Althea and Arsalan had spent the remainder of the week working to mend her foundation. They spent Wednesday as they had Tuesday, practising meditation, but on Thursday and Friday he had implemented the breathing styles and meditation into a fighting style known as Tai Chi.
For those two days she worked on incorporating her breathwork into various combat moves. Arsalan had taught her that the best fighting was done with the body not tense, but relaxed. She practised footwork, and the flow of her movements over those two days. Breathing in as she set her stance and out as she slowly executed each manoeuvre. She repeated each series of movements until Arsalan deemed it well enough.
When she had asked why he was showing her this, he had said that, ‘your power is only as strong and as capable as its vessel, so the more mentally and physically stable you are, the stronger your ability will be.’ Plus the fighting style she practised was ideal for more petite people like her. It focused on swift movements to tire out an opponent and palm strikes rather than fist jabs.
She had very slowly begun to let down her guard around him. She could feel herself beginning to give over more and more of her trust each day as they trained. It scared her to do this, but a part of her training was letting go of the fear she held inside of herself.
She found this flowing with her outside of her training as well. As she and Jasper sat together in the courtyard each night after dinner, she found herself pushing her fear out of her mind when she was with him. From his gentle caress to his kind words, she longed for the time they spent together surrounded by the cool night air.
Arsalan had allowed Althea to take the morning of training off the day before, on Saturday, so she could rebuild some of her strength, and give her body a day of rest and reset. She’d needed it after two those days of physical training. The meditation had weighed on her mind a bit, but it was nothing compared to the physical portion, and they hadn't even begun actual combat yet.
She had spent her free morning yesterday in the library re-reading through some of the books she had already read to see if maybe she had missed anything. She hadn't seen Dalia again since that morning when she’d babbled off the strange riddle. Althea had spent hours studying the words she'd written down on that paper she kept folded beneath her vanity table. But alas, she didn't have any leads to the ideas that came to mind. The only part that she felt she somewhat understood was the portion that spoke of the sky, she knew the board’s headquarters were in the sky, but what that had to do with the west, she had no idea. And she definitely didn't have any idea as to what the silver scales or roots referred to.
She sat now at her vanity, pulling her hair up as she readied herself for her training today. Monique had sent a letter asking to meet with her before breakfast for help with some sort of project she was working on.
Per the letter's instruction, Althea made her way down to the main floor and then towards the elevator. She rarely took the elevator due to the unease it still gave her, but it was the only way to get down below the main level to where Dr. Rawling’s infirmary was. So she stepped into the metal shifting box, and pressed the button to the lowest floor. As they had before, the bright, vivid lights made her eyes burn slightly as they adjusted to its unnatural glare.
She walked down the lit corridor until she finally saw Monique talking with Dr. Rawlings in one of the rooms off to the side. Her smile spread when she noticed Althea.
"Hi!" she beamed, taking Althea's hand in hers. She always reminded Althea of a fairy by the way she skipped around, always smiling and happy. "So we have another new recruit named Elizabeth! She's no stranger to this place though, both of her parents lived here in the London institution before they moved to the colonies! But she is back here with us to work on her ability. I was wondering if you could help me take down some notes and talk to her about how your training is going so far?"
Althea wasn't sure what to say. She felt honoured that Monique had asked for her help, of all people, but also, what was she to tell the girl of her training? ‘Oh yeah my brute of an instructor has been great, first he groped me into summoning my power, then he tried to kill me, oh and there is that lovely sarcastic nature to him too!’
"Sure I'll help," Althea said, not wanting to miss an opportunity to be of use when she was actually needed.
"Great!" Monique exclaimed, clapping her hands together happily. "So she is just right in here!” Monique gestured to a door adjacent to them, “Her ability is cloaking, so she can turn herself completely invisible to the naked eye."
Althea knitted her eyebrows into a straight line. She thought her ability had been terrifying for people to witness, but being able to be anywhere at any time without anyone seeing you, like that of a ghost. That spooked her.
"Don't worry, she is a very nice girl! She has no plans to pop out and scare you or anything," Monique chuckled as she turned, leading them to this new girl.
While Althea felt uneasy, she did her best to push her thoughts to the side as they strode in. The girl was not at all what she had expected... and much younger than what she had been imagining, likely only in her mid teen years. The young girl had the most interesting features she'd ever seen. She found herself wondering if she wore cosmetics. Half of her hair was a black, as dark as obsidian, and the other half was an icy white. Her dark eyelashes and eyebrows were splashed with white pigment throughout them as well.
"This is Elizabeth Brockstil," Monique said, smiling at her. She smiled back politely. "And this is Althea, my assistant for the day." Althea liked being considered an assistant, it made her feel important where she had been lacking as of late.
"Hello," she said with a wave of her hand. Althea tried not to look at her in awe but she must have failed because the girl laughed lightly and said, "I know, I'm a lot to get used to at first if you've never met another Candidus before. Most of us have pigment defects due to the way our abilities formed us in the womb."
The girl looked so young, but it was clear she was well versed in the ways of this world.
"Yes, I have never met a um... Candidus before, but you are so beautiful," she said, honestly. The girl was stunning.
She smiled and nodded her thanks to Althea.
"Alright well let's get started shall we," Monique said, helping Elizabeth lie down.
Althea sat at the small desk, writing down the various things Monique asked of her as well as keeping conversation with Elizabeth to keep her as comfortable as possible while Monique poked and prodded at her. They talked of her training and shared some insight on each other's power. Althea never imagined the difficulties of being an early bloomer when summoning one's ability. Elizabeth explained that the first time she summoned her ability had been by accident when she was only four years old. She turned herself invisible for nearly two days and didn't understand why her mother, the one who she had inherited her ability from, was the only one who could see her. She also hadn’t understood the consequences of sustaining her power for such a long period. Althea found herself glad she was already an adult when she summoned her ability.
It felt good to be put to use, and she knew Monique could have asked anyone for help but chose Althea which felt nice. Plus Elizabeth was very kind and she enjoyed making a new potential friend.
By the time Monique finished her scan, it was time for breakfast. The three of them made their way to the dining hall, meeting with James and Meg. To her surprise Jasper didn't show up to breakfast. She wondered where he might be. Neither James nor Meg knew either. Maybe he had slept in or opted to help someone with something. Nevertheless, she longed for his company. Over the past week, they had begun forming a bond she knew meant more to her than any courtship ever could. She was so fortunate to no longer be forced into a union based solely off of wealth and status.
After breakfast she made her way to the tree which had become her and Arsalans' meeting spot for training. She looked around but didn't see him anywhere. So she laid beneath the tall shady tree, its whimsical branches swaying in the wind as a light breeze floated past her while she waited. To her surprise, Arsalan did not show up for over thirty minutes. He had never been late since their training had started and made a point to mention how important punctuality was to him, so she found it odd that he hadn't shown up on time today.
Finally she caught a glimpse of his wide stature striding towards her from the institution. He moved swiftly, setting down his pack on the ground next to her. His black mass of hair was a tousled mess. He had naturally wavy hair that he normally kept pulled up and out of his face… but it seemed he’d forgotten that today. In fact, judging by his puffy eyes and partially unfastened tunic, she would venture to say he had just woken up. Smirking, she sat up on her palms, preparing to dig into him as he always did her.
"Pleasure of you to finally join me," she jested, the smirk still playing on her lips, despite him having not looked in her direction yet.
"Yeah, I'm late, I know," he said in a serious tone. Rolling her eyes, she sat up fully now. She caught a glimpse of the ink that was usually hidden on his upper chest where his tunic was normally tired. She couldn't make out exactly what it was, though it appeared to be some sort of symbol. She looked away before he could notice her staring and make another joke.
"What happened to mister punctual?" she mocked. His jaw clenched slightly. She knew she was getting under his skin, but something about seeing that normally calm, confident exterior flicker, implored her to pry harder.
"I was..." he paused, his eyes swivelling to meet hers before quickly looking away again, "otherwise engaged."
He looked so unsettled by her questions, almost guiltily so. She wondered what he had been doing to have garnered such a response from him.
As she stared at him a thought popped into her mind and suddenly things started to click into place. The hair, the unfastened shirt... had he lain with someone last night?
"Why you smitten dog," she crooned, looking at him. His head snapped in her direction, icy eyes pointing sharp daggers into her, "you lain with a woman last night didn't you? That's why you are—"
"That's why I am nothing! What I do in my free time is my business," he snapped tightly.
She just couldn't get enough of the power she felt making him so tense.
"I believe the correct pronoun is who," she said snidely. He breathed in deeply, and released the breath slowly through his nose, closing and reopening his eyes as he did so. A calming exercise, she knew.
"Fine Althea, if you are so desperate to know what goes on in my personal life, so be it! Yes, I took a woman to my bed last night," he said, brushing a stressed hand through his already messy head of hair..
She didn't know why, but hearing him say the words aloud made her feel... odd. Now that the fun of the game had dissipated, this conversation was much less amusing to her. The smirk slowly dissolved from her face and she stood up, beginning her stretches for training.
Suddenly Arsalan laughed from behind her.
"Oh I see what this is about," he got up as well, walking in front of her now, wearing a smug smile, "are you jealous Althea?"
Her eyes widened as she shot him a murderous glare. While it did make her somewhat unsettled to think that he had lain with someone she could possibly know, the night prior, she was most definitely not jealous. What did she have to be jealous of? He was an utter clod! Why he... he was absolutely grotesque and despicable! And when she had such an honourable, kind gentleman like Jasper? He really had spent too much time looking at himself in the mirror it would seem.
"Ha!" she let out a hoarse cackle, "me? Jealous for you? Please!" she snorted. Some kind of torment seemed to flash through his blue eyes so quickly Althea wasn't sure if she had actually seen it. But just as quickly he smirked at her, curling his upper lip in a slight snarl. Poor egomaniac must have gotten his feelings hurt by the insult she’d thrown his way.
"Say what you want... Miss Lezant." The sound of her surname on his tongue made her want to squirm.
She had arguments she wanted to fire at him, but remained quiet as they went through the Tai Chi movements he had taught her the days before.
Once she successfully completed her breathing and footwork exercises, Arsalan informed her that they would be taking a more physical approach to her training today.
"Today we will begin practising some very basic sparring exercises to solidify your body and your stance when practising and manipulating your ability," Arsalan said, walking to stand in front of her. "The exercises you've been practising are going to be the basis for the techniques I will teach you today."
He proceeded to walk her through the first technique, in which her feet were to move at forty-five degree angles, as she took a series of four steps with a palm strike to his chest at the end.
He made it look so easy, but she found her balance was off kilter her first several attempts. Suddenly his firm hand was on her shoulder, giving her a start.
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"Relax," he instructed, "the key to fluid movement and balance is to relax your muscles."
He rested his other hand on her opposite shoulder, rubbing the tight muscles beneath her training garbs. She winced slightly as his strong grip bit into her tendons. But once he let go, she felt noticeably lighter and more agile.
"You are far too rigid, just stay loose, stay relaxed," he said again, this time less stern and more sincere. She nodded and went through the movements again. Althea cleared the thoughts of the movement needing to be perfect from her mind and just did what was natural for her body.
When she finished, with a palm strike to the air in front of her, Arsalan called out a shout of approval.
"Yes! That was great!"
She couldn't help the smile that spread across her face at the pride in his tone.
The sun beat down heavily over the two of them, and as afternoon approached, the balmy weather caused beads of sweat to roll down Althea's temples and back.
In the midst of one of her sequences she heard a shuffle to her right and glanced over at Arsalan who pulled the tunic over his head in a swift movement.
Though she would never openly acknowledge it, Arsalan possessed a physique that gave Althea the impression he was very much in the favour of god himself. Every contour, from the strength in his biceps to the sculpted lines of his abdomen, exuded an aura of physical excellence. She swallowed harshly. His full tattoo was revealed to her now, well the back portion that was, as he turned away from her to set his tunic with his pack under the tree.
Adorning his back was a magnificent depiction of an eastern dragon, its sinuous form extending the full length and much of the breadth. Executed primarily in deep black ink, the silver outlines of its intricate scales and curves imparted a mesmerising quality. When touched by sunlight, the tattoo shimmered, seeming to almost come alive. It evoked an enchanting aura as though conjured by magic itself.
Suddenly, her eyes widened. Silver scales. The old woman in the library had told her to follow the silver scales, that they would guide her...
Without meaning to, Althea lost her footing and fell to the ground with a thud and a groan. Arsalan turned quickly, studying her as she attempted to hull herself back up swiftly.
He smirked at her and she wanted to punch herself. Oh god, he was going to assume she had fallen due to her distraction by his body. It wasn't true... well not in the way he was likely thinking. Yes, she had been distracted by him, but not fully by his toned muscles, by his tattoo, and only because it meant something to her.
"You seem to have lost your footing," he snickered. She stood up now as he approached, her jaw clenched tightly.
"And you seem to have lost your shirt." It was a failed attempt at mockery, but it was all she could come up with, being that she was so flustered and embarrassed. God she was a moron.
"Is that going to be an ongoing problem for you? Because if you'd like I can have custom training garbs made for both heat and cold, you know, just so you don't get too dis—"
She cut him off, her annoyance building too fierce inside of her to let him continue another word, "no Arsalan, you may wear what you wish, for it has no effect on me. I was simply glimpsing at the ink on your back when I stepped wrong," she declared, doing her best to make her case sound solid as she tried to resume her sequence.
He merely bestowed a smug grin upon her, closing the distance between them until his unadorned chest was but half a metre from her countenance. In spite of herself, she stood transfixed. The scent of sun-warmed skin enveloped Althea, not unpleasant, but possessing a rich, musky allure.
"Well?" he asked. She furrowed her eyebrows, unsure of the question at hand.
"Well what?" He took another step closer, his compelling scent enveloping her even further. A peculiar sensation stirred within her, unfamiliar yet undeniably compelling. It swirled, leaving her uneasy with its intensity.
"Well, what do you think of it?" he asked. Was he referring to his tattoo? Well of course he was referring to his tattoo, what else would he be referring to?
"Um..." she fumbled to find the words to speak to him. "Why did you choose a silver lined dragon?" she asked honestly, curious.
His smirk faded. "You can see the silver?" he asked, sounding bewildered as he took a liberating step back from her. She returned his confusion with an equally baffled expression.
"Uh, yeah? Why wouldn't I be able to?" She was unsure of why he would ask such an odd question.
"Huh," he raised his eyebrows and struggled, taking another step back to her relief, "most people just don't notice it." Something about the way he said it was unconvincing but she didn't push it. He seemed distracted as he walked backwards, creating distance between the two of them, that intensity fading more as he did.
It wasn't until he turned away from her that he called back, "the silver dragon is me." She didn't know what he meant by this but he wasted no time elaborating as he instructed her to continue the sequence.
She repeated the exercise a dozen more times until Arsalan stepped to her side and told her to repeat the movement again, but this time strike him at the end. She was hesitant.
"I don't want to hurt you..." she said and Arsalan roared with laughter. Althea rolled her eyes waiting impatiently for him to silence himself.
When his snickering finally ceased, he said, "trust me Althea, you will not hurt me."
Rolling her eyes she stood four step widths apart from him and began reciting the movements she had learned, first, step at a forty-five degree angle, shifting her weight onto her dominant right foot, then cross over with her torso, swinging her left leg just above the ground into another forty-five degree step, always keeping the bulk of her weight on the balls of her feet and not on her slightly bent knee, as he had shown her. She breathed in as she took each memorised step. When she reached the end of her sequence, she reeled her palm back into her own chest and as she took a deep breath out, she struck him in a swift movement.
His body was like stone beneath her palm. His skin was soft but under it was hard compressed muscle. He didn't even so much as flinch at her strike to his abdomen.
She let out an annoyed sigh as a grin spread across his face. She supposed he had been right, and would likely gloat about it. But to her surprise he didn't. Instead he said, "that was very good Althea."
Raising a questionable brow, Althea rolled her eyes. "Yeah really great that I had absolutely no effect on you," she said defeated. How would this help her if she ever needed to fight off someone larger than her? Oh right, it wouldn't. She was no match for sheer strength like Arsalans. Not unless she used her ability which he still wouldn't teach her anything about until she completed this witless Tai Chi. What was the point in all of this anyway?
"Althea I have been practising these rituals for nearly ten years now... if I, as your trainer and instructor, were to be hurt by you, a girl with virtually no experience, I would think you should find yourself a new trainer," he chuckled. This made her smile, she supposed he was right. This was only her first attempt.
"Trust me, if you keep practising and begin doing palm strengthening exercises, there are likely going to be times you'll knock the wind from me Althea, and I am ready for it..." he paused to look into her eyes. Something about his gaze made her stomach rise into her chest. "You are a force to be reckoned with, I can feel it. You just need to apply yourself to achieve greatness."
His words made her insides do a flip. Did he really think that? Or was he just trying to motivate her to do better? Either way it worked. She believed him and wanted to do anything she could to turn his words into reality.
They continued practising the sequence with Arsalan intervening at different times showing her how to dodge and combat his movements.
When their training was over Arsalan made his way to the guest chamber where he stayed, he had extended Althea's training past noon today and due to the beaming hot sun, he was in desperate need of a hot bath.
As he climbed the stairs to his room, he hated how consumed his mind was with her. What had begun as a minor intrigue in her ability and her possible connection to the flame, had become something he hadn't yet dare admit, even to himself. But as he tried to push the thoughts of her out of his mind, he was reminded of her coy smile or the way her green eyes flew back when he teased her. Those green eyes… he couldn’t shake their eerily familiar gaze every time it met his. He’d fought off the urge to think about those eyes too often since he’d met Althea. But after today he couldn't contain the emotions he felt as he memorised the way those eyes had scanned over his body. It drove him to the brink of insanity that he couldn't quite understand her the way he wanted.
In Arsalan's experience, most women tended to wear their emotions openly. They often cast adoring glances in his direction, hoping to catch the attention of a tall, well-built man like himself. Althea, however, appeared to be the exception to this rule. She didn't seem swayed by the years of effort he'd put into honing his physique through training and sparring. Her demeanor was refreshingly different from the others who had pursued him. This enigma left him both intrigued and, admittedly, somewhat perplexed. He couldn't quite put his finger on why her indifference affected him as it did.
Indeed, Althea possessed her own kind of allure and captivating charm, and the graceful contours of her petite frame occasionally drew Arsalan's gaze a bit too intently during their training. Yet, he couldn't claim genuine attraction to her. After all, there were no shortage of women whose features bore a resemblance to hers; she hardly presented anything he hadn't encountered before.
However, as Arsalan lowered himself to soak in the hot bath, there weren't any other women who came to his mind.
Only her.
He thought of how it might feel for her nimble fingers to trace the skin of the dragon covering his back. He still didn't understand how she'd been able to see the silver ink. It was only meant to be visible to those who bare the dragon mark themselves, and to his knowledge she did not. But he supposed it could be on a part of her he'd not yet seen, as was his. He thought again of her fingers on him as he rubbed eucalyptus soap over the scar directly above his groyne. His mind began travelling to dangerous places as he imagined her hand tracing that scar right before she moved down to his—
"Excuse me, Mr. Hashemi?" A voice called from the other side of the closed bathing chamber door. His eyes shot open and he nearly threw the soap from his hand as he sat fully up in the tub now. "I have fresh linens for you."
"Yes thank you, you may leave them on the bed, I am... indecent at the moment!" he called back.
When he heard the bedroom door close, Arsalan let out a long sigh, setting the soap on the table beside the tub and splashing water onto his face and hair. He felt a flurry of embarrassment ride up in him. What was wrong with him? Was he so desperate for sex that he was beginning to fantasise about any female interaction now? Perhaps he should have partook in the activities Althea had accused him of this morning, just to escape his own lonely thoughts.
In reality, he had been so late awakening this morning due to his rather unspeakable dream pertaining to the very girl he sought to rid his thoughts of. He supposed it was part of the reason he couldn't clear her fully from his mind now. Foolish dreams. He was so embarrassed with her prying and prodding him that he would rather admit he'd slept with a woman than speak the truth to her.
Arsalan spend the afternoon writing down the training he and Althea had practised that morning, to send to the board. They had been pushing him to practise only her power with her, but over the last week he had convinced them that the best way to train, without going completely mad, was to practise meditation first. They had finally given in to him, thankfully. He still hadn't relinquished any information of her possible connection to the flame. But he felt that he didn't yet have enough knowledge to give them any tangible information. Nor would he be fully inclined to if such things did come to light…
Arsalan had decided to take his meal in the dining hall that evening, rather than in his bed chamber where he'd been eating since his arrival to the London institution. As they had at the Beijing institution, the people here had one night a week where they dressed in elegant garbs and attended their biggest feast of the week. He figured it may be beneficial to meet some of the officials who dined in the upper portion of the hall. He might even find a lady he fancied enough to bed. Arsalan was beginning to think his lack of feminine connection was causing him to go mad.
The suit he wore was entirely black, with silver chain details on some of the pockets. Arsalan had befriended an excellent tailor back in Beijing who had made all of his custom suits.
He slipped his pocket watch into the chest compartment and let the silver metallic chain hang down his torso a few inches.
Once he was fully dressed, Arsalan made his way to the dining hall. It was early still, he would arrive thirty minutes before the dining began, but he hoped to catch some of the officials before their feast, as they always showed up first.
As he made his way down the stairs he heard the familiar laugh of his trainee on the main floor. When he reached the bottom of the stairs she came fully into view, speaking with a young Candidus girl.
Clearly they had the same idea for tonight's meal, seeing that she wore a long, elegant, velvet black dress. As he stood behind her, he couldn't help his gaze as it travelled up the base of her gown to her round backside then to the cinched in fabric at her narrow waist. The dress was long sleeved with black velvet gloves that blended into the sleeves perfectly, allowing it to appear as one unit.
He swallowed as the Candidus girl walked into the dining hall and Althea began turning around. He looked away quickly before she could see him staring and walked down the final steps of the large staircase.
"Arsalan?" Her voice was light and inviting. He looked up from his trance at the ground. Now facing him, he held a view of her full breasts tucked neatly into the velvet bustier. He quickly snapped his eyes to her face. She smiled widely.
"Will you be joining us in the dining hall?" she asked, tilting her head to the side slightly. She wore cosmetics tonight, a bit of coal lining the upper portion of her eyes, and a deep berry coloured lip stain. Her cheeks were also slightly rouged with a colour perfectly set off by her lips.
He cleared his throat, pulling himself out of his thoughts and fixing his posture so that he stood tall again.
"Yes, I came to speak with some of the officials actually," he said calmly.
She nodded looking away from him as she brushed a stray curl from her face.
"Oh I see, official business only, per usual," her mischievous smile was accentuated by her berry lips.
He nodded curtly. Arsalan wanted to compliment her on her appearance but didn't know the words to speak without seeming too forward.
"You look—" he began but her eyes focused on something beyond him, and she grinned.
He paused, turning his head to see that boy she'd been in the company of over the last week, smiling back at her.
"Jasper!" Her voice was filled with so much delight that it made him go still.
Arsalan suddenly felt silly. Not only was he at a loss of words for a woman, but one who he knew was already clearly spoken for.
She walked past him and to the boy who looked at Arsalan as he embraced her. When she was in his grasp, his smile faded and he gave Arsalan a predatory stare as if to say, ‘mine.’
Arsalan stifled a chuckle at the feeble attempt at a warning. It was abundantly clear that he could overpower this boy with little effort, but he held himself to a higher standard. He had no inclination to intimidate someone obviously smaller and less seasoned. Nevertheless, the gaze he returned to Jasper left no room for misinterpretation. Arsalan was a man accustomed to acquiring what he desired, though in this case, he had no such lust towards Althea… But if he had wanted her, he would get her.