The first thing Helnion noticed when she appeared at their new place was that they were inside a poorly lit room. There were two windows in the room but each had large, thick drapes covering them. The room also had a single bed, a simple desk, and a chair.

"This is where you will stay for the moment," Triosa said to Helnion. "I will train you here until I am satisfied you can handle more advanced lessons in magic Melche has instructed me to teach you."

Helnion was curious about what kind of training she was going to receive, especially the new kind of magic Melche had mentioned. She was even more curious as to where she was at the moment and began heading towards the nearest window to see outside.

Triosa stepped in front of Helnion, blocking her. "I covered the windows as part of your training. I have heard how easily you get distracted and I plan to fix that. So, for now, you will not be leaving this room or be able to see what lies outside."

Triosa walked over to the bed and pulled off a cushion from on top of it. She then placed it in the middle of the floor.

“Sit,” pointed to the cushion.

Helnion was not sure what was going on, and taking one last look at the window she groaned and sat down.

"Good," Triosa said. "Now make a ball of light in front of you."

Helnion was happy she had been told to make something so easy. Making magical light was so easy it was one magic she could keep using even if something distracted her.

When the room lit up from Helnion's light Triosa told her something that made her groan again. "Your first lesson will be to keep the light going as long as possible. I will also be watching its intensity. If it wavers I will know your concentration is wavering and I will punish you whenever that happens."

Triosa walked to the wall next to the door and picked up a long, thin stick. She then walked over to Helnion and struck Helnion's left wrist with it, making Helnion yelp.

"Do not watch me. Only see the light and keep it steady. I will let you know when it is time to quit." Triosa said.

Helnion sighed. She did not want to do this lesson. She was more than happy with who she was and did not care that others saw her as she was. The only reason she had even tried to improve her concentration on Korron was that there was nothing to do and nothing to see there aside from training. Now that she was away from that, she just wanted to enjoy the world.

Helnion felt a sting on her wrist. Triosa had struck her again. "Your mind is wandering." She said. "Keep your mind on the light and only the light."

Helnion wondered if she could back out of this agreement. If she had known she would have to go through this kind of training would she be here? Yes, she would have. Salis was her friend, and she wanted to find her even if she had to do this.

Helnion was stuck again.

The vicious cycle continued for five more hours. Helnion had kept the light going the whole time but her attention wandered so much that her wrists were raw and Triosa had even drawn some blood.

"It is time for the evening meal," Triosa said at long last.

Immediately after, Helnion heard a knock on the door and Triosa answered it.

Helnion had been unable to see who had brought the food and tried her best to see around Triosa but the woman seemed to know what she was trying to do and blocked her view.

"Eat," Triosa said, setting a plate on a small desk.

Helnion nodded and groaned as her aching muscles protested to her as she stood. She even fell twice because her legs had lost their feeling.

Helnion sighed with relief as she sat down on the chair and began to eat. None of her training had ever tired her this much. Sure she had had harder physical training but never had her head felt this tired, except after using Concentration Mode.

"Sit," Triosa pointing to the cushion as soon as Helnion had finished eating, "We will continue our exercise until it is time to retire for the night.

Helnion fell out of her chair on purpose upon hearing this and did not move. She did not want to move and hoped that Triosa would eventually give up.

Instead, Helnion felt herself being lifted into the air. She was then set upright and her legs were forcibly crossed and she was put into a sitting position. She was then placed squarely on the cushion.

"You agreed to this training and I will see that you do everything," Triosa said.

Helnion groaned again and was soon hit, this time higher up her wrist.

"Any more complaining will not be tolerated. You agreed to this and were allowed to decline."

Helnion almost groaned again but caught herself. She did not want to be struck again if she could manage it.

The rest of the night ended up the same as the afternoon had. No matter how hard she tried to concentrate on the light, something always made her mind wander. Even thinking about the light made her mind go into a cycle about thinking about the light and she eventually would be struck by Triosa.

Eventually, Helnion became so tired that she passed out right on the cushion.

* * *

"This stage of training is now over," Triosa said after torturing Helnion for a week. "I admit I have rarely come across someone such as you."

Triosa was not looking at Helnion with admiration but with wonderment, "To think that after a week of training and with such a simple exercise we would fail.”

Helnion rubbed her arms from the memories of that week. She had been struck so many times that Triosa had to keep moving up her arms to keep from drawing blood. As such her arms were now covered in swollen red stripes up to her shoulders.

"Because this technique has been shown ineffective Lady Melche has told me to train you with a different approach."

Helnion wondered what kind of torture she would go through next.

"Seeing that even the slightest thing distracts you, instead of fighting it, we will work around the problem." By this time Triosa expected for Helnion to not ask questions so she did not wait for her to ask any. "I will attempt to teach you how to use the more advanced magics without requiring your full attention."

Triosa opened the door to the room and motioned for Helnion to exit. "I do not wish to damage the building so your training from now on will be outside, even though there will be many more distractions."

Helnion was excited to finally leave the room and almost ran out of it. It had been so long since she had been on Calorin and she had been itching to get outside and see everything again. She hoped it was spring because that was when the world was at its best in her opinion.

Helnion, practically not noticing the small antechamber, burst outside the small house and looked at the sight in front of her. She saw she was in the mountains near a small village. There were no people or houses nearby but saw that a village was not too far. Immediately around the house, save in the direction of the village, was a forest.

Helnion wondered what interesting things she could see in the village and the forest. What were people doing in a place so high in the mountains? What kind of animals live up here? Where was this place?

Then Helnion remembered. Salis had lived in a village like this. What was its name? She wondered if this was that very village and if Salis might have come back here. No, Salis' village was too obvious of a place for her to hide in so she would probably not be there..

"Where are we?" Helnion said to Triosa after a minute.

Triosa, who was now wearing a veil that covered every part of her face but her eyes, said, "Al-Kel, one of the many iron mining villages in the Flaern Mountains."

Helnion tried to remember if that was the name of the village Salis was from but it did not seem right so she decided it was not. Then she remembered that the name of Salis' village started with a "P." and ended with the "-Kel" but all mining villages ended with the "-Kel" or so she remembered.

"Is there one that starts with a "P"? Helnion asked.

Triosa thought for a minute. "I am not very familiar with Flaern but I believe there is one called Porra-Kel not far to the east."

Porra-Kel! That was it! Helnion was sure Salis would not have gone back there, but she wanted to see the place her friend had lived for so long. She wanted to visit Salis' adopted family, see the place she slept and to see the place she had worked. Helnion could just imagine all the stories Salis' family and neighbors had to tell.

"Come," Triosa said, heading behind the house in the opposite way from the village.

Helnion looked from Triosa and back to the village but hurried to catch up to the woman before she was forcefully levitated into following. Thankfully her leg had healed enough not to use the crutches anymore so keeping up with the woman was easy.

The two did not walk long before they came to a stop in a seemingly random place in the forest.

"Sit," Triosa pulled out a blanket and setting it on the ground.

Helnion sat down on the blanket and looked around, wondering what was so special about this spot.

"How much experience do you have with the methods of making ice with magic?" Triosa said.

Helnion thought for a second. As far as she could remember she had only ever trained in two ways of making ice. These were simply using magic to cause cold or using magic to transfer heat from one place to another. Still, she thought, had she been taught about other ways? There was a more advanced method which collected water from the area and freezing, but she had never been good at that.

"I want you to use the method of converting magical energy directly into cold. You can do this can you not?" Triosa said.

Helnion nodded.

The next thing Triosa did took Helnion by surprise. The veiled woman was staring at a spot just in front of Helnion. Within seconds something began to form. It was made of crystal and in a flash it formed into a large jar.

Helnion marveled at the jar. Never had she seen this kind of magic. She had never heard of anything like it either. If Triosa had not been a servant directly under Melche, she would not have known to make of what had happened. She still did not know what to make of it.

Helnion then noticed a mist forming rapidly in the area and in moments the mist had collapsed into the jar, leaving it nearly filled with water. Since Helnion had seen this done before, it didn’t surprise her like the making of the jar had. The only thing that impressed her about the act was how fast it she did it. She had only seen master Priests of Melche do it so fast.

"Freeze the water," Triosa said.

Helnion looked at the water and focused her magic. Nothing noticeable happened at first. Helnion had never practiced this method much because it made her use her magical energy faster than the heat transfer method despite requiring less concentration.

The water froze and soon after quickly thawed. Helnion was confused at how it could have melted so fast.

"Good," Triosa said. "As expected you can do something as simple as freezing. I also see that you noticed that it melted almost immediately.

"Your training will be to keep the water frozen for as long as possible. Since I will apply a constant heat to the bottom of the jar, you will have to overpower me. If it melts to the top, you will fail the test."

Helnion looked at the water. This test did not seem too much different from what she had been doing for the last week except that it would drain her much more quickly.

Helnion looked back at the water and sighed.