“The Great War between the nations of Skrande and Corsinthia, a battle that raged on for nearly one hundred years, was probably – in the greater scheme of things – over the most trivial of matters on Theria to ever merit such conflict. Perhaps this is why the leaders of the two countries, after a century of bloodshed, both finally decided to call it quits when their coffers were mutually running dry. Still, the factors that had caused the war to start in the first place were the results of years of indoctrination on both sides that stemmed from an even older disagreement that predated the formation of either nation. So, really, it should come as no surprise that even if the two countries – at least as far as their collective management was concerned – were no longer at war, the people of the two lands rarely felt the same way.”

- Tallus the Scholar

Chapter 2: "Wholly Instructional"

Jysalef, as he lay in the bath tub whose water was beginning to turn less hot with the passage of time, had to admit that being clean had its own merits. Although he had still not yet eaten, he was definitely of better temperament at the moment. However, the knocking on the door from the outer chamber of the room granted to them as thanks for dealing with the leeokas was about to turn his current peace of mind on its head.

“Come in, Terus.” It was a simple enough of a response for Jysalef to give considering he was still very hungry but had now come to the realization that he had little desire to move from this bathtub at the moment. That he was nude in the bathtub was of little concern to him, after all real warriors often had to bathe together out in the open while on the war path. One could not be a real man if he were afraid of being seen by other men.

Women, on the other hand, were an entirely different matter.

As Terus walked into the bathing chamber, not expecting that he would find his master in there wearing not a single stitch, he had following in from behind him a girl in what appeared to be her mid teens with what was most noticeably pink hair. The girl following behind Terus, it must be said, was not one of the workers at this inn come to deliver the food that Jysalef so greatly desired. In fact, it would be further wise to point out that none of the workers of this inn, nor anyone else in this town, had pink hair.

“Master Soresh, this girl says that… M-Master!?” The taken by surprise twitching upon Terus’s face clearly revealed that he was apparently not yet ready to be a real warrior after all. “Geh!” The girl standing behind Terus, even less ready than he to be a real warrior, currently had a face that was much redder than the curiously colored hair upon her head.

“Blrble…” Jysalef, who was a real warrior, in response to these less than warriorly acts was so kind as to demonstrate the importance of knowing when to quickly shift into a tactical retreat on a moment’s notice. However, a warrior will not always have ample ability to retreat based on speed alone – especially when the bathtub below permits his retreat to go only a scant few inches – and so Jysalef continued the instructions to his student with a display of the importance of using camouflage to hide your presence from your enemies when you could not retreat to a location fully outside their grasp. Thusly, one hand reached out from the waters of the bathtub so that it could firmly grasp a nearby towel and pull it down under the water such that Jysalef could hide himself in his position of partial retreat.

Obviously instructions like this – that were clearly meant to be wholly instructional and not some sort of panic reaction caused by one’s student suddenly bringing in a girl to the room where he was nude in a bathtub - would surely lead young Terus to becoming both a better swordsman some day as well a real warrior. Well, they would have had Terus watched the entire display of utmost instructional value. However, shortly into the lesson he executed a shaky about-face and forced the girl behind him out of the room with an impromptu body tackle, “Ah… I don’t think Master Soresh is ready to receive your message yet!”

Hearing the muffled click of the door reshutting from where he was underwater currently holding his breath, Jysaelf emerged – a sopping wet towel covering his lower regions – successfully from his camouflage enhanced partial retreat. Some might say such a retreat was less than manly, but it was also said that he who fights and runs away lives to fight another day. It was still yet furthermore said that, often by Terus, that Jysalef could be quite loud when he was angry. “Terus Kyreon, what in all that is holy upon Theria were you thinking leading a girl into the bathing chamber like that when I was in naught but what the great lord himself gave me at my birth?!”

From the other side of the door Terus plaintively called back, “I- I didn’t think you’d tell me it was okay to enter if you were in such a state, sir!”

“Terus, I –“ Jysalef paused for but a moment before he realized explaining that he was hoping to eat while savoring the relaxing state of the waters in the tub was probably not going to be very productive. “- I swear to all that is holy there’d better be food out there when I finish dressing myself in a more presentable manner!”

“Uh, not exactly yet, sir,” called Terus sheepishly from the other side of the door that separated the bathing and sleeping chambers of their room at the inn, “This messenger girl was sent by her master, the Sage Miran Via, to make contact with us as soon as he heard that it was you who cleaned up this town’s leeoka problem earlier today.”

As he heard this Jysalef took a moment of pause - so much so that he let his towel slip from his grip allowing it to make music with the floor in the form of a very dull and wet thud - after which he stated slowly with an incredulous tone, “Headmaster Via of the Corsinthian Council of Sages is here in this filthy little leeoka infested hovel of a town… and he wishes to furthermore now speak with someone such as myself?”