Letting Go

25th of Lumina, year 991

Over the next four days after Young Master Garth's triumphant return to Kasgar, Blink had been very busy helping out in the farm, assisting his senior brother and training his three students.

The day before the last of the crops had been harvested and piled inside the granary. He had also managed to finish drying a sack of coffee beans, which he stored inside his dimensional ring.

Blink's dimensional ring still stored more than half of the meat of the beast monster, some of which he had salted and dried for a few days before storing them back. There was just so much meat that there was nowhere to place it anywhere in the kitchen. And since his ring kept everything inside fresh, he had to keep all that meat inside it.

He had discovered this ability of the dimensional space inside his ring after trying to get rid of the meat stored inside it. He feared that after several days being stored inside, the monster's meat was already starting to rot. Blink was afraid that the stench would linger inside his ring and ruin whatever he placed inside it. But when he was about to throw out a large chunk of monster beast meat, he discovered much to his surprise that the meat had kept fresh.

Blink found it a pity that the space inside his ring wasn't a little more expansive. He would have wanted to store a year's worth of food supply and never worry about getting hungry for the rest of his journey. Instead, he stored a pan, a pot and enough rice for three months. He even added in an improvised grill just in case he wanted to have a barbecue.

At the village martial arts training center, Blink helped Senior Brother Garth organize a mock assessment for the children. Expectedly, Zugr and Hubr emerged at the top after two days of sparring. As for the three others in the top five, Blink rewarded them by teaching each of them a technique that enhanced their natural abilities.

As for his three students, they had steadily progressed in the areas Blink wanted them to improve: Hubr with his defense, movement and mental fortitude; and Zugr with his variations and his switching from defense to offense and offense to defense. The latter was only beginning to understand the idea of striking defensively while Hubr was still too far away from comprehending the same. Jogr, meanwhile, was a revelation. He had attained advanced proficiency for the Third Movement of the Returning Palm Style and was starting to practice the Fourth Movement, which Blink was able to draw up a few days prior to Senior Brother Garth's arrival.

The Fourth Movement of Blink's Returning Palm Style emphasized the integration of the [Curling Strike] to the palm style. Mastering the techniques embodied in the Fourth Movement would give an elusive quality to the practitioner's attacks even though the Returning Palm Style still remained almost completely a counter-attacking system of fighting.

Despite his busy schedule, he still put in the usual time for his training in martial arts and magic.

At night he would open his books in order to learn a new spell or just broaden his knowledge in the magical arts. He had added a lightning spell to his arsenal—[[Pulse Break]]—and was close to mastering another lightning spell, a lightning strike coming down from the sky called [[Zapper]].

[[Pulse Break]] was a close-range spell that was intended to stun the enemy. The stun effect was only momentary, but a lot could happen within a moment. When successfully cast, tendrils of blue and white sparks would extend out of the caster's hand. The target has to be within two meters of the caster, or its effect would become neglible.

Blink had also began studying the book "Basic Enchantments" also written by Thomas Renly. Obviously, the wordings were also updated to current speech patterns, word use and popular expressions.

Blink found item enchanting as a very interesting magical discipline. A lot of the enchantment models provided by the book were also very practical. Take for instance the self-cleaning seal which could be enchanted into clothes. Adventuring magic practitioners would find it very practical as they probably won't have much time for washing dirty laundry.

It would still take some time and a few uncommon materials before Blink would be able to create his first enchanted item, but the possibility of success had been something he was looking forward to.

Often enough, Blink would be frustrated with his magic practice. More often than not, he would have initial difficulties mastering the spells well enough to be able to cast them. He was, however, especially flustered over the fireball spell model illustrated in his palms. Blink could not understand how he could easily summon a fireball but couldn't seem to propel it towards a target with the use of his mental energy.

But while he felt stifled with his magic practice, he was the exact opposite with his martial arts progress. Not only was he mastering his techniques at a rapid pace, he was also comprehending innovative ideas that he developed successfully into dependable fighting techniques. For this he took full advantage of the sparring sessions he had with his Senior Brother Garth in order to better understand the correct application as well as the inadequacies of each individual technique. All the techniques Blink had incorporated into his Returning Palm Style were tried and tested repeatedly through Senior Brother Garth.

Just this dawn, Blink fulfilled a request from his Namgan Magra. The request was for Hubr to watch Blink in practice at his forest clearing. There was no reason to deny such a request anyway. Hubr was his nephew and student. If watching him perform martial arts would inspire Hubr to aspire for greater attainments as a practitioner, then it was definitely something that he must do.

At the end of the demonstration, Hubr was so excited that he couldn't wait for Blink to teach him the techniques he found so cool. Blink had to temper the boy's expectation by reminding him that there was no shortcut to martial arts practice.

"All that was to give you a glimpse of what you could be in the future," Blink said reminding his nephew to train diligently and not rush things. "Rushing will only result to half-baked skills, and a half-baked skill is a useless skill."

Blink also impressed upon Hubr the importance of receiving guidance from an older practitioner.

He said, "When you get to the academy, seek out Berge.

"She is now the number one disciple among the juniors, so she should be one of your instructors by the time you enter as an apprentice."

"The number one disciple? I thought that was you, Nangku." Hubr had a perplexed expression. His nangku being number one had always been a source of pride for him.

"I was, but I had to leave to do something. Anyway, you should seek out Berge. She is practically your nangka, so she should take good care of you and see to it that you receive the best training possible."

After giving the boy a few more reminders, Blink embraced Hubr and had an emotional moment. Hubr bewailed the fact that his nangku had to leave and for a very long time at that. Teacher and student were both reduced to tears by the boy's sentiments. Even Magra teared up watching such a scene.

Blink then asked to be left behind. He still wanted to keep his magic practice a secret to anyone besides his sister. Besides Magra, nobody knew that Blink was practicing magic. None of them even knew the actual story of the delicious meat they had been eating for days which had the miraculous property of toughening up their constitution. The family knew Blink had hunted some wild strange beast. Other than that, they knew nothing else.

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Hubr complained all the way as her damma dragged her along the forest. It was still a little dark, and he should still be curled up in bed dreaming of his rise to the top of the world of martial arts.

Normally his damma would reconsider with just a little whining from him. But this time, she was determined to have her way. She even snarled at Hubr a few times to make him hurry up saying, "You don't want to be late for this."

Whatever it was that he didn't want to be late at, she didn't bother to explain which only added to Hubr's irritation. He bickered with his mother all the way.

When they arrived at the spot, he saw a man standing in the middle of a clearing with his back towards them. Hubr recognized that back. Even the posture was unmistakeable. Who else could it be if not his Nangku Kraszad?

'But whay is Nangku here?' Hubr wondered.

When his nangku performed his moves, Hubr was left in complete awe. The moves were—in the limited vocabulary of a seven-year old with a book glutton for a mother—indubitably spectacular. He couldn't spell the words actually, but he had heard his damma say them a lot.

When his nangku was done, Hubr couldn't wait to learn from him some of the cool moves he had just performed. He especially liked those turning, twirling kicks. The leaf-gathering technique was also something he thought would be nice showing off to Zugr.

However, to his big disappointment, his Nangku Kraszad told him that all that was just a demonstration of what he, Hubr, could accomplish in the future.

There were a lot of other things his nangku told him, but the only one he remembered clearly was to look for someone named Berge. She was supposed to be Hubr's nangka, which confused the boy. He thought that if the lady named Berge was his nangka then that meant that she and Nangku Kraszad were married. He wanted to ask his nangku how come Nangka Berge didn't go home with him.

Anyway, they went back home without getting to learn even one of those cool spinning kicks that Hubr badly wanted to learn. He pouted all the way back and didn't even want to listen to a word his mother said.

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Kraszad came back for coffee before dawn was over.

He had already collected his belongings and stored them inside his ring. As soon as coffee time was over, he would leave at first light.

The whole family was gathered together at the kitchen. Hegla was sitting on Kraszad's lap. She was still very sleepy. Magra made sure she was there to say goodbye to her nangku when he left. Her brother and her daughter had a bond that must never be treated with disregard.

At this moment Magra was a bundle of conflicting emotions. It was really hard for her to let her brother go amidst all the dangers and uncertainties he would have to face in a long journey through lands she had only read of in books or had not even heard of. The only relief she could find in the situation was that Kraszad's luck had always been unbelievably good. There was also, of course, that powerful unknown being who could change the wordings of a book in one night but she was not certain if that same being meant to accompany Kraszad on this journey.

She also had a lot of regrets. The biggest of them all was the nagging feeling that she was a sorry excuse of a sister to Kraszad who only loved her and her family unconditionally. Magra wished so badly that she could make it known to him how much she loved him, too.

A while ago at the forest clearing, there was an emotional moment between Kraszad and Hubr that deeply touched Magra. She wanted so badly to wrap them both in her arms, but something stopped her. This time, as she thought about it, she regretted letting whatever it was stop her from showing how she truly felt.

And just like that, while Magra was still sorting out her inner conflicts, morning had already broken.

"Well, it's time I should get going." Kraszad stood up and carried Hegla with him outside the house.

Everyone followed him to say goodbye.

Outside the house Kraszad told Hegla to wake up as he was about to go. The little girl clutched his neck and cried. Kraszad's eyes reddened around the edges and moistness started to form on his eyelids. On the side, Magra wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her dress.

After comforting his niece and making several promises to her, Blink handed her over to Jogr. The brothers-in-law gave each other a hug. Magra wondered several times in the past how it seemed so natural for the two of them to show their affection to each other. To Magra, it felt like she was the in-law and not her husband.

Kraszad then embraced Hubr and his adoptive mother, Damre. He gave Hubr some pieces of advice and listened to his mother's advice. "Beware of wild girls," she said, they'll suck the life out of you."

And then it was Magra's turn. Kraszad scratched his head in front of her and seemed unsure of what to say. "Well, I better get going now, Namgan," was all he managed to say.

When he turned around and was about to walk away, Magra felt like she was the worst person in the world. The scene of the two of them practicing magic together suddenly flashed through her mind. The joy they shared together as she was making a little bird's down feather float up with her mental energy was a moment that would forever be etched in her mind. She wanted badly for that happiness to stretch for eternity and hoped that it would be the scene Kraszad remembered when she thought of her.

Looking at the back of her brother, Magra was shocked to realize how young Kraszad really was. Without his robe on, he would put most grown men to shame with a finely-chiselled torso built from constant physical exertion. But in his robe, he looked more like the boy he still was. Especially with his back to her, Magra could sense a certain vulnerability, a little bit of frailty.

Before Kraszad could get any further, Magra allowed herself to let go for the first time.

"Nimgun!" she shouted.

As Kraszad turned, she saw that three-year old boy who was brought before them thirteen years ago. However, that three-year old didn't betray any emotion. This grown young man she had always considered as her brother was on the verge of breaking down.

Magra rushed to him. She pressed herself to him his lower back tightly wrapped in her arms, her head resting snuggly under his chin. Kraszad returned the hug and for the first time in her life Magra felt a heavy weight lifted off her chest, and she teared up in the pure bliss of the moment.

She had finally let her brother know that he was loved. Now she could finally have no regrets about letting her brother leave and be gone from her life for a very long time.

After a very long embrace that couldn't seem to last long enough, Magra finally let go of her brother.

Reluctantly at first, Kraszad walked away, slowly at first as he kept turning around to see the faces of his family. Then, as soon as he had found his resolve to go, his silhouette turned really small from a distance. He turned around for one final goodbye with a wave of his hand.

Magra who remained on the spot where they gave each other a long-overdue hug, waved back at him. In a short while she heard the footsteps of her husband coming close to her.

"Nimgun sure could cover distances so quickly," Jogr spoke in admiration.

Magra nodded in affirmation. The way her brother reached distances so fast seemed somewhat magical.

"He'll be alright, wouldn't he?" Jogr said, more of an assurance to himself. "He could handle a lot of bandits by himself it would be foolish for bad men to cross him."

Magra smiled to her husband. "It's not those men that worries me," she said. "I'm more afraid of girls taking advantage of him."

END OF BOOK 1