The next day Azrael felt that he’d perhaps celebrated too early. Having [Meditation] and putting it into practice were two completely different things.

To use [Meditation] he needed to be seated, but to activate the runes around the circle he had to move around the ring. The problem was that as soon as he moved, while trying to concentrate on [Meditation], he would quickly lose control of his breathing.

Alena had also returned from the village, laden with gifts from the ladies. It seemed that they did care for her after all. With Alena back, it meant that training began again as well. Taking what had happened two days ago into consideration, Azrael decided to change the training up a little, moving things away from direct combat.

Sparring was now only every second day, while the previously allocated time was replaced with other activities, such as trap making and hide and seek.

For trap making Azrael took Alena into the forest and taught her how to make various traps and snares, nothing too fancy, although it did add a larger variety of game to their diet.

As for hide and seek, it was exactly that. Azrael would enter [Stealth] and hide, while Alena would seek. While she seemed to be surprisingly quick at finding his general location, she still had trouble with actually finding him.

Then, when she eventually did find him, they would swap roles, with her hiding and him seeking. While it was stealth and tracking training for her, he used it as time to practice [Meditation] while moving and standing.

Alena still fulfilled her other roles, such as cleaning the house, washing the dishes, making breakfast and keeping the water barrel topped up. Azrael cooked the dinner meals. Alena still tended to burn the food quite often.

Morning meditation and dagger practice was still a regular occurrence, while he’d also fashioned a pair of proper throwing knifes for her. She added those to her morning routine as well.

In time the dragon came again, swooping down low towards the plains and returning to the sky once more with a Bulla in each claw. A week later Azrael attempted to activate the first ring. He sent Alena to the village for the day, not wanting to be distracted. She complained in Thief code, but he closed his eyes, ending the argument before it even began. He only opened them again when he was sure that she had left.

Then, starting from the closest mana stone from his front door he began to walk around the stone circle, counter clockwise, guiding his mana through the runes of the first ring. Letting his mana flow he calmed his breathing and slipped into [Meditation].

From there it was simply a matter of process; breath in, draw the mana, breath out, trace the rune. Everything went alright until he got nearly a third around his house. In all of his planning he’d forgotten that the further his mana got from him, the harder it was to control. For every level he gained in [Mana Control] it meant another meter further from his body that he could control. However, even now he was pushing that range.

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Without anything to keep it attached the mana at the beginning of the trail was slowly beginning to unravel, dissipating into the air. Distracted, he almost lost control of his mana and briefly slipped out of [Meditation].

Forced to deal with the situation he sent a powerful surge of mana down the line, containing almost half of his remaining reserves. Dropping back into [Meditation] he felt the regeneration speed of his mana pool increase somewhat, but not enough to make up for that sudden blast. Nervousness began to well up, only to be quashed as he drew upon [Calm Mind]. He returned to the task.

The second oversight that he had made actually aided him this time. With each mana stone he passed the task became easier, as each activated accumulator formation activated and began to absorb mana from the surrounding and pouring it into the rune structure. Although his own mana pool was getting precariously low, he was basically surfing a wave of mana now and only had to guide it through the forms.

He passed another mana stone. Five more left to go. He checked, he had enough mana. Four mana stones left, still doing OK, but he was precariously low. Three, he nervously eyed his MP on his status. Two, his mana guttered briefly, running on fumes. He pushed, drawing in all the mana he could from his surrounds. A task made harder by the very accumulators he was trying to complete. One; just the last bit!

He connected the two ends and the mana wave he’d been riding continued on, cycling through the rune structure.

Azrael could practically feel the mana in the very environment being sucked into the 32 accumulators placed around the first ring. He tried to cut off the mana from his core, but it was ripped along by the mana wave. The headache that he’d suppressed as he worked suddenly returned full force as he watched his MP drop.

MP: 1/170

“…”

MP: 0/170

As the last bit drained away everything went black.

***

Alena sat in the village, the women of the village fussing over her. She was annoyed that her Master had sent her away for the day. The constant attention from the ladies didn’t help her mood either. She had grown accustomed to the peacefulness of the forest.

The ladies continued their fussing, constantly asking her whether the Lord had done anything bad to her, while at the same time trying to feed her, saying that the Lord probably didn’t feed her properly. They were wrong on both accounts. He hadn’t done anything bad and his cooking was sometimes better than theirs. It was a shame that none of them could understand finger talk. Thief code as her master called it. Which puzzled her, because she wasn’t a thief and he definitely wasn’t.

Shaking her head to a plate of food being pushed in her direction she touched the soul-oath-link that she had with her master. She felt his great excitement. There was also a lot of concentration and a little worry mixed in. Which puzzled her again. Why did he have to worry? Wasn’t he strong? Did the strong have to worry?

All of a sudden, his excitement spiked, before suddenly dropping away and being replaced by strong worry. Someone called her name and she snapped back to reality. The women were all smiling at her patiently and the question was repeated. The connection to her Master went blank.

Alena sprang to her feet, forcing her whole concentration onto the link. Nothing. She pushed past the ladies and sprinted out of the door.

Appearing in the cool evening air, she fingered her daggers. She just hoped that she wasn’t too late.