Azriel hadn't moved all night, and Gwyn hadn't stirred in his arms, she was still sleeping soundly, snuggled into his chest. Azriel cradled her against him, waiting for her to wake up on her own. She showed no signs of waking even an hour later, and they'd soon be late to training, not to mention his wing was cramping up from where she'd wriggled slightly onto it half an hour ago. He subtly sent a shadow to open the blinds, sending sunlight flooding into the room, bathing everything in a rosy glow. Gwyn scrunched up her nose, hiding her face against him, the light making her stir and blink open her eyes. She froze as she realized where she was, but smiled, and released Azriel's wing,
"Sorry," she mumbled, "You should have just shoved me off, y'know,"
"I didn't want to wake you," he muttered, brushing the hair out of her face, "You were so calm,"
"I was asleep, so obviously,"
"Still, I didn't want to incur the wrath of waking you, either,"
"I'm not that bad!" She protested,
"Oh really?" He chuckled, "Nesta told me one time you launched a full-on pillow assault because she woke you at the time you usually get up." Gwyn glared at him,
"Nesta needs to mind her own business," she mumbled, "I was tired." Azriel snorted, and got up, ignoring Gwyn's squawk of complaint,
"I thought I was supposed to push you off, make up your mind," he laughed, turning to grab a set of leathers from the wardrobe,
Duck
What?
A pillow smacked him in the back of the head, and he turned to find Gwyn grinning triumphantly at him from where she sat on the bed. She squeaked and dived under the duvet when he picked up the pillow and tossed it into the air a few times, before throwing it back at the lump under the duvet,
"Asshole!" Came the muffled response, and he chuckled before ducking into the bathroom to change, grunting when his face met another pillow the moment he returned. Gwyn giggled, and threw another one that he barely managed to dodge, before crossing to the bed and grabbing the last pillow off her. He chuckled when she dived off the bed, grabbing the pillows she had thrown earlier. She threw one, and then pounced, smacking him with the pillow again and again, until he laughed,
"I surrender! You win, oh mighty Valkyrie." Gwyn huffed, and let him up, grinning to herself as she ran out of the room to get her own leathers. Azriel chuckled to himself as she ran out,
Ask her to dinner.
What? No, don't be stupid.
Ask. Her. To. Dinner.
Stay out of this, just do your jobs.
Our job is to help you. We're helping you. Ask her to dinner.
Gwyn returned before he could respond,
"Az, you're supposed to be teaching, it'd be absolutely disgraceful if you were late." Gwyn sauntered back out, leaving Azriel to roll his eyes and follow her.
Nesta was already there when Gwyn reached the training ring,
"Are you planning anything today?" She asked, and Nesta shook her head,
"I was supposed to have lunch with Elain, but she's still not speaking to me after I shouted at her."
"What?"
"For upsetting you. She's mad, thinks I should be mad at you for being happy, and Az for being an idiot." Azriel winced as he overheard their conversation. "I shouted at her after you left, made her cry actually." Gwyn glanced away,
"I'm sorry, I don't want to be the cause of conflict between you."
"Oh you're not, Elain deciding to be a petty bitch is the cause, she's just picking a fight because she's upset that Az isn't following her around any more." He what?
"What do you mean?"
"Well, he used to fancy her,"
"Used to?"
"He hasn't made any sort of move for ages, and she's never had to go for anything before, so she's a bit put out by it, I think. She doesn't dislike you, don't worry, I think she's just a bit all over the place at the moment." Gwyn nodded, and glanced towards Azriel, setting up the obstacle course again with Cassian. He'd stopped going after Elain. Nesta groaned as she followed Gwyn's eye line, "Cass has been being so annoying about that damned obstacle course, we've got to beat it, beat him." Nesta grinned at Cassian, casually rotating her wrist, and sending her sword flashing through the air. Cassian snorted with laughter, and shook his head,
"Save the swordplay for later, sweetheart." Nesta lost her rhythm, and narrowed her eyes at him, leaving Gwyn struggling to contain her laughter at Cassian's grin as Nesta flushed at the promise in his eyes. Nesta was saved from further embarrassment by Mor and Emerie's arrival, and Emerie grinned when Mor said something quietly, vanishing moments later, leaving Emerie quickly explaining at Nesta's questioning glance,
"The brace is finished, Mor's gone to fetch it, and she's staying for training today." Gwyn didn't miss Emerie's grin each time she said Mor's name, but didn't comment on it either, turning her attention to the obstacle course facing her. She let a few others go first this time, focusing on listening. With each female taking on the course, Gwyn remembered Azriel's words, listening for their footsteps, the slight changes in direction, whether they were louder or quieter, running or walking, or fighting. When her turn came, she had a reasonable idea of what the course looked like, up to a point at least.
For the most part, she was right, and easily navigated the first half, before having to slow down, to pay closer attention to the obstacles. She focused on one at a time, but kept listening and checking for any new ones, any potential 'enemies'. She passed her previous marker, and almost reached the end before the wooden beam she'd been running across gave way, and she collapsed to the floor, her wrist twisting unpleasantly beneath her. She squeaked in pain, and scrambled backwards as the beam fell, slamming into the ground where she'd been moments earlier.
"Shit!" A shadow was already swirling around her wrist, even as Azriel sprinted across the ring to reach her, a blue shield flaring up when another chunk of wood fell towards her. She scrambled to her feet, inspecting her wrist as she moved, it wasn't broken, sprained maybe, but nothing more. "Are you hurt?" Azriel gripped her elbow, tugging her towards him as he met her halfway across the ring,
"Not really, just hurt my wrist a bit." Azriel's attention snapped to the wrist in question, a shadow still circling it, and heaved a sigh of relief,
"It's not broken,"
"I know that, dumbass, I just fell funny on it, what happened? It wasn't supposed to break was it?"
"No, no it wasn't." Cassian was already at the faulty obstacle, and shouted back to Azriel,
"It's been tampered with, there's a bit of damage here as well," he ran a hand over the next obstacle, and locked eyes with Azriel, "This came from Illyria." Gwyn looked to Azriel, his face cold, almost unreadable, but a muscle twitched next to his eye, he was worried. She gently rubbed the hand still holding her elbow,
"It's okay, no-one got hurt."
"This time, who knows what might happen next time, that beam could have killed you."
"It didn't, I moved, we'll just have to closely inspect everything before every session." Azriel nodded, his siphons fading from the brilliant cobalt blue that they had been a few moments ago to a more subdued color, light no longer shining from them. He stepped back from Gwyn, running his gaze over her, from head to toe, and she let him ascertain for himself that she wasn't hurt, "I'm fine, Az." She muttered,
"Perhaps we should do something else today," Gwyn nodded, and let him lead her away from the obstacle course.
Azriel fought the panic at seeing Gwyn in danger, she was safe, she was unharmed, mostly. She sat onto a bench by the wall and Azriel mumbled for her to wait a moment, not quite paying attention until he had grabbed their medical kit, and found the bandages inside,
"Az, I'm fine," Gwyn insisted, but didn't stop him from binding her wrist, and she caught his hands as he finished, her own tiny beside his, barely covering them as she smiled at him, "Thank you."
"Probably best if you avoid using it too much for now, you're lucky it's your left, you'll still be able to fight if you want." Gwyn nodded, and waited with Nesta and Emerie while he and Cassian cleared the debris out of the way, "You get some hand to hand practice set up, I'll sort archery, Emerie at least will be wanting to practice with the brace." Cassian rested a hand on his shoulder, and met his eyes,
"Breathe." Azriel did, drawing in a deep breath and releasing it through his nose, "She's fine." Azriel glance back to the bench,
She's okay,
The shadows whispered in his ear again, as they'd been doing since the first step he took from her,
"She doesn't need you to protect her, not now at least, just to help her."
"I know that. I just, I don't know." Cassian smiled,
"I do. It's difficult, but they're capable, she fought off a full warrior on her own last night, unarmed, she can handle a bit of wood." They, who was they? He didn't ask though, it had just been a slip of the tongue, he couldn't possibly mean Nesta and Gwyn, perhaps he meant they as in the Valkyries, there'd be no point in comparing Nesta and Gwyn. Nesta was Cass's mate, and Gwyn was, whatever she was to him, no way. He could have sworn a sigh sounded in his ear, and he offered Cassian a small smile as he made his way to the archery range, finally relaxing fully at a light laugh from behind him. He didn't need to look to know what she looked like, head tossed backwards, hair slightly falling out of her braid. He loved it when she laughed, they way the skin next to her eyes crinkled a little, her dimples forming when she smiled, even the sound of it. She laughed again, and his shadows hummed in response, the sound echoing through his mind as he set up three targets.
Emerie was lagging a little behind, with Mor helping her to do up the brace, her wings set higher than usual, and she grinned. Mor accidentally nudged a wing as she did up the final clasp, and Emerie froze, but an accidental touch didn't usually elicit that response, perhaps clipped wings were different, perhaps a touch was just painful. Gwyn made her way over, but didn't move to touch a bow, good, it would be a very bad idea to try to shoot with an injured wrist. He'd see if he could fix it after the session had finished, when he was a bit calmer.
Nesta smirked at Cassian, slowly drawing an arrow from her quiver and twirling it through her fingers, before quickly sending it flying for the target. She didn't take her eyes off him the whole time, relying on her peripheral vision to aim,
"Nesta! Stop that." He snapped his fingers in front of her face as she raised an eyebrow, and grinned, Azriel didn't even want to know how Cassian had responded, "Stop flirting, especially by shooting things, it's weird." Nesta just shrugged,
"Whatever you say, chaperone." Azriel rolled his eyes,
"And how long does that continue for?"
"Until it stops being fun." Nesta looked sideways for a moment, thinking, "So never." Azriel groaned inwardly,
"Shoot the damn target." Emerie chuckled beside him, and Gwyn appeared next to her,
"You should know better than to spar with Nesta by now, Az,"
"Yeah, yeah, I know, just," he broke off, Nesta was staring across the ring again, her gaze locked with Cassian's, "Do you two need five minutes?" Nesta shook herself,
"What?"
"Do you need to grab Cass for five minutes, we'll cope." Nesta flushed, and shook her head, muttering to herself, sounding remarkably like 'five minutes my ass', "What, Nes?"
"Nothing." She narrowed her eyes at him and went back to shooting the target. Azriel chuckled to himself as he helped Emerie with her position, and her aim. She grinned at the first arrow that flew straight, her confidence skyrocketing with each successive arrow. When she managed to hit the bulls-eye a whoop sounded behind them, Mor. He hadn't even realized she was back. Odd, usually he knew exactly where she was,
"Yes!" She shouted, her grin matching Emerie's as she ran over to the Illyrian female, "Do that again and we'll go out tonight for a celebration." Emerie did, and again, having three bulls-eyes by the end of the session, although Azriel only saw the first, missing both others when he was either telling Nesta off for making eyes at Cassian, or talking to Gwyn. At one point he had to bite down on his lip to keep from roaring with laughter at her assessment of Nesta's weird flirting. Still, Nesta had glared at them both, and Azriel had shoved Gwyn in front of him, with her jokingly 'protecting' him from Nesta's wrath.
Gwyn stayed to help clear up, and Azriel pretended not to note Cassian and Nesta's absence, but did grin on their return,
"Eight minutes, I do apologize, I underestimated you." He dodged the practice dagger that flew towards his head, although who had thrown it, he wasn't sure. "I do hope you plan on actually helping now." Cassian just sighed and shook his head, not bothering to reply,
"Gwyn, did you want to have lunch, I never let you finish earlier?" Nesta asked, tidying up the last practice swords,
"Oh, yeah, so long as you're not going to be busy."
"I'll meet you at one?" Gwyn nodded, and laughed when she wriggled against Cassian as he picked her up, and scrunched up her nose when he kissed it gently,
"You mean to say I have to be away from you all of lunch? However will I cope?" He wailed dramatically, Nesta just patted him on the cheek,
"Stop being a baby." She wriggled out of his arms, before dashing out to escape. Azriel smiled at Gwyn's shout after her friend, his shadows dancing and weaving with the sound of her laugh when Nesta flipped her off.
"Do you have time to practice a bit of silent fighting?"
"Uh, yeah, sure, tell you what, Cass! C'mere, Gwyn's gonna try and sneak up on us, and if we hear her, it'll be like she got caught and has to fight her way out."
"What? I can't fight you two!" Gwyn protested,
"Just one of us, whoever hears you first will act as your enemy, the other will coach you through the fight." He grinned, and Gwyn nodded,
"Okay, so long as you don't actually beat me up." She grinned, and waited a moment for the males to walk a bit away from her,
"I bet you I hear her first," Cassian whispered,
"Oh yeah, how much?"
"Five gold marks."
"Five? Ten."
"Fine." Azriel grinned to himself, knowing Gwyn was already moving, and grinned wider when she made a slight misstep, and Cassian made no indication that he'd heard her. He whirled to face her,
"Got you, defend yourself, and get out." Cassian swore behind him, but tossed Gwyn a practice sword, and she raised it into a block just before Azriel reached her, he stayed silent as he circled around her, blocking her exit,
"Look around you Gwyn, what can you use against him?" Gwyn frantically glanced around and launched an attack, pushing him back, back, but he stepped over the loose stone, and Gwyn lost her rhythm, scrambling backwards to avoid the blows raining down. "Think Gwyn, he's bigger than you, stronger than you, do not let him drag this into close combat." Gwyn nodded, slowing her breathing and moved to disarm him, and would have succeeded had Azriel not known exactly what she was about to do. "Careful, don't let him know what you're planning, feint, trick him." She didn't, a trick in itself, and Azriel barely dodged her blow,
"Let's make this interesting," she panted, "If I win, you have to sit through all of dinner with Nesta and Cassian." Ugh, not a chance, he was never letting her win now, breakfast with those two was bad enough. Gwyn yelped as she dived sideways,
"And when I win?"
"If you win. What do you want?"
"Teach me piano." She laughed but agreed, and feinted left, but struck right. Azriel was already there, moving too fast for Gwyn to respond quickly enough, her sword went flying across the room, and she ducked underneath his to try and wrench it out of his grip before he could move against her, but he was faster. Gwyn yelped as he slipped sideways, and flipped her over, carefully shielding her head as she fell. She glared at him, and wriggled, but couldn't dislodge him. She huffed, "I win." Gwyn narrowed her eyes, unwilling to admit it, but still glared at him when he let her up.
"Piano lesson tonight then," she muttered, "I'm having a bath."
Azriel chuckled as Gwyn stretched off, his worry about her wrist having vanished long ago and she waved at him as she vanished,
"Pay up." Cassian feigned shock, but sighed and handed over ten gold coins,
"Fuck you."
"Pleasure doing business." Cassian was still glaring at him as he left, and he could have sworn he heard a bark of laughter from down the hall when he changed into clean clothes. With Gwyn and Nesta out for lunch he had time to plan, to actually see what he could do about the coming conflict, because it was coming. He and Cassian found each other, well, Cassian dragged himself into Azriel's room, carrying an armful of reports,
"I got the reports on each camp, we can at least get an idea of numbers based on loyalty." Azriel sighed and let him in, falling into a familiar routine,
"Windhaven's loyal."
"Four hundred and twenty-seven."
"Ironcrest could go either way, I have conflicting reports,"
"Well, they have three hundred and eighty-five warriors." Azriel nodded, noting down locations and numbers on the map pinned on his wall as Cassian spoke, building a clearer picture of what a war could look like, if they would win it, or if they would need the Darkbringers as well. Cassian was studying the map with his own gaze, looking at troop movements and numbers more than locations, and lords' loyalty. It wasn't as bad as he'd thought, more than half the camps were loyal, about a third were absolutely not, and the others, well, he couldn't be sure. If all went to plan, they'd have over half of Illyria's warriors on their side, if it came to a war Azriel was confident they'd win, but the cost would be huge.
"It's not enough, we need to ensure that those unsure remain loyal." Cassian grunted in agreement,
"Perhaps we can get through to their females, and they can sway the undecided males, get Emerie to start something, and let it spread."
"We could get her to 'worry about her family in a war', that way other females will worry more, and convince their families not to try to start a war, and to be on the winning side if it comes to it." Cassian nodded,
"She's still staying here with Mor tonight I think." Azriel nodded,
"I'd be worried to go home too if I was her."
"I'm not sure that's, never mind, she'll go home tomorrow, maybe the day after, we can speak to her tomorrow at training." He was being weird. He couldn't mean something else, what was he not sure about? He almost asked,
Don't be stupid.
I'm not.
You are. It's Mor she's staying with, don't be stupid.
I - oh.
Azriel just smiled, and asked if Cassian wanted to talk to Rhys and Feyre or if he should,
"You have a piano lesson to get to, I'll head over now." He, shit. At some point the sun had indeed gone down, he hadn't even eaten dinner per say, but he supposed the endless plates of snacks probably counted, maybe. He couldn't help smiling to himself as he crossed the corridor and gently knocked on Gwyn's door,
"Hello Shadowsinger."