Chapter 85: Investment 85: Growing Pains
"Alright." Jin cracked his knuckles, standing across a scorched, private training field tucked away in a rarely used corner of Adonite’s grounds, the same lazy, unbothered expression on his face that Elliot had grown so used to before learning it was almost entirely a performance. "Show me what you’ve got."
"That’s it?" Elliot asked. "No explanation, no theory lesson, just—show you what I’ve got?"
"You’ve had the fragment for less than a week," Jin said. "Theory won’t mean much until you understand what it actually feels like to reach for it under pressure. Best way to learn that is pressure."
He raised a hand almost lazily, and a thin, precise branch of green mana shot forward, aimed squarely at Elliot’s chest.
Elliot’s instincts screamed a warning half a second before the golden shimmer of his ward flared automatically to life, deflecting the strike with a soft, resonant chime.
"Good," Jin said, sounding genuinely pleased. "Passive reflexes are solid. That’s actually further ahead than I expected for someone three days into a bond. Most hosts take weeks before the ward triggers reliably."
"Most hosts," Elliot repeated. "How many people have actually bonded with a fragment before?"
"Fewer than you’d think. Fewer than the headmaster would like, frankly." Jin’s expression sobered slightly. "Which is part of why this is going to be difficult. There’s no established curriculum for this, Elliot. We’re figuring it out together, mostly by throwing you into increasingly uncomfortable situations and seeing what the fragment decides to do about it."
"Wonderful."
"Character building," Jin said cheerfully, sending a second, faster branch toward Elliot’s flank.
This time, the ward flared a beat slower, and Elliot was forced to physically dodge the remainder of the strike, rolling across the scorched grass with a grunt.
"See, that’s useful information already," Jin said, unbothered. "The ward’s not purely automatic. It responds to genuine perceived threat, but there’s clearly a threshold, and clearly some variance in reaction speed. We push that threshold down, tighten that variance, and you’ve got a considerably more reliable defense."
"How do we do that?"
"Repetition, mostly. And danger. Lots and lots of danger." Jin grinned, entirely too pleased with himself. "Fortunately, I happen to specialize in providing both."
Over the following hour, Jin subjected Elliot to an escalating series of increasingly precise, increasingly dangerous strikes—never quite lethal, but close enough that Elliot’s instincts had no choice but to sharpen with each near miss, the ward’s activation growing steadily faster and more consistent with every repetition.
By the session’s end, Elliot collapsed onto the scorched grass, chest heaving, sweat soaking through his shirt despite the mild spring air.
"That’s enough for today," Jin said, crouching beside him with something that, for once, resembled genuine concern rather than lazy amusement. "You did well. Better than well, actually."
"Doesn’t feel like it," Elliot muttered.
"Progress rarely does, in the moment." Jin offered a hand, pulling him upright. "You’ve stabilized the ward’s activation threshold by roughly forty percent in a single session. Most hosts take a full week to manage that."
"You keep comparing me to other hosts," Elliot said, accepting a offered water skin gratefully. "How many are there, exactly? Right now, alive, that you know of?"
Jin’s expression turned careful, guarded in a way that immediately put Elliot on alert.
"That’s a conversation for the headmaster, honestly," he said. "Not because I’m trying to keep secrets from you specifically, but because it’s genuinely above my clearance to discuss without his explicit permission."
"Above an Imperial’s clearance," Elliot said flatly. "That’s reassuring."
"The Imperial council doesn’t run this particular investigation," Jin admitted. "The headmaster does, largely independently, with whatever resources and permissions he’s managed to negotiate over the years. I’m loaned to him for this specific purpose, not the other way around."
Elliot absorbed that, filing it away alongside the growing list of unanswered questions accumulating since the siege began.
"Same time tomorrow?" he asked instead, deciding some battles were worth saving for later.
"Same time tomorrow," Jin confirmed. "And Elliot—bring Seria along, if she’s willing. I have a feeling the fragment’s going to respond differently once we start testing its abilities in scenarios where you’re protecting someone else directly, rather than just yourself."
Elliot considered that, thinking of the ward’s activation during the mercenary attack, the way it had seemed to respond most decisively in the moments he’d feared most for the people around him rather than himself.
"That," he said slowly, "actually makes a lot of sense."
"Most things eventually do," Jin said, already turning to leave. "Took me considerably longer than three days to figure that out about my own power, for what it’s worth. Give yourself some grace."
As Jin disappeared back toward the academy’s main buildings, Elliot remained alone on the scorched training field for a long moment, flexing his aching hand, feeling the fragment’s warmth settle steadier now, more familiar, beneath his skin.
Slow progress, he decided, was still progress.
He made his way back toward the dormitories as the sun began to set, finding Seria waiting for him on the steps outside, having apparently declined the offer to observe today’s session in favor of giving him space to struggle through it privately first.
"Well?" she asked, rising to meet him.
"Forty percent improvement on ward reaction time," he said, managing a tired smile. "Jin seemed genuinely impressed."
"Of course he was." She fell into step beside him, studying his exhausted posture with clear concern. "You look like you got hit by a cart."
"Multiple carts, repeatedly, for an hour." He rubbed at a fresh bruise along his ribs. "Apparently danger’s the best teacher for this particular skill."
"Naturally." She rolled her eyes, though her hand found his without hesitation. "Jin’s methods."
"He wants you there tomorrow, actually," Elliot said. "Thinks the ward might respond differently when I’m protecting someone else instead of just myself."
Something flickered across Seria’s expression—surprise, then a fierce, quiet satisfaction that she didn’t bother hiding.
"Good," she said simply. "Then tomorrow, we find out exactly how much stronger that fragment gets when it’s you and me against whatever Jin decides to throw at us."
Elliot squeezed her hand, grateful, exhausted, and steadier than he’d felt since the siege began.
"I wouldn’t have it any other way," he said.