Sparring
Astarte stood and tried to leave the meeting promptly, the other captains milled about in the corners of the meeting room discussing private matters with each other. She was almost out the door when a hand tapped her on her left shoulder, where her new blind spot was. She internally cursed herself, and her lack of peripheral vision. She tried to turn her head left to see who it was, but could only make out purple fingers. Grumbling to herself she fully turned her whole body until she was face to face with Modius.
He removed the hand he had used to grip her shoulder and scratched the back of his head, his cheeks a little flushed in embarrassment. “Sorry Aster, I forgot about the eye, should have approached from the other side.”
She sighed “It’s fine Modius, I forget about it too.”
He looked concerned “Does it hurt?”
“Not often, your sister patched me up pretty good. It stings sometimes though, phantom pains and all.” She shrugged nonchalantly, trying to play down how often she caught herself unaware of anything on her left side.
He nodded in sympathy “That brings me to my question, how’s my little sister?”
Instead of answering, she just jerked her head towards the hatch and lead him to quiet and unoccupied corner. Aster bit her lip “She’s fine physically, she got through the whole thing unscathed. But she was a part of the initial ambush, I’m told a marine died in her arms as she was trying to heal him.”
He looked shocked and concerned, and a bit of Aster’s cold heart melted at the sight of how much he cared for a sister he hadn’t seen in years. “And after that?”
“After that they had to fight their way out, I’m told that she had to kill several Eggads to defend herself and her friends”
He cringed “So she broke her vows then?” he asked quitly, looking very dejected.
“About that, what the hell is up with that? Why swear away your ability to defend yourself, seems stupid to me.”
“I feel the same way as you do, stripping a person of their ability to fight back just seems stupid to me. But its not really an issue on Torwen, people just leave the healers alone. But out here it quickly becomes a deadly restraint. That’s not the point though, the Alwen I knew was very dedicated to Ashendra. She used to tell me about the martyrs who kept their vows to the end, and how she admired them.” He scowled.
“And is there no way to ask for forgiveness or something, on Earth we have something called absolution. Do you not have something like that on Torwen?” she asked, remembering the time her adoptive mother dragged her to a catholic church after she ambushed someone for their shoes, hers were getting ratty and she didn’t want to be a burden. Her mom had spanked her until it hurt to sit and then brought her to a preacher to ask for forgiveness. Her mother had no problem with Astarte fighting off bullies and thugs, but targeting the weak and defenseless was a point to far.
“We do.” He said slowly “But Alwen isn’t marked, if she goes to the temple to ask for forgiveness she won’t be able to properly explain herself and mark her actions as noble. She would be expelled from the order if she went in and said ‘I joined a pirate crew and killed other pirates to save my friends’. Part of her vows is to avoid being in places of needless conflict. If she knew our real goals then it might be a different story”
Aster scowled “Don’t you have Torweni doctors abroad the Asmodeus, hell I’ve seen Ivren board with the marines and fight just like anyone else.”
“That’s different, not all Torweni doctors are a part of Ashendra’s order. My own patron god Torwen, God of war and order, has a sect of war healers for wartime and combat. Sworn to save lives but not forbidden from fighting.” He explained. The name the Torweni actually used for themselves wasn’t Torweni, they used the word Kayweno, which literally meant ‘animal who feels’. Since a shocking amount of species simply called themselves ‘people’ and called their worlds by some variation of the word ‘dirt’, the Union instead found other unifying feature to use in addressing the varied peoples of the galaxy. Balikstro actually ‘meant people of the ancestor spirits’ and the word Kaydic simply referred to their god of the land and animals, kinda like Gaea. In the case of her purple skinned friend the Union had an easy job picking a name since a seventy percent of his worlds land and people were unified under the nation known as the Pact of Torwen, and had even begun to refer to their world as Torwens’ world.
“So it’s like the Red cross versus army medics” she surmised.
He nodded his head “Essentially”
Aster sighed “I probably made things worse when I demanded she cover my blind spot when I mounted a counterattack.”
He looked concerned again “You took her back into the fray?” his voice rising in worry.
“Had no choice, I was working with what I had, and she was the safest by my side.”
He shook his head “And knowing you, you were probably leading the charge.”
“Maybe” she said coyly.
“And how did she do?”
“Pretty well all things considered, her aim and instincts were on point, and she didn’t break once we were in the thick of things. She would make a pretty good marine with some training.” Aster said appraisingly. Alwen had surprised Aster with how well she handled the whole situation, she had honestly expected the girl to break down and cry during the whole assault.
Modius scowled “Don’t insult my sister like that, she’s definitely way smarter than a marine”
Aster chuckled and she and Modius went back to their ships to make all necessary perpetrations for getting under way.
The conversation had reminded her that she hadn’t seen Alwen since she had patched up Astarte’s eye. Maybe it was time to pay the young doctor a visit.
~~~*~~~
There was a loud “CRACK” and Alwen was knocked back onto her ass. The padded training gear took a bit of the pain away from the impact, but not all of it. These infernal things seemed to only be designed to absorb the most brutal impacts, but still left her with plenty of bruises.
She had finally graduated from working on training dummies to real one on one sparring with Gato, and like everything else about the man it was intense, brutal, and ceaseless. Her shoulders shook from the shock of each collision, and she could barely feel her whitened knuckles.
She huffed out several breathes before she took his proffered hand “Ok, what did I do wrong this time?” she gasped.
Gato opened his maw to say something, but he was cut off by another voice.
“You failed to properly assess your opponent” a commanding voice said from behind her. Alwen turned and saw Captain Astarte stood behind them, an armored hand resting on her sword hilt, and a contemplative tilt to her head.
“Captain” She and Gato said in greeting. Not a formality they normally observed, but something about the Captains posture told them it was appropriate right now.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“At ease” she waved a hand and stepped forward, her raptor’s eye raking up and down Alwen’s posture. “I was informed that you were on the Marine’s training schedule, but they didn’t tell me you were also learning kendo?” there was an uptick to her words at the end, like she was asking a question without actually asking.
“What’s kendo?” Alwen asked instead of answering the captain’s vague question.
“Literally means the way of the sword, but in modern times we understand that kendo is a sport, a game of sparring with wooden swords and padded gear for points. Kenjutsu on the other hand is swordsmanship with the intent to kill” She explained casually.
“We’re working our way up to that Sir” Gato said, “I started her out with practice weapons for safety’s sake, eventually we’ll work ourselves up to real weapons”
Something softened in the captains eye, she nodded her head “I was also told that Wraith left Makaze to you” she said as evenly as she could over the still fresh wound of his loss.
Alwen jerked her chin to where her sword belt was hung. The captain turned her whole body and stalked over to the belt on strong steady feet, she hefted up the purple decorated scabbard of the katana and slowly slid the blade free. “You know, I’m starting to wonder if this blade is cursed” she said softly as she stared into its dark metal “It originally belonged to Wendy Fidelus, Alice’s sister. She died and left this weapon to Wraith; she was close to him and her death had changed him, all of us really. And now Wraith is also dead, and this sword has traded hands once again.”
There was a lot to untangle in that statement, but it seemed like the Captain wanted Alwen to slowly pull on the threads and untangle the messy emotions there herself. Instead Alwen had another question she wanted answered. “Do you know why she named it ‘Evil Wind?’”
The words had barely left her mouth before a glint of steal caught her eyes and briefly blinded her, in that one second of blindness the captain had swung the blade until it was only a millimeter from her throat. A second later a rush of air from the force of the swing sent a shiver up her spine, and Alwen fought back the urge to balk or blanche. Astarte looked into Alwen’s eyes and smiled “Supposedly, she named it that because that’s all her foes would feel, an Evil Wind as they lost their heads.” She withdrew the blade and slid it back into its sheath with ease. “Personally; I think she may have taken the direct translation too literally. I believe she also named you sword as well, right Gato?”
Gato nodded and put a hand to the sword at his belt “Coraje. It means anger.” He said soflty.
“Or courage.” Astarte countered before turning back to Alwen “Mine is Tenken, divine punishment. Within western religions it is often the Devil’s duty to punish the wicked. Some say it’s because the Devil is a twisted being that delights in pain, but I think of him as a necessary counterbalance to God’s love and mercy. Because without evil how can we truly appreciate good.”
Alwen recalled their attack on the Coiled Strike, she had stood by the captains side the whole time and watched in awed horror as she slaughtered with her blade, Tenken. Despite the swift murder she had brought down on the Egh’ahds every kill had been quick and clean. Alwen knew that if the captain had wanted to she could just as easily have taken Alwen’s own head in that moment right there. This woman was deadly, but only to her enemies. A wave of quivering fear rose up within her.
Alwen gripped her fear with iron claws and shoved it down deep into her subconscious. She raised her chin and looked the captain in the eyes “You said I failed to assess my opponent, how?” she asked, referring to the captain’s earlier remark.
She smirked and stepped onto the training ring “Why do you think we train with something as archaic and outdates as swords?” The room was empty, so her question echoed. She waited a tick and saw that Alwen had no answer “because of the lessons it imparts. Lessons that are otherwise hard to learn. Speed, power, and dexterity are all very important things in a fight, but so is perception.” She drew her sword and spread her legs into a practiced stance, she gave Gato a nod of the head and he drew his own blade and stepped forward to square off with her.
For a silent second there was nothing, and then with whirlwind violence they launched at each other. Gato went for the same driving strike that had thrown Alwen back, Astarte smirked just a little as she easily parried the attack and used the force and momentum of the attack against him and threw him to the ground. The whole bout lasted only a few seconds.
The captain offered her hand to Gato and helped him up before turned back to Alwen “He’s bigger, faster, and stronger than you, so you turn those assets into liabilities. There is no such thing as an unbeatable trump card. There are no aces up the sleeve, or secret winning techniques that can’t be beaten. If they are bigger than you, then be twice as nimble. If they are stronger than you, then be clever in your attacks until all that muscle is dead weight. And if they out number you, then you strike down the leader and scatter them. And if your backed into a corner you better fight like hell until there’s no one left. Those are the lessons kendo, and kenjutsu, teaches us.” The Captain jerked her head to Gato and silently dismissed him. He removed his padded gear and stalked out of the training room without another word. She then gestured to the practice blade in Alwens hands, an obvious command to ready herself.
The next hour was very different from working with Gato, and Alwen began to understand the difference between textbook knowledge of sword play and real sword work. Gato had been teaching her specific forms and movements that could be combined in a thousand different ways to defend yourself and trip up your opponent. Gato had all the forms, strikes, and blocks down to an exact angle, but his every movement was sort of stiff. You could trace each move back to the diagrams he had shown her, but there was an almost imperceptible pause in between each and every change.
The Captain on the other hand flowed into each strike and parry with fluidity and grace. Sometimes she was like a crashing wave, breaking on the shore. And other times she was like a leaf dancing in the wind. Sometimes Alwen caught a glimpse of the forms Gato had been teaching her, but it was quickly buried in set of movements Alwen couldn’t follow. And for all the whaps Alwen received, Astarte wasn’t really attacking Alwen. She was just blocking and parrying Alwen’s attempts to get past her guard, striking out only when Alwen unwittingly dropped her guard or overstepped. The stinging stripes she earned were a lesson in not letting her guard drop even for a second.
They worked until Alwen began to notice that the Captain’s left side was slightly unguarded, brought on because of her missing eye. Alwen lured her into a trap by dropping her own left guard, which would have been on the Captain’s right. Astarte took the bait and lashed out like every time before, and Alwen brought her training blade down on the captains left shoulder as hard as she could.
Astarte let out a bark of pain and jumped back from Alwen, breaking their engagement. The Captain held up a hand and rubbed at the place where Alwen had struck and stared at it in contemplation. “That’s gonna bruise” she remarked casually.
“Come in tomorrow if you have any trouble lifting that arm” Alwen huffed through labored breaths.
The Captain chuckled at her bravado “I don’t think you got me that bad. Let’s call it here, I pretty much turned your whole body a different shade of purple” she joked.
Alwen worked at the straps of her padded clothes, underneath Alwen found stark lines of dark purple bruises running down her arms and chest. The Captain didn’t remove her maroon armor and instead took a heavy swig from a water bottle.
“You’re really good” Alwen remarked as she bent over and worked at the leggings.
“Thanks”
“Did you go to a specific school to learn all that?” Alwen asked, she had always wanted to learn some of the more traditional martial arts on Torwen like her older brothers. But her mother had never allowed her, as liberal as Torwen approached same sex couples when compared to Terran history there were still traditional roles a women was expected to adhere to. The higher up on the social ladder you were, the more you were expected to comply.
“Nah, not really. I grew up in a rough neighborhood, on a rough planet, so I had to learn to fight pretty early on. Highland taught me how to throw a punch without breaking my thumb and let life teach me the rest. I only really started to learn how to channel all my aggression into something worthwhile after I left Earth for the first time. There was this old guy on the crew I first worked with, his family was from Kyoto and owned a dojo. He had been an instructor there before he was arrested, some of his students had turned to terrorism and he got involved in the round up when the Union came for them. He was way into bushido and all that Edo era stuff, he was the guy who got me hooked on wearing hakamas and robes instead of jeans and t-shirts. He found out I was half Japanese and thought I had potential, so he helped me channel myself through sword play.” She got a dreamy look in her eyes as she reminisced.
“Did something happen to him?” Alwen asked, all her words had been in the past tense as if the man was gone.
Her face fell “Yeah, I killed him. He was a part of a pirate faction under a bastard named Greyson, the original Terran pirates. When we fought with them Mizuno-sensei sided with Greyson, and I had to kill him to get to the bastard.” She paused for long second “I introduced the sword play for the same reason Mizuno-sensei taught me, to help ground the crew. All my marines come from a lot of different places across Earth and Mars, and not all of them were from one of the old military bases. Their training and methods had diverged over time, and I needed a common thread to bring them all together, kenjutsu was so archaic and foreign to everyone that they all had to start from basics. It helped bring everyone together, and now I have two efficient and seasoned teams marines. And what about you?” the captain fixed Alwen in her gaze “do you want to be a marine? Is that why your training so hard with Gato? Want to be another combat medic like Brevot?”
Alwen felt cornered by her questions “I, I don’t-. No.” she said firmly. “I don’t really know what I want, but I won’t be one of your marines.”
Astarte’s gaze softened “I did a little digging into those vows of yours, I must confess that I didn’t really understand them and thought you were just being cowardly. I thought you were expecting others to kill for you, while you got to hide away and pretend to still be holier than thou. I didn’t really understand that forcing you to fight was kinda like propositioning a nun” she said softly.
Alwen was confused for a second before she remembered that some religious orders on Terra were celibate, and that intercourse between such order was a major taboo. It seemed very strange to her, but she knew that some of the Sun Gods worshippers did something similar. “Its-“ she stopped herself short. It would be a lie to say that it was fine, Alwen had sworn herself to Ashendra, and she still felt roiling waves of anxiety whenever she thought about it.
“You know” the captain said breaking her awkward pause, “no one would know if you just pretended like nothing happened. There’s no chance of word getting back to your home world about what happened on Femeri, none of my crew would put your career in jeopardy like that”
Alwen looked at the captain condescendingly “Its not exactly faith if you ignore it when it’s convenient. Besides, just learning how to hold a sword is already a violation. No point in hiding it.”
The captain went quiet for a moment “I’ve been told that if you try and ask for forgiveness then your likely to be expelled from the temple and lose your medical license.”
“Yeah, likely” Alwen said softly.
“If that happens what will become of you?” there was genuine concern in the hardened woman’s voice.
Alwen didn’t need to think about the answer “I have some money put away, but if I lose my medical degree I wont be able to start my own medical company like I’ve been planning to. I might have to move back in with my parents and look for a good spouse like my mother wants. Though I might not get as many suiters after being expelled.” Alwen had earned a fair amount after working with the pirates, but not really enough to coast on for the rest of her life.
“You don’t have to do that, I know your good at what you do. I could offer you the mark right now and you’d have a permanent place on this crew. We could be a better family to you than what’s waiting for you back home” she offered sincerely.
Alwen thought for a minute “I don’t think the pirate life is right for me” she said softly as her anxiety began to turn her stomach. Maybe if she hadn’t watched Sean lose his head, or hadn’t felt the life leave Wraith, she would have said yes.
“Are you sure about that? You seem to be fitting in pretty well, I’d even go so far as to say your blossoming into your best self”
“And that’s what scares me” Alwen whispered.
Astarte stared at her for a moment longer before she turned and left Alwen alone with her thoughts.