It occurs to me that Ethan never actually said what his Affinity was. I probably should have asked.

Because watching him throw bolts of fire at Sophie is making my scar itch fiercely, and I swear it’s twitching a little.

There are very clear and obvious differences between how Ethan uses his magic and how the mage in the alleyway used his. The latter threw it around almost carelessly, and let it run wild as he did. Ethan, on the other hand, keeps his flames tightly focused, never going too far out of control.

It helps to focus on the differences. Makes it easier to remind my dumb brain that Ethan isn’t going to try to hurt me, that he’s on my side.

I hold my left shoulder as I watch Ethan and Sophie spar, doing my best to focus on their techniques and patterns, how they prefer to handle the other. I already know how Sophie approaches combat, like the wolf her bloodline resembles, she’s aiming to wear him down both physically and magically. Ethan’s inexperience shows itself in that he doesn’t seem to fully know what to do, his sense for combat isn’t as well honed as the rest of us. He does seem to know that he prefers to keep a distance, however. His speed isn’t quite up to Sophie’s, but it’s enough that a few choice bolts of fire keep her back, even if his poor aim doesn’t quite do the tactic justice.

What’s interesting, though, is that his mana control is the best of us by far. It makes some sense, as even though he couldn’t touch his Affinity until recently, he was still able to manipulate neutral mana. Given how delicate enchanting can get, that has to have done wonders for developing his control.

This means that even though he’s working with a B Grade Affinity, and thus B Grade reserves, he’s easily able to match and possibly outlast the rest of us. It really hammers home what Armsmaster was saying about how control is the most important skill for a mage to master.

“Are you alright?”

I start slightly, and turn to Onslo.

“What?”

“I asked if you were alright. You’re breathing pretty hard, and you’re staring at him like he’s about to start burning you.”

Oh. I thought I had that under better control. I close my eyes and force myself to relax, and unclench my hand from my shoulder, which I’m now realising I had been gripping much too tightly.

“I-I’m fine. I just had something of an incident with a fire mage about a week ago, I was injured pretty badly. I guess I’m not as over it as I thought I was.”

He gives my shoulder a meaningful look. “Maybe. Well, Ethan seems like a good sort. I reckon it helps that you could demolish him in a fight.”

I chuckle bleakly. “I wrecked the last guy too, yet here I am.”

“Hmm.”

At that moment, Ethan trips over his own feet, and before he can get back up, Sophie’s right in front of him, training spear at his throat.

“Um. I surrender?”

Sophie chuckles, retracts her spear, and extends a hand to pull him up, which he takes gratefully.

They both walk over to us, Sophie in the lead. When she reaches us she looks at my face, and says, “You ok Val?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I got it under control now.”

Ethan looks a little concerned. “I know I’m not great, but I didn’t do that poorly, did I?”

Awkwardly executed as it was, I do appreciate the attempt at levity.

“No, it wasn’t you Ethan. It’s just fire and I aren’t the best of friends, is all.”

Sophie snorts. “That’s putting it lightly.”

“Sophie, that’s enough. There’s no need to make a big deal of it, I’m fine.”

She raises her hands defensively. “Alright, alright. So how do we think he did? I got my own opinion, but you guys had a better view of things.”

“Well,” I take a steadying breath and turn to Ethan. “It could be a lot worse.”

“That’s… a little ominous.”

I raise a hand and use my fingers to count off. “Your aim was horrendous, your spatial awareness nearly nonexistent, you had only the barest beginnings of a strategy, and I could tell at the end there you were losing your cool, if you’ll pardon the pun.”

“Pardoned,” Sophie chimes in.

“However,” I continue, giving Sophie a mock glare, “Your control is frankly incredible. Easily outpaces the rest of us, as far as I could tell. It’s a little hard to get a measure on yours Onslo, what with your magic being almost entirely internal, but would it be fair to say you’d be about average for our age?”

“A little below, but yes,” he admits.

“Right, so you have that going for you,” I say to Ethan. “What’s more, whilst it was only the bare outlines of a strategy, you didn’t come in with nothing. It’s clear you thought ahead, even if your limited experience meant you didn’t really know what to plan for. You clearly recognised that you had no chance of beating her at close quarters, so you kept your distance and did what you could. All in all, I’d say you’ve got some fairly good chances.”

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“Eh?” Ethan looks at me confused. It’s amusing how similar this feels to when Mom did this same thing with me.

I smile at him reassuringly. “Aim can be taught, that’s not a big deal, strategic thinking isn’t something everyone has the knack for right away, and maintaining composure comes with the kind of experience that Cardinal is meant to impart in a safe environment. I’m something of a prodigy, I’ll freely admit that. Only three weeks of training and I can already keep up with Sophie and handle Onslo here pretty well. Sophie has been practically raised learning how to fight, it’s basically instinct for her. I don’t know Onslo’s situation, but when we sparred he felt like someone who was very familiar with his chosen weapon.”

“Youngest of seven, all boys, all fighters. I started young,” Onslo says. “Only three weeks, really? Seems a little more than ‘something of a prodigy’.”

I blush faintly. “I have a Guide and an Aspect that makes learning combat a lot easier. I have a few advantages. Back to my original point, you are far from hopeless, Ethan. Like I said when we met, you might just surprise yourself.”

He scratches the back of his head sheepishly. “Thanks Valerie. That means a lot.”

“Maybe some perspective? I made it to the end of Scenario 2. Collapsed right after, sure, but I did get to the end. Sophie? Onslo?”

“Big snakey bastard got me. Had two heads but no tail, it was freaky,” Onslo says.

“The Amphisbaena. I’ll admit, I used one of the powers of my Aspect to beat that. It could be argued that I technically don’t deserve that win, but I was on my last legs and I wanted to see what it would do. It made that weird scale, incidentally.”

“I ran out of mana against the Titan Ants,” Sophie says. “You know I have a hard time against multiple enemies, and there were a few fights where I had to wake Slayer up if I wanted to end them quickly. I was on fumes when the Ants showed up, and even awake Slayer was having trouble. Mana ran out, I lost focus, blacked out just before they would have killed me. Wasn’t fun.”

“That would have been right before the Amphisbaena. What about you Ethan?”

He looks mildly troubled. “Ravager Wasps, I think they were called. I’d been focusing too much on one target, lost track of a few of the others. They snuck behind and managed to sting me a few times. The poison did the rest.”

Ravager Wasps. Nasty things, they were. Slate gray, about the size of a house cat, and have the attitude to boot. The full swarm in the Scenario totalled to about eight, and each one would launch their stinger as a ranged attack, then come in close to finish off their prey with razor sharp mandibles. Not the brightest, fortunately, so if the miss is close they’ll assume they still hit, which means they’ll approach into melee. That’s how I finished mine off.

“That would be about two, three fights before the end? I’m not certain, I was in some kind of fugue state by that point,” I say.

“Yeah, I’d say so,” Onslo says.

“So about halfway through, a little over. I reckon most people didn’t get quite that far.”

Sophie chuckles. “It wouldn’t surprise me if a few hadn’t got past the Spinecat. That little shit was fierce.”

“So yeah, I think you’ll do just fine,” I say.

“Okay. Alright,” he says. “Hang on, what about my spatial awareness?”

“Hmm?”

“Well, when you were talking about ways to fix my flaws, you didn’t mention my spatial awareness. What about that?”

Oh. Right.

“You, uh. You don’t want to learn that the way I did. Trust me,” I say, turned away slightly.

“Why?” He looks mildly worried.

“Because it was done by the Armsmaster throwing things at me for three hours. She eventually switched to knives. It hurt.”

“Oh.”

“Dad liked to ambush me at just the worst times when I was younger. I learned to pay attention pretty quick,” Sophie says. I can see a slightly sadistic gleam in her eye, like she’s enjoying how uncomfortable this knowledge makes him feel.

“Um.”

“Anyway,” I say, “Let’s get started on what we can change, at least for the next few hours. I’m looking forward to what the last scenario entails.”

Ethan nods.

Time passes, and we manage to get Ethan’s aim to a somewhat respectable level. He still misses more often than any of us would like, but it’s workable for now. We finish things off with Ethan and Onslo sparring. I don’t think Sophie fully believed me when I said it should be Onslo because Ethan had already faced Sophie and our fighting styles are both highly mobile, and he’d benefit more from something a little slower, but sturdier.

I wasn’t lying, per se. I just had more than one reason.

Watching Onslo slowly approach Ethan, methodically, and crushingly inevitable, really highlights the difference between his and Sophie’s styles. Onslo usually blocks what he can, as opposed to dodging, but a few times Ethan manages to get his staff out of position such that Onslo needs to evade the next bolt of fire, which he does with starling nimbleness. Regardless of how he defends himself, Onslo doesn’t stop moving forward, not once until he’s caught by surprise at the end. Ethan panics and lashes out with a wide spray of fire, and Onslo flinches and steps back. Ethan capitalises on this and throws in two more bolts of fire, which both smash into Onslo. He’s largely unharmed, what with the absurd toughness from his Affinity’s enhancement and his self healing, but it does catch him off guard.

It's all for naught, however, as Onslo continues his approach. The few hits Ethan got in is enough that Onslo can take Ethan’s next few attacks head on, allowing him to rapidly charge into Ethan and knock him down.

Clapping, I walk over to them both. “See what I mean? Already signs of improvement. Better aim, clearer thinking, and you only started to panic at the end. I think that should be enough for now, what say we take a few minutes to rest and we’ll find out about the next scenario?”

All three give signs of acknowledgement, and we spend ten minutes letting Ethan and Onslo recover. That time is used wisely, of course. We all review both Onslo’s and Ethan’s methods together, doing what we can to pick out their weaknesses and figure out how to cover them.

Once that time is up, we make our way over to the exit door. I’m back in my armour, Onslo has his staff, Sophie her spear, and Ethan’s wearing his coat.

“We all ready?” I ask.

“Yep,” Sophie says.

“Ready,” from Onslo.

And Ethan finishes with, “as ready as we’ll ever be.”

With that, I turn back and open the door.