I'm sure said husbands are thrilled, nay, delighted.
Wei Wuxian and Emilia are taken to the Hand barracks, where they retain pendant communication access (relevant, if they choose to try to escape at any point and need to shout to any of the people in the Hand). Their height, weight and other medical measurements are taken, and they are briefly assessed by healers and magicians of the Hand, for their own safety. These results are carefully logged in scrolls that are held in a small, shuttered and locked display case, among dozens of other scrolls.
The two are then taken to perform in an atrium-style hall room, where roughly two dozens young soldiers of the Hand are watching, seated. Wei Wuxian and Emilia are asked to go through a set of their arena performances, first pitted against each other or asked to demonstrate without an enemy in sight. After some time, magical enemies of air or water are summoned, purely for demonstration purposes. All attack using hand-to-hand combat and can be fought off.
The lighting of the braziers is brash and stark, perhaps blinding — making it difficult at first to glean details about their surroundings. But more careful observation reveals their spectators are... unwell: trembling, jittery, some weeping black water. All struggle to contain themselves while seeming predatory, as if fighting the instinct to take sick or pounce. Guards of the Hand now and then interrupt to remove some of the spectators and bring others in, or to whip them down.
After two hours of this, Wei Wuxian and Emilia are offered replenishment — water, food, half an hour's rest — while still in the atrium. In the second part of the demonstration, some of the spectators are called down to try to defeat the gladiators, typically 2-3 of them against the allied Wei Wuxian and Emilia. These spectators, now combatants, are still highly jittery, but also excessively fast and strong, seemingly struggling to contain their power or to know how to wield it.
Worse, they are imperfectly, but very recognizably able to mimic Wei Wuxian and Emilia's attacks that were demonstrated earlier — they primarily imitate the hand-to-hand combat exercises, but also show aptitude to imitate any magical ability shown. They are also copying (still imperfectly) any maneuvers that Wei Wuxian and Emilia use in combat against them. The spectators each get about 5-10 minutes with the gladiators and are switched out... until the number of spectators runs out.
This means that unfortunately Wei Wuxian and Emilia are looking at some 3-4 hours of exhaustive combat, interrupted by breaks of water and feeding — and an offer to taste the Hand's restorative draughts and replenish their strength. Does either of them accept a booster?
no subject
Wei Wuxian and Emilia are taken to the Hand barracks, where they retain pendant communication access (relevant, if they choose to try to escape at any point and need to shout to any of the people in the Hand). Their height, weight and other medical measurements are taken, and they are briefly assessed by healers and magicians of the Hand, for their own safety. These results are carefully logged in scrolls that are held in a small, shuttered and locked display case, among dozens of other scrolls.
The two are then taken to perform in an atrium-style hall room, where roughly two dozens young soldiers of the Hand are watching, seated. Wei Wuxian and Emilia are asked to go through a set of their arena performances, first pitted against each other or asked to demonstrate without an enemy in sight. After some time, magical enemies of air or water are summoned, purely for demonstration purposes. All attack using hand-to-hand combat and can be fought off.
The lighting of the braziers is brash and stark, perhaps blinding — making it difficult at first to glean details about their surroundings. But more careful observation reveals their spectators are... unwell: trembling, jittery, some weeping black water. All struggle to contain themselves while seeming predatory, as if fighting the instinct to take sick or pounce. Guards of the Hand now and then interrupt to remove some of the spectators and bring others in, or to whip them down.
After two hours of this, Wei Wuxian and Emilia are offered replenishment — water, food, half an hour's rest — while still in the atrium. In the second part of the demonstration, some of the spectators are called down to try to defeat the gladiators, typically 2-3 of them against the allied Wei Wuxian and Emilia. These spectators, now combatants, are still highly jittery, but also excessively fast and strong, seemingly struggling to contain their power or to know how to wield it.
Worse, they are imperfectly, but very recognizably able to mimic Wei Wuxian and Emilia's attacks that were demonstrated earlier — they primarily imitate the hand-to-hand combat exercises, but also show aptitude to imitate any magical ability shown. They are also copying (still imperfectly) any maneuvers that Wei Wuxian and Emilia use in combat against them. The spectators each get about 5-10 minutes with the gladiators and are switched out... until the number of spectators runs out.
This means that unfortunately Wei Wuxian and Emilia are looking at some 3-4 hours of exhaustive combat, interrupted by breaks of water and feeding — and an offer to taste the Hand's restorative draughts and replenish their strength. Does either of them accept a booster?