The Weaponry
1027 Words
Teis tried to escape the judgmental eyes of the other soldiers. He wondered if the princess had done this before.
The inventory was very dimly lit with a few torches perched by the side of both walls stretching. As the last soldier walked past Teis, he stood straight, his head bowed.
The princess, in her usual stance, stood leaning against a wall, tracing her arming sword’s edge. Carefully scrutinize it. Teis was intimidated by that.
Am I really in trouble? He thought.
This was the first time he came into contact with royalty. His breathing was slowly getting heavier now than it was before.
Sanlysia gazed at him just like she was scrutinizing her sword. She drew her eyes up and down Teis.
Teis wondered if he should speak or stay quiet.
Sanlysia got away from the wall and pushed her sword into the sheath that was dangling by her waist.
Sanlysia turns around, her back at Teis and walks slowly towards the shelf of weaponry where there are spears perched. She stretched herself and slowly unties her baldric, letting her mantle come loose and droop around her.
Teis carefully lowers his stunned eyes and looks away. The scabbards on either side of Sanlysia’s waist limped on the floor, the only clattering sound in the quiet dampness of the inventory. She slides her mantle down, exposing her arms and two daggers tucked in a leather pocket right above her hips tucked and concealed behind her back.
‘So…,’ she spoke. ‘… how old are you?’
Teis, still clouded and struck by the view in front of him. He froze without moving. He didn’t know how to react. If he made one slight wrong move, he could be executed. The Princess slightly arched forward, stretching herself. A long dagger is exposed, tied around her thigh, and two small daggers around her calves tucked into a leather belt.
‘Are you trying to remember when you were born?’ she snapped.
‘Your highness, fifteen seasons, I am,’ Teis responds quickly.
‘Ah, great, just two seasons younger than me, eh?’ She slowly began taking off the hidden weapons on her body.
Teis looked at all them. Even an assassin doesn’t carry that many hidden blades. He thought.
He tried counting them. There were twelve blades along with two swords and a noose. He wondered why the noose? But, again, he let that thought slip.
‘How long since you wield a sword?’ Sanlysia is now checking the spears, flipping them and spinning them one by one.
Teis still occupied by the princess’s hidden blades and how they came out one by one. How much she might distrust people around to carry that many blades. He thought.
Despite being surrounded by guards and living in a palace with high walls, it was strange. Maybe the enemies are the ones who are closest to the princess.
‘Oh, boy, you are testing my patience, eh?’ Sanlysia said. She swung the spear at Teis. It stopped just a few inches away.
‘Many apologies, your highness — ’
‘— spare your apologies, young soldier…,’ she grunts while swinging the spear around her neck, ‘… just answer the question.’
Teis shook his head as if to shrug off all the thoughts he'd been having about the princess and her blades. ‘Just lately, your highness,’ he replied.
‘Hm…,’ she spun the spear above her head and stroked it at the floor, ‘… and how long is this lately?’
‘Only a couple of years, your highness.’ He replied.
His eyes followed every movement the princess made with the spear. He'd never seen a man as efficient as her and skilled at using the spear, let alone a woman too, but a princess.
He had never in his entire life seen a princess, but he'd heard of them. He had not heard of any princess who was ornamented with blades and swords. He had heard about the princesses in silk dresses and pearls. Jewels that were brought from the land of gods to accentuate their beauties. Perfumes that were made from rare herbs and flowers.
‘Oh I see…,’ she said as she perched the spear in its place. Her eyes greedily swept through the other weapons around her. ‘What is your weapon of choice?’ she noticed the sword hanging down his waist. ‘Sword, I suppose.’
‘Yes, your highness,’ Teis grabbed the hilt of his sword tightly.
Sanlysia smirked and moved alongside the shelves, examining every blade carefully. ‘I use a double-aged short sword. Agile, and deadly, always leaves a cut,’ she said while picking up two long swords from the shelf.
Teis nodded carefully. ‘I use what the general hands me…,’ he said quietly.
Sanlysia gigled. She stretched her hands further, holding the swords in both her hands. She pulled the hand closer trying to move, but the swords clashed with one another as she tried to spin them around. ‘You see, I’m short, and these swords are heavy for me…,’ she flipped the swords in the air in front of her. She leaps with the swords spinning them around her smoothly, but the signs of struggle on her face are evident. ‘But, I have taken down the most skilled knights. Just with my two little swords.’ She said proudly without a glint of arrogance.
Teis looked carefully. He gulped and said, ‘I am sure you have, your highness.’
She is crouched on her feet now, both swords' tip on the ground. ‘You should know your weapon. The one that talks to you. That which is a part of you, like your limbs and arms. Only then are you a warrior. Most of us pick up a weapon which they think is better…,’ she gets onto her feet, ‘… no weapon is a better one. It depends on the person who wields it.’ She turned around to keep her sword back from where she had picked them up.
She goes over to the shelf where there are maces, ‘Mace wielders are the dimmest and slowest,’ she scoffed.
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