Paegis left them to train and Rania became more serious once he was gone, changing her behavior to one similar to the instructors. She rotated between Jorik and Mahon, sometimes asking them just to fight her with magic, and others with swords too.

The whole session lasted two hours, and the three ended so exhausted they rested together for a bit, discussing their feelings and what or how they should improve. Even though neither side knew the magic of the other, because of their probing during the fights they were still able to pinpoint weak points and talk about it.

Although deeply tired, none of them would have switched the training for anything else, and even Rania seemed very happy with the training. She had cursed multiple times about her lack of sword training and swore she would train more. Now that she was facing people that could somehow negate a part of her sorcerer advantages, she realized how lacking she was with the sword.

As for Mahon and Jorik, the opportunity to train so long with a sorcerer gave them ample time to get more familiar with both fire magic and their Flow. By the end of their lesson, Jorik became able to Flow at the shallowest levels with good control in the presence of Rania’s magic.

As for Mahon, he was reliably capable of zooming in to Rania’s figure without any problem, and he could exert short suppression without impeding his abilities too much. There was still a long way to go before he could use his Flow at full power and perform a thirteenth step, but as long as he was progressing he feared nothing.

Rania accompanied them back to the main arena where Ailluin took charge of them. For an hour, he talked about the duty of a bodyguard, where defense was of the utmost importance and attack only came later. Bodyguards were not meant to kill, but to protect. Hence they had to know ways of escaping in any situation. They also needed to know the city and its surroundings like their own backyard, to be able to guide someone into the safest route to anywhere in the vicinity, no matter the circumstances.

The lesson was highly theoretical, but Ailluin promised them that they would go into more practice very soon so they could catch up to the group of trainees. As for the end of the afternoon, they went back to the main arena and trained with the Protectors that were there.

As Ailluin had said before, there were only two seven-stars present while there were a dozen six-stars and close to half a hundred five-stars. Ailluin introduced Mahon and Jorik to most of them, and they joined the training that quickly turned into a small tournament, where everyone was eager to test both Jorik and Mahon.

Without any surprise, the duo dominated the fight. But where Jorik had to push himself hard against the two seven-stars, Mahon had a more leisure pace. Given the gap between him and the rest of the Protectors, he naturally went back into his Last Red’s shoes and took the time to instruct anyone who dueled with him.

Using his wide experience and control, he forced his opponents to realize their shortcomings and mistakes, making their strength and weakness blatant as they fought against him. He didn’t end the fight in an instant, instead taking his time to gauge their abilities and show them where they could improve. To the untrained eyes, though, it just looked like any other fights, and only Mahon’s opponents realized they were getting instructed. Most thanked him for his pointers after their fight.

When Mahon and Jorik finally exited the Protectors Circle, they walked calmly through the streets of Lakefield, discussing their day. Both were very excited to start again in the morning. Somehow, the mental strain of not knowing who they were and the pressure of having to solve impossible mysteries disappeared under the simple act of training and being with mind-like people.

Their day ended with a jovial dinner with Siraye, and a short discussion in Nightmare before Jorik collapsed into meditation after the long day.

Like that, time passed and the days soon turned into months.

Mahon and Jorik trained six days out of seven with the Protectors and in two months they caught back to the class of trainees regarding bodyguard duties. When they could finally join the class, they moved to practical lessons. The instructors usually dropped them somewhere in the city while asking them to move from one point to another in the quickest way, or the safest one.

They got to learn about all the Protectors Circle hideouts spread around the city so they could access a safe area with provisions, material and weapons within five minutes of any place in Lakefield. They also went into the surrounding villages, exploring the most common lakes and roads. The instructors were very meticulous when they talked about escorting their client, and they imparted their knowledge with seriousness.

Every week they organized fake escort missions and evaluated the trainees in the way they acted and solved the situation. Once a month, they paired the trainees with Protectors to follow them in a real mission. For Mahon and Jorik, these lessons were the perfect occasion to learn more about the city, and after six months of such training they knew every crack and stone by heart.

They even used their time in Nightmare to mimic the city streets as they recreated a gigantic model of Lakefield at scale with the stones and sand of Nightmare. When they were too tired after a full day training in Finem, they moved to Nightmare and continued practicing. Dueling in Nightmare didn’t benefit them much, but practicing their Flow and playing tags in their fake Lakefield helped them tremendously.

Given that both Mahon and Jorik had experience leading men and taking hard decisions in the heat of a battle, they excelled in these bodyguard lessons.

Jorik’s Flow grew steadily during their training with Rania, while Mahon gained a much deeper understanding and minute control. After the first month, Rania wasn’t able to win against Mahon because he could suppress her magic enough to win with his swordplay alone. But the vice-master took her weakness at heart, and she joined Mahon’s lesson with the other seven-stars to improve.

Although swords were the only authorized weapon in an official duel, most Protectors also practiced with another weapon for when they were escorting people. Outside, there was no rule about how to kill someone.

Rania’s second weapon was a long whip that caused nightmares to Mahon because it completely disrupted his Flow as soon as she ignited it. Contrary to her sword, which was bound to stay close to her, the whip had a wide range and free of many constraints, it demolished any control Mahon had over his Flow. It took him the rest of the six months to be able to stand against Rania at full power with both her sword and whip.

Paegis, the Protectors Circle’s master, came to their training session once in a month to check on their progress. He bombarded Rania with a rain of fire spells, watching how the woman was able to dodge or deflect them with her magic. He also invoked fire golems to surround her, but after training for so long with Mahon and Jorik, she had both been able to improve her fighting abilities and her mastery of fire. She found out that fighting against the Flow suppression aura made her own magic ability grow in power.

In a similar way that Mahon grew by leaps and bounds when he was suppressed by Nightmare and came back to the real world, Rania grew stronger after she experimented fighting in a hostile environment.

As for Mahon and Jorik, Paegis simply tested them in magic duels. The magician would slowly increase the number and strength of his flames until they couldn’t bear it anymore with their Flow. After three months, Mahon managed to keep his Flow constantly on, even when Paegis went all out with his magic. Although it was the shallowest level, it was proof he wouldn’t suffer from any sudden backlash fighting against fire magic.

Afterwards, Mahon practiced going deeper and deeper despite the destructive fire magic rampaging his world of rhythms. Paegis joined them more often when Mahon proved himself strong enough to suppress Paegis flames from time to time. It wasn’t much, and the powerful magician could regain control of his flames with a thought, but it was interesting enough for him to come back sooner to test Mahon’s progress.

Jorik was much behind Mahon when mastering the Flow, but that also meant he was learning a lot from the lessons. After six months of such training, he could stand toe to toe with Rania if she only used the sword. When she used his whip, he was able to avoid the backlash and exit his Flow, but without Its help and with Rania’s improved swordsmanship, he stood no chance against her.

During these six months, Their training didn’t limit to just the Flow and bodyguard knowledge, though. If Jorik was lacking in the Flow, it was the opposite when it came to physique.

It had only been close to a year and a half since Mahon came back crippled to Ratho. He had spent two months training on his own before joining the Pine Hill Officer Institute for six. He then spent three more escaping the Amentiae with Jorik and following the caravan from Barcombe to Lakefield.

Now that he had spent six more months training his body, his endurance was a good step ahead of any other people in Lakefield except for Jorik. The fact they seemed to have naturally more strength and endurance than the other Protectors didn’t escape their eyes, and they added it to the pile of clues that made them believe they were descended from Immortal Kings.

As for the other people, they simply thought they had trained hard all their life, and given Mahon and Jorik dedication to training hard under any circumstances, they simply believed the two men to be monsters in their domain, but they never suspected anything as crazy as the duo was.

Besides physical improvements, Mahon also trained his sword fighting. It was actually Mahon and Jorik’s main activity, and given so many sparring partners and their natural strength, there was no lack of people wanting to train with them. However, Mahon soon found them too lacking for a proper training, and it was impossible to ask for half a dozen seven-stars to gang up against him on a constant basis.

Thus Mahon spent a lot of time refining his style on his own. He had actually mostly fought with the spear in the last years, and given his recent breakthroughs with the Flow and a physique he never had before, he found many things he could improve on. Adding to that the numerous styles of Finem’s fighters and the obligation to fight with swords during duels, Mahon decided to focus particularly on honing his sword skills.

He practiced alone, both in Finem and Nightmare, fighting imaginary opponents, chimera of powerful sorcerers and Amentiae generals. He refined his style again and again, removing slight impurities he only found because of his progress with the spear.

Things he had thought perfect were actually lacking in so many aspects he didn’t know existed before. He also asked for an individual training room and practiced the thirteenth Step. Even though it came as a natural conclusion of the spear’s twelve Steps, the sword also had its own Steps and the thirteenth fit perfectly after it as well.

Mahon focused next on reducing the time he needed to reach the Flow’s level needed to perform the teleportation. With his better control of the Flow, he improved both his speed in diving deeper and lowered the requisite level to perform the teleportation from a Flowless state.

Where he previously needed a good five seconds of intense focus to teleport, he could now perform it constantly under two seconds. Mahon also probed his limits and pushed them away, growing from barely ten teleportations to a hundred before reaching complete exhaustion.

In these six months, Mahon, Jorik and Siraye also grew closer to each other. The woman spent most of her time designing and forging a new set of weapons, inspired by Jorik’s sword. She only had that subject in mind and always talked about it, but the two men didn’t mind.

Six days out of seven, the three of them practiced or forged for the whole day before being reunited around a light dinner where they would talk about their progress. But the last day was dedicated to resting, and if at first it was Siraye who introduced them to colleagues or brought them to famous places in the vicinity, Jorik only needed three months to turn it over.

The noble befriended almost everyone at the Protectors Circle, be it the trainees or the seven-stars, and with his newly acquired deep knowledge of the city and its surroundings, he was soon the one to organize their rest days.

Mahon followed along every time, but the scar left by Margot, then reopened wider by Zac prevented him from truly bonding with anyone. Sure, he was very close to Jorik, but it was mainly because of their circumstances that forced them to bind together. Siraye was a good companion, but Mahon lacked the courage to share more with her and turn her into a real friend like Zac had been.

As for the Protectors, Mahon saw them more like colleagues and training partners. They shared something, and they were far from strangers to each other, but it was only the Protectors Circle that linked them together. Although they often grouped under Jorik’s initiative to hang out on their rest day, it was more out of fellowship than friendship.

It was during such a time that they heard about an event that would finally help them move forward in their quest.

“A tournament?”

“Yes!” Myrthil, a seven-star woman who clearly had a crush on Jorik answered with enthusiasm. “The king will soon be organizing a tournament in Lakefield. I heard it while on bodyguard duty in the palace. Everybody is talking about it. Apparently, the winning price is a favor from the king! You can ask for anything!”