The following days were spent in training, but they did not leave the village. Ling explained that three witches and a handful of desert goblyns had been stalking her since she left Da-Sei, and until the witches exposed themselves she did not want to travel any further. So, while they waited, she taught them some proper alchemy.
Their first task was to perform the exercise they had seen when they entered the laboratory, of smoothing a rough stone into a clean pebble. Even Sam found this insanely difficult. It required hours of meditation and long nights sitting awake and staring at that cursed rock.
Ling taught them the basics of manipulating light to cast a ‘shadow’ or disappear. Sam managed to make her hands shimmer but that was all. The problem occurred when they couldn’t hide from each other because their ‘initiated’ minds knew exactly where and how to look. Therefore, they had to be hidden before they tried to disappear. It was the first time they had played hide-and-seek in a while.
In their limited time in the village Ling dared to demonstrate how to use the same rock-smoothing technique to create a massive spear in the bare earth from ten meters away. She used this method to impale a watermelon, and they watched in awe. “I noticed you were beginning to think the rock-smoothing exercise was pointless.” She pointed to the rocky spike. “You can’t do that until you’ve done this…” She tossed a smooth pebble to Victor.
They had been at Tao for almost a week, and Ling suspected the witches were soon to make their move. She had her students pack their things to be ready to leave. The final lesson was directed more at Sam than the others. She and Ling were sitting in the living room when Ling took her hand and examined the scar. “It is easy to spot a wound inflicted by Wyvern venom. It never heals cleanly, and the mark, like branches of a black tree, they never quite go away.”
Sam closed her hand. “It happened when Astrid escaped. I tried to stop her and she cut me.”
“No doubt losing your friend hurt more than any Wyvern Blade.”
The sad memories returned in a flash. “I just wish I understood why she did it.” She paused, and then hesitantly, she asked: “Do you remember what it feels like to lose some?”
Ling smiled. There were so many years, and so many memories lost within her eyes, turned grey by the tolling of time. “I’m old, but I’m not that old. There was a child who joined the academy last year. I was there when he enrolled and I remember it well because I’ve seen it all before. I was the one who taught his great-great-grandfather how to hunt, and I have stood frozen in time while five generations of that family have lived and died, like flowers blossoming and withering so quickly. Your humanity bends under the weight of so many years. Eventually things such as love begin to seem meaningless, which is why we all long so greatly for The Truth.”
Sam recalled her promise to Victor before they left for Eswerld, to never forget until the end of time. “It seems so sad.”
“It is,” Ling agreed. “But that is all part of being alive. I like to look on the bright side of life; if I were not immortal I would never have met such a wonderful student as you. But, I digress. We should continue the lesson. The hardest part of alchemy is repairing living tissue, but it is a skill I think you will have a natural talent for. If you like, I can show you how to heal the wound on your hand completely, and you can be rid of that horrible scar.”
Sam considered it a moment, and opened her hand to look at the wound, but then closed it. “Thanks, but I think it’ll keep this one, so I can always remember what happened.”
“As you wish.” Ling took up a small knife and nicked the tip of her finger, so that a drop of blood fell onto the floor. “But I’m still going to teach you how to heal, starting with this.”
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