"hmph. As long as you do not turn your powers against the land of Kislev, the Ancient Widow has not quarrel with those principles. But we are here to assess your powers, not talk philosophy. So - "  She will gesture at the targets, laid out in ranks on the field. 

"Any particular wishes regarding how these are dispatched?"

"With precision, if possible. You have said your abilities at scale lean towards destruction? Then ensure you would not destroy a unit of friendly troops in the same area." 

The Acolyte nods, then turns his gaze to the targets, gripping his staff tightly as he builds his focus. With a handful of seconds to narrow his mind and sharpen his thoughts, he expresses Flames, neatly severing every target within his field of view with a single clean cut each, the now-separated upper halves clattering to the ground.

The generals and boyars gasp and mutter, the ice witch's brow furrows. She raises her own staff to the sky, calls out a dread invocation, and, after a pause, a rain of hail falls from the clear sky, each stone plunging with the force of a bullet into the wrecks of the targets, reducing them from parts to rubble, and the soil beneath them as well. 

"I do not envy whoever's job it will be to clean this up." The Acolyte says, mostly to himself.

"I imagine there may be some further tests?" He asks to the group.

"... No, that will be sufficient. It does not do, to cast battle magic unnecessarily." Says the ice witch, heedless of her having not 30 seconds ago, cast battle magic out of the spirit of pure one-upmanship. 

Well, in some sense proving oneself superior can be seen as necessary. The Acolyte cannot really empathize but he can at least understand intellectually. "Very well." He bows again. "I am at your service, then."

"The plan is to head out in three weeks, when the eastern passes will be clear enough to campaign through. Ideally, we will be pre-empting the waaagh that we expect to be coming out of those passes sometime this year. Until then, you may do as you wish."

A third bow as he respond. "I will be sure to leave note when I am not present at the boyar's provided lodgings, should you wish for me prior to our departure." Then, unless they have further words for him, he'll head back to the townhouse, writing down an 'out to lunch' note that he sticks to the door, and promptly heading out to lunch.

Three weeks. Not enough time to undertake any big research projects, but he'll certainly seek out any libraries in the city, and to continue refining his Determination, including a good amount of people-watching and extending his growing sense for dhar and souls. He also spends a good amount of each day derusting his combat skills, both simple mundane fighting with his staff, as well as expressing fire in the midst of stressful or distracting situations. If he can find some sparring partners that would be good, and naturally he wouldn't be using his magic when sparring, but it wouldn't be surprising if it's hard to find someone willing to spar.

The city of Kislev is a rich and interesting city, filled with markets and onion-domed palaces and temples. It's pretty easy to find libraries, though the doors of the finest ones are closed to him at this time. People are everywhere and the dhar levels are as low as he's ever seen them in this world. There's another force, that he feels, one that emanated most strongly from the ice witch, but as his sense for it refines, he becomes aware that it's everywhere in the background. It's less aggressive than the dhar - cold and controlled, where the dhar is explosive and sticky, but it's just as strong, in this city. Stronger, in places. 

After a few days. A woman visits him, her face covered by a veil, her armour that same faintly glowing ice that the ice witch was wearing. 

"I am told you are a wizard who will be campaigning with the Tsar?" 

It's a beautiful city, that's for certain. He'll remember the architecture.

"That is indeed the case." He answers before bowing shallowly. "The acolyte of Fire, at your service."

She does not seem well-suited to the situation. 

"I volunteered to meet you on the behalf of the Ice Palace. They did not want to send our sisters to defend an unknown." 

Would he need defending? That's an odd thought. "That's understandable. What can I do to become more familiar to your order?"

"I had thought to shadow you for some time, as a bodyguard would. It might also be good to see how well you can fight." 

"Both of those seem perfectly acceptable to me. I've been trying to get back into proper fighting shape, so a good spar seems like it serves both our purposes."

"I am sure we can find a field to train in without much trouble. Will you need a weapon provided?" 

The Acolyte gesticulates slightly with his staff. "I'm already well-equipped."

Presumably they are off to acquire a yard.

An army has many spaces to allow people to train and drill, especially an army so dependant on the idea that every man and woman will do their own martial training during the campaign off-season. It's not hard to find a space, though they rapidly acquire spectators. Everywhere, even in as serious a land as Kislev, people love to gawk at strange and elite troops as they fight. 

As long as the audience can avoid getting involved in the spar, the Acolyte is alright with their presence, even if he isn't planning on adding any extra flourishes to entertain them.

Before actually starting, they should establish some ground rules. Establishing the grounds of the spar, what sort of abilities or attacks are acceptable, that sort of thing. The Acolyte himself isn't intending on using his rending flames here, just because it doesn't seem very sporting.

This is a test of martial skill, so battle magic is off the cards yes. She will also use a training glaive rather than her real one, but her own capacity for magic doesn't give her any options to speak of. In general, the terms of sensible non-lethal sparring matches will be followed. 

The ground is set, the two of them find their places, and time is counted down!

This spar is as much for his assessment as it is for practice, so the Acolyte will not be too cautious and will take the first move if the not-exactly-an-Ice-Witch doesn't rush to take the initiative. His attack is nonetheless of a careful, probing thing, nothing to end a fight, only to provoke some manner of defense.

She proves herself an adapt fighter with her glaive, and can easily parry the probing attacks, returning probing attacks of her own. Slowly she escalates the difficulty of her attacks, sweeps and stabs that indicate skill fighting alone and in formation both. Her armour is very good; much better than you'd expect armour made of ice to be; sometimes she takes hits on it deliberately, when she's too close in, in order to disengage without entangling herself in some series of parries. 

The Acolyte is excellently competent as well, though his highly mobile, even acrobatic, fighting style betrays much less focus on maintaining formation with other fighters. He's an absolute devil to hit, though given his lack of (physical) armor it only makes sense for him to be quite evasive. It does mean that he's able to get in fewer attacks than her, though, since it takes more work for him to get good angles. The attacks he does land pack a wallop though, cracking blows of the staff with surprising force, especially once the Acolyte ascertains the efficacy of the ice-armor.