Sir Vandron’s words felt like they were spoken underwater to Ari, but after sucking down the red liquid proffered by the wizard he forced out a question.

“But” his hoarse voice cut off when the white glow was triggered along with the accompanying magic healing. Ari sighed loudly before he spoke again.

“But I survived and killed the monster. Wasn’t that the point?”

Ruenr chuckled, and Sir Vandron just shook his head in discontent. Ruenr went to answer the question, but the elf beat him to it.

“No. The point was to demonstrate if you could pass the test. Passing had two requirements: One, to successfully demonstrate above half of the maneuvers or forms you attempted.” Sir Vandron raised his hand and held up one then two fingers. “Two, being in a state where you could defeat more of the monster and escape if possible upon the bird’s death. You fulfilled neigher.”

“Also” added Ruenr “death isn’t a failure. Death is the end of the mortal and material. Since you can learn from your failures, you cannot fail in death since you will learn no more. When you die, and your soul goes wherever your people go, the rest of what happens in the mortal and material realms is irrelevant. If you want to be able to contemplate success, or degrees of success, keep that heart of yours pumping blood and that head attached to your skinny little neck.”

Ari noticed that Sir Vandron was looking at Ruenr with a raised eyebrow, but shook his head before addressing Ari once more.

“You have built up the muscle memory from fighting bigger and stronger opponents which caused errors in your positioning and the way you attacked; since you have grown used to fighting trained guards and warriors you underestimated this smaller creature’s strength. We are going to add regular fights against live monsters of varying degrees of strength to your training, and from now on during sparring I want you to focus more on not getting hit and actually treating your spars like they are with real weapons. You have a bad habit of trading blows during spars, and I didn’t foresee how that would translate to real life or death battles.”

‘So two more languages on top of Krazhnori, additional combat against monsters, stricter sparring, and if the run here was anything to go off of even more physical conditioning. I wonder if I can get out of some of the lessons Miss Colette has been giving me?’

Ari continued to consider his future, as the three slowly made their way back to the manor.

Cyrus, Sir Vandron, and Miss Colette sat in the reading nook that overlooked the makeshift training yard where there was once a portion of the garden. They watched as Amsre and another guard both attacked Ari in alternating strikes. Ari was successfully defending many of the strikes but any time he ended in a position where he could counter or deliver his own attack, Champion Ruenr would interfere. Ari made an effort to deliver a kick after using the hook of his quarterstaff to catch the guard of Amsre sword after ducking a thrust of the other guard’s spear. Just before Ari’s foot could leave the ground, he had to dodge Ruenr’s scythe lazily swinging out from Amrse's shadow. This went on for a time with Ari slowly gaining cuts and bruises from the dull training weapons, before the scythe was stopped just short of his right knee. This signaled the end of the spar, as Ruenr began instructing all three.

“It’s too soon. A year isn’t enough time.”

Lady Colette Laine’s tone indicated she brooked no argument, but Cyrus and Si Vandron just shared a glance before the older of the two addressed her.

“Little Col-”

“Don’t. If you are going to address me about a serious situation like this, don’t use my nickname. I know you use it with love but while I am upset like this it just seems demeaning.” Nodding, Sir Vandron made a new attempt.

“Colette,” he raised an eyebrow at her and she crossed her arms with a frown.

“Lady Laine, Ari has progressed well since Ruenr arrived but he needs to start practicing the druidic arts. I am only able to arrive once every few months to check up on him, and I felt he was ready based on his understanding when I was here last. He has started to stagnate in his martial abilities, and we both know it's because he is feeling frustrated at the lack of advancement in his ancestral magic.”

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“But!” she shouted then quickly lowered her voice after wincing “but I will be leaving for six months to go to the Grand Library in Yrie. At least while I’m in Lainebari I can come out every other weekend to see him. Even Cyrus will be busy traveling through the Northern Pass!” Her voice started to increase in volume again but she shook her head after finishing her sentence.

“Sir Vandron, she makes a good point. Will you at least be able to accompany the two of them when they travel south?” Cyrus inquired after putting a supportive hand on Colette’s shoulder.

“Asther is still missing and a colleague has found evidence of his whereabouts in the Orswood” Vandron replied evenly.

Cyrus leaned forward and whispered his question.

“Is this about the corrupted beasts? I thought they were staying in the southwest? How could they have gotten beyond Yrie or the Moon River without being spotted?” He apparently wasn’t quiet enough, because Colette stopped her muttering and focused on the two men seated at her favorite spot.

“What do you mean southwest? I thought you said they wouldn’t be near the area where Ari is going?”

“Collie, it-”

“Shut your mouth Cyrus. What did he mean by southwest Vandron?”

Vandron sighed, and gave the merchant an annoyed look. He turned his attention fully to Miss Colette.

“The Southern wilds are almost half the size of the empire proper. They will be in the Eastern half. The region I’m sending them is the most explored region and from our limited understanding, the safest. There are villages and nomadic clans but they are accepting of the ‘wilder magics’ so he will be safer practicing there than here. With the way uncontrolled druidism affects ambient magic, it isn’t safe for him to practice it this close to civilization since the density of magic here is so low. He could kill himself and others, or worse.”

“What could be worse uncle Vandron?” demanded Colette.

“He would draw attention to himself from the Inquisition and I would have to follow the directives of the Imperial Mage Corps.”

That statement sucked the anger right out of Colette, and her face drained of color just considering it.

“I have a lot of leeway since my leave of absence. But Asther going rogue has put the rest of the wizards under scrutiny, and the Inquisition would use this as the perfect opportunity to outfit all of our mages with compulsion runes. Emperor Kelian would love the opportunity to take away the Mage Corps independence and make them subservient to the White Church completely.”

“It’s okay Collie. The woman I’m meeting has a lot of the information that was smuggled out by the nobles that could help the kid, and Ruenr finished the runescript tattoo so I will be able to get in and out without bothering to jump through legal hoops or perform my usual smuggling scheme. It shouldn’t take me as long as usual, since everything aside from her goods is legal and officially documented in our manifest and I am only taking official stops.”

“Besides” spoke Vandron with a warmer tone “he is as safe with Ruenr as he is with me down there.”

“What about getting there?” asked Colette innocently.

Cyrus and Sir Vandron shared a look.

“Ruenr can manage himself in society, he is very old and wise. Being the champion of a god, even one of the more obscure ones, is no small thing.”

“Uncle, he's barely forty!”

“His species rarely lives beyond fifteen so that makes him about my age if we compare it that way.”

“That isn’t how getting older works!”

“Then by that metric, you are still a child. You haven’t even turned fifty. An elf your age wouldn’t even be allowed to sit here having this conversation with me and using the tone you do.” He stopped and considered a moment. “When I say we can trust Ruenr, I understand that is hard because he is strange and dangerous. His people view the world differently, even as one who spent most of his adult life in the kingdoms of the elves and humans. I know after what he said about the boy’s future you think he is going to hurt him, but if that was the case he would have just killed him on sight. I couldn’t have stopped it. I could have retaliated, maybe even severely wounded him, but not stop him.”

“You couldn’t kill him?” asked Cyrus with a neutral expression.

“No. He is highly resistant to magic. The only person I could see affecting him through normal magic is Asther, and that’s mostly because of his blessing from The White Sun.”

The three paused when a servant was let in by the guard posted outside the room. Each of the three received more tea, and waited for the servant to exit before they spoke again. This time they spoke of less important things, chatting about what each was up to before they arrived back to the manor. Cyrus talked about the girl he was sweet on, Colette mostly mentioned the rare books the library was donated, and Vandron went on about tending to his grove outside of Yrie. Cyrus and Colette both agreed to visit once they reached the city, as Cyrus would be departing from there to take a ferry North. They idled away the evening this way until it was time for other things. Although there was some tension still, they had a pleasant evening together and made sure to be up early to give Ari their goodbyes the next day.