"you haven't won yet," said Elios wiping the dust from his face. "The rule was that touching the opponent when they are down is winning, but you didn't obey any rules."
Neva gazed at the brother on the floor and recognized that if she proceeded as intended, she would surely lose, or get hurt at least. For as much as she had clearly awakened the beast, she also needed to take the fall. But in all this, more defiance and ridicule followed her voice.
"A little girl of ten pushed you to the ground. If I were you, I would go to the kitchen and learn to cook, that would be my place."
She gave him no time for a long answer. In a rapid movement, Elios grasped her feet firmly and threw her up into the air high above him. Neva felt her body in the air, her face smacked by it, and her mind screaming:
"Shit! I shouldn't have said that!"
Neva attempted to contort herself before she fell from the sky to reduce the damage, but she was too late. At best, she was going to get out of here with broken limbs.
Before she touched the ground, Elios ran with incredible speed, scooped her up from behind firmly, then set her carefully back onto her feet, and returned her wooden sword. His voice this time was stern, without joking:
"Round two."
Elios went back to his position, stood upright, and had his sword once more. But this was not his earlier balanced stance. No, now he was like a predator poised to strike at its prey.
He didn't count, he didn't utter a word, headvanced straight ahead, while Neva assumed a defensive posture.
Elios drew his sword with amazing power and speed, and Neva's parrying was useless. She could only retreat and parry.
In an instant, Elios crouched low and struck with his sword from below. In a flash, Neva had only one thought: "It's the same move as mine!"
She tilted her sword on its vertical axis and leaned back ever so slightly to deflect the strike—she was sure that by doing so, she would deflect him.
Shwooo
That was the cry of Neva's sword soaring through the air. She had lost, in fact, since Elios would not allow her back for her sword. More to the point, in a few seconds, she would be defeated on the ground.
"He is good!."
Her loss wasn't a result of negligence; far from it, actually, as she'd seen the maneuver coming well enough and responded wonderfully to shut it off. But she didn't realize the most rudimentary concept of all, Elios cannot be stopped.
And naturally, the next five seconds saw Neva on the ground with her eyes on the gorgeous blue sky, sword hovering over her head, and in front of her Elios with his sarcasm:
"I suppose your swordmaster didn't teach you this."
And he fell beside her, and there was silence between them for roughly two minutes before Elios opened his mouth.
"Brilliant skills for a ten-year-old girl."
In reality, Neva's girl skills at ten years old were not only great; they were the best of anyone's. that is what you get after training when you begin when you're five.
Elios was trained from the age of five and got his emanant at seven, but he was an exception. Neva, a female, to be trained as a killer wasn't something required, had it not been for her insistence owing to the passion of the chase. And in spite of all this training, her father still didn't feel that she was ready for her becoming.
After a good bit of Neva not saying anything, she looked a bit upset and then asked Elios:
"Hey, listen, about the player. where did you get him? Was he in the lower wing?"
Neva didn't need an answer, since she had already heard the information from some of the palace workers, she just wanted to be sure.
Elios sort of smiled and then replied:
"Do you think I'm stupid or something? I'm not going to say anything. Father does not want you to have him anymore."
"And why not?"
"Because he spent a small fortune on him and doesn't want you to mess it up."
Neva's expression contorted as though she didn't get something: "A fortune and his name is 'The Thief'? Did he buy him for me because I used to steal his boxers and sell it to the witchers in the city?"
Elios laughed till he cried. "Ooh, I remember that! There was this one time when we were invited to the son of the priest party, and at his entrance we were greeted by mobs with his clothes and his name on their lips. It was then that we realized his clothes had been stolen."
"I was six years old, and they told me about the kingdoms and all the legends, so I made a good deal," said Neva, who burst out laughing, and continued, "You know the legend of the River of Blood?"
"No, what's it?"
"They claim it was a regular river until before the Cosmic Treaty and the unification of the kingdoms. It was created after the incident of the Righteous King's sacrifice, formed from his blood and the blood of his soldiers who perished along with him."
Elios smiled, then spoke with a melancholic tone, "Do you honestly think that there's one for every single one of them? Between the five kingdoms and the areas between them, there must be at least 15 wonders. Is there a tale for every one of them?"
"I know it's a legend, but I've heard the folk forgot the curse many hundreds of years after the River of Blood was created, and the migrant caravans traveling through the Dreamspace couldn't help but feel the urge and drank from it, and therefore the Whisper Monsters and the twisted were formed."
Elios gazed upwards at the sky, which was slowly becoming black-orange in hue. "Those creatures are so intimidating. You can see what they've done to my father and his men in Valheim, so."
And then they heard somebody shouting from the rear; although keen, it instilled them with an incomprehensible sense of confidence.
"You two. do you have some room?"
It was the voice of Orestos—of their father.
They nodded silently. Orestos sat down afterward, and Neva leaned her head in his lap so he could comb through her hair—it was one of Neva's favorite gestures—while Elios sat across from his father, just relaxing, until he finally spoke.
"Father, if you were standing in my shoes right now and had an address for an entire people, what would you say?"
Orestos smiled warmly and nodded his assent: "In fact, I was once where you are. But I must not advise you what to do, as I am not Elios, you are. Be yourself. Don't let the weight of the throne steal what makes you, you."
Elios replied in a voice cracking with sobs, "I'm just a child."
Orestos held his shoulders. "Yes, on my honor that is true. But you are the most clever and strongest child I have ever seen. From the day your mother gave birth to you and taught you to walk, until the man you are now, you have always been special."
"Special?"
"Yes, you're special in your own way. You've done great things in your youth, and you'll be the youngest king in history. And I love you for this uniqueness, but most importantly. I love you because you are my eldest son, Elios."
"Wow, what a speech. I would have cried if it was being said to me."
Mira was behind this voice.
She went to them laughing until she came to the spot where Neva was sleeping.
"Give me room,beautiful woman."
Neva stood up from her father's lap and said in a wide-eyed innocence, "Honestly, I am thirsty. I'll get water."
She departed in haste, and Mira sat, rested her head upon the shoulder of her husband, and a creepy quiet fell between them as darkness started spreading its veil over the sun.
On the other hand, Neva was walking towards the kitchen but she had forgotten the kitchen hallway and walked in the direction of the parental bedroom, muttering to herself,
"Wait for me. you thief."