WW Chapter 60: Making Progress (Patreon)

The rest of the journey to Brayton passed in a haze. True to what Chloe had said at the end of that first day, and what Ezra had experienced on the second day and onward, she had a plan for the entirety of every day. Before daybreak, starting outside of wherever they had passed the night, she trained him in dueling, primarily with the spear, but she also taught him how to begin to fight with a sword in hand.

The struggle of edge alignment was one he frequently found himself stumbling over, directly contrary to his expectations of what a Knight should do. In those dreams he’d indulged himself in, Ezra always thought of himself as a Knight with a sword in hand, wearing a full set of armor and standing before armies without a flicker of fear on his face.

Well, if he needed a sword to be a Knight, he was a lot further away from that than he’d thought.

Regardless, Chloe schooled him in a variety of different styles, defensive with a shield or aggressive with a two handed grip, with several variations of both. The Pseudo-Knight gave him very little verbal instruction, except for direct correction, having quickly learned that he progressed most quickly through practice. Their mornings passed with sweat and bruises accompanying them, while the breakfast that came after was scarfed down as quickly as they could manage, with brief lessons exchanged over the food.

Once their bellies were full, they would get onto the road, Ezra pushing himself to use his inner world’s aura as effectively, efficiently, and creatively as possible. More than anything, he grew more aware of the presence of water aura in the world around him over the nearly two weeks of travel they made. His understanding of his inner world’s “storm” affinity grew, but his question of why storm was the affinity his inner world had cultivated remained entirely unanswered.

Even without understanding the exact why of it, his steps came fast, faster than ever before possible as he leaned into the erratic ebb and flow nature of his inner world. Instead of being steady like Chloe, or even tempestuous like he expected, his inner world would calm sometimes, starting to collapse in on itself before it would then build on itself slowly, growing to a greater crescendo than before. Regardless, he couldn’t expect his inner world’s composition to be the same from one moment to the next.

The small flickers of lightning that he’d seen upon ascending to become an Adept were nowhere to be seen, so far as he could tell. While his whirling, whipping winds gained substance with the addition of cold and water, they still weren’t quite complete, even for the Adept tier. Jormun hadn’t hesitated to remind him that this was only the first step of solidifying his world. Ezra had, like Chloe suggested, attempted to add various different affinities to his inner storm. Everything he had tried, fire, stone, wood, and the tenuous grip he had on metal, had resulted in no difference.

There were plenty of other affinities that Ezra knew existed, but he didn’t have any real understanding of how they worked, and thus couldn’t integrate them into his inner world. When he had some time, he experimented with testing out different ideas, but he didn’t see much of a reason in trying to understand something like poisonous aura, or corruptive aura, when he didn’t think they had anything to do with who he was.

It’s true that you almost certainly won’t ever have a reason to integrate those types of aura into your inner world, Jormun said. However, understanding different aura types is helpful to your progression in general. I’m not saying that you should put any real emphasis on learning external types of aura anytime soon, but if you have some time, you should see what you can learn.

The rest of Jormun’s instruction was much more helpful than loose advice like that. Through the days, as they hurried towards their goal, Jormun floated in front of Ezra, maybe a dozen paces away. There, he constantly flowed through stances with a sword, showing how to turn the blade against incoming attacks, how to maintain his stance, how to strike and to return to his guard, and more. Though Ezra didn’t get the physical practice while running, he received enough instruction over and over again that, when the pair stopped running for lunch, he would draw his sword and attempt to do what Jormun had.

When he drew the weapon, he inevitably drew Chloe’s attention and instruction, though not nearly as intensive as in the morning, since she only corrected his stance and movements. As a result, though he didn’t receive any more dueling practice than before, Ezra progressed faster with a sword than he’d feared he would. After a week, he reliably could keep his edge aligned when going through various forms with Chloe.

“You’ll be practicing with basically every weapon as soon as we arrive in Brayton,” Chloe warned him after a particularly grueling morning. “You saw that Basil uses a bow and arrow. He’s trained to use a side sword and a spear in a pinch, but that’s his weapon, the bow. The stories go that, in order to progress beyond being a Knight, you need to be really good at using a weapon. I intend to prove that somebody can do that without a weapon.”

The reminder of the other Pseudo-Knight having an entirely different fighting style was a good reminder to Ezra, and as he’d bathed that morning, he’d spoken with Jormun.

There are people who can achieve Mastery without relying upon a weapon. It’s hard, but usually, they become either Aural Masters or Armor Masters. Both are particularly interesting, and the way their inner worlds manifest the aspects of their Mastery is different from anybody who has achieved a weapon Mastery.

“Do you think that Chloe’s progressing towards one of those?” Ezra asked, enjoying the brisk water sluicing down his body.

It’s nearly impossible to tell right now, because she hasn’t reached Knighthood. At that point, the inner world starts to reflect the manifestation of aura that you tend to lean towards, though it’s still fluid. Until then, I can just make a guess. If I was forced to take a side, I would say she’s more inclined towards Aural Mastery, but there’s no guarantee that I would be at all correct.

Ezra left off his questions at that, happy to take the small break that the baths afforded him.

His afternoons, just like his mornings, were hard traveling and pushing to understand his aura while also using it to push himself to speeds far beyond a regular man’s. As he grew more confident with how his aura best functioned, he and Chloe had come up with a system of him allowing the ebbs and flows that naturally occurred in his aura to push him ahead of Chloe’s own constant pace.

Once he ran ahead of her, following the same path that they would follow, he would go until his inner world was largely exhausted, then begin walking as he meditated, waiting for her to catch up. Once he realized how quickly they were moving, and that Chloe had made this journey in half the time, Ezra had been more impressed than ever. Doing this allowed them to make much better time than Chloe expected, and it wasn’t quite two weeks before they arrived at the final stop before their destination.

Regardless of how quickly they made time, and how much Ezra enjoyed the training they had with weapons and aura, the nights always came. The nights were exercises in frustration, exploring etiquette to be observed at meals, in meetings, in briefings, and what felt like hundreds of different situations. These trainings dragged on, and Ezra hated them all. Even so, he could feel himself subconsciously change the way that he stood, that he sat, and that he acted. When flashes of frustration crossed his mind, instead of lashing out, he slowed down and considered how he should act.

Of course, he was far from a disciplined master of himself, but he could feel how much he had changed in so little time.

And then, instead of the unending, painful instructions, on the final night Chloe brought the meal to their room, where, lounging on her bed, she started to talk in a conversational tone.

“Tomorrow, around midday, we’ll arrive in Brayton,” Chloe said. “That’ll give us plenty of time to get you into the city and into the Garrison. There should be enough time, once we get all that done, to get you outfitted with all of your equipment and settled into a bunk. Ideally, you’ll have a room, as all people in the prospective Knights division do, but that’s no guarantee. You might end up in the rank-and-file bunk rooms for a couple days before your room is prepared.”

“You think I’m gonna complain about a few days in a bed near other people?” Ezra scoffed. “Sounds like a vacation to me.”

Chloe stifled a laugh as she bowed her head in acknowledgment. “Like I’ve said before, this isn’t usually an opportunity that some street rat gets. The prissy, promising asswipes that end up in this position tend to throw a fit if things don’t go their way. Just know that you might be with career soldiers, and that you’re young and pretty untested. If you’re in there for long, you might get into a couple arguments. Don’t embarrass yourself and don’t embarrass me. If something comes from one of the officers, let me know and I’ll help you sort it out. Got it?”

Ezra nodded once, and Chloe continued, “Honestly, the soldiers probably won’t say anything to you. Not really, because, everything else aside, even if you aren’t technically higher in rank than them, in reality, an Adept is much higher rank than even a regular sergeant. The real problems will be the prissy, promising asswipes I talked about before.”

“Inner-city kids who lucked into being selected then feel like me being there is insulting them. Got it,” Ezra said. “I don’t love it, but I’ll be fine.”

“I believe you will be, but don’t forget that they’re capable,” Chloe warned. “Though connections got them training that people like you didn’t, training doesn’t make people suddenly capable of sensing and manipulating aura. They’re capable enough, even if you’re more talented than them. When we get in there tomorrow, stick with me. I’ll be with you basically until nightfall. At that point, keep your head down and tell me whatever happens when we meet up the next day.”

“Yeah, I understand,” Ezra said, feeling like she was perhaps overstating what he needed to do.

“That means that when they call you a bitch, that somebody’s got their hand so far up their ass that they’re using you as a puppet, or whatever else, you keep your mouth shut, you don’t look at them, you don’t antagonize a fight, and you wait until I’m around.”

His immediate inclination was to snap at her that he understood, but he figured that doing that was pretty contradictory to what he was saying he would do. Instead, he nodded and put his head down.

“Good. And, actually, you can look at them. I wouldn’t put it past some of these jackasses to sneak a sucker punch in on you. Keep your head up, and don’t let them get any free shots in.”

“If they try to hit me, I’m going to hit them back,” Ezra snapped.

Chloe let out a long breath, letting the air make a sound like a horse through her lips. Once she had done so, she shrugged. “I’m not gonna tell you not to defend yourself. However, if you can keep it from becoming a fight, that’ll be ideal.”

“How likely do you think this is going to be?” Ezra asked. “I thought this was going to be a safe place, you know, like being in the army? Where the commanding officers say what to do and people fall in line?”

“It shouldn’t happen,” Chloe said, shrugging. “But the factions wanting the Duke to split his power are growing stronger and, though I’ve only been away for three weeks, that’s plenty of time for tides to change.”

Ezra sighed and shrugged. “I’ll try not to get into any fights. No promises.”

“That’s probably about as good as I can hope for,” Chloe allowed. “Now get some rest, and we’ll see the city in the morning.”

Ezra shot her a quick salute and retired to his bed, grateful for the night off of training, even as he strengthened his inner world, taking note of how much it had grown over the past weeks of constant draining and refilling. He had no idea what the limits would be now as an Adept, but if he was to make a guess, his reserves were about twice as much as they had been when he’d first ascended, and the quality of the aura stored within had also improved.

Even with all of that, the final training of the day had yet to begin, and, as he rolled over towards the wall, he whispered, “You wanna show me that dream again?”

Sleep claimed him not long after, and Ezra dreamed of the different aspects of dueling that he had learned so far, his mind traveling swiftly through different stances and different fighting styles. Chloe’s and Jormun’s were vastly different, and here, he could practice with both to his heart’s content, though the effect wasn’t as great as the physical training he could do while awake.

Regardless, he grew stronger, even by tiny steps, and when he woke, Ezra saw Jormun, whose presence had faded somewhat. The two of them had, over weeks of experimentation, learned that the ghost could give Ezra these dreams, but only two or three times a week. Beyond that, the grizzled ghost could feel his sense of self fading, and he refused to try to push himself any further. When he had them, somehow, Ezra woke as energized as ever, but with just a fraction more experience than when he went to sleep.

This morning was no exception, and Ezra woke to the quiet sound of Chloe waking. He opened his eyes before she stepped close, and as she reached down to shake him, he raised a hand and waved her off.

“Time to get ready,” Chloe said as he rolled over and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “Today, we take you to your new home.”