Chapter 13 - Lessons

"Sensory? Your file says green," Leopold said more to himself than to Pan, as he looked at the battle report.

 'A green being sensory? Three times slower? Is that the ability of a yellow graduate not a green apprentice, stone of enlightenment? What a joke.' Thought Leopold.

 But soon his thoughts were cut short by a muffled groan from Pan who was holding his bandaged shoulder.

 'Yes, phantom pain.' Thought Leopold.

 "You haven't learned to heal yet, I see," Leopold said, putting his hand on Pan's shoulder and easing her pain. "As you have already awakened and are suffering from phantom pain I will make an exception and allow a white crusader to teach you how to heal during our journey to the Order."

 The sudden news made Pan's pain go away as if he had never been there to begin with, nearly two weeks of early learning would be quite an advantage.

 'That's what I'm talking about.' Thought Pan.

 But Pan's joy also faded very quickly as Thorin was his assigned teacher. He even liked the crusader, but the same spoke too much for his taste.

 After a few more details about the class, the brooding Pan and the talkative, Thorin moved towards the wagon they were in before.

 "Hey Thorin, have you seen a blue apprentice? Her name is Ava,"  asked Pan looking around.

 "A blue apprentice named Ava? Hm?" Thorin then stopped and tapped his head with his fingers as if to make it work better. "I Remember, I know who it is," he said, slamming his fist into his palm. "Do you know each other?" He asked at last.

 "You get to be irritating, so gesticulate, did you know that?" Asked Pan, in which Thorin has one hand on his chest and the other on his forehead before throwing himself back as if he had received a painful blow. "Yes, she's my…friend," said Pan.  He was going to put his hand to his nose and between his eyes, a gesticulating habit he'd acquired and performed whenever he felt frustrated, but only the phantom pain came again.

 'But what the hell.' Pan screams internally.

 But soon the pain passed again. Pan couldn't help but look at Thorin's outstretched arm touching his chest. Relieving the pain was an easy trick for the white graduates and didn't waste the essence like healing, but Thorin had been treating the pain all day.

 Thinking about it Pan took a better look at the crusader and could see that the roots of his black hair were strangely shiny, he was, in fact, drenched in sweat. Which made Pan feel bad for criticizing his ways… Quirky.

 'He's a decent person.' Thought Pan.

 "Ava yes? Well, the newly awakened ones have a hard time reaching the state of clarity after the first time. But this friend of yours is a case and she's having a hard time getting out of it. She wakes up, enters clarity, spends essence until she passes out and comes back sleeping, but she's getting better, I think, so don't worry," reassured Thorin, giving Pan a few pats on the back, before helping him up the wagon they were before and reached as they talked.

 Pan felt strangely relieved to hear that Ava was okay. But soon his attention was taken by Thorin who began to explain the many ways to heal with essence.

 From what Thorin told him. The cure can come from the user's essence or from nature, whites are easy to use their own essence, greens can ask nature for part of their vitality, both can do a little of both, in which Thorin demonstrated by making a small wound in hand, before setting foot in the grass and using nature's essence to close the wound.

 But that simple gesture left him very exhausted, nature was not generous with her essence, unless you were a green, of course.

 Following Thorin's footsteps and explanations, Pan made a small wound in his hand with his teeth and put his feet on the grass. He then focused his awareness on his feet on the grass, Pan needed to clear his mind of everything but the comfortable touch of earth and green.

…

 'Why isn't it working?' Pan thought after a few hours.

 "Don't worry, you've already awakened, now it's just a matter of time, have clarity a second time and it will become like breathing later," said Thorin patting Pan on the back for the tenth time that day. "We should rest," he declared in a tired voice and Pan nodded, even though he didn't feel tired himself he could see that Thorin was getting visibly paler.

 In the following days Pan continued with the training, as the caravan couldn't stop he decided to remove some seedlings of flowers and put them in an improvised vase and tried to use them to close the small wound.

 Thorin had already explained almost everything there was to explain. The essence was something very intimate, so what worked for one crusader wouldn't necessarily work for another. Which is why much of the Order's teaching was focused on botany, anatomy, martial arts, geology, among others. This would increase a crusader's general knowledge and in turn improve how he understands and uses essence.

 'Free the mind of everything that is not in touch with green, imagine that there are ethereal veins extending both through your body and through the structure of the flowers, then try to connect these veins and then just extract the essence of the flower.' Pan thought as he held what appeared to be a red sunflower in his left hand.

 The phantom pain still bothered him, but he was already starting to get used to the lack of an arm, so the cases where he tried to move the non-existent limb were less. Relieving both he and Thorin from exhaustion.