It was easier said than done.

I froze like a spell was cast on me when Light's blade stopped short millimeters from my throat for the fifth time. A droplet of my sweat fell on its polished surface. "This is so stupid..." I sighed.

"It's the wings, isn't it?" my new mentor stepped back, retreating his sword. He figured it out without me having to voice the problem.

"I can't help it. Every time one jumps into my line of vision, my body reacts before my mind manages to tell it that's not the thing I need to fight against. And even if I manage to recover in time, I'm scared to swing properly because I'm scared I'll chop something off..."

"I'm afraid there's only one remedy for that," Siaril chimed in from the rock he was sitting on, out of reach of our blades. "Using them until your brain understands that."

"Do you have that issue too...?"

"I do. And I bet I will get used to it even slower, since I can make my wings disappear, and you deal with them all the time."

"That both makes and doesn't make me feel better..."

My friend just smiled apologetically, shrugging a little.

"I'm not sure we can do anything about that first problem..." Light pinched his chin, his eyes on the grass that we've been tormenting for the past half hour. "But I might have an idea for the second."

"What is it?"

He sheathed his sword and extended his hand in front of him a little, closing his eyes. My eyebrows wandered up a little as he started to explain: "Our brains are so harmonized with our limbs that we don't actually really feel them most of the time, right?" I nodded after a moment, then realized he doesn't see me and followed up with a confirmatory hum. "But... if something touches any spot on our skin, we become aware of it, and of its exact position."

"Ah..." I heard Siaril perk up.

"What?"

Light smiled, opening his eyes again. "How about we attach something to your wings temporarily?"

I glanced at one of them, then back to him. "Won't hurt to give it a shot."

"I'll be right back," Light turned around and headed to the mansion, humming.

"Where in the world does he get all that energy from..." I wondered, walking over to Siaril and resting on the rock next to him.

"I don't know, but he seems to enjoy swordplay a lot. Maybe it's this enthusiasm that he's drawing from. And before you say it's a great thing to be this passionate, I'd say he seems like the type that keeps going without noticing the fatigue until the enthusiasm cuts short at the edge of exhaustion."

I gave him an amused look. "That might be... How long have you two known each other?"

Siaril mused over it for a second, before throwing a small stone that he was playing with into the lake, causing a pleasant splash. "A few months... close to a year I guess."

"How did you meet?"

"That's... a longer story... and a complicated one..."

Something in his voice made me concerned. It sounded like something he wasn't eager to talk about. Why would it be though...?

"Here we go," Light's voice pulled my attention away from Siaril's uneasy expression. The young mage approached us, holding two pieces of fabric that looked like a small towel ripped in two.

"Yeah, there you go, sacrificing your fabrics for me..."

Light laughed a little. "Don't worry about it. Come here, I'll attach them."

When I stood up, he eyed my wings for a few moments. "I'd say..." he touched the outer edge near the bottom of it, the part that usually reached the farthest when I spread them, "here?"

I nodded. "That would make sense, I think."

He put one piece of the towel on it, wrapping it around the sides of the bone, and whispered some small spell. When he retreated his hand, the fabric stayed in place, even when I fanned the wing a little.

"Magic sure is convenient..." I muttered, watching him repeat the process on my left wing.

"Pity I can use so little of it..."

"Is there some specific reason for that?"

Light gave me a small smile. "I'm still learning. The education at the academy in the north lasts ten years, I'm only on my sixth."

"Wait, what are you doing here then instead of learning?"

"From the moment of the spring equinox, everyone in the north focuses on tillage. The climate is harsher than down here, so our time is always limited. That's why everything that's not crucial gets put on hold, the students returning home to help."

"Ooh... Is the spring equinox not too early though? It's still freezing here around that time sometimes, so in the north..."

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Not all plants we grow are the same as here. They adapted to different conditions."

"I see... Why aren't you home and helping though?"

"I have no one there who I could help..."

I immediately felt a stab of guilt. "Sorry..."

"It's fine," his smile was a little sad, but reassuring. "We all have our problems. And we should return to yours now... because there seems to be some other one besides the wings."

"Eh?"

Light paused, seeming to think about his next words so they wouldn't sound wrong. "I feel like there's something else that holds your hand back. It's not just the fear of injuring yourself, there also seems to be some mental insecurity behind it... Like you're not swinging the sword out of conviction, but rather because you're lost..."

I looked away a little. Light usually seemed like he was slightly clumsy and socially awkward, but when things revolved around swordsmanship, he was too perceptive for his own good.

"Look..." he continued. "I don't really know what happened that makes you look at a blade with hesitation. Heck, if that's what you wish, then I don't even want to know. But I don't think you'll be able to get rid of the problem unless you either face it or decide to leave it behind to gather dust."

"Is it because you failed to protect me?" asked Siaril, worry in his voice.

"Absolutely not," I said quickly. "If anything, that's the reason why I want to try triple as hard."

"Oh..." a small, grateful smile formed on my friend's lips before he continued: "Is it... the time at the castle then?"

My eyes darted to Light, the fear of the topic creeping up my bones. That feeling confirmed to me that this really was the issue here, but why did Siaril so carelessly...

For some reason, there was no curiosity nor eagerness to ask in the young mage's eyes. Rather confusion that only surfaced as answer to my expression. "What?" he threw at me.

"Wait, do you... know about this?"

"About what, your captivity at the castle?"

I looked back to Siaril, demanding answers.

"I think I failed to mention this..." my friend muttered apologetically. "It was actually Light who tipped me off about your whereabouts."

My jaw dropped a little. "Wha... how?"

"Oh, it was... kind of accidental and on purpose at the same time," Light started to explain clumsily. "You see, when Sharish first started plotting against the human race while still in our homeland, he had a few who supported him eagerly. But there was one who showed exceptional eagerness. Tavris." I twitched at the familiar name. Quite a few threads ran together at it... "He was also the only one to vanish from the capital after Sharish did. So I thought that finding him might bring us some information about Sharish's movements... instead, it led us to you."

"Crazy..."

"I'm happy with what we found," Siaril gave me a warm look.

A small, grateful smile broke to my lips through the stupor caused by the revelation. "Thank you... you freed me..."

Light's eyes wandered off from mine to the azure of the lake. "Sometimes, taking action is a duty towards one's own freedom..."

"What?"

My mentor just smiled, the strangely sad look vanishing from his face as promptly as it appeared. "Nothing. It's just that you don't seem to be quite free yet," Light once again switched back to what he wanted to dig into quicker than I liked while I was still processing stuff. "You still don't seem to be free of the habits they hammered into your head at the castle."

I let out a small sigh. "Why are they bad though? The guy who taught me was one of the best in the land."

"That might be, but only if you think about swordsmanship in the present mindset."

"What do you mean?"

"Nowadays, only the ones who go to actual battle know how a sword should really be used. Unlike those who stay near the capital, which hasn't experienced war for decades. Over there, swordplay has become a thing for parades, tournaments where knights want to look good in front of the king with their proud posture and wide, sweeping motions, and the only thing they worry about is the audience's opinion. If you want to face a real fight, you'll need to forget all that."

"Easier said than done..."

"I know, but I'm sure you can overcome it," Light got into a stance once again. "Let's try again and see how the thing with the wings works first."

It worked quite well, though didn't dispel my insecurity completely. But for the first time, I felt like I was getting somewhere. Finding new ways to deal with problems and the realization that I don't have to hide any of them gave me the conviction that they're not unjumpable.

Once I started to feel more confident about keeping my wings where they belonged, Light proceeded to explain what made it so easy for his style to always overcome mine. My eyes never strayed from him, drinking in every movement, every stance and position of his blade.

A lot of it revolved around the center of mass. Bring it down a little by bending the knees ever so slightly, providing extra flexibility at the same time. Always staying near it when swinging, so it would be easy to switch to a position where one can guard it. But at the same time, when your movement brings you to some point further away, don't stubbornly try to go back to your centre of mass if it's difficult. Better 'fly like the wind blows', looking for ways to exploit every step you make with precise, short strikes. This certainly didn't resemble the prideful feeling I got when training at the royal castle. It was designed to bring down the opponent quickly and with deadly precision.

"Remember, shoulders back and firm," Light kept instructing while we were still sparring. "Otherwise it'll be easier to knock the blade out of your hand."

He barely finished that sentence, when I noticed his eyes moving slightly to look somewhere above my shoulder. I wasn't sure if it was some trick to lead me into a trap or something actually caught his attention, but I decided to use the opportunity anyway. Aiming for a point of his blade closer to the guard this time, I executed one of those short and impetuous swings, knocking the sword right out of his hand. He took a step back, blinking at my blade that was suddenly pointing at his chest.

"Now that was a good one..." he smiled proudly, panting a little.

"Thank you," I returned the smile, letting my hand sink and glanced over my shoulder. "Ah... I see that your mind isn't quite free either," I added upon seeing Yasenka waving at us from one of the open windows of the mansion.

"No, it's..." he said a little too quickly, then looked away, face red as a beet. "Maybe."

"That sounded like a yes."

"Oh shush."

"No, I'm curious," I sheathed my sword. "Are you actually, or will you...?"

My mentor sighed. "I'm... close to admitting it, let's put it this way."

I smiled. "Well, I'm sure it'll go well. You've charmed her quite a lot already."

"I have?"

Before I could answer, we suddenly heard a soft flutter of small wings. All three of us looked up to see a swallow landing on Yasenka's extended hand, circling her finger with the tiny claws. The illathan started to fiddle with something attached to its leg.

"Didn't she mention that she uses birds to carry letters?" I remembered. "I wonder what..."

I didn't finish, a small gasp interrupting me. Yasenka turned around quicker than the bird could react and we only saw it darting away in panic from the suddenly empty window.

"I'll go check on her..." Light said quickly, already rushing to the main entrance.

I looked at Siaril. "What do you think could've happened...?"

"No clue..." my friend got up from the boulder. "Let's leave the questions to Light and check..."

"What?" I urged, not understanding the abruptly cut off sentence.

In response, Siaril pointed at the sky somewhere behind me. I turned around to see a crimson star quickly gaining distance from us and soon disappearing behind the trees surrounding the mansion, heading towards the valley that separated us from the Silivren Forest.

"What in the world...? Should we follow?" when I glanced back at my friend, he already had his wings out.

I just smiled and spread mine.