Chapter 503: Compass of oblivion
“You’re forcing it again.”
Lila’s voice cut through the morning training session, sharp but not unkind. She stood behind one of the newer recruits—a guy nad Chen who’d been struggling with chi cultivation since day one. His face was scrunched with effort, sweat beading on his forehead despite the cool morning air.
“I’m not forcing,” Chen protested through gritted teeth. “I’m directing.”
“You’re forcing.” Lila placed her hand on his shoulder, and he visibly relaxed at the contact. “Feel the difference? That tension in your core? That’s you trying to control sothing that doesn’t respond to control. Chi flows. You guide it, suggest direction, but the mont you try to grab it…” She squeezed his shoulder slightly. “It fights back.”
Chen exhaled slowly, his posture shifting as he tried to apply her advice. After a mont, a faint red glow appeared around his hands—dark chi, pulled from environntal energy rather than internal reserves.
“There,” Lila said, satisfaction in her voice. “See? You just needed to stop being so aggressive about it.”
She stepped back, surveying the rest of the training hall where roughly thirty faction mbers sat in various ditation positions. So showed visible progress—white or red energy manifesting around hands or cores. Others still struggled to sense anything at all, their expressions ranging from frustrated to exhausted.
Noah stood near the front of the hall, demonstrating proper breathing technique to a cluster of recruits who’d asked for additional guidance. His movents were precise, controlled, each inhale and exhale asured and deliberate.
Lila watched him for a mont longer than necessary, her gaze tracking the way his shoulders rose and fell with each breath, the focus in his expression. Then she crossed the training hall with purpose, her footsteps quiet against the mat but her trajectory unmistakable.
“Noah,” she said, approaching. “I think I felt sothing weird with my chi flow this morning. Could you check?”
Noah looked up from the recruits he’d been instructing. “Weird how?”
“Like a blockage? Or maybe I’m just imagining it.” Lila gestured vaguely at her midsection. “It’s right around my core. I was hoping you could sense it, see if there’s actually sothing wrong or if I’m overthinking.”
“Uh.” Noah glanced at the recruits, then back at Lila. “I an, I can try, but I’m not exactly an expert at diagnosing—”
“Just put your hand here and focus,” Lila interrupted, taking his wrist and guiding his hand toward her abdon. “You’ll be able to feel if the energy flow is disrupted.”
From across the training hall, Kelvin leaned over to Diana. “Is she serious right now?”
“Completely,” Diana replied, not bothering to hide her amusent. “Watch. This is going to be good.”
Noah’s hand hovered maybe two inches from Lila’s midsection, close enough to sense energy patterns but not actually making contact. He closed his eyes, focusing his awareness on the chi flowing through her core.
“I don’t feel any blockage,” he said after a mont. “Your flow seems normal. Maybe you just slept weird?”
“Hmm.” Lila shifted closer, closing the distance until his hand was almost pressed against her. “You’re sure? Because it definitely feels off to .”
“Pretty sure,” Noah replied, his discomfort starting to show. “Your pathways are clear, energy’s flowing normally, core is stable—”
“Maybe you should check higher?” Lila suggested, her tone completely innocent despite the implication. “The blockage might be in my chest area.”
Kelvin made a strangled sound that might have been suppressed laughter. Diana just smiled.
Sophie, who’d been coordinating with Sam near the entrance, looked up from her tablet at exactly the wrong mont to see Lila standing maybe six inches from Noah, his hand extended toward her midsection while she gazed up at him with an expression that could generously be called attentive.
Sophie’s jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. She set down her tablet with deliberate care and crossed the training hall.
“Lila,” Sophie said pleasantly. “If you’re having chi flow issues, I’d be happy to help. I’ve been studying the ridian system extensively since Noah started teaching us.”
“Oh, that’s okay,” Lila replied without breaking eye contact with Noah. “I think Noah’s got it figured out.”
“Does he?” Sophie’s smile didn’t waver. “Because from here it looks like he’s trying very hard to be professional while you’re making it difficult.”
“I’m just trying to identify a potential problem,” Lila said, her tone matching Sophie’s pleasant-but-pointed energy. “Isn’t that what we’re all here for? Self-improvent?”
“Self-improvent,” Sophie agreed. “Not self-promotion.”
Noah, caught between them, looked like he desperately wanted to be anywhere else. “I really don’t sense any blockage. Maybe you should just do so stretches and see if that helps?”
Before Lila could respond, Seraleth appeared beside them with the sudden presence of soone seven feet tall who’d been standing nearby without being noticed.
“Noah,” the elf said, her expression earnest. “I require your assistance as well.”
“With chi?” Noah asked, grateful for the interruption.
“No, with proper striking form.” Seraleth demonstrated a punch, her movent technically perfect but sohow still asking for correction. “I want to ensure my technique integrates well with chi enhancent. You have the most experience combining abilities with chi. Would you observe my form and provide guidance?”
“Sure,” Noah said imdiately, stepping away from Lila perhaps a touch too quickly. “Let’s move over to the sparring area—”
“I will need you to physically adjust my positioning,” Seraleth continued, following him. “Verbal instruction is helpful, but I learn better through tactile correction. On Lilivil, our trainers would manually move us into proper stances.”
Diana leaned closer to Kelvin. “Does she know what she’s doing?”
“Absolutely not,” Kelvin whispered back. “Which sohow makes it worse.”
Sophie watched Noah being led away by Seraleth, watched Lila’s expression shift from satisfied to irritated, and felt sothing that definitely wasn’t jealousy but occupied the sa general emotional space.
“This is amazing,” Kelvin said, his voice carrying just enough to be heard by nearby recruits. “Noah’s like a compass of oblivion. Completely unaware of the magnetic fields pulling at him from multiple directions simultaneously.”
“Compass of oblivion?” Valencia, practicing nearby, looked confused.
“He’s a disaster,” Kelvin clarified. “A well-aning, powerful, completely clueless disaster. I’d feel bad for him except…” He gestured vaguely. “You know. Dragons. Cool powers. Being literally the protagonist of the universe. Hard to have too much sympathy.”
“You could help him,” Diana suggested.
“And interrupt this entertainnt? Absolutely not.” Kelvin grinned. “Besides, he got himself into this situation by being nice to everyone. That’s what he gets for having a functional moral compass and treating people with respect.”
“You’re terrible,” Diana said.
“I’m a realist.”
Training continued for another hour, though the focus had definitely shifted. Recruits who’d been struggling with chi cultivation now found themselves more interested in watching their faction leader navigate an increasingly complicated social situation.
Noah, to his credit, tried to maintain professionalism. He corrected Seraleth’s form with the sa clinical precision he’d use for any student, kept appropriate distance from Lila during subsequent demonstrations, and made sure to divide his attention evenly among all the recruits requesting guidance.
But Sophie noticed how Lila always managed to position herself next to him during group instructions. How Seraleth’s questions, while genuine, always seed to require physical proximity to answer. How the two of them had developed an unspoken competition for Noah’s attention that he seed completely oblivious to.
And Sophie, despite her stated comfort with polyamorous dynamics, despite her genuine attempts to be mature about the situation, found herself making excuses to check on Noah’s teaching more frequently than necessary.
“You okay?” Diana asked during a break, finding Sophie standing near the equipnt storage watching the training hall.
“Fine,” Sophie replied.
“You’re gripping that tablet like you want to strangle it.”
Sophie relaxed her hands consciously. “I’m fine. Just… processing.”
“Processing that your boyfriend is being aggressively pursued by two won who don’t understand the concept of subtlety?”
“They’re not—” Sophie stopped, reconsidered. “Lila knows exactly what she’s doing. Seraleth genuinely doesn’t realize how her behavior cos across to humans. There’s a difference.”
“Sure,” Diana agreed. “But the result is the sa. Noah’s uncomfortable, you’re territorial despite trying not to be, and Kelvin’s having the ti of his life watching it all unfold.”
“I’m not territorial.”
Diana just looked at her.
“I’m not,” Sophie insisted. “I agreed to an open dynamic. If Noah wants to pursue sothing with either of them, that’s his choice.”
“But you’d prefer if he didn’t.”
Sophie was quiet for a mont. “I’d prefer if they weren’t quite so… aggressive about it. Especially Lila. She knows our history. She knows what we’ve built together. And she’s still pushing boundaries like none of that matters.”
“Because to her, it doesn’t,” Diana said. “Lila’s always been single-minded when she wants sothing. Kelvin told about the academy. Once she decided Noah was interesting, she didn’t care that he was clearly into you. She just kept pushing.”
“And now she’s back.”
“Now she’s back,” Diana confird. “Older, more confident, and apparently committed to finishing what she started,”
Sophie watched Noah demonstrate a chi technique to a group of recruits, Lila and Seraleth both positioning themselves in the front row. “This is going to be complicated.”
“Yep.” Diana’s smile was unsympathetic. “But hey, at least it’s not boring.”
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