"Hmph." It might just be a trick of the light, but under the beard it was possible that the smith was smiling. Or maybe he was as grumpy about more of Lein's company as he sounded, it was rather hard to tell.

"An impressive gift," Rui stated plainly, standing up once again, "To be useful for combat and simple tasks alike. Some of us from my homeland can maintain our skill with the blade regardless, yet for anything else..."

There was a vague gesture with the missing limb towards a nearby tool. Quite naturally, nothing happened.

The foreign girl took a moment to work through Lein's question, before her face changed into something aside from blank stoicism: a fervent, slightly manic grin, made only the more alarming by the one-sided cast to her features, pulling on the scar tissue. "Dragonfire."

@PigeonOfAstora

When Fanilly had first arrived at Candaeln, much of her time had been spent in the training yard. It was a rather frantic period, though she had completed the necessary training for assignment to her new position she still didn't feel as if she was ready, and thus did the only thing she could think of.

Train even more.

It was only when more of her duties came to the forefront of her life that such visits slowed, though she still attempted to make sure she spent some time training when she could.

She could always get better. She had to, for the sake of the Iron Rose Knights.

Once they arrived, it didn't take particularly long for Fanilly to select her weapon. It was a longsword, the closest in proportion to the real blade that she utilized in combat.

She raised and lowered it a few times in her hands, experimentally. It had been a little time since she last used such a training tool, given how busy things had been recently.

Maintaining her own training schedule was something else she had to get better at...

But then Dame Serenity asked her an unexpected question.

A dream?

For a few moments Fanilly didn't believe there was any way she could be talking about the same dream that she had. But then what else could she be asking about? Why would she ask if she'd only had an ordinary dream?

"Ah, Sir Steffen," she realized they weren't alone after a moment, "No, you're not interrupting, there's plenty of space..."

She paused again.

"... I did have a dream. There were ancient warriors, from hundreds of years ago, and the Gentle Blade," she said, finally, "And... and the Knight-Witch, Merilia, was there as well. But she wasn't fighting, she was simply watching."

The blonde knight-girl hesitated for a moment before continuing. This had to be the reason.

"Did... did you have a similar dream, Dame Serenity?"

@ERode@Conscripts

Fleuri Jodeau

"Thank you, Dame Tyaethe," Fleuri said, bowing to her. "Perhaps then, it's best if I make the most of the time I still have to improve myself." With that, the knight walked through the doorway to outside.

It was a lot to take in. Assuming that Merilia was still loyal to the Iron Roses, his guess would be that she was trying to give him some perspective on himself and some incentive to improve. Still, there were questions left unasnwered. Was Merilia somehow able to summon the spirits of the past departed knights to a dream? Or were they phantom approximations of her memories of them? Additionally, he wanted to find out if any of the other knights received a similar dream.

Upon entering the training yard, Fleuri grabbed a training sword and dagger and began to practice his swings on a dummy. He closed his eyes, harkening back to the duel with Florian, trying to replicate the blows his foe rained down on him. He tried some of the counters and parries that Florian had used against him- especially the one that Fleuri had unsuccessfully tried to use against him. At some point it would be a good idea to find a partner to spar with, but first he wished to practice the movements and motions, to think back to the fight and draw whatever he could from it without any distractions.

@Raineh Daze

"We've yet to begin, Sir Steffen."

And they did have plenty of space. They were just two girls, after all. Their swings would not birth gales to scar the dirt beneath their feet. As for the matter of dreams...

"That too, was what I dreamed of last night," Serenity replied. She presented her shield, obscuring nearly the entirety of her body. She drew back her sword alongside her shoulder, hefting it back into the preliminary state of a strike. "But I speak of older dreams, Danbalion. Did you have such a dream?"

Lein

---

Location: Blacksmith's Forge
Interactions: @Raineh Daze

---

"I'm hardly more than ordinary." Lein said with a shrug, though his tail wagged with a bespoke sense of pride, happier to hear the acknowledgement of his simpler skills, "Don't know what your lady told you 'bout me, but I'm just a decent shot and stuck around for a few odd jobs. Must be boring for you to watch me rather than the illustrious Champion of the North."

Lein matched Rui's grin with enthusiasm of equal measure. The sudden change of attitude was rather unnerving, but Lein was careful to put this particular concern under wraps. The loss didn't so much as sting as it was a source of pride, then. "But as for you - you simply can't say 'dragonfire' and leave it at that! We'll be off to the training yard after I get - finish - hup!" Lein pumped his weight into a chisel and dislodged a particularly stubborn piece of slag from a wooden beam, catching it underfoot before it rocketed into the carefully arranged weapon pile. Close. Should've been far easier, but his endurance hadn't fully recovered with his brief stop at Steffen's office.

"That's a story that deserves a drink and a good audience! We'll move along and leave the good smith to his busybody." Lein looked over the workshop to make sure he was satisfied that the rest of the cleaning would be relatively smooth sailing, most of the toilsome work of slag removal and tool organization deftly taken care off. Doubtless that Ardor would like some grit to grill the squire over. Lein dusted off his knees and waved goodbye to Ardor. Heh. That grouchy old lard could use someone to talk to other than a hammer anyway. "So c'mon - you've got a captive audience here, what can you tell me about the great retainer of the Lady of Storms and this draconian beast?"

"You are the only one that I need observe in detail. A sufficient evaluation of the others has already been completed," was the easy reply, "It matters not whether it would be boring, only that I do my duty. A training scenario would not allow for me to accurately judge the vampire's condition, either."

Following along behind, the rabbit tilted her head a little, "I thought you had dragons here? It was much the same. It strayed too far into occupied lands, and I elected to slay it. Getting close enough to strike a fatal blow nearly cost me my life but the beast was slain."

Not a great storyteller, this one.

@PigeonOfAstora

Renar filtered the inane commentary about pillows out immediately, his mind focusing on what was important now that a potential solution to his plans was in sight. Lilia's answer was surprising, in more ways than one. For one, it seemed that directly asking the Gentle Blade for her aid was doomed to fail, if she'd sworn to set down the blade aside from training her own blood. That said, if Lilia herself had been trained by the aforementioned, well...the equivalent of a teenager in elf years was probably easier to convince for training than a centuries-old master who'd evidently embraced pacifism.

"Oh? You were trained by her?" Renar deliberately raised an eyebrow. "Considering that it seems the Knight-Captain is still busy, I don't suppose you'd be willing to show some of your skill out on the training field? It would be something to pass the time, at least. If your mother is the only one who's ever instructed you, this could be a good chance to see how you compared to her old order." She'd compare very well, he suspected. Between an elf's lifespan allowing for decades upon decades of training, and with a legendary knight as the trainer, Renar would be far more shocked if she wasn't able to defeat any of the three knights present currently.

@Raineh Daze @The Otter @HereComesTheSnow

---

With a nod, Steffen headed over to swap his training weapon to a sword to match the two knight's choices of expertise. His return coincided with their talks regarding a dream they had the previous night. Things about fighting warriors of ancient past, and Merilia standing watch. All of which stood familiar to him. What he dreamt yesterday fits the description perfectly.

"Wait, you both dreamt of that yesterday?" The Ingvarr raised a finger of his. "Did you fight Erich at some point? Because I did, as Merilia and the other founding knights were watching."

@VitaVitaAR@ERode

Lein

---

Location: Training Yard
Interactions: @Raineh Daze @Conscripts @Erode @VitaVitaAR

---

An evaluation? So Rui was here to look for what, talent? Lein himself kept tabs on many of the big names in the Roses, but not so overtly. No - but if his wild conjecture about the strange nightmare everyone had was correct, Rui's reason did track. Though it did leave the question why Lein was judged insufficiently. It also meant that asking the vampire was getting more and more mandatory, especially since Rui highlighted the connection herself. This 'Lady' and Tyaethe sounded like they had reason to check in with each other. Feh. He was already pushing it going to the training yard. He didn't have enough mind to speculate much deeper.

"Dragons? Heard often enough from bards and peddlers, sure. Not often you get to meet a dragon-slayer in the flesh! I know of many who would give good coin to hear tales of grandeur from warriors such as yourself." Rui was predictably short changed in her boast about her encounter with the dragon, but not out of deliberation. For her, it would be just like as a cook started a fire in the stove or a weaver repaired stitch-work. However glorious her battle or grievous her sacrifice, it was just another duty carried out to her capacity. It would take much more to wheedle a good story out of her - and certainly not through bugging her. It would be much more intuitive for her to simply show him through the langue of swords. He'll just translate it himself into his fanciful fables at the Lone Frame, with much more verbal flourish.

Lein avoided his usual route of crawling through the broken hedge and took the boring gravel path through. As usual, the training yard was inhabited by sounds of bows firing and drawing of swords, though not by its usual visitors. Serenity was no surprise, she practically lived here as far as Lein knew - but the Knight-Captain and Steffen was an oddity. If he had to guess, they all had the same ideas as Lein - getting beat up repeatedly in a dream was a powerful motivator; though Lein remained hazy on his memories of the dream more than most. "And there's some friendly faces!" Lein waved lazily at the small gathering. "Looks like we all woke up on the wrong side of bed tonight. Didn't think we pissed off Grandpa in the crypt back then, but he came back for us mano a mano, huh?"

Fanilly hesitated.

Not only had she experienced the very same dream, but that hadn't been what Dame Serenity was speaking about in the first place?

A dream...

Once, when she was very young, she had dreamt of being a healer. Perhaps it was tales of Saint Anissa the Beautiful that had made her latch onto such an idea. The image of the lovely, silver-haired lady of moonlight, whose soothing touch mended all those whole ailed.

That was before she truly came to comprehend the duty she was to be raised for. Before she understood that being a healer was not such a simple thing.

Still, the desire to help people in some way remained.

"I..." Fanilly tailed off, then took a deep breath, "I did. When I was very small, I wanted to be a healer. Of course, I had no aptitude for it, and beyond that I had been born under a full moon."

Her grip gently adjusted on the hilt of her sword, her legs tensing as she adjusted her footing, her stance widening. A training duel was familiar territory for, though she hadn't directly engaged in one since she had formally entered her position as Knight-Captain of the Iron Roses.

"I... probably thought it would make me beautiful and beloved, like Saint Anissa," she added, sheepishly. The motives of a very young child are very rarely entirely pure, after all. "But I think after that, I think..."

Fanilly trailed off. She wasn't entirely certain if it was purely pressure from without or from within that had caused her dream, her desire for the future, to change. At times she felt so much pressure that it threatened to crush her.

But at the same time, the Iron Rose Knights were an order of virtue and compassion. Protection for the weak. Punishment for the wicked. But not with cruelty, but with justice.

But even so-

"I think... I-"

She was torn from her thoughts when Sir Steffen realized that he had had the very same dream the prior night.

That was impossible to be a coincidence. Two people was already strange, but three?

Before she could say anything to him, however, Sir Lein appeared, with a...

She was already clearly foreign. Fanilly, when she was only seven years old, had once seen a young lady and a young man with similar features at a party. They had been from the distant, faraway land of Akitsushima.

And with them had been two more young ladies with similar features, both incredibly beautiful, wearing foreign, silken, extravagant garb.

And with the ears of rabbits.

The swordswoman who now entered the training yard, shared that particular trait.

"... Ah?"

It was a surprise, to say the least. The visit of some sort of Akitsushiman diplomat or anyone of the sort hadn't been mentioned once to her prior. Surely, she would have been informed...

Her stance relaxed.

"Sir Lein, and..." she hesitated, "You are from Akitsushima, yes? I am Knight-Captain Fanilly Danbalion, and I'd like to formally welcome you to Candaeln."

@ERode@PigeonOfAstora@Raineh Daze@Conscripts

"I'm sure it's not that impressive, this is the Iron Roses..." the elf replied hesitantly, "But... if you want? You won't laugh if I make a fool of myself, will you?"

A healer, but one without aptitude. Born under the full moon, and thus having one's life molded by that expectation.

Did one need aptitude? Did one need to walk upon a singular path? Flickers of memories, some recent, some old, accompanied by flashes of remembered pains. It was no magic, but Serenity had learned how to heal alongside harm, how to disinfect and sew up her wounds, how to concoct salves and set broken bones. All for herself, and not anything close to the efficacy of a true master of the arts.

Still, healing.

"You are beloved." That much was certain, judging by the nature of the Danbalions. A noble family with few military achievements, one that, when she broke, allowed her to mend. "And you'll be beautiful, in time."

For what Saint wasn't, clad thusly in the blessings of Mayon?

But with Steffen stepping in, with Lein arriving alongside a foreigner from a faraway land, with Fanilly herself relaxing her stance, it looked as if any anticipation for combat was going to be stalled. So questions, then, could be left to be answered. Her knuckles cracked, her swordhand tightening, before she let out a small sigh.

"Erich was not the source," Serenity spoke, her shield lowering just enough so that her face could be seen. "The Knight-Witch was. I presume we've all shared the experience of being swallowed alive by Volkstraad as well? Except, of course, our guest from a faraway land."

Fleuri Jodeau

I believe it was like this... Fleuri thought as he closed his eyes and swung his sword, lightly striking the dummy. He didn't need to hit it with force- right now he just wanted to get the movements right. It'd take a while to break the mold of what he had become familiar, comfortable, and complacent with. He had to do it, though. The dream had showed him just how much he still had to improve, and all of the deaths that he had suffered were good incentive to get better. He didn't like the thought of re-living any of those deaths in the waking world, where there was no reset.

Speaking the of dream, he couldn't help but overhear that very word- that very topic- spoken by Sir Steffen. The Ingvarr was asking the others if they had dreamed the dream too. Lein, Fanilly, and Serenity all confirmed that they had it as well, their replies each focusing on a different element. Steffen mentioned Merilia and the other knights watching. Lein brought up Erich Cazt. Dame Serenity mentioned the conclusion of the dream, the fight against the great dragon Volkstraad.

There was no doubt that they had all been visited by Merilia, too. Curiously, those who were discussing it were all among the knights who had gone into the Cazt mausoluem. Or perhaps it was given to those who had attended the ball? He might have to ask around to see if those that guarded the princess also had the dream.

The knight dropped what he was doing to join in the discussion, just as they were greeting a foreign visitor- from the look of it, she was one of the rabbit-eared women of Akitsushima. Fleuri didn't know much about them, other that to his knowledge, they were a female-only race, like harpies.

"You all had the dream too, then?" he spoke up. "It's all I've can think about this morning. All I've wanted to think about. The duels with Florian particularly, I've never had a duel like them before."

@ERode@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze@PigeonOfAstora@Conscripts

Gerard Segremors

@Psyker Landshark@Raineh Daze@The Otter

"The three of us are plenty used to making eachother look like idiots in training," Gerard offered, electing to shelve the further questions he'd begun to brew regarding that pillow situation, regardless of how little he believed anything with acute night eyes could be nearsighted. The picture was either clear, or it wasn't, right? Different from training your eyes to move and react. "Be an odd change to start laughing now."

Interesting that you lash out like a wounded dog, Agrahn had said.

Anyway.

When you can't wipe that grin off your face.

His curiosity had been drawn elsewhere regardless, following instead the same direction that Renar's took. It was serendipitous as hell, given the conversation he and the Bastard of Brias had only just shared... But messages from beyond seemed all too commonplace, this past week. Reading into it was at once an opened door and a block on the road, depending on how much you did it— he'd trust his gut with this.

"So that established, sounds like you're game." He continued, beginning a steady march forward through the center of the pair ahead of him, each having slid off to opposing ends of the doorframe. There was just enough room to brush past and make it back into the open— Probably. "Field's not far."

---

Having three individuals with the same exact dreams at the exact time were quite uncanny to hear, but having five would just be an obvious pattern. Not exactly exact though. Fleuri mentioned having dueled Florian, someone Steffen only saw in the dream as an audience to the carnage. But Volkstraad was something he had in common with Serenity, who also brought up a rather good point about the Knight-Witch.

"Indeed I believe we all saw pretty much the same thing last night." Steffen turned to Fleuri, with a sidestep to let the new members to gather around the group. "But not exactly though, Florian is merely a spectator. The memorable fight is with Erich. At least for me..." It was surprisingly heart-to-heart, and he had yet to contemplate the words the Demonbreaker had spoken to him. Not hiding anything...it was easier said than done.

"Looks like there are differences here and there. I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest that this is the work of someone else."

It wasn't the only strange topic in this room though. Lein weirdly today brought about a companion, this lady with a pair of bunny ears, and that was not the only thing worth the attention. She only had one arm, but a pair of curved swords of very clear Akitsushiman origin. The rough-looking exterior was reservoirs of gripping history, he could sense that. And for any self-respecting warrior out there, there should never be doubts about weird weapon choices.

"I hope your morning has been lovely thus far." Steffen took a step closer to the bunny-eared girl, his two hands cusped in front of him gently, giving off a non-confrontational and reserved front to him. "May I ask if you're from Dame Merilia, the Knight-Witch?"

@Raineh Daze@Crimson Paladin@ERode@VitaVitaAR@PigeonOfAstora

The foreign girl listened, bowing deeply at Fanilly when she introduced herself, then looked at Steffen, brow furrowed in concentration. "Merilia? Yes, I serve. I speak Velt now," Rui continued, gesturing at Lein in a way that probably meant 'you translate for me', given the lack of guarantee anyone else would be able to understand the language.

"I apologise for the intrusion upon your castle, Knight-Captain. My lord has sent me to observe this one, in order to complete her studies. I am to remain until such point as I can provide a detailed assessment or until she chooses to retrieve me. She offers an apology for not sending a letter in advance but there was no guarantee you would be at your desk to receive her letter," the warrior continued, pausing and looking up at the sky for a time--enough for Lein to translate (incorrectly or correctly) and be corrected if anyone else was aware, before continuing. "She says 'As compensation, if you leave a request on your desk, I can have a painting for you by tomorrow.'"

A neatly folded letter appeared on the rabbit's head a second later, inked in some very foreign script that she unfolded. "I am permitted to instruct and demonstrate, but only to fight in my own defence."

There was another pause, then the rabbit gave a deep bow, pink tingeing her cheeks, "Inoue Rui, at your service."

---

The elf trailed along nervously, glancing occasionally at any people they passed--and she definitely paused at the courtyard entrance, eyes flicking between knight and the next. "There's so many people out there... are you sure that's a good idea?"

---

@Raineh Daze@Psyker Landshark@HereComesTheSnow

---

"Oh, don't worry too much," Fionn replied to Lilia's continued misgivings. "Once you work out some of that nervous energy everything will be fine!" Of course, after quickly scanning the training yard himself, he decided to leave out that the Knight-Captain who Lilia so wanted to speak with was out there at that very moment. Better not to let her distract herself and get even more anxious—just wait and see if Fanilly's more dressed-down look compared to the week before might let her escape notice for some time.

Rather than let the pause linger, he strode on forward straight towards a set of blunts and federschwerten kept for full sparring between the knights, deftly plucking out one of his favourites as he strode past. "Where do you think, lads? Out by the project? I've still got to have somewhere to put this pillow before it disappears again."

"Right, blunt weapons," Lilia said, more to herself than anyone in particular, looking at the array of weapons on display with curiosity before shrugging and drawing the blade that had been strapped to her hip this entire time. With the gems carefully embedded around its hilt and guard, and the elaborate runework that could be seen faintly glowing along its entire length, it was clear that this was very much not a safe and mundane weapon.

Not that this seemed to matter, with the girl singing a little sing-song tune, one of the gems lighting up in response, a soft pink film pouring down the length of the weapon. Giving the edge of the blade a few pokes, the tanned elf nodded in satisfaction before trailing along again like a lost duckling; that wasn't going to be cutting anybody.

---

@Raineh Daze@Psyker Landshark@HereComesTheSnow

---

"..."

Fionn glanced down at the training sword in his hands. Sure, it was a good one, one that he liked, but it still wasn't the same as his actual blade. If he could use the latter instead...

"Okay, you're going to have to show me that one later."