Their sleep was almost interrupted by commotion in the halls strictly at the moment of dawn. The hunters had all become active at that time, preparing for their daily tasks in an organized manner.

Riyxia tried to just keep sleeping as her spectre kept making its rounds. She had been casually wandering around through the night, like a ghost haunting the place. She had still held to her ethical conduct, but was mostly interested in seeing how much everyone else was being ethical in return. Was there people spying on them as they slept, for example? It seemed Ayzherie was taking a demonstration of trust to heart, her complete overnight investigation yielded nothing suspicious in that regard. Notably, it hadn’t even yielded anything interesting, the bland stone walls being highly uninteresting over the entirety of the night. It reminded her that one of the hardest tasks she had about being a spectre was going upwards, considering her floating did not actually involve flying, even when abusing her surroundings in conjunction to passing through walls. Spending a night devoid of starlight had left her feeling extra depressed by morning.

Wandering around though, she eventually found the merchant and the reporter, both seeming to have ended up spending the night here as well. The reporter was actually terrified about the terms of his own circumstances, afraid that if he left with the knowledge he had, someone would assassinate him. The fact that the girls seemed to have support from some group with capable influence over the Hunters did nothing to still those fears. The merchant on the other hand had been more interested in the number of Qeld that Sryine had been throwing around. Coupled with the profitability of the creation she had completed with Vwyx, he was certain that his economic future would depend on figuring out how to keep himself involved in the financial goals of the three girls. Other than finding the three girls, both guys were really invested in trying to figure out a way to remain as guests of the hunters for any period longer, so that they would not be dismissed from their individual goals.

Soon after Riyxia wandered away, the reporter confronted Ayzherie. “It has dawned on me, by the way, that we might have some mutual interests. I work for River Valley News as a reporter, so collecting news is my profession. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, the three girls here have proven to be very interesting, people who could give me a great scoop if I were to learn more. But now, they’re sorta around here, making them a lot harder to investigate. However, with your support, I would be capable of continuing my investigation, and maybe in the process be able to share any of the knowledge you yourself seem intent on. It is my job, after all, to bring the news to the people.” “Jwyexzn, just the man I was hoping to find. You see, it seems with all the training going on, I might be a bit short staffed. The girls are going to have the need of a very custom training regime, after all, and I’m going to need someone to keep a record of the assessments given by their instructors, so that we can make things work. I certainly hope a guy with your talents would be interested in such a simple responsibility.” The merchant did not miss the subtlety of the request, a presented offer Ayzherie made in trade. It certainly wasn’t beyond his abilities, a fair trade indeed.

Riyxia lost pace with her spectre when a knock sounded from the door. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I just had to find you three before you started off on this.. training. Is it alright if I came in, or should I wait out here.” “You do know this place has sections split by gender, right? I don’t even think you’re supposed to be in that hallway.” “It does?! Terribly sorry. I’ll wait for you out in the main hallway then.” The merchant fled with all haste at Riyxia’s insight. “Wait, is it?” “I didn’t notice at first either, but this area does only have a women's washroom, and there are no guys here. Think about it too, if this was more of a guest section, wouldn’t it have been smarter to have the guys resting in one of the nearby rooms? Now, yes, this is just me speculating, as I haven’t actually found a sign on the same subject, and I could always just be missing that second washroom, but in his case it might be safer than sorry.” Sryine nodded, realizing that Riyxia’s claims made sense. They quickly completed their preparations for the morning and went to go find out where the merchant was waiting for them.

“Ah, good, thank you for coming. I’m sorry, I’m still feeling terribly out of place with much of what’s happened. Even so, I feel it important to present you with an offer, before I find myself without an opportunity. With my own business lost, I felt it might be time to find my business doing something else, something with a greater chance of profit. You three seem very profit-minded, and I couldn’t help but notice that your current training project would keep you fairly occupied from ways to keep making more Qeld. To help further your own goals, I’m offering myself in service to your own economic goals, if you would be willing to hire me. As you know, I have a considerable amount of business operating experience, even if I otherwise lack the magnitude of your own vision. With my help, you would be capable of having your vision expressed, even while occupied with the hunters in their training, allowing you to make Qeld at the same time.” The merchant was actually encouraging Sryine to start her own business and in turn hire him into such a business. The considerations of profit rang soundly in her mind too, she wouldn’t like the idea of being found sitting fiscally idle, especially when there was a way to make profits. Still, she had no experience running a business, expertise the merchant was himself offering to help her with.

“You make a really good offer, though there remains plenty to consider with my latest project. Distractions might not prove as much of a favour out here, I would need to consider how to properly apply my.. vision.. to this market. Still, like you said, shouldn’t let opportunities be lost. If you’re willing to stick around while I figure out how to make this work, I would be glad to have such a capable person around to keep the business going. Thank you, …” “Right, I don’t believe we’ve actually ever done introductions before. My name is Hyusziq.” “Ah! Thank you.. Hyu..sziq. My name is Sryine, by the way. It will be a pleasure working with you.” Sryine really did like Hyusziq’ offer, though even for a Celesi name, his was hard to say, it was almost just a whistle, a single syllable which she had split in two. It also did remind her that she still wasn’t very good at base introductions, having not known Hyusziq’ name all this time. She made certain to at least get his contact information for her cell, so that they could communicate freely later. Afterwards, they parted ways, Hyusziq feeling secure being established as Sryine’s business associate, giving him a way to stay while she remained. In the meanwhile, the three girls would need to prepare for the first day of their training, which set upon them almost without warning.

“Morning! Today I will be your weapons instructor, while it seems your friend Jwyexzn here will be a record keeper for your progress through your training. Ayzherie felt the best place to start would be to get a gauge of your potential in handling various simple weaponry. Most of your training will be from the perspective of combat anyway, as combat tactics is her specialty, but once we can gauge your basic ability in that area, we can figure out how your training should extend into other areas, such as anything related to your gift or other mental and physical training.” The weapons instructor was a human with the emblem of twin crossed swords, himself having the same white droplets Ayzherie had flanking the same swords. Riyxia knew by this point that such made him another leader around here, an equal to Ayzherie. The phrasing made it clear that he was doing this almost as a favour to Ayzherie. Sryine also became keenly aware that other people were introducing the reporter at this point, providing Jwyexzn with a name she had still yet been unfamiliar with. She made sure to save that name in her cell discreetly before proceeding.

“Over here, you will find a vast selection of weapons, various styles from your slashers to your stabbers to your smashers. They come in even more varieties, small or big, light or heavy, held with one hand or two. Some have a short grip, while others have a very long one, like a pole. Some of these come with oddities on top of that, the occasional chain linking your grip to the end that deals the pain. Highly advise not mixing up the two, by the way. While all of this selection is designed for combat in close quarters, there are weapons too that opt to deal pain from far away. For now, we’ll be setting aside those ranged weapons, focusing on these melee alternatives and how they are properly handled. The goal is to figure out how well each of you suits a variety of weapon styles, so figure out which one you want to start with. Pick it up, carry it over to one of our battering dummies. Such targets are also designed to train you with specific types of weapons, sorted not only by light and heavy armor, but also designed for specifically slashing, smashing, or stabbing. This will let you gauge how you feel most comfortable in motion, based upon style, size, weight, hands, and grip.” Their instructor started them on weapons handling training, and set about making sure all three girls were helped in the proper and safe handling of any of the weaponry.

Vwyx dove into this with remarkable ability. While she clearly struggled with some of the heaviest choices, she proved quickly capable with almost any style of weapon. Of everything though, she was the most fearsome with an axe or hammer, sundering apart one of the heavy-armor training dummies with a single blow in each case. It did not matter if it was dual small hatchets, a two-handed battle axe, or a massive halberd. Likewise, it did not matter if she was using two small maces, a massive maul, or a morning star. While she still seemed remarkably capable with a variety of other weapons, swords, spears, and the like, none of them seem to suit her quite as well. Such knowledge didn’t stop her, as she continued to try and improve herself weilding a massive claymore.

Both of the elves felt far more out of place in this exercise. Sryine went to go pick up a broadsword and dropped it immediately, it was a lot heavier than she had originally expected, especially after watching Vwyx carry the same weapon, even with a degree of talent. It didn’t take long for her to resolve herself towards the lightest, smallest, shortest, single-handed choices she could find. A set of daggers. However, when bringing such to bear against a target, she found the short stabbing distance to make things still further difficult. Catching on to her struggles, the instructor recommended a new weapon for her, a rapier. It was light, with a small single-handed grip, but stabbed forward with a bit more distance, suiting her height a lot better. While wielding such a light weapon, Sryine’s movement seemed very fast and fluid, like with enough training she could be capable of wielding in a blur-like dance. Sryine at least took the opportunity to carefully learn about all the other weapons, even if she knew her near weightless choice of style would be the only thing that suited her.

Riyxia quickly realized she was the only one left, as Sryine and Vwyx continued their review of other weapons. She had yet to settle on anything at all, having no success with any style she chose to attempt. As Sryine, heavier weapons made her struggle without any real capacity, but trying to wield lighter weapons showed her to be too sluggish. Two handed weapons and dual wielding took too much of her concentration to yield to any real effect, but even a single handed weapon alone seemed ineffective in her hand. She was shortest, but could get no real measure of effect from either a short or long weapon. Bladed, piercing, blunt, none of that seemed to have any measure of potential in her hands either. She went through the selection, trying choice after choice, without any success.

Getting answers far quicker than he had expected, their instructor was curious in trying them on ranged weapons. This brought them another lecture on styles and safe handling, as the girls reviewed the selection. Throwing weapons, bow-style weapons, the choices were much more limited. However, it seemed ranged weapons also extended heavily into instrumentation, where someone who could use a crossbow to good effect might find weapon instruments such as a vast variety of firearms to be usable to great effect. Vwyx recalled that Dhyinze himself seemed to have a firearm of his own, not even being aware just how skilled of a marksman Dhyinze actually was. However, even as she dove into such ranged weaponry, she quickly became aware that her own accuracy with such weapons was far more lacking. Even regular bows could not guide any arrows even close to their target while in her hands. She was however finding a bit more success with some throwing weapons, especially ones similar to hammers and axes, though her experimentation proved that she was at least also capable with thrown explosive instruments.

“Grenades!” “What?” “I read that in a book from the Terran Mythos. These instruments were based upon a design called grenades. While the most basic are just explosive spheres, I remember there were designs for grenades that released a variety of other effects, from shrapnel to smoke. It might even be possible to design one to release almost any imaginable effect from it.” While Sryine found Vwyx’s weapon discovery quite novel, Sryine had also witnessed that her throwing ability lacked a lot in distance. As such, she was not allowed to even make an attempt at using such a weapon, for her own safety. Bows however proved much more fluid in her steady hands, though she had some troubles with the kick supplied by a crossbow. Her speed with a longbow however was surprising, and after a few trial shots she was proving very apt at finding a long range target with an arrow from such a longbow.

However, once again, Riyxia found nothing for herself. Her throwing ability was a lot like Sryine, while her bow ability was quite similar to Vwyx. Once again, she was left empty handed, her friends proving to have far more potential than she did. This brought the morning exercises to a close, dismissing everyone for a lunch break. As Riyxia tried to consume a fresh new helping of the same slop from before once again, she took the opportunity to be critical about her own inefficiency. Why was she so useless? It really didn’t seem at all fair to her. Somehow, she constantly appeared less capable than her friends.

“Nothing, why am I never good enough.” “Riyxia, don’t worry about it. You’re a healer. I remember reading that even heroes that are healers aren’t actually expected to do any fighting. Why, even the Terran Mythos tells of a historical hero who was a healer without any practical weapon .. although, now that I think about it, it also said she had considerably destructive power… You know what, nevermind. You’re also really smart, you don’t need to bother with such strange things. It’s not like we’re actually heroes ourselves, all of this combat stuff is probably a big waste of time. After lunch, we’ll finally be doing some gift training, which might actually teach us something useful, hopefully. That’s when you’ll see, your gift is honestly pretty amazing.” Riyxia gave Sryine’s compliment a wry smile, not quite as convinced. Sryine and Vwyx had already demonstrated some pretty high capabilities with their gift, it was a struggle for her to even attempt to keep up.

As afternoon lessons resumed, Sryine was disappointed to discover that gift training was in relation to combat. Still, the application of her illusions with context of the weapons she had recently studied, she was having fun reproducing weightless illusions of many of the previous weapons. The illusionary version of the claymore she had tried to wield before was carried with speed and grace when all of its weight was lost. This gave her even more opportunities, as she tore into illusionary dummies with illusionary weapons. When given this degree of freedom, she found her range of ability increased dramatically, extending to a variety of different style swords. However, she still found even the illusions of other styles awkward and uncomfortable to handle in motion. At range, throwing weapons still proved elusive in their style, as she had no real ability to guide her illusions after being thrown, and her natural ability even with a weightless illusion proved still ineffective. Meanwhile, devoid of the original kick, even crossbows became easy to use for her, allowing her the grace to use any style of bow with considerable ability. Firearms though proved challenging to sufficiently understand in design, making them a challenge to produce in an illusionary form, leaving her only with the simpler style of bows.

Vwyx meanwhile was finding it easy to produce weapons from scrap metal, although that didn’t introduce to her any new opportunities in the same way as it did to Sryine. The most novel thing she learned to do was to convert her weapon in motion, allowing her to change its style and design at a whim. The materials and weight were always constant, which did also limit her flexibility in adjusting sizes, but she could freely adjust the weapon otherwise, from morning star to halberd and back again. Being able to produce weapons also made using throwing weapons easier, as she could use a pile of scrap metal to stock up weapons of her own choice. She even produced a massive maul and a stack of throwing hammers out of nothing more than stone from a nearby rock. She was even capable of repairing the two dummies she had destroyed in their previous lesson, and even supplemented the stock with the creation of five extra spares, one she chose to use her for her own practice.

Riyxia was again not in the best of moods. Combat training with her gift, that meant she could heal people, or.. increase their abilities.. maybe decrease the abilities of an enemy. Unlike Vwyx, her ability didn’t even extend to the weapons they had, only to other people. She momentarily considered that it implied she could go and support either of her friends, make them stronger or faster or .. something like that. She really didn’t have much of the heart for seeing them do any better than they already were, things were depressing enough as is. Still, her need for efficiency was critical of her own complacence. She moved closer to Vwyx and boosted Vwyx’s strength mid-swing with a battle axe. The already reinforced dummy split clean in half, surprising Vwyx as she went to start to repair it. Riyxia sighed, it was obvious her gift did a thing, it helped to increase the efficiency of her friends. To that critical side of her, it was enough to be able to give others the resources to get things done effectively, even if she was otherwise uninvolved. But there was another side of her that felt such simply wasn’t enough. She didn’t want to spend her life manipulating her friends into doing everything for her, she wanted to be there lending a hand directly as well.

This feeling of dependence was quickly starting to infuriate her, although no one around her noticed the change in her disposition. Without outlet, her rage continued to build silently, fueled by feelings of her own individual inability. How could she gain comfort in helping others, when she would always need help herself? Was there really nothing she could do for herself, by herself? Would her future always depend on having someone there to get their own hands dirty on her behalf? Was that truthfully all that she really was? Her rage seethed beyond it’s containment as she walked past one of the dummies, and in a fury even she failed to anticipate, she lashed a whip kick out at one of the nearby dummies. Bearing the full brunt of her rage was too much for the poor dummy, as it crumpled loudly under the force of her blow. Everyone else stopped what they were doing to turn to see what had happened. Even Riyxia stood their speechless at her own action and result as Vwyx rushed to make sure she was alright. Riyxia herself remained unharmed, not needing any repairs at all, quite unlike the dummy she just destroyed empty handed.

“You think.. you could do that.. one more time?” The instructor was also shocked, having missed what exactly transpired. Riyxia’s face took up a grin, as she turned towards yet another dummy with yet another sundering kick. Having regained some of her composure, the force of the blow had a lot more control but was no less fierce, leaving it’s upper torso to fly off from the rest of its body. Her punches likewise proved equally as destructive, destroying yet another dummy and having her formally assigned to spar against the heavy armor style dummies exclusively. She looked down at her hands, measuring them visually as she flexed her fingers in and out of a fist. She wasn’t sure how much of this was her own ability, or how much was part of her artificial design, but she was also uncertain how much it might really matter. She might be pretending to simply be an elf, but she knew she was something else. If this was part of who she really was, it might not be such a bad thing either way.

She was the only living Ersatz in all of Celese, it was a unique advantage no one else could speak of, and she would make it her own. It was far better than remaining helpless, and it was clearly way more efficient if she was just as capable as her friends.