Adam spent the rest of his afternoon impatiently playing his flute before Helen came to take him to the wall garden. Helen was also curious about the new way Adam was going to be studying the formation. She would now be able to see what he was doing and watch him work, without worry.

Reaching the wall garden, they made for the bench by the battlements, which was Adam's favorite spot here. Adam pulled out the first metal plate from the wooden satchel. He proudly showed it off to Helen.

“Look, this is what they made for me!”

Helen looked at the small plate in Adam's hand. She thought it was on odd thing with weird lines ordered on it. Adam described to her how he was supposed to use it and how to watch and make sure he doesn't mess up the order of the lines.

Afterwards, Adam tried out various ways to accurately memorize the line length and curvature. Most of what he tried did not seem to work and he could only sigh as he listened to the sounds of the nearby forest being brought to him on the wind. This first day was rather unfruitful.

The next day ended up being much the same. Adam started the normal morning exercises and then jumping into sword exercises. Adam had to continually work on his muscle control in order to gain the correct form. Then playing his flute until it was time to go study the formation.

Still, Adam was not able to really progress with the formation. The second day had passed and he was unable to figure anything else out to help him. Hansen came with Adam this day, as he was switching with Helen for the first plate Adam was going to study.

On the third day, Adam had started to get the hang of some of the sword forms he was supposed to follow. He had been getting a little frustrated about his stalled work with the formation, so this made Adam a little happy. That day Helen took him to the wall garden for his studies.

Adam had a brilliant thought, but was unsure of how to proceed with it. He talked with Helen to see how well she remembered the lines, if he drew them in air could she tell if they were accurate or not? Adam was hoping to use a process similar to what he was doing with the sword movements in order to memorize the formation!

Helen was hesitant in her answer: “I'm sorry, Adam. I would not be able to tell if it was accurate or not. I really can't see what you draw if you do it in the air....”

Adam became a little crestfallen. He had been hoping that this would be the way forward! Helen thought for a moment as Adam was stuck in his own brooding thoughts. Just as he was ready to move to the next idea, Helen said: “If we get a piece of glass and put it on top of the plate, I can see the lines clearly and you should not be able to feel the lines right? With that I can see exactly what you are doing and if it fits with the drawing on the plate!”

Adam was dumbfounded. “Why didn't I think of that?”

Turning happy and ecstatic Adam blindly hugged Helen exclaiming: “You're a genius! Thank you, thank you!”

Helen had to yell: “Enough, enough!” Before Adam calmed down.

After Adam apologized for his behavior, they decided to head back to Madame's. They had already decided on a method to continue studying, but would have to find a piece of glass, that was safe to handle, to go any further.

Adam started using the new method for the rest of the week. With it, Adam had finally started to make some progress with the formation. He could get the first few lines fairly accurate before someone needed to correct him.

Finally, Zonntock rolled around once again. This time, however, Adam went later in the day. It was important for Adam to continue his training if he wanted to retain what he had learned so far. Still, his training ended a little earlier than the other boys to make sure he got to the institute in time to receive a lesson with Cathryn.

When they first started this new lesson, Adam excitedly told Cathryn about the new method they had devised. Cathryn tested Adam with another piece of paper and graphite. The difference from before was like heaven and earth. There were certainly still mistakes, but it was much closer to the true shape it needed to take.

“How remarkable. You are a truly gifted candidate.” Cathryn said.

Cathryn was impressed by both the method Adam chose to utilize and the progress he had made so far. Working with Adam, she let him know that he did not have to draw the formation one hundred percent correct. As long as he was able to get at least seventy percent correct on his own, the spirit essence in his soul should naturally fix the formation for him. He still had to have the general shape of the entire formation, but he would not need to get all the line lengths and curvatures to be correct down to the decimal point.

Adam was excited to hear this news. He would no longer have to put in quite as much effort to reap the rewards he desired. Still, it would take time and effort to get the formation to be at least seventy percent accurate.

By the time the lesson finally ended Adam had enough confidence to move on to the second metal plate. Before they left, Cathryn wanted to talk to Adam and Vivienne about one last thing: “Next week is the monthly lesson for everyone again. I will not be available to give a supplemental lesson since I have to worry about the normal class that day. Did you still want to come regardless?”

Adam talked with his mother to come to a decision. They quickly reached their conclusion. Adam said: “No, until I learn the formation, everything else is rather useless to me. I guess I will skip regular classes until then!”

If anyone else had heard Adam's answer, they would be flabbergasted. Skip class? How utterly insane! But it was what was going to work best for him. Adam and Vivienne then went back to Madame's and started a new week of their daily routines.

Adam continued this lifestyle for another three or so months. During this time, he made good progress in both his sword and the formation. They both went hand in hand, as they used a similar idea of muscle control to visualize what he was doing. The sword was more about controlling the entire body while the formation was about deftly controlling his hands.

Adam's improvement speed rose the longer he spent training in the sword and studying the formation. The more he got comfortable with the methods he used, the easier it became to get it done. He even tried a few different ways to improve his efficiency, which helped. Soon he would be able to reach the last metal plate for the formation and perhaps begin gathering spirit essence!

Hansen had progressed the boy's sword training to the point of some light sparing. They would never go all out, it was simply letting their wooden swords crash against each other and feeling the shock of the impact. They were not yet ready to try and strike each others body in a full contact spar.

Adam's training in this was a little different then the others. Since he could not see, he could not make his sword meet with another. Instead he would either hold his sword firm and let Hansen bash on it or strike a wooden post. In this way his hands and wrists felt the impact of strikes like it did with the others.

Hansen had informed them that they were actually going to switch to hand-to-hand combat next week. This would allow them to further gain control over their bodies. Also, if they lost their sword in a fight, they would have another way to attack or defend themselves. It was only after they would complete the hand-to-hand combat training that they would start full contact sparring.

It was in the start of this week that Adam was tiredly playing his flute in the early afternoon. Last night, he had been up to long during the monthly birthday celebrations. Helen had turned ten this time.

Adam was playing outside a private booth. Since the incident with Helen, Adam had not encountered any other would be harassers at Madame's. Though there had been a couple incidents, apparently.

As Adam was playing his flute, he noticed that the patrons inside the booth started to get rowdy. The three occupying the booth had something to celebrate, so they ordered large amounts of beer and were getting thoroughly drunk.

A drunken slur escaped out of the booth: “Hey Li'l Missy, wanna join us and get more intimini..... closer?”

“Hey George, shtop bein' shtupid! She's jush a young girl.”

“Ah, shut up. Can' ya see, she'll be a righ' beauty when she grows up? Migh' as well get 'er now, than let someone else take 'er.”

Adam had been paying attention to this conversation. If the others had managed to convince this 'George' to stop, he would not have to get the bouncers involved. Everybody could go on their merry way. As it was, there was the scrapping noise of a chair sliding as a man got up. Adam played the warning note on his flute as he heard a familiar voice say: “You're crazy if you think I'm staying with you!”

“It's Helen!?” Adam thought to himself.

He had not been sure of who was dancing in the booth this time. It turned out that it was Helen, once again. This time, however, Helen made to escape on her own. Adam heard quick little steps go out the entrance of the booth and pass by him. He didn't see the mild surprise on Helen's face when she saw him.

George managed to get out: “Thin' ya can get away from me Li'l Missy!?” As he trudged to the entrance of the booth.

Adam quickly had a thought and moved to block the booth's entrance. George saw him and stuttered: “What're ya doin' brat? Outta my way!”

George moved to push Adam to the side. However, Adam was rather sturdy from his training and George was rather tipsy from his drinking. Adam was merely moved a single step to the side, still standing in George's way. Adam then gave a hearty shove in front of himself, pushing into George's middle and making him topple backwards a few steps.

George looked at Adam with anger yelling: “Thin' ya can stop me, boy!?”

Adam simply smiled and said: “Nope, I just needed to stall you.”

At this point two burly bouncers appeared over Adam's shoulders to take the patrons away. As they were being drug out George complained: “I though' thish place was a brothel! Wha' did I do wrong?”

“Jush shut up George.”

Helen sat off to the side, trying to let the stress flow away. This time was a little less stressful then those harassers a few months ago. At least she didn't get groped this time. Adam tried to make a light joke with her: “You sure must be pretty to have so many grown men running after you!”

Helen's face turned a little red as she said: “Shut it!”

Adam just chuckled: “If you can talk like that, you must be perfectly fine.”

There was a small silence followed by Helen quietly saying: “Thank you, by the way. But wasn't it dangerous getting in that man's way? The bouncers would have arrived either way.”

Adam was caught unprepared for this question. He just scratched his head saying: “Well, I wasn't actually getting in a fight, so it's not like it was really dangerous. Plus, as you said, the bouncers were going to show up so I wasn't worried about that. Just... I wanted to gain strength to protect my family and friends. You are my friend, so if I didn't stand up for you now, wouldn't all my training have gone to waste?”

Looking at Adam, there was a small flutter in Helen's chest. She didn't know what it was, but from now on, whenever she was with Adam, her chest would have that weird flutter and she had no idea what it was.

Later that night, Hansen found Adam to congratulate him on a job well done. He also inquired about how Adam felt as he stood up to that drunk man. This was an important experience that could affect Adam's future training and help him.

It was three weeks after this that Adam finished with the last metal plate of the formation. Alfred was with Adam at the time. Adam was rather excited when he finished and tried drawing the entire formation on the palm of his hand. But nothing happened! No matter how many times Adam drew the formation out, he felt no different. Worrying that he forgot something or did something wrong, Adam was impatient to for his supplemental lesson that would be on the next day.

After the morning training and exercises Adam and Vivienne once again set off for the institute. Cathryn was startled by the worried look that Adam showed when he came into her office. After he described what happened she had him draw out the entire formation on paper once again, so she could see it.

After Adam finished drawing, he was baffled by what his mother exclaimed: “Isn't this correct?!”

Cathryn excitedly explained to the confused Adam: “When we look at the formation you drew, the spirit essence in our soul follows the formation and starts to gather spirit essence! You have indeed succeeded at drawing a spirit formation!”

“Then why can't I feel anything?” Adam asked.

“You don't feel any fluctuations from the drawing as it has not been infused with spirit essence to activate the formation, yet. But when viewed by the soul, it works all the same. If the formation was activated, the effect on the soul would be greater. There is something we are missing that allows your soul to see the formation, though. I was sure that if you memorized everything, you could visualize the formation...”

After a moment of silence, Cathryn started to slowly speak: “Adam, when you are drawing the formation, are you simply following the order of the lines to create the formation, or are you piecing it all together as you go to form one solid image of all the lines connected together at once?”

Adam's face turned a little red in embarrassment: “I thought I only had to memorize the line orders and lengths.”

“You don't have to embarrassed about it. You have already done a great job! I doubt I would have been able to get this far in your place.” Cathryn said.

She thought for a moment before continuing. “Why don't we go get that spiritual formation tool you were originally studying. You have clearly outgrown these metal plates. I think the only way for you to progress forward is to use that tool again!”

Cathryn then personally took Adam down to the storage rooms to exchange the plates for the tool. Back in her office, they tried to figure out what Adam needed to do to finally grasp to full shape of the formation.

Eventually, Adam came to the idea of placing his palm on top of the formation and then drawing the formation on the back of his hand. It was kind of like the glass they were using with the metal plates. As he drew on the back of his hand, he could feel where the line was in relation with the rest of the formation under his palm. Still, progress was slow. The feeling of the formation under his palm was not well defined so he had to work slowly with it.

It was a little over a month before Adam's studies finally bore fruit. He had been slowly forming a complete image of the formation in his mind. As he listened to the wind gently blowing over the battlements at the wall garden, it finally happened. Everything just seemed to fall in place and the formation seemingly lit up in his mind. Adam watched these colorful lines in his mind, they began to twist in strange patterns that he couldn't comprehend. At the same time, a faint and gentle melodious tune, similar to the sounds he heard coming from the formation, sounded in his mind. Just as he felt a faint tug of something inside him pulling something outside in, the formation seemed to disperse and collapse!

Adam had initially felt extreme excitement when this started happening. It could only mean his journey to completing the formation was complete and he could start gathering spirit essence! But only after the formation collapsed did he recall what Cathryn had said before. He had to keep a constant image of the formation, but the spirit essence will twist it in it's own design to gather spirit essence. This causes him to loose control of the formation and it will collapse! Though, that small tug he felt before must have been just a little bit of spirit essence being pulled in by his soul.

Adam was slightly curious at that faint melodious tune. He had long since gotten used to the almost sounds made in the presence of spirit essence. Still, he put that thought aside and once again formed that formation in his mind to start the process again. It did the exact same thing. As the spirit essence in his soul took the formation and gave it a life of it's own, he felt a small tug before the entire thing collapsed. He kept repeating this process over and over to try and accumulate enough spirit essence to try and do anything with.

Alfred had been watching over Adam this day and noticed a change in him. Excited he asked: “Adam, did you manage to complete the formation?”

“Yes, now shush.” Adam responded as he tried to concentrate.

He kept this up until he had a slightly full sensation. Surely he had accumulated a small but sufficient amount of spirit essence. Then Adam sat there, unsure of what was next. He tried to push his mind around to see if it would do something, but to no avail. He had no idea what he was supposed to do after this!

Still, he had progressed one step forward on his path to becoming a spiritualist. It took close to six months, and he only had another six months until he was ten years old. That was the final deadline to becoming a spiritualist that could give him some new form of eyesight. There were only a couple days until Zonntock and it would be a regular class day. It seemed it was finally time for Adam to attend his second regular class.