Log: Don't call her Kazimir's woman
Rae, having previously been very quiet, shifts an unblinking gaze to Zane. It's a very creepy Shadowdancer thing to do, though it might be a bit humourous, with Marrock mirroring the gesture.
Emma smirks at Zane. "You're going to eat those words someday, you know." She wiggles her fingers, and lets Nik head off with her on his shoulders.
Zane chuckles at Emma's words, "We'll see, I doubt it." He feels the creepy gaze upon him and looks back over at Rae. He shrugs as if to say, 'What?'
Rae murmurs, "It's been a while since I've had someone to spar with. Perhaps I should change that, before sickness sets in." Her eyes spark with impish intent.
Zane leans forward to scratch behind Baksi's ears if she will let him. "Perhaps you can practise with me some more," he says to her before saying to Rae, "I don't need to rest regardless of what the Feldane thinks. If you want some exercise, let's go."
Baksi flattens herself a little more against the ground, but tolerates Zane's scratching.
Rae grins, behind her mask. "Into the Salle, then," she says, pushing up to her feet, stalking back towards the Spire.
Zane nods and follows Rae where they pass Sadie and Nia.
Sadie says, "Well, that's good, I suppose."
Niamh nods, "I think so. We'll see if it stick."
Rae's steps are stalking things, the smirk on her lips hidden by the scarf that covers her mouth and her nose. Moving towards the Salle, navigating the halls with familiarity.
Zane follows Rae. He seems amused by something.
Sadie follows the two with her eyes. "That the one?"
Rae waggles fingers towards Sadie, and slips into the door that leads to the Salle. "Swords?," is asked towards Zane.
Niamh nods, "Uh huh...Looks like Rae's going to kick his butt. I'm going to go watch." With that, she darts after the group, leaving a trail of leaves and dirt behind her.
Zane nods his head, "Swords are good."
Sadie follows with her feet this time.
Baksi trots in, persistently wolfen. She finds a place along the wall where she curls up, her tail over her nose, but her eyes and ears alert.
Rae's steps lead her towards one of the weapons racks, her hand closing around the hilt of a sabre. "First blood, then," she offers. "We both heal quickly enough, I'm sure. And an Icemane should have no issue with shedding a bit, especially at the hand of his Alpha's woman." Impishness continues to glow in her eyes.
Niamh moves to find herself a perch, still picking stuff out of her hair.
Zane moves to a rack and selects a broadsword. He tests the weight and balance and is satisfied it will suit. Turning to look at Rae, he grins and appears well at ease. "I don't think Kazimir will take to my hide when I spill yours." He gestures to the middle of the room, "After you and firstblood it is."
Sadie paces to one point of the diamond and folds her arms across her chest, watching.
Bijin steps into the Salle, behind the group, but the way her steps pause give indication that she'd had no idea she was following on anyone's heels. She looks this way and that, taking in the salle's occupents. No words of greeting this time, unlike her usual friendly words. Instead, she bows to the general room, whether anyone notes her or not.
Rae twirls her blade in her hand, moving to the center of the room. "It's only first blood," she says with a laugh, slightly muffled by the mask over her mouth and nose. "Kazimir shouldn't object to that." The halo of red around her irises expands, writhes, and it's then that she twists, aiming her first strike towards Zane's upper left arm, a wide and arching thing.
Zane grins and nods but has nothing further to say as he bring his sword up quickly, moving forward to block Rae's weapon. He uses the return momentum to swing his blade towards her. The clang of metal on metal echoes loudly throughout the room.
Rae takes a few quick steps away from the threatening broadsword. Nothing, however, seems to take that prankster gleam out of her eyes. Each movement she makes is a quick, bouncy thing. Like she's not taking this fight seriously at all.
Baksi's eyebrows are very expressive, watching the sparring over the furry top line of her tail.
Zane is the opposite, he does take this seriously. His actions are measured and precise, reflective of his training. Many of his blows aren't as fast as Rae's but the force behind them indicates he isn't holding back completely.
Bijin takes one step, then another, to the side. Once further from the door, she gracefully sinks down, and kneels, tucking her kimono beneath her folded legs, and watches to battle.
Someone in the Icemane pack should've told Zane about Rae. But they just might like the little Shadowdancer. She's certainly not the strongest thing, Zane's strikes making her stumble back a few times. She bounces backwards, ducks down and twists to the side, her blade aimed for Zane's rear.
Zane spins around, his sword slicing through the air at his chest height. Luckily for him, Rae's sword doesn't cut through the material of his pants. The flat of Rae's blade only slaps lightly for a millisecond thrown off due to Zane's turning momentum.
Rae seems content with that slight smack of her blade against Zane's rear. She blocks his blade with her own, a bit lower on her sword than is ideal.
Stumbling back slightly, she comments, "Strong." It might be a compliment, or a complaint.
Sadie says, "That *can* be a good thing."
Baksi says, from under the tip of her tail, "She is drawing it out. If she had twisted the blade, there would have been first blood."
Zane grins and watches as Rae stumbles back, not immediately following so that a little space can appear between them. "Quick," is his reply, "But Kazimir would have been disappointed. Don't you know not to play with your opponent, especially when they're bigger than you?" Launching forward, Zane begins a series of strikes against Rae, a practised combination aimed to cause her to go defensive.
Rae giggles, and it's a bright, bubbly thing that fills the Salle. "And don't you know not to take everything so seriously, Zane?" She drops to the defensive, metal clanging against metal. Her eyes still shine, gleam.
Privately, to Zane, Rae's eyes, though they hold impishness, also have calculation in them. Like she's not the type to forget moves used against her. Almost like this was just a preparation for the next time they spar.
Quite probably he doesn't, the force of Zane's blows against Rae's weapon battering it lower and lower, causing her guard to open up a little more with each bash. His sword streaks through the air, left and right, forward and back, and then it drops as he steps backward. "A time for play and a time for chore." His gaze lowers to Rae's exposed midriff and he states, "Firstblood is mine."
Privately, to Rae, Zane appears impressed with your skill as if he'd expected you to crumble easily. The smack against his rear reflective of your ability.
Rae has a bloody line at her torso, and looks down at it. "You're good," she allows, approval in her tone. She holds her blade away, off to the side.
Sadie says, "No one ever goes to, say, eighth blood."
Privately, to Zane, Rae almost sounds like she was testing /you/ to see if you were worthy of taking your father's spot at Kazimir's side. She even winks.
"What about third blood?" Bijin queries, smiling.
Zane inclines his head to Rae, his cheeks flushed with color but probably from the exercise. "Thank you. Kazimir has trained you well. He will be most pleased and I shall tell my father." He glances at Sadie, "Grab a sword."
Privately, to Rae, Zane is embarrassed by the praise, he was blushing.
Sadie's arms are still crossed. She shakes her head, once. "I'll pass on that today, but thank you."
Baksi, still curled with her tail over her nose, does not volunteer either.
Rae quirks a grin, the mask tight enough to show it. "Your father is a good man," she notes, moving away from Zane to put her sword back on the wall.
"I need to acquire a rooom if I may," Zane tells Sadie, "Others are grumbling that I'm hogging the couch too much." He follows Rae to put his own weapon away after wiping it clean, "He is. If I can be half what he is, then I will make my family proud and serve Kazimir well."
Baksi says from under the tip of her tail, "There are all the woods. Why do you not sleep in the woods?"
Sadie chuckles and nods.
Bijin lifts a hand to cover her lips, and chuckles. "Jaeger-dono said this to me, many times after we were wed. Why do we not sleep in the woods, he wished to know."
Zane turns and walks towards Baksi, smiling as he answers. "I do, I also sleep in a cave behind one of the falls. I need a room to put my bow, sword and some other things I have like the arrows I make."
Rae smiles to Bijin, dipping into a bow of greeting, chuckling. "And what did you answer him?," she wonders.
Baksi gets up and slinks over to Bijin. She curls back up again near the woman.
Sadie says, "Silk and woods visit each other, but silk should not stay exposed to the elements?"
Bijin presses her hands together, and bends toward Rae in a reply greeting. She then bows to the others present, and smiles, "I said, he is welcome to be sleeping in the woods. But I was to be sleeping on the bed."
Bijin says after a slight pause, "He is not sleeping in the woods, after all."
Rae laughs, brightly. "Smart man," she says with a wink to Bijin.
Bijin then nods to Sadie, sending forth small chimes from her kanzashi. She smiles, "Silk is a poor garment in the weather."
Zane smiles at Bijin's words and asks her, "Were you able to find a suitable place for Nia's lost arrow?"
Bijin opens her hands, in a gesture indicating she holds nothing. "It has been given to another for hiding."
Rae looks to Zane with a lifted brow. "Lost arrow?"
Zane oh's and then grins, "She's done well thus far, only has three left to fetch." Nodding, he glances at Rae. "Nia has to find ten arrows before a week has passed. If she does, I have agreed to stop calling her Twig." Maybe he isn't so serious afterall.
Baksi rumbles, "Perhaps she will begin biting you until you see she is not laughing."
Sadie says, "Are these specific arrows?"
Zane nods to Sadie, "Aye. Ten I fletched myself with different markings than the ones I normally use. Nia knows what to look for." He shrugs, "They're the ones sticking out of the kitchen door."
Bijin smiles, "I am not knowing this area so well. So I let another hide the arrow."
Baksi begins licking one of her forepaws.
Zane nods to Bijin, "So long as it can be found, that way it remains fair." He glances at Sadie, "So another day, eighth blood or no?"
Baksi lifts her head. "Will you find time to help me learn this staff fighting?"
Sadie chuckles. "Possibly."
Zane grins at Sadie before turning to Baksi and bowing his head, looking pleased that she asked him. "Of course, Aryn. I would be honored to help you."
Baksi says, "Now? Or are you tired?"
Baksi says, "Gawain and I will to go Lyonesse soon. He wishes me to meet his sire and dam."
Rae chuckles softly. With a waggle of fingers, she heads towards the door. She runs her fingers over the wound on her stomach, distractedly.
Zane waves goodbye to Rae and starts moving towards the racks again. "We can do some training now. I'm fine. One little bout with Kazimir's woman isn't enough to wipe me out."
Rae looks over her shoulder to Zane. The look on her face is decidedly un-Raelike. Her eyes flare red, bright and dangerous. But she stalks out.
Bijin bows to Rae, as she departs, "Please be having a pleasant evening."
Sadie says, "The Jester is her own woman. Kazimir merely has the good taste to have a thing for her."
Zane comments over his shoulder, "They were her words." He picks up a staff off one rack and then another, turning and moving back towards Baksi.
Baksi watches Rae go, with her ears flicked back. Then she says "The dark is heavy on her again." She gets up, shimmers, and straightens as a woman.
Sadie says, "It is on us all."
Zane isn't exactly sure what you're all referring to. "The dark? How does it weigh on Rae?" He offers one of the staffs to Aryn.
Baksi says, "You do not know this story, then. Do any of you?"
Bijin turns to Sadie as Zane reaches for the staffs, but then pauses at Baksi's words. "I am not knowing this tale."
Zane shakes his head, "No, I don't."
Baksi takes the staff, steps into an empty space on the floor, and begins practicing spinning it, slowly and carefully, learning the hand-motions. "There was a man of Montevalno, cousin to one Sarafina. He became touched by the dark, and it consumed him until there was nothing of him left, only his body moving, controlled by the darkness."
Zane leans upon his staff, watching and listening.
Baksi says, "He kept tempting her. I was still here in Weirmonken then, or perhaps I might have helped her. In the end, he tempted her enough that he was able to overpower her, and stake her out on the very road itself. Until it got into her and touched her with its darkness. Kazimir found them thus, and killed the man. As would any of us have done."
Baksi says, "For this, Sarafina hates us all, and will harm and kill us if she can. She has attempted to provoke me repeatedly, and Gawain because of me. She will attempt to provoke any of us she meets."
Baksi says, "And Rae carries the darkness."
Sadie says, "Joy. Contangious?"
Zane glances at the doorway, disturbed by this story. "How does one extinguish darkness?"
Baksi does not look at Sadie, or any of them. Her hands keep the staff spinning, lazily. "I have not heard of anyone acquiring it from contact with another person, except from a bite perhaps. But to touch the road itself is to be taken over. Most people seem unable to resist it at all. Rae is one of the rare ones."
Zane says, "Lilith warned me of the road and the tainted animals in the forest. I will be extra vigilant now."
Bijin folds her hands in her lap as she listens. She nods to Zane. "They are not things to be taking lightly."
Baksi draws a breath. "I am a light-giver. That is my purpose. Light drives back darkness. But I do not know of any way it can be completely destroyed. Even the brightest light leaves a shadow somewhere."
Sadie says, "And this is Weirmonken."