[Sanctuary] As the rush comes (Raiha)

[Daeva Timandre]

10th of Spring 511AV It's been long since Daeva had dedicated a day of practicing for her suvai. After the showers of rain that passed over the plains of Cyphrus the grounds of Sanctuary were soaked and caked in mud, but the driest portions were still scattered throughout the training yard, and the akontak saw fit to utilize this. After meeting the girl named Raiha, Daeva had taken an uncharacteristic fond to her, and saw fit to invite her for a day of sparring. The wet day called for them. The attire for that day consisted of simple leather leggings and a tight crimson halterneck, and her long straight white hair was braided behind her back. All Daeva was equipped with was her twin suvai, secured to her belt and ready for use. Her high boots smothered the silty mud underneath as she stood with all the determination in her white eyes boring into the dummy that stood before her. There would always be anger. Always frustration and fury and hate. Ivak had given them the steps to find a peace but there was no peace when the damned threat still lingered. The wretched bitch of a sister-soul looming over her thoughts and threatening to take control. So Daeva channeled her rage through her weapons; fought and struck with such vigor that it rivaled the hidden conflict between the sisters. A blue hand swooped down and sent a three-pronged suvai toward the dummy, ripping open a deep gash in the wood, but sending the wooden arm swinging around. Daeva ducked and twirled on the balls of her feet, sending mud splattering. Her left arm sent another weep across the torso of the dummy, cutting deep. Through the rivulets of water that dripped down her chin from the drizzling rain, the sweat would linger. She breathed through her nose and stepped back, then swung with a loud scream and stabbed her suvai right in the center of the dummy's wooden forehead. Harsh breaths came and went, and Daeva stood with her clenched fist around the handle, wishing the dummy had been her sister-soul. No words escaped her, only the angry jerk as she tugged the weapon out of the wood and took up her stance once more.

[Raiha]

Raiha stepped lightly through the mud, taking advantage of the frozen patches to keep from sinking too deeply into the pitch. With a little luck, this would dry up soon… with a little luck. She had agreed to meet up with Daeva, and had been interested to see another suvai fighter. Her own skills were still basic – she had a ways to go before she would be ready to use a second suvai, but practice was practice. Kanikra’s interest was piqued as well – this gave them the opportunity not only to see what others did with the whalebone blades, but to try their hand against one armed with two, depending on what strategies Daeva decided to employ.

Raiha stopped and watched as the older woman assaulted the dummy, to see how she moved and what she was doing. She rubbed her exposed arms. But the nice weather had Raiha dressed plainly in her worn leather pants and boots, and the sleeveless white cotton shirt that she had worn and washed so many times it had started to grey, the hem frayed and exposing a bit of her midriff. She had pulled her hair back and bunned it at the base of her neck, pinned in place with two of her shorter hair sticks so that they wouldn’t protrude too far. She almost reminds me of that one from the Arena. You know, the one who was prone to going batshyke in the ring when he was released. Anger is good... aggression is better, but only when you control them. When they control you, then they’re useless, Kanikra observed.

And which is the case here? Raiha wanted to know as she clasped her fingers behind her back and began to stretch, making sure to be quiet as she twisted a bit more to warm up, releasing her hands and rotating her shoulders. She remembered her sister from before they had been visited by Akajia. Kanikra's silences that malevolence that was aimed at everything and everyone that didn't present some sort of usefulness to her. But it had always been tightly controlled - she never lost it or lashed out - but there was a chilling logic to her madness. She didn't know how the other Akontak worked, but she would certainly like to learn.

Why don’t we find out? Kanikra gave her twin a bit of a mental shove when Daeva tugged the suvai out of the dummy. She drew her own suvai from her belt, hooking her thumb under one prong and letting it align with her forearm before closing her fingers over the other prong and lining her fingers along the handle. Just relax. Worst case scenario, we need stitches because they’ll be too deep for Kavala to heal. But let’s try to avoid that, hm? She rotated her arm, practicing a block from a blow that never came before lowering her suvai again, closing the distance between them. She had a few inches on Daeva, and more than a couple pounds, but Kanikra put that down to the baby fat that Raiha had yet to lose, and had probably gained despite the physical work she did.

Naturally. I don’t like the idea of being a suvai-cushion. Kanikra snorted, and her twin twin took it as encouragement. “Good morning,” Raiha rested her other hand on her jutting out hip and smiled at Daeva, her dark skin a bit purple from the faint chill that still lingered in the air. “Working hard?”

[Daeva Timandre]

She's here. Citlali observed, mentally nudging Daeva towards the girl with the same blue pigmented skin and pearly white hair.

I have eyes, sister, Daeva growled, irrritated.

The akontak turned, addressing the younger woman with keen silver eyes.

Just as I remember her, soft and pretty. I'm sure all the Konti could have been a shade more enjoyable had their skins been blue. Daeva smirked lightly to herself.

You forget being this color has brought us much unwanted attention.

And you continue to nag. Do me a favor and keep your mouth shut before I skewer someone out of unprecedented rage.

"Raiha was it?" The dark sister asked, pushing a damp strand of pale hair from her eyes. "I'm working about as hard as a whore at a tavern." She grinned deviously. "Aside from that, the day's just getting started." Daeva eyed the suvai in Raiha's hand, regarding it with a point of her chin. "You know how to wield that any good?" She asked, approaching with careful steps to avoid slipping on the slick muck. "How about you take a wack at this thing. Let's see where your strength is at. Any knowledge of how to wield a suvai will come in handy."

If Raiha obliged Daeva's request, the elder woman would watch carefully. Eyeing her movements, her body language, the gestures in her arms and in her legs. Searching for the fluidity of a dancer and a fighter. This was not the first akontak Daeva had met on her travels, but she was a curious one. What was she doing here, in Riverfall, and not with her mother in Mura, as so many Kontis would do with their daughters? Curiosity burned in her, forming the words that now escaped her lips without a moment's hesitation.

"What brings you here, girl? To live here, I mean. I could barely stand the one-gendered Mura let alone the phallus parade that is Riverfall."

[Raiha]

“It’s Raiha,” she agreed with a nod, not changing her stance at the older Akontak’s words. It wasn’t standoffish, this position, though it might have seemed that way. It was just comfortable for her. “Daeva, yes?” Gold eyes met silver, and Raiha smiled faintly. “A little bit,” she admitted. She was by no means skilled with the suvai. She just did the best she could with it. It had gotten to the stage in Mura where she did not practice of play with anyone else, and out here, well, she did not hang around the Konti much unless it couldn’t be avoided, so what she knew from the suvai was almost entirely self-taught. Kanikra preferred her mace, the feeling of the weapon as it pounded into the dummy, the way it shocked her arms and shoulders when the flanged head of the cold iron-forged weapon collided with the cattail-stuffed opponent while she wished so fervently that it was made of flesh and blood and bone. But she had to be careful. All according to plan. But the suvai had its advantages. It was small, easily hidden, and allowed for a different step. A quick movement, because it didn’t need strength and power and force behind it like the mace did.

She stepped lightly over the mud - she spent a lot of time in the season crossing it to get to where she needed to go to be familiar with how to move in it. Because inclement weather or not, there were always chores to do, and these chores didn’t just stop because the weather was terrible. It didn’t work that way, not when animals depended on you. Raiha eased up on her fingers, flicking one prong and relaxing her grip to allow the suvai to face forward instead of in the defensive position she had held it before. Her fingers formed around the grip, her lungs taking in the cool air of spring, losing that faint smile as she eyed the dummy like she would a sparring partner, with a bit of a glint in her eyes. Her center of gravity shifted slightly as she bent her knees, preparing to move in the muck, and instead of sinking the suvai into the dummy in a straight-out thrust, she sliced at it first in a downwards slash, working from the left side of the torso to the right, raking it, only to follow that slash with an emphatic slam of the butt of the weapon into the dummy’s side, using that movement to push herself back, and slice again. She didn’t seem to prefer stabbing, though one certainly could thrust the weapon cleanly into something.

But these movements allowed Daeva to see the girl’s style. Disable, first, then, and only then, allow herself to strike. She was somewhat rigid in her movements, which indicated that she wasn’t particularly trained in it, or that she didn’t use it often, if at all, but someone had taught her the basics, at least. She could see a few things wrong with the younger female’s form, but hey, nothing that couldn’t be worked out and improved, with practice. She did have the flicking of the suvai down. But she straightened at Daeva’s words, stopping altogether as she finished and couldn’t not chuckle, which blossomed into an outright laugh. “I had to leave Mura,” she told the other as she backed away from the dummy for Daeva to attack it. “Mura was not a good place for us to stay. My sister and I wanted to leave it. We came here to find our father, and learn about his people.” She didn’t look or sound winded from the flurry of activity she had unleashed on the dummy. But the girl did physical work day in and day out, and she did run, sometimes, and swam often. “How about you? If you don’t like it, why are you here?”