"I'm back to full," I sit up to find that Lucas had lain down at some point. I guess his block was big enough for that as well. "Magic, I mean."

"Alright," he sits back up. "Remember, try to do about five-foot shadow-steps, see how many you can do."

I stand and step into a shadow, then assess the shadows around me. Just like he said, I can somehow sense which shadows I'm able to actually travel to from here. Focusing on a shadow about five feet away, I slip through the shadow I'm standing in and into that one, then I reorient and try again. It takes me a few seconds to manage the second step, and a few more than that to manage the third.

Overall, I manage ten steps of five feet each, though it takes me three to four seconds longer than the previous gap to manage the next movement.

"So," I look at Lucas. "How long do you think it would take me to reduce that rest between successive ones? Or is that something that doesn't reduce? You did yours pretty quickly."

"It reduces," he tells me. "It actually doesn't take as long as other benefits. You might manage to cut the wait for the second and third down to only a second or less within a month. Maybe even the fourth. By that time, you may manage to do eleven or twelve total."

"Eleven or twelve?" I ask. "Not a ten-percent increase?"

"Well," he chuckles, using light-walking to reach me in an instant. "If you increase how many of them you can do, how much magic you have, and decrease the amount of magic it costs to do them…"

"My overall gains are actually bigger than ten percent," I say.

"Exactly!" He grins. "All the little things add up in the end. So I've figured out your training schedule. I'd actually planned it from the start, but I still wanted to see your limitations."

"We had to go through this even though you already knew it?" I ask.

"Yep," he answers. "If you go with the training schedule and the silver membership, then I'll be able to work with you regularly, and knowing your starting point, where you are now, and so on lets me better-tailor your schedule as you advance. Of course, this is assuming you continue coming here after getting the job rather than them training you somewhere. This is, of course, assuming you do decide to train here for the next month."

Unless the Patron has some sort of secret training facility for his agents, it's doubtful that I'd stop coming here as long as I can afford it. Having a tailored training program would be immensely beneficial.

"If they hire me," I say. "And do want me to keep training on my own, then I'll probably keep coming here. As long as the next month shows me this place is a good one."

"So you'll take the membership?" He asks.

"Yep," I answer. "And I'll go with the silver, just in case something changes while I'm training."

"Alright," he says. "Mind if I touch you? I can transport people with me when I light-walk and it'll make getting back to your stuff faster."

"Sure," my heart pounds in my chest at the thought of a cute guy touching me, especially in the state I'm in. Urgh. This is ridiculous. "How long did it take you to do that?"

"A few years," he places a hand on my shoulder, then a few moments pass as I feel a warm sensation, notice a slight brightness, but… nothing. "Strange."

"What?" I ask.

"Let me try again," he mutters, and the same warmth and slight brightness occurs again. "Something's blocking my power."

He releases me, then disappears in a brief flash before reappearing.

"Huh," he says. "It seems that I can't take you with me."

"Because I'm a shadow-walker?" I ask.

"No," he says. "That shouldn't affect it. I'll have to ask Grandpa if he knows what's going on."

"Okay," I say. "Well, let's just walk back?"

"Sure," he says. "I figured we could step back like that just because it's faster and you're probably tired."

"A bit," I admit. "But I can still walk, and I'll have to do it to get home from here, anyway."

"Yeah," he says. "Come on."

We return to the bench with my clothes and I get dressed. This time, I do notice him checking me out. While I'm bent over. It's brief and he does look away almost immediately, just as he said he would. I don't think he noticed me noticing him checking.

"Let's get you signed up," he tells me. "Then I can go over the training plan with you."

"Thanks," I say as we leave the training room. "I'm not familiar with training places in the area. Do you know of any where I can train in martial arts? Preferably for under three hundred? That's, uh, all I have left after signing up for the silver with the sign-on at the moment. Silver's the one with with the personal trainer help regularly, right?"

"Yep," he answers, then checks for anyone around. "I take it they told you we don't have normal fitness facilities?"

"Yeah."

"We do," he tells me. "But they're for our gold members. Five hundred a month, comes with all the benefits of the lesser tiers. We usually don't tell people unless they've been coming here for awhile because we'd rather people use the power training facility portion over that. This place is intended for power users, after all. If we advertise that we have normal training facilities, we'd probably get a flood of people from the upper districts who want a place that's not packed full of people wanting to use our services for the normal workout section, then starting to use our others, taking away from the power users."

"Ah," I say. "That makes sense."

"Yep," he says. "Since it's gold instead of silver, you still get a personal trainer or trainers to work with, and if you sign up for it, that means we can teach you martial arts here, too. But you have to promise not to tell too many people about the special section and to follow the training program I set up for you."

So he lied about the martial arts training here? I'm willing to bet that it's at least a little bit known they teach martial arts, just with restrictions on who can apply. Unless they manage to keep everyone from telling about it and not dressing out for it until they arrive.

"I kind of want to advance this power, it'll increase my chances of getting hired," I tell him. "Even if you're right about them probably going to hire me, anyway. I'll probably only use the other section for the martial arts training, if you're okay with being my mentor on that?"

"Yup," he says. "I actually have a class I teach in the afternoons, though you don't have to attend. Those are an additional service, costing a hundred a month extra. For private lessons, those are included in the gold membership."

It's only an extra hundred dollars a month, and I might not find as good of a deal elsewhere. How good the lessons are remain to be seen, but I'm going to trust Lucas, for now. Him being cute might be affecting my judgment on this, but I don't care.

Sending a small prayer to the Patron, I thank him for the funds. Even after the sign-up fee, I'll still have about five hundred dollars after my bills are paid when combining the advance with what I've saved up already. That's if I eat my normal diet, too. But if I'm training, I'll probably need to eat more, so I should try to take that into consideration as well.

"Okay," I say. "I'll sign up for that. Will I need to go on a special diet?"

"Sort of," he says. "It's better not to eat as much junk food as a lot of people eat. I'll go over it with you after you sign up."

"Alright," I say.

Lucas takes me down to the reception desk and has them give me the paperwork for a gold membership. Tabitha seems a bit surprised by that, so I guess they really don't tell people about it very often, especially not new people. I fill it out and pay the six hundred using the bills, and I know that them being so fresh is attracting a bit of interest from them workers.

It's only after I've handed Tabitha the money that I realize he didn't charge me for the martial arts. I'm not going to bring it up because then they might make me pay even after I've not been charged but told I'd be getting the lessons. Lucas must have a reason for not doing so. A free trial, maybe?

"Must be a pretty sweet place," Lucas comments as Tabitha puts the money away. "I've only seen bills that crisp twice in my life."

"Yeah, it's a good deal," I say, and we're silent for a few moments. "So. Um. The plans?"

"Do you mind coming every day?" He asks.

"No," I answer. "The more, the better, but didn't you say only three or four times a week?"

"Yeah," he says. "Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, you'll train your power. This means using it the way I had you do it earlier – as many as you can, recover, as many as you can, recover, and at the end of the two hours, as many as you can.

"On Saturdays," he continues. "You'll spend two hours with skill training. This is different from simple repetition. You'll adjust your distances, get a feel for moving through the shadows better, and other things. Once you've acquired enough magic, we'll also have you do carrying training."

"Carrying?" I ask.

"Where you're taking items with you," he tells me. "You'll probably need a bit more magic just to take a bracelet like mine with you right now. As you get used to it, you'll be able to take more with you, until you can eventually take, ah, people."

He's probably remembering the weirdness when he attempted to take me with him a few minutes ago.

"Oh, okay," I say. "I guess that makes sense."

"Yeah," he nods. "Finally, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, you'll come in and I'll do martial arts training with you for two hours. Some of that time will just be warmups and cooldowns, and if you're good with it, we might do some other light exercises, like rope climbing."

"Okay," I say. "That sounds like a full schedule, but it sounds good to me. What time should I come in?"

"What time works for you?" He asks.

"It takes about forty minutes to get to my apartment from here," I say. "So maybe not too late? Is six to eight good?"

Now that I think about it, I got here around six and I haven't had dinner yet because I got a little bit excited with the offer. I'm hungry and still have a forty-minute walk home.

"Yeah," he answers. "The lessons I mentioned to you end around five-thirty, so I can meet you after. Just get changed and head to the area we're training in."

"Tomorrow's a Wednesday," I say. "So that's martial arts, right? Where do I go for that?"

"We'll have someone show you when you get here tomorrow," Tabitha tells me, handing me a pair of cards, a normal membership card and a mini one for a keychain. They're both black with gold accents on them and the name of the center. "You'll need to show one of these at the desk to receive entry, we'll have to scan it before you can go."

"Okay," I pocket them. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," she says.

"So," I look at Lucas. "Before I, uh, head home and get something to eat, you said I shouldn't eat too much junk? What sort of diet should I go on?"

"It's not a diet," he says. "So much as just increasing caloric intake, making sure to eat certain foods, and eating within a certain time after each training session. What's your current diet?"

That's still a change to my diet, Lucas.

"Mostly ramen and breakfast pastries," I answer, and he raises an eyebrow. "Budget constraints. I've been given enough money to, uh, increase that for the next month."

"Okay," he says. "After martial arts days, you'll want to eat protein within two hours. Some people do a milkshake with banana, milk, and peanut butter. I go to a diner down the road and eat a giant burger. To each their own.

"On power and skill training days," he says. "The important things are milk, blueberries, bananas, oranges, and lemons. Do a little baby spinach if you want, but the first five are important to helping you recover from power training, and don't ask me why, I don't know the science behind it, if there's even science there. It's magic. Also within two hours."

This seems rather specific, and I'm not sure how I can work all of that into a diet without just eating it plain, and I feel like there might be certain amounts I need to keep in mind. I've never done much more planning beyond stuff like 'I need a little more fruit and veggies in my diet' and then only keeping to that for the one grocery trip because of the cost. I do usually manage an apple a week, though.

"Uh-"

"It's a little past eight now," he checks his watch. "If you want, I can take you out to dinner, then we can hit up a store near where you live and I can help you fix up a meal plan for at least the next week? I can write up a list of things you can eat and ways you can adjust foods to make them not just be the same old boring things all the time."

He frowns for a moment.

"You won't have an issue with people trying to break into your apartment, would you?" He asks. "If you have, you know, 'better' food?"

That's a viable concern in many places. Some areas, everyone's so poor that if someone is seen to have, say, fresh oranges, they might get attacked or their home broken into by someone wanting them. A lot of people end up buying canned because it's cheaper, even if it's not as good. It's in better supply, too, even if we grow most of that stuff in the special farming domes in the center districts of the turtle.

"No," I tell him. "My area's pretty decent in regards to that. There's a store right around the corner from my apartment building that sells fruit and veggies fresh from the greenhouses and domes."

"That's perfect, then," he says. "Mind taking me up on that offer? A proper meal plan can help optimize your magical and physical growth."

Is my apartment clean? Do I really want to eat out, even with the money the Patron gave me, even if it's just once? My stomach rumbles a little.

"Sure," I answer.

"Give me a few minutes, and I'll be back," he tells me, then looks at Tabitha. "Let Dad know I ran out to help our newest member know what he needs to add to his diet and ways to make them."

"Sure thing, Lucas," she says.

"Back in a minute," Lucas tells me, then heads down a hall.