An Outing (3)

Walking into the room, Cyrus unceremoniously sat down across from Imran with little care as to who was next to him. He looked at Imran, who was enjoying a glass of wine with a smile on his face, and said,

"Indeed I have made it, Imran"

Cyrus looked closely at his former partner and possible future ally, examining his facial expression and face to see of any obvious signs of trauma.

"You look better than before, sorted everything out?" asked Cyrus, not caring about the time nor the place of asking such a question.

Taking it in stride Imran replied, "That I have, good riddance to that I might add. Who would have thought that…." Pausing for a moment, remembering that they were not alone, he continued "the exam would be so strenuous, the amount of pressure the professors put on us was literally too heavy for me at times."

"It may have been heavy at the time, but it is something that I am sure will get easier as you live and grow. Perhaps, constant experiences of similar nature will eventually accustom you to it" said Cyrus, speaking of one thing but meaning another.

"That was what my old man told me as well. While I do not doubt it, I can't say that I look forward to it. I will not falter when the time comes, as you had told me previously" said Imran as he raised his glass towards Cyrus in praise.

"It was nothing, now, having caught up on old times… what might be the occasion be for?" asked Cyrus, hinting towards the two extras in the room.

"Oh I thought you never would have asked!" laughed Imran as he continued, "You and I both know that we are curious about the other and that perhaps we could cooperate on many things in the future, as allies tied by benefits which is the strongest bond amongst us merchants. I still know little about you other than from the exam, which painted a detailed picture but did not tell the whole story. So I thought, what better way to learn about someone than by introducing them to new people! See how they react and handle and the like, simple stuff."

"He wants to use one, or perhaps both, of these women to sound me out further. Cautious but also upfront, not bad" thought Cyrus to himself.

Finally paying attention to the other two in the room, Cyrus looked towards the girl next to Imran first. She had light brown hair, blue eyes, and lightly tanned skin that looked more to be a sign of luxury than of hard work. She was wearing a dainty blue dress that was of a similar design to the gaudy ones outside, just not as disgustingly obvious…or so was what Cyrus currently thought.

Looking away from the disappointment, Cyrus paid attention to the girl next to him. Long straight black hair with murky black eyes of unfathomable depth to match, were the first two characteristics to jump out at him as that was as far as he got before those very same eyes locked gazes with him.

"So, you finally pay attention to the person you are sitting next to. What manners" scoffed the girl as she leaned on one hand in a bored manner.

Cyrus ignored the comment for the moment and continued to inspect her for more information, which of course looked rather suspect from the eyes of the other party. Unlike her contemporary across the table, she lacked what the current Cyrus considered to be tasteless attire and instead wore a luxurious well fitted lavender colored tunic with a fur coat draped over her shoulders and down her back. Unlike what most women would wear, the tunic did not drape down to her ankles as evidenced by her wearing a pair of linen trousers. Even the current Cyrus would have to agree that she looked nice, even in her rather unique clothing choice.

"Assuming her clothes were not gifted, she is from a family of decent standing but perhaps the trade they partake in is more practical than not" thought Cyrus as he brought his eyes up once more, although his entire glance took not even a single blink of an eye.

"I am curious by nature, but not in things that are uninteresting" replied Cyrus, deciding to stoke the flames for a reaction.

"Lack of manners and sharp of tongue, not exactly an interesting one yourself huh" said the girl lazily.

Somewhat surprised at the non-reaction Cyrus wondered if he stood anything to gain from this girl but having too little information made him come up blank.

Losing interest, he said

"The mannerisms of the wasteland are different from those in civilized land after all. As for me being interesting, well, I guess that is a character flaw I will have to live with. Unfortunate really" and ending with a shrug he made to turn away.

As he did, a light laughter began to sound from the still unnamed girl… although Cyrus had already begun relegating her existence to the amorphous blob of background characters.

From the mist of Cyrus complete disregard, a voice sounded:

"At least you are realistic about it. Don't worry, manners can be learned… ah the second thing may be out of mortal hands though, perhaps you should have asked Mundus for a gift of charisma instead?" said the girl, sounding more playful than before.

"How annoying, this person is operating on a different set of rules than I apparently" thought Cyrus, annoyed at the voice.

"Wait, she is doing what I initially tried to do… intentionally causing annoyance or anger to gauge the reaction"

Cyrus then brought the girl back out of the darkness of his disregard once more, turning back towards her giving her one last look over to see if he could glean anything useful. Wanting to isolate the answer from his last few guesses he decided to speak once more,

"I am enjoying my current gift, thus with a heavy heart I have to disagree with you" ended he with enough sarcasm to drown a small animal, whilst placing his hand out in greeting.

"As you have heard, I am Cyrus of Glacies Academy hailing from the wasteland" said Cyrus, curious as to how the girl would react.

Somewhat more receptive than before, the girl took his hand in a handshake whilst applying a surprising amount of pressure. This move surprised Cyrus, both in how she opted for the greeting between formal equals or of two males meeting; however, he was also surprised at the faint callouses that he felt on the hands of the girl.

"Her family is well off enough to afford a unique Vita mage it seems, the faint callouses despite this means she practices extremely often. That or she has just begun for the first time, but I am inclined to believe the former… to check however" ended Cyrus thoughts and thus began his actions.

As the two shook hands, Cyrus suddenly gripped the girls hand with enough force to lock it in place and then quickly activated his Mors domain, stripping away the dead skin then switched to Vita domain and healed the small damage that the corrosive death essence caused. As he was doing this, however, the girl in front of him grabbed a knife off the table and stabbed at him. Having prepared for such a reaction, as he did just grab someone's hand and activate death essence, he quickly countered by locking the knife in place with a fork he had picked up from the table. The girl made use of the lock to disarm them both and then made to grab directly at him, but it was at this time that Cyrus finished healing her and so he traced his thumb over the areas that were now callous free as a quick explanation before letting go of the rather violent handshake.

Having understood, the girl stopped her assault and looked at her hand in wonder.

"Wow, Mors and Vita. Quite the combination… normally when I get this done by our family's healer there is a bit more pain involved" said the girl as she put out her other hand towards Cyrus.

"Military family, not too high ranking but has at least historically produced a commander of a hundred men if not currently having one. No clue how your fair skin fits into that equation though" stated Cyrus

"Correct, although specifically my great grandfather was a regional general and all subsequent generations contained at least one regional commander… I suppose the second part is a compliment, how flattering of you. The secret, however, lay in proper care and maintenance" answered the girl in an amused voice.

Having his curiosity satiated, Cyrus did the same process to the girl's other hand before turning away once more, pleased that his guesses were correct.

"See that other half, its that easy. I easily talked to…oh her name."

Cyrus glanced back at her and said, "Name." In more of a statement or order than a question.

"Where did you learn to fight? The movements you used were somewhat familiar…" asked the girl in return.

"Self-taught, then taught by a mage, then by a Legionnaire. Most of my knowledge is being adapted from the last one though" answered Cyrus.

"Quite the variety there. Name is Minerva."

With that, they both turned away from one another and looked at the other two across the table…. Of whom were staring at them with their mouths hanging open. Imran had a look of surprise and incredulity on his face while the girl was merely scared as the two did just seem to try to kill one another a few moments ago, then they went back to having a normal conversation a heartbeat later.

"Hmm, why do they look like that? Was that not a normal human interaction…" wondered the current Cyrus slightly confused.