“America has -“ she doesn’t know the words. But in America fabric is cheap and so there must be magic for it, as in ancient Azlant. Iomedae knows how to sew but she has no desire to spend precious swording time on chores. “I rather sword more please?”

"I don't know if you can fight more people right now? If your guardian is only giving you permission to fight, uh, women and other young people - we do have another youth fighter but he's not here right now so you might be out of luck. Of course you're welcome to hit the pell as much as you like." 

"Thank you." Iomedae has learned lots of new moves today and is perfectly happy to spend a while trying them on a fencepost. She would rather fight everybody here but she is not going to argue with Robert and Jenny, who are in the service of Heaven even if Iomedae misses being a free person quite badly. Maybe she can take her feelings about foster care out on the fencepost.

"Let me know if you change your mind, I will do my best to introduce you to everyone!"

And Cináed will head off to fight some other people. 

Some of the other Atlantians wander over to Iomedae to correct her technique, or offer to introduce her to various people, or ask her if she wants to learn crafts, or offer to share free food with her. But once it becomes obvious that she really just wants to murder a fence post, they are mostly willing to leave her alone to murder a fence post. 

Well, she definitely wants to murder it with correct technique! She will happily accept technique corrections!

(She is...more emotional than she expected to be, at finding an order, at having a sword in her hand again, at meeting people who are good at fighting like she wants to be. The thing is that it could still all be taken away, because she is a slave. She has it, but she doesn't, and there are still half a dozen misunderstandings between her and everyone here, and why isn't Aroden sending these people priests, they certainly need them, and -)

Lucy fights until she is almost too tired to stand, and then she sits down briefly to get some water, and then she stands up and fights a bit more, and then she finally decides she's done. By this point most of the older folks are standing around chatting, and some people have suggested a group expedition to Waffle House, and a couple bards have broken out a new song they're working on teaching people.

At this point she wants her armour off, but she has a personal rule about being the first in armour and the last out of armour, and she is not about to break that rule because the literal first-day newbie is still doggedly battering the pell. And not mindlessly, either; Iomedae looks like she's genuinely determinedly working to teach her arm the new things that she just watched Lucy and Nicole do to her. She seems like she wants to learn and she's not about to be put off by minor barriers like being in foster care or not being allowed to fight anyone which would really be widely considered understandable things to be put off by. 

Lucy likes this newbie.

There's maybe a kindred spirit over there, and she's really... needed one of those for a while. It's so much harder to be the way she is when everyone's telling her she's a strange outlier for it and implying that it would be very understandable (and perhaps more normal) if she stopped. Selfishly, Lucy hopes everyone starts being concerned about the newbie instead of concerned about her so they'll get off her ass, but.... nope that's an unworthy thought and she pushes it away. Everyone will do their duty as they understand it, and she ought to do her best to understand them. 

"Hey, Iomedae - I think practice is ending soon so they might start wanting you to get out of armour? No rush, but you'd probably be welcome to join us, if you wanted to come to Waffle House with everyone."

It would be dishonourable to get Iomedae to get out of armour just so that she can get out of armour herself without breaking her rules, so she adds, "I think we still have.... maybe a few minutes... if you wanted to fight again."

Lucia is visibly drooping like a wilting flower. Sweat plasters her hair to her forehead and a few drops of it have fallen from her forehead and made it onto her tabard. She smells like a dead rat, with subtle hints of pigsty and notes of chemical warfare. One of her pauldrons has been duct-taped back on after the leather strap failed. She is not lying about being willing to fight again, but the bright smile on her face and the fierce light in her eyes are not matching up to the rest of her body language at all. 

Iomedae does want to fight again, very badly, but beating Lucy just because Lucy is too tired to hold a sword wouldn't really be the most honorable way to end her first practice. "I do not know if Jenny want me go to Waffle House," she says, reluctantly turning her back on the fencepost. "You wanted talk about Martin who I sworded?"

"I... that wasn't what I came over for, but I guess I did want to know, yeah? Just because - I'm sorry if I was being rude, I didn't know it was self defence but I really should've guessed - but I would want to be friends so long as you didn't.... murder someone?"

"I do not know murder? He is in hospital, not Hell."

"Oh, that's... really good. I did not think someone would usually survive being stabbed five times... I mean, most things - I mean most people won't survive being stabbed once." 

"- I mean, not -" She turns around and takes a proper swing at murdering the fencepost. "That kill a man if he is not a strong man. But - can I grab you to show -"

"I -" Lucy has absolutely no idea whether this will turn out well and suspects it won't. But if Iomedae is operating under too much of a language barrier to justify herself... "Sure you can."

Then Iomedae will step behind Lucy and put her in an extremely light not actually alarming chokehold. "Martin do this. So I sword, but - no a good sword, there - and Martin grab the sword - I think he thinked it not real steel -"

Lucy's automatically running through all the options she thinks she'd have in this situation, starting with stamping on the guy's toe and progressing to aikido and then trying to just reverse grip the sword and slide it backwards and if that didn't work trying to reverse the sort of movement she'd do for a wrap... but if the sword got grabbed, that's a tight spot.

"Do you know how to fight without a sword?" 

"Fight a person smaller than me with no sword, yes. Fight a grow man with no sword, that stupid, do it three time you are dead."

"I don't think-" Lucy starts, and then hesitates, because obviously she has beaten plenty of people bigger than her in fights but she was never attacked on the street when she was fifteen.

"I learned to fight without a sword partly because - I'm a warrior, right, and that means I have extra responsibility. Someone attacking me is being stupid and - the penalty for stupidity isn't death? Fighting a grown man with no sword is stupid if you die in three fights but.... I really don't know if I do? Maybe you do, maybe now. But if you train you'll be scary pretty soon." 

" - when I sworded Martin I take him to a church. I think God fix him, and then maybe the law kill him, but him sworded not matter very much, because God fix it. Here, God does not fix hurt people. The hospital do it. Maybe the hospital do it no good as God. It no take God months fix broken arm.

A holy warrior extra responsibility. I think - a holy warrior extra responsibility to Martin, also extra responsibility to the other girls on that farm, scared of Martin. It is better if Martin not die of sword. Law maybe kill Martin, that is fine, but if the law do it he has time to be sorry.

Since it is better if Martin not die, some time it is better, take more chance to die so that Martin not die.

Is that all right?"

"I.... yes. I mean - honestly anything you said here would be all right because you're taking this way more seriously than I think most people would want to? And, uh, for me.... it would be one thing if I was not trained, and I panicked and couldn't really help stabbing someone five times, but... I'm good at fighting, enough that I can't blame panic, and I have to try and stop someone without killing them first. Maybe you're not that good yet but - I think you might be soon. And it's... really good you managed not to kill the guy but you got very lucky, I've never heard of a church healing anyone and I think sometimes the hospital can't fix it if you have enough stab wounds... and I'm sorry if it's really not my place to say that. I think you probably did - a really really good job - protecting the other girls from Martin."

"Panicked is, no thinking good, just doing stupid things? I did not do that. I thinked, and thinked sword Martin, and sworded Martin. I think Martin lucky that the hospital fix it, because if he die he go to Hell. Now he have time to think. I think....I thinked that the church heal him, and this was not true, but if I knowed the church not heal him, I think I do the same thing? I think it is bad if Martin die, but - it is much more bad no stop Martin. A really strong fighter no need a sword, but - I think you should a sword, if Martin try you."

"I... am almost definitely not going to have a sword on me in most situations where I might get assaulted in the street. You are also mostly going to not have a sword - I am kind of confused and surprised you were just, carrying a sword around a mundane street in your mundane clothes? And people... let you do that?"

"Right now I no sword because I am a foster child. But the police sayed a free person can a small sword, and a small sword is better for Martin situations. I gived my small sword to Maria because Martin scare her, so only have my big sword."

"Um. I'm not a foster child and I basically never take my sword anywhere mundane? I think you maybe can have one legally but literally none of us carry our swords to like... the supermarket. Like - zero of us are going to wear swords in Waffle House."

"....why not?"