"Oh, I didn't know you were a fencer, too!" Kryschenn said as Cole offered his left hand to shake hers, thus drawing a close to the near-argument.Cole was no professional swordsman by any stretch of the imagination. He was, however, left-handed, so it was normal for him to outstretch his left, despite the momentary confusion it would normally bring when formally greeting others. Still, he learned a few aspects of fencing from her that would probably help him next time he was on a quiz show, and that Kryschenn’s peace offering was a natural action for her rather than one done simply out of courtesy due to his right hand being bandaged.
"Okay, 'friends'," she said with a smile, releasing Cole's hand and letting her fingers slip gently past his palm. "You've pretty much been nothing but nice to me since we wound up in the Realm, my recent annoyance factor aside, so in return, consider this a promise that I won't get on your nerves with a barrage of annoying questions any more. And now that that's settled, let's go help save a kingdom!"
“Alright then,” agreed the Mentalist as they continued on their way to the others. He was briefly stunned by the strength of the tight grip Kryschenn initially used before curiously easing her handshake shortly thereafter. What caught Cole by surprise even more was the delicate way she slipped her hand across his own as she released him from her grasp.
“Well, I try being nice to everybody, all near-arguments aside, of course,” replied Cole following Kryshenn’s comment. He was never the type to really take a compliment to heart. Reflecting on his earlier interactions with Kryschenn, a little exception to her appraisal of his character came to mind. “Then again, psi-blasting people doesn’t really fall into the ‘nice’ category, does it? You know, I should have come up with another way to stop your ‘Berserker’ persona without knocking you unconscious,” he said apologetically to her. “A fall like the one you took afterward probably didn’t help whatever internal injuries you were suffering from at the time. Perhaps restraining you with your own cape till you calmed down, or something like that would have worked better.”
The self-criticism of that instance held two purposes for the Mentalist. By pointing out flaws in himself and his actions, it would prevent him and others from thinking too highly of his virtues. The second reason was just to consider alternatives he could have developed to halt Kryschenn in her ‘Berserker’ mode. Cole found various ideas that sprang up could become quite useful should such a similar event occur in the future.
