*Sigh* "We might as well hear them, you're certainly too excited to keep it to yourself any longer.", said Faith with a slightly exasperated smile.
Lianne just smiled and nodded along to Faith's statement while shifting slightly closer towards her Familia Captain.
With an unwavering smile, Dinah described the goals she believes her two disciples can reach within 3 month's time. "I've been teaching you two a lot of the basics of a few Martial Arts styles I know will work for each if you. I've even taught you two a few stances that are more natural to both of your body types, budding fighting styles, personalities, as well as your attitudes in how you both approach combat. Not everyone is the same, after all. We'll be focusing on the few stances I've taught you, hammering in the basics, and solidifying your skills and knowledge in what I've taught you so far. But I'll also be adding something I know will definitely save your lives in the future."
After a few seconds pause, Dinah continued while gesturing for Panacea to do what she asked of her earlier before the training session even started. Her satchel flew through the air in a parabolic arc towards her and she caught it effortlessly. Dinah took out a few small rocks she picked up at the dungeon and held them out for her students to see.
"I've been teaching you two how to dodge attacks, anticipate movements, and how to read your opponents. But I haven't trained you two in the art of dodging projectiles... until now. Within 3 months; besides what I've talked about a few moments ago, I'll also be making it a guarantee that you'll be able to dodge fast flying projectiles without having to look at them."
Without pause, Dinah tossed a single rock into the air and she promptly punched it without shattering it. It flew passed Faith and Lianne's heads so fast that they barely saw it. They only felt the air shift near them which indicated where it passed.
'That was so fast...', Faith thought in silent shock. 'I know I saw her hand blur for but a moment, but for her to punch a rock so quickly and have it fly passed us faster than any arrow... just how strong is she?'
'That was so cool!! Big sis Sensei is so awesome!', Lianne shouted out mentally while her eyes sparkled with joy, adoration, and awe.
"These rocks will be the first step and I'll be lowering the speed by a significant margin, but in time, you two will be able to dodge these instinctively.", Dinah finished with a small grin. "Any questions?"
'I refuse to show tears! I refuse..', were Faith's starting mantra while another shiver went up her spine.
Lianne just smiled slightly while she silently hugged Faith's side and soaked up the half-elf's warmth for comfort.
While this was happening, Panacea was still looking at where the rock soared through the air while she played with Conner's blond locks. 'I'm glad she aimed it towards the sky. It barely touched that roof over there, but the angle was just perfect enough to avoid it. Hmmm... I wonder... if she can do that with rocks, how about knives...?'
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{A few hours later... 10:37 AM}
After another intense session of training; but what Faith and Lianne secretly calls the road to hell, Dinah; of whom was now freshly showered and changed, finds herself in the playroom alongside the young kids of the Familia. Panacea and Conner are there as well, but this time two other teens are there too. The ones on baby sitting duty for the last few days were Des and Iz, but today was different.
Desmond is currently helping out around the Panacea Familia home with a few sensitive tasks that were given to him by Faith before she left with her entourage to Babel.
Isabella is assisting Kim at her workshop with a few experiments that were time sensitive and in need of Isabella's fine touch and amazing mana control. Apparently, Isabella has something called Thread Magic and using it needs fine control over Mana which Iz is very proficient at. Dinah found out about it a few days ago, and it was pretty impressive.
One of Dinah's thoughts that kept on appearing after learning that fact was, 'I need to get to know my Familia more.' And she endeavored to do so every day since. After a few days, Dinah learned a lot about each of them. 'However, there's still a lot I need to know and figure out.'
At the moment, the two on guard duty were some of the few teens that Dinah hasn't gotten to know as much as the others.
The one by the corner and reading a book to herself is the first Dark Elf that Dinah has ever seen in the City of Orario. She's 14 years old, quiet, reserved, and has only spoken a few words every now and again. She has very pristine russet colored hair, deep and expressive golden-yellow eyes, regal features, and she has a dusky complexion compared to an Elf's fair one. Her name is Nuit Sigillum and she's one of the resident bibliophiles in the Familia. She's almost always seen with a book in hand or in the Guild Hall's library.
'That's if she allows herself to be seen. I swear, this girl is one of the rare few that could disappear from even my senses if I'm not paying attention.', thought Dinah with slight exasperation.
The 2nd one who was picked for babysitting duty was currently playing with the kids while Panacea; with Conner on her lap, were watching along joyfully.
'Panacea and Conner have really taken a shine to each other.' With a small smile, she kept on watching their interactions with fondness. 'In the mornings, he spends a lot of time with her. I get him in the afternoons and nights. I like that division of labour, because he is just one energetic little ball of energy that sometimes wears even me down. He seems to almost always be calm around Panacea. She just has that aura about her. Meanwhile, I have to sing to him a few times to get him to calm down.'
*Sigh* 'The good news is that he loves being a listener and audience to the singing lessons I'm holding with a few of the kids and teens in the family. There are quite a few gems among them that need polishing and once they reach their stride, then they could become even better singers than myself.'
After a few seconds, Dinah shifted her gaze to the teen who was currently giving a piggyback ride to a few of the kids while the others were chasing him down. The teenager's name is Walter Silva; who prefers his own nickname compared to his actual first name. Amusingly, his nickname is Wall.
Wall is a 13 year old teenager with short cropped black hair. He's obviously human, but there's something else about him that Dinah strikes as odd, but Panacea, and Faith are pretty tight lipped about it. Dinah doesn't really mind not being in the know since everyone's entitled to their own secrets. To Dinah's senses, he seems like an ordinary, Level 1, human teenager, but her hunch tells her there's something else going on.
He's tall for his age; 5ft 4in to be exact, and he's always got a smile on his face. He's got well developed muscles for his age; which she didn't find all that strange cause she's seen him exercise out in the front courtyard every now and again at night. He has a slightly tanned complexion, silver colored eyes, a symmetrical facial structure; that looks as if it was chiseled from marble, and he has a sort of energy about him that Dinah can't seem to figure out.
These two teens are basically opposites in almost every way. While Walter is a very energetic, talkative, and fun-loving youth, Nuit is a reserved, calm, and quiet soul.
'I'd rather not bother Nuit since she looks to be engrossed in another novel. Wall is having fun with the kids, so I'll just stay here on my table.' With that in mind, Dinah took out a few more journals alongside her first and started her studies into something interesting she found out about a few days ago out of curiosity.
When Dinah was looking over her bag of holding; of which Lianne was starting to call big sis Sensei's sandwich bag, the young blond mother found out something interesting.
At certain areas in the inside of the bag were strange golden symbols that she immediately recognized as Runes. In the past, Dinah couldn't really understand Magic at all. She understood that they could help people like Dr. Fate, Zatanna Zatara, John Constantine, and Raven perform feats of wonder and mysticism. They came in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and flavors that Dinah couldn't really put a finger on, until now.
'I guess I found out what one of my Development Abilities can do for me. At least..., some of what it can let me do. It can help me understand the make up, language, and the Magical nature of Runes. This is a great gift, Dr. Fate. Thank you...'
After a moments pause, Dinah opened up her notes and reviewed what she understood so far.
○ - This Runic symbol represents a closed connection between two concepts, states of matter, two different Runic symbols, and/or ideas. It also symbolizes the moon.
● - This Runic symbol represents space, storage, the idea of storing something or other, and it also represents emptiness. It also symbolizes a full moon.
□ - This Runic symbol represents barriers, size, shields, four compatible ideas or concepts, and it closes the ends of a Runic Sequence. It also symbolizes a wall.
So far, that was all Dinah was able to gather from 3 hours worth of studying the Runes inside the satchel every day for the last 3 days. Anymore and she got a splitting headache and she becomes very lethargic. 'Thankfully, Faith told me that I was experiencing a few of the warning signs of the beginning of Mind Down.'
'It's kind of funny that I didn't know I was using mana until I've been close to Mind Down a few times in the last few days.', Dinah thought to herself while she chuckled to herself inwardly.
It took Panacea and Faith's guidance to figure out that using her Runic Understanding Development Ability consumes mana. And since Dinah has never used it before, she didn't know what it felt like until she reexamined herself while she was using it.
When she figured it out, it was enlightening. To her, it felt like cool liquid metal flowing through her body. The cool mana originated somewhere near her heart in the shape of an orb and she felt like there were veins going from it to every part of her body. When she found out how to naturally let it flow through her, it felt both intoxicating and addicting. It was like a shot of adrenaline mixed with a tasty energy drink. That's how Dinah would describe it.
With Dinah being new to having Magic and having to discover the intricacies of mana manipulation with her Familia Captain's help, then it's no wonder that she's having so much trouble trying to decipher Runes. She finds it interesting that she needs to use her own Mana and channel it to her eyes in order to use her Runic Understanding to read and decipher Runes.
In the beginning, she was automatically channeling her own Mana without restraint. But now, she can slightly awaken it and then nudge and guide the flow to her eyes without wasting too much of it away.
'However, Faith told me that I'm actually wasting too much Mana. I still don't have that fine Mana manipulation like she, Isabella, or Nuit does. And I don't want to pass out due to Mind Down. Running our of Mana includes headaches, chills, lethargy, and passing out... And I don't like it.'
*Sigh* 'They've given me plenty of pointers, but ultimately it comes down to constant practice. Being born a Half Elf or a Dark Elf like Faith or Nuit respectively, gave them an innate ability to manipulate their own Mana naturally. Isabella started manipulating her own Mana when she was just 5 years old, so she has 9 years of experience over my measly 3 days. I just need to keep on working on it. They've told me that my Mana is like a muscle. If I use it often, then it could become more denser, refined, easier to guide and control, and/or it could net me more benefits in the future. I just have to use it right and not recklessly.'
'Hmmm..., now then... what are you?', she asked herself while she looked at the next symbol she was interested in learning about.
■
'Let's dive in...', with that thought in mind, Dinah awakened her Mana and slowly nudged it's flow towards her eyes. The cool feeling of liquid metal shifting and flowing through her veins was both comforting and still slightly unnerving. She slowly but surely guided her mana to where she wanted it and she looked at the glowing golden rune again.
Just like the last few times she activated her Development Ability, shapes, symbols, words, pictures, and all sorts of what seemed like nonsensical things floated from the rune; and all of them were colored in gold.
'Time to decipher what the hell this all means...', with that final thought, Dinah focused entirely on the glowing rune while the rest of her surroundings faded away.
While she was doing this, Nuit shifted her book and looked at what Dinah was doing at the moment. The Dark Elf felt a slight shift of the Mana in the air and it looks like Dinah was the cause. 'Faith told me that Panacea's Songbird can read Runes, but this isn't just about reading it... Hmmm... interesting.'
After a few moments, she returned to her book. 'There sure are interesting times ahead of us...', Nuit thought nonchalantly while giving a subtle shrug to herself.
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{A couple of hours later... 2:52 PM}
After what felt like an excruciatingly long period of time spent trying to decipher a single rune, Dinah finally made some headway about the same time as when she felt the slight headache and lethargy of Mind Down about to overcome her.
With an exhale, she stopped channeling her mana. When she cut herself off from it's effects, she felt all the energy leave her body. She immediately and unintentionally slumped forward, but before she hit the wooden table, a gentle yet firm hand on her shoulder caught her.
*Sigh* "Thanks...", said Dinah tiredly.
"Hnnn..., you're welcome.", said a gentle yet lilting voice that Dinah thought sounded a little Welsh.
The tired Canary looked over her shoulder to see Nuit's golden-yellow eyes looking at her worriedly.
"You've pushed yourself.. too hard again~. You should be careful~, you know.", Nuit chided her gently with a frown.
*Sigh* "Yeah, you're right. It was just too interesting that I couldn't stop myself from delving in further.", Dinah said with a sheepish grin.
"Hnnn...", Nuit intoned quietly with a shrug. The Dark Elf shrugged again and gestured to the table, the clock on the wall, and to Dinah's stomach.
It took Dinah but a few moments to decipher what Nuit meant to convey, before she nodded to her and started packing up her journals. "Yeah, you're right. I need to eat. I'm kind of late for lunch."
As she cleaned up, her gaze swept through the empty playroom. 'It looks like Nuit and I are the only ones here. She must've waited here for me to be done... she missed lunch too. Crap, I feel terrible.'
With her things put away; and her satchel draped against her, she held out her hand to Nuit who looked at it and back at her with a raised brow.
"Come on, let's go eat lunch. Thanks for waiting for me, but you must be hungry too. So, let's go!", Dinah said with a bright smile.
With another raised brow and a shrug, Nuit placed her hand in Dinah's; who took hold of it gently before she started dragging Nuit to the dining room.
'She's really taking this big sister thing to a whole new level.', Nuit thought to herself silently. 'She's really bright... her mana is bright too... And how is she so energetic? She was just about to pass out a few moments ago...'
With a slight frown, Nuit studied the back of Dinah's head. 'I hope Faith's right about you, Dinah... I don't want to lose anyone else... Never again. You've proven yourself to most of the Familia, but some of us are still skeptical. Prove to us that you'll stay... Prove to us that you won't die on us...'
Before they reached the dining room's doors, Nuit schooled her features to her usual nonchalance.
"I wonder what's for lunch?", Dinah asked with a bright grin.
'Is it just me, or is Dinah becoming more animated as each day passes? I'll have to report this to the Captain later...', thought Nuit with a slightly raised brow. 'Hnnn... maybe it's a side effect of her Development Ability?... Maybe...'