"The passage of time can at times be as swift as the wind, when your body and mind are at ease, with it just flying by. Yet at other times it would crawl like a snail, often when you least wanted it to, when pain and suffering besieged you. Live long enough, and you would know the feeling all too well." - Nec Aarin, The Bone Lord.

Palace of Bones, Tohrmutgent, Ptolodecca, seventh day of the fourth week of the thirteenth month, year 39 VA.

*Clang*

*Crack*

*Clatter*

The noise echoed through the crisp morning air of Ptolodeccan winter, on that final day of the year. Two figures separated from the struggle they had just finished in the otherwise empty courtyard within the grand cathedral. The only disturbances in the coat of snow were the imprinted footsteps of the two combatants, as well as where a fallen three-sectioned staff had disturbed the powdery fresh snow.

"Very well done, young lady," said Huang Ren-Gui as he gave a slight bow of respect. The old Huan man cradled his broken right wrist with his left hand, and his old, wizened face scrounged up a bit from the pain. "I fear that at this point I would no longer be an adequate teacher for you."

"Please, master Huang," Aideen said as she returned the bow then gently laid a hand on the old man's broken wrist. Her magic used to be usable from a distance when it was of the Life affinity, but since her awakening into Unlife, and the Mortality affinity, she found that it no longer worked so well beyond close distances, and worked best with actual physical contact.

With physical contact however, the magic worked with effectiveness and precision far beyond what she used to be capable of before. Torn muscles knitted themselves together. Broken, shattered bones fused to their former shapes and returned to their former place, and even the bruises on the skin, disappeared. "I stil have so very much more to learn. I dare not call myself skilled."

"To possess humility is a good character, young lady," said the old weapons instructor with a smile as he flexed his healed wrist. To his surprise even the ever-present stiffness in the joint he used to feel since he had advanced in age, mostly vanished after Aideen's healing. "But you should also not humble yourself too much. Your progress in these past five years has been nothing short of astounding."

"I have a good master to thank for that," replied Aideen humbly. Ever since they returned from the war with Junora, and she had her talk with grandpa Aarin, she had intensified her training. She deeply felt her inadequate experience during that war, where she struggled to face even a single soul puppet on her own.

The past two years had been fruitful for her progress, if it had her brother complain often, since he ended up her most frequent sparring opponent. And thus her most commonly used punching bag. She had managed to start winning bouts against master Huang early in year, while by now, the older man struggled to fight her evenly. With gratitude, Aideen gave the old man a salute, in the palm over fist style he used, as she gave him a bow of respect. "I will always keep your lessons in my mind, master."

"Do regularly practice the forms until they truly become second nature, young lady, yet also never be tied to them. Flexibility and unpredictableness are your weapons to wield, so be sure to thoroughly abuse that," said the old man while he stroked his beard, pride evident at his student's accomplishment. He absent mindedly rubbed his wrist as he looked at his fallen three sectioned staff, and the one on Aideen's hand.

Where Ren-Gui's weapon was three light and thin metal sticks, linked together with relatively small, fragile metal chains, Aideen's was more than twice as thick, made of heavy, durable steel and with thick, hefty chains. The weapon still had the same trick that allowed it to be used as a normal staff, but most would have found it too heavy and cumbersome a weapon.

Yes the slender girl before him trained until she mastered the way to allow the weapon's weight to carry itself for her. When her physical strength was to be compared, most male soldiers were easily stronger than her, as was her brother, and that despite her making use of her magic to force her body beyond what it was normally capable of. And yet when it came to application of said strength, the girl had taken his lessons to heart, and shown great progress with it.

With how skilled she was, both with weapon or bare hands, Ren-Gui was certain that should the current Aideen be faced with the assassin who took her life years ago, said assassin would have been in for a very rude - and painful - surprise.

"I must admit though, young lady, that it never crossed my mind to modify the weapon so," commented Ren-Gui as he picked up his fallen weapon and placed it back within the storage. Aideen's version had basically quadrupled the weight and the heft of the weapon, with more time required to gain momentum, yet with the ability to deliver far, far more devastating strike. On the other hand, it also became much harder to master, and Ren-Gui could only wonder how many times she must have hurt herself while she trained to master it. "A few had tried the same idea in my homeland… but they all gave up on it after one too many incidents where they failed to control it properly while training."

"It was not easy, yes," admitted Aideen with a wince on her features. If training with the regular weapon meant pain when you messed up, messing up while training with her far heftier version meant broken bones, at the very minimum. "To be honest, I would not have dared to try this were it not for this… Unlife."

"I must have cracked my head and neck at least a dozen times while I trained," she continued with a sheepish, shy laugh.

"That… would definitely discourage most from attempting to even train, I concur," said Ren-Gui as he reciprocated her laugh. "Have you readied for tomorrow's departure, young lady?"

"Tomorrow… yes… I have. I will miss everyone here greatly, though at least now we can visit openly…" mumbled Aideen with some melancholy in her voice. Five years had passed since she came to Ptolodecca, and now, it was time for the "hostages" from both sides to return home.

With the official, open alliance between Ptolodecca and Vitalica, views on the undead - and most importantly to her parents, on her - should have started to change, but she would not know for certain until she returned home.

Diarmuid would probably be even more reluctant to return home than her. Not only had her brother's skill with death affinity magic improved by leaps and bounds, but he had also found love in Ptolodecca.

Over the past two years he had courted Kestera, the young elven necromancer who had been with them in the Junoran expedition, and had since gotten together with her. Aideen only wished that her brother would be happy together with her when she found out, and her grandfather must have tacitly approved of the courtship, considering how Kestera was promoted to a station in Tohrmutgent itself shortly after she and Diarmuid began being a couple.

She wondered how they would handle this issue of Diarmuid returning to Vitalica, as she felt they looked happy together so far, and hoped that it wouldn't break their fledgling bond.

Aideen herself had gotten herself acquainted with the elven woman, and found that her views were very… foreign to say the least. Then again, Kestera, while young for an elf, was already over a hundred years old, and the viewpoint of one who lived so long naturally differed from those who lived far more ephemeral lives.

How their relationship would progress, Aideen left to the hands of fate.