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Arjuna leaned on the cold stone railing of the small balcony overlooking the room below. Like most rooms in his tower, this too had the faint smell you could only really get while surrounded by stone, though in this room you could also smell sweat and the metal tang of weapons and armor. The sharp sounds of weapons coming together in a fight mixed with the small grunts of effort and the shuffling of feet on the wood-covered floor of the practice room. There was something off about the sounds, and it took Arjuna a moment to figure out what it was. The rhythm was off. There was also something about the way the weapons came together that most people would not notice, but the oddity in sound could be identified by a master of the blade like Arjuna.

He watched as Karna and his disciple Duskclaw were dueling, letting both of them train their skills and develop their form. The two were surprisingly even as opponents. Surprising because Duskclaw was a rank four warrior, while Karna was still a rank one Aura user. That said, Duskclaw was mainly a mage, unlike most of her beastmen brethren, and had not spent that much time keeping up on her martial skills after becoming Arjuna’s disciple. They’d have to rectify that in the future, but for now, the two made decent sparring partners for one another, as long as Duskclaw didn’t use any of her more powerful skills with Ki. As this was meant to be practice, using such skills would’ve defeated the whole point anyway.

Arjuna noted that it wasn’t just Duskclaw’s lack of practice that kept the fight equal. It was clear that the older woman was stronger and faster, but somehow she was still unable to land a solid hit on the much smaller girl. Well, not that much smaller anymore. Karna had recently gone through a small growth spurt and it seemed she was going to be fairly tall when older, as she was already almost 140cm and she was showing no signs of slowing down. He suspected that her heritage might have something to do with it. And that heritage likely also had something to do with the fact that despite the large difference in rank, she was still able to keep up with Duskclaw.

Karna’s fighting style also helped matters. She had developed faster than anyone Arjuna had seen, and her technical skill was already at a stunning level. Her style also helped with minimizing the advantage against a stronger and faster opponent. Arjuna had mainly trained her in the use of sword and spear, but it didn’t really matter what weapon she was wielding as her style remained quite constant. He was reminded of a river while watching her fight. She would never stay still and would bend and give way in front of greater strength. She would never directly block strikes against her. Instead, she would parry and allow the opponent's strike to slide along the length of her weapon, misdirecting and wasting all that strength in the blows that she wasn’t able to block. She kept her defense very tightly closed and her movements maximized efficiency and minimized wasted movement, naturally flowing from one stance and strike to another.

Flowing was exactly the word he would use. Her movements were perfectly natural, but the way she flowed from one moment to another made it seem like she had planned everything dozens of moves ahead. She would disrupt the pace of her opponent and then force them to overextend, after which she would strike with vicious lethality and speed at any exposed area. That’s why the whole thing sounded off in Arjuna’s ears. There were no clean hits and blocks, and Karna obviously tried various tricks to break the rhythm of her opponent. Her opponent barely even noticed it, but it would feel as if something was off and would fray their concentration. It was as if they were not able to exert their real strength for some reason. The reason was that Karna intercepted their attack just a tad earlier or later than they expected, making it so that they were not able to use their full strength because the focal point of the attack was off.

Every time you swung a weapon, there would be a point where the strength of your blow was at its strongest, and usually, every fighter unconsciously tried to make that point be the point where they hit the opponent or the opponent’s weapon. If the block came a bit early, your full strength and weight wouldn’t be behind the blow yet, and if it came late, the focal point would be off and you were overextending the strike. Especially if someone didn’t actually block but just misdirected the blow with a parry. Just like Karna seemed to enjoy doing. It also broke the rhythm of the fighter when the timing was off, forcing the person to pay more attention to the attack instead of letting muscle memory take over. Over a long enough period of time, that strain built up and could manifest in various ways.

As he had expected, Duskclaw got vexed by something she didn’t quite understand, and quite intelligently tried to step back to get some space to gather herself. The choice was correct in a certain sense, but the problem was that just like a river, Karna flowed in and took over any free space that was offered and stepped into Duskclaw’s defense, attacking her midriff with a quick jab while the other woman was mid-step. That forced the older woman to make a hasty defense and caused her to stumble. Karna didn’t miss the opportunity and tripped Duskclaw and set her blade on her opponent’s throat.

Duskclaw gave a suffering sigh. “I yield.” She had to admit defeat. She had been beaten fair and square after all, and the thought rankled her. “You’re learning way too quickly.”

"You're just out of practice, 'mom'," Karna replied a little sarcastically, although her smile took off the sting of the words.

“You know I’ve told you to call me sister. Or even aunt if you must.” Duskclaw said with an exasperated tone even if she showed no emotion on her face. This was a constant source of debate for them. Well, more like Karna kept teasing Duskclaw, and the older woman kept rising to the bait.

“Oh, I know. I’ve told you before that I’ll stop teasing you when you stop reacting like that. You really need to learn how to rein in your instinct to lash back.” Karna replied with her smile being replaced by a serious look.

"You know why I react like that though," Duskclaw argued. She had been forced to suffer jibes about her fascination with magic for almost her entire life. Most beastmen were warriors, even those that ended up choosing civilian life. It wasn’t that there were no beastman mages, but those all came from certain tribes where it was more accepted. There were several Owl-tribe beastmen in the Academy, for example, but no members of the canid tribes aside from Duskclaw. Their talents simply lay in other fields, such as tracking and archery where their sharper senses gave them an edge.

“I know. And that’s exactly why I keep doing it. It’s a weakness. And one easily exploited as well. If you get numb to it and stop rising to my baiting then you are less likely to get killed one day when someone trying to kill you uses that weakness against you.” Karna explained patiently.

Arjuna shook his head. The whole thing was supposed to go the other way. Duskclaw was supposed to be the teacher, not the student. Still, the girl was right. And it should’ve been Arjuna who taught that lesson to his disciple, not his daughter. He could claim that he had been distracted the last ten years by Karna’s presence, but that was just an excuse. The first few years he hadn’t even been a proper parent for Karna, so trying to use that as an excuse would be doubly humiliating.

Arjuna clapped his hands loudly. "Well done. Duskclaw, you've allowed yourself to grow rusty, and we'll be fixing that in the coming weeks. I suppose we haven't been paying enough attention to your training lately. Something else we need to fix. That's good enough for today. You're both sweaty and stink so I encourage you to wash yourselves."

The two nodded and Duskclaw headed towards the bathing area they had built adjacent to the training area just for this purpose, but Arjuna noted that Karna stayed behind. “What is it?” He asked, knowing the girl had something she wanted to talk about privately.

“Father.” Arjuna knew it was serious and important if she was using that word. “I’m going to need you to find me a suitable place for my first Awakening.”

Arjuna blinked a bit in surprise. “That’s it? I was expecting something more serious. We have several rooms in the tower that you can use.”

“No. I’ll need a place outside the city. Somewhere remote where we won’t be bothered. I’m expecting my Awakenings to be fairly…unstable. I think we’ll need a place that we won’t mind burning down either. On that note, it would be nice if that place was filled with a lot of fire elemental power.”

Places filled with the natural mana and spiritual power of fire were not rare but they didn’t exactly grow on trees either. Trees were flammable after all. “This has something to do with your heritage, I assume?” He asked rhetorically.

"That would be a fair assessment, yes." His daughter nodded, not explaining further. Another thing Arjuna was already used to. The girl sometimes just knew things but refused to explain how, despite him questioning her quite insistently on a few occasions.

“I was expecting you to do this a year ago so I’m not surprised. I’ll see what I can do. What about your mana? The Academy exam will be in three weeks, and I’m fairly sure they won’t accept a first circle mage.” He pointed out. He actually didn’t mind if Karna didn’t go this year as most kids at the Academy would be older by at least a year or two.

“Funny you should mention that. I’m going to use this opportunity to form my second circle as a mage as well. I told you that you didn’t have to worry. I simply like to have a proper foundation.” His daughter retorted with a small smile.

“Yeah, you’ve been telling me that for years now, and I happen to know you could’ve become a second circle mage when you were eight. Which means you were likely capable even earlier, knowing how you like to hide such things. I know foundations are important, but you might be holding yourself back a bit too much." Arjuna criticized with a fatherly tone. He knew his daughter was extraordinary and was afraid she was holding herself back because of all the secrecy they'd been forced to maintain so far. He didn't want her damaging her future just because they had to exercise care. She was brilliant and he wanted the world to know it.

Karna’s smile got a little mysterious. “I’m making sure I have the best foundation I can manage. Don’t worry. I'm now done. If you want me to progress so badly, then find me the place I requested!”

Arjuna laughed as his daughter shooed him away. He'd find the best possible spot for sure. He already had a volcano in mind. It was nice and remote and naturally filled with the right kind of energy. There was even a small portal to the elemental plane of fire within the volcano. That would suit her specifications perfectly. He’d only need to chase off some lava wyrms to make the place safe…

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“Ahh.” Karna released a satisfied sound as she slipped into the hot water of the large bath. She had always enjoyed baths. In fact, she liked many of the simple joys of life. As you grew older, you understood the value of finding pleasure in the moment and the simple things, and she was very old indeed. In fact, she had no idea how old she really was. She wasn’t even able to guesstimate how many lives she had lived. She had stopped counting after a hundred, and that seemed so long ago that she must have crossed a thousand by now. The question was, how many times over she had crossed that threshold? She didn’t know, and she didn’t want to know. Many of those lives had been very brief, while others had been extremely long, so the number was rather unimportant.

“You sound like an old woman when you get into a bath.” Duskclaw laughed. The beastwoman was floating on her back, mostly submerged in the water. She had her long brown hair untied for once, and it was spreading in a fan around her head. The woman had a tan light brown skin that was only somewhat lighter than her hair, and there were small tufts of black on the canine ears on top of her head. Karna wasn’t sure what specific kind of beastman she was as it had never come up and it was a little impolite to ask.

She simply laughed in response. If only Duskclaw had any idea. Still, the reincarnators had different kinds of methods to cope with the crush of the years pressing on them, and Karna had found her own coping method in acting like this was just her second life. She would act the age of her body, or vessel as she liked to call it, as that both helped with mixing in with normal people as well as helping her keep things fresh and retain her sanity. She slipped sometimes of course and there were certain childish behaviors that she’d rather just avoid on principle, but generally, she could get into the role. She couldn't pretend like she was a completely normal and idiotic child, but at least she could avoid acting like the ancient relic that she truly was. There were two main reasons that allowed her to do it. The first one was simple biology. Hormones and body chemistry influenced one's behavior and it didn't take a lot to act like a hormonal teenager when your body really was full of hormones. The second reason was that her short lives gave her plenty of opportunities to act like a relatively young person. In fact, she sometimes found it harder to act mature when the time came.

“You know I’m still not immune to sore muscles from this level of exercise unlike some whose name I won’t mention.” Karna made a playful jab at the other woman.

“Hey, you might not have that on your side, but I’m the one carrying bruises from all that training.” Duskclaw protested. A fair point.

"You don't seem all that bruised," Karna commented while looking at the other woman floating in the water. She noted that only three things of Duskclaw’s body were above water, one was her face and the other two things were on her chest. The woman was quite busty. She was also quite attractive. Karna could see how there would be rumors about Arjuna and his disciple floating around. She had noticed over the years that Duskclaw had a bit of a crush on Arjuna. Looking at Duskclaw now, it was a rather decent show of moral fortitude from Arjuna that nothing had ever happened between the two. As far as she knew at least, but she was a rather good judge when it came to such things.

“What’s this?” Duskclaw asked playfully. “Have you been checking out big sister in the bath?” She got up to a standing position as water cascaded down her body and noted where Karna had been looking the last before turning her gaze away. It seemed like some kind of realization had hit the woman. “Aww, don’t worry little Karna. I’m sure yours will grow properly as well. You’re still young!”

Karna almost facepalmed at the ‘encouraging’ words. It seemed that Duskclaw still carried a grudge about the ‘mom’ comment. “Don’t you worry ‘aunty’. I’m not worried at all.” She retorted calmly.

And she truly wasn’t. It seemed that the bloodlines the reincarnators gathered as a result of their numerous lives caused certain changes to their appearance. The only reincarnators that were not attractive were those that had not lived enough lives to gather any bloodlines. It almost didn’t matter which bloodline, as they all brought benefits, though there were of course differences. In addition, Karna had been fairly busty in all her lives for some reason. Well, all her female lives that is. Apparently, that was just one of the results of those bloodlines, though she couldn't understand why and which bloodline. As a result, she really didn't need to worry about her appearance while growing up. In fact, it was already clear that her appearance would cause some problems of the opposite type when she grew up. Still, it was one of those things that wound up solving more problems than it created. She had often heard that it was more useful to be attractive than it was to be intelligent, and that saying wasn’t all that wrong. She certainly didn’t mind being attractive.

The two teased each other for a while as they washed off the sweat and enjoyed the water. They also both enjoyed the company. Despite the teasing, Duskclaw felt more like a sister to Karna, and they got along fairly well. Karna was one of the few real friends that Duskclaw had as Arjuna’s apprentice. She had been Arjuna’s apprentice for several decades, and the rumors had it that the only reason she had not finished her apprenticeship was because the two were romantically involved. There was the slight bit of truth in the rumor that Duskclaw didn’t want to leave partially because of the attraction she felt, but that was only a minor reason.

Most apprenticeships like this lasted maybe a decade or two depending on the exact nature of the agreement. Still, few apprenticeships lasted longer than two decades. However, that didn’t really factor in the simple reality that Arjuna was one of the few people thought to have the potential to Ascend. Duskclaw had a lot more to learn than a normal apprentice, and would likely inherit a lot of his things if and when he did Ascend. It was also because Arjuna had saved Duskclaw that the young woman had sworn to serve him. Taking her as a disciple was just a convenient way to make things official. No matter the reason though, many people tried to get close to her just to get closer to Arjuna, so there were few people she could trust, and Karna was one those few despite her youth.

As the two were toweling off, Duskclaw finally got serious. “Tell me honestly Karna. Why are you so eager to go to the Academy? We both know you can get just as good if not better training as a mage from Arjuna, and it’s not like the people at the Academy are experts in cultivating your Aura. That’s really only something you can learn from your own kind. It’s also a risk, and one that might come to bite us. Going in a couple of years would not be too late and the risk would already be much smaller then. You’re not one to make impulsive decisions either, not if it puts us at risk as well.”

“What’s the point of being alive if you don’t live?” Karna replied with a sudden question of her own.

“What?” Duskclaw was only confused by that reply.

Karna turned to the older woman and took a hold of her hands. “Look. I’ve enjoyed my life with you and Arjuna. And the servants. But I’ve been a caged bird. I haven’t really been living life. There’s a reason why you’ve kept me hidden, and I get the risks. I really do. But it’s time I actually start living. I want to meet people. Make friends. Form connections. Personal power isn’t the only thing that can help protect someone. Having friends and connections helps as well. I also need to make rivals and enemies of my own. That will allow me to face the real world and practice my skills in new and unexpected situations. Most of all though, I want to see the world outside the tower. The few times we’ve visited outside aren’t enough for me.”

“But wouldn’t all that be there in a couple of years anyway? With a lot less risk involved.” Duskclaw argued. She was worried about Karna.

“Yes and no. I’ve been socially starving for a long time. You are good company, but I need to meet new people. Besides, I want to have a few years of just living before things get serious. And I have a feeling I don’t have endless amounts of time before things really do get serious. We are both aware that my heritage is something special, and I can feel it in my soul that whatever drove my parents to send me down here will follow me eventually. Before that happens, I want to have some time for myself. Simple rivalries and friendships with simple people. Well, as simple as you can get with the Academy that is. But you already know that. That’s why you and Arjuna haven’t really tried to stop me.” She squeezed Duskclaw’s hands in thanks.

"I just…worry," Duskclaw admitted. She wasn’t Karna’s mother, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t developed any motherly feelings towards the little girl.

“I know. And I appreciate it. I really do. It’s not like I’m moving to another world and never coming back. You spend time at the Academy as well. In fact, you spend more time there than father. You’ll see me a lot. Besides, just because the Academy might struggle to beat Arjuna’s private tutoring when it comes to magic, it’s not like that’s the only subjects they teach. I can learn many things by myself, but there’s a limit.” Karna pulled Duskclaw into a hug. She had expected questions like this earlier. Still, it was good to get things into the open, and it felt nice to have someone worry about you. “Come on. Let’s see if we can figure out what to do for the rest of the evening.”

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