Janius made Kaleeth fight for every limb she pinned to the floor. He threw punches at her face and neck before his arm was under her knee. With one last effort, he threw a punch with his right arm right into the side of Kaleeth's ribs. The move allowed Kaleeth to grab his arm properly.

At this point, Kaleeth's arm was putting on more pressure than was comfortable. Enough of his left arm was free to tap against the floor if he wanted to submit, but he put one last effort into trying to throw Kaleeth to one side.

[hr]
Sabine was silent in her disappointment, but at least there was not too much hope built up.

Over a short time, Sabine shared a few more sips without knowing what exactly to say. It was hard to get Peiter's lack of intimacy off her mind at this point. Thinking back, she kept in mind the advice that Meesei gave her. It was more likely that Peiter was keeping himself down rather than anything being wrong with her. Sabine thought that she might take the opportunity of Peiter's now loose tongue to try and address the issue.

Sabine took Peiter's hand in hers and began to fiddle with his fingers, avoiding eye contact. "Peiter. You have been...very distant since..." Sabine refrained bringing up the battle and trailed off. "I still love you. I'm still...attracted to you, you know. But...you do not seem to..."

Sabine let out the rest of her breath and kept her down eyes. Her nervous embarrassment in talking about this was only made worse by the words she was using. The ale was loosening her tongue as well.