The sun was well over the horizon when Shavra and Elle emerged from the Green Octopus for their race. Elle teasingly offered to give Shavra a few seconds head start, to take into account the weight of Lyorax, to which the Lady Holder retorted that the sword weighed no more than all Elle's armor put together.

So the race began, from the garden gate, up and down the track that led up to the stone circle used by Gau and Elle as their training ground. Both girls pushed themselves, revelling in the freedom from watching eyes and gossiping tongues; loving the cool wind that brushed across cheeks flushed with their exertions.

If not for the slight stumbling caused by Crimson's sudden rush of feeling for the Black Wing, Shavra might have finished in a dead heat with Elle; as it was, she was mere moments behind the sevalle in setting foot within the stone circle.

"That...was marvelous!" she gasped, stretching out her arms to either side, as if to embrace the sunlight. "Kai-sama was right, I've been inside walls too long."

"You should come out more often," agreed Elle. "Especially now that you are the uncontested Lady Holder. I'm sure the King wouldn't mind."

"Or, you could come up to Lyvalle," answered Shavra, slipping Lyorax off her back and resting it against one of the stone plinths. "My fosterlings would talk of nothing else for at least a month."

Elle chuckled. "How many Lyvalle Cubs are there now? It seems that every time I go into the city for errands, I hear of yet another one added to the band."

Shavra laughed at Elle's reference to the special group of boys that were under the personal attention of the Lady Holder. "It's still eight boys, Elle. Though in a little while there will be only seven, what with Royce Mihall ready to be sent to Kuruda for the rest of his training."

"By then you'll have found another one to add, so that they'll be even pairs when they form your honor guard," said Elle, while they took their positions for warm-up exercises. "One day, your first-born son will their brother-in-arms, just wait and see."

"I'd have to find myself a husband first, you know. Someone I can trust completely."

"That much is obvious. Pity it can't be aniki...don't look at me like that, Shavra! Unless you want to tell me he's not good enough, or not handsome enough..."

"Elle!" Shavra's cry of protest floated down towards the approaching sevalles, making Dias sigh and roll up his eyes in loving exasperation as he recognized the Lady Holder's voice. "Elle Ragu, after all your brother has done for me, never suggest that the thought didn't cross my mind – and more than once, mind you! But we both know why it could never happen..."

Shavra's voice caught, and the punch she threw into the air had more force behind it than was really necessary for a warm-up exercise. Elle saw the sparkle of sudden tears in Shavra's eyes, and immediately seized the other girl in a bear hug.

"I'm sorry, Shavra," she said, all contrition. "You know how I get over aniki...I didn't mean it..."

"Silly Elle," sniffed Shavra, returning the hug as fiercely as it was given. "Of course you meant it, for the best brother in the whole world. As he is. No other lord or lady could ask for a better liegeman than Dias Ragu."

"Friends again?" asked Elle, as they disengaged and stretched their muscles. Shavra grinned, nodding, and Elle asked, "So...let's spar? Or will you wait for Crimson and the others?"

"Look, it's Gau!" cried Shavra, as the young man came up over the rise, and as Elle turned to look, the Lady Holder caught something in the green eyes that made her smile broadly to herself. There was much unsaid between the young sevalle and her adopted brother, that much was sure, thought Shavra, but kept the thought close for another day.

Instead she said, "Let's spar, Elle. Let the young man catch his breath before you wipe the ground with his body yet again."

Elle's green eyes glinted as she swung her gaze back to Shavra, who merely smiled and stuck the tip of her tongue out at the sevalle as she crossed her arms over her chest and began backpedaling across the uneven ground. Elle set off in pursuit, a broad grin on her face; she enjoyed her sparring with the Lady Holder, ever since the day Scarface brought them together for a friendly match.

"I've taught her some of the basics," he had said, "Now she needs someone to try them out on. Who better than our newly-minted sevalle, eh?"

Though Shavra's look was unwavering, Elle saw the nerves of a fighter as yet untried in new skills, and nodded. "We'll start slow, Shavra. Once you have the feel of things, we can have some real fun."

"Strength and skill, Elle," said Scarface in warning, "Don't unleash the Annhilation Techniques just yet."

Elle nodded, and the session that followed was a mutally satisfying for all concerned. Once Shavra got over her initial hesitation ("Come on, I won't break! See if you can't do better...YES!"), she proved able to hold her own against Elle's steadily increasing offense. As it was her first time using Eigi, she lost to Elle's experience, landing flat on her back after a leg sweep buckled her knees.

Since then, Shavra showed considerable improvement with each new sparring session, until it came to the point where she could fight Elle to a draw more than half the time. Her form was a pleasure to watch, her instincts sure as she blocked punches and kicks, her own offense delivered with calculation that seldom wasted energy.

The sun turned Shavra's hair into a nimbus as she launched herself in the air to evade being pinned against the rock wall, and it was as she hung suspended that Dias, Crimson and Scarface arrived on the scene, arraying themselves behind Gau.

Dias caught his breath as Elle launched herself after Shavra, the sun blinding his eyes as he tracked her upward progress. Shavra was beginning her descent, and beside him, Dias could feel the sudden tension in Crimson as well as the anticipation in Scarface. The air was filled with the crackle of electricity as two cries sounded; followed soon after by the sound of blows exchanged, and then two lithe bodies dropping to the ground – the Lady Holder landing somewhat more heavily than Shadow Skill.

"Are you all right?" Dias called out, as Elle wobbled slightly and Shavra rose carefully from the ground. "Elle! Shavra!"

"We'll survive, aniki!" came the cheerful answer from Elle, as she walked with hand outstretched to Shavra. "A bit sore and bruised tomorrow, but otherwise fine."

"For which Souma be thanked," murmured Gau, moving forward as Shavra clasped Elle's hand to conclude their sparring match. "Elle-nee..."

"Ooof...that was an interesting way to go about things," sighed Shavra, moving towards Crimson, who looked her over with a critical eye. "I must remember that manuever for the future."

"Come here, young woman," rumbled Crimson, turning Shavra around so that he could look at her back. "Tonight, I am going to leave some salves at your door, and you are to have it rubbed into your back before you go to bed. No, no protests, or I'll come into your room and do it myself."

"My lord Crimson! You wouldn't...." Shavra looked up at the laughing blue eyes and huffed. "I think you would, at that, never mind the damage to my reputation."

"I won't tell if you don't," chuckled Scarface, unrepentant at the moue Shavra made at him. "Everyone in Kuruda knows how precious you are to Kai, my dear lady. It is the stuff of legend. There is simply no way he could be anything but honorable with you – unless he'd like to answer to Dias. Or me."

"If I hadn't heard it with my own ears, I would never have believed it," said Dias in mock wonder. "Scarface Vy Low, bestirring himself to defend a woman's reputation."

"That's because Faulstis would never let him hear the end of it otherwise," laughed Shavra, shrieking in feigned alarm as Scarface feinted towards her, sending her to seek shelter in Dias' arms.

.../tbc