Rhea woke the next morning to the repeated sound of wood striking stone somewhere behind the house.
For several seconds, she remained beneath her blanket and considered pretending she hadn’t heard anything.
Her legs still remembered yesterday’s training far too clearly, and the idea of voluntarily returning to the yard so Kael could spend another morning demonstrating that she had apparently been using her own body incorrectly for years wasn’t particularly attractive.
Unfortunately, she had been the one who asked him to become her master.
Rhea dragged herself out of bed, changed into training clothes, and made her way toward the back door.
The moment she stepped into the yard, she stopped.
The previously empty training area had changed considerably overnight.
Wooden poles had been fixed into the ground at different heights.
Several ropes hung between them.
Weighted balls, metal rings, narrow wooden boards, and other simple pieces of training equipment were arranged along the wall.
Kael stood near the center examining one of the poles while another Kael adjusted a rope several meters away.
Rhea looked around.
“Where did all this come from?” “Bought it.” She looked at him suspiciously.
“You bought it?” “That’s usually how shops work.” “No, I mean you actually bought everything without accidentally giving someone a crystal worth a house.” Kael slowly turned toward her.
Rhea smiled.
“I’m strangely proud of you, Master.” “That’s insulting.” “It was supposed to be encouraging.” “It wasn’t.” Rhea’s smile widened.
At least he was learning quickly.
Only a few days ago, he had been prepared to pay a twelve-copper entrance fee with a Deepheart Crystal.
Now he had apparently visited several shops, compared prices, purchased equipment, and returned without destabilizing Greyhaven’s economy.
Progress came in many forms.
After breakfast, Rhea retrieved her short blade and entered the yard with considerably more enthusiasm.
Yesterday’s training had been miserable, but the improvement afterward had been undeniable.
If Kael could change her balance that much in a single day, she wanted to know what came next.
Kael looked at the weapon.
“Put it down.” Rhea sighed.
Of course.
She placed the blade near the wall.
Kael pointed toward the opposite side of the yard.
“Walk there.” Rhea waited.
“That’s it?” “Yes.” She walked across the yard.
“Again.” Rhea turned and returned.
“Again.” She crossed it a third time.
By the sixth repetition, suspicion had replaced enthusiasm.
“Master, I know how to walk.” Kael looked at her.
“You knew how to stand too.” Rhea immediately stopped arguing.
Kael approached and pointed toward her right foot.
“You’re pushing too hard when you accelerate.” He moved his finger toward her hip.
“This rotates before the rest of you.” Then her chest.
“You stop breathing when you change direction.” “I don’t.” “You do.” Rhea frowned and walked again, deliberately paying attention to her breathing.
When she turned, she noticed the tiny interruption.
Her expression changed.
Kael continued as though discovering flaws she had never noticed was completely ordinary.
“Your internal force also reaches your legs slightly after you decide to move.
Not much, but enough to create waste.” “How much waste?” “A little.” “That’s bad?” “One little mistake isn’t.” Kael pointed toward her feet, hip, shoulder, and chest in sequence.
“You have many.” Rhea’s expression flattened.
Kael added, “You’re fighting your own body before you fight the enemy.” That sentence stayed with her.
She had spent years trying to become faster, stronger, and more efficient.
Whenever progress slowed, she increased her training.
More repetitions.
More circulation exercises.
Longer expeditions.
She had never considered that repeating something imperfectly might simply make the imperfection more permanent.
“Fine,” Rhea said.
“How do we fix it?” Kael smiled slightly.
Rhea immediately became suspicious.
Another Kael appeared beside him.
Then another.
And another.
Rhea’s suspicion turned into concern.
Four became eight.
Eight became twelve.
By the time Kael stopped, twenty identical young men occupied different positions throughout the training yard.
Some stood beside the walls.
Several were near the wooden poles.
One sat on the roof.
Two stood behind Rhea while another leaned casually against the house.
Rhea slowly turned in a circle.
“Master…why are there twenty of you?” “Training.” All twenty answered.
Rhea shuddered.
She was never going to get used to that.
Kael explained the exercise.
Rhea had one objective: reach the opposite wall.
The Kaels wouldn’t punch or seriously injure her.
They would only interfere whenever her movement created an opening.
Rhea looked toward the wall.
The distance wasn’t even fifteen meters.
“That’s all?” “That’s all.” She took one step.
Something tapped her ankle.
Rhea fell face-first onto the grass.
She pushed herself up and looked behind her.
One Kael stood there.
“Again.” Rhea returned to the starting point.
This time she made it three steps.
A hand touched her shoulder at precisely the moment her weight shifted.
She stumbled sideways.
Another Kael lightly redirected her hip.
She fell.
Rhea climbed up.
“Again.” On the fifth attempt, she used speed.
Internal force surged into her legs, and she launched herself forward.
A Kael was already standing directly where she intended to go.
Rhea nearly collided with him.
She changed direction.
Another Kael occupied that position.
She twisted again.
A finger touched her side.
Her balance disappeared.
Ground.
Rhea stared upward.
“This is ridiculous.” Twenty Kaels looked down at her.
“Again.” The exercise continued.
At first, Rhea tried treating the Kaels like normal opponents.
She watched their shoulders, tracked their hands, searched for openings, and attempted feints.
Nothing worked.
She pretended to move left.
Kael knew.
She suddenly accelerated right.
Kael knew.
She deliberately shifted her attention toward one opponent before attacking another direction.
Kael still knew.
After another failed attempt, Rhea finally lost patience.
“How am I supposed to surprise someone who can see everything?” “Don’t.” Rhea blinked.
Kael walked toward her.
“You’re trying to make me wrong instead of making yourself right.” “What does that mean?” “You’re relying on me reacting incorrectly.
A feint works because the opponent believes it.
A surprise works because they don’t know it’s coming.
Those are useful, but your movement shouldn’t depend on the other person making a mistake.” Kael touched her shoulder.
“Remove this.” Then her hip.
“And this.” He tapped her foot.
“This too.” “Remove what?” “Everything you don’t need.” Rhea slowly understood.
Kael wasn’t teaching her how to fool his perception.
He was forcing her to stop announcing what she intended to do.
The next attempt lasted longer.
Then the next.
Hours passed.
Rhea stopped counting how many times she fell.
Her movements gradually became smaller.
Cleaner.
Her feet stopped striking the ground so heavily.
Her breathing continued naturally through direction changes.
She stopped throwing her entire body into every acceleration.
The distance she traveled increased.
Two meters.
Four.
Seven.
Half the yard.
Every failure revealed another unnecessary movement.
Eventually Rhea stood at the starting point breathing heavily.
She looked toward the opposite wall.
Then moved.
No explosive beginning.
No dramatic burst of force.
One step flowed into another.
A Kael approached from her left.
Rhea adjusted without stopping.
Another blocked the direct path.
She changed direction before her weight fully committed.
A third reached toward her shoulder.
Rhea slipped past.
Two more closed the final distance.
She moved between them.
Her fingers touched stone.
For several seconds, Rhea remained there.
Then she slowly turned.
“I did it.” Kael nodded.
“Acceptable.” Rhea stared at him.
“Acceptable?” “Yes.” A smile spread across her face.
Yesterday she had been less bad.
Today she was acceptable.
She had never expected such a mediocre word to feel like a major achievement.
After resting, Rhea retrieved her weapon.
Confidence had returned.
Perhaps too much.
“Master.” “Hmm?” “How far am I from actually hitting you?” “Far.” The answer came much too quickly.
Rhea frowned.
“Let me try.” Kael shrugged.
“Fine.” Only one Kael remained directly in front of her.
Rhea took her newly corrected stance.
She breathed.
Then attacked.
The movement was the cleanest strike she had ever performed.
Her blade approached Kael’s chest.
Then Rhea saw the metal change.
A faint discoloration appeared along the edge.
She stopped immediately.
Kael had never moved.
Rhea withdrew the weapon and stared at it.
“What happened?” “You entered the Domain.” Rhea looked toward him.
“The thing that killed the Graveback?” “One of its uses.” Kael took the weapon and examined the tiny affected section.
The deterioration had already stopped.
Rhea’s curiosity overcame her exhaustion.
“How does it work?” Kael considered how much explanation was necessary.
“I establish a territory around myself.
Inside it, I can establish a phenomenon.” “What phenomenon?” “For this one?
Decay.” Rhea looked around the apparently ordinary yard.
“So everything around you is decaying right now?” “No.” “But it’s inside your Domain.” “Yes.” “Then why isn’t it decaying?” Kael handed the weapon back.
“Because I don’t want it to.” Rhea became silent.
She remembered Garron’s subordinates.
The sword had deteriorated.
Armor had crumbled.
Muscles and tendons had been damaged precisely enough to disable two men without killing either of them.
“You’re choosing exactly what gets affected.” “And how much.” Rhea looked at him differently.
“How large can you make the Domain?” Kael paused.
“Which one?” Rhea’s expression slowly changed.
“Which one?” Kael gestured toward the other occupied positions around the yard.
“Each position can establish it.” Rhea turned.
Twenty Kaels.
Twenty possible origins.
Her imagination supplied twenty overlapping territories of decay covering the entire area.
Then she remembered the answer Kael always gave when asked how many positions he could occupy.
A lot.
Rhea decided she had learned enough about that subject for one day.
For Kael, however, controlling Decay had not always been so effortless.
There had been a time deep within the Hollow Depth when control had been little more than an idea.
He remembered standing inside an unfamiliar forest and allowing the phenomenon to spread farther than intended.
Trees collapsed into brittle remains.
Vegetation blackened.
Stone weathered as though centuries passed in moments.
Even the ground beneath him deteriorated until the terrain itself began sinking.
Kael had stood in the middle of the destruction and observed.
Then he had tried again.
Smaller.
Again.
Slower.
Again.
One tree instead of the forest.
One branch instead of the tree.
The bark without the wood.
The surface of a stone without affecting what lay beneath it.
What had begun as overwhelming destruction gradually became control.
The memory disappeared as quickly as it had surfaced.
A knock came from the front of the house.
One Kael remained beside Rhea while another occupied the entrance and opened the door.
A Guild messenger stood outside.
“Sir Kael.
Miss Rhea.
Branch Director Halren requests your presence tomorrow morning.” Rhea approached.
“Is something wrong?” “The regional appraisal specialists finished examining one of the materials Sir Kael submitted.” Rhea immediately became interested.
“And?” “They cannot identify it.” She frowned.
“The regional Guild?” The messenger nodded.
“They compared it against known records and preserved samples.
There is no confirmed match.
Director Halren would like Sir Kael to explain where he obtained it.” “Which material?” “The pale bone fragment with the patterned surface.” Rhea remembered it.
She turned toward Kael.
“What did that come from?” Kael thought.
Several seconds passed.
“Something big.” Rhea waited.
“How big?” Kael looked toward the house.
Then toward the training yard.
Apparently neither was sufficient for comparison.
“Very big.” The messenger’s expression became noticeably less comfortable.
Rhea sighed.
“That doesn’t help.” “It’s what I remember.” The messenger left after confirming the meeting time.
That night, Greyhaven became quiet.
Rhea slept heavily after another exhausting day of training.
Kael lay comfortably in the spare bed he had become increasingly fond of.
Far away, another position occupied by the same Kael stood deep inside the Hollow Depth.
The cavern around him had never appeared on any human map.
Crystals, minerals, bones, and other objects collected over countless journeys remained scattered through different sections.
Kael’s perception extended outward.
Stone offered no obstruction.
Neither did distance within his range, underground barriers, darkness, or the strange natural disturbances saturating the deeper Hollow Depth.
His awareness descended.
Past the cavern.
Past layers of ancient stone.
Farther down.
Then Kael noticed something.
An enormous hollow existed deep beneath the region.
He knew it was there.
He had sensed it many times before.
Usually, there was nothing particularly interesting about it.
Now something inside had changed.
Movement.
Slow.
Massive.
Something enormous shifted beneath layers of stone.
The Kael standing inside the cavern looked downward.
At precisely the same moment, hundreds of kilometers away in Greyhaven, Kael opened his eyes while lying in Rhea’s spare bed.
There was no message passing between them.
No information being transferred from one body to another.
Both perceptions belonged to the same person.
Kael remained silent for several seconds.
Then one thought crossed his mind.
That’s new.
The Kael in the cavern continued observing.
The Kael in Greyhaven closed his eyes again and settled comfortably into the mattress.
Whatever was moving beneath the Hollow Depth had apparently taken a very long time to decide to move.
It could wait until morning.