By this time, her idiot guardsman has come back, and since Thea mentioned it was in the bad parts of town, she allows him to come with her. 

Pau's very hesitant about this. "My- my lady"?

Lucia forges on ahead. The neighborhood was a bit scary, but now she's found the monastery- and she made a friend. "Don't worry, Pau," she says, looking back. "I'll protect you!" She hovers down the corridor smoothly, and fearlessly, her cloud filling the entire width. She really wants to be able to cast something like the lamps! Maybe she could do it with like, a constant arc of lightning?

The hallway eventually reaches a large chamber that seemingly opens to clear blue sky.  On second glance, it is clearly an illusion (or multiple illusions, considering the area) of some kind.

Across the open space, almost a dozen women, from five-years-olds to nearly Thea's age, are sparring and training.

Thea greets her "I'm glad you're here-" and then pauses at seeing the guard "I'm sorry, this is a women's monastery, your guard may wait by the top of the spiraling hallway." Her voice is apologetic, but firm.

Experiences! Trap? No, it would be a clever one, but Thea seems so nice. 

"You may as well go home, Pau! I'll have one of the powerful ladies to see me home!" 

She sends him off, and waves at Thea, getting off her little thundercloud, still wearing an impractical black damask dress. "Thea! You have such an exciting place! I love the sky!". 

A bit presumptuous, but not intolerably so considering this is a noble.  Thea had assumed the Condesa could handle herself being a sorcerer, maybe she doesn't have any good combat spells yet?  Or is aware of the practical limits arcane magic can run into?

"Yes, the illusion was cast a long time ago, when the Sisterhood of Eiseth had more arcane casters at its disposal."

The dress is impractical, but fine for the activity Thea has planned.

"So I thought about what would be most useful for a sorceresses to learn.  I was taught grappling an arcane caster is the best bet for beating them, so it seems to me learning to escape from grabs might be quite useful given the standard need for arcane gestures for many spells?"

"Don't mind Pau, he has different instructions from me, my mother, and his guard captain, and I think he's being bribed by my aunt. I can get home fine, uh, I think. As long as it's not that dangerous. Is it all right if Mercè stays?" The maid is quiet, not commenting on what Lucia is doing, or even looking like she wants to comment.  

She blinks. "That sounds very so useful. I do need to do a bit of gesturing, even for cantrips- I need to move the topons I emit into the right configurations? is that the right words? I can never remember. I didn't do well in magic, strangely enough." 

Then Lucía says "🜋🝢🜲🝒", and does two precise but casual-looking gestures, and a small-but-bright-green arc of electricity hits the flagstones just by her feet. Lucia smiles, catching the cantrip with a practiced mental motion. 

"Anyway, it doesn't work very well without the gestures. Is it the same for you, or does Irori spells work differently?" 

Sounds like standard nobility stuff...

"It's fine if Mercè stays... in fact I wouldn't mind more practice teaching for me and my students, if you and her don't mind?"  Maybe involving the maid will offend Lucia out of some noble sense of pride, but better to find out if she's like that sooner than later?

"Right, so one of the key differences between divine magic and arcane magic is that the movements required are much less precise with divine magic.  A lot of arcane spells, you have that full body and shoulder movement, and it needs precision.  So wearing armor, getting grabbed (or worse grappled), entangling spells, and so on all interfere.  Even worse than with divine magic, you can at least wear armor while casting without too much difficulty, not that I use armor.  So... to break things down into basics, we'll go throw a bunch of common ways of getting grabbed on the arm and the most effective way of breaking the grab!  Sound good?  I have two of my older sisters here so you can practice."

Experiences!

"Certainly she may, if she likes- Mercè, would you like to learn how to escape a grab?" 

Mercè looks up, and nods distinctly and firmly. 

"Ah- " she whispers to Thea. "When I was younger, I had a maid who would always tell me what to do. Between her and my mother, when I became a Condesa, I'd become rather strident about not being told what to do, so I advertised for a silent maid. I think she's from one of the very bad counties. She doesn't talk."

Thea isn't quite sure how to respond that, so she gets to her demonstration.

"Barbara if you would, across, at an angle they can see."

An older student grabs Thea's right arm with her right arm, reaching across her body.  Thea smoothly and sharply twists her arm away, breaking the grab.

"Again, we'll go slowly this time."

And they repeat several times, slowly demonstrating the action so that Lucia and Merce can clearly see, then demonstrating it at full speed against  a full strength grab.

"Now I'll have Barbara and Ilda demonstrate with you and Merce each grabbing them.  For this specific motion to break out, it is grabbing across while facing the person.  I'll demonstrate with some other angles and types of grab afterwards."

She'll let Ilda deal with any talking.

She steps in front of Merce, holding out her arm available for a grab.

Bàrbara already got the less talkative one, so Ilda will have to figure out what to say if this Lucia wants to socialize or something.  The weather is usually a safe topic.

She hold out her arm for Lucía to grab.

Lucía grabs Barbara. She moves quickly, but sloppily, and her grip is kitten-weak. 

And the exercise moves along smoothly, with Ilda and Bàrbara first demonstrating, then having Lucía and Mercè break free of their grabs.  Ilda adjusts her grab to be looser, just firm enough that Lucía has to use proper technique without exerting a lot of strength.  Bàrbara find that Mercè is actually plenty strong, so gradually increases her grip strength so that Mercè also needs proper technique.

Thea alternates between the pairs, making minor adjustments to the motions Lucía and Mercè are making.

After about 10 minutes, Thea demonstrates a new angle of grab with a proper motion to break free of it and the entire process of demonstration, practice, and adjustments repeat.

If Lucía has no complaints, Thea will do this for another 4 grabs, using up around an hour.

Lucía gets visibly sweaty and slower after about half an hour. And if she was only what she presented as, that would have been it, but instead she becomes more serious, and doubles down. All her interests align towards this.

Mercè gets more confident, and proves to be a quick learner. But as to communication, she does not smile or speak or do anything but nod or shake her head 

Thea approves of Lucia's focus.  She may not have a good physical foundation, but she has the mental will to build one.  And Mercè is learning at an excellent rate, although maybe the speed 4-year-olds learn this for the first time has set Thea's expectations too low.

Thea wants Lucía to have the energy left to see it tied together, so she stops slightly earlier than she originally planned at 3 more grabs, for a total of about 50 minutes spent and 5 grabs learned.

"Solid effort.  Now, outside the training grounds, you often don't know where a grab is coming from.  And there is more angles it might come from, but Ilda and Bàrbara will keep it predictable for now.  But to keep it interesting and to push it towards practical use, they will randomly switch between any of the 5 grabs we've practiced so far today."

She smiles encouragingly at Lucía.

"Would you like to make it slightly more interesting?  Do you have any non-damaging cantrips you can use repeatedly?  A daze or even a detect magic would be fine, a jolt wouldn't."

Lucia nods, and wipes her face with a handkerchief, panting. "Let's do detect magic- my Daze isn't really reliable." She puts a hand on the wall, breathes in, breathes out. "I might get one of those nice monk outfits you have for next time. Maybe in silk?" 

"Yes, our clothes allow for a full range of movement.  I'm not sure how durable silk is, I suppose I could mend minor tears?"

"Anyway, detect magic will work fine.  I want you to try to cast it repeatedly while Ilda tries to grab you.  If you're grabbed, break the grab and continue casting.  Let's see how long you can push it for, being able to cast through distraction and tiredness is an important skill."  And pain, but Thea doesn't have the spare healing for that.

And they can continue practicing, this time with Ilda and Bàrbara switching between grabs randomly.  Ilda will grab just hard enough that Lucía has the strength to break it if she is using the technique right.

Thea will let this continue for half an hour if Lucía has the endurance for it.  Occasionally she make small comments on technique or giving an approving nod but mostly letting Lucía and Mercè practice in silence.

"Oh, it is quite durable, if it is of good quality. I hear that when Guillem, uncles's- ah- no, that's probably not something anyone wants to know." She clears her throat. "Quite durable, anyway." 

She casts, and breaks out, and casts, and breaks out, and casts, and casts and casts. Soon enough, the casts start fizzling. Lucía gets weaker, but she does make it to the end of the planned session, if just barely. 

"Well," she says, panting, sitting on the floor now. "that was bracing! And you do that every day, you say? I can see why you're making such progress!"

Thea smiles at that.

"Physical endurance can be built in a few months, and I think you've shown the will to go with it.  The sheer variety there is to learn, and the extent of the practice needed to go from 'reliable on the training grounds in elegant little exercises' to 'certain performance in ugly life or death combat' does take time."

"I can have Ilda walk you back?  But feel free to rest for a bit if you need it.  I think it is Ilda I would trust with your letter of introduction to see your city and lands on my behalf.  Let me know how soon you can have the letter, or did you already have it written?  And would you like some water, I have the cantrip prepared?"  Thea looks to one of the younger students. "Natàlia can you get two cups from the mess hall."

Lucia accepts the water gratefully, and glances at Mercè, who removes a leather folder, and a parchment from it. 

To His Excellency, Don Danilo Velacruz i Fernand, Representative of the Condesa of Halmyris

My esteemed Father,

The bearer of this letter,                    who can be identified by,                                and is a Monk and Envoy of the Irorian Monastery of Westcrown, is to be afforded every courtesy and assistance during her stay in Halmyris. I ask, authorize, and instruct you to

1. Grant the bearer full access to investigate the Old Fort within our domain, as it is being considered as a potential location for an Irorian Monastery for which she is the authorized representative.

2. Provide suitable meals and accommodations befitting a guest of the Condesa 

3. Upon the conclusion of her investigation, expected to take no more than two weeks, furnish her with necessary supplies for her return journey

4. Offer any additional aid or resources that may facilitate her mission, within reason.

Thank you for your assistance in this matter.

Please extend my regards to my sister.

Signed,
(Condesa Lucía Velacruz i Montemayor de Halmyris)

(Her Seal)