shelley_winters | Niane Tesmani

Niane Tesmani

Moving slowly and deliberately. Eyes where her opponent's would be.

The sword feels heavy in her hands, dragging, making her arms ache even though it is only for practise, but she holds it stubbornly raised.

Move one, two, three. No rush. It's a temptation to go faster, but that's unnecessary. Accuracy is.

The girl called Zera finishes her move and attempts to hold it, though her aching arms make the blade shake. Good enough.

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Niane does only a fair job of repressing a giggle, and could not stop the beaming smile as she whispered conspiratorially.

"I think Joar likes you."

Zera blinks. And again, eyeing her.

"...What do you mean?"

Niane giggles and glanced away shyly. Her voice laden with implication. A grin peeking from behind her turned cheek.

"You know..."

Zera blinks in silence for another moment before laughing quietly, ducking her head.

"Oh. No, I- I don't think so, Niane. Not that way."

Disappointment flickered across her face for a brief moment. A confiding smile as she leaned in closely.

"It's okay... He is a gentleman."

A warm smile, and a hint of a flush on her cheeks.

"I think it is sweet the way he spends time with you."

The flush echoed on Zera's cheeks would be attributed to the exercise if she called attention to it.

"Well, he is. And... it is, but I really think he is just being kind."

Niane planted her hands on her hips, and gave Zera as stern of a look as she was capable of.

"He enjoys spending time with you! I can see it on his face. He is a great man and his time is very valuable... And he spends it with you."

Her stern facade collapsed in on itself with stifled giggles and a touch of curiosity in those hazel eyes. She hangs on the word kissed slightly.

"Has he ever kissed you?"

"No," Zera laughs back, not realising at first that she's whispering too.

"He has not, thank you very much."

Niane looks rather crestfallen, but rebounds quickly with a smile.

"...Shouldn't say I'm surprised..."

A pause, and a flash of inspiration.

"Joar is very distracted by his music! You will have to take the initiative. He is a forward-thinking man. He will understand."

"Niane."

Zera shoots the girl a determinedly stern look.

"I certainly will not. Joar and I are friends, that is true, but- nothing else!"

Niane cowers slightly, her voice quick and polite.

"Yes, my lady..."

A moment of thought for the little girl seemed to deflate. A note of defeat in her voice.

"...It is just... I have not seem him half as happy since..."

She glanced up at Zera, her hazel eyes softer than usual, and her voice barely above a whisper.

"I want him to be happy."

So do I, she thinks, looking down at her feet dangling just off the ground.

"I do as well," she says softly, but aloud. "But... I don't think it's the right way to go about it, is what I mean."

(His fiance was a willow thin girl, pale with fire-red hair, and pretty green eyes)

With furrowed brow, Niane looked rather sullen as she glanced up at Zera. Her voice spoke of her confusion.

"Well... I thought... that... because... You're good for him."

"I'm not."

Zera shakes her head. "I just... He's just looking after me. That's all."

Niane tilts her head curiously. A look of confusion on her face.

"What a silly thought."

A brief pause.

"I have not seen him half as happy since... the incident. Not till you came."

Rather than making Zera look happier, or thoughtful, it only makes her bite her lip and look away.

If she's distracting him, then well enough.

But... She can't help wondering, if she didn't have flame red hair or pretty green eyes, would he still like to walk with her?

Niane's hazel eyes narrowed slightly as she leaned towards Zera with one index finger raised with as much menace as the young girl could muster.

"Now, Lady Zera, I mean this in the most kind way I can... But if you hurt him."

It takes a moment for Niane to devise something suitably threatening, and a little longer to summon the courage to say it.

"Why... I will pummel you with as large a rock as I can lift!"

"Niane Tesmani!"

Lyrae Addam advances sternly from behind the two girls, having heard Niane's unwisely loud warning.

"Is that any way for a young girl to speak to a guest? Particularly a lady?"

The menacing look on Niane's face crumples into a cringe as her shoulders fold in on her small body. A few moments before she manages to squeak out a reply.

"No, Lyrae Sedai."

Zera flinches as well, out of some universal sense of guilt instilled by an angry mother.

"I- I think she was speaking hypothetically..."

Niane whirls around so quickly she almost falls. Nodding as quickly and vigorously as she possibly could with a too bright, and uneasy grin.

"Yes, any reference to large rocks was purely hypothetical."

A brief pause as she unwisely continues.

"Lyrae Sedai, the discussion of large rocks, and the impact thereof is the latest metaphorical vogue. You know, for love, and all."

A long blink as she tightened her lips at what she just said.

Lyrae just tilts her head, raising her eyebrows at Niane.

"Was it indeed, child? And who has caught your fancy?"

Her arms are primly folded, and she taps her fingers on the side of her arm patiently as she waits for the girl to answer.

Niane gapes slightly and her hazel eyes dart away as she thinks for a moment. Seizing the opportunity, she folds her hand in front of her and shyly glances away. A small, coy smile as she spoke softly to Lyrae Sedai.

"Oh, Lyrae Sedai, I cannot bother you with such things..."

She thought herself quite clever.

"But I am the one asking you, child."

Lyrae is the picture of gracious patience.

Niane's eyes darted back and forth and a flush crept on to her cheeks as she pursed her lips. That had not worked nearly as well as she had hoped.

Hazel eyes pleaded to Zera for intervention as she stumbled over her words.

"Well... Umm... You see... I... um."

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