4. Silvershield Estate

The story draws out Koveras' laughter, and tension seems to leak away from him. He gets to his feet, which puts him very close to Aiwe. And then he steps even closer.

"Thank you, Aiwe, for making sure I'm okay and cheering me up. I'm glad we're friends. And I'm looking forward to... seeing where all this takes us."

And then he just stands there, looking down at her with a smile in his eyes.

He's not moving away, not breaking eye contact. Just waiting.

Aiwë grins at his laughter. Has she ever heard him laugh before? She's certainly never seen him smile so much.

"Of course, Blood. I owed you for yesterday, anyway. I'm glad you're feeling better." She smiles and meets his eyes easily but her expression is somewhat bemused. What is he waiting for? A kiss? Certainly not. A hug feels forced. She bumps him with her shoulder.

"Come on, let's get back. I'm sure you've worried Aldous long enough."

Stella's eyes widen and flash green with remembrance. "Ah, I remember you telling me that! We'll see if Duke Belt can clear anything," she assures him.

Victor.Strokov says:

"you’ve already received training, why don’t you show me what you know" Dieter extends his saber forward then brings it back parallel to his face in a salute then returns to his guard.

Stella nods, nervous, then takes a stance. She decides to start with some drills, series of simple steps and sweeps that showed she had a grasp of the fundamentals. "I trained far more with the bow and magic..." she says, as if trying to justify herself, in case her results were poor.

Koveras actually stumbles slightly when Aiwe bumps him, even flailing his arms around, as though unprepared for the movement. "What? I- Oh. Right."

He quickly catches up and falls into step beside her. "Should we go back in the same way we came out, or..."

"Good, Good!" Dieter says encouragingly. He doesn’t strike back as that would break Stella’s confidence. His steps mirror Hers as he skillfully blocks each strike, he of course he would have to give her openings allowing her to make a successful strike later but right now they were warming up to each other.

"Good, strike at me Stella not the blade."

There Dussak’s clack against each other again and again.

"Your 1 to 4 and 5 to 3 are excellent. Be aggressive your blade should strike its target at the same time your foot lands on your lunge" Dieter directs trying to pair each instruction with compliment.

Aiwë smiles at him. It's reasonable to be embarrassed after his display, but he doesn't need to be. "You saw how everyone has been treating Stella, and everyone was kind to you this morning. They're your friends, you don't need to hide." She pushes open the dining room door to find Aldous by himself.

"Oh, hey. What's the verdict?"

Stella's eyes grow more focused as Dieter encourages and critiques, the stars within a sharp, concentrated teal. She hesitates in confusion at Dieter's stroke numbering, but figures it out, and glances at her feet as she tries to time her movements with her strikes. She grows more aggressive as he suggests, some eye-stars changing to orange, getting too aggressive for her skill level.

"Okay, no hiding," Koveras agrees, beaming.

As Aiwe opens the door, he steps up next to her and takes her hand in his. He tosses Aldous a happy wink.

Aldous' face, at first despondent, lights up at the sight of his two friends. He claps his hands together in delight!

"Are you two courting?"

"good! You’re implementing fast" Dieter says.

She was getting close. He decides to show her he next step.

As she strikes instead of moving straight back he blocks and pushes her overhead strike to the side. He then steps opposite leaving her open to a shot of his choice.

He returns to his original guard opposite to her just as quickly

"When we are facing repeated attack sometimes the best move is sideways. This time change it up and come to the left or right of me. And I’ll do some basic strikes aswell to give you some parrying opportunities." Dieter encourages

Aiwë freezes in shock and rapidly reassesses a great many things.

With growing horror she realizes that when she heard, "Do you think our friendship ... can [has the possibility to] be something more? I, for one, would very much like to try and see where it [our friendship] leads us." Koveras actually said, "Do you think our friendship ... can be [right now] something more [a courtship]? I, for one, would very much like to try and see where it [courtship] leads us." And where she responded, "Yeah, maybe [it's possible for our friendship to become more]. We can see [what happens with our friendship]," Koveras heard, "Yeah, maybe. [I'm still processing]," and then "We can see. [Let's court.]"

Aiwë hauls Koveras back out into the hall without a word to Aldous.

"It has come to my attention that I'm as dense as a rock," she informs him in rapid Orcish thick with emotion. "I've also never done this before, there's a lot going on, and two days ago I was still pretty sure all I did was make you miserable so I'm going to need your patience with a lot of things and also all of this," she waves their clasped hands around before releasing him. She finally takes a breath and meets his eyes. "Is that okay?"

Koveras, taken aback both literally and surprise-wise, blinks several times. "Wait... Wait." Realization dawns on his face, and he puts a hand to his mouth. For a moment Aiwe isn't sure if he's about to burst into rage or tears or...

Laughter!

The half-orc can't hold it in, and he has to lean against a wall to keep himself up. "You mean to say you didn't... Aiwe!" He gasps for air. "But you-! Okay... Communication! Working on it..."

Aldous rounds the corner. "What is going on with you two?"

He looks at Koveras trying desperately to regain his composure, then looks at Aiwe in confusion. "What did you do to him? You broke him!"

Aiwë flushes darkly at Koveras' laughter and presses her lips together tightly.

She looks over her shoulder as Aldous approaches. "Didn't you know I'm terribly funny?" she tells him, the slightest edge to her voice. She turns back to Koveras, insistent.

"Is that okay with you," she asks again in Orcish, emphasizing every syllable.

With some difficulty, Koveras pulls himself together and wipes his eyes. He straightens up and responds in Orcish. "Of course! Anything for you, dear." He almost makes it to the end of the sentence with a straight face.

Aldous steps back, still confused. "So you're not courting...?"

Koveras coughs out his last laugh and takes a deep breath. "Yes. Yes, we are."

He looks over at Aiwe, with the decency to have some apology in his eyes. "I was confused for a moment," he says in Orcish. "And so surprised. But you won't regret this!"

"See that I don't," Aiwë replies, but it's with a smile.

Stella didn't think she was doing a good job...but exerting herself and hearing Dieter encourage her onward was feeling good.

Quote:

"When we are facing repeated attack sometimes the best move is sideways. This time change it up and come to the left or right of me. And I’ll do some basic strikes aswell to give you some parrying opportunities." Dieter encourages

She nods and tries to stay light on her feet. She attacks from the left in time with her steps, then prepares to parry, and follow up with a strike from another angle. As she does, her eyes sparkle white for a moment. Time seems to slow and she sees several ghostly images of Dieter, predicting his movements. She finds an opening none of the images account for and strikes.

Clack

Clack

SMACK!

Dieter grunts as Stella gets him squarely in the ribs. He quickly smiles "amazing Stella! You really got me!" she has really gotten him, he hadn’t even begun to give to openings yet.

"keep going"

Dieter gives a few textbook strikes and slashes. He even puts a few simple feints in for Stella to figure out.

"…. Tell me Stella, what’s going on? I’m not Aiwë you don’t have to watch your words with me."