We Are
In Training

Once we’d reached the study room; Aleeza, Shoma, and Isana continued walking, and Khin and I began to learn about our power from Arelis.

She began to apologize again, right when she first saw us, but Khin assured her that she needn’t worry about that, and I shrugged my quasi-agreement with Khin.

Arelis seemed to pick up on the fact that I was feeling a bit less forgiving than my girlfriend was, and gave me an apologetic look before digging into letting us know more about how to control our power.

“So, there’s no spells or anything like that.” she said, “It’s about things like intention, concentration, power of will, strength of emotion, and that sort of thing.”

“Ah! So that’s why a kiss can work!” Khin said, understandingly.

“Yes. It’s actually preferable for couples to work together, because that is an easy way to get the power to work really well.”

“Not to take things to an above-PG-13 level, but what about… you know…” I asked, uncomfortably.

“A reasonable question.” Arelis assured me, “A romantic kiss usually gives an emotional boost without getting into birds and the bees territory, and this works great for using the power. However, birds and bees sort of stuff actually puts your body into a mode where using the power won’t work until you snap back into a non-birds-and-bees mode.”

“Useful to know…” Khin said thoughtfully, “Not that Diago and I will have to worry about that for a while. One of the few things that I agree with my parents about is that I don’t wanna birds and bees it up with someone until I marry them.”

“A wise choice.” Arelis assured her, to which I added, “I just don’t want the government involved, if I ever get married. I’m not into legally binding contracts, because it shouldn’t be the government’s role to enforce contracts, imo.”

“Hmmm…” Arelis pondered, “I’ve never heard it put that way before, but I suppose that what you want is the same thing that all of those “get the government out of marriage completely” people mean when they say that, and I am sympathetic to that point of view.”

“Who authenticates the marriage, then?” Khin asked, to which I grinned, and responded, “The couple, and whoever else the two of them want to have say that they approve of it. Anyone looking for some sort of affirmation from the government is forgetting that the government is a necessary evil, not some God to pray to and seek salvation and a sense of fulfillment and affirmation from.”

“Why is this the first time that I’ve heard you go all captain-quasi-anarchist on me?” Khin asked, suspiciously, to which Arelis responded, “I don’t want to answer for Diago, but sometimes people who have a big change in their life start saying some things (particularly power-related and serious things) that they might have been less likely to bring up before. We see it all the time with new power holders!”

“We’ll go with that.” I said, with a grin, and Arelis continued her lesson.

“Okay, so one of the simplest ways to use one’s power that is still really cool is to fly. We’ll go into the next room that has a deep pool for that.

Better to accidentally fall into a pool than to accidentally fall onto concrete!"

And, so, Khin and I followed Arelis into the next room in order to learn to fly.

“Okay,” Arelis said, as the three of us entered the deep-pool room, “since the goal is to not hit the water, changing into swimming clothes would be inadvisable.

Since you might very well fall in, though, you’ll probably want to put anything that you really don’t want getting wet onto that table.”

Khin and I both put some items onto the table, and awaited directions on how to fly.

“Okay, so this is going to seem really cheesy, but you two are basically going to walk the plank; except that when you walk off it’ll be you continuing forward in the air instead of falling into the water.

Have either of you ever looked at a bird in the sky, and been like, “Wow! Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to fly like that bird does!”? Well, that’s one of the easiest ways to get into flying mode. Connect with that part of yourself that knows it can be done by the bird, and yearn to be like that bird and able to have the sort of relationship to air that the bird does.

Some people even whistle like birds do in order to get into flying mode. The whistling itself means nothing, but if that’s what it takes to get them to that place then it works for them.

Oh, and don’t let your concentration falter or let yourself get into a this-can’t-be-real sort of place. Keep your focus, and stay in that place of wonder that you know how to experience from having been amazed by how creatures such as birds can fly.

Oh, and sometimes people will use a creature like a dragon, but that only works if you actually believe that they are real. Some people do, apparently, or it presumably wouldn’t work for flying. You have to believe that it’s doable for some creatures, be fascinated by them, and tap into that in order to use your power.”

I decided to be gentlemanly and let Khin decide which of us would walk the plank first.

She, naturally, was speeding straight towards it in an instant!, and was soon soaring around the room!

I wondered which bird she had imagined… Which bird would I imagine? Hmmm…

After Khin had flown around for about 5 minutes or so, she went back to the plank and walked back towards us, saying, “Now THAT was the best experience that I’ve ever had in my life!” before noticing me, and adding, “Besides our first kiss, of course!” to which I laughed, and responded, “Of course! It was one for the ages!, to be sure.”

Then, I questioned, “Which bird did you think of?” and she grinned, and responded, “I thought of wasps instead of birds.” which made me wonder out loud, “Would that enable you to sting people while you’re flying?”

Arelis answered my question by saying, “Only if you have something that can be used as a stinger-like weapon with or near you. You aren’t able to conjure anything out of thin air.”

“Makes sense.” I said, and prepared to walk the plank.

As I walked towards the plank, I decided that I was going to try something different than what Arelis had suggested. This power seemed like a thing that was still pretty mysterious, and there had to be many unknown ways of using it.

I didn’t actually think that what I was about to try was original, mind you, but I preferred to at least be a bit inventive in how I tried to use the power.

As I reached and walked the plank, I thought about how Khin had been soaring around just a minute ago, and how crazy and fantastical it was that she’d been able to do it! She’d just stepped off of the plank, and-“

My feet were suddenly not on the plank anymore, and I was indeed flying around the room!

My satisfaction was interrupted by Arelis’s alarmed voice saying, “Where did Khin just go?!?!?!?” and I sped over to where she was to check out what was wrong.

“I thought of her flying instead of a bird flying when I walked the plank.” I admitted, “Could that have somehow caused her to transport away?” and Arelis shook her head, and said, “No. It’s not all that uncommon to fly that way. It shouldn’t have done anything to her.”

And, with that, I immediately thought of Khin and willed myself to transport to wherever she was…

No transport.

I tried harder!…

No transport.

I grew frustrated, and all of my rage at how unfair this whole stupid thing was boiled up like it was going to explode!, and I tried again!…

Suddenly, I was standing next to a table that had an unconscious Khin on it, and the two <?bags who’d tried to get us to give them our power were standing over her!

Before they had time to turn their attention to me, I immediately allowed my rage to boil to an even hotter setting, and imagined the two of them being as hot as my anger was.

They immediately began howling in pain, but it was clear that they would be able to work past the pain and defeat me. I had no choice. I had to ki-

Suddenly!, Shoma was with us, and he quickly transported Khin and I away from our pain-ridden foes before I had executed the death blow that I’d been planning to attempt.

We transported to where Isana was, and Shoma yelled for Aleeza to join us if she was nearby.

Aleeza had soon entered the room; and Shoma asked for her, Isana, and myself to all place our hands on Khin and attempt to heal her.

We did; and I felt a creepy, cold, distressing sensation go through me as I focused all of my will power towards the goal of Khin being completely healed from whatever injuries she’d just had inflicted on her.

It seemed like hours that I suffered past all of the evil-feeling sensations, but I kept my focus on healing Khin, and eventually heard her voice say, “Diago? Why are Isana, Shoma, and Aleeza all laying down on the floor?”

Those were the last words that I heard for a while, though, because (before I could even manage a response) the last of my strength suddenly gave out and everything went black…