"Well. That's ...great, okay, I think that - uh, to be clear, God would not be mad at you, and I would not be mad at you, if something happened. I just want to avoid that in the first place."

"God would be mad at me and should be mad at me! But - I glad you warn, in case I foolish girl, and did not know this. I know this. My mother teached me."

"Right. Okay. I don't want you to play in the adult league until we've talked to your social worker but you can try against Robert if you want, and I guess if you and him want to fight someone together that's fine as long as they're only hitting lightly."

"Thank you ma'am!" And Iomedae will race delightedly back over to relay this. Jenny is so reasonable, she just doesn't realize girls can be paladins and she is still doing her best to let Iomedae try.

Cináed is not certain whether he is allowed to let two people who aren't authorised fight against each other. He knows he can control the fight and hit lightly if he fights Iomedae himself, but Robert (who is unlikely to have excellent control yet) fighting Iomedae seems significantly less safe.

A quick consultation with Reynhard, who seems to think Iomedae will win this fight quite handily, reduces his concern level significantly. Besides, Cináed and Reynhard are both marshals and they can both be watching like hawks. And Robert is Iomedae's foster parent, so he can give permission to himself if he wants.

"If you two want to fight against each other, go ahead, just remember - no hitting the knee or below, no hitting the hands, and stop straight away if we call a hold." 

"Yes sir." And as soon as they're permitted to start Iomedae will poke Robert in the face because he's not covering it at all.

"Hey, now, don't kill me before I've even warmed up!"

"But we are swording."

"So we are! You're just awfully quick, that's all. Go again?"

"You sure about this?" Cináed mutters under his breath to Reynhard, very quietly. 

"I'm sure it will make him significantly less concerned about us killing Iomedae," Reynhard whispers back, just as quietly. 

"You should say 'Good' if you're dead, ideally," Cináed calls over to Robert. "Otherwise she's going to think you're not dead yet."

(And then she might just keep hitting him.)

"All right, good."

(She's not going to keep hitting him because he doesn't know what word to say! He's never held a sword before! What would he learn from that?)

She will instead copy one of Lucy's moves to hit him again.

"Ow! - point to you again, kiddo, but can you hit a little lighter than that? I'm past my sporting prime."

Why is he having so much trouble with the instruction to say 'good'. She should in fact be careful to hit him more lightly, though. "Yes sir."

Again? But gently?

"Good, good." He is suddenly wondering why in the hell Martin went after a girl who carried a sword.

(Well, he came up behind her and tried to choke her, which is a pretty reasonable thing to try to do if you don't have a sword and your opponent does. His tactical choices were all right, all things considered, though his strategic ones were poor.)

Iomedae is not at all willing to let him get any hits in, so it's just kind of a slog of getting hit repeatedly until he no longer feels it would be unsporting to call it quits. 

"She's quite the remarkable talent," Reynhard offers as he reaches out a hand to help Robert unsling the heavy shield from his arm. He's got a red plastic Solo cup full of water, ready for whenever Robert can get his helmet off. "Hope that wasn't too frustrating? She's good, but at her age, not quite experienced enough yet to know when she should take it easy - that'll come with age, and time in helmet."

Cináed has several pointers to go over with Iomedae after watching her beat up her foster father! He figures he can save the delicate points about going easy on people for after they've established a rapport, so he starts by showing her how to fix her return so that she won't end up with tennis elbow after a few months. 

- right, because no one can get any healing. Iomedae will try to adjust her swing in case Aroden's doing that for some reason and won't fix it on request. "Thank you, sir."

"Oh! I'm not a sir. I'm just Cináed."

(He's a Lord, but he's absolutely not about to tell a newbie that at practice, that'll just scare them off.)

There is probably nobody left for Iomedae to fight if her parents won't let her fight adult men. "If you want to take your armour off and check out the crafts, I can help you find a bag to keep everything in, or if you just want to hit a fence post for a bit that's fine too!" 

"I don't know crafts."

Rather than explaining, Cináed will gesture to the corner of the field where people are gathered around folding tables sewing and discussing the arts and sciences. "We do all sorts of arts and sciences in the Society - I do some fabric arts. I made everything I'm wearing!"

It is not strictly true that he made everything he's wearing. He is wearing modern shoes (covered by some period fabric covers), though he's doing his best to fix that. There's a few things his long-distance girlfriend made him, too - like the pendant tucked underneath his shirt - but he wears those covered underneath his clothes, so it's definitely true that Cináed made himself everything Iomedae can see.