The last piece of training didn’t take place in the training grounds. Doco had rented the village schoolhouse at night for the foreseeable future, and of course the gracious schoolmaster didn’t ask for any pay. Besides for the schoolmaster in his quarters just a few rooms over, only Doco and Kenan resided in the old wooden building. The kid was sitting front and center in a desk while Doco sat on the teacher's table.

Kenan’s mind was roaring to go. Alert and ready. However, his brain was being dragged down by his body. He couldn’t lift his arms above his head and his knees and legs wobbled every time he took a step.

Doco was incredibly surprised, and that surprise spurred pride. He had planned for Kenan's first day to be hell. Doco would deconstruct him using brute force, and rebuild his nephew brick by brick. Then make him into the perfect image of a warrior. Yet every time the kid failed, fell, or just couldn’t move, he managed to get up again. Every time Doco pushed it a little bit further, trying to reach for a breakdown. Kenan not only rose to meet the challenge, but surpassed it. The kid had reminded Doco of the young Tyris. An unmoving structure even in the face of impossible winds.

A heart string had gotten struck at the thought. He frowned inwardly. [You stupid man! I have to fill the void of a father figure. Yet, here I am trying to be a drill sergeant. I am sorry brother. I will do better. May you rest in the arms of Chauntea] Doco finished berating himself and forced his thoughts back into reality.

“Alright, during this part of your training, think of me more as a teacher than a trainer. Don’t mistake me. If you piss me off enough, I will make you run until dawn, then again for actual exercise. Understood.” Kenan nodded. ”Good. Now produce a small flame and float it out in front of you.”

Kenan quickly created enough friction in the air to produce a spark, sent mana to fuel it and coaxed oxygen to suspend the tiny flame.

“Good, now keep the flame lit while I talk. This is a matter of splitting your focus, something every competent mage, soldier or adventurer should be able to do. If your spell fades, bring it back up. Now, do you know what mana is?” Kenan shifted the flame to the side to look at Doco.

“Umm. Magic?”

“No. Get the spell up! Mana is energy, we just harness it to use magic.” Doco got up and went to the board. Then drew two X's overlapping each other that had the same vortex “We live here.” He circled the center. “These are different planes of existence.” He said pointing to the ends of the X. “All of these planes meet here, our home. With that, they bring a part of existence with them. For example, without the fire plane, there would be no fire, Sun, or even light. That includes fire magic. There are an endless amount of planes, each one can be considered an ability. We can be certain of two different things. One, all planes meet here, and two, mana only exists on this epicenter. Get that flame up! Yes, anyway. So that brings up our original question, what is mana. That answer is simple. It is everything, while nothing at all. This desk.” He knocked on it. “Is mana, you and your entirety is completely made of mana. It is the culmination of all the planes and the energies that were brought with them. The stuff that we use for magic, is merely unrefined mana, in which we turn it into something we want. If you're skilled enough, you could make a gold coin out of nothing but mana. However, you might destroy your core in the process. Get. The. Flame. Lit. Anyway, We can use, and transform mana because we ourselves are made of it.

This is how it went for the next two hours. Doco not only taught Kenan about magic, but also started to teach him complicated math, about their current political situations and everything that could be considered scholarly. All the while making Kenan keep the fire up. Sometimes making him relove it around his head, or making him increase or decrease the intensity of it.

In the end, not only was Kenan’s brain raw with new information, but he had an ever increasing headache. Using his inner-eye, he saw there was nothing wrong with him. “It is mana strain that you are feeling. Depending on what you're doing, how many spells you have going on and how long you are doing them, you will start to feel it. Not good in battle. Also, practicing will help increase your capacity before it comes into play, and improve your overall control of mana. You are dismissed for the day.” Doco said, seeing his nephews anguish.

Kenan got up and started to limp, dragging himself out of the building without a word. Doco stopped him telekinetically before the boy could leave. “One last thing.” Doco took out a flask, it was made out of silver with runes carved into it. “Drink this before you go to sleep. It will suck, but trust me. And…” He stood up and put a hand on the kid's shoulder. “I know I pushed you hard today, not only did you rise up the challenge but flew past my expectations. I am proud of you, I know Tyris would be too.” He could visibly see Kenan's mood light up. “Listen. It will only get harder from here. Scouts are already on the tail of the raiders. I don’t know how long we have to train you. So I will push you to the edge everyday. I will not let your body adapt. We don’t know if we're going to find them or if they will attack first, but I want you to be as ready as possible. I would prefer years to train you, but Lucy doesn’t have that time. I would rather have you stay here if we go on the offensive, but I know you would just sneak along. So better make sure you can fight for yourself. Are you sure you want to walk this path?”

Kenan stood straighter while shrugging off the telekinesis. No hesitation in his voice, determination in his eyes. His gaze gave off an intimidating feel with the full black eyes and a thousand white dots dancing around inside. “There is nothing I want to do more.”