PRECEDENCE. — ★
elysieth:
♢ ` — his arm was starting to cramp. hand flexes, the leather crinkling soundlessly as he tucks his elbow into his side. he wonders if it’s possible that hand shakes are out of fashion. maybe it was something that young people didn’t do anymore. it wasn’t as if though jeralt would know about any of those things. it also wasn’t like byleth would know either. his arm hurts. should he back down? was it too forward? maybe the conversation was supposed to go on longer before he did. maybe it was too sharp of an angle. did that make him look unapproachable? ( it wouldn’t have been the first time he was told this. elbow relaxes a margin. less formal. )
“——— myself?”
a laugh comes in the form of an exhale.
lips twitch. his arm falls back down to his side. “———— maybe.” but the implication is given no more thought, byleth only nodding as the stranger clears the air by responding to his next question. hands flatten against his chest, byleth looking down at his own attire. the dark knight was the dark knight because he wore black. he also had a legendary sword. byleth was also dressed in black. considerably over-dressed for the climate that they’re in, but it’s hard to tell. he hasn’t felt warm or cold since his arrival. did that make him also a black knight? that seemed like an awfully uncreative title, even if byleth didn’t care particularly much for his own.
another light pat. “i should dress in more gray,” byleth replies after a moment. maybe he should scatter some ashes where he walked. he’s sure if he gathered enough from the campfires before they left that they’d have no shortage of it. hands lift, his index fingers pointing upward as he rests his fists at either side of his head. “horns too.” at least it’d make more sense to call him the ashen demon then if people were in the business of more literal names. he didn’t do anything different than anyone else. ( he still can’t place why ’ ASHEN DEMON ’ makes his skin crawl. ) “no, not really. i’m a mercenary.” byleth rests his hand at the hilt of his sword. there wasn’t anything remarkable about him, save for the sword of the creator. “did you —” he pauses, looking at the pier, then to the beach just behind the not-light knight.
not white knight. maybe not a knight at all.
“—————— want to challenge me?”
little about this conversation made sense otherwise.
so, not professed to be a particularly skilled fighter, and not much of a conversationalist either. not that aless had been either, especially not when he’d first met him, but the initial similarities are fading away by the second. behind the other man, calm inlet waters lap at the columns of the pier and birdcalls pierce, swimming far overhead. leif doesn’t bother responding to the other’s nonsequiter thoughts; they don’t seem to be intended for him, or to invite input ( at least, he doesn’t think so ); and anyway, what would he even say? fortunately, the stranger does address him again eventually, pulling him from the beginnings of wondering how best to extricate himself from this strange meeting he’d gotten himself into.
❝ huh? oh— er, no, that’s not what i came here for. ❞ eyes dart to the swordsman’s hand that’s fallen to the hilt of his blade in anticipation — oh, right! the sword!
shoulders relax as intrigue renews itself in sunspotted umber. ❝ but i meant to ask about your sword as well. where did you find a weapon like that? i’ve never seen anything like it. ❞ its make and texture; it doesn’t even look like it’s crafted from steel, or at least any metal he’s encountered.
that said —
a quick headshake toussles chestnut; he’s forgetting himself. odd as this man is, it’s no excuse to shirk manners. he may not carry the fullness of the duties vested in him here, but actions reflect on him all the same. ❝ before that, though, maybe we should begin again. i apologize for my rudeness earlier. my name is leif; i’m a transfer student at the officers academy. and your name? unless— ❞ a small jest, well-intentioned, he signales by offer of a smile, of congeniality in a mien where no shadows fall, ❝ —you prefer i call you ‘ ashen demon ’ forever. ❞










