Theo laid on the ground, panting, desperately cycling the first step of Striding Wind and Endless Song, massaging his abused muscles and drawing as much breath in as he could. Sparrow stood there, smiling.

“Not bad! You’ve finally managed to do all four obstacle courses without getting seriously injured. In only a week, too.” They commented. Theo had, in fact, finally managed to complete all four obstacle courses. He had started with the razor wire maze, going backwards in order from how he’d been shown them, and finishing off on the metal labyrinth and bricks. It was mostly so he could have his full concentration on the difficult stuff, and could have some margin of error on the more forgiving ones.

“I think your technical skill is finally good enough for us to move onto the third step. Let me demonstrate what you can do with this.” Sparrow continued, as they walked around and started to stretch. Then they stood completely still as they looked at Theo, and smiled.

And, standing casually, without crouching, or moving their body (aside from leaning forward slightly), Sparrow disappeared.

More accurately, they shot forward, heading straight for the uneven bricks on the wall. The moment they got close, their hand lightly touched the wall, and they burst off the wall, flipping through the air as they all but flew to the labyrinth of metal poles in the centre of the room. And while they were doing this, Theo could hear them talking, completely calmly, as if they were still standing there.

“This is what the third step of Striding Wind allows you to do! You’ve done it already, but it’s all about control, and knowing how to use every part of your body. And this is why it strengthens your arms and core as well as your legs.” Sparrow said, grabbing a horizontal pole overhead and spinning around it, before launching from its top to reach the ceiling. With a gentle push from both their hands, they shot almost horizontally to the walls, and continued treating their body like a spring trapped in a glass jar.

“And the reason I can continue to speak is because of Endless Song. I’m cycling mana in my lungs and substituting that for air.” After more gallivanting around, Sparrow eventually came back down, landed in a perfect flip, and bowed in front of Theo’s awestruck face.

“There’s two kinds of ways that compressed mana is used – one is burst, like Striding Wind. The other is continuous, like Endless Song. Continuous is harder to learn and manage, but if you can continuously use compressed mana, then burst compressed mana is simply a matter of starting and stopping the flow of mana.”

“Now, time for you to start using compressed mana yourself. But be careful, it’s going to take a long time for this to be even mildly useful. Lots of muscle memory to learn, but you’re doing well with learning how to indefinitely infuse, so I’m certain you’ll get there relatively quickly.” Sparrow praised, and Theo decided it couldn’t hurt to try.

Theo grabbed some of the mana inside of himself, compressed it, and moved it into the bottom of his foot. As it melted into his muscles, there was no cramping or discomfort. Taking that as a good sign, he let it integrate.

And promptly bowled over as his right foot shot up, and with it his knee, as it smashed into his chest and knocked him backwards. He groaned on the ground (a position he’d found himself getting very well-acquainted with over the past few weeks), as Sparrow chuckled and shook their head.

---

“We’re going to cover a few more internal magics before class starts.” Sparrow spoke through a mouthful of cheese. It was a crumbly, blue cheese that stank worse than any food Theo had ever seen (but, thankfully, less than any chamber pot).

They were taking a break to eat some food, and Sparrow had brought out a whole block of this cheese, along with some stone fruit and dark bread. Theo was alternating between bites of a peach and a chunk of the bread, using the bread to mop up any juices that tried to escape his mouth. He was savouring it – stone fruits (especially fresh, juicy ones) were out of his price range.

“The three I want to cover today are Owl’s Eyes, Bat’s Ears, and Dog’s Nose. These are three sensory internal magics, and they can come in handy.” A question in the back of Theo’s mind started to assert itself as Sparrow talked. “They’re also a relatively safe way to practice the third step without time pressure, so I expect you to use them to familiarise yourself with compressing mana.” Sparrow paused, before adding, “That being said, only practice with the slightest compressed mana. If you get a sensory backlash…let’s just leave it at it’s a rather unpleasant experience.”

Theo could imagine, if terrible cramps were the backlash for muscles, what would happen to his eyes, or his nose.

“We’re going to start with Dog’s Nose, which is also why I brought this cheese. One of the things about sensory magic is that if you over-strengthen it, it can hinder your life in a way that most other internal magics can just be learned and dealt with. You don’t want your sense of smell to be so strong that you constantly feel like retching, or to have a headache whenever you look at anything, or for every sound to be a spike in the back of your skull. So, that’s where this cheese comes in.” Sparrow said, looking Theo dead in the eyes.

“Once you understand the first step, put a chunk of this cheese in your mouth. Don’t swallow it, let it stay there. Slowly infuse the second step of Dog’s Nose, and once the smell of the cheese becomes almost overbearing, stop. And from that point on, do not infuse it again. Ever. Simply use the third step, and the first step if you need it.” Theo nodded, and Sparrow continued.

“Dog’s Nose’s first step simply decongests and unblocks your nasal passages. The second step enhances your sense of smell, and the third step allows you to trace scents back to their sources, and track them. The third step requires continuous compressed mana to be effective. Likewise, Bat’s Ears’ first step is reducing tinnitus and other ear pains, the second is enhancing hearing, and the third is being able to locate things from the sounds they make. And Owl’s Eyes’ first step is reducing eye strain, the second is enhanced eyesight, and third is being able to see in darkness. Now, let’s get started with Dog’s Nose.”

Theo put a chunk of the blue cheese in his mouth, large enough to really stink it up but small enough for air (and its stench) to circulate. It didn’t taste as bad as it smelled on Sparrow’s breath. At this point, he was pretty confident with prodding mana, and infusing it, so it wasn’t exactly difficult to cycle the mana and feel it flowing through his body as he pulled it apart and wafted the mist to his nose.

What was nerve-wracking, was the possibility that he could permanently mess up his smell. So he took it much slower than normal, and even so he found that he hit the point of almost gagging at the blue cheese after only a few careful seconds. Quickly pulling the rest of the cloud back and compressing it back to a liquid, he swallowed the cheese, and tried to get the taste out of his mouth.

After a few desperate moments of pawing at his tongue (as Sparrow looked on amused), Theo noticed that he could smell things clearer than before. He could smell the slightly-spicy sweat that had built up on his body. He could smell the sweetness of the fruit and their spilled juices, the slight yeasty funk of the bread, and of course, the sledgehammer that was the blue cheese.

“I’ll take that as you successfully completing the second step. Congratulations.” Sparrow said, as they walked towards Theo and pulled out a cloth from behind their back. “Now, put this on and cycle the third step.”

And that was how Theo found himself blindfolded, carefully infusing a steady rivulet of slightly-compressed mana into his nose as Sparrow led him around the room via the smell of cheese. Theo found that he was starting to build up a mental scent-map of the room, and even realised that Sparrow was starting to lead him through the metal poles and bars, ducking under and sidestepping various poles.

Eventually, Sparrow placed the cheese down (which Theo realised because the smell started to stay and compound and radiate out from a single place), and removed the blindfold without him realising they had moved behind.

“Well, that was rather fast, but I expected nothing less. Now, let’s move onto Bat’s Ears.” Sparrow clapped his hands.

---

Bat’s Ears was similar enough to Dog’s Nose, Theo mused. His next hour was filled with more of the same, except this time he was infusing his ears while Sparrow sang rather loudly as they stood close by. The loudness seemed to gradually increase as he infused in mana, and he stopped when the singing was almost unbearable.

Once again he was blindfolded, but this time had to navigate the space by sound, and follow Sparrow that way. It was an interesting experience, seeing the world in these different ways. With sound, Theo actually felt the shape of the world around him, instead of seeing it. It was also a bit disorienting adjusting to the slight time delays as the signals returned. Like the world was made of echoes (which, in a certain sense, it was).

And finally, Owl’s Eyes was the third verse in the same song as the other two. For this, Sparrow whispered and a fire appeared in the palm of their hands, and he had to stare into it until it was just about blinding. It was an odd sight to see something increase in intensity while knowing objectively that it was still the same fire it was ten seconds ago.

Theo wasn’t blindfolded for the third time. Instead, Sparrow led him to a pitch-black room, and he had to follow them in the darkness. Theo found that night-vision wasn’t quite how he’d envisioned it, and the nearly monochrome colour it took would take some getting used to. But it was enough to see where everything was, at least.

Finally, with still the ghost of that blue cheese lingering in his head, Theo was done with another three internal magics. Sparrow wrapped an arm around his shoulder (which was slightly awkward given the high difference, but at least they didn’t push him down and force him to be at a more agreeable angle).

“Well done today. We got a lot done, and even if I had faith that you’d nail those three down, you still did a good job.” Sparrow said, patting him on the shoulder before letting go. Theo smiled at them, and they smiled back.

“Ready for another errand?”