When the preliminaries comnced, Moriko was continuing with her cross-training with the einherjar. The three won were fun to work with and great drinkers as well, which was always a nice way to celebrate a hard day of training before Moriko headed ho. Sadly, it would take a lot more than that to get even the slightest buzz now, given how much stronger she had beco in the past several months.
At least she got to be entertained by seeing Cimbu take on his original form and do his best to remain as still as a statue during the little pour-off ritual. He always enjoyed this, but Moriko had developed a taste for mixing alcohol and tea into one beverage, which both Kazue and the einherjar had seen a nigh blasphemy until Moriko had made them sit down and taste so of her mixes. They had all conceded that maybe Moriko had a point, but the topic would require further study. Naturally, those studies would require imbibing more of these concoctions, and Cimbu seed happy to deign to humor her by continuing to receive his due tribute.
Training with the einherjar was a slightly surreal experience if she thought about it too much. Like the other celestial beings who had answered the rituals perford nearly a year ago now, except for the zuhra genie who had also responded, the einherjar used to be the souls of mortal beings. After their mortal life was over they had risen in spiritual strength until they had reached the point where they could manifest physical bodies in the mortal world, though it was certainly not mortal flesh.
While it wasn't possible to truly master the trio's fighting style so quickly, Moriko was not entirely unfamiliar with sword and blade. It simply wasn't her preference, and if she had to use a sword she'd rather work with one in a style similar to a temple blade. But in this case, she didn't need to fully master it, in part because she was teaching much of her own style to them.
Just as she had so experience with a blade, they had so experience in the basics of unard combat, so both sides educated the other and worked on a hybridized style that would make them hard to tell apart in combat, so long as Moriko refrained from using lightning beyond charging her blade, and used no shadow lightning at all. It wasn't done the sa way that the other won could do so, but as far as visuals were concerned, the electric charge on the sword was nearly identical.
Moriko was also going to need to be careful about any use of air chi; only the subtlest applications could be used without giving away who she was.
Admittedly, it didn't matter in so ways. Anyone with sufficient information would be able to deduce that there was a stand-in to make four einherjar, and so might be able to guess that Moriko would jump at such a chance. But it created a uniformity of challenge and expectation across the four challenge fights, and being fair like this was important.
Moriko wistfully wished that winning her bout would let her advance with a chance to fight Mordecai, but that would be truly unfair. No, winning would simply end the advancent of her opponent, and potentially create a free pass for the person they would otherwise be facing.
True, Moriko could spar with Mordecai at any ti, but she wanted that greater intensity she had witnessed when he'd fought her master. Fighting him here wouldn't truly get her that, but there was a fantasy to be had in that scenario.
Not that she had a chance of winning, the exhibition matches had shown her that. At least, not if he was really trying and not simply limiting himself to a similar fighting style. Of course, with the right type of 'winner takes all' bet on the line, losing could be as much fun as winning, and Moriko very much enjoyed the price of losing to her husband, but she hated that he had to effectively handicap himself in order for her to have a chance to winning.
It was a situation that would change, she knew that, but he had been honest with her about the pattern he foresaw when she had quizzed him about it. His awakened avatar would be weaker than his current one at first, and she would have the upper hand even if he didn't limit his fighting style, but he would also start growing in strength quickly as he adjusted to his fully invested body.
Their trip to the southern nexus should strengthen everyone, but it was likely that Mordecai's growth would be the fastest. At so point, maybe there or maybe later, he would surpass her again. Eventually, that strength would reach the near plateau of the strongest mortals. Moriko would be able to eventually reach that stage too, but even then he would have the advantage in the breadth of his powers.
Becoming and staying stronger than him wasn't likely, he had too much experience and had experinted with different paths of power in a way most people never could. If he stayed in this avatar and continued to push himself, there was no likely path to surpassing him ever again.
Not that he'd said it so bluntly, but in the end, that was the gist of what he was saying.
Moriko didn't resent him for it, just as she did not resent others such as her master, Gil, or Satsuki their power. She would never want to take strength away from her beloved and there was no faster path to power that didn't co with so form of price she would be unwilling to pay. It was simply a mild regret that she would always be playing a ga of catch-up.
Although, speaking of gas, teaming up to win against him would certainly still be on the table. Kazue did like to play that ga with Moriko occasionally. But that was more lighthearted; Kazue didn't have the sa competitive drive as Moriko and Mordecai.
Of course, the rough gas that Moriko and Mordecai sotis played were mostly to match her desires. He loved her and although he was just as competitive in most ways, he didn't take as much personal pleasure from that sort of ga as she did. He enjoyed playing with her, but 'winning' didn't have as much value to him.
Which made the fact that he would always win if he sincerely tried, just a little more frustrating.
These thoughts made Moriko feel like she had a little more insight into Satsuki. The nine-tail was a wild creature who made Moriko feel like she'd never made it past 'feisty' on the ta-to-wild scale. Oh, Satsuki hid it well and could blend in with the most elegant royalty, but she was also sowhat relaxed around them and didn't work as hard to hide that part of herself as she did when she was in public.
Also, Moriko's growing mastery of her fae powers and senses had helped her notice sothing else about Satsuki. There was a nearly fae-like flavor to the woman's aura, but it was also distinctly not fae. It just had a very similar touch of primal magic and spiritual energy. That was sothing that Moriko had talked with Kazue about, and they both rather suspected that Satsuki was one of the types of first-generation 'mortal' kitsune: her father was probably a mortal, but her mother was likely a nine-tailed spirit-fox.
They could ask about it, but it felt nosy and pushy to ask Satsuki when it wasn't really their business and it felt like sneaking behind Satsuki's back to ask Mordecai, given that it wasn't really important. So they kept their speculation about her possible spirit-fox parentage between the two of them.
These conversations provided Moriko with a lot of information she had not previously known about kitsune and their kin. 'Spirit-fox' was a rather general term that covered a lot of creatures, including celestial foxes and such. In this case, it simply ant a wild fox spirit that had been able to grow in power and sapience until it gained a soul.
The circumstances that allowed a normal fox to live long enough to beco a 'spirit fox' of the physical variety were even rarer, but they also tended to be less wild than their truly spiritual cousins. Either way, they could be the progenitors of mortal kitsune.
Similar processes happened to a lot of animals and animal spirits, but foxes were among the most common as well as having so fairly unique traits, no doubt because so of the most powerful of the Primogen deities were kitsune.
All of this had been fairly new to Moriko as it hadn't been a relevant part of her studies, but now it crossed into territory regarding her goddess. Sakiya was the daughter of a kitsune goddess and a dragon god, with her mother Amiru being one of the influential kitsune deities. So when she had so free ti and wasn't training, Moriko had taken up a bit of study on the subject.
One of the more interesting things that she'd puzzled out from a couple of references was that Sakiya, and Ozuran, had a battle form much like mortal kitsune do. Only, it wasn't simply a monstrous fox, it was a hybrid of fox and dragon forms.
That was fun to talk to the others about; even Mordecai hadn't learned that tidbit. It also did not require talking about the speculation on Satsuki's mother.
Kazue did tease Moriko a bit about becoming studious suddenly, which was fair in a way. Moriko had never really hated learning or anything, she had just disliked having to learn things because others wanted her to learn them and didn't read stuff that she wasn't already specifically interested in.
Also, she wasn't as fast of a reader as more scholarly folk. She had usually had no trouble with comprehension, she just felt painfully slow compared to soone like Kazue, and that could be a touch embarrassing.
Of course, she had a bit more free ti in a way now, even with her current training schedule. Moriko no longer needed to spend ti looking for a bed partner; that was sothing guaranteed twice over now. It was sothing that she'd never considered before because she had also always found the hunt almost as fun as the result, but it really did take up a lot of ti to go out on a regular basis.
Still, Moriko did miss that adventure a little. Oh, never anything like a regret, she could never regret the joy and love she experienced with Mordecai and Kazue; this had been the best year of her life so far and she anticipated the years to co to be even better. But the sincere uncertainty and curiosity during flirtation and build-up were not experiences that were part of a dedicated romance.
Moriko's introspection was partly to ensure she was the best partner she could be and partly to be a better counselor and priestess for Sakiya. While it was rare for outsiders to ask for her advice, their inhabitants were becoming ever more individualistic and forging new experiences and relationships. They were simultaneously adult-like in their bodies and minds while almost child-like in their lack of experience with romance, even if their past selves had children already.
Pre-sapience mating seasons were absolutely not the sa sort of experience.
There was so much occupying Moriko's attention during this ti that she almost didn't realize that the preliminaries had finished. When she looked at the final schedule, Moriko was glad to see that both Nainvil and Brongrim had made it to the first round, but both of them had two losses recorded during the preliminaries. That still ant four wins over the six rounds it had taken to eliminate enough people, but there were others who had one or zero losses.
Once the preliminaries were over, so was most of Moriko's training as she needed to play the part of Queen for the rest of the fights.
Both Brongrim and Nainvil were eliminated in the second round, with Brongrim having lost to a faerie lord. The sa faerie lord that Moriko ended up facing while playing the part of an einherjar. To cover for her absence, Mordecai had used an illusion to disguise Betty as Moriko until there was a chance to get Moriko back into place.
It was a fairly tough fight and Moriko might have lost had she not already beco familiar with many fey tricks and magics. Shortly before she entered the arena, Moriko used prayer to wrap herself in divine favor, with an emphasis on warding away enchantnts and piercing the veil of illusions. This also helped match her aura closer to that of the real einherjar.
She did feel a little bad about the final blow though. The lord had been slightly off balance and Moriko had been intending to force the lord to block and follow up with a series of attacks that would have given her the opportunity to claim victory after disarming or tripping him.
Well, the first part worked. Unfortunately, the weight of her strike shattered his silvery blade and her sword cut through the front of his neck at a slight angle before lodging into a collarbone, cutting short his chances to enter the semi-finals, though thankfully not his life.
Kazue's boon had kicked in and the healing effect had pushed Moriko's blade out, so from that point of view everything was fine. The man hadn't even died, just co very close to experiencing it. But it could not have been a very pleasant experience.
Also, Moriko had felt the wash of energy as her own aura disrupted the faerie sword's enchantnts. She had not been intending to do that, she had simply been focusing on striking as hard as she could when she could force him to block instead of dodge. It was always a little strange when you found out that you had grown stronger than you had realized.
Not that her skills in this bout would have given her a win against so one like Lord Silvander, Queen Sylphine's seneschal that Carmilla had dueled with, but it did an that Moriko was a little closer to that level of strength, which gave her so satisfaction as she prepared to watch the rest of the fights.
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