Kapitel 95: Arthur 33
293AC
I grimaced as the padded sword hit my shoulder, my own practice blade knocked aside and caught out by Asha's riposte.
'That's going to leave a bruise.' I thought Asha withdrew. "Good match."
"You still leave yourself too open from above, Arthur," Jaerys commented from the side in full teacher mode. "When you grow taller it will be less of an issue, but you really do need to spend more time with it. I had not realized how long we had gone without practice. You will need to spend more time on your swordplay when we arrive home."
"Thank you for the lesson Jaerys," I said, only a slight tone of sarcasm in my voice as I turned back to Asha. "Did you really need to hit me that hard?"
"Serves you right for killing poor Jeana." My blood-sister said, stretching her arms out. Her thief had tried to pick a fight with a giant earlier, despite warnings against it from the townspeople, and she had insisted on a sparring match after she got squashed.
So we had cleared a bit of space on the deck and had my sworn-sword come up and serve as referee. It wasn't as if he had much better to do. He occasionally stood guard outside of my cabin, but I got the feeling that the Velarion was quite bored with the journey, much like most of the crew who weren't up in the rigging or behind the ship's wheel at any given time.
I honestly had no idea what the Marines were even gambling with at this point. Perhaps they were passing the same pairs of socks back and forth around their groups to pass the time.
"I didn't kill your character, Asha. The Dice did."
"Like hell they did." She said. "That fight was unfair."
"You weren't supposed to fight it, it was a Giant! It'd be like trying to fight an elephant by yourself in real life."
Asha rolled her eyes at me, chuckling. "But you put it there. That whole game's been unfair from the start. That's why you wanted to run the world, to begin with, so you could decide what type of monsters there were."
"Gods Asha just quit it already. What do you want?"
Cooped up together in a cabin for more than a month at this point, I could read my new sister fairly well, and it clearly wasn't just about her dead character at this point.
Asha stopped chuckling as she turned to see the crew loafing around us, mostly those who had come to watch the fairly short sword-fight.
"Not here. Inside." She said, and I nodded, following her back into my cabin.
"Now, what is it?"
Asha's face turned a bit guilty, and she sighed deeply. "The men are saying that you're sleeping with me."
"Ah." That was… that was a problem. "I suppose I should have seen that coming. I had just assumed they would think me too young for that."
"The rumors are that I've seduced you, so your age probably isn't a factor," Asha said, matter of factly. "The issue is the harm that it could do to your reputation when you give me my ship, especially since you've said you want to marry Arianne Martell. My own reputation is probably rock bottom anyhow owing to my being an Ironborn." Asha shrugged. "Still, the issue is that we need to suppress this without looking like we're trying to do so.
I pressed my fingers into the space between my eyes. This wasn't the kind of issue that I was expecting to run into for at least another couple years, but I really should have started worrying about it the moment Arianne pulled her little stunt the first night in Dorne.
Still, nothing to be done now. "Right. Well, be forthright with it. That's the best way to appear guiltless. I'll get Jaerys and the others who've guarded the door to testifying. With no one credible backing their case it should be fine." I saw Asha kind of squirm for a moment, but then she straightened out and nodded. "I'll need to tell Arianne about our blood oath as well. That should at least alleviate any future fears on her part."
Asha nodded, turning to the window, which looked out over the wide blue ocean. "Gods I'm getting sick of this boat. I was born to the waters but this voyage is just taking too long."
I shared the sentiment. We had been at sea for nearly two months at this point. "Can't let it get to us though, we'll be back to land soon enough by my calculations."
"And if you're wrong?"
"Then we have another month of provisions if well rationed. We can use the wind to go east to Sothoryos or the Summer Isles, but I doubt we could be much further south. We haven't been making great time back, but it has been constant movement for the most part." I moved up, hugging my sister with a small crackle of electricity. "We'll be alright."
"I know," Asha said, shaking her head. "I know."
I quickly released her however as I heard a knock at the door, stepping back.
"Come in."
"My Prince. The Wind has changed."
"Has it calmed again?" It had done so a few times, leaving us painfully stranded for hours.
"No, it's a warm wind, heading to the East."
I felt a shiver of excitement run through me. "The wind of Dorne?"
"The Captain thinks so."
I turned to Asha, grinning from ear to ear.
"Told you so."
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein