❈ | 022 | Voice

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

A girl...

[She trails off, and there's the briefest hesitation. She'd thought it was a way to stay Faceless, to keep true to everything the kindly man has taught her. But it just makes her stand out more. No one here knows Braavos, no one knows how they speak the common tongue, and no one knows her.

When she starts up again, it's as if she never stopped, all confidence.]

I want someone to teach me to fight. Without swords. I'm small, but I'm fast. And I'm strong. [She sounds a little less certain of that, but she will fake it till she makes it.]

And I want to learn to shoot a bow. Who knows how to teach it?

[There are no Lannisters here, now, but maybe one day there will be. Maybe one day she'll go back to Westeros, and though she has every intention of burying Needle in Cersei's chest, she doesn't care if she kills the others from a distance.]

[Private to Bruce Wayne]

A man - you said you'd teach me.

Comments

[crossestheline]

You don't teach someone your age to fight just because they "want to".

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

Were you taught?

[crossestheline]

I taught myself and then I was given formal training at the age of eleven. What I was trained for wasn't child's play.

[Studies her.]

What the hell is someone your age doing in this place anyway? [Narrows his eyes. What is the Admiral thinking? Bringing a kid to a place filled with murderers? He was no stranger to them as a kid, but look at how he turned out because of it.]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

[She just looks at him coolly, then, making her face blank like she was taught, so it gives away none of her emotions.

She was fairly certain she was at least eleven.]

A girl-- [It's a hard habit to break.] I don't want to play. [But she doesn't answer his question, because it's one thing she hasn't thought much about since coming here. They punished her in the House of Black and White when she killed someone by taking her eyes; they did it to teach her how to listen better. But being here hasn't taught her much, not, she thinks, what they want to teach her.]

Did you?

[crossestheline]

[Recognizes the kind of training that goes behind the masked expression she gives him. Not any ol' kid would be able shield their emotions like that. It takes time and a lot of training to accomplish. He never fully mastered it himself.]

No, I didn't. I wanted to protect myself and punish the scumbags who messed with kids like me.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

Did you get messed with a lot?

[crossestheline]

At first, until I learned to be quick. On the streets where I grew you, you learn you've gotta be quick or you're gonna be dead.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

A girl learned that too.

I already know how to use a sword. Can you teach me or not?

[crossestheline]

I can teach you. My methods are a little unorthodox but they're extremely effective.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

What do you mean?