Chapter 25 - Slow times - 2

“If you can’t actively change your Colour to match the state of Shi you’re seeking, then you’ll have to change its Substance. Look at my sphere. Now tell me, not about its colour, but about how it feels as a substance.”

They looked at it and, after some time, Noa started talking slowly.

“It’s… hard, but transparent, and somewhat…”

“Brittle?” Tried Crisnée.

Then Vivianne’s eyes opened. “It’s like the vials Mom has in her workshop, no? It’s Glass?”

“Exactly! You three are fast, that’s good.” She seemed pleased. “Normal Shi is Green and Glass. Glass is sharp but it breaks somewhat easily. Well, it’s still Shi, so it’s way more resilient than any other substance, but Glass Shi is brittle compared to other Shi.”

She then looked at Vi.

“Vivianne sweety, can you create a thread of Shi please?”

Vi did as asked, making a green silky thread of Shi shoot out of her stump.

“Now you three, look at Vi’s Shi and tell me, what substance is it?” She asked with the usual mischievous grin she sported when she tried to make her student have an epiphany.

“It’s not Glass?”

“It does not seem so.” Vi tilted her head, now curious about her own Shi.

“It’s like Silk.” Crisnée said suddenly, the two other looking at her without understanding.

“What is Silk?” Vivianne asked her, Noa looking at Cris with curious eyes.

“Silk is that.” And Crisnée took a tiny handkerchief, giving it to the twins to touch. “Careful. It was a gift.” She added, the tiny silk sheet clearly important to her.

“Wow. It’s so smooth! And beautiful!” Noa clearly showed his excitement and, if Vi was less talkative, you could see she was entranced by the water-like textile.

“Vi’s Shi.” Crisnée pointed.

“It’s… the same?”

“Yes. Silk.” Nodded Cris.

“To have real silk in this corner of the world, you sure are a young lady.” Ophelia said as Crisnée took her handkerchief back.

“Yes, Vivianne’s Shi is, indeed and with great surprise, Silk.” She focused her gaze on Vi.

“Silk is known as a powerful substance overall. It stretches without breaking, is very flexible and precise and has a great presence, which means it doesn’t take a lot of energy to keep existing once you’ve summoned it out of your body. However, it’s way harder to create than normal Shi, and is vulnerable to fire. One of the reasons Vi is better than you at Shaping, Crisnée, is that Silk is one of the best substances for Shaping. This is also the reason why Vi creates less Shi than you, because of how hard it is to create Silk Shi.” She explained, turning her head toward Cris in the middle of her explanation.

“Contrary to Colours, that are totally dependant of your state of mind, Substances change based on your exposure to particular environments. I know a girl, a madwoman who, in order to give her Shi a magmatic substance, forced herself to live in a volcanic crater for ten months. Everyone thought her dead, until she came back and wiped her feet clean on the face of those who mocked her. It was not pretty. What she did was an extreme case as, often, it takes way longer to acquire a specific substance. In this case, I think she did it so fast because she needed her Shi just so to be able to survive, and it forced the Shi to adapt. Usually, it takes between two to ten years to acquire a substance…” She turned her eyes back at Vivianne. “...Which is why you brats should be happy that Vi already has one. This will help her and, consequently, all of you.”

She let her gaze wander over the walls of the training room. “...I’ll see if I can ask the others to show you their Shi, so you can get a feel of different Colours and Substances. Maybe even mock battles…?” The last sentence was said a bit quieter, as if she was talking to herself.

Wrapping the explanation up, she made them repeat what she had said, then do another series of exercises to see how they were progressing. The surprise she had had in her eyes the first few days, at their speed of training I think, had been gradually replaced by acceptance, and she was now used to the trio’s investment in their training.

***

The day after.

Marc was in the middle of one of the largest training rooms, facing the three children, Ophelia sitting on a bench, me in her arms.

“For the first half, I’ll not retaliate against your attack. Go all out, feel how it is to make your Shi interact with mine, see the difference in mass and in property, okay?” He asked them with his usual slow and deep voice.

“”Yes teacher!"" Answered the twins, followed by Crisnée’s nod.

“Perfect. Start whenever you’re ready.” And, saying this, he created multiple flying circular panels.

No, not panels, not exactly. They were slightly bulging outwardly.

To deflect blows, make them slide along the curve.

Morgana… You have to awaken your Shi, got it?

Sure, of course! It’s way too amazing not to try and do it!

The first to move was Vivianne who, surprisingly, put her spear on the ground and simply walked to Marc, touching one of his shields once she was close enough.

Marc just let her do it, as this was, after all, a course about how other Shi felt.

“It’s difficult to move.” She said, trying to push one back, and failing to do so.

“Here, take this.” Marc said, creating a tiny sphere of blue Shi and putting it in Vi’s palm.

“Wow!” Sphere who sunk for a second before Vi put more strength in her arm.

“It’s super heavy!”

“Indeed. You two, stop looking, come and feel.” He said to Cris and Noa, inviting the two of them to take the spheres he was creating.

In the meantime, he had taken his shields back. You could see a bit of surprise, as I think he thought that they were going to attack him right away.

It’s fun. Do people think that our siblings are super aggressive or something? Everyone seems to see them as battle junkies or something.

They mistake their determination to learn how to fight with an actual will to fight, something they don’t have.

On the contrary. I don’t think they want to fight, I think they want…

To be ready?

Exactly. It’s very different. And also a bit relieving, I must say.

Yeah. Chasing fights isn’t the most healthy thing to do. Wanting to be ready, though…

Yup.

“Heavy.” Said Crisnée once she received her orb.

“More than I thought it would be.” Added Noa.

“Shi is relatively heavy even when it’s green, you’ve just never stopped sustaining it before. Noa, try to make an orb with your Shi, then let it go, give it to someone.”

Marc looked around and his mouth distorted a bit when passing over Vivianne, not with disgust, but with sadness.

“Give it to Crisnée, so she can feel the difference in mass.”

“Yes teacher!" Answered Noa with his usual cheerfulness.

Beside them, Vi flashed a look at her left arm, having seen Marc’s frown.

“It’s heavy too. But lighter than yours.” Said Crisnée to her teacher once Noa had given her his own orb.

“Exactly.” He took back the orb that was in Vi’s hand. “Crisnée, give the green orb to Vivianna will you?”

“Yes.”

They kept playing with the blue Shi a bit more, making it move, feeling its mass and trying to move it with their own Shi, which proved difficult.

“So, yes, Blue Shi is heavier than Green, and now that you’ve tried to let go of your own Shi, Noa, you can understand why it’s slower and more difficult to move.” He turned his eyes toward the two others.

“When you manipulate your Shi, be it with Projection, Extension or Shaping, you make an effort to move its mass. Blue Shi being heavier, it is, quite logically, slower to move and harder to keep floating. Now take your weapon.” He asked them and, once they did, he kept going. “Now, taking turns, each of you tries to strike this shield.” He had created another shield in front of him, this time entirely flat. After all, the objective of this exercise wasn’t to fight, but to make them feel what it felt like to attack Blue Shi.

“Bonks.” Made Vi’s spear when it crashed on the Blue panel.

“Urgh. It’s hard, it’s like striking a wall.”

“Indeed. Due to its mass, Blue Shi is very good to defend yourself. Green Shi has the bad tendency to move under strain, as it is pretty light, and to break easily into a lot of tiny pieces, which isn’t the best when you try to stop something coming at you.” He said with a smirk.

***

“Okay, now that you’ve tested my Shi at your heart content, let’s fight a bit, okay? All of you against me. Try to coordinate correctly, okay?”

“””Yes teacher!”””

Marc had lowered himself on his knee to keep his mass centre as near to the ground as possible. Six Blue shields were floating around him, in a quincuncial pattern made to cover more height. On his left, a shield, on his right, a mace.

Against him, Crisnée, a trusted two-handed sword in her hands, the scene comical as it was clearly too big for her. Vivianne, her spear strongly grasped in her sole hand, and Noa, with a similar setup to Marc, a shield and a mace.

The trio started walking slowly, their eyes fixed on Marc, trying, and failing, to find an opening in his defence.

Seeing them starting to encircle him, Marc quickly reacted by taking the initiative, jumping into action with a surprising speed, knowing that he wielded Blue, lowering a Shi-covered mace toward his target: Crisnée.

Two of them have long-reach weapons. He’ll have a hard time.

Possible. Let’s see how a trained fighter uses Shi in battle.

Contrary to my, and seemingly Marc’s, expectation, Crisnée did not even try to dodge. Instead, she lowered herself on her knee and pointed her sword toward Marc, trying to stop him from attacking her by menacing him with her longer weapon.

Marc, however, used one of his shields to make the weapon slide harmlessly next to him.

Just when I thought the strike would connect, Noa appeared and took it with his shield.

Biding her time, Vivianne took the opportunity to attack the place from which Marc had taken the shield to stop Cris’ counter-attack, but her strike did not connect, as Marc had reacted in time and moved another one of his shields in the way.

Everyone took two steps back. From a short and explosive confrontation, they were back to turning around each other, searching for errors, openings, something that would launch them into the mortal dance once more.

Aren’t the kids surprisingly good at working together?

They read each other very well. Noa’s reaction, in particular, was insanely good.

And what’s more is that Crisnée seemingly counted on it, right?

Yes. Then Vivianne’s follow, it was really good.

True.

Suddenly, the kids went their separate ways, Vivianne left from Marc and Crisnée right. In the same move, Noa had attacked him, trying to force the teacher to focus on him.

Marc clicked his tongue, this situation something he did not want to happen.

However, he still reacted quickly, bashing the strike in mid-air, at a point it hadn’t gathered all its momentum yet and, before the two other children could attack him from his side, he made his mace crash on Noa’s shield on purpose, launching the child on the side with the sheer momentum of his Shi-coated weapon. Using the opening, he rushed three steps and turned on himself, facing the three children once again.

Vi and Cris retracted their weapons, strikes missing their teacher only by a whisker when he had suddenly charged straight ahead, Crisnée going to Noa’s side to help him get on his feet as Vivianne was keeping Marc in check.

However, with only one hand, Vi’s control of her spear was mediocre at best when she wasn’t actively attacking, and Marc used this opening to attack her, using his shield to swiftly bash the spearhead away.

Oooh, that’s why he doesn’t coat his shield with his Shi.

To keep it from being slowed down. His main weapon isn’t his mace, it’s his shield, with the quick bash he always uses.

Clever. Disrupt your opponent with quick bash then use the Shi-covered mace to finish the job.

Vivianne was promptly taken out and, from there, the battle only went downhill for the children.

Having lost one of their own, the last two had now difficulties coordinating, as if they could only do so when they were all three of them fighting together.

Exploiting the coverage his shields gave him to its maximum, Marc struck Noa with a kick and went all-in on Crisnée, overpowering the unlucky child.

Yeah, she’s still learning how to handle a weapon this big properly.

Two-handed swords like that are already quite difficult by themselves, but using one that doesn’t fit your size is…

Yeah, I get what you’re trying to say. Noa’s setup is good, but the two others should try to adapt their weaponry to their abilities.

“BLAM!” The blow launched Noa backwards over nearly two metres, and it was a miracle he did not trip and fall. Not far from him, Crisnée tried to get back on her feet, but exhaustion got the better of herself, and she fell back on the ground.

Marc looked at her a second then took his gaze back on Noa, who was clearly shaking, in particular his left arm, the one bearing his shield.

“You’re alright boy? My last blow was heavier than I thought.

“I’m… good.” He was gritting his teeth. He was in pain.

“Okay stop, come here and show me your arm.”

“I’m alright I tell you.”

“...Look, I’m sure you could keep fighting, but if I broke you your Mom will have my head. I don’t want to have Elanna trying to kill me, okay? She’s scary when she wants, so come here and show me your arm, please.”

“..Okay.”

Turned out nothing was broken, but his hand was heavily bruised from Marc’s last strike.

“Okay, we’ll stop here for today. You fought well for your age.” He helped Vi and Cris go back to their feet, then made everyone drink water, as they were clearly dehydrated.

Marc was quite happy, both about his performance and the children’s, and Ophelia felt the same, but the trio clearly showed their discontent on their faces.

“Something’s wrong?” Ophelia was a bit worried, even if she hid it behind her usual smile.

The trio looked at her, each with their own way of furrowing their brow.

“I…” Started Crisnée. “I didn’t do anything, really."

“I only defended, and even like that Marc pierced my defence as if it was made out of paper.” Added Noa.

“I was taken out in one attack.” Vivianne, from the three, was the one that looked the most down.

“We couldn’t really do anything against him.” A surprisingly long sentence for Crisnée.

“...Ah, I get it now. You don’t feel well because you completely lost to me?” Asked Marc.

“”Yes.”" Answered the twins. Crisnée lowered her eyes at the question.

“What did you think would happen? He’s a trained Shi fighter after all, yes?” Ophelia was trying to rationalise the situation. “I mean, if one of the ten Shi fighter dispatched here to protect the city could be beaten by three kids, the place wouldn’t be very secure, right?” She added, joking.

It didn’t work. They were still looking quite depressed.

Suddenly, Vivianne raised her eyes and looked at Ophelia.

“We need to train more.” She said, as if it was an absolute truth.

“You can’t. I’m already pushing you as hard as you can take it. Any more and I would be wounding your body, and that would be bad, both for the present and for the future.”

“There’s really nothing else we can do?” Asked Noa, supported by the burning gaze of Crisnée and his sister.

She started bitting her lips, then cast a gaze at Marc, who looked back at her with eyes that were saying “seriously? You’ll really do it?”

She closed her eyes, then opened them again, looking at the trio.

“I need to talk with everyone. You’ve all worked hard. Go home, take a break, don’t train, okay? Just relax, and tomorrow we’ll see what I can do for you, okay?” She was particularly insistent.

“...Okay.” Only Noa answered, and the trio started packing, Crisnéee taking me in her arms and starting cuddling with me, which put a smile back on her face, and on the two others too, as they liked looking at their guest bonding with the baby of the family.