[ Felix steps up onto the platform after Lorenz, swinging his blade once and then twice, criss-crossing the air in front of his body to work loose muscles rendered stiff with disuse. Maybe the real problem is that these last few idle days have left him with little to occupy his mind but his own thoughts, the perfect time for ill memories and feelings to dredge back up and fester. Maybe it's the poor mood his shift has left him in, and the sense that maybe things have changed too much now to go back.

He doesn't answer right away, his expression tight and distant while he warms up, and in the silence, a bright and querulous prrp?—Leonie, not the person but the cat, pads silently into the hall, bright red tail straight up in the air like a waving banner. She bounds up into the center window and seats herself in the sunlight, slow-blinking back and forth between the both of them.

Felix watches her for a moment, and then, with a sigh, shrugs off his cloak and tosses it aside. His own tail isn't nearly so elegant—a scraggly, stubby thing not yet fully grown out. ]

So long as you can see me as myself, and no one and nothing else, I suppose I can return the favor.

[ The training blade spins in his hand—and then, without warning, Felix lunges, sparing no force in a cleaving diagonal swing at Lorenz's shoulder. ]

Show me how well you fight here, Lorenz.