Beneath the purple mist

Training starts today

Hadrian was cuddled up in between Amaris and Alexander just as one of the generals marched into their new room.

"Outside in ten minutes!!" the general yelled with her Chinese accent and marched out.

"Is this woman for real?" Allyn groaned, untangling themselves from a mess of vines they slept in.

"Five more minutes." Hadrian mumbled and pulled Amaris closer as if she was a teddy bear.

"I don't think the generals will be as lenient as Ayana was." Darius said and got up.

"No, come back here." Alexander said and pulled Darius back.

"Do we really want to risk making the generals and Aleksei angry?" Amaris asked, being the voice of reason even though she didn't yet open her eyes.

"If it means I can sleep more then yes." Hadrian talked into her hair.

Just at that moment Aleksei entered the room, dressed in only a white shirt, black pants and knee high boots. "The more you wait the longer you'll train today." he scolded them.

And so they all got up as fast as possible to avoid trouble and lined up outside.

The regular army was already training outside and the order was setting up a training polygon.

"The fae and the shifter, come with me." Nadia, geleral with the jibab spoke, Allyn and Darius followed her.

Next to speak was the Chinese woman, Jiayi "The vampire comes with me." and Hadrian went with her.

The third general, Amara, motioned with her hand for Amaris to follow her. "Come." she also said.

Aleksei remained still, looking at Alexander just like that first day they saw each other. "You're with me, I can't help you with elements other then fire, but from what Ezume concluded they all work on the same principal. So if you master one you can do the same with the others."

Alexander nodded and followed Aleksei inside the castle, while the others were already out of sight.

They entered a training rook built to sustain extreme enviornmental conditions.

"Let us start with fire then, I can offer most help there." Aleksei said and stood in front of Alexander "Give it your best."

Seeing that Alexander was hesitant he spoke again "Whatever you throw at me I can counter, no need to worry."

In truth, Aleksei found it a little bit insulting that this boy thought he can inflict any damadge onto the ruler of the once legendary demon kingdom.

After a minute or two of thinking Alexander formed a fire ball in his hands and launched it at Aleksei.

The other snuffed it out in the palm of his hand the second it was close enough, then before Alexander could realise what was happening, he made the fire ball reappear and launched it back.

Alexander covered his face in order to protect eyes from the blazing light. However, the flame disappeared before it made contact with his skin.

"In real combat you would be dead. You need to always be on high alert." Aleksei told him.

Aledanxer nodded again, looking at his own palms and wondering if he could ever be able to produce such powerful force.

They went on and on like that, throwing flames at one another until Aleksei allowed him to take a small break before moving onto something more difficult.

The boy walked towards a window with his cup of water and sat down, looking up at the cloudy sky.

"Can I ask you something, Aleksei?" he asked, unlike Ezume the kids never adressed him by his title.

"Of course, go on." Aleksei said while laying out weapons on the table in the corner. Various swords, daggers, bows and arrows, and weapons Alexander didn't know the name of.

"Are you doing this for the sake of the kingdom or to get your mate back?" the question was met by a heavy silence, then a thud as Aleksei put his cup on the table.

"Both." the one word felt like poison in Aleksei's mouth, because even though it was true. He did care for the kingdom, but he cared more about Theo.

"Which one takes more part in it?" Alexander pushed.

"They're equal." Aleksei lied with his back turned. Maybe it was true what they used to say about him, what some still say. Maybe he really was a bad person.

Alexander decided not to ask more, he couldn't blame Aleksei if he wanted Theo back more then his kingdom. He knew that he would do the same for one of his partners, but just like Aleksei he refused to admit just how far into the darkness he was ready to venture in order to protect his partners and his friend.

"Ready to continue?" Aleksei asked him after a long and tense pause.

"Yes." Alexander got up and walked back to the center of the room.

"Do you think you could try and do this?" Aleksei said and flames started beneath his feet and climbed up until they engulfed his entire body.

The flame kept biting at his skin, his clothes, his hair, but it never burnt him. Once Alexander looked closely he realised there was a thin layer of air between him and the flames.

"How do you do that?" Alexander asked, completelly astonished.

"Try doing the same thing you do with your hands but using your entire body to chanel the flame. It takes a long time to learn so the sooner you start the sooner you'll manage to do it." Aleksei said.

And so Alexander tried his very best to set his whole body aflame like Aleksei, the farthest he got was getting the flame up to his knees before it died out.

"It's something, try again." Aleksei said when he saw the disappointed look on Alexander's face.

After about nine attempts Alexander stomped his foot on the floor like a toddler throwing a tantrum. "It's not working." he yelled and it reminded Aleksei of himself when he used to act just like that.

"Nothing works perfectly from the first try." Aleksei assured.

"How many did it take you then?" the boy demamded.

"I don't know, a few days of trying." Aleksei said, it was a lie, in fact it took him a single day, but that would bring Alexander's motivation down.

The other four didn't have much of a better time, all of them realised that even though they were born with special powers, those powers won't be unstoppable on their own.