Not much changed over the intervening weeks since I had come to the tower. Once a week, I would spend a day in the tower meditating. With not much luck I might add. At least that little flame of energy that powered my gift had returned after four days. It was still a small flickering candle of a feeling but it was there. With its return, I had hoped to feel something of my surroundings that might point me to what my gift entailed but I didn’t feel drawn to anything, or averse to anything. Master said to keep working at it and he would conduct a search through the older archives to see if there were any similar gifts.

It would have been easy to take my frustrations out on my students during sparring. But I wasn’t like that. My initial day of training had been harsh to teach a lesson but after that, I observed and corrected. It was similar to how I had shown Gan in the beginning, the thought made me sad.

Enhanced reflexes and speed made the Chosen learn at a frightening pace. I could still beat them within a few strikes but that wouldn’t last long if they continued their training. They were already nearly as quick as I was pre-calling. They only lacked the foundations to take advantage of that.

But I didn’t spar with them. Having them spar against each other helped them improve at their pace and didn’t discourage them. I wasn’t left out completely though. When Thea joined the class, I sparred with her. She was a quick learner and had experience in actual fights so our spars were evenly matched. With me winning only about sixty percent of them. That was with her using her gift though.

I never figured water could be used the way she used it but damn if it wasn’t effective in a fight. Thankfully she only used it defensively. I still recalled her offensive demonstration when I asked her about that. The tree still sported a deep scar from her quick strike. She was also a shameless flirt. Not that I minded, she wasn’t actually attracted to me, she just liked to flirt. That had been one awkward misunderstanding on my part.

It was easy to forget that she was quite a bit older than me. She didn’t look much older than the initiates but I knew she had been a Master for nearly twenty years. That made her older than my father and while I enjoyed her company and our chats, that’s all they were. We were both fine with that arrangement as she never offered anything more than a polite kiss on the cheek and I wasn’t looking for a relationship so soon after what happened with Gan.

I just finished the swordsmanship class when I spotted Rycan walking through the yard. I waved at him and jogged over. “Master Rycan, hold up a moment, please.”

He paused and turned to me with a grin. “Well, if it isn’t our newest instructor. How’s the class?”

I rolled my eyes. “It's going good. Are you just back from your mission?”

“Yeah, came in a few hours ago. And before you ask, we checked out two of the locations on the map. There was nothing there but some ancestral ruins. It didn’t look like anyone had been there in years either.”

“Oh, how could you tell? A skill of yours?”

Rycan chuckled, “I wish. No, both places were overgrown with trees and grass. The grass might grow back but none of the trees looked disturbed. You’ll learn all about this when one of the Masters covers tracking. It’s a good skill to have if you aren’t in a team like mine. So, I’m sorry to disappoint you, we have no new news about your father.”

“No, that’s fine. Thanks again for doing this for me. It’s… It's not like I want to see him again. I just want answers.”

“Yeah, I can understand that. It’s been nice chatting but I gotta go, we got another mission.”

“Already? Well, stay safe. Tell the others I said hi.”

“Will do,” he replied with a wave as he hurried off.

The news that they hadn’t found anything was a bit disheartening. Then again, I had no real idea what I would say to my father when I saw him again. I’m sure inarticulate yelling would start off our reunion but that wouldn’t get me anywhere with him. It was something to think about.

I put the news behind me as I jogged to the other side of the courtyard. While my gift was still extremely weak, Master had given me some tips to help strengthen it. So I was going to go practice those now.

There were a few things I already knew I could affect with my gift. A stone speartip and a metal knife. Well, I wasn’t gonna get a metal knife but there was a small pile of metal marbles in the training area. So I figured I would start there. Master Mgumba taught me how to hold onto my reserve instead of expending it like I had been doing. This way at least I wouldn’t exhaust myself with only one test.

The training area was different than the sparring area. There were chairs and mats and little clay pots on a shelf. I grabbed the one marked metal and sat in one of the wicker chairs near a table.

“Oh, hey, Bakus,” Rebeka waved from the opposite side of the table. “Didn’t expect to see you over here.”

“Yeah, I think I’m finally ready to try some exercises Master showed me.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful, did you figure out what your calling is then?”

I shook my head and sighed. “No, at least not yet. But I figured I would return to what I was previously able to do and see where that takes me. But mainly I’m just working on strengthening my gift.”

“Oh, sorry about that,” she replied looking embarrassed.

“No, it's fine. How were you to know?” I asked with a smile.

She smiled, “well, thank you for forgiving me. I’ll be quiet now so you can work in peace.”

With that, I opened the lid to the pot. There were about ten pea-sized metal balls in the container. I carefully fished one out and held it in my palm while leaning over the table. I didn’t want to drop or lose the metal.

The position wasn’t ideal for meditation but I took deep relaxing breaths and tried to connect the energy inside me to the bead of metal in my palm. The trick was to try and get it to flow back from the bead and into my body, according to Master Mgumba. This way the energy wasn’t spent, only circulated. Apparently, this also helped my flame grow. As the energy was pulled out, new energy would fill the vacancy left behind, when the energy returned, it would force itself into the previous container, expanding it by a fractional amount.

Of course, this all hinged on if I could get the energy to respond to me. Trying to mentally pull the energy didn’t seem to have any effect. Pushing it did nothing either. I spent an hour in this awkward position before I finally felt something move. The flame of energy stretched just the tiniest bit. I tried to keep my concentration on what had caused it to move but my elation broke the spell causing the energy to spring back into place and wink out.

I let out an audible groan and let the metal bead fall back into the jar. It would take days for me to build up my energy for another try. Thankfully Rebeka had left and wasn’t here to witness my failure. I rubbed the stiffness out of my shoulders and put the clay pot back on the shelf. I wanted to take a bath before dinner so I could soak away my frustrations along with the dirt and sweat.

***

“It’s frustrating,” I sighed as I helped Master Mgumba put books away in the library.

“Life tends to be that way sometimes,” he replied, “but you will get there in time. How are your other classes going?”

“Fine, I guess. There is just a lot to take in. How do you remember it all?”

Master chuckled. “If I had the answer to that, I wouldn’t need these books,” he gestured to the shelves. “All we ask is that you do your best. You never know when a piece of knowledge could be instrumental to your survival. What about your class?”

“The others are picking it up rather quickly. I only wish I could keep up with them.”

“Ah yes, the advantage of speed and reflexes. That will come when you learn to cycle your energy.”

I nodded mutely in reply, still disappointed in my growth or lack thereof.

“What if my gift is completely useless,” I voiced my concern.

Master scoffed at this. “The Mother doesn’t impart useless gifts. Whether weak or strong, you will figure out a way to use it to its full advantage. Now enough moping about your gift. I hear you are making friends with the other initiates. That’s good. Camaraderie is important. But I would suggest not becoming intimately involved with another Chosen.”

I spluttered as this part of the discussion came out of nowhere. “Wha- I haven’t.”

“I know you haven’t,” Master added with a sigh. “I just know you and Thea have become close. She is a beautiful and talented young woman. But she has her demons. The reason I even bring this up is not that I don’t wish you a happy life, it's because affection can lead to deadly mistakes and poor decisions in the heat of battle. It’s better that both of you focus on your duties and not complicate your life at the tower.”

“But she’s my father’s age, I would never!”

Master laughed. “I forget sometimes in my old age. A few decades to me is a lifetime for you youngins. Run along now, I can finish up here, just remember to think over my words.”

I set the last few books down and gave Master a bow before leaving. I wasn’t sure where he got the idea that I wanted a relationship with Thea. I would have to speak with her so she can clear up any misunderstanding.

With some free time on my hands, I decided to go to the sparring yard to blow off some steam and vent my frustrations at failing to master cycling my energy.

I was mid-practice in my forms when I noticed a commotion coming from the front of the mansion.

Lurian and another man were running across the courtyard towards the library side of the estate.

This was enough to get me to pause what I was doing as Lurian was always prim and proper and he never ran.

“What do you think is going on?" Quimby asked as he walked up to me.

He had been practicing his control in the other area but his silent approach still startled me.

“By the Mother, don’t sneak up on people!”

“Sorry,” he replied flatly.

“I’m not sure, but if it’s important enough for Lurian to go running, it's probably not good. Do you know who that was with him?”

“That was Master Estos, one of the scouts and Laris’s father.”

I turned to Quimby in surprise, “Laris’s father is a Chosen as well!”

Quimby simply nodded. “Most initiates had at least one parent as a Chosen.”

I guess it made sense. I also didn’t miss that he said ‘had at least one parent’. Our job was dangerous and I didn’t think it wise to ask if Quimby had a Chosen parent as well. If he wanted to share that information, he would have.

“I’m going to go wash up. Something tells me this isn’t a normal report.”

Quimby nodded and walked away.