Announcent
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After Alia left Lunaria’s observatory, she dropped off the book about the Formless in her room before hunting down Serena for so aura training. Given Katalin’s morning session and the events that had transpired, most normal people would baulk at the idea of doing more. However, Alia’s magic made her an exception to the norm. Even with her body that was supernaturally more resilient due to her ga stats, she was sure she would have fallen asleep if it weren't for her healing abilities; she needed a dash of it to repair her wound and recover from her exhaustion.
Aseco’s magic was miraculous, but it had its downsides. It prevented her muscles from fully benefitting from the intense training they’d been subjected to. The divine healing simply healed away the damage to the muscles instead of letting her body naturally strengthen the tissue through its normal processes.
Finding Serena was easy; even if Alia didn’t have her flow of aether that powered Serena’s wards to guide her, she only needed to take a mont to open her senses and Serena’s familiar aether signature was unmistakable. However, as Alia strolled through the corridors this ti, focusing intently on presenting herself as a refined lord-prospect and dignified assistant instructor, her mind wandered, and she forgot to pay attention to where she was going.
Despite no longer consciously tracking down Serena’s signature nor following the aether trail, Alia suddenly found herself before the demon. Was it luck, or was their connection so deep Alia was unconsciously tracking her girlfriend?
That didn’t make her a stalker, did it? It’s not stalking if you do it accidentally, right?
Serena stood in the academy’s main throughway, flanked by the rows of cabinets containing all manner of weapons, armour and other oddities laid gently on black cloth - a constant reminder to the students travelling between classes of the great warriors of the past.
Notably, there was no mage-related equipnt on display. The magic tower possessed a few cabinets with examples of specific crystal cuts or old tos docunting the history of formations, but nothing in the main building. From what Alia could tell, the martial part of the academy revered their history with greater zeal than their counterparts.
“Hello, Instructor Halen,” Alia said cheerfully, coming up and standing next to Serena. Her girlfriend was looking at the nas of student Speakers etched in brass. “Did you…” Serena was focused intently on the nas. “...Want to practice our auras?” Alia finished.
“Mmm,” Serena mumbled.
“Or, do you want to stare at a list of nas all day? Can’t you think of sothing else you’d rather look at?” Alia intoned, feeling her lips curl into a smile. She couldn’t flirt as boldly as she wished, especially with the chance of students and staff witnessing them, but so playful teasing seed acceptable, didn't it? Alia glanced around. How would Serena respond if Alia gave her a swift smack on the behind when no one was observing?
No, she shouldn’t do that! It would be dreadful!
If she did, Serena would make that adorable tutting sound and then try to stab Alia affectionately, wouldn’t she?
Maybe? Probably.
Definitely.
Must do it in the future, Alia made a ntal note. Making Serena flustered was Alia’s addiction. After all, it wasn’t healthy for her big-softy girlfriend to constantly pretend to be a strict naval officer, was it? Years of war had caused Serena to put up all kinds of barriers, and Alia was determined to break them all down!
“Apologies, Assistant Instructor Thornheart,” Serena replied, giving Alia the side-eye. “Just… mories,” she continued, returning to the list of nas. “When I was a student, I desperately wanted to be on this list. I was so determined. My yellow wasn’t quite there, and Narean still eluded . It wasn’t until I spent a year as a squad commander that I managed to Speak for the first ti.”
“Do you think it helps?” Alia asked. “To be in real combat?”
Serena nodded. “For , it did. For others, it can hinder developnt. It varies by the individual and the will of the god with whom they are communing.” Serena’s brow furrowed slightly. “Gods like Bayle place great importance on combat, while Narean is more flexible. I first realised I was ready after…” Serena hesitated, looking around. “Well, it’s not a story to be spoken of in public. Ask another ti.”
“Mmm!” Alia agreed. “Did you want to train aura?”
“Yes. Let’s go.”
Serena guided her to one of the instructor-only training rooms. Inside, Ryosuke and Nathaniel were training, and judging by how damp their uniforms were with sweat, they had been doing so for a long ti. The pair nodded in greeting but otherwise continued to concentrate on their own training. The Asamaywa Academy had the best instructors, and those instructors found ti in their busy schedules to ensure their skills did not lapse.
“What’s the plan?” Alia asked, as she was led to one of the corners.
“Even though you achieved red through combat, aura is refined through ditation,” Serena explained, gesturing for Alia to sit down. “Much like how we repeat strikes thousands of tis, whether individually or through the formalised katas, so that we can rely on them in a fight, we also train our aura through ditation, so that a base level of efficiency can be relied upon.
“There are more active ways, of course: the aura-stepping exercise we did this morning, or the flaring practice during the warm-up. Don’t be mistaken,” Serena sat opposite Alia, raising a finger. “ditation is the foundation - the sword and gun of a warrior’s abilities.”
“Wouldn’t an actual sword and an actual gun be the sword and gun of a warrior’s abilities?” Alia asked innocently, tilting her head to the side. It was a strange saying, and she still preferred her world's version of bread and butter. For so reason, Serena couldn’t wrap her head around it.
“Shush,” Serena said, rolling her eyes and touching her lips. “Just listen.”
“Okay!”
“Try to enter red again. It’s much easier to form an aura the second ti. If possible, try to restrict how much aether you convect. It’ll be distracting if you start glowing like the red moon again.” Serena’s mouth curled into a smile. “Now, close your eyes and begin. Spend a few minutes slowing your breathing, as we did in Kenhoro. When you’re ready, give it a go.”
“Alright!”
Alia closed her eyes, trying to quench her distracting excitent. With a few deep breaths, she began the breathing exercise. It was challenging at first; the more she tried to soothe her thoughts, the more her mind sought external stimuli. From the sound of Serena’s breathing to Ryosuke’s and Nathaniel’s grunts as they swung their swords, Alia had to exert considerable effort to block them all from her thoughts.
In ti, she found so semblance of inner stability. Satisfied, Alia began to convect the aether around the body. The convecting of a warrior's aether shared similarities but also differed from a mage’s cycling. While the sensation once felt unnatural, now there was an elent of familiarity. She embraced the sensation, concentrating on achieving a smooth and unified aether flow.
Then, without warning, Alia felt an exhilarating rush as her aether suddenly locked in and for the second ti, a red aura blossod throughout her body.
Power! Strength!
Alia’s tendons felt as if they’d beco corded steel. Her skin was as impenetrable as thick ironwood bark. Her muscles beca mighty lift engines, capable of lifting and throwing huge weights. She knew instinctively that she could sprint for hours, even without her healing abilities. This was aura!
It was different from her usual magic. Wards manifested as a thin layer, an artificial shield safeguarding the fragile body within. Even her strength-enhancing spells lacked the feeling of completeness that aura provided. Aura felt natural, as if it were an inherent extension of her body manifesting within her. It was hers.
“Well done,” ca Serena’s voice. “But tone it down a bit; you’re brightening the whole room.”
Alia blinked her eyes open to a crimson-hued room. Although it was better than earlier that morning, it remained an embarrassing distraction for anyone else. Her focus started to slip, causing her aura to tremble. Sensing its impending collapse, she channelled more aether to stabilise it, deepening the room’s red shade. Oops! Ryosuke and Nathaniel paused their training, silently observing her with expressions of awe.
She turned her attention inwards, lessening the quantity of aether feeding her aura. She succeeded, diminishing the aura’s radius to just a few feet. However, with such a minimal amount of her reserves sustaining, her aura beca unstable again. It flickered, and internally, it felt less evenly distributed than before.
“Don’t let it collapse,” Serena warned. “Close your eyes and focus. Your aether control is excellent, but you still need to get used to the warrior’s way. A musician might be able to skillfully play a tune quietly on one instrunt but struggle on another. You must refine it.”
“O-okay!”
With the analogy in mind, Alia focused on stabilising her aura while keeping the total amount of aether fuelling it as low as possible. It was tricker than she thought; with the convecting aether so minimal, her cycling aether started to interfere. The aether sustaining her always-active wards greatly complicated the task. The task would probably be impossible if she didn’t have such instinctive control of aether.
Although it was challenging, she gradually made progress. It felt akin to flexing a new muscle or learning a new sword technique. Initially, she felt overwheld by the nurous adjustnts she needed to make to keep the two types of aether flows from interfering with each other. As her muscle mory - or rather - her aether mory improved, Alia could focus on fine-tuning the more troubleso aspects while the core flow grey increasingly stable.
She engrossed herself in practice, focusing entirely on refining her aura while minimising her aether usage to sustain the convection aether flow. With each correction, the remaining issues beca more subtle and therefore more difficult to iron out. It was an addictive process, like putting a puzzle together. First, you get the broad shape right; then, you tackle it bit by bit. She understood now why so warriors beca obsessed with training!
When she felt ready, she opened her eyes and was surprised to find an audience. Alongside Serena, she was being observed not just by Ryosuke and Nathaniel, who had both changed into clean clothes, but also by Joey, Sarafina and several other instructors whose nas Alia didn’t know.
“I didn’t realise I had an audience,” Alia said, pleased to see her aura remained steady even as she talked.
“You were in a deep state of flow,” Serena replied. “Word spread about the ‘human mage refining an incredible aura’. It’s been about three hours.”
“Three hours!?” Alia exclaid. “It felt like… like only ten minutes!” She shook her head in disbelief. How could she be so wrapped up in her own activities that she lost track of so many people entering the room over such a long ti? “Isn’t it risky to beco so… absorbed in the flow?”
“Of course,” Serena said. “This is why many warriors train in secret, and if they do train with others, they ensure they have so guards…” She waved a hand over to the group of instructors, “...Protecting you. Not that you need protecting. Most warriors would struggle to crack your red, let alone your wards. Good job reducing the aether signature, though. It gets harder and harder to refine.”
Alia glanced down at her body. She was softly glowing with red hues dancing across her skin, like light shining through clear water. Her aura spread out perhaps an inch. It wasn’t as subtle or refined as Serena’s red aura, but Alia was more than satisfied with her progress. At the very least, she could use aura in training sessions and not be a terrible distraction!
“Maintaining the underlying convection under small amounts of aether flow is only the beginning,” Ryosuke explained. “You’ll need to practice increasing it now while keeping it visibly unchanged. One of the greatest strengths of a warrior is how much aether they can pour into their aura while keeping their opponent from knowing its true strength. Cloaking spells help, but aura is best disguised by refining it further, making the convection finer.” Ryosuke looked to his left and right. “You’re here for this sester, right?” Seeing Alia nod, he continued, “I think I can speak for everyone here, Assistant Instructor Thornheart, that we greatly anticipate what state your aura will be in at the end.”
“This talented human might reach orange by then…” Sarafina added, throwing Alia an appraising look. The rest of the instructors murmured their agreent before adding their own comnts and gossip. So of the younger instructor’s eyes possessed elents of envy, but thankfully, none of them reached the level of hostility.
“Where’s Instructor Driss?” Alia asked. What would Katalin say when she saw how refined Alia’s aura had already beco? Would she be impressed? When Alia reacted to the demon’s taunts, exploding into red aura for the first ti and slicing off her arm, Katalin responded as if the events weren’t anything unusual. Whatever standards the demon operated at, Alia was eager to see if she could et them.
“I haven’t seen her since the morning session,” Ryosuke added. “She often trains alone in a private room. Sotis, she vanishes completely for a few days. As a Highlord, I imagine she has a whole host of obligations that demand her ti.”
“And the Grandmaster?” Alia asked. “Has he, uh, spoken to everyone else as well?”
“He did,” Ryosuke responded awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head while glancing at the other instructors. “About the sa stuff as you, I imagine,” he finished with a small shrug.
Alia nodded, saying no more. Not everyone in the room was in attendance for Katalin’s morning session, and the grandmaster had clearly dragged every witness to the event and given them an equally strong warning not to let the information get out.
She cringed slightly as his words bubbled into her mind once again; a warning and plead not to cause any more chaos during her tenure here. Honestly, what kind of woman did he think she was!
“Right, enough gawking,” Serena stepped in, waving a hand towards the group. She turned to Alia and asked, “Did you want to keep going, or end it for today? It’s better to take breaks; let the mind digest the training while you sleep.”
“Mmm!” Alia sprang to her feet. “I’m done for today, I think. Thank you, Instructor Halen. I might have so questions for you later…” Alia finished with a deep bow. When she straightened up, there was the faintest tinge of redness on Serena’s cheeks.
“Just call Serena when no students are around.” Serena breathed out slowly, her eyes not quite eting Alia’s. “We’ve known each other long enough. Co find in the evening, then.”
Adorable!
“Mmm, sure!”
With that, Alia thanked the other instructors for their comnts and exited the training hall. Neither her nor Serena had any illusions about what kind of ‘evening questions’ they’d have for each other.
Seriously, her girlfriend was such a softy!
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