The sharp clang of metal echoed through the empty room as Rei darted forward, blade raised.

  The robotic dummy reacted instantly. A blur of motion. It feinted left, then swung right with brutal precision. Rei’s foresight kicked in, his golden eye flaring as a shimmer of the dummy’s movement appeared just ahead of time.

  Clang.

  Sparks flew as their weapons clashed. Rei twisted, sliding low to avoid a follow-up strike.

  “Don’t just dodge,” Raphael’s voice rang out calmly from the side. “Read. Learn. Why did it feint left?”

  Rei gritted his teeth, focusing. “To draw me into a vulnerable spot.”

  “And you went for it,” Raphael replied, arms crossed. “Again.”

  The dummy reset.

  Rei raised his blade.

  The room had become their own little bubble. Sterile floors, white lights, and the ticking of machines were the only soundtrack to Rei’s increasingly complex drills. The training dummy didn’t get tired. It didn’t flinch. It only punished mistakes.

  Strike. Parry. Dodge. Reset.

  Each time he slipped up, Raphael would call it to a halt with a quiet tone that somehow never felt condescending.

  “Wrong angle.”

  “Too early on that parry.”

  “Your center of gravity shifted. Did you feel it?”

  Rei would nod, breathing hard, and reset again.

  There was something comforting in the rhythm of it. Something reassuring in Raphael’s presence. Not overbearing. Not cold. Just... steady. Supportive. Every correction came with an explanation. Every critique paired with encouragement.

  Others might’ve called it strict.

  Rei had started calling it something else in his head.

  Gentle parenting.

  He wasn’t used to this kind of structure, but part of him... appreciated it.

  And it showed.

  After dozens of exchanges, Rei finally parried the dummy’s feint correctly. Shifted his weight. Saw the angle before the attack came. Countered. Landed a hit.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  The dummy froze. Training complete.

  Raphael nodded slowly. “Good. Now do it again.”

  Rei groaned but stepped back into stance without hesitation.

  An hour passed.

  Eventually, Raphael raised a hand, halting the session.

  “You’re improving.”

  “I want to go again.”

  “You need rest.”

  Rei blinked. “But—”

  “You’ll follow the training schedule I designed,” Raphael said simply, not unkindly. “Overtraining dulls your edge. Tomorrow we’ll continue.”

  Rei hesitated, the fire still burning behind his eyes. But he nodded.

  “…Alright.”

  He turned to leave. As the doors slid open, Raphael’s voice followed him one last time.

  “You're doing well. Trust the process.”

  ---

  [North Training Grounds – A Grassy Hill Near the Garden Sheds]

  Stacy, Luna, and Daisy had picked a quiet corner under the shade of a willow tree. Their training session had wrapped up earlier, and now the three girls sat stretched out on the grass, drinks in hand and sweat still clinging to their foreheads.

  “Did you see how Jian accidentally flung his staff into the lake?” Stacy asked, laughing.

  Luna chuckled, wiping her face with a towel. “He spent ten minutes arguing with Carter over whose fault it was.”

  Daisy smiled, pulling her knees in. “At least no one got hit this time.”

  Their conversation drifted from training to dorm pranks to which instructor was the scariest.

  (Stacy voted Akane. Luna said Kael. Daisy refused to answer.)

  But slowly, Daisy’s smile faded.

  There was a pause as she rolled up her sleeve slightly.

  “…Do you see this?” she asked.

  The scar ran along her forearm. Faint. Jagged. Old, but still there.

  Luna’s eyes widened. “That from—?”

  “The market attack,” Daisy said softly. “Me and Oliver were cornered by a rift monster. Rei was separated. I got slashed while we were trying to hold it off. First real scar I ever got.”

  Neither Luna nor Stacy knew what to say. They waited.

  “I thought about quitting, after that,” Daisy continued. “I thought... maybe I made the wrong choice. Maybe my mom was right keeping me locked up in Astral Spire. At least there, I wouldn’t be bleeding on the street, right?”

  The wind blew gently through the trees. No one interrupted.

  “But then I came here,” Daisy whispered. “I met you guys. I laughed again. I trained, got stronger, even if I still suck sometimes. I didn’t think I’d ever have something like this again. Not after my sister died.”

  Luna’s breath caught.

  Stacy’s expression faltered.

  “…I didn’t know,” Luna said gently.

  “It’s okay,” Daisy said, dabbing at her eyes. “I didn’t want to make things weird. I just…”

  She looked up at them.

  “I’m glad I’m here.”

  Stacy exchanged a look with Luna. Then smiled softly.

  “Well, if you’re gonna start crying,” Stacy said, digging through her bag, “we might as well make it worth it.”

  She pulled out a folded blueprint and handed it to Daisy.

  Luna leaned over. “We worked on it together. A little something for your loadout.”

  The design on the paper was intricate small threads that emitted faint light, wrapped into what looked like a hand-sized spindle-like device. That looked like a petal from from flower, blooming outward into a floating, lotus-shaped platform.

  Lullight Loom, the name read.

  “It weaves your healing grace into short-range fields,” Luna explained. “Not just for healing others, but to protect you too.”

  “Auto-activates when your vitals drop,” Stacy added. “Plus, it glows when you feel anxious. Like a nightlight... but fancy.”

  Daisy’s lip quivered again—but this time, she laughed. “You two are ridiculous.”

  “Better than you sulking in your room.”

  “Hey!”

  The three girls pulled into a tight hug.

  No more words needed.

  “Dinner’s ready,” Aiden called out as he approached.

  The three girls turned as he set down a tray near the benches.

  “Perfect timing,” Stacy said, stretching. “Smells great.”

  Luna waved, then looked up at Aiden. “Hey. Could you check on Elisa?”

  Aiden blinked. “She hasn’t come out today?”

  “Or yesterday,” Stacy added. “She said she was busy but... I dunno. Just check on her?”

  He nodded without hesitation. “I’ll go now.”

  ---

  [Dorm Wing – Elisa’s Room]

  Aiden knocked twice. No answer.

  He frowned and pushed the door open slowly.

  The room was chaos. Papers taped to the walls. Crumpled notes scattered across the floor. Diagrams, video screenshots, names circled and underlined. The laptop still played an old training video on loop.

  At the center of the storm, Elisa was curled up on the carpet, completely out.

  Not just sleeping, collapsed.

  Aiden knelt beside her and touched her shoulder.

  “Elisa.”

  A faint groan.

  He glanced at the notes, recognizing some of Violet Willow’s footage.

  She’d overworked herself again.

  With a sigh, he slipped one arm under her back, the other under her knees, and lifted her up. She mumbled something unintelligible, weakly squirming.

  “You’re not fighting me on this, Liz,” Aiden muttered. “You’re going to bed.”

  He laid her gently on the mattress and pulled a blanket over her.

  Then reached into the corner to retrieve the long, soft plushie she liked.

  As he placed it beside her, Elisa murmured, voice barely audible.

  “...Thanks... Aiden…”

  He paused, letting the silence settle.

  Then quietly stepped out and closed the door behind him.

  [End of Chapter]