"You know that it's Antiva here with the duelling tradition, not Orlais. So you can blame it on them. It…" A frustrated noise comes out of her throat as her face crumples a little. How does she explain it all when it just was? When it was part of her? When this was such a part of her life for years before the sky swallowed her and her life was far less hers than it had ever been (because no life is entirely yours, the sooner you learn that lesson then the sooner you get on better in the world). When she speaks again, some of what she's told Korrin is what she's told her already but it makes more sense now, maybe, or she hopes it does. "I had a duelling master, Marjani, she was a pirate. She taught me everything about it that you can teach a person and I have her blades now because that's usually the way of it. When it's to first blood then it's about slights, usually, calling a person out but to the death is a serious challenge about a much more serious matter. Love or business deals or the future of a person's family for generations can be decided with those duels. People can challenge after for revenge. We don't hold back with these things - like I said, we pull together when the times are hard, that's our way, but we follow our passions selfishly and, well, if our blood and tears are water then we're giving ourselves back to the sea."
Obviously that doesn't matter in Orlais but she can hear Marjani telling her that, a younger Araceli who was wet behind the ears with too much passion and no technique to her, the hours of aching muscles and blood she never thought would come out of her clothes. The gritted teeth then the laughter. Araceli can't summon flames and lightning at her fingertips but she's held a blade to the hollow of a throat with her boot on a chest, soaked with sweat and shaking, and called it good and alive.
And Church, at least, will fight with true blades with a heritage and a history, with their ornate and gilded hilts to protect his hands same as hers. It gets her to laugh. Again, she's the one meant to be enjoying this most, why is she getting lost in her damned head today? "I asked if he was sure about which blade he would be fighting with."
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Obviously that doesn't matter in Orlais but she can hear Marjani telling her that, a younger Araceli who was wet behind the ears with too much passion and no technique to her, the hours of aching muscles and blood she never thought would come out of her clothes. The gritted teeth then the laughter. Araceli can't summon flames and lightning at her fingertips but she's held a blade to the hollow of a throat with her boot on a chest, soaked with sweat and shaking, and called it good and alive.
And Church, at least, will fight with true blades with a heritage and a history, with their ornate and gilded hilts to protect his hands same as hers. It gets her to laugh. Again, she's the one meant to be enjoying this most, why is she getting lost in her damned head today? "I asked if he was sure about which blade he would be fighting with."