Wolfe and Emblaze met at 5:45 as usual, Wolfe jumping ecstatically as he saw Emblaze. The man smiled back courteously as the two began running towards the designated spot.
"Seeing from how happy you are, I'm guessing you found the answer." Emblaze remarked as the two sat at the tree stump during their break.
Wolfe nodded sheepishly in response and Emblaze couldn't help but smile at the boy's nervousness.
"Alright then. Have you tested your strength yet?" The question hit Wolfe like a truck. How had he not thought of doing that already? Embarrassment flushed his face red as he realised how obvious his mistake was.
Laughing at his own stupidity, Wolfe got up and held his arm forward, palm facing the vast open sky. Closing his eyes, he willed the flames into existence, opening them in time to encounter a brilliant spectacle.
From the centre of his palm erupted a massive flame that engulfed his whole hand. The ember born from the centre of his palm flew 2 feet into the sky before flickering out of existence. The orange gleam lit up Emblaze's shadowed face revealing a dumbfounded expression.
Wolfe laughed hysterically as the flames raged around his hand. The excitement from the size of the fire had taken over his mind, so much so that he hadn't registered the crippling pain that accompanied it.
At the first sign of visible distress, Emblaze jumped in with his handkerchief in hand and patted out the flames. The handkerchief was immediately incinerated, but it did its job in signaling Wolfe to stop the flame himself.
The back of his hand was a scorched red and upon witnessing it Wolfe clenched his jaws. The accumulated pain had now been freed, releasing itself all over the boy's hand, extending a little above his wrist.
Wolfe grasped his lower arm, attempting to stabilise it as it shook violently. Emblaze grabbed Wolfe's hand just above the burn, ensuring he didn't touch any of the burnt skin.
"Well, at least we know your firepower is strong enough to cause a second degree burn." Emblaze said jokingly, trying to distract Wolfe from the pain.
A pained laugh escaped Wolfe's mouth, replaced by a sudden look of relief as a cool breeze passed over the burn. The space around his hand was slightly colder now, but not chilling enough to harm the burn. The coolness was a comforting replacement for running water that one would normally put their hand under in case of a burn.
Wolfe looked at his burnt hand and saw one of Emblaze's hands hovering slightly above the burn. His hand circled around Wolfe's, and momentarily cooled the burn as it moved.
Not given another moment to wonder, Wolfe was slung over Emblaze's shoulder. The man turned towards the city which was closer than the mansion and ran. While going downhill, Wolfe could swear he didn't see the man's legs move. It looked almost as if he had glided over the grass and slid downwards. The confusion brought on by Emblaze's bizarre ability was a great distraction which occupied Wolfe's mind until they reached a Healer's Shed.
The Healer's Shed could be found in all of Zodia's major cities. It was run by the Sanavita family, one of the 12 royal families that specialized in healing magic. Many of the nurses and doctors working in the Shed were not from the Sanavita family and worked mainly on clearing wounds of debris and providing first aid until one of the family members arrived.
The Sanavitas, unlike the Vilhorms, did not despise commoners. But they also did not view them in a compassionate sense like the Emblazes. Their stance on the topic was a bold neutral. Most of their customers were commoners, so harbouring any hatred towards them would be outlandish since they were their main source of income.
Emblaze let Wolfe go as he searched around for any familiar faces. His eyes wandered around the room until they landed on a balding shiny head.
"Doctor Gaigo!" Emblaze exclaimed as the balding man turned around. A wide smile opened up on the man's face as he recognized Emblaze.
"What brings you here, Professor?" The man asked as he inched closer to Emblaze. Reaching only up to Emblaze's chest, Gaigo stood at a measly 5' 2". His stubby limbs and protruding belly made him seem even shorter than he was. At the age of 46, his head had already begun balding, a barely visible hairline trying its best to hold ground.
Emblaze pointed at Wolfe's hand in response and Gaigo seemed shocked. "Did you put your hand in the furnace or something?" He exclaimed angrily as his stare dug deeper into Wolfe. He rashly grabbed onto Wolfe's forearm and pulled the boy towards him. Emblaze did not interject; he just wanted this interaction to get over quickly.
Wolfe sat in front of Gaigo, placing his arm on a white cloth that slightly pricked his burnt flesh. Gaigo grunted at Wolfe's wincing and placed his arm directly over Wolfe's burn, making contact with the tissue. He could not heal any wounds unless he was in direct contact with the area of question.
Wolfe screamed as his nerves fired off in response to the pain. His eyes shot open as a golden glow escaped Gaigo's palm. He felt no relief during the process, only agony.
Tears formed at the edge of his eyes and rolled down his cheeks until Gaigo let go of his hand. The pain from the grasp remained in Wolfe's aching hand, but the redness had vanished. His skin looked brand-new with no signs of any injury. The smooth surface was a strange contrast to the roughness of the rest of his body.
"Thanks Gaigo. I'll pay you back for this later." Emblaze grabbed Wolfe's hand and rushed out before Gaigo could retort, leaving the short man in a grumpy mood for the rest of the day.
Wolfe and Emblaze arrived at the grasslands after a short amount of time. A strange air hung around Emblaze who walked a few feet ahead of Wolfe, not speaking a single word throughout the journey.
"For the following 4 days we will focus on controlling your fire. At the moment you have no sway over how the flames manifest, and we need to change that quickly. If you burn yourself every time you use a technique you'll be dead before you even reach High Silver rank."
Emblaze had suddenly interrupted the silence, his tone shifting from the usual compassionate to a bitter strictness. He had fully embraced his role as a mentor and had started treating Wolfe as a student rather than a child in need of help.
Conflicted feelings regarding Emblaze's powers remained in the back of Wolfe's mind, but he ignored them to focus on training.
"Performing any technique requires 3 steps. Expulsion. Formation. Termination.
"Expulsion is the act of manifesting your powers and forcing them outwards. Formation, also known as Shaping, is the process of changing the magic into the shape you want. This is the hardest step since it is difficult to organize the magic into what you desire. Termination, like the name suggests, is when you end the output of magic and bring a stop to the technique.
"For the techniques categorised as Bronze and Silver there is barely any need for the 2nd step and most of them require only proper control over Expulsion. Your task for the coming week is to find books in the Study that would help you with the basics of magic. I'll let Haik know to allow you in there, so everything should go smoothly."