"They are actually not that bad, once you get used to them!", Henry swallowed the last bit of his Firebeetle, "But, like, when I first heard I was supposed to eat bugs I nearly quit, of course, but then it was like, learn what you came here for or quit because of some stupid beetles, so I choked them down, and then I discovered you could steam them too, and they taste quite well when steamed. Want to try?"

Thanatos had not spoken a single word throughout Henry's entire monologue, only stared at him. Then his glance darted at the beetle in his hand. "You... do know we fliers eat bugs regularly, right?"

Henry's mouth, which had been excitedly standing agape, shut. "Oh, right. Well, anyway, I –"

"What he was trying to say", Kismet interrupted as she appeared next to the flier, "is how incredibly proud he is to have gotten himself to eat them."

"Oh shut up", Henry mumbled and Thanatos laughed. "You know what, that does not surprise me." His gaze darted to Kismet, "You've... really gotten him to practice some decent discipline, eh? I am... impressed, alright."

"Well, thank you", the rat snarled, "it was far from easy, let me tell you. Though, this boy needed discipline like a starving man food."

"You can say that again", Thanatos mumbled and Henry flung his hand in his direction. "Shut up, I said!"

The three sat in silence for a while and Henry stared into the flame of the torch he had put up in the middle of Kismet's cave, then at Thanatos. Three times he had awoken, since the day he had passed the trial – he had kept careful note of it this time with the tally he had started next to where he had taken to sleep. And when he had woken this morning, the flier had sat in the entrance to Kismet's cave, gazing at him like his presence here was not even remotely a big deal.

Henry was uncertain as to how to call the emotion that had swept over him at his sight – relief, perhaps. He felt much shame for it yet there had always been that small, nagging part of him that had adamantly insisted, despite his promise, that Thanatos was not coming back. To see him again had silenced the voice – how Henry hoped for good.

He had brought the promised plague vaccine, too. Apparently, a delegation of nibblers from the Fount had delivered a package of it to the colony in the jungle preemptively, along with it some for the Death Rider and his flier.

"So, you've spent the whole week at the colony?"

Thanatos nodded. "The first day I waited at the citadel as promised, then when you didn't return I flew back to the jungle." The flier at last accepted the Firebeetle Kismet silently offered him. "And, so", he raised his head to look back and forth between Kismet and Henry, "you are... alright, here?"

"Absolutely!", the exiled prince grinned, "It's exhausting, and awful, and annoying at times, but for the first time in forever I feel like... I'm making genuine progress towards fixing my issue. Right?", he glanced at Kismet who nodded. "He is stubborn, flakey, and unfocused, but... not hopeless, let's call it that."

"Oh come on", Henry flung his hand in her direction, "I remember very well how you claimed I'd surpass you all at perception one day!"

"ONLY if we make this work", she interjected, "and by "we" I mean "you". Talking big is one thing, but I've told you many times this will not be easy. I am still not even certain if it is achievable for a human at all."

Thanatos tilted his head, "So, what exactly is it now you can teach him?"

"A higher form of echolocation", Henry replied, "she calls it a "second threshold"." Kismet threw him a disapproving glance, then looked back at Thanatos and began explaining what she had told Henry before – her research into the topic, and the concept of multiple levels of echolocation.

"That's...", the flier stared at her with intrigue, "incredible, if it is true." His gaze darted back at Henry, "You are... staying, in that case?"

"Of course!", the exiled prince jumped to his feet and began pacing. "I've already improved my senses so much from that one week without my eyesight, I'm not giving up now that I'm just getting started!"

"Do not call it "improving" senses, please", Kismet interjected, "that is not how it works. You can hone them with practice and focus, but you can not physically improve them."

"Yeah, yeah", Henry muttered and plopped back down between her and Thanatos. "So that's the deal", he concluded, eye on the flier, and hesitated before he finally asked the one question that had burned on his mind ever since Thanatos had returned – "And... what about you?"

The flier visibly stiffened. "I... might go back to the jungle, for the time being. It is rather peaceful, and I..."

"You're leaving AGAIN?!"

Thanatos winced. "I... my claim still stands, I've no place here, Henry."

The exiled prince stared at him helplessly, then turned to Kismet. "He can stay, right?"

"I have no issue with that", she shrugged, "yet is it any good to force him?" She narrowed her eye at Thanatos, inspecting him through the vision aid she had raised, then sighed. "You believe you will only be in the way, that you will be useless here. And though I doubt you'd be in the way of anything, it is not like I can offer you anything where you can be of use either."

Henry caught the hint of a smile on her face, "I will not allow your bond to be harmed, of that I assure you. But only you can ever decide what you wish to do."

Log 1/Day 11, after lunch

I'm going to die. No, really. If THIS is how it'll be from now on, I am definitely going to die. The fact I'm writing this should be proof enough. But with how things are, I've two options. I can either 1) scream at the top of my lungs until either my eardrums burst or I run out of breath or 2) at least WRITE it all down. For... practical reasons, I have chosen the latter.

FIRST of all – this is not a damn diary or any of that sentimental bs. It's a log for private thoughts, as I'm apparently not entitled to privacy anymore, not with THAT kind of schedule anyway (yeah I am cramming this into my notebook that's more than two thirds full, unsure if this was the best idea, but where else am I supposed to write? On the walls? Joke's on me, they're also taken up. Kismet likes her carvings).

So, yeah – Kismet. She is great in a lot of ways, we're so different but we also kind of... I don't know, click? There's this weird, impalpable level on which we go together really well. And then there is the rest of the time, when I'm honestly unsure whether I'd rather laugh, or facepalm, or cry. Or all of the above. Maybe that one.

FIRST OF ALL – she had no right to send Thanatos away. Like, I don't get it. I have never seldom gotten anything less, in fact. Why is he so unwilling to stay? I get he'd only be sitting around here, but it's not like he's not sitting around at the nibbler colony too. He's that weird look whenever he speaks of leaving, I don't get it. I'm... I refuse to believe he seeks an excuse to be away from me. We aren't like that. I'm... Ugh. I want to talk to him, like, I really do, but what am I supposed to say? It makes no sense what he said to Hamnet, and I can hardly admit to eavesdropping either.

Maybe... maybe I'm imagining things, I don't know. But maybe I am, and once I've dealt with this bs here, it'll be as before again. Like after I bought him back from the spinners, that time. You know what, that's exactly what'll happen. I'll get this stupid threshold, and then the problem will be solved – cause the problem is my lacking fighting skills, right? That's why we can't go out there and do stuff anymore, or so he claims. And if this is anything like Kismet promised, it WILL solve that. And along with it, all the other weird issues we seem to have. Definitely.

Regardless, Thanatos left yesterday. He didn't even stay overnight. Instead, Kismet finally spilled a couple things I wanted to note down, cause I doubt she'll ever repeat any of it.

So, apparently, this threshold lets you use echolocation in battle because it gets rid of the need to make your own sound to see stuff. Like, no snapping fingers anymore! Apparently, echolocation works with EVERY sound (as long as the frequency is right, so Kismet). There was this weird, confusing term she used to describe it... right, she called it "the ability to see sounds". Doesn't that sound crazy? You just gotta practice, and here comes the reason as to why I will DEFINITELY DIE soon – LISTENING. Yeah... listening. Directional hearing, differentiating noises, blah, blah, BLAH.

So, the trial week sucked in some regard, but it also didn't suck, cause it was new and exciting stuff (save the ten still minutes part) – and YOU GUESSED it, THAT is the part we'll do MORE of now. MUCH more. Cause "echolocation stands and falls with hearing, and humans happen to suck at it" (– Kismet).

So, 1) I will DEFINITELY DIE soon, so I don't know how wise it was to even start this log. But we'll see. And 2) if I DON'T die, I might actually have found the solution to this eye issue. Except Kismet says it's not certain whether a human CAN even develop well enough hearing to use foreign sounds for echolocation. So not even that's a given.

Basically, everything's FANTASTIC and I love the world :) NOT. Oh, Kismet's calling, some exercise, be back soon. If I live.

"So, which one is it?"

Henry's head jerked up from where it had sunken against the wall. He tugged at the blindfold, glad Kismet couldn't see he'd had his eye closed with it on. What had she asked for again?

"Uh... that one?"

He jumped as a loud crash sounded from her direction. "You didn't even pay attention to what I asked, did you?"

Henry groaned and slipped the blindfold up. "Can I not go do the parkour instead? I've some great idea for how to expand it a bit, did I ever tell you I –"

"Henry, the parkour is not the reason you are here, is it?"

He gave a loud sigh. "Yeah, but... like, it all sounds the same. I get you can differentiate things by the noise they make but rock on rock is rock on rock. Does the size even matter?"

"Of course it matters", Kismet hissed and stepped over the two rocks she had simultaneously dropped, in his direction. "And I know you find this tedious, but there is no echolocation if your hearing is not distinct enough. Even I had to practice up before I could go so far as to use foreign sounds for echolocation, and my hearing is miles better than yours."

Henry suppressed a frustrated sigh. If she compares me to herself one more time... "But the stupid rocks sound the same, is my point!"

Kismet eyed him pensively, then shook her head. "Maybe they wouldn't if you were properly trying, instead of thinking about that parkour."

Maybe I WOULD be properly trying if the task was more exciting than differentiating one rock sound from another, Henry grimly thought as he got to his feet. "Anyway, I'm hungry. We can do this again later. Or maybe something else. Preferably something else." He stretched and audibly yawned, thinking he'd much rather have spent the morning at the lake fishing than here. Listening to... rock sounds.

"Hey, I was not done with you yet!", Kismet cried after him but he'd already sprinted up towards the hot springs, somewhat incited by the anticipation of food, even if it was only Firebeetles. Yet by the time Henry had placed them on the rim of the searing spring, Kismet had caught up to him. "You can not just walk away like that", she hissed and the exiled prince groaned.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

He inevitably turned her way and pressed his lips together when he noticed the disappointment in her expression. "You are bored, I get that", she sighed, "but it is you who wants to learn from me. And for that, you will not get around doing some things you might not find so stimulating."

"It's not SOME things, it's EVERYTHING!", he exclaimed, crossing his legs. "Ever since the stupid trial ended you've not had me do a single even remotely exciting thing. All it's been was stupid concentration on even stupider things. Can't we do something more...", he groaned and began flailing his hands through the air, "I don't know, more exciting?"

Kismet silently stared at him for a moment, then sat down reluctantly. "And what if I tell you there is nothing exciting to learning echolocation?", she asked and Henry pressed his lips together, staring at the floor.

"You've passed the first threshold, have you done anything exciting then?", she shot at him and Henry didn't bother looking up. Of course it hadn't been exciting. But it had only been an hour a day, not –

"Improving echolocation involves maximizing your sensory abilities, over achieving harmony with your physical environment, to finally combine the two by discovering you can use one to understand and evaluate the other. It is a highly complicated mental process that requires a great amount of self-discipline and intuitive ability, and running an obstacle course will certainly not help."

To Henry's dread, her words brought with themselves a wave of fresh self-doubt. It engulfed him like an icy tidal wave and he clenched his fists.

"If you thought you had what it took simply because you passed the trial, you are gravely mistaken." Each of Kismet's words stung like a needle to his already clogged throat. "I told you many times, I can not yet tell if this is even –"

"I GET IT, okay?!" Henry at last met her eye, even though she was not looking at him properly as she had not her vision aid. "I get it. I'm trash at this. That's enough rubbing it in, I GET IT." He desperately blinked to quench the uprising tears.

"I...", she seemed taken aback, "I did not say that."

"OF COURSE you said that!", he cried and leaped up. His foot hit the rim of the hot spring and the beetles he had laid out fell into the sizzling water. "Dammit – AGH, maybe you're right, you know?" With every second it became harder to hold back the tears, "maybe I'm not cut out for this. Maybe I shouldn't have come here, maybe I should have –"

"Oh pup, will you stop that?" Before he could storm off, Kismet's tail had wrapped around his waist, pulling him back. "You're jumping to conclusions, as always. We can not yet tell whether you're cut out for this, but if you give up now, we will never find out."

He defiantly stared into her squinted eye. "So what if you truly ARE cut out for this, but end up never learning it because you quit prematurely? Wouldn't that be worse than sucking it up now?"

Henry groaned, and Kismet gave a sour smile. "Besides, doesn't our contract only end with your own satisfaction? I will hereby take the liberty to interpret that as me having a right to use any means to make you stay until it is fulfilled. So struggle all you want, I've already invested too much in you for you to just quit now."

"Hey, that was never part of the deal!"

"Yet it is a sensible clause to add. And you never even wrote our contract down, so you can hardly argue it is not interpretable."

"Oh come on, you can't do that!", Henry struggled in her grasp but she held him tightly. "I can, it is one of the simplest principles of contracts. And now fish your food out of the spring, will you? Before it explodes from pressure."

A minute, Henry thought, glaring at the hourglass he had snatched from Kismet. Maybe a bit over a minute. Pathetic. He gritted his teeth and picked up the hourglass. This time he'd finish faster. Before the sand from his previous attempt had run back through.

With one swift motion Henry turned the hourglass, it clanked on the stone as he dropped it and pulled down his blindfold the same moment he sprinted forward. One, two steps, then a flying leap over the boulder he'd stumbled on so many times yet never removed, out of sheer spite.

One, two, three, four, then turn right. One, two, tight space, he automatically twisted his body to slip through the nook and came out on the other side moments later. One, two, three – jump, Henry confidently landed on the rock in front of him, then leaped again, to land on the next one. Then a smaller leap for the third one. For a second he nearly lost balance as this one was the narrowest of them all, but finally stretched his arms forward and jumped for the last rock. His foot barely touched it as he propelled himself upward, stretching his hands out.

He barely caught the rim of the tunnel ahead and pulled himself up, one, two, three, four, five – he crawled then reached ahead, felt the edge of the tight shaft, and pulled himself out.

He leaped to the floor and darted forward, ten steps he counted, had it taken him more it would have been bad. He twisted right again and counted. One, two – he felt the path become narrower and narrower and stretched his arms sideways to keep his balance on the edge that couldn't be more than a couple inches wide. Six steps, then a flying leap and a landing, there it was, the final stretch.

Henry darted forward, leaning right, instinctively following the slight curve of the path. He sensed the firm contour of stone beneath his soles and picked up even more speed. Seven steps he'd counted, four more until –

"So you indeed took my hourglass. I was wondering where it had gone."

Henry cried as Kismet's tail wrapped around his waist. "HEY not fair, let me go!", he cried, "I've not checked my time –"

"The sand is nearly all through", she snarled, "yet if your goal was to finish before it had run out, you made it. Just about."

"Well, at least that", Henry stumbled forward as she released him.

"Have I allowed you to run the parkour, by the way?"

"Do I need your permission now?" Henry raised his blindfold and glared at her. "For all I'm aware, you don't rule my life, and it... helps me relax, okay?"

Kismet laughed. "Okay, fine, you're all about the physical, I got that."

"At least let me have that if you're going to make me listen to rock noises all day", Henry grumbled as he began his ascent up the cliff.

"Well, I did let you now."

"For TWO ROUNDS!"

"Keep climbing", Kismet behind him laughed. "We've got a long day ahead of us. And it'll not be very physical, I'm afraid."

Log 2/Day 28, before bedtime

Didn't I at some point tell myself I would be doing this daily? It's been like, three weeks now, and I... Oh well, it's not like anyone's monitoring me. I... didn't have time to write, or THINK. Or BREATHE. I swear I've never been so exhausted in my whole life, though I've barely done anything physically straining over the last weeks.

It's like there's this permanent mist in my head. It's better in the morning but as soon as training starts it becomes unbearable. Listening, focusing, sitting still, sitting still. SITTING STILL. I'm tired of sitting still. It's hard to focus. It's hard to even hear anything, sometimes. Kismet complains I'm bad at focusing. Well YEAH, YOU try focusing with a damn misty cloud in your head! Just about now I'd give anything for a day to just... exercise. Or run. Or MOVE, in whatever way, be it hauling stupid rocks up a stupid cliff.

I'm so... like, every day I go to bed I have to remind myself over and over why I'm here. There's the island, and the image of the sword leaned by the entrance to the cave. I want to be back there, on some days. And then I hate myself for wanting to be back there. I'm not even sure how it feels like anymore, to hold a sword. To swing. To sense the impact. To think I've come here to regain my fighting skills... Will I ever even find out again, how it feels like, or will it remain that useless piece of steel it is now? For how it's going so far, I'll go with option two.

Thanatos visited yesterday. I should probably be happy, but I was happier about the breaking up of the stupid routine. It's not like I wasn't glad to see him, but I... I'm not even sure why he bothered coming, honestly. It's not like he's staying. It's not like he's achieving anything by "checking in" on me, as he claims.

He's mostly staying at the colony, but also exploring around it. The land by the citadel and that area. Ha, he's even said something about a tunnel leading down, to below the waterway. Is there even anything below the waterway? He's not explored it yet, but I guess I'll have SOME news to look forward to whenever he comes back. IF he comes back.

I'm finding myself imagining him never returning, flying off, and never coming back. It's an odd feeling, like an enormous boulder crushing my chest. I just want things to be like before. Ditch this stupid threshold and leave, leave with Thanatos, and have things be like before. It's when I make myself aware that's impossible when the mist really takes over.

Log 3/Day 999999999999999

Someone get me out of here, please...

Log 4/Day 31, early morning

...alright, I may or may not have just been really close to throwing this whole notebook into the boiling hot spring. Maybe. Before, you know, I remembered there's other stuff in here besides the log entries. And before I get too tempted disregarding the sketch on the back of the first entry and tear out the pages to throw them in separately, hear this –

I found it.

I wasn't even looking for it or anything, looking for a book Kismet sent me to fetch last night. Got to get it before she wakes up and complains I haven't gotten it yet. And there was the book, of course, down in the cave with the trillion carvings in the book mountain,(where else). But there was also... nevermind. Gotta go. Gotta try something. Haven't been so excited in forever, you know?

Wait... who am I talking to?

The silence was unbroken. So unbroken as it hadn't been in a long time. A month it must now be. A month of –

The rat's ears twitched as there suddenly was a noise. From far, far up it sounded, and her eye slowly opened. Then her head rose. Something was happening. Something that sounded unlike anything she had expected to hear... ever again.

The rat silently dropped her book, then crept up the stairs and peeked her head out into the cave. No, she paused, the sound came not from here. It came from somewhere outside.

She began making her way toward the cliff, toward the sound, and a couple seconds later she had descended. She noiselessly crept forward and followed the sound through a narrow tunnel that spiraled upward until it mounded in a large cave, triple the size of the one she lived in – and stopped. Her claw unclasped the pocket on the broad leather belt she had taken to wearing and slipped into the loop of the vision aid.

She stood frozen in the entrance of the tunnel and stared down into the enormous cavern. It stretched some fifty feet ahead and maybe five feet below the tunnel entrance ran a steaming creek. But the water was not what captured her attention.

"Oh NO YOU DON'T!"

Her ears twitched and her claw curled tighter around the loop of the vision aid. "That, and that, and THAT!"

Henry swung his sword with both hands, over and over at the tower-like stone structure rising in the middle of the cave. It was a full twenty feet tall but narrow and uneven. Her eye squinted, to see why there was no sound of metal on stone, then widened again. Not a single of his blows at the stone ever landed.

His blade halted inches before every time, and as she quickly understood he followed a predetermined choreography. Right up, left down, backhand left up, around and right down, then step around and middle up, other side middle down. And then back. And repeat.

The gnawer sat in the tunnel entrance for what must have been a few minutes, observing. Then a loud crash sounded and she jumped so much her claws audibly scraped on the stone to prevent herself from falling.

Henry below, who had struck the stone with the sword, nearly dropped it, cried and jumped around in her direction, frantically pulling at his blindfold. "K– KISMET?!" They stared at each other for a few heartbeats. "I... I mean I can –"

"Oh, no need to explain." She lowered the vision aid. Her heart beat at least twice as fast as it should. "Just... be back in time for breakfast, will you? But take as long as you like!" With that, she disappeared back in the tunnel entry, leaving Henry to stare after her, wide-eyed.

Yet as soon as she was certain he could not see her anymore, she stopped and ducked, to peek back. Henry stood with his sword hanging limp at his side for another half a minute or so, his face painted with so many conflicting emotions they were hard to tell apart. Then he slowly raised the blade back up and pulled down the blindfold.

Instantly, the rat darted out of the tunnel entry. She silently leaped down, avoiding the creek, and landed softly, undetected by Henry who was all taken up by his exercise again. She stopped for a moment to survey for a fitting loose rock, then crept toward it and gave it a focused, controlled push.

Henry did not see it. How could he, with the blindfold on? Yet when he registered a scraping in his periphery something in his brain instinctively processed what it was. His legs moved on their own, sending him flying over the rolling rock, to land and nearly stumble over the uneven terrain.

But his brain was still in attack mode. His head darted up when he heard another scraping sound. It wasn't a rock, it was something else. His mind flashed to his ten still minutes exercise and he darted forward with his sword raised – it was claw on stone.

Henry cried as the blade was neatly flung from his hands and stumbled forward until a tail had him by the waist. He frantically pulled at the blindfold and stared into the rat's puzzled face.

More than half a minute later she finally released him and drew back, raising her vision aid slowly. "Well." Something about the way she looked at him unsettled and excited Henry at the same time. "Look at you..."

His teeth clenched and he rubbed his aching wrist. "Yeah. I'm wasting my time and should go back to training. I know."

"I was actually referring to how you just dodged that boulder, and then attacked me. Blindly."

"Oh that", Henry's eye darted at the rock he had leaped over. "That... was an accident..."

To his surprise, Kismet broke into laughter. "There are no accidents. Only lessons. And the lesson is –"

"Is always what you end up learning, I know." He eyed his sword that still lied behind Kismet.

"Yes... and the lesson I just learned was that I was... being too narrow-minded in this." She sighed and half-turned from him, "I must apologize to you, Henry."

He stared at her wide-eyed. Was this... really happening? Was the blunt, proud, unapologetic Kismet actually... His mouth opened, yet before he could speak, she continued – "You must understand, as... new and uncomfortable as all this is for you, it is not much easier for me either. I have... had my own difficulties trying to figure out how to teach this... this... concept of a technique I have somehow mastered myself a long time ago to someone else. And it has not been...", she looked back at him, "easy. To say the least. I was so focused on attempting to push you down the same path I had gone myself back then, yet that is not the way."

Henry frowned. His head spun, trying to wrap itself around what she was saying, but she beat him to speaking again. "The lesson you have just taught me is, that I can not teach you the way I taught myself." With a flicker of her tail, she catapulted his sword upward, then caught it in mid-air. "I now see that the way to get through to you... is with this."

He stared at her, then at the sword she extended. "But... I thought..."

"I thought so too", she snarled, "yet we were both wrong. And what you just demonstrated overshadowed anything I ever saw of you, so I will admit I have learned my lesson, as you have yours, I hope."

For a moment longer Henry stared at the sword, then slowly extended his hand to grasp the hilt. His eye met Kismet's and with one swift motion he pulled his blindfold down.

Log 5/Day 31, before bedtime

THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE! I still can't believe this day just happened like this. I mean, I'd basically given up hope at this point, but it's all going to be GREAT from now on. You know why? Because I'm way better at this than I thought (or Kismet, for that).

I'd found my sword where she'd hidden it away this morning and snuck it out to see if I could still use it at least, and then Kismet caught me, but she wasn't angry or anything, quite the opposite. I think this was genuinely the first time she was actually... IMPRESSED with me, since I passed the trial. For some reason, it's so hard to stay focused when sitting still, but whenever I can apply and combine blind hearing/perceiving with a physical action it makes it... come almost naturally. It's a WEIRD feeling, like my instinct's taking over and reacts to sensory input faster than my brain can process it. I DO like it, but it's also unsettling, like I'm not fully in control anymore. Kismet says it'll get better though.

After she caught me we sparred for what must have been hours. I never knew actual blind fighting could be so much fun! Of course, we had to agree to specific (sound) indicators for specific attacks, but from that point on, it basically becomes – identify the sound, process what it indicates, and react accordingly. And man did I become good at it really quickly. Kismet didn't even make that much noise, later on. I think she purposely made less and less noise so that I had to listen closer, but honestly, it was not that hard.

For lunch she took me back to the lake FINALLY, I've not had time to come there for at least a week. Actually, yeah, I remember it was day 25 when we last went, 5+1 marks on my tally ago. And there we also fought, but that time it was in shallow water and with less indication. The water makes so much noise it's easy to dodge though. And then back at her cave, she chased me through the entire obstacle course. Except for the narrow part, but you know. The mixed terrain makes it harder to dodge and attack, but it's SO much more fun to figure all this out on the go, instead of tediously sitting still, trying to understand it without active application.

It... weirdly reminds me of when I was training to beat the blood balls. It was... in a way, very similar. Physical application combined with theory. Though of course, this is much larger and much more complicated, it still... feels sort of the same.

OKAY, yeah, she... did not seize criticizing my actual fighting skills for a SECOND. Apparently, my footwork is "atrocious", I'm not wielding the sword to its "maximal potential", and I've no balance or steadfastness whatsoever. Apparently, we gotta work on that some, in the future. Or a lot, according to her. Then again, whenever she criticizes me from now on, all I have to do is think about how she APOLOGIZED to me earlier, claiming I had TAUGHT her a lesson. Ha, that will never not be satisfying.

I had never thought about it, but apparently, she didn't really know how to do this whole "teaching"-thing either. Which... shouldn't come as that much of a surprise, considering she's not really a teacher, and I kind of just... barged into her life, demanding her to teach me. But oh well, guess we'll all treasure it as a valuable experience. Maybe. Actually still unsure on that one. I guess all she needed was a change in perspective. And... maybe I too.

Also, honestly, I don't care that much anyway, when she says we have to work on my fighting skills. If she wants to add combat lessons to our training, she can do that any day. Isn't that why I came here in the first place?

But yeah, I've not put my sword down a single time today, and I never thought I could be so happy over that. Though the best part is – all Kismet's been preaching this last month, all I was supposed to have figured out long ago – it all makes sense suddenly. It's like it just... sat there, in the back of my head, waiting for me to activate it. Waiting to click.

And MAN is it satisfying when it then does!