Sol walked between the trainees as they held their sword forms. Gently correcting them as needed. This batch was doing well. Maybe some would even pick a sword to carry as their main arm.
“Now,” Sol said taking her place at the front. “Who thinks that they can best me?”
The girls all looked at one another, a few shuffled their feet in uncertainty. Sol grinned at them, holding her own training blade in a lax grip. The young ones were still too uncertain of what they were capable of, it’d stop them from stepping forward and forcing the spotlight onto themselves.
“In that case,” Sol pointed the tip of her sword at a random girl in front of her. “You. Step forward and state your name.”
The girls parted as a wave, looking at their poor sacrifice with trepidation. Was she going to embarrass herself and by extension them? Was she going to find her courage and hold strong, showing her sisters that Sol was nothing to fear? Sol watched her impassively, the same empty gaze that her mother had given her when she was still in training. Not dismissive, though back then Sol had found it to be so. Perhaps these youths saw it the same way as she did back then.
“Umbriel.” She said meekly.
Sol grinned, yet another that had been cosigned to the night by their namesake.
“Step forward Umbriel.” Sol said with steel in her voice. “Be strong, proud. Step forward and strike me.”
She looked at a loss for words, as if what Sol had said was sacrilege. The idea of fighting Sol was either terrifying or made her feel far more helpless than she already did now. Sol simply waited in silence. Watching Umbriel with the empty stare of a Huntress many moons older than herself. The air grew heavy as the gazes of her peers bored into the back of the trainee. Either she would gain the courage on her own or the weight of it all would crumple her heart. Sol couldn’t be there to hold out her hand. This was the first lesson they all had to learn. For as important as teamwork was, and for as important as the many teams of people who kept the Eden district running, Huntresses were more often than not alone. None would help her in this moment.
Sol nearly didn’t react in time when a blade had suddenly appeared in her field of vision. She parried it before it had a chance to cut her but when she moved to counter the most likely next blow Umbriel rocked her fist into Sol’s face, knocking her to the floor. The sound of it knocking Umbriel back with a horrified gasp.
“Sister I’m so sorry!” She wailed with a tear stained voice. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean it!”
Sol got up, dusted herself off, and brimmed with a smile. “That was wonderful Umbriel.” She reached out to the trainee, putting her hand on her shoulder to try to calm her anxieties, and maybe keep her from crying in front of her entire class. If it were Sol she would have rather died than let anyone see that. “You showed good thinking, recognized an unorthodox opening and took full advantage of it.”
Umbriel blinked, staring up at Sol with confusion, Sol ignored her and looked to the class at large.
“You all would do with learning from her example. That kind of thinking can mean the difference between life and death on the Hunt. Lycans are not so kind as I.”
She pat Umbriel on the shoulder again and gestured for her to return to her classmates and crossed her arms.
“Now let's start again. First form.”
The girls all gathered in formation and went through the motions, and Sol once again went from trainee to trainee correcting each of them as needed. She would need to keep an eye on Umbriel.
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Niamh is a difficult woman to find at the best of times. But she wasn’t impossible to find. Sol didn’t need to look for her, specifically, but it didn’t hurt, the trick was finding her at times when she didn’t want to be found at all. Sol had looked in all the usual places. Her quarters, the training area, the relaxation areas that Sol knew that the older Huntresses liked to frequent but none had thusfar have born fruit. She sighed in frustration. As much as she enjoyed her duties training the younger huntresses she was hoping to find Niamh there too.
Sol wanted to find her before Margaux finds her again. She didn’t know if she could face her again. The two hadn’t spoken since Sol invited her to her dream, it’d only been a night but every time they saw each other they only managed to exchange slight glances and the formal speech of their station. She walked up the steps to the bell tower, there it would at least be quiet. Maybe she would talk to the bell ringer for a while, she was a quiet sort. Did come with the territory, the bells often robbed them of their hearing even with the best of care.
She offered a bow to the women making their way to the various shrines placed here and there to Saints long past, and leaned against the frame of the balcony out. Staring out towards the city, to districts long lost from them. Sol often thought about exploring those places. She could see lights glittering from various parts of the city so she knew that there was something out there, but the dangers kept her from venturing further than the Eden district.
They were safer here. The canals kept most from being able to simply swarm. Some lycans could easily jump the gap but the church had long since put up wards to prevent just that very thing. It let the Huntresses know what they were fighting for, they couldn’t be penned in the Eden district forever. One day, they would reclaim the city.
“You’re too young to be brooding up here.” A smokey amber voice crooned from above where Sol was standing. Niamh eased herself down from where she was hiding up above Sol.
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“One could say the same for you mother.”
“But not you.” She said as she leaned opposite of Sol. Staring at her expectantly. She knew that Sol wanted something.
“Margaux advised me to speak with you.” Sol said with a sigh as she looked back out over the city.
“About?”
“My dreams.”
That got her attention. Niamh stared hard at Sol for a long while before speaking. “Are you-“
“No,” Sol cut her off. “I’m not being pulled into other people’s dreams, nor are they being pulled into mine.”
Niamh stared at her for a long while, nestling into her spot against the door frame to the balcony. Letting the silence swoop in and fill the air. Sol knew she would remain so until she explained what the problem actually was, so she told her. Told her about the restful oblivion she found herself in every night, about the light that had been showing up the last two nights and how it bore her face. About the horror Margaux experienced when she saw Sol’s dream.
Her mother was silent longer still. Lightly tapping her cheek through the scarf that always covered the lower half of her face when she was home.
“The realm of dreams is often tight lipped with what it shows us.” She started slowly, the air vibrating slightly with that Smokey amber of her voice. “It does not exist in any way that we can comprehend, and so we build the world around us. Shape it in accordance to our subconscious will.”
Sol watched her, waiting. There had to be a point to this right? She already knew some of this, all girls had to learn how to fend off unwanted visitors in their dreams, or unwanted advances.
Niamh continued her explanation, “But the realm never lies to you. It is a mirror.” She looked hard at Sol. “If you wish to understand what it is saying, be certain that it is a path that you want to walk. Revelations from there are no trifling matter.”
Sol looked at her mother confused, “I don’t have the skill set to pierce that veil, I-“
“You do,” She cut her off, “But I say again, if you want to see the dream for what it is, you must be ready for who you will become after.”
They both lapsed into silence again. It wasn’t the same suppressing silence as the expectation of conversation that hovered over Sol earlier, but simply content. Both looking out over the city for a long while. Sol glanced to her mother, seeing the longing look in her eyes even as the rest of her expression was carefully neutral. After a while Niamh hopped over the railing and started off over the roof top, gently tapping the heads of the gargoyles as she passed. Sol shook her head at her mother, but watched her go. Once her mother had passed over the roof out of sight Sol brought her gaze back to the rest of the city.
Maybe she would see the rest of it one day. Maybe things will get better. Maybe even the sun would rise again. She thought about it, the light that bore her face. Maybe, just maybe, she might feel that light on her face one day. See what the city looks like bathed in light rather than washed in shadow.
She pushed off the door and started down the stairs, thinking on what her mother had said. She was no oneiromancer, so why would any truth be revealed to her? The mysteries and riddles of dreams wasn’t for her to try to unravel. She put the thought aside for now, if she chased after it again Margaux would not take it well. The last thing Sol wanted was to scare her away with this. Tonight she would dream with Margaux again. It’ll help clear her head.
Walking down the winding stairs back down to ground level Sol eventually found herself in the gardens. Basking in the gentle glow of bioluminescence. Ribbons and streams of glowing flora writhing within the trees and blooms. It was the one part of the whole cathedral that didn’t require any light, though there was one part of it that cut through the gloomy blue light that bathed the area. A glass dome sheltered yet more trees, and a gentle yellow light emanating from it. She saw the shadow of a woman against the glass, and as Sol approached she saw that it was Averie. Pressed up against the glass looking in with awe.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Sol asked as she walked up next to Averie.
Averie nearly jumped out of her skin when Sol spoke, having not noticed her lost in her trance. She looked at the hunter with a start, though quickly relaxed when she realized that it was only Sol. “Yes,” She said in a voice barely above a whisper. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
Sol smiled at that, looking back at the treated glass. Or at least she thought it was glass, she’d always been warned to be careful around it lest it broke. Her sisters gave her the impression that it was as irreplaceable as it was fragile. Inside she looked at the trees that were all bearing fruit. Peaches were what was growing right now it seemed, and the pawpaws were growing wonderfully in carefully ordered pathways. Here and there she could see the running dots of vibrant red as strawberries and even some deep purple as the grape vines wrap around the the various fruit trees.
“The church of Eden provides for all.” Sol said reverently. “Without it, without their gardens, we would have all perished.”
Averie nodded knowingly, “Sometimes one of the abbots would come by my home, hunters were there too-“ She added hurriedly looking back to Sol, “But they had food, and so much of it. Every time it felt like a dream.”
Sol chuckled softly, looking back at the young woman. Maybe she could convince the women in charge of the gardens to accept her help, shouldn’t be hard. It wasn’t like she was trying to get her within the inner sanctum where the bishop sat. Maybe they’d even appreciate having another pair of hands inside, there were plenty of pawpaws still on the branches even.
“Would you like to go inside?”
Averie looked at her as if she’d just said something heretical. “Inside? Just like that?”
“It won’t hurt anything, and I can talk to one of the Sisters if they’re around if it would bring you comfort.”
She looked at the garden for a long while and then to Sol. She said nothing but she didn’t have to, Sol could see it in her eyes. The quiet pleading, hope, the idea that she might actually get to see something so magnificent was right there on her fingertips. Sol beckoned her to follow and started back onto the path that led into the garden itself. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust, but at least she’d been staring at it for a while so this time it wasn’t too painful. Averie on the other hand was shading her eyes.
“Is it always so bright?” She said as she looked at the ground.
“Unfiltered sunstones can be a touch overwhelming for first timers.” Sol said with a smile, walking with a touch of grace, careful not to let even the toe of her boot to touch the grass.
“They were filtered before?” Averie hissed softly, following Sol as a shadow.
“They have to be, the other gardens that only grow under the moonlight.” She said as she stopped at a little seating area. “These plants can’t be lost, for they can’t be replaced, but they likewise can’t be our staples.”
Averie squinted up at Sol, seeing the woman in the sunstone’s light like this made her realize just how pale she was. Maybe it would do her good to come here more often, those who didn’t reside within the church’s grounds itself often fell prey to various ailments of the moon. Maybe this would help her gain a more healthy pallor.
“Now, let me introduce you to Sister Bethany. She might even find you something for your eyes.”