Chapter 21: Body and Mind

“Master, come on. Wake up already...”

“Mmn…?” Sairek moaned groggily as he was pulled away from his sleep. For a moment, he found himself back in the castle, back in his bedroom, staring up at Laure as she roused him from his sleep, just like she had done possibly thousands of times by now almost every day, of every week, of every month, of every year. He really was a heavy sleeper. He blinked through blurry vision as he stared up at her from the pillow of his bed, her hands clasped together against her lap.

...Wait a second, this... wasn’t his bedroom…

He blinked a couple times.

“What the–?” He demanded, beginning to sit upright in alert, but a weight on his chest caused him to look down as he saw Cyial’s head had once more taken residence on his torso, which caused him to stiffen and pause his movements. Cyial grumbled in his sleep at the sudden noise and movement, but seemed to not awaken just yet. “Laure...! How did you get in here–?” Sairek demanded through a harsh whisper.

“I apologize Master, but I must be taking my leave soon, but before I go, I must tell you something.” Laure explained.

“Lands… what time is it?" He asked as he glanced at the window above the bed. "Lands...! It still must be like... three or four in the morning…!” Sairek grunted, slowly rubbing his eyes with knuckles in measured movements, as to not disturb Cyial.

“You yourself are departing quite early, are you not? You should be getting ready yourself, soon.” Laure said.

“That’s not until six…” Sairek grumbled, slowly, gently moving Cyial to rest back on his own pillow without trying to disturb him. Then he slowly slid himself out from under the covers and into the colder air.

Laure’s expression shifted into one of complete shock as Sairek emerged from the covers and then it shifted into one of disapproval immediately. Sairek realized his mistake too late, but still quickly dove back under the covers, causing Cyial to groan at the disturbance as he was beginning to wake up. Sairek’s expression was crestfallen and completely embarrassed. Laure stared at him for a moment in silence before sighing deeply. “So, you robbed each other’s cradles last night, I see. Sairek, I thought we raised you better at the castle than that.”

“Robbed each other’s cradles…? Just what does that imply–?!” Sairek demanded through a hiss of a whisper.

“Mmn… Wha… What’s going on…?” Cyial slurred just over his breath as the bickering roused him from his slumber. He rolled around on the bed, then spotted Laure with his glowing garnet eyes, which blinked once… twice... “A-AH! What—Who–!?” He shouted as he lurched to sit upright.

Laure glared at Cyial intently. “Was it because he’s an incubus—”

“Laure—no!” Sairek cut in firmly. “What’s with you right now!?”

“I would never force myself onto Sairek like that–!” Cyial called back, a feral-like growl which Sairek hadn’t even heard before coming out of his throat. Not even when it was Balgira had Cyial made such a tone.

“But, he’s an incubus…! Sairek, even you should know what they do!” Laure countered back.

“I know what he is! Laure…! We. Did. Nothing!” Sairek responded to her in a tone that told her to back down, a tone he used many times against many of his other subjects, like when he wanted to leave the castle. “He’s my friend for crying out loud! I cannot accept you just barging into our room out of nowhere and then just assuming the worst of my friend like this! We’re naked because we washed our clothes and are letting them dry for crying out loud! Cyial doesn’t have pajamas like I do, so I figured it would only be fair! Why does it even matter? I know some people like to sleep naked in private all the time which we were doing until you apparently barged in here!”

She pursed her lips tightly, her arms had crossed over her front as she looked down at them both. Sairek was embarrassed, but right now anger at how she was acting to Cyial took the forefront of his emotions and he showed it with his expression. Usually, it was a look that he only used on his father and apparently him using it on her caused her to do a double take, at least briefly. Laure blinked a few times and looked between them both for a moment. Finally, she sighed and turned around, her back facing them. “I’ll… write and slide a letter under your door in a few minutes, then. It’s only for you to see and not for your…” she paused turning back to glance at Cyial suspiciously. “...friend.” She finished, coldly. She began walking towards the door, grasped the handle and turned back, blue eyes looking straight into Sairek's. “...Once you’ve finished adjusting your ‘id’, you should take a cold shower. I’ve heard they can reduce the swelling down there for males so it goes back to being a proper size, yes?”

With an almost mechanical movement, she swiftly opened the door, swooped through it, and shut it back behind her in little more than a second. Sairek ground his teeth, his face felt hot. “And just what does my ‘id’ mean…?” He growled out loud to no one in particular, though he had a pretty good feeling what she was talking about. He didn’t need a cold shower, apparently his anger had already quelled it to return to its normal state.

“Who was that…?” Cyial growled, that feral tone still in his voice, though he already had a suspicion of who it was in his mind. He didn't want to believe it, though.

“That… That was… my maid…” Sairek sighed, burying his face into his right hand. "Sweet Lands... that was Laure..."

“Are you sure? Because I was imagining I would have gotten a completely different experience if I talked to her based on what you told me.” Cyial growled.

“So was I…” Sairek grumbled. “I can’t believe it… she’s never been that way with me before, let alone to just barge—Cyial? Cyial, where are you going?”
Cyial pulled himself up from the bed and moved towards the bathroom. Sairek couldn’t see, it was still too dark, but he heard rustling from in there. Cyial emerged from the bathroom, wearing his robes and boots, and began making his way to the door. “Cyial! Where are you going?!” Sairek demanded again.

Cyial turned around, his right hand on the handle of the door. “I’m tired of being pushed around and always having assumptions made about me. So I’m going to clear the air.” Cyial said, the feral tone in his voice gone now, though there was still clear frustration etched in his voice.

“But you don’t even know what room she’s in!” Sairek argued.

“Room 1010. I heard her moving and the door closing.” Cyial answered flatly, opening the door and quietly closing it behind him, leaving Sairek alone in the dark, who let out an exasperated sigh and shifted back out of bed once again, going towards the bathroom himself.



Cyial stormed his way down the hallway towards Laure’s room, his hands clenched tightly in seperate fists. He hadn’t put on his gloves, so his bare knuckles rapped calmly on her door. A few seconds later, he rapped on them again… and again… and again… after the sixth time, he heard footsteps approaching the door, saw a shadow move under the light from underneath the door, and saw the door open a crack.
Laure peeked out, looked at Cyial, then moved to close the door. An action Cyial expected and he moved his boot in the way to intercept her, preventing the door from being closed all the way. He was thankful that his boots were thick, because she was pushing quite hard on his foot, but it didn't hurt him any.

“You owe Sairek and I an apology.” Cyial demanded, the undertone of a feral growl returning back into his voice.

“An apology...?” Laure questioned.

“You snuck into our room despite it being locked, which I’m sure you probably did with magic, since you’re probably capable of that, from at least what Sairek has told me about you. You did so without permission, unannounced and had no right to do that. Then, you insulted me, and assumed terrible things about the both of us. You owe an apology to both of us.”

“Can you blame me for assuming? You’re an incubus. You are sleeping with my Master, naked in a bed alone in a room with just the two of you. Not only that, but my Master was in such an… indecent state. Pretty shocking from my perspective, wouldn’t you say?”

Cyial clenched his teeth. “I wouldn’t do anything like that to him. It was Sairek's choice to go to bed like that, all I did was suggest he wash his clothes. Even if it is 'shocking' for you, you had no right to barge into the room to begin with!”

“That is incorrect." Laure said, her tone even, neutral, but also like she was instructing a little child. "I’m the one who rented those rooms, so I have all rights to enter them.” Laure then shifted her posture from the other side of the door for a moment before revealing to Cyial a room key… with the same number of his and Sairek’s room.

“Our key, what…? W-Wait—” Cyial’s eyes widened slightly in realization and his fists balled even tighter in anger. “Seriously…!? You didn’t rent us the rooms to be helpful… you rented them to spy on him—on us!?”

Laure pulled the key back onto her side of the door. “You misunderstand. It’s not to spy on him. It’s to protect him.”

“That’s—That’s such... shit–!” Cyial swore angrily. “He trusted you impeccably and you know that! You took advantage of that fact by lying to him straight to his face about your intentions! That’s protecting him somehow!? How do you think he would have reacted if you told him your true intentions, do you think he would appreciate that, because I'm pretty sure he wouldn't! Apparently, you’re just as manipulative, if even more manipulative than his father–!”

Laure raised an eyebrow at that, her expression becoming cold. “...What did you just say?”

“You’re still just sheltering him and preventing him from gaining his own individuality, sitting in the background, telling him what’s right and what’s wrong whenever something happens that you don’t like. That sounds no different from what Sairek told me about his father. The ‘I know what’s best for you’ mentality—”

“Sleeping in a bed naked with a demon is completely improper conduct for a Prince let alone any child!” Laure cut him off, sternly. “It's bad enough in general, but it is especially bad for a creature of your nature…!”

Cyial clenched his teeth at that... that insult. “It wasn’t a big deal until you made it one!” He argued with angry frustration. He took a quick, sharp inhale of breath. “Sairek said something very important to me on the night we first met, before he even knew that I was a demon, much less an incubus. He said, and I quote; ‘I cannot say whether or not you're a good person. I of course very much hope for that though. What I do know however is this; your actions today were good. It had nothing to do with your eyes. They do not make you who you are. Looking ‘weird’ or looking ‘normal’... Unfortunately, those kinds of characteristics are just selfish premonitions created by people.’
“...That’s exactly what he said to me. I remember it well, because it really hit with me and I’ve been holding onto that since then. Do you understand what he meant when he said that?”
Laure was silent, so Cyial went ahead and told her. “He was telling me what I was born as has nothing to do with who I am. He believes that very much."
Cyial pressed his left hand to his chest in emphasis as he continued. "That is why he trusts me, that is why I trust him. That is why I will not betray him, because unlike the vast majority of you humans in society, both he and Nayleen accepted me for both who I am and what I am. Their first response to learning that I was an incubus was almost a comical ‘Okay, so what?’ That was the first time since my caretaker had adopted me that anyone had accepted me for what I am instead of being instantly repulsed by it.
“You however dare to have the audacity to accuse me of wanting to harm him, of abusing the trust we have with each other in our friendship, despite just now doing the very same thing you are accusing me of—lying straight to his face about your true intentions and taking the advantage of the trust and love he has for you to suit your own political agenda! So I don’t want to hear whatever empty excuses you conjure up that try to justify your horrible actions! That letter of yours you’re going to write to him better contain a damn well and good explanation of what you pulled as well as a written apology, because if it doesn’t contain one, I will never forgive you for the harm you caused my friend today because of your stunt, your lie—your manipulation…!”

Cyial pulled his foot back, grabbed the knob on his side of the door and slammed it back closed right in Laure’s face before she could say anything else and turned to walk away, but he froze mid-step as he saw Sairek standing there down the hallway, standing in front of their door, dressed in just his pants, with his belt hastily strapped around his hip to hold it up for him, but his emerald eyes were wide in shock with his left hand in a fist, pressed against his chest. He was trembling slightly.

Cyial gulped, but slowly approached Sairek, who quickly retreated back into the room, but kept the door open for Cyial, who closed it behind him when he entered it and locked it again, even though he knew at this point, locking it wouldn’t do much. Sairek was leaning against the wall, his left hand still balled up into a fist against his chest and looking down at the floor.

“...How much of that did you hear…?” Cyial asked quietly.

“...B-Basically all of it…” Sairek choked out. “I… I can’t believe… that she did that… Laure… it’s Laure…!” He rasped out. “F-Father must have… forced her to do it somehow… She… She would never have done something like that. I'm... I'm—”

Cyial moved to pull Sairek away from the wall and towards himself, wrapping his arms around the Prince in a hug. His intentions were to try and help Sairek calm down, but instead, he himself choked out a sob and began to break down first. Sairek reached out with his arms, holding Cyial as they both slowly went down onto their knees on the floor in the middle of the room. Cyial’s legs felt like jello, they were shaking, unable to support his weight anymore. “Dammit… Dammit…!” Cyial croaked, tears streaming out of his eyes, falling onto his lap. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…!”

Sairek struggled to speak, almost breaking out into sobs himself. “It’s okay… you did nothing wrong… No, we did nothing wrong… I trust you, Cyial... you know that…”

“A... A 'creature' of your nature... she said..." Cyial hiccupped. "S-Sticking up for myself… it’s a lot harder than I thought it would be…” He barely managed in a half-hearted, sad laugh.

“You did more than that… you stuck up for me too…” Sairek reminded him. “Thank you…”

“How do you manage to do it…?” Cyial asked quietly.

“M-Me...? I… I just say what I believe—what I feel…”

“A-Ah… I… I guess I did an okay job, then…”

“Yeah… you did.”

“Ah... Sairek… your pants are still damp though… you’ll get cold and sick wearing them like that… they still need a couple more hours…” Cyial sniffled, pulling away slowly from Sairek to look at him.

“Yeah, well... so does your robe…” Sairek managed to smile weakly.

“Let’s… get out of them and go back to bed then…?”

Sairek's already weak smile faltered and he closed his eyes. “I don’t know if I can get back to sleep after that…”

“That’s okay… It would still calm me down… you?”

“Y-Yeah… I guess it would…” Sairek nodded in agreement.


However, even after they were back in the bed together, waiting apprehensively, a letter never did end up sliding back under the door…

* * *

“You have everything you need, right? It doesn’t look like you kids are carrying very much.” The merchant Nayleen introduced to Sairek and Cyial asked.
He was a burly man in his mid to late thirties, thick dark brown hair and a coarse beard. Broad arms and shoulders signaled that he did lots of manual labor, perhaps in the wood industry, if Sairek were to hammer a random guess.

“All of it is compressed with magic, so don’t worry. We won’t take up much space.” Sairek answered him, digging into his coin purse he pocketed earlier to fetch the fee the man was asking for. “She is only carrying the blanket to wrap around ourselves during the ride to keep us warm. That’s the only thing. Oh, and my staff and Cyial's book there, I guess.”

“My friend here might weigh a bit more than the rest of us, though.” Nayleen piped in, placing a hand on Sairek's shoulder, who without even looking, followed the sound of her voice and jabbed a gloved finger into the side of her head. Hard. “Ow.” She uttered, without any force behind it. Probably because she knew she deserved it.

Sairek dug into the coin purse for the required seru for their ride and handed it out to the man. The merchant took the coins and counted them. “Excellent! Don’t know why you kids are by yourselves, but money is money regardless who it’s from! Climb on in. You mess up or damage any of my cargo though, you’re going to be paying for it.”

“You heard the man, Nayleen.” Sairek said to her without even turning to look back.

“Yes, sir.”

The merchant raised an eyebrow at the both of them, then turned towards Cyial. “Are those two always like this?”

“Uh-huh...” Cyial nodded. “They’ll be good inside the cart though. They just like… torturing each other."

“Oh, so they’re in that kind of relationship…” Cyial heard the man grumble with his sensitive hearing. He had to press his lips together to stop himself from chortling a laugh. “Okay, climb on in, kids. I already had cleared out a corner for you all to sit in. There should be enough space for the three of you, considering, and it’s all strapped down, so don’t worry about any of it sliding or colliding into y’all.”

Sairek eyed the caravan. Indeed, it was quite large, with four horses pushing it. It was quite expensive looking, actually. The wood was fine quality, sturdy stuff, with wooden walls and a curved refined metallic supports on top to protect the cargo with leather and cloth layered for a ‘roof’ to protect the cargo from the wind and elements.

“Thank you sir. We won’t cause any trouble, I promise you.” Sairek replied with a quick bow of his head. Cyial did the same and Nayleen quickly mimicked them. Afterwards, Sairek motioned for Cyial to climb in first, since he was the shortest, Sairek helped him reach up to the back of the caravan to climb up on top. Then both Cyial and him helped Nayleen with her blanket, all rolled up in a bundle before they both helped Nayleen get in as well. Once they were both on top, Sairek handed his staff over to them before making as much of a jump as he could and pulled up into the caravan over the lip with assistance from the other two.

Having entered inside, the man closed the back hatch behind them. Sairek could see several items that were indeed tied down with ropes, nets, and tethered with stakes to prevent the items from moving and jerking around all over the place. They carefully stepped over and around the items and went to the front left corner, where there was clearly a little bit of empty space where they could all sit down at. All three of them did so, huddled together. Nayleen unwrapped the blanket out, draping it over the three of them and they all nestled together, with Sairek in the middle, Cyial on his right, and Nayleen to his left.

“This is gonna be a very, very long, bumpy, boring ride.” Nayleen drawled. “Well… unless the blizzard picks up again, I guess.”

“Beats having to walk through all this snow.” Sairek grumbled. “Let’s hope we just have to sit here until evening."

A couple of minutes went by, and all three of them were lurched forward from abrupt movement of the vehicle jerking into motion. The caravan began to move and before too long, the cart began bouncing and leaning this way and that gently and slowly as the wheels toughed it through the snow. Sairek let out a sigh. The sooner they got out of here, the better, as far as he was concerned.

They didn’t move for more than twenty minutes before the cart slowed to a stop for several minutes. Sairek was curious as to what the wait was for as time passed. A few minutes later, the hatch opened and he saw a man that looked like a guard looking in. “Why in the Flaming Lands are there three kids back here!?” The man stated in a voice that hinted at anger. "You three, get out here, now!”

The three of them looked at each other in confusion, but followed suit, pulling the blanket off of themselves and carefully stepping out.

“Are you three being kidnapped, or are you stowing away?” The soldier asked them. The merchant who they had talked to was standing beside the guard, a panicked expression on his face.

“...What?” Sairek let out with a look of confusion on his face. “No? We’re just riding inside the cart. We paid the man there for the trouble. It’s better than walking through all of… this.” Sairek explained, gesturing with his arm at all of the snow around them.

“Oh.” The guard’s face relaxed some, which caused the merchant’s face to relax as well. “Okay, I see then… Well, everyone who passes through the checkpoint needs to be registered, otherwise it would look like you are sneaking through.”

“Oh, I understand. What do you need from us?” Sairek asked.

“Names and where you live, first off.

“I’m Sairek Ceareste—”

“...What? You’re— I knew I recognized you!”

“Yes, yes. What else?” Sairek rushed him, pressing his lips together. He didn’t need the man calling it out for everyone to hear, much less the merchant…

“Ehm… yes, uh, Age?”

“Eleven, twelve in—”

“Yes, I know. We’ll just put twelve, then.” He said. “You live in Marid at the castle…”

“Yes sir.”

“All three of you are going to…?”

“Salin, then north from there towards Kior’s border to visit Yggdrasil.” Sairek replied.

“Okay, that’s all. Next is you, young miss…”

Nayleen answered the man’s questions, having been asked the same ones as Sairek did, until she stated she was from Kior.

“Kior? Where in Kior do you live?” The guard asked.

“...Uhh… kind of in the middle of nowhere. Do you know where the Asverian Woods are?”

“...Isn’t that the woods near the Yggdrasil zone?” The guard asked.

“Yup, that’s my home sweet home! And about the only place in Kior you can still hunt wild game.” Nayleen said.

“Okay, that isn’t a problem… but…” He began, flipping through a few pages in a notebook. “I don’t have a record of your name having passed through the system.”

Sairek flinched at that. That was because she had snuck in…

“Oh, right… that means I’m supposed to show you this, right?” Nayleen chirped, reaching into her the pocket of her pants and presented the pass that Lavian had given to her. “Does this help any?”

The man examined it carefully, before slowly nodding. “Yes, that’s perfect, thank you. I will remedy the problem immediately so everything will be correct for when you reach the border again.” He said, then stepped up towards Cyial, and eyed him quickly. Cyial shrank slightly from the man’s inspecting nature.

“Name?”

“Cyial Rylai…” Cyial answered timidly.

“Age?”

“I don’t know. I was adopted. My Caretaker thinks I’m twelve, or thirteen.”

The man squinted at Cyial and his much younger looking form of a boy who looked like he was perhaps nine or ten at most. “...Are you a demon?”

“Yes…”

“What kind of demon are you, then?”

“Incubus…”

“You don’t have any horns though. Well, I suppose you are young. Can you show me proof of your nature?”

“Umm... “ Cyial began.

“Wait a minute, what’s all this for?” Nayleen asked, her tone showing impatience as she crossed her arms over her front.

“Woah, woah. I’m just following protocol and doing my job, miss.” The guard said.

Cyial sighed, turned around, and lifted the back of his robe up a little bit, before his black and iron-spaded tail wriggled out from underneath the robe. “Is… Is this good enough?”

“Yes, that’s fine, thank you.” The guard said, as he wrote down on his notepad. Cyial slipped his tail back under his robe and timidly turned around to face the man. “So what crime did you commit to be banished here?”

“I didn’t commit any crime... I was born here in the Overworld.” Cyial mumbled.

“...Sorry, but can you provide proof of that, too?”

Sairek sighed as he watched helplessly. Thankfully, Cyial was able to prove that easily by holding his book, clasping his hands together, then chanting out “Rapola...!”, creating a thin-looking sheen of ice around himself. The guard knocked on the little bubble of ice with a gloved fist, testing it.

“Thank you. I apologize, but again, I am just following protocol.” The guard said, flipping through a few pages. “Unfortunately, I don’t see you in the system, either.”

“Right... That was probably Balgira’s doing…” Cyial sighed.

“So that’s why Lavian gave you a pass as well?” Sairek asked with a frown. "I did find it odd at that time."

“It would be ‘protocol’ anyway, regardless.” Cyial grumbled, digging into his robe and presenting his own pass to the man.

“Wonderful, thank you. I’ll put you in the system as well.” The guard said. “And where do you live?”

“In Lamen, at the monastery.” Cyial answered.

“Okay. Sorry, I didn’t mean for this to be hard for you. Thank you three for your cooperation and patience. I just need to review everyone else, then inspect the cargo. After that, everyone is free to go.”

Sairek silently thanked Lavian several times for writing those passes for his friends as he watched the guard and a couple more men come up to inspect the cargo in the caravan. The result caused them to be standing out in the cold for an additional thirty minutes before the entire convoy was given the clearance to pass on through. By then, they were allowed to climb back inside and start the trip again. The sun at this point had risen high enough to greet them. The sky looked almost completely clear, but that didn’t mean they were completely risk free of a blizzard. Imbalance of weather caused climates to work in strange ways, after all. Shifts in the weather could be sudden, abrupt, and powerful.

The three of them as they rode out again didn’t talk much, mostly just sitting in silence. Eventually Nayleen had dozed off, probably tired from her recent lack of sleep during their traveling so far and constantly waking up so early every day, despite what she kept saying. Or maybe she was just that bored, Sairek wasn’t exactly sure. Regardless, she must have been definitely used to uncomfortable positions because she slept through all of the rocking and bumping their little ride constantly had. Sairek was tired too, but there was no way he was sleeping through this. He sighed and just resigned himself to the fact he would be stuck awake for the entirety of this journey.

Eventually, the caravan did stop for lunch for people to eat and make a couple of fires to warm some of the others up. Inside the carriage was still cold despite blocking most of the wind, but not the frigid air itself. However with their blanket, Sairek felt fine; at least body temperature wise. Both he and Cyial roused Nayleen from her nap and they ate lunch together in the caravan, Cyial having taken some of the food into his robe himself so Sairek didn’t have trouble bringing his own items out in the little space they were provided. It was a pretty bland lunch, but it prevented them from suffering through hunger and it was brief. Sairek took the time that they weren’t moving and rocking about to catch up on some missed sleep he had suffered from, due to the drama of the very early morning hours.

When he woke up, the ride was moving again and a particularly hard bump half jolted him awake. He blinked slowly and realized he had fallen asleep with himself snuggled deep into the blankets, and his head had fallen on Cyial’s leg, which had been repositioned he saw so he could use it as a pillow and an arm around his back, supporting his posture to minimize the shaking and movement. He turned his head upwards slowly and saw Cyial himself glance down at him, noticing his movement. Sairek blushed slightly in embarrassment, but Cyial only gave him a reassuring smile. He smiled back, snuggling and repositioning himself to make himself slightly more comfortable in an attempt to get back to sleep. His consciousness faded out a little bit here and there, but the jolts and occasional bumps over the next fifteen minutes kept jerking him back to consciousness again. After several attempts he gave up, considering it a lost cause.

“Hrnn… what time is it now…?” Sairek asked, his voice groggy as he just kept laying there.

“Somewhere in the late afternoon, maybe. You’ve been asleep for a few hours.” He heard Nayleen’s voice answer him. He heard her move, shifting her position. There were little slits that were windows that opened up with a small little metallic flap, which she pulled one open to peek out. “Still no problem with the snow and there’s much less of it now, so we’re starting to move faster. A couple more hours and we’ll be out of this crap and a little more and we’ll reach Salin. I think it's safe to say we're out of blizzard territory, though.”

“Thanks…” Sairek said in response to her answer. He pulled the blanket down a little bit and shifted to sit more upright, looking down at the royal jewel which was currently that pale yellow, and getting more defined as the minutes passed, he was sure.

“Is that thing going to hold?” Nayleen asked.

“It should be alright. I’m not exerting myself moving around, so I’ll give it a bit more of my energy than usual. That should last until this little ride is over, or until dinner. Still, I guess sitting in this cramped space is probably making it extremely hard to draw outside sources of ethereal into it. That’s probably why it’s draining so fast.”

“It suddenly being winter doesn’t help, either. No fire to draw from and a lot less earth as well since the snow is all on top of it.” Cyial reminded him.

“Yeah, that too. It wouldn’t be a problem, but I forgot which bag I put the ethereal in. I can’t bring everything out in here, so I’ll just put up with it. Maybe I’ll get a chance if we stop for dinner.”



Sairek’s estimate turned out to be true, although a bit longer than he assumed. By the time they stopped, it was nearing sunset. They left the caravan to stretch their stiff bodies around some. The air was indeed much warmer, with an early spring-like temperature. Cool, bordering on cold, but there was more grassy greenery than snow. Everything was fairly wet now though, with some of the snow having melted during the afternoon, it seemed. He spent time searching for a vial of ethereal for the royal jewel and when he found some, he dribbled some onto it, which had become a deep orange by the time they stopped.

After eating a light dinner with Nayleen being… ‘generous’ with her definition of ‘light’, they clambered back into the caravan for one final time. With snow getting out of the way, they were going a bit faster at first, but slowed back down as the light visibility got lower and lower. A couple of hours later with the sun having begun to properly set, he felt the caravan slow to a stop once more. Sairek stood up and carefully moved around the cargo as he stood on his toes to peer out one of the tiny little windows to look outside.

“It looks like we’re finally here.” He announced, and then nearly fell off balance when the cart abruptly jerked once. Thankfully he managed to catch himself without breaking anything and he quickly retreated himself to sit back into the corner with the others before he did manage to do so. Their ride was moving slowly now and then, probably allowing the rest of the convoy to get through and into the village. Five minutes later, they stopped a final time and the merchant who owned the caravan they were in opened the hatch at the back. The three of them all stepped out and Sairek quickly looked at his surroundings to see what Salin looked like.

Unfortunately, what he saw was fairly unremarkable. The village itself did seem large, although that was perhaps because a lot of the buildings he saw were fairly spaced and spread out. A vast majority of the land was dedicated to farms and gardens to grow crops. Being so late in the day, he didn’t see any villagers really out about. A wall did surround the village, but it was only constructed with logs, sharpened at the top into points to dissuade anyone from attempting to scale over them.

“The tavern is over that way, unless you kids are planning to camp outside under the stars. They probably wouldn’t allow people as young as you all to drink, though.” The merchant informed them.

Sairek looked around at the convoy before speaking. “Would the tavern even be able to house everyone here for the night?” He asked.

“Probably not, but most of us aren’t planning to sleep indoors tonight anyway. I myself prefer camping outdoors, having a cooked meal over a bonfire and looking at the stars is good enough for me, instead of staring up at some dilapidated ceiling, if you catch my drift. It also doesn’t cost me any money!” He guffawed loudly for a moment. “Well, except the guards I hired, but I already paid them so it sucks to be them if they hate the outdoors!”

“Sleeping outside is all well and good, but I’m still getting accustomed to just sleeping in a bed that’s not mine, so…” Sairek admitted. “We’ll have plenty of opportunities to sleep outside soon enough though, I’m sure.”

“True, true.” The merchant nodded in agreement. “It seems like you kids are going quite far if you’re going all the way to Yggdrasil. Don’t know why, but that’s none of my business. Assuming you’re going north from here though, the next town you’ll probably want to visit is Thalnar. You could reach it by tomorrow evening if you cut through the pine forest early in the morning. Otherwise, it’ll probably take you a day and a half. Also, it’s easy to get lost in the forest of course and there’s wild animals, but it's pretty much a straight shot from here to there if you know how to navigate it.”

“And I know how to navigate it!” Nayleen chirped confidently, thumping a fist against her chest. “Thanks for the info, mister.”

“Sure thing lass. Oh, and one more thing, if you need to stock up on supplies, villages like these are the best for produce. Freshest fruits, vegetables and meats you’ll ever come across for the cheapest price. Of course, food spoils, so buy only what you need.”

Sairek thought for a moment, he didn’t know if they really needed to manage money because he had so much right now, but he supposed it didn’t hurt to buy better stuff for cheaper if the opportunity presented itself. If anything, learning to barter and manage money was probably an invaluable skill for him to learn. “We’ll keep that in mind, thank you.” He answered.

“One last piece of advice for you kids; be careful at what kind of taverns or inns you spend your money at.” The merchant cautioned.

“...What do you mean?” Sairek questioned.

“Well, y’see, not everyone has it going for them and of course, you got your high end establishments, your middle class and then your low class establishments. From my experience—and this isn’t always the case, but sometimes you can read the mood of a place, yeah? Sometimes people go to have a drink to have a good time, and others often go to drink their sorrows away and to escape reality.”
Sairek blinked at him owlishly, completely not understanding where this was going. The oblivious look Sairek was giving the man caused him to sigh. “Okay, to make it real simple; stay out of gloomy taverns if you need a place to stay. They’re usually filled with shady people, people who think they have nothing to lose if they see a rich looking laddie like yourself just sauntering in, they might have no issue with attempting to piffle your wallet right out of your pocket from under your nose, or just take it by force as you're leaving.”

“Ah… all right, that makes sense.” Sairek mumbled.

“However, if you ever need information about something or someone in the area, those depressing taverns can be a good cheap place with a little bit of bribing to get some information. People will do anything to grab a bit of coin so they can drink their sorrows away even more. Just don’t stick around for too long.”

“I… see.” Sairek nodded his understanding. He thanked the man again for the advice and for the ride, then they said their farewells and separated. Sairek watched as the convoy more or less dispersed from there, just like their own trio was doing. Some went to the tavern, others were setting up camp just outside of the village and the merchants were beginning to stock up on some of that produce for transporting or selling.

“Well, what now?” Sairek asked as he turned to face Nayleen and Cyial.

“Well, what he said made sense about the money thing. I’m getting tired of gnawing on stale bread and jerky. I can at least make a few hearty meals with just a few vegetables and stuff.” Nayleen said. “Guessing from the stale bread, food doesn’t preserve well in that little gem of yours.”

“No. It’s like… everything is simply compressed down to a very small point.” Sairek paused as he thought of an easier way of explaining it. “Imagine everything still exists, but it is compressed down, like a sheet of paper that’s crunched into a tiny ball so you can fit it into your pocket. It still weighs the same and you can flatten it back out to return it into a sheet of paper.”

“A very crumpled one.”

“...Yes, well, magic is magic.” Sairek said, as if that was meant to explain everything on how it worked. “Some clothes, like Cyial’s robe, have enchantments to do that just a little bit for their pockets, or the same can be done for some bags. It helps increase their carrying capacity a little bit, but there’s still a limit to how much they can hold still and weight while similarly being compressed down doesn't entirely go away. The royal jewel works a little too well though, I can’t just fish for exactly what I want with ease. I have to remember where it was mentally and then mentally drag it out. That’s why I tend to just bring everything out all at once most of the time. I don't remember where something is, so I put everything out at once and look for it.
“...Anyway, should we go ask for rooms? It’s probably too late to go around shopping for supplies for Nayleen’s cooking recipes right now.”

“Sounds good to me.” Nayleen said. “Cyial?”

The little demon had his back mostly facing them, just looking around, but looking a little startled as he was called. “Huh?”

Nayleen sighed, and put her hands on her hips as she looked down at him. “Look, I know you’re worried about being seen in public and all, but—”

“Oh, no, I was just thinking… Ummm…” He trailed off.

“Yes?” Nayleen pressured him to continue.

“It’s not anything important, it’s just... this is where I was before Father Abbot took me in.” Cyial replied. "Or so I was told, anyway."

“Wait, seriously?” Nayleen asked, surprised, she dropped her hands back down to her sides. “Then you should go visit people you’ve might have not seen for ages!”

“Err… no. I don’t remember anything about here at all.” Cyial frowned. “I was just trying to see if anything would jog my memory, but this looks completely new to me. I might have been too young to remember. I was only little more than a baby then… but I guess if I was originally here, then maybe I won’t get any prejudice from the villagers here, I hope.”

“Oh, that’s unfortunate, but you’re probably right.” Nayleen agreed. “Well, let’s go then!”

Apparently leading their march now, Nayleen led the two boys towards the tavern and marched right up to the counter where the barkeep was. The place was mostly empty, aside from visitors from the convoy, a few who were eating and drinking already. A woman this time who looked to be middle-aged with rich brown hair, balled up into a ponytail with a dark blue cloth was wiping the counter with a rag. “You three are a little too young to be in here, aren’t you?” She asked.

“How much would three rooms for the night be?” Nayleen asked, ignoring the woman’s question.

She blinked and studied the trio for a moment, eyeing Sairek hard with an observing look, then Cyial, then back over to Sairek. “Well, you two can stay, but I’m not keeping a Prince under my roof.” She finally answered.

“E-Eh?” Sairek blinked. That was… not the response he expected. “...May I ask why?”

“Because this is my place and having royalty right under my roof is just asking for all kinds of trouble and unsavory folk. You’re already drawing all sorts of eyes, dear.” She answered.

Sairek sighed. He didn’t want to look around as he had a feeling she wasn’t wrong. The vast majority of the convoy hadn’t seen them, after all. He did notice Cyial and Nayleen had taken quick glances around them though. “What if we made him look less…princely?” Nayleen asked.

“Oi, I think it’s a bit too late for that, Nayleen.” Sairek said. “Besides, she has a point. Word would probably spread fast in a place like this.”

“But you’re the Prince! She can just deny you service like that?” Nayleen blinked.

“Well, technically no, but she has the right to voice her opinion and I’m not going to demand and force her to do anything. I’m not a tyrant, you know.” Sairek frowned at her.

“Oh, okay.” Nayleen said, causing Sairek to blink at her. She gave up so… quick. It was almost uncharacteristic of her.

Sairek turned back to the counter. “Well, thanks anyways.” He said to the woman.

“Sorry dear.” She apologized. “It’s just too much of a risk, y’know?” Sairek nodded in understanding. The three of them turned away from the counter and walked out.

“Well, that was a bust.” Nayleen grumbled.

“Where are we going to sleep now, then?” Cyial asked. “Should we join the rest of the campers?”

“I’d rather… not.” Sairek answered. “They’re probably good people, but I don’t like the idea of just sleeping with a bunch of adults I don’t know at all.”

“Same for me as well, but… well, it’s not like I need to sleep like you two for now, and—”

“Let’s just sleep in the woods! It’s been a while since I’ve done that!” Nayleen announced loudly, cutting Cyial off.

“...You sound more excited to sleep outside than indoors.” Sairek murmured.

“Because I am! The merchant guy is right, camping outside is great! We can camp in the woods, far enough away, but close enough to go back out and grab supplies in the morning and then head out with a little bit of a head start! We’ll definitely be at town before the day ends, right?”

“I… guess. The merchant did say there were wild animals out there, though.” Sairek reminded her.

“Psh. Animals are much easier to deal with than monsters. Besides, we could also use them for food. A running fire will keep the majority of them away anyway. Oh! And maybe I can go foraging around for some herbs and fruits to use later on as well! Just in case.”

“...I don’t think we will be able to change her mind, Sairek.” Cyial warned him.

“And I think you’re right.” Sairek replied back. “I guess we don’t have many other options anyway. Lead the way, Nayleen.” Sairek dismissed with a wave of his left hand.

Lead them she did, going through the village and up northwards where the village rested on the border of the pine forest the merchant talked about. With dusk setting in, the light visibility was getting pretty low, so they moved with relative haste. Thankfully though, the forest was fairly thin and spread out, making it fairly easy to navigate without bumping into things. They walked through it for about fifteen or twenty minutes. Sairek turned his head around for a few seconds looking at the tall trees before looking back at Nayleen as they followed her. “Where are we even going?”

“Just looking for a suitable clearing… Oh! Like that one over there!” She pointed and jogged ahead of them. It wasn’t too large, but modest enough for the three of them to make camp comfortably. “It’s too bad we don’t have a tent, though.”

“Sorry, the castle didn’t have one.” Sairek apologized. “Maybe that’s something we can purchase later. Really, I was lucky to just find two sleeping bags. We should get a third one of those too, so we don’t have to keep switching between the three of us.”

“Well, it’s okay. We don’t need one if it doesn’t rain.” Nayleen said, looking upwards at the still relatively clear sky. A couple of stars were starting to twinkle through the canopy of trees. “I’ll go gather wood for a fire. You two gather stones around here for the fire in a circle and set up the sleeping bags. Stones that are round and just a little bit larger than your first should do the—”

“Ethirul.” Sairek chanted out loud with his staff pointed up and forwards. A pile of stones soon began appearing one by one, about a foot from where the staff pointed towards and fell and rolled on the ground in front of him in a small pile, each making clacking noises as they fell on top one another until about a dozen and a half of them fell in total.

“...That works, too.” Nayleen blinked. “I don’t suppose you have a fancy trick like that for wood?”

“Nope.”

“Shucks. Oh well, I’ll be right back, then. Place those rocks in a neat circle.” Nayleen ordered them.

She stepped away into the woods, picking up sticks as she went. Sairek used the royal jewel to bring out the items needed for them to make the rest of camp, Cyial went ahead and began placing the rocks in a circle to form the base of the fire pit. Five minutes later, they were ready and Nayleen came back with a full bundle of sticks under her left arm. She broke the longer sticks into shorter ones so they would fit into the pit.

“So how early should we head out tomorrow?” Cyial asked.

Nayleen thought for a moment. “Most villagers tend to be very early risers and I got some extra sleep during that ride, so I’ll wake up early and head back into the village to get fresh supplies for us, then I’ll hook us all up with a hearty campfire breakfast. Then we can head out from there. How’s that sound?” She asked, glancing towards Sairek, who nodded in agreement.

“I’m pretty sure if we leave early enough, we can get there by evening.” Cyial said, paused, then continued. “Actually, now that I think about it, I believe Thalnar has a school for magic. Maybe Sairek should go visit it.”

“Why?” Sairek asked with a blink of his eyes.

“Well, um…” Cyial searched for his words carefully. “You struggle to cast magic without the staff, right?”

“You’re basically saying I’m terrible at magic.” Sairek stated plainly with a frown. “Well, I guess you’re not wrong, but—”

“That’s… not what my intention was at all.” Cyial said sadly, providing his own frown.

“...Sorry. I didn’t mean it to come out that way.” Sairek sighed.

Cyial shook his head slightly. “Look, Sairek, you’re smart. You do know what you’re talking about when it comes to magic as well as magic theory. You clearly studied the subject a fair amount. You know how to cast spells, but the power is lacking for some reason. There’s definitely something missing. It wouldn’t hurt to take a visit at least, right?”

“Aside from wounding my pride, I suppose not.” Sairek grumbled.

“Eh, I’m sure you’ll survive.” Nayleen teased. “He is right though. Maybe you can find out what you’re doing wrong. Or at least make it not so much of a problem. Maybe you’ll even learn more magic you can use!”



They bantered for another hour as the sun set, making the forest dark enough that Sairek ignited the fire with magic to keep the clearing lit and the three of them warm. After eating a light snack, having already eaten dinner earlier, Sairek volunteered for first watch because he wasn’t sleepy enough yet and Cyial said he’d take watch whenever Sairek was ready to fall asleep, since Nayleen wanted to wake up early to make her way back to the village. Sairek made sure to hand Nayleen the money she’d need before they all retired for the night.

Sairek found his watch fairly uneventful in itself, although the forest’s atmosphere at night made him quite alert and constantly looking back over his shoulder. Nothing jumped out or scared him or anything like that though. Just crickets and the occasional owl which hooted in the distance.

After studying the shadows and looking at what he could peer at faintly with the shadowy moonlight that managed to crack through some places past the trees, he was able to track the passage of time vaguely. It was probably around ten at night when the boredom and the lack of sleep was catching up to him. He shook Cyial back awake so he could take his turn. They swapped places in the bags and he fell into a heavy sleep only minutes later.

When he woke up next, his body ached slightly from sleeping on the ground. He still wasn’t accustomed to sleeping outside like this still. Regardless, with a stretch and a yawn, he woke up gradually but surely and looked to see Nayleen’s sleeping bag was empty and he rolled around to see that the fire had been extinguished at some point. Cyial was sitting next to the expended fire pit, reading from his book.

“Good morning, Sairek.” Cyial greeted him without even looking up from the pages.

“Morrnngh…” Sairek grunted in a tired tone of voice. He pushed himself up and slid out of the bed, sliding his gloves off for a second to wipe his eyes with his knuckles to get the sleet out of them. He blinked as he looked around a few times, looking to see a small basket and bag full of vegetables and fruits sitting beside Cyial. “Hmm…? She bought the stuff already…?”

“Yeah. She just went to look for some fresh water to refill our waterskins with. She should be back in a few minutes. Speaking of which…” Cyial closed his book down and reached beside him to his left, where Sairek couldn’t see from his position from where he lay. Cyial picked up a bowl with a spoon in it and handed it towards Sairek. “It’s still warm, so don’t worry.”

“Oh, thank you.” Sairek replied, immediately becoming more alert at the sight of food. He took the bowl and spoon and began digging in immediately. He could easily tell it was vegetable stew, and it had Nayleen’s style for sure.

“You really like her cooking, don’t you?” Cyial said with a little bit of a teasing tone in his voice.

“...Maybe.”

“Sorry, I’m just a little surprised. I would have thought the castle would have had excellent chefs and all and that you would have preferred something like that, instead.”

“Well, the castle does, but there’s just something too… 'exquisite' about everything made at the castle. This is plain and simple, so it’s different to me. Instead of being bombarded by a whole bunch of rich or exotic flavors, I can just appreciate the few that are in the dish.” Sairek explained, taking another bite. "Sometimes you can do more with less."

“Heh… you are really wise sometimes, you know that?” Cyial smiled.

“No I’m not. I’m just saying how I feel. And believe me, at the castle, I usually got punished for doing that.” Sairek grumbled.

“Yeah…” Cyial sighed with a frown, his thoughts returning to yesterday.

A couple of minutes later, which was as long as Sairek needed to down his meal, Nayleen called out that she was back. With the water skins refilled, everyone fed and taking a few minutes to do some early morning chores, they packed everything back up and were ready to start the day. Nayleen dispersed the fire pit properly. “All right boys, just follow me and I’ll have us out on the other side of here in no time!”

Leading the way, they began a trek through the pine forest, finding a path and sticking mostly on it heading in a northward direction. It seemed to be at least a little bit traveled on, but it was fairly faded. They only stopped a couple of times to pick up specific plants or herbs that either Nayleen or Cyial deemed that could be useful along their walk. It was mostly those two speaking on the walk. Sairek was happy just listening to them, learning about their shared expertise on plants. It was the one thing they really had in common and Sairek learned a bit just by listening to them converse back and forth.

Lunch came and went quickly, they paused in a smaller clearing than before to eat and give their legs a much needed break before they resumed their walk. Sairek was surprised how much easier this trek through the woods was being so far. Unlike the forest in Lamen, the trees were so graciously spaced out that nothing really slowed them down or got in the way, and they had a fairly good view of their surroundings. It sure beat the walks they’ve had so far, especially in the tunnel or cave. The scenery, feeling the gentle warm summer air that blew and just enjoying the company of his companions was actually refreshing and enjoyable. It raised his mood that was still a bit down from the morning previous. Along the way, there was even a helpful wooden sign that was pretty worn by weather, but it let them know that they were on the right track and approaching their destination.

A few hours later as the sun droned into late afternoon, the forest trees began to become even more thin and opened up to some hilly plains. As they went over a few hills and scaled a particularly tall one in an attempt to gather their bearings, Cyial pointed out that he could indeed see the town off into the far distance on the horizon. They followed Cyial’s lead, where thirty more minutes of walking later, they finally arrived at their destination, approaching upon white stone walls built in a way that was not too unlike Lamen’s, though much smaller. It was unmanned however, and they approached right on through.

The stonework inside also felt a lot like Lamen’s. Sairek was sure it was made out of the same material, which made him feel like they had somehow ended right back there. However it clearly was a different place. The town was busy with people, but far less populated and dense than Lamen was. Still, it was saturated with many buildings tightly compacted, a few bits of greenery to separate it from all of the stone. From their conversations in the forest, Cyial had mentioned the town had a market square for anyone to sell goods for trade and set up kiosks, kind of like a little bazaar and a few places of business.

“We made it here faster than even I expected. There’s still a little bit of daylight left.” Nayleen observed as she looked up. “We probably got maybe two or three hours left. Wanna ask for directions to that school?” Then before Sairek could even say anything, Nayleen waved her arms in the air. “Hello, Miss! Yes, you!” She called, jogging up to a young woman dressed in a black dress and a blue parasol in one hand to shield her from the sun, and she was holding a small book in the other hand that she was reading as she sat on a nearby bench. She looked up from her book at Nayleen who slowed down to a walk until standing in front of her.

“...Yes? Can I help you?” The woman asked, as Cyial and Sairek followed behind Nayleen.

“We’re looking for the school. The uh… the… magic school place that’s here. Could you please tell us where it is?”

“Oh, I saw you three just come in. You must be new here, then?” She asked. Nayleen nodded. “Unfortunately, the school is not in session during the summer, although Fuyiki who runs the school lives on this side of town if you want to visit him directly.”

“Oh, that’d be good too.” Nayleen nodded.

“Just follow the road down, then take a turn to your right. On the left side of the street, his home is the sixth house down after the tavern. The tavern has a sign at the front saying it’s a tavern and all, so you shouldn’t miss it.”

“Easy enough. Thanks Miss! Let’s go, you two.” Nayleen ordered, grabbing one of their hands each with both of hers and pulling the two smaller boys along.

“I, I can walk myself, y’know…” Sairek grumbled, to no success at persuading her otherwise.

She pulled them along, counting the houses out loud after they passed the tavern until she came upon a house that looked more or less like the others. They were about lower middle-class, if Sairek had to wager. Nayleen stepped up to the door, knocked on it, then stepped back.

The door opened a couple of minutes later, with an older man stepping out who was balding at the top of his head, with greying thin hairs further down at the sides and back of his head. He was quite a bit taller than average despite his age, wearing a dark gray robe with violet outlines that glistened just a little bit from the sunlight that beamed onto it. Looking down, he blinked at the company at his doorstep.

“Are you Mister Fuyiki, sir?” Nayleen asked.

The elderly man blinked at her. “I am.” He stated.

“Could you help us?”

“I don’t know. Could I?” He asked, studying them briefly before his eyes fell upon Sairek. “Y’know it’s not everyday you get woken up from your afternoon nap to find the Prince on your doorstep.” He replied.

“...Your afternoon nap?” Nayleen asked, looking at his robe. “...Are those your pajamas?”

“So what if they are—”

“Oh that is so cool.” She whispered out loud.

Fuyiki raised an appraising eyebrow at her, then looked back at Sairek. “...Anyway, as I was saying…”

Sairek pried away from the man's appraising gaze. “This kind of is a bit awkward but… erm…”

“Oh relax already.” Nayleen scolded him gently. “Look, y’see… Sairek here has problems casting magic.”

“D-Don’t just go out and say it like it’s no big deal…!” Sairek groaned, hanging his head down. He felt Cyial reach over and gently rub his back reassuringly.

“Really? From what I hear, you’re quite the prodigy so far.” Fuyiki said with skeptism in his voice.

“Let's just say that my father likes to grossly exaggerate in order to fulfill his own personal narcissism.” Sairek grumbled. “Yes, I can cast magic, but only because I have my staff. Without it, I can barely get anything out and it comes at great expense...”

“Hmm.” The man thought for a few seconds. “Well, I am passionate about teaching students about magic as long as they are just as passionate about learning it in kind, and most of the children I teach are about your age, so… alright, I’ll bite. Come on in.” He welcomed them, stepping to the side and gesturing for them to enter. Nayleen stepped in first, followed by Sairek, then Cyial. Once they entered, Fuyiki closed the door and led them through a kitchen and into a living room area, and motioned for them to have a seat on a couch which was in front of a table. He pulled up a chair from the kitchen, setting it in front of the table and the opposite side of them as he took it as his own seat. “First things first though, I believe introductions are in order. Obviously, you three know that I am Fuyiki, and I clearly know who the Prince is…”

“I’m Nayleen. Nice to meetcha.”

“I’m Cyial. It’s a pleasure.”

“Cyial, you are a demon, right?” Fuyiki questioned.

Cyial bit his bottom lip, shrinking into the couch a little as if trying to hide from the man. “Err… y-yes…”

“Do not worry. I can tell you were born in this realm and that you are not an outcast like the norm of your ilk. I can sense a fairly strong magical aura around you, actually. A normal demon cannot have that.” Cyial emerged back from the couch with a sigh of relief. “In fact, you have a stronger magical aura than the young lady and the Prince. Not too uncommon for a demon born in the Overworld like yourself, but even still, yours is fairly exceptional.”

“Ugh… my apparently ineptness is that obvious, huh…?” Sairek grumbled, looking down at his feet and the hardwood floor of Fuyiki’s home.

“Well, the staff holds even more magic than you do right now if I'm going to be honest, boy. May I see it?” Fuyiki asked.

“I—I guess.” Sairek hesitated and held out his staff in both hands as he leaned forward towards Fuyiki. The older man himself also leaned forward, handling the staff carefully, as if it was some sort of heirloom, yet inspecting it in his hands like it was an instrument he was checking the condition of. “Ah. It’s of Yggdrasil make. That explains a lot. Quite a lot. And recently enchanted to hold a deeper connection to you... That would indeed help improve the attachment between the staff and you, making channeling energy through it to you even easier. A simple but nonetheless, an inexpensive and effective trick to bring out more power from a Yggdrasil item.”

“This guy’s good~” Sairek heard Nayleen whisper into his left ear. It wasn’t actually that impressive, Sairek knew, but he supposed Nayleen, who was pretty ignorant about magic in general would be impressed by someone being able to identify enchantments based on just the flow of energy alone. Though he supposed it did show them that Fuyiki did indeed know what he was talking about, which was reassuring.

“Well, if you were having trouble casting magic, the staff would be guiding you through almost the entire process. Guiding you too well, I’d say. It leaves little to no room for your own growth. It’s like working out and lifting weights, but you just go through the motions, while someone else handles the actual weight of the weights for you.” Fuyiki explained. “How long have you been using the staff for, exactly?”

“A few years… although I was terrible at casting magic before that anyways, of course.” Sairek answered. "I got it for my eighth birthday and I'm turning twelve soon..."

“You’re young, and you were younger then. So that’s to be expected. Children struggle very hard with casting magic because their bodies are too small and their minds too undeveloped to be able to control ethereal through their willpower alone. By around the tenth year is generally when both body and brain begin to develope mature enough to be able to at least get some of it out. Of course, some people do better than others. Everybody is different. A staff can be used to help them out at least get used to the whole motion of casting magic early on, but afterwards it can be a hindrance for their growth. Even without a staff, you should be able to cast the four basic spells by your age, assuming you were taught properly. Hm. Wait here a moment, please. I’d like to do an experiment.”

Fuyiki stood up and went into the kitchen, returning less than a minute later, carrying a stand of candles, but not carrying Sairek’s staff with him. The candles were unlit and he moved over, clearing the table of various household items off to both sides to make room for the stand in the middle. “Do you know balinzer?” Fuyiki asked.

“Yes,” Sairek answered with a nod.

“Good, because if you didn’t know at least that, we’d definitely have a problem.” Fuyiki drawled. “What I want you to do is light the candles with one balinzer each. No using your staff. Try to do it as fast but as efficiently you can. Time starts as soon as you cast the first one.”

Sairek’s expression became apprehensive. “I… o-okay…” He breathed uneasily deeply, shifting his posture on the couch to lean forward as he pried his gloves off of his hands and set them between Cyial and himself. He reshifted his posture again before he raised both his arms, steadying his right arm with his left hand underneath it and extended his right index finger into a point only a couple of inches from the candle, which he noticed caused Fuyiki to immediately frown, but the man said nothing. Sairek scrunched his face up tightly as he began to concentrate. After several seconds he uneasily chanted “Ba… Balinzer!”

A singular, small, weak jet of flame shot out of Sairek’s finger and ignited the candle successfully. Sairek angled his finger to the next candle. “Balinzer!” Another jet of flame shot out, but it was too small to even reach the candle despite how close he was to it.
“Urrgh…” Sairek growled in frustration, his face already beginning to become covered in a thin sheen of sweat. His expression scrunched more as he concentrated harder. “Ba...linzer…!”

This time, he was successful in mimicking a jet that was like the first one, igniting the candle. Then he began moving to the third and final candle. Sairek already felt his head beginning to pound and sweat was starting to bead onto his eyebrows. His breathing was becoming heavier, labored. “B…Balinz... grrngh…” He was losing his concentration, unable to focus, He shook his head from side-to-side rapidly, forcing himself to draw in more ethereal, which felt like he was trying to draw in several heavy boulders towards himself. “Balinzer…!” He growled with effort. Like the second attempt, it was a smaller jet, weaker, but he forced more energy and willpower in with as much effort as he could muster, causing the flame to grow and extend just slightly more in size, until he managed to ignite the candle.

With a giant huff seeing he managed that tiny little feat, Sairek exhaled hard, and his body nearly went limp with exhaustion as he propped onto his elbows, supported by his knees and drooped his head down, heaving like he had just ran a marathon. He felt Cyial had moved a hand to his back and gently rubbed him encouragingly. “You did good, Sairek.” The little demon said.

“Gee… and I’ve seen Sairek make much larger flames with balinzer and hold them with so much ease for hours with the staff. I had no idea it helped that much, though.” Nayleen frowned.

Fuyiki blew out the candles all at once with a single little blow of breath. “Very good Sairek, take your time to recollect yourself.”

“Why… Why is it so hard for me…?” Sairek mumbled through his labored panting. “I’ve—I’ve studied so much and I've always kept trying even without my staff, but…”

“Magic isn’t as simple as just learning it and doing it.” Fuyiki replied. “It’s not that you’re necessarily doing anything wrong and it’s not because you just lack talent either. People aren’t just born to be able to do things, as much as many people like to believe that. It’s all just excuses. You have to train for it. Even the best people at whatever they do train meticulously everyday. Well, in any case, are you feeling okay?”

“A bit light headed and you can see I’m sweating already…” Sairek grumbled.

“Well, I’ll consider that good enough. Stand up and stand over here.” Fuyiki ordered him. Sairek pushed himself up off the couch and stood where he was told to stand. “Good. Now… take off your shirt.”

“Err—Excuse me?” Sairek asked out loud. He heard Nayleen abruptly slap her hand on her knee and let out a short bark of a laugh. Sairek turned to glared at her.

“Look, that jewel of yours is also enchanted as well as the clothes. It could be affecting you. I need to make sure it isn’t interfering with your magic or your aura. Also on top of that, I need to check out your body.”

“Excuse me?” Sairek repeated with more emphasis. Nayleen burst out laughing now.

Fuyiki rolled his eyes at the both of them. “Boy, don’t make this more difficult or embarrassing for yourself. Or for me.”

Sairek sighed, his fingers scrunching the front of his shirt and tabard. “Taking off my shirt isn’t going to cut the enchantment and I’m using the royal jewel as storage. If the enchantment goes, then—”

“I know all of that already. The enchantments will hold, I will make sure of it.” Fuyiki reassured him.

“B-But… how–?”

“Because I said so. Just do it already.” The older man said, his tone showing he was beginning to grow impatient.

Sairek winced, but he undid his belt and slowly piece by piece, began taking off his cape, mantle, tabard and finally his shirt, putting the garments in a pile on his empty spot on the couch. He felt conscious knowing that this stranger and also Nayleen was able to study his upper half which was now bare, more so when Fuyiki was looking at him intently, appraisingly as he reattached the belt around his hips again.
Fuyiki reached a hand out to him, but did not touch him. Despite that, a couple of seconds later, Sairek shuddered as he felt a tingle go all over his body that bordered that of an itch, except it was a feeling he felt all over. He felt the enchantments that were connected to him suddenly vanish, or at least their connection did. He anxiously looked over at his clothes in concern, fearing all the items in the royal jewel would come spewing out, but… nothing happened. His concerned expression turned into confusion.

“It’s fine. I told you it would hold. Relax.” Fuyiki reassured him.

He glanced back over towards Fuyiki. How? Was the man able to just move the enchantments somehow? He didn’t necessarily disbelieve the man when he said he could hold the enchantments, but he didn’t know how. Regardless of his questions, Fuyiki was already back to appraising his body once again and reached out once more, grabbing Sairek by the upper arm and giving it a testing squeeze, then did the same for his chest.

“Wh...What are you…?” Sairek stammered.

“Hm, to be honest, I thought the problem was because you were physically weak and meek, but you’re not. Your body’s fitness is actually better than most of the kids who come running in here. However, strength and muscle isn’t everything. Stamina and endurance is important too.” Fuyiki said, pulling back his hand. “A lot of people don’t know this, but your physique actually matters a lot for magic, too. Sometimes more than the knowledge of the magic itself.”

“Why is that?” Nayleen asked.

“It’s the same way for physical activities. Concentration and casting magic, especially in casting magic in quick succession, just like physical activities. Using magic for prolonged periods of time requires endurance and stamina to perform.” Fuyiki explained to her, then looked back towards Sairek. “I am assuming that’s what the issue is. The Prince here has the physique, but I bet he can’t use it for long. It’s the same for physical activities for you, isn’t it? You start off fine, but go for too long and you tire out  quickly, don’t you boy?”

Sairek hesitated. “Well, I… ah…”

“Mhm. Well, let’s see how bad it is. Get down on the floor and do some push ups lad. As many as you can. Count them out loud too.” Fuyiki ordered.

“W...What? Are… Are you serious?” Sairek asked in disbelief.

“Do I look like I’m joking?” Fuyiki asked.

“Unfortunately, it seems like you’re not…” Sairek grumbled distastefully.

“You should be able to easily do thirty push-ups if your body has the proper endurance with a build like that. C’mon, get to it. It’s going to be night soon and I don’t have all day.”

Sairek grimaced. He wasn’t appreciating being ordered and bossed around like this. Begrudgingly, he stepped a couple paces back to give him space and moved so he was laying face down on the floor, with the toes of his boots touching the floor and his hands planted against the floor. He kept his back straight as he inhaled a deep breath, and then began the same repeating motion, counting them under his breath. “One… two… three…” he started counting.

“I can’t hear you boy, louder.

“...Four, five, six…!” He counted louder, keeping a steady pace. It started off easy, for the next four, but he already began to feel fatigue and burning afterwards, the next five after quickly starting to become more difficult. “Sixteen… hah… seventeen… eighteen… n-nineteen…!” He continued, feeling the blood rushing to his face and his back starting to become cooler from a light film of sweat as his body was pushed through exertion. “Twenty...three… tw—ugh… T-Twenty-four…!” Sairek felt his arms beginning to shake under his own weight. “Tw...Twennnnty...f-five…! Grrgh…”

“Quit bending your back, boy. I’m not counting that last one, do it again.” Fuyiki warned him.

Sairek clenched his teeth and grunted as he did another one. “Twen...ty… ugh—f-five…” He paused, taking a few breaths.

“No stopping, boy.”

“Ungh… Tw...Twenty… s… s… unmph!” he grunted, his outstretched arms buckling underneath him, causing him to collapse onto the floor, panting hard for breath in defeat.

“...Well, that’s a shame.” Fuyiki commented as he looked down at Sairek’s exhausted form on his living room floor. “Well, there’s your problem. Probably. You don’t push yourself enough. You’ve built up strength, but no endurance, boy. As soon as you’re tired, you begin going lax on yourself or taking a break. When it became too tough, you gave up in seconds.”

“I’ve—I’ve pushed myself… p-plenty of times…” Sairek grunted out, pushing himself halfway off the floor onto his elbows and on one knee. “Are you… seriously telling me that… a few push ups and sit ups… and I’ll be able to cast magic like normal…?”

“Well… no.” Fuyiki answered honestly and plainly. “Your endurance is probably only a single problem, although make no mistake, it’s a major, critical problem. You need to push yourself mentally, too without your staff as a crutch and..." He paused, turning towards Cyial and Nayleen. "Look, how long are you kids staying in town, exactly?”

“Uhh… I don’t think we actually discussed that.” Nayleen said, glancing at Cyial, who looked back at her in turn, then shook his head no. “I mean, we were heading northwest, buuut if you can help Sairek, I think we’ll just stay here for… I dunno... at least a week or so?” Nayleen said with a shrug. Cyial nodded in agreement.

“A-A week?!” Sairek yelped as he looked at the other two in dismay.

“What? I think it’s important for you to learn how to use magic properly.” Nayleen told him.

“Well, in a week I can at least get him started on the proper path. It will ultimately be up to him to discipline himself to continue after leaving here anyways. So yes, that’s fine. I think I can do that in a week.”

Sairek sighed as he was resigned to his… fate. He looked down his torso, at his sorry state already, half naked, laying on the floor, already exhausted and sweating. “Whatever… if I’m having to do this, it’s just us three… I don’t have any guards or anything, so…”

“Oh wonderful, that makes it easier.” The man said as he pointed at Sairek. “I don’t have room for the three of you, but for now, you’ll be staying here with me.”

“Wonderful…” Sairek drawled.

“The tavern is just a few houses away, so we’ll still be nearby, Sairek.” Nayleen said to reassure him.

“Just… you know, not entirely comfortable sleeping alone in a stranger’s home during the night.” Sairek answered with a huff.

“Unfortunately for you boy, most of that is going to be working you out physically and mentally and then studying the results, buuuut I’ll try to squeeze what education you need where I can, of course. I’m warning you though, this is going to be a tough few days on you. Also probably embarrassing for your pride.”

“Great… and here I was told visiting here couldn’t have hurt.” Sairek grumbled as he pushed himself up off of the floor and looked at Cyial and Nayleen with a bit of an annoyed glare. Cyial flinched and gave an apologetic look, but Nayleen just lifted her palms upwards and gave a shrug.

“Look, I trust the teacher. He’s right, you get tired way faster than the both of us do. Even Cyial handles things better than you do.” Nayleen stated matter-of-factly.

“For now…” Sairek glared at her, in challenge.

Fuyiki chuckled. “Well, at least your pride may push you to get better. That’s good. Might get you far in life. Or killed, but who am I to say."

“Gee. Thanks. So, can I at least put the rest of my clothes back on, now?” Sairek asked.

“No.”

“What–!? Why?!”

“Because it’s a pain in the ass to move enchantments and I don’t want to do it again.” The old man scowled.

“Starting already with the wounded pride bit, I see…” Sairek growled.

“Well, we should uh… go and secure rooms for ourselves, Cyial. Maybe also grab a bite to eat too. No need to embarrass Sairek with him showing off his body to us as he is.” Nayleen teased.

“Grr… if you’re going to act like that, then fine. Go away.” Sairek sniffed. Nayleen stuck her tongue out back at him.

“We’ll be back soon, Sairek…” Cyial said as they both got up from the couch and walked towards the kitchen, saying their goodbyes for now before they left…
...thus leaving Sairek alone with this man who was going to push him to the brink physically and mentally…

“Right then lad, no need to wait for them to get started. Have you recovered yet from your push ups?” Fuyiki asked him.

“Starting already with this too, huh…” Sairek grumbled in a resigned voice. “Yeah… fine.”

“Alright, lay back down on the floor. Give me as many sit ups as you can.”

“...This is necessary why?”

“I need to gauge your general stamina if I plan to do any sort of planning for you at all.” Fuyiki explained before he smirked. “You want to be able to cast magic in a few days, lad? Well, prepare to be sore by the end of the day."
Sairek groaned as he sat down on the floor and when he was about to lay down, Fuyiki told him to hold for a second. He paused and felt a tingle behind his back all of a sudden, causing him to glance behind himself to see a mattress suddenly behind him that was definitely not there before.

“...Did you just conjure that, or use a—H-How did you do that?” Sairek blinked with a frown.

“Come on, hurry up and lay on it.” Fuyiki ordered him.

Sairek shimmied himself to sit on the mat before laying his back down on top of it. It was better than having to lay on a probably dirty, cold hardwood floor, he supposed. Wriggling himself to be as comfortable as he could be, he interlaced his hands behind his head. Fuyiki was generous enough to get up from the chair and kneel down to plant Sairek’s feet firmly down on the floor and remove his boots so he could better position them. “Alright, are you ready?”

“I guess.”

“Go.”

“One… two… three… four…”

“Don’t hold your breath in with every lift boy. Breathe as you do it. It will help you more, recover as you do it or you will tire yourself out faster. That’s how stamina works. Pacing yourself but always pushing forward. The same method applies with magic and casting.”

“O-Okay… Um, five… six… seven…” Sairek continued to count out loud as he lifted himself and lay down, his stomach muscles clenching every time he did so. He tried to remember to keep breathing as he was doing each rep, but ultimately it was of little aid to him, he felt himself tiring quickly, and by the fifteenth one, he was once again struggling, each rep being slower and his breathing having increased once again to a labored intensity, sweating from exertion once more. After the eighteenth one, he collapsed, panting. “O-Okay, you’ve made y-your point…” He grumbled.

“I did not tell you to stop. Keep going, boy.” Fuyiki ordered him.

Sairek grumbled but gave a weak nod, grunting with every other rep he did. “N-Nineteen… ugh… T-Twenty… ungh… Twenty… unmph, o-one… haah. Haah… T-T-Twenty… two…”
Every time he pulled up, he had to clench his eyes shut through the effort and exertion of it all. Every time he went back down, he was basically just collapsing back on the mattress with a heavy thud. He was beginning to smell his own sweat by now. “T-Twenty… urrgh… three…!” Sairek fell back again with a soft grunt, taking gulpfuls of air. His stomach ached something fierce, and he tried to push to do yet one more. “Twe… Twenty…. Fo— uunmph!” He grunted in defeat, collapsing back down mid-rep, unable to complete it by lifting himself up all the way.

“Come on, I’m probably more than four times your age and even I can do better than that.” Fuyiki frowned. “Keep going.”

“I—I can’t…!” Sairek grunted with his eyes clenched tightly shut. "I... I already failed, so..."

Fuyiki sighed. “See, this is what I was talking about.”You fail to do something once, so you just give up and call it quits. Quitting when you fail once or as soon as you get exhausted isn’t pushing yourself. Now keep going, I said I want thirty and you’re going to give me thirty even if you fail over and over again all night.”

“Uurrghh…!” Sairek groaned and growled. Taking a few deep breaths, he lift his head to re-interlace his hands behind it and despite his abdominal muscles crying out right now, he pushed himself to do another one. “Twen...ty… f-four… unnmph…”

“Good. Now again, give me another one.”

“T-Twenty…. Ffffiiiive… ugh… L-Lands…”

“Yeah, it burns doesn’t it? Are you sure you want to learn magic, boy?”

“Yuh… Y-Yes…!” Sairek heaved.

“Then give me yet another one.” Fuyiki demanded.

“A-Are you sure… this is… healthy… to do…?” Sairek questioned with a whimper as he looked down the length of his torso at the other man. Fuyiki was giving him a look that he basically read as ‘quit stalling’. “T-Twe...nty...six…” Sairek grunted through clenched teeth. He was so close to that precious ‘thirty’ goal now. He really didn’t want to give up now, but he wasn’t sure his small body could manage to hold endure this until then…

Almost as if reading his mind, Fuyiki spoke. “Your body has the strength to keep going. You just need the willpower. Are you going to just give up now?”

“N-No…! I d-don't want to...” Sairek grunted out.

“Then give me the final four.”

“T-Twe...Twenty… sev-v-v-en…! Uugghh–!” Sairek growled out in effort. His abdominal muscles were pounding with pain, but he tried to do his best to fight through it. “Twenty… haah… hahh… eight…!”
Reaching somewhere deeper, he tapped into some reserves to do yet another rep. “Twenty… unnff… nine…” then finally… “Th-Thirt...yyy…! Unnhh…!”

With that final victorious declaration, he collapsed back onto the mattress, panting and covered in a thick film of sweat. His left hand reached down to clasp and massage his burning stomach. His form felt wobbly and shaky, only half aware of Fuyiki moving to step away from him as he desperately tried to regain his breath and tried to prevent his head from being overcome by an intense light-headedness that swarmed him. By the time his ‘teacher’ came back, Sairek only just had the strength to push himself up sideways off of the mat slowly, wincing as he still gripped his stomach with his left hand. It pained him to even contort it inwards right now. Fuyiki held out a cup for him to drink and without even questioning it, Sairek took it and drank. Immediately, he could tell it was cold water. It helped quench his dry throat and the coldness soothed his burning stomach a little. He never downed a cup of water so fast in his life. It was surely welcomed, without once stopping to take gasps for air until after he finished, where he bowed his head, still breathing hard, holding the now empty cup back to the man.

“See, I told you that you could do it.” Fuyiki said finally. "Success feels good, doesn't it?

"No it doesn't...! It hurts...!" Sairek whined in protest.

"Ehhh, difference of opinion. The point is that you set out to do thirty and you did thirty."

“With… With a few… small breaks in between… yeah, sure…” Sairek grunted.

“Sure, but small breaks are okay. What’s important is not how fast you do it or how many. It’s how you push yourself, which you did... with a bit of forceful encouragement. You didn’t want to give up when you were so close, right?”

“...Right...”

“That’s good. Now just be like that all the time, no matter how far away the destination of the goal may be. Strive to always do your best, only give up if you need to—not when you want to. There is a large difference between the two. I don’t want you to overexrert yourself to where you risk injury, but I don’t want you to quit just because you may find something to be too hard. Do you understand?”

“I… I do…”

“So how’s your stomach feeling?”

“It… hurts…?” Sairek answered while giving him a puzzled look. What else did the man think?

“It burns, right?”

“Yes?”

“That burning is a good thing. It means your muscles are torn a bit.”

“That… doesn’t sound like a good thing.” Sairek drawled.

“Torn muscles rebuild and when they do so, they become stronger than they were before and larger in size. That’s what makes people stronger when they exercise and why strong people have such large muscles that you can clearly see. Muscles burning as they are for you means that it was a good workout. If they don’t ache or burn, or if it’s only very temporary, it means that you should try to push yourself harder next time. Always remember that so you know if you’re exerting yourself enough or not. If you want endurance, you try a slightly easier, but much longer workout, and try to push yourself for longer. For building up strength you want to do harder workouts, but for a shorter period. Understand?”

“O-Okay, I do…”

“Good! Now, just because your stomach is burning doesn’t mean we can’t do anything else. Stand up.”

“W-Wait…! We’re going again so soon…?! I’m still completely out of breath…!” Sairek whined.

“Did you not just hear me talking about long and short workouts not even ten seconds ago?” Fuyiki glared at him. Sairek grumbled and stood up, wincing slightly as he did so. Sairek felt that tingle behind himself again and he glanced back once more. The mattress he had just been laying on was gone, and in its place now stood an… interesting stand of some sort, with a solid metal bar running through from one side to the other. The bar was high enough that he would have had to jump up a little to reach it.

“It’s time for pull ups now. I suspect with your weight, these should be easier for you, but due to your current stamina, that should even things out. When you can do all three of push ups, sit ups and pull ups in a single setting with minimal rest between each, then we’ll move the number up.”

“J-Just the number, right…? No… added weight or anything?” Sairek asked.

“No, that’s how you build strength, not endurance. I literally just told you this.” Fuyiki answered him. “When we move onto magic after this, it will be the same concept, just mentally. I’ll want you casting spells in quick succession, each of all four elements, for as long as you can. I assume since you can do balinzer that you should be able to do the other three basic elements as well, yes?”

“R-Right, yeah…”

“Wonderful then!” Fuyiki said with almost… joyful enthusiasm.

“...Yes, wonderful…” Sairek drawled with obvious dread instead. Ironically, he was fearing the magical portion coming up far more than what he had to endure in this physical portion. He could barely light up three candles in a reasonable amount of time and had been exhausted just by the end of that and he was already struggling with these simple physical exercises. Yet, this guy was supposed to be a magic teacher.

“Get on with it, hands up on the bar, then bend your legs up so your knees are bent pointing towards me.”

Sairek moved to reach his hands up to grab onto the bar—

“No, no, no. Grab them the other way around, like this.” Fuyiki stopped him, showing Sairek the correct posture as he held his hands out and turned them around. "You have your palms facing you, and place your fingers over your thumb. This gives you more grip. The thumb part is important, as your fingers will naturally slide off, especially as you begin to sweat. Having your thumb like this balances out the grip." Sairek quickly corrected himself and with a little hop, grabbed the bar, his feet dangling a couple of inches into the air, before he bent his knees slightly.

“So... like this?” He asked.

“Good. Are you ready?”

“Uhm… How… am I supposed to do this?”

“...You’ve never done a pull-up before, boy?”

“No.”

“All you do is pull your body up with your hands gripping the bar like that. You pull up until your chin clears over the bar, and then you let yourself go, and you let go slowly to put yourself back down to rest as you are right now. That’s one pull-up. Then you just repeat it again. Make sure you keep your knees bent just the way they are the entire time. Understood?”

“I think so.”

“Good. Okay, then… start now.”

“One…?” Sairek called out in a bit of a curious tone as he did one pull-up, then paused as he looked at Fuyiki for approval to see if he did it correctly. Fuyiki nodded at him, so he resumed. “Two… three… four…” he began counting, making sure to try and do some form of pacing himself this time. After he did one, he let himself dangle for a few seconds before doing the next one, knowing he would probably run out of energy long before he finished. Fuyiki didn’t scold him otherwise.

Still, as usual, while it didn’t start out too difficult, by around the halfway mark, the difficulty was quickly increasing once again and he felt the biceps in his arms starting to become sore from the repeated stress he was being forced to put them under. Still, he was able to reach twenty before each rep was becoming its own battle with increasing difficulty to conquer. He once again felt his body beginning to coat himself in yet another film of sweat and that also affected the grip he had on the bar as he felt his palms beginning to sweat, as well as itch, making keeping his grip more difficult. By the twenty-fifth rep, he was really struggling, with his arms shaking and his hands threatening to give out on him. Resting idle and just holding onto the bar wasn’t really working out anymore, his hands were struggling under his own weight and the last rep took several seconds for him to do, taking every ounce of his strength he felt he had left. Still, he could see Fuyiki glaring at him as he wasn’t moving, so he forced himself to do one more.

“Unngh… t-twenty… ssssiiiixx… g-guah…!” He grunted out as he panted, dangling in the air with shaky arms, unable to complete the rep and go the full distance required for him. With another grunt and a heave, he tried again, but he found himself physically incapable of pulling himself more than halfway. “Uuurrrnnngh…!” He growled with effort, clenching his teeth, using every ounce of his remaining strength, but his arms just couldn’t co-operate with him. Soon the burning in his biceps was just too much and he released a large exhale of breath, falling back down and his grip on the bar slipping. He landed on the floor with his legs doing little to stop his fall as he collapsed on his rump, and then flopped onto his back, looking up at the ceiling as he panted with his eyes closed in utter exhaustion and defeat. “Sh-Shit…” He cursed, disappointed in himself.

“Or… maybe not easier for you than I thought.” Fuyiki drawled.

“I-I’m not fat…!” Sairek retorted immediately in his own defense through panting breaths.

“...I didn’t say you were? Gosh, that girl was right. You are sensitive about your body.” Fuyiki blinked.

“Th-That’s because Nayleen always… nngh, j-just… never mind.”

Fuyiki slowly raised a grey eyebrow at Sairek but didn’t press the issue. “Aaaanyway…” with a whisk of his hand, Sairek watched the pull-up stand abruptly vanish above him, dispersing in what looked like ashes that scattered, but each particle faded quickly.

“What… What kind of magic is that…? To just… be able to conjure up… anything you want…?” Sairek asked through his heavy breathing. “Never seen anything… like that before… even at the castle…”

“Haven’t you? Is conjuring a physical object really that much different than being able to conjure forth fire? Or water? Stones? Wind? Lightning? Or even bringing forth any item you have stowed away using that little jewel you wear?”

“M-Maybe… but… most of the magic is just… limited to raw elements… or at least mixing them together… and that’s with a staff or wand…” Sairek swallowed saliva down his already drying throat. “That looks… a lot more complicated… and you’re doing it with just a wave of your hand… no incantation or anything…”

“Well, maybe in a few years you’ll be able to do the same, hm? Well, now that your body is all nice and sore and the smell of pre-teen sweat is stinking up my living room, it’s about time I go and give you a headache as well and probably make you sweat even more, unfortunately. However, what is fortunate for you is that I need time to set this up. So you get a little bit of a breather. Go ahead and lay on the couch. I guarantee it’s more comfortable than my floor.”

“Yeah, great… how fortunate…” Sairek huffed sarcastically. He grunted, the simple act of pushing himself up took a great amount of effort at this point. He took a few steps, moved his clothes from the middle of the couch off to one side, then flopped his back on the couch within the remaining space with a groan. His back was sweaty and the fabric of the couch itched against his bare skin as a result, but he didn’t care enough to move to scratch it. Instead, he draped one arm over his eyes to block out the light of the room and tried to calm himself, focusing on deep breathing exercises and letting his stomach and arm muscles rest as best as he could allow them. He heard Fuyiki moving things around, furniture scraping and such, but he was so worn out that didn’t bother to look at what devious plan the man had in store to torture him with next for the next three minutes.

“All right boy, break time is over. Sit up.”

Sairek groaned in disappointment at the news that his rest was already over. He pushed himself up and looked. Fuyiki had gotten a much bigger table, clear of any other items, and yet, on this table was only six candles, although they were larger than the previous ones… much larger, even.

“I’m… confused.” Sairek simply stated.

“Balinzer,” Fuyiki chanted out with a slow wave of his hand. There wasn’t even any fire that came from his hand, but regardless, all six of the candles lit up.

“...Okay, that was neat,” Sairek admitted. “But I’m still confused as to what this is.”

Fuyiki chuckled at him. “Well, we already tested fire. Well, not in the way I wanted, but you’re already getting worn out and fire is the hardest element to control anyway, so we’ll skip over that for now. I'm gracious, I know."

Sairek glared at him.

"We’ll be testing your control over the other three elements for now. Notice the color of the candles?” Fuyiki asked.

Sairek blinked and looked. He noticed two candles were colored blue, two green and two brown, in no real discernable pattern.

“Blue for water, brown for earth and green for wind. You must use the proper magic for each one to extinguish them. Or else…” Fuyiki warned him ominously.

“...Or else, what…?” Sairek asked apprehensively. Well, perhaps it was best he just didn’t mess up and find out. He probably couldn’t cast them fast enough to mess up. “It sounds simple enough... I guess I’m ready, then…”

“Oh. And one more thing. You have one minute, ‘or else’. Okay, aaaand go.”

“What—Wait…! Dammit!” Sairek swore. He moved his arms into position like he had done before. Just six spells in under a minute when he could barely manage four at full strength before...?

Yeah, just how hard could it be…

“Wuaie…!” He released the magic on the first candle which was green, with enough ‘oomph’ behind it to blow the flame out. The next one was brown. “Ethirul…!” he chanted out as a pebble of stone shot out, just large enough to knock the candle over and it hissed out as it did so. The next candle was green again. “Wua—W-What…!?”

Sairek barely had enough time to stop himself as the candle had abruptly changed color to be brown now instead of green, as did the rest of the remaining candles change their color. He had to spend precious seconds retracting the spell to conserve what little energy he had left and rearrange the assortment and allocation of energy to shift the spell’s shape. “E...Ethirul…!” He chanted again, once more launching another pebble out large enough to knock the candle over with a bit of a wobble at first.

“Wa...Waert…!” He panted out, as barely a trickle of water that shot out from the point of his finger streamed out with about as much energy as a small bird bath. He had to extend his finger forward so the water could actually douse the candle’s flame out, but by the time he did… the candle shifted color. All at once as soon as the water landed on the now brown candle, all the other candles hissed out immediately.

“Shit… it’s harder to control magic in rapid succession without my staff than I thought…” Sairek sighed.

“Oh. Well that’s too bad. We’re going to have to redo the test again. We’re not stopping until you get it right.” Fuyiki declared, resetting the candles again and reigniting them with another mutter of ‘balinzer’. “That’s one failure. Try again.”

“M-May I please have a rest, first…?” Sairek pleaded. “J-Just a few spells and I’m alrea—”

“Go.”

“Ugh…!” Sairek grunted. “W-Waert…!” Already his head was swimming in pain and mental fatigue, causing him to be slower and take more time to concentrate. Next was wuaie and ethirul, and the colors of the candles switched just as he released the second ethirul. Rather than the candle being knocked over, the little pebble shattered into dirt upon impact, yet whisking all the candles out at once.

“Grr…!” Sairek growled in frustration. He knew he could have prevented the rock from hitting the candle after it had switched in time, but his exhaustion was making his reactions much too slow. This wasn’t just a speed test, but also a reaction test.

“Unfortunate. That’s two failures. We’re restarting again.” Fuyiki announced.


Sairek realized that this was indeed, going to be a very long, and very painful night… let alone what miserable torture would be unearthed for the next week or so ahead of him.