“What allowed Syr Osytha to land their solution there?”
Hazel-green eyes flit between syr and sword-saint. “I don’t—” stops short, snagged on some annoyance. Tiny shadows gather over Esota’s furrowing brow. “How am I supposed to know that already?”
“Try anyroad,” comes Osytha’s riposte. “Let that be lesson yan: ofttimes tha mun’st shap thissen, even scholde tha ne bist fit¹.”
That forehead crinkles a little deeper. Esota crosses her arms, and directs her glare fully toward the badger. “Seems kind of unfair, here.”
Osytha shrugs. “Lesson tan:” says she, “thoil².”
The prospect huffs sharply through her nose, making it pretty clear what she thinks about Osytha’s pearls of wisdom. Then, Esota’s frown swings itself toward Dal, meeting his eyes for a moment before sliding further along to regard his waster. Her rumpled brow slowly smooths out — not entirely, but enough to indicate that the girl’s withdrawing to view her freshly-memorised reels from the last minute or so.
“… I mean, you were just doing the same thing over and over again.” Sotie brings her gaze back to look Dal in his face. “It seemed kind of predictable?”
Gold star to our Sotie here, thinks Osytha, with a pleased little nod to herself. See? Dal had already given away the answer and all. Just stay sharp, and thou schalt pick it up quickly enough.
Beware falling into routine and habit — a good starting lesson for the lass. One of those rules you need to learn so that further down the road, they can teach you how to break it. And that lesson is the reason Osytha doesn’t trust people’s eyes.
Assuming that really is Dal’s point here, anyway. Osytha turns to catch his response; see whether this assessment rings true with the schirmaister, or if Esota’s missing the mark just as badly as she is today.
¹ “As a knight, you’ll frequently have to face challenges before you’ve had an opportunity to prepare for them.”
² “Deal with it.”