"So pretty! Like a shard of glass and light!" Quin exclaimed.
Meanwhile Hope stared at the shard with an indifferent look on her face. However, in her head, she was simulating the different ways she could add this into her combat style. 'I rely on speed as the center of my fighting so mastering this would add power.'
She turned to the fairy, who seemed to be deep in thought. "Are there limits to this?"
Quin flinched, her train of thoughts interrupted, "Yeah, the longer you use it the more strain it is on your mind. Go overboard and you'll lose your sanity. Don't worry though! The brain actually recovers from that type of damage quite fast."
Hope furrowed her brows, focusing her will once more. 'Maybe I can control the strength of it?'
Soon enough, the reflection of light through the blade lit up the cave, yet this time the glow was dim, as if the mirror it shone off of was blurred.
Yet again Quin looked baffled, it seems every action Hope took just seemed to surprise her. "You... You can control it already?!"
Hope gave her a light nod. "Yeah, all you have to do is stare really hard."
The fairy shook her head aggressively. "No! it's not that simple. Most people can't even bring out the nature of their ether, yet alone control the intensity."
Hope tilted her head. "Nature of ether?"
Quin sighed, visibly tired of explaining things. "At higher stages of the aura blade you can manipulate your ether to fit your will. Say someone wanted their blade to slice through stone flawlessly. Focusing on their killing intent would mold the energy to a lethal edge. However, ether nature is different, it represents your unique nature. Or rather how you view the world through your mindset."
Quin shook her head flustered. "But your aura was pure and radiant! I have no clue what goes on in that head of yours, but most people's ether takes on a color that depends on their personality."
Hope nodded her head. "Ok, I will take time to train and regain my memories."
Quin nodded back. " Alright! You do you! I'll stick around because I feel like it!"
Hope figured there was a reason Quin stuck around but decided not to poke into it and respect her privacy.
Going to the far back of the cave Hope closed her eyes, every stray thought other than her will and the blade were filtered out, deemed irrelevant. Slowly, the familiar feeling of her ether channeling through her body arose and she took control of it, forcing it through her hand and into the crude blade she held. Unlike her body, the shard had no system or pathway to channel ether through, and hope ended up having to sear those paths into the blade, making it more efficient as a catalyst for ether. Slowly she raised the blade above her head and opened her eyes, lessening her focus on channeling and switching it to killing intent. Before long, the blade burst into a radiance of light and any unfortunate being nearby would have been blinded by the sheer intensity of her ether.
After a while, the brightness waned and flickered out of existence, letting darkness fill the cave yet again.
Hope gasped, allowing herself to stumble onto one knee. 'Around three minutes at full strength... I need more."
After a while of resting, she stood up again and repeated the process till daylight waned.
Quin would drop by every now and then to check up and hand her strange looking fruits that that were layered in pointy rocks, with the inner part being fleshy and filled with juice.
After several hours, her sword training had finished for the day, and the time she could hold her concentration and wield ether had extended by ten seconds. 'It's pathetic, I should have focused harder, maybe my rest time was too long?'
Noticing the conflicted look, Quin poked her face and said blankly. "You know... Most people take weeks just to gain the time you have today. Don't be so disheartened!"
Hope scratched her head in confusion. "Why though? Isn't it just reusing your ether until you can move it through your body better?"
Quin quickly shook her head. "Not everyone has the stupidly strong concentration you have. And I know I said fast, but the speed you recover from mental exhaustion is beyond unnatural! Most people pass out after they exhaust it, but of course you only suffer from a headache."
She started pulling at Hopes hair. "Are you even human? Maybe your hair strands are fake."
Hope swatted her away and finally brought up the question plaguing her mind the whole day. "Why are you helping me? I don't have anything of value to you, do I?"
Quins' jolly mood finally faded and she appeared embarrassed. "Well, uh, there's a little problem with the people of my race you see... unlike most other, we are unable to function without a group. The price for wielding powerful magic is paid in uncurable exhaustion and it disables our flight. Without a trusted group, any breezy that strays off on their own, seeking adventure or whatnot, all quickly die."
Hope stared at the ground for several moments thinking. Then her voice cut through the silence. "Well, that's fine, we can stick together. I'll definitely have a higher chance of surviving that way." she smiled at Quin and asked. "Do breezies need sleep?"
Quin yawned, answering her question. "Yeah, but it depends on how much magic we used that day. In order to get you to safety I had to strain myself a bit so I'm going to call it a night!"
She flew over to the walls and blasted a small hole into it. Before long the faint sound of her snoring could be heard.
'It sounds like a gust of wind' Hope thought.
After a while of putting it off, Hope finally decided to peer into her mind, hoping to remember her past. While concentrating on searching for the most basic knowledge like often spoken and other commonly known things like ether and magic, she fell asleep.
After what felt like a moment, she could feel the light of day pierce her eyes but remained unbothered. No matter how intense a light was, it could not avert her eyes, which were somehow able to withstand looking at a sun. Taking her time to wake up, she stretched hoping to drive the sleepiness of night away.
Finally seeing her move, Quin exclaimed." Wow! You hardly sleep at all? Don't you feel tired?"
Hope looked at her passively, but her mind showed otherwise. 'Wait, I understand her better! Did that actually work?!' Despite that, all she said was "I don't know" like always.
'That always works for a reply.'
Quin looked at her slightly irritated. "You can't avoid every question that way you know!?"
'Maybe not... but most of the time.'
Changing the subject, Hope pointed outside. "Any goal for today, eh?"
Quin contemplated for a few seconds then spoke. "Well, your body needs a different type of food to fuel it so we should focus on getting that!"
Hope looked her curiously. "And how do we find that?"
Getting glided down the cliff, Hope landed with a quiet step, despite the speed the wind had sent her to the ground.
'Oh, I should practice landing just in case I get dropped from a cliff again.'
After getting the time to properly analyze the terrain she could see that flora sprouted from the earth every now and then, some which appeared deadly to even lay hands on.
Suddenly Quin spoke, her high-pitched voice breaking the silence. "Other than plants, or that rotting corpse over there we should find you some proper food to recover your wounds."
'Huh? What wounds?'
Before she could speak however, the familiar energy of the wind grasped onto her and dragged her across the plain at mediocre speed.
Hope yelled, attempting to let Quin know that she was perfectly fine even after everything she had been through. "Quin!! Quin!!"
But her voice was drowned out by the sound of unwavering wind. After giving up, Hope sat there helplessly and decided to spend the time on her flight training. Feeling the pull of ether through her nerve channels again, Hope tried something different than just letting it follow its natural flow. Steeling her will, she commanded the ether to flow only to her fingertips and gather there.
'So, it can be controlled!? Wait, would releasing this be possible?'
Raising her hand away from her face and minimizing the risk she tried to remember a specific action she had done before. Her mind allowed her to choose out specific things from her past and remember them. However, if something was recalled without her direct will, her mind would panic and start burning; at least that was her theory.
Putting her pointer finger back and squeezing the middle finger and thumb together, all while putting tension, she snapped her finger. At that moment she could see the ether in her hand explode in a nova and the energy around her going haywire. The pull of the wind no longer felt steady and controlled, but rather wild and rampant like a beast. Before Quin had time to process, it shot Hope in an entirely random direction. Straight towards a field of thorny rocks.
'Aw, damn it!'