111 Problems (1/2)
The following nights in the Fayne almost made me forget about Ty's dreams or the incident of the disappearing man outside my house as my brain was full trying to absorb all the training Azuma was drilling into me.
There was no chance to ask Aura about it either as she'd been recalled by Chancellor Orryn back to Shärleden because her brother's conditioned had worsened.
I'd only just heard from her last night through a message from Nike that Auranos was in recovery and that she would travel throughout the day via peryton to reach our nameless tower before the coming of dawn.
Maybe then I could ask her about Ty's dreams. But for now, my brain was completely preoccupied with finally getting the stupid Augmentare to work.
We were on the fourth floor of the seven-floor, circular tower. I'd designated it the training hall as it had a similar high ceiling as the audience hall below, but with slightly lesser breakable stained-glass windows. It was also the first hall my troops finished setting up.
The hall size must have been at least fifteen hundred square feet of space with newly installed wooden partitions to separate the different training areas. There was a weight room for those bruisers who liked to keep their muscles trained, a mat area for unarmed and armed training, a small locker area that sat right next to a weapons locker, and finally, a small infirmary for minor injuries. More of a triage room really. We hadn't finished setting up the main infirmary on the third floor yet.
So, there I was standing on one of the training mats with my falchion raised forward with both hands, sweating buckets for pushing my mind into an intense concentration that resulted in nothing. For all my effort, not a tiny spark of fire or even a droplet of water appeared on my shadowblade.
In frustration I lowered my hand kicked at the mat, brushing my feet across its leathery surface.
\”This is hopeless,\” I groaned.
Around me, I could hear the snicker of onlookers, and I sent my death stare at the closest ones. Two kobolds who needed to be reminded who was boss. They cowered back and then scampered away, bringing a satisfied grin to my face.
Azuma had followed my line of sight, and sighed, \”You mind too much…\” He shook his head. \”Listen, Dean, you're not here to live up to anyone's expectations. Just yours.\”
I looked my new martial arts instructor up and down, noting how his body hidden under training gear seemed less frail than it used to be, even if his skin was still sickly pale and his eyes were still the same bloodshot they always were.
\”Easy for you to say,\” I countered. \”You gave up being command.\”
Azuma nodded. \”Yes, but that's because I found one worth following…\”
I blushed. It wasn't everyday one got a compliment from someone everyone viewed as a true warrior.
I took a deep breath then raised my falchion forward once more.
\”Any more tips?\” I asked.
Azuma thought about it. His eventual response was, \”I can only use myself as an example.\”
He raised his spear in my direction. Seconds of deep concentration passed where Azuma mouthed a phrase I'd heard him speak before. The man wasn't actually speaking in some obscure fay dialect. He had simply spoken too fast for me to understand before. But as he slowed down his speech, I heard each word as clear as day.
\”I am shapeless, formless, like water,\” he quoted. \”When you form water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in the bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in the teacup, it becomes the teacup. Water can drip and it can crash, and so, I must become like water.\”
Immediately after he'd said those famous lines that had first been said by the most famous martial artist of the previous generation, water burst to life around Azuma's shadowblade spear tip and coalesced around it to form a liquid coating.
\”Did you just steal that line from Bruce Lee?\” I asked, my eyebrow raised.
\”I simply followed the recommendation of a great warrior,\” Azuma said. \”It has become my mantra whenever I wished to call upon the elemental spirits to bless my weapon.\”
He pointed the water spear at me.
\”You see, Dean, that's the secret,\” Azuma explained. \”A prayer or wish to the elemental spirits to augment the tool.\”
\”B-but I don't know which element to call out to?\” I reasoned.
Azuma swept his spear to the side and splashed water onto the mat.
\”Well, that's what you're doing now, right?\” he said. \”You're figuring that part out.\”
\”I know,\” I said, slightly annoyed.
\”Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do,\” Azuma quoted again.
\”Dude, stop quoting Bruce Lee to me,\” I snapped. \”It's not helping.\”
We were interrupted by Luca's voice singing a song from our childhood.
\”Can you sing with all the voices of the mountain, can you paint with all the colors of the wind,\” he sang in a soprano voice that reminded me how good a singer my little brother was.
As Luca's voice echoed around us, the silver broadsword in his hand began to glow a different color from its usual charred-orange lines.
The air seemed to thin around us as if it were being sucked right into Luca's sword which slowly, but surely, summoned to it a soft sheet of air floating around the shadowblade like a much smaller sword-shaped tornado than the one Great General Spellweaver had used.
A spattering of applause from the onlookers, and although I hadn't joined in with them, I felt a swell of pride for Luca's natural talent to do anything he set his mind to. But, also, a tiny twinge of jealousy sprouted in my chest, leading me to joke, \”You're using a Disney song as your mantra?\”
Luca blushed and lost his concentration, resulting in the coating of air around his blade to disperse suddenly, spreading out around him and making Luca's hair stand on end.
\”I wasn't going to use it,\” Luca countered, blushing even more furiously now that he'd noticed Pike among the onlookers. \”I was just practicing…\” Luca glared at me. \”I'll think up an even cooler mantra, just you wait and see.\”
I shrugged. \”Whatever you say, little bro.\”
Still grinning, I turned my attention back to Azuma who was looking back at me with something akin to pity.
\”That was petty,\” he chided.
I shrugged again, smiling sheepishly while I did. \”Couldn't help it. Just doling out some brotherly love.\”
Azuma and I spent another thirty minutes of training where I finally managed to create a bluish spark that was definitely not fire or any of the four basic elements in fairy magic.