Keira had not slept well though in truth, she didn’t need to.

The vital energy that surged through her reinvigorated her body and refreshed her mind to a degree. But there was still prolonged fatigue that required time to recover.

Unfortunately, the day of training and arguing with Nimh had left her somewhat adrift. She tried to overcome that by focussing on training, only to flounder, irritating not just herself, but Nimh as well.

She did not feel great about that but consoled herself that she had time. Despite what Nimh had said, it was him, not her that would be conquering this world. And if he failed, then maybe she could expatriate herself.

Hatalmas was just one City-states. Its enemies would always welcome those that could turn on their home. Or so Sebastian had indicated. It was one of the reasons that security was such a rigid concern of the powerful.

And why desertion was a crime punishable by death. But if the Prime was focused on Nimh, then she could escape, it wasn’t impossible.

Too bad that the thought made her feel dirty. She hated the idea of abandoning people, even people like Nimh. Was he a good man? Maybe, in the right context. He had trained her and not taken advantage of her while she was weak. Instead, he had raised her up, which had earned him some measure of trust.

But he had his dark side, she had seen it when he tainted Sebastian. Had felt it when he heard about the prolific slavery common in her society.

He was alien to her, and though she wanted to understand him better, she felt he would not let that happen. He had secrets, plans and strategies that she could only suspect.

His knowledge was enough to make him dangerous. If she could utilise that knowledge, then she could ensure her own survival for a time. She could use him. That thought made her sick.

It was a mentality that people she had known all her life possessed. Her father had it, Wolfgang had it, and her mother had it. She did not doubt Nimh had it to an extent too. But his approach left her confused.

Was he really going to raise people up to follow him? It was madness. Yet it was how the current Prime claimed dominion of Hatalmas.

Accepting that rest would not come here, Keira made her way back up the stairs towards the training room, only to pause at the door.

Nimh was sitting still, in the centre of the room. The walls, which had been decorated with weapons were bare. Now they hung from the ceiling by ropes. Looking up, she saw they were connected to some sort of pulley system.

This left Nimh surrounded by swords, spears, and other assorted weapons. There were also heavy weights, half as many weapons, hanging there, each the size of Nimh’s chest. They did not move, while Nimh sat there in meditation.

“If you are ready, we will be working on your spirit sense today,” his voice reverberated through the room. The hanging forest of weights and weapons trembled at the sound.

With practised ease, he rolled to his feet, calmly stepping through the hanging objects,

“What is that?” Keira asked, pointing at the weapons.

“I was surprised to notice it myself,” Nimh said, looking over at his handy work. “I suspect it had a different function for Wolfgang, but for us, we can use it as a training tool.”

He turned back to her. “Now, are you ready to train?”

Keira tried to motivate herself but failed, only giving a half-hearted nod. Nimh sighed.

“A lack of motivation today. Well, I suppose it’s better than a lack of interest. I guess a demonstration would work, but first, have you managed to use your spirit sense yet?”

“What is that?” she asked.

“Spirit sense, is a type of awareness. When you tapped into your spirit yesterday, did you feel a connection to the world around you?”

Keira hadn’t and she shook her head in response, making Nimh frown.

“Well then, basics first. Close your eyes and tap into your spirit,’ Nimh instructed. Keira obeyed, though it took longer than she would have liked. She needed to practise that.

“Now,” Nimh continued once Keira was ready, “let your spirit build up within your spirit well and let it flow through and out of your body. Don’t release it, hold it gently and try to feel what is around you.”

Keira obeyed, finding the exercise relatively straightforward. The only problem was her spirit well emptied quickly, so her spirit could only spread out about a hand's width from her body before it hit its limit.

“Good,” Nimh said. “Now hold it there and let yourself feel everything that passes through your spiritual awareness.”

Easy for him to say, there was nothing to ‘feel’ except the air. She almost said as much before a flare of spirit lit up in front of her. On reflex, she staggered back, her spirit slipping from her grasp as her eyes shot open.

Nimh was standing there, his open palm frozen in place. Keira could not read his expression, but she flushed in embarrassment.

“What was that?” she demanded, trying to hide her blush with anger.

Nimh just shook his head. “Get your spirit sense back up, this time open your eyes. It will overload your senses a bit, but I can’t guide you if you overreact to everything I do.”

“I’m not overreacting!” she argued, but Nimh just waved her comment away.

“Reactivate your spirit sense, then attack me. I will not strike back.” He spoke with such calm confidence that Keira’s anger vanished like a snuffed candle.

Slowly, she reactivated her spirit sense. This time she felt the entire space around her flare-up, picking up on something she could not see, only feel.

“That,” Nimh said, “Is my spirit sense. What you are feeling is a broad type of awareness, not focused or concentrated on you.” Keira was amazed at the sensation, only to feel cold seep through her as she felt it narrow and focus on her. “That is a focused type of awareness,” Nimh continued. “Far more concentrated and grants you far more accuracy when you try to sense your target, though not so much for your surroundings.”

The sensation vanished and Keira took in a deep breath.

“What you are doing now is creating a limited area of awareness. It functions well to understand your immediate surroundings but is vague on the details. It will tell you how many people are around, but not how strong they are. Or it will when your spirit well can hold more of your spirit.”

“How do I do that?” Keira asked, throat dry.

“It's pretty simple,” Nimh said. “Fuel the spirit seed with spirit, over time it will grow. The more it grows, the more it will fortify your spirit well and the more you fortify your spirit well the deeper you can expand it.”

“Expand it?” Keira asked.

“You can expand your well's, though to do it will hurt. With your spirit well, the more fortified it, the more resilient it is to damage, both from using your own spirit and from fending off other people’s spiritual attacks. The more you expand your spirit well, the more you can draw spiritual energy from beyond the spiritual seed. Just remember not to draw too much.”

“Why is that?” Keira asked.

Nimh shrugged. “Think of it this way, your spirit well holds your spiritual seed. Your spiritual seed holds your spirit. Your spirit connects you to the Realm of Infinite Dreams which powers the spiritual arts. But if you draw too much of your spirit through, you weaken your connection to the Realm of Infinite Dreams. Draw too much, and your spiritual seed will shrivel up and enter stasis.”

Keira was confused. “Is that a bad thing? The spiritual seed is needed to progress, I get that. But if it goes into stasis, doesn’t that mean you just can’t draw from the Realm of Infinite Dreams?” Nimh had explained the Realm of Infinite Dreams to her but hadn’t gone into much detail.

“That is not entirely accurate,” Nimh said slowly. “The spiritual arts require the connection to the Realm of Infinite Dreams to grow stronger, true. But what you are missing is that the spiritual seed fuels the spirit well. The well can survive the spiritual seed going into stasis, but without the steady influx of spiritual energy from the Realm of Infinite Dreams, the well grows weak. If you face someone skilled in the spiritual arts, then your well will take damage, but without the spiritual seed, you cannot easily recover, leaving you exposed to the next enemy.”

That made sense to Keira, but something Nimh said irked her.

“You said it was not easy. That isn’t the same as impossible, which is what you made it sound like without the spiritual seed.”

“There are ways,” Nimh conceded. “None of them I will teach you.”

“Why?”

Nimh eyed her, his gaze flinty. “Because some areas of the spiritual arts you should not tread unless you are willing to pay the price. Like I told you yesterday, some prices you cannot afford to pay.”

Keira wanted to argue, but Nimh’s eyes told her she would not budge.

“Alright,” Keira said, raising her hands in surrender. “I get it, don’t overdraw from the spiritual seed, fortify the well and expand it over time. Then I will be able to develop my spiritual arts. Doesn’t that mean this training is somewhat premature?”

Nimh smirked. “Did you think I wasn’t expecting your spirit sense to be this weak? I am well aware of how far you still have to go. What this is, is going to help you immediately. If you are going to hurry up and attack me, I will demonstrate.”

Frowning, Keira shot forward, aiming to punch Nimh in the gut. She was fast, and the distance between them was so short that she covered the distance in a flash. But as her punch closed in on him, Nimh turned, letting her pass him by.

Keira recovered quickly, spinning on her heel and flicking a kick at his knee. To which he responded by slipping back and raising his knee so she met his shin. Pain flared in her foot but she continued, launching blow after blow.

None of them scored a clean hit. And all of them left her battered, her fists bleeding from where he had blocked her, arms numb from pain. Even her legs and feet were bruised.

True to his word, Nimh had not attacked her. But her own attacks had done plenty of damage to herself.

Panting and holding back groans of pain, Keira stopped, looking at Nimh’s face for the first time since the exchange started. His eyes were closed, and a casual smile was on his lips.

“Spirit sense,” Nimh said calmly, “will allow you to read your vicinity with almost perfect acumen. Varying factors will impact that, but for the most part, you can control the space around you.”

Keira took a moment to digest. Nimh still had his eyes closed, but she sensed he was perfectly aware of everything in the room. It was a frightening prospect.

Then Nimh pointed at the weapons and weights suspended from the ceiling. “That,” he began, “will test your ability to detect and react to anything moving within range of your spiritual sense. The objects do not hold any spiritual energy, but if you focus hard enough, you can feel the ambient energy surrounding them, leaving them a void to your notice. It all comes down to your own spiritual sensitivity. I cannot teach you that, you must develop it on your own.”

He turned and walked towards the suspended weapons and weights. Before Keira realised what he was doing, Nimh struck one of the larger weights, a thunderous bang echoed through the room, followed by a cacophonic rhythm, like wind chimes as the weight struck weapons and weights on its path.

The noise intensified as all the suspended weapons and weights flew into motion and Keira felt a scream build up in her chest as she watched a storm of objects clash and buffet off each other, following no pattern she could determine.

Then with eye-disturbing chaos, the objects homed in on Nimh.

He now stood in the centre of the mess.