Doom Upon All The World

Chapter 45: Exhaustion

     Solas stood silently in the courtyard as he watched the children. Today was to be a full day of training. They each carried an actual sword now. At first, Cullen had them training with wooden swords and it was to Maeve's relief that he kept it that way. But many of them proved to be more advanced in their skills and thus they decided to give them real blades. Of course with real blades came real shields, considering they would need them. Cullen was no fool though. He knew pairing an advanced child like Anthony with one of the children less keen with a weapon such as Pierre, would be asking for trouble. Anthony would tear him apart and it would do nothing but boost his ego. 

     Cullen knew what he was doing. He was skilled beyond what Solas had originally thought. As Templars, the Chantry's forces were trained to be one thing. A soldier. To take orders and follow strict tactics and beat on things until they break from their sheer force. Solas thought the man no more than that in their Inquisition days. But now he was seeing something completely different. The Commander was a far more skilled man than his Templar training could have possibly allotted. He struck with precision and accuracy, giving his target a little taste of his blade before he sheathed it entirely into their gut. It was rather more impressive than he had expected. He had to stop underestimating humans. He chuckled at himself for that as he watched Mythalus and Julien.

      The two were severely behind on their lessons. Mythalus had been training his more prominent abilities as dueling was not his area of expertise. Neither was magic but in time it would come to him naturally. But Julien was small and nervous all the time. He was a skittish child. Solas wondered when his abilities would come to the surface and if it would happen as Mythalus' had. Without his parents to guide him through the change Solas knew it would be up to himself and Maeve to care for him once this ordeal with Gilderoy was taken care of. He supposed that was not so bad. Julien and Mythalus seemed to get along well. They would train together someday.

     Until then, they would be partners in the exercises that Cullen employed. The other children were partnered as well. Anthony with Nicolynn, which was to be expected. Claude with Pierre and Chandler with Bellamy. Philippe was no where to be seen. Solas supposed he must still be up in the rookery, practicing his swings once again. Who could know though. The child had pulled away from everyone after the death of his mother. With Josephine and Tom gone there was no one that understood him like they did. All but his sister had a disadvantage and even Claude could not break through to him. When he had come to breakfast this morning, they were all startled to see that his dark wavy hair had disappeared completely from his head. Claude lost the ability to speak as her eyes landed on his shaven head. Pierre burst into laughter and found himself incapable of stopping despite Maeve's efforts. Julien tried to compliment him but the older boy simply ignored his younger brother. The twins hardly seemed to notice him though and Solas thought it sad that the two infant girls barely recognized him as their own blood. 

     He hadn't made an appearance since and Solas supposed that it was for the best. He would see soon enough what it was the child was truly up to. Cullen approached him as the sun started to touch the top of the mountains, shrinking as it fled toward the horizon for rest as the children soon would. The day had been long and tiresome. They worked very hard. Nicolynn's skills with a sword were far greater than Solas had ever expected. He knew that she got from her mother. Perhaps someday she would do as Maeve has and wield a great war ax and scare her enemies off with the simple glint of light off its sharp edge. 

     "Exhausting, is it not?" Cullen called from beside him. Solas turned his head to look at the Ferelden man and grinned before turning his attention back to the children. They showed so much potential it was frightening. "Indeed. I'm having trouble keeping up just watching them in all their ferocity." Solas replied as the other man chuckled. His left hand rested on the hilt of his sword as it always did. The other resting over top of it or coming up to gesture as he spoke. "I couldn't agree more. But that is not what I meant." Cullen did not look at the elf as he spoke. He simply watched as Anthony masterfully parried all of Nicolynn's blows and slid on his knees out of the way of her strikes, dodging every attack as if his life depended on it.