“Right! Keep at it for the long thrust. Your hand movement is looking good. We’ll do that a few more times before getting more footwork involved,” Glenn instructed, as I pulled back on the spear I was given. I continued the basic technique a few times. It was my third day of practice with Glenn.

  This was the second weapon Glenn was teaching me to use. Our first lessons began some months ago the last time he was hired to escort me to deliver alms. I still had the dagger Maeori gave me strapped to my thigh. It hid itself well under my dress. When Glenn trained me with it, he offered to get me a better one, but I turned him down. I found the spear techniques to be similar to the dagger, a lot longer, but similar.

  “Alright, let's move on to practical use,” Glenn said after a while of watching my thrusts. He pulled out his training sword and stood in front of me. “Go ahead and thrust at me, I’m going to either cross or bind your spear. Your job’ll be to regain distance and defend your center. Put your spear out.” I did so as he pushed it upwards with his sword and stepped forward. “For now, practice retreating. Slip the staff back with a jaunt back and prepare a counter stab to keep me at bay. I have enough Aura that I’ll be fine if you accidentally hit me.” The two of us worked on the movement for some time. Once Glenn was satisfied with how I handled the spear he started coming at me faster. Him trying to close the distance on me with his sword and me trying to maintain a good distance and my defense.

  “Let’s take a break before moving on to slashes,” Glenn said after some time. He tossed a half-empty water skin at me. “You shouldn’t use them often, but they can be good for keeping an attacker at bay while you position for a proper thrust. After that you’ll have the basics down.”

  “Oh, already?” I asked, I’d expected more.

  “Well, those are the basics. You’ll need to keep making sure it’s drilled in you. So when we get into a fight it’ll come naturally. Can’t get scared or stiffen up else you’ll run into problems. Though I imagine this will all be secondary behind your spells. Against beasts and lower intelligence monsters you should be good. Though if, for some reason, you’re up against someone or something that knows a thing or two about fighting against a spear you’ll have trouble. You’ll also need to do more strength training if you want to be a real threat. You can do that once we set off proper. Though in the meantime if you can find yourself a broom or something you can practice the movements even when you’re at the church.”

  “Oh. I hadn’t really considered training at the church.”

  “It’s good to practice form, same goes for the dagger. One downside would be the weight. If you want to learn something a bit more advanced, Archie can show you how to use polearms.” He stopped to take a sip from the waterskin. “I’m still surprised you want to learn fighting techniques. I always thought you’d be happy purely as a healer.”

  “I-I don’t want to be useless when I run out of mana,” I replied looking down. It hurt how useless I was when those thugs attacked Maeori and I in the slums. She had gotten really hurt. All because she was keeping the two men that chased us away from me. I had stronger Aura than she did. I should’ve taken some hits and fought back. I needed to be more than a useless pawn who was passed around for leverage. “If anything I’m foolish of me for not trying to learn sooner.”

  “I wouldn’t say that. Truth be told, if we find ourselves in a spot where you’ll need to use these skills then, well, it would be a rather dire situation.”

  “What do you mean?” I looked up at Glenn.

  “If we end up taking jobs where you aren’t able to charge your mana properly in between. Or we’re in too deep where you’re running out of healing spells. Then well, that’s a grave mistake we made.”

  “We can’t always be sure of everything.”

  “No, but we can try our best. Hells, more so with Maeori. Archie and I have been working with her on some things. She seems particularly good at planning ahead. Plus, melee’s gonna be a danger for you. You don’t see too many melee casters since casting degrades your Aura. That alone makes you at a much bigger risk of getting more gravely hurt from a hit.”

  “I-I know, but I still want to be helpful. Otherwise all I’m doing is waiting in the backline and praying you all make it out safely from a fight again,” I said. Glenn raised an eyebrow and I looked away. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s not like I’m stopping you. Ha! If anything I’m enabling all this by teaching you. Do me a favor though? Always keep enough mana for you to heal yourself. I don’t want to see you getting hurt, but if you do it’ll be nice to know you can patch yourself up.”

  “I will.” I had a lot of promises I made. Several I knew would be hard to keep. This one, I’ll do my best to follow. I looked up at Glenn, he was looking away with a sour expression. “W-what’s wrong?”

  “There is one technique I ought to teach you. It can be dangerous though. Might be less so for you. More so if you keep on sticking to spears and daggers.”

  “Huh?”

  “It’s hard, but you learn to pinpoint your Infusion to the tip of your spear or dagger; it'll make it easier to cut through a monster’s flesh or someone’s Aura.”

  “You haven’t shown me how to infuse things.”

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  “Yea, I mean, that’s the technique itself. I’ve always been warned that it can be dangerous and I agree.” Glenn looked to the sky. “I was debating telling you last time and didn’t. It’s risky but powerful, but I can’t properly show you everything without Infusion. It’s less its own thing and more an extension of your Aura. Whatever you spend on infusing can’t protect you and you can’t un-infuse something. If you can pinpoint it to a small area, it can be powerful without taking too much, but if you mess up it can take more than you bargained for.”

  “I-I’d like to learn it still.”

  “Alright, we’ll do that next instead, but not too much alright? You need some aura in case something happens.” He pulled out his own dagger. “We’ll start with this. First step is that you need to be able to manipulate your Aura.”

  Glenn moved his finger across the dagger’s blade. It cut open as though it were only flesh. It bled for a moment before stopping. He cleaned the blood off and there was no cut, as though a spell or his Aura had healed it. Glenn ran his finger across the blade again. Though this time there was no blood, no cut.

  “It’s a good demonstration, but I wouldn’t recommend going that far,” he laughed, “though, the idea is to focus it on one part of your body before you focus it on an object outside of it. Maybe try and go for an easy prick or pinch or something first.”

  “O-ok, but how do I manipulate it?”

  “I only have a dumb answer, but you sort of need to feel it. It’s like something sloshing around and through you. Try to move it to one spot.”

  It wasn’t a helpful explanation. I spent a few hours focusing and trying to move something inside myself. It was strange, but in a way it almost felt like the times during my penances when I was hungry and would consume my own mana. Or maybe I had always been consuming my Aura? Maybe, I hadn’t regularly expended enough Aura yet to tell the difference between the two. Either way I began to get the hang of it after I noticed that similarity. I don’t think Glenn was expecting me to be able to run my own finger across the blade without drawing any blood that night.

  “You really are a prodigy Sofia.”

  “H-huh, what do you mean?”

  “That’s not a simple thing to do. You’ve done a good job.” Glenn wore a kind smile.

  Maeori had told me he cared about me. It’s half the reason she wanted to use me. There was a silence between us for a bit. I’m not a prodigy or anything praiseworthy. It was only because I failed the gods so many times that I could manipulate my Aura.

  Archie and Ivili were off foraging for dinner while Glenn and I were training. Later into the early evening, before the Haze cast the world in its glow, the two of them returned. They brought back some herbs, berries, and a jackalope. It was a nice dinner.

  My muscles ached as I lay down for the night. It was hard, but it would be worth it. I might have a chance at keeping up. If the gods decided I was unworthy to be blessed with their spells again, maybe this would be how I can make my own power. Though maybe as a temporary answer. A way to keep striving for strength so that someone even as worthless as me can find a way back into the gods’ favor.

  ***

  “We should be seeing the village of Harshire soon,” Glenn said looking at the map we had with us, “Archie, Ivili, please be on your best behavior more so than usual.”

  “Eh, I don’t know what ya mean. We’re usually better behaved than you are. What’s got you in a fuss?” Archie asked.

  “It’s a new settlement that Duke Rolocher sponsored to help protect trade routes. If it continues to be successful, my family’s likely going to be vying for it as a fief in the coming years. They asked me to give it a look over and if we can leave a good impression with the settlers it’ll be helpful should we become its ruling family.”

  “Heh, some noble shit ey? So be it. How long has it been around for?”

  “Three or so years, I believe.”

  “Hm, Sofia, make sure ya sticking with us. I was part of a frontier town back in the day. There’ll mostly be young men with dick for brains,” Archie told me. I nodded. “Heh, I doubt they’d be dumb enough to make a pass at a woman of the cloth, but to be safe.”

  “What?” Ivili gasped dramatically. “Not worried about me?”

  “Pfft, ya want me to be scared for ya? Nah, I know better. You’ll have them all scared shitless of elves the moment ya turn a gang of them into eunuchs for trying something.”

  “Maybe, if I’m feeling nice,” Ivili said.

  “I’d prefer us not to resort to that if possible,” Glenn sighed. “My family does want them to have a positive view of us.”

  “Ain’t like I’m looking to cause trouble anyway.”

  “Yet it does always seem to find you,” Ivili quipped.

  “Is that what ya think of me? Might need ya to keep me out of trouble if that’s the case.”

  “I suppose that wouldn’t be terrible. That is, assuming you’re not scared shitless of elves,” Ivili replied.

  “Great, glad that’s settled. I’m counting on you Ivili,” Glenn said.

  They continued on, while I double checked the supplies we were bringing. None of it was anything too special: potions, parchment, some weapons, and other varied commodities. Useful items that the village, at present, would find it harder to make. Double checking the ledger we received everything seemed to be in order.

  This was an unusually simple trip for us. Usually, we would be sent to places in the after monster attacks or places where plague had taken hold. Places where the Priests or Priestesses of the local parish were overwhelmed and needed assistance. That more often than not we were treated somewhat as scouts. To quickly deal with the most dire cases and report back before the main group of clerics would arrive. What was I alone supposed to do in towns and villages with hundreds of sick people? For a group of our size this was more typical, simpler, and far less dire. Bringing supplies and tending to any injured.

  A short while later the outline of the village appeared off in the distance. The crude outer monster wall had clearly been erected with magic years ago. Standing roughly six feet tall and made of stone and dirt. Several parts were reinforced with wood, likely from patches of dirt flaking or falling off. It was suitable, but unfinished. As we made our way in through the gate and were greeted by the townsfolk I felt unusually at ease. It would be nice to have a more peaceful trip.

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