"You've grown quite attached to it." Teacher says without as much as a hitch in his breathing.

We were running once more.

Difference this time is, this is the last stretch, or so he says.

"Bah! I can feel you judging, but before you —Huff!— say anymore, I would like to remind you who made it in the first place... Hahh!" He seems to like throwing jabs about how much I wear the pelt coat these last few hours.

Under the dry sun, in the middle of the day.

We were steadily galloping —for lack of a better word— through, up, and around tree branches, roots and dodging all kinds of foliage as if it were a highspeed chase. Straight through the forest, he says, and he was right.

"I assumed you would wear it during hunts, or battle. It doesn't exactly help you as you are now."

"You —Whoo!— sound like you want to take it back, forget it teach... Puff!"

"Regulate your breathing."

"Got it."

A serene silence set upon us as we silently went through the motions as wood whirled past us.

It had been a hectic and jam-packed months or so, give or take a few weeks, I still failed to keep track despite being taught how to tell time and direction from solely the sun, to teacher's bafflement, as he had assumed it was common sense, unfortunately I wasn't so common.

He has his work cut out for him.

I had gained quite the momentum, learning so much in just a blink of an eye, though that last part might be me developing lapses in memory after that near death experience.

Kidding, I wasn't so fragile.

"Watch your step." I hear the Bishop's sudden call as I narrowly avoid tripping on a particularly warped root.

"I apologize, —Huff!— my mind tends to wander."

"We will have to iron out those bad habits of yours, in fact..." He trails, and my senses scream immediately.

Bracing myself, I land both feet onto a particularly large root sticking out of the ground before kicking off and gripping onto the nearest branch to carry my momentum. Just half a beat later, I see a faint golden glint whir past me. However I had no time to react before two more golden nails sought to seek passage through my flesh.

I was in the middle of a swing, and I knew I wouldn't be able to redirect my momentum and twist my body in time to dodge.

So I let go of the branch I was holding and dove headfirst into the soil just a few meters below me. Luckily, I had rolled onto my shoulder to lessen the impact. Unfortunately, I had now gotten dirt onto my pelt.

"What a shame, should've stowed it away." Teacher makes a sick attempt at a joke.

"Nice try... Huff!" I'm not a child.

"What are you dallying for? Keep moving." He uses this as a signal to keep firing off more nails at me at terrifying speeds, as I anticipated each with rapt attention for whistles, a noise which the nails make before implanting itself onto your frontal lobe.

"How many of these do you —Whoo!— even keep? Why are y-you wasting so many? Haa!" I speak out indignantly as I frantically sprint for my life, pushing the limits of my flexibility and agility.

"Enough. Besides, you will be paying back for them in blood for the church, a worthy investment."

Exorcists shouldn't be allowed senses of humor, from my experience, most of the time they tend to be quite cruel.

- - The Night Before - -

"Teach me how to wield faith offensively." We sit around another camp.

The last, he assures.

While I'm glad I won't have to sleep on dirt and below leaves anymore, I'm sure I'll miss the outdoors if what I hear about Avalon City is true.

I have a nagging feeling I'll regret what I just said.

"I refuse."

The silence is almost as loud as the crickets and whatever's scuttling around tonight.

"Why not?"

"Too weak."

"That's why I need to learn."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"What you need is to condition your body. I will not allow a student of mine to be reliant on temporary bursts of power. " He does not budge.

"Fine."

"Focus now. Before anything else, you must be aware of the strength of your faith."

"And how do I proceed with that?" I ask expectantly.

"Simple, believe it into existence."

"What."

That makes no sense, like literally.

"Focus, and steel yourself." He snaps some sense back into me as he continues on with his lecture.

"The mere act of believing that without a doubt, you possess and heed your faith, causes it to swell, the strength of your will of believing it into existence dictating the potency of your faith."

I slowly ruminate on his words, stewing in my thoughts. From what I understand, it's a sort of paradox situation, but not really. Believing my 'faith' into existence probably meant how much I think I have, which translates into how little I doubt myself.

Of course, I have no doubts, its not even a question.

Look at my eyes, I have seen it all. There is no question, it is futile to foster doubt.

"There it is." Teacher notes the second after I make up my mind, I suppose I should be expectant or something, but I really can't.

"Very, very stable. It is almost frightening how pure your faith is..."

"It's only natural, I suppose."

"Yes, indeed. It is as if..." He seems to deliberate, and I hold myself back from flinching under his narrowed gaze.

I don't know what he's thinking, but I don't feel safe being scrutinized and suspected like this.

Could it be?

But before I could delve into another paranoid scheming monologue, he pauses before relaxing his posture, as do I.

"Nevertheless, hold on to that feeling. Familiarize yourself with it. Tis' only difficult until you manage to do it for the first time."

Surprisingly, —but it isn't, and it shouldn't— he was right.

They say seeing is believing, but I now I could confidently say feeling is believing to an equal effect. I feel a warmth thrumming throughout my body, echoing faintly. It's like clutching onto a distant memory, it could flutter away at a moment's notice, but I know it will always be there.

"You should feel a burst of energy, as a direct effect of calling forth your faith. You might feel overwhelmed, endure it, that means you are doing it right."

"I... think I got it." I say as I closed my eyes and hunkered down on the ground.

"Things are coming along just as expected. Now, I wish for your to hold that feeling for a while longer, I need to evaluate your mana capacity."

I comply as best I can, but I found it a little difficult to retain, familiarizing myself fully with the sensations. It was like pondering over a memory, and suddenly finding yourself forgetting a detail you knew just moments ago, before remembering again.

"Hone in on my voice. The outside is too loud, and you need to focus on the silence of your mind to focus, yet you cannot completely drown out the noise. Therefore, you must minimize the picture, tunnel in on my words, hear me. This is how exorcist's hold faith, and how it has always been for centuries. Retaining the flow of energy within your body, as you focus on the enemy, —or in your case— my voice." His voice droned in hypnotic, flat rhythm.

Slowly, my breathing stabilizes as I get comfortable.

"Most interesting. You are permitted to break focus now."

My eyes flutter open as I ask with a tilt of my head.

"What seems to be the problem?"

"The purity of your faith is exceptional, it is unshakable. However..." He drawled, pausing for a brief moment.

"You are aware I detest mincing words, your mana capacity... it is completely abysmal."

"Yes?"

I don't know what I expected, but this was bad news. In an instant, a single inconsequential second, the wind had been completely taken out of my sails, and I felt that the path before me had become hazy.

"Frankly, it's a pitiful amount. To put it in perspective, I could pluck a random passerby in a random bum town and there would be a fair chance they possess more than you do."

"..."

I didn't know what to say, but teacher seemed to understand.

"I myself do not know the reason why there is such disparity, despite the fact that purity and capacity are completely separate and rarely tend to influence each other. Perhaps, it is to do with your genealogy, or maybe you simply drew the short end of the stick. Considering I found you in a forest, I suspect it is your ancestry."

"I understand."

There is nothing we can do.

"Will this stop you? Having doubts, maybe?" I could hear a voice above me as I hung my head low in dejection

"Not at all, just feeling like a loss right now." I stare at him unwaveringly, and I could see the satisfaction in his eyes.

"Do not forget who you are, child. You were chosen by God, the Inquisitors take you under their wing, and one thing I know for sure, we do not choose failures."

"Thank you, teacher."

I feel a weight in my chest, yet it wasn't a burden, it wasn't worry nor sorrow. I felt faith thrumming in my heart, like a hearth.

- - - - -

"Snap!"

I hear a noise above me, to my left, and I quickly lunge in the other direction as fast as I can. Almost instantaneously, three minute stakes impale themselves on the dirt, where my heart, head, and stomach would've been.

Golden nails.

"Your instincts are getting better, weigh your options and..." A familiar echo whispered.

He's in the trees.

I don't know where he is, and I don't know how, but I can't tell where his voice is coming from.

Discerning that for the last stretch, instead of leading me to Avalon City, he'd figured that this kind of training was a better use of his time.

So now, I run.

I don't know where, but It had been a pretty straightforward till' now, so I've just been following my gut and trying my best to get away from this lunatic.

Almost as if in response, I felt a prickling sensation as I realized something had grazed me, my right forearm bleeding. This time, I wasn't even able to react. Of course, he hadn't even showed a hint of mercy this entire time, as evidenced by the countless grazes, cuts, and scrapes I had sustained the entire 'exercise', but he had never attacked with such blatant-

Electing to do the wise thing, I bolt further into the woods before my rambling mind gets me killed, trails of gold eagerly chasing after me.

I don't doubt he'd try, and I suspect he is, at times.

How much longer do I have to ru-

"Woah."

All of a sudden, I had discovered that the forest had abruptly ended, as if unnaturally repelled by something.

And what a something it was.

It was simply majestic, resting cozily within the horizon, glorious metallic walls stood ardently. Within these walls, spires and towers reached out to the sky in droves. The unblemished silhouette of its walls contrasted almost harmoniously with the endless pastures of green and life, like a titanic vessel at sea.

"We've arrived." I hear a voice call out to me, and I spot teacher perched comfortably up high on a tree, balancing on a disproportionately small branch with ease.

"Seems so. It's beautiful."

"It's waiting for you. Congratulations, child, you have earned the right to step foot in civilization." He said simply, lunging forward like a bird in a zephyr.

I could only smile.