19
Today started out pretty rough but got good toward the end. The stablehands rang my pearl in a panic with me grumpy 'coz I got in late and went to sleep later, after writing that last bit.
Turns out, Baby caught a cold of sorts, and the feather duster's hamming it up for attention, making a big fuss like he's dying when it's pretty much the bird sniffles, and him in the best stable in Limsa, with a healer on hand and everything.
I paid three months in advance, so I haven't yet moved him to the Pearl accommodations, though they seem pretty top notch, too.
Anyroad, the healer says it's not serious, and I even got to try out that diagnostic spell I scribed the other day, to double check. I took an ether, after, just a weak blend to top off, and the healer was so impressed, she showed me how her animal designs differ from the ones she uses on people - hers are way more in-depth, she could figure out exactly what was wrong, and how to treat it, while I basically just figured out it wasn't that serious.
He isn't dying, even if he's squawking and playing theatrical for attention. Even as a hatchling, he picked up tricks like that easy - he's always been smart. The birds in Ishgard even fly, so when he's a bit older, I plan to take him out that way to see if I can't get them to train him how.
Spar night was tonight, and, like I promised, I faced off with Kyza. Rather pleased with my performance - even with no other cats of the Coeurl clan to compare him to, he's still a strong, fast, and tough bastard. He also isn't the sort to be free with false praise, I don't think, and he was fair impressed with how I did.
My aether ran out early, and unlike a real fight, there's no justification for going to extremes. I blunted the padjali sword on summoning so I wouldn't cut him, and bleeding myself is, well, extreme, though I did some anyway to stabilize after the fight. Nothing serious, and Minny caught it before it meant anything - the point is, the magic ran out, and all those hits I shrugged off came due, all at once. If I hadn't 'cheated,' I'm certain he'd have broken ribs, and as it is, each hit pretty much could've liquefied my insides on its own.
Not that I want a foe to go easy on me, quite the opposite! In a real fight - well, I'll hope it never comes to that, not against people I care about. Not again.
I can sustain myself indefinitely in the carnage of a battlefield, if I'm careful - I'm sure of that, now. I etched a little healing spell into my left palm, then lined it in silver ink. It'll patch up the very worst of my hurts, and I can fuel it by bloodshed - I've tried it a couple times and it works, nice and clean, on cuts and little bruises, though only on myself. Arcanists use tomes because of how many different sorts of spells are written in them - this is just one, it'll take as much aether as I give it and funnel healing to whichever part of me is in the most dire need, but only for me. I'm really proud of that, I did the formulae for myself and everything.
A spar's a rather different beast, nobody's supposed to get cut to ribbons there, haha.
There's someone else I'm proud of, too. I pushed Minny to step into the ring proper, regardless of her reservations, because I worry she'll either get herself killed or explode someone she doesn't mean to, if a real fight comes her way and she isn't ready. Confidence in your own abilities is key to that, and you only get that confidence by practice.
Maybe I showered her in more accolades than that performance really warranted, but she did well, and I thought it important she knew that, too. Plus that little imp, Norbet, was extremely enthusiastic about it.
Amna's rusty, and Minny's still uncertain - they made a good match-up, probably better than if Lily - the meatshield, not the fairy - had been able to stay. This way, both of them could gain their footing and work in the practice they needed, without having to find a real foe to test their mettle on - and isn't that the whole point of spar night?
