Angelo Dardi was a man that captivated Sheilah quickly. He was only a little older than her, moved with grace and ease, fought with a sword better than her, and most importantly, his hands were not soft, squishy things.

“I was surprised when my sister told me about you.” He admitted. “Most women simply want to wave their swords around and get into pretend fights. Not you, though.”

“Fialla- when she arrives- is also serious.” Sheilah agreed. She couldn’t figure out a way to flirt, since she’d never done it before, but she was definitely captivated. She saluted with her sword, and then assumed a ready stance.

Once the match began, Antonia’s warnings about men’s longer reach and threatening distance were immediately obvious, and it took no time at all for him to beat her soundly.

“I think I should have started training with you.” Sheilah complained, sitting down in the training hall. Since he was a knight, he taught in the knight’s training hall, which was much bigger, and a number of people flowed in and out of the hall consistently.

Andrea, who stood nearby, had a somewhat impatient, frustrated look on her face.

He laughed gaily as he sat next to her and gave her a companionable bump with his shoulder. “Nonsense. My sister taught you the fundamentals, and she set the expectations. The only thing you need to learn is guile.”

Sheilah gave him a puzzled look. “Guile?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Guile. You’re not terribly good at hiding your intentions.” He held her gaze for a moment and then added, “especially with your sword. You have a shorter reach, so either you have to jump in quickly, or you have to use guile to draw them into your strike zone.”

“You’ll have to teach me, then.” Sheilah agreed.

“I’ll teach you whatever you want.” He agreed. “One more bout?”

She nodded. “Yeah.”

When Fialla arrived, she drew attention, especially Angelo’s.

“You’re a Wildling, aren’t you?” He asked curiously.

Fialla immediately adopted a guarded look. “Yes, that’s right.”

Angelo smiled. “My uncle, he lives in the Westlands. He sold your people corn when you washed ashore.”

“Oh. Well, I wasn’t born until much later, but thank you anyway.” Fialla replied.

He shrugged easily. “No problem. He said your people were very polite.”

Fialla nodded with a smile. “It costs nothing to be polite.” She agreed.

“Do you have anything to do with the Dark Elves?” He asked, and Sheilah suddenly realized that he was nervous and jittery, with his sword in his hand. It wasn’t a real sword, but still, her scalp prickled and she transferred her sword from her right to her left hand, figuring that he wasn’t aware of her ambidexterity.

Fialla’s face darkened at his question, and her hand squeezed down on her sheathed sword until it creaked.

“Those things liked to torture mine for sport.” She spat venomously, her voice thick with rage. “My uncle, who was a slave, was cut apart into little pieces over a bet between two Dark Elves.” She snarled. “My people came here as refugees to escape them. If you make one more accusation, I will kill you.”

He immediately let go of his sword and raised his hands in surrender. Some of the onlookers- when had they gathered?- did the same.

The noise caused Fialla to look around. She dropped her own sword and took a step back.

“Ahhh shit.” Angelo complained. “I didn’t mean to insult you.” He explained. “But, you know, there are Dark Elves here, and they are assholes.” He raised his voice a little and addressed the surroundings. “Now that we’ve cleared the air, we shouldn’t have any problems going forward, right?”

He tipped a wink towards Sheilah, who caught on to what he was doing, speaking to the crowd.

“C’mon Fialla. At least pick up your sword.” Sheilah urged.

“I think I broke it.” She picked it up, showing the sheath was warped, fingermarks clearly indented. She tugged on her sword, and half of it came out of the sheath, leaving a jagged stump.

“Yeah. Broken.” She complained.

“Yeah, you can’t fight with that.” Angelo agreed.

His tone turned serious. “House Dardi will replace your blade with something sufficient to atone for the affront, and you or your family may call on us for assistance.” He gave her a courtly bow, and extended his hand. “Do- Are your people doing well?” He asked gently. “My house is a negligible one to be sure, but we can provide a boon of wheat and corn, if nothing else.”

Fialla pressed her lips together. “The Wildlings live in hiding from the Dark Elves, and ... I think it would be quite hard to get supplies to them.”

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He nodded. “If your people are in hiding, what brings you here?” He asked curiously.

She pointed at Sheilah. “I think of her as my sister. I am here for her. To be by her side.” She smiled a little bit. “I haven’t run into the Dark Elves yet, but if they provoke a fight, I will happily oblige them.”

Angelo laughed. “On that day, I hope to fight at your side! Fuck the elves!”

Fialla looked a question at Sheilah, who nodded. Fialla smiled and nodded back.

“I’d like a match with you, if you don’t mind.” Fialla asked. “I’ve been training exclusively with Antonia, and there are gaps in my skills.”

He nodded, picked up his training sword, and retrieved one from the wall for Fialla. As they settled into their respective stances, Fialla gave him a smile. “It’s important for Sheilah and I to know your stamina.”

He jerked, and then chuckled. “I guess we’ll find out.”

Sheilah watched their bout, baffled at how easy it seemed for Fialla to slip past Angelo’s guard. She scored two hits on him before his stance became more aggressive; afterwords he trounced her over and over.

“Hmm.” She murmured as Andrea moved to Sheilah’s side. “I clearly need to move much faster.”

“No, I don’t think so.” Andrea replied. “You’re plenty fast. The problem is that you’re spending two hours every day trying to outrun knights on horseback.” Andrea replied. “Running as hard and as aggressively as you’re doing is burning up your stamina.”

Sheilah shook her head. “I used to have to be able to run at that pace all day.”

Andrea scoffed in disbelief. “You ran like that, all day, every day? You expect me to believe that?”

Sheilah shook her head, watching Fialla struggle against Dardi again. “In the Redstone, there is a little lizard. It’s not very big, but it is incredibly fast, and it has an incredible sense of smell.” She explained, holding her hands apart a little bit to show the size of the lizard. “Now, just one isn’t a big deal. If you get bit, it numbs you, and that’s it. It will only kill you if you’re very little or very old. What makes them deadly is that they travel in swarms, and when one bites you, it lets out a stink that lets all the others know. And then all of them will chase you by smell. They don’t stop until it gets so cold they can’t chase you anymore.” She shook her head. “I didn’t have to, but I needed to be able to.”

Andrea blinked at her several times. “Surely such a thing wouldn’t exist. You must be joking.”

“There are other things that are far more deadly in the Redstone than Hive Lizards.” Sheilah replied quietly. “Some of them would give you nightmares.”

“Oh?” Andrea asked.

Sheilah nodded, keeping her eyes on Fialla’s bouts with Angelo..

“Well, if you intend to sneak him into your apartments, you’ll have to butter me up.” Andrea smiled.

Sheilah froze, and Andrea chuckled lightly. “I remember when I was as young as you... and I could be convinced to turn a blind eye.”

“What do I-” Sheilah began, but paused. “What’s the price?” She asked instead.

“As if I could be bought.” Andrea scoffed. “My respect and trust are earned.” She switched back to the previous topic. “Tell me about something terrifying in the Redstone.”

“My father- Davian, that is- called them ‘Arbor la Sang’-” Sheilah began, but Andrea stiffened. “What? What is it?”

Andrea nodded. “I know of them.” She acknowledged in a shaky voice.

“Now it’s time to earn my trust.” Sheilah murmured back to Andrea. “How do you know of them?”

“Well, that’s easy enough: Where I was trained, the failures were thrown into the Forest.”

“The... Oh.” Sheilah got it.

Andrea nodded.

“You should begin by asking him to be a dance partner. He should be willing enough for that. While Magdalene is dealing with... what she needs to,” Andrea was circumspect, even here, “Learn to dance with him. Take a good measure of him and his circumstances; it wouldn’t go well for you to find that his character does not live up to your expectations. If things go well between you three, let me know and I’ll arrange a lunch date.” She smiled a little. “However, the responsibility falls to you to clean up after your own mess. I will not intercede for you if Magdalene finds out.”

“If I asked you to look into his character for me?” Sheilah asked.

“Hmm. Tell me something even more terrifying.” Andrea replied. “I like learning about you, and where you grew up.”

“I killed a Blood Tree.”

Andrea’s face went through a number of expressions before setting on incredulity. She took a breath and shouted, “You can’t! You lie!”

Sheilah stiffened as even Fialla and Angelo came to a halt.

Andrea raised her hand and covered her mouth. “I’m sorry, forgive me, I was suddenly startled.” She announced.

Fialla came over. “What did Sheilah lie about?” There were elements of incredulity, disbelief and suspicion in her tone.

Sheilah looked to Fialla. “She doesn’t believe that I killed a Blood Tree.”

Fialla raised her eyebrows. “I helped her do it.” She explained to Andrea.

Andrea shook her head. “I can’t believe it.”

“What’s this?” Angelo came over.

“Andrea doesn’t believe Sheilah killed a Blood Tree.” Fialla replied.

He gave Fialla a puzzled look. “They can’t be killed. Not in a realistic way. Everyone knows that.”

Sheilah rolled her eyes. “They can.” She rebutted. “It’s just very hard.”

He shook his head. “‘Very hard’, she says. You would need the Abyss’ own luck and an army to kill them, and even then, it’s not a guaranteed thing.”

Fialla and Sheilah shared a look between them.

“Should I tell the story?” Fialla asked.

“Well, I think we should.” Sheilah replied. “Just saying we did isn’t getting us anywhere.”

Sheilah explained how it hid as a tree, how they used fire to get it to move, how Fialla had kept it busy while Sheilah looked for its vulnerable point. She also explained everything that Davian had taught her about them.

Angelo and Andrea stared at Sheilah and Fialla as if they had somehow transformed into mythical creatures.

“It sounds like... you would have to be pretty accurate with a bow to do it.” Angelo decided.

Sheilah nodded. “I think I’m better with a spear than I am with a sword, but I’m best with a bow.”

Fialla nodded. “You have to be good with a bow.”

Angelo and Andrea eyed each other.

“I think we should take you out to the range and see what you can do.” Andrea invited, and gave Sheilah a look.

“Oh. All right. I can get my bow.”

Angelo smiled. “I’ll see you out there, then.”