They sat down next to one another, with Galen not bothering to hide how tired he felt, wincing as he felt at his various injuries. Tufani, for her part, put up a strong front, keeping her mask of stoicism and not giving any outward indication that her wounds bothered her.

  “Now, let’s start by mending those injuries,” Aleksi began.

  Galen panicked, “Hold on!”

  Aleksi looked to him as he turned to Tufani and asked, “You ever been healed by Healing Arts with the Fire Affinity before?”

  “Ugh,” was her immediate reaction before answering, “no! Of course not.”

  Galen nodded, figuring that might have been the case, and explained, “You might want to brace yourself. Though effective, they can feel rather… unpleasant.”

  “What are you on about-” Tufani stopped suddenly, looking as though she’d remembered something.

  She then slowly nodded, and did as Galen asked.

  Aleksi smiled at him gratefully, “Glad you brought that up, lad. I’ve grown so accustomed to using Fire Healing Arts on myself that I’ve all but forgotten how it feels to those unused to it.”

  Galen grimaced, “Yeah, well. I’LL certainly never forget the first time I was healed by one. Healing is supposed to feel pleasant, not like I’m being melted in a furnace.”

  Tufani tensed at that, and Aleksi chuckled, “Yes, well, this is the FIRE Affinity we’re talking about here, lad.”

  The man turned to Tufani, “Lass, the sensation of a healing with this Affinity is… well it feels like you’re being burned. The Art quite literally burns away your injuries, so this will sting.”

  “I could just use my own Healing Arts then,” she protested, looking uneasy.

  “Mine will be more effective than yours,” Aleksi said, and when she gave him a glare, he explained, “your Art failed to fully heal your wounds in one go, correct?”

  She actually POUTED at that, and Galen had to suppress the smile that threatened to spread on his lips.

  Cute! the thought came unbidden.

  Aleksi raised a hand to them both, and a look of concentration came over him. Galen and Tufani tensed, preparing themselves for the Art. Within seconds, flames shot from his hands and enveloped them both.

  Galen clenched his teeth as he felt the various cuts, burns, and bruises feel as though a hot iron had been pressed to them. The wounds BURNED, and the pain made him squeeze his eyes shut tight. His jaw began to ache from how hard he was clenching his teeth.

  The Art lasted mere seconds before it mercifully ended.

  He fell forward, letting out a gasp of relief. He saw out of the corner of his eye that Tufani’s healing had taken just a second or two longer than his own.

  He sat back up and looked to her. Her stoic mask was barely present. Her jaw was clenched tight, and tears leaked from the corner of her blinking eyes as she trembled lightly.

  “That…” she began, voice shaky, “was HORRIBLE!”

  “Tell me about it!” he agreed wholeheartedly.

  Aleksi chuckled, “Compared to other Affinities, fire is definitely the most unpleasant to use for healing.”

  “That’s putting it lightly,” Galen grumbled.

  “A violent Affinity that brings pain even as it heals,” Tufani snorted, “it certainly does suit most humes, doesn’t it?”

  Galen frowned, “Don’t tell me you’re going to start with that aga-”

  His eyes widened in realization as his brain fully registered what she’d said, “Wait a second… Did you say ‘most’ humes? MOST?! So, you admit it then! That not all humans are as bad as you thought!”

  Tufani flushed, stammering, “Wha-what are you on about, ashborn?!”

  “HA!” Galen beamed, “we’re making progress with you, I see.”

  Her flush deepened, reaching her ears, “As if!”

  He’d been about to tease her more, but her reaction had made him freeze. His heart squeezed with a sudden burst of cute aggression at seeing her blush reaching her long elf ears, and he had to physically hold himself back from either hugging her or crying out, “That’s so cute!”

  Though, he couldn’t fully repress the smile that had been forming, resulting in a strained half smile.

  Which Tufani immediately noticed, “What are you laughing about?!”

  “Nothing!” he cried out, hands going up defensively.

  Aleksi guffawed, “You two are amusing together, you know that?”

  Tufani scowled at him before giving him a more analytical look, “You didn’t use an Invocation for that Healing Art. Was it Invocationless? Or… no, I’ve seen those kinds of Arts before. Mental Invocation perhaps?”

  Aleksi nodded, looking impressed, “Correct, lass. I’m impressed you were able to deduce which of the two it was.”

  “And I, likewise, am impressed you can do Mental Invocations,” Tufani got up on her feet and dusted herself off, “I suppose that’s only natural. The general of the Rebellion should be able to do at least that much.”

  “You have high standards,” Aleksi noted.

  “Necessary standards,” she corrected, “given who we’re up against.”

  “So, you recognize the need for improvement then?” Aleksi asked.

  She hesitated, briefly glancing at Galen before responding, “… Yes. As much as it pains me to admit it, perhaps there are some things you can teach me. Maybe.”

  Aleksi nodded in approval, “Very well. Then let us get started now. I will give you both my assessment.”

  He looked to Galen, “I’ll start with you, lad.”

  He nodded at the man, mentally prepping himself for some criticism.

  “Though I recognize it’s been a while since you last trained,” Aleksi acknowledged, “I’m still a bit disappointed in how sloppy your Ether control was… Is what I had been expecting to say.”

  Galen raised a brow, confused.

  Aleksi elaborated, “I’ll be frank, lad. Your Ether control has gotten much better since the last time I saw you freely use the power. It wasn’t as bad as I’d been expecting. Don’t get me wrong, you still waste far more than Ether than you should. Your Efficiency needs a lot of work. But there is an improvement. A notable one. And a startling one, in all honesty, given the short amount of time since I last trained you.”

  Galen smiled, feeling bashful at the praise. Though, he made sure to take the criticism of his Efficiency to heart.

  “The speed at which you burn Ether and enhance yourself has made a remarkable improvement as well,” Aleksi noted, “no doubt out of necessity from whatever Araw- I mean, he, put you through.”

  The man had briefly glanced Tufani’s way when he’d nearly slipped up. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to be going into another panic attack. She did grimace, however, as she no doubt knew who Aleksi was referring to.

  “That reminds me,” she cut in, “you said you were trained by… him, right?”

  Galen nodded, his own grimace showing on his face.

  “What kind of training did he have you do?” she asked.

  “Oh, it’s quite simple,” he grumbled, “he simply beat me to a bloody pulp in sparring sessions over and over again, while having healers heal me whenever I was too injured or exhausted to continue.”

  She looked shocked while Aleksi frowned deeply.

  “The Dominion treated their own Champion in such a ruthless manner?” she asked in disbelief.

  “He was especially terrible,” Galen sighed, “can we not talk about it? I’d… I’d really rather not remember my time training with him.”

  Tufani nodded, a look of understanding in her eyes.

  “I’m disappointed to say that I’m not surprised,” Aleksi grunted, “that sounds just like something that voided bastard would do.”

  “Aleksi!” Galen gasped in a very overly dramatic way, “language! You are in the presence of a young lady!”

  Tufani frowned, though the man in question merely laughed, “Forgive me. Slip of the tongue.”

  Her eyes lit up, as she realized it had been a joke.

  She didn’t look very impressed.

  Oh, well. No surprise there, he thought.

  “Now, back to your assessment, lad,” Aleksi continued, “overall you’ve shown improvement across the board. Your swordsmanship could still use some work so that your skill in that regard matches your hand to hand.”

  Galen nodded, having realized that himself.

  “My biggest criticism,” Aleksi met his eyes, “is your lack of Arts without Redian. Have you created any Arts that you can use on your own, or learned to use any without the sword’s aid? Or was it simply that you had no opening to use them?”

  “…Both,” Galen answered, shoulders slumping.

  Aleksi nodded, “I’m surprised the Dominion didn’t have you create Arts you can use on your own. Though perhaps they wanted to keep you overly reliant on Redian. We’ll be sure to fix that. Admittedly, even if you had any, I saw no opening from which you could have used them. Tufani’s ability to use Concurrent Casting was unexpected, though given who her mother is, I should have likely realized.”

  “Is that everything?” Galen asked, feeling particularly chastised in regards to his lack of usable Arts without Redian.

  “That’s all for now, lad,” Aleksi turned to Tufani, “your turn, lass.”

  ***

  “Your turn, lass,” Zareb began as he turned to Aria.

  She hesitantly nodded, and prepared herself to hear the human’s assessment of her. Admittedly, she was a bit curious to hear what he had to say.

  “Firstly,” he began, “I’m impressed with your swordsmanship. Given you were a slave not too long ago, I hadn’t expected you to have training with weapons. The lad here is no slouch, especially not with his Sentient Weapon aiding him. So it was no small feat that you did as well as you did.”

  Aria frowned, “I still should have been able to beat him…”

  Zareb chuckled, “Perhaps you might have without Redian being in the mix. That sword is a bit of a cheat on his part.”

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  “Hey!” Daxton protested.

  Zareb raised a brow his direction, and the young human responded sheepishly, “I mean… you’re not wrong. But you don’t need to call me out like that!”

  As the older man had a laugh at Daxton’s expense, Aria studied the young human, thinking to herself, The Shadows of Athanasius also use these… “Sentient Weapons” they call them? Sparring against him with that strange sword of his could prove beneficial in learning their weaknesses…

  Barus turned back to her, “Moving on to your abilities as an Etherean. Your total Capacity is less than I would have figured, I must admit.”

  Aria glowered at the ground at that, as she explained, “The accursed collars the Dominion uses on their slaves are to blame for that.”

  “What does that mean?” Daxton asked curiously.

  Zareb gave him a look that said, “Later”. Something Aria was grateful for.

  “That makes sense, lass,” the older human nodded, “though, your Efficiency and Output are impressive. Especially your Efficiency. Tell me, lass, how much Ether did you have in your Capacity when I put an end to the spar?”

  “About three quarters,” she answered.

  “Huh?!” Daxton looked at her with widened eyes, “you had that much left?!”

  She nodded, drawing some enjoyment from his reaction.

  The young human’s eyes bugged out further at that, as he revealed, “Damn! I… my reserves were at less than half by the time we were done. It would have been a lot less if Redian hadn’t used his own Capacity for the Flame Slash Art.”

  Aria shot him an incredulous look, “Void! I could see your Efficiency was poor, but I still didn’t think it’d be so horrendous!”

  He flushed deeply at that.

  “In his defense, lass, he’s only been using Ether for around half a year now. If you think this is bad, you should have seen him when I first started training him,” Zareb commented.

  Daxton’s blush covered his whole face by this point.

  It was an oddly endearing sight.

  “And besides, Tufani,” Zareb added, “your own Efficiency is rather abnormal. At least, from what I’ve been expecting. When did your mother first start training you?”

  Aria felt a wave of melancholy wash over her at remembering, as it was another reminder of her loss. Still, she powered through it and answered, “I began training when I reached twelve years of age.”

  Zareb whistled, “In only two years of training and your Efficiency has reached this level? And from what I can sense, your ability to take in Ether is also astounding for your level of experience.”

  Given the compliment came from a human, Aria felt that she shouldn’t have felt so giddy about it. She did her best not to show her delight as she continued to listen to the general.

  “It’s easy to see you have a frightening amount of talent as an Etherean,” Zareb commented, eliciting a prideful smile from Aria, “why you might have as much potential as Galen here.”

  Her smile melted as she shot the human in question a glance.

  He raised his hands in a panic while shooting Zareb a glare, “You did that on purpose!”

  The older human laughed, “Perhaps. I can’t really make that call until I see more from her to compare.”

  Zareb looked to Aria, “Relax, lass. I was only teasing.”

  She realized she’d been glaring. She shook her head, and forced herself to be stoic.

  “She’s as competitive as you are, lad,” Zareb noted.

  “I’m NOT that bad,” Daxton protested.

  Zareb shot him a look.

  “I’m not!” he insisted.

  He then frowned, and yelled to seemingly no one, “Can it, Redian!!!”

  Aria frowned, “You can still communicate with your sword even when you’re not with it?”

  “Yeah…” he answered, “there’s a range limit, but I’ve yet to reach it.”

  She hummed, making sure to remember that bit of information.

  She turned to Zareb, and asked, “Is that all for my assessment?”

  “No,” he replied before clearing his throat, “I’m almost done. The Arts you used were impressive as well, and, as mentioned earlier, your ability to use Concurrent Casting was noteworthy. In the regards mentioned thus far, your mother trained you well.”

  Aria smiled proudly.

  “However,” Zareb deeply frowned, making her pause, “you were unexpectedly… aggressive in this sparring match.”

  She furrowed her brow, “What do you mean?”

  “How about how you tried to stab me through the chest with your sword?” Daxton offered, “or how some of your attacks would have caused rather serious injuries had they landed?”

  “Zareb said he’d heal us after sparring,” Aria reminded him, “besides, I figured if an attack would result in a wound he couldn’t heal, that he’d step in and stop the blow.”

  “An accurate assessment,” Zareb admitted, “however, that isn’t the issue here.”

  “What do you mean it isn’t?!” Daxton asked incredulously, “it seems like a pretty big issue to me! I’m not looking to get into a death match every time I spar with someone. That reminds me way too much of what Ara- the Dominion did to me.”

  Zareb blinked with confusion at his protests, before a look of realization came to his face, “Ah… I see the problem you have now, lad.”

  “What is it?” Aria asked, “because I certainly don’t understand what his problem is.”

  “What MY problem is?!” Daxton cried out.

  “The issue is a difference in mentality,” Zareb stroked his chin in thought, “remember lass, and I also need to do a better job at remembering this fact, that Galen comes from another world-”

  “I know that,” Aria interrupted, “what does that have to do with-”

  “He comes,” Zareb interrupted her back, “from another world. One WITHOUT Ether.”

  That quieted her. She’d heard mention of this… but she never paused to think about it. To her, the concept of a world without the power was… alien. She frowned deeply as she looked at Daxton questioningly.

  “Yep,” he confirmed, “my world didn’t have Ether. No special powers or anything like what you all have here.”

  “Are you certain?” Aria asked.

  “I’m pretty sure that was the case,” Daxton affirmed, “given the state of things in my world with the Internet, if someone DID have special powers then everyone on Earth would have known about it. Probably.”

  “What’s an ‘eentarnat’? Void what’s an ‘errth’?” Aria asked, confused by the foreign sounding words.

  “Internet,” Daxton corrected, “and Earth. Earth was the name of my original world. Like how Avani is the name of the one here. As for the Internet… yeah, that’d take way too long to explain right now. Hell, I don’t know if I CAN explain the concept to someone whose never known it.”

  “Since Galen’s world didn’t have Ether,” Zareb explained, “that means they lacked the ability to use the power in all the ways we do. That includes for healing. By the Maker’s grace, we’re so used to being able to use the power for healing that having it handy for particularly harsh training sessions is the norm. Imagine not having access to that. Wounds that we’d be able to quickly heal could become more… lethal.”

  “Yeesh,” Daxton muttered, “Ether has made you lot THAT desensitized to injuring each other? No wonder this world is so messed up.”

  Aria was still trying to wrap her mind around the idea of a world without Ether. The concept seemed completely unnatural. Void, it was like imagining a world without water or air.

  “That aside,” Aria moved on, “what issue were you referring to Barus?”

  “Ah, right, lass. The issue I noticed was that you fought as though you had something to prove. As if you had a chip on your shoulder. That resulted in you being too aggressive. Which caused you to leave openings that could easily be exploited. And I will side with Galen on this. Trying to stab him through the chest with your sword was a bit much.”

  “A BIT?!” Daxton protested.

  She flushed as Zareb had been right on the mark.

  He smiled at her in a paternal way, “I believe you know I’m right?”

  She hesitantly nodded.

  “Good! Now, with your assessments out of the way, let’s continue with the sparring sessions!” Zareb announced.

  “Tufani and I are going to fight again?” Daxton asked nervously, eyeing her suspiciously.

  Winds, he acts like I’m just looking for an excuse to kill him, Aria thought, frowning a realization occurred to her, I… Void, I haven’t exactly done the best job of convincing him otherwise, have I?

  That made her flush with shame.

  Zareb shook his head, “No, lad. You had your turn. This time, I will spar against her. You will work on your fundamentals. Particularly, your Efficiency. Have Redian help you where it can and try to not waste so much Ether unnecessarily.”

  He said the last part with a semi-joking tone, though Daxton still pouted at his words.

  They went to retrieve their swords.

  And she found hers broken.

  Aria stared at the shattered pieces of her sword that littered the ground. She sighed, disappointed the blade hadn’t been able to withstand two Arts colliding against one another.

  Then again, it had been just a hume guard’s sword. I doubt the Dominion gives their best to grunts like that, she thought.

  She walked over to Daxton and Zareb, and tried not to feel annoyed at how the young human’s sword didn’t even have a scratch on it.

  I shouldn’t be surprised, she reminded herself, that sword is likely made of the same, if not similar, materials as the armor and weapons the Shadows and… and he used against my mother…

  Daxton raised a brow at her after noticing her, “Where’s your sword, Tufani?”

  “Broken,” she answered bluntly.

  “Ah,” he scratched his own cheek bashfully as a drop of sweat rolled down his face, “sorry about that…”

  She shrugged, “It’s fine. I wasn’t attached to the thing anyway. In fact, I’m glad to be rid of it. Bad memories were attached to it.”

  “Oh… you’re welcome then, I guess?” Daxton said hesitantly.

  “I’ll be sure to get you a new one when we return to the hideout, lass,” Zareb assured her before tossing her his spare sword, “lucky for you today, I normally use two swords. I’ll want it back when we’re done, though.”

  She nodded, and followed Zareb away from Daxton so that he could work on his Efficiency in relative peace.

  “You seem eager, lass,” Zareb noted as he walked with her.

  She nodded again. Truth is, she was. She wanted to see what the man who’d at one point been in charge of training the Dominion’s Champion was capable of.

  She turned to face him.

  He smiled at her as he drew his sword, “Whenever you’re ready.”

  Aria took a deep breath, and charged at him.

  ***

  Galen felt awkward walking back to the hideout with a fuming and sulking Tufani. He looked to Aleksi, who led the way through the network of tunnels.

  Tufani hadn’t been very forthcoming as to the cause of her dour mood, but Aleksi had enlightened him. Apparently, she was upset that she’d been soundly defeated by the man in every single sparring session they’d had. And to add salt to the wound, she hadn’t been able to land a single attack.

  Aleksi had, wisely, elected to hold off on giving her pointers until after she’d calmed down. He’d even gone as far as to ask Galen if he could somehow brighten her mood by the time they made it back.

  How on Earth does he expect me to do THAT? he thought, she hasn’t exactly been super friendly towards me…

  There was another issue as well, as he could sense some of Tufani’s ire was directed at him as well. He had no clue what he’d done this time to annoy her, and that in and of itself was beginning to annoy him.

  He sighed, as he turned to give her an irritable look, “What did I do THIS time?”

  She glared, and thankfully, he was beginning to grow desensitized to the intensity she had behind those looks.

  “Well?” he prompted, “if I unknowingly did something that you considered inappropriate or rude-”

  “It’s not that,” she interrupted with a sigh, “it’s just… well, it’s your fault I couldn’t land a single hit on Barus!”

  “Hah?!”

  “If I hadn’t used some of my Arts against you in our spar,” Tufani fumed, “then I might’ve been able to catch him off guard with them!”

  “That’s not my fault!” he protested, “YOU were the one who decided to use them against me. I had nothing to do with that decision.”

  Tufani grumbled, but didn’t deny it.

  “Why are you so irritated, anyway?” Galen asked, “were you really expecting to be able to beat Aleksi?”

  “Void, no!” she answered, “I’m not so arrogant that I believed myself more powerful than he. Especially not since I tied with you, in our match.”

  She said that last part rather bitterly, something he chose to ignore.

  “Then?” he asked her.

  She didn’t answer right away, and he didn’t stop staring at her.

  Finally realizing he wasn’t going to drop the subject, she sighed, “I’m the daughter of Anila Tufani. I should be better than this!”

  He blinked. He still had no idea who her mother was. From what he could gather, she’d been very important and very powerful. Outside of that, he had no clue. Rather than ask, however, he looked straight ahead and said, “Well, not sure my opinion matters to you much, but I think you’re impressive. Amazing even.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tufani giving him a surprised look. He continued, “I’m serious. While I admit to being painfully ignorant as to what is considered standard in this world, particularly when it comes to Ethereans, even I can see you’ve got talent. And not only that, you’ve put in a ton of work to cultivate that potential. You said you’ve been training for what, two years? And Aleksi said that your level of skill is insanely impressive for your level of experience. He’s not one to give out baseless compliments just for the sake of it. As someone who trained under him for months, I can attest to that. He wouldn’t say it unless he meant it.”

  He met her eyes as he gave her a smile, “And to top it all off, you’ve accomplished what you have thus far under incredibly restrictive circumstances from what I can gather. You say you should be better, but it’s incredible that you’re at where you’re at. Give yourself some credit. To do otherwise would be an affront to your mother as your mentor, I would think.”

  Tufani didn’t answer for a long time, though he could see some of her wounded pride had healed somewhat. Not entirely, and that was for the best. Galen figured Aleksi had purposely sought to humble her through their sparring sessions, and he was glad to see he hadn’t undone the work his mentor had put in on that front. Rather, he’d helped repair the cracks where they shouldn’t be.

  “Thank you…” she whispered as she finally took her eyes off him, flushing as she did.

  “Anytime,” he responded.

  And he meant it.

  He beamed as he saw Tufani jog to catch up to Aleski and begin conversing with him.

  His mentor gave him a thumbs up when she wasn’t looking.

  “That was nicely handled, boss!” Redian complimented, “you’re making some good progress with her, I think.”

  Galen nodded, unknowingly smiling with fondness as he watched Aleksi give Tufani pointers and advice, I think so too…

  A huge thank you and special shoutout to my Myth Keeper tier Patron, Voltrus, and my Lore Master tier Patrons, Mountain Knight, Conman2731, ThoMiCroN, and MCE 2 München 2. Your support is sincerely and greatly appreciated.

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