A nervous laugh erupted from Torrin, "I'm not so sure that's a great idea, Princess Dawn--"

"Just Dawn," The princess interrupted, "At least in the training hall. In here, everyone is equal in status... All that matters is your skill."

Torrin stood staring at the beautiful young elf. Her intricate braids covered her entire head, even her surely pointy ears, and if it weren't for her exotic eyes and hair color, he thought she would have passed for human. She smiled at him, making him return to his senses.

"What do you say? I can tell you've spent a little time practicing your control over the elements and my father spoke to me about your trial of awakening-- saying you are very talented. I'm quite curious now. Let's spar, Rin," The elf approached him as she spoke, each step her pitch seemed to lower slightly, ending up uncomfortably close as the last words left her mouth.

'There is something definitely weird about this girl,' Torrin thought, keeping his face neutral.

"Of course, Dawn." He nodded his head slightly, "How can I refuse an invitation from a princess?" He said, turning around and taking in the slack jawed expressions of his elven friends as he moved toward one of the larger sparring rings, thinking, 'This is as much a surprise to me as it is to you guys...'

"Wonderful!" She exclaimed, clapping her hands slightly, "Let me go change real quick," and off she went, bolting across the room to a door a little further down from the washroom Torrin usually used, he guessed it was the female elf washroom.

"Rin!"

"Woah!"

"What in all the world was that?!"

His friends all burst out at once. They stumbled to join him, seemingly trying to pick their jaws up off the floor to avoid kicking them in their rush to Torrin's side.

"You've got me," Torrin shrugged, "That was weird, wasn't it?"

Tillien broke from the other two and stood at Torrin's side, whispering to him, "Rin, that was awesome! She's totally into you!"

Torrin's brows furrowed at the words, "That's gross, Tillien. Didn't I already tell you how old I am? I think she was trying to be... intimidating?"

Tillien waved it away as if it didn't matter, his voice raising in his excitement, "It's the princess! Who cares!"

Torrin looked to Jorien and Tellivel for help, but sighed seeing them nodding vigorously with broad grins and thumbs held up approvingly. He rubbed his entire face with his hands, trying to wash away the strange feeling he got from the princess.

Luckily he didn't have to defend himself further, the princess exited the washroom in a set of light rune-inscribed leather armor. Her boots tapped softly against the ground as she walked toward the group, hips swaying and a devious smile playing across her lips.

Her actions made Torrin shudder, he felt as if some feline predator were eyeing him like he was a scrumptious snack. Torrin shook his head, watching the princess as she knelt by the ring, activating some sort of rune script. A light glow emanated from the circle and Dawn stood across the ring from him.

"Would you like to use weapons? Like that fancy sword I heard about?" Dawn asked.

Torrin shook his head, he wasn't visiting the elves to train his sword art, he only needed to get better with the elements, "I think it would be more interesting if we only used magic."

"Okay, then. Start whenever you're ready," She said.

Torrin spun his core, allowing a thin mana shield to cover his body, "Ladies first," he said, waving an arm toward her. Dawn's eyes narrowed sharply and runes lit up across her armor as she flew towards him, arm extended toward the basin of fire.

'Shit,' was all Torrin thought as he spun a thread of mana to his brain, slowing the princess' actions long enough to respond. Mana threads shot from his open palm toward the earth basin, grabbing up chunks of stone and sand to form a wall of defense before him, before allowing time to return to normal.

The princess sent fire crashing into the shoddy defense, tearing it apart with a small explosion. Her fist flew through the opening, forcing Torrin to dodge to his right. As he moved, his threads attached to the earth regathered themselves together to form a floating shield and his other hand reached towards the water basin. Threads infused the water and it sprang to life instantly, rocketing toward the princess as she turned around.

The water bludgeoned her in the chest, causing some of the runes to flare slightly. She seemed unfazed by the hit as she reached for more fire. The strands of fire she grabbed formed themselves together into a long flaming whip and she sent it whizzing through the air, cracking Torrin's paltry reformed earthen shield in half with the blow.

Torrin gathered all the water from the basin, forming a second layer of defense atop his mana shield, as well as a water whip to even the playing field. The two circled around the ring, waiting for one of them to make the next move. As Torrin moved, he spun more threads of mana from his core. With the excess threads, he gathered the wind into a blade and sent it zipping toward her.

Dawn gathered earth from the basin, forming a floating shield of her own--much more intricate and sturdy than Torrin's--to block the wind blades and lashed out at him with her whip of fire in one motion. Torrin took the hit directly, his water barrier sizzling, but he also sent his whip forward, making a small crack appear on her newly formed shield of earth.

Dawn wasn't idle as Torrin made his counter-attack, a spear of earth flew from an unseen angle and hit him in his left side. His mana shield blocked the spear from piercing directly into his body, but he still stumbled slightly from the force, making an opening for Dawn to lash out with her fire whip once more.

Torrin berated himself for not taking the sparring match seriously, spreading his senses to be able to catch any more sneak attacks. As he regained his footing, he infused his legs with a few threads of Saen to increase his movement speed, dodging the incoming whip with a step to his right. He shot toward the princess at an impressive speed, dodging another spear of earth as he went, and forming the remnants of his earthen defense into a short spear, which he grabbed in his left hand and swung at the princess, who leapt back, dodging the blow.

She cracked her whip toward him as she fell back, but he moved his water barrier from around his body to form a concentrated shield before him, absorbing the attack with a hiss of steam. He had formed multiple wind blades using his mana, in an instant he threw his spear forward, shooting his wind blades to cover where he expected her to dodge the spear.

She moved her earth shield to block the incoming wind blades as she dodged the incoming spear. Dawn let her control over the earth shield falter just before it was hit by the blades of air and reached towards the incoming spear with her now free hand, taking control of it in mid air with mana as it passed her. She spun her body and sent the spear hurtling back towards Torrin.

Torrin slowed the scene before him just as he saw her begin to pivot her body to throw the spear and took the time to place his water barrier before himself, adding a whirl of wind mana to the mix with it and forcing it to change into ice, the corresponding rune glowed brightly on his core.

He allowed time to resume to normal speed, lashing out with his whip as her destroyed earthen defense fell to the floor, wrapping the water around her leg and used another rune on his core to harden it into an almost physical form. The princess tried moving her leg to break the water, but he pulled hard, causing the princess to lose her balance and fall. A crash rang out as the earth spear disintegrated on his ice shield and the princess hit the floor at nearly the same moment.

Torrin let his ambient mana threads be pulled back into his core. He wanted to stand there huffing to regain his breath, but he approached the fallen princess and offered her a hand up instead, "Nice match," he said, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. The princess stuck out her tongue like a petulant child and took his hand in hers, allowing him to help her up.

"You really are as talented as my father said," She commented, dusting the sand from her armor and making sure her hair was still braided tightly around her head. Torrin scratched the back of his head, chuckling nervously.

"I just had the advantage of more elements," he said, "Your control is much better than mine, no doubt about that."

Her eyebrow raised slightly, "You just made a shield of ice. That's far more advanced than what I can do currently."

Torrin waved once more, "I may as well have cheated."

"Did you cheat, Rin? Because I didn't see any runes surrounding the spell you formed. It looked to me as if you were just better," She replied simply.

Torrin thought about it for a moment before shrugging, "It was a nice spar nonetheless."

She nodded in agreement. Torrin turned to look at his group and saw they once more had shocked expressions on their faces. Torrin shook his head as he approached them, calling out with a smirk, "Guys... Close your mouths or you'll catch a fly in there."

The princess giggled at his words and a clacking of teeth could be heard as the three spectators' mouths slammed shut. Using the words Grams had said to him caused a slight pang in his chest. Tillien chuckled, "Sorry, that was just so amazing! You really sold yourself short with all your wallowing, Rin!" The other two nodded their agreement at the statement, murmuring a few words of encouragement.

Hearing the praise, Torrin shook his head, "Come on, that was nothing but luck." He chuckled, waving off the kind words. The three elves shook their heads in disbelief, grumbling something about how geniuses always tried to act humble.

Torrin laughed again, turning to the princess with a soft smile, "Well, Dawn, that was a fun match. I'm gonna go get washed up and try to figure out where I'm supposed to be staying for the night."

"You are, in fact," She returned the smile, "Staying at my parent's castle tonight. I need to clean up as well, so wait for me and I'll lead the way."

Torrin furrowed his brow, but nodded, 'A night in the castle, eh? Not too bad... Hopefully there are no assassins roaming around this one.'

He headed toward the washroom with Tillien in tow as the princess headed in the direction of the other washroom. The other two elves left the training hall as they hadn't done anything and were still fresh, heading home. Torrin sat in the warm burbling pool, letting his tensed muscles relax as Tillien gave him a full recount of the spar.

"...And when she grabbed control of your earth spear, I thought you were doomed! She sent it hurtling back at you, but it was like you saw the future! Boom! It hit a wall of ice and disintegrated, and the princess flopped to the floor from your water whip!" he exclaimed excitedly, obviously having enjoyed the show.

Torrin just hmm'd in response, not really listening to the elf. His mind was going over the oddities that made up the princess. He couldn't shake the feeling that something about her was off, but he couldn't put his finger on it. The way she talked with him--a complete stranger--with so much familiarity that it was weird. Her black hair was definitely strange by elf standards, as he hadn't seen a single one with hair a darker shade than blonde. Her affinity for fire mana was also strange. She just didn't add up to him, and it made him highly uncomfortable.

"Rin? Are you even listening to me?" Tillien questioned, pulling Torrin from his musings.

"Oh, yeah. Of course, Tillien. I'm glad you enjoyed the display," he said, putting up a false smile and reassuring the elf. Tillien scowled at Torrin.

"You didn't hear a single word, did you? I asked how you felt about being invited to the castle!" Tillien said, slightly exasperated.

Torrin's face reddened slightly, "I may have been in my own little world. It's great... I didn't expect to be invited there, much less be able to stay the night."

"It's a great honor," Tillien said, his tone serious for once, "Try not to mess it up by brooding too much."

Torrin stared at the elf for a long moment before they both burst into laughter, "I'll try not to, Tillien," he pivoted the conversation, not wanting to linger on thoughts of another castle from his memories, "Hey, I was wondering...when do they open up the pocket realm?"

Tillien's brows lifted at the question, "It's actually going to be opened in two days. Are you planning to go?"

Torrin grunted, nodding, pivoting once more, "By the way, Tillien, you all keep mentioning awakening an affinity. What do you mean by that?"

Tillien chuckled lightly, "It's just the term some people use for the elemental affinity tests. The "Affinity Awakening Trials", is what some of us call it," Seeing Torrin's confused expression, he continued, "Before we go through the test--for most elves, at least--we don't feel a connection to any certain element. The test forces us into highly tense scenarios and we instinctively reach for the elements to aid us. It's kind of like our powers are sleeping and they only awaken once we desperately need them, hence the name."

Torrin sat with this for a long while, thinking over the words before coming to the conclusion that it made sense. The two washed up in companionable silence as Torrin thought over the spar once more. The two soon left the washroom, saying their goodbyes, and Tillien headed home.