Dartelo's body was flying through the air and the ground was getting closer and closer. He couldn't see a way out of this one without a broken bone or two and on pure instinct barely managed to shift his body and aim his feet as best he could.

Bang!

Specks of dried dirt flew up into the air, like a mist. Siem patiently waited for the dirt to fall back down to earth, a smile upon his face.

'The pup didn't start yelling, so he should be fine.' he thought.

As the air cleared up, amidst the dirt was Dartelo, curiously standing straight as he looked towards the ground. The earth around his feet seemed as if it had been blown away. He was standing in the middle of a circle that was about half a meter wide and a few fingers deep. There was a look of astonishment on his face.

"Did I use it?" he mumbled to himself, trying to remember what had happened.

He could faintly remember some sort of specks surrounding his legs as they made contact with the ground and then..., nothing. It was as if all of the speed and force of his fall had disappeared. There was no pain, no broken bones, not even a speck of blood. Only a slight dizziness, as if he had been twirling around in the same spot for a few seconds.

Dartelo looked up at his master, and asked, "What is this?"

In the meantime, Siem had casually sat down on the stump and had started chewing on a piece of grass, with a troubled look as if he was contemplating the vicissitudes of life. He shrugged, conveying the sense that even he had no idea.

This was not unexpected. Siem's memories of his time on Voranda were not plentiful. In all honesty, he himself barely understood Godspeed, not having learned the complete basics before he was torn away from his loved ones in one of the kingdom's numerous wars. He could faintly remember the variations of Godspeed his parents and cousins had had, but it was a fleeting sort of memory. Nothing more than a disorganized slew of colors and voices and thumps. It was a miracle at all that he retained as much as he had at such a young age.

Siem gazed at his apprentice for a moment, before he said, "We shall have to do a bit more testing before I'm sure."

Dartelo shrieked as he turned away, rushing to the kitchen door. Just as his hand landed on a handle, another hand landed on his shoulder. He froze in terror.

"Quit your squirming, pup, we can't test it out now anyway. Took me a day or so to be able to use my power the second time around." Siem quickly explained, as he turned the teenager around. "Now, sit down and tell me exactly what you felt."

'I saw my life flash before my eyes, you coot!' Dartelo angrily thought, but decided against voicing his complaints. His master did not seem like the type that would condone such behavior.

He tried his best to explain the sensation he had experienced as best as he could. This, of course, quickly turned into a rambling of vague and minute sensations he had experienced. Siem frowned, scratching the skin behind his left ear, as he tried to find a similar Godspeed power in his memories.

After Dartelo had rambled on and on for close to five minutes, Siem finally lifted his hand and silenced him.

With a look of understanding, he said, "I think I have seen something akin to this, when I once saw a family member of mine defend herself. She had angered her father, because she did not want to accept an arranged marriage, so he lashed out and aimed a slap at her face."

'Arranged marriages? Where did Siem grow up!?' Dartelo thought with utter shock. Such backward ways had been unheard of after The Fall. The Vilruhns were ordinary people, not weak, but definitely ordinary. Reading and writing were things they considered important, so they had taught Dartelo from a young age, but not much was written about the times surrounding The Fall. All that he knew was that up until that moment, everyone had done things one way and lived peacefully, yet afterwards the people in Pietra had changed their ways and the countries around them had begun waging war on one another.

'I wonder if Lord Alfors knows more about The Fall.' he wondered.

Suddenly, a pair of fingers as strong as a vice locked onto his cheek and clenched. Dartelo immediately cried out.

"Are you listening to me, pup?! I dare you to daydream again, while I'm teaching!" Siem's voice loudly banged against his eardrums.

"I'm listening, master, I'm listening. I swear!" he meekly said, as he held onto his swollen cheek. The fingers had left their marks and would probably take a day or so to fade, if he was lucky enough not to bruise.

"Then you must have clearly heard me saying that the girl in question managed to turn her father's slap back onto him." Siem said with a smile, his mood having greatly improved after the small bout of torture. "Her Godspeed was the ability to repel anything harmful back and that was the first time she managed to awaken it. It wasn't a mighty power, because it only used her skin, so as long as something managed to pierce her skin, she could do nothing. But blunt force was useless in front of her. While your power is not the same, it is related to it nonetheless. We shall be able to verify it tomorrow morning, but I believe your legs managed to spread out the force of your fall onto the ground."

Dartelo, still rubbing his cheek with one hand, asked, "What good is such a Godspeed then, master?"

"It is neither good nor bad. It's what you make of it." Siem said, and then ushered the boy towards the courtyard's only entrance and exit. "Now let's get some food into your belly. You've got a big day ahead of you tomorrow."

The teenager could clearly see the malicious glint in his master's eyes. 'Holy Pietra, why must you test me so...'

Siem, after managing to scour some food with the tavern master Noar's help. A few of the soldiers had sat down on the same table, hoping to have fun at Dartelo's expense. The old soldier excused himself, leaving the boy to fend for himself with a chuckle.

He quickly made his way up the stairs and down the corridor, lightly rapping on the wooden door.

"Enter." Lord Alfors' voice sounded from behind the door.

The Vorandan let himself in, closing the door as he entered the room. It was far larger than his own, with a giant desk and chair at the far end and a bed near the door. The desk was at the room's end and there were several windows which surrounded it, giving ample light. The sun's rays came in from the side windows and landed on Lord Alfors, who was busily going through stacks of letters and parchments that always seemed to follow him wherever he went.

"My lord, the boy has awakened the power." Siem said, his body rigidly upright.

Lord Alfors looked up with a bland face. His face resembled that of a father that had been just told a particularly bad joke by his children for the hundredth time.

"Details, then."

"A few of my kin managed to awaken the power on their first try like him. This holds no significance for its strength, but it means he might progress faster at taming it than others would. He said he felt something in his legs, so after I ruled out a change in their strength, I tossed him a little. He landed with no harm whatsoever coming to him, even though he was at least a good 4 meters up in the air."

"Does it have potential, then?" Lord Alfors asked.

"Oh, indeed my lord. I can think of a few very suitable uses." Siem said, as his lips curled up.