WW Chapter 90: Reunions (Patreon)

“The fuckers pulled knives on you?”

“You’re not in trouble?”

“Whose tooth did I see on the floor?”

“Tell us more about why Basil was excited.”

“You didn’t get hurt at all?”

A flurry of questions bombarded Ezra as soon as he finished telling his story and allowed them. Each person had something else they were concerned about, various concerns filling the air as Ezra answered them.

“Yes, knives. Only Matthias got to the point of actually drawing the thing, and I blocked it. Willem was more dangerous with his aura. No, I’m not in trouble. The general didn’t even give me a slap on the wrist before dismissing me. I didn’t notice anybody’s tooth flying, but if I had to guess, I’d say it was Matthias’s. I can’t tell you more about why Basil appreciated what I did. No, I didn’t get hurt. I think they were just planning on being able to immediately beat me down and weren’t expecting there to be a fight in the first place.”

“You’re my idol,” Telemachus spoke up fastest once Ezra was done. “Able to take down nobles and get thanked for it? That’s my shit.”

Dirk didn’t have to say anything, instead just elbowing the taller man that he sat next to. Telemachus grunted in pain, but he still smiled as the rest of the group glared at him to shut up about his hatred of nobles.

“I’m glad everything is turning out right for you,” Miriam said, turning her attention back to her food. The tall, thin woman didn’t seem to want to ask any more questions, though her eyes continued flicking up to Ezra as the others continued prodding him. For nearly half of the hour allowed for lunch, Ezra answered what questions he could, though they mostly ended up looping back on themselves, trying to ask questions they’d already asked and had been told he wouldn’t answer.

The second half of lunch was more interesting to Ezra personally, when Dirk looked at Ezra with his eyebrows up high. While the rest of the table went quiet, Ezra felt his stomach twist.

“What?”

“Tonight, Luna and I are going to try to ascend to Adept. If possible, I’d like it if you were there.”

Ezra went silent at that, a swarm of emotions boiling in his stomach. He was honored, of course, but he also didn’t know if he could accept the invitation. But he’d already learned from his time among the elite squad back in Villy that he needed to be better about actually doing the work on maintaining his relationships.

“I’m honored,” Ezra said, smiling and making sure to look at both people. “I’ll go ahead and talk to somebody, see if I can be late to my assignment tonight. I want to be there, so I’ll—”

“Don’t worry about it, make sure you’re there, I’ll take care of letting all the right people know. Just come report to us where you usually do when you’re done. Until then, I’ll take over for you,” Basil said, leaning over the table. Ezra twitched as the man’s appearance took him by surprise, narrowing his eyes at the Pseudo-Knight, who happily chuckled at being able to startle Ezra. The rest of the commoners also looked at Basil, surprised first by his appearance, and then by who it was.

“Sir Basil,” Luna bowed her head, “I couldn’t impose. I wouldn’t dare to.”

“It’s not imposing on anybody,” Basil waved her off. “Having friends is important, especially in our line of work. Him taking time to be here for you both is part of being a good friend, so I’m happy to help you out.”

He didn’t say anything more before he walked past, his food tray in hand as he left it at the kitchen and then walked out the door. Knowing him and his assignment as a buddy, Ezra could guarantee that the man was never more than a couple meters away from the door, and shortly thereafter, he just turned right around before hiding out in an unoccupied corner to keep a lookout.

“He always disappears so easily,” Rose said, watching after Basil. “His affinity is similar to yours, Ezra, right?”

“I think in concept, yes,” Ezra shrugged. “In reality, I don’t know. As I learn more, it’s obvious that no two inner worlds are the same. Since he’s got so much more experience than me and is a tier higher, there’s not really any way for me to know for sure how much overlap there is anyways. We both have something that has to do with air, I can tell you that, though.”

The conversation died for a short time after that, though it wasn’t long before Ezra turned to Dirk and asked, “Have you figured out, you think, what kind of affinity works best in your inner world? I only had a random guess before I ascended myself.”

“Actually,” the short, stocky man said, “this isn’t the first time I’ve gotten close enough to try. The first time, I didn’t even realize it, I just started pushing to expand my inner world a little, but instead it started hurting, and I lost a bunch of my reserves instead. That was, oh, maybe a year ago? Then, just before you got here, I tried for the first time on purpose, which ended better than the first time, but still set my progress back. Now, I’m actually ready, and I know what I’m doing. I think. Having Telemachus push ahead of me lit a little bit of a fire under my ass.”

A couple chuckles spread through the assembled trainees at that, though Ezra still waited for Dirk to give his answer.

“I’m thinking, rock or dirt,” he said, shrugging. “I’m not really sure what the difference between them in aura is, I don’t think that my senses are that fine-tuned.”

“I think rock,” Telemachus jumped in. “You’re steady and strong. I think it suits you well.”

Most people agreed with that, though Luna suggested water, for a more soothing, calm temperament. They all looked at Ezra to see what he thought, and he hesitated over his answer.

“No one cares if you get it wrong, there’s no betting pool,” Telemachus shouldered Ezra as they stood from the tables.

Ezra pursed his lips, then decided on what answer to give.

“I hope it isn’t, I don’t know, me making an arse out of myself saying this, but I think I’ve kind of become the leader of this squad since I arrived. People come to me for advice on meditation, on moving aura through your bodies, and so on.” As he said it, a series of nods answered him from the people around the table, and so Ezra continued talking.

“I don’t know if I want to say what I think, not because I don’t know you or anything, but because of what I just said. If what I think is wrong, it might limit your own thoughts, if you trust me too much. Or, maybe my thoughts are correct, but I take away from you opportunities to learn about yourself. After all, Telemachus, you can also attest to how exploring and experimenting with your aura has helped you grow stronger. If I happen to be perfectly correct, I might stunt somebody’s ability to learn for themselves.”

A quiet settled over the other five soldiers as they dropped their trays off at the kitchen. For a few moments, Ezra wondered if he’d managed to offend everybody, but Telemachus spoke up.

“You know, I like the sound of you being our captain. You know who we are, you know where we come from. We’re the same kind of people. I’d be happy to follow your lead.”

“Captain Ezra,” Rose said, grinning as she came closer to him. “You gonna lead us into battle?”

“Not if you all start ignoring the rules of the military,” Ezra laughed back. “Captain is something you get at Pseudo-Knight, not before. And we’re not here to talk about me, I wanna hear how Luna is already prepared to attempt to ascend.”

“It is nothing special,” she shook her head. “It simply turns out that I’m a more talented Initiate than I am a cleric. I’ve spent years honing my ability to feel ambient mana, which is very similar to the process of drawing aura into yourself. It so happens that I lack a firm connection with any of the gods, but I have a good understanding of myself.”

“Great,” Ezra smiled, clapping her on the shoulder. “Do you have any idea what kind of affinity you might be touching on?”

“I do not know if there is such a thing as a night skies affinity. I think of something radiant, like Michel’s, but not so harsh. If there is something like that, that is what I hope for.”

The rest of the commoners nodded along with that, though none tried to give their own ideas on what her affinity would be. Ezra started to feel guilty about his role in having made the exciting speculation die off, but Jormun floated in front of him, calling his attention while the others continued their conversation.

You didn’t do anything wrong. You simply gave them information, and they’ve changed how they act accordingly. If they wanted to, regardless of your warning, make their guesses and explain them, they would do so. Instead, you have enlightened their minds and allowed them to make better decisions.

Ezra nodded along with that, even though he couldn’t help but feel like he disagreed slightly with the end result. However, nobody seemed upset about what they had done. Luna simply said what she was hoping for, and the rest of the group excitedly spoke with her and the rest.

When he went to the training area where he was supposed to have his regular training, Basil was there. The Pseudo-Knight was not a common teacher for Ezra on these days, but before Ezra could say anything, Basil raised a hand.

“Continue to come here every day, but with everything that’s going on, there’s a good chance that we can’t spare anybody to continue to do these specialized trainings for you. Instead, our greatest priority is to get you to at least be touching the barrier of Pseudo-Knight as soon as possible. Tomorrow, there's supposed to be a storm blowing through, and you will be excused from every duty, including attending to Adonis, while  it’s storming so that you can spend as much time in this storm as possible.”

“Yes, sir,” Ezra answered, habitually snapping into his military response. Then, he frowned a bit. “I’m not supposed to be taking unrefined aura into my inner world. At least, when I did that during my Ascension, it really sucked, and only the aura I refine myself actually stays in there for longer than a few hours. The longest unrefined ambient aura’s lasted in my inner world is maybe a day at most.”

“Are you stupid? No, don’t answer that. Obviously, you just didn’t know. That’s not stupid, my bad,” Basil immediately corrected himself. “What you’ll be doing is different from that. Bringing in outside aura during an Ascension is bad because the act of Ascending is stabilizing and cementing your inner world with what you’ve got. If it isn’t done with what you have naturally, then it’s painful, to say the least. It’s a bad way to do it, so please don’t try again.”

“I wasn’t going to,” Ezra laughed. “It really sucked.”

“Great. Now, if you’re just pushing your inner world’s limits, you can take in plenty of extra aura by being in a place with a lot of ambient aura of an affinity similar to what you’ve got. It’ll expand your limits, even though a fair portion of what you take will end up just kind of fading away. Not a good way to replenish yourself, good way to grow.”

“So something kind of like eating so much that you end up puking, but your stomach is still gonna be bigger before you puke?” Ezra asked.

“I guess?” Basil chuckled. “Honestly, I can’t think of a good comparison to it, but it’ll stretch your inner world. The more storms we can get you under to do this in, the better. It’ll accelerate your inner world’s growth, which for most people, doesn’t mean shit. I mean, they’d be able to do more with their aura, but they won’t actually be that much closer to ascending, because understanding the path forward is the greatest roadblock for most people. For you, though, you have a superhumanly good understanding of what you might need to ascend to Pseudo-Knight anyways. So, this would be helping you get there faster.”

“And if it turns out that I’m not actually ready, nobody cares, because at least I’ll be a little bit more competent while we’re on this mission,” Ezra nodded.

“Basically. Also, just in case you didn’t realize, you have permission to attend the attempted Ascension of your friends tonight. Don’t worry about anything, I’ve taken care of it.”

Basil didn’t say anything more before he turned and walked out of the room, obviously on some other duty. Ezra called out his thanks after the man, who wiggled his fingers in an informal goodbye as he escaped. That left Ezra all alone to try to meditate as effectively as possible. Who knew how successful that’d be.

Instead of idly wondering about it, he found a spot in the corner of the room where the shade had been steady and pulled a stool over. There, he sat, opened his mind, and tried to lose himself in his meditation. After all, if he really pushed himself, couldn’t he become a Pseudo-Knight soon?