Rain poured onto the land in an unceasing torrent. Water was pouring into the once dry, cracked dirt without end. The ground had a seemingly unlimited capacity. The rain that hit parts of the land that were less arid looking simply flowed down the slope of the land and off of the edge. Lightning flickered in the clouds above, acting as the only illumination over the lands below. Jeffery lay on his bed. Rain poured through the 'window' onto him. The barracks had eaves that protruded more than a foot from the wall, but the wind was always strong enough to carry the rain in whenever it gusted. Jeffery didn't even notice it, though. He had spent the first few nights wishing he had forgone his fear of spiders and chosen the more central beds, but they leaked too, and staying in the rain long enough made him numb to it.
He was lost in thought. The week had not gone as he would have liked. Rob made excellent progress. He could now easily lift the shield and sword while running, and could keep up with Jeffery when unburdened. Brain was progressing almost as quickly as him. Although he had started with a brighter illusionary flame, when Jeffery rechecked, it hadn't grown as much as Rob's had. Jeffery hadn't improved at all. Even though he couldn't see his own flame, he knew how fast he was and how much effort it took him to lift that practice sword, and those hadn't changed since he had started channeling. Even the once-malnourished siblings, Jim and Bob, had improved more than him even though they were talking instead of practicing most of the time. Jeffery wanted to attribute their improvements to the fact that they were now eating well and were not as malnourished, but knew he was just making excuses for his own failure.
Jeffery had asked Keith about his sight, but Keith had only sarcastically asked him how he had smuggled hallucinogens into the base. Keith thought it was a ploy for attention since it was almost as obvious to everyone else as it was to him how pitiful his progression was. He decided to shut up about his sight, it would just make him seem like some cheep performer. He stuffed his face into the pillow and tried not to scream. His dream was slowly getting crushed. Rob would enter the halls of legend and leave him behind. He sat up again and stared out the window.
He did as he had for the past week. He thought of that d*mned triangle and nothing else. The triangle superimposed itself onto his vision, and that familiar warmth filled him. His vision blurred, the lightning outside the window caused a strange blur of colors in his unfocused eyes, but he ignored it. In that moment, the only thing in his mind was the symbol. He was sick of his futile attempts. He was done with this. He wanted to forget everything, and give up on channeling. He pictured shattering the triangle, letting the vertices disconnect, and the outer circle fragment. Watching things fall apart was cathartic in a way few things were.
Suddenly, a tiny ember appeared out the window. A raindrop struck it, and it fizzled out. He had seen it, though. His vision instantly focused. What had he done? Was that him? A hope filled him. He had made fire appear! A modest start, sure, it was only an ember, but Ralph couldn't make fire appear yet. Hope refilled him. He tried to ignore the voice in the back of his head, the voice saying that his small victory didn't matter, that if he couldn't become stronger he would never be able to wield a sword.
He tried doing what he did before again. He pictured the rune, the background faded and the rune superimposed itself on his vision yet again. He shattered it, trying to keep his visualization of the pieces as close to his previous one as possible. He looked onward with anticipation. Nothing happened. Nothing. He tried again, and again. All of them were failures. Nothing happened, he imagined the triangle mocking him. He tried new things, crushing the rune, letting it fade, rotating it, nothing worked.
He was at the end of his patience when, miraculously, one of his attempts worked. For an instant, a tiny flash of orange appeared against the purple lightning. He almost yelled in joy, but recalled the irritable roommates around him. He tried to recall what he had done, but he had been so worked up he couldn't even separate his later attempts in his memory. At that point, he had just been mindlessly torturing the imaginary triangle with all sorts of stretching, distorting and cracking. He could make fire; He supposed that meant something. He smiled at his success, and finally managed to fall asleep.
The bell tolled, he woke up feeling happy for the first time in days. He gathered his belongings, got ready, then exited the hut with Ralph for breakfast. He took his bread and sat.
"What's with you today? You seem so different." Ralph stared at him from across the table.
"I finally channeled."
"Oh, How do you know?"
"I made a tiny bit of fire appear. It was so cool, it was just a little spark really, but it wasn't burning anything, just sitting still in the air."
"Oh really? Then I suppose you can show me your amazing skill? I really would be impressed seeing it."
"Erm. I did it but I don't know how now. I just succeeded twice."
"So you did a thing that proves you're ahead of all of us, but you cannot replicate it on demand? This is a bit too much, Jeffery. First your fire vision thing, and now this. Why are you making all this up? Your lies are normally more belie-" Jeffery's face twisted into a scowl. He really did have no way to prove his claims. He would have to make a tactical retreat now to save his reputation.
"How long were you fooled for?" Ralph's face turned from smug to confused.
"What?"
"Ha, seems like you fell for it for a few seconds there! It was so stupid, too! Even someone like you should immediately be able to tell it was fake."
"No I-" Jeffery burst out into laughter, it sounded almost real. It was a useful skill he had practiced a few years back, and he had never regretted spending a few hours learning it. Ralph just returned to his meal.
After breakfast, they went out for a jog. Over the past week, Jeffery had been studying the boulder field and had found a few mostly unblocked lines in the middle of it that could signifigantly shorten his run. With his new, shortened, path he had finished first for a few days until the others had caught on. Now, he was stuck in fourth, and the people behind him were slowly catching up. The trainees had gotten faster since the first day, and he hadn't. He kept on finding new, better paths, but the improvements were marginal and only saved a few meters per lap, far from enough for any meaningful ego-boosting.
They reentered. Keith was now waiting for them. "Get your swords and choose a partner." The routine for the past for days had been very standardized, warm up, spar, lunch, drills, dinner. No variation, no originality, just a plain, grueling schedule. He paired up with Ralph. Ralph could probably progress far faster with a more capable opponent, but he Jeffery supposed pity and past friendships were worth something.
He stood across from Ralph. He had learned some things at the base. He could glance at the opponents eyes to see where they might strike, and at their shoulders to gauge their readiness. Ralph started, as was customary between them. The wooden 'sword' traveled horizontally through the air at Jeffery. Jeffery clenched his teeth as he rose his blade. It knocked into Ralph's, causing it to change course enough for Jeffery to duck under it. He tried to bring his blade around to sneak past Ralph's sword, but the heavy sword refused to cooperate. It changed course painfully slowly, and by the time it had fully changed direction, Ralph had already readied his shield and was bringing his sword around again.
Jeffery stopped his failed attack to desperately pull his blade into the way of Ralph's and step back. The sword barely grazed him. From there, he desperately stumbled back under Ralph's attacks. He had lost his balance and Ralph was gaining momentum. Finally, Jeffery after retreating more than seven feet and fell backwards. He looked up to see a sword at his throat. He sighed. The score was now four hundred and nineteen to one. He had gotten his victory on the first day by throwing his sword at Ralph's face then tripping him when he had looked away. Neither Ralph nor Keith approved of his method. Since then, he had lost every time.
The day continued, the sun rose, and Jeffery fell repeatedly. Suddenly, someone shouted from his right. "Guys! Look at Keith!" Keith was crumpled on the ground with red phlegm seeping out of his mouth. A soldier on the other side of the yard looked over and immediately ran over to the general's residence. The general ran out a few moments later.
"What happened?"
"I don't know, he just fell on the ground!"
"Get him to the emergency room!" Four soldiers came over and carried Keith into a building off to the side next to the warehouse.
"Just keep him stable, someone from the capital arrives tomorrow, he's an expert in many fields. He should know something about medicine." The general's voice was practically shouting. Everyone in the base could hear him. The children looked at each other. Ralph had a concerned expression, it was shared by many others. Brian was actually shaking a little from surprise. One of the more lazy kids smiled in slight relief.
Brian ran up to the general. "Sir, you said that tomorrow, a professional will be here to treat him?"
"Yes. He's a retired teacher of the academy there. He is incredibly well-learned, one of the top minds in Amer. I'm sure he'll be able to help Keith." Brian's nodded a few times and he twisted his lips into a smile.
"Thank you, sir, I'm relieved."
"Kids, get out of here for now, I'll get someone to deal with you later."