Alexiali N'mora's Return - Private

[Maddyn]

The training halls, while used frequently by the youthful rarely were used for older soldiers simply because they never seemed to need to redo the basics. But this was a first in decades, centuries even for which Alexiali was to resume and relearn at least a few skills Ethgan'tor could provide. The walls themselves of the room was comprised of the same pink veined marble and illuminated by the same bronze braziers upon the walls. But the entire floor this time rather than stone was padded with straw filled sacks of white linen. Along the walls various wooden brackets were filled with various weapons, polearms for the main though afew more exotic weapons such as sai's, axes, swords and the weapons usually seen outside Ethgan'tor.

One trained to fight against anything, expecting everyone to use bows and polearms was a good way to get hurt.

Standing within the room was a pale Esh'lahier was in the prime of his life with perfectly chiseled features that held a certain similarity with the marble walls; though underneath his eyes were dark markings of sleep deprivation and his eyes almost black in colouring. Tylinterial's one distinguishing feature being shoulder length silver hair that was shot along a single lock with purple dye and bound with a thin piece of string to keep it hanging above his left eye. His clothing was atypical of Ethgan'tor's Citizen Levy, white tunic, white brigga, grey knee high boots and a cloak of fur that was tossed into a corner of the room. About his waist was a black leather belt with a single sheathe on his left hip with a longknife within.

Within his right hand however was an ornamental glaive, hefting it with one hand as he studied the half of polished black wood and it's elven steel reinforcings and counter weight at the bottom. The top was a long blade, almost in the same slender fashion as an Elfin longsword but carved along the edge with ivy patterns and a purple gemed wildmoonflower at the very top. Alexiali's weapon to be returned once more to it's owner.

[Alexiali N'mora]

Arriving at the training halls Alexiali was still toying with the longknife he’d found in his offices, it hadn’t left his side since and the tags were still in a pocket, in fact as he walked through the room towards the Captain he once more removed it to absently tap against his hand, brows furrowed in that uncommon worry, unable to really keep still with all of it, coming closer he decided he might as well ask the man about the tags before he got any further, worst case it gave the already sour and grudge-holding Captain a reason to beat Alexiali up…which might perhaps make the man feel better and be what Ioannes wanted.

Thus as he came within speaking distance the hand not holding the longknife reached into a pocket and withdraw the tags, economically Alexiali wrapped and knotted the bronze chain to the long knife, tying it over the hilt, crossing the chain over several times and then knotting it over again, then he took the knife by the point and swing it towards the man, now, in all manners of logic the Captain would miss and get a long knife in the shoulder or it would simply land point down at the Captain’s feet…no-one said Alexiali knew how to throw a blade any more, the problem was it had been more of an automatic motion than a conscious thought, a half-memory that flickered and just as quickly died.

The newly re-instated officer therefore stopped and blinked in shock as comprehension dawned, eyes tracking the blade on whatever trajectory it held, hoping that it would either be caught or land at the man’s feet rather than cause him to dodge awkwardly and make him have even more reason to hate Alexiali than he already seemed to have…not that Alexiali could blame him for part of it.

Provided Tylinterial wasn’t dodging the blade though Alexiali gestured to it with a free hand once the crisis was past.

“What does that mean?”

He asked in a voice that brook no argument, he wanted an answer before they continued even though his eyes strayed for the first time towards the glaive; it was certainly a nice weapon, not how he’d imagined them, ugly with a blocky edged blade on the end, but then again he hadn’t remembered, no, this was certainly a far more suitable weapon than that of his imagination, spear combined with cutting edge, it would do with unarmed combat, enough to keep the wolves away.

[Maddyn]

Tylinterial hadn't exactly been expecting a blade thrown at his being, and for all Alexiali's knowledge being shattered in part it quickly became apparent that either the Esh'lahier had been pretty good at throwing knives, or this was just luck. Throwing straight at Tylinterial, Longknifes weren't the greatest for throwing given their shape and so spun at an angle, the chain itself loosening from Alexiali's weave but not to any major degree where the tags might've broken free entirely.

"Feth!" Tylinterial cried, and as a last minute action twisted his body to the side and turned the glaive's blade around so the flat was pointed at Alexiali' Nowhere nearly being wide enough to act as a shield, the longknife's hilt struck the flat of the blade, the edge itself nicking Tylinterial's cheek in a downwards slash before spinning on the opposite direction from the hilt impacting against the glaives blade and dropping towards Tylinterial's side a metre or two away.

It wasn't a serious injury, and only a few droplets of blood ran down Tylinterial's cheek. The Esh'lahier studying Alexiali as if he was insane, unknowing what'd prompted that as he tenatively moved to the side to pick up the knife and tags. "You could've handed it to me..." Tylinterial whispered to himself, his tone of voice remaining to be filled with that dead, hurt quality Alexiali'd heard in the Captain's Office. His reaction wasn't profound as he looked at the tags, frowning as he glanced at them before wrinkling his nose in disgust.

"One of Prince Ebany's men now...or was. Dead according to the word the Houses were passing about. Where'd you find this?" Tylinterial queried, moving towards Alexiali and offering the longknife again hilt first. The tags themselves however weren't offered, remaining in Tylinterial's hands as he held them to the point where his knuckles were pure white, noticeable in spite of the Esh'lahier's pale skin.

[Alexiali N'mora]

Alexiali’s eyes noticeably hovered on the white knuckles and the tags as he retrieved the longknife, silent for a moment as he tried to puzzle out why the other had kept the tags and seemed to be holding them so hard. After all his response hadn’t been that forced yet the disgust? Was that it?

“In my office door.”

He said at long last, slapping the hilt of the longknife against his palm, then looking at the hand that had thrown the item accusingly, as if daring it to try something odd again.

“I take it there’s more to it? Or are you just annoyed that I’ve forgotten how to throw a knife?”

Alexiali continued, the comment hardly sarcastic at all, that same intent, almost worried gaze directed at Tylinterial, the man was a worry, what did he want and why? It did no good having an enemy he knew nothing about, even if that enemy seemed to be trying to remember Alexiali didn’t know what he’d done wrong, probably the other Captain wouldn’t tell him though, just die down to lessons.

[TheReaper]

how can i play this game? i don´t know what to do...

[Maddyn]

Alexiali N'mora:

There was always more to every tale, and while Tylinterial was less than happy with Alexiali's knife throw - it was ultimately only a scratch and nothing to be worried about. It wasn't like Alexiali's aimed at his chest for one thing...being dead might've been a fitting release from the punishments and pain that comprised life thereof. "Little from column A...lil from..." Tylinterial started with a whisper of a smile, the first sign of a familiar old amusemet that faded all too readily.

"He was one of your other Lieutenants...promoted to Captain at the same time as myself and played a part in my failure..." he started softly, the unspoken words all but ringing through the air in a silent accusation. My failure...but one you could've saved me from had you been here... "Captain Shary'lian ap'Peitin... he's dead though now, but then you know the old creed... people are never dead until you see the body..."

OOC:
TheReaper:

Hiya,

Alright, it's kind of difficult to condense everything about Alleria into a quick easy start unfortunately. The basics (and I use this term loosely as you'll see can be found here. A Player Advisor will probably send you a PM to help you through everything in the next few days unless they're really, really busy with stuff like picking a city to start in, starting equipment and the like.

I tend to be online daily, so if you'd like to go through things over PM or IM I'm usually about. As well as there being people about in the java chatroom if you're after something a little bit more prompt. (Chat URL's at the top of the page just in case you missed it - usually there's a GM or two in there, some PC's and if you're un/lucky a couple of GD's as well. )

My details are as follows...I'm Australian so be warned that it's difficult to catch he some days :-/

AIM: Aderyn12
MSN: Aderyn2000@hotmail.com
Email: Aderyn12@yahoo.com

Cheers, Maddyn

[Alexiali N'mora]

“Ah yes.”

Alexiali said mirthlessly in reply to the statement regarding the ‘creed’, he knew that one far too well, he himself an example of it. Wisely perhaps he didn’t bother pressing the issue with the unstable Esh’lahier, choosing instead to disregard it and, equally, disregard the tags, he could retrieve them and discover more later.

For, unfortunately, despite his feeling that he owed the man something Alexiali wasn’t above using the Captain for his own means, for now, until he was capable of bringing things up without potential death.

“Well.” He said at last. “Where do we start?”

[Maddyn]

Sighing softly underneath his breath, Tylinterial didn't exactly look happy with things but then there was little cause for the Esh'lahier to be happy with since he'd seen Alexiali. Never again could Tylinterial be the low ranking soldier he'd once happily served in, with only a tiny amount of responsibility weighing down his shoulders that now threatened to break him. "We start at the beginnings Captain unless you'd rather start off with the more advanced techniques and stylings?" Tylinterial stated in the same melancholic tones, uncaring really for an answer seeing as Alexiali had stated briefly what he wanted...

Leaving him there for a moment while he went to claim one of the glaives resting along the wall in the various racks, two were claimed, balanced in either hand before the one in his left hand was returned. The glaive Tylinterial chose having a black wooden half polished and laqured, the blade itself thin and shaped like an Elfin longsword with gold filigree detailing the glaive. Returning, rather calmly he brought the haft about to claim the glaive in his left hand as well, so that it ran at a diagonal from his right shoulder to left hip. "You're going to be bored senseless by the end of this I assure you...we always were..."

Standing deliberately with his feet together, he stepped aside so that they were shoulders width. Stepping forwards again with his right foot, Tylinterial lowered his center of balance so that his right knee was bent so that should the Esh'lahier look right down he could've only seen the toes of his boot. His left leg on the other hand was almost perfectly straight. Both feet were turned at an angle for comfort reasons - having the feet point directly forwards would've been somewhat painful in the long run. "Alexiali, Forward stance - guard position. Try this first, then we'll move a few paces forwards and do some of the strikes before altering the stance...make sure you're ready to fight straight away rather than doing stance and drills only."

[Alexiali N'mora]

It was vaguely familiar, that was the problem, familiar yet so completely alien that he was stuck between frustration at his inability to do it instinctively and confusion at how he could possibly know anything about it. Still he found some medium as he began the exercises, he had to or he’d fail completely. As it was Alexiali hadn’t even replied to the other man’s first, dull question, instead waiting for him to get on with things, slowly moving into the right stance and…beginning, till he got to where he was now, slowly slashing and repeating…it was all about making it automatic.

Right foot forward, bent, left foot back, straight, balance, flexibility, Alexiali remembered and yet did not, he vaguely knew that he’d known not only glaive but rapier and some kind of Zinn’ka as well, Ataa perhaps? Yes, there was a memory of him in a courtyard in Nexus Prime with Laura…Laura and another man, how he missed Laura even though he could not remember all he knew of her, the man had rushed him and he had simply turned and, with a movement, put the man to the floor, disarmed…

Momentarily distracted he paused in the stance then nodded to the other man.

“Moving one foot before the other perhaps? I remember a little of this, maintaining balance is the important thing, no?”

[Maddyn]

"Correct." The Esh'lahier stated softly, his voice slipping into a bland monotone and lacking emotion the more he spoke with Alexiali. What musical vestiges remained seemed more used to conveying pain and hurt than any sense of joy. "Balance is the key here, when you move forwards bring your back leg forwards and in so that the sides of your feet almost touch before sliding the foot forwards to alter the stance. The other method, and the better one admittedly is as follows." Tylinterial continued.

Maintaining the guard position, Tylinterial rather than bringing in his foot basically did what Alexiali had expected. Somewhere between a shuffle and a lunge forwards that maintained the front foot forwards and a position of balance. All the while, regardless of what Tylinterial did however his shoulders were squared and not once was there a bobbing movement. Even when he moved the blade from right to left in a cross slash across his body - Tylinterial's shoulders barely moved.

Rather than halting there however, Tylinterial brought his front foot so it was backwards as he raised the glaive upwards so that it was almost perfectly vertical before continuing the motion in an anti-clockwise fashion so as to cut across his body this time from left to right. The end movement being lunge-strike-retreat-strike.

[Alexiali N'mora]

So, to extend the blade and swipe away from the body did not necessarily require an overextension of balance and definitely did not require or want to involve shoulder movement. Something was vague remembered but less about this than other things; which made sense, this was from a life before the last one he’d had with the Whispers, a life he’d almost completely forgotten.

Sensing the echoes none the less Alexiali worked to repeat the manoeuvre, with each attempt hopefully refining the movement of the swing a little more and reduce the shoulder movement and jittery unbalance that would no doubt be present, only correctable with practice.

The practice and the correction were of course both essential however, for any imbalance or unequal grasp would mean that a single blow from another weapon could send Alexiali to the floor, or worse, into his own weapon.

Thusly it went, forward, slash, twist as retreating and slash again to avoid repercussions, he knew there was so much more to it and yet knew there was no way he could learn it all so quickly, patience borne of irony kept him going, although he had to admit it was hardly stimulating, if essential.

[Maddyn]

“Wrist exercises.” Tylinterialstated with a note of satisfaction within his depressed tone of voice, still holding the glaive in one hand. “Rotate always in an anti-clockwise motion Alexiali and everything will be much easier for this. Slow circles to begin with and there’s naturally a purpose to this.” Tylinterial started, waiting for any questions from Alexiali before continuing. Remaining standing upright with his feet positioned parallel to each other and about at shoulders width, the Esh'ahier faced to the right to watch the glaive's movement.

Turning it to the left with just his wrist, the Esh'lahier shoulders barely moved until the blue metal blade was almost pointing at the ground. From there Tylinterial twisted the blade upwards so that it began in a closewise motion to bring his right hand so that the wrist was face upwards. Downwards again before returning to be anti-clockwise as a figure of eight was completed. “It’s to hold people at bay, your can deal several different strikes positioned all across the body…and, it’s unlikely to ever be amongst your capabilities – done properly can be used as a shield if you can manage to spin the glaive fast enough so that arrow shafts always end up getting at least hit by the glaive. Not the best protection, but it makes for blows glancing should they be lethal… unless they hit in the throat of course.”

Rather than being finished there however, the Esh'lahier faced the other direction and as soon as Tylinterial brought the glaive back downwards in the anti-clockwise motion that’d been at the beginning of the figure of eight brought his left hand across. Wrist upwards, Tylinterial changed the spear so that it was now in his left hand before the figure of eight was completed again. Always the metal blade remained on the outside of the circles being created regardless of changing hands – thus the necessity of beginning at an anticlockwise motion. "After this, we'll go through the four blocks and you'll have suffiicent knowledge for the basic workings."

[Alexiali N'mora]

A lot, there was a lot to take in…or was there? In the end Alexiali had done it all before, it was a matter of memory; both of forcing new memories in and reviving the old. It was all in the wrist and the smooth changes of grip, if you messed the wrist up then you’d be in an awkward position and probably break something when a sword struck, if you messed the change of grip up then, well, as far as Alexi could see he was likely to get a glaive in the chest due to it being struck while he wasn’t holding it properly. Therefore he put the same carefully attention as before into the motion.

In the end the thing that was so, well, useful about the glaive as far as Alexi saw it was that in a straight combat situation – space constraints aside – it offered far more flexibility than a simple sword blade, hard to conceal, true, but that was why he was also looking into unarmed combat, there was a time and a place for different arts, this was all true.

[Maddyn]

Rememberance of past knowledge, each aspect taught to Alexiali sunk in like a bad case of deja vu. Hints of exactly how to use this simple movement catching in the Esh'lahien Elf's mind, not only the usage of keeping others at bay or arrows but the control that could be applied to the situation. Of being able to variate and hit someone's wrist, side, leg... the rotation meaning Alexiali had his complete ad utter choice of targets and enough ability to guage when and where a strike could deal the intended damage. "The more you practice this the better, you want your wrists flexible so that your shoulders don't move... makes your movements less predictable not to mention usage in short blades and unarmed." he stated softly, releasing a soft sigh.

The exercises he was sure Alexiali knew, the simple ones such as using one hand to hold your fingers and then pulling them as far backwards as possible. Or downwards until you could touch your forearm with your fingertips.

"We'll go through the blocks now, there's no point overextending yourself on anything more than the basics right now when there's more to go through Alexiali...the first is known as an Upper Guard." the Elf stated, remaining in his stance with the glaive extended into a guard position as he stopped spinning the weapon. The movement was simple, far from elegant but then functionality was the purpose here. Bringing the glaive upwards, both of his hands slid a little bit to either side so that the gap between his hands was shoulder width. Raising it above his head and perfectly horizontal, the movement was basically designed to help guard against blows to the head. The metal guarding along the centre for reinforcing acting to make sure the weapon wasn't broken almost immediately.

[Alexiali N'mora]

Alexiali repeated the gesture but glanced at his tutor carefully as a memory or a fragment of one came floating back; the ghost of a memory that was probably beyond what he was meant to be taught here but he’d need to remember it eventually. Therefore as he held the glaive up Alexiali released it with one hand and gestured.

“Lock the two please, an overhead slash, like a sword hit.”

Slowly once the request was complied with, his tutors blade probably slashing vertically downward, Alexiali mimed pushed it upwards, trusting in the other man to raise the blade as would be the case when extra force was used, meanwhile he used the wrist rotation he’d been taught so much about to twist the pole end of the glaive toward his tutor, miming a tap to the head with it, then moving up and down.

He was basically testing options, after deflecting such a hit a swipe to the head seemed the best option as it could be followed by a slash with the glaive edge or further butting with the staff in order to subdue an opponent, or, Alexiali asked for it to be done again, watching the man’s staff.

The Esh’lahier outcast mimed the upward motion of his own glaive again then swept the butt of the glaive towards the other man’s hands as he took a step backward, again the movements slow, he was all too aware of his lack of knowledge and mind to body control, he’d injure the man or more likely himself if he tried anything quickly.

“Plenty of options then.”

He considered aloud, since swiping the rear hand would most likely injure it, it could even break the wrist and that would be dire.