Unlike what Sand’s first impressions had led him to believe, the Thralls weren’t mute or even uncommunicative. The reason they hadn’t been talking to him beyond body language and inarticulate grunts was the very same reason they had spent weeks roaming around wrapped in stuffy cloaks. They were too rigid in their interpretation of their mistress’s orders.

“You are too impatient, little champion. You run before you can walksss,” hissed Igor as he peeked over Sand’s shoulder.

As Thralls followed their masters everywhere and were even allowed to enter their Dungeons, they knew a lot of their master’s secrets. It was standard protocol to have standing orders for Thralls to not speak with strangers to prevent them from divulging said secrets. Despite Sand’s induction as Lirael’s Champion, without her explicit instruction otherwise, Vlad and Igor had continued their silent treatment.

Sand frowned and removed his arms from the barrel of blood, having once again failed to achieve any measure of success in his Aura manipulation exercises. Turning to the Naga he complained, “How exactly am I supposed to walk when all that was shown to me was how to run?”

After Sand’s invention of a new method of spice production, Lirael had attached even more importance to him, deciding to open the floodgates of information wide for him. After all, the more he knew, the more likely he was to bring about results that would be profitable for her. It was when she had asked after his training progress that the Thralls’ behaviour had come to light. Exasperated, Lirael had ordered Igor to answer whatever questions Sand might have to the best of his knowledge before exiting the Dungeon with Vlad to harvest more skeletons and undead creatures to populate the Dungeon with. Sand had wanted to ask a lot of questions but before he could even open his mouth, Igor had dragged him to the barrel of blood and ordered him to demonstrate his progress, or lack thereof, refusing to answer anything before Sand had his Aura manipulation down pat.

Igor had both pairs of his arms folded across his chest. Unfolding one pair, he placed them on his hips. Rather than answering Sand’s question, “How long can you holdsss your Aura?” he asked, a sibilant undertone colouring his words as his tongue flickered out to taste the air.

“Around half an hour before my mana drains,” replied Sand as he cleaned his hands with a burst of his Aura. “Why?”

“Your control over the Aura isss insufficient. You let it drain into the world. That isn’t sssupposed to happen… Watch me.”

Hurriedly activating his Aura Sight, Sand blinked as the Dungeon daylight glinted off Igor, the light broken apart into a thousand shimmering rainbows by the film of water Aura surrounding him. Long minutes passed as he watched the Aura flowing around the Naga’s body in gentle currents, smoothly and without any detention. Frowning in contemplation, he activated his own Aura and ghostly green flames raced up his body, clothing him in a coat of fire.

Having something to compare with immediately brought his insufficiencies to light. Unlike Igor’s even film of Aura that wrapped steadily around him, his own Aura flickered and dragged like a candleflame in a breeze. He could see some of his Aura rising off him like wisps of smoke and dissipating into the atmosphere, forcing him to replenish it by channelling his mana into the Netherfire Aura shard. This way, his reserves would see the bottom in less than half an hour. Igor, on the other hand would be able to maintain his Aura coat indefinitely.

Sand tried a technique which was often a great help for mastering the usage of shards: visualization. Closing his eyes, he imagined a transparent barrier surrounding him and any Aura that radiated off him would be confined within it. When he opened his eyes, he was disappointed to find his situation unchanged – his Aura still leaked into the world just as swiftly as it had before. He tried to simply will his Aura to stop dissipating, ordering it to stay put, but although the speed at which the Aura leaked reduced, the level of concentration needed to maintain the state was crippling. Let alone fight, he wouldn't be able to talk and rein in his Aura at the same time with this method. Maybe with a lot of practice he would be able to turn it into an instinct but somehow, he knew that this wasn’t the answer he was searching for. After all, though reduced, the Aura leakage still existed where in the case of Igor, it didn’t.

Igor waited patiently with his Aura active while Sand made his attempts and when Sand turned his attention back to him, he found the Thrall’s Aura as steady as it had been in the beginning. After careful scrutiny, the only difference Sand could find between their Auras – apart from their attribute – was that Igor’s Aura swirled around him in a fixed pattern. It wasn’t static like his own. Deciding to test his conclusion, with an effort of will, Sand set his Aura in motion trying to copy Igor’s pattern of Aura flow.

The pattern was quite simple, a figure of eight with the Aura flowing around his neck and waist with the two circular paths intersecting above his heart. It didn’t take Sand long to imitate it. As soon as the path was complete, he staggered as his mana surged out of him like water out of a broken dam. He felt like a thousand needles were pricking him all over his body as the Netherfire Aura shard drew upon his mana hungrily, converting it to Aura that spewed out of him, turning him into a small green sun. Contrary to his intentions, the Aura didn’t stick around, dissipating instead into the atmosphere at a greatly accelerated rate. Sand tried to rein his mana in and cut the supply to the shard, but his mana seemed to have a mind of its own, gushing out of him until there was nothing left.

Sand collapsed onto the ground feeling like a marionette with its strings cut. Every bit of strength in his body had been wrung out of him. Even breathing seemed difficult with his lungs struggling to muster up the energy needed to draw in air. Despite the sumptuous meal he had consumed not so long ago, he felt inordinately hungry, his stomach growling, announcing his body’s need for sustenance.

“What,” he gasped out as he lay on the ground limply, “was that?!”

Igor’s serpentine head appeared in his line of sight. “A foolish attempt to treat fire Aura like water Aura,” he replied. “The flow is what keeps Aura locked in and preventsss it from escaping, but the pattern differsss with the attribute of the Aura. If you use the wrong pattern…” he gestured at Sand’s prone form with one of his hands, “… then this might happen.”

Sand groaned in irritation as he turned laboriously to the side and tried to push himself up with his muscles feeling like jelly. “Why didn’t you warn me that this would happen?”

Igor shrugged. “You’ll learn faster thisss way.” Reaching out with his hand, he grabbed Sand’s arm and pulled him up to his feet, holding him upright until he was sure that the boy wouldn't drop down before letting go. Sand swayed on his feet as his legs threatened to buckle under his weight but after some time, he adapted to the lack of mana and stabilized.

Reaching into a pouch that hung from his waist, Igor brought out a small jade box. Opening it, he took out a spherical pill before returning the box to the pouch. “Here,” he offered, “eat thisss. It’s a Tier 3 mana restorative.”

Taking the emerald pill from the Naga, Sand built up some saliva before popping it into his mouth without hesitation and swallowing it down. The familiar warmth of mana suffused his body as the pill dissolved on its way down. Although it was called a Tier 3 mana restorative, the energy contained within it wasn’t enough to push someone into the Green stage. As of now, his mana was still a vivid shade of lemon yellow, but a few wisps of lime green could be observed floating about. If he managed to regulate his mana usage and increase the intake – maybe catch and cook that pesky carp in the barrel – he’d probably rise to the level of a Green mage without a hitch.

Seeing that he had recovered enough to train again, Igor said, “Alright, activate your Aura and I’ll guide you.”

Sand complied without protest, reactivating his shard and enveloping himself in the phantom flames.

“Draw a circle around your navel with it as the centre. Make sure that it is as perfect as you can get it to be. Good. Now draw a similar circle centred on the small of your back… make one of the circles flow clockwise and the other anti-clockwise. Thisss is the basic flow for fire Aura, but your Netherfire isn’t just fire, it’s a mix of fire and poison. So, you need to make the flows for both typesss simultaneously. For poison, you need to make the Aura circle your neck, both your wrists as well as the roots of your thighs. These are the generic flows for the two attributesss. Once you create the flows, they will change naturally to suit your Aura.”

Following the instructions carefully, Sand finally managed to get his Aura flowing along the desired patterns and the changes were immediate. For the lack of a better term, his Aura seemed to solidify. Instead of the illusory feeling it gave off just moments ago, now, Sand felt like he was encased jelly. Observing with his Aura sight showed him that the leak had been reduced to a mere trickle. The Aura lock wasn’t perfect, but it would soon be as the flows began to adapt to the peculiarities of his personal Aura and distorted ever so slightly. The fire flows became slightly elliptical instead of perfect circles and the flows for poison around Sand’s wrists elongated till they looped over his elbows while the same happened to his feet with the flow around his thighs looping around his knees.

As the final changes set in, the last trickle of Aura that had been leaking out of him stopped. His Aura was now completely sealed.

“Now try the exercise the Mistresss set for you.”

Nodding in response to the Naga, Sand walked over to the barrel and stuck his Aura clad hands in. Closing his eyes, he focused. Visualization hadn’t worked for him but imposing his will on his Aura had. So, he started with that, conveying his intent to the ghostly fires surrounding him. He immediately felt the difference. If his earlier attempts at Aura manipulation had been like trying to sculpt water, now, he finally had clay to work with. Sealing his Aura had somehow ‘solidified’ it, made it denser – more receptive to his intentions. Slowly, tremulously, a tendril of Aura extended from his submerged hand and into the blood.

Sand opened his eyes, and immediately wished he hadn’t as he saw what he had created. Lirael’s Aura threads had been hair-thin filaments, hundreds of them extending from her hands and weaving together into an inescapable net. His single ‘thread’ was three fingers thick, stubby and uneven. It quested about in the blood-filled barrel like a hungry wyrm.

Sand realized that his analogy comparing Aura to clay might have been more accurate than he had previously thought. The 'thread' looked exactly like the rolls of clay an apprentice potter would make on his first attempt. And just like the clay, it was fragile. As soon as Sand’s attention wavered, it snapped, breaking off a large chunk of Aura that burst within the barrel like a green firework in his Aura Sight. Undeterred by the failure, Sand forged ahead. Compared to his efforts for the past few days, the progress in this attempt was astonishing. He repeatedly attempted the exercise, improving markedly with each failure as he drew parallels with mana manipulation and brought his magnanimous experience to bear.

“Don’t let your Aura coat grow too thin,” Igor instructed him in the middle of one attempt. “Otherwise, your sealing patterns will be disrupted, and you will lose control of your Aura again.”

Nodding gratefully, Sand supplemented his Aura with his mana and continued, keeping an eye on the Aura thickness henceforth. The lumpy threads became more even, grew thinner, stretched longer and increased in number with every try. It didn’t take long until he had ten finger-thick constructs of Netherfire Aura floating about in the barrel.

Imitating Lirael, he sent the ropes snaking down the sides of the barrel until they touched the bottom. In his Aura Sight, the elusive Blood Carp merrily frisked about in the blood in its intangible form, unaware of its impending doom. Its Aura shone a bright scarlet against the dull red of its surroundings. With an effort of his will, the ten ropes snapped towards the centre, thoroughly entangling the fish and knocking it out of its intangibility.

Panic-stricken, the Carp put up a last-ditch struggle, thrashing about in the barrel and setting off waves on the surface of the blood. A vein beat on Sand’s temple as he focused the entirety of his mind on maintaining his grip. Slowly, surely, he managed to drag the fish out of the blood and with a grunt, sent it over the edge of the barrel and onto the ground.

Sand staggered, gasping for air as the pressure on his mind lifted. Supporting himself with his hands on his knees, he slowly brought his breathing under his control as he watched the fish thrashing about on the ground.

Straightening up, he diverged his Aura, letting it dissipate into the environment as he had no way to absorb it back. Walking over to the fish, he looked down at it, the light from the Dungeon sky above casting deep shadows on his face.

His lips parted in a smile that showed too many teeth as he whispered, “Gotcha.”