Suddenly Noel broke the kiss, pushing away, probably to get her bearings. She seemed to be lost in... memories. Then she then promptly sat down again, Straddling Hades with her arms on his shoulders. Once again Hades was not quire sure what he though of that. It was a little...intimate for two people who had only recently become acquainted. Although it could be argued that Noel was getting to know a lot more about Hades very quickly. It was a shame it did not work both ways and Hades suspected that she would not be so free with her memories. Still he was determined to get to know more about his memory mancer who he was giving free reign with his memories. He had been around long enough to be a good judge of character. Still after this first kiss Hades was determined to at least learn more about Noel before another round. His train of thought was interrupted as Noel started speaking in short clipped sentences.

Words. Words held power, they could enlighten, they could inspire, they could inflame or dampen, they could unlock.....Memories. As Noel spoke small snippets of memories surfaced. Hades was not sure how his mind would react to having previously locked memories, unveiled. Expecially strong ones. He was well aware that he could would, incapacitate and kill while only semi concious. There had been that time where he had been drugged and had woken up hours later to find all of his captors... well very dead all around him. The last thing he wanted to do was to loose control while experiencing strong memories, so gently he steered Noel to to sit beside him on the couch while he stood up and paced towards the fire place. As she spoke memories flashed into his head. Less like movies more like slide shows.

>"She beat you in a local martial arts contest. At first, it made you mad. Then it made you better."

"She was the first person to beast me in a while who was not a master, it ignited a competative spirit between us. I would win then she would win. Whoever lost would not rest until they had beaten the other." A smile crept over Hades face. That seemed to be in a different time, away from the cold harsh world of assassin training, a time where Hades had received and given such things a love, loyalty, tenderness and mercy freely, an ancient time.

>"Eventually it made you a couple. A rivalry turned friendly. Amorous. She was... She is lovely. Her hair is thick. She had a dark wood comb with light brown tines. Her skin..."

The smile widened as more images flashed into his mind. They had started with ranged weapons then moved to weapons based, first whips and staves then swords then short swords then, hand to hand combat. The distance growing ever shorter as the battle grew more intense over the months, each trying to best the other. That had led to... well... many things. Hades eyes softened. He could not recall her face fully, but there were features about her, her lithe grace, nimbleness. Little things that had once stood out to him surfaced, her favorite comb that Hades had bought for her, the way she cared for her weapons, the little things and preferences that attracted him to her all those years ago. The memories were sweet, they brought.... joy.

>"You are a father thrice over. Two boys one girl. Farmer, artist, soldier. I am proud of their passion and drive. We are a happy family and each day closes with contentment.

At these words Hades heart swelled even more, he was caught up in flash backs, unaware of his surroundings. somewhere in the back of his mind was the knowledge that this would end in sadness and other unpleasantness but he did not care. He was feeling things he had not felt in... well a long time. They lifted his spirits, they made him feel. In a way that was stronger, that defied the way that he had been trained to lock away his emotions to achieve a calm of mind, this was all before that. These memories were not tinted with the cold harshness of what he now thought of as his second training.

Again Hades could only see blurry images of their faces, but things about them recalled themselves to his mind. The headstrong firstborn, a lionhearted boy, although at times quick to anger. The second son, slow steady, the plodder, the patient one who through long ahead, always looking to the next season. Then the daughter, she was like a sunbeam given form, it was as if she danced through life. She was the joy bringer of the family. Delighting in the small things. Passionate about beauty, she painted and played the flute, and she danced. Oh how she could dance. Her voice.....

Noel's next words shattered all of that. They fell like a hammer blow, shattering the joy and happiness.

>"Oh. Oh no. The village was attacked. I ran. My chest was on fire for how far I ran to find them. She was beautiful even in death. A tigress for how she fought."

Hades remembered the smell of smoke, he had been away doing... something. Planning a surprise for the family, he had bought gifts to celebrate, gifts for all the family. A mirror for his wife, a new pike for his son, a new plough for his son, and for his daughter.. he had bought a crafted flute, inlaid in gold and silver. He had come to the entrance of the village and the gifts had fallen from his hands. Hades fell to his knees as the memories washed over him. The sight of his first born, felled at the gate, he died defending his family. Running through the door to find his wife, surrounded by dead enemy soldiers, she had fought like a tigress defending her cubs, she had made them pay, but in the end she had been overwhelmed. Then his daughter... at the memory of what they did to her and his wife, Hades literally snarled, his whole body tensed like a spring, all anger and rage and bitterness. Back then it was that sight, that very sight, that had made something in him...snap. Something was unleashed that day, something dark, something deadly. It was when Hades had almost been driven mad with pain that his second son turned up. They clung to each other, they saved each other. Hades could see the same change behind the eyes of his son. A detached part of Hades mind was aware that Noel seemed to be experiencing what he had felt.

>"Daughter. Son. Worse than gone. My anger became a hard thing. I saw that same iron in my surviving son. We found a way to temper that anger and make it into something strong."

It was his son that saved him, showed him how to temper his red hot rage with patience, and forge it into fuel. A fuel that burned bright. They swore that day that they would pay. They later found out that their village could have been spared but for the greed of a commander, who wanted a few more choice women slaves for his chambers and spoils for his pleasure.

>"Poison. Assassination. Revenge. We almost didn't make it."

They had gone to the doors of the Raven Clan. the seek entrance to seek training. The road was harsh. The training even more so. Many many times they almost quit or even died, but that inner flame sustained them, gave them drive. Bits and piece of training cam back to Hades. The first step was learning to move with the shadows, to become a shadow master, to do it without thought, to wear darkness like a cloak. Next was the use the blade. Hades remembered the day He and his son earned the ranks of shadow master and blade master. They looked at each other each silently noting that they were one small step closer to revenge. Finally there was the title of weapons master, it was there Hades first learned about the art of poisons, booby traps, explosives. The training was endless and harsh. Hades and his son seared each piece of knowledge into their minds, they trained harder, to be perfect. They would need to be for the road ahead....

Hades was not sure how much of his memories he shared and how much he just experienced he was too lost in memories to care. Slowly the images faded from his mind as he knelt there by the fire. He felt... there were so many emotions going through him that he did not know what he felt. But Noel was not finished..........

Her fingers grabbed at her heart and Noel breathed shallowly as if under physical strain. There was both too much and not enough memory of the time directly after the village incident. Her eyes continued roving as she scrubbed through memories. Her foot edged backward as if she could get away from what was happening in her mind.

"I— It's— It was—" She was having a hard time locking on to something. These memories were fragile for the wealth of emotion they held. Despite all his time training, that wasn't what Hades remembered most. He had wrestled with anguish. There was no better word for it. Anguish.

Noel fought through that anguish. She, at least, wanted to know about the training.

"Every hardship at Raven Spire is... it's non-stop. I am learning, but broken." It was terrible. Noel felt like her heart was squeezing down to molten lead. She scrabbled at her chest and took another step back. "I have no time to think. I feel like I am losing myself and I welcome it. I am—" Noel bumped into the coffee table and was too surprised, too absorbed to catch herself. She fell onto her backside and hesitated a moment, stunned. It was impossible to see both places at once.

"I... I am..." It hurt. She didn't know that emotional pain could physically hurt. It was a dark night and raining. Noel could feel the moisture of the evening on her cheeks. "Mutant.

I am a mutant. It is another tool to make me stronger.

Poison. Shadow. Stealth. Skill. I am a ghost haunting Raven Spire." She felt ill even as Hades began to feel strong."The terrain is difficult, but ultimately it is no match for my iron will. My son's iron will." Noel swayed where she sat, still clutching her heart. "We learned to kill close and earn our ways as blade masters. Then... all weapons."

With Hades' confidence, his sadness changed. Or maybe it was more accurate to say that his sadness sowed the seeds of anger and anger, at least, was something that Noel understood. She welcomed the anger like an old friend and her heart burned hotter.

"Five hundred soldiers died. The capstone achievement of our training. We killed the ones responsible with a two part poison. We killed them all."

Something was definitely wrong. Noel was having trouble chasing the memories now, like her mind was sluggish. Like her body was hollow. Was she loosing her connection?

"Son... died. Hng." She became aware of the fact that her head hurt. In fact, her whole face hurt almost as if there was a mask of lead pressing against her cheeks and forehead. It took a moment to blink the murky memories away.

Noel was... crying.

Hades slowly rose to his feet. His mind was spinning. The minds of immortals are designed to handle the weight of memories withough driving them insane. However they still experience and gain memories at the same rate that mortal do. Hence having decades of your life suddenly downloaded into ones brain is never very healthy. Especially as Immortals do not process emotions any faster. Hades idly wondered what toll this was taking on Noel. Before he could act on that though, she once again spoke and Hades lost awareness of where he was to be lost once again in memories. As his awareness of the current world slipped away his last thought was that at least he had set the defense systems of the house to maximum.

"Every hardship at Raven Spire is... it's non-stop. I am learning, but broken. I have no time to think. I feel like I am losing myself and I welcome it. I am— I... I am...

FLASH The training at Raven Spire was brutal as it was unending. Little time to think. The aim of the training was to break both the mind and the body, hollow them out, blow away the old so that they could be rebuild, from the ashes of the old the new would arise. All through the training Hades had felt something building up within him. A certain pressure behind the eyes, a sensation in the chest. He had hidden his grief, his pain away. He sought to drown it in training as one would drown sorrows in wine or drugs or gluttony. The problem was that the training at Raven Spire was designed precisely to bring the hidden flaws to the surface. There was always a tension, Hades wanting to hide from the pain the
anguish and the training designed to draw it out. It all came to a head one day. Wait , no it was evening. He felt as if he would explode. His rage, his anger, he wanted to channel it to make him one with the shadows, to hide it, himself so that he could strike from the shadows. Looking back Hades suspected this was the moment that his teachers had been waiting for, that is why they gave him room. Hades ran up the spire. It overlooked a drop called the valley of broken... dreams? Hopes? What did it matter, it was where those who could not hack the training or went mad jumped or were pushed or thrown.

There at the top he fel to his knees, hid his head in his hands and hunched up. The pain, the rage, the agony, the hurt, the tears all seemed to meld into.... into... something. The lightening and thunder that split the sky masked his screams and as the rain his tears. Something within him snapped, broke, changed. Hades looked down to find himself translucent, and faintly glowing in a greenish light. It took him a moment to realize and process this new information. He concentrated and actually walked through a wall, well mostly. This was his ray of hope. This was something new, something he could use. He eagerly latched on to it. It meant that there was hope that he could survive the training. This ability brought with it also a change in his mindset. It came solwly, over time, the rage and anger was tempered by....patience. He was.. he was...

>"Mutant"

>"I am a mutant. It is another tool to make me stronger. Poison. Shadow. Stealth. Skill. I am a ghost haunting Raven Spire."

From that point in the story things started to go his way. He had survived the breaking of his mind and had learned to turn anger into a fuel. Not rage, but anger, harnessed can be a terrifying source of motivation and energy. He soon after his son learned the ways of the shadows, to call them their friends, to wear them like a cloak. They reached the first milestone in training. The rank of shadow master.

>"The terrain is difficult, but ultimately it is no match for my iron will. My son's iron will. We learned to kill close and earn our ways as blade masters."

He was so proud of his son. The inner strength he too found. After learning to move and to come and go at will, to "ghost" if you will. They learnt to kill and incapacitate silently. Combat techniques long forgotten by the world streamed their way though Hades brain. He had been good before, but now... he was... he was.... something else. He could sense the extra years of experience sinking in. But there was more. After learning to kill, maim torture or incapacitate with naught but bear hands, they were then taught the ways of the blade. Any weapons that could hold an edge counted. In a moment of clarity Hades found his forehead resting on cold stone as his mind struggled to process these new found, no recalled, skills and techniques. The ways of the blade streamed through his mind. How much more would his mind take?

>"Then... all weapons"
Achieving the rank of Blade master took lesss time than shadow master. After all now there was hope. Hades discovered his ability to "phase" through walls and to use it at a torture device. His son was a speed mutant. Blink and he was gone. It made for great sparring. Hades would have to wind through tactical and crafty thinking and His son would try to wind through control of speed. Next they set their sights firmly on the last and final rank of weapons master. This one took longer than the previous two ranks combines as the knowledge was also greater. It was not just fighting styles but also philosophies. How to use everything, circumstances, situations, environments, emotions, everything at your disposal
as a weapon. Hades could feel this rediscovered knowledge, concepts flowing into him. He would need a long, a very long sparring session. over many days to fully integrate this new information.

>"Five hundred soldiers died. The capstone achievement of our training. We killed the ones responsible with a two part poison. We killed them all."

At these next words a great sense of satisfaction washed over Hades even before the images started flashing. They had achieved their ambition, they had completed their training much to the amazement of many. their training had taken years. but at long last they were ready. In their time away they commander and his underlings had, if anything, grown more greedy and oppressive than before. Leaving villages pillaged in their wake. Families torn apart, children traumatized. They had been taught patience, so patient they were. They prepared, they did their research. It took time. Lacing the drinking water supply with the first part of a two part poison. Then the second part was laced into the evening meal and wine. That however would only take care of at most 400 or so of the 500 strong garrison. The last hundred, well they had to be taken care of the old fashioned way. By morning the entire garrison lay dead and not a single cry had been raised.

Hades came to, his brain hurting, his muscles aching. The flow of memories had slowed and his head, for the moment at least felt clearer. He hated to think what this was doing to Noel. He was heading towards her when she spoke three words that froze him in his tracks and started another series of slides.

>"Son... died. Hng."

After they had their vengeance, there was still residue anger and hate. Word of their exploits reached the ears of the army commander of their country and soon they were in the military. They fought in the unification wars of China. It was during one of those battles that his son died. This time there was noone to blame, there was no target to pin the anger and hurt and pain to. For a time Hades.... well he went ... a bit mad.... 

Noel ran the back of her fist over her eyes. She couldn't make it stop. She felt years worth of sadness and pain and the weight of it was physically crushing. She had really thought she was going to jump from that spire at Raven Spire and end her own life. She had really wanted to.

Except it hadn't even been her. It hadn't even really been an option. It'd been him and all of this was so long ago that it was just stupid to cry about it now. Stupid.

Her son was dead.

The memorymancer pushed to her feet in a confusing tumble of metal images. Hades had not been well at this point in his life. She was not feeling particularly well right now. "Spar with me." She hated the tears she heard in her voice, she hated how her hands were shaking and how what sounded like the best thing in the world right now was curling up into the fetal position and bawling. That wasn't her. She had to do something that was her.

She reached for her sword before she realized that it was Hades who'd worn his sword in that way when he'd been training to be a shadow master, her sword was freshly oiled and sheathed in the guest room she'd been occupying.

Frustrated and desperate, she launched herself at him, fully intent on tackling him to the ground. She didn't have any plans, she just needed to do something here, now or else she would be giving in to despair.

He had gone mad, there was something about a cave in the Mongolian Plateau, a set of giant
doors that He had spend ten years just carving and etching...

A curious sound snapped him back to the present. Hades straightened his back that ached from hunching and turned to survey the room. He reached out a hand to steady himself, his mind was still reeling from the after images of the memories. He had not even begun to process the emotions, nor did he want to think how long it would take for things to begin to return to an assemblance of normality. That disjointed train of though was again interrupted by that curious noise. He turned to find Noel... crying? It seemed so unlike her, that strong confident, unflappable type, or perhaps just very good at hiding emotion.

He started towards her as Noel pushed to her feet. She looked none too steady.

>"Spar with me." she said with a trembling voice through slightly red and tear brimmed eyes. She reached to her belt for something, a nonexistent sword perhaps. That was where he used to wear his sword. Was she...still caught up in his memories? Suddenly she launched herself at him. Even in his mentally confused state he instinctively side stepped. Then realized where she was headed. As she flew towards him he grabbed her and held her close. dispelling momentum by spinning them both around, like a reverse slingshot, or more like a sling catch. Hades managed to stop Noels head inches from impacting the sharp point of a fire poker hanging on the wall.

As his heartbeat slowly returned to normal, wait... was Noel crying on his shoulder? Where those her tears or his or perhaps a bit of both. He came to the realization that for the time being she understood him. At this moment in time he felt less.. alien and alone. Living for so long, experiencing so many joys and losses, it changes a man, gives him a different perspective. How do you explain to someone what life was like thousands of years ago or identify with people who have not experienced the passing of time. But with Noel, no explanation was needed, she saw.

In a voice that was barely more steady than Noels, Hades said "Come, not here." With his arm supporting her he led them into a nearby sparring room. A room he belatedly realized that he had subconsciously laid out similar to one of the training rooms in Raven Spire. As he stepped back from her with one hand on each of her shoulders his attention was momentarily called to they way the light caught on her ear piercings. She had so many. "Do you still want to spar?" He asked.

She felt crazy. Heck, she was pretty sure this might actually meet the definition of crazy. Noel was half in someone else's past and half in the now. His pain was her pain. His feelings were stuck needling her carefully guarded heart. She didn't care that this wasn't the best place or the best time to fight. She needed to fight that crappy tugging sadness away with endorphins and the fulfillment of the promise that she'd made long ago to herself. She would not be helpless. She would get stronger. She would learn everything she could so that she could defend herself, keep herself safe.

He caught her and they spun. She'd had a brief moment when he moved and she came eye to eye with a metal fireplace tool, but he'd grabbed her and held on.

It was the worst.

If he'd just let her smash her face into the fireplace, she'd be out by now. Noel could have avoided the poker, she was sure. Maybe not self-injury, but at least not the poker. Instead, now, she was held tight with horrible gentleness that made her sag in a mirror of his anguish. Everyone from those memories was dead, long dead. It shouldn't be like this. She couldn't stop hurting on the inside when he was nice, when he understood.

Noel gripped Hades' shirt. She probably couldn't throw him. Probably trying would just divest him of his clothes and that would be even worse to see the scars of his training and the proof that the things in her head were real. God, she could feel that his shirt under her face was practically soaked.

She hiccuped and fought to think through the training. That was what she'd wanted to do this for in the first place. Dead men taught good lessons.

Eventually, after who knows how long, the memorymancer realized that they'd both calmed. She'd given herself focus to anchor herself against falling into thinking she was Hades. Hades, she couldn't say why he'd calmed down, but his heartbeat was steady underneath her ear. Noel let her tight grip on his clothes loosen. They were too close for her comfort.

> "Come, not here."

She let him usher her to the sparring room, eerily similar in setup though thoroughly updated from the one where he'd fought and bled for some of his titles.

Noel nodded to affirm her intent, but she didn't dare speak. She knew she'd sound as horrible as she felt. Instead, she wanted to move.

The lessons at Raven Spire had been interesting, but tainted with too much negativity. The memorymancer went back. Back to the days of competitions and a wooden comb. Her memories, his memories were initially just as baffled at how his wife had pulled those moves off. Eventually, he'd learned those same movements and adopted them as his own. She was hoping to put him on the back foot by forcing him into a different role from his initial one.

Noel slid her foot out and moved her hands, taking a stance Hades had once taken at the start of a fight against his future wife, one of the ones where he'd finally won. She jutted her chin with the same bravado, provoking him as he'd provoked her.

Her vision slipped back to the past. She wouldn't be fast enough to copy the unfamiliar moves, most likely, unless Hades too was thrown off by remembering. At least she had them there for reference. The sounds of the room informed her as well as they informed Hades after his training at Raven Spire. She didn't need to see to know when he made his move. She just had to hope she had the speed to counter it.

Her grip on him loosened, Hades was struck by how physically close they were. It was... unsettling especially considering the memories that had just been unveiled. It appeared that Noel shared similar thoughts.

They seperated as they got to the center of the training room. The pose Noel struck reminded Hades of himself oh so many years ago, the time when he had finally beat his wife to be. Over the years that style had come to mean so many more things. It opened up memories far richer. After they married they would often practice together. One would pick a style and start with it. They would start slow, and gradually increase the speed, a choreographed sparring. Within each style of martial arts is a counter for every attack move, so for martial arts A, attack move 24 can be countered by defensive move 5, 10 or 13 for instance and on it goes. Noel had struck the first post in a style called the "Red Fist". Hades responded in kind with a warm smile lost in the memories, his eyes half closed. She made a move and replied, it started slow, it always started slow. They moved like perfectly choreographed dancers. Plucking needles from beneath the Sea was countered by Single Whip, countered by Cloud Hand, countered by Stalk Spreading Wings. Then the style changed, who changed it? Hades was not sure. Now it was Carving Mountains Splitting Rocks countered by Profusion of Shadows countered by Smile Hiding a Knife countered by.... and the dance went on. They moved across the room, seemingly in lock step. Then Hades stepped onto the Forrest of  Plum Flower Piles and Struck the first pose of the Swallow Fist a smile on his face. This used to be their equivalent of playing, he was lost in the warm comforting memories, seemingly so far away from the dark ones that loomed on the distant horizon.

Note: Info on Plum Flower Piles Here, Here and Here. The piles will be the full variety, (knife head, Lilly pad, round top, flat top etc)

She had to start slow. It was only coincidence that the flowing forms and blocks started slow too. Once she'd slipped into the memory, though, it was a simple as copying. The memories were happy, some of his happiest before his wife's death, and so Noel was feeling happier too. Playful, like they used to be. He would try a sneaky Simple Whip, but her Cloud Hand was as fast and neat as his was in memory. The movements weren't hard to pick up with a partner to guide her.

And it became challenging as he sped up. The feet, the hands, the body alignment. When one part of herself wasn't in perfect alignment with the memory, Hades angled to take advantage of it. Just as the she in his memories would have. It made Noel get better in a hurry.

And eventually she felt comfortable in the skin of his memory. Step for step, blow for blow. When he used the small step near the top of a pole to vault himself up onto the piles, she didn't even hesitate. He'd been doing this since childhood. First on overturned bowls, then on stumps, and finally on the steep piles they each took a stance on.

There was no talking. Plenty of smiles and heavy breaths, but Noel, at least, was too focused to have a brain cell to spare on the formulation of words. She knew every part of her body, especially her forearms which had not actually gone through block training, would be sore tomorrow.

Noel had a knack for physical activity. Her balance was a bit underdeveloped, having never done anything like this before, but she went for each step, each move and block, with the confidence of experience. She may not have actually done it, but it sure felt like she had.

She was good, and she learned fast. He could tell by the slight hesitancy here, a slight wobble there that perhaps more practice was needed, but other than that there were few indications that this was the first time that Noel had ever seen, much less performed those moves. Internally Hades nodded, his respect for her rose one notch higher.

It was an interesting experience, honoring memories and laying them to rest through martial arts. In some ways it was like archaeology by martial arts forms. The experience was all the more surreal as Hades was not laying them to rest on his own. Instead he was reenacting them, reliving them to some extent with a woman, Noel, who he had only recently met, by chance, at a bar. Not only that, but in a short amount of time she knew more about his past in ways that he did and knew so much about him that even people he had served with would, could never know. In his multi-millennial lifetime this was a rather unique situation and Hades was not completely sure how to respond.

He had trusted her and she had not betrayed his trust. In his profession and as a person, Hades valued honesty, trust and loyalty above all else. One could say that they were the coins of his realm, the currency that he most respected and recognized.

All this flashed through his mind as they came to the end of that period. Hades was feeling a little tired but could go on for a time yet. Wordlessly, for to use words might break the moment, the atmosphere that was doing so much to help him process the maelstrom of emotions and memories that surged, and roiled within him, Hades moved to the center 18 x 18 square of Lilly pad plum flower piles and formed the opening pose of Act I of The Way of The Shadow. As he struck the pose he remembered the training where the students would all move in sync, one chasing the other as they went through the movements of Act I "Shifting Shapes and Changing Shadows". It was the art of moving with illusions, seeming to move in one direction while moving in another, it was fluid, perfect for moving in shadows, it was fast and above all it was practiced on surfaces that would wobble when you landed on them. It trained balance.

Would she accept and fly with him together around the piles or would she retire to process. Would he prefer to be alone or continue on doing this, whatever this was.

The end of an era. Noel drew herself onto one pile and bowed her deepest respect. As she wicked herself out of the memory, the confidence of her balance wavered. She didn't have a problem with heights. In theory. In practice, this seemed a very small place to stand for someone who's head hurt so much.

She wavered, too stubborn to call it quits when she should have. Noel didn't want to sleep on this information, not without going through more of it. She would lose too much. Hades seemed to be having fun. It was like therapy, personalized and perfected. She only had to keep acting her part, the part in Hades' memory.

However, when Hades struck his next pose, it took Noel a moment of frantic scanning to find it. He wasn't playing the part of the wife any more. He was now playing his own part. The feeling of the moves and the perspective were all wrong from his memory. She would have to consciously mirror the woman's part. She had to try to echo her shapes and the force of the blows and blocks, as well as the placement of her feet, all from a hazy visual.

Noel liked the challenge, but she would have liked it more had she been fresh.

The memorymancer took her position with less certainty.

Hades took off, muscles bunching as he moved between piles and Noel shot after him. The point of the exercise was speed and illusion. That made deciphering the movements all that much harder. She bounced between memory and current events so often that if the piles had been placed any differently between the two, she would have failed immediately. She was lucky that his subverted memories had been so accurate. It wasn't until one pile wobbled in Hades' wake, when in memory it stood firm, that she misstepped.

Her foot caught only half purchase on the apex of the pile. Her weight still in motion, rolled her foot awkwardly around to the side of the beam when she needed to drive herself up and forward, suddenly Noel found herself falling down.

She clipped her chin on the pile she'd been meaning to step onto next, the impact snapping her jaws shut and cutting off any sound of alarm. From there it wasn't far to the mats below.

Humans are so frail sometimes, thought Hades as Noel fell. The thought flashed through Hades mind and was immediately replaced by concern. He turned to Noel as he landed intending to ask her if she was alright, but his question died on his lips as she seemed to attack him, her movements smooth, her feet sure, as if it was not her. He could not read the expression, correction, expressions that flashed across her face. The style that she was using was not the style of a martial artist, no it was something much darker. Hades was holding off her attacks, but not without difficulty. It had been a long day, an emotional one at that. Discovering his past, not having fully processed it. He was emotionally exhausted and physically tired and a little distracted as to which portion of his history Noel might have slipped into. Judging by the style it was definitely not the earlier period. No the style was far too dark for that. Oddly it was darker than what he learned at Raven Spire. No it was something he had learned after that?

She shifted stance and her shoulder twitched, they way one does but before launching an attack. Hades suddenly felt chilled. It all became crystal clear. When he had learned the style and that particular move. Obscure close quarter combat move, a knockout move but one where the opponent was trapped, no matter which way you dodged there were always counter moves, the only way to neutralize that move was to strike first and strike faster. Hades did so, time seemed to slow. Who would land first?

Hades saw black.

She had her feet in no time, but still... the fall, the fear, the memories— there was a lot going on in her head that was confusing.

No. Not confusing. She could see the moves with crystal clarity now. A sway here and she could use the energy from her hips to put more power into her punch. She could drive a punch high to tempt him into scoring a low hit or high block, both of which would flow nicely into the brunette getting her footing well inside his guard.

Noel put him off balance getting so close like that. As she drove her fist upward and unhindered toward his jaw, the same place she'd jarred on her tumble off the piles, the memorymancer couldn't really recall the steps she'd taken to get there.

She certainly didn't see his counterstrike.

...

The first thing he noticed was a wave of nausea. He hadn't been hit in a long time. Not in the face. Not since he'd found his powers. He heard a woman's groan of disgust when he'd expected his own voice. And when he sat up and pulled away from the comfort of warmth, he noticed his body remained laying on the ground.

He wasn't dead. He wasn't intangible, either. No. Wait. That was Hades' body. It wasn't hers. She was... Noel. Her arm tattoo reminded her.

Hades looked vulnerable with his arms outstretched and limp. His memories still weighed heavier than her own. She'd thought that playing a game and practicing his strengths would have helped her translate some of that skill into her own. It didn't sit right. It felt... too connected to who he was. Or too disconnected. This was the confusing part.

Noel put her hands over her face and immediately felt a very tender and puffy eye socket.

He had hit her.

It was good, then, that she'd hit him first. She'd probably taken the power out of his swing with her hit, otherwise it'd be her lying still on the ground.

Noel's hand reached toward his split lip, but she hesitated. The mats were nice, but an unfettered fall was still a fall. The cut had been going long enough to trail down the side of his face. He was slick with sweat. She could see now, by sweat and blood the exact place where her head had collided against his shoulder. Where, if he hadn't been there to land on, she probably would have an even worse headache. Where, for an unknown amount of time, they'd laid side-by-side.

She chickened out. He probably didn't need medical attention. His cuts had already begun to clot just like the scrapes on the backs of her knuckles.

She needed... space. To not smell like him, to not think like him.

So she left.

Hades awoke with a start, the images the memories of last night flooding through his mind. He took a second, calmed himself and rand through them sequentially.

As he rose to his feet he observed the spot where Noel had landed. He could still smell her faint scent, everyone had one. From how faint it was she had obviously left a short while ago. Perhaps she needed..... space. Perhaps she would not return. He had opened part of himself up to her, for a short while he had been.... vulnerable. Hades closed that door. Not many people could get inside Hades mind and stand it. he would give her some space. Regardless, the safe house was hers and she would see it when she next checked her phone. She had earned that much.

As Hades drove away, he idly wondered if he would see her again. He put the thought out of his mind, he had work to do.