Nero silently observed Silas. The boy's gaze was locked into the distance, as if he was lost in his own imagination. It was as if his whole life was on the line. It was as if Silas had no other choice available to him.
But he did. Nero was not threatening his life, nor did they have some deep vendetta between them which would cause him to always search the boy out. Worst comes to worst, if he was so dissatisfied with his current life, all he needed to do was change schools. For others, that may be a difficult task, but it should not have been so for Silas.
But the boy's thoughts never went that far. It was as if his brain shut down due to too much fear. He was not able to think of even a simple solution to his problem. That was exactly what pissed Nero off so much whenever he hung out with Silas.
How could one be so weak willed? How could he be so defeatist? It almost seemed like he wanted to be the victim!
Nero could once again feel his irritation rising, and Silas was still lost in thought. To hell with leaving things up to him.
Suddenly, and without warning, Nero slapped the back of his head. He did not use his full strength, obviously. He was not trying to knock him out. But he still used enough force to jolt him from his thoughts and bring him back to reality. He had often received plenty of such slaps himself from his brother back in the day.
"Sit down," Nero said in a cold, commanding tone. "Take out all the materials."
Without an ounce of hesitation, Silas sat down on the chair and faced Nero's study table. He opened his backpack with trembling hands and began taking out various sealed containers.
Nero stood behind him, to be out of his line of sight, and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Stop," he said in the same commanding tone, though he was trying to sound less cold. Getting angry and losing control of his emotions was not something he allowed himself to do. "You're too jittery. You need to calm down first. Close your eyes, and take a long, deep breath. Hold it in, don't exhale."
Like a robot obeying instructions, Silas complied without the least bit of hesitation. After holding his breath for a few seconds, Nero had him exhale slowly, and then repeated the process three more times.
It wasted some time, but his hands trembling had reduced considerably.
"Now open your eyes. Take out the materials one by one. Do not rush."
This was not how Nero imagined today going. Walking Silas through the steps like a baby would not result in the ideal outcome, but he could not be a perfectionist. In a way, this was training for him as well. There were all kinds of people in the world, and even if he could not understand them, he needed to at least know how to work with them.
With his instructions broken down, Silas performed much better. Nero was out of sight, as he was standing behind him, but his hand firmly holding down his shoulder, and his voice giving him instructions anchored Silas in a strange way. He stopped focusing on whatever thoughts crippled him with anxiety, and concentrated only on the task at hand.
Nero had some kind of revelation as he observed the boy continuously take out items from his bag. As long as Nero left the decision making up to him, the numerous options would confuse Silas. But the same objective, conveyed through multiple smaller, easily achievable steps did not give the boy an opportunity to freeze.
This was starkly different to how he dealt with Gabriel. The redhead had his own drive and focus, not to mention his own excellent competence. All Nero needed to do was give him a target and he would complete it on his own, using his own strengths. But it seemed the same leadership style did not work on everyone. Not that Nero wanted to be a leader. He was just focused on achieving the best results.
Once the boy had placed everything on the table he slowed down, as if without clear instructions he was again getting caught up in whatever thoughts led him to be so afraid.
"The table is too cluttered. Organise everything."
The hesitation vanished, and the boy hurried to obey, but haste was the exact opposite of what they needed. This task required a steady and deliberate hand.
Nero squeezed a little with his hand holding the boy's shoulder, and only said the word "slowly".
Silas hesitated, but calmed down. He reduced his rush to obey, and instead focused on the task. Nero could feel his pulse through his hand, and any time it started to rise he would gently squeeze.
Once he was done, several dozen items were laid out on the table before him, with a clear space directly in front of him. Each container was perfectly spaced from one another, as if placed in a grid. A glance was all it took for Nero to understand that this was something that could not be achieved randomly or at a moment's notice. If Silas hadn't practised before, then he would not be able to come up with such an arrangement now that it was asked of him.
Noticing an empty spot in the arrangement, Nero took the aether shard out of his pocket and put it there, closing the only gap.
Aether shards were small crystals which contained concentrated aether. Or, to be more specific, they were the smallest type of crystal that contained aether, hence the name shard. They were cut using special lasers to form a uniform brick shape so that they could be stacked in large quantities. The pieces that were cut off were not considered a loss, because they could be crushed to form aether powder, a very important ingredient in card crafting and a few other professions. If an aether shard was mined that was too small to be cut into the brick shape with the same exact measurements, it too was crushed into powder.
Now, the setup was complete.