Twelve\u00a0Years Ago<\/strong><\/p>\nThe urge to draw his father\u2019s sword and simply murder the incompetent fools in front of him was hard to suppress.<\/p>\n
Fidgeting slightly, Gabriel shifted awkwardly, a false smile plastered upon his face as he tried very hard to determine how best to say what he was thinking without insulting the four fools in front of him. They were all nobles of sufficient rank that he was, ostensibly, supposed to bow and scrape to them, but this identity Mirat\u00e1riel had devised for him, this Maestro Gavriel <\/i>Costigan was just quirky and difficult enough to avoid that sort of thing.\u00a0He was an artist<\/i>, after all, and nobility of any real standing vied for the \u2018pleasure\u2019 of his time. Thus, his Megalan accent was thick, his gestures grand and his temper short. He wore strange clothes and carried a strange (to Caithness eyes) weapon on his person at all times. Why, he even lived mostly with the elves and to these provincial fools, nothing was stranger. And because of those foibles, these Harkwood nobles would smile, nod, and inwardly laugh at him.<\/p>\n
Gabriel hated <\/i>Maestro Costigan.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, no, no,\u201d he said crossly. \u201cYou must move faster, yes? Be the air!\u201d He tried very hard not to look at the ridiculous hats that were the latest fashion – thankfully, this identity allowed him to scoff at such things, but he had little doubt Mirat\u00e1riel would try to get him in one later simply because she could see how much he disliked them. How she had convinced him to playact as this chattering fool continued to elude his comprehension. \u201cLike this,\u201d he added before flowing into a heavily modified version of Willow Embracing the Breeze. One of the noblewomen frowned, something resembling recognition flickering in her eyes, and Gabriel stepped closer to her, elbowing her idiot husband and his feathered hat out of the way. \u201cCount begin,\u201d he ordered the musicians along the far wall before leading the woman through a couple of steps. Her dress made it difficult to judge her footing but of the four, she was the only one with anything resembling grace.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaestro,\u201d the feathered fool began, a frown turning his already plain face ugly,\u00a0and Gabriel stepped back, allowing the man to retake his place.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain!\u201d Gabriel declared loudly. He caught sight of Mirat\u00e1riel lurking near the doorway, her eyes dancing with glee, and gestured toward her in the imperious manner that Maestro <\/em>Costigan favored. For a moment, their eyes locked and he could see her brief irritation, but he only smiled again. This stupid job had been her <\/i>idea, after all, and Gabriel had gone along with it simply because he had not wanted to deal with finding other work. He hated the necessity of it – he\u2019d had a need for money enough to live on and a place to recover from his injuries that was large enough to practice the forms, and nothing good had come of him selling his sword in recent years – but if he had to suffer, then he would share his misery. \u201cCome, Mira!\u201d he said loudly. \u201cLet us show them how it must be done!\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cYou will pay for this,\u201d <\/i>Mirat\u00e1riel hissed in Elven\u00a0as she joined him, but he only flashed her a grin before reaching toward her hand.<\/p>\n
And then, they began to dance.<\/p>\n
They twisted and spun and twirled, their feet constantly moving. She was a feather in the wind, a doe bounding through the woods, or perhaps a falcon swimming through the sky, and it was so much better that the heavy footed stomping that the nobles here called dancing. Back and forth they went, never actually touching because that would thoroughly ruin the tease. The four nobles watched, sometimes laughing, sometimes frowning, but never silently, and finally, Gabriel let himself spin away from Mirat\u00e1riel, arresting the half twirl so he stood before the nobles.<\/p>\n
\u201cMuch better than the clumping around like horses, no?\u201d The other nobleman – not Feathered Fool, thankfully – scowled and Gabriel once more donned a fake smile. \u201cTomorrow, we shall increase the tempo, yes? Speed and grace!\u201d He gave them all a bow that was only a half shade away from looking totally insincere and waited until they and the musicians had departed before rounding on Mirat\u00e1riel. She was leaning against the wall and grinning.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou look ridiculous,\u201d she said in Anglish and Gabriel had to grunt in agreement. He tore his lacy jacket free and tossed it aside, not really caring where it landed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not think I can do this much longer,\u201d he said as continued to strip the accoutrements of Gavriel Costigan off. Clad only in his pants, he drew his father\u2019s sword and stared at it for a moment. \u201cA dancing master,\u201d he muttered darkly. \u201cMy first fencing master called himself that, but he never dealt with fools like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you know?\u201d Mirat\u00e1riel pulled two of the sparring blades from where they were cleverly concealed \u2026 on the wall, in plain sight where fools like the ones who had just left would barely glance at. She gave him a questioning look and Gabriel nodded. He placed his father\u2019s rapier atop the nearby table and caught the sparring stick she tossed toward him. Almost before he\u2019d even accustomed himself to its weight and balance, she slid forward aggressively. Their blades clashed.<\/p>\n
And for a second time, they danced.<\/p>\n
In this, Gabriel knew himself to be far better, so he stayed on the defense, calling out pointers and corrections to her stances. Her inability to connect clearly irritated so Mirat\u00e1riel did as she always did when she was losing: she played dirty.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father wishes to speak with you,\u201d she said and Gabriel grimaced slightly. He batted aside her clumsy thrust before twirling around her follow-up swing.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow lovely,\u201d he lied before falling into The Grapevine Twines. Mirat\u00e1riel\u2019s sparring sword clattered the ground. \u201cWe must work on your grip, my dear,\u201d he said. She smirked then and he read the thoughts in her eyes. When she pounced this time, he willingly offered no defense.<\/p>\n
And for the third time that day, they danced, though this one was more pleasurable than most.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was a surreal experience. He was dead – they were all dead, though somehow they yet spoke and breathed and bled – and even still, in this impossible place, there were these moments of exquisite beauty. The melodies drifting from Magnifico’s\u00a0lute\u00a0were both haunting and ethereal, tugging at the parts of him not entirely rendered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,20],"tags":[29],"class_list":["post-1947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-banestorm","category-bs_pcs","tag-gabery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.olympusrpg.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.olympusrpg.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.olympusrpg.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.olympusrpg.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.olympusrpg.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1947"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.olympusrpg.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1950,"href":"https:\/\/blog.olympusrpg.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1947\/revisions\/1950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.olympusrpg.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.olympusrpg.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.olympusrpg.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/a><\/p>\n