The Passage of Time

A few years had passed since Circe's adoption by Ouranos. The girl was currently seven years old, and was sitting in a bed playing with a few balls of what seemed to be fire, water, wind, and earth. She had black hair with mesmerizing kaleidoscopic eyes.

This girl was of course our protagonist, Circe. She was making the balls of her magic float, and was hitting them around like someone would do a balloon to keep it from hitting the ground.

Then, broken out of her fun, Ouranos came into her room inside the guild hall. The two shared a quick greeting before Ouranos decided to break the silence that descended upon them after the greeting.

"Circe, I know that you have wish to train and become an adventurer since you learned you had my falna in you. So, today we are going to start your training to become an adventurer. Then, once that is finished, I'll let you descend into the dungeon." Ouranos said, knowing that now would be the best time to start training the perfect mage.

Circe gave a simple nod, no emotion showing on her face. The only reason Ouranos knew that Circe wished to be an adventurer was because the normally silent girl, who would never start a conversation, would often ask about when she could begin her training.

Ouranos waved for the seven year old girl to follow him. The duo walked through the guild, passing through many many rooms. Until eventually, the found a training ground.

As they arrived onto the ground, Ouranos told Circe to pick a weapon off the rack. Circe questioned this, as she knew that she was a daughter of Hecate, and her own ability with magic.

"Circe, you may be quite adept with magic, but what happens when your the only one on a battlefield? Mages can't handle a battlefield on their own with their cast times."

To this, Circe only shook her head in exhaustion, not ready to correct the god that she had the ability to instantly cast any magic. This skill, of course, coming from her mother.

The girl grabbed a short sword, swinging it a little to test it's weight and balance. Circe decided that it was good enough, she walked onto the training ground to see a woman who looked about 20 years old. Circe assumed this woman would be her teacher, after all, Ouranos looked like he was on his deathbed.

Ouranos decided to introduce the two. "Circe, this is Athena, goddess of Wisdom. She will be your swordsmanship teacher. She is doing me a large favor by doing this, so please, don't be yourself."

Circe put her hand on her chest, making a look of betrayal with her body position, yet her face remained emotionless.

Shaking his head with a slight chuckle, Ouranos went back to the Room of Prayer while Athena began instructing the young Demigod.

---Time Skip: 1 Week---

Circe sat on the ground, tired from the fierce training of Athena. She was forbidden from using healing magic by Athena, her reasoning being that her muscles needed to heal on their own. Which Circe thought was completely insane, not being aloud to use her magic to heal, but she couldn't really disobey the goddess.

If Circe were to disobey, she would only have to do 5x the training the next day. She knew this from experience of course.

"Stand up, you've had your five minutes of rest, now, back to training. Ouranos wants you to be the best swordsman Orario has seen since ever." Athena commanded the young demigod.

Circe hearing this, had her first emotion cross her face in what felt like years. Fear.

---Time Skip: 2 Days---

Circe and Athena were currently fighting. They were going blow for blow, with their training swords. Of course, Athena was limiting herself to only be slightly better than Circe at swordsmanship.

Circe, seeing this, thought she had a chance to win. So, the girl slyly used her wind magic to speed up a tiny bit, only to be knocked on the ground instantly and have a sword pointed at her throat.

"Circe, what did I say about using magic during training?" Athena asked with a cold look on her face.

Circe, with a fearful look on grazing her face, which had become commonplace for their training said, "No Magic. If you do I'll give you a cookie and then slightly scold you?"

Athena remained looking at the girl with her cold expression, before in an emotionless voice said, "It was originally 20x more training for a single day, but because of the comment, the 20x training is going to last the next month."

Circe simply paled, wishing she had never used that small amount of wind magic.

Athena, dropping her cold persona, adopted a sage like one. She held her hand out for Circe to get up. Taking the hand, Athena got into a combat ready stance making Circe sigh before getting into one aswell. Then, the training began once more.

---Time Skip: 1 Week---

Circe had been fighting Athena non-stop for the past 90 hours. She had been aloud to use magic to get rid of her fatigue, but that's it. The only time they stopped was for her to cast the magic, and that only lasted for 10 seconds at most. This was because Circe intentionally made her casting slower to get a slight reprieve from the training.

Parry. Swipe. Retreat. Defend. Parry. Dodge. Swipe. Slash. Retreat. Rush.

Circe fought her hardest against her mentor, Athena. Every time that she came close to winning, she would find herself on the ground with a sword to her throat.

Circe decided to do a reckless move. She retreated a few dozen feet back and through her sword at her mentor. Then, hoping the training wouldn't increase for doing this, she created a sword out of condensed wind magic and rushed Athena.

Alas, it was not to be, as she once again found herself on the ground with a sword to her throat.

"Why must you always go back to magic." Athena shook her head lightly at her apprentice. She couldn't ever get her apprentice to just fight with a sword. Of course, Athena wanted her to be a great mage, but she also wanted her to be the best swordsman. So, she wouldn't let her use magic in training. "You may have used it to create a sword, but you still used magic. This training will no longer stop until a six month period is over. Then, we will see if it has increased. If not, we may be able to go back to your regular training."

Circe, while being to this, simply wept silent tears at knowing it probably would never end.