Our first task as a unit (Day 3), Part 1

9th of the Second

Fasnilthar

I woke up early that morning, before sunrise on that day, as I did on most days the job would put us on the move. Since we would be leaving at around 9, I hoped to get a few hours to train and prepare my things ahead of time. Though on days like that, especially ones we were traveling mostly by foot, I usually only did guidance for my daily training. I mean, it's the part the guild considers the most important, which is also to say doing guidance on days we are busy tends to earn extra coin if we report it, and I don't really like the idea of passing on cash a whole lot. Chiaisei woke up as I was preparing myself for the day, and it looked like Nalfimiria was already out of bed. That didn't surprise me that much, seeing as she was an adept level. The two of us decided to grab ourselves a snack downstairs and then get back to the room, to do guidance in there. Typically I would go for a shower at this point of the day, but seeing as we had a 3 hour walk ahead of us, I figured it might be best to count on doing that once we got to our destination. I did pass by the bathroom to see if my hair was in order, and Chiaisei followed along, before we both brushed our teeths as well. That said, after that point it was straight to the kitchen. 

There, we met Nalfimiria, who was reading while seemingly waiting. The main table there had some drinks and snacks in it, and near the stove I could see some closed bowls, from which I could sorta smell food within. We had purchased those the previous day, as our means of transporting lunch during the days we spent traveling. Not only because they more or less fit the proportions each of us would need in a meal, but also since they came packed with a method to heat the food through magic, making it easier to prepare it when it came to it. "That's our lunch for today, then" I figured, before we could have said anything to each other. As we both glanced at it and at the table, Nalfimiria followed our gazes, before closing the book and facing us directly. She then greeted us, and we did the same quietly in return. I was still a little sleepy by that point, right? Chiaisei also made sure to mention Finarkzir's own greetings to the two of us.

—That's our lunch. And this is a little appetizer I prepared so the three of you would have something to eat after I left. — She told us after likely noticing this question pop up in my face. I had been glancing at it since entering the room, after all. — Sowanar is already up, also. He was headed to a nearby bakery, to complement your breakfasts, seeing as I didn't have the time to make anything more elaborate at this point. Will that be good? — Finishing explaining herself on these details as well, I started wondering how early she must have been up at, to prepare lunch by that hour. I decided not to voice that doubt, though. 

—Of course. Did you already have your fill? — I said, while sitting around the table and preparing to bite onto the stuff she had already made. Chiaisei followed along soon after. 

—I did. My plan is to leave about now, since all I really was waiting for was for one of you three to wake up to give my warnings. Seeing as you've got down before Senshin, I'll be counting on you to pass along the message, alright? — As she told us her plans, she got up and started searching around her bag, one that was near her chair. In the end she took out some sort of item, one that roughly fitted into her hand, alongside her emblem as a sister. She was already fully dressed in her robes, one slightly different from the one she wore the previous days. The sisters have a ton of different uniforms, don't they? And all of them are really good looking too! 

—Surely. Off to do research, then? 

—Pretty much. Yesterday I got most of the preparation done in terms of my grammar, but best to check up my spelling with others more acquainted with their language. I'll meet you again once we're all ready to leave. Sowanar already has the location of our meetup, by the way. — After Chiaisei asked her, she told us as much. 

—Very well, sister. Will you inform us of relevant findings separate from the message's preparation? — Chiaisei replied again, sounding extra polite while doing so. She is a serious type by default, but it seemed work related topics made her all the more so. 

—Sure. There won't be much to prepare other than the cart and ultimatum, but I'll explain all other information I got while on the road. There shouldn't be that much to report, either way. 

—Okay then. Thanks for taking care of this aspect of the job, Nalfimiria. Until then! — Having heard her, I said my goodbyes shortly after greeting her initially to which she replied equally, and seeing the exchange, Chiaisei did the same to her. She didn't leave the kitchen though, instead only messing with the item on her hand a little. Confused, I looked on before she said, as if reading me. 

—Oh, were you expecting me to walk there? I thought you two were already acquainted with these trinkets. — As she said that, I felt an intense magical response from the item in her hands as well as in her emblem, before a brief shine took over the room and she disappeared entirely. 

"Oh yeah, they can totally do that." For a moment I was stunned, until I remembered a revelation from just a few days ago that path tracers generally moved within a city through teleportation, if there was a need for haste. Enough of them used transit to make it seem like it was habitual of them, but typically in lack of time they will simply teleport around in secret. Not gonna lie, I kinda liked the sound of that. That also made it easier to understand why she bothered to wait for us instead of simply leaving behind a note, seeing as she had a lot of stuff to look into in our regard. After processing what I had just seen for a moment, a question popped up in my head, one I wasn't sure if my current company could answer at all yet still felt the urge to ask. 

—Chiaisei, why are we walking to our task's location again? — If the alternative meant saving money, sure, I was all for it, but passing on free teleportation seemed kinda like a waste of time. 

—Well, she never offered to bring us there through these means, right? Then it's possible she doesn't really have the authority to bring other people around through their teleporting lines. 

—Linisflaris said it was really easy for them to do it, though! — I said while remembering the words of a sister we had met recently. 

—Yes, but Linisflaris is 70 years her senior. The sisterhood doesn't appear to operate under any rigid hierarchy, but it's likely they don't offer all of their potential boons to people who just got their emblem. 

—I guess you have a point. I wonder if Luscin and Clarssimin have access to the lines as well. — I voiced out loud, despite knowing Chiaisei had no means of answering me again. They were my teammates and not even I was sure, after all. 

"Come to think of it, Clarssimin visited her parents really frequently, didn't she? And the visits were always short ones too. Maybe…?" I tried thinking about the issue, before my friend interrupted my line of thought. 

—That would be hard to tell, I'm sure. Though thinking about it, I wonder if she'll be traveling with us every time we head to a different task, knowing she has access to their lines. 

—Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. We're all teammates, right? — I told her, while smiling. 

—And by that, you mean…? — Chiaisei didn't seem to get my point immediately, though based on her reaction she might have had a hint to what I meant. 

—If one of us is walking, we all are. — I had no plans to budge on that point. If our sister felt her time was too valuable to move through cities the normal way, we were going with her. 

—Really now? Well, I'll try to support you on this point, if it ends up causing any arguments. — After laughing for a brief moment in response, Chiaisei told me as much. 

The two of us continued to chat while getting a taste of the stuff that was served at the table, while being mindful to leave a portion of it for Senshin. It didn't take long before we finished it, and before heading back up to start Guidance. We continued talking for a while longer, as we didn't have many chances the previous days to talk about how each was feeling about our new coworkers, seeing we didn't really have that much time on our own the previous days. It didn't seem to me like Chiaisei would be warming up to them any time soon, though at least it looked like she was already starting to get used to the idea of living with them by that point. 

I had adapted pretty quickly to this kind of life, but I wasn't sure if my junior would be picking up on this specific point very fast up to this point, yet at least I could say she seemed comfortable with that reality as of then. We also chatted a bit about our impressions of the new place, after talking for a while. It still looked kinda barren, as the stuff we had bought on our first day only really covered utilities, and even then the few open spaces in the house were still mostly empty. I thought the space we did have was used up pretty efficiently, though, in regards to the more practical aspects of living in a house. Chiaisei agreed to these points, which surprised me a bit. For my case, this house was a bit bigger than my parents' place, despite not being that large itself. On the other hand, I was pretty confident the same didn't apply to Chiaisei, based on what I knew of her background. That said, she claimed not to be too troubled by this shift. 

Without having dropped this topic entirely, we decided to prepare ourselves for training. First, we headed to the armory in the house, in order to pick up the Guiding Eyes we would be using for that session. We chose to keep them in that room since it was better protected against intrusions than our bedrooms. Not to say I was fearing for these thing's safety too much, seeing as the sisterhood always is quick to find them if a attempt at stealing one is made, just that even if getting it back was a guarantee, it was pretty essential to have them ready for use constantly, and that delay between it being taken and returned could slow down training a little for us. 

And I mean, though the consequences of that wouldn't be anything major, the association is so insistent with us organizing our development well that by that point I could say with some confidence most mages were a little obsessed with keeping up to their training schedules, something that definitely included me. You do something for 6 to 9 hours every day since the day you hit 4, and at some point the thought of skipping guidance just starts feeling like an insult to the practice of magic. Which probably isn't helped by the fact our career progression relies on our magical levels continuing to grow, so even to the ones who don't get addicted, delaying growth typically was a pain in the ass by itself. 

In any case, having picked the Eyes we would be using up, we headed upstairs, with the plans of using our room as the place to do training, and on the way towards it I saw Senshin doing guidance in the balcony of the house, still on his sleepwear. Apparently, he planned on starting before even eating, and after greeting him, I asked if he wanted to join us for ours. Based on his reaction, I judged that he didn't, however before he could think of any excuse I decided I wasn't having that, and instead dragged him to our room. He complained a little, something about "the cold morning wind helps stimulate my concentration", or some other bullshit, but it's not like guidance is that intensive in concentration regardless. Hell, he was even reading during his session. 

Though by the looks of it, he seemed to be doing both guidance and assimilation training back to back, seeing as he had some of the items he used for assimilation with him. After explaining to him what Nalfimiria had told us, we started our own guidance as well. Personally, I liked placing the eyes on a pouch of sorts after forming the connection between it and me, as this kept my hands free during the process, which I usually used for reading. Since I had company that time, though, I chose to spend that time talking. Chiaisei accompanied me gladly, even if Senshin resisted the choice of chatting for a little while. I still managed to get him to speak about the house we were living at, with that said. 

—The bedrooms, restroom and bathroom fulfill their purpose. Same for the armory and kitchen. The backyard is also more than big enough for sparring, for me. Although... — After getting him to say he liked the place, I asked him to be more specific, which caused him to continue like this. 

—Huh? Is there anything wrong? — I asked again after he spent some seconds in silence. I didn't like the idea of wasting a chance to get him to talk on his own. 

—That sort of space fits my skill set perfectly well, though the same does not apply to the two of you, correct? Finarkzir could be included in that as well, come to think of it. — He said, looking more curious and observant than he usually did, seeing as he normally seemed disinterested in our talks. It looked to me like that was how he showed worry for others, though I didn't know him for long enough to say that with confidence, despite the fact he wasn't particularly hard to get a read on. Still, seeing him show care in his own ways made me wanna dispel it as soon as possible. 

—I wouldn't say so for myself. All of my forms can be used in short range, yeah? Being a little clumped up couldn't stop me from casting. 

—Still, you are a specialist in long range combat. Aiming at close range targets seems incredibly easy for you, by now. Thus, it can't offer the means for you to practice precision. And Chiaisei can't use either of her offensive forms properly in a space this small. Her wind casting would be restricted, and attacks based on Life Echo like distance even more than Thalgignir centered offensive. — His points had some logic to them, but I wasn't exactly in agreement with him. Seeing that, I looked at Chiaisei, as this also concerned her, and she seemed to be passing the first words to me. 

—I mean, sparring rules would place me far closer than long range regardless, and it's not like in the real thing I would have constant control of space either. Even with the option to go long ranged, that would kill the challenge of sparring and simply turn into target practice. Thalgignir borders on flawless when it has to contend with few targets, after all. If I had range in my favor, I might even be able to take the human half of the unit on my own. 

—For my own end of things, it is rather simple. Favighea's casting forms consist of the second most destructive form of offensive magic, thus it is already expected for it never to be used in full potency over training. Rather, many also advise the same restraints to be applied in real battles. Considering Wind Casting is heavily specialized in area suppression as well, there aren't many environments which I wouldn't damage when fighting seriously, so access to them would be impractical. On the contrary, it is expected that I would damage my surroundings over a battle as well. And to be rather blunt, giving Familiar based combat an advantage in range in fighting sports is seen as an anti competitive practice for a reason. The solution to the worries you are showing would be rather unaffordable to us as well. — As she finished explaining her own situation, Chiaisei briefly mentioned what I judged to be the main problem in his suggestion as well. 

—Precisely. Senshin, you see the park next to the house? That's the only real practical choice to get the things we would specifically need, and it's right by our doorsteps. Because it's free for use, even if sometimes a line is needed for some of its features. Housing with the needed space for training specific to each greater area isn't available, and if it was it would be way beyond our budget. Funny thing is, since each level we grow would increase the difficulty of those specifications, our salary would never catch up to the costs of setting that up. It's part of the reason there aren't gyms or arenas targeted specifically at high level mages. — I tried being as explicit as possible, since I suspect Senshin's understanding of basic economics likely wasn't his strongest point. 

—Is that so… That information sounds useful. It will be appreciated. — After processing our observations for a second, he said. Normally, I would have continued talking then, though I had a feeling he had more to say in this case. 

—The temples usually offer these facilities freely, so I wouldn't have guessed they were of limited access. 

—Isn't it rather unfair to compare the norm to training grounds designed by the Greater Ones, though? They provide through their magic favors in their temples that even make some consider the temples to be Divine Gifts on themselves. Even ignoring how often they rely on compressed space for functions of this sort, equalling their powers on this end should be about as simple as for everything else. I suppose most of your training likely happened within Gardens of Resolution, so it hardly surprises me you had few chances to observe what is expected by the norm. — Chiaisei answered him, while proposing an explanation ahead of time. It didn't seem like Senshin was inclined to disagree with it either. 

—Even if you ignore all the functions that are beyond us, the temples are simply massive structures. There isn't a single palace in Galecirnan that matches them in size, and from what I heard the same basically applies anywhere else, if you exclude buildings with Great Sister involvement. I think in nations of magic kin there might be more superstructures meant for magical practice, but that should be way beyond human places in both need and capacity. Magic is universal for them, so justifying its magical training as a massive countrywide investment is probably way easier. — That is a somewhat simplified take on politics, though I think the point came across both in the moment and to audience members. 

—Makes enough sense. I've rarely ever visited training grounds outside the temples, but that hardly sounds strange. My imagination seems to have failed thus far. Would access to those grounds be difficult to you? — I could already guess what he wanted to propose based on that question. Senshin himself mentioned he still had access to the services the temples directed at path seekers, so he probably was pondering on extending that invitation towards us. 

—There would probably be a queue, but Nalfimiria can likely put us at a higher priority in it than you. If any specific need arises, we can go there together. — For a moment he looked in awe at the fact I predicted the silent question. This boy's transparency can be pretty amusing at times like that. 

—We will. I look forward to seeing you at your best. — That feeling seemed to translate into a small grin he directed to us. If I had to describe his smile, I would say it's very Senshin. Simple, honest and almost reflexive. An offer which he liked was extended, so it just came about as a reaction. It lasted shortly as well, which made a better sell to the idea it was genuine. Seeing how natural it felt, this also made me all the more certain he would be incapable of faking or prolonging one. Like with most other types of emotive reaction, his smiles seemed to come and go by impulse. 

—Do you now? You've barely seen anything of me at all until now, so my best might scare you a little. Why don't we trade some rounds after the job is done? — I gave the suggestion, knowing the topic would please him. Or at least it would until it became a reality, that is. 

—Gladly. Looking forward to it. 

—Just make sure to hold back a little this time. In the little time you had to do so with Sowanarcistvir, I was confident at a few points you had hurt him. You weren't that rough with me during combat introductions, so maybe it would be better to follow that logic again? — Chiaisei suggested, looking somewhat worried after hearing this suggestion. 

—Of course I was kinder to you. That's all part of instructing, and I wasn't sure how well you could handle beatings at that point. Senshin seems to know how to take them, but I'll still measure my hands based on the occasion. 

—Perhaps when it comes to force that would be helpful, but I hope you fight seriously. It should make the sparring more worthwhile, and even if it will be difficult, I'll struggle to find a way. — Senshin said. On one end, he seemed to know it would be tough, on the other, the fact he thought he stood a chance at all made me feel underestimated. 

"Look who is sounding confident. Hopefully that spark will last its fair share of beat downs." I, for one, couldn't imagine Senshin beating me in the coming months, based on the matches I watched from the prior day. He did seem to understand his styles, and could handle the adaptability and logic of it somewhat well, but in a sense his application felt rigid. Like instead of drawing multiple plans at once, he committed every match to a specific route. It didn't seem that difficult to read his choices either, and I could say with certainty that in a dueling situation, the last thing a mage of his speciality would want is to be predictable. Whether a certain hunch of mine was completely accurate or not I would need to test it in action, however if my guess hit the spot, it looked to me like there was a method to read his plan in the first seconds of a match. "The kid seems to be somewhat smart. Sowanar is a straightforward foe, so it might have been just the result of the match, so hopefully I've got that theory wrong." 

With that interaction out of the way, our conversation carried on for a while, mostly being sustained by Chiaisei and me, though occasionally Senshin would comment on what we were saying. Finarkzir also made some comments through Chiaisei, but that was mostly how things progressed. Something I noticed by that point is that although Chiaisei kept up her mask while interacting with Senshin directly, when she was speaking to me within his presence, she was far more open and expressive than she had been around our other two teammates. Based on that, I guessed she didn't see any need to show caution around him. I chose to interpret that in a positive light, even if I had the suspicion Chiaisei simply acted this way around him due to her confidence in his lack of ability in matters related to people. 

Eventually the talk was interrupted by Sowanar's arrival, as he carried with him what would consist of the rest of our breakfast. Hence, we took a pause to eat after he got back home, and during it I invited him to take part of the guidance session as well. Which he accepted, despite warning us he would be dividing his attention between us and studying during the session. Either way, it wasn't long after eating that we were back at it again. Considering each of us could handle around 3 hours of guidance straight back then, and that we woke at around 5 with plans of leaving at 9, most of our morning was spent like that, as well as checking how well prepared were our things. And around the time we decided to head to the meeting spot, Sowanar showed us where it was. 

With that, we left our home at around 8:10, heading towards one of the exits from the city. Seeing as we were loaded with our lunch, some supplies and a ton of weapons, we couldn't use a bus or the trains to get there, so instead we needed to pay for a coach to bring us there, a monetary habit I was unfortunately used to when it came to preparing ourselves to leave like this. Well, on the bright side, since it was a known fact mages would breach the maximum volume for public transport with gear while leaving on missions, spots that were common living grounds for mages usually had a few carriage drivers waiting around for clients. Meaning there was some additional leeway with the time when leaving home, even if the car was far below the speed of buses and much less the in city trains we had running. 

In the end, we arrived at the meeting spot about five minutes before the given time for the meeting. Sowanar had been pretty insistent with us leaving soon enough to arrive punctually and all, and none of us had any good reason to object, other than the fact no one really expected Nalfimiria to care about us arriving precisely on time that much. Either way, before we get to the trip itself, time for a switch! Which means I'm not really the one who'll get to it, but you know, it works? Yeah, let's go with that. Bye bye!