(Part 1)

Having made clear his plans to one of the bluntest figures in the Household, the vazir and his aide Mardanish now quietly made their egress, taking precautions not to be followed: among which was checking their left and right carefully every few turns, as well as taking more tortuous routes to reach the vazir's office.

Azalea, having split ways with the vazir, also imitated such methods for herself, managing to reach her own chambers and in there donned her garb of choice for riding or hunting: plain white shirt beneath a maroon vest, coupled with dirt-brown trousers (already stitched in a few places) with boots of similar hue. This done, she navigated her way to the dining room, where everyone else was already in the midst of their morning repast.

"Well, well," Leia remarked, more surprised at the other's dress-up than her re-appearance, "if it isn't our colorful sister. I was worried where you might've been; we all are."

"Where I'd been, Pighead, you need not know," came the other princess's terse reply with a vengeful side-glance at Mirani, who pretended not to notice. Dastra, however, sitting right beside her, smiled slightly. "My presence at this table is still appreciated, I hope?"

"It is, dear," the Amir replied from the head of the table. "Take your seat, then, if you please, and let's all resume the repast."

Azalea nodded, and saw to her silent satisfaction that the servants too had not quite forgotten about her: a plate, utensils, and a trencher of half a fish (the other half had most likely been taken by Rashid, who was wiping his mouth with a napkin just one seat away) had been prepared.

To this meal Zalea now dug in.

"Well, dear," Mama Viper whispered as she casually passed behind her daughter's seat once she was sure that the other diners had left the room, having maintained dignified manners throughout, "you had been rescued, I presume? The instigator I have yet to track down... but pray do not regard it as deliverance just yet."

"There is a higher ordering than yours, Mom, and I don't care a prick if ya like it or not," Zalea responded with a snicker. "My deliverance, if indeed it was, merely shows that there are yet those in this realm who would rather not see it succumb to your fires of deceit."

"For now," Mirani acknowledged. "You may have gotten out of this strand of the web; come what may--"

"You have many more--yes?" the princess leered. "Have it your way. Threads, however numerous, are thin; one hard swing and off they shall go."

"And you think you can deliver that one swing?"

"Will you be proud of me then, I wonder?"

To her surprise, Zalea found her head being patted. "I might. And you might be looking at me in the eyes then, or from six feet under, alone and unmourned; remains to be seen either way. This line of work ain't with no challenges, yes?"

On the mention of that last line, keener observers might have noticed the slight tic and flash of anxiety in the princess's eyes; for that was darn-near enough to what Yasnar himself had uttered hours earlier. Zalea blinked, and as she did so, saw her mother heading out of the room.

Too darn-close for my liking, the princess exhaled. Whatever plans I might have, best be quick in putting 'em to play...

***

"Oi, Pighead! Wait up!"

At such a call, Leia paused in her way. "Not seeking another beef, I hope, Sis? You just had half a fish to yourself--"

Zalea, with casual ease, ignored the jibe; instead she found herself delighted to have once again chosen an outfit that so much eased her movements. "Walk with me."

"Where?"

"The training grounds. 'Side from workin' so docilely with sewing needles, I know you've tried some actual swordplay with Akhi when he was home last. Teach. Me."

Lei blinked, grinning. "Not your way of saying 'I'm dead jealous', is it?"

"Heck, Mu's as much your eldest bro as he is mine; how come you alone got to sword-play with 'im?"

"Jea-lous~"

"LEIA!"

The other princess laughed, putting up her hands in mock-surrender. "Be glad to, but... in that garb?"

"You'd need to change to this get-up too, darn it," came the flushed, arms-crossed response, "unless you wish for 'nother slash on that fine dress that badly."

Lei pursed her lips. "Talk as we walk."

"Best start now." They did. "Is it really that un-amenable, though, for girls to wield swords--think you?"

Vestra's daughter tilted her own head quickly from left to right. "Not like they would have to actually enter battlefields."

"What the heck, Lei, they could have, no matter what members of the other sex might blabber--as healers, corpse-carriers, morale-raisers, whatnot. Even then, should the 'men' on the front ever get shattered--who the freak shall they rely on to fill in the very last layer of proper defense? Do you think the enemy woulda freakin' cared who might stand before them, so long as they carry weapons? Huh?!"

"Sound points, those," Leia mused. "Think you should've addressed Father on this, not me."

"Bad idea."

"And why? He's led soldiers before..."

"Not female ones, I'll bet."

"You've lost," Lei giggled. "There had been a certain Senna Karistra, serving as commander of one of our archer detachments during the great clash on Badra Plains."

Zalea blinked. "How did you..?"

"History books."

"My tutors didn't-" the 'wolf princess' started to retort, then trailed off.

Those same tutors were in Mama Viper's pay; why would she have allowed them to mention accounts of the same battle that heralded the end of her own line?

Even had those tutors been somehow courageous enough to let off such a 'delicate' tip, some 'embers' of personal sentiments as fellow 'people of these lands' would have remained; thick enough to further gloss over that particular event while secretly wishing Zalea's maternal grandfather a happy goodnight.

Presently, thus, Zalea could only grit her teeth.

"I... haven't gotten that far in my studies," this princess conceded, flushing. "So there had been a female commander among us, then, had there not?"

"Only gap there, is a way to verify it. It's been years; army records had, even if you're interested to pry that far, been reshuffled and revised so darn-many times."

"Oh, freak it." Zalea shrugged. "Ain't gonna spend hours on scrolls of moth-eaten papers anyway; not when I could just ask Dad 'bout it. In any case, best not miss the point: that even females could make a name in our army. The very first step of that is through skill in arms, and in my case, you are gonna help me achieve it."

"No doubt your mother too thought of--Whoa!"

Lei yelped, for almost in a flash, a knife was being pointed to her face. For an instant she feared it might have been a dagger, but on second glance the princess saw that it was an utensil meant to cut butter during mealtimes. The wielder's present countenance gave no grounds for even the smallest consolation, however.

"Friendly tip, Pighead," the other princess growled, "don't provoke me by breathin' a word 'bout that cursed hag for as long as we ain't finished with this session in my training; or next time, my hands might slip. Understood?"

"And just like that, Sis, you seem to need far more practiced hands to guide you than those of even your fellow princess..."

"Screw that. Akhi's not here, that means you are the one expected to be in charge of affairs concerning this Household... so I came to you first. Askin' Dad would take too darn-long: he'd just advise me to go to Narvis and that dunderhead would in turn blab on supposed responsibilities, rules and fine lines 'twixt the sexes that I could or should not cross, round and round, 'fore givin' in all the same to some sort of cajoling if not straight bluffs n' threats; precious time lost. Gettin' tired of all such trash, Leia, y'know?"

As she talked, Zalea flung the utensil forth; it clanged onto the stem of a small octagonal marble fountain marking the crossroads heading to and from the training grounds, and was soon forgotten.

"All the same, Sis, I don't think it's right to dispense altogether with proper rules-"

The other princess just chuckled. "Not gonna bicker there, I swear. Yours is the more well-versed mom when it came to rules. Beside that, I'm nothin' but an uncouth brat who cares deeply for her li'l bro."

"See, you have good points too."

"Not gonna work, Pighead."

"Azalea, realIy, I just want to-"

"I said it's not gonna work!" this princess exclaimed. "Your weapon of choice is sweet words, so far I've noticed; your shield, prayer; your armor, love--very same chip of that preachy lass, I tell ya. How long will each hold 'gainst cold steel in the dark, I wonder? How long, 'gainst whispers and slanders? Akhi's the best warrior I could think of after Dad, but even they failed to really withstand both and save my bro!"

Leia met her sister's gaze. "And what, think you, does Dastra need saving from?"

"I..!"

Once more Azalea was metaphorically floored. From the hag's clutches, she wanted to point out... but here again this princess realized how she too had been playing no small part in Mira's schemes, all those years; how could she claim to be less guilty than the so-called 'hag'?

The misbehavior notwithstanding, it's her own mom as well. Would Zalea really have the heart to take part in any earnest attempt to take such a figure down; for then she'd be an orphan, almost by choice? Could she brave that kind of risk? What would her brother say then--the same figure whom she shall be trying to 'save'?

She might not be the quickest-witted kid around, but even Zalea could sense how dumb this whole proposition would appear to be.

Not ratting Mirani out, however--would that not be a sign of weakness, in choosing to keep one's mouth and conscience shut just as a flurry of sins were being incurred before one's very presence? Was it not an obligation to prevent sins? Even still--

"Darn you, Mom," the girl muttered. "Love you, but... darn you."

"Right," Leia's voice and noises of clacking wooden swords, bellowed instructions and various other sorts at length helped jerk the other princess back to reality. "Here we are: the palace training grounds."

(Part 2)

"Attention!" one of that place's attendants called out, to one of the visitors' chagrin. "Their excellencies, Princesses Leia and Azalea!"

The trainees dropped whatever training stance they were on and almost seamlessly formed into two lines, their practice weapons lowered in deference; making an uninterrupted lane in their midst, through which the visitors now passed to meet Narvis, the overseer, who duly presented himself at the head of said column.

"At ease, grunts," Zalea remarked to the line of stoic faces.

Narvis Sadanastra, the Elbarian master-of-arms, was a man of rather portly stature; under his daily garb of boiled leather and sleeveless satin doublet, however, this was not readily apparent--more so because it was said of him, 'Allow that geezer but one moment to catch hold of a weapon, any weapon, and you might not want to laugh so hard'. He was whispered to have been part of Urdin's 'unripened' siege of Melvir; more colorful chroniclers had even gone so far as to claim this 'geezer' as one of the guards of the field tent into which the Melviran envoy had come to submit his nocturnal proposal.

Such a figure now stood to receive, in his own no-less-prosaic terms, 'Urdin's angels'.

"Excellencies."

"'Lo, geezer." Azalea smirked. "We're on business today, if that ain't plain 'nough."

"If said business is the sort I might help with, Princess..."

"It is. I wish to do weapon practice. Lei's here to help."

The other princess nodded in confirmation. "Got something I might change into, while we're at it?"

The master-at-arms nodded lightly to both requests: Leia was a familiar sight on these grounds, in occasional company of her eldest sibling, while Azalea had been demanding training sessions during what she'd dubbed 'silent hours'. The master-of-arms might have attempted to tell off such practices but for the marked increases that he'd seen in this princess's prowess... and he was in fact quite eager for more of a display.

"I wish you both a happy training," he presently remarked.

"Appreciated, sir," Lei replied.

"Should it be in your excellencies' best interests," Narvis offered, eyeing the line of yet-to-be-dismissed trainees, "your upcoming session might be something of a spectacle; I'm quite convinced we could get some takers from this lot."

Zalea managed an 'Up for it?' wink at her sister; to which Lei sighed.

"Focus on winning, Sis, not the show."

"If this were the real thing, you'd probably not get claps for winnin' anyways," Zalea countered, "so why not try n' get both, provided even half the chance? Or--are ya chickenin'? Boy, Akhi sure wouldn't like that one bit..."

Lei was silent for a moment, eyes closed; then opened again.

"I'm here to help, Zalea," she pointed out, "not, so help me, to bash you for real. Don't bring Akhi into this, if you--"

"Can you really?"

"Were your blade even half as tampered as that tongue, I'm sure as heck you'll be fine." Mu's true sister now turned to regard Narvis, indifference and quiet contempt dueling for show on her countenance. "How many bouts?"

"However many would suit you, excellency."

"Heck, go on then," Zalea prodded. "Ya're on the wrong side o' the challenge, Pighead; your givin' the final say's only darn-fair."

"Be it so," came the reply. "Three bouts, each ending with one's backside on the ground. No time limits."

"Ya're on."

"O ye people!" the master-of-arms declared. "Here today, our princesses wish to make a demonstration of their respective skills in arms. Those of you who are willing to take part in observance are welcome to, and those who might wish to consider themselves dismissed for the day, may do so!"

The response was almost unequivocal: the trainees' practice weapons that had been lowered in deference were now raised in salute, accompanied by cheering which became no less ecstatic for the fact that Prince Rashid was also among them. Whilst Leia got on to donning the necessary get-ups, the trainees contented themselves with forming a great ring of flesh and standing to attention as they waited, grateful for the respite.

Here too young Rashid played his part.

"Who do you think might win?" he allowed the question to pass.

"The wolfling, I daresay," one remarked. "That one's spent more time outside, met more people; must've learned tricks from 'em that the other wouldn't even dream o' pullin' off."

"Nonsense," another put in. "The young lioness ain't no pushover, either; she's been trained by no less a figure than Prince Mustafa himself. What chance would that uncouth brat have?"

"Say so before her in person and let's all see if you can still keep your tongue after that, shall we?"

"She'd need to know her place, either way; just the daughter of a second spouse. Princess Leia will help ensure that."

"Both," Rashid asserted then, "are my sisters, and I will suffer no ill words about them."

"Be that as it may, my prince..."

At this point the conversation trailed off. Leia re-entered in training garb: a sleeve-less boiled leather, jet-black trousers, and matching boots. One of the more daring trainees tossed her a wooden sword; she snatched it in mid-air with some grace and with it tried a few practice slashes even as she entered the ring of disciples.

"Hey, you there," Lei called, pointing with the sword to its audacious tosser, "tell me--could it be part of your aspirations to end up in the spear infantry detachment, somehow?"

Said trainee blushed. "'Tis indeed what I'd been made fun of so many times, Princess, but- how..?"

"Nice fling you got there. Hours of practice, I can tell... Spot-on, too. Got a name, initiate?"

"Raidan, my lady."

"Wish you well, Raidan."

"T-thank you most sincerely!"

Azalea, meanwhile--already in her riding garb--had time to mutter "Such a show off" before 'borrowing' a fashioned sword from one of the other trainees. The contestants now stood three meters apart.

"You sure about this, Zalea?"

"'Nough blabbing. Ready when you are."

Narvis looked at one contestant, then the other, observing their stances: Leia stood with her legs slightly apart, her sword held a bit to the back; the weapon itself pointed apparently for a straight thrust opening, with the other arm held at chest level.

While maintaining a somewhat similar leg stance, Azalea's sword arm was poised for a downward lunge. None of the contestants bothered to ask for shields; not even leather-covered ones.

"Commence!"

Zalea obliged, her opening move being a fierce downward thrust straight at the opponent's head. Lei narrowly evaded it by taking a step back almost on reflex, before pivoting with a grunt for a sweeping side slash aiming to disarm or--failing that--wound Zalea's sword arm.

The other princess ducked backwards just in time, however; the weapon passing harmlessly in an almost-fatal arc before her eyes. She next tried a jumping stab, but Lei held her weapon up and the blow connected with an audible 'clack'.

The crowd cheered.

"Go, Big Sis!" Rashid yelled. "Fight, Azalea!"

"Whoo! Crap, that's Akhi's trainin' for ya," the wolfling princess observed. "Heck of a punch, should it connect..."

"This all you got?" Leia shot back as their gazes met.

With a roar Zalea pressed her own weapon forcefully against that of Lei's, breaking the deadlock. Lei had barely had time to stagger backwards and take stock of her stance, before she was confronted with a swirling side kick to her gut that sent her reeling. A number of the spectators took involuntary gasps.

The first bout went to Azalea.

"Oomph--!"

"What's that? Gimme a decent fight already, Pighead."

Lei got up with some effort, spat some phlegm away, and smirked even as she wiped some of the trails off the corners of her mouth with a thumb.

"You've grown, Sis," she remarked, "but I'm not done yet."

"Impress me."

Thus goaded, Lei readjusted her stance. This time the sword arm was poised for a downward thrust, with the other hand held up to indicate the number 'two' while putting a slightly greater physical distance between them than before. The wolfling princess narrowed her eyes in puzzled anticipation.

In place of Zalea's own opening move of a single downward thrust, Leia was able--thanks to hours of rigorous training and the altered distances, thereby allowing for greater momentum--to pull off a double one. When her first downward thrust--at the end of a sprint--was roundly parried, this princess used the split-second momentum thus generated to perform a forward whirl mid-air and with it delivered a second, more savage downward slash with such force that by its end, Azalea's parrying blade cracked.

Crap, the latter seethed in that blink of realization. So that finger gesture from before ain't random!

That was, however, hardly the end of the assault. In direct payback for the swirling side kick used against her earlier, Leia pulled off one now; against the full force of which her fiery sister could only rely on a cracked wooden blade--now being held horizontally with some haste at eye level, with her other hand held protectively slightly behind it.

As might be guessed, it availed little.

"Yah!"

"Freak..!"

This last attack actually pushed Zalea a few yards back; her knees were practically buckling beneath her by its end, but stand her ground she did.

Her weapon had, however, also been snapped clean.

"No way--that's just freakin' absurd!" Zalea blurted. "Oi, Narv! The heck happens when one contestant is disarmed in such a manner?!"

"The disarmer claims victory," came the response, "since the vanquished would have to exchange her weapon outside the immediate area of combat. Things might not prove to be so forgiving out there, however, so the better advice would be to retain sidearms with you always."

"Such a bother," the wolfling princess conceded through gritted teeth.

(Part 3)

Azalea, however, was nothing if not resilient. Tossing the broken weapon away after a respite lasting just enough to catch her breath, she bull-rushed to her opponent with only her bare fists; much to the latter's surprise.

"Wha- wait, I thought..."

"Think this!"

It was now Leia's turn to try and defend herself; the greater distance that had worked to her advantage rapidly diminishing as Zalea closed in, all while delivering a chain of lightning-fast jabs directed at places that Lei found nigh impossible to counter.

"Sis!" Lei managed between evasions of these flurries. "Narvis just said-" A close block with the sword's flat side against a left stopper, "-you're disqualified when disarmed! This-" a hasty duck before a right haymaker, "-is cheating!"

"Yeah?" Zalea grunted, narrowly jumping backwards and away from the opponent's pivoting leg sweep. "Well, you said-" She sidestepped Lei's attempt at another counter-swing and shoulder-barged her on the face: blood spurted as the latter staggered backwards again, barely maintaining her balance, "-that a bout lasts 'til one of us is down; 'course I'd believe ya more. So now-" the wolfling princess rushed again and took hold of her sister's neck, prompting an astonished 'Urk!' "-go kiss the dirt for me, would ya."

This said, Azalea pushed her sister lightly to the ground, making her land on the back.

"Guh..."

Again the bout went to Mirani's willful daughter.

"Whew," she mused, dusting herself, "been a while since I had so much fun, gotta say."

The trainee who had been the one to remark of this princess as an 'uncouth brat', now whistled.

"I stand corrected," he murmured, "she is an uncouth brat with the skills to match."

This peon was further jolted, however, when the princess being referred turned and winked knowingly at him.

"I'm wild, ya buffoon," she whispered back, "not dumb. Never forget that."

"But..." Leia interrupted, blinking, "I still don't get it. You didn't have a weapon, how could Narv still have allowed the match to proceed? He said the winner could claim victory..."

"So leave 'em no room to make that claim." Zalea shrugged. "'Sides--sidearm, always, blah blah. Nothin' else to fight with? Yer own body works darn-fine, ya've seen that. Matches might yet be fussed over; real fights are won or lost... and we are doin' the latter. Narv?"

The master-of-arms nodded grimly.

"This should be a demonstration, I did say," he called out to the ring of disciples, "and so it's turning out to be. Here you have been spending time learning how to fight in ways that, as far as possible, do not demean your opposition. Others out there, come what may, could entertain quite different notions on 'ethics' and 'honor'; in such cases, act accordingly. Adapt. Improvise. With due respect, this was what we found Princess Leia had fallen short of doing, hence her sorry loss. But from every loss we learn!"

Zalea grinned amidst the reflective silence. "Smart mouth ya got, geezer--true, as well. All the same, it ain't in my clearest conscience to be branded a cheater 'fore so many; so for this third bout let's all stick to the rules once more. Any of ya peons might be willing 'nough to see me slam some more sense to this gardener's scion? Eh?"

Yet another disciple tossed her a fashioned sword. It flew end over end; Zalea kneed it at just the right moment, altering the trajectory and momentum. The wolfling princess then caught it as it flew level with her chest, adding another side swipe for charm's sake.

Completely ignoring the now-beaming disciple--not even a 'thanks'-- Zalea returned to the task at hand.

"Akhi sure trained you well, Pighead, ain't no lie," she remarked with a smile to her now-recovered sister, "so consider this my entry test, shall we? If I lose to you here, heck, I'm not even worthy to dream of gettin' lessons from him!"

True to Narvis's words, however, her opponent had learned: Lei 'played safe' this time around. With enough time to prepare between each, this 'lioness' dodged or parried most of Zalea's attacks, only moving to attack when and where she least expected.

"Told ya--" Lei managed as she parried one of the wolfling princess's fiercer side slashes with a low guard, "--not to--" Another low backward duck to avoid a straight lunge, "--bring Akhi into this!"

With the last word, she delivered a left stopper against Zalea's exposed right cheek. The other princess saw it from the corner of her eye, however, and moved away in the nick of time, to in turn deliver a full-on headbutt of her own.

"Gah..!"

Improvise--correct, Leia thought then, but darn, to think she could perform it this rapidly!

The sudden gap left Lei reeling again, and this time Zalea was better-prepared to exploit it. This she did by further weakening her opponent's balance with a sweep of her leg against Leia's own, making the latter hit the dirt on her back.

When Leia had time to look again, she saw that her sister's weapon was being pointed at her; its wielder's expression contorted with manic relish even as she raised it once more and brought it down in a way which would have compelled Mirani to reconsider her decision to keep this willful sole daughter out of the spotlight of attention and care.

"I win, Leia!"

"B-BIG SIS LEI!" Rashid gasped. "NO--!"

Vestra's only daughter, confronted with such an unexpected attack, could only wince in fearful anticipation.

This is Mama Viper's own get, darn it, the thought flashed. How could she not capitalize on..!

STAB!

The silence was utter, and felt like eternity.

When she opened her eyes again, Lei saw that said weapon had in truth been thrust into the ground right beside her head... and that Zalea was still holding its hilt while stooping over her.

"Well?" the wolfling princess inquired in a fiercely-ecstatic whisper. "Am I not, thus, worthy of Akhi's own tutelage? Huh?!"

"Y-you are indeed," Leia conceded in cold sweat. "Disengage now, if you please..."

Having flicked her fallen opponent once on the forehead with her fingers, Zalea obliged, resuming her erect stance... and, to Lei's mild surprise, she was being offered a hand to stand up, which she took.

"This display of skills in arms," Narvis declared, "goes to Princess Azalea!"

That did much to break the tension. Rashid exhaled mightily even as the crowd roared its approval.

"You won, Sis," Lei panted happily, staring around at the crowd. "Congratulations."

"Nah," Zalea retorted, "got some sleek moves o' yer own, sure did--'grace', was it? 'Sides, I was only doin' what ya told: focus on winnin', not show. Take that for yaself next time, and perhaps add a healthy pinch o' ferocity. In the real deal yer opponent would never have thought twice 'fore delivering the decidin' blow. Lucky we're freakin' sisters, ya know?"

Lei nodded. "Hope Akhi will remember that too."