Avakian pondered his encounter with the sorceress - Ellian's mother. The woman must've been unimaginably powerful in her prime, if a mere fragment of her was enough to hijack someone's subconscious.
He didn't even know how someone would begin to do something like that. The sheer magnitude of the glyphs and casting necessary would have made 'prodigies' like Ellian and Avakian look like children playing in the mud.
Sighing, he alighted himself from bed and prepared to get on with his day.
"Death, taxes, and getting my butt kicked by Chiros." He muttered. "All things inevitable in this life."
He dressed in loose martial wear, before slinking towards the training hall. Chiros was there, the shirtless swordsman ablur with motion, striking down imaginary foes and dodging imaginary arrows.
"Morning Avakian!" He waved cheerfully, before his demeanour rapidly shifted.
"Hi Chiro-" He started.
"Take up sword! First form!" He barked over Avakian.
He had a brief moment of hesitation whilst Chiros glared at him, before his brain caught up.
"Right!" He picked up his new jian from a stand on the wall. His new sword was one of Chiros' private collection, and was the first actual blade Avakian had ever wielded. The weapon was beautiful, hilted with jet-black leather decorated with engraved patterns. The blade itself was Void-doused, an expensive process that could only be done by a traditional forgemaster of the Inner Folds. The dousing process would make the blade viciously sharp, as well as nearly impossible to break through mundane means.
Avakian ran through the first form. The first form Kamatie taught him was the slowest, and emphasised constant movement. It had very few stabs or blocks, instead consisting almost entirely of graceful slashes or cuts.
"Next form!"
The next form was slightly faster, and focused on defence. This form required a constantly shifting guard, as if blocking against a crazed man with a machete.
All throughout these forms Avakian was straining his mind to activate his kinetic glyphs as he completed the movements, trying to speed up both his body and blade.
It was much harder than he had expected. Trying to time his ability with the movements was like trying to play two different musical instruments at the same time, an unimaginable task if someone was currently trying to kill you.
He finished the final form with only a few slip ups, Chiros' impassive face telling him very little about how well he had done.
"Passable. You'll run the forms first thing in the morning before sparring." He nodded.
"Sparring? I thought Kamatie said not to spar until I'd mastered the forms." Avakian said, faking confusion. He knew Chiros would probably make him spar anyway, but it was worth a try.
"She did." Chiros gave a wicked grin. "And by the time she finds out, you will have mastered them."
He gulped. Mission failed.
---
Avakian's arms hurt so much he practically had to eat lunch with his face. Chiros had seen through his attempts to delay getting his backside whooped, and was not impressed.
His speed - augmented by runes - was about the same as Chiros', but that was where the similarities ended. While Avakian's speed was achieved in shaky bursts, Chiros' was constant and fluid.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Despite all of this Avakian was proud. During one of their final bouts he had discretely ran a non-lethal current through his jian; and had actually managed to get the prodigious student to drop his blade.
Of course, immediately afterwards Avakian had gotten defeated by the swordless swordsman, but that was besides the point. He had won! Even if his victory was small - and he technically cheated - a win was a win!
That was what he told himself anyway, as he lifted a flatbread to his mouth with shaky, faltering hands.
Fortunately he didn't have any classes today, having dropped off the weapons combat and self-defence courses in favour of being taught directly by Chiros. That theoretically meant he had the rest of the day off, but he was pretty certain if he did absolutely nothing he would get roped into more training.
---
He decided to spend some time in the shopping district. He still had the exorbitant sum of money given to him by Kamatie, and he wanted to spend it on supplies that might help him survive his upcoming journey.
Avakian departed the dojo and ventured into the shopping quadrant. He had been once before, when buying clothes and books.
The first shop he found that caught his interest was a civil forces surplus store.
Aemonsford and the 74th Fold didn't have a standing military, owing largely to its history of relative peace. The civil forces functioned similarly to a combined military and police division, doing the job of both.
The store was large, with barred glass windows displaying protective clothing, backpacks and even some weapons. Avakian walked through the glass door to an incredibly packed interior, clothes and gear wherever he looked.
Hanging clothes up on a shelf was an ageing, heavyset man wearing a tag; clearly the owner.
"Afternoon! I was wondering if you delivered?" Avakian asked.
The man grunted. "For a fee. Get what you want and I'll get the boy to deliver it you on a rickshaw."
"Great!"
He perused around the store, now that he wasn't limited by having to carry things back himself he had the freedom to pick what he wanted.
The first thing he probably needed was travel clothing. The clothes he had bought before were beautiful, but rather fragile, he wouldn't bet on them not breaking on the road. Avakian picked out several sets of khakis, and jackets with kevlar inlays. He had to buy extra-small and it still didn't quite fit him.
The next thing he definitely needed was storage. Some of his books on erebology alluded to spatial or temporal containers; bags that stored more than they should. Unfortunately, glyphs that affected spacetime were hideously complicated, and exorbitant in Void costs, he would have to settle for mundane backpacks.
He bought several in case Chiros needed one. He didn't bother buying clothes for the man, Chiros was more than happy to walk around shirtless, and seemed to have skin harder than the toughest leather.
Lastly, Avakian also looked into the weapon section. The Aemonsford Civil Forces clearly favoured firearms, as the section was mostly dedicated to them. A rifle would be fairly impractical to carry around for days, Avakian figured, and the rest of the weapons looked fairly heavy as well..
"Excuse me? Do you have anything lighter? I'm looking to travel and want some extra security." He asked the owner.
The owner's eyes lit up slightly at the mention of weapons.
"Mhm. I've got some smaller arms in the back, follow me." He gestured Avakian past a metal door into a colder room filled with more guns.
"What were you looking for?" The owner asked.
"Something lightweight but robust. Easy to pack." Avakian answered.
The owner grumbled to himself in thought for a moment, before pointing to a rack filled with revolvers. "Revolver would be best, very light, very compact, none of that sissy bullshit the kids are using nowadays."
Avakian looked through the selection. Most were plain steel, but there were a couple made out of a carbon-based compound that felt much lighter in his grip. Eventually he settled on two different compound revolvers, one slightly smaller than his hand, and the other slightly larger.
"You're sure about the compound guns?" The owner asked with some derision. "They're only four-shooters, and ain't got much kick to em."
He assured the owner that it would be fine, and also picked out a half-dozen different knives from the weapon section; two combat knives, two survival, and two folding-machetes designed for defoliation.
Avakian left the store owner with the address to the dojo, as well as a few of his green coins. He knew he was being dramatic but he felt one step closer to leaving the 74th Fold and Aemonsford behind already.
It was unlikely he could return to this fold - at least not for a long while. There was a reason Aemonsford wasn't populated by many non-humans. Creatures of the Void naturally yearned for it, the only bizarre exception to this rule he had heard of was Kamatie, who had somehow found a way to sustain herself here for countless decades.
He sighed, and looked up at the sky. It was said that in some places, in certain hours of the day, you could look up and see the surface of other Folds - even see the lights of their cities.
"Someday." He thought.