Cecily stared at the little girl holding a blade. Her feet were spread perfectly shoulder width apart. Her dominant, right shoulder facing the criminal. The saints dagger was pointed towards the hunter.

"Good," Cecily praised. "This is your basic stance. Next up, attacking."

"Your small!" Orion yelled from where he was sitting on the head a few yards away. "Make that-"

"Since your small," the hunter said over the assassin, "you can never attack first. Now you, you have an advantage over most people."

"An advantage?" Alma asked, relaxing just a bit. That earned her a smack on the arm from Cecily.

"The human body is a...collection of weak points. Hit a one and you can weaken an opponent. Hit a few, and you can take them down. Where do you think is the first place you'd go for if you were being attacked by a right handed opponent holding a blade?"

Alma thought for a second. "I'd aim for the joint or inside the collar bone."

"To incapacitate," Cecily nodded, her arms crossing. She'd chosen to wear a shot sleeves shirt for the first time in a long time. She didn't know why, but she wasn't as uncomfortable with her arm as she used to be. "What about to kill?"

Alma looked at her feet, earning herself another smack. "The neck or the stomach would be the easiest. An eye, maybe but it'd be hard to hit with something this small well, you could probably do it pretty fast. I guess in between vertebrae if they're facing the other way and you can get a good shot."

"You don't find that disgusting?" The prince asked from where he was standing besides Orion. "At all?"

Alma resisted the urge to shrug and she was almost afraid to look away from Cecily. "I've preformed surgeries at the age of twelve. I removed my first eye when I was thirteen. It's pretty hard to phase me at this point. Remind me why I have to stand like this for so long."

"So your body remembers the position even if you forget," the hunter answered. "We're starting slow."

"Ok. And why do I have a full audience?"

"Cause this is what it looks like when people get bored."

Orion answered. "I just wanted to make sure she didn't kill you or anything."

Reiko snorted. "Right. We've already established that we trust her, why not just admit that you were worried Cecily would be too rough on the little healer."

"Right, sure. And why are you out here?"

"I'm...just making sure my prince is safe," he retorted.

That earned them both a look from said prince. "Uh-huh. And unlike you two I'm actually bored."

Cecily proceeded to ignore the entourage. "Like I said; never make the first move. You're small, so you can usually get around the initial hit or two. You'll be underestimated at first, so make it count." Cecily looked at the dagger sitting in the saints hands. It was the hunters, originally. Well, it was the princes, but after she touched it, it was hers. "How does that feel in your hands?"

Alma looked at the short dagger with a firm grip. It was pretty, glistening in the sun, which was why Cecily had originally chosen it. "Well, its small enough to fit in my hand. I guess I like it."

The hunter sighed. "Then keep it. It's yours."

Alma nodded her thanks.

Apparently she didn't understand how much Cecily hated giving her weapons away. She sure didn't show it.

"Alright, next comes real practice."

---

Zephyr watched the two of them go at it surprised by how much Cecily was talking and how willing she was to teach. Whatever Alma had said to Cecily had worked. He'd need to figure it out as well.

"So," Reiko said besides him, drawing the prince's and Orion's attention, "who're are next targets?"

"We only got two this time," Zephyr said, pulling out his tablet. "Rosalynd Jessa and Deslyn Reacher. Both for slave trading."

"Slave trading," Reiko sighed. "Why do people even do that."

Orion glanced over at the foreigner and knew exactly what he was thinking. Not that he'd ever mention it to Reiko, but he did look at his files a few years back.

And Orion was right. Reiko, at the age of four, had been freed from illegal slave trading. It was something everyone automatically assumed by looking at him, but to confirm it had been another thing for Zephyr.

When he found out, he tried babying the guard. He felt bad for what he had to go through. And Reiko never let him live it down. Babying him, at least. Zephyr wasn't as brace as he liked to believe so he'd never told Reiko that he knew. That was the first and last time the foreigner asked the prince to spar with him, just so he could beat the shit out of him.

And Zephyr never sparred with anyone again.

He caught Orion glancing at him, looking for confirmation, but the prince simply smiled. He turned back to the two girls practicing.

And laughed.

Cecily looked calm. Oddly calm for being in a one handed choke hold and having her one good hand pinned behind her back.

"We look away for one second," Orion laughed, "and the tables are turned."

---

Reiko actually thought Cecily was a good teacher. Even if he'd never admit it; to her or anyone else. As they walked inside their little hideout, he caught a glimpse at the bruises on her arm and legs from when she let Alma hit her.

And she'd given him a knife. That was what shocked him the most. When he'd seen her in the prison, her horse of weapons glistening and perfect, he thought she was uncontrollably greedy, maybe a little OCD, when it came to weapons. And then she just handed one over.

"So," he prince said, "tomorrow we'll go on the first mission."

"I thought you said we had a few days?" Alma asked. "Cause it's only been two."

"Two is a few," Zephyr answered with a wave of his hand as he plopped down on the couch. "Besides, what else do we have to do?"

"Well, I could get some more training in, for one. Cecily could get some new clothes." Her hands now rested on her hips. "You could let the two guys heal from the attack you put them in the middle of. Not to mention, Orion's stubborn about that stab wound that isn't healing anywhere as fast as it could be if he'd just sit down."

Cecily glanced at Reiko's prince with a raised brow and a smirk playing on her lips while she fixed her self some what could only be assumed to be tea. She had a serious addiction for the stuff but at least it wasn't drugs.

"Alright," the prince said," I guess you have a point."

Orion laughed. "She's got more than one. Like this, we're more likely to topple over than attack anyone."

"Fine. How much longer do you want off?"

"At least a day," Alma replied. "It's no where near enough time to actually heal a serious injury, but I guess we do need to hurry a little bit. People start running away when they hear the games started, right? So tomorrow me, Orion, and Cecily can head into the nearest town to pick some things up."

"I thought you wanted me to rest up?" Orion asked from where he'd reckoned himself across a couch.

She turned her big, glaring eyes to him. "I do, but it's not like you'll do that unless I'm badgering you. So you get to come along and go shopping for girls clothes with us. Any objections?"

No one argued the stubborn girl.

---

Cecily did not like that her only jacket was torn to shreds. It left her with nothing but a short sleeved shirt, revealing her mechanic arm. It wasn't abnormal for people to have prosthetics. People being older people who'd fought in the war and lost something. Something being in a literal sense.

Children tried to pride at her arm. Older girls laughed at her for something superficial behind her back. Or tried to anyways. For how much experience they seemed to have gossiping they really weren't that good at it. Older boys looked her up and down, earning them a stern glare.

It was an ever repeating circle between the girls and boys.

"I'm assuming you don't like going in public much?" Orion asked.

Subconsciously, she was rubbing her good hand across her prosthetic, like she could scratch away the metal and wires to reveal a layer of pale skin.

"I spent the last few years in that prison," she answered quietly, though she was thankful for the distraction. "But no. Even before that, when I was younger, I didn't like going into different towns. Not without a jacket or long sleeved shirt."

"I'm sorry I dragged you along then," Alma said, glancing back at her from where she was bravely opening a way through the decently thin crowd. "I figured you wanted to pick your own clothing and that you'd want to get away from those two. Specifically Reiko. But-"

"No. It's not as bad when I'm not alone."

She saw both of their eyes shift towards her face, but she quickly turned away to glare at a boy. It wasn't as effective when her face was burning.