The rest of the day went without much trouble. Artem enthusiastically took care of the bullies during the beast-tamer combat practice in the afternoon. The task was easy for him, so he let his thoughts wander. Thinking of his financial problems, Artem got the idea to talk to the beast-tamer combat teacher Mr Tawil. Artem wanted to ask him about getting a job from him. As the youth didn’t want to add to his brother’s worries, he decided to wait for the elective lessons. It was the only time Artem would be separated from Galen because his brother took the advanced pharmacist lesson as his elective while Artem took the professional combat training.
Later in the afternoon, after the dual combat theories class, the boys went to the library to meet with Zane. They wanted to profit from this free period to begin their remedial lessons. Zane was an open and gentle boy. Working with him was efficient and peaceful.
The twins were even more determined to help him train his rabbit and improve his control over his talent. The three boys went to train together in a small hall after dinner. It was one of the advantages of being an intern student, though, in the Families, the equipment was of better quality.
Having little knowledge about talents, the twins didn’t want to mislead Zane, so they only shared their opinions. Artem coached him on ways to use his [Empathy] to read his opponents’ intentions or detect their presence. It was delicate work as Zane had very few chi and couldn’t expect to ever have it in great quantity with a common pet and a common CSI. The good news was that Zane’s [Empathy] was weak, but his talent wasn’t limited to humans: Zane could also feel pets.
Artem continued to teach Galen how to use a shield while he occasionally gave tips to Zane. As for the fairies and the rabbit, they trained their skill and cultivated. When they returned to their rooms, they immediately collapsed on their bed, exhausted.
***
The following morning, Galen easily guessed Artem’s intention to look for a job, so he convinced his younger brother to wait for the end of the whole week. Galen thought they should first get a better understanding of everything.
So, the twins spent the week discovering their new classes and meeting their teachers. Galen was especially interested in Mr Duval’s lessons. This teacher was responsible for the lessons about the CSI and the beast-tamer talents. His first lesson made Galen suspicious of Lyra, as she was too different from what the teacher explained. Galen trusted Lyra, but she was too odd.
Faced with his inquiries, Lyra knew she couldn’t hide her special status for long, but she didn’t want to burden the boys with her useless past, especially when she couldn’t judge if it would hinder or help them. She wished she could ask her best friend about it. He was the intelligent one. He always knew what to do. But now, she couldn’t contact him at all. She hoped the boys or the fairies would evolve soon. Then, she would level up too and be able to use more power, maybe allowing her to contact her friend.
The only thing she could do was talk to the twins and convince them to trust her. “Boys, I didn’t mean to hide it. Not that I can hide it anyway. But you have enough to think about without worrying about me.”
The boys stayed silent. Galen understood Lyra’s point of view, but he wanted to know why she had a personality. Why did she seem more alive than the AI serving as the CSI described by the teacher during the lesson? However, he wouldn’t force her. So Galen chose another line of inquiries. “Are you the carved spirit stone our parents prepared for us?”
“I was in a dormant state until you initiated the Awakening ceremony, so I can only speculate,” Lyra answered after a brief pause, uncomfortable with the subject.
“Please, tell us Lyra. We aren’t children,” Galen begged her. “We appreciate your worries, but we need information.”
“You both are really stubborn. Well… I think the other carved spirit stone and I may have been the object of your parents’ mission.”
Hearing her, Artem and Galen sharply looked at each other. This was a huge clue to find out more about what happened to their parents, though they were aware it was also dangerous. Nevertheless, Artem thought he should try to change his elective to learn more about spirit stone carving and forget about his professional combat training class. This elective was a choice he made before his parents’ death anyway. Maybe Artem could even repair the broken spirit stone and get more information out of the stone.
Lyra was glad to hear the boy’s intention, even if she knew it was a meager hope. She only had her senses to rely on and her deep faith in her best friend’s strength to avoid danger, but she suspected that the other carved spirit stone held a soul as whole as hers. So, if being broken meant the soul inside the carved spirit stone was dead (or deader, whatever), she hoped it wasn’t her friend who died. Despite her inner turmoil, she kept all her feelings carefully hidden from the twins. It wasn’t their problem, and they already had a lot of stuff to take care of.
***
Unfortunately, when Artem talked about his wish to change his elective, the school refused, saying it was against the rules. This also halted Galen’s budding plan to switch to study law. Hearing about Artem’s intention, Mr Duval interrogated Artem about his reasons for wanting to learn spirit stone carving, as he was in charge of this elective.
Artem was careful not to reveal the existence of the broken carved spirit stone and only talked about their new situation. Artem tried to convince the teacher that he needed more diverse skills to survive without his parents. However, Mr Duval had no authority to admit Artem into his class, so he could only suggest some books to read. Artem didn’t completely give up on his idea, and he promised himself to choose to study it at university.
Galen found the teacher a little suspicious in his inquiries. He couldn’t help but wonder if it was normal to take such an interest in Artem. Yet, Galen also worried that he was becoming paranoid.
So, the twins decided to go to the library to study these subjects in their free periods when Zane wasn’t teaching them. Galen wanted to learn more about laws, while Artem still wanted to brush up his knowledge about hunting. Artem also began to learn about spirit stone carving, though the knowledge proposed by the books on this subject was limited.
As they didn't wish to waste time, Galen gave Lucia a book about anatomy to study, and Artem gave Ayden a book about physics to help her better understand how to shoot and calculate trajectories. Artem even had the idea to make Ayden study the science behind fire and explosion. The fairies didn't know how to read, but looking at illustrations and diagrams still allowed them to understand some concepts and improve their minds. Moreover, the twins wanted to develop the fairies’ affinity with study and books. They believed their fairies had a sharp mind and an easily stimulated intelligence that compensated for their physical weaknesses.
The twins developed habits and managed to get settled down. As such, they used the early morning until the first period for personal training, which allowed them to avoid their neighbor and his trouble in front of the bathroom. Jax Miller was a second-generation beast tamer from an upstart household, as the twins learned since then.
The twins also let the fairies train more independently in the morning and they guided them more precisely in the evening. Galen decided to let Lucia experiment with different types of lights as he was curious to know if some lights might be more powerful, while Artem trained Ayden by making her use the burst power of [spark] to move small objects with it.
To get feedback from Lucia and Ayden, the twins taught the fairies simple hand signs to communicate. They still intended to teach them how to read, but that could wait. Thanks to these experiments, Lucia understood that her cultivation efficiency changed depending on the light around her. The light from the morning, noon, or twilight sun, or even from the moon gave her a different sensation. Artem wanted to try it with Ayden, but the elemental training facilities were out of their reach, and no other safe way gave access to fire to train.
Nevertheless, Artem let Ayden experiment with the heat of her fire as it was part of its power, and he wanted to know if she could control the strength of her [spark] this way. It was difficult without the monitoring machines from the Eos Family villa. However, Ayden was always enthusiastic about her training and took changing the heat of her [spark] as a game.
The fairies’ serious training rapidly gave them some results. Lucia discovered the common skill [glow] as she played with different lights on Thursday morning. It was a simple skill, only used to illuminate the surroundings with a bright globe of light. So, Galen first was disappointed. But working closely with his brother and seeing how he was working to transform [spark] into a powerful attack, Galen soon had the idea to make [glow] evolve into a sort of light bomb.
As it was the first self-taught skill Lucia learned, Galen got a reward from Lyra. The entry for the Light Fairy in the encyclopedia leveled up to the second tier. It didn’t look like much until Lyra pointed out that the article now explained the best way to train the Light Fairy’s known skills and described the cultivation technique that was the most suited to this pet. But the real reward, in Galen’s opinion, was the fact that the page could now stock any skills the pet learned. It was exactly what the twins needed to keep up the charade about their first feature. Lucia was still limited to three equipped skills, but thanks to the encyclopedia, Galen could change them around.
On Friday morning, Ayden also learned her first self-taught skill as she used her spiritual energy circulation to fly around. It was the notable skill [fire trail]. This skill enhanced the pet's speed, leaving a trail of fire behind it. It was better than the common skill [sprint]. Like this, the page of the Fire Fairy also got to the second tier. These improvements gave hope to the boys.
***
By the end of the week, the twins and the fairies had gotten used to their new classes and teachers and were on the right track to improve. They redoubled their efforts during the weekend and tried to make plans for their future. Galen and Artem still needed to find jobs to resolve their money problem. They decided to concentrate on that for the next week by trying their chance with their specialty. So, the twins acted during their next period of elective classes.
Artem went up to talk to his combat trainer Mr Tawil during the period, as he was the first to finish his warming up. Mr Tawil was the teacher in charge of one of the two military third-year classes, but he was also teaching this elective and the beast tamer combat practice. Some students and school staff avoided him because he lost his right arm and some part of his shoulder to some Abyss monster, but Artem admired this teacher. For him, Mr Tawil was a brave and honorable man.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Artem wanted to know if the teacher could bring him on some field missions. He knew it wouldn’t be so simple as a minor surely needed some license or authorization to participate.
But before the youth could ask anything, Mr Tawil seemed to guess his intentions. “You think you have the required qualifications?”
“I’m a good fighter, sir.”
“So? Aren’t they good fighters too?”
Artem looked at his classmates, wondering how he should react. Before he could find a good answer, Mr Tawil shouted instructions to the rest of the class to begin some hand-to-hand sparing. “You stay near me first and tell me what you think of their combat style. You can concentrate on the beast tamers.”
Artem was stunned but complied, thinking it was the teacher’s test. He looked toward his classmates. Most of them were from military households as the professional combat training class was the best course to prepare students to enter the Army. Some students were from the beast-tamers class, while all the others were from the two third-year military classes.
Artem began to observe the fights as he shared his opinion with Mr Tawil. Marcus – who was fighting against a student from the military classes – was a calm opponent, able to stay steady in most situations. Marcus took every attack head-on with excellent defensive techniques. He looked slow until he suddenly decided to attack with explosive power. In a way, his Magma Tortoise was the best fit for him. Seeing the teacher nod at another student, Artem switched his target.
It was Caleb Ancel, a beast tamer from an old military household. His pet was a common Green Dog. Raised properly, this pet could evolve into a notable Forest Wolf, one of the favorite pets used by soldiers. Caleb was a very academic combatant. All his moves were by the book, and he strictly followed the rules. He was obviously raised as a true soldier to fight for his comrades. That was one of the reasons Caleb became cold toward Artem since he heard about the Eos Family’s rumors, even though they had been friends.
Artem described Orsella Mancini next. She was from a somewhat famous military household. Her pet was the notable Cave Bear, also one of the favored pets of the Army. Most teachers saw her as a problematic student because she was lazy. But when she was provoked or interested in a fight, she could be a crazy aggressive opponent, completely disregarding her defense to attack without restrictions. She was a powerful opponent, but she lacked techniques. She used to like to challenge Artem, but she now ignored him.
Artem then described Cecelia’s style, which favored defensive techniques, and some other students until it was Amir’s turn. Amir was a sneaky opponent. He could hold his own in a fight with his numerous flashy techniques, but these usually served to hide his back-stabbing attacks. That was one of the reasons Artem didn’t like fighting Amir and preferred to spar with Marcus. Marcus was a straightforward person like him. Besides, Marcus was the only one who didn’t seem to change his way of interacting with Artem.
“If you were to describe your fighting style, what would you say?” Mr Tawil went on with his questions.
Artem hesitated but still answered honestly. His father had often made him self-reflect as it was a good way to find his faults and to improve. “I’m a perfectionist, so I know a lot of techniques and try to master all of them. This makes me an unpredictable opponent, but it might become a disadvantage if I choose the wrong strategy. I’m also a challenger who likes fighting and competing, which can help motivate me. I must be careful with these two traits because they can be good or bad depending on how I’m letting them influence me.”
“Not bad, but that’s not all. You’re a combatant who, out of honor, will never attack his enemies when they are in a difficult position. That’s good in competition, where there are rules to respect. But it is a weakness in real combat when fighting monsters.” Mr Tawil looked Artem directly in the eyes to say his next line. “If I had to choose one student from this class to bring on field missions, I wouldn’t bring you, I would bring Amir.”
That was a heavy hit for Artem. He didn’t expect to lose to Amir in this way. Artem wasn’t really conceited and was aware that there was always someone stronger than him, but hearing that it was his honor that made him unsuitable for field missions was difficult to swallow.
“Forget about going on field missions to get money. Anyway, you don’t have a license yet, so you won’t be able to go. Be obedient and wait for the class field trips to gain some experience.”
Artem stayed in a stunned silence for a while. Lyra wondered if she should intervene as she had never seen Artem in such a dejected state.
Mr Tawil suddenly sighed. “Your father groomed you to become an Army officer, didn’t he? You’re only doing what your father taught you, and your fighting style reflects that. Honor is never wrong in the Army.”
Artem bowed his head to think over Mr Tawil’s words. There seemed to be a hidden meaning in his speech. Artem knew that Mr Tawil was an ex-soldier: that was how he lost his arm and his pets, leading him to find a job as a teacher. As such, the man knew what he was talking about. Could Mr Tawil be one of the rare persons who didn’t believe the rumors about his father?
Artem decided he could trust this teacher, so he looked up at Mr Tawil again. “I still need a way to get money, sir. My situation isn’t a secret. Do you have any advice, sir?”
“You have good eyes, and you know a lot of techniques. You could make a good fighting tutor for the younger students. I can’t promise it’ll work out as most small jobs are reserved for the scholarship students, but I’ll try to get the school’s permission.”
Artem felt bitter, but he knew he had to accept the situation as he couldn’t expect much more. He joined his classmates to train. He could only wait for the news from Mr Tawil.
***
On Galen’s side, things weren’t smooth sailing either. The advanced pharmacist class was an unpopular elective with only a handful of students. These students were used to studying pharmaceutics knowledge together, so they got along well enough.
The lesson went on as usual. Galen was working with another student from the normal classes to produce a simple pill since it was still the beginning of the year. The teachers used the elective lessons to force the beast tamers to interact with the students who didn’t awaken. They were hoping to diminish the social gap between them. But how could it work? For centuries, most beast tamers had scornfully called those unable to awaken the mundanes. Furthermore, the beast tamers were still using this name to insult each other.
Only two other beast tamers took this elective with Galen. The first one was the dark-skinned Melanie Karras from an artisan household that sold potions, balms, and pills. She was a quiet girl who had contracted a notable Venom Spider. The second one was Mahlon. He was from a minor branch of the Ruh Family. His pet was a common Purple Frog. The Ruh Family belonged to the Mashriq Families as they had Mesopotamian roots. They specialized in earth and water pets, but mostly species with skills linked to poison or life and death. Despite that, it was a respected and quiet Family. Mahlon fitted well in this elective as his obsession was learning more about pharmaceutics and alchemy.
This class teacher was Mrs Bousrani. She was both the nurse of the school and the teacher of several classes, such as the beast caring class and all the pharmacist classes. She always pulled back her russet hair from her face in a stern updo. A hard life had left its marks on her, but she was still an energetic woman in her thirties. She was known for her patience toward sick students or hurt pets and her severity toward fools and irresponsible troublemakers.
Galen decided to talk to her at the end of his elective class after all the students had left the room, hoping to convince her to let him work at the school clinic. But Mrs Bousrani scornfully looked at him. “Do you expect me to let you work there as my charity act of the year? What can your fairy’s meager healing do? What do you take my clinic for?”
As she finished her sentences, her rare Light Praying Mantis aggressively clapped its front legs at Galen. These reactions were startling and hurtful because Mrs Bousrani had always acted like he was her favorite student before. She had always been helpful and agreeable. Galen had noticed she was acting colder, but such a reversal was unexpected.
Nevertheless, the boy kept his calm and began to argue. “I don’t deny that my fairy’s [small heal] is weak, but combined with my pharmaceutic knowledge and my talent, we can heal efficiently. I’m just asking you to let me prove it to you, Ma’am.”
“Why should I put my responsibilities on the line for you? I won’t play with my students’ life. Don’t even think about it.”
“Alright, I understand.” Galen was disappointed because working as a healer would have been perfect. He could have gained money while training both his and Lucia’s skills. However, Galen was sadly becoming used to compromises. “Can you at least let me work as a pharmacist? Surely, letting me produce potions and pills is possible? You know my skills, Ma’am.”
“Do I? People have so many hidden parts. It can surprise the whole world when those are revealed.”
It didn’t take long for Galen to understand her meaning. Mrs Bousrani was hinting at his mother and saying that she couldn’t trust him not to poison or hurt the patients. That was more difficult to swallow. Galen took some time to wonder if he should try to defend his mother’s innocence. With Mrs Bousrani’s attitude, would she even be willing to listen? It was still worth a try.
“If I may, Ma’am, the Eos Family had always produced gifted healers and pharmacists, and so for centuries. We are an old and traditional Family with traditional ways. You might not know of it, but all our healers and pharmacists respect the ways of the Old World and take the Hippocratic Oath. It might not mean much to you, but the beast tamers of the Eos Family take this Oath so seriously that they make their CSI enforce it. So all the Eos Family’s members are ethical practitioners. They have to be.”
Galen stopped and looked at Mrs Bousrani to see her reaction. She was pursing her lips and looking down. Was he getting through to her? Maybe Galen needed to be more direct.
“Are you trying to face-slap her?” Lyra suddenly asked Galen. She had refrained from intervening, especially when Galen mentioned the CSI enforcing the Oath, as he had never talked to her about it, but she couldn’t let him act in such a way. “Let her keep some of her pride!”
“What are you talking about?” Galen asked in a bewildered voice, as he didn’t recognize the idiom she used.
“She won’t change her mind if it means she has to admit her mistake to one younger than her,” Lyra told him in exasperation. “Be more subtle!”
Galen disagreed with Lyra’s input and wanted to forge on. But as he carefully spoke of his mother’s innocence, planning to mention the schemes used to frame Tana Eos later, he could see Mrs Bousrani’s face darkening.
“You knucklehead! Use the proverb about the tallest tree,” Lyra advised him quickly. "Then, divert the subject!"
Galen had to admit that Lyra seemed to be right, and he shouldn’t talk openly with his teacher. However, Galen didn’t know the proverb she was referring to. After an awkward pause that Lyra used to tell him the proverb, Galen dubiously spoke again. “Ma’am, do you know this saying? A tree that is taller than the forest will be blown over by the wind. I find it quite interesting, and I thought you would too. Don’t you have a spirit garden?”
Galen changed the subject as Lyra suggested because he had given up talking to his teacher about his mother. If it were the usual Mrs Bousrani, she would have believed in the innocence of the accused until proven guilty. Galen wasn’t used to seeing such reactions from her.
The teacher turned her back to him to put in order some of the material used during the lesson. After a while, she sighed and said, “Since you know that I grow my spirit plants, you can help take care of them in the mornings and on the weekends. This won’t engage anyone’s responsibilities. I’ll negotiate this with the school for you and give you the contract during our next lesson. You won’t make much money, mind you.”
This wasn’t what Galen had hoped for. Taking care of plants was a long and tiring process, which would take time out of his training.
“Are you okay with that?” Lyra asked with concern. “How will you train Lucia’s [small heal] without patients?”
“I don’t know, Lyra. A problem for another time.”
Galen tried to thank his teacher for her proposal, but she kept her back to him and asked him to leave. He couldn’t make sense of her reactions and could only go to his room to debrief with Artem.
***
By the end of their second week of school, Mr Tawil and Mrs Bousrani obtained the school authorization and formalized the jobs for the twins. These meager works had a lot of disadvantages, but it was a start. Galen noticed that these jobs would keep the twins apart, as Galen had to work mostly in the mornings and Artem in the afternoons. They almost couldn’t train together anymore. Galen didn’t share his suspicions that someone was trying to keep them poor and untrained to make them easier to manipulate. He chose to focus on ways to profit as much as they could from their situations while ignoring the other students’ mockeries. As members of a high Family, being forced to work was already humiliating, but their small jobs were also seen as beneath them.
These jobs also gave opportunities to the bullies, especially for Artem. But with Artem’s resilience and mental strength, he didn’t take to heart the way some students asked him to “tutor” them while they used him as a target practice, wanting to hit him or to make him suffer. Their purpose was to humiliate him, but Artem saw it as a way to train his endurance and toughness. Anyway, they paid him for it so Artem wouldn’t complain. He even joked with Galen, saying that his injuries were useful to train Lucia’s [small heal].