A few minutes of silence went by, but during that time, Ren repeatedly nodded his head in understanding, eventually reopening his eyes to look at Leona with satisfaction. "What did you do?" she asked expectantly. "I asked Thoma and Ysevel for help," he grinned wryly, prompting her to raise an eyebrow in surprise.
I've never seen him smile before, she realized.
"Y-You did? But they should be on the Gramm Isles by now," she asked, astonishedly. "When you reach a higher stage of mana, you'll be able to as well," he smiled thinly. "Well, what did they say?" she asked, growing anxious to hear her new set of instructions.
"You've been close to dying before, right?" Ren asked bluntly, causing her to blink a few times in surprise. "Y-Yes? Most recently in Harut when I got stabbed in the back," she replied with no small amount of confusion in her tone and features. "Do you remember what it felt like?" he asked. "Aurae's already asked me that question, but yes," she replied again, still unsure of where Ren was taking the conversation.
"Good. Then this will be easy. Thorn!" he called out over his shoulder, lacing his voice with mana. "He's back at the palace," Gwili replied, but quickly ate his words when a spark of gray mana suddenly appeared before him, and with it, Thorn, which caused Gwili to fall flat on his ass.
"W-What the fuck? A little warning would have been nice," Gwili shouted frustratedly as he rubbed his backside. "He gave you one when he called my name," Thorn said cheekily, but it was clear that this was the first time anyone else had ever seen him do that.
Leona, of course, was the most surprised that he could do that from such a distance. "H-How?" she asked, struggling to find any other words. "My apologies for startling you, Leona, but that ability is something Ren and I have developed over the last century together. The time it would take me to explain it would force us to be here well into the late hours of the night," Thorn said with a bright smile.
"So, you need my help? You've already asked the others, right?" Thorn directed the question to Ren. "I did, but both Thoma and Ysevel think it would be easier to explain if you showed her," he replied with a shrug. "Ah, I see. Very well then. Leona, please produce another dagger like the one you just had, but don't throw it yet," he said, earning him a confused look.
"Trust us," Ren said warmly, putting a hand on her shoulder and giving her a nod of confidence. She did as instructed and produced yet another imperfect dagger, causing Thorn to lean in and inspect it closely. "Ah, I see the problem here," he said after a few moments, leaving Leona that much more confused. "What do you mean? Are you able to wield Wraith mana, as well?" she asked, trying to figure out what was happening.
"It wouldn't matter if I did. I've spent most of my life honing my skills in Rivet mana, but the principles for one type of mana are similar to the others," he began, conjuring a small dagger of his own. It was a smooth, gray dagger of pure rivet mana identical to the one Leona had in her hand, though it lacked any sort of imperfection.
"Watch carefully," he said, bringing his dagger near hers, causing the emanating Wraith mana to begin pulling toward his dagger gently. Her eyes widened in astonishment as she observed the scarlet tendrils starting to flow toward his dagger. "How is this possible?" she asked, feeling the weapon in her hand begin to be drawn toward it once the other tendrils had fully enveloped his dagger.
"All mana, regardless of what realm you draw it from, links to one another. It's how a fourth-stage Ethereal user can wield other types of mana to the same degree. However, Wraith mana is slightly different in that it resides in the spaces between life and death, as I'm sure you've already heard explained to you," Thorn began, glancing at her to make sure she was following along.
"But what does this have to do with controlling it at a distance?" she asked, causing Thorn to chuckle lightly as her dagger dissipated. "Have you ever considered that those lines between life and death don't only exist in your immediate vicinity?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. "You saw that my dagger was drawing tendrils of your mana toward it. What I saw was your mana reaching out to mine," he said with a smile.
"Look for the lines between you and your target. It was created with mana, after all, and if Gwili and Thorsen have taught you how to use Ethereal mana correctly, you'd know that all things have mana in them. The target Anwill has so graciously created should allow you to see it much more clearly," he continued, holding the same expression as he gestured toward the one on the right.
As she turned to look in the indicated direction, she sighed curtly and began to chuckle in disbelief. "Focus, love," Bernar said, having approached during Thorn's explanation. "I know you can do it," he said encouragingly, standing a few meters away from her, accompanied by Anwill and the others just behind him. "No pressure," she chuckled, but did as Bernar instructed.
She closed her eyes again and drew once more from the Wraith realm, pulling the mana to her between the lines of life and death. When she reopened her eyes, she found the dagger was emanating the excess mana just as before. "Remember the feeling from Harut, and look between the lines," Ren reminded her gently as he took a step back.
How am I supposed to feel that again? Leona asked herself briefly.
She thought back on the fight between her and Zari, and did her best to recall the memories with as much detail as she could. Without realizing it, her heart began to race as the final moments of the battle took place in her mind. As the memories ran through her mind, her vision began to blur like it had in the moments after she'd been stabbed.
Wait, something is different, she noticed, seeing the world around her blur momentarily as it would in the Wraith realm.
Focusing on that sensation, she drew more mana from the realm and pushed it into her dagger, causing the tendrils to flare, and the lines between her and her target to become more pronounced. "I-I can see them," she said, disbelieving her own eyes. "Ren, give her a hand, would you?" Thorn asked with a wry grin, prompting the dark-haired elf to step behind her and put his hand in the middle of her back to align himself with her core.
"This is going to feel weird, but it will help," he said softly before pushing his mana into her core, allowing her to see his memories and those from Thoma and Ysevel when they were learning this process from Kalia. As the flood of information entered her mind, her breath faltered momentarily, causing Bernar to take a step forward. "I'm alright," she said, holding up a hand to stop him. "It's just… a lot," she shook her head in a desperate attempt to regain her concentration.
"Try to align what you're seeing in their memories to what you're seeing in front of you," Ren said calmly, maintaining his flow of mana. "It's a bit hard to focus," she admitted. "I know, but that's the point," he replied light-heartedly.
Taking a deep breath and doing her best to compartmentalize what she was seeing both in her mind and in front of her, the lines between her and her target steadily grew stronger. "They're growing thicker," she noted, getting a wordless nod from Ren that she felt pass through this newfound connection. She gripped the dagger a little more tightly and prepared to throw it.
Her shoulder muscles tensed as her dagger began to cut through the air, eventually relaxing when it was released along one of the lines leading to the target. The imperfect dagger soared through the air, following the path she'd sent it on in her mind, and as it struck the target, it embedded itself firmly within what would be its ribcage.
"I-It didn't disappear this time?" she asked as much to herself as the others. "No. No, it didn't," Bernar said with an air of pride in his voice when she turned to look at him, causing her to burst out laughing in excitement at her accomplishment. "I'm so proud of you!" he said, rushing over to her and wrapping his arms around her, which, given her lack of focus, caused the dagger to disappear.
"Well done, Leona," Thorn said proudly over cheers and whoops from Gwili and Thorsen. "I couldn't have done it without your help. Both of your help, actually," she gave Ren a respectful bow. "I'm sorry that I almost made you lose focus, but Thorn's always been a good instructor, so I trusted his judgment when he asked me to give you a hand," Ren returned the bow, feeling the blood rush a little to his face.
When she noticed he was doing his best to remain humble, she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, forcing him to blush an even brighter shade of red. "Thank you, Ren. I hope Bernar and I can learn much more from you and Aurae in the days to come," she said with a beaming smile that all but forced him to avert his gaze. "I-I… I just did what I could," he allowed a small smile to creep onto his face.
Oooh, he's going to remember that one, Bernar sent her jokingly, nearly causing her to giggle.
"You two won't be the only ones training. I still have to bring these two up to at least the fourth stage before Lord Erumon returns," Anwill said, jutting his thumbs out to Thorsen and Gwili, who immediately halted their cheering. "Wait, you're going to teach us?" Gwili asked, immediately going pale. "It's been a long time since I've had you as my pupil, Gwili. I just hope you can keep up this time," Anwill said with a wolfish grin.
"Well, then. I suppose we should keep going. We don't want to disappoint him when he returns, do we?" Leona said playfully, getting a nod of agreement from everyone except Gwili, who was still in shock at the prospect of being Anwill's pupil once more.
As the others turned to get into their positions, Leona felt a warm sensation emanating from her core. Well done, Leona. See me when you're finished with Ren. I have something I want to teach you, Aurae's voice resounded in her mind. Of course, Aurae, but what do you want to teach me? Leona asked.
Why would I spoil the surprise? Aurae asked playfully.