Chapter 8

"Hi-yah!" Lissa yelled as she launched a small blast of wind at the training dummy. Rather than having the intended effect, She groaned when she saw the blast didn't even put a scratch on the dummy.

"Nathan, I need help again!" She called out. The tactician heard her, being in the sparring grounds directly adjacent to where he was, motioning to the swordsman he was dueling, whom he had learned was named Lon'qu, and putting down his practice sword and walking over to talk to Lissa.

"What's up?" He asked between pants as he rubbed the sweat off his forehead with a towel.

"I can't get it! I'm doing the hand signals, and reading the book, but nothing's happening!" The princess told the man. Nathan rubbed his chin in concentration.

"Try doing it again, I'll watch and try to see what you're doing wrong." He told her.

Lissa turned back to the training dummy, took another glance at her tome, and then raised her hand again. The same thing happened as before, however, as the blast of wind was launched form fingertips but bounced ineffectively off of the wooden figure.

"See? It's not working! Maybe the tome's broken…" She whined. Nathan let out a small laugh. Lissa, now frustrated, threw the tome at the man.

"Ow! Hey, don't throw things at your teacher!" Nathan called out. He picked up the tome and flipped through it. "Well, what do you know…this is an outdated copy. I must've used it up a while ago but just never thrown it away."

"Whaat? But I was joking!" Lissa responded with a surprised expression. "How does a book get broken, anyways?" She asked.

"Well, when it comes to tomes, in addition to teaching how to effectively use the art, they give it power. That's why I still have to carry around my tomes in battle, even though I have those spells memorized." He responded, as he looked through his bag for another wind tome.

"For example…" Nathan quickly snapped his fingers and a small flame formed on his fingertips. He then waved his hand and the flame went away. "That's the best I can do without a tome right now. But with one…" He stood up and pulled a red tome out of his robes. "Elfire!" He called out, as a large blast of fire shot from his hand and incinerated one of the training dummies.

"W-wow! Teach me that one!" Lissa said excitedly.

Nathan sighed and tossed her a new wind tome. "Maybe later, but let's start small, okay?"

Lissa sighed in defeat. "Fiiine…" She muttered.

"Alright, give it a go Princess!" Nathan called at her with a bit of a laugh. Lissa blew a raspberry back at him, and turned to the training dummy in front of her.

"Take THIS!" She yelled, as a large blast of wind shot from her fingertips, smashing the dummy, and the wall behind it, to pieces. Nathan sat in shock, looking over at the remains of the dummy and the wall.

"Oh my." He simply whispered, clapping and forming a bit of a grin. "I expected you to be good, but not that good!" He called back to her. Lissa jumped up in excitement, and ran over and hugged the man, much to his surprise.

"Did you see that? It was awesome!" She called out. Nathan nodded.

"That was a good start, but I think we need to work on controlling your magic a bit…" He told her. Lissa looked back at the wall, and nodded with a guilty look.

"Oh and er, Lissa…"

"What is it?"

"You can stop hugging me now." Nathan responded, his face redder than a tomato.

"Oh! S-sorry, guess I got a bit carried away there…" Lissa muttered in embarrassment.

"T-that's fine…anyways, that'll be it for today, I'm gonna go back and spar with Lon'qu for a bit. See you at supper?" The tactician responded, with another blush at his question. Lissa smiled brightly and nodded.

"You got it, mister!"

Hey guys! Thanks for reading my story! I just want to say again that the support has been incredible so far, and it really gives great motivation to keep writing! Anyways, I figured I should explain the idea for the tomes I came up with – I decided to use it just based on the fact that I would assume that the characters in the game would already have the spells memorized, and I wanted a way to incorporate the durability system for the tomes as well. Anyways, take care!

-Nate