[Flashback] Battered and Bruised

by **Jaquise Emittere** on May 9th, 2010, 7:42 pm

Spring of 500 AV

Of the many things Sergane could do, being free to teach his son was not one of them. His father was out hunting down an illusionist who had used magic to commit several thefts. So it fell to Raziel to once more teach Jaquise. It wasn't a bad thing. Raziel and Jaq's father had been joined for about 9 years now, so Raziel had inherited a great deal of Sergane's skills. And despite his alien like nature, he was a rather good teacher. Of course Jaq was only sixteen, so studying and practicing were not the most prominent things occupying his mind. For instance there was this beautiful brunette who lived down the road and was studying to be a......'SMACK!'.

The pain brought Jaq back to the events before him. Raziel was teaching him how to fight against different kinds of weapons. Jaq wielded a practice katana, which actually seemed to be made out of some kind of reeds, while Raziel was using a wooden replica of a longsword. While Jaq's thoughts had drifted to the brunette Raziel had slipped around the boy's guard and landed a strike on his left shoulder. Thankfully the familiar hadn't put all of his strength behind the blow, or he might have broken a bone. Instead it simply rattled Jaq and caused him to let go o the blade with his left hand. The familiar didn't stop there though, using the opening now presented he moved in for a lunge to the chest.

Jaq, dazed and confused, barely had enough time to grab his sword with both hands and raised it high enough to deflect the lunge. The lunge was not so easily stopped though. It not only carried the power from the forward thrust, it also carried a great deal of Raziel's weight. Despite the fact that he was replicating Sergane as a thinner gaunter version of the man, ti was still quite a bit. The point of the replica stuck Jaquise in the side, knocking the wind out of him, forcing him to drop to his sword and fall to his knees.

"Your focus is not on the fight. Had these been real blades you would have been dead twice over." Raziel kicked the faux katana closer to Jaquise. "Pick up the sword. We will continue until you can land a strike one me."

Jaquise took a deep breath and gripped the sword in one hand. Then he pushed himself forward and charged at the familiar with a one handed swing. The familiar didn't even bother blocking with his sword. With his free hand Raziel grabbed the handle of the blade as it neared and lifted his leg into a devastating kick that knocked Jaquise onto his ass several feet away. Jaq laid there for a few seconds, trying to push passed the pain and stand up again. When he finally got to his feet, Raziel tossed him the practice katana. "Moves like that will rarely work and will more often then not get you killed. Get into your stance."

Jaquise took the sword in both hands, his dominant hand near the guard of the blade and his left hand near the bottom of the handle. He planted his feet shoulders apart and centered his weight. Now in his ready stance Jaquise looked up to find that Raziel was already in front of him once more and swinging down with his sword. Jaquise raised his sword high and stopped the blow, but the force behind it traveled down his body. Raziel swung again and this time the force drove Jaquise to his knees. Before Raziel could strike a third time Jaquise brought the blade around in a sweeping strike aimed for the familiars legs. With liquid speed Raziel interposed his blade between Jaquise's weapon and his legs. Jaq used the time the strike had given him to get to his feet.

Raziel smiled his alien smile and lunged at Jaq for a second time. Jaquise didn't bother trying to block and instead moved around the sword and brought down his own weapon on the familiar's arms. The crack his practice katana made resounded through the room. Sweating and breathing hard, Jaquise took several steps back and kept the point fo his blade pointed at Raziel.

"Good counter. Remember though you could have just as easily gone for my neck. Do not fight battles to survive, fight to kill your opponent. Any other way and you might hesitate." The Familiar, not even winded, turned his head to the side and up a little. To any observer it appeared that the man had simple taken notice of something. Jaquise knew better. He had seen it enough to know that Raziel was listening to Sergane via telepathy. It used to eb that when Jaquise saw that look he knew his father was near, or at least in the same city. Distance had long ago stopped being an issue for the pair, so it didn't really help Jaquise learn anything regarding his father's where-about's anymore. When the familiar turned back to Jaquise he spoke in an a voice that seemed far away even though they were standing a few feet apart."Your father says to not put so much of your weight behind your strike's. Had there been another opponent you wouldn't have the time to defend yourself. Otherwise, good commitment."

Just like Sergane to give an offhanded compliment like that. "Did father mention how the hunt was going?"

Raziel turned to the side again then back to Jaq. "He say's the hypnotist recently moved through the mountain pass leading to Zeltiva. That is all."

The familiar raised pointed his replica sword at Jaquise once more. "Let us continue then."

by **Jaquise Emittere** on May 10th, 2010, 1:59 pm

An hour later......

Jaquise feinted to the left and swung his blade to the right, hoping to take out one of Raziel's legs. The familiar had seen through the feint and knocked the strike aside, then followed up with a strike of his own. Jaquise quickly brought his weapon up and stopped the blow, then began pushing Raziel back. It was a surprising tactic to use considering Raziel stood at 6'4 and Jaquise at 5'9. The difference in height and weight meant it was that much more difficult to push, but Jaquise hoped to use the surprise of such an odd tactic and get in a shot. It seemed to work as the pushing was met with little resistance at first, and when it did arise enough momentum had been gained to make it useless. With a final push Jaquise forced Raziel to take a step back. He had an opening and immediately moved in for a kill shot, charging at the familiar with a lunge. Raziel had recovered by now and ducked underneath the lunge, attacking Jaquise's leg just as it hit the ground. The counter attack from the familiar caused Jaquise to lose his balance and fall forward, landing painfully on his chest.

"Among the many things wrong with that last attempt, there is one thing I would like to commend you on."

Jaquise, to tired and bruised to get up, just laid there on his stomach and waited for Raziel to finish speaking. A minute passed with the only sound in that room being Jaquise's heavy breathing. Jaquise turned his head enough find that Raziel was still there, and in fact was watching him. The boy realized what had happened and asked, "What would that one thing be Raziel?"

It didn't happen as often as it used to, but every once in a while Raziel would stop speaking. Jaquise used to think the being just lost focus or something, but in truth Raziel was attempting to communicate via telepathy. His bond with Jaquise was such that he inadvertently switched tot hat mode of communication sometimes. The only problem is Jaquise couldn't communicate in that manner.

As if coming out of a rather vivid day dream Raziel shook his head and continued. "You manged to last twenty minutes longer then the last time we fought. Perhaps one day you'll even score a hit on us." The us being Sergane and Raziel. "Go fetch something to eat and get some rest. If you need anything I'll be down here reading."

With a great deal of effort and not a little amount of pain Jaquise managed to drag himself upstairs and make himself something to eat. He knew Raziel would remain downstairs reading for the rest of the night, it was the familiar's way of coping when Sergane was gone. When he finished eating and managed to drag himself into bed, Jaquise knew the worst of the pain was yet to come. As they say, he'd be feeling all of his injuries in the morning. His arms were sore from swinging his practice sword around so much and blocking some of the more vicious strikes that had been dealt to him. Jaquise's breathing was ragged because every time he took in some air the bruises on his chest would erupt into a wave of pain. He took solace in the fact that Raziel and his father were kind enough to usually let him off the next day when it came to practice or studying, and when they didn't it was something like reading a book. Despite his weariness it took a while for Jaquise to fall asleep. When sleep finally took him, the painless nothing of a dreamless rest was ecstasy.

by **Jaquise Emittere** on May 12th, 2010, 1:50 am

The dreamless sleep was interrupted far to early for Jaquise's liking. The manner in which he was awakened, having his bed shaken violently, was as painful as it was annoying for the battered Jaquise. When attempts at hitting the perpetrator of the vile act with a pillow failed to stop the shaking Jaquise slowly pulled himself up to a sitting position and looked at who could be doing this. He was met with the face of his father, though thinner and paler like Jaquise himself. In his dream like state, the young man had the thought that perhaps the beings change was on purpose to reflect his bond with both father and son. Then Raziel began shaking the bed again, causing Jaquise to lose his balance and fall to the stone floor with a painful thud. At least he was out of the infernal shaking bed he thought as he tried to pull himself to his feet so that he could yell at the familiar before going back to sleep. When he had only reached his knees he felt strong callused hands grab his arms, a part of Raziel's form that most assuredly did not come from Jaquise,and pull him up the rest of the way. Then, with a bit of prodding and pushing, he was lead through the house to the basement stairs. For a fearful moment Jaquise worried that perhaps Raziel had snapped and was planning on pushing him down the stairs, but the fears abated when Raziel's next push lacked the force to topple him even in his weakened state. Getting the hint, finally, Jaquise descended the stone stairs into the basement that served as a study for magical subjects not safely left in the normal study, and practice room for both the master of the house, Sergane, and his son, Jaquise.

The basement was a simple room, perhaps 30 ft wide with a bare floor most of the way through. The stairs came down at the bottom right corner, into the a small part of the room that had carpeting, several shelves, and two desks. All in all it appeared to be a simple study. The other end of the room held a very different sort of feel to it. Where book shelves lined the walls near the stairs, a series of weapon racks and armor stands lined the wall of the other.

As Jaquise got off the last step he turned and looked around the room. He had been expecting to see his desk and hair set up in the middle of the room, with a board full of drawings and details in front of it. Instead the desk and bored were still against the wall near the bookshelves in the study part of the room right next to the. Instead what he saw was a straw dummy, propped much like a scarecrow without any of the special trimming that would have made it look human like. Jaquise was of course puzzled by this. Not the figure itself, he had seen many like it and indeed near the wall at the far end of the room were several such figures laying on the floor. Now what puzzled Jaquise was that one was set up at all, for it was those very dummies that Jaquise usually practiced his swings with his real katana. Yesterday he had a grueling sparring match with Raziel, one that resulted in bruises and cuts that hurt even now, perhaps more so then when eh ad received them. Usually after such intense practice, Jaquise would be given a day off in order to recuperate, or what little work he was given involved books and papers. Jaquise turned to Raziel with a disbelieving look on his face, one that was compounded by his glass eye.

"Surely you cannot be serious Raziel. The bruises I received yesterday have not even begun to heal."

Raziel, instead of answering, moved across the room to the nearest weapon rack and picked up the katana Jaq's father had gifted to him. The familiar then turned to Jaquise and beckoned. To tired to argue, Jaquise crossed the room and took the blade from the familiars pale hands. The blade's was heavy, but usually felt comfortable in Jaquise's hands. The weight only served to drag his spirits further down this time.

"Today will be the start of a difficult training regiment your father wishes to put you through. Not only will you be practicing with your blade, you will be doing so under difficult conditions. This time it is while you are physically wounded. You will be forced to ignore the pain during practice, and there will be consequences for every time you fail to do so."

Jaquise could only stare at familiar with open mouthed astonishment as he explained all this. It had taken a moment but the young man had finally realized that Raziel was serious. The pain had been hard to ignore simply walking from his room to the basement, how was he supposed to do so while he was swinging a heavy blade around. Jaquise was about to argue when the familiar turned to him and gave him a stare that was so very much like the stare his father gave to the young man when he didn't want trouble, that he immediately shut his mouth and shuffled over to the straw dummy. As Jaquise walked he awkwardly put on the sword, which had its own intricately carved belt already attached to it, so that it hung on his left side.

When Jaquise was about arm's length from the blade he turned to look at Raziel, as if pleading for the familiar to tell him it was all a joke and that he could go back to sleep. No such luck. He turned back and stretched his swore limbs in order to loosen his body up. When he was ready Jaquise turned back to the straw dummy and got into ready position. This included squaring his feet with his shoulders, taking hold of the scabbard in his left hand, turning the sword so that the edge of the blade, still in its scabbard, face up, and holding his hand just above the handle with his dominate hand. The first thing he always practiced on such targets was his draw. His father had said that some of the greatest wielders of the katana had turned the drawing of the blade into an a style all of it's own. After all, if one could kill an enemy with the draw of his blade, one has that much more of an advantage over them. Jaquise had gotten better at the draw. His cuts were usually clean now and he longer got the blade caught in its scabbard. Still, compared to his father's and Raziel's draw, he might as well leave the blade in the scabbard. What took him perhaps a second in a half to two seconds usually took them a blink of the eye. Using a trick his father had taught him, Jaquise flipped his thumb onto the guard and pushed enough so that the blade popped out the sheathe an inch or so. Jaquise quickly grabbed the handle of the sword and began drawing it. Before he could get the blade out of the sword another inch, pain flared in Jaquise arm where Raziel had dealt a particularly painful strike the day before on one of the young man's overextended lunge's. Pain flaring, Jaquise let the blade slide back into its scabbard and clutched the bruise on his arm in a futile attempt to dim the pain.

Just as he set to do this Jaq felt a rush of air blow past him headed in the direction where Raziel stood. A second later the wind came back and was followed by a thunderous sound that seem to stop halfway through, and this time it was hot.Burning hot! Jaquise closed his eyes and raised his arm in another futile attempt to stifle pain. The heat only lasted for a moment and didn't even seem to burn Jaquise, but when he opened his eyes he found that he was on the ground, and that every bruise and scrape he had received the day before cried a new with pain as if they had all just been dealt to him. Only a minute passed before the pain began to ebb, but for Jaquise it felt like an eternity. When the pain finally faded completely Jaquise, breathing heavily with his heart pounding in his ears, pulled himself to his knees and looked up at Raziel. The familiar was staring at Jaquise with a rather sad look, one that mixed regret with sorrow, yet somehow spoke of a determination to see whatever horrid act through. Jaquise didn't care though. Whatever the hell the familiar had done to him was more then just a simple bruise he had earned from being overly eager or overly cautious in a sparring match. It was more then a punishment that had been dealt to him for disobeying orders, though he supposed that was what in fact it what. The only experience Jaquise had to compare this event with was the day his father had made him a reimancer. Such pain, he never hoped to experience the like again.

He almost began to shout when he realized that Raziel's lips were moving. Jaquise couldn't hear what he was saying, but he could no longer seem to find his voice. All he could do was watch the familiar's lips move and wait. Soon enough the words started to come to him, thought they sounded like they had crossed a great distance before reaching them and were almost to faint to understand. "I am truly sorry for that Jaq. It was the way your father was taught this, and the way his father was taught. He had hoped to be here to do this himself, as if who dealt the pain would make a difference in the fact that it was dealt, but upon confronting the hypnotist last night the rouge magician killed someone in order to escape."

Jaquise still felt angry, who wouldn't, and he still wanted to lash out but despite anger all eh could manage to say with ragged breathing was, "Its Jaquise.......Why??" His voice sounded hallow and dried out, as if it had been day's since he had any water. In truth his whole body felt shaken. With an effort he managed to pull himself to his feat, and even then his footing remained unsteady for a while longer.

"If you meant the the exercise, its to simulate the results of failure. The straw dummy can't hit back, so I am forced to do so. If you meant the reimancy there are several reasons. The most prominent is that you have yet to be attacked by magic.. Should you ever have to fight another reimancer, it is important to know what they are capable of, which may be a great deal more then what you are capable of doing." The familiar's voice sounded almost pleading, as if he hoped that by telling Jaquise it was necessary it would make the pain that much easier to bare. Jaquise was still feeling the pain though, and refused to care that the familiar was upset. It would be quite a while before he could even look at the familiar, or his father who had thought all this up, the same way again. That is if he ever did.

by **Jaquise Emittere** on May 12th, 2010, 9:53 pm

Jaquise had few choice's. He could try and leave, and be punished later for disobeying, or he could continue the practice and force himself to ignore his injuries in hopes of avoiding another repeat. The first meant he would be getting a beat down anyway, probably in the form of a sparring match in which his father decided not to hold back, where the later meant he might be able to come out unscathed. However Jaquise knew he could survive s parring match with his father, he was sure if he would walk away from Raziel's training. A look to the familiar told Jaquise that the being was waiting for him to continue.

With his decision made, Jaquise turned back to the straw dummy and got back into his ready position. He waited a moment, flicked the blade out of its scabbard with his left hand drew the blade with his right hand. The pain in his arm flared up once more, causing him to shake a bit. Jaquise ignored it though, aware that Raziel was waiting for him to fail so that he may demonstrate the price of such failure once more. The draw was slow, even for Jaquise, and the result cut was uneven. Jaquise had failed to slice through even halfway. He closed his eyes and cringed, expecting another explosion to knock him the ground. When no such event was forthcoming Jaquise looked to Raziel. The familiar was still watching him, still waiting.

"No punishment? No pain to demonstrate the price of failure?" Jaquise almost yelled these things to Raziel, his voice full of anger and indignation.

The familiar's eyes hardened at Jaquise's tone. it seemed that even though he was sorry for doing what he was doing, he expected the same level of respect Jaquise had always given him. "I see only poor form. The important thing is that you pushed through the pain. Improving upon what you can do when you are forcing yourself to ignore injuries is what all this practice is about. Now unless you want a repeat, continue your practice."

So if Jaquise was able to push through the pain and finish his draw he wouldn't be punished? The pale young man could live with that.

Through out the two hour Jaq practiced his draw several more times, sometimes from farther distances, sometimes standing behind the dummy. Each time he drew the pain in his arm flared, and each time it became easier to ignore. His cuts didn't get much cleaner, but his draws were no longer rigid as they had been and he was able to improve his time so that by the end he was drawing as fast as he ever had. The straw dummy having served its purpose and now to battered to be of any further service, was tossed against the nearby wall and replaced with another. The next thing Jaquise usually practiced was his downward strike,s tarting from with the blade held high. Since he didn't need a real blade to do this and it would allow the straw dummy to last longer, Jaquise replaced his real sword with the practice sword he had used the day before. His new stance, weapon held in front and above his head, hands at the top and bottom of the blade, took a moment to get into. Jaquise took deep breath, then took a step forward and began letting the breath out. As he brought the sword down he also brought it back, creating what almost be like a sawing motion with a real blade. As he took his first step Jaquise could feel another of his injuries welling up with pain. This one was a bruise on his ribs which had been dealt to him the day before. Thankfully Raziel ad managed to not break any of the ribs, however the injury was serious enough to cause Jaquise to gasp out his breath only halfway through his swing. Offset by the sudden change in his body Jaquise only managed to graze the straw dummy's shoulder before hitting one of its arms. Despite Raziel's words Jaquise still flinched when the sword hit the arm. When he still standing a few minutes later, Jaquise stepped back and Readied himself once more. This time when he swung he was able to push past the pain enough to land a square strike on the shoulder of the straw dummy, though it had little power behind it.

Jaquise spent another hour and a half practicing his strike in this manner, with the pain in his ribs making it seem like the second's were passing by like minutes. When he finally stopped, Jaquise dropped to the ground and sat there for a few minutes, head bowed and breathing ragged. The exercise, normally only sweat work, was exhausting. It seemed in the process of swinging a weapon someone had draped some heavy clothes on him, and every time he stopped to take a breath before beginning again that same person kicked him the shins and hit him in the head.

When a few minutes had passed and Jaquise's breathing had evened out Raziel walked over to him and moved the straw dummy back to its original resting place with two others like it. Then he returned to Jaquise and helped him to his feet. "I understand you are weary, but know that you only have one more thing to practice today."

That couldn't be right Jaquise almost said. Normally he would be forced to practice for hours before being let go. He stopped the words before they came out of his throat and instead nodded in agreement. Part of him still wanted to question Raziel, that part of him feared that perhaps he had already done the work and just couldn't remember it through all of the pain. Jaquise brushed the thought aside though. If he didn't remember some of this hell, all the better.

"We are going to skip to practicing guarding your blindside. It is quite a disadvantage you gave yourself when you burned your eye and your father and I mean to prepare you for those many people you will clash with who will surely try and take advantage of it." Raziel handed him a blindfold and began walking toward the far wall.

Jaquise managed only to nod before getting into the stance this practice required him. For this practice Jaquise would stand in the Kame, an offensive form that looked to be defensive but was riddled with so many openings its only use in that sense was to anger the opponent. It was deceptively easy to strike from the stance though, and with evasive measures it became a stance based on reflex that let one dance around an opponent as they tried to hit the openings you showed them. There were sound reasons why Jaquise used this specific stance for this specific practice but at the moment he was to tired and sore to remember what they were.

Jaquise pulled the handle to his practice sword back behind his head, raised the blade over his head, and placed the point almost directly in front of his face. Ready, Jaquise nodded to Raziel twenty feet in front of him. From there Raziel would begin throwing balls of air at Jaquise. They weren't very solid and would do little damage, despite what had happened early Jaquise didn't think Raziel would change that part, and the young man's job was to cut them down the moment they were close enough. The trick was that Jaquise would be blindfolded, meaning he would have to rely heavily on his other senses to determine when and where the strike's would be coming from. His father had once called it blind fighting for the half blinded. One of his rare jokes. You probably already guessed that he wasn't a very funny man.

Remembering the joke did not make Jaquise feel humorous in the least. Raziel had just launched the first ball off air and he was to focused on it to really be anything. For a moment Jaquise stood stock still, doing absolutely nothing, not even breathing. The rush of air was easy enough to hear and after a moment Jaq felt the air the ball was pushing aside brush up against his face. As it neared Jaquise took a step forward, began bringing the practice sword- down while at the same time spinning it around so that the fake edge would be striking the sphere. By now Jaquise had little trouble ignoring the pain from the myriad of bruises littering his body, thought his probably had less to do with a knack for pushing back pain and more to do with begin to tired to register it. He had timed the strike perfectly and cut through the swathe of sparkling res filled air. The shock that went down his arms upon connecting with the ball of air was no more then the usual amount, which meant Jaquise had guessed right and Raziel was leaving this exercise unchanged. The next ball came almost right after the first, and Jaquise felt he only nicked it before it dissipated. The third was silent and only the brushing of air against the back of his neck told him that Raziel had moved behind. He wasn't able to hit this one, but he did move out of the way. Despite the goal of the practice being to strike down the air, Jaquise felt it just as important to be able to move out of its way. As if to punish those very thoughts, the fourth ball of air came to fast to react to, exploding against Jaq's left side and causing him to loose his footing.

The combination of pain from Jaquise's injuries and his exhaustion from such a difficult day's workings left Jaquise to worry to continue after only a half an hour. In his exhaustion he felt himself slipping away from his thoughts and into unconsciousness, no longer caring that it would bring him more pain.

by **Jaquise Emittere** on May 12th, 2010, 10:49 pm

That night.....

Jaquise awoke with a start to the sound of thunder. Fearing it was Raziel punishing him once more Jaquise quickly covered his head and shut his eyes. A minute passed before Jaquise finally opened his eyes once more and looked around. He was in his room, laying on top of his bed. Rain was battering against the roof and against the window on the other side of the room. A flash of light cut a swathe through the dark gray clouds in the sky, and a crash of thunder followed. Jaquise felt a little embarrassed that he had been frightened by a storm, as if he were not but a child who would go running to his parent's bed for assurances that he was safe.

For a litany of reasons that option was not available to Jaquise.

Another sound filled the room, one much to weak to be thunder. Jaquise realized that it had been his stomach. When was the last time he had eaten? It hadn't been today, or perhaps yesterday if it was after midnight, so the day before. He was starving. With a reassuring pat on his stomach Jaquise got of bed and left crossed his room to the doorway and continued into the hall. None of the lamps lining the walls were lit, so Raziel was either downstairs reading some more, or resting. That is if he slept. Jaquise still wasn't sure, as he had never seen the familiar even yawn and had surely never seen him as anything but the alert and fully awake thing older gentleman that was his most favored form. The unlit candles meant that the servants had retired to their quarters, another building next to the one Jaquise and his father were in residence for the night. Aside from the disappointment of having to make his own food, Jaquise didn't really care. As he moved through the hall and out of the living quarters and down a flight of stairs Jaquise thought of little. He did not allow his mind to travel to the days event's, for he was to tired and hungry to think of such things. Instead he simply pondered what he would have. They had some fruit left from the market, so perhaps an apple and some ale?

Eventually he reached the kitchen and pulled out a cup, an apple, a hunk of cheese, a bottle of beer and some bread and sat down for a simple meal. Other then the noises of the storm outside Jaquise ate in silence. The bread and cheese tasted wonderful, the apple was crispy and mouth watering, and the beer warmed him as it traveled down his throat.

Hunger satisfied Jaquise stood and placed the plate and cup near the wash tub for the housekeeper, who despite his employers wealth worked alone in cleaning their home, and began the trek back to his room. Because of a wrong turn Jaquise found himself taking a different route to the stairs, one that brought him by his father's study. Jaquise almost passed it without a glance, but he realized that the door was open a crack and a flickering light shown from within. Jaquise quietly moved closer and peered in to see if it was Raziel or some foolish and soon to be regretful intruder. It was of course the familiar, back turned, seated in his father's chair. The way he was seat Jaquise could see the whole of the familiar's figure, and with the light in the room it was not just a silhouette but it was indeed a pale, gaunter version of his father. In all of his life the young man had never known Raziel to take another form. Jaquise almost left right then and there, for he was still angry for the familiar's early action's and cared little for his nightly activities. Just before he could make his move to leave though, Jaquise heard Raziel speak. His voice was in that far away tone he used to communicate telepathically over long distances, something about the force of will needing a focus to carry it that far. Every once in a while he would pause to listen for an answer, adding to the already odd spectacle.

"You were right. He takes after you in this. It was a weak flash I sent him and it seemed to cause him a great deal of pain. Perhaps the pain of every wound he received yesterday all in one instant. All at such a simple suggestion. had I known it would have caused him so much pain I would have suggested you trying to find out his susceptibility a different way.....Yes I understand that he might be guarded against anything but the intention to do harm, that testing it this way was the only way to be sure how far his natural defense went....... Now that you have caught the hypnotist how soon can we expect you back?....... Why do I ask? I feel that the sooner Jaquise is told the truth the less damage there will be. And since you insist on telling him yourself, which I do not understand, it would be nice to know how long I will have to keep this from him....... No. I promised I would not tell him, and I am a being of my word. It doesn't mean I have to like it.......... I can understand not telling him before hand, lest forewarning of the act render the results useless, and even understand having to make that thunder with heated air to keep him from hearing my chanting to focus my weak skills, lest even a second's forewarning would subconsciously prepare him, but to keep the truth from him afterward is just going tear a rift between you two. It will come to a point where you will tell him the truth and he will not believe you........ I don't see what that has to do with this. That he's easily affected by hypnotism has little to do with his mother, and more to do with your own weakness........ Very well. How you human's still manage to find a way to surprise me after all these years is amazing."

Jaquise quietly stepped back and pondered what he heard. If all was to be believed, Raziel hadn't even meant to cause that pain. Dammit Raziel had even told Jaquise, though he had used a different wording, that he was testing his mettle against magic because he might one day have to face it. With this knew information in mind, the day's training took on a whole new light. tt had still been grueling, but Sergane had always believed the best way to forge a tool was through fire. The small bit about his mother had not been lost on him, but he guessed he knew what it was about. His father was a man of few weakness and fears. It just so happens that talking about his mother fell under both categories. Comforted that his father and his closest friend indeed did care for him and his safety, Jaquise turned on his heel and followed began walking to the stairs. Unbeknownst to Jaquise, a pair of eye's set on a gaunt pale imitation of his father followed him till he at last turned out of the corridor.

Secret :

by **Dusk** on May 18th, 2010, 4:46 am

XP Award!

Jaquise
XP Award: Katana: 3 XP, Blind-Fighting: 1 XP
Lore Award: The Pain of Failure, Harsh Truths

Additional Note
A great training thread, as usual! I love this storyline, and can't wait for the next installment!

As a favor for me, can you make a spoiler on your character sheet with just a list of your skills and lores without the descriptions? Alistair did it for me on his (you can scroll down to the bottom to see it), it just makes it easier for me to check it when I do my awards.