“I’d rather we start this very important lesson with a shirt on your back, Stefan.” Gareth sighed as he sat across from the boy at a small table at the center of the library.
“She took it from me.” Stefan pointed accusingly at Anwen, who sat in a chair behind Gareth where she had a clear view of the boy.
“You want a shirt from me? Be a little more thankful and I might let you.” Anwen said, crossing her arms.
Gareth exhaled annoyedly.
“Great, another time-wasting dilemma I don’t want to deal with. If you two are going to get along with one another, why don’t you communicate your issues openly? I’ll mediate. Stefan, you go first.”
“I wasn’t gonna wear a dumb little blouse. And she had a problem with that.” Stefan said, avoiding eye contact with either of his hosts.
“Okay. What issue did you have, Anwen?” Gareth said, looking over his shoulder as his ward adamantly sat back, refusing to move her chair up anywhere near Stefan.
“He threw my blouse onto the floor and started stomping on it. It made me wanna bash his face in, which I almost did. Thank God you showed up, Gareth. Washing off blood from your hands sucks.”
Gareth stared at his large, calloused hands, deciding on how to go ahead with this matter. It was partially his fault, not having asked Anwen about borrowing her clothing prior to his and Stefan’s arrival. But some of it was out of his control, like the fact that he had no idea how he would react to his new surroundings.
“Anwen, it’s my fault for not asking to borrow your shirt earlier. I apologize.”
“It’s whatever.” Anwen rolled her eyes. She already hated Stefan’s guts, but she didn’t want to ruin her already strained relationship with Gareth even more.
“Thank you. And Stefan, I don’t know you yet, but I expect that you be a little kinder to people who show you good. We will all have to work together, and I don’t want hostility interfering with that. Stand up.”
‘But you somehow know Mum and Uncle Ruben.’ The boy noted in his mind.
The boy unwillingly rose to his feet but continued looking at the table.
“Anwen, stand up and come over here.”
She did not protest but made it clear in her body language, stomping heavily and holding her arms close to her body, that she didn’t want to go near Stefan.
“You two can have disagreements, but you will not be violent towards each other. Shake on it.”
Stefan held up his arm first, opening his hand up slowly on purpose. Anwen contrarily shot her hand towards him only once he initiated the gesture. She gripped his hand tightly and used a great amount of power in her arm to perform the gesture. She subtly hurt him without having Gareth notice. Stefan hardly had the chance to shake his hand himself because Anwen’s handshake was just so sudden, strong and short.
“Good. You may now sit down.”
Anwen returned to her seat in the same passive-aggressive manner as she left it, while Stefan quickly sat back down.
“Well, we wasted a lot of time doing that,” Gareth complained. “No time for that introduction. We must move right onto the lesson.”
Gareth straightened out a pack of handwritten notes against the table, before asking Stefan a question.
“What do you know so far about the enemy?”
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“Nothing at all. Well, besides the fact that they come from Light Pillars.”
“Good observation, but that’s not quite true. They use Light Pillars as a means of almost instantaneous transportation across great distances.”
‘Holt and Ms. Laine did not prepare this boy for the Titanians at all.’ Gareth confirmed mentally.
“Did they steal Light Pillars from our ancestors, too?” Stefan asked.
“No, actually. Light Pillars are the Angel’s own creation.”
“I see.” Stefan nodded.
“Very well. So, seeing as you don’t have a lot of background knowledge about what we’re about to do, we must begin with the basics. Firstly, something you must know about the Angels. While Terrans call them that, they call themselves Titanians. It is unnecessary to go into the history of their race today, or at least the little of it we know of. What I’ll tell you today is that they are the ones who came up with the Initiation,”
Gareth picked up a cloth bag from next to his seat and placed it on the table.
“The Initiation allows people to manipulate materials made of this,”
He turned the bag over and purple, glowing rocks spilled out onto the wooden table surface.
“This is Utrim. Someone who has undergone the Initiation and handles objects made from Utrim are able to imbue their life essence into the object, making it more potent.”
“So, what you’re saying is, someone who’s… initiated, can use Utrim stuff and use their own energy to make it stronger. So basically, Utrim makes you stronger?”
‘Incredible,’ Gareth thought. ‘Only two sentences and he’s almost completely got the gist of the concept.’
‘That’s part of it,” Gareth verbalized in his signature boring way of speech. “Utrim also contains its own energy, called Pool. An Initiated can imbue Pool into their own body and can increase their physical strength, speed, endurance and healing, to a certain extent. So, in short, Initiation allows an Initiated to use more powerful objects and become more powerful themselves.”
“Oh!” Stefan shouted. “So that’s why you’re so buff!”
“Pool can only be used by an Initiated when Utrim’s in close physical contact with the Initiated. It can be directly on the body, like when you wear it…”
‘So, it can be used as armor.’ Stefan noted.
“…or it can be adjacent to the body, such as when you hold it in your pocket or in a bag tied to your body. The latter method will cause the Utrim to be slightly less potent, but it won’t be as hard on the body.”
“That’s very interesting,” Stefan said. “But that didn’t answer my question.”
“Right,” Gareth said. “Utrim only partially makes you stronger. But using it is pointless, when you don’t have the physical and mental strength to support its power. The reason why my body is as built as it is, is because I’ve trained nearly daily for the past 22 years.”
“Man, I was hoping the Initiation would give me some instant power boost or something.” Stefan sighed.
“That’s not true, of course. And some last words before we finish up with this lesson,” Gareth said.
‘This lad’s smart. I’m glad I didn’t have to ramble on about stuff I’ve known for decades for an hour. He really is Kallista Laine’s son.’ Gareth remarked in his head.
“The reason you’re going to undergo the Initiation, is because it is almost impossible to put down an Angel without the powers of Utrim. Their bodies are practically intertwined with Utrim, and unless you take your time to place your aim well in very specific points of their bodies, you can’t kill them. That pretty much never happens in the heat of battle. Essentially, only Utrim kills Utrim.”
“If they lay even a single finger on my family… they’ll wish they never even landed in Derban.” Stefan muttered to himself.
“Well, unless you have any questions, that will be it for today.”
“When’s the Initiation?” the boy asked.
“Tonight.” Gareth answered. He got up from his seat and walked out of the library.
“Where are you going?” Anwen asked.
“I’m going to work out,” Gareth answered. “Then, I’m going to cook lunch for us. Remember to do your chores by then.”
“Brush Esperance and clean his pen, yeah, yeah. No need to remind me.”
“So, I don’t need to remind you to show Stefan how to do that, right?” Gareth inquired without turning around.
Anwen crossed her arms and grumbled.
“Nope.” She conceded.
“What do I do until then?” Stefan asked.
“Wait here like a good little boy until I get the cleaning and grooming supplies.” Anwen said in a mocking tone while she made her exit.
“That damn bitch…” Stefan whispered.
“May you repeat that, please?” Anwen demanded, suddenly swiveling back around, but didn’t move to where she was once.
Stefan could only stutter out incoherent syllables and sounds. It was clear that Gareth’s intervention in their petty little conflict hadn’t helped much. But at least Stefan wouldn’t have to worry about getting choked again or punched in the face. He still couldn’t help but sense fear when in the presence of the girl, even though he had obviously started hostility in the two encounters they had together.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Anwen said, before finally storming off. Phew. She backed off before she could cause more damage. Perhaps she could control her temper, even more so than the other 14-year-old.
‘How does Gareth deal with an annoying ass kid like her?’ Stefan thought, resting his forehead on the table.