Vanya whimpered as she rolled over in her bed. Her arms were sore, her back was sore, her stomach was sore, her entire body was sore. Teldryn had turned the previous morning into an impromptu training session and had made her practice hitting his ward for over an hour. Forward cross, back cross, forward cross, back cross. Then she'd had to switch hands as he insisted she know how to do it from both sides.

She might have protested more but she had never seen him so enthusiastic about anything, so she'd gone along with it. It had been really gratifying to see him pleased with her progress and it helped that he hadn't made her feel stupid or laughed at her, even after her horrible first try. It had actually been pretty fun.

She sat up with a groan then flopped back down. Had it been fun enough to endure this? A sly smile crept across her mouth as she thought about how close he stood and his hands on her shoulders as he corrected her form. Gentle and deliberate, his touch had not unsettled her or made her feel awkward. She chewed the inside of her lip.

Perhaps it was a fair trade.


Vanya placed his breakfast in front of him with exaggerated effort, then fell into the chair across from him. The corner of his mouth curled up and he gave her a knowing look.

"I'm so sore," she whined, adding a feigned cry.

Teldryn picked up his fork and dug into the kwama egg, doing his best to ignore the feeling the sound she made provoked. "I'd be surprised if you weren't."

Fool that he was. If he was trying to keep his indecent thoughts suppressed, spending an hour touching her and watching her work up a sweat had not helped in the least. It had, in fact, resulted in a very restless night.

"Good thing I'm going to Milore's this afternoon," she said. "Will a healing potion help?"

"It will, but you know what's better?"

She thought for a moment, then her face lit up. "Magic?"

"No," he drawled and pointed his fork at her. "More training."

Evidently, he planned on torturing himself.

At that, she rolled her eyes and stood up. "No. I'm not doing that today. Milore is teaching me how to grind ingredients for potions and I'm already behind because I was supposed to be reading a book she gave me yesterday." She put her hands on her hips and raised her eyebrows. "Somebody took up my whole morning."

He was disappointed at her refusal but shrugged indifferently. "You won't get stronger if you don't keep at it."

She lowered her shoulders, gazing at him thoughtfully. "Tomorrow morning. If I'm feeling better."

"Good," he said before taking a bite of his bread, smirking as he chewed.


Vanya winced in pain as she reached across the table for another stalk of saltrice. She used a dull knife to scrape the seeds from the stalk, depositing them in her mortar, then added the stalk to the bundle she'd already scraped. 'Seeds for health, stalks for stamina,' Milore had said. Vanya was very glad that the first potion she was going to learn was for healing, seeing as she expected it to be needing a lot of it in the near future if she were to continue training with Teldryn. She had never played sports growing up so this level of soreness was not familiar to her. She'd had a gym membership only to work out enough to maintain her health and- she could admit- her vanity. Her level of fitness being entirely up to her, she had certainly never pushed herself.

"What now?" she asked Milore, who was at the other end of the table hovering over a bubbling glass jar that had a narrow neck which angled sharply down over her tiny cauldron.

"Hmm? Oh, yes, now use your pestle to crush the seeds," she said without looking up. "Not too much, they need not be powder." She used a fingertip to bolster the flame underneath the jar ever so slightly. Vanya's gaze drifted to the pile of seeds in the mortar and she picked up the pestle, feeling wholly inadequate. She pressed the pestle into the seeds, frowning as it did nothing more than push them around.

"No, no, my dear," Milore reproached as she glanced at Vanya's hesitant movements. "Short and quick, short and quick." She rolled her wrist in the air to demonstrate the action she desired. "Did you read the book I gave you?"

Vanya's face heated up. "Ah, about that..." she said nervously as she mimicked Milore's movements. Hey, that's working better. "I sorta got roped into sword training with Teldryn."

"Ahhh, no wonder you're grimacing every time you move," she said, sounding amused. She was incredibly observant for how distracted she always seemed.

Milore killed the fire under the jar with a wave of her hand and walked over to Vanya with a smile. "Come, I'll help you." She put her hands on Vanya's arms and the golden glow of magical healing flowed into her, she sighed and her shoulders sagged in relief, the effects something like falling into bed after a long day.

"Thank you," Vanya breathed as Milore pulled her hands away.

"You may still feel some fatigue but at least the pain will be gone," the dunmer said and Vanya moved her limbs, confirming what she'd said.

"Would a stamina potion help with that?"

Milore laughed. "Temporarily, but you would have to continually drink some to stave off any hint of discomfort."

Vanya pursed her lips and shrugged. "I suppose that would be too expensive. I guess I can handle it."

"Glad to hear it. Now back to it," she commanded as she motioned toward the mortar the returned to the end of the table, reigniting the flame to continue her own work.


Vanya scowled in disgust as she poured the contents of the cauldron into the waste bucket, using her fingers to help the thick liquid along. It had all been going so well but her inability to manage the flame had resulted in the ash-hopper jelly over-boiling, leaving her with a gloppy mess. This meant that the saltrice seeds did not simmer long enough to imbue their effects and over-all the potion was a complete failure. She sighed in frustration as she dunked the cauldron in a wash bucket.

"Don't be discouraged, Vanya. You can't expect perfection on the first try," Milore said as she lit incense to cover the unpleasant odor. "Even Direnni had to start somewhere."

"Pfft, I would have been happy to just have produced something usable," she grumbled, scrubbing scalded ash-hopper jelly. Whoever Direnni was, they probably could use magic.

"Tomorrow we can use the stalks for a stamina potion, hmm?" she said with an encouraging grin.

"Can we do it on Fredas? I'll be with Teldryn tomorrow morning."

"Oh?" The inflection in her response made Vanya perk up.

"Training," she replied quickly. "Just...more training."

"Mmhmm," the dunmer hummed skeptically while she parsed out ingredients for her next brew.

Vanya pressed her lips together in irritation. It was high time she started correcting the assumptions people were making before things got out of hand and she ended up embarrassing herself and Teldryn. More than she already had, that is.

"Milore, I don't know what you've heard, but me and Teldryn aren't..." She realized she didn't know what term would be appropriate, doubting that 'dating' was a common expression. "We're just friends."

"I haven't heard anything, my dear. I'm not privy to the gossip circles. But I do have two eyes..." she trailed off, still not looking up from her ingredients. "I've always thought him a nice young mer. And so handsome."

Vanya opened her mouth and closed it again, unable to think of a reply. She was saved by the sound of Garyn walking through the door. He stopped short and knit his brow, his eyes sliding to her and then to his wife as he obviously detected the odd smell.

"I burnt my potion," Vanya said apologetically.

"Did you have to do it inside?" he groused as he moved to a basin of water to wash his hands.

"Oh, Garyn," Milore admonished. "Be thankful we didn't use charred skeever hide."

"Hah, if you had I'd have known well before entering the house."

"See? It could have been worse."

Vanya set down the cauldron and backed toward the door as the two bickered.

"Yes," he said flicking water from his hands and snatching the towel hanging from the side of the basin. "Instead of my house smelling of Dagon's arsehole, it only smells of Boethiah's cu-"

"Garyn Ienth!"

She was out the door, quite sure that neither mer noticed as she could still hear Milore shrilly scolding her husband as she walked away, stifling a laugh.