Lorelei leaped forward almost instantaneously, her wooden training sword clashing against Brant's as he raised his blade to counter her strike. She used the force of the impact to spin midair and land a straight kick to Brant's stomach. The shock sent him skidding backward on his feet. Lorelei stood before him, breathing hard.
"Amazing!" he exclaimed, eyes bright with excitement.
Lorelei wiped the sweat from her forehead and tilted her blade toward the ground. She rushed forward, sliding her sword along the floor, aiming for a clean hit to his femur—but Brant saw through her. He used the momentum of her lunge to roll over her back and send her flying into the wall. He rested his sword on his shoulders and flashed a sly grin.
"Good… good, but your movements are still too predictable. We need to work on that."
A clear outline of Lorelei's body was imprinted on the wall. She fell to her knees, gasping for breath, fighting to stay conscious from the sheer force of the impact. Once she regained control of her body, she pushed herself up, using her sword like a cane to support her trembling legs.
"Striking my thigh to keep me from supporting my body. I see you're using what Samuel is teaching you. Good work. We'll stop here for today."
He effortlessly tossed his training sword into its slot and walked out of the training hall, leaving Lorelei alone. Two months had passed since she met the so-called Fray. She didn't remember exactly what had happened back then, but the fragments she recalled were enough to push her forward. Enough to motivate her. Since that day, she had trained day and night under Brant and Samuel's guidance. Brant taught her how to wield a weapon properly, while Samuel taught her the art of using energy and the human body.
Lorelei walked over to the sword display and tossed her chipped wooden sword onto the broken sword pile. The training hall was an annex behind the main mansion—a wide, bricked room with a polished tile floor designed for perfect training conditions. Before she arrived, the floor had been flat and untouched. Now, traces and marks of her efforts were engraved across the hall.
She pushed open the door. After five hours of training with Brant, she was finally greeted by the warm embrace of the sun's rays. She walked along the white marble path into the mansion. Lorelei was no longer a stranger to this place; she knew it by heart. She was confident enough to navigate it with her eyes closed—not just here, but anywhere. Thanks to Samuel, she had learned to use the natural energy in her surroundings to detect objects and their distance—similar to echolocation. She closed her eyes and played the game as she made her way to the bath.
Nothing beats a warm bath, she thought, sinking into the water.
She looked down at her blistered hands and wounded arms. It wasn't something she was proud of, knowing that getting ahead of herself would only get her killed. If she still couldn't beat Brant or Samuel, she knew she was still far too weak to face that person. Her mind was so consumed with finding ways to grow stronger that she had pushed aside the lingering questions she once had. Bath time was the only moment of the day she allowed herself to calm down—but even that felt fleeting in her busy routine.
Once she finished, Lorelei put on her glove, a pair of pants, and a simple white shirt, then headed to the mansion's library. Not the one she already knew, but another—a larger library with proper lighting and a clean environment. It was where Samuel spent all his days: studying new things, assembling his arsenal of firearms, or keeping the mansion in order.
"There you are," he said at the sight of her.
Samuel was reading a book, balancing on the back legs of his chair with his legs crossed over the table. Glasses on, he glanced at Lorelei and waved her toward a door behind him. It was where Samuel practiced with Lorelei on how to use firearms. He snapped his book shut, tossed it across the table, and followed her into the room. It was the only chamber in the entire mansion covered in pure white tiles. Training dummies with red spots stood at a distance.
"I think it's time you actually learn how to fire one," he told her, handing her a small pistol before taking one for himself.
"Place these in every hole," he said, giving her small blue energy stones.
Lorelei did as he asked, inserting all seven stones. Samuel guided her stance, positioning her body and adjusting her glove covered hand's grip. Her fingers wrapped around the handle, her index resting on the trigger. She took aim and stared at the dummy.
"Now, concentrate. Feel the energy and guide it into the barrel."
Easier said than done. Lorelei could grasp pieces of energy around her, but she couldn't guide them without absorbing them.
"Remember what we practiced before. It's just like that. Use your body to guide it into the barrel. You're not absorbing it—just showing it the way."
Lorelei took a deep breath and reached out to her surroundings. She saw the blue particles filling every corner of the room. She was surprised by how many floated around her; those that drifted too close slowly entered her body. She felt the sensation and embraced it. Then, instead of absorbing them, she guided them into the barrel using the natural pull of her body. The small energy stone grew brighter, and the pistol grew heavier. She did her best to aim, pulled the trigger, and a beam of light grazed the dummy, leaving a dark mark on the wall behind.
A hand lightly patted her head.
"Good," Samuel said, his voice calm. "For now, even if I'm not here, come and practice this. It's important to do it every day."
Samuel did the same, gathering the surrounding energy into the barrel and firing with one hand on the handle. Small, precise beams of light pierced the dummy at every red spot. Lorelei was impressed by his prowess. A single shot had exhausted her, while Samuel fired seven times in a row without breaking a sweat.
"I'm going out again. You can keep going if you want."
Lorelei saw him off and returned to the chamber. She spent her time drawing in energy particles and firing at the dummies until her hands trembled from exhaustion. While resting, an idea struck her. If she could attract energy particles from the environment, why not charge the pistol with her own energy instead? She conducted her little experiment, focusing her own energy flow inside the barrel—but as soon as the stone came into contact with her energy, it caused a violent explosion that sent her flying into the air. For the second time that day, she was thrown against a wall. The explosion wasn't big enough to seriously damage the room—her body absorbed most of the blast—but Lorelei was still impressed by what she had caused.
After that, she decided to call it a day. She headed outside to finish her routine. The surrounding energy particles had vanished from her sight since she wasn't concentrating, but after so much training with Samuel, she could see them at will if she focused hard enough. She walked to the right side of the mansion, where an empty field offered a wide view of the night sky. Hours in the training room had passed without her noticing.
Tonight, the lights of Vinyl were out again, putting on a gallant spectacle. Lorelei had grown used to them over the past few months, but that never diminished their beauty. She lay flat on her back and stared at the empty night sky.
How lonely the sky looks...
She knew that because of all the light the city cast into the sky, the stars couldn't show the world their beauty. Sacrificing something to gain something else—that was the cycle. Nothing good came without giving first. It was a lesson she had learned, a lesson life had taught her, and a lesson she would carry with her for as long as she lived.
Under the care of the cold wind, announcing the end of fall and the beginning of winter, Lorelei slowly closed her eyes and drifted to sleep.