“Alright,” Rea said, “for today’s lesson, I’m going to drive you into a rage and I want you to try to kill me.”

“What!?” Shaya replied, aghast.

They stood in one of the smaller practice rooms, a stone-walled hexagon no more than twenty feet across at any point. That left the lithe professor very little room to maneuver or avoid Shaya. Glowing runes on the flat ceiling illuminated the room with warm light and rain pattered away on the roof, which would have left Shaya feeling relaxed in other circumstances.

“Don’t worry,” Rea replied with a smirk, “I’ve faced far worse opponents than a young, hormonal mage.”

“That’s...” Shaya glared, “that’s not the point. Shouldn’t we start with something smaller? Ease into it?”

"I’m not one for safeties, Shaya,” the professor admitted with a shrug, “nor am I a patient woman, unless it comes to my wife. I want to see with my own eyes the effect you so fear, since I couldn’t find any records of it being explored scientifically. Once we can measure it, we can study it. You may very well be blowing it out of proportion and, if that’s the case, maybe you won’t be so afraid of yourself anymore.”

“Okay,” Shaya sighed, picking up her practice weapons: a sword and shield, “I’m going to try to hold back though.”

Rea laughed, “Shaya, I don’t think you know how to not hold back. We’ll address that later though.”

The professor’s tattoos glowed on the left side of her body, and a liquid shadow snaked into her hand to form a thin crystalline blade. Shaya felt a wave of aether as Rea’s eyes glowed with each colour of the spectrum: Amethyst co-existed with Jade, Ruby with Azurite, and Sapphire with Amber.

“How is that possible?” Shaya gaped.

“You can find balance in all things, if you look for it,” Rea replied, “it’s rare even outside Arcadia, of course.”

“Okay, what next?” Shaya asked.

“That’s easy,” Rea chuckled, and gestured at Shaya to come and get her, “come at me with everything you have: spell, skill, and strength. We need to establish a baseline of your abilities.”

Shaya attacked her with everything she had, as instructed.

The tall, thin professor flowed like water, dodging Shaya’s blows with easy, languid motions and counter attacking with fluid grace. Shaya couldn’t read her movements and kept misjudging her attacks entirely, rewarding the young mage with a score of shallow cuts across her body – cuts that could easily have been lethal if Rea so desired given the surgical precision she showed with her blade work. Even Shaya’s spells couldn’t limit her movement, she never panicked when a wall cut off her escape route or a chain lashed for her feet.

Shaya had never felt so out of her league. The frustration grew in her mind, fueled by the insulting nicks Rea’s wickedly sharp blade left on her.

“I expected more from you, to be honest,” Rea said with a disappointed sigh, “the others made you out to be something special.”

“You’ll have to try harder than that if you want to offend me,” Shaya snorted, but a voice in the back of her head believed Rea’s words.

Maybe she wasn’t gifted, or special.

Maybe she wouldn’t amount to anything, let alone the hero she wanted to be.

Rea smiled, letting Shaya close on her and lock their blades together. Despite her thin frame, Rea resisted Shaya’s raw strength and held her in check. Their eyes met and Shaya watched the Azurite and Ruby aether vanish from the professor’s eyes as a spell slammed into her mind.

Magic punched through Shaya’s best defenses, her will cracking under the sudden force of energy pouring into her mind. Rea’s spell incited her anger, like throwing oil onto a raging fire. With her blood boiling, she barely managed to maintain control over her actions.

Shaya strained against Rea and started to push her blade back, bearing down on the lighter woman with her strength. With a growl, Shaya pushed as hard as she could to break through the professor’s guard and land a blow. Rea was forced to break the lock, flowing away from the strike, and they resumed their dance.

Minutes flew by as they fought, Shaya growing more and more frustrated as she failed to land any blows through the professor’s canny defense. Her magic dwindled as time went on, the Amber refusing to flow into her. Rea’s continued nicks and verbal barbs incited more and more rage in Shaya, who began to slip into a total loss of control.

Terror filled her as she neared the precipice and she desperately tried to scramble away from it.

“Don’t shy away from your anger,” Rea said, “be aware of yourself.”

Another of Rea’s spells hit her. More Ruby and Azurite energy left the professor’s eyes as even more oil was thrown into Shaya’s mind to fuel her rage. An enraged roar signaled the end of her control, and Shaya immediately cut herself off from what was going on.

She watched as her body attacked Rea with reckless abandon, knowing the professor could have punished any number of openings she left. Rea accepted another blade lock, but was forced to flow away from the engagement in moments as she was overpowered. The ceaseless, ferocious attacks put her on the back foot, and her ripostes stalled as she was forced to focus on fighting defensively.

Rea’s eyes twinkled with delight.

“Are you paying attention?”

Are you crazy!? Shaya screamed. Why did I even think this was a good idea!?

“Watch,” Rea said.

Shaya watched as instructed, watched as her body pursued Rea across the small room. Forcing the woman to give ground and circle as she ran out of ground to give. The madness unfolded before her... then she understood.

Even in her rage, Shaya parried one of Rea’s thrusts.

Just as Krebo trained her to do.

Her slashes were powerful and sloppy, but her attack patterns were the same ones Krebo drilled her on again and again.

The way she guarded herself and charged in with her shield was the same way she fought against Una. She knew well enough to stay close to Rea, to limit thrusts from her absurdly long blade.

It wasn’t a monster in her body.

It was just her.

She didn’t have to scream at her body to do what she wanted, she just had to tell it what to do – like normal.

Her attacks grew a bit tighter, a bit less wasteful. This put more pressure on Rea, as Shaya recovered faster and could throw more attacks at her, ones that actually mattered. Her defense grew a bit stronger, keeping her shield closer to her and angling it to deflect blows instead of block them.

...well, almost like normal. Shaya was still far from being able to direct the rage entirely, and her soul soared with the knowledge that it was possible to direct it – even just a little.

Tentatively, she even tried to draw in Amber again. She felt a trickle get through her rage, barely enough to hold onto. She tried to draw in Jade next, but it shied away from her entirely.

But it was a start.

With a nuance of control over her actions, Shaya came closer and closer to landing a hit on Rea. The professor’s movements grew less languid as she was forced to put more energy into parrying and dodging the incoming attacks. The mercurial flow she displayed earlier was replaced with violent surges of energy that Shaya found even more graceful for their honesty.

Shaya was cornering the professor again, and anticipation grew alongside her rage as she knew it was only a matter of moments before she landed even just a single glancing blow.

Rea smiled, then pure Azurite aether pierced Shaya’s mind and cold water flooded in, snuffing out the raging fire within her. The sudden loss of anger left Shaya stunned and feeling numb, then exhaustion slammed into her.

Rea caught her as she fell, supporting Shaya’s weight and helping her stay upright.

“It’ll pass in a moment,” she said, still smiling.

Shaya tried to surreptitiously stab her in the gut, but her waist shifted out of the way.

“Nice try,” Rea grinned, “but you’re going to have to work harder to hit me.”

“I’ll get you next time,” Shaya promised, sagging.

“Mmm,” Rea sounded unsure of that, “maybe don’t make promises you can’t keep, kiddo.”

Shaya snorted a laugh, which is all she had energy for.

“Gods,” she murmured, “why am I so exhausted?”

“Well,” Rea replied, “you were attacking me without pause for the better part of ten minutes.”

“Ah,” Shaya nodded, “any ideas then?”

“No way,” Rea shook her head, “I’m not going to spitball ideas before going over what happened today. I’ll get you a report after your mid-terms – and I will absolutely withhold it if your grades slip. You owe me three different summoned creatures, and I haven’t seen you master a third...”

“Don’t worry, I will,” Shaya sighed, “But I want you to know...you’re pure evil.”

Rea laughed, “You don't know the half of it. Now let's get your injuries seen to, I wouldn’t want anyone to think I’m an abusive mentor...”