"Strike,"
"Strike,"
"Deflect,", "Block,"
The sounds of Anya's shouts rung throughout the darkroom.
Lirian followed her commands with graceful ease as dozens of stones shot at him from afar.
He stepped in and out of the trajectory of the stones with lithe movements, making it appear as if he was moving around on a ballroom floor at the centre of the crowd.
Every so often Anya would call out for him to do something specific, "90-degree deflections for 8 seconds, and follow it with 3, 30-degree deflections,"
Lirian took a breath and spun the blade in his hand, the sharp echoes of stones on steel sound filled the room, as Lirian slapped the stones with the flat of the blade in hand.
He hit four stones with a perfect 90-degree deflection, but as the stones moved they intercepted the other stones knocking them out of their trajectory but he had more than such a simple plan in mind.
As the new stones were knocked they shot off in 30-degree angles.
"I said 3, 30 degree deflects not a dozen," Anya yelled and upped the number of stones being fired at him.
A few hours passed when the machines finally ran out of stones, "That was pretty good, it's only taken you two days to get used to it." she said while looking at his unfocused eyes with slight pity.
"No, it wasn't the machines are too loud and give away the position of every shot even if they are moving, in a real situation I won't be so lucky," Lirian complained.
"You're too fussy Lirian, your progress is better than anyone's," she said gently.
"But it's not enough!", he shouted then gritted his teeth before storming away, it would have been incredible for anyone else, but he didn't have the luxury of enjoying this small step forward, when he returned to school, this was going to affect what people think of him no matter what.
The reality was slowly sinking into head and he couldn't help but vent his frustrations.
When Lirian had left Taliyah appeared beside Anya, "How is he?" she asked slowly averting her gaze from Anya.
Anya sighed and looked at the empress, she didn't know what happened between her Lirian this time, but they seemed to be avoiding each other.
"He acts like he's fine, but he is starting to realize that the position he cemented in the eyes of the civilization is going to be completely shaken to its roots because of his disability."
"He could use his mother now," she said turning to Taliyah, "I don't know what happened this time but you chose him, your majesty, you knew from the beginning that he wasn't going to be a simple child to raise," Anya clenched her fists tightly and walked away, it was the first time she had been so disrespectful to the empress since the time she was turned into an aide.
There was more she wanted to say, but she had to be careful in her position.
She had come to understand something about Lirian and spoke a final word before she left, "I hope that your majesty, realizes that even gods are not beyond their own emotions."
Taliyah frowned at the thought of one of her aides lecturing her, she was the empress, after all, not even Albus would dare to speak in such a way to her, she bit her lip and watched Lirian's back.
---
A scowl was fixed on Lirian's face as they traveled to school, there was nothing wrong in the vehicle but when he woke up that morning, he had more than half the servants ask to hold his bag for him some of his mother's aides even offered to carry stuff for him.
He gritted his teeth at the humiliating memory, 'Do they think that being blind means I can't use my bloody hands or something?'.
As they got closer to the school, he realized something and turned towards Anya, "A-Anya can you block everyone from approaching me when we reach the school," he asked with a grimace.
It was going to be his first day back in month, and the last that everyone had seen of him was at the press conference, where they all thought he was dead.
There were many rumors spreading around that he had died and the empress was trying to cover it up.
With that in mind, he had no doubt that the press would be waiting outside the school shoving themselves in his face and that was before he counted the possibility of the students swarming towards him to find out what had happened.
As the child of the empress and a prince candidate, it was only natural that he was well known and popular amongst the students.
Ordinarily, he wouldn't mind but now without his eyes, even if he had achieved the Dao of all sounds, it would be troublesome to get through a crowd.
Anya's eyes softened as she looked at him, it was the first time he had ever asked for actual help with something and little tears welled up in the corners of her eyes but she felt the need to tease him a little, especially with that embarrassed grimace on his face.
He was already a drop-dead cute and adorable person, and probably the most beautiful person she had ever seen in her life, but seeing him embarrassed only elevated the already unfair beauty he possessed.
"Is a certain someone, feeling embarrassed to ask for help," she said in a soft teasing tone, "But you know the rules I'm not allowed to show my face in public," she mused softly with a delicate tone.
"I thought that someone like you would be able to handle something like this, guess that I was wrong," she glanced at him from the corner of her eyes when she finished, but she surprised by what she saw.
Lirain sat rigidly and gripped onto his own wrist's, cursing himself internally for saying anything, 'How pitiful am I,' he grimaced, 'A god that can't even handle being blind, how disgraceful.'
"Forget about it," he said with a small grin, "You're right I have to deal with this on my own, it's the way of a leader, I was silly for asking that," he gave a stiff laugh, and went quiet.
Anya was surprised to see him acting in such a manner, his usual unbridled confidence seemed less apparent and made a huge difference in his natural demeanor.
She figured that she did go a little too far with her teasing, but as she was planning to apologize to him she felt the limo slowing down.
When the limo came to a stop Anya could see the crowd quickly gathering around them, she watched as Lirian tied a blindfold over his eyes and expanded his black walking stick.
Lirian climbed on out of the vehicle as fast as he could, but the flags of the Empress that danced on the front of the limo had already given him away, by the time he got to his feet, the crowds were already moving in his direction.
Lirian placed the walking stick in front of him and began to tap the ground in front of him ever so slightly as he felt the vibrations travel from the ground through the stick and into his hand he walked forward, following what he felt.
Lirian had barely taken three steps forward by the time his entire path forward was completely blocked, and hundreds if not thousands of people were in his way, he could hear the clicking of cameras.