The Salle [Tuesday evening]

[rings-of-grace.livejournal.com]

So. Po had never had homework before, particularly this sort of assignment. But for Ethics he had been given directions to spend some time with Yeul -- who seemed perfectly nice -- demonstrating what he did with his time.

This seemed as good a place as any. It wasn't as though he had a job, or his dorm room would be any different from hers. So Po took a few minutes to set up the practice dummies, then gathered his sheath of knives to start throwing them. He might try something at closer range, later, but this worked for while he was waiting.

[for Yeul, but open!]

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[pulseof_life]

The salle wasn't a place where Yeul went at all. So when she headed down to meet with Po, it was with a good deal of lively curiosity. Both for Po, who was rather nice (not to mention handsome, though to her that mattered less than the fact he was nice) and for the salle itself.

She slipped into the salle and smiled to see him already busy. Yeul would have called out a hello but didn't want to make him lose his concentration.

[rings-of-grace.livejournal.com]

Po, of course, knew she was there, thanks to his Grace, but he let a knife fly from his hand to pierce the heart of a dummy before he turned to greet her. "Good evening," he said, smiling broadly. "Welcome to the salle. How are you?"

[pulseof_life]

She smiled sunnily back at him. "Good evening to you as well! I am glad to be here." It was new, which was always interesting. "I am quite well, thank you. And yourself?"

[rings-of-grace.livejournal.com]

"I'm fine," Po said, cocking a brow at her before flinging another knife at the dummy, scarcely looking. "Thanks for coming. Would you like to try?"

[pulseof_life]

Yeul blinked.

"You're quite talented," she observed, sounding impressed. "I would not mind trying, though I've no experience. Will that be a problem?"

[rings-of-grace.livejournal.com]

"Graced, not talented," he corrected, then held out a knife. "As long as you don't point it towards me or yourself, you can try all you'd like."

[pulseof_life]

"Graced?" she asked, walking over to carefully take the knife from him. "My apologies, I've never heard that term before."

[rings-of-grace.livejournal.com]

"Some here call it by different names -- 'having powers' is a term I've heard," Po offered. "I have a gift that allows me to be a super-human fighter."

[pulseof_life]

"Ah." Yeul nodded. "I understand better now. Many people here have abilities that make them more than ordinary. Your... Grace? Sounds like it would be a useful one in many worlds."

[rings-of-grace.livejournal.com]

"It's certainly proven useful at home," Po said with a small smile. "There are some who are Graced with singing, or cooking -- as a member of the Lienid royal family, I don't use mine much, but I'm still well-known and marked by it."

[pulseof_life]

Her smile went rather wry. "What royal prince would not be well-known if he were a superb fighter? It is good for both the family's reputation and the Kingdom's, is it not?"

The fact that he was attractive probably helped both situations as well, though Yeul did not say that out loud.

"You seem rather comfortable with that fact," she added. "Though I could be wrong, as I hardly know you." Though he was giving her far more information than she had about herself.

[rings-of-grace.livejournal.com]

Po shrugged. "It's unavoidable," he said, gesturing to his eyes. "All Gracelings are marked by our different-colored eyes. It isn't as though we could hide me. So it's just how life is -- everyone remembers the Lienid prince who could defeat you where you stand without blinking, though thankfully my parents never have never used me that way." He didn't miss her thought about his looks, though he did refrain from smiling at it.

[pulseof_life]

"Are all Gracelings marked with eyes just as yours?" she asked curiously. "Or are they different colors? Oh! I hope that was not too prying."

Yeul carefully thought over her next words. "And I hope you did not take my comment poorly," she added. "Of being for the good of the family. As you say, it is unavoidable."

[rings-of-grace.livejournal.com]

"It's not too prying," Po said, trying not to chuckle. "They're different colors -- I've seen blue and green, or brown and yellow, and so on. Mine happen to be the same color as the po tree of Lienid, and hence my nickname."

He shook his head, playing lightly with a knife. "And don't worry -- it's good enough for the family, but I'm a younger son, so aside from my Grace I get very little outside attention at home. Thankfully."

[pulseof_life]

"I'm glad," she said honestly. "And gladder still that you're comfortable with it. What is your true name? If you do not mind that question."

And if he did, well, she did not mind a lack of answer.

She looked at the knife in her hands (carefully not pointed at either of them) then back at him. "As well, how should I hold this to throw?"

Yeul was even kind enough to provide him with a ready change of subject, should he wish for it.

[rings-of-grace.livejournal.com]

Po crossed over to show her, demonstrating with a knife he still held. "Hold it gently at the tip of the handle, but not at the sacrifice of your grip. The last thing we want is for you to drop it through your foot, right? Then throw it firmly towards the target."

He paused, bouncing his own knife in his hand a little, and added, "And it's Greening. My true name is Prince Greening Grandemalion. Po's a bit easier to manage."

[pulseof_life]

"You make that sound so simple," she said as she copied him carefully, glancing between her knife and his several times before deciding it appeared to be close enough. "And then just... throw."

But give her a few seconds to work up to that.

"I like your name," she said, "though I will certainly keep calling you Po." He seemed to prefer that, after all.

[rings-of-grace.livejournal.com]

"If you feel at all uneasy about it," Po cautioned, watching her, "then don't throw it. It's...very natural to me. It's difficult for me to remember being uncomfortable with a weapon."

[pulseof_life]

"Not uneasy," she said, though she did take the knife by the hilt so she wasn't holding it in the ready position. "It is... odd. I am more used to being protected than handling a weapon myself."

[rings-of-grace.livejournal.com]

"Do you have bodyguards or similar at home?" he wondered, watching her.

[and I just fell asleep on the couch! I'll pick this up in the morning -- night!]

[pulseof_life]

"A Guardian," she said, smiling slightly. "At home, he is always with me."

It still felt unusual for her to be without him here.

[sleep well!]

[rings-of-grace.livejournal.com]

"How is it that you were allowed to travel without him?" Po wondered, raising a brow.

[pulseof_life]

"This is a different world," she said quietly. "And the dangers he protects me from are not present here."

[rings-of-grace.livejournal.com]

"But there are still dangers here," Po said, frowning a bit. "Even if they're not the same."

[pulseof_life]

She smiled slightly. "Professor Starsmore has been asked by my Guardian to keep an eye on me," Yeul admitted. "But I think my Guardian wants me to try having as normal a life as possible."