"Enough." Aaran was pleased to see that Brangwen disengaged from Brian as soon as he spoke, actually responding a bit faster than the guard did, and stepping back, out of his reach before she lowered her axes.
"Delphine, I'll want to see you sparring with Orion next." The blonde nodded and moved forward to wait for her opponent "Brangwen, come over here."
"Sir?" She glanced over at Sephiroth briefly as she approached them, a quick assessing look, and Aaran could see that she was wary of him, even though she came over anyway.
"This is Sephiroth, Cloud's consort." And the caution disappeared, even though she was close enough to catch Sephiroth's faintly alien scent from the heavy work-out he'd just finished when Aaran brought today's candidates here. "Sephiroth, this is Brangwen."
"Hello Sephiroth." She held her hands out to him, palm up in greeting, with a smile on her face, and to Sephiroth's credit he only paused for a fraction of a second before gripping her forearms from above.
"Brangwen. You didn't need to greet me as a superior. I'm not."
"I have to disagree, at least in this situation. You're part of the interview process for me today, and at a guess I'd say you were supposed to decide if I'd be able to work under the Planet's Weapon, or if I'd cause problems for him."
"Something like that." Sephiroth actually had a faint smile on his face as he responded; Brangwen was the first candidate he'd seen get any emotional response so far.
"Go." But Aaran was listening to how Brangwen interacted with Sephiroth, even as he watched Delphine spar with Orion.
"Would you mind if we did this somewhere I can take care of my axes then?"
"No, not at all, there's a bench over there."
"Thank you." Brangwen seemed to hesitate, before she asked Sephiroth if he wanted to comment on her performance while sparring, and they actually kept the conversation going until Aaran decided he'd seen enough of Delphine's performance.
"Enough." This time it was Orion who reacted first, but Delphine didn't take more than a second longer and she turned to him waiting for more instructions. "Orion, would you give Delphine a tour of our facilities, please. Deliver her to my office for her interview in an hour."
"Yes sir. Come on, we can start with the armoury."
"Very well." It was a shame to break into Brangwen's conversation with Sephiroth considering how well they seemed to be getting along, but Aaran knew that he didn't really have time to let them talk themselves out. "Brangwen, I need you for a final interview now."
"You could do Delphine first?" Aaran was almost tempted to accept Brangwen just for getting that sort of reaction from Sephiroth, but it would be unprofessional to accept her here and now, and he had better reasons to choose her, unless he got three candidates who totally outclassed her in the next two days. She wasn't the best candidate at any one thing, but she was above the minimums in everything, well above them in a few areas, and Aaran liked her attitude.
"No, I've already sent her off on a tour of the facilities. Sorry Sephiroth."
"I understand. It was interesting to talk with you Brangwen." They both stood up as Sephiroth spoke, and Brangwen simply smiled at Sephiroth in response. "Captain, is there anything else you'd like me to do?"
"If you'd tell Morvoren to meet me outside my office in an hour I'd appreciate it."
"Very well." Sephiroth nodded, glancing once at Brangwen before leaving, and she frowned after him.
"Is there a problem Brangwen?"
"No sir. I just don't get why he was so...I don't know...surprised that I greeted him as my better, or so...satisfied with our conversation. I mean, I was polite, and I enjoyed talking with him, but I didn't do anything special. And all we were talking about was my performance and choice of weapons, well that and commenting a bit on how Delphine was doing."
"Well...he is a consort after all." Aaran shrugged, doing his best to look indifferent, rather than risk giving away any of the secrets Cloud's guard kept, and he started moving, forcing Brangwen to follow him, and hopefully distract her.
"And most of us assume that means he's helpless, so he's not used to people recognising his skill with weapons. I guess that makes sense, even if I'd have to be stupid not to see it when he'd just finished working out, but he's the Planet's Weapon's consort, that means he outranks a commoner like me in everything but a military context." That showed an unexpectedly subtle grasp of social niceties, one Aaran hadn't seen in any of the other recruits so far - he'd have to explain a bit more then.
"And high nobles outrank him in just about everything. He usually only interacts with Cloud's household, and with high nobles, but I think he assumes outsiders, people who aren't part of Cloud's household, will treat him like an inferior and he doesn't quite get why we give him the respect he's due."
"I see." And it sounded as if she disapproved, better and better. Aaran led Brangwen into his office, and decided to use the soft chairs and round table for this interview, instead of facing her across his desk.
"Sit down please." He waved a hand vaguely at the cushioned seats before collecting her file and a pen from his desk. "I've got a total of ten candidates for the three available positions in Cloud's guard. So, tell me what you think makes you stand out from the rest."
"How many of those candidates were personally recommended by one of your current guards? I know how to deal with my superiors, and how to handle them without insulting them if I need them out of my way so I can protect them. I've also cross-trained on other weapons combinations, as well as on a single, larger axe. And axes are an unusual choice of weapons anyway, as is choosing to use two weapons instead of just one, both of which gives me some advantage over my opponents, in that it's an element of surprise. Having me there to train against will also give the guards who prefer swords experience in dealing with an axe-wielder."
"Hmmm." She'd made some good points there, even if he'd already considered most of them himself, although..."Your response sounded almost rehearsed. Did Morvoren warn you to expect this question?"
"No, but I knew I'd have to sell myself if I wanted to get one of the places open, so I sat down and worked out all my good points, and found as much information as I could on the current membership of the Planet's Weapon's guard."
"I see." That made Brangwen the third candidate to show that sort of foresight, although it sounded as if a lack of confidence was in there somewhere. "So, what do you think is your biggest weakness?"
"I'm not as good a fighter as Morvoren is, I'm not good enough to boast by letting my hair grow long the way she does. But I'm willing to devote as much time as you think I need to devote to improving, and I can be fairly creative in how I fight." A definite lack of confidence there, but he could work with that, and Brangwen only said she wasn't good enough to boast, Morvoren was exceptional after all. Aaran continued the interview, even though it was really more a formality than anything else now, and handed her over to Morvoren before facing the interview with Delphine.