– Three Days after the ceremony –
Leo laid in the middle of the patch of grass in the training ground, with his stomach facing up, and he held a small book in his palm.
The atmosphere was dry, the surroundings were silent; just a boy and the the gentle morning breeze.
"Haaa….
I'm so bored, everyone is gone…"
***
{...After the ceremony had passed we were given a chance to go back home before the expedition.
A chance to see our loved ones, and say our good-byes, possibly final.
Caesar offered I should come with him, no way…that's the palace, I'd be as uncomfortable as they come.
Ren told me to follow him home, his house is in the second quarter surprisingly enough, Royals hardly ever go outside the first sector.
[Leo shook his head]
Couldn't do that, he's newlywed , wouldn't want to get between him and his wife.
Mr. Heimer also offered to have me stay in his house, also situated in the second sector.}
"..Honestly I might take up that offer.
I'm so bored I feel like I could die…
Is this how Marcus felt…" Leo rolled over as he talked to himself, the boy was left alone with the wind.
"Marcus…I bet he'd do really well here.
He wasn't as strong as me but he would still beat me everytime." A stone in Leo's field of vision caught his eye.
He held it and was about to throw it, memories of kinder times sneaked into his mental scape.
In the end the throw was weak, he kicked the soil and sat on the floor again.
He looked at the mountain, dazzled once more by its beauty that laid before him, but even more by what laid beyond.
After a while looking he took very deep breath, and laid once more on the floor.
"Still no news on Moore and Leah, my best bets are on Ren…
I'll have to go by myself if it comes to it." He exhaled calmly then simply stopped.
A thought crossed his mind.
!
He opened his eyes and sprung up quickly as if automated, without a second thought he began sprinting towards the shelters.
With a key he opened the locks of one of the smaller ones.
His face looked disappointed, he checked every building there, including the one for training and the food storage/kitchen.
The disappointment only kept increasing with each passing door.
"I guess Heimer took the sleeping boy with him as well as his book...
Sometimes I wonder if he's still alive…how can someone sleep for six months and still live.
But what I'm interested in is that book but I guess it's gone with him…
Book…book…book" Leo repeated the word, as if trying to spark a memory.
He went through the stuff in the room space he shared with the other four, rummaging through yet his result was unsatisfactory.
"I thought I saw Caesar with a little notebook, can't seem to find it anywhere, this day keeps getting worse." He shut the door.
–
He sat bare chested at the foot of the mountain, he was now in his usual meditation posture.
The progress of his training was evident on his body's structure, his body's shape had become more defined than the untrained body from six months prior.
He sucked in the aether in the atmosphere as he usually did, soon enough the pain settled in.
He grunted, but didn't suffer as much as he usually did.
"It's as I thought…I've hit a wall."
{After months of this procedure I've learnt so many things.
One of these is that the aether in atmosphere has all the paths scattered around, except the path of obscurity.
The halos filter the aether from their user's path and channels it through them, but doesn't touch aether from any other alignment.
What my body does is actually convert aether of every type into a clear form, unaligned.
When I use my power it changes that to the aether that I use, although mine are two, yet they seem to be inseparable.
Another thing I learnt is the amount of aether that seep into my bones has been reduced by a lot, it's been this way since about 4 months ago.}
"...How do I climb it" he muttered as he looked at his calloused palms.
He stood up and started releasing aura from his body, the heat emanating from his body distorted the space around him.
He spread his palm open and aether swirled around it, forming a ball of aether that was independent from his palm.
"It takes so much focus just to make one of these, and what's worse is what comes next" Leo stretched his hand backwards.
He flung the ball of fire into the distance.
[ Fwish ] It dispersed not too far after it left his hand.
{And another thing I've come to accept is aether that leaves the confines of it's user will gradually become naught.
I've tried, so many approaches yet it doesn't go any further than about two metres, exactly the same range from which I can gather aether.
I'll be calling it my zone from now on.}
"The amount of mental strain I get from just using aether of this level is so much." He held his head in pain.
He receded his aura, he was sweating from the heat of his own aether.
"I might have resistance to my own aether, but not the heat from my aura.
My clothes would've burnt to a crisp if I hadn't coated myself in aura" He exhaled with steam escaping with the air.
"Will my flame ever turn red again?" He searched the area with his eyes.
They locked on to his shirt laying on the ground, as he tried picking them the wind blew hard and his shirt respected it as did the straw coloured grass.
He walked forward to pick the shirt up, the wind blew hard against him and the dark clouds covered up the sky making everywhere darker.
After some chasing he finally caught his shirt and put it on.
He walked to the sheds with one resonating thought in mind.
"It's going to be a long week…"