Tera and Abedi were looking distinctly fatigued when Aida and Dev met them outside of their inn.
“How did the rest of your day go?” Aida asked brightly. She had embarrassed herself in front of Dev and Ashley with her poor aim, but at least she could admit her accuracy had improved. Her aim wasn’t normally an issue in the ring because she always maintained control of her water, allowing her to correct its path as needed; but if she wanted to maintain deadly force with the ice without using more mana than she had already spent creating the icicles, she had to have the confidence to commit to her initial throw.
Fortunately, Dev and Ashley had given her good advice that indirectly pointed out some of her mana control flaws. The first thing Dev noted was that all of her icicles were of inconsistent size: “You should start with ice needles of the same size. That will help improve your mana efficiency as you get familiar with the shape, size, and length of the needle.”
That had slowed Aida down from her haphazard throwing of icicles at small flares Ashley had sent up into the air as she started paying attention to how much water she grabbed from the reservoir. As Aida got more precise with her water, Ashley tittered, making Aida flush and Dev smile as she mimicked Aida’s grandiose movements as she fired icicles into the air: “All this extra movement you’re doing with your body is actually adding in a little bit of inaccuracy. You’ll want to always stay on the move in a real fight, but these seem more like uncontrolled movements.”
Aida would have thought standing in place firing would have been an easy thing to implement, but it turned out to require much more concentration. Before, she would liken her movements to flowing with the mana, giving herself over to what felt right; but standing rigidly required that she remain aware of what her body was doing, so that she could ensure she was standing still while she split her concentration to make her ice projectiles.
Unfortunately, Dev backed Ashley up. “Your icicles are firing at a much more steady speed when you stand still. You can start adding footwork into your shots when you get comfortable.”
After a long afternoon of target practice, Aida finally managed to bring her accuracy rate up to seven out of ten; she wanted to share her achievement with Tera and Abedi, but had a feeling they wouldn’t appreciate her “hard work.”
Tera sighed, shaking her head glumly. “Principal Jen brought over the village committee responsible for infrastructure, and when they heard Abedi’s proposal to improve the school and timing estimate they started trying to negotiate that Abedi and I work on some other village assets as well.”
“Oh no. Did you two manage to get any work on the school done at all?”
“Unfortunately not,” Abedi said, his deep voice even deeper with exhaustion. “Even when we tried to get them to refocus on the initial priority, they insisted that since I already estimated a work time of four days they’ll still be able to get other minor things sorted before we leave.” He shook his head, muttering indistinctly.
“It’s unfortunate that Principal Jen didn’t stand her ground,” Dev said. “What about Strongholder Jaret? What did he say?”
Tera glanced shiftily around them, making sure they were truly alone before she said, “He tried to back Abedi up, but not that much. He said it’s their town, so as a Strongholder he doesn’t really have much say over how they want to run things…but still, it was such a waste of time.”
“That’s really unlucky,” Aida said sympathetically. “They’re going to fight so hard that the school won’t get fixed.”
“You know, maybe we should just go ahead with fixing the school ourselves tomorrow. It’s not like they can stop us,” Tera said to Abedi as he nodded thoughtfully. “After seeing all of those personalities, I don’t want to help them with their village initiatives…”
“Oh, by the way, Ashley said we’re getting dinner at a teahouse,” Aida interjected quickly, noticing Ashley and Jaret’s mana as they rounded the corner. “They’re here to come get us now.”
Tera and Abedi subsided into sullen silence, greeting the two Strongholders stiffly. Jaret seemed unperturbed, and almost cheerful, though Ashley glanced curiously at Tera and Abedi’s tired body language.
The teahouse Ashley and Jaret took them to was nice, with the restaurant proprietor seating them on a balcony overlooking the ocean. Their dining table was rectangular with two benches on the long sides, so that everyone could enjoy the view. The boys and Jaret sat on one bench, and the girls and Ashley sat on the other, with Aida sitting across from Dev on the edge overlooking the sea. Ashley and Jaret sat on the side furthest away from the balcony, allowing the students to have the better view.
“So did you have a productive day at the school?” Ashley asked the three people nearest to her. Tera and Abedi looked at each other awkwardly before mumbling uncertain affirmatives. Ashley looked to Jaret at the unenthusiastic responses, and he sighed before leaning forward, setting his elbows on the table.
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“Infrastructure Committee members got involved, and…” Jaret gave Ashley a knowing look, making her sigh. She turned back to the students, giving them an embarrassed smile.
“Don’t worry, we’ll help you make sure you can get the repair work done before you leave the village,” Ashley said encouragingly. “The committee members are a little stubborn, but Jaret is great at handling them.”
“Do they have something against mana practitioners?” Aida asked quietly. When everyone looked at her, she quickly added, “I mean, everyone we’ve met have been…nice, but I was wondering if they actually want - or need - our help in the first place.”
Ashley and Jaret looked to each other before Jaret shrugged and nodded. He turned to them, his perpetually relaxed demeanor replaced by a more serious, intense aura. Aida felt a chill run through her body as he looked at her; he seemed much more like the commander or leader she would have expected from being an Affiliate Strongholder, instead of the easygoing, almost lazy supervisor he had been the past two days.
“It’s not necessarily that the people of North Ocean Village have something against mana practitioners, but it’s more that…they are an independent people. They don’t experience as many monster attacks as the other villages that are established within the woods, and they can also support themselves easily with their ocean fishing. As such, they have never quite needed to integrate themselves with the rest of society as the other villages and towns.”
Ashley took over the narrative here, keeping her voice low so the other diners who had begun filtering into the restaurant couldn’t hear their conversation. Fortunately, the lapping evening waves helped add to the cover. “The feeling of dismissal you’ve noticed is real. The village does respect the Strongholders because we patrol the seas so that they can fish safely, but their respect stops there. They had already built up their village before the Naval Stronghold was established, so there is a sense of pride and self-sufficiency in their culture; as such, they’d…rather we focus on our own jobs while they focus on theirs, so to speak,” Ashley finished reluctantly.
Tera was confused. “But then why are we being asked to help the village if they’d rather deal with it themselves?”
Ashley grimaced, choosing her words carefully. “It’s…because of everything that’s been happening in the woods, around the other towns and villages…even though things have been calm and normal here, it’s only a matter of time until something unprecedented happens. So we’ve been trying to get the village leaders used to the idea that we all need to work together, for everyone’s safety. But as you can imagine…” she exchanged glances with Jaret.
“Think of it like this,” Jaret said resolutely. “Our first priority is to ensure that everyone is safe. If a settlement is attacked, regardless of if we like them or not, humanity suffers. Our desire for more proactive cooperation between practitioners and nonpractitioners is so that we can get ahead of any potential emergencies.”
“Because the only practitioners the village are familiar with are those from the Naval - and occasionally Border - Stronghold, we were hoping if they met you they would see that mana practitioners aren’t all rigid busybodies like us,” Ashley finished with an embarrassed smile. “We’ve tried positioning ourselves as helpful neighbors, but unfortunately, some of our leaders had upset the villagers earlier when they established our base, and the village elders have a long memory…”
The other students seemed slightly less miffed after their explanation, but if anything Aida was more concerned.
It seemed weird to use kids - even if they were from the prestigious Maglica Academy - to improve work relationships between two groups. Common sense dictated that the fastest way to become friendlier with a coworker was to be pitted against a third party; typically, customers or the manager. What role were they supposed to play?
“Don’t worry, we’re not expecting you four to do anything in particular to change their opinions of practitioners,” Ashley said quickly, seeming to read Aida’s mind. “Just be yourselves; your desire to help is genuine and charming, and that’s the best display to convince them that we don’t have ulterior motives.”
Aida glanced at Dev, who was by far the most socially aware classmate. His expression was carefully closed off, though when he met her gaze she could see that he also didn’t completely buy Ashley’s reassurances.
“Anyway, let’s come up with some other things you two can work on if the Committee decides to drag its feet on deciding how to best use your abilities,” Ashley said hastily. “For example, today Aida worked on her ice combat!”
“Ooh, why ice?” Tera asked keenly.
“Dev suggested it!” Aida said defensively. “I think it’s a sabotage attempt - my aim is atrocious with ice.”
“Hey now,” Dev objected. “Your combat abilities need no sabotaging.”
“My metal manipulation needs to be faster,” Abedi said thoughtfully. He elbowed Dev. “What exercises would you recommend I do so I can be competitive against Ezra?”
“Oh, do me, too!” Tera leaned forward. “What should I work on so I can beat Pritchard?”
“Perhaps you can set up some defenses along the coastline?” Ashley suggested to Tera. “It will be more difficult than anything you do on land, since you’ll be experiencing interference from water. And I was planning on taking Aida and Dev out onto the ocean tomorrow, so you can come with us if the Committee is still indecisive tomorrow morning.”
“And if you want to improve your metal manipulation speed, that will come down to improving your focus,” Jaret said to Abedi. He chuckled as Abedi frowned. “You can treat interacting with the Committee as practice. Ignore all their justifications and words, and don’t let them make you angry.”
“Isn’t there something else I can do on the ocean?” Abedi asked plaintively.
Aida hid her smile as everybody began discussing the merits of staying within the village and cutting through the bog of small-town politics. She hadn’t witnessed the brunt of it the way Abedi and Tera did, but if that was going to be the primary challenge of their trip this cycle, she supposed there wasn’t much she could complain about.