The next morning the king and master Marozzo stealthily approached the forest lake and, while staying hidden, watched Zia and Nick train. It was their usual practice that Nick developed and it included some flexibility, strength and endurance exercises.
"This is their regular routine." King explained as they watched children doing handstands first and then walking on their hands around the lake. Sometimes it seemed they even tried to run. "This set of exercises was developed by Nick himself and is quite effective. I copied it and made our elite cavalry practice it for twenty days. Seasoned soldiers were almost dying while these kids seem like playing and joking around. You see those trees over there? Two years ago there were hanging two ropes over the lake. Nick made Zia practice for that break-in I already told you about. Zia was ten when she challenged others to compete in running on those ropes and in the end she even managed to win over a Qi master! And Nick, who is a year younger, is even faster than her!"
Master Marozzo was attentively watching. He wasn't listening that much, but was more concentrated on the hands of the both children that seemed to emit a slight steam.
"They are capable of using Qi to enhance their movement while still being Qi practitioners? How does he do that?" He thought out loud.
"I think you should talk to him. To be honest, while he sometimes seeks advise from me, I am getting few inspirations myself from time to time because of that. This kid … somehow he thinks a bit differently than the others." King laughed.
"What will they do now?" The old man asked seeing Zia and Nick stretching their legs and relaxing muscles on the bank of the lake.
"Oh, they will end their training session soon. I guess it's been four years, but every day after the practice they compete in speed. At first they ran around hundred, hundred fifty meters over there on the land, but now they are running straight over the lake." When king finished his explanation both children dashed at incredible speed over the water. Under each step on the surface of the lake were formed small circles and in a blink of an eye they were already on the other side.
"Are you certain they're still Qi practitioners?" The old man asked with incredulous expression.
"Hahaha!" King laughed as he showed himself, "Zia, Nick! Come here for a bit!"
Both kids ran over and Zia was still pouting. She had lost again, but that was also part of their routine.
"Zia, you remember master Marozzo. Nick, this is the sect master of the Sword sect, Julian Marozzo." King introduced.
"Nice to meet you." Nick gave a short, polite bow and awaited further instructions. During these years he had heard about the Sword sect multiple times and knew that he was now standing in front of a true powerhouse.
"I'd like to chat with you a bit. Do you have time?" The old man didn't mind to be a bit polite with this little genius.
"Sure, what do you want to know?" Nick nodded.
"Tell me about your techniques and the way you use your Qi in your footwork. It's quite unique for a Qi practitioner to be able to do that." Old man Marozzo immediately got on the subject he was interested in.
"Of course, but could you please help me a bit in return?" Nick smiled.
"With what?"
"Well. I'm developing this set of dagger techniques and there are some parts you could definitely help me with." Nick continued to smile.
"Why the hell are you doing that? I'll give you the best sword techniques that have been polished for hundreds of years! Stop with the nonsense!" The old man got agitated again.
"Thank you, master Marozzo, but that won't be necessary. I have my knife to protect me and don't really want to learn the sword. I'm developing this technique just for fun, not out of necessity." Nick explained.
"Just show him the dagger." The king jumped in.
Wakizashi appeared in Nick's hand and hummed quietly as Nick infused his Qi in it.
"Why the hell did you give him that thing? No wonder he doesn't want any other weapon!" The old man barked at the king.
"Master Marozzo, please don't be angry at the king. I received this dagger because I already refused the sword. I simply don't like fighting, but I do like to practice and can tell you everything I know." Nick rushed to the king's rescue. For a moment there the old man looked really scary.
"What a waste, what a waste…" Master Marozzo mumbled.
"Father, I also want a weapon!" Zia used this opportunity to turn attention to her needs.
"Fine, let's go, I'll give you a good sword, you have earned it with your win yesterday." King quickly pulled Zia away.
King loved his teacher who usually behaved as amiable old man, but if he got really angry he could even beat up the king. Therefore his majesty used the opportunity to escape.
"Let's go, I'll treat you to some herbal tea. It's also one of my discoveries – it can help practitioner to gather Qi easier." Nick smiled and led the old man to his cottage.
"I'm not sure how much the king told you about me, but I was a captive in the Holy Order for a while. And before I escaped, I managed to cheat a few good Qi techniques out of them." He continued to explain.
"Oh right, there was a footwork and meditation technique as well. So from the age of seven I tried to practice all of those, even the part that should be only available to the Qi masters. I'm continuously trying to apply Qi in everything I do and the results are quite astonishing. I even helped a friend of mine to develop an underwater Qi technique that propelled him to a Qi master, but for me it has a bit different effect."
Nick stretched out his hand and a thin swirl of dark blue mist formed.
"For some reason my Qi became much more dense while I practiced under water and I'm able to manipulate it much more effectively."
Nick explained his experiences for an hour or even more, then listened to master Marozzo. After hearing Nick out, the old man had a theory that Nick's Qi was so dense because of meditation technique and the underwater practice was unique, but not much more effective than his first three Qi techniques. He advised to increase the meditation time, maybe even triple it for a half a year and then see the results.
They talked about many other things as well. Nick told about his theories on importance of the physical practice and multiple 'new' exercises he 'invented'. The old man made several suggestions on how to improve those and helped him to perfect his Wakizashi style quite a bit. They talked till late at night when the old man left, he was happy but, still felt that it was a waste for this talent to not practice the sword.
While the two were exchanging their experiences, Zia followed her father into the Royal treasury, except this time they entered the familiar building via the front door. Zia glanced around with interest – she didn't come down to the first floor the last time and was curious about the gold and silver piles that, according to Nick, should've been kept here.
To her big disappointment, all she saw were stacks of boxes and chests of various sizes. It was way different from the huge pile of glistering gold in the middle of the room she imagined before.
"This is where we store our reserves. Most of the containers you see are empty because, as you can imagine, our warfare in the south requires a lot of funding." The king explained when he saw the daughter's disappointed gaze.
When they reached the second floor, Zia instantly darted to the weapon stand she had been dreaming about for the last couple of years. On it was a huge, over a meter long dark purple blade without any decorative elements, grid lines or even fuller to reduce its weight. It was obviously heavy since the thickness on its spine was almost four centimeters and at the bottom it was fifteen centimeters wide. The blade had a short back grip and was meant to be held with one hand, but that didn't make any sense since it was heavier than most longswords despite being shorter. It looked like the grip and the blade were made from one piece and somewhat primitive black leather strips covering the handle were meant only to allow the owner for a tighter hold.
Zia stood in front of this weapon just like the last time, trying to hold herself back from jumping on and hugging it.
When king saw his daughter standing there, clearly in love with that weird weapon and almost salivating, he was speechless. Any Qi sword master, even more – every girl, would prefer an elegant sword that would be beautiful to wield. Those big weapons were only choices of hillbillies who couldn't practice Qi or barbarians from the Northern empire, who in general preferred axes. The power of the weapon usually was determined by Qi skills and techniques of its user, therefore big and clunky weapons never were the first choice for a Qi sword master.
"Zia, why do you want this blade? Although it has a beautiful color, it's made of unique meteorite metal that was found several hundred years ago and is incredibly heavy. Even I would find it hard to wield, not to speak of a little girl like you." King explained while caressing her head, with a gentle smile on his face.
But he could never have guessed that those words were the exact ones he shouldn't have said.
"Oh, even you can't?" The fire in Zia's eyes started to burn with even brighter flames, "Then I definitely want this one!"
King was speechless. Looking at his excited daughter he couldn't figure out any ways to persuade her. It was already hard to reason with her under normal circumstances, but if she was like this, it might even be impossible.
But he was a smart and cunning person, otherwise he wouldn't be one of the mightiest men in the world. He quickly realized there were two people who could change Zia's mind and even if they couldn't, he quickly thought of a plan 'B'.
"I can't take it out right now since there are formations guarding all the items here. I'll give it to you later in the afternoon. Till then I would like you to visit your mother and tell her about your choice. You know she's incredible Qi sword master and could definitely give you an advice or two."
First of all, it was impossible for the king to take the real blade out now, since every item here was only a replica and the real ones were in the new underground vault. Second, he hoped that his beloved queen Hua could persuade her own daughter to change her mind.
"Alright!" Zia wasn't interested in anything else as she excitedly darted down the stairs.
What she heard her father say was: 'you'll get your sword in the afternoon, go and ask your mother how to wield it' therefore she didn't spare any glance to examine other swords and ran to her mother to share the exciting news.
King shook his head and slowly proceeded towards the real vault to grab the blade in case his stubborn daughter wouldn't change her mind.
"I know that weapon." Queen Hua replied when she heard Zia's story, "But it's incredibly heavy. How do you expect to wield it and even fight with it in the future?"
Zia looked back at her and blinked few times, "I need to get stronger, of course." She answered as if that was the only logical option.
Queen looked at her and thought for a while, then started to laugh, "Hahaha, I believe you can do it! Your father will be really surprised when you'll pull it off."
"But you will have to train really hard, that weapon is no joke." She seriously added.
Zia nodded and impatiently waited for the afternoon.
When the king saw her again, from the passion in Zia's demeanor he could tell queen Hua has failed to persuade her. Little did he know that not only she didn't try to change her daughter's mind, she even encouraged her.
"Here it is. But since it's a very special weapon, I have a special condition in case if you still want to choose it." King smiled at Zia while making few heavy swings with the imposing blade.
The little princess almost didn't hear what he said as she stretched out her hands to reach for her dream weapon.
"If you want to use it, first you will have to pass a test." King stopped his daughter, "You'll have to carry this weapon for three months, without any breaks! And you can only put it down when you sleep at night."
"Alright!" Zia didn't care about such test at all, in fact, it was almost as if her greatest wish was fulfilled – she actually never thought of parting with the weapon in the first place. She was dreaming about this moment for years and now it finally came true.
The king put the tip of the blade on the floor and passed the handle into Zia's little trembling hands. Extremely excited and her heart racing she reached out for the weapon that, if one counted the handle, was almost the same height as her. She took the handle of the blade with both hands, lowered it a bit and then tried to lift … just to fall down on the floor with a loud bang together with her new weapon.
Zia lied there for a few seconds in confusion, then quickly jumped up and tried to pick up the weapon again. Grabbing the handle with some effort she managed to put it into a vertical position, but she couldn't really lift it.
"How is it? Do you like it?" The king hoped that she would finally get reasonable and give up, but his daughter's next sentence almost made him fall over as well.
"Uhm, father, could you help me put it on my back so I can start the test?" Zia asked and turned her flushed and excited face towards the stupefied king.
It took her the whole afternoon and evening to bring the blade to her room, and when she finally got there, she fell asleep on her bed exhausted and with her clothes on. But there was still a trace of smile on Zia's face.