Despite the pitch black surroundings, I could sense the general direction the trainer was in, though I was not confident enough to pinpoint where exactly she would be on that side of the room and send a fireball in that direction. I pushed out with my will, newly imbued with elemental fire and dimly illuminated my surroundings for a fraction of a second, but the light barely penetrated the thick layer of darkness pressing down all around me. My body instinctively ducked as a bolt of magic came soaring at me out of the darkness, coming close enough for me to feel the hair on the top of my head shiver from the movement of air around the bolt. Summoning will as quickly as I could manage, I coalesced a handful of elemental fire and sent it soaring in the direction the bolt had come from, a thin, dimly illuminated trail of flame making a tail behind it. If it wouldn’t have further given away my position I would have let out a mutter of frustration, the entire point of the exercise was to learn how to control the flame without letting it give off light.

Another bolt was sent in my direction, this one directed at my core and coming too quickly for me to be able to dodge out of the way. I barely got the flame centered around my torso before the bolt struck, the impact sending a shudder through my magical senses and threatened to knock the wind from my lungs. Before I could get my breath back, another bolt landed on my shield, this time knocking me off balance and I took a step back, catching myself before I completely fell over. I had not been on my toes enough to suppress the spark of light from the second impact, so I dropped into a roll to avoid any other follow up attacks and scurried across the ground to reset to a new location. Unfortunately in my tumble I managed to lose sense of where exactly the trainer had been so I was back to square one in finding where she was.

Ana had arrived at the castle Drak only a few day cycles from our arrival, she was a tall, lithe demon, resembling something slightly more humanoid than the demons that inhabited the kingdom. Instead of long, curled horns, hers were petite and spiraled, sticking straight up from her head and her skin was a rich shade of blackened lavender. Her traits were supposedly common in her House, but I had a hard time seeing her differences as anything other than her being much more feminine and delicate, at least at first. From the moment of her arrival the House Drak demons had given her a wide birth of respect, treating her like the las thing they desired was to cross her. It had become abundantly clear very quickly why that was, as soon as she had stepped into training with me and un-shielded her power, I had been overwhelmed, falling to my knees and struggling to stand against her magical aura. It wasn’t just massive, it was thick and solid, my own aura felt like it was strapped tightly to me like a cocoon. I had been impressed with House Drak and their abilities, but Ana was on a whole different level of power. Much to her credit, she had apologized for making a royal accidentally bow to her, had I possessed her talent and ability I don’t think I would apologize for or excuse anything I did again.

She had been quick to pick up on my weaknesses and devise a strategy to get my advancement quickly. Feros had tried to give his input as an equal, but she was quick to cast him a withering glance and inquire as to just who had been hired to train the queen. By his unflustered grin and her immediate annoyed reactions around him I got the sense that they had met before and she was rather irritated at the idea of having to see him again. There was no time for questions or thought to waste on a trivial bad relationship, I was thrust immediately into what Ana affectionately called combat training, which meant that from the moment training started until evening meal we would be locked into a game of cat and mouse. Mostly she was the cat and I was the mouse.

There was a soft scuffle of fabric on a piece of furniture several feet to my left and I turned my head to point my ear better in the direction. The artificial darkness Busby had created for the day was much too dense to see through and Ana was more than capable of dancing around me without letting me sense her magical aura, sound was my only hope. A second, softer sound came from approximately the same direction, no louder than someone sighing from a few rooms away, had I not been intently listening I probably would have heard nothing at all. It had to be a feint, a distraction from where she really was. Perhaps I could believe that her clothing had mistakeningly brushed up against something once, but it was very unlikely someone like her was going to make the exact same mistake twice in rapid succession. That narrowed down that she was not in that direction at all, which wasn’t overly helpful, but was better than nothing and more importantly, I was starting to think better on my feet and not just react.

“Boo,” she whispered behind me, her lips so close to my ear that the air from her words sent a shiver of fear up my spine. Before I could catch my breath the darkness was gone and Ana’s hands were on my shoulders. “You’re getting better at this.”

Taking a deep breath in to steady my pounding heart, I turned to face her with a scowl on my face. “I’d be dead.”

“Mmhmm, but you survived much longer than yesterday or the day before,” she said, crossing her arms loosely in front of her. “You are making progress and that’s the important part at this stage. You cannot simply expect a human to suddenly be able to stand face to face with someone like me, perhaps you never will be able to fully, but we can slowly work you up to be able to take on someone much stronger than you could now.”

“I think she’ll be able to take you one day.”

Feros had let himself in at some point, he was inclined to sneak into the sessions lately, despite the fact that he claimed to need all the time he could with Alice getting her properly disciplined and prepared. He seemed drawn to keep returning and annoying my new trainer.

“Thank you for the opinion no one asked for,” she said dryly, rolling her eyes but not giving him the satisfaction of her casting him a glance. “You seem to be really intent on making sure we know every single thought and opinion that goes through your head.”

“Oh no, you’d really hate me then,” the fiend said with a broad grin.

“Anyway,” she said much louder than necessary, “I think now is a good time to break down what went right before we break for a meal. I can sense your core is running a bit lower today, I think we’re starting to run up against your magical exhaustion.”

I sent my senses inward and found that she was right, it was not overly noticeable yet, but I did feel more tired than usual. It was not the bleak exhaustion like I used to feel when training as a child or when I overexerted myself with the inferno, but it would explain the lower lack of concentration that I felt I should be capable of. There was improvement, but deep down I knew I could be doing better with my current skills, perhaps the extended training hours were getting to me, it had been a while since I kept a full training schedule and not just a couple hours in the evening.

“Two major improvements I saw today from you were that you knew to roll away once it was obvious that I had placed your location and secondly you didn’t fall for my feint. Both of those have caught you up before, so you are learning quickly, but you’re still producing too much light with your fire. Did you mean to use it as a means to see?”

"The very first time yes, the second and third, no,” I admitted, “it just feels impossible to make it completely light-less right now.”

“Dark flame is a very tricky skill, even for the very skilled with elemental fire,” Feros chimed in.

“Dark flame is difficult to master, I think you’re doing well given you are not overly familiar with it.” Ana talked right over Feros like she hadn’t heard him at all. “In fact, you just attuned to it right before I arrived, correct?”

“Yes, it seems to be something that I was always meant to have but had been missing this whole time.”

The demon pressed her periwinkle lips together and turned her head to the side, staring at nothing in particular as she thought. “That worries me a bit, you are a human and shouldn’t have been so easily attuned to such an element.”

“I was very proficient in human realm fire,” I offered, “I was not able to create it, but it called to me and I could call to it.”

She nodded, but her facial expression did not change. “That I’m afraid does not settle my thoughts on the matter. Though, I see no instability in you yet, but it’s something to watch.”

“Instability?” I really did not like that word being applied to magic and me.

“Is nothing to worry about for you right now,” she answered with a wave of her hand. “Let’s get you a nice meal and a moment to rest and we’ll pick this up again this afternoon. Meet me in the garden this time, I have an idea on how to further test how far you’ve come so far.” Ana turned and for the first time in days, leveled her gaze at Feros directly. “You are invited.”

His grin wider than ever, Feros clasped his hands before him and bowed deeply to her. “Oh of course, I would never think to ignore an invitation from a lovely creature such as yourself.”

Ana took a deep breath in sharply like she was about to use the air to shout, but instead clasped her hands tightly into fists at her sides and raised her chin high in the opposite expression from his bow. “You test me.” Her voice was barely above a whisper, but contained a quiet rage that made me a little afraid to be anywhere near her in the moment. “Do not think I find your antics cute or endearing in anyway, I would suggest you stop before I reach a breaking point.”

“My dear, I think you’re forgetting that I survived the last time you did.”