Shortly after dawn I rose out of bed, unable to sleep any more. Once again, I'm greeted with silence as I walk my way through the halls of my empty home. After reaching into the refrigerator to grab a cold coffee I roll myself some elderleaf to spark up after my morning stretches. As I stretch on the balcony overlooking the city and feel the rising sun against my skin, I'm optimistic about how the day will go. My wounds from training weren't too bad, unsurprisingly, even with active wards Travers' blows left lasting damage. I would be well enough to move the way I need to if everything went as I planned for today. Travers was still pulling his punches with us for training, but I had a feeling that was going to stop soon. I Inhale deeply as I feel the cool fog of the elderleaves enter my lungs, then slowly exhale. I think back on the night I was first introduced to this herbal remedy on what was the best day and worst night of my life. With eyes closed I imagine the inner avatar of my magis, a construct that I now called on almost subconsciously after years of practice. Yesterday I was made to accept that despite the progress I've made, I'm not on a level where I can take on Travers by myself, or even Tyson for that matter. That's my current reality and that's going to have to be okay for me. If I don't accept that I won’t be able to work with him.

I decided to skip breakfast this morning. I can't stand being active on a full stomach and I would kick myself if I misused any magis just because I was feeling nauseous. I have a somewhat limited supply as it is, I can't afford to start screwing up and make desperate moves like I did yesterday. After checking doing a maintenance check on my toolbelt and conduits, I etched some recall runes on the sidearms I felt would be best to have on standby for today. My mind was aflutter with ideas for training with Tyson, despite the tenuous relationship I'm the only one in town who knows more about his skills than Travers does. While that still may not be much, I've got plenty of concepts I intend to work on.

Once I finished checking my gear I finished getting dressed and head out the door to go find my training partner for the day. After opening the door and walking through the threshold without thinking, I'm overcome with the urge to curse and kick myself for not double checking the wards on my front door. I let out a sigh as I'm greeted with the view of Arcton Academy's rooftop and the door is abruptly slammed shut behind me.

"Good morning, Alice." I forced the greeting through gritted teeth.

"Hiya Wyatt!" The impish scourge of the Travers bloodline answered with mile-wide grin. She continued to smile at me looking upside down as she sat on the rooftop railing. "You busy today?" She's been like this since we were kids, harassing me every chance that she can get. This wasn't an everyday occurrence, but after a while whenever I get too comfortable and stop checking my surroundings before I use any doors around school, I end up a victim to one of her little pranks.

"I actually have somewhere to be today besides school, so do you mind finding someone else to bother today?"

She did an overdramatic backflip before skipping her way over to me, blonde curls bouncing with every step. I don't know what's up with her family and all of the hyper athleticism, their level of execution in magian arts is enough to serve everyday needs and then some. She leaned in close, "Where would that be? More 'training' with daddy I suppose? You know you could never beat him in a spar even with that meathead Tyson's help."

I bumped her shoulder making my way past her. "Close. I don't remember asking for your opinion on the matter though."

She whipped around in a huff pouting as she called after me, "I'm just saying I'm way cooler and stronger than both of you combined and I could totally help if you invited me to your secret club! Just think about it will ya?"

I chose to ignore her as I hopped over the railing using the recall rune scheme on the soles of my shoes to summon my skateboard. As I ride the wall down to the streets I call out, "I'll let you know if I get that desperate Alice, catch you later!" I made sure to pick up speed as I got out of there. It would be a drag if I was followed by her, it’s gonna be hard enough working with Tyson to find a game plan to take down Hank tomorrow.

I skate my way down a few blocks before I see him. As usual Tyson is walking the new girl to school. Not really caring to cut the love birds' time short, I roll up to them. "Hey."

"Yo, Wyatt. I was just taking a stroll and filling Alina in about yesterday. Once we get to school, I figured we could go train while class is going on."

"She doesn't really need to know about all of that, does she even know why we're stuck doing this garbage anyway?" I looked Alina up and down. From what I surmised in our first meeting Tyson wanted to keep her uninvolved, so why tell her about any of this at all?

She looked at me for a moment before shrugging and walking ahead. "Tyson you've got your work cut out for you from what you told me. I'll see you tonight?"

He chuckles like an idiot while waving after her, "You bet, we'll grab tea and look at the new issue of The Stormcaster! Have a great day!"

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She continued giving a wave without looking back, I don't know what it is about that girl, but she makes me uneasy.

Tyson put his hands akimbo and continued grinning like an imbecile, "So, what do you think we should do first?"

I nod my head east. "We'll head to a nearby park and chat a bit first, maybe trade some ideas."

He motions for me to lead the way.

*   *   *

"So... *hrgh!* what you're saying is... *hrgh!* you think our affinities have combo potential? Like we can actually cook something up potent enough to take Hank out in one hit? I'm all for it!" Tyson was in an annoyingly good mood this morning, making interacting with him more grating than usual.

I let out a sigh, I could already feel how draining this day was going to be. "So, I'm not saying I completely understand what's going on with you and your magis, but I'm pretty sure I've got some of the properties figured out from experience." Looks like I have his full attention at this point, he stopped doing crunches and climbed his way down from the jungle gym. I started to think about that night the old him trashed my parent’s lab and felt my hands started shaking a little, so I pulled out my backup vial of elderleaf. After I popped the top off and took a whiff, I recollected myself. "Your magis has this effect of dulling potency of others, you already seem to have an idea of how to use that with the way you tank hits and dismantle constructs and wards. So, I'm thinking if I dial things back a bit, you can block my attacks completely."

Tyson looked down at his hand thoughtfully, "I mean that's cool if I'm going against a spellslinger for sure, but I don't see how learning how to do that will help us beat Hank together. I think I'm starting to get how you work things out though. The way you approached every response he had with a new adaptation of your old tactics; it was honestly a little inspiring. You're not the type of guy who's gonna try something if it's got a chance of wasting his time... I'm rambling! What I'm saying is I trust your judgement, so if you've got a plan, I'm behind it."

I feel like that should've been touching or something, but I was really just ready to get the exercise started. "Take a few steps back and try not to screw this up too much. I'm not a battery like you so the less tries this takes the more things we can try out before tomorrow." I drew my main conduit, the most economical model when it came to magis consumption. I breathed deep and started visualizing, letting my intent escape under my breath. "Steady jabs." Once I saw Tyson waiting in a ready stance, I fired one round. It flew at a moderate speed right into his palm, perfect shot on my end. Tyson braced himself as he reached both hands out and caught the bolt.

"Gkk!" He struggles with it as the energy fights to reach past his grasp, but after a few moments a blue aura begins to fume from his hands just before he grips the bolt causing it to dissipate completely. "Piece of cake!"

My ass. I clicked my teeth, Tyson was already glittered with sweat after a training shot. "Congrats, you didn't mess it up! But we're going to need you to have a little more proficiency in order for this to be practical. We're gonna keep at this until I run out of steam, or I feel like you're ready for the next step." He gave a diligent nod and went back to his previous stance, looking a little more determined. Maybe today wasn't going to be a total waste.

I did my best to continue delivering consistent bolts of energy towards Tyson's palms, we stayed at it for an hour or so before calling for a break. I sat down on a bench and lit some leaf. "You're getting faster, your breakdowns are getting more fluid and cleaner too, I'm starting to think that we can pull things off at this rate."

Tyson let out a sigh as he plopped down on the other end of the bench. " This is pretty cool and all, but I feel like I'm just learning how to beat you, and not Hank."

I scoffed at the idea, "Yeah I've got way more up my sleeve than what we're practicing with, and you know that. This is basically just me giving you some training wheels until I think you can handle the serious stuff. Once I get you conditioned, Hank won't know what hit him. Then I can get my answers if he holds up his end of the bargain."

Tyson seemed to space out for a minute letting the sweat drip off of his chin. After a deep inhale he jumped out of his seat and made an about face. "Alright I caught my breath! I'm ready to keep things moving Wyatt!"

I took a drag and felt the coolness permeate my lungs for a bit before exhaling. "That's great enthusiasm and all, but I'm not a living battery like you. Let me relax for a little longer, when I'm under stress I waste a lot of energy when casting. Sometimes it’s to the point where I my body starts to cramp up, so yeah, I don't usually get any work done unless I get my breaks, Why are you so jammed up to do this anyway? The prospect of laying into Travers has to sound nice considering he basically keeps you on a leash, but I don't really know what you have to gain from a win."

While I questioned him, Tyson took a wide stance and started doing some weird breathing exercise with his hands out in front of him. With each breath I felt a disturbance in the atmosphere coming from his hands, I can't really put my finger on it but the air around him started to feel... empty. "I already told you before that I have no reason to be guilt-ridden over what happened to you and your folks, but after seeing how hard you pushed yourself against Travers just to get some info. I couldn't just sit by and let you go it alone if I didn't have to. Sure, it would be great to score a W on the geezer, but I'm more interested in helping you find the truth if I can't do anything else for you. So, for this occasion you can cook up whatever you want to land that hit on him, I'll just be another one of your tools if I have to be." He clapped his hands together and the air shifted around him. "I'm ready to try again whenever you are, I'm starting to get a feel for how this works."

I stared at him for a while before tying my hair back and standing back up. While I still can't forgive whatever he is at its core, the guy who calls himself Tyson now seems to be helping me just because he wants to, and even though I was still processing the whole situation it kind of made me happy, in that moment at least. "Alright, think fast!" I slung a bolt his way at about 80% speed. To my delight, he took a dynamic approach and slapped it into oblivion. Tyson smirked my way and I couldn't help but indulge him by sending him one back. "That's step one, now we just gotta fine tune it."