The rest of the morning involved focusing on communication with their spirit and discussing any progress made with their groups. Finlay’s group had started to open up to one another but after their initial interest in him and what he had achieved, they realised he couldn’t provide further answers to their questions. Talking with his spirit and with the other ones in the past had always felt natural to him and it was hard to understand the difficulty they were facing. When they broke up for lunch, he met up with Keira and William and they went back to the cafe they had found that morning.

“It’s reassuring to hear others are going through the same problems,” William said after they found some seats.

“My group were too busy trying to best each other to reach the point of shared compassion,” Keira grumbled as she rubbed her face.

Two of the boys she had grouped with had previously approached her and had become increasingly competitive during their session. The other girl in her group seemed to feel the same competitiveness, even if directed elsewhere and the result was each of them boasting about their success with their spirits. When Faye had spoken to them and all they’d done was show off, she’d chastised them for not taking the opportunity to learn from one another and after she left, they just fell silent under the guise of introspection.

“I feel like I got nothing out of that,” she said, dropping her head to the table.

“Kind of the same for me, albeit for different reasons.”

“Given the nature of everyone here, I think lighting yourself up with spirit magic wasn’t the best decision.”

“I didn’t exactly intend for that to happen and it was Faye’s fault if any.”

“I was impressed, so was my group actually,” said William.

“I didn’t want to ask my group given the looks they gave me afterwards, but don’t you think you two could do it? I didn’t realise it was anything special at the time.”

“I’m confident I could bring out my spirit and—I’m confident this whole room would turn as red as a wildfire. I think it was more the control that was impressive than the actual aura.”

“Yeah, you made it look really easy. Pat—um one of the guys in my group said you looked like you had been doing it forever, like second nature.”

William raised one of his hands in front of his face, his fingers dancing in front of him as he continued. “I tried afterwards, we all did to varying success but it was hard. I could feel my spirit and I knew it was trying but it was like it didn’t understand what I wanted. I thought I was being clear when I asked it but all I could do was make my hand and the axe glow and even that kept flickering away.”

They continued to talk about their session while they ate and what they thought of the others. No one had particularly stood out to any of them but William had gotten on best with his group. He told them that unfortunately everyone he met had already formed a party and they weren’t interested in merging or leaving. He had expected it would get harder to find individuals to join them but he hoped they might find a pair that wanted to form a group of five.

“I’m not sure how much of a chance we’ll get to interact with other sections, we might have to try and find people outside of training.”

“Maybe we could entice people with Faye’s section, join us and you can get her as your instructor type of thing,” Keira said, as she polished off her venison salad.

He had been watching her with some curiosity as she had once again shown no interest in the sweet pastries available and was instead drawn towards something with meat. “I’m not sure that would pay off in the long run.”

“We shouldn’t rush, we have time to find the right person,” replied William.

“You’re right, though I think it’s worth keeping our eyes open and talking to people about it. The sooner we all train together the better.”

After lunch they were to start basic combat training; this was as Faye said, mostly to learn the basics before focusing on their specific weapon. They weren’t expected to be using the spiritual forms of their weapon yet as that would require the same communication they had been working on. To maintain that form would require more practice but they should start to train their bodies for combat just as much. He wasn’t entirely sure what this meant for him as his amulet didn’t exactly provide a weapon so he was expecting to have to work on something else.

He was wrong. Faye had decided that if he didn’t have an actual weapon, he’d train his body to fight. When he protested, she informed him that he’d be learning invocations soon but then asked what he’d do if something attacked him before he could cast an invocation. He thought back to the man on the boat; he had commanded one of the islanders to keep guard but otherwise, he was defenceless enough that a small boy falling into the room disrupted his spell. He couldn’t argue his case after that.

“So what exactly do you want me to do? I’m pretty sure if the giant hell birds at the station tried to slice me in half like one did my bike, punching it wouldn’t have helped much.”

“I’m not suggesting you can fight off everything with your fists. But there are two things you’re forgetting. One, most demons aren’t as big or physically destructive as those giant birds, the wraiths on the boat from your childhood were no bigger than a man.”

“Wraiths, is that what they were? I’ve always just called them demons.”

“Lots of different types of demons, wraiths are unfortunately quite common so they get a name for clarity. Your giant hell birds—less common so don’t currently have a classified name as far as I’m aware.”

“I see, well I guess that’s true though I’m still not convinced punching what looked like smoke would do much.”

“What you’re willing to accept with ease and refuse to accept without thorough convincing are strangely inconsistent.”

“Sorry, I know you’re right—I trust you. I just need to understand why it makes sense so I can practise it properly, otherwise I’ll be too busy questioning why I’m doing it to focus on it.”

“And then you answer with such frank sincerity,” she crossed her arms and shook her head. “The second thing you’re forgetting is that spiritual weapons aren’t just attacking the physical body. They’re devouring the demon.”

“You want me to devour the demons?!”

Everyone had stopped their practice to stare as he had said that a little too loud. Faye laughed in her usual manner and told them to get back to their practice as he was obviously being ridiculous.

“You might not want to announce Ronan’s ridiculous theories to everyone if you’re still worried about your popularity.”

“I didn’t realise you knew about that.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Of course I do but I’m not convinced enough to suggest you go around eating demons. What I mean is that they can still attack and disrupt the spirit enough to break it apart. They devour it but don’t worry about that, instead focus on creating a stable spiritual body yourself that doesn’t yield to their spirit when it comes in contact with them.”

“You mean, what I was doing earlier, calling out my spirit?”

“Exactly, if you have a strong spiritual body and you come in contact with a demon, such as a wraith, as long as your spiritual form is stronger you can break apart its spiritual form and effectively do the same thing as a weapon.”

“What if it’s too strong?”

“Then it wins, your spirit and your soul gets devoured, and you die.”

He paused, his mouth open as he wasn’t expecting her to be so casual about his death. “That’s blunt.”

“I’m not going to sugarcoat this Finn,” she had gone back to her more serious mannerisms. “This isn’t an ideal situation, you’re still going to be very vulnerable to the physical side of attacks.”

“Giant hell birds.”

“Exactly, and normally there’s a degree of separation, the artefact is the thing that comes into contact with the demon. Sometimes the demons are too strong and the artefact is lost or broken. But because of that separation, at least the person has a chance to escape if that happens.”

“Right, Sara mentioned people losing their weapons, the spirits and the pain it caused them.”

“The spirit in the artefact is devoured and the contract is forcibly broken. But it does offer the chance for escape. What I’m talking about with you is putting yourself on the line. You would be directly confronting demons, there’s a huge risk of being devoured right there and then.”

“The spiritual body, how is that different from the artefact, aren’t they both formed by the spirit, wouldn't that offer the same chance for escape?”

“The spiritual body that forms around us isn’t just the spirit, it’s a combination of both the spirit and your soul. That’s why communication between you both, the connection we’ve talked about is so important because you need to be in sync with one another for it to be stable.”

“So if that was broken, both of us would be destroyed at the same time.”

“Yes, there’s no separation, no second defence. The only reason I’m even suggesting this is because you’ve been able to develop a strong connection with your spirit already and more importantly, you need to think of this as a last resort. You don't have a weapon to act as that second line of defence.”

“So focus on invocations but train my body and spiritual body in case I’m in a terrible situation and need to defend myself.”

“That pretty much sums it up, yes. You’ve actually got some good party members for you, you’ve got a solid front line with those two. You can cast invocations from range but sometimes things get messy and you need to be ready to defend yourself if your formation breaks down.”

“Thanks, Faye, that all makes sense. Sorry for being awkward.”

She shook her head again. “I brought this on myself, don’t worry,” but then she grinned. “Now for the actual training—you need to exhaust both your physical and spiritual body to build up your reserves. It’s just like training any muscle, so you’re going to run while maintaining that spiritual body for as long as possible.”

“You seem unpleasantly happy about what I’m assuming is going to be painful suffering.”

“Absolutely, and don’t worry, the tracker you were given will warn you when you start reaching critical Anam levels. I won’t let you burn yourself out and get devoured by your spirit either.”

It was harder than he expected. There was a world of difference between calling out his spiritual body while sitting, talking to others and maintaining it while running laps around the room they trained in. He felt as though he was learning to walk for the first time, with every movement the aura might break and his leg or arm might separate from the light. When he first started he hadn’t even noticed it until he was halfway around the room and Faye yelled at him to make sure he kept the form stable.

“You’re going to develop bad habits like that, make sure you hold the form, keep it stable and go slow at first if you need to.”

She had shouted this across the room rather than stop him to explain it, he suspected that was partially so the others would consider it themselves going forward. A gentle jog wasn’t enough, walking wasn’t even enough, he had to focus on each step; every movement was difficult and at risk of breaking the form. But it wasn’t just the mental fatigue that built up, he realised how demanding it was on his body to maintain that form.

He had assumed it was going to be separate, something his mind would work through but he felt weak and moving at all was a challenge. His limbs felt heavy and sluggish to lift as though he was in a pool of water and trying to run. It wasn’t long before he dropped to the ground from exhaustion. Keira wasn’t far from where he stopped and ran to his side.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just need a little rest.”

“You look half dead.”

“I feel it, but I’m honestly okay, just need a minute.”

She patted him on the back and then went back to the person she was sparring with. Faye had given them all short training staff weapons made from a strange material that was firm but padded enough not to cause real injuries. She informed them they were going to train in basic combat techniques first, get used to close combat and then work on specialising with their specific weapons once they had built up their connection with their spirits.

He looked up at the group fighting one another, they seemed to be enjoying themselves and he was feeling rather jealous. He could have joined in on this particular exercise even if it wouldn’t directly tie into his needs later. Keira seemed to be a natural, she was always quick and had good reflexes which worked in her favour now. William was relying more on raw strength but he turned out to be a bit of a powerhouse and that approach was working well. Both of them were winning their matchups consistently, which made him feel a sense of pride in his little party but also made him realise he needed to get back up and stop slacking off.

He crumbled to the ground in desperate need of rest more times than he cared to think as the day went on but he could see improvement each time. By the end of the day he was able to maintain a slow jog without too many breaks and when he noticed the form slipping, was quick to repair it.

After the combat training, the rest of the group was to return to developing their connection with their spirits. Faye had ordered him to continue running until he couldn’t go on any longer which he definitely felt was unfair but with many collapses, made it to the end.

“Good job today,” she said as people started to gather their things to head home. “I’m impressed you never reached critical Anam level, honestly, I thought you’d burn through your reserves within the first few hours.”

“It was a lot harder than I thought when I actually started moving.”

“You’ll get used to it and soon it’ll become second nature. You seem quite efficient in your use, hence not burning out so that’s a good sign.”

“I don’t feel efficient. Is it really okay for me to be training differently than everyone else?”

“In the end, it’ll all be much the same. Right now you have a close connection with your spirit so you can focus on this, they don’t, so they can’t. But they can focus on combat training, you need to learn invocations for that so you can’t, yet. Later, they’ll be doing what you did today and you’ll be doing your combat training with invocations. So it’s more timing than any real difference.”

“That’s reassuring, it’s a little difficult feeling like you’re different to everyone else.”

“You are—that amulet isn’t a weapon, things are going to be different for you. But my goal is to make sure that you’re at least as prepared as everyone else to go out into the realms.”

“Thanks, I guess I couldn’t ask for a better instructor.”

“You’re only now realising that?”

Keira and William joined him and they all said their goodbyes to Faye and they said their goodbyes to some others. It turned out that sparring with people was a good way to make some friends and break down some barriers. William had also made some rivals, it seemed his simple, honest but effective approach to combat didn’t sit right with some of those he beat.

They grabbed some takeout on the way back to the apartments as they all wanted to lie down and rest from their exhausting day. They left William and once again Keira followed him into his apartment.

“Maybe I should have gotten an apartment farther away from you.”

“Wouldn’t have made a difference.”

“Are you going to sleep here again tonight?”

“Yes.”

“Fine, but I’m getting the bed this time.”

She had been making her way to his bed but paused and turned to him. “Then you need to help me bring my mattress through.”

“This isn’t a permanent solution.”

“I know, just—” She sat on his bed and was staring at her feet. “I’ve been working on building this connection with my spirit all day. But now… I’m scared.”