Truths from the Past: Book 5 of the Kinstone series
Chapter 33: Honing

Serasfall motions for the knights to leave. I watch as they smile and bow as they turn to go off to another part of the courtyard. My ears soon ring of metal clashing against metal. A smile rises on my lips as it becomes like a melody to me.

Serasfall motions to Fenris to join her at her side. My bonded looks to me and we both nod as he steps over to Athena. “Now, I want you to summon forth your flames,” she says looking to me. “Have them swirl around your body like an inferno. As you do, expand the range and intensity far beyond what you have done in the past.”

I summon forth fire and begin the swirl it around me. It’s not kitsune-bi or dragon flame, but just normal fire for it's the simplest and more ubiquitous. If the need calls for the truest flames of the spirit and mortal, then I will. I then begin the push it further and further away from me, while also increasing its intensity.

My mind recalls the night I fought Diana for the first time in the forest. I remember the two of us unleashing massive torrents of flame. One could describe it as watching two dragons clashing with their breaths. I grit my teeth as I call up that feeling and increase the flames' power, picturing that clash.

The flames grow larger and larger, their heat and light burn brighter as though the sun itself were overhead.

“Good, now push yourself even further, my girl,” she says.

I nod, spreading my tails and intensifying the flames. I hold up my hands, pushing the swirling storm of fire away from me. Five feet…ten…fifteen…twenty. The further I go the more control I must exert over the raging fire.

Some might become frightened if they were in the middle of something like this. Yet I have been wielding fire ever since I began learning magic. This is nothing new to me.

The maelstrom of flames burn even brighter as they rage on. I breathe slowly as I push myself harder, feeling as though I’m doing a mile long sprint while also running up a steep hill. I groan the more I push, feeling the heat press against me but I don’t let it weigh me down. I've had dragon flames smacked directly at my face, and they burn even hotter than the flames I’m dealing with now.

“Now,” she adds, “wield the flames as though they are like water. Fire flows as easily as its counter.”

I nod, moving my hands, directing the flames to swirl around me. I smile, feeling like a ryujin or a mermaid as I manipulate the flames as each race wields water. This really in no different in principle. I take long and slow breaths as the inferno swirls and dances as though I were standing the middle of a river, gathering and directing the water around me.

I see her smiling through the flames, arms crossed and held low under her chest. “Now, I want you to maintain this for the next hour.”

My eyes bulge at this command with my jaw nearly dropping to the ground. I’m already feeling like I’m sprinting up the side up a long hill. Now I have to hold this for an hour? Geez…that’s harsh.

I glance over to Celes, who is smiling to me. I sigh and smile, as I maintain the steady flow of flames.

An hour soon passes, thanks to the chimes of the small clock tower the hovers over the terrace. Like with water manipulation at this level, I know I can also fling and hurtle the flames in one massive long stream or even fire bursts outwards in any direction I choose. But now’s not the time to practice that.

My arms feel heavy, as though I’ve been wearing my magic wristbands set to thirty pounds apiece. I’ve continued to maintain the steady stream of flames yet the strain really is starting to take its toll on me.

“That will be enough, Aria,” sounds my teacher.

I look up to Serasfall, watching her nod to me. I take a deep breath and slowly begin to wind down the flames until I can completely and safely end them. My breath is labored yet steady. My arms, hilariously, feel as though they are on fire.

I look up to see Serasfall smiling brightly to me. “You did extremely well, my dear,” she says. “Your mother has indeed taught you well in how to control and harness your power. She also has taught you how to push yourself and wield your magic as easily as breathing."

I grin, thank you for those crystals, Mom. Countless hours spent learning how to create and control the steady flow of my magic. Mom was always pushing me, making sure that I could properly utilize my innate potential which grew drastically as time went on. Yep, growing my tails, bonding with Fenris.

It’s not only my mother I have to thank. Both Yukari and Asha each helped me immensely last spring.

“Now,” she continues, “you must truly learn to wield your power as a storm. You were already doing so during the last hour, but now you must do so continuously.”

She shifts slightly from her position. “I will add at how wholly impressed I was with your ability to wield water with the same degree as I witnessed just now. Fire as you know is far more chaotic than steady and fluid water.”

I nod slowly, panting a little more now.

She nods, “The next stage of your training will be to learn how to compress that power.” She then smiles, “This will help further control your power while fused. It’s not the bond or your lacking of ability to wield your power. You simply must learn how to compress and maintain the excess.”

I nod slowly. It’s also not our synchronization. It’s my body that the power flows into, so of course I have to learn how to control it.

“Now, Aria,” she says, “do it again. Only now when the storm is at its greatest, slowly begin to compress the power, drawing it into a singular point.”

I nod taking a deep breath and restart the storming inferno, quickly returning to my previous state.

“Also, Aria,” says Serasfall, “as you compress the flames, slowly incorporate ice magic into it. For it is the other half of your portion of the fusion. The shadow aspects come from Fenris and will be a topic for another day once you refine your control.”

I nod. “I’m guessing this also was written down from those who were able to fuse?” I ask through the flames.

She nods, “That would be correct, my dear. Our family is quite thorough in matters such as this.”

I smirk as I swirl the flames more and more, recreating the storm from earlier. Again…not that surprised at this. Through my research in the library, I did discover documents and agricultural logs dating back over a thousand years. So the idea of having recorded knowledge of the few individuals able to fuse with their wolves would no doubt be locked away as well.

Then there’s Serasfall herself. I knew she had an incredible intellect, but now I know she possesses an encyclopedic memory. I grin to myself, she’s simply amazing.

It takes me a couple minutes before the inferno is back to its original intensity. Once it reaches its peak, I begin to mix in ice magic, creating a towering blizzard as it rages against the inferno. The opposing magicks collide yet again, creating miniature storms around me.

This is no different in practice back when I combined dragon flame with dragon ice. A concept I still need practice with.

I slowly take a deep breath as I begin to compress the swirling and torrential storm, drawing it all into the beginnings of a small ball in front of me while also maintaining the same intensity and power. The winds and flames howl and roar around me as they fight against it. I feel the forming ball buckle at times only for me to quickly regain control over it.

Slowly, moment by moment, the storm begins to shrink, yet the speed of the freezing winds and raging rivers of fire increase. If something is funneled into smaller area (i.e. blowing air through a straw) the speed and force will increase relative to the smaller space. Basic physics being applied to magical theory.

With each passing moment the storm shrinks, feeling the howling winds whip around me, threatening to break lose. I have to maintain absolute focus during this exercise, for if I make one false step the power can end up exploding in my face. I’ve done something similar to this in the past with Mom, but not at this level.

I feel and watch as the power continues to compress, with some of the errant discharges lashing out at and around me, further threatening to break my focus. The outer shell of the ball of condensed magic formed a while ago yet is now beginning to form a mass of its own as more and more magic rapidly flows into it. It wants to drag me down, but I won’t let it.

The ball starts to glow brightly, becoming similar to a miniature sun in the palms of my hands. I quickly surround the ball with my tails, adding further support as I’ve always used them like extra hands as I extend my focus into all nine of them.

A couple agonizing moments later the raging storm is now fully sucked into the glowing ball the size of a soccer ball before me. I grit my teeth as I struggle to keep the ball from dropping to the ball to the ground beneath me. The absolute weeb in me compares this to a tailed-beast bomb from Naruto. It sure is acting like one, only that I didn’t gather chakra to form it.

My body is heavy, as though being weighed with numerous heavy steel chains. I can almost imagine someone tightening those chains with each crank of a heavy wheel. But even with that thought running through my head, I will not let it overtake and overwhelm me. This is my power, my magic. I’m in control of it, not it controlling me.

“Good, Aria,” says Serasfall. “Now you must maintain this state for the next half hour. Be ever mindful of your control.”

Are you kidding me? I have to hold this thing, which I feel like if I were to drop could take out several city blocks if not a building the size of the Chrysler building, for half an hour?

I slowly slip into a trance, allowing the strain to pass over me much like how when Mom exerted her magical pressure over me to train my defenses after my first meeting with Titania.

The bell tower chimes again, this time at the half-hour mark. Even while in a trance, I still maintained control.

Serasfall smiles, “Excellent, my dear. The next step is to slowly release this condensed and heavy magic. Let it flow from you as water.”

I take long and steady breath as I start to release the stored magic. It goes something for the first moments, with it coming out like as if gradually letting air out of a balloon. But that changes when the flow becomes unstable. It bucks wildly, with the stored magic violently lashing out around me.

I groan slightly as I struggle to retain control, only to panic when a flash of magic whips past my face. That extremely brief moment in lapsing causes the ball to deform, with the sounds of it cracking filling my ears.

Fenris quickly rushes over and furls his tails around me, acting a syphon and safely draws the magic until I’m able to safely regain control over it. I sigh softly, looking up at him, “Thanks, Papa Wolf.”

He smiles to me, “You are welcome, little Aria. I will always be there when needed.”

I grin as I complete the exercise, finally allowing the last of the stored magic to release harmlessly away from me.

I fall back to the ground from the exhaustion. My arms refuse to move, feeling them burning from the having to hold up the hyper-condensed ball of magic. Even my tails ache as though I’ve been lifting barbells with them. However, I can’t do that, this is something I have to learn, something I have to master if I am to move forward with my fusion with Fenris.

“Are you all right, my darling?” asks Serasfall.

I look over to her and Celes. Both are clearly concerned yet wish to hide it. I smile, loving them even more. I nod slowly they walk over to me. “I’m good,” I reply.

Serasfall smiles as she helps me up back to my feet. “Good girl. Now, I want you repeat these exercises until they become second nature to you.”

I nod to her, “Yes ma’am.”

She smiles, leaning over and kissing the top of my head.

Celes smiles to me, feeling warm and soothing as big sisters do. I grin softly to her, swishing my tails behind me.

Over to the right of them, I see both Athena and Rhea looking equally concerned for me. I give them both a reassuring smile. Fenris sitting next to me nuzzles my face, groaning softly. I giggle, loving how everyone is giving such loving support. I know I’m gonna need it.

We spend the next few hours repeating the same exercises of “storm and compress”. I slowly get a hold of both with the forms, feeling more natural as time goes by.

We soon stop and switch gears with Serasfall teaching me how to create multiple orbs infused with different magic at the same time.

While this is nothing new to me, being able to use three tails for each element is tough. Three go to dragonfire, three more to kitsune-bi, with the last three to ice. This is an expansion for my ability to summon Orbs with only two elements. I grin as I launch them into various mud golems, watching and gauging the results and the differing orbs pepper them.

During this I also learn how to grow the size of the orbs by simply enough, pouring more magic into them. However they never quite grow to the size they were when I first fused with Fenris.

Serasfall and Fenris both keep watch over in case my magic again doesn’t go wild on me. Not because I can't control it, only due to how long the session has gone on.

The sun finally crests over the western sky as I hear the bell tower chime once more.

“That shall be all for today, my dear Aria,” says Serasfall.

I exhale loudly as I drop to the ground exhausted. My arms are like rubber while my tails plop to the ground like logs. I curl my legs into me as I hunch over.

Serasfall and Celes both walk over to me. Each bears a huge smile on their faces. I grin softly to them

“You have done well,” says Serasfall. “I am extremely proud of you.”

I feel my cheeks burning softly as I smile to her. It’s a mother’s praise, one that cuts deep into my heart. It’s warm and gentle, much the same as an embrace. I want to just fold into her and melt away.

“Thanks,” I finally let out.

Celes leans over and helps me back to my feet. She holds me close as my knees start to wobble a bit. I smile to her, feeling her arms around me.

Her mother smiles brightly and warmly to us. “Why don’t we continue this another day?” she says. “For now you require food and rest, my child.”

I nod to her, feeling my heart beating again. My sister holds me tightly to her. I smile leaning into her.

We soon start towards the manor with all three wolves staying close to me. I peer over to Fenris, seeing him giving a proud fatherly smile. I giggle softly as Athena and Rhea both wrap their tails around mine, further letting me know they’re there.

I smile, loving my family even more. Grateful to be here.