Chương 80: [Fish Breath and Fine Art]

The people from Stonehall had settled in enough now that they felt like they belonged. A group of the trainers had taken their usual spot, tables pushed together, food arrived a little while ago and most of it already gone. Lauren had brought Growlie his own plate, fish, something she'd worked out he liked, and he'd gone at it without looking up once. The sounds from under the table confirmed he was still at it.

A few tables over, a small group had their heads together over sheets of paper and hand drawn maps, getting ready for the session that would start once the place quieted down. Lauren was running it, Victoria ready to take over the bar when she did. Ronan noticed Mars glancing toward the bar. Victoria was laughing at something Lauren had said, the shaking that caused was clearly interesting to the young man. He smirked and went back to listening to the conversation at the table.

"The second group are getting there," Aldric said, pushing his plate back.

"Slower than the first but not by much. The third's the same."

"All of them are faster than anything I've seen before," Bram said.

"I know they have their UI and it's the main cause but it's still hard not to be surprised every time an instruction is followed so cleanly so soon after I give it."

"Sam and the other four in the first group though," Nessa said. She was leaned back, arms crossed.

"They're pulling ahead of the rest. Not by much, but it's every time. There's always something they pick up a beat faster than the others."

"You think it's the one-on-one time?" Mars asked.

"Partly, or at least for Sam and Leo." She took a drink.

"But then Luka, Phil and Brandon are ahead as well and they're in groups, so I'm not sure."

"If Rika hears you called Parmo Brandon, do you think she'd be annoyed?" asked Bram with a grin.

"Probably. She's like his second shadow when they aren't in training." Lucian looked up from his plate.

"I noticed the same thing shows up in their magic sessions. All five of them are further along than they should be. No one to show them how it all works, the magic in the UI being different to anything any of us know. It just seems to come easier for those five for some reason."

"They're just built differently," Ronan suggested.

"Maybe," Lucian said.

"But it feels like it's more than that. They aren't just learning; they're adapting." Aldric looked at his drink for a moment.

"The five of them move like they're driven by something the others don't have. Most trainees I've worked with are just trying to get through the hour, it's a chore for them. But these five? They're different. It's like they've decided where they need to be, and they're in a hurry to get there."

"What makes you say that?" Mars asked.

"You see it in the repetitions," Aldric said simply.

"The UI fixed their fitness, but it didn't fix their minds. Most of the students start to wander after the tenth time I have them reset a stance. They get bored. But those five? They just keep going. They don't seem to have that point where the mind wants to stop doing the work." Ronan looked at Bram. Bram's ears wiggled once in agreement.

"True enough," Ronan said. The dummy came up next. They'd noticed the crack in the stone when they were putting things away after the fight. Most of them had seen the spells in training and then in the fight afterwards but no one knew who chipped it.

"Has to be Leo or Phil," Mars said.

"They both have the most powerful spells so far."

"Could be Brandon," Aldric said.

"His ice seems more likely to chip stone. Those other two would just blow the thing apart."

"Marcus is going to be both annoyed and impressed when he finds out," Bram said, smirking.

"I don't doubt it. I'd wager he'll be annoyed first though. He'll grumble about how long he spent on them even when taking magical attacks is their whole purpose."

"Oh, definitely. He'll be embarrassed when that gets brought up too." Nessa set her drink down.

"You know what impressed me more than the dummies though. The dome and the fog, running low on mana, no prior attempt at that combination. They pulled it off first go in the middle of their first battle. If that's instinct those boys are going to be scary in a few months." Nods went round the table. Kai had been eating steadily through most of this, contributing nothing. He refilled his drink and set it back down.

"Anyone been in that camping shop yet?" Mars said. A few of them had. Murmurs of agreement went around the table.

"Yeah, the tents are pretty interesting," Bram said.

"I was looking at them and comparing them to ours. Much faster and more convenient. You seen those weird tent poles? The ones that connect together?"

"The materials are unlike anything we have here," Aldric said.

"The threads are finer than anything our looms produce but there are more of them and packed tighter. Water sits on the surface instead of soaking through. We never worked that out because we didn't have to. Magic either fills the gap and nobody asks why, or we learn one way that works well enough and that's the way things remain. These people didn't have magic, they had to figure it out, and somewhere along the way they started asking how things could be better." He turned his cup.

"I'll admit I didn't know they were waterproof until the lady in the shop told me. That might be the strangest part. Something so light, that folds down to nothing and shapes itself, keeping out the elements better than half the gear we use. Some of their inventions are genuinely remarkable." This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Bram nodded.

"Yeah, that all makes sense." Mars leaned back in his chair and pulled out his phone. He'd had it since Max showed him how to run the bleep tests and in the days since he'd taken to using it for other things. He was quickly becoming fixated on it and their technology as a whole.

"So Nessa," Mars said.

"Find anything you liked in town? I know you're quite fond of painting." A few grins around the table. They knew where this was going.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said.

"Why would I be fond of painting?"

"Nothing caught your eye?"

"Not particularly."

"Funny." Mars pulled his phone out and held it toward her.

"This picture says otherwise." Nessa's face dropped. The photo filled the screen. Nessa in the middle of the art supplies shop, surrounded by colour, paper, brushes and a lot more they didn't have easy access to in the village. She was smiling ear to ear, a smile that put the lie to her denial.

"This doesn't look like a woman who doesn't like painting," said Mars, smirking.

"I was just looking. I was smiling because I remembered that time Growlie peed in your porridge." Grimacing at the memory, Mars went on.

"Yeah, why don't I believe you?" The table looked at the photo. Then at Nessa. Ronan leaned forward slightly, not at Nessa but at the phone.

"Wait. That's her? You took that without her knowing?"

"Yeah," Mars said.

"From how far away?"

"Other side of the shop." Ronan stared at the screen.

"And it just looks like that? Clear as if she was standing right here?"

"That's what it does," Mars said. Bram reached across and Mars tilted the phone toward him. The bear-kin looked at it for a long moment, ears tilted forward.

"The detail," he said quietly.

"Every button on her coat."

"These would be amazing for the scouts," Lucian said.

"A few words, a picture like this, done." Nessa sat very still while the table's attention drifted to the phone itself, the conversation moving toward how it worked, what else it could do, whether Mars had taken other photos. She picked up her fork.

"I've seen your work you know," Aldric said, not looking up from the phone as Mars passed it around.

"You left a piece in the barracks last summer. Nobody knew whose it was for weeks."

"I don't know what piece you mean," Nessa said.

"The one of the cliffs at dawn. With the fishing boats." Nessa said nothing.

"It was really good, Ness." She put a piece of food in her mouth and chewed, hoping they were done interrogating her.

"I genuinely don't know why you don't just admit it," Lucian said.

"Nobody here is going to think less of you for having a hobby."

"Still don't know what you're talking about." The table moved on, Mars fielding more questions about the phone. She ate steadily and said nothing further. After a while the conversation drifted somewhere else entirely. Nessa set her fork down and reached for her drink. Lucian leaned toward Bram.

"I wonder what Sam would think," he said, not quite low enough. Nessa's fork stopped. She set it down and glared at Lucian. Mars looked over at her, grinning.

"The face is still the best part, look how happy she is." He turned the phone toward the table one more time.

"She actually looks cute here." Nessa spat her drink out.

"Shut up. Don't call me c-c-cute." Her face was glowing red. The table laughed. Mars wiped his face, still grinning.

"There it is," he said. Nessa picked her fork back up, grumbled something under her breath and went back to her food.

"So, how's Leo getting on with the Sarren?" asked Aldric. Kai looked up from his plate.

"Well enough." The trainers looked over, waiting for more.

"Better than expected," he continued.

"Faster than it should be possible. Same as the rest of them."

"You're not going easy on him," Bram said.

"No."

"Any particular reason?" Kai looked at him for a moment.

"They learn faster than anyone I've trained," Kai said.

"Leo has no other students competing for my time. It's a chance to see how far a single student can go with my full attention and seemingly no end to how fast he learns." He paused.

"I couldn't do this with anyone from the village. I feel like it would be a wasted opportunity not to try."

"Right," Ronan said.

"And it has nothing to do with who he spends time with." He sighed.

"Yeah okay, maybe a little," Kai said. The group looked at each other, the same shock on most of their faces.

"A lot of you are too young to remember Shai's parents well," he said.

"They were good people. I made a promise to look after her and her becoming a fine warrior herself doesn't change that." He looked at his drink.

"I need to know she's in good hands. If that's the path she chooses. I need to know the man is worth it." The table stayed quiet. Seeing Kai say that much out loud was not a thing that happened often. Bram nodded once, slow and deliberate. Ronan let it sit for a moment, then looked across the table at Aldric.

"How's the spear group coming on?" he said. Aldric, to his credit, picked it up without missing a beat. The conversation moved. The quiet around Kai dissolved back into the general noise of the evening. The two of them ended up at one end of the table a little while later, the others deep in something else, voices overlapping.

"What made you say all that?" Ronan said. Not pushing. Just asking. Kai looked at his drink.

"I got carried away," he said.

"I realised it after the water break. I stopped testing him for her sake somewhere along the way and started doing it because he wouldn't break. I kept going to see when he'd ask me to stop." He paused.

"He never did."

"I know," Ronan said.

"I noticed."

"I know you did."

"So," Ronan said, after a moment.

"What do you think of him now?" Kai thought on the question.

"I don't know if he's the right one for her," he said.

"But he's driven. Focused. He's not going to stop getting better. With their UI and their magic, with the rate he's moving." He picked up his drink.

"He might surpass me eventually. I wouldn't be surprised." Ronan nodded.

"A man like that," Kai said.

"At least I know he can protect her. It won't be the other way round for much longer." Ronan nodded again.

"Yeah, I kind of want a student who can surpass me too. I've never really had that feeling before."

"Yeah, it's not something I'm used to yet. The people in this town are going to bring a lot of change in the coming months."

"What about Rika?" Ronan said.

"You worry about her the same way?" Kai looked at him. The corner of his mouth shifted into a slight smirk.

"Anyone with the energy to keep up with that woman," he said, "probably deserves her." Ronan laughed quietly. Under the table, the sounds of eating had stopped. A moment later Growlie appeared at Mars's elbow, having apparently concluded that his own plate was no longer sufficient. He looked at Mars. Mars looked at him. Growlie put one claw on Mars's leg. Mars sighed. Growlie climbed up.

He made it to Mars's shoulder, got comfortable, found his balance, and then turned and licked Mars's cheek with considerable enthusiasm.

"Ew, Growlie no. You have fish breath," he said. Growlie licked him again. The table laughed. Lauren looked over from behind the bar, saw Growlie on Mars's shoulder, and smiled. She tapped Victoria on the shoulder and pointed. Victoria laughed at the grimace on Mars's face. Mars wiped his cheek with the back of his hand and looked at Growlie. He tried to look annoyed but couldn't keep it up, a grin breaking out in its place. Growlie looked back at him and purred.