An Angel Called Eternity

To Bet on Losing Dogs - Lykourgos III: A Crown of Thorns

Lykourgos III: A Crown of Thorns

The Tenth Day of the Third Moon,  873 AD.
Anaria, Western Teleytaios, Klironomea.

Lykourgos grimaced as he dropped his sword to the ground, slumping down and yielding to his brother once more.
"Okay, okay, you win. Again."

Rhema grinned, offering a hand to his brother as Lykourgos allowed himself to be pulled back to his feet. Exercising himself back to health had not been kind to his energy, and yet at the same time he strangely felt more alive than he had in a long while. Getting back into swordplay and footwork was, in his opinion, doing wonders for the muscles in his back and limbs. Practicing with his brother meant that he was quickly getting back on the top of his game, though admittedly Rhema consistently won their bouts. Oh, certainly, Rhema was the better of the two of them anyway, but he was winning more than he might otherwise have if Lykourgos was feeling hale and hearty. He wasn't worried though; this gave him a more than well-needed excuse to spend time with his brother doing something that the both of them enjoyed, the two of them ending every training session with a number of bruises and dripping with sweat.

Nasos hadn't exactly been thrilled when he'd started sparring again, for this was more than a little ahead of schedule, but so long as Lyk didn't completely over-exert himself there was little to fear in terms of bodily harm.

"Time for another bout?"

Lykourgos smiled at his brother, who had taken full advantage of his desire to get fighting fit once more by getting in as much sparring as he could.
"No, not at the moment I'm afraid. You've surely had your fill of beating me by now, haven't you?"

His brother laughed at that as though it were the funniest thing he'd ever heard.
"Me? Get tired of sparring with you? Come off it, you know I'd never! Besides, it's probably for the best; weren't you meant to be meeting with Eli sometime soon?"

Lykourgos raised an eyebrow at his brother.
"Eli? That's rather informal. Have you two grown closer since then, you know, seeing as he lets you call him 'Eli'?"

Rhema snorted.
"Of course not. I do a lot more work with him now, but he's still your loyal friend and not mine. I just call him that 'cause I really don't care if it annoys him or not. What is it that the two of you are meeting about anyway?"

Lykourgos' smile faltered for a split second before falling back into place.
"Nothing for you to be worried about, that much I can assure you."

"Well, duh. Otherwise I'd have heard about it in the inner council meeting. You slow today or something?"

Lykourgos shook his head in exasperation while grinning. It felt good to be able to return to a sense of normalcy after everything that had happened recently, even if that 'normal' consisted of his brother playfully insulting him whilst they tried to beat the shit out of each other.
"Angels, how did you all survive without me?"

"Eli, how have you been?"

The man daintily placed the back of a gloved hand to his forehead.
"Oh, miserable! I've been sat here waiting for, what, twenty minutes? Twenty minutes and you didn't deign to show yourself before me!"

The prince rolled his eyes at his friend's dramatics, which at this point were entirely expected.
"I thought you might appreciate it if I bathed quickly before meeting you, given that my clothes were sodden with sweat. Still, I guess we'd better get started; Angels forbid I keep you any longer than the twenty minutes you've been here already."