood beneath. Stepping back, Sah let Trinket get back in position. "Your turn." He used his magic to have one of the other dummies begin to approach Trinket, this time a bit slower to give her proper time to relax.
Trinket watched the movements carefully. She was good at watching. Whenever she played games, she watched the people she was playing with. She watched their screams, their reactions to the games. She always watched close, always remembered everything she watched.
She did her best to mimic the movements. Her memory of the movements was perfect...her ability to mimic them, not so much. She struggled to raise the axe to the correct position. Her swings were slow and clumsy. She swung again and again, each time at the same angle, the same grip as Sah had shown her. She managed to clip the dummy a bit, since it was moving so slow. A few bits of straw floated gently down to the floor.
Off to the side, the doll mimicked each movement, its tiny arms swinging through the air as if it bore an invisible axe.
"Axes are heavy," Trinket said. "How do I get stronger?" She knew that exercise could make someone stronger, but that didn't sound like fun.
Sah hummed and pulled the dummy back. "Let's practice without the dummy moving. It'll build up your strength as well as make it easier later." He noted the doll's movements with some amusement but made no comment.
"But first, adjust your stance like this, shoulders feet apart. And make sure to tuck your elbows in this way." Sah reached out and adjusted Trinket's form, gently nudging her into the right position. "Now, let's just swing the axe a few times and see how that feels, ok?"
Using his telekinesis, he made the axe he was previously using fly into his hand. "I'll work on it too so you can watch me if you get stuck." Once Trinket was ready, Sah pulled a dummy in front of each of them and then began to hit it with the axe, each swing cutting into the cloth and straw. He kept an eye on the demigod to see if she was making progress now that her target was still.
Trinket studied the dummy in front of her for a long moment. Swinging the axe was hard. She had to make it easier.
She matched the stance Sah had shown her. Then, when she raised the axe, she commanded it: swing.
Her magic gave the axe movement that carried it along with her own swing. By itself, a command to the axe wouldn't give it much force. If the axe were laying on the ground, she would be able to make it wiggled and spin a bit, but not hard enough to even cut wood. But with the extra force from her magic, her swing was a bit stronger. Enough for her to finally land a solid blow against the dummy.
She tried to yank back on the axe, but it had embedded itself in the wood. She frowned, then commanded the axe to draw back, adding the power of her magic to her own meager strength once again. She pulled the axe free, but lost her balance, stumbling backwards and falling on her butt.
She frowned up at the dummy. It was too big for her to command. Otherwise, she would have knocked it over with her magic right then and there.
"Well done. You've made progress." Although his intention was for her to get the hang of it without magic, he wasn't going to squash her problem-solving. "I have an idea."
He walked over to the dummy and pointed to specific points on its body. "These correlate to spots on a human body that would be most damaging to hit. The kidneys, the stomach, the neck." He pointed to those spots for a second time. "Cracking someone's skull open is one way to kill them. But if these spots are damaged enough, they can kill too. But there are also less typical targets on the body that you might have an easier reaching for now."
Sah rolled his sleeve up and ran a finger over the visible artery that crossed his bicep. "This spot, on the arm and on the inner thigh. They're spots that can kill someone too. They're messier but if you cut deep enough, they work." He then pointed to the 'arm' of the dummy. "Pretend this is the same point. Try to cut into the 'arm' of the dummy here. If you cut it deep enough, we'll say you 'killed' it."
As a demonstration, Sah turned towards his own dummy and with a slice of his axe, cut deeply into the 'arm', leaving a deep gash on where the artery would have been. "See? It might not look like much on a dummy. But on a person, it could be lethal." He nodded towards Trinket, indicating that it was her turn.
Trinket watched the dummy's parts, noting them in relation to the parts on a human body. She knew what the parts were, what every organ, every muscle, every bone was. But she had not ever realized that certain parts were better to attack than others. Curious.
She gave a tiny nod. She raised her axe again, giving it a command just before she swung, adding force to the blow. She tried to mimic the exact stance, exact angle, exact swing that Sah had used. Bits of straw went flying. She wondered what they would look like if they were bits of blood.
"When do I get to kill someone?" she asked, holding the axe with two tired hands. "You said training is not the time for killing. So after I train enough, I can kill?" She was quite curious what killing would be like. She knew what death was, abstractly. But she had never seen a person die. She wondered how many ways there were to kill someone.
She hefted the axe to her shoulder again, huffing a bit with the effort. Sweat beaded her brow, though no sign of strain showed in her dark eyes. She swung again, imagining blood flying out in place of the straw. Most curious indeed.
Sah used his magic to collect the straw and wood around them and push them into a neat pile to be cleaned up later. He used the time to consider his words. He stepped up and ran a finger over the cut that Trinket had made with her latest attempt and then nodded, "Yup. That's deep enough. Consider the dummy dead."
It was only due to his practiced poker face that Sah was able to restrain his reaction to Trinket's next round of questions. "Yes, training is not the time for killing. But you're set on killing another person, even if they haven't done anything to you first? Or are you hoping to find someone and then instigate a fight to kill them?" That was one thing that needed to be clarified.
"I won't kill someone who hasn't done anything to me first," Trinket said. At least, she didn't intend to do so today. "But someone is going to try to kill me. I need to be able to kill them before they kill me. That's why I'm training."
She set her axe down on the ground. While her face still bore no expression, no signs of exhaustion, her arms were quite sore and tired. The pain didn't matter to her. Soreness was boring. It would pass soon, anyway, so it wasn't worth her attention.
"Will you help me find the person who's going to try to kill me? Maybe we can kill them together. That would be a fun game. I bet you're good at killing."
Sah hummed in thought, "Do you think there's someone who currently is trying to kill you? Such as someone who has actively harmed you in the past outside of training or games? If there is someone coming after you like that, I'm willing to help." If someone was hunting a child, of course Sah would give his aid.
As for her observation, well, he couldn't deny that. "I am." He was a hunter and a capable warrior. Although he didn't enjoy harming other beings, he had been forced to in the past. He wouldn't hesitate to do so again in the right circumstances.
An idea emerged and Sah paused as he put the axe away, "Have you heard of bounty hunters? They make it their job to hunt down and depending on the request, kill or capture people. They're usually criminals who have harmed others. Maybe consider that as an option if you don't have an enemy who's trying to kill you?" Gods, what was he saying to a child. Yet Trinket was no ordinary child and Sah got the impression that unless her violent tendencies were carefully directed, she would become a monster.
Running a hand through his hair Sah added, "If you do want that, I'd help you with your first bounty." To keep an eye on her and to make sure she stayed within the confines of 'bounty hunting' and not outright murder.
