Tales of the Jewel

Having spent the night at the Caravan of Entertainment, again, Soraya wakes up and finds herself wandering around the wagons after Aydi leaves, procuring a cup of coffee and enjoying the brisk morning.

Kezia was sitting on the seat of her wagon, a cup of... water in her hands. She was back in her almost-ragged "nobody notices a vagrant" garb (mostly- the blanket wrapped around her shoulders made it somewhat hard to tell).

She arched an eyebrow at the Dahabi princess, and grinned.

"Good morning, Sayedda. I can't help wondering what your father would think..."

"Oh, he can piss off."

The princess blushed at her response, but took a sip of coffee.

"...pardon. Just, it is too nice a morning to think about that kind of thing."

"Nice mornings, bad mornings, the world generally doesn't care when ti rolls out its slate of daily problems for you."

Kezia sipped her water, and chuckled.

"Any further... entanglements since that scrum the other day?"

"No kidnappers, if that's what you mean. I have been trying to be more careful, disguising myself and carrying a dagger with me. Maybe it's that, maybe my luck is just a bit better since... I'm sure it wouldn't be easy to tell."

"A dagger? You any good with it?"

A small shrug.

"Not the best... I know how to not hurt myself with it at this point after some lessons, but it's mostly just there as a last resort. I had the dagger with me in the market when I was kidnapped, but they just immediately knocked it out of my hand~"

"You tried to threaten them with it, didn't you?"

Kezia sounded amused.

"First rule- don't screw around with waving it at people or flourishing it. Just drawing it and holding it like you know what you're doing is threat enough."

Sip.

"Not that I generally bother with threats. A knife should only come out if you honestly intend to stab somebody."

She glanced sidelong at the Dahabi.

"Do you think you could do it? Actually stab someone with the intent to kill them?"

"I mean, they were trying to hurt Joab, so... but no, I don't think I could have actually hurt them. Maybe if Joab had gotten hurt and told me to, but I can't even be certain of that. I know it might be cliche, but I really am a lover, not a fighter."

"Then your knife is... probably a bad idea. Drawing it causes the situation to escalate to a level you've just said you're uncomfortable with."

She chuckled.

"Your well-fed old guard dog is supposed to handle the stabbing, when he's not losing a wrestling match. You should probably focus on learning to slip peoples' holds. You have a tutor for unarmed combat, maybe?"