My draft for the battle against the Elites got deleted, and I have to rewrite it from scratch, so that's going to take longer than I wanted. In the meantime, I had this mostly written to post later, so here's a support conversation that in retrospect, should have been in the same chapter as Edelgard and Seiros's conversation on politics.
Shez had finally been discharged from the medical tent. Doctor Krieger said his hand had healed as much as it ever would.
Not that the damage was too horrible; it seemed to be as strong as ever, and he didn't have any trouble moving his fingers or anything. It was mostly just the skin that hadn't healed right. But even if the skin did look horrible, and he didn't have fingernails, and it hurt to touch cold things, it was better than being killed by Nemesis.
"Thank heavens I was right about him picking up the Master Sword," he thought to himself. But Nemesis wouldn't fall for that again. He needed to get stronger.
As he made his way to the training area, he saw Saint Seiros speaking with one of the officers. "She's somewhere around as strong as Nemesis," he thought. "I could ask her to help me train."
"I don't know," Arval said suspiciously. "I know we don't have any reason to distrust the Nabateans, but something about her in particular sets my teeth on edge. I don't know what it is, but I don't know if you should do that."
"Oh, come on, what's the worst that could happen?" Shez thought. Seeing that she had finished her conversation, he decided to talk to her. "Hey, uh, Lady Seiros? Krieger says my hand is healed up. And I don't think Nemesis is going to fall for that trick I pulled again, so...wanna help me work on my swordsmanship, just in case?"
Seiros smiled pleasantly. "I believe I have time. Certainly."
At the training yard, Shez asked Arval, "Can you make your sword blunt?"
"I think so..." Arval mused. "Try summoning it now."
Shez summoned the sword in his right hand and examined the blade. It didn't look as sharp as usual, and after testing it...yes, it was blunt.
Seiros examined his Awakened form, frowning. "Is something wrong?" Shez asked.
"No, I don't think so," Seiros said, still frowning. "Do you know what the origin of your transformation is?"
"Can't say I do," Shez said. "Let's go."
The two of them sparred for several minutes, and Shez held nothing back. His swords, his Shadow Slide, his magic, the techniques he learned in Hyrule, he used them all against Seiros.
Compared to her skills, though, they were woefully inadequate. Seiros was as good a swordfighter as Link, and physically even stronger. In addition, she was a highly adept mage, on par with Lysithea, though she did use Black Magic rather than Dark like Lysithea did.
He managed to hit her once, leaving a shallow cut on her forearm. But compared to his current state...he had barely felt the hits he had taken while transformed, but once his transformation timed out, he figured he was probably more bruise than man. And he was pretty sure Seiros had still been holding back.
"I can still...keep going..." he panted.
Seiros shook her head. "This match is over, Shez." Walking over to the nearby bench, she left her training sword and shield, then she handed him a bottle of water and used a Heal spell to heal his injuries.
"Damn it," Shez cursed. Memories seemed to attack his senses. The Ashen Demon effortlessly beating him senseless after annihilating the rest of his mercenary company. Dark Beast Ganon bearing down on the Hyrulean Army, its wicked gaze promising death. Nemesis in the Red Canyon, a titan of cruelty and bloodthirst who even he, Link, and Linkle working together couldn't overcome. "Damn it!"
"Shez?" Seiros asked, but Shez could barely hear her.
"Not strong enough...never strong enough..." he said to himself. "Can't ever be strong enough..."
"Shez!" Seiros said sharply, catching Shez's attention.
Once she was sure he was paying attention, she spoke again. "You've already scarred Nemesis. Do you know how many other people have done that and lived to tell of it? Only three. Me, Horace von Varley, and one of the Iron Order's generals, Silvia of the Storm."
Shez shook his head. "Only managed it because of the Master Sword. Won't work twice."
"And you've done more damage to him than anyone else ever has," Seiros said. "You took his hand from him."
"It's not enough," Shez said. "Not enough that I can kill him, if it comes to it. Not even enough that Link can kill him, now that he's recovered."
"But it might be enough that I can kill him," Seiros said. "Or enough that you and your friends can kill him if you all work together."
This didn't make Shez feel better. "Oh, come off it. Depending on others is nice while it lasts, but you know as well as I do that you can't always count on them being there. You get separated from them, or they let you down, or they die. The first person you have to be able to count on is yourself. You know that as well as I do. That's the way you live, isn't it?"
"That's different," Seiros said.
Shez shook his head. "How?"
Seiros wisely chose not to answer.
