After David had assured Leandro and Niala that he was fit for training, eager, even, they had travelled to the moon chapel, jogging through the hungerwoods as usual.

  Niala confidently kept up with both men. Even if they were carrying the bulk of the equipment, she had greatly improved over the past several weeks, and she only needed a few minutes to catch her breath once they arrived.

  Leandro used this time to ask about David's experience the day prior, not having had the opportunity to do so yet. The young man gave him a summary, mostly about what the veteran was truly interested in: David's mana.

  “A sea serpent? That is the form you felt your mana had?” Leandro asked.

  David shook his head. “Not felt, I saw it. I talked with it.”

  “That...” the veteran hesitated, brow furrowing. “It might have been due to the potion. Mana is not a distinct image, nor does it talk. It is a part of you, one which you perceive through your inner sense.”

  David gave Leandro a look before closing his eyes and diving within himself. He arrived at the great sea and called for his mana. His voice echoed from elsewhere, reaching his ears with an unsettling reverberation. The water remained serene, with nary a ripple.

  He began wondering if Leandro was right when the water's surface deformed into a rising hill, its surface broken by armoured fins, the great sea serpent's head emerging from the parting water like a doused mountain.

  “You need of me?” Its resonant voice rumbled.

  “My mentor said I shouldn't be able to see or hear you,” David explained.

  The serpent remained silent, staring at David.

  “Let me guess, you don't know?” The young man asked.

  “I do not, but you can clearly see me, as well as speak to me, and I, you.”

  David nodded, waving goodbye at his mana, and retreating from his inner world. His eyelids fluttered open, and he flinched when he saw both Leandro and Niala staring at him from a few paces away. “What?”

  His observers looked at each other, eyes wide, before Leandro turned back to him. “It is hard to describe, but just now, when you closed your eyes, we felt a pressure, but not a physical one.”

  Niala's ears wiggled as she stared intently at David. “The same kind when you're meeting someone who's super important, but coming from your insides.”

  David tilted his head, looking at Leandro. “Whatever it is, I really feel like I can see and talk to my mana. It's not an abstract feeling at all.”

  The big man hummed. “If that is true, boy, then you are the first I know of.” He turned his attention to the catkin.

  “Girl, what about you? What does your mana feel like? Can you talk to it as well?”

  David stilled his features, not allowing a scrap of worry to filter through, as Niala pointed a finger at herself, eyes blinking. “Me? I, huh, I guess it's sort of a... book? And I can't talk to it at all!” She hastened to add, attempting to control her pit-bound ears that were trying to act like wings.

  “Hrrrm,” Leandro grunted, before crossing his arms. “Very well then. Girl, get that yoke, attach two half buckets of rocks, and start lapping the clearing.”

  Niala slumped, secretly glad they were quickly leaving the topic of her mana, and did as instructed. The veteran turned to face David in the meantime.

  “As for you, boy, let's see what you can do now that you seem to have gained mastery over your mana. Power a single imbuement in your left leg, with the barest of glow.”

  David gave a sharp nod and willed.

  And he lit up like a blue sun, blinding Leandro and making Niala yelp and fall as the bright flash startled her. He immediately cut off all of the mental pressure he was exerting, blinking away the blue afterglow that he had given himself, as Leandro held his hands over his shut eyes.

  “Boy! What in the blood pits was that!” The large man asked, squinting, tears forming at the corners of his eyes.

  “I... I don't know.”

  “Then what did you do!?”

  “I willed my mana forth,” David explained, contrite.

  Leandro grunted. “Saints' love... I guess this could be useful to blind your enemies in combat, at the very least.” He finished blinking his tears away, looking back at David. “Right. Try again, as subtle as you can.” He warned, before shielding his eyes with his hand.

  With renewed focus and a bit of trepidation, David took one deep breath, centering himself.

  I usually need to apply pressure on my mana, as if it were congealed and didn't want to move, but this time I didn't feel any resistance. It felt like... like I had slammed a door open, and the waters had rushed in, eager.

  Maybe I just need to open the door a little, instead of pushing it...

  He envisioned a wall standing between him and his mana. Within the wall, he made a tiny hole, opening a link between his inner self and the outside world, and he smiled as he felt something pour out.

  But even this was too much, as his left arm lit up like a roaring brazier. Cursing, he plugged the hole back up, this time opening a pin-prick fissure.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Yet again, it was too much, his arm flaring up, all of his imbuements activating at once, if somewhat dimmer.

  Stop! Listen to me! He roared with his inner voice, and the mana seemed to... heel, resting at his feet like an over-eager puppy that had been told to sit.

  Arching an eyebrow, he tried again, this time attempting to directly impart his will to his mana, sending it a mental image of what he wanted out of it.

  And this time, a single line of runes took on a faint blue tint on his arm.

  With the smile of a kid that had just found a piece of candy, David looked up at Leandro, who lowered the hand shielding his eyes, observing his pupil's arm, nodding his approval. “Good. Now maintain that imbuement while you run 50 laps with a four-bucket yoke.”

  David's smile evaporated, while Leandro displayed all of his teeth with one of his own.

  It had turned out much less of a task than he had thought. Not the running, that was always going to be exhausting, but maintaining his single imbuement had become second nature almost instantly.

  At first, he struggled to maintain the right intensity, but when physical exertion began to pull at his mind, he noticed he didn't even need to think about it.

  So, when Leandro instructed him to switch to a different imbuement, a flick of his thoughts was all he needed.

  After everything he had been through to get here, it was disgustingly easy, and Leandro soon picked up on it. The veteran had him switch imbuements every lap, then switch mid-lap, had him empower two imbuements at once, switch rapidly between three of them, and so on.

  By his 50th lap, Leandro was scowling, and David was smiling again, his sweat-soaked body and aching breath unable to diminish the mirth he got from seeing his tormentor's frustration.

  David joined Niala on a log, taking some time to rest. Leandro passed him a water gourd, a critical eye looking David up and down.

  “Boy, why are you now displaying perfect control over your mana?”

  “I'm not sure. It just... listens to me. Before, I had to fight it to make it do what I wanted. Now, it's like a dog eager to please its master.”

  Niala's ears perked up, pointing straight at the sky, as she turned her head toward him, eyes fully opened and glinting.

  “...what is it?” He hazarded.

  “I want a puppy!” She declared.

  “...not a cat?”

  She frowned, “Why would I want a cat? Dogs are so much better! Always so happy to see you!”

  “Oh... It's just that... you know what? Never mind. I'd love to get a dog too.” He said, his surprise giving way to a tender smile.

  “Yes! A big, fluffy one!” She said, shuffling over and nuzzling into his neck.

  Leandro cleared his throat, loud enough to have a few nearby birds take flight.

  Their heads turned toward the big man.

  “It appears,” He intoned, “that you both have had enough time to rest. Niala, get started on squats, with a two-bucket yoke, then use the weighted sticks and get those shoulders moving.” His stare left no room for rebuttal, as much as Niala seemed to want to try anyway. She got up from the log and stomped over to the equipment pile, getting started.

  Leandro looked back at David. “As for you, since you now inexplicably have perfect control over your imbuements, it's time to start learning how to use them.”

  David's immediate reaction was elation, which the veteran's smirk quickly murdered, leaving nothing but a sense of dread behind.

  It was very rapidly revealed to him that he had no idea how the imbuements really worked and what they could do. He had thought they were simply ways to make someone faster, stronger, more resilient.

  It did, but that was, in most cases, their side effect.

  Some of the more generic imbuements really did only improve someone's physical attributes, but Azure Guards, Leandro, and especially David, had so many more kinds of powers engraved upon their bodies.

  Leandro explained that each imbuement, each line of runic script, could produce a different effect if one “modulated” their mana to the correct frequency.

  The veteran had demonstrated by activating an imbuement in one of his fists, a blue gauntlet of energy surrounding it. He punched the trunk of a tree, disintegrating it into high-velocity splinters, many of which embedded themselves into trees further behind, sounding like a lightning strike had just shattered against a stone.

  As the now-disconnected tree top fell, Leandro powered the imbuement in his arm and grabbed the falling timber, waving it around as if it were a stick, before flinging it a hundred meters away, over the tree line.

  Under the screeching of panicked birds flying away, David and Niala stared at Leandro, who did his best not to appear smug, even though his stance betrayed him.

  “Back at it, girl.” He called out to Niala, turning his head back towards David. “Do you understand?”

  “I... that was impressive, but wasn't that just strength improvement?” David said, tilting his head.

  “What? No! My fist, it...” Leandro groaned, reactivating his fist imbuement instead of further words. He held it out towards David, pointing his chin at it. “Pick up a stick and try to smack my fist.”

  David did as instructed, and the stick broke apart as it touched the ephemeral glove covering Leandro's fist. As it did, the veteran retracted his mana from it, letting it fade into non-existence.

  “This is not a strength fist, it is a force fist. It imparts tremendous energy to whatever it comes in contact with.”

  David's brow rose, looking up at Leandro. “And I have that imbuement as well?”

  “Ha! Boy, you have all of the imbuements I know of, more that I have no idea what they do, and some I don't even know that you have.”

  “But that means you won't be able to train me on those?” David surmised.

  Leandro nodded. “That is true. I can only teach you what I know, but despair not, I can also teach you how to explore your imbuements, learn what they do for yourself. Not quick, or easy, but certainly doable.”

  “Oh...” David said, the implications opening up a can of questions.

  “Indeed,” Leandro agreed with the unspoken statement. “For now, let us have you learn the basics: how to modulate your mana.”

  Modulating mana was apparently the core of the Azure Guard's training. Once they were done with learning how to control their muscles, then how to regulate and accurately direct the flow of their mana, they learned how to make it speak to the imbuements, in a way.

  Through his attempts at learning the technique, David would have rather described it as making his mana sing. From a technical point of view, it was very similar to how mana-signatures interacted with mana-locks. From a practical point of view, attempting to consciously mould his mana was giving him a headache.

  It wasn't as simple as having your mana do something; rather, it was in how it did that thing. Leandro had no quick and easy trick for him. He simply had David attempt to trigger the most basic imbuement that all Azure Guards received, which was the skin-hardening one.

  The veteran had told him the effects would be akin to wearing a very heavy suit of armour that weighed nothing. His skin would stiffen, and his movements would be somewhat constrained, but impacts and attacks would be blunted, their force absorbed and distributed all over his body at once, making a sword strike feel like nothing more than a metal stick sliding over your skin.

  He had also said that the average Azure Guard trainee needed, on average, three days to learn how to trigger it properly.

  David decided he'd get it done within 24 bells, because he wanted to prove that he could do it, but mainly because he wanted to find out what all of his other powers were, as Leandro had refused to reveal anything until David had mastered the “Iron Body” imbuement.

  I hope the other ones have better names.