Of Squires and The Line

[Kattria Minx]

Kattria was on the bar, stretched out on her stomach, one leg bent up. Her chin was propped with her right hand. In front of her was the golden scepter, the squire weapon for Old Temple, where Kalamere held a barony. It was laid out flat on the bar, perpendicular to her body. He'd given it to her while the Madness Pool played out to decide the permanent holder. No sense leaving it unused in the meantime, right?

With her left hand, she nudged the scepter with enough force so it rolled away from her across the bartop. Before it could get too far, she reached out with the same arm just beyond the scepter's path to reverse its course. Back and forth, back and forth. There was something cat-like about this scene: the feline lazily playing with its prey.

Talking to herself, she said, "It's really a ridiculous weapon. I mean, it's not meant to be a weapon. It's for royalty, or paper mages." Her nose wrinkled, and her right arm folded to rest on the bartop, her chin following suit so her eyes were on the same level with the artifact as she continued the push and pull. Her pale lilac ponytail draped over the front of her shoulder.

Noting that it had a nice even roll across the bar, despite its fancy-nancy appearance, she had to grant that it at least had nice balance. But did it have to be so heavy?

Well, it certainly was a better weapon for a simple-weapon wielder than a glaive. She rolled her eyes thinking about it, and how she had to magic it down to a proper size for her to get any benefit out of it. Now that she thought about it, however, Amara would probably like the glaive. She liked those big nasty looking weapons sometimes. She was a giant, afterall, at over 5'5" (and a 1/4"!) tall. Katt snickered a little, but in all seriousness, Mars was a critical factor in many of their escapades and the successful execution of therein.

With nearly magical swiftness and agility, Katt swept the scepter up into her left hand, leapt up from her prone position to her feet, and shuffled forward and back along the bartop, dueling a shadow opponent. Despite its fine balance on its own, it was still rather heavy, and did not balance well when she chose to dual wield with one of her stilettos. This was a severe handicap, as she was a dual-wielding fighter preferring light, simple weapons.

At one point during her shadowplay, she held the scepter before her, pretending to be a queen and ordering her shadow opponent to leave the bartop and await execution. She mimicked using the scepter to bludgeon the next hapless victim, when an idea struck her.

She remembered then there was a fighting baton somewhere in the back. Yes, two blunt weapons might help with the balance issue. Certainly not as efficient as her stilettos, but since this was regulation dueling and not assassination, she didn't need them--they were simply her weapons of choice.

With an acrobatic tumble and dismount from the bar (and a little pleased smirk at her landing), she was off in the back looking for the fighting baton. Once found, she headed for the roof, deciding it was time for some fresh-air practice. The blunt weapons could still make someone bleed... internally, so perhaps there was some merit to their use. She could fight with thug tactics, and blunts were great thug tools. It was a risk moving from her chosen weapons to unfamiliar weapons so far into the Madness competition, but she wasn't entirely untrained in blunt weapons, and if she could finesse the differences, she might be able to use them to her advantage.

There she was practicing blunt weapon tactics until Kalamere showed up for their actual training session.

[Kattria Minx]

The scepter was on the bar, with a note:

"Dear Kalamere,

Thanks for the training and the squireship during my Madness run. While I am turning in the scepter so the Madness Pool winner can be your squire, I'm still open for more training! I need all the help I can get.

Thanks!

K. Minx"