"Your hair appears brighter," Kael said to Kyra one fine morning. "Or is it my eyes?"
It was a week after the battle, and though Kyra felt all right during the afternoons, she always found herself confined to her bed in the early mornings and late nights.
"It's not your eyes," she answered. "It actually gets brighter sometimes, ranging from auburn to ginger and sometimes even, pure red."
"I see," said he. "I'm sure you'll be back on your feet in no time. You're a pirate girl after all."
"What did you call me," she asked, raising her head.
"A pirate girl."
"Why would you call me that?"
"You survived a sea mutiny. In fact, you were the only survivor."
"That does not make me a sea rover."
"Well, I mean pirate girl as in queen of the seas."
"Whatever," she resigned in the end, and then after a long silence, she decided to speak about a thought that has been on her mind.
"We are killers," she suddenly said.
"We are not killers," Kael protested. "It was self defense."
"We are still killers."
"It was necessary, they would not give up."
"You are getting me wrong, Kael. I am not saying we are wrong as killers, rather I think it is good that we are the killers. When people get in your way, you kill them; they die. I learnt that a long time ago. Remember; dead men don't bite."
Kael gave her a long look. "Pirate girl," he called again as his mind wafted in deep thoughts.
While Master Vauxall had trained him and Ashviel to kill with little hesitation, Lord Blue Beard had made Kyra see battles a little like contents. No one could blame her. She was living a simple life until two guys just came around and she had to go on a journey she had not anticipated.
Besides, her motives for battle were different from theirs. Ashviel was wild with revenge. Kael himself finds himself drawn to battle immediately his eyes turns crimson. But Kyra, Kyra was calm and composed. She must have held back a little against Mishino, and the bloody bastard had almost killed her.
That must have made her remember her roots, forcing out her true feelings. 'It must have been really hard for her' he said to himself.
During the time that Kyra spent at home, Ashviel and Kael continued their trainings at Capricorn. They would often return at night to recap the lessons for her, and then she would grasp whatever she could.
One of the most important classes that they had was the one where Master taught them about the firecannon, a fire attack spell.
"Assault arrows are great," she said to the class, "but they fall short against multiple opponents. Your enemy will not watch you as you shoot them down one by one."
There were at the field, so the instructress had the chance to demonstrate what she meant. She raised her two hands and aimed at a tree in a distance. Ashviel felt a rising amount of Rek in her hands for a moment, and the next a hot ball of fire sped from it to burn the tree to nothingness.
"What was that?" one of the students asked, no less surprised as the others.
"That is a firecannon," answered Master Nara. "It destroys more than the assault arrows."
Then she explained to them the concept behind the spell. Making a firecannon was far more complex than Ashviel had expected. Like other spells, the firecannon was constructed by twisting Rek paths in their portals, but unlike the rest, the construction has to be maintained in a frame even when the spell had been casted. Once the complex construction was over, all one would require was to continue passing Rek through the apertures.
Master Nara remained in the same position, and from her palms rose two large fire balls again, each no less as strong as the first.
For the rest of the day, the students practiced the spell, but none of them was able to achieve even the smallest firecannon.
"It took me four months to learn it," the instructress said as she noticed their dejection, "and I used to be a better novice than you guys are."
Ashviel and Kael studied Master Vauxall's notes for anything about the spell, but their master had ignored it for spells that were more complex. Finally, after a week, Ashviel was able to complete the construction formula, but the spell still failed him.
Each time he switched his focus from the framework to his torch, the construction disappears, and he would have to start all over.
In contrast, Kael was not even able to reach the level of the frame. Even though his Rek reserve rivals even Master Nara's, and his control over Rek had improved through the Rek crystals, Kael still found himself unable to achieve the construction, much less the actual shot.
Ashviel's progress could be attributed to his affinity for fire Rek. Combined with that was the fire knacks he had learnt from Trevor. All the same, the firecannon was still beyond his reach.
Their progress however did not cause them any glumness. Before then, they had learnt the lynx eye and the shadow veil to a considerable extent, so their little progress at the firecannon was not a setback for them.
A month went by after the bloody battle at Rendell's place, and as Kyra had conjectured, the case did not surface as no bodies were found. She was recuperating gradually, and her friends had to prevaricate before the Capricorn masters for her absence. Of course, they could not have gotten away with it if their glib-tongued friend Allit, had not devised the perfect lie.
During that period, Ashviel and Kael had gotten close to Allit and Roxanne. Ashviel especially likes to visit Roxanne, and when she asked to repay the visit, he had come up with yet another version of the story to conceal Kyra's injuries. He had however put her through some basic training, and had been at first astonished to find out that, despite being a weed, Roxanne had a strong body-honing technique that threatened to outdo even his. If only she had the circuit potion, then she would be a powerful one among the fledglings.
"I have been practicing body-honing techniques since I was six," she had once said to him one evening.
Ashviel was certain she was younger than he was by about a year, even though her looks might have made the conclusion slightly difficult. Partly due to her ways and a riveting weirdness Ashviel finds in her, he had grown a liking for her so much that he calls her Roxie for short.
If Ashviel and Kael had made any other friend apart from Allit and Roxanne, then it was Fiona of the Brazen Fang. More often than not, he and Kael were usually assigned to her group, and though she was a novice, it was clear that she was far more experienced than the two of them.
Aside from the aforementioned, and certainly Master Wayne, Zyair and Hik, neither young man hardly speak much to anyone else, except the old lady that they buy groceries from, and another old gentleman who always had a hail-fellow-well-met air around him.
Soon, Kyra was fully well, and was prepared to join the classes. Ashviel and Kael had always kept notes for her, and even though she was at home, she had already gained the basic idea of the firecannon.
While Master Vauxall had mainly thought them ways to attack, the Capricorn masters and grandmasters focus on all the other pillars of power, and Ashviel saw that in ten years to come, he would have been insanely strong, as strong as a knight or even a master.
The day came and Kyra went to resume classes in the Capricorn uniform that looked ever so beautiful on her. After a little paltering, she was allowed to enter the lecture halls. She discovered that she had missed a lot more than she expected, and was a trifle behind in almost every task performed. Hardly ever, a grandmaster comes to teach them, as lectures from grandmasters were mostly reserved to the knights.
While making up an excuse for Kyra's absence for the Capricorn masters was easy, attempting the same with Master Wayne was not so effortless. The man had given them a serious look the first time they came with the story, but he did not dwell on it. Rather he shrugged his shoulders, and murmured some words to himself. Somehow, he knew they were hiding something, but his quiet nature prevented him from probing.
Therefore, it was much of a surprise to Kyra as he admitted her without questioning that bright morning. He walked them to his table, and after a little session, brought out a shoulder-length portrait of a woman from his space pouch.
The painting was immaculate, and the master held on to it and stared into it as if he had painstakingly made it himself. The woman in the picture was beauty personified — that or the artist had made some exaggerations. She had long dark hair that curled around her bare neck, and her large silica eyes appeared to illuminate the whole picture.
Yet as much as Ashviel appreciated the resplendence of the image, he could not understand the reason why the master was showing it to them.
"Elena was the woman of my dreams," began Master Wayne, as if he had read Ashviel's mind. "We loved each other dearly, but our intimacy was cut short by my own brother, Larry."
He extended his hand over the picture. "Do not get me wrong," he said, "Larry was not the least bit interested in her. Elena was a weed, and I am a master. Larry disapproved of our relationship, and thought it a nuisance and an insult to the family. He became especially angry when I gave her the potion, and then he took it upon himself to imprison her. That was almost a year ago, and that was the last time I saw her."
Ashviel felt a little sympathy to the master, who had suddenly decided to tell them about himself. His loss must have accounted for his ever-gloomy expression and his slow movement. Anyone would be annoyed by such, but Master Wayne appeared not to want to fight his brother, perhaps for family reasons.
"I have had enough now," continued Master Wayne, "and I will take what rightfully belongs to me."
Kael unglued his eyes from the picture to look at the master. "Do you by any chance know where she is being held?"
"Oh I know where he confines her," said Master Wayne, "I've always known."
"Then we should rescue her."