There's a bit of a sense of vacuum with Vena not present to fill the moment with anything she can think of. Lashan shrugs and looks away herself, absently examining a wet windchime. "I'm not dead yet. I hate to say it, but those twin priests were right. It would've gone worse if I closed sword-to-sword with anyone, and they had someone smart enough not to let people keep panicking just because I can find a visor slit with an arrow."
Lashan knows that her Sisters can't count on her to be what she used to be. Really, for quite a long time now she's brought people with her, helping, taking up the increasing amounts of slack as her own strength declines. It's just that stories grow in the telling. The ones about what she pulled two decades ago are large enough to cast shadows on everything since, recasting various events as Lashan-and-supporters. She's known, this whole time. It's just as well Guts is getting more of the focus now.
Abruptly she says, "Wish I could train you, but anything that I know and you don't won't even apply." It takes years to become good with the bow, and years to train horses up to Plains standards and to work with them, and caution, let alone seeing himself as someone with value? Guts has some liking for her but she doesn't need any special power to know that it itches at him to be here, that he tolerates the soft communal nature of the enclave better knowing he has the option to leave it. "You'd just be humoring an old lady if we sparred on my best day, and this isn't it. No, you'll get better with experience as your teacher, and you're fearsome already."
Self-deprecation. She's not fishing for assurance and doesn't believe he'll think to give it. "So, will you be doing anything different if you've ever got to face another bear?"
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Lashan knows that her Sisters can't count on her to be what she used to be. Really, for quite a long time now she's brought people with her, helping, taking up the increasing amounts of slack as her own strength declines. It's just that stories grow in the telling. The ones about what she pulled two decades ago are large enough to cast shadows on everything since, recasting various events as Lashan-and-supporters. She's known, this whole time. It's just as well Guts is getting more of the focus now.
Abruptly she says, "Wish I could train you, but anything that I know and you don't won't even apply." It takes years to become good with the bow, and years to train horses up to Plains standards and to work with them, and caution, let alone seeing himself as someone with value? Guts has some liking for her but she doesn't need any special power to know that it itches at him to be here, that he tolerates the soft communal nature of the enclave better knowing he has the option to leave it. "You'd just be humoring an old lady if we sparred on my best day, and this isn't it. No, you'll get better with experience as your teacher, and you're fearsome already."
Self-deprecation. She's not fishing for assurance and doesn't believe he'll think to give it. "So, will you be doing anything different if you've ever got to face another bear?"