the sight of the grave marker was simple, surrounded by a few others. the shape of the marker was the man's favorite instrument, a flute with his actual flute tied to it. aero felt incredibly uncomfortable while his foremother spoke to her past lover, telling him all kinds of things that he missed. of course when the woman was finished talking it was his turn. and he took a moment to mule over his thoughts.

"I don't know what you would think I've who I am right now," he lowered himself to the ground and started dead at the marker. "I've little patience, I react quite violently when people upset me. I'm prideful to a level most people won't reach. I'll never like swallowing my pride, but I know it's not worth making my mother upset. but," he huffed," I'm pleased with where I am. I'm happy with where I'm going in life."

Aero had one final thing to say to him," if you were still alive. I don't know if you would try and stop me, but you would fail!" he stood up and stepped back from the marker his foremother looked at him strangely, but decide to keep her mouth closed while they stayed around the marker. they left sometime later, he wasn't sure if a flower had passed or not. but he didn't mind, they parted ways back to the house aero headed to do his training.

he did it with his eyes closed again, striking a tree and figuring out the feel of the leaves that touched his energy. then he stopped jumping by the time his head started to ache, he took a brack to practice dancing with his staff. the helper was applauding him and offering him knowledge about something called pole dancing. he didn't know what it was, but he was having fun.

'thinking about it used small elements similar to pole dancing before,' bracing himself in a strangle balance position off the ground. he looked out across the forest, trying to remain in his stance. it wasn't much of a fighting thing, or at least not a way he knew of. 'maybe it will have so use, but for right now I'll use it to train my balance!'

he later 5 petals in the stance before his muscles ached too much and he had to stop, he got right back to work after a short recovery period. he only stopped training when his stomach made its needs known, of course after eating and partly avoiding his foremother. he slipped up to his bed after that, yoga was nice and calming. he spent two flowers trying to get the energy bubbles at the right distance. they all popped on him, he didn't use much energy so he wasn't too emotionally affected.

"ah, I should get to figuring that out!" should he test the distance? it would hurt to familiarize himself with his range. when he had cleaned up and was laying in bed, he created a simple staff and let it grow in length until its shape started to come apart. which was about the length of this room, "hold up!"

he remembered when he created a sectioned staff to attack someone's pride from a distance. it was further away than the room. was there another factor than that, he focused hard doesn't he staff? he forced it to take shape again and keep the shape as he made it grow more.

"ugh," he rubbed his head. 'okay I can make the range of my energy grow. but it takes a lot of focus.' that made sense, so the question was what was his casual range. he kept playing with it until he could determine that with too much focus his range was the length of the room. with that in mind, he let a ball the size of his finger slip away from him. he kept hold of it until it reach the edge of the room.

it faded pretty quickly so he sent another a little closer. he kept going until he found a distance where they were sorta stable. he made a wrong them, "good!" this could work for him, he made more to the ring before he went to bed. putting the helper in charge of monitoring the ring.

'it remained at the same distance from you even as you moved in your sleep. they might have also been the reason that you didn't get a restful sleep.'

"so it can be improved," that wasn't a surprise, instead he stretched out and started getting ready for the day. he somehow forced himself to have a brief conversation with his foremother before he headed out into the forest. he spun into training, 'so my actions don't affect the ring of energy.' he thought as his staff harmlessly passed through the ring. 'have they gotten bigger?' he could be seeing things.

his training continued, when he stopped for a second meal he was certain the spheres had grown in size. about the with of a finger if he wasn't wrong." strange but not unwelcomed," he decided. the purpose was to make a way for him to store more energy. if they were doing it by themselves he wasn't going to complain, though he did have questions.

the ring contained to grow throughout the day, 'this is going to be a problem.' at this rate they were going to obstruct his vision, he would have to figure out a way to mangue their side. reaching out to one of them he tried compressing the energy, but that caused it to leak out or he absorbed it back into his main aura. 'well this is going to take some work, thankfully he had a ring with work with.

he kept working with it even during the next day, making it the focus of his training. the helper was quiet knowing their lord would like to solve this by himself. but that didn't stop them from analyzing the data in preparation to help.

a short-term solution aero found was moving the spheres to his blindspot, but again a temporary solution. he had to figure something better out, something that he could keep working on without problems. but for now, he listened to the story from the helper, drinking in the words of action and drama.

the story entertained him until he went to bed and a bit when he woke up the next day, "I'm not going out today?" he informed his foremother washing the dishes he used. "resting is part of my training!" he said before she could get any ideas.

"well in that case would you be up to help with sewing some clothing," to keep herself busy she made some clothes now and again. most of it she sent to her daughter, whatever was left she sold out. Aero stated he wasn't good at sewing, having not done it in the past few years beyond repairing his clothing. going with Adir was the first time he's been shopping for clothes in years.

"that's okay I can instruct you on what to do!"

"fine, but I have other things to do today!" she was perfectly fine with that. she didn't mind walking aero through sewing. it brought back some old memories for the aging female. she didn't say much as they worked for long flower, little words passing between them at all. they didn't have much they want to say to each other in the first place.

aero was glade for his thick skin, or his finger would be a lot more from the number of mistakes he made relearning how to sew. 'either way I got it done,' he was annoyed by it but also proud of how well he did regarding it. returning to his room he assured yoga to meditate and observe the energy of his bubbles.

"There still getting bigger," completed the matter as he bent his back further, stretching his legs out. they still sat in his blind spot but they were still growing. faster as the moment as he was doing something he took pride in. which stop when the realization came upon him." by the zalts, this is proving to be a problem." he took a calming breath," okay I just have to solve it.' this is a problem of energy building up." the simplest thing would be to get rid of it. using it or letting it disperse.

he would not waste his effort, so he directed his pride into his eyes and went don't he hunt, walking around the village taking chunks of people's pride until he used a good chunk of his own. 'well I guess until I figure something better solution I can use this as a reason to do my job as the lord of pride more.'

he did this a few more times over the next few days, 'lord at this rate you'll put someone into a state of low self-esteem.' the warning stopped his actions cold and aero considered what he should do now. besides returning a lot of effort to a permanent solution.

'my lord there are several theories Xoqax would like to test, you may be able to assist him in this endeavor.' aero stopped before letting this idea go around his head for a day. 'yeah I can do this. what's the first test?' the helper explained the theory to him and how he could test it out. it was a bit simpler than the lord of pride was expecting. but he could completely work with it.

"It's a good thing I'm here a bit longer," he would need to stay in one place for this test. he quickly looked at people's pride and found the person who had the lowest level. wasn't that hard to get close to him, so that he could inject his pride into the man. it was a small part, but the change was visible. his back became a little straighter, his stride a little more sure.

'that worked fast!' aero was a little surprised. but he was keeping this in mind, this would be of great use in his future. he wasn't great with words, but he could manipulate energy pretty well.' my lord you shouldn't let this become a crutch for your ability to inspire others.' the helper knew that wasn't a path they shouldn't let lord walk down.

"I don't plan to," aero replied. before looking for more people, the helper explain d they needed a wide range of data to learn from. aero wasn't to bother by experimenting on people without their knowledge because it didn't seem to have any negative effects if it did he would resolve it and then apologize.

'ten people are enough for a start on data collection, now comes the part of monitoring them.' the helper explained archiving the data on how they reacted to their lord's pride boosting their own. so far there weren't any negative reactions, though one girl did punch someone. but that appeared to be because she lacked the confidence to start a fistfight. aero knowing it was his fault broke up the fight, by punching them both." what is the recommended time that we watch them?" he was approaching his minimal time spent with his foremother.

'by your planet's time standard, 15 days' aero thought about and figure he could work with it. but he was going to have his mail sent up here, he could get some work done while he was here. he went to the mail building right after that and was able to return to his foremother's house before the second meal.

after that he made a direct path to the library, the stories his helper read to him were great. some were just straight-up tear jerking masterpieces. but he still likes what came from his planet. maybe because they were from his planet. maybe it was because it was familiar to him who knew.

"oh Zalts!" he quickly found a scroll that caught his interest but man was it a dark story. it took place in a different period, in the era before this one. when the Grinine were much more nomadic people, traveling around to avoid creatures. this was also generally around the time that melodies became a much more practice skill. and when dancing was starting using in sync with it. the power allowed people the chance to settle down.

the story he read was around that time, it described the pains of constant moving. the people lost and scars gained. the starvation, the thirst, the aches and pains that came at them. how some people wanted it to stop so much, the constant growing fatigue in their bones. 'i wonder if this has an end,' aero thought rubbing the shiver out of his marble skin. 'though I'll give the author credit, she is great at details, I feel like I'm there.'

renting the book he resisted the desires that would have had him reading it all in one night, not only did he want to sleep tonight, but he already spent an hour standing up and reading so he did enough for today. but it was a close thing.

the next day he did a bit of his training over the story, so he could multitask. of course, that didn't stop him from reading a couple of thousand words in less than an hour. he wasn't sure if it was an impressive feat but he took pride in his reading ability. which was probably why the orbs of pride were growing in his blind spot.

"so after this, I need to go check on the people I boosted!" he asked the helper about the projections they had. knowing there were likely getting things ready in case he asked. 'it's likely your boost is already starting to fade or has caused them to be at the boosted level on their own' aero thought about both possibilities and decided he would like the latter more. people being more confident in themselves wasn't something he saw as a bad thing.

'Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case,' the helper was right the boost was wearing off and they were calming down a bit. he stayed around them long enough for the helper to get the data they needed to send to Xoqax. 'it's in transit my lord!' aero sighed and watched the last person walk away finally able to stop staling them.

'done for the day, tomorrow we start again'