Uhhhh…

The Things We Fight For

Chapter 2: The Quiet After

Summary:

The Things We Fight For Summary: Shane had fought dozens of opponents before. Some stronger. Some faster. Some with years more training than him. He had beaten them all.

But every victory left him with the same restless feeling. Every opponent eventually became a pattern. Every weakness revealed itself. Every fight became something he had already solved.

Then the announcer spoke a name Shane had only heard in rumors.

"The Beast of Moskvar, Ilya Rozanov."

Everyone knew the story of the Beast of Moskvar. They knew the blood-soaked arenas. The impossible victories. The fighter who walked through brutality and came out stronger.

For the first time in a long while, Shane leaned forward, eager to see if the stories were true.

After Irina dies, Ilya is lost to grief and rage. He throws himself into his training with a fierceness that makes his father proud. (Not that that helps, if anything, it makes Gregori push Ilya harder, train longer, and this time, there's no mama to help him heal the scrapes and bruises that cover him more and more each day)

Alongside training, his father drags Ilya to tournaments to watch fighters of different styles and skills fight each other with varying degrees of brutality. In major cities, tournaments were a spectacle, a chance for noble families to show off their favored fighters, a showing of skill with clerics nearby ready to heal and rules in place against killing or seriously maiming opponents. In city tournaments, people fought for honor, recognition, for the chance to become a city's sponsored Hero. The tournaments Ilya saw were less of a tournament of honor and more of a fight to the death. There were no rules, no clerics, anyone could get in the pit, and most didn't come out one piece. The only glory to be won was a handful of gold coins and an invitation to the next fight.

In seats close enough to smell the blood and sweat of each fighter, Gregori would stand next to Ilya, a hand on his shoulder like a shackle, and make Ilya watch as each fight got bloodier and bloodier until the floor was soaked a deep red and the Champion was crowned. (Ilya threw up after the first fight where someone broke their opponent's leg. The awful snap, the scream, and the sight of white bone peeking out through flesh and armor were too much for his stomach to handle. When he tried to look away, his father called him weak, grabbed him by the face, and forced his head up, threatening to break his leg or do worse if he didn't watch and learn.) It wasn't long until he could watch the violence without flinching, and when he was old enough and skilled enough that Gregori was sure he wouldn't immediately lose a limb, it was his turn to fight.

Fighting in tournaments taught Ilya many things. They taught Ilya how to recognize someone who fought dirty vs ones who fought with respect. It taught him how to take hit after hit and still come back swinging. It taught him the different moves he would have to counter and how one had to be adaptable. There was no excuse for losing just because of a poor match-up; his father made that clear. Every time he fought, win or lose, Ilya learned and adapted and became stronger because of it. Soon, Ilya was winning more fights than he lost. And then he wasn't losing at all.

At first, Ilya thought that winning would somehow make things better. Winning certainly felt better than getting beaten and bloodied. But when he would finally be crowned victor, the cheers felt hollow, the money felt dirty. Looking down at the blood on his sword, he'd remember his mama's stories. Stories about men who fought to save others and not just to earn a couple of gold pieces.

I can’t stop thinking about Human-ish!Ilya who inherited a little fae beauty and grace from his Half-Elf mother. No one would really know unless they saw him and Irina side by side, but you can see the beauty in his bloodline shine through in his golden curls, his sharp jawline, and the way his eyes are a little too shockingly blue to be 100% human.

You can see it in the way he fights. Yes, it was his father who pushed a sword in his hand from the moment he could hold the weight, and it was Gregori’s expectation of perfection and desire for brutality fueling the power and strategy behind each of Ilyas moves, but the fluidity, the grace, the way he moves through each battle like it’s a simple dance- that all comes from Irina.

Ilya, who grew up learning how to fight, yes, but also grew up on the stories Irina told him, of right and wrong and what a hero is. Stories about tragic heroes who hurt and hurt and hurt, but through their hurt, they find the strength to help others. Stories about honor, about knights and their codes, and the difference between being a great man and a good one.

I’m thinking about Fighter!Ilya, who first saw fighting as something fun, something he was good at, something he could maybe use to help people like the heroes do in the stories his mama tells him at night.

I’m thinking about Fighter turned Paladin Ilya, because the only difference between the two is the conviction of the oath sworn and the righteous fury that powers it. Ilya, who grew up with stories about knights who swore oaths of vengeance against the evil things that took away their families, and Ilya, whose mother was taken away from him. In this world, she was taken from him not by her own hand, but from his fathers negligence and the natural evils of this world.

(Irina was not fully human; her elven nature yearned to be in the forest, to hear the birds sing, feel the grass on her feet, and breathe in the fresh air. The fae in her blood did not agree with the life of the city, being trapped inside tall, dark walls for days on end, exactly where Gregori wanted her. It yearned for freedom. And without it, her once luminous features lost their glow; she grew tired, withdrawn, and she fell into a deep sadness that Ilya, her little hero, could not pull her out of. One day, it became too much, and Irina left.

She made it to the woods. For the first time in years, she could breathe. She could feel the earth beneath her feet and hear the wind through the leaves instead of the clamor of the city. She laughed, just once, because she had forgotten what it sounded like.

The forest answered.

Not every ancient thing that lives beneath the trees is kind, and not every smiling face belongs to a friend. Somewhere deep beneath the boughs, something old and hungry caught the scent of a woman with too much grief in her heart and too much love left to give. And when Ilya came looking for his mama, all he found were broken branches, a trail that stopped too suddenly, and the echo of laughter that did not belong to her.)

I'm thinking about Paladin!Ilya, who is so, so young still, who is full of grief and rage and a child's unshakable sense of justice. Illya who speaks to his mama at her empty grave with a shaking voice and tears in his eyes. He swears his oath just like the knights in her stories do. He swears to avenge his mother, to hunt down the thing that killed her, and then, slowly as he gets older, his oath grows with him. He swears vengeance not only for himself, but for the children who will lose their mothers the same way he lost his. Because somewhere, something old and cruel is still laughing beneath the trees, waiting for someone else who is already hurting. He remembers every story Irina ever told him, about knights who drew their swords not because they loved violence, but because someone had to stand between evil and those too small to stand on their own. He swears that, as long as he still draws breath, no one else will have to face the monsters alone.

I’m thinking about Half-Elf Fighter!Shane

In my version Elves are a little more uncanny valley, ancient beings who usually stick to their own lands far away from the place where Shane grew up. Shane who’s raised by his human father and elven mother who met David the blacksmith while traveling the world and fell in love with him. Yuna who is very much Not Human with her immortal grace, pointed ears, sharp teeth and eyes that shine at night like a predator.

Half-Elf!Shane who grew up not quite human enough for the town he lived. His ears softly pointed and keen, teeth a little too sharp and unnerving every time he smiles too wide. His eyes still a pretty brown, but he tends to stare with such intense focus it makes whoever he’s looking at feel hunted.

Half-Elf!Shane who makes sure not to smile too wide at people, doesn’t look them in the eye, makes sure not to stand too still for too long. Shane who hides his pointed ears behind a hood or a helmet when he’s fighting. Shane who tries to make his inhumanness disappear.

Pair this with Fighter!Shane, because I think in any world Shane would be the upmost jock he could be. Fighter!Shane (battle master subclass) who learns fighting techniques from his mom. At first maybe it’s something to help him defend himself from the rude children who don’t understand that different doesn’t mean monstrous. Maybe he saw an adventurer get a hero’s welcome as they came back from fighting a monster and starts training as a way to get other people to accept him. Either way, the first time he picks up a practice sword, something clicks and nothing could stop him from becoming the best after that.

I’m thinking of Fighter!Shane with a Battle-master subclass. Shane would throw himself into mastering different weapons, learning about the history of fighting, maybe even attempting to make his own with the help of his dad. Shane spending hours learning precise techniques, not stopping until his form is perfect each time.

Shane who has a tactical mind, who can watch people move and predict where they will strike, who can what style an opponent is fighting in and change his own moves with textbook perfection into something that would easily counter them. Shane who doesn’t fight with flair or dramatics, but quickly forms the most efficient strategy to defeat his opponent.

Adventurer!Shane who after learning all he can, goes out into the world searching for challenges and knowledge. He takes mostly takes up bounty hunting jobs, seeking out skilled yet dangerous criminals, hoping to find someone who can keep up with him, make the victory a hard earned one. That’s not to say he would help out a town being plagued by a monster or two, but he doesn’t revel in killing and there’s no fighting technique learn from a creature who can’t hold a weapon.

He makes a name for himself as an honorable fighter, one of the best out in the world. Whispers follow him when he walks into town. People aren’t wary of him per se, he’s never anything but respectful, but there’s a certain distance people hold him at. His name is known yes, but he isn’t one to share stories of glory at the tavern like most adventurers. He’s quick to help but also quick to leave, never staying in one town long after learning what he can or getting paid for the bounty he hunted down.

I’m just thinking about King Shane, perfect ruler, always in meetings, fucking hates the politics of high society yet smiles and charms his people.

King Shane who absolutely knows and loves to fight, to duel, who is a master strategist because if he has to send people into war, you bet your ass he’s gonna fight along side them and know exactly what it’s like to fight on those fields.

King Shane who is deeply uncomfortable letting anyone die for him.

King Shane who is loved and adored and wholly untouchable.

King Shane who is slowly crushed by the weight of his crown. Who carries his kingdom on his shoulders. Who is so tired but refuses to let a single thing go wrong.

And then maybe there’s a tournament in Shane’s kingdom that brings in the best knights around the country and the winner earns the honor of serving at the kings side.

And maybe Ilya, a strange knight from a far away land, who maybe honestly just showed up for the challenge and maybe to get a better look at this impressive King he heard about but that would be silly he’s just here to fight people.

And maybe King and Knight lock eyes as Ilya wins the whole tournament and somehow (idk how) Ilya finds himself offering to train some of the other knights here because obviously they need it if he was able to beat them so easily.

(I’m thinking Hayden is Shane’s best knight and Ilya absolutely kicks his ass, embarrassingly easily, thus the hatred between Hayden and Ilya but if Hayden is so easily beaten then this pretty King is definitely not safe no no no Ilya must do something about this)

I’m thinking about Knight Ilya who is snarky and rude and never treats Shane with the type of near holy reverence that most people do. (Which Shane both finds annoying and refreshing because god damn does it get lonely only having Hayden kinda treat him like he’s a real person)

Knight Ilya who maybe thinks Shane is just a pretty royal before he walks in on Shane training and absolutely goads him into a sparing match (much to Hayden (or JJ’s) dismay

I’m thinking about Ilya who is the only one who cracks through Shane’s icy regal walls, who lets Shane just be Shane, who helps Shane loose the weight of the crown for just the moments he’s with Ilya.