Polis
Lexa allowed herself a moment to drink in the sight before her, committing it to memory, trying to soak up every detail so that she could remember this always. It was something she'd never thought she'd see again.
The young nightbloods were circled around Nico, who was telling them stories of his time in captivity with the Ice Nation, trained under the banished Prince Roan. They were utterly enraptured.
Nyx sat next to him, leaning into his side, adding her commentary whenever she felt necessary, her hands busy twisting the hair of one of the girl nightbloods, Ellis, into small braids.
This is how Lexa remembered them. Granted, they'd grown much since the last memories she had of the twins, but their mannerisms remained mainly the same. Nico was still as enthusiastic as ever, making wide, sweeping gestures with his hands for emphasis, while Nyx preferred to be the quiet observer, but still kept her brother in check, adding in her own thoughts on her experiences.
During the younger girl’s recovery, Lexa had seen the many jagged scars from countless rounds of whipping, and catching glimpses of the ones that curled up the back of her neck made her blood boil and jaw clench. She hadn't thought it possible to hate Queen Nia more than she already had for the beheading of Costia, but the knowledge that the bloodthirsty tyrant had continuously tortured her little sis made Lexa see red.
Once Nyx was fully recovered from the bullet wound, Lexa had given her and Nico a graduation ceremony - Trikru style. They wore their new tattoos with the utmost pride, glad to finally be home after many long years.
“What were they like?” Lexa’s attention was recaptured when Aden, her personal favorite of the nightbloods, finally piped up. “The Ice Nation, I mean.” Nico opened his mouth as though to answer, but Nyx beat him to the chase.
“Their Kwin is a monster,” she said, and her voice held such hidden anger that it demanded respect, and the gathered children all hushed instantly, “there is no honor in killing innocents to scare your enemies, no honor in torturing innocent children.” She steeled them all with severe looks. “I have no doubt that you will be taught, should you be chosen by the spirit if my sis passes, that emotions are weakness, but do not let that turn you into a monster.” There was some murmuring amongst the children, their gazes solemn, before Nyx’s eyes lightened.
“They weren’t all bad, though, the Azgeda,” she continued, “I was nursed back to health many times by a healer named Freya, she was kind and nurturing, but fierce too. Prince Roan was Nico’s fos, and he was a brute of a man, deadly and precise, almost as skilled as heda, but he had a dry sense of humor and a soft spot for my brother and I. My own fos was a severe man named Nam, but he lightened with time, and wasn’t afraid to knock me into my place when I got overconfident.” Her sparkling eyes locked with Lexa’s. “You would’ve liked him, sis.”
The nightbloods, now made aware of Lexa’s presence in the room, immediately turned their attention to her, most likely to ask questions, which she answered readily, occasionally stealing glances at her younger siblings, Nyx now leaning into Nico, multicolored eyes glinting with amusement.
“Come, natblidas,” Lexa instructed them, nodding to her brother and sister, “it is time you were trained in the combat style of the Ice Nation.”
Each of the twelve clans had similar fighting styles, but each with their own flair, specialties, so to speak. The Trikru were known for their guerrilla warfare tactics, using the trees and foliage to their advantage. Up in the mountains of the north, however, such tactics weren’t needed and thus, weren’t taught.
One of their most useful skills was one also common amongst the Trikru, the ability to be silent. Crunching snow or leaves would grab the enemy’s attention, so being able to step lightly was key. For the Tree People, this was as far as the skill was applied, but the Ice Nation used the light-footedness to dance.
In an exercise reminiscent of the first that had been drilled into Nyx by Nam, the girl (now fully recovered) stood in the middle of the group of young nightbloods, wielding only her trusty staff. A circle was drawn around her, and the others were gazing at her curiously, some sending Lexa confused looks, as it was usually her who trained them.
“Today I am going to teach you perhaps the most important lesson you can learn,” said Nyx clearly, and Lexa took a moment to appreciate her sister. Gone was the timid girl who spoke shyly. In her place now was a young woman, who’d been hardened through terrible agony, but had only grown stronger because of it. Her eyes were hardened, jaw set, stance firm, and Lexa thought for a moment that, if she was not destined to be the next seyah, that she would have made a fine candidate for the spirit to choose upon her own passing.
“You are already accustomed to having to walk lightly through the forest,” Nyx continued, “in order to keep the enemy unaware of your presence before you strike. The element of surprise is key for your main tactics of fighting.” She paused, observing them all. “But, once that element of surprise is lost, or never obtained in the first place, you can still use these skills to your advantage. I know you’ve been taught that the best defense is a good offense, but I am here to tell you otherwise. The ability to dodge and dance in battle is just as important as the ability to strike down your opponent, and forgoing such defensive strategies in favor of merely allowing yourself to be beaten down is stupid, and to do such would make you quite the branwada.”
A few of the children in the back giggled lightly at the use of the word, but quelled quickly, as Nyx’s stature left no room for humor.
“Come forward three at a time,” she instructed, “your goal, armed with your staffs, is to only push me outside of the circle or pin me to the ground.” She observed them, a dangerous glint in her eyes. “Who wishes to go first?”
Trent stepped forward confidently, accompanied by Wren and Ray. Lexa knew from over a year of training them that these three were the most impulsive of her warriors in training, quick and oftentimes clumsy in their actions, overconfidence being their main weakness. Trent, the tallest of the three, was already almost reaching Nyx’s short height, only three quarters of a head shorter, and from the calculating gleam in his eyes Lexa knew that he thought her sister was all mouth with no skill to back up her claims.
This would be his downfall.
“How long?” Lexa asked over her shoulder to Nico, who was grinning besides her.
“Ten seconds.”
“This should be fun to watch.”
True to his prediction, Nyx had knocked down the other three out of the circle within ten seconds. They’d all been fairly obvious in their actions, planning on striking her down together, but she had dodged under one swing, jumped over the other, and carelessly parried away the third, before walloping all three surprised children out of the circle.
“Who’s next?”
As the groups continued, they slowly began to last longer and longer, picking up what Nyx was laying down. The group that lasted the longest was the one that comprised of Aden, Ellis, and Maverick, who had proven themselves to be the best listeners of the group.
After rounds of three, it moved to one-on-one, Nyx telling the nightbloods to try and last at least a minute in the circle, demonstrating how she kept herself light and spry, never resting on one patch of ground for too long.
Trent had the audacity to complain, and Lexa narrowed her eyes at the boy, compelling him to be quiet, but Nyx simply laughed him off, mentioning something about a blindfold and an insane mentor.
“That one seems like trouble,” Nico whispered to his older sister, and she sighed deeply.
“He has yet to overcome his arrogance,” she conceded, “it's his weakness. Everyone has one.”
“But not you?” he questioned with a raised eyebrow, and Lexa shot him an unamused look.
“I am heda, I cannot afford to have weakness.” He scoffed, causing Lexa to scowl.
“I may not be the twin who sees all, sis,” he teased, eyes sparkling, “but even I can see that you care.” Her heart constricted painfully.
“And you see where that has gotten me?” Her eyes focused on Aden, who'd managed to last the longest thus far, forty-two seconds.
“Commander over a successfully united coalition.” She turned to observe the fifteen year old sharply. “It fuels you. And sure, feelings can make us do stupid things sometimes, but you are no branwada, Lexa. You’re a tactician. Use that head of yours sometime, heda.”
She blinked at him for a moment, before fondly rolling her eyes.
“Don't let Indra hear you speak to me as such, you may be my brother, but she’d still see you strung up.”
“I'm quaking in fear,” Nico deadpanned, eliciting a small huff of a laugh from his elder sister, shaking her head.
“Even when you were young, you and Nyx had a way of frustrating my generals beyond what I thought possible.”
“It's the family charm,” he grinned cheekily, “look at your little warriors, I can tell they're ever so fond of Nyx right now.”
Quite the contrary, the young apprentices were covered in bruises, only a few grinning excitedly at the new exercises. Trent looked particularly bitter, sulking in the shadows, but Aden glowed, cheeks flushed with life. Lexa knew she'd liked him for a reason.
“Let's collect Nyx before she completely demolishes their pride.”
“You're about five minutes too late there, Lexa.”
“Shof op.”
As the light of day began to fade, the children were bruised and battered beyond imagination, but their cheeks were flushed with pride, having successfully made it through another day of training, eyes alight as their exercises came to a close.
The three siblings had taken turns teaching the nightbloods, each preaching their own specialties. Lexa’s technique was unparalleled, and Nico excelled in hand-to-hand. His lessons had been favored by Trent, who was similarly built.
The twins were currently busying themselves seeing who could hold a handstand the longest, much to the excitement of the children. Lexa observed with amused eyes, still amazed at the fact that she was here, with her little brother and sister with her. It was Ellis who proposed the idea:
“Heda, could we see you fight Nyx and Nico?” At her suggestion, the other children immediately voiced their agreement, nodding rapidly as the excitement grew. Nyx and Nico dropped from their positions upside-down.
“What do you say, sis?” Nico teased. “Think you can take Nyx and I?” Lexa pretended to yawn, causing some of the younger nightbloods to giggle.
“Think?” she bit back, “I know I can beat you two little scoundrels.”
The children cheered as the three siblings readied their stances, each armed with a long wooden staff.
Nico struck the first blow, rushing in to try and demolish Lexa’s defense. She parried his blow with relative ease, but had to jump quickly over Nyx’s, whose blow came quickly after her brothers. The two of them moved in perfect synchronization, striking one after the other, but Lexa was the heda, and wouldn’t be easily defeated, not even by her brother and sister.
Displaying the power that only heda could possess, Lexa struck back harder and harder, forcing the two younger warriors to be forced to uphold the defensive as opposed to their previous offensive tactics. They moved fluidly, blocking hits meant for each other, moving in tandem, brows furrowed in concentration. The two of them were by no means a weak pairing in battle, quite the contrary. Together, they’d managed to take Roan down once (though the proud man would never admit it), but Lexa was heda, and she was also their sis, and they could feel themselves faltering under her relentless assault.
Nico was the first to get knocked on his back, Lexa having hooked her staff under his, capturing it into her left hand and knocking him off of his feet with a swift kick to the knees. He groaned and rolled out of the way, leaving his sisters to finish their fight.
Lexa, now armed with two staffs, began battering at Nyx with all she had, and the younger girl was hard-pressed to keep up with the pace that Lexa was setting. She ducked and dodged and jumped, and even performed a perfectly executed back handspring at one point, but the excessive acrobatics were tiring her out at an accelerating rate, and she could feel her chest heaving with the effort. Lexa finally found a break in Nyx’s rather outstanding defense, and hit her hard in the stomach with the butt of the staff, knocking the wind out of the smaller girl, and she fell to the ground with a dull thud, clutching at her stomach.
Lexa smiled confidently as the cheers of the nightbloods rang through the training grounds, but Nyx could see the underlying concern, which she and Nico both brushed off, standing unsteadily.
“I suppose Nyx and I have some more training to do,” Nico laughed, shaking his head, “one day, sis, one day we will beat you.” Lexa regarded the two of them, pride evident in her eyes as she ruffled Nico’s hair fondly and wrapped her other arm around Nyx’s shoulders.
“Of that, I have no doubt,” she smiled, “no doubt at all.”