The following day, Rose awakes to a knock on her door. “Madame Azor? Are you awake?” Calls out Helen from the other side of the door. “Oh um, Yes ma’am, you can come in.” Rose says as she fumbles out of bed. The door opens as Helen enters the room and closes the door behind her.“Rex and Hiro are awaiting you in the courtyard. Hiro says he needs to speak to you both before your training starts. Also, Rex says you’ll primarily be training today so you don’t need to worry about your appearance.” Helen says. “Yes ma’am.” Rose responds as she looks around for her shoes. Once she’s ready, they both walk out of the room and walk to the courtyard.
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“There you are. It’s about time you got here!” Rex shouts from across the courtyard. “I wish for your training to be fruitful.” Helen says as she turns and leaves. Rose begins to jog over to them, after waving to Helen as they leave.
“Sorry for being late. I guess I was more tired than I thought yesterday.” She says. “It’s fine, we’re not in a hurry.” Hiro says nonchalantly. “What I needed to talk to you about was your training and my departure.”. “Departure? You’re leaving?” Rose says with a confused look on her face. “Yes I’m leaving to go to Kennis shortly to have a meeting with their King. I hear he’s one the most intelligent people on the planet and is the world’s leader in mana related studies. His help might be necessary in solving a problem I have.’ Hiro explains. “I intend to be away for a week, but if things go better than I hope, I might be back a few days sooner. While I’m away, I am entrusting you and your training to Rex. He is the strongest fighter in the kingdom and my most trusted member of the royal family. I know you have a history of not believing things that people say, but trust me when I say that you are in good hands. That being said, I will be leaving you both now.” Hiro says as he begins to walk out.
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"Well… Now that he's gone, how about we get started? For the first 4 days, we'll train you in hand to hand and general close quarters combat. We'll start barehanded and gradually add in weapons and eventually abilities. If you have any questions, we can stop at any time." Rex says. "Yes sir!" Rose says with a hint of anticipation in her voice. "Wonderful. So come at me with all you have!" Rex says getting into a boxer's stance. Rose hesitates for a moment before lunging at him and attacks with a flurry of wild punches. Rex immediately notices that she hasn't fought much prior to this, as a lot of her attacks feel amateurish, sluggish, and leave her open to counterattacks. He dodges all her punches, and trips her after she throws the last of her wide swings. "Hiro was right. We do have a lot of work to do." Rex says, sighing as Rose plops onto the ground, face first.
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"If you're disappointed, then actually TEACH me something before you judge me!" Rose says defiantly. "I had to see what you were capable of, so I could make sure we focus on your weak points. If this is where you are in terms of skill, you have quite a bit to learn before Hiro's return. Come here, and I'll show you how to throw a real punch." He says as he helps her up. "Watch me, and then you try for yourself." Rex says as he takes his stance and throws two slow jabs, and then throws them again at a slightly faster speed. Rose observes and mimics him almost perfectly. "Good. You got the form down, now try swinging at me." He says turning to Rose. "Yes sir!" She says as she entries a near identical stance to Rex. She then attacks with the same punch she practiced. "Good. Now try throwing a few more a bit faster." He says after taking the first hit. After a few more, Rex says, "Excellent progress so far. See if you can try dodging my attacks as you continue to strike me. I'll progressively get faster, so stay on your toes.". "Yes sir." She says as she continues to attack, while swaying in and out to avoid his. As Rex continues to speed up, Rose does as well, managing to keep up for several minutes. As they continue, Rose starts to get grazed by some of his attacks, until she takes a head on hit to the stomach. The hit knocks her off of her feet a few feet back to ground.
"Great job!" He exclaims. "You lasted longer than I would've expected, seeing as you just started. Take a few minutes to gather yourself before we continue." He says as he begins to stretch.
"Owwww… Didn't think he was going to hit me that hard." Rose says to herself, groaning in pain. "I guess this is what training is going to be like for a while." She gets back after a few more minutes and spars with him again. The two of them continue to train until sundown, repeating the process everyday while adding new maneuvers, weapons, and changes in location, until the fifth day of training.
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"Now it's time to work on your ability. First, tell me everything you know about your ability." Rex says to Rose.
"Well, from what I know of it, it allows me to teleport to… well… anywhere I think." She says, trying to recall anything she can about her ability that might be relevant. "Almost right. You should be able to teleport anywhere as long as you have been there before, or you have detailed description. You have a fairly straightforward ability." Rex says while pondering something. "You know about? Did Mr. Hiro tell you?" Questions Rose. "No, he didn't tell me about it for you specifically. Since it seems you don't know this, all abilities are given by the ley lines that run throughout the planet, and more specifically, underneath the borders between countries. Some people develop their's sooner, and some later, while some people don't receive one at all. We know very little about the ley lines, but what we do know is that there are a few rules that are set in stone regarding what kinds of abilities people can receive. The one that's important for you to know right now, is that there's only ever one person with the teleportation ability in each nation."
"Hm. Is that why I wasn't executed when I got arrested? Because I have a rare ability?" Rose says curiously.
"More than likely, yes. In all six nations, it's a custom of sorts to treat their nation's teleporters with care, since if they don't, it would put them behind other kingdoms that do have a teleporter. Outside of movement and communication, teleporters are an immense asset in battle as well. And before you ask, while Hiro did initially approach you because of your ability, everything outside of that has been him treating you well out of the kindness of his heart. He's genuinely a nice guy. Cautious, but nice." Rex explains, anticipating her next question.
"Cautious? He didn't seem that way to me. If I had a word to describe him, it would probably be spontaneous, rather than cautious. Sure, his offer to recruit me was planned beforehand, what about the wager he made with me? Sure he can kind of keep up with me, but what if I had taken the chance to flee the city, or even the kingdom? How would he have managed me if things didn't go the way they did? Seems to me like he was playing it by ear." She asks, bombarding Rex with questions.
"I’ll try to answer your questions based on what he told me before and after he approached you. Going in order, his bet with you was partially a test to see if you would try to escape after being given some amount of freedom, to which you didn’t, thus helping him figure out your character throughout the conversation. Next, if you would have tried escaping, there was nowhere you could actually escape to. Rex explains to her.
“I could’ve teleported to a neighboring kingdom, provided that I’d been there previously, right? Or even just to a different city would have been fine too.” Rose says confidently, as if she had figured out the answer to this question.
“Not quite.” Rex says. “Seeing as you’ve been a known and wanted thief for years and have never been reported to teleport, it’s unlikely that you’d have had your ability for that long and it likely awakened itself the day you were arrested. With that knowledge, Hiro guessed that your Ether reserves weren’t large enough to teleport to a different nation. And as far as teleporting to a different city, well… He had already spread his fog over the entirety of the kingdom. On top of being able to disappear and reappear anywhere within the fog, he can also sense everything that is inside of it. There wasn’t anywhere for you to hide that he couldn’t find nor get to.” Rex explains as he paces around the courtyard.
Hearing this sent shivers down her spine. She had once thought that she was almost in control of that situation, to now knowing that he was in complete control the entire time. In Rose’s mind, Hiro had now become someone who was generous, but was also someone who was not to be trifled with. Coming to terms with her newfound reverence for Hiro, she says, “Not to get off topic, but what is ether?”.
“Ah yes. Back to our original conversation. Ether is the energy used to activate abilities. It is something that all people are born with whether they have an ability or not.” Says Rex as he stops pacing, now looking at Rose. “ Next question, how did you and Mr. Hiro ‘guess’ that I didn't have enough Ether to teleport to a different nation?”
“Think of your Ether reserves as another body, like a spirit body, or in this case, an ethereal one. The same way you would train your physical body through physical training and general use, your ethereal body is trained by expending your ether and using your ability.”
“Oh like what I did in the prison? Just using my ability over and over again makes me stronger? Is that what we’re doing today?” Rose says. “More or less, yes. As far as today, I was asked to try something with you for Hiro. Try teleporting like normal, then try to teleport using less Ether.” He explains. She nods and closes her eyes, and teleports to a tree a few feet away. “That’s the normal one.” She says, then attempts to to use less Ether in the next one. She closes her eyes for a few moments, but nothing happens. “Was something supposed to happen? I feel like I used some ether, but I didn’t feel myself move. It actually feels like I’m continuously expending Ether.” Opening her eyes, speaking to Rex. She notices Rex says something, but it looks and sounds like he's talking in a slightly slower manner. She walks up to him, and then walks around him noticing that he's moving marginally slower, but still enough of a difference to be noticeable. "Hey! Stop messing with me! Talk normally!" Rose shouts at him. She then tries to push him in minor frustration. Upon touching him, he seems to return to normal. "Why were you moving so fast?" Rex says while he recovers from Rose's push. "I was moving fast? To me, it looked like you were moving slower." She says in response. "Describe everything you experienced just now. Don't leave out anything."
"Well, I tried to teleport with less Ether like you said, but I didn't actually move. When I opened my eyes, you looked like you were moving slower and that my Ether was draining constantly." Rose explains. "Hmm… Try it again, but try sparring with me while it's active. You should be able to keep up a bit better with this 'hyper speed' of yours." He says while entering his normal fighting stance. She agrees, enters hyper speed, and begins her assault. A few minutes into this session, Rex says, "Your doing a bit better now, but try expending a little bit more Ether and see if it changes anything.". When she does, she feels her surroundings start to slow down even more drastically. Rex is moving at less than half of the speed he was going prior. As she continues to strike, a smile begins to grow on Rex's face as he speeds up to compensate for her boost in speed. "I figured he was holding back, but this is unreal." She thinks to herself in awe of Rex's sheer physicality. After another minute, Rex starts to outspeed her and lands yet another clean hit to her stomach. This time it sends her flying several feet backwards into a wall at the edge of the courtyard. "My bad, I guess I got carried away. Are you alright?"
Rex says while jogging over to her. "That one hurt a LOT worse than the last one. Is it alright if we call it a day?" Rose asks with a hint of pain in her voice. "Sure, but we'll be back at it again even harder tomorrow. Do you need me to walk you back to your room?" Rex says as he helps her up off the ground and gestures to her to get on his back. "You two are more alike than I thought." She mumbles to herself. "But yeah, I'll take you up on your offer."
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