In the Courtyard
It's been a long morning already, or so it feels to Ingress. She's showed Lan all the forms and long-practiced movements she remembers from Arithon's rigorous instruction. A lot of time has gone by, though, and she doesn't remember what some of the steps were called. She just goes by rote through everything she can recall
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Lan doesn't give compliments unless he means them.
But he'll unbend rather more for a nine-year-old girl than for a teenaged farmboy with Trollocs dogging his footsteps.
"Tom said you'd kept up your practicing. I see he was right."
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She keeps practicing the Falling Leaf.
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Believe it or not, Lan was young once too.
"Some say it's scarier afterwards. In the middle of a battle, you're too busy for fear."
"At any rate, there are ways to learn not to be scared, aside from experience. I will teach you what I can of that too, in time."
The flame and the void, the ko'di: the best state for fighting. When no emotion touches your center, no fear and no pain; only a cool and dispassionate awareness.
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"I talk to Megwyn about it sometimes. I think she's a little scared, too. But maybe there won't be so many battles when I'm grown up."
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"Light send it may be so." That's serious.
"We prepare for the worst, but hope for the best. No training is ever wasted, but it is far better to be ready for a battle that never comes. Light willing, perhaps your Valdemar will find peace."
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"Someday," he says after a moment, "you may have to kill. Perhaps not, but you may."
He counts the odds of her never fighting a battle as very, very low, from what Tom said. But it's not his world, and she's a child still. Children should be allowed a few illusions, if they can afford them.
"But if you must, it will be for a good reason. To protect yourself or defend others, or to fight for something larger and more important than yourself."
"Important things can be frightening, or hard. Even when you are adult. There is no shame in finding them so."
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Ingress is braver than she knows. She survived her family's slaughter and the months kept captive in the dark. Her heart and her spirit weren't damaged because at her core is a bright light that will not be dimmed.
That's what Megwyn saw when she Chose her. That's what will make Ingress a fine Herald.
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There are ways, of course, to learn to set fear and everything else aside -- but this is still truth.
He studies Ingress, in the silence after that.
"Show me your form one more time." This is said thoughtfully, not repressively; insofar as one can tell the difference with Lan, at least. He doesn't mind these questions at all, especially not from a student with reason to ask them. "And then I think we will call this first lesson over."
The part with swords, at least. The talking... well, that depends on Ingress.
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"I think I'm a little tired now."
More talking will come later. It will be a good thing, and these lessons will teach her more than just fine swordsmanship.
"Thank you for the lesson, Lan. May I be dismissed?"
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"You did well for so long without lessons."
Impassive still -- but a fraction less so than usual, perhaps.
Lan likes children. And Ingress is a good and serious pupil.
Later, the lessons will run longer; for now, though, she has an hour or so before her maths lesson with Le Chiffre. Time enough to wash up and recover some energy.
A good first lesson.
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