"I’m sorry Cal but I don’t think we’ll be able to practice this week at all." Thomas stated. "I have no idea how they did it, but pretty much every commander managed to damage their armour or sword recently – or maybe they just haven’t given them for maintenance in a very long ti."
"That’s too bad, but I’ll live." Calen shrugged. "I just have to find sothing else to occupy the week. Maybe I’ll borrow the aura training equipnt from Cass since he doesn’t need it anymore anyway."
"Good idea, but you can try swinging by the forge on the last day – if we manage to fix everything by then then maybe we’ll squeeze in one day of practice."
"Got it, see you in six days I guess."
***
"Finally decided to train the old fashioned way instead of taking magic dicine?" Cassian asked as he bent down to retrieve the aura training implent.
"I’m afraid I didn’t have ti to run laps everyday with danger around every corner – plus don’t act like you wouldn’t imdiately accept if soone offered you an enhancing pill."
"Never said I wouldn’t." Cassian handed him the tool. "I already told you how to use it but I’m willing to repeat it if you don’t rember anymore."
"No need, but thanks."
"If that’s everything you need then please leave, I want to go back to cultivation."
"You’re such a kind and welcoming person, you know that?"
"Shut up and get lost."
***
While Nickolas told them that the preparation period was mostly for the contestants, that wasn’t strictly true – yes, the leadership technically had the event already organised, but the arena still had to be decorated sowhat due to the public nature of the event.
Since at this point in aura training it didn’t require much concentration Calen would be bored to tears by just sitting and fruitlessly trying to grasp aura, so he decided to do it in the arena – seemingly the only place in the castle where sothing was happening.
He expected the knights assigned to the task of decorating to be rather down about it but they seed to actually greatly enjoy it, perhaps because it was a rare opportunity to do sothing not related to combat.
Not that there was a lot to decorate – well, there was a lot of space to fill but the decorations weren’t exactly varied: blue and silver banners with the Order’s crest in three sizes, so kind of special torches using blue fla and blue carpets in the few VIP sections.
"Watching them goof around ey?" A voice ca from behind.
Calen turned around to see Nickolas leaning against a row of seats in the back.
"I’m training, actually." He gestured at the tool next to him.
"Sure you are." Nickolas chuckled but then his expression beca more serious. "I was visited by Tharion."
"What...?" Calen’s eyes widened. "When? Why?"
"He appeared in my office a few hours after you left – apparently he wanted to inform that he wants to attend the tournant."
"That’s... strange. Has he done anything like that before?"
"Never, the incident with Arthur was the first ti I saw him in five centuries – which is precisely why this developnt makes so nervous."
"Did you ask him about it?"
"I did, but all he said was ’I simply wish to observe’. What do you think he wants to observe?"
"The fiasco with most of the round table following Arthur probably made him doubt your abilities to choose leaders."
"Can’t really bla him to be honest." Nickolas half-Smiled. "Do you think I should prepare a special seat for him or sothing?"
"I think it’s unlikely that we’ll actually see him, he’ll probably watch the entire thing from the shadows."
"Right, the guy who didn’t even want to say his na after saving hundreds of people probably won’t want special treatnt." Nickolas agreed. "But if I’m not supposed to treat him in a special way nor will I actually see him, then why the hell did he even co to tell about his plans?*
"Um... to stress you out?"
"Be serious."
"I am! Partially at least – if he makes you nervous then you’re gonna pay more attention to every aspect of the tournant and produce better results."
"I’m afraid my input has little to do with who will be elected – otherwise I probably wouldn’t have ended up in a cell."
"You really should think about creating your own faction, it would help you with a lot of stuff."
"Yeah, I need to do that and quite a lot of other things. Most importantly I’ll need to set up a battle trial for Thomas after the tournant is done."
"You think the new round table won’t oppose it?"
"They can’t anymore – the whole argunt was that he was our only blacksmith, but now that Greg turned out to also be one it’s simply not true. Even if I decided to just make him a knight on the spot I doubt anyone would protest, but I decided to do it the proper way so that no one questions his title’s legitimacy."
"Do you think his reputation will change once he becos a knight?"
"Doubtful, his reputation was a product of his deanour – however deserved it might have been. Nothing will change unless he stops snapping at everybody who even looks at him weirdly."
"That’s what I keep hearing from people, but to be honest I’ve yet to see him get even slightly mad – and gods know I wasted a lot of tal in his forge."
"That’s because you ca with Alfred, had you visited the Order in your own initiative I suspect it would have taken him much longer to warm up to you, or well at least until either or you realised who the other side was."
Suddenly Calen felt sothing with him – it was a shadow, a whisper of a feeling almost too faint to grasp with his senses, and it disappeared almost instantly.
But he was sure that it was there, even if just for a mont.
"Was that...?" He looked at Nickolas.
"It seems like all those body enhancents made you more sensitive to aura – it won’t make you stronger or the training quicker, but you should be able to start cultivating quicker than normally. If you were to focus solely on cultivating you could probably still catch up to Cass."
"We both know that’s not true, that lunatic is cultivating any ti he’s free and I have two more powers to take care of."
"Speaking of which, how’s your magical progress going?"
"It’s... a bit complicated." Calen stated. "My magic power keeps passively growing at a rate I’ve never experienced before, perhaps a side effect of the divine fla, but my understanding of magic stagnated since we woke up after the invasion. There simply aren’t enough opportunities to use spells with my other powers and Isa around."
"No one said that mastering three separate powers was gonna be easy, but I bet that once you manage to do that you’ll be like a... well I was going to say a god but then realised the divine fla on its own is kinda enough for that, so like, a super god?"
"Thanks Nick – you have such a way with words."
"Oh shut up." Nickolas swatted him on the head. "I’m the head of the Order you know, would you mock Sylara like that?"
"No, but I also didn’t see Sylara slip on horse shit and-"
"That’s quite enough." Nickolas clamped his hand over Caleb’s mouth. "I have a reputation to maintain and the stories about my teenage years probably won’t help with it."
"Alright, alright." Calen lifted up his arms as a sign of surrender. "We can change the topic if you want – you can tell all you know about the Enlightened, sohow I think you’ll have more to say than Sylara."
"Do you want an objective take on the Sage’s Summit or my personal opinion?"
"Both preferably – unless you have sothing important to do."
"I don’t, hence why I ca to find you. In terms of objective facts, I think they are far to reliant on the sigils, the only people in the entire settlent who could count as capable fighters are the handful of scouts and the Grandmaster himself. They can be also quite stubborn when it cos to their traditions, perhaps because they were already forced to forsake so many of them."
"And your personal opinion?"
"They’re weird but good people. Asur might just be a the strangest person I have ever t, but that might just be because he’s a spirit." Nickolas scratched his chin. "What else, what else... oh right! They have this insane dicinal garden with things I can’t even pronounce correctly – I think even Sylara might not have so of the things they do. If they ever want you to do sothing, take the herbs as a paynt."
"You said they don’t have capable fighters."
"That’s right."
"But they have a garden full otg super rare herbs?"
"Yup."
"What do they use it for?"
"I have absolutely no clue."
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