The Beginning Ch. 15-16

After our training the next morning, Swati handed me a twelve-and-a-half centimetre long, metal stylus. It was around zero-point-four centimetres across at the base, and tapered down to about half that at the tip, and was perfectly smooth all around.

"Once you channel a little Power into this," she said, as I turned it over in my hands, "it will Imprint onto you. Like your front door or the Battery Ronald gave you, nobody else will be able to use it.

"Unlike those, however, once you're strong enough, you will be able to summon it from anywhere. A similar spell enchants all our weapons, too, which is what I used to call my axe to me during our first spar."

Once I had done that, she started running me through some basic Sanskrit words, showing me how to stitch them together, and form spells. We practiced a few, but the one that caught my attention the most, was the one for fire: Agni.

That was pretty much my schedule for the foreseeable future. My mornings began with rounds of physical, magical, and martial training with Swati, followed by classes with Mr. Ray. I had a spot of free time in the evenings, which I used to hang out with my classmates as we goofed around and did homework, after which I reported back to Swati, for a second round of training.

As the months flew by, I noticed my body getting fitter, and my mind getting sharper. It was easier for me to keep up with my training, even as Swati pushed the intensity of it ever-higher. I was getting to the point where I could cast minor spells without supervision, and more importantly, without Media blowing up in my face, and was even starting to hold my own in barehanded combat with Vince. I was still getting beaten day-after-day, but the number of bruises I was sporting were reducing, and the ones he displayed were increasing.

We slowly moved on to training with weapons, and I gravitated towards both, the quarterstaff and the sword. They used vastly different techniques with very few similarities, but for some reason, they both felt right in my hands. Swati could train me in the basics for both, but once I was proficient enough, I'd have to be trained by someone who specialized in them.

Perhaps more surprising to me, was the fact that I was a pretty decent shot with the bow. My hand-and-eye coordination had never been the best, but a few months into my training, I could reliably hit targets close to a kilometre away, nine times out of ten.

Dinner with Vaishnavi's family had become a bi-weekly affair (sans Byrav, of course) which slowly led to me seeing her as a matronly figure, and Sneha and Rahul as the siblings I'd never had. While Rahul and I "chilled out like bros", my relationship with Sneha was definitely of the "wiser older brother", to the extent where I felt immensely protective of her.

The shift in the way I perceived my relationship with Vaishnavi actually led to me noticing how Rayka, a Penguin-Bonded classmate of mine, seemed to display some interest in me. She was definitely my type; petite, a little shorter than me, ambitious, outgoing, and just high on life. We would sometimes meet up after my night sessions with Swati, and would sit around, talking into the wee hours of the morning.

I never tired of looking at her pale European features, honey-brown eyes, button nose, and cupid-bow lips, and that pretty much sealed the deal. I asked her out a few months later, and with a "Yes!" and a kiss that I'd remember forever, I was officially in a relationship. My days with her were amazing, and my nights even better, and it was definitely the happiest I'd been in a long time.

At long last, it seemed, life was good.

*****

A/N: This actually brings us to the end of the first arc of this story. When we next see Chris, he will be stronger, (hopefully) wiser, and facing bigger, more daunting challenges.

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