While the young master was dealing with House Fores'thall, Calbern decided it was time to track down his young acquaintance. Though he supposed she might not be that young anymore, given that it had been over thirty years since he last saw her. As he did so, he took in the sights of the Elven command city while introducing himself to several of the citizens. It was a small matter to inform them of Cape Aeternia’s new press room, an initiative sponsored by captain Sidhe. A simple opportunity to make a few additional Waves, all in exchange for submitting gossip, recipes or spells.
An interesting framing. He wasn’t certain if it was as it seemed or if there was something deeper going on. It also wasn’t his field. For the day, he was glad to have the secondary task.
He soon made headway. His old acquaintance had been a topic of some interest to a group of young women wearing dresses with a great many ruffles. Such seemed to be the current fashion, judging by how many of the women on the station were wearing such.
There was a swordswoman going by the name Dellia who’d been making inquiries. The group had noted her as she’d won several duels while wearing a dress similar to their own.
With a lead in hand, he made his way to the lower level where she’d been frequenting. Several people had noted the blond woman, as much for her swordfighting prowess as the following inquiries regarding specialized equipment. Equipment used for traveling either into the depths of the ocean or incredibly toxic environments. What a young women like Dellia might need them for Calbern couldn't imagine. Even so, he couldn't imagine half of the uses Master Percival needed his ingredients for prior to his implementation either. He was starting to think imagination might well be his weak point.
He’d completed an entire circuit of the docking ring when he chanced to notice her at one of the Terra Vistan public food diners. It had been surprising to discover that even in the public areas, there was no exchange of coin. Everyone received food for free. Though at this particular venue, it was expected to express gratitude with a short poem. Another unusual custom, but one that he did his best to respect, though he merely recited one from memory.
Dellia was seated with a pair of elves, her meal untouched as she talked animatedly. Calbern took a moment to inspect the young woman. She hadn't aged much since he'd last seen her, which was a surprise and somewhat of a relief. Not that she’d been aware of his visits over the years. He hadn’t wanted to open those wounds when he knew he’d have to leave once more. There’d been several instances when he’d nearly folded.
However, he’d told himself ensuring she was safe had been enough, and any more would have been an old man’s greed.
Looking at her smiling face, he couldn't bring himself to regret his decision. Clearly she’d found happiness.
For a second he debated whether or not he should approach. He'd been a different man last time he'd seen Dellia.
However the decision was soon taken from him. One of Dellia's companions happened to glance in his direction and, following a comment about his attire, said young woman spun around in her seat. Her gaze latched onto him, gray eyes narrowing.
Calbern inclined his head ever so slightly. He was surprised to see her return it with an equal level of precision, the previous boisterousness suppressed. Then she turned back to her original partners. Suddenly, it was as if he'd imagine that ever so precise movement.
Since he'd been seen, Calbern settled in for a meal, waiting for her to finish her business. As he expected, half an hour later she came over, though it seemed she'd brought her meal with her. She set it on the table just across from him.
“Long time no see, Uncle Cal.”
“Indeed it has been far too long, little Dellia.”
She held up an arm, flexing it. The muscles were subtle but banded with iron in a way that only a Kinya user’s were. “Not so little anymore.”
“So it would seem. You've certainly grown.” Calbern's gaze passed over her: golden blonde hair, neat braids, and one of the dresses he'd noted earlier. The ruffles were quite plentiful. He idly noted the sword at her waist as well, one that should not work well with the dress, despite her reputation.
“So what brings you all the way out to Central Command? Didn't think you were one for mingling with elves and such, Uncle Cal.” She started picking at her food as she spoke, though picking was an inaccurate term. She was far more incisive than he would have expected from anyone except a Knight Exemplar. Or perhaps another order. The Vox Knights had hardly been the only other Kinya users. Nearly every nation in the Hundred Kingdoms had boasted at least one order, to say nothing of the rest of Ro’an.
Several of them dedicated themselves to excellence.
“I am here with… friends,” Calbern admitted after a moment's thought.
“Really? I thought you had a whole vow thing going on. Isn't that why you said you couldn't visit anymore?” While she managed to keep it out of her voice, Calbern was wise enough to know there was hurt behind her question.
As well there should be. Much as he’d stayed away to protect her, that didn’t erase his absence. “I fulfilled my vow as well as I could though in a way I failed in the end.”
“Oh. Sorry,” Dellia said, pausing, her fork halfway to her mouth. “I know how important it was to you,” she added before continuing her meal.
Calbern simply inclinded his head in acknowledgement, following her example. It was only once they finished that they spoke again.
“So have you been keeping up on your sword play, old man?” Dellia asked, eyes drifting towards his waist where said sword hung.
Calbern rested a hand upon the hilt, raising an eyebrow at his friend's daughter. His adoptive niece. “I have. Are you perhaps thinking your likelyhood of defeaing me is better than last we crossed blades?”
“Old man, last time I tried sword fighting with you, I was eleven. Of course, I’ll do better.”
“You think you've come so far?”
“I have. Guess the real question is whether or not you’ll be able to keep up. Not a kid anymore.”
Calbern raised an eyebrow at that. He'd never taken Dellia for being particularly arrogant, even if she was occasionally hot-headed. Then again last time he'd seen her, he hadn't been much better.
“Perhaps a demonstration is in order,” Calbern agreed, dabbing at his lips with his napkin before setting it and his plate to the side.
“Perhaps a demonstration is in order,” Dellia repeated, doing the same with the remnants of her own meal.
Soon they stood and were making their way to a nearby park, one he’d noted in his earlier exploration. Like most he’d seen on the level, it looked out over most of the docks, which were not far below. Perhaps two-hundred feet. The garden was mostly empty. Dellia confirmed it was an acceptable spot for them to hold an impromptu duel, so long as neither damaged the environment too much. She’d had several of her recent duels in similar gardens.
Dellia flicked her sword back and forth several times in a technique that had Calbern mirroring it, his eyes narrowing ever so slightly. While the number of styles of Kinya users may have been large but narrow, the number of styles of swordsmanship were greater. That he immediately recognized her moves indicated that she had been taught either by a Knight Exemplar or one who’d copied their style. He shook it off.
Perhaps her parents had survived. Their deaths had never been confirmed.
Standing against her, he held his sword forward, giving her a Knight Exemplar salute. This time it was her turn to mirror his movement.
They moved into the first exchange, a series of thrusts and parries taught to any Knight Exemplar initiate. They matched each other perfectly, both stepping back, gauging the other.
It wasn't what Calbern had been expecting. Not at all. He thought she might know some of the moves, yes. Had her parents survived, they would have taught her that much. But they’d been little better than initiates themselves. They wouldn’t have been able to teach her anything more than the crude and unrefined version.
Calbern had been certain he’d need to hold back. Yet as he'd cross swords with her he'd realized she was as competent as he, if not more so. “You truly have come a long ways.”
“And you're not as rusty or as furious as I remember old man.”
“Time has tempered me as much as it has been able to.”
“Guess we should see just what that tempering is worth shouldn't we?” Dellia asked, her lip twitching upwards. Despite the dress, she dashed forward at a pace he would’ve had trouble tracking a year earlier.
It was good he’d broken out of his stagnation. As it was, he managed to meet her pace evenly. Not three exchanges later, the bounds of the little garden park started to feel constricting. While they’d agreed not to damage the park, there had been no such agreement about remaining within said park.
The open air structure over the docks offered a commanding view the nearby docked airships. It also offered an excellent opportunity to test his adopted niece's ability to adapt to changing circumstances. With Dellia's eye flick of warning, he redirected a blow intended to test his defenses once more. Instead he sent his niece sprawling. It had required a move most definitely not within the Knight Exemplars’ moveset, one he had incorporated after his time studying Lady Nexxa’s storm dance.
“What was-” Dellia started asking only to cut herself off when she realized Calbern hadn't stopped after causing her to trip. Instead he’d charged directly towards her. She raised her blade just in time for him to step upon it. While thrusting her backwards, he flipped himself up and over her head, landing upon the rail of the park.
Laughing in delight, an action she most certainly would not have taken had she been a Knight Exemplar, Dellia followed Calbern's example, leaping up upon the rail. She balanced opposite him, raising her sword in challenge once more.
The next few exchanges were brief but far more bracing. Fighting not just each other but the winds, now that were no longer shielded from by the park's enchantments, had them both smiling openly. Their back and forth lasted nearly a minute before Dellia managed to send him sprawling. The look of horror upon her face when he leaned into the fall almost made him regret his choice. Yet the laughter that came after he caught himself and redirected his momentum made him glad he decided to be so bold.
It wasn't long before Dellia followed him down to the docking arm that laid beneath the garden. Suspended thousands of feet above the surrounding forest land, their duel continued.
The air was thinner but not so thin they couldn't breathe. It was certainly not as thin as many places back in Aeternia. Their exchanges continued, both with solid smiles on their faces. It was indulgent of Calbern to be smiling so much. But then, what was an uncle for if not to indulge their nieces?
“You know, for an old man you're not doing half bad.”
“and for a young pup you have an admiral amount of stamina,” Calbern retorted, flicking her blade to the side.
Dellia converted the momentum, spinning into a flourish that would’ve been foolish had they been moving at mortal speeds. "Pup? You calling me a dog, Uncle Cal?”
“If the shoe fits, young lady, then I suggest one wear it.”
“I'll show you a thing or two about shoes!” She did proceed to demonstrate her footwork was certainly more impressive than Master Percival's or Lady Nexxa's.
He supposed that was an unfair comparison as neither of them spent their time mastering their footwork. In fact a more appropriate comparison would be to Vaden. The Bladesinger might not have had magic or been a Knight Exemplar, yet he did still have incredible skill. It was from those spars that Calbern had grown the most in the recent months. It was drawing upon those encounters that allowed him to easily maneuvere Dellia up and along the gantry arm supporting the nearby airship.
“You know, Uncle Cal, if I'd known it was going to be this fun to see you again, I would’ve sought you out years ago,” Calbern inclined his head, to her smile still fixed firmly in place.
“Had I known where to find you, this last year, I would have sought you out myself,” Calbern replied as they stood, each of them taking a moment to gauge the other. “Last I visited your home, I was informed that you had been taken in as an apprentice. They said it had been a serving position, an assistant to an astronomer.”
“I mean, you know me, Uncle Cal. I always did love the stars.”
Calbern certainly did know the truth of that. It was Dellia's love dusk star and dawn star that had enkindled his own. More than once he’d found himself thinking upon those stars and wondering what had become of her.
“Suppose that's one way to phrase it: an apprentice of an astronomer. I do hope to see the stars one day, to reach out and touch them.” Dellia’s blade flicked to the side, pointed directly at the dusk star, which was rising in the evening light.
“And this apprenticeship has allowed you to develop a Kinya body. A most unusual astronomrer.”
“It has, though I will admit my instructor does not permit me to call myself by the name of his own order. He said it's better to let it die.”
Calbern released a soft sigh, moving on the defensive. That explained a great deal. If she was tutored by one of the exiles of the Knights Exemplar, then they would’ve instilled a lot of the habits without necessarily agreeing with the traditional values he’d been brought up with. Though there were many values of the Knights Exemplar he found himself questioning over the past year.
Their verbal exchange fell away as they crossed blades once more, moving even further up the gantry.
This time she pressed him, joyful laughter spilling out as his thoughts wandered, no longer as focused on the duel. There was something that’d been bothering him and it was only as he thought about where they were in relation to his recent travels that it struck him. “Your teacher. They're from an order of Kinya users.”
“Yep we think we already covered that, Uncle Cal.”
“Kinya users who emphasize discipline, proper behavior, and are often mistaken for servants.”
“Yeah you could say that. I think distinguished is master’s favorite way to phrase it.”
The less dangerous question should be the one he asked next, he realized. “Are they from the Knights Exemplar?”
That caused her to stutter, nearly missing her step, which he took to be a very bad sign.
“How do you know of the Knights Exemplar?” Dellia asked, her blade shaking as she raised it.
“They are the same order that I am from,” Calbern said simply, “though I do not dare call myself a member any longer.”
Dellia stared at him before launching another series of thrusts and attacks. This time each was once more a perfect example of the core discipline: a parry up high, down low, each tightly controlled, very exacting, and very much as Calbern knew them. Blow by blow they fought up and down and along the gantry, over the airship, along beside the enchanted wheel of fire that would have kept it in the air were it not docked.
The warmth washed over his face even as a chill sunk into his spine. The light of the sky bled out, yet no words were exchanged, each of them drawing closer and closer to an inescapable conclusion, delaying it as long as they could, keeping it contained to their blades.
Finally they stood still at the very precipice, the wind whipping past, thousands of feet between them and the forest below. It was not the height that scared either but the truth that now lay between them.
"You're his student," Dellia said finally, slowly.
"As are you," Calbern said mournfully, unable to keep a tear from sliding down his cheek.
“You fought him,” Dellia stated, no sign of her earlier smile remaining. “You hurt him.”
“More than once we have hurt each other,” Calbern admitted. “It is unfortunately the nature of things when relationships grow as complicated as ours have.”
“You disagreed with master,” Dellia said, lowering her blade a degree, face perfectly restrained.
There was something to her voice that gave him hope. “You disagree with his choices?”
“Some of them,” Dellia said. “Many of them.”
“I do not disagree with him taking you as a student,” Calbern admitted. In a way he wished he'd been the one to bring Dellia in, to have brought her up and taught her the ways of the Knights Exemplar. It would’ve been no kindness. Perhaps he would’ve fared better with a child he already loved. Even before he’d summoned Master Percival, Calbern had known he’d failed Master Perth.
“I won't let you kill him,” Dellia said finally after several seconds of silence.
Calbern nodded, lowering his own blade to look away into the darkening sky, tracking the dusk star. “Perhaps that is best,” he admitted after several seconds of thought of his own. “If I were to kill him then who would I have left?”
“Me? Uncle Cal, still have me. You still have me.” Dellia threw her sword to the side, letting it clatter on the gantry before taking a hesitant step forward.
She raised her arms to the side, and Calbern realized what she wanted. In that moment, he envied Master Percival his courage. A single step forward was all she was asking for.
Yet would Sebastien forgive her for crossing that line? What would he be taking from her if he gave her what she asked for?
Then the decision was taken from as he hesitated, Dellia stepping forward and wrapping her arms around him. Despite the years, it felt as though she were eleven all over again. Calbern silently cursed himself for his weakness, both now and then, even as he gently pat his niece’s back.
After a minute, she let go, wiping discreetly at her cheeks.
"I believe I should go," Calbern said. "It has been good seeing you again. I hope we can do this again."
"I won't let you kill him," Dellia repeated, though he wasn't sure it was for him this time.
"Tell him," Calbern hesitated as he stepped away, looking back at his niece. "Tell him I'll never be able to forgive him for what he did. And yet… yet I now understand why."
Dellia's face twisted up in confusion, proving that as much as she strove to be a Knight Exemplar, she was not one of them, and for that…
For that… Calbern had never been more glad.