Training for Nevin ended up divided into three segments. The first, and most time consuming one, ate about half of his days, was the training in the foot work and some training in sword play. While he would not be a master swordsman, he at least at this point wouldn't hurt himself in trying to use a sword to fight if he had to. The main thing he picked up from this training was actually footwork - he learned to move around, dancing through combat and around people. He actually ended up aggravating a few of the warrior women - because he took to avoiding hits with an almost unnatural glee, and focused his own blows on 'bleeding' attacks. No heavy strikes, but fast and light cuts that would debilitate if they hadn't been using blunted practice swords. And since he never went in for power blows, they found it hard to catch him off balance - which just frustrated them more. But they did amuse themselves whenever Glenda came by and forced him to fight the way they were - most of the women didn't blame him for not doing that. It was obvious that while he was getting stronger, he had focused on raising his studies rather than his physique, so for now in a direct match he ended up worse than any of them. Still, they didn't take it easy on him when he was forced to fight in more direct blows. But for the four days, half of each spent doing this, he poured everything into this, engraving the training into his mind as he worked. He would be able to practice these moves even after they had finished training, so memorizing everything he could would only serve him well in the future.
His second project was the training sessions with Philomel on learning how to fight with whips. Her strategy focused on using the whip to deal blunt damage, or to bind her foes, as most whips were meant more as supplemental weapons than as something intended for direct combat. Combining the whip binding targets with her obvious skill with a sword gave the Faun captain a devastating advantage, as she left her targets vulnerable to attack. Nevin did his best to pick up what she was teaching him - even if he didn't have the same strategy in mind, binding foes in the coils of his barbed whip would be, if anything, even more dastardly. After all, being trapped inside of the barbs would just make it so that when they struggled, they would tear up their flesh. Aside from that, he focused on glancing, indirect blows - meant to whittle away at his foes and slowly strip them of flesh and blood as his barbs carved away skin and the plynt absorbed their blood. A nasty weapon, and not one that looked enticing, as he finally got it made and showed it to the Faun.
During those training sessions, he also made sure to tell her about meeting Celandine back in Stonevale - he didn't mention what Vaeron had been purchasing, but he did mention having seen the man. But the real reason he brought it up was to make sure that the Faun knew of her daughter's prophetic abilities. It seemed she had already known, but she did appreciate the heads up - though she didn't know why Celandine had 'seen' them meeting. She also asked him to keep it quiet - it seemed like him, she was aware of the dangers posed to those with the power to see into the future. That accomplished, he did start talking with her about other things when they took the time to rest between training.
After that, after the day of training on the ship, he would go back to the 'inn' and spend coin, and then 'train' with the women there. He picked up massaging - among other things - and decided that this was a skill he would be sure to continue training even after this. Aside from that it was...relaxing to have this form of release once more, after years of celibacy.
