PeaceMaker

Falls looked at them for a moment before chuckling, "No wonder you guys are so good at fighting, now I feel bad for all the people you spared with. They were going against veterans the whole time."

"Ah~ please we're both a bit rusty here," Adia chuckled, turning to look at Boris, "well at least I am. But from what I can tell by his highness, he hasn't gotten much better either."

"Taking whatever opportunity you see to insult me now, aren't you?" Boris retorted, rubbing her low-cut, "your arrogance never fails to amaze me, my lady."

Falls stepped back a little, as if he was taking in their full image before smiling. "I'm not sure, it seems like you both aren't the slightest bit rusty…" he muttered, looking at the shard on the ground, "we have high highness, who can break a sword in two and then another who is fast enough to dodge all attacks while maintaining amazing strength." He walked back towards them and nodded with an impressed expression, "you are both high levels above the soldiers here, most likely even one of the best that we have in the palace right now."

Adia unwrapped the bandages that were around her wrist and placed them on the table beside the wall of weaponry before turning back to Falls. "One of the best?" she asked, her eyebrows raising curiously.

Falls locked eyes with her for a moment in confusion before a look of understanding crossed his eyes and he nodded. "Yes, one of the best here. We have a wide range of soldiers here from all over the kingdom and even some from the central empire itself. They are trained in literally every physical war aspect under the sun."

"So martial arts, fencing, sword training, boxing, and more?" Adia commented as she slipped off the training robe that they had to put on while practicing, she looked over at Boris who had already taken off his robe. "Were you trained in those areas here too?"

Boris nodded his head as he walked towards the steps leading up to the "ground" floor of the palace. "Of course. Do you think that they only make me work on one certain area for hours at a time?" he asked sarcastically.

"Well of course as your skill seemed to be leaning more on sword art than any other skill," Adia shrugged with a sly smile on her face. 

"You really know how to annoy some people, don't you?" Boris rolled his eyes. 

"Annnywaysss~ back to what Sir. Falls was saying?" Adia grinned, turning to Falls.

"Ah, yes. Since there are many areas that we have people study under, we tend to have a lot of people that are amazing in those categories and then some others that are complete summaries of all the skills," Falls explained as they continued to walk, Adia nodding her head to show attentiveness.

"That sounds interesting," Adia chuckled as she locked eyes with Boris, "I wonder which one I would fall under."

"Probably well-rounded," Falls replied unconsciously. "We have some people that are especially quick but lack good offense and attack power and others that are balls of brute falls but are terrible in speed but then we have you, who does both quite well."

"That doesn't include all of the other groups the soldier's study under though," Adia commented. 

"That's because I haven't seen you in any other set yet. You seem amazing with a sword and very quick-witted and fluid in battle but I wonder how you would fare in one on one, no weapons," Falls replied.

Adia walked quietly for a moment, as if she was contemplating before chuckling. "Yea… I wonder how I'd do here." She turned to Falls with a gleam in her eyes, "are there any females that are in the higher ranks?"

Falls immediately nodded his head. "Of course!! Our army does not work with gender norms and one of the top best, out of the best, is an amazing female warrior."

Adia grinned, clapping her hands in excitement." Really?! What's her name?"

"Litian Roman," Falls smiled, his smile bright and genuine as he mentioned her name. "She's stronger than most of the men here, quick on her feet, carries her sword like it's a feather, and has the mind of a genius, a complete package that brings glory to the kingdom."

Adia nodded her head, encouraging Falls to go on.

"She was born into nobility but not once ever took it for granted. She once almost gave up on her entire career as a warrior for her father as she thought being a more… socially ladylike woman would be more beneficial to her family," Falls stated. 

"Really?? What happened?"

"His royal highness and our dear deceased king made sure she never took that path. She was always close to his royal highness, so when she had almost made the decision, he stopped her immediately, and thank god he did because we wouldn't have made it through so many wars without her," Falls nodded his head with a content expression on his face. "Now despite having a long line of suitors longer than 5 most noblewomen out there, she is set on her path and is now in war with his royal highness, supporting him every step of the way."

Adia continued down the hallway and looked to her right at the blue sky and the white cloud in the sky. A smile curls onto her lips. "She sounds amazing…" she muttered loosely to which Falls picked up. 

"Yeah, she is! All of the soldiers here have a hard time beating her in a sparring match, including the veterans, it's insane. To the point that the person she mainly spars with is his royal highness and although they are of similar skill levels, she always won," Falls giggled, leaning into Adia slightly as his voice lowered, "make sure not to tell his royal highness that I said when you meet him."

Adia burst into laughter, her eyes traveling to the view into the courtyard and the expanse of land the palace had from the hallway. Something pink catches her eye in a bush outside of the hallway and she stops, walking over to the bush, and reached for the flower, the hot sun rays bouncing off her deep chocolate, gleaming skin as she plucked the pink rose.

As she takes in the soft petals of the pink rose, she feels movement behind her and looks up at Falls. "A pink rose… one of the many flowers that grow in the garden of the palace. Sometimes it grows in random places but either way, it's beautiful, really."

Adia locked eyes with him for a moment and in their moment of eye contact, he froze, taken in by the color of her eyes. Unlike the deep brown, they held before, when the bright rays of the sun perched on her bright, alert gaze, the color lifted, shifting to a creamy golden-brown shade that shone with such brightness it seemed like a gem. A tiger's eye gemstone. 

Adia turned away from him and stood up from her position on the ground, turning around to give him a smile as she twirled the rose in her hand. "Really?" she asked, her eyebrow raising playfully as they met eye contact again before she looked back down at the rose and smiled. "I see."

Falls stood motionless as she walked past. His brain was on pause, still taken aback by her eyes, still taken aback by her smile.

"Hey," Adia called out to which Falls turned around to face her and Boris who stood behind her, waiting. "You coming?"

"Oh… yea…" Falls nodded as he walked towards them, pushing down the tightening in his throat. 

They continued walking down the hallway in silence as Adia stared at her rose, turning it to one side and then another and then another, fascinated with each curve on the flower, with each coat of color on the petals. 

She continued to stare for a few more seconds before something struck her as she looked at the roots of the rose, some white clear goo seeping out. "Sir. Falls," she called out. 

"Hm?" Falls replied. 

"Not to be presumptuous or intrusive but, his highness and Litian seemed to be very close," Adia commented, raising her rose up slightly to the ceiling as she examined it. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a change in movements, a stop in a steady pace, a break in mood and aura. A flinch. A smile slipped onto her face as she glanced over at Falls. 

"Mmhm," he nodded. 

Her smile, slowly reduced into a small smirk as her gaze shifted slightly to the gold that peered at her from beside Falls. "Say… what was their relationship?" she asked as she lowered her rose to her lips as if she was trying to hide her smirk. To hide her sneer. But she knew pink against deep brown, only made things pop more.

Falls' eyebrow's furrow for a moment as he tries to think of an answer to her question. "Honestly... " he began, "no one was ever sure. Litian was the only woman he seemed interested in staying around, conversing with, eating with, smiling at, and even more than all that, protect. He was as protective over her as she was over him. A mutual feeling of fondness between the two." He paused and leaned into her ear, "it was so intriguing that some speculated they were more..

"Ah...." Adia muttered, her smug grin growing into a light chuckle, "I didn't know that…" Her eyes shifted to the golden gaze that glared at her despotically, "heh… interesting."