Felicity awoke from her sleep with a start. She groggily got off her bed and went to open the curtains to let the morning sunlight in, only to be greeted by more darkness. So it still is before sunrise, then. Should I just lie back down again? She decided against it, instead opting to plan ahead for today. For starters, she would have to give Eulisses a rundown of the current political situation at the continent, what its four main players were and where the estimated the centre of the planar convergence to be. She also wanted to get a better idea of the undead wizard’s powers. Fiona confirmed that she was unable to see through whatever spell he cast upon himself to mask his nature, a ‘mortal shroud’ I believe he called it. That means he must have some experience as a spellcaster, though it remains to be seen whether he has skills that can be of use in an actual battle. His claims of being able to do something against the Rifts have been vague at best, so we shouldn’t count on them when discussing strategy. The lack of sleep affected her concentration, she had to repeatedly stop her thoughts from wandering to other matters and didn’t always succeed. The way he carried himself during the audience with father has been so different from how he was back at the cathedral. I wonder which one is his true self, is he, too, used to wearing a mask? She chuckled as she realized that he quite literally was wearing a mask right now. His look carries such an intensity with it as well. Those deep, blue eyes of his - wait, what am I thinking? Focus, Felicity! You are just not used to being on the receiving end! Shaking her head in an attempt to clear her thoughts, Felicity went to and sat down at her desk, evoking a small sphere of light to illuminate it. She would work on several things, from planning on how to get the most information out of Eulisses to working on her speech she would be giving at the summit. She only stopped once the first rays of the sun would hit her through the windows, upon which she dispelled the sphere of light, massaging her throbbing temples. She was unsure whether the lack of sleep, the upkeep of the spell or her continued state of concentration was to blame for them. Lying back down, she pretended to be asleep for when her maid would come to wake her up, not wanting to worry her - and by extension her father - with the sleep problems that have been reemerging recently to plague her.

--

Eulisses mood was high, owed to the restful ‘sleep’ he had this night as well as his current location - the castle’s archives, which were basically an unexpectedly extensive library storing the accumulated historical and cultural knowledge of the Esaburg Kingdom. As he had just learned, the kingdom whose history went back the farthest, save for maybe one or two city states of the Khiphamid States. The wealth of magical knowledge alone must be staggering! I’d really want to just hole myself up here for months, there must be something here that can directly aid me in my research. But for now, I shouldn’t continue to ignore my lovely host. He refocused his attention back towards the princess of the Esaburg kingdom. Though I guess I should call her ‘Felicity’ now, as we agreed to be on a first-name basis when alone, given our close cooperation from now on. The woman in question was bent over a map of the continent, pointing at various places and giving short explanations of them. “... As for the Vodany Academy, it is the prime magical educational institution on the whole continent, even our kingdom's own academy can’t hold a candle to it. I actually plan to pay it a visit after the summit to try and get their combat mages to join our cause. As for the summit, it’ll take place at the Arcrarian trade-city Narlême in a month. We will make for Baycall - it should take us about a week - from which a ship will take us the rest of the two-week journey. Do you have any questions?” Eulisses, who zoned out quickly after she began to give a brief recount of each of the state’s history and only just now registered her words again, shook his head. “No, thank you for the explanation, Felicity.” She gave him a smile of hers in return, but he was no longer dumbstruck by it. That won’t work anymore, princess! I have seen through your facade already, I am quite experienced with them. “I believe that settles our brief history lesson, then. We have been here all morning, after all.” “May I stay awhile longer then, Felicity, as I would like to browse through the books and tomes here?” She tilted her head in contemplation upon his request, before shaking her head and giving him a helpless look. “I am afraid not, Eulisses. We have a few days before we have to leave for Baycall, so there might still be time for it later. But for now, we still have to remove one matter.” Her look turned serious. “You called yourself a high-tier spellcaster before. I would like you to expand upon that, in a demonstration of sorts. We might have to fight together, while on the roads or when the convergence happens and I need to have a picture of what you are capable of. You can convince yourself of my own skills in a similar manner and I want to start this afternoon.” Eager now, are we? Well, I have no reason to deny the request. Let’s see how much you are willing to show off and how much I will be showing off myself. The success of this collaboration may depend on it.

--

They had a quick dinner - well, Felicity did, he was just sitting there, looking the part. They then made for the courtyard, where the royal guard was currently performing their drills. One part was going through stances and attacks on their own, you could hear the blade cutting swiftly through the air, the steel softly humming and the quick burst of breath being exhaled with each strike. The other part was sparring and they didn’t pull their punches. Eulisses even saw one getting knocked out by his opponent’s dulled sword, as he failed to put up his own guard in time after an exchange.

Felicity led him to the man overseeing all of it and introduced him. “This is Captain Elliot Blythe, head of the royal guard. Some of them will be accompanying us on our journey to the summit and beyond. Captain Blythe, meet Eulisses Malinor, the hero we summoned from another world.” The stern man crossed his arms and gave Eulisses a probing look. He didn’t shrink back and met it, which seemed to be met with approval, as the man gave a nod, apparently satisfied. “It is good to meet you, Hero Eulisses. As the princess has stated, I am the one tasked with the security of the castle and its inhabitants. Our members are among the most skilled fighters and battlemages in the kingdom and we are eager to see what you are capable of.” Felicity interjected at that. “I believe a spar with a member of the Guard would be a good start. I shall go first, to demonstrate.” Captain Blythe looked at her and questioned. “You, princess? Your last lessons have been quite some time ago, you must feel rusty.” His teasing tone gave away their friendly relationship, and the princes retorted in mock upset. “I’ll have you know Elliot, that I always kept up with practising my spellcraft. And I am still as swift with the rapier as I have been half a year ago. I shall prove it to you, this moment!” Felicity went to the sparring field, one of the guards had already prepared a rapier with a blunted edge and rounded point for her, as well as a set of sparring gear - thick padded chestpiece, gauntlets and helmet. She grabbed the weapon and took position at the edge of the circle, which was marked with paving stones embedded in the flattened earth. Captain Blythe laughed and took up position opposite of her after being handed a blunt longsword. He didn’t bother to swap his actual armor for the same sparring gear as her. “You have a big mouth, princess. Let’s see you back up those words with skill!”

--

They saluted each other before immediately closing the distance. Blythe had the advantage in reach, while Felicity was considerably more agile than him. He held up his guard, tip of the blade pointed straight at her, before he quickly lashed out with a swipe to her arm that Felicity managed to avoid by a hair's breadth. He put up his guard again at the last second to parry her counter-thrust to his chest. She knew she couldn’t let her lighter and shorter blade remain in bind with his, so she quickly retreated again before he could leverage the weight of his weapon against her, giving up on her initiative in the process. An error he was quick to capitalize on, as he stepped forward and sent a thrust to her left shoulder, which she deflected with she barely managed to deflect. But he wasn’t done as he fluidly changed the thrust into a reverse-cut, rotating his upper body and putting the reverse edge of his blade to her forehead before she could react. They disengaged and he let out the rest of the breath he held. “That would have drawn blood and ended a traditional duel,” he said, with his sword pointed at her like a ruler, “and on the battlefield, the blood would run over your eyes, clouding your vision and spelling your doom all the same, if not against the one enemy, then against the next.”

He took up position at the edge of the circle again, followed by her, and shouted: “Again, this time, usage of spells is permitted.” After they saluted, he went to close the distance, but this time, Felicity did not, instead preparing a spell with short cast time. Before he reached striking distance, she was ready and held out her left arm to let out a fan of flames. With practiced ease, Blythe sidestepped the attack and took the remaining steps to enter in range, raising his blade in preparation to strike. In deep concentration, Felicity lashed out with a thrust while simultaneously finishing the casting of her next spell. He parried the thrust and instead of following up with a strike of his own, he again stepped to the side to avoid her next spell. But he misread her move as instead of the ray of frost he had expected and seen her cast in the past, a blinding light escaped her hand with him unable to close his eyes in time. She quickly followed up her spell with another thrust and while Blythe kept his guard up, he couldn’t react to the precise nature of her attack and she managed to sneak the point of her weapon past him, lightly tapping him on his side, between where his breastplate and tasset met and left just the slightest opening.

--

Eulisses was impressed by the fighting prowess displayed by both the royal guard captain and Felicity. She weaved together magic and swordsmanship well. At this close a distance, I don’t think I could have done as well as her. The two fighters bowed to each other to signify the end of their sparring match. A bright smile was plastered on the princess’ face. I believe that is the first genuine smile I’ve seen on her. Which is a pity, as it puts all her others to shame. Captain Blythe commended Felicity. “I’m impressed, princess. You continuously come up with new ideas to use your spells in combat. The intensity of your light was especially noteworthy. We use a similar thing in the military for communication, but the mages I know can’t cast it as quickly as you did without compromising the brightness. But your fencing needs some work, you wouldn’t have made the mistakes you did a year ago, we’ll have to iron them out as much as we can this week.” They turned towards him. “What do you think of our match, Eulisses?” Felicity asked earnestly. “Your display was impressive, princess, and Captain Blythe as well. Although I don’t think the fire spell would have worked as it did in an actual fight, your armor seems to bestow some degree of protection against elemental spells, Captain Blythe.” The man in question nodded in agreement. “You have a keen sight, Hero Eulisses, to discern the nature of the enchantments. It is true that a fire of that magnitude might not have managed to burn me. But I still wouldn’t be able to just tank it without stopping in my strike, so the princess could still have followed up on it with her attack. But it is a valid criticism and it would be wise to train for situations where even a successful spell is met with no effect on the enemy” Felicity stepped forward, closer to himself. “Now that you’ve seen me fight, Eulisses, it’s you turn!” she said with glee. Do you want me to embarrass myself, princess? What have I ever done to you? He pondered on how to answer her, before starting. “I have no swordsmanship to speak of, so I don’t think a duel such as this would give an accurate estimation of what I can do. I also have no experience in holding back, so I might injure your men when I try to overwhelm them with my spells, captain.” Captain Blythe grinned upon hearing his words and answered confidently. “Not to worry, Hero Eulisses, you will go up against me as well.” He knocked at his breastplate. “As you’ve already noted, I am warded against elemental spells, so just stick with them. Or are you only capable of casting curses and the likes?” He gave him a challenging glare, clearly aware of his undead nature. Only makes sense for the head of security to know, there were royal guards present during the audience as well. Eulisses let out an exaggerated sigh. “Very well then, captain. I will try to meet your challenge, just don’t come crying about it later.” His taunt was met with only the captain’s grin turning even wider. Perfect, a battle junkie. Oh, how I hate the type! Well, here I come!