Chapter Text
After breakfast, Cassian flew Emerie back to her place, while Gwyn returned to the library to assist Merrill with her ongoing research. The rest of the day was uneventful and Gwyn was thankful for the night she got to spend with her best friends, though she couldn’t stop thinking about the last moments before she went to bed and the breakfast - she felt so at ease, familiar even. She knew change was on the way, in a good sense. This morning felt so natural to her and she went to bed hopeful in the evening, no dark memories clouding her mind.
*
Even though the mating ceremony was in 3 days now, Cassian and Azriel continued their training and let everyone else know that the only day in which there will be no training would be the day after the ceremony, no doubt because they would be too hungover to attend, but they left this detail out. Nesta insisted that she train the day of the ceremony as well, as it helped her ease her nerves and no one argued with her. However, she let Emerie and Gwyn know that she and Cassian will be away a week afterwards, they all knew why, and Azriel will be joined by Mor, who will train the less advanced priestesses. At Nesta’s words, Gwyn couldn’t hide her blushing cheeks.
“So, shall we begin?” Cassian growled, clearly in a good mood, ready to start and all the females agreed with a nod, as Azriel stepped beside his brother.
“Today we are going to practice daggerwork. Most of you are accustomed to it, but it has been a while since you have last practiced it and while you may think you know all there is to know about it, you do not. Daggerwork is complex and most of the time, the warrior is not found in an immobile position when he has to make use of his or her daggers and neither is the target. You must learn and practice how to throw a dagger while running, you must improve your aim. You already know the basics, but let’s up the game a little bit. It will not be easy and you probably will be at it for months until you will be able to strike three consecutive times in the same spot, but we will train and you will do it in the end. To add a little simulant, at the end of the next week, we will have a little show-off, let’s call it, a small competition. You will be working in groups of 3, as before.”
“But Nesta won’t be here the whole week.” Gwyn blurted, concern gathering now on her forehead. “What will that mean for our team?”
“I will join you for the final competition, but I understand what you are asking – I will miss a lot of training.”
Azriel cockily smiled “It means that you and Emerie will have to work really hard if you want to win.”. Gwyn raised the corners of her mouth in silent challenge before the Shadowsinger spoke again. “Each team will strike as many targets as possible in 5 minutes. We will simulate all conditions of a battle, well, almost all, because your targets won’t really be alive. Only death blows are acceptable and will be counted.”
Gwyn, now somewhere on the edge between anger and delight, raised her hand and Azriel looked towards her, giving her permission to ask her question. “What do we …”
“get if you win?” he said as he already anticipated the priestess’ thoughts. He knew Gwyn was all for winning, as the same could be said about him. “The team who wins …” he seemed to have lost his words, because he didn’t know what he and his brother could offer the priestesses. Obviously, they didn’t care much for material things and a privilege pass for skipping work in the library wouldn’t have been acceptable, as they didn’t have any permission from Clotho. “… will get a favour, from me. You will decide on it together and I’ll make it happen, as long as it is reasonable. Now, let’s get to work.”.
Gwyn was more than happy with the Shadowsinger’s proposal, as she was now keen on begging Emery to train as hard as possible in order to make up for Nesta not being able to.
*
One and a half hour into the training and it became clear that Cassian and Azriel didn’t intend to take it easy at all in their first day of practicing daggerwork. Even though they didn’t make the females move so much, they required them to use all energy and focus to aim at the moving targets which appeared, disappeared and moved faster than they were able to think. Even though some of the priestesses managed to hit a couple of them, no one delivered a death blow.
By the time they went to grab water and prepare for cooldown, Gwyn was seeing red and Emerie and Nesta were just laughing at the angry priestess.
“Stop laughing!” she said, as her friends came closer to her. “We have to win. I don’t know how, but we have to.”
“We will, Gwyn. We all know we will. You’ll get your favour, don’t worry.” Emerie said, trying to calm her friend down.
“We’ll get our favour! We barely touched 4 targets.”
Nesta said with a calm voice “Actually, you touched 3, I only touched one. And the other teams barely managed to scratch one. I’d say we’re good.
Gwyn huffed as she aimed back to where the other priestesses were, but something settled in her. She knew that she would definitely be in the training pit every night until the competition, making sure her daggerwork was perfect.
*
As training was over and all the priestesses left, Nesta, Emerie and Gwyn lingered at the edge of the terrace, sipping their water and complaining about how sore their arm muscles were.
“I’ll leave now. Merrill is expecting me at one.”
They said their goodbyes and Gwyn strolled to the staircase, pass an arm-crossed Cassian and Azriel. She said nothing to them, but threw the latter an indignant and proud look, while he raised one corner of his mouth. But she was already gone, going down the staircase towards the library.
“You did good. Why is she mad?” Azriel asked, approaching Nesta and Emerie.
“You literally don’t know how Gwyn acts when you mention the word challenge? She is set on winning. She won’t accept anything else.” Emerie said.
“Today was only the first day. And she alone hit 3 targets.”
Nesta raised her eyebrows, with a smirk across her face “How many did I hit?”
Azriel found himself taken by surprise for a second. “One. And Emerie hit none. You’ll do better tomorrow.”
“Hmm. Interesting to know you don’t only count the hits of the best student.” was all Nesta managed to mischievously say.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Azriel said confused.
“Nothing. We have things to do, if you’ll excuse us. Emerie, join me two minutes before Cassian takes you back?”
Before her friend had time to answer, Nesta hooked an arm through hers and pushed her towards the entrance to the House.
“That was amusing to witness.” Emerie said and lowered her head to Nesta’s ear, so no one else would hear them. “I wouldn’t dare say he guessed the answer to your question, as he’s a Shadowsinger and his shadows tell him everything, but I caught him glancing towards Gwyn more than twice.” she said roguishly.
Nesta just smiled and agreed with a short “Hmm.”.
*
The next day went the same. By the end, Gwyn was still angry, not uttering a single word to either the Shadowsinger or the General, though she managed to hit double the number of targets than yesterday and Emerie delivered three precise blows, but nowhere close to the centre.
When evening came, Gwyn couldn’t find the will to go to sleep knowing they will miss a day of training soon. So she put her leathers on and headed to the pit. She knew neither Cassian nor Azriel would be there to power the targets, but she planned that if the targets wouldn’t move, then she will.
For the next thirty minutes, she ran and dodged until sweat covered her face and coopery strands of hair came out of the braided tail she tied at the back of her head. At one point, she felt a tingling sensation atop her head, but she decided to keep focused, even though she spotted something that looked like a moving shadow at the edge of the pit. It was definitely harder to throw daggers when her herself was in motion and the dim light coming from the edge of the terrace didn’t seem to help much, but she was aware that she it this extra training session will gain her an advantage over the others. After a while, as she stopped to take a sip of water, she felt the same sensation again, but she didn’t get scared, for some reason.
“Your friends are bolder than you are, Shadowsinger.” she said, breathing hard.
Standing now at the edge of the terrace, Azriel turned her head in her direction and strode towards her. “They are not bolder; they just have a mind of their own.”
“Hmm…if you are here to train, I am almost done.” she said without any hint of emotion in her voice.”
“You really want that favour, don’t you?” he said playfully.
“Oh, come on, it’s the last thing I care about, though it makes in intriguing – the fact that if we actually win we really have to come up with a favour to ask you. But no, I, we just need to win.”
“I see. Though honestly you could’ve taken tonight to rest, given tomorrow is the mating ceremony.”
“This is exactly why I am here, because tomorrow is the ceremony and there is no training the day after. And depending on how tomorrow’s training will go, Nesta will be lucky if she delivers at the of next week two or three good blows. Therefore, me and Em have to make up, not that I blame Nesta for anything, I would never, not for this. I’m happy for her and I would still love her even if she didn’t show up at all, but as I said, I need us to win.” Gwyn said, unfurrowing her brows, but still, an ember of anger remained deep within her.
“Don’t push yourself too much. Your team is going to win anyway, no matter how many daggers Nesta or Emerie hit true. And… if it might somehow be about the favour, you are more than aware that you don’t need either me or Cassian to grant you, any of you, a favour. You simply ask us and it is done.” Azriel said, looking somewhere in the distance, probably at one of her targets, a subtle smile now on his lips.
But was she aware? She didn’t want to assume anything, but she guessed that his words now managed to clear up at least some of her worry. She took a glance at him and raised to her feet.
“I need to do cooldown before I leave for the night. Is there anything else you would like to tell me?”
“No”, he said confidently, as he now strode for the house. “See you tomorrow, Gwyneth! Don’t forget to leave some of the worry for the next day and to enjoy yourself.” he said with a soft smile as he entered the house and made himself unseen.