Talaitha, feeling much better after talking about her thoughts, smiled hearing Nadya's reassuring response. She was partially afraid that her elder would chide her for acting out and being far too emotional, something that her elders during her youth would have told her. Wiping the tears from her face she agreed with her elder.

"Do you think there's any stands that sell gypsy food? I think I need food from home to help me feel better" She answered.

"That's right." Erratus chimed in. "As you can see, were able to get our hands on a few of the treasures, though. I got some magical stones -- which I'm not allowed to carry around anymore -- and this sword. So I want to know how to use it." The thief stated somewhat impatiently.

Kechts listened to Quentyn's worries and breathed a sigh of relief. Kechts was planning to charge a reasonably low fee from the beginning.
"     not worry. I was      to      only two silver coins. My services do not require      finesse that they      so expensive. That battle      broken out      result of my sluggishness. I      not charge extra for it."
He hoped to clear up any misunderstandings Quentyn had about his prices, though he may have lowered them a bit from what he wanted for he was struck by how desperate Quentyn sounded.

Noting Erratus' impatience Nero nervously stepped towards the door and took a quick peek outside into the crowded walkways.

"I'm not sure there's any place suitable to practice with a sword around here- I mean without getting lost." He began as he moved away from the door. "Finding a clearing around here is probably impossible unless we go all the way out of town and I don't quite clearly remember the way we took to get here... And anyway, what if Gonye comes looking for us here and we've gone out and away too far?" As Nero rambled the woman behind the desk who had previously granted Gonye the two rooms above seemed to grow just as impatient as Erratus.


"There's room outback!" she finally snapped as she stood from her desk. "The area around back was cleared out this morning and a much smaller tent took its place. It's completely enclosed by the surrounding stalls and this building so no one should get in your way so long as you can squeeze through the gaps of this building and the neighboring stalls to get back there." After her sudden outburst she returned to her seat and pressed her palm against her wrinkled forehead. "Now would you either go to your rooms or get out? You're blocking my door and keeping away potential customers."

Nero quickly jumped away from the door and mumbled an apology as the woman returned to her seat.

"Right... Well I'm sure the space around back will be sufficient to show you the basics so I guess I don't have any problem with teaching you how to use it. I suppose I'll meet you at back then." Nero gulped and quickly eyed the inn-keeper in case she were ready to burst again. "I could show you the basics as well Lucia, if you're interested."
'
_______

Nadya was glad to see that her words helped to ease Talaitha's woes, at least for the moment. She honestly hoped that her promises and reassurances wouldn't come back to haunt her but with the uncertainty surrounding their situation there was nothing she could do but hope.

"It's hard to say if anyone this far in the east would really know much about our cooking." Nadya crossed her arms and pointed herself away from Talaitha, towards the doorway.

"Right across from this inn I saw a great long tent that was filled with small food stalls, you could check there to see if you can find anything you like and if not we could ask someone there if they know of any place close by that serves what you want. But first I'm going to run upstairs to our room and get these pouches and over robes off, they're far too encumbering to be walking about in, especially in such a crowded place like this." Nadya turned back away from the door and started for the stairs but before she began her ascent she called out to Talaitha. "Start looking about without me, I'll be over as soon as I'm finished."

_____

"Good!" Quentyn answered quickly as he wiped a hand across his brow. "Glad to see someone around her besides myself can be reasonable!" He let out a boastful laugh as he relaxed himself against his chair, though he wasn't to remain in this position for long. Through the open flap of the tent a gruff middle-aged man wearing a greyish tunic and trousers with short brown-grey hair and brown eyes entered which quite immediately prompted Quentyn to sit up straight and close his mouth.

"That's him-" he whispered as he nudged Ketchs. "That's Captain Gonye."

Gonye took instant notice of the three men, Ketchs, Kariya and Quentyn, at the table tucked away at the far corner and after wiping his boots against the canvas floor of the tent he moved in to join them.

"Glad that you made it in one piece Captain." Quentyn's voice had gone from dire to boastful to respectful in what seemed like a matter of seconds. "We had great success in the south and we even came across this gentlemen here who-" His voice trailed off as it appeared that Gonye wasn't even listening to him. Instead Gonye seemed to be preoccupied with Kariya's eye patch.

"That's new. How'dit' happen?" Gonye finally spoke after simply sitting quiet for sometime.

"A fight gone wrong with someone trying to hunt me and bring me back to the capital. Some fancy swordsman who people in the east call 'The Hand of God'."

"Still alive?"

"Yeah... our engagement was... short lived.."

Gonye shrugged as he turned his attention towards Ketchs and away from Kariya.

"An' who are you an' just what do I owe this visit too?"

Lucia looked down at the sword that she had acquired within the Vault. She still had yet to find out who Isaris of Ghaltia was. Was it the previous owner of the sword, or perhaps even the name of the sword itself. She figured that she may as well learn to use it. It wasn't every day that she would be able to conjure something up to defend herself. Even now, she did not feel like her reservoirs were sufficiently restored enough and thus, she felt a bit wary about using any such magic beyond a bit of weaving that she did on their trip here.

"Sure," she said with a smile, still quite happy that Nero was alive and well. She followed them to the back location as described, not wanting to disturb the angry woman any more than she already had been. Squeezing back was actually quite simple for the girl, and the space was just as described, fairly open, aside from the stray tent. It seemed almost odd really, an area not covered by various stalls filled with goods being sold to anyone who passed by.

Erratus was a bit surprised when Lucia accepted Nero's offer, but her reasoning for doing so was sound. It honestly didn't matter to him, though. Having quickly and decisively found someone to train him in the art of swordplay, Erratus donned a broad grin as the three made their way to the clearing behind the inn. Things rarely went this smoothly for him, something he was beginning to realize might be his own fault. Once outside, thief wasted no time in drawing his weapon, but the blade caught on its scabbard and promptly fell to the ground. He hastily snatched it back up, as if he thought nobody would notice if he was quick enough.

Talaitha exited the lobby of the inn and glanced around the surrounding area. The streets were crowded with travelers, some visibly dirtier than others. Carefully making her way through the crowds, careful to not step in any muddy puddles with her sandals. Nothing would be more uncomfortable in the rain than having cold, wet feet, which made her gypsy garb counter intuitive for this climate. After a short journey across, she saw the tents and caught scent of the food being prepared and, feeling her stomach growl, entered the market.

Nero was quite grateful that Lucia was willing to tag along and partake in the lessons that Erratus demanded from him. He wasn't quite sure that teaching Erratus alone would be quite sufficient and with Lucia around he would have someone else to use as a training partner for the thief.

"The basics of swordsmanship is stance, posture and poise." Nero began almost immediately as he followed the others back into the small clearing. "Every school of sword covers these three basic ideas, though they all tend to do it in different ways. Each of these ideas are very broad and depending on your ability with a sword each of them can be made very complicated. To keep things simple I'll try to explain the foundations and not expand on them too much."

Nero moved himself in front of both Lucia and Erratus so they could see him clearly. After he took his position he gripped for the hilt of his sword, drew his weapon and moved himself into a fairly standard stance. His dominant right foot took the lead and was kept fairly straight and far out in front of his body whilst his back leg was kept fairly close to his backside and was bent much further.

"This is called position one, the primary, the ox position, or the return. The footwork for this stance works with any kind of weapon but what you do with your arms decides how you actually intend to use your weapon. If you were to be using your sword for stabbing you'd bring your weapon either directly beside your head with the point of the blade pointed towards your enemy with both hands gripping it or you'd allow the weapon to be kept far out in front of your body at a slight upwards angle. The second position could be taken with a single hand or two hands though in all cases when acting offensively a single handed attack is preferable for a lunge because you can hold the sword with your wrist pointed up which in turn increases the range of your initial lunge. Now if you were to use the sword for slashing you could assume any number of stances, the most popular ones being two handed positions in which you hold the sword either over your head or at your side with the tip of the blade pointed away from your opponent. In all of these positions your back leg plays an incredibly active role. If you were to swing your sword from almost any position you'd step forward into the swing with your back leg. If you were to lunge or stab you would straighten your back leg and shift your weight forward onto your front leg. Almost all of these stances are generally used for your first move in combat which is only really practical in a dueling scenario. Outside of a dueling scenario what really matters is posture and poise. With posture you need to find a way to stand and move your arms so that you can be comfortable, with poise you need to find a way to either block, parry or redirect incoming attacks without having to put your posture at risk or sacrifice your footing. " While Nero recited nearly word for word what he was taught when he joined the garrison in the west and was trained in the basics of the sword he moved his body in time in an attempt to clarify just what he was getting at.


"The easiest way to really get used to understanding poise and posture is to duel another person using continuous attacks with as little blocking as possible. Parrying is key to this, and well, parrying is sort of like stopping an attack with your own attack. Think of it like deflecting the attack instead of blocking it. Essentially the duel should have no downtime and should last only a few seconds before someone scores a point. How about you two give it a shot, just with your sheaths instead of your swords."

______

Getting into the market-tent was quite a challenge for Talaitha as an enormous amount of traffic was flowing by and into the market. Eventually she made her way through the crowd and was able to find a place to survey the area for anything that might catch her attention or feed her stomach...


The interior of the tented market was quite large both vertically and horizontally. Stalls of varying sizes and shapes lined the entirety of the rectangular perimeter of the tent, save the door, and in the center of everything was a collection of tables and chairs which were enclosed by even more stalls. The vendors who occupied the outer edge of the tent seemed to all have smaller stalls which were barely large enough contain everything needed to operate their businesses whilst the stalls in the center of the tent were larger and seemed to be more permanent. Food could be found everywhere inside the tent though, there was no need to look for a particular stall as they all seemed to be serving something for someone to eat. Some food seemed familiar to Talaitha's western senses while others were foreign and seemed to come from completely different planets. Beef, pork, chicken, rice, noodles, soups, breads, ale, teas- if you could name it it was probably somewhere in the area one simply needed to listen for the calls of the vendors who were attempting to advertise their goods.

"Fresh cut and fried pork!" "Fish! Any type of fish! Caladir to Shari! We have it big or small!"

Shouts and calls mixed through the air, and every now and then a vendor's voice could be heard calling through the masses who were shuffling about and gathering in front of stalls. Without understanding the etiquette of the area one would have a difficult time getting to what it exactly they wanted, but a bit of pushing and shoving never seemed to fail thus far.

"Greetings." He sluggishly bowed to Gonye. "I      Kechts Udyde, an information broker. Your companions hired me      in Venosar to find a friend of theirs who      kidnapped. There was      confusion during the      business and some of      lightly wounded, at my fault entirely. I      also apologize for mistakenly engaging      duel with your acquaintance." He nodded respectfully towards Kariya and continued. "Still, I      here to collect payment for      services. Despite the mistakes I     , I ask for two silver      and no more."

Talaitha eased her way through the crowds and pulled herself toward the first stall she saw. Wiping rain from her face and pulling back her black, wet hair, her bracelets jingling together, she glanced at the merchant's stall. She might as well stop here and no go too deep. When Nadya came around she still wanted to be visible, otherwise either one of them would be lost. Looking around at the variety of meats he sold, she inquired what he served.

"Do you have kebabs? With lamb or veal?" she specified.

Lucia listened attentively, apparently there was more to sword combat than swinging the sword about in an efficient manner. There were stances with interesting names, and movements that she had to keep in mind while in combat. In a sense, it was like magic, one had to always be one step ahead of their opponent in order to out smart them. Though, this was her own speculation, she had never really been in any sort of magical battle for a duration of time, it was always defensive for her.

Taking her sword, she got into the stance that Nero had demonstrated earlier, making sure to stay light on her feet; her sword felt like it would require her to be nimble, that, she could do. She faced Khast with her sheath raised, "Ready" she spoke timidly, not entirely sure what to expect from the thief. If anything, she would not be surprised that he'd be more capable than she was with such weapons.

"You fought him and he didn't kill ya'?" Gonye scoffed. It didn't seem as though the mercenary believed Kechts' story. "And what do ya' have t'say about it?" he added in an almost insulting tone as he turned his attention towards Kariya.

"Well..." Kariya seemed uncomfortable explaining the context of his encounter with Kechts . "He feels like one of us- I mean, I mistook him for someone comin' after me. Instinct kicked in, It's kind of fuzzy really... One thing lead to another- we didn't really get far into a fight. I stopped before anything got too serious and compared to others I haven't aged very-"

"There are no others Kariya, not anymore. Remember?" Gonye interjected. From the way Gonye responded it seemed as if he understood some deep history or condition which applied to Kariya "Listen, I get the gist of it and there's no need to fret. The two of us will talk later, b'first.." Once more Gonye moved the discussion towards Kechts. "The price yer' askin' for is more than fair, that it is. But perhaps you'd be interested in an 'extended contract'." A glint of light crossed Gonye's deep black eyes as a grin overtook his face. "Anyone able to go a bout with Kasakiri Kariya and live is quite a spectacular person. Yer' no ordinary man and I could use someone with yer' skills, both in information gatherin' and combat." Gonye raised his hand across the table and lifted a single finger, his index finger, upwards in Kechts' face. "One month, I'd like t'hire you for a single month of service at whatever rate you see fit. How 'bout it?"

_____

The vendor's stall seemed fairly plain in comparison to those that were directly neighboring him. His 'stall' was a wooden box with a large sign propped above it by two wooden poles. The words written across the sign were simply 'BUTCHER'

"Eh!?" The merchant leaned forward across his table and into Talaitha's face. "Kebabs?" an old cracked and rusty voice escaped his ancient lips. "Don't sell 'em! Never sold 'em personally, not enough buyers!" he exclaimed as he returned himself across the table. "If yer hungerin' a western affair there's an old subverter on the far opposite side of the market who sells all sortsa fancies from weird places outside the kingdom. His stall is the tall red one with gold letterin' on it, 'somethin' fancy' it probably says!" The old timer slapped his shoulder as he let out a crackling laugh. "Ahhh... Anywho, try him, he's always got somthin' for sommen'"



"Talaitha!" Nadya's voice called out from the crowd as she waded through to join her kinswoman. "Find anything yet?"

Erratus stuck his sword in the ground and turned to face Lucia, unfastening his scabbard. For the thief, mimicking Nero's movements had been a simple matter. In fact, he was already familiar with the ideas behind the stances. Maneuverability and balance were a must for someone in his line of work, after all.

"Ready." Lucia said, sounding not at all ready.

Erratus failed to suppress a somewhat sadistic grin. Without a moment's hesitation, he assumed the ox position he had just been taught. He brought the end of the sheath beside his face, the far end pointed toward his opponent. For a few brief seconds, he didn't move. Then the thief's feet shifted, and in the blink of an eye, he was holding his weapon above his head. He stepped forward with his back leg as he brought the scabbard down for a vertical slash.

Lucia squeaked as Khast swung his scabbard at her, and she backed away from his swinging path, dropping her sword onto the ground. Maybe she wasn't quite cut out for this. She was a mere weaver, a worker of threads, what was she doing trying to learn how to fight with swords. And yet, her ancestors had probably said the same thing when they had first learned to wield magic from Leto. They did not let their profession dictate what they could and could not do with their lives. Then again, as a result they became ostracized by the rest of their family and blamed for the rising of the husks, nevertheless, her resolved was strengthened, she could do this.

She recollected herself, picking up the scabbard off of the ground, and establishing the ox position as Nero had instructed.

"I'm sorry," she said softly "I'll try again" This time she decided to lunge first, the sheath felt light in her hands as she anchored one foot and stepped forward with the other while pulling the weapon by her head and lunging forward. She resisted the urge to close her eyes tightly as she lunged, uncertain of the impending consequences.

Talaitha turned to face Nadya and greet her as she broke through the massive crowd.

"On the far side of the market there's a stall that sells food from outside the kingdom, which sounds like what we're looking for. It's a tall red tent with gold lettering," she told her elder. Before continuing, she glanced around the market tent. The crowds were so thick there was little way through with the exception of just pushing through, something which didn't seem very safe in such a packed environment. Scratching her head she turned back her to companion.

"Though, this market looks a little packed and tough to get through, is there any way around to get to the other side, or are we just going to have to squeeze through?"