Vrzli had begun. The first batch of snow had fallen two weeks prior. With the temperature falling so too did movement out on the streets of Bruyn. People were slowly receding into vrzli life, a life mostly lived at home. While adequate clothing to combat the cold and the snow were available, they were sold at a high premium. Bruyn didn’t breed the animals with the requisite pelts and their supplier of old was taken over by bandits. The only way to get comfortable vrzli clothing at a reasonable price was to buy one off one of the convoys that came from Otger. Unless you had a connection with the merchants in charge of the convoy however, you’d never be given that opportunity. The local merchants snapped them all up before the common folk were even given a chance to see their wares.

The Fortems were one of, if not the, richest family in town. They were not only relatively early settlers, Maleek’s status as the only malsir at the time gave them an incredibly strong standing in the town. That all being said, even he didn’t have vrzli clothing. At least not for men.

“That swing was weak. Don’t just use your arms for strength, swing like I taught you.”

“I did! It's not my fault it's fucking freezing out here.”

“If you put as much energy into swinging as you did into complaining, we’d be done here.”

“Fuck sake! Fuck you, fuck your bald head, fuck this sword, fuck this training, fuck the snow, fuck that mountain over there, fuck everything.”

In the process of screaming insults at Maleek, Kain actually managed to swing just as he wanted.

Maleek smiled, “Much better.”

Maleek had decided to stage their training sessions outside the town walls, in the snow. Kain had originally been excited for the training, but he didn’t know then that his teacher was insane. The leather armor he was told to wear provided no protection from the cold. Heat was sapped out of his body at an alarming rate. He could feel the numbness slowly stripping him of his freedom of movement. Asking him to swing a sword with force consistently under such conditions was basically asking him to jump in the lake naked. Unfortunately, he understood the necessity of it. He could complain as much as he liked but he still had to do it all the same.

Before Vrzli started, Maleek had wanted to begin malsir training.Teaching Kain to be a warrior was important, but the main objective was teaching him how to use his sahir. It was a more powerful and versatile tool than any weapon he could give him. Especially in Kain’s case since his sahir was incredibly abnormal. When they began the training and Kain formed his ‘barrier’ Maleek only then realized it wasn’t a barrier at all. At least not in a traditional sense, the sahir just seemed to flow off of his body rather than coating it. While it was normal for complete beginners to not be able to form proper barriers, what they did from was nothing like what Kain was doing.

It spawned dozen of questions in Maleek’s mind, but he put them aside at the time to figure out how he was going to effectively train Kain. He wanted to test the limits of what Kain could already do, but after five or so minutes Kain got tired. He didn’t take it too seriously at first so he ignored Kain’s complaints, but a few more minutes later Kain passed out. It caught Maleek completely off guard. Fortunately, he was suitably prepared for such a thing. Having a healer on standby at all times, she immediately went to check him. It didn’t take long for her to realize what the problem was, Kain was running incredibly low on sahir.

Sahir exhaustion was a fairly common and well researched occurrence. It was a slow process in which the body slowly shut down its functions as its sahir reserves were depleted. They keyword was slow. While it varied depending on what the malsir was doing at the time, there was generally a 45 minute window between when they first started feeling the affects and when they lost consciousness. Maleek very quickly realized that Kain was abnormal in almost every way.

Thankfully, he woke up two days later rather than a week. Maleek didn’t think he could keep the fact that he was unconscious gain a secret from his mother for long. They needed a different approach.

—————

“Okay. That's enough. Lets head back.”

Kain breathed a sigh of relief, “Finally.”

He sheathed the sword in its scabbard and rubbed his hands together feverishly. It didn’t do much, but Kain didn’t care. He just need warmth of any kind.

“You truly have no talent for swordplay.”

Kain shivered, “If only I could find someone with a talent for teaching it.”

Maleek laughed. Kain’s wit had grown on him over the three or so weeks he’d been training him. He was tough. While he complained about everything, he would always get what he needed to get done, done. On the flip side, anything he didn’t feel he had to do, he ran away from with haste. It was an odd quirk, but it amused Maleek

They walked back into town together. One of the bonuses of the lack of movement during Vrzli was that the fanatics that were running around looking for Kain had disappeared into their homes like everyone else. Kain was finally free to leave the Fortem’s mansion. He never did so without an arberdir, but freedom was freedom.

As soon as they got back, Kain dashed for the fireplace. Finding his fur blanket folded next to it, he quickly wrapped himself with it.

“Ahhh.”

Maleek chuckled as followed Kain into the room, “Man up already. You won’t be a child for much longer.”

“With you as my teacher, I won’t be alive for much longer either.”

Maleek sat on the couch and called an arberdir to bring them some food.

>“You’re quite lucky its Vrzli. We would have had to do something far more drastic if it wasn’t.”

Kain shivered.

Maleek was trying awaken Kain as a malsir, again. This time with regular sahir. Using trial and error, they discovered that when Kain used sahirlah he devoured his sahir reserves. While it gave him ridiculous powers, he couldn’t use it for long. They never tested how long he could use it for, they didn’t want him to pass out again, but after rest and recuperation it took about ten minutes before he started feeling tired. Even a complete beginner could hold their barrier comfortably for at least an hour. To be tired after a mere ten minutes was a serious concern.

They decided the best course of action would be to teach Kain how to use regular sahir first, build his reserves, and then try to figure out how to effectively use sahirlah. To do that, Kain was forced to embrace the elements.

In theory, anyone could be a malsir. While reaching the highest levels generally required a certain degree of talent or affinity, learning to simply form a barrier wasn’t a ridiculous goal. That being said, it was often dangerous. Becoming aware of your own sahir was not an easy task. There were many ways to do it, but they mostly involved putting your body in weakened or heightened states. Either path put one very close to death.

“You’ve made great progress though, we’re about one-third of they way there.”

Kain groaned, “That means we have a month left.,” he fell back on to the floor, “I don’t think I can do this anymore. Ten minutes is a long time you know?”

“Your destiny is too great for you to give up.”

Kain scoffed, “You sound like the cult. I’m just a kid, not some herald from God.”

Maleek lightly shrugged, “You used to say that with more conviction.”

Two arberdirs walked in with trays of food. Even though Maleek was the much bigger of the two, Kain had the larger serving. Part of his training was building more muscle. There was no evidence to prove more physical mass translated to deeper sahir reserves, but its was Imurian culture to bulk up anyway.

Kain sighed, “Another month of this.”

—————

Three Weeks Later

“There we go, never forget to feint on occasion. A good fighter always will try to read your fighting style.”

Maleek and Kain were sparring again. Kain was improving steadily with his swordplay. It was still far from being a serious threat to any properly trained soldier, but it was good enough to defend against an attack by one. Having had good footwork, coordination, and overall body control already down, Maleek could speed through many aspects of the training.

“Be careful, when you thrust like that you can’t be so flat footed. In the event you miss, you’re leaving yourself vulnerable.”

Kain had to stop training for a couple of days prior to this session because the school sent some people to find Martha and ask why he wasn’t attending classes. The campus had survived the bandit’s fire and classes were still in session. During Vrzli they were limited to only twice a week, but they were still going on. His mother wanted him to at least go to the two class they had a week and he could have. Thankfully, tales of the malsir they called ‘God’s Disciple’ were becoming more and more ridiculous as people sat in their homes most of the day with nothing better to do. The stories were so far removed from reality, Kain looked nothing like the ‘man garbed in an all white robe who radiated an aura of might and righteousness’. Kain however, didn’t want to risk the chance of being seen by someone who was actually there. It took three full days to convince his mother he wasn’t ruining his future and another day to complete the paperwork. Martha kept him home for all four days so he missed out on training for a bit.

Kain thrusted his wooden sword at Maleeks shoulder again. Maleek sidestepped it. Twisting his grip, Kain immediately followed up by slashing at his arm. The hit landed.

“Good. Now if they—”

Cutting off Maleek’s lecture there was a knock at the door. Unlike usual procedure, it was immediately opened after. There were no arberdirs in the room to keep Kain’s abilities a secret, but there should have been one outside.

Maleek quickly formed a sahir barrier as the door was opening. To his surprise, the person that opened the door without his okay was the arberdir that was supposed to be guarding it.

“Sir, I apologize for the intrusion. The Baron is in your private living room and he wishes to speak to you immediately.”