Ravens of Eternity

126 Dance Practice

Grunts and shouts spilled into the air as Talyss and Eva danced around each other in their sparring circle and exchanged blows. A handful of Avicii Raptors watch them from the trees above. Their eyes watched the two with rapt attention.

Eva, breaths hard and heavy, spun blade-first at Talyss’ throat. Determination was set deep in her eyes, even as sweat poured down all around her forehead.

In contrast to Eva’s wide, sweeping movements, Talyss was absolutely calm and moved just enough to get out of the way. Sometimes she would parry Eva’s strikes with her thin baton, but with such grace that it didn’t seem she used any power at all.

“One, two, three,” she said, “and press!”

With the same cadence as Talyss’ countdown, Eva stepped forward and spun into another aggressive slash.

“Now, half-moon steps... and parry!”

As Talyss sent her dance instructions, she also swiped at Eva with a number of simple, fast slashes. In response, Eva quickly performed two evasive sashays, one left, one right, then blocked the final overhand blow with a cross parry.

Talyss backed up from the melee after her attack was negated, and reset her stance.

“Good form,” she said. “Now, triple drive flank!”

.....

Without hesitation, Eva ducked low as she swept wide to Talyss’ left. Then, just as Talyss adjusted her facing, Eva rushed in blade-first. She thrust in, turned the blade, and slashed upwards in one smooth motion.

Less practiced opponents would have easily been sliced open by such a move, but Talyss parried her with ease. She simply turned her baton a few degrees, redirected Eva’s blade, and sent her stumbling off to the side.

“Doing great!” said Talyss. “Now, freestyle! Keep your steps random, your body fluid, and your blade level. Always dance in rhythm with your beat!”

Eva wordlessly took Talyss’ instructions and began to switch things up and moved her body more randomly. Or, rather, she let her body move where it will. She mixed up her steps and spun alongside her slashes and thrusts.

She moved her body to the beat of her heart, and felt a true freedom in doing so. Meanwhile, Talyss fended off a few more of Eva’s attacks and spun a few steps out of her reach.

“Your strikes are too uncertain,” she said. “Time your breath to your movements. Push out every bit just at the point of impact. Shout if you have to! That’ll help you dig that edge right in.”

Eva immediately began to better time her breathing. Now that she had a much better understanding of her own body, she understood why the breaths were timed the way they were.

More oxygen, more blood, more power.

A thought shot through her, about better optimizing her breaths with her strikes, but quickly shook it away. She needed to explore it on her own time.

“You’re doing much better overall,” said Talyss. “Plus I heard you beat your first seeded match, and quickly confirmed it by fending off a challenger. I’m proud of you!”

Eva performed her moves relentlessly, one after the other. And although her breaths were heavy, they were even enough that she could speak in short bursts between them.

“Thanks,” she said. “Pot was OK. Got some of the team’s winnings. I’m happy.”

“So all this is just about the payout, hm?”

Instead of attacking, Eva shook her head.

“The dancing means lots too,” answered Eva. “Learned plenty about myself, my body. Same thing with the blades. Who I am. Sorry, sounds dumb.”

“Good answer. And no, that sounds pretty wise to me. At least, from a Drogar bladedancer’s point of view.”

The two of them traded a few more blows back and forth as Eva tightened up her moves. She found them seeping into her muscle memory with each moment that passed.

And as they sparred, they talked.

“The arena,” said Eva in between huffs. “Not many dancers. Noticed most have utilitarian, martial style. Strong, fast, direct.”

“Yes, that’s the Imperial Standard Blade CQC,” replied Talyss. “It’s taught to every Drogar that’s gone through military training. It’s kind of a... culmination of traditional combat arts developed across different schools, and combined to make the ‘ultimate knife combat’ style.”

“But?”

“It’s extremely effective, I’ll give ’em that. But only against one opponent. The moment they go up against two or more blades, everything falls apart.”

“So dancing’s superior, then?”

Talyss grinned and puffed herself up a bit. Her whole life revolved around bladedancing. Of course she felt it was the better of the two.

“In some ways, yes,” she replied. “And certain dances are definitely better than others. We’ll discuss those soon enough. For now, switch hands.”

Both of them switched to their left hands, and changed their stances even while in mid-dance. And though Talyss’ movements were fast and graceful, Eva was rather more of a sloppy mess.

On top of that, her movements were less decisive, visibly slower, and contained less power.

Even her steps seemed feeble.

Talyss couldn’t believe the difference, and harrumphed loudly. With a painful THWAP, she swatted at Eva’s thigh with her baton.

“Faster!” she yelled.

And although pain immediately shot through Eva, she didn’t let it slow her down. Instead, she grit her teeth and pushed forward. With an increased cadence, she stepped forward and spun into an aggressive slash. But her arm was too sluggish and was easily avoided.

THWAP!

“Stronger!”

Eva quickly performed a couple of evasive sashays then ended with an overhand slash, but missed her mark by a wide margin.

THWAP!

“Nimbler!”

Eva drew in a great deal of air as she swept wide to the right and thrust in and upward at Talyss. But her breathing was all off, and was easily rebuffed.

THWAP!

“More decisive!”

The two of them went on for some time, with Eva performing move after move, hour after hour. And in all that time, she was slowly beaten into shape and sharpened to an edge.

Even as they practiced, Drogar guards and human Feds went through their own two hours of training. And although their training was rough, not a single one of them could complain, even if they wanted to.

The very sight of Eva’s relentless training made their own seem like playtime at the park.

Still, long after their training time was over, a few stuck around just to watch. Unlike their soft-bellied comrades, they found the display of sheer willpower tantalizing.

Eva fell on her knees out of sheer exhaustion. Her face and skin were bright red, and she was absolutely covered in sweat. Her heart raced madly, and she was practically gasping for air. On top of that, her whole body throbbed with pain. Her muscles burned as her skin stung.

And although she was on her knees, the grip on her blade stayed strong.

“Bladedancer Freya,” said Talyss, “you’re honestly the most dedicated student I’ve ever had. You might not be the strongest, or fastest, or most prodigious. But you’re definitely the most diligent. And you can take a serious beating.”

She looked down at her beaten-down student, then sheathed her training baton beside her beltknife.

“If you were Drogar,” she continued, “I would’ve trained you to succeed me.”

Eva grinned as best she could, and responded in between deep gasps, but with terribly broken phrases.

“Physical wounds’re easy,” she said, then pointed at her chest. “Ones inside... take forever t’heal.”

Talyss grimaced at Eva’s bitter truth.

“Either way, try not to get beat up too much,” she responded. “Inside or out. Anyway, now’s a good time to stop things, so I’ll leave you to recover.”

“See you soon.”

Talyss nodded, then walked off towards the gate with her guard escort in tow.

Eva watched her leave, then closed her eyes. She didn’t even bother to move, and just kept on kneeling there as her body recovered from exhaustion.

She felt the soil on her fingertips, along with the blood that pumped up and down her arms. She smelled the grass that was all around, along with the taste of copper in her throat. She heard the sound of the breeze as it wound between the trees, along with the sounds of her own heavy breaths.

And as her stamina recharged, her breathing became more even, her blood calmed down, and the metallic taste faded.

Just off to the side, Miko, Alevos, and Szereth watched as Eva recovered from her training. Szereth was mostly interested in seeing how much progress she had made, and was duly impressed by what he had witnessed.

He vowed to never doubt her capabilities again. Well, he would try his best not to, anyway.

Both he and Alevos looked at Miko, nodded to her, then walked out of the compound as well. They too were joined by their escort.

Miko on the other hand, walked towards Eva.

“Hey Eva,” she said. “Can we chat?”

Eva perked up when she heard Miko, and smiled. But kept her eyes closed.

“Yeah, totally!” she replied. “Actually, I’ve been wanting to ask you something, too. Anyway, what’s going on?”

“Um. The team asked me... As your manager, I want to note that you have a slight problem with your self restraint.”

“Whoa. Aren’t you taking all this a bit too seriously?”

“Perhaps you are taking this too casually, as well as with all things that threaten you. Whether it is a heavily armed Drogar duelist, or a seemingly harmless human stalker. You are letting your instincts get the better of you.”

Eva opened her eyes and looked at Miko in frustration. She didn’t know how she could make her understand – she was only a thirteen year old, after all.

“Look,” she said. “This is the first time I’ve ever been capable my whole life! I’ve never been able to do what I want to, but now I can. And I’m great at it! I feel like my gut instincts have led me where I am, so why question it now, you know? I wanna keep living free! It feels great!”

“There is a difference between living freely and living chaotically,” Miko retorted. “Being free to choose your path does not mean you abandon purpose.”

“I dunno how to explain it, okay? I feel like I’m supposed to let myself just... flow through time.”

“What you are really doing is riding out your luck.”

.....

“If that’s the case, then why do I have Tiamat’s Transcendence? If my instincts are so strong, why should I ignore them? Why shouldn’t I let it guide me?”

Miko sighed at her friend. While she had a point, she was also perhaps taking it too far. The traits existed to push them all forward, give them an edge. Not turn them into the edge itself. People were more complicated than that.

“Our traits do not define us,” she said.

“You sure about that?” said Eva. “What was yours again?”

“It is called Hephaestus’ Spark,” Miko replied.

“That’s right,” said Eva. “You’ve got peerless mechanical insight, but you’ve also got difficulty understanding how people work. How does that not define who you are?”

“We are not our traits, Eva. I am much more than that. What it means is that it is my greatest advantage, if I use it correctly. Much like the beltknife in your hand, I wield my trait. Like a tool. Or a weapon. You appear to allow your trait to wield you instead. If you continue to surrender to it, you will become its slave.”

This immediately struck Eva. It sounded like something she had told Mack, long ago. It was a similar warning, but the core was exactly the same.

“If you don’t make your own future, it’ll decide one for you,” she muttered. “And it won’t be kind or fair.”