The Next Step

Music rang out in Adam’s room, while he played his flute for Silber. He had holed up in his room in an attempt to avoid Helen after the embarrassing confession and subsequent rejection. As he progressed through the song, Adam paid attention to how each tone affected Silber. He was hoping to compose a song that Silber liked so much, he would do more than just wag his tail or lift his head!

Silber seemed to respond more favorably to long tones, compared to short notes. As he continued experimenting, Adam thought back to the night he had spent out in the forest. The first night, the wolves had called out to one another with howls. In many ways, the howls resembled long tones. With sudden inspiration, Adam decided to emulate wolf howls as best as he could.

When these ‘howling’ tones emanated from Adam’s flute, Silber perked his head up. After a moment, he leaned his head back and gave a little howl in response! Adam stopped playing and looked at Silber with surprise. Silber just looked back, innocently wagging his tail. Adam couldn’t help smiling as he once again began playing those howling tones, to which Silber joined in.

As the two continued their little duet, Adam had a sudden revelation! For months, his Spiritualist studies had been at a standstill. He had tried every method he could think of to make the Spirit Formations Cathryn showed him work, none of which was met with success. Since the Formations weren’t working for him, why use them? He would instead formulate a song that Spirit Essence would react to! He wouldn’t command Spirit Essence with Spirit Formations, he would make it dance to his tune!

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Despite his revelation, Adam’s hardly progressed on his Path. Even after two months, Adam hadn’t been able to make a proper Formation. But, he knew he was headed in the right direction. If he played his songs in just the right way, Spirit Essence began to dance along! Unfortunately, this only transformed the song to suddenly become more alive to the listeners. He had yet to achieve anything more than that.

In these last two months, Silber had grown quite a bit. Not only had he grown, but he had broken free of the depression that had held him since the night the Ghul killed his pack. When the military had tracked the Ghul down and killed it, Adam told the joyous news to Silber. The little wolf didn’t seem to understand what he said, though.

No longer depressed, Silber had become a very active puppy. Madame’s was not a proper place to raise such a pup so Adam had to give him to Julienne. Luckily, Madame Janette was fine if Silber visited for a few hours, but he had to stay in the area behind the dorm. She didn’t want Silber getting loose and disturbing any of Madame’s patrons.

While Adam was in the middle of playing a tug of war game with Silber, Helen came skipping along: “Silber!”

Silber immediately let go of the piece of rope they were playing with and trotted over to Helen with a bark. She picked him up to be greeted by tons of dog kisses.

Adam sigh at this. Despite all he had done for the pup, Silber seemed to have taken more of a liking to Helen after the duel he had with Alfred. Despite the melancholy thought, Adam smiled. To see Helen’s Aura radiate with joy while she was with Silber was worth it.

It had taken Helen a while to finally forgive Adam and Alfred for pulling that duel stunt. Even now, Adam wasn’t sure what he exactly needed to be ‘forgiven’ for, but he took it. Helen would hardly talk to them and Adam was willing to admit any fault so things could go back to normal between them.

After Silber calmed down, Helen asked Adam: “Are you excited for tomorrow? Kadara wouldn't stop squealing to me about finally getting a real sword.”

Adam chuckled: “I’d forgotten until you mentioned it.”

Hansen had finally thought it was time for them to move up from wooden swords to metal swords. This was the next step that would move them closer to their goals. Just thinking about it, Adam couldn’t help excitement from bubbling in the pit of his stomach.

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Adam met up with everyone the next morning. Just as Helen said, Kadara was squealing: “Eee, today’s the day! Can you believe it!?”

Franklin clutched his ears in pain: “I don’t think you need a sword to kill people, Kadara.”

“Oh Shut up.”

They met up with Hansen at their usual spot. Hansen stood waiting for them with several small sheets of cloth on the ground. On top of each was a sword! When everyone stood before him, Hansen spoke: “The swords have been prepared. I will teach you how to not cut yourself with your own sword and how to maintain it. Adam, this sword is yours.”

Everyone looked at the sword Hansen gestured towards. All the other swords were plain, but this one was different. The crossguard had been molded to look like an eagle spreading its wings! Even the materials making the sheath and hilt seemed a step above the other swords.

Derek yelled out what the rest were thinking: “Why does Adam get the cool sword!?”

Hansen gave Derek a dark glare as his response. Derek paled under the glare and didn’t say anything more.

Adam hadn’t actually paid attention to what Derek said. His attention was on the sword. It was hard to tell with his Spirit Sight, but it looked rather familiar. Memories of a sword hung by the entrance to his house surfaced in his mind.

Reaching out a hand to touch the sword, Adam asked: “Is this… my father’s sword?”

Hansen nodded: “Just before he died, your father passed it to me. I promised to hand it to you when you were ready.”

Adam picked up the sword and held it for a moment: “Thank you.”

Bruno and Clyde looked on with envy: “I wish we had dad’s sword.”

“Yeah, but how would we share it?”

“Break it in half?”

Hansen gave a sharp rap to the boys’ heads. “Stop fooling around, get to a sword!”

Once everyone sat by a sword, Hansen began his instruction. After a few safety rules, they picked up their swords as Hansen guided them through the process. As they lifted them, everyone came to realize something: real swords are heavy! They had all gotten used to the wooden swords they practiced with and hadn’t even thought about the weight difference metal would bring.

Following Hansen’s instruction, Adam carefully pulled his sword from its scabbard. Adam felt no resistance as it smoothly pulled free. The sword glistened under the sun. It was clear of any blood or rust. Adam could only see the swords form in his Spirit Sight, so he carefully ran his fingers across the flat of the blade. The cool metal was smooth and free of blemishes. The sword had clearly been well maintained since his father had died. The only one who could have done this was Hansen. Adam was extremely grateful for this and decided he would have to find a way to properly thank him.

When they were finally done with the day’s lesson, Hansen told them: “Leave your swords with me. I will bring them tomorrow when we start training in earnest.”

“What!? Why?” Derek exclaimed. He then immediately regretted it as Hansen once again cast him a death glare.

Hansen curtly responded: “Cuz you're overconfident! You’ll try to train on your own and will cut your arm off in the process! I’ve seen it before.”

Derek quickly put the sword back on the blanket before leaving like a frightened rabbit!

Alfred couldn’t help shaking his head: “Why does that oaf always have to open his big mouth? It just gets him into more trouble.”