Not quite how at least two people expected it to go

The two have fist raised and begin approaching when Delilah stumbles. You think it's some sort of feint until Vatarie's fist connects with her ribs. "Ow, ow, ow,." Delilah shouts jumping then stumbling backwards and falling on their butt.

Vatarie's aura is a combination of proud, surprised and a little disappointed. "Is that it?"

Delilah stands back up. "I think it's best if I have control." Eve says wiping some sand off their rear. Delilah nods sheepishly and they put their fist up once more. Vatarie takes a steps towards them when they lower their fist. "W-wait," Delilah stutters out. "We talked about this." Eve said gently. "But it hurt." Delilah countered rubbing their side. "I'll make sure it doesn't happen again now can I please have control."

"Are you fighting or are you admitting you don't deserve Christopher?" Vatarie asks looking frustrated.

Eve's control is affirmed with a more confident stance and they prepare to once more engage. The two near each other and this time Delilah doesn't stumble, instead a fist jabs out at Vatarie which is hit aside with little difficultly. Vatarie then punches Delilah in the face.

"Ok en-" you are cut off from announcing the end to this by Asune squeezing your hand. You look at her and while her aura is as hard to understand as ever you think she is trying to be helpful, which doesn't really help you all that much for obvious reasons.

"We're not done, we just need a moment to think." Eve said stepping back for a moment.

"Have you ever actually trained for a fight?" Vatarie asks, she is clearly more disappointed in the lack of actual fight than happy at having uncovered an unworthy mate for you.

"Yes." Eve said waving her hand. "No." Delilah says a bit more sheepishly. They look at their hands and run a finger over a palm. "New body new movements." Eve said stretching her fingers out then making a fist. "This would be simpler with magic."

"No. You prove you deserve Christopher with yourself or you admit you need a crutch to win."

"A crutch?" Eve asks bemused. "Magic is a part of us using it isn't a crutch."

"If you can't win a fight without it it is." Vatarie countered.

Eve stares at Vatarie for a moment and takes a step that turns into a half step. "Maybe we shouldn't." Delilah sounded extremely nervously, Vatarie has hit them already but you can see it hasn't done any damage. It wasn't a pulled punched but hurting Delilah would take more than a non-magical punch. "We'll win. It's just a matter of getting used to fighting in this body." Eve said confidently. "Then maybe we should practice first?" Delilah reticence to getting hurt was clearly getting on Vatarie's nerves.

"Last chance either fight or fuck off." She crossed her arms and glared at them.

You saw Eve's annoyance at being pushed like this. "Just let me punch her in the face, you'll feel better, and we can have sex with Christopher right after." Eve's encouragement didn't seem to be that effective. "I don't want to punch her, she's a noble." Delilah mutters shyly.

Vatarie was clearly over this. "Shouldn't have even bothered testing a peasant, of course you won't be good enough for Christopher. Why'd you even bother with her?" She turned her back on Delilah to ask that and for the first time it wasn't Eve's anger you saw on Delilah.

"You should turn around." Asune said as Delilah advanced. They were still completely unused fighting but they weren't fighting this time. Delilah just tackled Vatarie to the ground. Vatarie was even more surprised by this any anyone else. She tried to get up but Delilah punched her back, well she hit Vatarie's back with her fist.

It was a very strange sight. Delilah was weakly hitting Vatarie, who appeared to be so stunned by the action she didn't try to get up, and since it was weakly hitting Eve was apparently as stunned as Vatarie. After a few hits the recovery from shock took place and the actually trained Vatarie shook Delilah off her back. Delilah was pushed onto her back and Vatarie spun around grabbing at Delilah's red top and ready a punch to her face when she froze. Unlike the previous punches the one that would be coming was intended to be punishing not fighting and she was aware of that.

Delilah looked horrified and you saw a trickle of defensive magic running through them. This might get very bad very quickly.

"ENOUGH!" The shout shocked everyone. Stephanie walked into the arena nodding at Anastasia. "Vatarie no student of mine will ever raise a hand in anger against someone who can't defend themselves."

Vatarie let go of Delilah and jumped back. "I'm sorry Lady Stephanie." She said bowing as Delilah got up. The defensive magic was held for a moment but not for long.

"Who are you?" Stephanie asked ignoring Vatarie.

"Delilah, you ladyship." Delilah said looking more horrified now than ever.

"Why are you fighting?" Stephanie asked calmly.

Delilah looked at you and blushed. "If we can defeat Vatarie without magic we can join Christopher's Hanun." Eve said bluntly before their face turned red.

"Fighting over a boy." Stephanie looked at you and you recalled her allusion to men getting in the way of women's training. You also don't get the feeling this is great for your and her's potential relationship. "If you fought with magic would you win?"

"Yes." Eve said without hesitation.

Vatarie opened her mouth to reject the assumption but Stephanie beat her to it. "Did you watch her during the distraction training?"

"What, no." Vatarie sounded shocked at the suggestion she would be.

"Asune?" Stephanie asked.

"She caught Three's knife and threw it back to fast for me to see, Three is only alive because Christopher caught the knife." Everyone got very quiet as Asune looked a bit confused at the lack of appreciation of her recollection. Vatarie looked at Delilah who was blushing.

"You said it wasn't going to hurt her." Delilah mumbled angrily. "It wouldn't Christopher was always going to catch it." Eve dismissed. "But if he didn't we would have hurt her!" Delilah angrily declared. "He wouldn't have let someone get hurt." "You lied to me." "No I didn't she wouldn't have been hurt." "You know that isn't the same."

The one person debate was having an odd effect on everyone. While you were fully aware of it, from the blank faces around you that isn't true of them. You wonder if this is being edited out of their memory or if they aren't able to perceive it in the first place.

"Vatarie." Stephanie said as Delilah and Eve kept arguing. "Fight over a boy is something I know women of your age do but you should be more aware of who you are fighting." Stephanie walked over to some the dummies laying on the ground awaiting use. "As for you, she is right, if you are unwilling to fight for what you want you'll never get it," Stephanie looked at you, "boy or not." She pick up a dummy and set it into place. "You'll train on this each morning until you can land one hit on Vatarie without magic."

Delilah looked at the dummy. "We, um, we." She stumbled over her words since Stephanie had interrupted their arrangement. "We accept, thank you and I'm sorry, I still know I'm right about Christopher saving her, but I understand why I was wrong to you." That was an impressive bit of not really apologizing but Delilah looked satisfied.

"Good now as to why I am here." Stephanie walked over to you. "Can you imbue the sword for long enough?" She asked flatly.

"N-not really." You aren't sure if she is taking about the time limit to move onto the next type of metal or the time limit to go out with her, you can hit the former but not the latter but are a bit worried admitting to that will mean the lunch is off the table.

"And I haven't had Nika report for more training." You get the feeling you know where this is heading. "Your Highness." Stephanie bowed then walked off.

You aren't sure why that happened. Was that a hint for you to hurry up? Or was it just to check on your progress since she hadn't been there for the morning practice and she left after the duels yesterday. "That was weird." You said looking at the collected faces around you all feeling much the same as you were. "Breakfast?"