- A Month's Training

A month had passed since the incident involving Bran.

In the time since, both Marcus and Elanor, under the enthusiastic tutelage of Tess, had begun a rigorous training regime designed to adjust them to the unique requirements of their post.

Every day, no matter the weather, they would run for miles through the uneven forest, battling the terrain, the wildlife, and themselves.

"You'll never know where you'll find yourself, so you need to be prepared to manoeuvre through any terrain, with both speed and precision good enough to best any opponent," Tess had told them.

Next, would be what they knew as 'scenario training'.

Every day, after taking a break after the run, of varying length that often depended on how Tess felt that morning, they would have to complete a task that "replicates different skills that you could realistically find yourself needing when on a mission." These scenarios wildly differed. One day, they would be told to run once more, this time while encumbered with additional weight. The next, they were told to steal an object without detection. Sometimes they had to hit targets with weapons and magic while moving at speed.

Following that, the pace would slow down, and they would be taken inside to do theoretical work.

The work was tough, due to both the amount of information required and the speed with which they were required to both learn and implement it.

They studied magic further than they had at the orphanage. Not only did they have to know what the most common use of each element was, like they had been taught at the academy, they had to go a step further and understand what the core principles of each element were.

In the orphanage, Marcus learned fire was more akin to heat. Here, he learned more of that knowledge, along with how to use that knowledge in a practical scenario, for all elements.

"If I have learned one thing in my time, it is that there is one thing more important to ensuring your own survival than understanding the elements that you can use. You must understand what your opponent is capable of, as soon as you learn what elements they have. This is the only way to guarantee you will come out on top," Tess had told them during the first of these lessons.

Lastly, they would head back outside for the practice session, a lesson where they would practice using both magic and physical arms in a rotation across six of the seven days of the week.

The purpose of this training was simple.

For the magic lessons, the aim was to improve the amount of spells they could cast, as well as improving the potency of spells they could already use. As a side effect of this training, Marcus saw consistent, albeit minor, growth in the magical stamina reserves he could pull from, allowing him to cast spells and channel aura-type spells for longer. On the other hand, Elanor had seen no change in her stamina at all.

During their lessons with physical arms, they learned both theory and practicality. They learned of the different classes of weapons and the individual weapons that were found in the classes. During this process, they were shown what each weapon was used for, and what it could be used to do in the hands of a skilled wielder. They were taught stances, grip points, how to block, how to move, and how to strike.

"Why do we need to know this stuff, anyway?" Marcus had asked one day. "Couldn't we just use magic for anything we needed to?"

"Weapons are far less traceable than magic," Tess responded, "so it's easier to get away with things. Plus, it's good to know for whenever you find yourself in a tricky situation."

As she had answered him, Marcus got the feeling that he, inexplicably, already knew the answer, but it was lost in his mind until he was reminded of the answer.

On the seventh day, the two of them would use this time to spar with each other. This benefitted them by giving them actual combat experience against another person, giving them an idea of what moves someone might make in an actual fight that couldn't be learned from words on a page.

Possibly intentionally, these sparring sessions also benefitted Tess. As their instructor, the sessions allowed her to gain a meaningful insight into their strengths and weaknesses in terms of combat, and also an idea of their true selves.

Elanor had a fantastic mind, but was unfortunately let down time and time again by her weak body. She was able to, on a consistent basis, perfectly read and appropriately counter Marcus's moves and attacks, both magical and physical. Her flaws were laid bare as the sessions increased in length, as her low magical stamina meant that she often couldn't compete in a straight fight where power was the most important factor.

Another flaw that she had, that was possibly shown purely due to the identity of her opponent, was her compassion. On the occasions she had manipulated the fight into her favour through careful planning, she was never able to finish the job and always expected her opponent to surrender, no matter how many times that decision cost her.

Marcus, on the other hand, was the complete opposite.

While he showed talent in identifying the ideal way to approach a situation depending on the variable factors involved, and knew how to chain together his abilities with the wide range of weapons available to him during the theoretical sessions, he often never implemented any of it in an actual live scenario.

Just like with Elanor, it wasn't clear whether this was a result of the foreknowledge the two had of each other, but Marcus almost always opted to engage with a show of physical and magical strength, winning by simply overwhelming his opponent. On the rare occasion he managed to catch onto one of the girl's plans, he would simply continue with his plan or, in even worse situations, would adjust to an even more strength based plan of his own, despite the fact that he was clearly being manipulated to a position by her.

Judging off of what she had seen of him, Tess had concluded one thing. He was impulsive. He acted quickly and decisively despite any changes in the scenario, and that made him a danger to his allies.

Their progress improved a lot with the arrival of Roxy.

Arriving at the hideout a week after the two of them, Tess used her experience to properly measure their abilities against someone who had received actual experience as a shadowstrider aspirant. When compared to her abilities, their weaknesses became even more obvious.

Nonetheless, they improved rapidly while sparring with her. Elanor, who was frequently let down by her magical weakness, grew more capable of using her abilities to close out fights before she inevitably ran out of energy to fight. Marcus, after many fights that ended with him on the floor and a teasing comment from Roxy, finally began to adjust his fighting style to be more mindful of his opponent. He also learned how to use his aggression properly in the controlled environment of a sparring match, although it remained a tactic that was easily punished by his opponent.

Three days ago, they were assigned their first official mission. During the already assigned mission regarding a rumoured convoy, Tess had made the decision to take the two with them, given the children a chance to observe how missions are run in a fairly safe manner. Following this, Tess felt comfortable enough to officially bring the two of them along.

There had been talk intercepted about transports running into a small village in the north from the West. Suspecting the shipments found inside to be items smuggled to and from the war happening not far from the border, the four of them were sent to the village to investigate.

The village was in an ideal location in the North. Found not too far northeast of the Hub, it could feasibly function well as a distribution outpost to the surrounding areas, its proximity to the Hub acting as the ideal smokescreen from most prying eyes.

The village was small and sturdy. Along the perimeter ran a tall wooden wall, manned by people that looked like volunteers, their cheap-looking equipment and general demeanour revealing their true nature. Partially visible over the top of the wall, the village sat around a large, dome-topped building.

Entering the village gave a true sense of how small it was. Judging from the number of buildings, as well as the type of buildings that existed, along with auxiliary architecture like farms, there looked to be less than a hundred people who called this place their home. Such a place would be disregarded by most as irrelevant, and thus not worth investigating.

'Seems like the perfect place for someone trying to hide something,' Tess thought to herself.