Chapter 3: Repetition

- Two weeks later -

"Gods, Ellen, no, no, no!" Severa glared balefully at the recruit, who wilted noticeably. "If you hold your lance like that it'll get jarred out of your hands the first time you stab something."

"S-sorry, Lady Severa," the younger woman replied, ducking her head so that the fringes of her pale violet hair—cut short at her jawline—flopped forward over her eyes.

"Don't you 'Lady' me. I'm only two years older than you."

"S-sorry, L—Severa," Ellen said, nervously brushing back her hair. "C-could you show me the proper way to hold it again? I'm afraid I'm hopeless..."

"Ugh, fine," said Severa. She held up her own lance, demonstrating. "You need to keep your hands on the grips. That's why they're called grips. You grip them."

"Like this?" Ellen held up the lance.

"Yeah, like that. See, you're not hopeless." Severa gestured toward the dummy. "Go on, give it a few stabs. Once you get used to holding your lance right, it'll be second nature." Ellen nodded tentatively and began running through the drill again. After assuring herself that the young recruit was getting the hang of it, Severa gave her a nod and moved on.

We've all got a long way to go, Severa thought, looking across the practice field. Ellen was the most recent recruit: she had begun training with them less than a week ago, and the best that Severa could say about her technique was that it was no longer a complete disaster.

Severa was proud of herself for that: Cynthia might be the one who commanded the pegasus knights, but it was Severa, in the capacity of sub-commander. who oversaw their training. Cynthia's not focused enough to worry about the particulars of technique, and she's too nice to give correction to the recruits who really need it. But people are more used to being criticized by me, so they won't take it too personally.

The pegasus knight recruits were a mixed bunch. Cynthia and Severa had managed to recruit five other young women in addition to Ellen, and they hoped that more would join as time went on. Severa looked over each of them as she passed by, mentally evaluating. Tall, green-haired Zoe was good, but shirked her training more often than not. She was leaning on her lance and fanning herself as Severa walked by, but a quick look of disapproval from the sub-commander quickly sent her back to her lance drills. I'll have to find a way to get her motivated.

Teresa, the oldest recruit at twenty-four, had been a foot soldier in the Ylissean army for most of the war, and the perpetual dark circles under her eyes showed that she was still plagued by nightmares. Her white hair, coiled into a tight bun, was dark with sweat, and her breathing was heavy. Teresa pushed herself harder than anyone else did. Though Teresa tried to hide it, Severa was sure that she lived in fear that the Fell Dragon and its servants would reappear at any moment. She was disciplined enough to stop herself from jumping at shadows, but it would be awhile before Severa was sure enough of her to send her to the front lines.

Severa waited for Teresa to finish her maneuver before tapping her on the shoulder. "Hey. Don't forget to take a break once in awhile. You'll collapse if you don't drink enough water."

Teresa saluted crisply. "Yes, sub-commander. I will be mindful of my limits." She turned back to the practice dummy, squaring off with as much seriousness as she would if it was a real enemy, and resumed her training. Hm. Maybe if I paired her with Zoe when they're ready to start sparring, it might convince that bum to put some effort in for once. She'd look bad, otherwise.

The next pair of recruits were sisters. Paula and Renee were quiet, dark-haired, and dark-eyed. Their family had lived near the border of Plegia before the Grimleal had overrun the country, and the sisters had grown up as refugees, constantly retreating in the face of the Risen's advance. A couple of months of good food and soft beds had softened them considerably, but they still moved with the nervous steps of hunted prey. They remind me of Yarne... always jumping at shadows, but still brave enough to try to take a stand.

Paula, her hair sticking up in unruly, irregular spikes, saw Severa approaching and raised a hand. "Excuse me... Miss Severa, could you check my footwork? I've been going through the motions, but something feels off."

"Show me," said Severa, crossing her arms. "Miss" Severa? Well, better that than Lady...

Paula moved through the drill with exaggerated slowness, taking a step forward as she moved her lance in one of the standard combat thrusts. Severa idly noted that Renee had stopped in her own exercises and was watching both of them obliquely.

"You're overextending," said Severa as Paula returned to her original stance. "Here, do it again, and I'll show you." As Paula stepped forward, Severa tapped her back foot with the blunt end of her own lance. "Make sure that you pivot far enough. If you're not squared up, one good counter-blow will be enough to knock you off-balance."

The recruit adjusted her stance, adjusting it until it was to Severa's satisfaction. Out of the corner of her eye, Severa spotted Renee making identical adjustments. Ah, so that's it. Severa didn't think that Renee had ever spoken more than a dozen words to her at a time. The poor girl's as timid as Noire, without the weird shouty thing.

I guess that means that Paula is to her what I am to Noire. The thought made her smile. No matter how prickly she usually was, she couldn't bring herself to be tease Noire the way she teased everyone else. In a way, Noire was the best friend Severa had.

I wish she was here... I could use her advice.

"Was that all right, Severa?" said Paula, leaning on her lance.

"Ah, yes," said Severa, returning to reality. "Make sure that you keep on doing it the right way. With enough repetition, these movements will become second nature to you, so if you do it right while you practice, you'll do it right on the battlefield. Same thing if you screw up, so don't forget!"

"Yes, ma'am!" said Paula, nodding firmly. The motion was echoed by Renee.

That left only one recruit left who Severa hadn't examined. Lily was Feroxi, with bronzed skin and short blonde hair cut short at the sides. Her muscles looked more suited for swinging axes, but she had been very enthusiastic about joining the pegasus knights. Severa had her suspicions that the main reason had been because it was an all-female unit. As far as Severa was concerned, Lily was as bad as Inigo when it came to talking to women, even if she wasn't as blatant about it.

At the moment, Lily seemed to be completely tuned out from her training. She had missed the dummy several times in quick succession, but she didn't seem to be looking in its direction. She didn't even notice that Severa had come up behind her until the sub-commander cleared her throat loudly. "Training hard, Lily?"

Lily jumped, nearly dropping her spear, and giggled nervously. "Ah ha ha... Severa. I didn't see you there."

"Obviously not, since you seemed to be focused on something much more interesting." Severa looked in the same general direction, spotting Teresa pouring a ladle of water over her head to cool off. I thought it would be something like that. "Am I right?"

"Yeah..." said Lily with a guilty expression.

"I suppose that I should remind you that we are a military unit, not an organization for helping you find a girlfriend."

Lily mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "Could've fooled me."

"Excuse me?" Severa leaned forward menacingly.

"Uh, nothing, sub-commander!" Lily nearly knocked herself in the face with her lance as she saluted. "I'll... uh, just get back to training, shall I?"

"Yes, you probably should. And this time, remember which target you're supposed to keep your eyes on. Gods, is a little professionalism too much to ask?" ...yes, it probably is.

As Severa walked away from Lily, she caught sight of two people pacing the far end of the training grounds, glancing over at the drilling pegasus knight recruits. One was obviously Cynthia, her pigtails bouncing with every step she took. The other was wearing a plain brown cloak, but as they moved, bits of royal blue raiment showed through. It wasn't much of a disguise—but then again, Severa would have been able to recognize Lucina no matter how much she disguised herself. She headed over towards them.

Cynthia waved. "How's the training going, Sevvy?"

"It's been difficult, but I think all of them finally know the right end of their weapon to hold," Severa replied in a long-suffering tone.

"I'm glad you're teaching them," said Cynthia. "You're probably much better at explaining that sort of thing than I am."

"What, you mean which end of the weapon to hold? It's not that hard." She turned to the other woman. "And what's with the cloak, Lucina?"

"I thought that it might make the recruits nervous if they knew that the Exalt was watching them," said Lucina. Her voice turned rueful. "Is my disguise really that bad?"

"I mean... I guess it isn't terrible?" said Severa. "Anyone who knows you would be able to see through it in an instant, but it's the thought that counts."

"I wanted to see how the training was progressing," said Lucina. "Owain and Kjelle have been writing me regular letters—apparently, they're working on re-forming the Shepherds—but having another unit we can use to keep the peace will be a valuable asset."

Severa glanced back over her shoulder. "So, what do you think?"

"They have a ways to go, but I'm confident that they'll continue to improve. They seem to be in good hands."

Severa blinked. "Mh? What do you mean?"

Lucina smiled at her. "I mean that you seem to be a good teacher."

Cynthia nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you're amazing! I'd never be able to explain that sort of thing the way you do!"

Severa idly twisted a strand of her hair around her finger. "You really think so?"

"Of course!" Cynthia said, throwing an arm around Severa's shoulders. "It's amazing how quickly you learned the lance, and even if the others aren't learning as fast as you, they're definitely learning faster than they would if I were teaching them."

"Well..." Severa allowed herself a small smile. "Well of course they're learning quickly. I have very particular standards."

Lucina opened her mouth as if to say something, but apparently thought better of it. Severa gave her a sidelong glance. "Were you going to—"

"Oh, no," said Lucina, shaking her head. "I didn't—"

"It's about my mother, isn't it?"

Lucina bit her lip. "...yes."

"Lucina..." Severa took a deep breath and let it out. "Look, I'm not as touchy about it as all that. Coming from you, I'll take a comparison to my mother as a compliment."

"I actually wasn't going to compare you, this time," said the Exalt. "In fact, your styles of instruction couldn't be more different." She looked out over the training field. "I trained with Cordelia briefly before... before she died."

"She was probably perfect," muttered Severa.

"I'm not finished," said Lucina calmly. "Yes, it's true, your mother was very skilled, She had a great deal of natural talent. But since she didn't have to work as hard for her success as others did, it was harder for her to understand why others had so much trouble doing what was simple for her. I often felt that she was... not angry, but maybe disappointed with how much progress I'd made."

Severa laughed mirthlessly. "Yeah, I know the feeling." While she hadn't been old enough to begin military training when her mother died, she had always felt overshadowed by her mother. Everything just came so easily to her.

"My point is, you're not like that. Everything you do, you've achieved through your own hard work. Two weeks ago, you were in the bathhouse so late because you were spending extra time on the field—and all of your effort has paid off."

"It really has!" said Cynthia. "I'm going to have my work cut out for me if I'm going to keep up with how good you're getting!"

"You know how difficult it is to get to the point you're at, so you understand the struggles that other people have to go through, and the discoveries that they can make about themselves on the way." Lucina smiled. "Does that make sense?"

"I suppose so." Severa twisted another strand of hair around her finger. "...thanks, Lucina."

"I'm not sure what you're thanking me for," said Lucina. "Rather, I should be thanking you. You're always so much harder on yourself than anyone else, and I wanted to make sure you knew how valued you are. So again, thank you." The princess extended a hand. Severa fumbled for a moment in pulling off her sweat-stained right glove before taking it into her own. Perhaps it was the lingering heat of her glove, but Lucina's hand seemed especially warm.

"Uh, you're welcome, I guess." She shook hands and withdrew, not wanting to linger too long. "I-I should get back to it. You know how recruits can be."

"Of course. Keep up the good work, Severa." Lucina nodded to her and turned to leave.

Severa watched her go. Her posture was immaculate, and she still moved with the same grace and poise that she had displayed on the battlefield. A pity the cloak's in the way, or the view would be much better—

"Sevvy?"

"Argh, what?" Being jarred out of her thoughts made Severa's outburst much more abrupt than she had intended. Cynthia giggled.

"You just looked really spacey. Weren't you going to go back to the training?"

"Uh, I was going to do that. I am doing that." Severa turned on her heel and stomped back towards the practice field, pulling her glove back on as she did so.

And after everything I said to Lily about staying focused, too. Gods, I am such a hypocrite.