image [https://i.imgur.com/d4IabhL.png]

When classes ended for the day, Carmen raced out of the room and immediately headed towards the woods surrounding Laracia Town. She walked for a short while, trekking deeper and deeper into the thick forest, until she emerged at a small clearing. Standing at the center was Varric, looking as bored as ever.

Carmen greeted him with a little pump of excitement, prompting Varric to respond with an un-enthused grunt. As she approached, he reached into his coat pocket and took out a silver flask.

“So, what are you going to teach me today?” Carmen asked, feeling eager to get things started.

“We’re gonna do a little spar session. I want to see how you handle combat situations.” He replied before taking a long swig of his drink.

Carmen gave him a firm nod and after creating space between them, she summoned forth her Manifest. As she exerted her Core Energy, the purple hue of her rapier’s blade sparkled and reflected against the white snow. When she felt ready to start, Carmen noticed that Varric did nothing to prepare himself for battle.

“Uhh, do you want me to begin?” She asked with a confused tone, wondering why Varric was still taking small swigs out of his flask.

“Yea- *BURP* Just do whatever it is you do whenever you fight. And don’t hold back.”

Varric wiped the light brown liquid dripping from his beard as he patiently waited for her to start. Carmen shook her head in disbelief, but wasted no time in heeding his request. She planted her left foot into the soft snow and dashed forward with impressive speed.

Once Carmen reached his position, she thrust her rapier towards Varric as he stood there scratching his greasy hair. However, to her surprise, the blade was deflected by a thin yellow barrier that appeared only at the tip of her rapier.

Even though the impact pushed her arm back, Carmen quickly followed up with another rapid volley of rapier jabs. She danced around Varric with incredible swiftness, shifting her body and changing position after each forceful thrust.

However, despite her speed and precision, none of her hits could make it past the tiny hexagonal shaped prism appearing around Varric. She continued her assault, until Varric let out a loud and irritated sigh.

“Stop.” He said with an annoyed tone.

Carmen quickly ended her attack and looked at him with a confused expression.

“What did I do wrong?” She asked as she caught her breath.

“Well for starters, you fight like a deranged gorilla beating its head against a wall. There’s literally no thought going through your brain at all other than ‘attack!’ That shit might’ve worked on some pearl class bandits, but it sure as hell won’t work on a Vesta with actual skill and experience.” Varric said, crossing his arms in a disapproving manner.

“But, what else am I supposed to do? You’re just standing there not reacting to my attacks at all.”

“I want you to actually take a moment and think before you rush in. What is the opponent doing? How do I get them to reveal their abilities while staying safe? Is there anyone else hiding within the area? Can I use the environment to my advantage? Is there an escape route? Before you even engage, these thoughts should’ve already crossed your mind.”

Carmen nodded her head as she carefully listened to Varric’s advice, absorbing every word like a sponge.

“Always remember that there are so many other factors to a fight than just you and your opponent. Now, let’s go again.” Varric said before taking another swig from his flask.

Carmen agreed and quickly created space between them. She relaxed her posture and scanned the area with a red eyed glare, devising a plan of attack while Varric continued to drink his worries away. Carmen’s eyes eventually settled on the snow resting around Varric’s boots, causing her to smirk.

She slowly started walking to the left, circling around Varric from a safe distance. Once she reached a specific point, Carmen planted her foot and dashed forward, her speed seemingly higher than before. As she quickly approached, Varric looked over with yet another disappointed expression.

‘I swear, does this kid listen to anything I say? It’s no surprise she bombed her midterms.’

He prepared himself to block her attack, but to his surprise, a sheet of snow burst upwards from the ground. The snow completely hid her approach, shrouding Carmen in a blinding white powder. Moments later, he noticed his barrier activating above him, blocking a stray rapier attack.

“Tch, you’re going to have to do more than that, kid!” He yelled out, his vision still impeded by the swirling snow wall.

It didn’t take long for Carmen to continue as the snow suddenly compacted together and crashed into him. A yellow prism appeared all around Varric as the snow pressed harder from every direction. Varric simply crossed his arms and waited, feeling interested to see what else Carmen was going to do.

‘Alright, now that he can’t see what I’m doing, it’s time to get started!’

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Carmen held out her palm and summoned forth a blob of black ink. The blob pulsed and grew larger as it rose into the air, suspending itself above Carmen. She exerted her Core Energy and pointed towards the mound of snow that swallowed Varric. The ink quickly solidified and split into hundreds of thin needles before racing towards his location.

The needles silently entered into the snow and lodged themselves inside. With her preparations complete, Carmen focused her gaze on the mound of snow and continued gravity manipulating it. The weight of the snow increased significantly, compacting more and becoming as solid as a rock.

Losing patience, Varric eventually exerted his Core Energy outwards. His prism barrier expanded and effortlessly pushed the hardened snow out of the way, allowing Varric to burst forth from his cold prison. However, as he looked up, Varric noticed that Carmen was nowhere to be seen.

He scanned his surroundings and heightened his senses, preparing himself for whatever she would dish out next. Varric took a single step forward and suddenly heard something quickly approaching from behind. He looked over his shoulder and saw a snowball racing towards him.

‘You can’t be serious…’

Varric caught the snowball effortlessly and shook his head in disbelief. However, once he gripped it tightly, he sensed a rapid increase of Core Energy growing from it. Before he could toss it to the side, the snowball exploded.

The force was enough to make him take a step back, triggering a chain reaction of more snowy explosions. Carmen’s explosive needles detonated all over the clearing, lighting up their training grounds with an extravagant black and white hue.

As explosions continued to go off around Varric, Carmen took advantage of the situation and raced towards him with Manifest in hand. She activated her gravity field and picked up snow along the way, disguising her approach completely. Carmen increased her speed and leapt into the air, hoping to land a blow from above.

Carmen reached his location and reared back her rapier before thrusting it forward with all of her strength. However, just as she entered his space, Varric averted his gaze towards Carmen’s direction and glared into her eyes. Within a single blink, a massive burst of fire erupted out of him.

The searing hot flames connected with Carmen’s gravity barrier, forcing her away from Varric and down to her knees. Carmen skidded to a stop and tried to fight back against the flames, quickly covering her body with her arms as she held her ground.

The fire continued to push against her with a near unending amount of strength, burning parts of her uniform and the ground around her. Varric exerted his Core Energy one last time, causing the blaze to blow past Carmen and out into the nearby forest. Every ounce of snow in the surrounding area was instantly evaporated and the many trees around them were burnt to a blackened crisp.

Once the dust settled, Carmen panted heavily as she slowly moved her smoking arms down. She looked up at Varric with a determined glare, as though asking him if that was all he could do.

Varric, who was completely unscathed by Carmen’s explosive trickery, stared back with a fairly impressed expression upon his face. He looked closely at Carmen and noticed that everything behind her, snow and all, was still intact; relatively undisturbed by his magnificent flame.

‘Well I’ll be damned. Not bad, kid.’

He headed over to Carmen and gave her a slight nod of approval. Once he stopped his approach, Carmen slowly got to her feet and let out a soft chuckle.

“What’s so funny?” Varric asked, furrowing his brow in confusion.

“I actually got you to use your second affinity!” She replied with a smile, feeling proud of her tiny accomplishment.

Varric stared at her blankly as he took a moment to process what she said. After a brief silence, he began to laugh rather loudly. Carmen’s eyes quickly went wide as his laughter echoed against the trees. She was shocked to see him finally show an emotion that wasn’t super irritated and depressive.

“Yeah, kid, you did. Good job.” He replied, wiping the tears from his eyes as he tried to reign in his laughter.

“C’mon, let’s get started on the next thing. We’ve only got a couple hours of daylight left.”

Varric motioned for Carmen to follow him back to the center of the clearing. She quickly agreed and rushed after him, eager to continue learning new things to add to her arsenal of abilities. When their training session eventually came to a close, Carmen pondered a thought as she looked up at the sun disappearing behind the treeline.

“Hey Varric, how did you learn all of this stuff? Did you have a teacher as well?” She curiously asked, taking a seat on a fallen tree.

Varric walked over with his silver flask and sat next to her, taking a deep swig before entertaining a reply.

“My experiences taught me. In my line of work, any kind of slip up can mean life or death. With every close call I’ve had, I learn something new and I apply it to future situations.” He simply replied.

“But you’re a Calamity Class Vesta. Doesn’t that fact make your job easy? I can’t imagine anyone giving you much of an issue in a fight. ”

“Pfft, sure, I guess. But, mercenary work is a lot more delicate than you think. I can’t just appear and blow up everything in my path. Sometimes precision is required and that is where the things I’ve learned come in handy.” Varric added, taking one last drink from his flask.

“I guess that’s true. Why did you become a mercenary though?”

Carmen shifted her body to face Varric as she stared at him, patiently waiting to hear his reply. Varric remained silent as he thought of a response. He eventually looked up at the sky and sighed.

“I needed a challenge… Growing up, everything was just so fucking easy for me, nothing kept my attention at all. Becoming a merc gave me a chance to do something different for once. Something that would require effort and thought.” Varric said with an almost nostalgic cadence to his tone.

“It gave me a never ending list of challenges to tackle. Challenges that people would pay top dollar for me to solve. I loved every minute of it.”

“I see. Hey, do you think I can join you on a job one day? I bet I could learn a lot from how you approach a mission!” Carmen asked, excitement beginning to take over her face.

“Fuck no. Having a kid follow me around like some kind of sidekick would seriously cramp my style. Besides, I don’t do that shit anymore. I’m out of the mercenary scene…” Varric quickly replied as he gripped his flask tightly.

“But, why? It sounds like that kind of work makes you happy. Why stop doing it? There's no reason to-”

“What are you? My therapist? Don’t worry about why I stopped!”

Varric shot her a deadly glare as he aggressively got to his feet. He grabbed his bag and cut their conversation short. Carmen tried to voice her opinions further, but her reply fell on deaf ears as he disappeared into the forest.

‘What happened to you, Varric? I really thought he was about to open up to me a bit more. Guess I was wrong.’

Carmen gathered her things and sighed, feeling disappointed that her teacher continued to be so closed off towards her. She shrugged her shoulders and headed back to campus with many thoughts racing through her mind.