[i]Previously in Broken Honor…[/i] [quote] “Wait wait wait… Is that baby [i]you[/i], Ronin???” Mirage exclaimed with incredulity. “Actually, yes. That baby in the moonlight was me, Mirage. The name ‘Rysko Lunae’ means ‘The Moon’s Tear’,” Ronin explained. [/quote] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [quote] “Come on, girls. Time to get up.” Ronin gently shook Jade and Mirage slightly as the morning light filtered into the cave. Mirage slowly rose, yawned, and stretched, her tail sticking straight out as she did so. Jade, however, remained as still as possible. “Jade, come on, time to get up. We got to get a move on if we’re going to make any progress up the mountain.” Ronin focused his attention on Jade, and noticed her staring straight at him with her pupils dilated and her snout pointing to her ankle. It was badly swollen. “Ah, you can’t get up, can you? Well, I guess we can take today off for a day of rest, at least until you get better.” Mirage perked up at the sound of a rest. “Wait, if we’re resting, then can you continue your story from last night?” She wrapped herself in her blanket and gave Ronin a questioning, almost a pleading look. “Alright, sure. Story time. Jade, you let me know when you’re feeling better, OK?” [/quote] [i]11 years after the birth…[/i] “Once more.” Shura’s voice, though calm and even, carried over the training room with ease over the sound of wood hitting wood. The trainees lifted their practice wooden swords and struck the mannequins in front of them again, muscles burning with exertion. Each trainee struck a little differently, some with experience and some without, and some using their affinity and some not. “Rest.” Shura’s voice boomed throughout the hall again, and every trainee let their sword drop to the ground and caught their breath, grateful for the break. Shura, one of the trainees’ combat mentors, made his way through the classroom, giving different tips and pointers to each trainee individually. “Rysko, you’ve really got a natural talent for this, but keep your sword level when you’re striking. That will increase the amount of power behind your swing, as well as its accuracy,” Shura commented when he reached Rysko’s station. Rysko stood up to his full height, tall for an 11-year-old, but still only half Shura’s height, and spoke simply, “Yes, sir.” He lifted his sword again and readied to continue the drills, but Shura held up a hand. “You are dismissed. I imagine the other mentors will have more for you to do today, so go ahead and make your way to Sensei Qiulong.” The class of trainees stood back up and filed out of the classroom. Shura watched Rysko go, together with his friends Arte and Ichiro, silently shaking his head as he began to clean the room. In Qiulong’s classroom, the trainees were practicing using their affinities. Artemis would drop by and pick up Arte, and together, they would be at the village hospital the rest of the day, with Artemis giving Arte tips and pointers on how to use her healing affinity. Most trainees needed to practice calling upon their affinities in the first place, like Myxilor’s future sight being unpredictable and Sky’s wind being uncontrolled. The only trainee who could control her power without much trouble was Nil. As she was the oldest out of the trainees, and beginning to follow through with her dream of becoming a Hunter, she had much more practice with her affinity than the others did. Even then, however, she practiced her blood magic, though she did so with Qiulong keeping a careful eye on her. Rysko, however, had to sit in the corner of the classroom and twiddle his thumbs. While everyone else around him was born with magical affinities, he seemed to be the only one without them. Even Sensei Varvatos, who specialized in recognizing affinities after his long time teaching students, could not identify if Rysko even [i]had[/i] an affinity. Rysko simply had to sit and wait. With guilt and self-loathing sinking in, Rysko tuned the rest of the classroom out and stared out the window next to him longingly. “Rysko!” Qiulong’s voice woke Rysko suddenly. Rysko instantly bolted awake and looked around. Qiulong was squatting next to him, with a wry smile on his face. As it turned out, Rysko had fallen asleep while everyone else was training. “How was the nap, Rysko?” Qiulong’s sarcastic question was asked quietly enough not to be heard by any of his classmates, but Rysko still felt embarrassed. “Sensei Qiulong, I apologize for falling asleep!” Rysko responded in a hurry. “Rysko, recite to me the portion of the Code of Honor that is relevant here.” Qiulong sat down next to Rysko and continued keeping an eye on Nil. “I’ll give you a hint - there’s no clause about sleeping in the middle of class.” “Hmm…” Rysko thought for a moment, then he faced Qiulong with a determined expression. “Sir, I don’t remember how the Code of Honor can be applied here.” “That’s quite alright, that’s what I’m here for,” Qiulong responded with kindness in his eyes. “Remember the whole thing about perservering, even through hard times? ‘Even should you fall on hard times, persevere with determination, and never give up and never give in.’ See, Rysko,” Qiulong turned to look the child in the eyes, “even if you don’t know what your affinity is, or even if you have one, that is no reason to give up. You can still exercise your other skills in this classroom like your swordsmanship, or your archery, or you could even work on those remedial lessons. I happen to know Sensei Feu Pur tends to assign a lot of work for those.” Qiulong chuckled softly. “Sensei…” Rysko started. “I’m not going to punish you, Rysko. Not today. No, I originally came over here because there’s someone outside who wants to go ahead and take you home for today.” Qiulong gestured to the sliding door of the classroom as he stood and walked off over to Sky, who had managed to conjure enough wind to keep herself afloat, but with no directional control, so she had comically flipped herself upside down and held aloft only by her own power. Rysko stood and made his way over to the door slowly and opened it. He stepped outside and saw a familiar figure leaning against the wall of the classroom. “Come on, kiddo. Let’s go home,” Shura spoke simply. [quote] “Jade, I got through all of that, and it’s evening already. How is your ankle [i]not[/i] feeling better?” Ronin exclaimed, exasperated with his companions’ undying desire to hear his story. Jade, surprised, stood up and backed away slightly, letting the cat out of the bag, so to speak. “Jade, you moved! Now we’ll never know why Shura was outside waiting for Ronin!” Mirage cried out. “Wait, Ronin or Rysko? Now I’m confused…” “Just use Ronin. I’ll explain the name switch at some other point, it comes much later in the story. For now, though, I’m going to cook you dinner and you can’t do anything about it.” Ronin grinned evilly as he gathered the pots and pans from their bags. “No, wait, we’re sorry, Ronin!” Mirage got down on her knees and clasped her hands together, pleading with him. “Please, anything but your cooking!” “Should’ve been making dinner while I was talking, Mirage. Not my fault we’re having chicken and fish soup tonight.” Ronin chuckled as he spoke and cooked, and Mirage and Jade together let out a cry of despair, enough to drown out the sorrows of a princess locked away in a tower in a forgotten fairy tale. [/quote] [spoiler]There we go, much longer. And much more full of characters and dialogue and things like that. Currently planning on trying to keep to a scheduled release of every other day for this, though my family is in the process of moving, so I can't promise that it'll be as consistent as I want it. Also, I wrote this chapter without access to my lore page, since Discord went down this morning. So I apologize for any glaring mistakes in character.[/spoiler]