It was soon into my unadulterated happiness that I heard enthusiastic clapping from behind me. I quickly spun around to see Rethi wide eyed and clapping like a man possessed.

I was surprised, to say the least. I looked up at the sky and realised that it was almost midday. Meaning that I had spent a few hours more than a full day on just practicing the Sharah, including creating the abomination that is my kata.

I looked to Rethi seeing his face clearly, he looked a little rough around the edges—some bruises and cuts still obvious on his form—but he looked a whole lot better than only a day or so ago. I sighed with relief, forgetting my triumph in a moment.

“That was so cool Master Maximillian!” Rethi said, racing up to me with all the energy of a young boy.

“Well yes, but I’ve only managed to pull it off once so far.” I wasn’t ready to receive compliments on anything I had done quite yet. Rethi, however, had moved his interest to something else. My hammer. I looked at him oddly as he was intently staring at it—scouring the light silver with his eyes in awe. To be perfectly honest, I was a little amused. He didn’t seem to be aware of me staring right at him, so I lightly coughed to pull his attention. His head whipped up to look at me, and embarrassment crept up onto his face—as clear as day.

“Oh! I’m sorry, I… well I couldn’t help but look.” The boy said, shuffling awkwardly in the dirt. I laughed and looked quizzically at the massive hammer that was head down in the dirt.

“What do you think of it?” I asked. I hadn’t really discussed the hammer with anyone but Mayer, I didn’t know what just a common person thought of the thing. Rethi looked at the hammer, and then back at me.

“Well… it’s beautiful. It might be all one colour, but the detail to it is strange. I haven’t seen anything even remotely like it before. I’ve seen a few of the weapons that mercenaries or warriors wear when they walk through town. The one or two times I’ve seen it happen, anyway.” Rethi shook his head emphatically, “But they look nothing like this. The craftsmanship that went into something of this size, and with this much detail? It’s incredible. I would more expect it to be a showpiece on some rich man’s mantle than be used as an actual weapon.”

And there it was. If I were to be perfectly honest, I didn’t really think about the hammer all that hard since I had been handed the thing. I just used it and got on with life, a tool of necessity. But Rethi saw it entirely different. I knew what it truly was, but to Rethi it was a mystical weapon that could be summoned and unsummoned. I nodded to myself slightly before turning to the boy and patting him on the back.

“It’s a decent hammer if I do say so myself. It does the job, and I am forced to try and handle it properly.” I laughed and walked over and unsummoned the thing by lightly grabbing it by the hilt. Rethi watched in wonder as the hammer rapidly melted into liquid and was absorbed into my hand. It wasn’t really any faster than it was before at unsummoning, but it felt slightly smoother somehow, if that made any sense at all.

“Are we going back?” I asked Rethi, who was still gawking ever so slightly. I don’t know how well he had caught me summoning and unsummoning the hammer beforehand, but he seemed engrossed this time around. Seeing it unsummoning up close must be different than from afar—the metal leaking into my hand where I touched it. Rethi nodded sharply, waking himself from his stupor and then started to walk quickly in the direction of Mayer’s house.

I walked in the same direction, but a great deal slower. I wasn’t about to run all the way to Mayer’s home, too high energy for me right now—even if I technically always had the energy. Rethi quickly picked up on it and slowed his pace to match mine perfectly.

It took a while to reach Mayer’s little house, but the walk was worth it. I needed to let myself rest, even if it was totally superfluous. It helped me readjust from being in a mode where I was crazily repeating the same actions over and over again, with no concept of time at all—into suddenly being a normal human again and having to deal with social encounters. Massive difference.

I barged on in through Mayer’s artfully crafted wooden door and took a turn into the living room.

“Morning.” I said, not really referring to time all too strictly, and plonked myself down in the seat that has been claimed by me. Mayer took a sip, eyebrows raised amusedly with eyes that peaked over the cup and wrinkled ever so slightly at the sides. Rethi quickly sat down in another spare chair that had been set out what must have been only recently.

“Good afternoon boys.” He said half into his cup. “You’ve been out for a while Rethi. Did you run some errands before you went and fetched Max here?” I looked pointedly towards Rethi.

“N-no sir. I found him out there doing a strange dance. I didn’t think I should have interrupted him at the time, so I just waited.” The young boy shifted uncomfortably in his seat under the pressure of the combined gazes of me and Mayer.

“How long did you wait, Rethi?” I asked lightly.

“Three hours.” Mayer answered for him. I looked at Rethi and sighed, the boy himself looked down at his hands, fiddling with his fingers nervously.

“You were right that I was in the middle of something, but next time just call out to me.” The young boy nodded sharply—his much cleaner sandy blonde hair bobbing with the motion. Rethi turned his gaze away from me and I moved my attention away in kind. It wouldn’t help to put any weight on the boy, it wasn’t like he did anything wrong. Personally, however, I would appreciate it if someone would alert me when Mayer called on me—he was someone that I would stop even the most important of things to go meet, just on the odd chance of something serious arising.

“It’s fine, I will tell the boy when something is urgent or not. In this case, there is no real urgency. Otherwise, I would have gone and fetched you myself, after a short while.” Mayer chuckled as he saw a small flash of relief in Rethi’s face but continued. “It seems that your little plan went pretty well.” Mayer said, looking at me. I tiled my head to the side slightly, an unspoken ‘How so?’

“My mother was sent a letter of written apology by the Jothians.” Rethi said, happily but with a tinge of sadness in the fringes of his words. I raised my eyebrow, waiting for the ‘but’. Rethi took a deep breath and sighed it out.

“But my mother found out about it. About me being a beggar.” His eyes dropped to his hands again. I could hear the tears simply from that emotional, strangled sound in his voice. I had feared that this would happen. It was almost inevitable that Rethi would be found out at some point, whether it was now or in the future was almost irrelevant.

“What happened?” I asked. It wasn’t really a question; I know what happened. Rethi didn’t speak for a while, before managing to squeeze out a few words.

“I don’t think I am welcome home for the time being. Or maybe ever.” He said solemnly. I nodded, looking back to Mayer and gesturing towards the room that I had slept in for a few nights, offering it to the boy instead. He nodded back affirmatively, though I could tell it was already a given in his mind. I didn’t need the room at all, really. I could just as easily sit where I was all night and do nothing here, it wouldn’t change anything.

I got up and beckoned for Rethi to follow and showed him to the room. After that I showed him around the place; a quick tour of all the amenities, the bathroom right across the hall, and a quick warning to not touch anything hanging on the walls in the hallway—and then I left him alone in the room for a bit. The kid probably needed some time himself, at the very least to process the rapid change in his life.

I walked out into the living room and sat opposite Mayer again and sighed.

“Knew that one was coming?” He asked, and I nodded lazily.

“His mum is pretty hardcore. She was unhappy about me giving them money for perfectly legitimate reasons, I can’t imagine the fit that she had when she found out her son was a beggar himself.” I could just about hear the hurtful words of a deeply wounded woman being screamed from here. Mayer nodded.

“She is apparently quite the bull-headed young lady.” I could just about feel my ears prick up at that.

“You know her?” He nodded, but didn’t elaborate, so I didn’t pry—even if I was curious. He took a long sip of his cup, slowly drinking the tea with his eyes closed. He waited a moment before opening his eyes again.

“She has never allowed herself to take any of the support I tried to give her over the years. I’ve tried many different things from small to large, but nothing ever worked. I haven’t tried in a few years now.” He said, tapping the side of his cup, making the ceramic ring ever so slightly. “I’m somewhat surprised that you managed to convince her to take that money in the first place. I hadn’t so much as been able to make her take firewood for a particularly nasty cold season.”

“I think it was all about timing, it was more about her son that it was about her. And I was also pretty forceful about it, with all the grace and subtlety of my hammer” Mayer exhaled softly and nodded but waved his hand as if clearing the air of a dirty smell.

“Anyway, enough of this depressing conversation. What about your training. Rethi seemed impressed.” He said, eyebrow raised amusedly. I laughed awkwardly.

“Well, after you left I couldn’t really do the whole dance the way that you did, so I decided to break it into a smaller set of steps that I could repeat easier.” Mayer’s eyes widened behind his teacup and he quickly swallowed, holding down a choked surprise. His eyes went from shock, then horror, then overwhelming amusement.

“You abridged the Sharah? How blasphemous of you! I guess that’s my fault for not telling you that you shouldn’t.” He said, delight emblazoned across his face. Between the somewhat ominous wording and the delighted way he said them, I was left with a confused smile. Mayer got up and started making himself another cup of tea while practically giggling to himself as he did so. He offered to make me one, and I agreed—still thoroughly confused.

He delicately handed the teacup to me and laughed delightedly as he sat back in his seat and took a sip.

“Why are you so happy about this?” I asked carefully. I honestly wasn’t really sure that I wanted to know. Mayer looked at me and grinned.

“The Sharah is a very sacred thing to the Sharah’hin.” He paused a moment and thought about something then just said “Sharah’hin just means People of the Sharah. Anyways, they really hate it when you do abridge or change the Sharah in any way. Big sore spot to them.” Mayer giggled to himself, a joke I probably couldn’t possibly understand.

“Well, now you are both a Champion and a Blasphemer. The Sharah’hin would really hate you now.” Then Mayer gave a great big belly laugh, so hard that he almost spilt his tea.

Almost.