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Viago de Riva was in a foul mood. He had returned from a contract in Antiva City earlier than expected, which had apparently thrown the staff into disarray and he had been forced to test every piece of food on his plate for poison as he had eaten his breakfast, he had received a very angry and ridiculous letter from one of his exiled siblings, and he’d managed to break one of his favourite throwing knives earlier as he was completing target practise. He could also feel a significant headache coming on.
“Amelia,” His frown deepened as her usual beaming smile of greeting was quickly replaced with a look of apprehension. “Come with me”
She followed immediately, obviously realising why he had found her in the fledgling common room. However, she was evidently keen to try and avoid the subject.
“I thought you weren't due back for a few more days? I thought you had a big contract in Antiva City?”
Viago indulged the delay while they made their way to the training rooms. “I did, it was easier than expected. The mark was even more careless about food than I thought. I think it took longer to brew the poison then to actually poison the man”
She let out a brief sound of excitement. “When do we get to learn how to brew poison?”
Viago frowned slightly. It was always a little strange how excited she was about some aspects of her training and to how bored she was by others. “You need to be able to detect it first,” House de Riva had learned that one a long time ago. There was no point in teaching the details of making poison to a fledgling that could drop dead from eating poisoned food. It was just more efficient that way, even if it did make Viago slightly uncomfortable to imagine Amelia dropping dead. Maybe he would start trying to teach her to identify poison early. Not that he was her teacher of course, merely somebody able to help a struggling fledgeling. That her struggling was often related to the piano lessons between two of them was beside the point. “And you can’t do that until you start learning about ingredients. Which will start soon, sooner if you improve your lockpicking“
Which was the reason why they were here. The trainers had told him that she wasn't doing as well as she probably should at this particular skill. She was apparently “struggling to find the appropriate levels of control needed for some of the more difficult locks whilst maintaining speed”
She sighed dramatically. “I can do it right or I can rush and maybe get it wrong. I figured getting it right was far more important”
“In most cases it is,” He led her over to the small table that was covered in locking mechanisms and padlocks. “But you can't rely on there always being time, sometimes you need to be able to do it quickly”
She groaned and sighed dramatically again, but she searched through the set of picks and rakes in front of her. He always appreciated that about her. She could be an argumentative little shit at times, but as long as she was given a good reason to do something she generally did it.
“I feel like this would be so much easier if I had three hands” She moved on to picking out the tension tool that fitted her hand best.
Viago smirked. That was a common complaint. He grabbed a chair and a sand timer which he placed in front of her. “And that is why you need to practise. You will be able to control the tools much better as you get used to them”
She scowled briefly, but started looking at the preset locking mechanisms. Viago turned the timer over and tried to surreptitiously rub at his temples. This headache seemed determined to make his day even worse but he knew that he couldn't risk giving Amelia even a hint of a distraction. She would seize the chance to focus on anything other than the lock and then he would have to fight to get her to focus again. He was pretty sure that it would end with shouting, and he didn't fancy a shouting match with an 8 year old today.
“And done!” She looked at the timer hopefully. There were still a few grains left, but not enough to stop her loud sigh. “No different to last time”
Viago raised an eyebrow as he reset the locking mechanism. “Did you really think you would improve in just one go? That's why you need to practise. I’d rather it didn't take that long, but I've got at least two days before I can get a new contract. We can stay here until you improve”
And she did. Slowly. It took most of the day, but in the end she could reliably pick most of the locks in the training room in under fifteen seconds. That seemed to be more than enough progress for the day, and if it so happened that she turned out to be the best of the fledglings in her class when their lessons began again after the weekend then that would be no bad thing. And while his headache hadn't gone, the relative quiet of her working away at the locks had helped it go from pounding to just the occasional rumble. The time spent in the training room had also given the staff enough time to find enough 'clean’ food that he felt relatively comfortable only checking the first mouthful of the late lunch he ate with Amelia for poison. Which of course had made her watch him intently and she had then peppered him with questions about poison.