Private Tales The Tiger Teaches the Young

A private roleplay only for those invited by the first writer
"Well then do not let me stay your prayer. If I had known I'd have found some other place to practice." He says before hearing the second bit, he shook her hand kindly. "I'm only sorry that my efforts were not enough. I'm very sorry about the loss of your brother, and I am deeply ashamed of my failure to protect him. I only hope that you can forgive me."
 
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Sonja shook her head vehemently and clasped her hands over his.
"No! Do not blame yourself, sir. And do not be sorry for my brother. He is in heaven now and he wouldn't want us to morn over him."

She had a determined glint in her eyes as she looked up at the easterner.
"We'll have a service tomorrow to honor Beralt and Innian. But everything we can do will pale in comparison to the welcome they are receiving now."
 
"I am unfamiliar with this belief system, if that is indeed what you are referring to. If you have the time, I am eager to learn." He says to her, his face contorting into an expression of thoughtfulness. This woman clearly didn't worry after her brother's soul, but he had never heard of this heaven to which she was referring. His own belief system involved a cycle of rebirth and reincarnation until one achieves enlightenment, oneness with absolute truth. But he didn't believe in an afterlife like many in the West did.
 
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Sonja was a bit reticent, she was hardly a teacher.
"I uh... I'm afraid I cannot do it justice, sir. Mister Phane was the one who told us about the faith. He said that our world is in a constant battle over the mortal soul, between gods and demons alike. The mortal soul being you, me, my brother. Even the other races, elves, orcs, dwarves and such."

She was more than a little nervous, having never told anyone about her faith before. She clenched her skirt in her fist absently as she tried to explain as best she could.

"But the gods are not really 'gods', you see. They are watchers set over the world to help guide humanity, but they have turned away from that purpose to seek worship and power. The true God that created the world, and even the gods themselves wants his creation to return to him, but the other gods lure us away from him and claim the souls of mortals for themselves. And since God respects our power to choose, He will not force us to follow him."

Again she paused, unsure of how to proceed.

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Elsewhere Titus had found a bit of solitude in doing the patrol rounds around the mansion. He had been praying quietly to himself nearly constantly since he made the decision to try to reform the bandits they now held prisoner. He could imagine nearly a hundred ways this could go wrong, but also just about as many ways this could go right. All he had to do was his best, and he was pretty good at doing just that.

The night air was chilled and soothing. A blessed relief to his straining mind. Myrcella Bochanan did indeed have much to fear, and her fears inevitably became his fears. There was a chance she could win her freedom from the encroaching predicament, but it would mean breaking rules, traditions, and archaic practices.

In essence, if she took complete control of House Bochanan, she could take complete control of her life. Her rules, her decisions. Becoming a full noble in her own right with her own powers and influence. It would be hard, and nothing will ever be the same, but she could do it, and he could help her.
 
Sung paid careful heed to her words. He was curious to learn more about this religion but she was evidently uncomfortable with doing so, so he did not press the matter. Instead he tried to reason out what she was saying.

"Interesting, I should make it a point to learn more. My own religion doesn't believe in a god or multiple god's but rather that the world and everything in it has two spirits, one good and one evil. We believe that one cannot exist without the other, and that balance between both is the key to enlightenment, and until enlightenment is achieved one follows a cycle of rebirth. We don't believe in an afterlife, but rather just an existence in being one with the spirit of the world, beautiful and hideous, good and evil, light and dark, all at the same time. But I have stayed your purpose long enough. Please, do not let me keep you from your prayer by rambling about my own beliefs, until next we meet, Sonja."

He finished with a bow at the waist, the traditional greeting and farewell where he was from.
 
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Sonja gave a relieved smile and bowed her head, "Thank you, sir. I apologize for interrupting your constitutional. Good night".
With that she excused herself and walked into the garden, kneeling by a bench to pray.
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Titus rose early as was his custom. Ever since he began training to become a knight he had taken the early hours to practice the exorcises his tutor had instructed him in. He used a wooden sword with a lead infused core to simulate the weight of an actual weapon, a hand and a half sword of a knight. To him using a sword wasn't always practical, in fact he was quite confident in his skills with hand to hand fighting, or even defense against weapons with only his hands.

A knight would also need to be trained to fight in heavy armor, what good is a protector if a high powered crossbow bolt could simply pass through him to reach its target? But right now he had no way to simulate heavy armor, that will have to come later.
His form was good and his stance was solid as he worked to build the strength in his arms to swing a heavy weapon with ease. He wasn't quite there yet, but he's improved much since he first started.

He was outside the grounds of the mansion by the tree line swinging the weighted wooden sword, his shoulder length hair tied back with a strap as sweat dripped off his brow and stained his white shirt.
The sun was still only a glow on the horizon, he had plenty of time before he had to return, bath, wake and serve Myrcella Bochanan, and then face the hardest task he had ever set for himself. Dealing with the bandits.
 
((Sorry. All that it notified me of was a like a few weeks ago and then two posts this week. I've been super busy with work as I got promoted. Hopefully I can be on top of things better))


Myrcella didn't have much of an answer to give Titus Phane in regards to her betrothal. She was working on ways to get out of it, yet it was going to take her more time than she'd like. She was learning politics from one of their past guests, and if anyone could help her figure out a way out of her predicament it was Otto von Stehlen . That is if there really was one.

Her night's sleep was a restless one, filled with dreams of all her worries and concerns. At times she found herself awake, staring at the ceiling.

When morning came she decided to sleep in a bit to catch up on what sleep she had lost. Her body felt more tired than it did through the night. There was no way that she was going to learn to fight like that. It could be too dangerous. Yet when she finally awoke, Myrcella sat up in her bed and rang the servants' bell. She then rubbed her eyes and yawned. Maybe after breakfast and tea she'd feel better.

Sung Chei
 
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Sung Chei, having gotten his usual six hours of sleep and meager breakfast of a half kilogramme of rice, was waiting for Lady Bochanan to call him for her basic training. First he'd need to assess her physical condition and her discipline then work from there. Flexibility, strength, endurance and speed all had to be achieved if she wished to learn what he had.

But he wasn't going to teach her any of the extremely difficult stuff for a good long while, the most he'd teach her would be how to move quickly and safely across treacherous surfaces, he'd start by having her jump riverstones to reach one side of the river from the other as fast and sure as possible. That was a basic agility test that was the first he had been given.

Lady Bochanan would have to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee if she wished to do as he did and remain a respectable lady in the eyes of her peers, as for the issue of her betrothal, if approached, he'd have a solution for that particular predicament, one he had seen work before.
 
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Myrcella's servants were quick to come to her summons, giving her breakfast and then helping her to dress. She wore a bodice this time, instead of a corset, for she wanted to be able to breathe and move a little easier. Fortunately she had a few dresses well suited for riding that'd work really well for training.

An hour later she had inquired on Sung Chei 's whereabouts. Discovering that he was outside at the edge of the gardens, Myrcella headed out that way to join him. She smiled as she reached him. "Good morning. I hope you slept well."
 
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"I slept well indeed. It has been a long time indeed since I have slept in a bed so comfortable. I fear that it may make me soft." He says with a smile. He had begun his usual morning exercises, stretches, push-ups on his knuckles, sit-ups from a tree branch, holding his mabu (Chinese horse stance) for extended periods of time and going through his forms.

He was in the middle of a mabu exercise when she came to him. He had shed his armour and left it in the room she had lent him, so he was clad in very loose wool pants tucked into his boots just a half inch below the knee and a vest of white tiger skin as well as cloth forearm wrappings to use during training.

"Today we will begin with a simple assessment, look at your strengths, weaknesses and considering what situations you may find yourself in. Do you have any skills that I should be aware of?"
 
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Myrcella nodded as Sung Chei let her know of the plans for the day. At least he had slept well, so she knew that he wasn't going to be grumpy.

"I can ride a horse. Learned that at an early age. And I'm pretty good at archery. Even when riding. Other than that my best skill is painting." Not quite a combative skill, but it helped give her an eye for detail.
 
"How good of a shot are you when mounted? From how far away can you shoot something and at what speed? Such a skill is not common, and should be nurtured as far as possible. And the dexterity gained from shooting whilst mounted, on top of the arm strength needed to handle a bow, are good things to build upon."
 
"I'm pretty good, I think. My Father taught me how to aim with distractions, so that helped when he also had me shoot while riding. We used to make a game of it..." Myrcella frowned a little, now missing those games and times spent with her Father. His death was a mystery and she hoped it'd be solved eventually.

Her brows furrowed as she contemplated Sung Chei 's last question. "I'm not sure of the speed. Almost at a full gallop."
 
He saw the sadness in her eyes, he wasn't good with emotions, but he wanted to help, so he sought to distract her from those thoughts. "What kind of bow. If it is a weaker hunting bow then we will need to get you a proper warbow. For today, we're going to work on flexibility and strength. One of the most basic exercises is the splits." He says, sliding his legs apart until his butt was on the ground with his feet on opposite sides of him. "Like so."
 
"It's a hunter's bow. I was never intended to go to war. My battlefields are meant to be the courts which can be just as deadly." And that was the truth if it. Some courts were far worse than the battlefield. Most warriors hated them for navigating them wasn't easy.

Myrcella nodded as Sung Chei mentioned flexibility and strength. However....his demonstration was something that she hadn't seen before. "That looks painful..." She lifted up her skirts again anyways and tried to copy. However her butt didn't go further than a foot and a half from the ground. "...And it is!"
 
He chuckled at her attempt. "Only for the inexperienced, and the fact that it hurts means that it's working. Hold yourself there until the pain subsides. It will probably take you a few months for you to be able to do the full split. But that is only one of many stretches to be done, and they will probably hurt the exact same way."
 
Myrcella's brows furrowed as she held the extent of the split that she could manage. She planted her hands down in front of her to help keep her balance.

When she couldn't take anympre, she let herself fall back onto her backside and then looked up to Sung Chei . "What other stretches?"
 
He responded with action rather than words. He turned his body and hips to the side, so that his legs were still doing the splits, but to front and back rather than side to side. "This."
 
Myrcella's jaw dropped as she saw Sung Chei manipulate himself into another seemingly impossible stretch. But she pursed her lips and drew up her legs so that she could attempt the same thing. And as with before, she managed to get to just a foot and a half remaining, before she couldn't go any further.

"How does this help defend one's self?"
 
"Let's put it this way, when you want to kick someone's face in while they are taller than you are, how do you get your foot up that high? It also allows one to contort themselves in such a way as to avoid blows entirely, rather than blocking or deflecting. The best way to defend from a blow, is to not be there when it lands. Let's say that someone attacks you, and tries to cut you in half at your hip, ducking is not enough, so you can avoid a blow, and assassins usually wear little armour, which puts you in the perfect place to attack one of their many weaknesses." He was of course referring to the area between one's legs when he said 'weaknesses'.
 
"Ohhh....I think I understand. Such moves are entirely uncommon. So, it would startle them too, right?" She hadn't really seen it in action before. But no doubt that Sung Chei had used it plenty of times.

"Do you think that I could use it to also keep myself from being kidnapped?" Being the daughter in a wealthy family had it's drawbacks. There were many that were looking for a piece of it. Taking the children hostage for ransom was a well known way of achieving that.
 
"It is a less common martial art here, so maybe not startle, but they wouldn't know what to expect, which puts them on the defensive, which in turn gives you the advantage. The more aggressive fighter is often the one who wins. As for keeping oneself from being kidnapped, well, it is for self defense isn't it?"
 
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