Days on Lumen Shore flowed to a rhythm all their own. Mornings began before the two moons dissolved into the turquoise sky, and nights were ushered in by the blue luminescence of the glow-crabs. For Aarav, these days became the hardest and most magnificent of his life. His once comfortable, boring existence had faded into a distant memory.
**From Aarav's Journal, First Week:**
*"Kael woke me at five this morning. He said, 'The sun won't wait for you, so why should I?' He gave me a heavy wooden sword and said, 'Lift it.' I did, and my hands started to tremble. It was so heavy. For the entire day, he didn't have me do anything else. Just stand there, holding the sword in front of me with both hands. Just stand. By evening, my shoulders were on fire. When I finally put the sword down, my hands were shaking so much I couldn't even hold a glass of water. Kael said only one thing, 'A sword is lifted not by the body, but by the will. Right now, your will is weak.'"*
Kael's method was brutal, but effective. He wasn't teaching Aarav any fancy moves. He was building his foundation. At the first light of dawn, he would take Aarav to the beach and, for hours, make him practice just one thing—stance. How to stand correctly, how to bend the knees at the right angle, how to breathe from the gut, not the chest.
"Strength does not come from exertion, Aarav," Kael would repeat, his voice as calm and powerful as the ocean waves. "Strength comes from balance. When your breath, your body, and your sword become one, then you will feel true power."
At first, Aarav didn't understand. He felt angry, frustrated. His body ached every single day. But he didn't give up. A fire was burning inside him—a fire to prove himself.
---
Just when his bones were aching from Kael's training session, Liora's would begin. Her method was the complete opposite of Kael's. She was gentle and patient. She was teaching him about the 'Aether'—the life force of this world, the magical energy that flowed through everything.
"Don't try to *see* the Aether," she would say, as they sat beside a quiet tide pool. "Feel it. Close your eyes and focus on your breath. Feel the air enter you, and with it, a small part of the world's soul. Feel how everything around you is alive—this water, this stone, these tiny plants."
In the beginning, Aarav felt nothing. Just darkness and the sound of his own breathing. But Liora didn't lose hope. She sat with him every day.
One day, as Aarav sat with his eyes closed, he felt something strange. Behind his closed eyelids, he began to see faint, blue lines. These lines were emanating from everything—from Liora, from the water, from a flower growing nearby—and they were all interconnected, like an intricate web.
He snapped his eyes open. "I... I saw something."
Liora smiled, her eyes filled with pride. "Those are Tide-lines. The flow of the Aether. You've started to see now, Aarav."
She taught him how to form his first sigil. The 'Verdant Sigil'—the sigil of life. She asked him to concentrate on a broken leaf and channel the Aether through his fingertips into it.
**From Aarav's Journal, Third Week:**
*"Today... today I did it. Liora took a withered leaf and I focused all my attention on it. I felt those blue lines and tried to pull them towards my fingertips. The first time, nothing happened. The second time, nothing. But Liora said, 'Don't command it, ask it.' So I did. I asked the leaf to heal. And... a soft green light emanated from my fingertips. A small, green sigil formed over the leaf, and the broken part began to mend. It turned green again. I was stunned. Liora hugged me. For the first time, I felt like I had *created* something, fixed something. This feeling... it's new."*
---
This wasn't just training. Aarav was becoming a part of this village, a part of this world. He would help the fishermen mend their boats in the morning. In the afternoons, he would tell the children stories from his old world. One day, he fixed a little girl's broken kite using the Verdant Sigil. The joy on her face gave Aarav a happiness he'd never found even in solving the most complex physics problem.
People now called him 'Tideborne,' but the name no longer held awe or fear, but affection. His beauty still drew attention, but now it was just one part of his identity. People were beginning to know him for his diligent nature, his quiet smile, and his eagerness to learn.
And Liora... she was with him every moment. She celebrated every small step he took. Often, after training, they would just sit on the beach in the evening and watch the two moons. They talked—about their worlds, their fears, their dreams.
One evening, as they sat on a high cliff, Liora said, "You've changed so much, Aarav. When you first arrived, your eyes held a certain emptiness. Like you were here, but not really. Now... now there's a light in them."
Aarav looked at her. The wind blew her golden hair across her face. Without thinking, he reached out and tucked the strands behind her ear. His fingers brushed her skin for a moment. They both felt a slight shiver.
"Because here... I feel like I can breathe," Aarav said softly.
The moment was deepening. They were drawing closer to each other. There were only inches between them...
**"TIDEBORNE!"**
Mara's voice boomed from below. There was an urgent tension in it. "GET DOWN HERE! NOW!"
The moment shattered. Aarav and Liora looked at each other, then peered down.
On the shore, where the *Starling Gale* (Mara's sky-ship) was docked, there was a commotion. The villagers were running about in fear.
And near the ship stood two strangers. They wore black, rusted armor and strange, intimidating metal masks covered their faces. One held a heavy battle-axe, and the other wielded a chain with a large hook at its end.
"They're pirates from the Iron Reef!" Mara yelled, loading her steam-gun. "What are they doing here?!"
The pirate with the hook laughed, his voice rattling from within his mask. "We're here for the toy, Captain." His gaze shot straight up to Aarav on the cliff. "We heard the Tide spat out a new, shiny Tideborne. Our master would love to add him to his collection."
It wasn't a threat. It was a declaration.
Kael drew his twin swords and stood between them and Mara. Liora quickly brought her hands forward, green energy beginning to glow between her fingers.
The pirate began to swing his chain. "Fighting is useless. We're leaving with him."
Aarav stood on the cliff, watching it all unfold. His heart was hammering against his ribs like a wild animal. Fear... it was crystallizing like ice inside him. That same old fear.
But beneath that fear was something new. Anger.
These pirates had invaded his life. They were threatening his friends. They had come to snatch away his newfound freedom.
Kael yelled up, "Aarav! Stay up there! This is not your fight!"
But it *was* his fight. Perhaps the first real fight of his life.
He looked down. The pirate with the hook was about to swing his chain at Kael. Kael was ready to fight him, but Aarav saw the second pirate, the one with the axe, stealthily circling around to get behind Kael.
Kael was in danger.
Aarav had no time to think. His hand automatically went to the wooden sword hanging at his waist. It was heavy, useless. But right now, it was all he had.
He remembered the mantra Kael repeated to him every day. *'Strength comes from balance. Breath, body, sword... become one.'*
He took a deep breath and leaped from the edge of the cliff.
It was a drop of about fifteen feet. But he had seen Kael do it many times. He balanced his body in mid-air and landed on his knees in the sand.
Everyone was stunned. The pirates. Kael. Liora.
Aarav rose to his feet. His hands were still trembling, but he held the wooden sword in a firm grip. He brought it up before him in the stance Kael had taught him.
"Leave him alone," Aarav's voice came out. It trembled, but it was filled with resolve.
The pirate with the hook laughed loudly at his courage. "Well, look at this! The toy speaks, and it wants to fight."
He swung his chain, and this time, he launched it at Aarav. The heavy iron hook sliced through the air, hurtling towards Aarav like a serpent.