Jaemeson and Wayne worked on his Shaping Space for several hours, before the Praetor had to leave to prepare for the afternoon’s training. Still, Wayne kept at the work. Apparently, it was a simple thing to do once someone figured out the trick.

If only Wayne could figure it out.

Every time he would brush up against his limit, his whole body would spasm out, and Wayne would lose the focus to maintain his Shaping Space. It was frustrating, but after Jaemeson’s earlier advice, Wayne didn’t feel comfortable quitting before figuring out how to grow it further. As a result, he continued to run into the same problem headfirst.

Jaemeson had given Wayne advice, but by the man’s own admission most of the Hastas and Grand Hastas he had trained were well past this point. That didn’t deter Wayne though. He had set his course, and the young Legionnaire was starting to feel comfortable with where he was headed.

Yes, Wayne might be starting from behind but, he had known that would be the case since he had remained a Mortal. At least now, he had found someone to teach him how to catch up, a few loose ‘friends’ who were willing to help him in training, and a place to start improving from. That was without mentioning the wild card that was Klaw, who Wayne hadn’t yet forgotten about meeting tonight.

In other words, things had started to look up. It didn’t hurt that the taste of the poren belly was still coating the inside of his mouth hours after having his generous serving, either.

So with his new hope blossoming, Wayne was determined to see this challenge through.

“I got this, come on Wayne.” He muttered absentmindedly under his breath.

Carefully, he visualized his Shaping Space once again. By now, he had consolidated some of the details that made up his visualization which made it easier, and now the Space was surrounded by a thick coating of bluish energy. There wasn’t a clear reason why it was blue, and several times Wayne had tried other colors, but kept going back.

Wayne had also tried to maintain a border around his authority as Jaemeson had called it. He had realized quite early on that there was a difference between the actual Form Space, and what Wayne was controlling inside of it.

It wasn’t very easy to discern as Wayne was originally imagining his Space, but when Wayne tried to contort his Shaping Space into different shapes it became quickly apparent. When he had asked Jaemeson, the Praetor had explained it as the difference between the present and potential.

“Ah yes, there is a difference between the two. Think of your Shaping Space like a cup. The water doesn’t fill it up completely right? And if you were to lean it to the side, different spaces would open up. We call that water, ‘authority’. It represents how much mana you can use for Forms and Functions. Not that it's a smart idea to fill your Shaping Space.”

“What? Why shouldn’t I?” Wayne had asked immediately.

“Just imagine if you tried to use every muscle in your body at once, all at full strength. You would tear yourself if your brain didn’t subconsciously hold you back. Now, imagine if it’s your mind that's tearing itself apart, with nothing else to stop it.”

Wayne had quickly understood, and dropped the topic.

Now as he absentmindedly paced around the outside of the training grounds, Wayne was trying to use some of the insights from that conversation to improve his control and potentially keep those people alive in the future.

Wayne had just managed to visualize a border for his ‘authority’ so he could have a better understanding of what was actually going on. Being able to observe what was going wrong in his attempts should help him make a diagnosis on how to correct it.

Once again, Wayne forced himself to focus on his Form Space. Even though it had been so easy to begin with, now he found his reserves of mental energy were starting to deplete. It was hard to constantly be locked in for multiple hours. It had been so long that slowly Legionnaires were beginning to assemble for the afternoon physical training.

Still, Wayne had enough stamina for a final push, before training. Slowly, the young Legionnaire began to push the edges of his Shaping with his authority, trying to expand it as he had done previously.

Before Wayne even lost control of the Form Space, he realized the issue. The sensation he had thought was his authority pushing against the edges of the Space was actually something quite different.

Instead, his authority was reaching its limit slightly before it touched the edges of Wayne’s Shaping Space, and his efforts to push further were causing… disturbances.

The edge of Wayne’s authority tried to twist to accomplish what he was telling it, but there simply wasn’t the mass for it to expand further, causing splinters and shards of authority to spear outwards into its encasement. When Wayne saw it happen, he was instantly sent stumbling back into reality. His Shaping Space rapidly deflated once he wasn’t maintaining it, leaving an empty feeling in his gut and sour taste in his mouth.

Still, Wayne had a smile on his face.

Luminos welcomes your subservience, and graces you with his power.

Statistics:-

+1 Spirit

Yes, he knew what to do indeed. Now, all he had to do was to keep training and working towards his goal. Seeing the increasingly familiar group of flamboyant personalities starting to gather across the central grounds, Wayne went over to get ready to do just that.

* * * * *

As Wayne approached the Noble Century, he let the smile drop from his face. His cousin was already here, and the other Aouris was making his feelings obvious with an over glare on his face. It was hard to tolerate, not just from the intensity but also with their apparent relation.

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Wayne had never had family before recently, but so far his experience hadn’t been very pleasant.

He tried to ignore Cleft as he looked around at the other Hastas, noting the few that he already knew. Amelia was here, along with Jayna, the girl with a lightning Affinity. They were chatting, or rather, Amelia was chatting to Jayna, while the other girl occasionally grunted at her words. Wayne gave a little wave, but was summarily ignored by the two of them.

From there, he looked around, and realized he didn’t know many of the people training alongside him. Yvonne’s group had yet to show up along with the final fourth of the Century, but there were still almost twenty young Legionnaires gathered already.

Wayne must have looked lost as he gazed around the group, because thankfully someone was kind enough to introduce themselves to Wayne.

“Hello there Lord Aouris, I don’t believe we’ve had the opportunity to meet yet. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, I’m Lord Reginal Heridia. I do hope this can be the start of a long and healthy relationship.”

A taller, more lean man had come up to Wayne, with a styled coif of head hair that matched the threading of the sash he wore over and across his chest.

“I-yes, it’s a pleasure to meet you as well, Lord Heridia. I… also hope this can be the start of a long and healthy relationship.”

“Of course it will, my Lord. Today is a day to remember. Why should we cele- eep!”

Suddenly, Reginald went dead silent as his face drained of color. The man quickly ducked his head, muttered his goodbyes, and turned on his heel to leave. Then, a strong callused hand landed on Wayne’s shoulder and the weight of a well defined arm settled on his shoulders.

“Were you off making friends?” Yvonne whispered into his ear, leaning down from behind him. Somehow the massive woman had made no noise on her approach.

“Uh… I… think I was?” Wayne replied, nervous from the proximity.

“You think. Ha! You should stop doing that for a while. It will only lead to trouble.”

“Yes, at least wait until I alleviate the worst of your ignorance tonight before thinking at all. Preferably afterwards as well, but I’ll settle for that much.” Ivan said, accompanied by Makelian as the two of them joined the conversation as well.

It put a damper on his newfound confidence, to be told not to think for himself, but Wayne supposed the Talagar twins weren’t incorrect in this instance. Wayne didn’t know much regarding Noble houses of the Empire and could easily offend them without intending to.

“Alright, I ah, I guess, yeah. Yeah, I can do that.” Wayne said, growing more aware that Yvonne still hadn’t removed her arm from across his shoulders.

“Good.” She said leaning close to Wayne’s ear once again, before pulling away and standing to her full height.

Ivan shot him a dirty look after, but it wasn’t like Wayne had any choice in the matter. Looking around, Wayne noticed several other people had been subtly watching their interaction, though they didn’t meet Wayne’s gaze either.

In fact, now that Wayne was paying attention, it seemed like the rest of the Century had created a bubble of space around his group. Like they were avoiding them.

“Don’t let it bother you, they are just weak. And cowardly.”

“Yes, quite so!” Makelian said with his usual cheer.

Ivan grumbled and adjusted his glasses. “Or they just learned to avoid you two fools back at the Academy, like everyone else with any common sense. I just had the misfortune to be caught in the crossfire by default.”

“Ah, have I made a mistake?”

Wayne hadn’t meant to say it out loud, and the group's eyes all snapped to him. Even some of the people that had acted like they had stopped listening were looking towards Wayne, incredulous that he had said something like that out loud to a noble. There was a moment of stunned silence, only broken by Yvonne’s booming laughter.

“Hahaha, no… no. If you're saying something like that, you haven’t made a mistake at all. You’ll fit in better with us than those stiffs over there that are afraid to even meet my eyes.” Yvonne had started by speaking to Wayne, but by the end her words had been directed at the other Hastas surrounding them.

Wayne didn’t know his cousin well, but even he knew that Cleft was always going to rise to that bait.

“I’m not afraid of an overgrown ape. I’m looking right at you, Talagar.”

Yvonne just smirked back at him.

“Do you enjoy what you see that much, or are you going to do something other than stare at me?”

“Why you-”

“Cut the nonsense, you two. Praetor Jaemeson is right there.”

Thankfully, a blonde man stepped up to the two of them and forced the two giants apart before any blows could be traded. He had a powerful frame, but that wasn’t something that would deter Yvonne. The gray armband on his sleeve however, that had more meaning.

“You’re always such a pain Avery. It was just getting interesting!” Yvonne complained.

“Well I, for one, appreciate the lengths Mister Morrow goes to in keeping the rest of you troublemakers in line.”

“Praetor, sir!”

The Century jumped to salute almost as one, only Wayne was slightly delayed in reacting to the older Legionnaire’s entrance. Even Yvonne showed Jaemeson the proper respect, which was interesting.

“At ease. As you all know, tomorrow will be Assessment day, so for today we will be doing some light squad sparring, to get you all in the mindset to work in Cohorts. Get into groups of five of your choice, and I’ll lay out the match ups. Oh,” Jaemeson said, looking around the group.

Wayne’s fears as to who he was looking for were soon confirmed.

“Wayne, you don’t have to join a group today, as you won’t be participating in the Assessment tomorrow. I’ll make some time to talk to you once the sparring is underway.”

Wayne wasn’t trying to pay attention, but he could tell the rest of the nobles were whispering about his special treatment. Even they, the scions of the Empire, were made to test to the next level of Legionnaire, and yet Wayne, who was an orphan a week ago, was exempt. It was obvious they would be frustrated.

Then, Cleft put their feelings into words.

“How is it fair that this imposter gets to waltz past the Assessment? Does he even deserve to be here?”

The words cut deep, not just because they were from someone who should be family, but because there was a layer of undeniable truth to them. Wayne’s earlier confidence and joy about his progress was shattered.

“Lord Aouris has special circumstances that you should be especially aware of, Cleft.”

“That doesn’t justify this Praetor!”

“Yeah, my family won’t stand for this injustice!”

“You’ll be making an enemy of the Paraltas as well with this trickery.”

Cleft had opened the floodgates, and now almost a dozen people were protesting Wayne’s privileges. Jaemeson was attempting to shut it down, but it appeared like he may have to use force to put the matter to rest. Wayne didn’t want that, not when their frustrations were so valid.

“I’ll do it.”

No one noticed when Wayne said it, too caught up in the argument surrounding the Praetor to pay any attention to the boy who caused the commotion. They all continued to crowd around Jaemeson, arguing against Wayne’s special treatment.

Speaking up, Wayne repeated himself louder this time.

“I’ll do it. I’ll participate in the Assessment.”

` This time, people heard him, and slowly people began looking back at him. A few of the most heated dissenters still hadn’t heard him, but as the crowd's frustrations thinned, they too turned to Wayne. Praetor Jaemeson was looking at Wayne with worried eyes, being the only person to hear him the first time.

“Are you sure, lad? You truly don’t have to participate, by Imperial Decree. But if that’s your choice, Wayne…”

“It is.” Wayne looked around the assembled group of nobles and geniuses, before continuing to speak his mind.

“It is. Some of you may not think that I belong here. That I’m too weak, too inexperienced, too ignorant. Perhaps you are correct, maybe I am not deserving of this opportunity. That others have done more to earn this spot.”

“But I have it now, and I’ll be damned if I don’t do everything in my power to make the most of it, regardless of the risks.”

“My father sent me here to prove myself. I intend to do so. So I’ll participate in this Assessment, and make my place here very clear.”

The group of nobles stared slack jawed at Wayne’s bold declaration. Even Makelian and the Talagars looked taken aback. Wayne felt good.