Chapter 9 Ashes in the Wind
Morning came with a strange stillness.
No birdsong. No rustling leaves. Just the soft, repetitive shhhk of a whetstone dragging along a blade.
Aeren was already outside. Of course he was. He was always up before me, moving through his day like a man who didn't need sleep like routine was stitched into his bones. But there was something different this morning.
The way he sat, slightly hunched.
The way his strokes slowed instead of staying even.
His eyes weren't watching the edge of the blade. They were staring past it.
I stepped out into the cold air barefoot, wincing slightly at the chill. My breath fogged as I approached.
"Morning," I said, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.
Aeren didn't answer.
Didn't look up.
Didn't even grunt.
He just kept sharpening, rhythm slow and deliberate. Like he wasn't trying to hone the blade just pass time.
Something in my gut tightened.
---
Training that morning was...off.
Not in the drills themselves. Those were as brutal as ever repetitions that tore at my shoulders and legs, precise movements drilled into my muscle memory until they burned. But Aeren?
He watched me like a statue.
No corrections. No critique. Not even a look of disappointment when I stumbled on the fourth sequence and nearly faceplanted into a tree root.
It was like training in front of a painting.
Cold. Still. Detached.
"You're out of position," I said after the fifth set, breathing hard. "Aren't you going to tell me I suck?"
Still no answer.
That's when I knew something was really wrong.
---
Ding.
[Quest: Beginner's Path – Bonus Objective Progress: 98%]
Two percent left. That should've made me feel great since I can stay alive longer .
But it didn't.
It felt like I was racing toward a finish line I didn't remember agreeing to cross.
I bent over, hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath. My muscles ached in familiar ways. My sword hand had three new blisters. All signs of progress. And yet...
It wasn't just the weight of the sword that felt heavy.
It was everything.
---
That afternoon, I found him behind the cottage.
Smoke rose in thin tendrils from the fire pit. Aeren stood there with a metal poker, shifting burning papers around the flame. A small pile of charred parchment sat at his feet, fluttering ash carried by the wind like dying moths.
I squinted.
Maps. Training diagrams. A cracked compass. Scrolls I'd seen him mark in late at night. Gone.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
Aeren didn't turn. "Letting go of what no longer matters."
Classic Aeren.
But there was something in the way he said it quiet. Final. Like each paper he burned was another year torn from his past.
"Was that... a letter?" I asked, pointing at the red wax seal I'd seen for half a second before it vanished into the flames.
"Old business," he said. "Too old to matter anymore."
I almost asked more. Almost pressed. But something in his eyes stopped me.
So I left him with the fire.
---
The next training set was different.
A new sequence I hadn't seen before. Fast, reactive, full of pivots and redirections. Less brute force, more flow. It felt like dancing except every misstep could get you stabbed.
He didn't walk me through it. Just showed it once and said, "Try."
So I did.
And failed. Miserably.
Stumbled. Missed steps. Overextended.
I waited for a correction.
None came.
Instead, Aeren leaned against a tree and watched in silence as I ran through it again. And again. And again.
By the tenth repetition, my shoulders were screaming and my legs were barely cooperating. Sweat drenched my shirt. My vision blurred. I fell to one knee, gasping.
"You're not finished," Aeren said. He tossed me a canteen. "Stand."
I wanted to curse him out. Ask what the hell was this. Why he was acting like I was suddenly disposable.
But I didn't.
I drank, wiped my mouth, and stood.
The eleventh repetition wasn't perfect.
But it felt right.
The twelfth clicked.
My sword moved before I thought.
My footwork didn't fight the dirt it flowed with it.
And just like that...
Ding.
[Skill Unlocked: Flowing Blade I]
A sword does not resist the wind. It flows with it.
(+5% to Dexterity-based techniques. Slight bonus to dodging and reactive movements.)
I exhaled.
For the first time that day, I looked over and saw a flicker of something on Aeren's face.
Pride?
Regret?
I couldn't tell.
He turned and walked back to the cottage without a word.
---
I followed him in after sunset, muscles aching with every step.
He sat by the fire, sipping bitter tea. I flopped onto the floor, arms sprawled out like a corpse.
Then something landed on my chest with a soft thump.
A scroll. Sealed with wax. The emblem was unfamiliar two crossed swords beneath a rising sun.
"What's this?" I asked, sitting up.
"Your future," Aeren said, staring into the fire. "The Academy accepted the application I sent. You will leave in two weeks."
I blinked.
"What?"
He didn't repeat himself.
"You... sent them an application?"
"Three weeks ago."
I gaped. "And you didn't think to tell me?"
"No point until we got a response."
"No point? Aeren, that's... this is my life!"
He didn't flinch. "You would've said no."
I opened my mouth and stopped.
He was right.
Two weeks ago, I would've refused. I was still clawing to survive poison training, still thinking I could squeeze a few more months here to get stronger. Still... scared.
Now?
I didn't know.
I looked down at the scroll. The wax was perfectly intact. Untouched. Waiting.
I didn't open it.
"I thought we had more time," I said quietly.
Aeren sipped his tea. "We never do."
---
That night, sleep didn't come easy.
I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, scroll in my hands.
I didn't open it. I just held it.
It wasn't just paper. It was everything. A goodbye. A command. A door creaking open into the unknown.
A part of me felt like I was betraying him. Leaving behind the one person who kept me alive. Who taught me how to survive, how to fight, how to live again.
But deep down, I knew...
Aeren had made his decision.
He was pushing me out of the nest. Out of my safe zone.
And maybe... maybe I was ready.
---
I stepped outside.
The moon was high, casting pale silver light across the trees. The wind rustled the leaves gently, like whispers in a forgotten tongue.
I stood beneath the stars and finally looked at my hands.
Calloused.
Scarred.
Trembling just a little.
Not from fear. From knowing I couldn't go back.
Ding.
[Quest Completed: Beginner's Path]
Reward Unlocked: +10 Stat Points
Skill Unlocked: [System Adaptation I]
The system bends slightly to fit your instincts. All future skills adjust 5% faster.
[Bonus Objective Completed: Physical Training with Aeren]
Bonus Reward: Red Tier Potential Unlocked
And with it came something new.
---
[New Quest]
Category: Main
Title: Journey to the Academy
Clear Conditions:
Arrive at the Academy within 14 Days
Pass the Entrance Trial
Reward:
Class Selection
First Contact with Major Factions
Penalty for Failure:
Barred from Entry for 1 Year
---
I read it. Re-read it.
And still felt like the wind had been knocked out of me.
I didn't know what the Academy would be like. What kind of trials were waiting. What kind of monsters I'd face, human or otherwise.
But I knew this: I wouldn't be the same person when I left it. I'll be stronger.
Maybe that was the point.
The wind picked up, carrying the faint scent of smoke from the ashes Aeren had burned.
The past was gone.
Only the future remained.
---