Of Ashes and Wind

Orion and Phoenix

They were going at it this time with swords in both hands. Phoenix had gotten a good feel of wielding two swords at once, she felt more confident in her left hand while she deflected one of her father's strike.

Her stamina improved over the summer, Wren capitalizing on the last moments he had with his daughter to really push the limit of her sword mastery.

In the evening, Valyria would go over mana stamina drills with Phoenix that they'd teach at the course. Keeping a plate floating with a bit of wind magic over a period of time. Preventing a spark from completely setting fire to a sheet of parchment.

There was a drill that would require a bit of earth magic, but Phoenix lacked the aptitude for it.

Valyria secretly suspected that her daughter's trauma with the earth specialist mage is what really held her back.

A drill that both Valyria and Wren enjoyed running was one that required the user to imbue magic to their limbs to increase their strength. It was a drill that was good for both strength training as well as building up your magic reserves and control.

It was simple, Phoenix would maintain a squatting position while holding on to something heavy for a long period of time. It seemed simple, but it was the simple things that were the most effective.

It was usually a bucket full of rockets that would set on your lap, it had to be heavy enough that you couldn't lift it with just your own strength alone. If you maintained a good balance over how much magic you used to assist with your strength, an apt warrior with a strong sense for magic could maintain the position for hours on end. If you burnt out your reserves, then your body would grow tired quickly. Being able to imbue magic within your limbs required a lot of concentration and mastery. Too much and you could blow out your limbs with your own magic, too little and you wouldn't get the right amount of boost you needed.

This was all in preparation for Phoenix to take the entrance exams to get into the Brilux Royal Institution. Valyria wandered briefly if she could talk to Olena to pull some strings, like most of the nobles did, but Phoenix merely stared at her mother when she tried to bring it up.

Wren only had a wry smile for his wife, Phoenix was her father's daughter as much as she was her mother's.

Phoenix wanted to officially switch her fighting style to that of her fathers by that summer. Valyria knew how long Phoenix had been practicing.

The biggest obstacle was overcoming the injury she sustained to her left hand. Valyria had some of the best healers at the Institution to look at Phoenix's injury to try and help her daughter. There wasn't too much that they could do except give advice to Phoenix on how to rehabilitate it so that she had the full dexterous use of all her fingers. Wren suggested switching to a different style, but Phoenix argued that it didn't matter because she would have to train her left hand anyways.

May as well be something that she wants to do.

Phoenix looked over at the sky and noted the sun was well over head, she spotted Orion taking a few practice swings at the training dummy. Her brother with wonderful honeyed hair and their mother's blue eyes looked over at his older sister.

"Want to go to the town square for something to eat?" Phoenix asked, she had a handful of bronze coins available to her. Their mother was at the Institution getting ready for the new academic year that was set to start in two weeks. Their father had a back fill of orders at the smithy and was often late coming home. Orion was also set to start his first year at the Wyvern Youth Seminar too, her little brother was all too excited to go learn after seeing Phoenix do the same thing.