Hans picked up the chair he has knocked over and waved his hand over the page on his desk, smiling as the words and numbers seems to crawl into being. Hans' smile faded when he considered what the persistent silence meant for Cordelia. Hans knew it was a sore spot for the princess that most of the village children no longer came to the castle, and he tried to encourage her whenever the opportunity allowed, but though the princess treated her as a trusted confidant, she rarely sought him out for words of encouragement. At times, she asked for his opinion on financial matters as was natural, but it wasn't as though he was indispensable to her. Any other royal steward would have likely received the same treatment. Still, what little encouragement Hans was able to provide, he was quick to do.
It was usual that conversing with the princess was one of the only social interactions Hans had, and he found that he was often completely alone in a household which seemed, more and more, to distrust him.
He was unconcerned with their prejudice and felt that their distance and lack of interaction was amenable to him. Rather, Hans was much more concerned with the growing feeling of darkness that seemed to hover in the air like a malignant disease. More and more, Hans' apprehension grew, but he could not discern the cause. As Han's lessons grew less and less frequent, he noticed that Garin seemed also to grow apprehensive. Something was coming.
Strangely, even with his new-found abilities, Hans' confidence that they could confront this evil was not strong. It seemed that magic, not the Erubian army was the real danger in this new up-coming battle, and Hans was not sure that he could confront this new danger.
Because Hans was experiencing the usual restlessness that his spirit pressed upon him, he decided that he was through with his work for the day. It was as though the magical core at his center was reacting to the malignant presences in the air, and he could not think clearly until this agitation was dealt with. Hans laid his pen in the box on his desk and dried the ink on the page, reaching deep within as though his spiritual or astral self was pulling the magic out and directing it.
He closed the book and put it in the top drawer, locking it to may sure that the finances would be safe from meddlers. He quickly surveyed his surroundings using his magic to sense if anyone was near. It was as though he sent his spirit through the room, and as his energy left his body, it gave him a report of what it came into contact with. When he sensed that no one was around, Hans shuffled outside and took his usual path though the garden and outside the walls of the castle.
Due to his frequent training sessions over the years, Hans' stamina and capabilities had improved so much that Hans' handicap became to him as merely an occasional inconvenience. He felt as though he could walk for miles and miles with very little discomfort.
When Hans reached his glen, he inhaled deeply and began stepping up upon the air as though a series of steps were before him. He was soon a good six feet above the forest floor when he began manipulating the fallen branches and dirt below. He shot at a variety of trees and bushed with pebbles and fallen nuts, tearing through leaves and small branches. He shot great bursts of force from out of himself and watched as they rock and creaked in the wake of the power rushing from him. He continued going through all of the techniques and methods that Garin had taught him, but he felt that he exerted much more of his energy when Garin was firing his magic back as Hans, so this training felt somewhat lacking.
Hans could only keep up his assault on this imaginary army only as long as his own physical body could hold up, so he had been working on strengthening his body with one of the kinder soldiers guarding the castle grounds. This soldier had taken pity on Hans, thing that the invalid needed to toughen up in order to protect himself against assault from those who would abuse him, and Hans was happy to let him keep that opinion. After about two hours of his self-imposed training, Hans crossed his legs in midair and sat as though upon the earth below; he breathed deeply, steadying the rushing of his heart that his training induced and concentrated on replenishing his inner energy.
Though Hans did not feel equal to the task, he wanted to be as prepared as he could make himself for when his enemy attacked.