Hello again. Today was a quiet day.

Lena has been subdued since ever since she was freed from the pirates. She may laugh and play with Julius. But I see her stop and stare at nothing when she isn't distracted. Memories haunt her sleep and hound her mind in quiet moments. I don't know what she went through. But she has gotten worse since we escaped the Wave Waker.

I think she feels helpless. She is weak, and she has been made to confront this fact a lot lately. The worst thing about feeling helpless is that there is no way to escape it on your own.

So I decided to help her grow strong. I don't know much. I can't help her dominate others with intellect and knowledge. I cannot teach her misdirection and the subtle paths to power. All I know to do in the face of an obstacle is to either go smashing right through it or go in a different directon entirely.

So I will teach her to overwhelm her problems, and I will give her a means to set her own path as she wills.

First, I gathered an orb of tinglewood three times her size and drained my tingles out of it. I gave it to her. In the hopes that she will be able to use it to take a path untraveled and uninhabited by her enemies in the future.

She managed to stain it all in her colors after lunch. Her tinglewood is a soft and vibrant blue-green. With gentle ripples of light forming from the wood grain.

Next, I planned to teach her how to fight. Swordmanship, and manipulation of tingles will make up these lessons. With lessons on battlefield tactics and strategy from my own bloody memories and those of vicious pirates.

They will focus on ambushes and sneak attacks. If she must face a enemy head on she should always choose the ground to her advantage. Never give an inch without taking a mile.

I will teach her when to commit her forces, and when to retreat. I will show her the importance of logistics. Of maintaining a strong supply line, and of disrupting your enemies.

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How to rally your forces. How to demoralise your enemies. I will teach her the difference between winning a battle and winning a war.

I will teach her how to hold a blade. How to hold a stance. When to block, and when to parry.

I will teach her to kill when necessary, and show mercy when possible.

How to make her tingles into her strongest friend and ally.

But before I could start all that I needed to give Julius some tinglewood too. Otherwise it wouldn't be fair.

His tinglewood is a darker red than mine. Nearing black in places. The grain pattern is gold and resembles his ears made from fire. He quickly molded it into a little boat with a statue of himself seated on a pile of skulls forming above a throne upon which he sat.

He started zooming around my ship and Lena took her cue from him.

She formed a simple sleek boat with the head and feathers of a bird she calls a swan forming the prow. She and Julius started to chase each other around. Circling my ship.

I managed to convince her to name her ship the Mirage and mine went back to being Ivers Dream I will be leaving off the ver.2 from now on. She also named Julius' ship the Tyrant. She likes giving things weird names.

Our three ships sailed on. They learned how to mold their ships to quickly enter the Ivers Dream  in case of an emergency. I made a pair of berths in the hold for their boats.

Lenas lessons started after dinner and lasted until sundown. She is very determined. Her eyes filled with a brilliant fire when I told her my plan. When I asked if she would like to be trained she gave a steady and fierce "yes!"

She will sleep well tonight I'll wager. Luckily all she needs to do to ease her stiff and sore muscles and recover from any bruises is soak in some water.

We sparred with tinglewood swords. She made her sword a huge claymore until I convinced her she should scale down on the size and weight for now. It helped my arguement when she tried to swing it and lost her balance, falling overboard. She finally settled on a wicked looking dirk. I made mine a simple curving scimitar.

She is naturally fast and flexible so I am teaching her a style that capitilizes on surprise and attacking from awkward angles. Aiming for joints and arteries. More used to disable rather than swiftly kill. But I think this will work well with her small height and lacking muscles.

It is hard fighting someone so much smaller than me though. She also has a nasty habit of going for the family jewels.

She wasn't the only one needing healing after our sparring.

Julius is her cheerleader. Occasionally throwing sparks at my eyes to help her. This is also training for me after all.

I only hope this helps her face the world without fear in the future.

The stars seem to shine with more vigor than normal tonight.

Goodnight.