Chapter 31

”I did it.” Raiel whispered, gazing at his own palm in silence. ”Something definitely happened, right?” he asked Yaeth, his head swirling to catch his friend’s eye.

”I think so. There was a tiny sound, and the grass did move, but I didn’t actually see anything.” he slowly clarified, eyes thoughtful.

”How’s it supposed to look, then?”

”Like... a wave through water, but in the air instead, you know. A transparent wave. Try again.”

”Right.” Raiel agreed resolutely, closing his eyes and trying to regain the focus he had had in that moment.

Within himself, he went through the same steps he had done many times by now and pushed the energy out with all his might.

”Haah!” Raiel shouted, aiming his open palm straight forward to display any effect as clearly as possible.

Nothing happened.

Yaeth slapped him hard in the middle of his back, making him arch as the stinging pain hit. ”Why the hell did you shout like that?” he scowled. ”You scared the shit out of me!”

Rubbing his back with a frown, feeling unfairly treated, Raiel shrugged his shoulders. ”Don’t know. Got caught up in the moment I suppose. Not that it worked, anyway.”

”I closed my eyes when you yelled, so I didn’t see. Are you sure it didn’t work?”

”Pretty sure, yeah.”

Raiel kept trying and got it again after four more tries. Then he did it again two tries later, then again after two tries and then three times in a row, finally realizing what the image he needed was. It was not enough to think of his hand as a permeable surface, but once he imagined the substance flowing through his body like water through a pipe, he managed to eject a subdued force from his palm, stirring the grass slightly when he held his hand a few centimeters form the ground.

It was weak. It would be no exaggeration to call it useless as it was. Hopefully, with practice, the pulsing wave of force would manifest itself as something that could actually be of real practical use, instead of the exciting but ultimately powerless ripple it currently was.

Yaeth still had more ideas for things to try, but the second idea was the meditation-type ability that he had already learned during his time in captivity and used to acquire proficiency in the local language. This was called a mind dive, which referred to the way in which it apparently allowed the user to access recent experiences and memories consciously and make sense of them much more effectively than normally.

Unfortunately, as before, for some reason he could not quite enter that state of trance-like quiet. Whenever he tried, his mind would feel like it was falling back through his head and into the earth, seeking a dark and silent place where his thoughts could flourish undisturbed. But, just before he reached that perfect place, his mind surged up, seeping back into his head and forcing him back to complete consciousness.

Yaeth did not know a lot about it, since, as he said, ‘it wasn’t as cool as the other stuff’, so he could not help in the same way as with the hand explosion. Eventually, Raiel gave up for now, promising himself to reacquire that ability, seeing how crucial it had been to his eventual integration into society.

Without the language, he would never have been able to negotiate with Tali at all. Not that there had been much negotiation there in reality. In fact, there was little doubt in his mind, that most of what had happened to him since coming here had been orchestrated by her.

Then, Yaeth had told him about the ability to manipulate substance outside the body, which could be utilized in a plethora of ways to bring forth countless different phenomena.

Raiel could clearly feel the energy swirling around him, but he had tried to grasp it before and to direct it by his will, like that which resided within him, but to no avail. It refused to move even a millimeter, simply flowing and weaving through itself as it seemed to do in an endless cycle of inactivity, the flow seemed random yet purposeful, as though it was chasing a goal, but knew there was no hurry to reach it and that all would happen as it should in time.

Raiel could say with a strange certainty, that he was not yet ready to take command like that, his ability clear but unpolished.

After asked Yaeth’s father, they managed to convince him to have a few sparring matches with them, helping them along and giving tips to hone their skills with the sword. Raiel eagerly tried to absorb everything as best he could, while Yaeth, a bit less interested in martial arts, went along with it like it was routine, clearly proficient with a sword. Apparently, his father, with his impressive military background, had insisted on some form of training during his childhood to keep him healthy and on his toes, if nothing else.

Edward was openly displeased with Yaeth’s unwillingness to take a combat class at school, reminding him how important it was to be prepared for violence or to be able to protect those he loved.

Yaeth just snorted, assuring him that he was plenty capable of beating up any street ruffian that might be unfortunate enough to stumble onto his path. Edward too, snorted in response, showing how truly alike they were, equally stubborn, and proceeded to show Yaeth just how wrong he thought he was by whooping his ass in a mock fight.

In the end Yaeth did not take his words back, but he certainly did not proclaim them proudly for the world to hear, either. He did mutter something about a stupid old man who was too battle-crazed for his own good.

They ate an early dinner before going to find a carriage that could take them back to campus before classes in the morning. After classes, Raiel would have to go to work to earn money and then after that, he would have to do at least some of the homework assigned.

He really wanted to learn, and keeping up with the work was the obvious way to do that, but there really was a lot to see to. Sometimes, if time forced him to, he would have to pick what work he could manage to do properly and hurry through the rest.

Since finding out that he might be hunted by some very powerful people, he had become determined to train himself as much as possible to prepare for anything that might happen. This, he had to do either early in the morning or in the evening, or sometimes in between activities during the day.

Thus, he spent two and a half weeks getting into a routine of school, work and training, almost seeming like a normal student. One constant thought would not leave his mind, however, persisting through each day, lingering with an itch in the back of his head. That cursed list.

A list full of names that might just be responsible for causing his whole life to collapse around him all those years ago, even if he could not remember anything from before the night that marked the death of the boy and the birth of a wild creature. Although he might have found his way into human society once more, he was certain that he was not the person he had been. How could he be, when the hunters had forced his mother to such drastic measures?

With no progress in sight, how would those people pay for their deeds? Would not drastic measures of his own simply be but a path to settle a debt? Raiel wanted to keep calm and act rationally, making good use of the new ways to tackle a problem that he had been presented with in the past few months. But, his patience was faltering and as the days went by, he realized how he hungered. Hungered for vengeance for the sins wrought upon his family and himself.

”Coming in to report, ma’am!” the hooded man declared with a salute as he stood straight in the small office, his eyes staring straight ahead, gaze unmoving.

”Continue.” Tali said, her voice muffled by the tea cup raised to her lips. Today as well, she had chosen the blend of Whorlberry and Whiteleaf that she had come to favor recently. It did her good in the morning and caused any cold to evaporate without a trace.

Her eyes were closed in content, and the moment would be absolutely perfect and serene if only her subordinate wasn’t blabbering like a broken music box. She might have put him on the assignment herself, but that did not mean that she had to like it.

”...and he hasn’t really been doing anything besides his regular daily activities lately, ma’am.” the man said, his eyes hidden by the shadow cast by his cowl.

”Has he been going to work regularly?” she asked.

”Yes, since he recovered from his injuries, he’s been working dutifully.”

”Good. Good.” Tali did not want to have to step in to pay his tuition for him should he fail to go to work properly. The last thing she wanted was to coddle the boy and end up with a complacent layabout who thought he could get away with anything. Not that she would ever let it get that far in any case. She would dispose of such a disappointing prospect long before it came to that. She needed someone who knew he had to work for his food.

”He’s been practicing infusion and seem to have achieved some results... more or less...” the spy noted.

”More or less?” Tali pressed, eyebrow raised but eyes still closed.

”Well, remember how I told you he was doing some kind of weird movements last week, and that we couldn’t figure out what it was?” he asked leadingly.

”I do indeed recall that odd piece of information, yes.” she said with a sigh, the tea cup coming to her lips again.

”Ah, good...” her spy said with hesitation as he began to sweat. The Battle Chief really knew how to unsettle a poor man who was just trying to do his moderately paid job. ”Well, we think he might have been trying to perform an emission of force, ma’am.”

This made her look up at the shady-looking man dressed in full camouflage uniform. ”Truly?”

”Aye, that is what we think he’s doing, ma’am.”

”And you mentioned results... more or less?”

”Ah, yes. We’re not... actually completely sure if he can do it yet.” the man clarified. ”If he can, it’s not visible from where we’re sitting.”

”It takes practice to get it right.” Tali said through the raised cup.

”Of course, ma’am! You’re right!” The hooded man re-saluted out of reflex, dropping the salute he was already doing and immediately took the same position again.

Tali sighed into her cup, which was rapidly emptying. ”Relax...”

”Right!” He dropped the salute, but looked even more tense than before.

”And get my another cup of tea, please.”

The man froze in place, not sure how to react. ”But that’s not really my...-”

A look from the Battle Chief shut him up and sent him stumbling out of her office to the staff kitchen down the hall. drawing astonished glances from the few people there to see him. He quickly returned with the kettle and tea leaves.

As the hooded man poured hot water into her cup, she decided that whatever this tea he had brought instead of the one she was already drinking might be worth a try, too.