Azriel's Tale

Azriel's Tale - Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13:

They were miserable. There they were, all sat at the breakfast table looking truly miserable. Their heads groaning in pain. Their livers silently cursing them for ever putting that poison into their sacred bodies. They may be immortal, but that certainly didn't mean they were free from pain, whether self-inflicted or not.

"Good morning!" Azriel chimed as he walked in with a broad smile. As predicted; Amren, Cassian, Mor, Feyre and Rhys were all terribly hung over. What a shame...

"Shhh!" Cassian snapped. He groaned and rubbed his temples with his fingers in small circular rotations. Feyre just put her head on the table and covered her head with her arms, presumably to block out the light. Rhysand, feeling empathetic, rubbed her back in small soothing motions, his face looking unusually pale. Almost as pale as when they first saw him when he first came from Under the Moutain. Mor was sat next to Feyre drinking some hangover concoction she had brewed and perfected over the years. Her face had some colour, so presumably, it was working. Amren, however, seemed unfairly perky.

"You seem well Amren," He commented. 

"Yes well, someone had to keep an eye on these idiots whilst you were away. Plus, alcohol doesn't impact me as much as you fools." She replied. Azriel nodded in agreement and interest. There was still so much that they didn't know about her, yes she had admitted some small details enough to satisfy their hunger for knowledge, but not enough for the spymaster. 

"Can you get me some water Az?" Cassian asked. The shadowsinger turned to fulfil the request but the Illyrian interrupted him. "Hold that thought." And he was up and walking quickly to the bathroom.

"I would have thought you would all have learnt by now."

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Towards the evening they were all feeling much better, thankfully. But, not so thankfully, they all had duties to attend to. Mor was going to go to another meeting with her father to talk about how the dynamics were currently working between them and their visits to Velaris. Surprisingly, the visits were not as dreadful as she had once predicted, she, thankfully, rarely saw them. Cassian had to go to the Illyrian camps and make sure everything was still being managed under Rhys' orders, if not, Cassian would be more than happy to punish them and prove that he was worthy of his current position, no matter what they said. Amren, Feyre and Rhysand were just going to have a small private meeting with the three of them, to discuss what would be happening in the forthcoming months. Azriel, however, had little to do with his role as spymaster. Currently, there was nobody who needed spying on. Of course, Azriel had his spies in the other courts, even the Court of Nightmares, but reports were all good, the usual. So he decided to go with Cassian.

"You don't need to come with me, Az," Cassian uttered.

"I know," he replied. "But I would be bored otherwise, besides I can use this as a training exercise."

"Good," Cassian grinned, his wings beginning to beat in preparation of flying. "Meet you there." And his was off. Cassian always viewed everything as a competition, even now. As Azriel landed smoothly, Cassian was already standing a few feet away. The army commander didn't say anything, he just had a small smirk on his face.

"You left before me, you had an advantage," Azriel argued.

"Sure," Cassian dismissed, his grin slowly faded into something more wicked. "Shall we go see our dear old friends?" He asked.

"No, you go on ahead," He answered. "I'm going to see if the women are training as they should be, help them if need be." Cas nodded. 

"I'll be with you shortly."

"Take your time," Azriel responded, hoping to not rush the Illyrian. Once more Azriel was flying to a camp a mile away from where women trained without as many of the male Illyrians glares or retorts. They had found it was better to train them in an environment separate, then slowly merge with the current ones. Slowly, this had to be done slowly. When he landed he saw 6 females training outside in the ring both with and without weapons. He turned to see some doing laps to build stamina and more doing other exercises. Aideen, the leader of this particular camp appeared and smiled at Azriel's appearance. Her dark skin seemed to glow in the unusually bright sunlight, with her hair tied back in a similar to fashion to how Cassian presented himself, she looked like a true Illyrian. 

"Shadowsinger, good to see you." She greeted politely. They shook hands firmly.

"Cassian and I are checking out things today, it's good to see them training," he gestured to the Illyrian women training outside. "Any issues?"

"No more than usual," she replied. "but we are getting there. I dare say we could have some help from you Az." He rose his eyebrows in question. She smiled. "Want to do a demonstration?" In the months since she had been given the role her confidence had grown incredibly, learning moves nobody knew how to perfect, encouraging others, but she had never suggested something like this. She was truly coming into her own out here.

"Okay. With or without weapons?"

"I don't need weapons." She declared with an air of confidence, creeping into arrogance. "Do you?"

"No." He muttered. They both walked into an occupied ring and she made an announcement to everyone that if they wanted to watch, they were more than welcome to do so. They started attacking and defending, neither taking an incredibly strong blow. Yet. Her short height played to her strengths, she was faster than Azriel. The shadowsinger may have had more build, more muscle, but by no means did that mean that she was worse. They continued to parry with each other, both stopping occasionally to show the Illyrian's some tactics that they could use whilst fighting. When the demonstration was over they both went to get some water.

"You've improved a lot in the past few months," Azriel noticed.

"Yeah, well," she said, "someone has to show both the males and females how to fight." They laughed together.

"Indeed." 

Let me know what you thought of this chapter! I thought I would try to add a new character, let me know if you like it, or if it felt too forced. I really want to learn and adapt as a writer so comments and feedback go a long way for me. Thanks very much. -Jessica