Last time, Katsa takes Metaleyes to see his grandfather, then they flirt more.

Now, she’s fighting with him again and more about how awesome and perfectly matched they are.

“I’ll grant you don’t have night vision if you’ll grant you have eyes in the back of your head,” she said once, when she’d entered the practice room and he’d greeted her without looking round to identify her.
“What do you mean?”
“You always know what’s happening behind you.” “Katsa, do you never notice the noise you make when you burst into a room? No one flings doors open the way you do.”

So I thought for a second this made sense – Katsa’s a super fighter, not a super stealther – and then realized that no wait, she totally is. The first chapters were all about Katsa the ultimate ninja. So not only should she be able to sneak up on someone, but even if he is alert enough to notice her, she should want to know the real reason why so she can address it, instead of just wanting an answer. She wants to be perfect in every way.

But instead she just suggests that it’s his grace letting him notice, so yet again saying people can have multiple graces, and he replies that it only does so as much as hers, which is implying she might have an extra grace too? This book has a paper-thin magic system and it can’t even keep that straight.

Katsa says he’s stronger than she is, but she’s still doing better in the fights, which I appreciate. Also it seems she’s basically the terminator because she doesn’t feel pain.

He stopped the fight once while she grappled to pin his arm and his legs and his back to the ground and he hit her repeatedly in the ribs with his one free hand.
“Doesn’t that hurt?” he said, gasping with laughter. “Don’t you feel it? I’ve hit you possibly twelve times, and you don’t even flinch.”
She sat up on her heels and felt the spot, below her breast. “It hurts, but it’s not bad.”
“Your bones are made of rock. You walk away from these fights without a sore spot, while I limp away and spend the day icing my bruises.”

This actually seems kind of worrying, though. Not reacting to pain is useful in the short term, but if she doesn’t realize she’s getting injured, that’s dangerous.

Also stop wasting ice, Metaleyes.

He doesn’t wear his rings so he won’t cut her face again, and later she kicks him in the head and concusses him a bit, so she insists they not wear shoes either.

And in truth, she had taken more care of his face since then.

This is surprisingly cute, and a nice bit of equality.

We’re told that people like to watch the fights, but the only woman who ever comes to it is Helga. Utena this is not.

Also they’re together constantly and eat together and are practically joined at the hip.

She could not become used to his eyes; they muddled her. But she met them when he looked at her, and she forced herself to breathe and talk and not become overwhelmed. They were eyes, they were only his eyes, and she wasn’t a coward. And besides, she didn’t want to behave toward him as the entire court behaved toward her, avoiding her eyes, awkwardly, coldly. She didn’t want to do that to a friend.

Aw, she’s thinking about her own feelings and applying empathy to assume he’d like to be treated similarly! Katsa, you are learning emotions!

Also stupid things. Like he’s called Po because there’s a tree where he lives that turns gold and silver in the autumn. Wait, so they’re a temperate region too? But the king is importing tomatoes from them, which implies they’re significantly warmer, and Katsa keeps saying it’s currently very hot where she is because it’s summer, so it’s not like she lives in a particularly cold area…

She wonders how he gets along with his brothers, and he explains that in his kingdom fighting hand to hand is a big deal so because he could do that everyone thought he was awesome. Unlike…all the other kingdoms, which don’t care about fighting skill?

Perhaps it was easier, then, to be a fighter if one was a boy or in a kingdom that revered hand fighting; or perhaps Po’s Grace had announced itself less drastically than Katsa’s had.

I think the likely guess is the latter, but don’t let that stop me from letting you whine more about how girls don’t fight and how apparently your feudal kingdom full of knights doesn’t value fighting skills.

He also says he races his brothers up stairs.

“Who wins?”
“Where’s your confidence in me, that you need to ask that question? You would beat us all, of course.”
“My ability to fight has no bearing on my ability to run up a flight of stairs.”

God book make up your mind already.

Also, there’s a bunch of castles, one for each kid. So, either they have a rule about never having more than seven kids, or they can build castles impossibly fast.

Po has the smallest castle, but he likes it, and Katsa’s all OMG HOW CAN A BOY NOT LIKE BIG THINGS ALL BOYS LIKE BIG THINGS and then continues saying she doesn’t care either OMG SOULMATE

Here’s a thought, Katsa. Try talking to people who aren’t ambitious lords. I suspect you’ll find they make up the majority of your population.

“My castle doesn’t have a city,” he said. “It’s not far from a town, but the town governs itself. It doesn’t have a court, either. Really it’s just a great house that’ll be my home for the times when I’m not traveling.”

Continuing this critique, we see yet another point where there’s no sign of what the fuck the lords are doing in this setting. He doesn’t protect them, or govern them, or even give a shit about them, he’s just a leech. He starts talking expansively about how wonderful the castle maintained by the blood and sweat of the commoners is, then suddenly senses Gramp Teaprince is awake and they go pay attention to him. Also Teaprince wants Katsa to come over so he can see her pretty eyes and she’s all :D nicest person ever.

You know, normally there’s some sort of barrier or problem with the love interest, book. You’re now going on about how even her future inlaws love her.