Here, I will teach you, not how to fight, but how to avoid fighting. How to disable your opponents without killing them. Remember, killing is, and always MUST be, only a last resort. -- Anon Guest
"I thought you were a Master of Shadows," sneered Shea, they were not impressed by any of this. Least of all the half-hour wait while Master Kosh meditated in a sunbeam. "Aren't they meant to be assassins?"
The old Hellkin who had once been king by conquest had a very pointy and unfriendly smile for Shea. "They're often hired as such by the ignorant. A better use for the Way of Shadows is preventing and foiling other assassins. Much trickier. There are some occasions in which killing is the lazy solution to the problem at hand."
Ami put up her hand. "Didn't you kill fourteen people to become a king?"
The old consort, now merely Goodwife "Oma Delia" Whitekeep, appeared. She distracted Master Kosh with kisses and 'kuchen' for a solid minute. Ami practiced the first lesson and got one of the small cakes as a reward.
"That is a good question. Kuchen for that. Yes. I did kill. I tried not to, mind. Every death that came from my hands was to save so many more. For each one, I did my utmost to make it quick and merciful. I never delighted in having to kill." Now his glowing yellow eyes bored into Shea's, pinning them in place. "Those who delight in harm are exactly the kind I cut out of life."
Shea mumbled an apology.
"I teach you to fight so that you know what to do when things go very wrong. When you have to fight, you will be fighting someone who may want to kill you. So you do everything you can to stop them from doing that. Disarm, disable, decamp. Death is too permanent to serve as a lesson, ja?"
Shea was frowning, "But... what about those toughs in the markets? The ones you messed up? One of them nearly died..."
"That one said a very nasty word that should never be tolerated. Like calling a Human a 'malformed ape' or a D'Varuv 'lawn ornament'. Some lessons in manners have to have a permanent reminder. Further, I did note that his friend had some healing vials in his pockets. If he was going to die, I'd have liberated one." Master Kosh rose from his seat, leaning on his cane as he stretched. "The dead can't learn." He picked up one of the prettier cupcakes.
Ami liked this lesson. She'd learned it quickly, with the defeat of the toughs. Shea needed a second pass.
The cake lay innocently on the Master's blue palm. "Take it, if you think you can. If you think you know so much about the Way of Shadows."
Ami had asked politely to have the cake, when it had been her turn. Shea insisted on yelling and leaping for the prize.
Master Kosh sent them tumbling again and again into the prepared mats. With a foot, with his tail, with his cane and once, to add insult to metaphorical injury, with the very hand holding his kuchen.
Shea eventually lay spread-eagled and panting on the mats. "This is impossible! You're a Master and I'm just..." they finished their sentence with a raspberry.
"You are just beginning to learn. Which is why I teach you the defensive Kata. Better to defend yourself first and then learn how to attack if necessary, nein?"
Shea said, "As you say, Master." They were learning.
[Photo by Serghei Savchiuc on Unsplash]
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