‘Okay, Skana, keep a brave face on. Just because yesterday they were expecting you to be executed by their commander, doesn’t mean you can’t win them over eventually. And most of them did vote that you should stay alive… I just had to punch my hero in the face.’ She told herself and began to dance. As soldiers came closer to watch, more lit logs were added to the fire, casting it higher and higher as if burning wood were the price of admission.

If it was one thing Skana always had in her favor, she knew it was her unparalleled balance and gracefulness, she moved with the sleekness of a lioness, always surefooted and able to find her mark, the fifes and lyres set a pace that went ever faster.

But as it sped up, so did she. ‘Oh so that’s how it is…’ She realized and began to let loose a swiftly spoken song, the words flying from her lips as the music picked up and the flames with it as more wood was added to the fire.

‘Go on, try me! Try me! I’m bold enough to sneak into a camp of brigands, you think just having a few drops of divine blood in you is going to scare me off?! Seven hells no!’ She defied them with a smile just before the lyrics changed their tempo as her tumbles took her through the air and flames cast shadows against her that moved over the ground like dancing demons made of darkness itself.

Skana didn’t see who threw the first knife, though she guessed that they had paid for somebody else’s ration of ale at least.

Still, she never broke her pace, she snatched it from the air and hurled it skyward. “Give me swords!” She shouted at her audience of soldiers, and not one, but two were tossed at her feet.

She flipped them up one by one with a flick of her feet and activated her martial arts to increase her speed and the fluidity of her movements, and caught the hilts in her hands, she began to incorporate the swords into her footwork and flowing twists and turns, and as the blade she’d tossed skyward came back down again, she slapped it with the tang of the sword in her right hand, embedding the hilt into the grass just before the fire.

This was her element, and her heart sang, the two blades in her hands were like extensions of her arms, lighter than air and moving as if she’d been born with them held in her fingers, ‘I’ll never put these down! If only I’d known I could do this when the demihumans had me!’ Only the faintest pang in her heart echoed for Bodger and the other bandits who she learned from. Their ends were well deserved, she knew, and yet…

‘I would not be able to do this if not for them. At the least, I can pray for them…’ It was the first generous thought she’d turned their way since her capture, and it would be the first prayer since the day of her first salvation. ‘I owe them that much.’ It was a pensive thought that came and went just as the music died and she planted her feet firmly on the ground shoulder width apart and threw the blades down to land just a hair’s breadth from her ankles.

Her hands shot up to the sky in a final pose just as she’d been taught in her days of dancing… and the crowd she’d forgotten even existed erupted in applause.

Her breasts heaved as the weight of using her body’s mana came crashing down on her all at once, deprived of breath as if she’d run fast as an arrow and as far as the corners of the world.

She cracked a smile and began to waver on her feet, putting her hand up to her suddenly very light feeling head, she stumbled backward and landed squarely on her ass.

“That was pretty good.” A young man said as the group of watchers began to break up. Experienced enough with mana use, her collapse was clearly understood, and as such, neither he nor the rest showed concern.

“Th-Thanks.” Skana breathed out the appreciation and brought her legs up to her chest, “I really don’t have much mana internally yet, so I have to draw on my life a little. It may cost me a few seconds every time, but to put on a good show, it’s worth it. I’m glad it paid off.”

“Yes, it did.” He said, and while some of his comrades began to smother the flame at their backs, dimming their shadows somewhat, he asked, “How did you learn to move like that?”

“Bodger taught me some of it, I learned from whoever would teach me. They had brawlers, blade dancers, warriors, even an adventurer or two that ran across the law the wrong way.” Skana admitted and looked the young man in the face, he had a thin mustache and was frankly delicate-featured. ‘If he were a girl I would call him beautiful.’ Like most of those who had some connection to the ancient gods, he had dark hair, and with his surprisingly close fitting armor, she could tell that moderate of build though he was, it was all muscle beneath the metal.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“I’m Darion, by the way.” He offered the introduction, but not his hand. Skana did not offer her own, but bowed her head.

“Skana.” She said and brushed back her auburn hair.

“I know. But seriously, you learned from that… creature?” Darion asked and scrunched up his face.

“It’s not like I had a choice. He had knowledge, I needed it, what was I supposed to do? I gave him my share of spoils, and he taught me how to use a sword better.” Skana replied and made the same face back at him. “As for the rest, my mother was a dancer, and I learned from others whenever I could. If things hadn’t happened with the demihumans I planned on taking my act on the road that year.”

Darion however, seemed to have a one track mind. “We caught your leader in the middle of shitting in a hole, and he still managed to nearly kill three of us even with three arrows in him.”

“Bodger was very strong.” Skana acknowledged, “He used to say he was from an Awakened Line, I don’t really doubt him. He might not have looked like it, but he wasn’t a brawler. He was a sword dancer.”

Darion’s eyes widened just in time for the fire to die behind them, and Skana didn’t question why, “Yeah, yeah he was.” She answered his unspoken doubt. “That’s why I trained for six hours every day, to build up enough mana for this, to be able to fight people like that. It turns out…” She flicked a finger against the sword to her left, as it wobbled back and forth where it lay embedded in the ground she finished, “I had an innate skill for swords. A talent, I think they call it. A gift of the gods, whatever. I just know I got pretty good. Bodger was a brute, a thug, a vicious bastard. But he was also a good teacher. Too bad, in a way.” She said, “If we had more people like that fighting the demihumans instead of hiding from them, everything might not have gone to shit.”

Darion could hardly disagree with something that obvious, “I guess. But you sound sympathetic to him.”

“He was my teacher. He knew the risks of his life, and I know what he did, but I would have died during that test if it weren’t for what I learned from him. I hate him, sure, but…” She sighed, “fine I might as well say it. He also figured out I was a woman, and he kept my secret. I never knew why he did, or why he didn’t… take advantage of his knowledge. Now I’ll never know. He deserves to pass through all the seven hells at a snail’s crawl… but he at least looked out for me. I can be grateful for that and still know what he was.”

Darion said nothing at first.

“I would think you people should understand that better than anyone.” Skana said pointedly, and Darion flushed red in the face, but remained sullen and silent rather than arguing the point.

“So did you vote for me to live or die?” She asked the question at the back of her mind.

“Live.” He answered.

“Thanks.” Skana replied with another bow of her head, “I like living, I did want to keep doing it.”

“I gave you my vote after you punched Speranzi Jadara in her face. The rest of us won’t even duel with her.” He shook his head, “You’re too mad to allow to just ‘die’.”

“You won’t?” Skana asked, and he vigorously shook his head.

“By the seven hells no. It’s like your heart gets squeezed in your chest… maybe she has a natural talent for intimidation or something… she just… she makes people freeze, even us, and we’ve got the same lineage. So she practices on her own.” He said, and Skana had to ask.

“So… do you… I don’t know, do you all hate her, or fear her or-” She stopped when he shook his head again.

“No. She’s seen us through every struggle, armed us well, been fair with us… we trust her. It’s just… it’s like there’s something in her soul that just grabs hold of our fears and won’t let go. I’d follow her through the depths of the seven hells even if I had to belly crawl to do it… but I could never cross swords with her.” Darion put on a charming little half smile.

“Anyway, I’m tired, just know that I think you’ll be all right, don’t think too much about anything, follow orders, and eventually everybody will forget how you came to us. Well, almost everybody.” He said and started to stand up.

“Almost?” Skana asked and he jerked his thumb in the direction of their commander.

“She won’t. She’s peculiar about things like that.” He answered and then held a hand out toward where Skana sat.

She took it in her own and allowed him to help her to her feet. They wobbled a little, but she remained upright.

“So, do I help you to your tent, or would you like to join me in mine?” Darion asked and Skana looked up at him, he really did have very pretty hazel eyes with little flecks of gold in them that seemed to dance in the dying light of a nearby flame.

“I’ll accept the help, but I’ll sleep alone.” She answered decisively and briefly wondered if he was about to argue.

He shrugged, “As you like.” His reply was a little curt, and his hand on her hip was a little tense, but the rules of their commander seemed effectively absolute, and moments later Skana was in her tent alone, staring up at the canvas and replaying recent events through her head on a loop until she passed into unconsciousness.