Yejin led Kei out to the training grounds, where rows of students were scattered across the open field, casting spells under the watch of instructors pacing between them. Small flames flickered to life and died out awkwardly. A gust of wind knocked one boy clean off his feet, to the muffled laughter of the students nearest him.
"Looks like elemental spells are today's lesson." Yejin smiled, watching a girl nearby struggle to hold a swirling ball of water steady in her palms. "I wonder where Master Feng Tao's gotten off to."
She glanced around, not spotting him yet. "You know, elemental casting was never really my strength. I lean more toward physical augmentation — imbuing my weapons with mana, that sort of thing. Made graduating here at Saeho a real fight, honestly."
Kei said nothing, watching the students with quiet attention.
"You're not going to say anything?" Yejin glanced sideways at him.
"We've got our own styles, that's all." He kept his eyes on the field. "I fight for precision and speed. Lethal strikes, quick as I can manage, so the fight ends before it drags out. But elemental spells aren't a bad idea either. I use them to slow an enemy down, cut off their movement."
"My brother's strong at both," Yejin said, something wistful creeping into her voice. "Close range, long range, doesn't matter. He's got more spells memorized than I could ever hope to learn, and he's mastered most of them too." She let out a small, self-deprecating laugh.
A cluster of five students — none of them older than twelve, by the look of it — spotted her and came jogging over, bowing together in a ragged little line. "Lady Yejin! I'm so glad to see you here!" one of them said, beaming.
Yejin blinked, surprised. "Yifan? I had no idea you were a student here already!"
The girl bowed her head, cheeks a little pink with pride. "Started last year. Had to go back home for a few months, though — pirates were hitting my village pretty hard, and I couldn't leave my grandparents there alone while I was off training." She looked up, earnest. "But thanks to you pushing for extra security out there, the village's safer than it's ever been."
"Haha, it was nothing." Yejin held up one finger like she was reciting a rule. "Lesson one of being a hwa-samurai — protecting our people comes before anything else."
"Still. Thank you." Yifan's gaze slid sideways to Kei, curious now. "Is he your lover?"
Both of them answered at once, sharp and immediate. "No!"
Yejin rounded on the girl, cheeks going faintly red despite herself. "Yifan! Why would you even ask that?"
Yifan pressed her lips together, trying and failing to look properly sorry. "Sorry. Should've thought before I said it."
Yejin closed her eyes for a second, visibly working to reclaim her composure.
Yifan, entirely undeterred, turned her full attention on Kei instead. "You're very handsome, sir. Smart too, I bet. Would you teach us about spells?"
Yejin settled back, arms crossed, a grin spreading slow across her face. "Oh, absolutely — he's a clever one, this guy. He'll teach you well. Right, Kei?" She glanced over at him, entirely too pleased with herself.
"What? Me?" Kei looked genuinely caught off guard. "I'm not exactly a great practitioner."
"Please. If you and your partner are anything to go by, you're the sharper one of the two — and Vincent's basically a master of practition already. So what does that make you?" Yejin's smile didn't budge an inch.
Kei let out a long breath, already knowing there was no winning this one. He turned to the small crowd of students instead, all of them watching him now with wide, expectant eyes.
"All right. Listen up." He drew his dagger, and a small ripple of alarm passed through the kids at the sight of the blade — right up until he drew it lightly across his own forearm, opening a shallow cut. "Practition's built around manipulating a few fundamental energies. Prana's the first one you'll learn, and it's the simplest to understand — it's your lifeforce. Every living thing has it, which is why it's always the first thing taught, before you ever try to touch anything outside your own body. Prana-based spells start you off with physical augmentation, and healing." He hovered his free hand over the cut, and a faint light bloomed from his palm, the wound slowly knitting itself shut before their eyes.
A few of the kids gasped audibly.
"I can only manage simple wounds like this one," Kei went on. "Anything deeper — severed limbs, that kind of damage — takes years of dedicated practice to even attempt. But healing's worth learning regardless, especially if you ever want to spend your life helping people instead of just fighting for them. That said, if defending the empire's more your goal, you'll want more than healing alone. Prana has another use too — compress it tight enough inside your body, inside your soul even, and it turns into something called anima. That's what lets you push your strength, speed, reflexes, or durability past what your body could normally manage. The stronger your control, and the bigger your reserves, the more you get out of it." He demonstrated without warning, anima flooding into his skin until it hardened, and pressed the edge of his dagger flat against his own forearm — the blade sliding uselessly off, unable to break the surface.
More gasps, louder this time.
"But if you're aiming higher than that, mantra's the next step. It's the fundamental energy woven through nature itself — it's everywhere, always has been, in every environment in this world. Bending fire, water, wind, the ground under your feet — that's all mantra. Advanced practitioners can push it further still, summoning storms, quakes, that scale of thing. But combine mantra with prana, and you get mana — and that's where it gets interesting. Mana lets you actually generate an element from nothing, instead of just bending what's already there. Ice out of thin air. A jet of pressurized water straight from your palm. Flame from your own breath. You may also use mana to imbue your own weapons — swords, daggers, bows and arrows, any weapon. Mana makes them sharper, stronger, and more durable." He paused. "Every element runs on its own formula, though, and they're all a headache to learn properly. Most practitioners pick one, stick with it, and spend years chasing real mastery in just that."
"What about you, sir? What's your element?" one of the boys asked, practically vibrating with curiosity.
"Me?" A faint smile crossed Kei's face as he opened his palm, and a small dagger of pure ice formed out of the air above it, perfectly shaped, edges gleaming. "Ice, naturally. Something about how I grew up, I think."
"Whoa!" The reaction rippled through the whole group at once.
"One more thing, though, and this one's important." Kei's tone shifted, dropping the warmth out of it entirely. "There's a third energy out there. Nethra — the fundamental energy tied to darkness. It's dangerous to hold, dangerous to use — a lot of curse spells run on it, and it does real damage to a human body over time. Fiends use it freely. Some practitioners have found ways to use it too, though nobody's entirely sure how they manage it without destroying themselves. Best thing you can do is stay far away from ever trying to learn it. Understood?"
A round of solemn nods answered him.
"Curses..." one of the boys — Kino, judging by how the others glanced his way — spoke up, thoughtful. "Like that shaman that hangs around outside Yeoljindang."
Kei's brow furrowed slightly. "A shaman?"
"Yeah!" Kino's face lit up, entirely too pleased with himself. "People say you can pay him to curse someone who's wronged you. It's cool!"
"Kid." Yejin's voice dropped, flat and serious. "It's never cool to hurt someone without good reason for it. Understand?"
Kino's excitement deflated instantly, shoulders dropping, eyes dropping to his own feet. "Oh. Sorry, Lady Yejin."
"What's a Yeoljindang, anyway?" Kei asked, letting the moment pass.
"It's a temple," Kino said, a little more subdued now. "My mom and dad go there to pray, worship the Goddess Amaterasu. It's in Oden Fortress."
Kei glanced toward Yejin, silently asking. She caught the look and filled in the gap herself. "Ah. You wouldn't know it, of course — it's all the way in Oden Fortress, the capital. It's the main temple for people who follow the Yeoljin faith." Something distant crossed her expression. "I went there once myself, years back, when my mother was invited to visit. Long enough ago that I honestly couldn't tell you how much it's changed since."
Kei fell quiet for a moment, turning the name over in his mind, filing it away.
Eventually Yejin sent the kids back to their own practice, out across the field with the rest of the students. It was nearly time to relieve Yul's group from patrol duty anyway, and the day, it seemed, was not slowing down for anyone.