On the first day since Sai finished the houses he woke up early, even before dawn. Very few people were up already, even Lavits and Lilith were cuddled together in a room down the hall despite them both being up early every morning to train on Sai’s earthen obstacle course.
Sai could sense Albert in a house nearby sleeping with his large sword standing firmly in the ground next to his bed. Sai didn't wake him, Sai quietly went into the kitchen and heated some meat up while he snacked on fruit.
“Sai, there is someone nearby,” Grandma Black’s voice resounded in Sai’s mind.
“Enter, quietly,” Sai sent mentally to the person pacing outside of the front door. “That is weird that I didn't sense them a moment ago,” Sai said to Grandma Black.
“This person seems upset, they actually just ran here and started pacing just a moment ago,” Grandma blank said, she maintained a constant watch over the area, despite Sai’s lack of willingness to do so.
The person that came in was Carl, the young boy that looked like he could be much older. “Silent, can I please, please train with you, I want to get as strong as Albert one day. “
“Um, Carl, I'm glad you asked me, but it would be Albert that you need to ask, I have no control over who he tutors.” Sai was genuinely happy that Carl wanted to learn, Sai had very high hopes for him in the future.
“Oh. I was hoping that you had some say. Albert doesn't want to train me,” Carl looked defeated.
“What I will do for you is I will make a weapon that you want. You can train with alone, when you get strong enough I'm sure Albert will accept you add a disciple after that,” Sai assured Carl. “You can also use my course whenever you'd like. I'm hoping that in just a short time you will be strong enough that we can both adventure together with Albert, maybe one or two more peels, but I haven't decided yet.”
“Wow, you think that good of me?” Carl said, then he changed his tone, “What weapon will you make me?”
“I do, you are willing to grow at a young age, like myself. And I will make any that you want, but only a single one. So we need to figure out how strong you are first,” Sai told Albert while creating a rod of earth.
Carl quickly picked it up and moved around with it, Carl seemed to favor holding it at the end like a sword, Sai was going to mention this until Carl did first, “Can it be shorter?”
“Of course,” Sai shortened the rod, making sure that it was just as heavy but didn't affect Carl’s grip.
“That's more like it,” Carl said as the earth shaped weapon began to look like a club. “This feels weird though.”
“How?” Sai asked.
“I don't know,” Carl’s childish voice came through with a whining tone.
“OK,” Sai was patient then began to change the shape of the club into a mace, then a short sword, then a cleaver. None of them were right for Carl. “I'm running out of ideas here Carl, do you want it balanced more or less?”
“I don't know,” this time call really did whine. Silent sighed and thought to himself that the boy was really young. At this, Sai made the now cleaver into a hammer. “This is a bit better,” Carl said finally.
“Better, I can work with better,” Sai said while he modified the hammer in ways that made Carl’s eyes shine. Carl would swing after each modification, Sai could see Carl’s arm weaken slightly each time. With that, Sai lowered the weight of the head of the hammer slightly, the weapon looked the same as a blacksmith hammer, but on a singly side was a spike.
“This is perfect, when I get strong with magic I'll make a second hammer just like this one!” Carl exclaimed while the sun peaked through the treeline.
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Sai then asked Carl a question that had been bugging him, “Carl, how did you know when to come over?”
“I could tell you were awake,” the small child said to Sai.
“Sai! You must make a decision. Kill him and take his power to boost your own or keep him close, these are the only options. If you leave him be some power will use him out he will turn on you,” Grandma Black was very anxious, she knew Sai wouldn't kill without reason though, but she felt that this was a good enough reason.
“Carl, don't ever tell anyone out give away the fact that you can do this again. Someone will try to take this power from you. If you tell anyone they will try to hurt you and your family for it.” Sai would never kill a child, not even to make himself stronger.
“Are you for real?” Carl asked, he clearly didn't understand the gravity of the situation.
“Have you told anyone else about this?” Sai asked, afterward he could see how hard Carl was working to remember.
“I told my parents, I don't think anyone else.” Sai understood what the young child meant. Sai also understood what Carl didn't say, there were people that he probably told but can't remember our is protecting.
“Okay, keep it between you and your parents. No one else can know,” Carl seemed to understand. “Now, go home and train hard, I'm going to train really hard now too.” Sai told Carl, Carl then picked up his stone hammer and ran playfully out the door despite the seriousness of the conversation just moments before.
Silent had finished his breakfast and helped Carl, he began to head outside when he saw through a window another person running towards his house, this time it was light enough to see. It was the same young person that he had singled out with Carl, Kayla.
Sai merely opened the door while she ran towards it. This made her hesitate until she saw that Silent was standing on the other side of it. “Silent, Silent! Can you please, please, please, make me a weapon too, I saw Carl had one and I want one.”
“Why should I make you a weapon, how do you know that Carl didn't trade something for one?” Sai said jokingly, he had planned on helping these people in any way he could just to make things easier for Albert to leave on an adventure with him.
“Please?” Was all Kayla replied.
“Fine, what do you want?” Sai asked her, knowing he would have no definite answer.
“I want something strong, so I can be as strong as Carl.” Kayla said, Sai was actually surprised and happy to see a rivalry between the two, this meant that they would advance together.
Sai began the same way that he did with Carl, he manipulated the earth to become a long staff to see how heavy she could lift and still maneuver quickly and effectively. When she lifted it up, she began to twirl it like a baton, she was rather slow with it because of her poor childlike dexterity, but there was definite potential. “I like this,” Kayla said, not realizing that Sai had yet to make anything but was only testing her strength.
“Is this what you want?” Sai asked.
“Maybe a little lighter,” Kayla said, Sai noted that it was in fact true in this case that girls develop their speech earlier than boys, he wasn't playing a guessing game as to what she wanted.
“let's try out some other shapes and variants, if you still like this one I'll change it back,” Sai said, what she currently had was a simple pole, but Sai tried a spear, a lance, a halberd, nothing seemed to feel right by her. Sai ended up making her a bo staff, he did not however use earth for it since bo staff’s key strength lies in its flexibility.
Because of this, Sai went above what he did for Carl, he began to forge a single long piece of steel, slightly thicker around the middle than the edges on either side. Sai spent several hours making this bo staff for Kayla despite only spending a few minutes on Carl’s. Sai was happy to do the work though because ultimately he would benefit if she also were to join his adventure team. Near the end of forging the staff, Sai brought up the prospect of adventuring together in the future. If course, Sai knew that she and Carl were rather young, so adventuring for them would be a long way into the future, probably close to four more years.
Kayla quickly agreed to becoming part of the team, and shortly after, she too received her weapon from Sai. After Kayla left, it was almost noon. Sai looked up to see that there were many children waiting in a line outside of his house, eagerly expecting a cool weapon for themselves.
Sai huffed a sigh then loudly spoke to the crowd, “I will make any of you a weapon if you want, but you must reach the same point that Kayla and Carl have, and that is an understanding of magic enough to accompany your weapon’s strengths. I will teach you all some more basic steps and motions tonight after dinner but before dark, until then, I have to train. You souls all do so as well.” Sai spike to the masses, in this case about twelve children and a handful of teenagers.
Although some grumbled, they were not angry, the group dispersed and Sai finally began to head toward where he could sense Albert. “Are you ready to be taught?” Albert asked, Sai knew that this sparring session was going to leave him with a very sore body.