บท 9: Training
In his dojo underground Sunny was watching Rain following her new routine giving her pointers about how she should perform her exercises. He was never an expert in making training routines, but he still knew the path he had to go through to master the first step of the Shadow Dance, and the exercises he devised to reach it. Sunny devised a bastardized version of them to make her more flexible, and mobile.
The girl was definitely suffering. She was using muscles that she didn't even know that she had, stretching into different poses. Sometimes what she was doing seemed to be more like a specific art of contortion than a preparation.
But it also wasn't. She was actually using a lot of strength through it, and leaving literal pools of sweat. When it was clear that she's unable to go on, he served a glass of water from his bottle, and made her continue.
Training Rain wasn't a piece of cake. The goal he had in mind was to turn Rain into an Awakened, which was beyond ambitious: Becoming an Awakened would eventually make her more free, and safe. The problem lies in the means.
He won't accept the idea of Rain facing the Nightmares so he could only help her awaken by other means. However, those other means were mostly uncertain. Perfecting the soul to the point there's unity between body, and soul, enlightenment, training body beyond the physical limit. These are ways to Awaken that Ananke mentioned. The fact there's no one known on Earth who achieved that kind of awakening is not helping at all.
Rain fell to the ground miserably out of exhaustion, and unable to get up. Her mind still wanted to persist, but she wasn't foolish. There's a limit to how much the will can move the body. Body itself, of course.
"Sorry, that's all."
She uttered tiredly from the level of the floor.
"That's all the physical exercises for today. You did well."
And that's all he had to say. He knew Rain's will pretty well so he didn't feel like commenting on it. Sunny started preparing a meal for his sister, when she's gonna regain enough strength to freshen herself up.
He knew what she eats, and could tell she honestly tried for most of the time to eat healthy. However he wanted to aim higher than that. Instead of meat of mundane animals he used a carefully selected Fallen Creatures. He determined that anything higher would be too tough to chew.
He went through all the tricks he knew to make it more edible, salt to replenish whatever Rain sweated out, made a careful choice of seasonings, and added good vegetables. All with the same water he served to Rain during her session.
Things begged for the question why the awakening is that way. Why is there no single soul that managed to awaken naturally?
'It's even more unfair than the Nightmare Spell itself. There're plenty of mundane humans that have to face the Nightmare Creatures, vastly more powerful than them.'
He was clear it's not Weaver's fault. The Nightmare Spell made humans go through terrible trials, but never wanted to make things impossible.
The best candidate for the answer is the place the Earth is. Sunny already knows from the conversation with Wind Flower, that Dream Realm consists of many realms that were connected together.
It only makes sense, because the geography of the Dream Realm is all messed up. There's no common world directions. While the Earth is round, the Chained Islands are flying above vast, abysmal nothingness. If different laws govern things like gravity, why not govern the awakening? Gods could create realms where an awakening is impossible.
The Spell's workings seemed to suggest it was indeed that way. The First Nightmare isn't something that occurs on Earth, but in settings established by the Spell with their specific laws. After the First Nightmare the consciousness of the Sleeper is forcibly sent to Dream Realm for their awakening. After awakening the Awakened is sent to the Dream Realm every time they fall asleep. Why?
Assuming Nephis was right that the Nightmare Spell is made to make humans walk on the path of ascension, Sunny could suspect that the involvement with the Dream Realm was necessary to progress.
In the meanwhile Rain collected herself, took a shower, changed clothes. When she left the bathroom she visited kitchen watching curiously at whatever her teacher was cooking. The fragrance promised something tempting. She was still recovering from the mental toll the exercises took on her. She was about to say goodbye when Sunny prevented her from doing that.
"You're finally here. Please take a seat, and eat with me."
She was dumbfounded.
"Isn't it already worth way more than the ramen you eat on that day?"
"It is. Do you still doubt my desire to train you? You know it's really bad to doubt your teacher all the time."
Sunny anwered tiredly,
"No, not at all. You are very truthful. I know since it was revealed that Effie really has a husband."
"So join, and eat. Good meal is also a part of the training. When I was a Sleeper I spent a year eating nothing but Nightmare Creatures."
Rain glanced at the hot bowl, and the look was nothing fancy. If she was to guess it was rather an unsightly stew.
"Is it made of a Nightmare Creature?"
"It's a Fallen Beast. Now try it. I promise it's better than it looks like."
The girl was looking uncertain. The smell was great, but the look was wrong on two levels at least. Despite little aversion she raised her shaking, still tired hand, and tried it. Just barely she forced her grip on the spoon to not loosen. The stew was shockingly delicious.
The meat, however, was hard, and even with Sunny's best intentions, she had to chew it carefully to not choke on it. She also felt her fatigue disappearing insanely fast again.
"Mr Teacher?"
"Yes, Rain?"
"Did you add something to that water? I mean drugs, medicines, caffeine..."
"No, it's water. Do you see that bottle?"
Sunny summoned Eternal Spring and placed it on a table. Rain glanced at it.
"It makes water. A friend of mine gave it to me years ago."
"So is it pure water?"
"I think so. A bit magical, but ordinary water. Probably mineralized a bit."
Every conversation was like that. Rain was curious, and Sunny was mostly willing to answer, but somehow what he said lacked adequacy. You can be honest in everything, though without the context, and trust truths lose their power, can even be considered lies.
So was the idea the girl harbored. How can be water so refreshing, and not be a potent energy drink?
After the meal the teacher did even a strange thing. He took out a crystal, one of those she knew, and was considered rare in the waking world. At least till recently.
"It's a Soul Shard. It came from a Dormant Monster I slayed recently, because... I'll spare you from the details. Here's the thing: I want you to crush it.".
"Why?"
She asked him in suspition.
"To check if your body can absorb its essence."
"Isn't it expensive?"
"You're still doubting me..."
Rain sighed. Sunny handed her an alloy sword. She couldn't crush it with hands like a Sleeper would, because it was too tough. Instead she had to place the sword on the crystal, and apply some weight of her body. The Soul Shard shattered, and...
"I don't feel anything. Do you see something?"
Sunny saw something seeping into her. It didn't reach her Soul Core, because she didn't have any, but soon it followed somewhere to her body.
"Yes, although you can't see it, the essence entered your body. Only a bit of remnants."
"What does it do?"
He didn't know that.
"For that... I'm not entirely sure. Some time ago I heard from one old lady, that it's possible to awaken without going through the Nightmares. I didn't hear about such a case on Earth, but it seems very logical. The Awakened I met in the Nightmares usually had to awaken without it so if there's no such a qualitative difference between the mundane humans here, and the history of Dream Realm, it should be possible for you to awaken without the Nightmares."
Sunny revealed his intention to Rain.
"...That's a big thing."
"But I think that's also the way you should do it. Even if it's hard, slow, and we don't know the exact way to accomplish it..."
So she's going to be an experiment subject here. Is he delusional?
"And if it won't work? You know I'm going to live in Ravenheart soon."
"Strength is still strength. Also don't bother about the lack of time too much. I'm going to follow you to the Dream Realm. Before you're going to leave, take that."
It was a book, an old-fashioned paper one.
The Exploration Report on the Tomb of Ariel by Nobody
He put it gently in her hands.
"And read it patiently. If you'll read it, perhaps I'll be able to tell you something more about myself next time."
...
The report on the Tomb of Ariel was finally published, and it caused some commotion everywhere. The researchers were bewildered by the discovery that there were priests of the Nightmare Spell who carried it. The fact that it was created only after the corruption started spreading, and the ones who were corrupted were also banished from it could change the perception of many.
Knowledge is a source of power, but what does that mean? The most useful knowledge is the knowledge about what causes what.
Professor Obel wasn't satisfied with his scale, because it didn't reveal such knowledge. So what if we knew there is going to be a lot of Gates to deal with if we don't know why seeds cause them, and what causes seeds to appear? People in Antarctica could only run. So the knowledge caused them to run.
Awakened knew that conquering Nightmares close seeds so they entered them, and conquered.
Knowledge is indeed the source of power, and also it's the heaviest thing in the world. Above all however, knowledge has the power over humans! By sharing suitable parts of it you can bend people to your will.
What power fate would exert on the people who knows the Nightmare Spell is made of strings of fate? Sunny wasn't sure if he really wanted to learn that. After all he himself was a victim of fate.
Because of being [Fated] for some time he had intuitions about what to do, where to go to. The better grasp he had of his intuition the faster he was able to save his life, but also the more dangerous things harassed him, and more inevitable future was bound to happen.
The effect on the Great Clans was pretty noticeable. They abandoned the hope to conquer the Tomb of Ariel. There was nothing to gain from throwing more people into dessert, and that pretty well related to the decision to abandon the conflict in Antarctica. Instead they concentrated on taking as many refugees as possible.
While it was very demanding to keep so many people safe they were the key to solidifying the power they already gathered. One mundane human is very weak, but many of them can build roads, houses, and to some extent even repair citadels. If there are millions of humans the knowledge they can amass is also much greater.
As Sunny predicted Valor, and Song weren't happy about the existence of a traveler that nearly disclosed their plans.
He still remembered when Morgan nonchalantly told him that he can tell their crimes to the government, and she does not care, because the government can't do shit.
'Nice try, Morgan.'
That was true, but it doesn't mean it's impossible to hurt the great clans or hold them responsible at all. The government actually isn't the only power involved in this conflict.
While the clans used to raise their members to Awakened, there wasn't a lot of time since the Nightmare Spell descended on Earth. Even if Nephis has some pride in her clan, the Immortal Flame clan isn't so old.
They were barely able to give the birth to the third generation. To grow in power the clans have to recruit unaffiliated Awakened. People won't be so eager to take invitations if they'll learn they fight wars just for power. It's a matter of reputation.
The Great Clans declared they're going to hunt down the author. Fortunately these were only words. No one could track the report to him or Teacher Jullius. To do that they would have to learn the identity of Sunny, and that was quite hard. Even if they tried to use their best seers like Cassie to divinate it, they would see nearly nothing as the power of seers usually depended on drawing visions from fate.
Moreover no one knew who lived through the horrors of the Tomb of Ariel. No one of the cohort, including the Prince of Nothing, if that bastard can be included, did share what their Third Nightmare was. It was safe.
The report was also important, because he wanted to tell Rain where the idea to make her an Awakened has come from. To make it believable he had to put it in the context before he could present her with whatever knowledge he managed to extract from Ananke.
Taking into account how rare it was for an awakened to appear, Sunny understood very well that in the Ravenheart she will have to kill many Nightmare Creatures, plunder their cores, and even Dorman Beast will be awfully hard to kill. So he had to take time, and prepare her for that terrible experience. Starting early will make it less terrible.
For that specific purpose he turned one more room in his house into a place for her to practice, a little workshop with knives, and tools to work with body parts of some of the weakest Nightmare Creatures he hunted. Instead of making her face a living enemy, he made her work with a dead one. That way she could learn how hard it was to injure it, what kind of physiology it was, and how to extract precious materials.
That also created some problems. Dead bodies tend to rot, and the stench could make the house... a bit less pleasant place if left for too long. Sunny had to find ways to dispose of bodies. Especially because he wasn't exactly happy with the idea of keeping everything in his Covetous Coffer anymore.
For now it was working pretty fine. He could place things in his Coffer, and make another avatar summon it to throw it away somewhere in Antarctica. If that wasn't enough the Coffer could actually eat bodies. Given enough time it could consume all of them. What does it do with all that matter?
Knowing the nature of some enchantments he could tell it doesn't have to do anything with that matter. If in the void under the Chained Islands there are divine flames that can burn things leaving nothing, and then there's a bottle that can make water out of nothing endlessly, then a mimic being able to do something similar isn't so strange anymore.
However... Just in case it's important, Sunny decided to feed it with all the flesh of the Winter Beast. It wouldn't be his first Memory that can grow. He doubted it would work, though.
"I guess I have to study the Covetous Coffer too."
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