"Move it, Tiamo! You're open! Your technique is a disgrace! You're not worthy to protect a queen with that throw! Faster! Faster!"
Cordelia whipped her lance through the air as she struck the training dummies with ease from her pegasus. It had been six months since she'd first begun her training regimen, but she wasn't impressing Phila like she was able to on her first day yet, as she continued to blast orders like arrows at her whenever she did anything. She hacked, slashed, jabbed, and threw her way to a seamless destruction of all things made out of hay with targets taped onto them, and with a great spin of her weapon in the air, she completely obliterated it in one fell swoop. Her brow was furrowed and drenched with sweat, the white underside of her gauntlet was stained with her blood, her breathing grew deeper, she was ready to take on ten thousand of these stupid things just to improve.
"Excellent finish, Tiamo. Your aim is superb, but I'm afraid you couldn't put a dent in a grown Plegian man's silk chemise with the force you're using. I expect to see you improved by tomorrow morning, no excuses."
Phila's arms crossed behind her back with a sharp movement, and she walked on to the next trainee with an expert rhythm and timing. as she stomped her foot in front of another trainee named Jay, and gave her the orders. Even the way she walked was intimidating.
"Hey genius, better keep those marks up so y'all can please the old lady!" sing-songed one of the knights, her eyebrows raised so high they could have flown right off her forehead.
"Yeah, being a good fighter doesn't just come from good genetics. Work hard and maybe you'll live up to your expectations."
Cordelia rolled her eyes. Sometimes she just couldn't stand her comrades, talented as they were. She commanded her mount to land with a swift kick as she suddenly came upon a very familiar flatterer.
Her mood quickly made a turnaround. She smiled.
"Wow, that was amazing!"
"Don't be silly." she replied shyly. "I've seen you do at least five times better than I just did at the same excercise."
The flatterer in question was Sumia, her best friend. They'd known each other since grade school and had been practically inseparable since. Although Cordelia was the one with all the pressure put on her, Sumia had shown herself to be a very capable fighter as well, so when Cordelia was accepted into the squadron, Sumia signed herself up immediately, despite initially wanting to become a cleric. It was good to have a friend that you could tell almost anything to without fear of it getting out, especially in the toxic environment that is anything with a 100% female population. This was mostly due to the fact that anything you told her was sure to leave her head as quickly as it was haphazardly processed.
"Oh come on, Cordelia, you're the best Pegasus Knight ever! Don't kid yourself."
"Well, Phila sure doesn't seem to think so. And if you say so, then in order to keep my supposed title of 'The Best', I still need to train harder." She dismounted and went to grab a short spear from the weapons rack.
"Hey, put that spear down! You've been training for two hours straight! You need a break, come sit down and talk! At least give Phila some time to grab some more dummies after you destroyed them all." She giggled. "You're not that different from Chrom, are you?"
She bent over and took a much needed breath. "I think our situations may be a little different." She straightened her back and stretched her shoulders. "After all, I'm training to protect him."
"Oh, I see how it is..." She fluttered her eyelashes a bit at her, hoping to provoke something from her.
"Oh, never mind that!"
"Okay, If you say so! So, what have you done since the last time I saw you, Mrs. Cordelia Lowell?"
"Oh my gods Sumia. I trained. Night and day I trained. I put at least fifteen different lances into these silly hay nightmares and I trained. I've broken weapons made from actual steel just so I could train. For the past five days since I've seen you that's all I've done, is train. I found a lance that people are telling me belonged to the great Magvellian hero Ephraim. I broke that, too." She sat on the bench next to some targets. "And all so I can just feel as though I've lived up to an insatiable expectation brought upon me by superiors and equals alike." Sumia looked over at her friend with concern as she tied her pegasus down. "Thank you for that, by the way."
"Hey, it's not a problem!"
For someone whose head was supposedly filled with air, she had a surprising attention to detail.
"So, ahem, sorry about that. For my whole sad spiel. Everything. Including the amount of times I've had to say sorry to you."
"Aw, you don't have to worry about that! I'm your friend, remember? That's what I'm here for!" Sumia gave one of her signature hugs that was far too tight. In full pegasus knight armour a deed such as this would have been rather unwelcome, but Cordelia accepted it anyway.
"So." Cordelia tried changing the subject to something Sumia could talk about. "How has your boyfriend been doing? Was his name Gary or something? I can never keep track."
"Oh, we broke up."
"Oh gods," That was incredibly awkward. "I'm... I'm sorry to hear that."
"Yeah," she said, her tears welling up slightly. She looked away, pulling at her glove. "It was last week... he broke it off, of course. He said he'd rather go into more... shady business than be with... with me. I just... I couldn't believe he'd do that to me." She stopped for a little bit to control her breathing, which was completely out of rhythm. "The... the worst part though was that... he was also having... an affair!" Her eyes started to water.
She moved over to comfort her friend. "Aww, Mia. It's okay. I'm sure there's someone out there, an even better man than he could even wish to be! You deserve it."
"sniff, Really?"
"Really."
Cordelia just wished she could take her own advice.
"Hey ladies! Guess what?" It was Vaike, from Chrom's own personal militia, the Shepherds. What was he doing here? And how did he get in?
"Old boy Chrom's back, and he's brought along some fresh blood!"