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Chapter 159: How to Train Your Faelen

The chairs at Nathanial's table filled up when he sat; as the youngest 'adult' he received his food last despite filling the traditional role of the hostess. An odd twist on the usual customs he normally followed, but Conor stressed how important this was to Spirits when the status of another wasn't known. It struck him as odd that such an..._archaic,_militant even, tradition still held on. Then again, he'd heard about 'rank' and 'status' right from the time he found out Geoff was a Dark Elemental: a prince of the Spirit world.

Now seated, he raised his paws, pads up, to his guests. "Please enjoy." Alpha Luke dug in with gusto. His only 'comment' was a deep-throated rumble of enjoyment. Geoff betrayed his lineage by mirroring his grandfather perfectly.

Neasa glanced over at her husband darkly before delicately spearing a piece of broccoli on her fork. "What an incredible variety of...smells."

Geoff manipulated his chopsticks to hoist some breaded chicken up to sniff the steam. "I know. He really knows how to appeal to all of the senses."

Neasa's suspicious expression turned to surprise after eating her broccoli. "It's salty!" Pause. "And a bit bitter. Mixed with a little sweetness. How very complicated." Her comment didn't sound entirely complimentary. Um, not entirely insulting either.

Alpha Luke grumbled around a mouthful of spicy chicken. "It's great. My grandson's boy can cook as well as take a McDougal dick like--"

Nathanial face felt like it was burning. 'Oh, gods, please don't start.' Geoff also seemed to be trying to melt through his chair.

"Luke!" Neasa's aghast exclamation wasn't feigned in the slightest.

He barely raised his head. "What? He can. From what I heard, the fact that he could even walk afterwards is amazing. They were--"

Dad turned partially around at the next table to raise his paws beseechingly and cut the alpha off. "And I don't want to hear about it. Ev-er. Sex is part of a healthy relationship, and I'll try to be a supportive father, but...gods, those books never talk about how to navigate this." He rubbed his forehead. "I'll answer questions and provide what advice I can, but I don't want to hear about details, particularly from Geoff's grandfather."

Nathanial saw the evil glint in Luke's eyes. "Gods, you two are prudes. You should be proud how virile they are. They mightn't get pups out of their efforts, but it proves they're healthy and strong. Once we get more surrogates, this shows Geoff will be able to sire many pups with good genes and powerful ancestry." The giant Wolf shot an oblique glance at his wife. "Perhaps those ancestors should be working at having more pups, too, given how well Geoff turned out." The thought of siring more pups caused Geoff to lose his appetite; Nathanial gently rubbed his prince's paw to comfort him.

Neasa stiffened up, gently yet deliberately placing her fork down on her napkin. Nathanial felt the sudden chill in the room and wondered, 'Is Ainbertach feeling a power boost?' The Frost Spirit certainly glanced over their way a few times, but he wasn't the only one.

Garret muffled a cough. Nathanial couldn't read his expression; his glasses would make it hard for anyone else to, too. Dad's claim of 'medical reasons' satisfied everyone, with no further questions. "So, Nathanial, you have a test coming up?"

Eh? "U-Um, yes? In Ottawa, remember? The Society is still pouring over the results of the last one, and they want to test Nick and Micah, too."

Dad blinked in surprise. "I meant in school."

Neasa seized on the chance to move the conversation away from sex, gay or straight. "Oh? What are those 'crats poking their noses into now?"

Alpha Luke sighed. "Dear, the Markses are Mages, too. ''Crats' is still an insult, even if they aren't in the bureaucracy. Mind your language." The long-suffering tone faded. "The Society is measuring their power. They don't have duels or any sensible alternative to figure out where they fit, so they do it the..." An obvious alteration of words: _"...logical_way they have left. Methodical, drawn-out, officious testing."

Micah mimicked his father, turning around in his seat, but he ended up practically kneeling on it. "It sounds like fun! We gets a sheet with bunches of spells marked on it, and we has to cast them to show we can. Then they have us learn spells from grimoires -- I hope they behave -- and see if we can cast them properly without time to practice, and move up to more difficult ones until we can't go higher." He puffed up. "I bet we can go right up to advanced spells, maybe even expert!"

Neasa picked up her fork again, along with her knife, to cut a bite-sized piece of honey garlic breaded chicken in half. She glanced at Garret. "So what are the spell levels? I'm sure there is a large variety."

Dad shook his head. "No, actually, there isn't. Technically, it's only five levels of spells, but here's where it gets confusing, since the rules governing how spells get ranked get really arcane." Everyone ignored the pun, if it was even intentional. "Basic, intermediate, advanced, expert, and master. There are enough spells that fall in a 'grey zone' between intermediate and advanced that there's an unofficial intermediate-advanced category, too. It's all governed by the number of glyphs in the spell, the tier of the glyphs, any planar elements drawn on, and materials or foci needed. Even with all of that, spells of the same 'value' aren't always as difficult to learn or cast; thus, the grey areas."

Geoff sighed. "Makes me glad to be a Spirit, even if we suck at training each other." Garret faced his food again, nudging Micah to do the same.

Nathanial gripped and squeezed Geoff's paw. "You don't suck at it; you're just victims of short-sighted customs. Once you convince the clan to get their heads out of their asses, I'm sure you'll quickly develop great training programs." Nathanial suppressed the urge to wince. Oops, there goes that lack of diplomacy again.

Conor visibly winced at the table with Dad, and Avery closed her eyes with a pained expression; Nathanial tried to avoid seeing the reactions of everyone else in the room. Alpha Luke quickly dropped his head, pretending to take greatly renewed interest in his food in order to hide his smile, while Neasa look like a prune. Her tone was cold enough that it'd be Lorena's turn to power up in the ensuing blizzard. "We don't need_to develop training programs. We've done just _fine for millennia discovering unique_skills with our _unique abilities. It's this individuality that makes it impossible even to attempt to train each other."

Nathanial felt his expression harden. 'What dwarf-headed stubbornness! Wilful, ignorant stupidity!' No wonder the Spirits were struggling so hard to defend themselves; they'd be crushed with even basic modern strategy and tactics!

Alpha Luke's chuckle almost sounded like he'd set the conversation up to head this way, though the conversation had a decent chance to arrive at the subject of training at some point. "Then we'll see if Nathanial fails at helping Faelen tomorrow. If a Mage can help train a Spirit, then how much easier should it be for a Spirit to train another one?"

Neasa proved she could do what Nathanial had earlier considered unimaginable and somehow pack more menace in her voice than she had yet accomplished this evening. "What?"

'And Liam accuses me of doing impossible tasks.' He took a deep breath to try to calm down. She wasn't his enemy, even if her attitude put all the Spirits he loved in danger. "Yes, I'm going to train Faelen tomorrow. For his sake. For Geoff's. And for everyone else who cares about him. He needs to gain more confidence in his abilities and to stop thinking about them as 'just' scouting powers. I'm constantly being told I think in unorthodox ways, and I'll use that to expand the range of what he can do. Even something that seems weak or useless can be a potent tool with the right frame of mind."

That caught her off-guard, but she hid it well. "Really. Do enlighten us."

'Heh. Gotcha.'

"Take, oh, a Breeze Spirit." Like Neasa, for instance. "Alter her wardrobe a bit to include loose fabrics, and every motion creates a small breeze. Useless, right? It certainly wouldn't help her in a fight, hmm? I disagree. Spirits are able to phase into their triggers -- breezes in this example -- so if she had paw-to-paw training -- or even experience -- she could use those tiny breezes, too small to even notice, to give her a massive edge. She could start to punch and shift through the breeze she created to swiftly step aside to make it much harder for her foe to block. Or she could dodge an incoming attack the same way and counter-attack. Teleporting, even if limited to short ranges, is devastating_in combat if utilized properly, and the proper clothing can provide breezes _anywhere."

Alpha Luke forgot to keep his 'alpha' persona going and sat up straight with jaw slack and eyes wide; his expression and posture matched Geoff's perfectly -- as well as most of the rest of the room.

Neasa smirked as if she'd scored a point on_him._ "Spirit abilities only work with natural phenomena."

"So a fog machine doesn't trigger Faelen's abilities? Why does he have one in his bedroom, then? Ainbertach can't gain power from the frost formed in a freezer? The breezes I'm talking about are tiny,_but they're far more natural than either of those examples. Furthermore, what harm would it do to _try? That's mostly what my training will entail. Coming up with ideas to try, alternate ways of using what he can already do, and above all, practice."

Nathanial could almost hear Neasa thinking, 'Damn it;' her expression certainly showed she conceded the point.

The alpha recovered his composure and scowled at Nathanial over his cup of wine. "I guess I'm going to have to stay to watch this. Conor never received permission to engage in this violation of custom." Yet, somehow, the alpha had known about it regardless and never attempted to stop it. "It'll be good for Gwen to spend more time with her father, anyway." The large Wolf looked thoughtful for a moment. "And it'll be nice to soak in the tub," he added, as if for his wife's benefit. "The one in the upstairs suite is much larger than ours, big enough for two people, even if one of them is my size."

Nathanial sent part of his mind up to one of the suites, the one Lorena had been staying in, to start cleaning it and setting candles out around the tub. In the kitchen, he put a bottle of white wine in some ice to chill, and started melting chocolate to dip strawberries in. It never hurt to 'help a brother out.'

---

Faelen sighed in pleasure in the humid mid-morning air. The sun should have been high in the sky, but it was invisible behind a dense blanket of low cloud, light drizzle, and an immense layer of fog. Nathanial said he had been working on it most of the night and morning. The air was still, and the fog he'd made earlier in the night hadn't lifted after the sun rose. The calm, cool morning air extended up a few hundred metres, where the sun dissipated the cloud cover and the warming wind started to pick up a bit, so Nathanial's clouds didn't get torn apart. Nathanial had said more on the subject, of course, and Liam -- or rather Lowell -- had begun a full-on lecture on the wonders of modern -- 1890's -- meteorology, before both Geoff and Alpha Luke cut them both off.

For Faelen, this weather was perfect, if a touch chilly. Eight degrees Celsius was cold enough to be felt through his burgeoning winter fur coat when he stood about in short sleeves.

The empty pool lay to his left, the tree-lined stone wall to his right, and the rickety privacy screen ahead.

Nathanial pointed at the fence. "Up there. That's your target. Get there."

Faelen glanced at Nathanial, then at the fence, and back at Nathanial, at a loss. That seemed far too simple. He just had to climb up a fence? The only hard part was the fact that it probably wouldn't hold up under his weight. Nathanial could fix it if he broke it, but Faelen felt that would fail the assignment. Liam_had easily scaled it a month ago, but that was the same guy who'd taken a run at it _on top of the water. What Liam could do wasn't a fair comparison. Besides, what purpose did scaling a wall have? How would it help him learn to use his Spirit powers? Did Nathanial intend to get Faelen to practice parkour to help keep up with Geoff? The observers, too many for Faelen's comfort -- Alpha Luke, Geoff, and Liam -- stood silently by and offered no hints.

"Move it, soldier!"

Nathanial's suddenly barked command made Faelen instinctively comply. He broke into a run at the fence and leapt to catch the top. A quick hoist with his arms and kick with his legs brought him to a precarious crouch on the creaking, wobbling, structure. "Gods. Is it safe?" A quick glance showed Nathanial seemed disappointed.

The motion stopped. "Yeah." The Akita walked to stand on the far side of the in-ground pool. "Now, come over here." Faelen went to hop off, but his clothes didn't move with him; he windmilled his arms to regain his balance. Nathanial held his paw up at the same time. "Ah, I wasn't done. You can't touch any cement between here and there." The Mist Spirit blinked. Why? That'd mean he'd have to jump off on the opposite side of the fence and give the pool a very wide berth. Even then, he'd need to make a pretty far jump to reach Nathanial. He wasn't sure he could make it. That made no sense, and that meant he wasn't supposed to go around but straight across. How?

The alpha snorted in amusement as Faelen hesitated. Liam's brow furrowed for a moment. It was Geoff that Faelen paid the most attention to; the Dark Elemental appeared to come to a couple of conclusions of how to do the impossible task. So, how would Geoff do it? Make a bat, grow wings, or fade into... Ah. Those were things Geoff had done when they'd chased after Beriatana and Gordon when they stole Nathanial's soul. Nathanial had listened to that story when he looked to get a sense of what Faelen could do; he was looking to see Faelen replicate those feats.

Faelen faded into the fog and reformed beside Nathanial. The Akita bestowed a momentary smile on him. "Better. You should've realised I was testing your abilities, since we were talking about it this morning. When you stopped to think, I figured you were _over_thinking; we both do that, at times." Three fist-sized rocks floated over to the Mage. "Now, stop these from hitting the screen."

'What?' Faelen didn't have time to think beyond that before the rocks whistled through the air. Faelen shifted his position, using the fog to reappear in front of the wooden wall. He caught the first rock with his left paw and dropped it with a muffled yelp. That stung! He leapt to one side to catch the second, but tried to partially solidify the fog to cushion the stone's impact. That definitely helped. The third rock shifted its trajectory to go to the far end of the wall. Faelen focused and the stone rapidly slowed down. It hit the wall with a soft 'tonk' and gently slid down the wood on a cushion of fog.

The alpha snorted again. "You trained yourself to have the instincts of a goalkeeper over a fighter. I spend as much time as you do training, but for the battlefield and not the pitch. It looks like I might have been too lenient on you two."

Nathanial shook his head; Faelen momentarily thought he_was the target before the Mage contradicted Alpha Luke. "You're making it sound like soccer practice doesn't have any benefits. He's Geoff's bodyguard. Isn't interjecting himself between an attacker and his target _exactly what he's paid to do? And for Geoff, his agility and fitness are great skills for a scout-type character. They just need to dedicate some time to training like this to make it more instinctive, the way Si Jo Liam drills kung fu into us for muscle memory." Liam nodded in silent agreement. The patio door slid open to let Nick and Micah out. "Okay, Nick, I need your help with this next bit."

Nick didn't even look at Nathanial. "Yeah, whatever."

Micah grabbed Nick's paw and hopped over, dragging his reluctant sibling. "Yeah, yeah! What? What can we do?"

Nathanial looked positively evil. "Sorry, Sprite. This is for Nick. I want him to throw some fireballs at Faelen." Everyone, including Nick, stared at Nathanial.

Faelen was no exception. 'Fire? What...?' He_had_ blocked fire before -- several times, actually. When he fought Nick, and more when he'd fought Gordon. 'Okay, I know what I'm doing in advance, at least.' Faelen slid into a fighting stance. "Ready." Liam nodded in approval, while the alpha and Nathanial smiled.

Nathanial turned to Nick. "He's the goalie, and the wall is the goal. Keep the fire fairly weak until he's ready to turn up the heat."

Alpha Luke clapped a gigantic paw on Nick's shoulder. "Let's see if his playing does pay dividends, pup." _That_got through the gloom surrounding Nick.

The little fire Mage shone with a radiant grin. "Okay!" A softball-sized ball of flame appeared in his right paw, and Nick wound up. The drizzle and fog hissed as it streaked toward Faelen, but the Mist Spirit didn't let it cross the shallow end of the pool. Faelen cocooned the fire in the chilly vapour, and it fizzled out. The evaporated droplets soon condensed again in the cool air. Nick frowned; Faelen judged it to be in concentration rather than disappointment. Another ball appeared, but it was much brighter. "This is four times as strong. At the rate the last one fizzled, I figure this should make it to the fence." He glanced at Nathanial for his opinion.

Nathanial gestured for Nick to throw it. "That should be good. We're testing his abilities, and that includes him._Faelen is surrounded in a shield of vapour by virtue of his manifested power, and that _should also provide some extra protection if he goes to catch the ball."

Well,that sounded comforting. Still, they did need to know. Nick didn't pitch this one; he just moved his paw and the ball zipped out even faster than the first. The flame cleared a larger path through the fog and made it much harder to form a cocoon around it. 'Sure, four times as strong overall, but that doesn't mean it's merely four times harder to stop. So, how to do this?' He didn't have time to think. Just before it reached him, Faelen recalled a scene a few years ago when Avery showed him how thunderstorms formed: warm air rose up in a column, and cold air descended around it. Faelen leapt at the fireball and caught it. He focused on transferring all of the heat around the shell of the fog encasing him and pulled cold vapour into the palm of his paw beneath that. It worked...

Almost.

Faelen hissed in pain and felt a mirror of it from Liam. He looked over at his boyfriend, but Liam hadn't shifted an iota. "I am fine, my love. I expected such a result and took measures to prevent blistering. Once you are healed, my pain shall vanish."

Faelen pulled more fog in to heal his seared pads. "Sorry, Liam."

Nick faintly whimpered. "I-I'm sorry, Faelen. I thought you'd be able--"

He broke off when Faelen waved dismissively at him, saying, "Nah, I'm better now." Faelen would've held his paw up, but the fog around him was far too thick to see it. Then again, Nick couldn't have seen Faelen waving at him, either.

The alpha harrumphed. "Pain is part of being a Spirit, pup. Mistakes are necessary to learning."

Nathanial appeared to be studying Faelen, even though there was no way he could physically see him. "Again?"

Faelen nodded firmly. "Again." He had an idea.

Nathanial turned to Nick. "Once more, but a little less--"

"No." Faelen cut him off. "Same level. I want to try something."

His 'coach' grinned. "I was waiting to hear that." Nathanial bopped Nick's shoulder. "You heard him."

Nick hesitated. "You sure?"

Alpha Luke scowled fiercely. "He said it. Now throw."

Again a brief hesitation, but a ball of flame quickly appeared and streaked through the soupy fog. Faelen didn't try to cocoon the fire this time; instead, he worked on convection. Cold air pushed up on the flames, pulling the heat high into the air. It wasn't working quickly enough, so Faelen combined it with dense, wet air pushing back against the fireball, too. The flickering wisp of fire aimed at the top left corner of the wall perished with a quiet hiss as his paw closed about it.

Geoff leapt into the air with a triumphant whoop."You did it!" Micah zipped up into the air in a tight spiral, laughing, and Liam nodded quietly. Alpha Luke snorted and crossed his arms across his broad chest, but Faelen could smell the pride coming from him; that was a rare thing for Faelen.

Nick's grin was almost as wide as Geoff's. A sphere of flame appeared over each paw. "Awesome! Ready for the next ones?"

Nathanial beamed at Faelen, but he held a paw out to Nick before Faelen could say anything. "Later. We're still taking his measure. Once we have that, we can start practicing." The flames vanished. "Okay. We have phasing with your trigger and rapidly travelling through it. Then there's slowing things down, transferring energy, and...that kind of seems to tie into the, um, armour you subconsciously make. Well, even then, slowing things down is also a form of energy transfer -- kinetic rather than thermal." Faelen hadn't thought of it that way; could he do the same thing with other forms of energy, like electricity maybe? Nathanial tapped his muzzle and paced along the edge of the pool.

The small crowd stayed silent while Nathanial pondered. After a minute, the Akita stopped by his brothers. "Okay, you two, I'll need your help periodically. Nick, we've tried fire. Can you shoot lightning?"

Nick tipped his head to one side. "You think he can do that? I can't exactly tone that down and still have enough control over the bolt to keep it from just arcing to the ground."

Geoff scratched the back of his neck uncertainly, probably thinking of the time Avery zapped Dirk during her first dinner with Nathanial. Liam and Alpha Luke showed no emotion, but watched everyone very closely. Why hadn't Faelen really noticed how keenly the alpha observed people? He always seemed so loud and angry. Was Faelen just noticing it now, or was Alpha Luke so out of his element that he _needed_to study people and situations more closely? The stakes had certainly become much higher recently...for _everyone_involved.

Nathanial had kept talking to Nick while Faelen thought. "It's not like he needs to stand there anymore. We have a measure of his armour, and he knows what he's doing, now." Nathanial waved at Faelen. "Over here."

Faelen shared Nick's doubts but shifted through the fog to stand by them. It was rather fun moving around like this; he'd like to try sparring the way Nathanial had suggested to Neasa.

"Go."

Nicholas slowly exhaled and began casting the spell. No simple flicks or single activating words for this one. Approximately four seconds later, blinding arcs of electricity bounced over Nick's right paw before gathering along his index finger and leaping off his claw toward the wooden wall. A small -- relatively speaking -- peal of thunder accompanied it. The whole thing took Faelen by surprise; by the time he reacted to the arcs building over Nick's paw, there was a gaping hole in the fence and bits of flaming wood dropping everywhere.

Micah's paws flew to cover his mouth. "Oooohhh..._Good thing you weren't there, Faelen. You'd be a fricasséed flying Faelen froggy." You get turned into a frog by a pixie _once, and some people never let you forget it.

Geoff shook his head slowly. "Shit. How could anyone stop that, Nathanial?"

The Mage in question shrugged. "By being prepared and practicing." The wall suddenly fixed itself, though a few spots still looked a little, uh, warm. "Again. No changes."

This went on for almost an hour. From electricity, to cold, to light, darkness, sonic blasts, elf shot, acid, and even pure telekinetic bolts. Each one seemed to follow different principles of physics and required him to develop different techniques to deal with. Yet deal with them he did...eventually, and for almost all of them. The acid was no different than stopping a rock, but the elf shot might as well have been impossible. It, like the other controlled magic attacks, fought his attempts to interfere, but there wasn't an obvious physical principle behind it to work from.

This whole process would've been smoother if Alpha Luke hadn't been there. He kept switching from quiet observation as he analysed Nathanial -- and to a lesser degree, Faelen -- to excited participation. His temperament and volume, physical and auditory, meant he completely dominated the scene with each outburst. Faelen was pretty sure that _some_of those outbursts were deliberate and not pure excitement; the alpha's scent didn't always match up. It was stressing 'Coach Nathanial' out as he tried to rein Alpha Luke in without conflict of any sort...which was likely part of the test: would Nathanial assert the authority he had as the one doing the training? The answer tended towards 'no,' and Alpha Luke didn't like that answer.

Again, the Earth Elemental boomed over Nathanial's attempts at talking. "All right, Faelen, enough with this lollygagging. We're going to throw a bunch of different things at you so be ready, or one of those lightning bolts will make you join the flying circus."

Nathanial flinched. "N-No, w-we're--"

"Come on! We've wasted enough time with your coddling! Nicholas! Get ready to fire!"

Nathanial's paw twitched to his breast pocket where Faelen knew his sunglasses were before he stopped, closed his eyes, and took a deep, fortifying breath. "No. We're done with that part of the session. Nicholas, stand down, and Luke, stand aside. This is my show."

Luke's blue eyes sparkled with suppressed approval, hidden by a large 'harrumph' and a deep glower. "Show? More like 'comedy hour.' What have you even accomplished?"

Nathanial turned to Faelen. "Besides establishing a benchmark to work from and sketching out the range of his talents, that's best answered by Faelen." The Akita nodded to him.

Faelen took a breath and hastily arranged his thoughts. "Well, it's reminded me of what I've learnt since coming here: my abilities are useful and are more than just a means of amplifying my physical strengths. In fog, I'm not confined to the limits of my flesh. I've learnt I can step beyond myself to manipulate the rules of physics to help me; convection, ionization, kinetics, and more, can be twisted to protect something or someone."

Nathanial smiled broadly and turned back to the alpha. "That's just the first part of what I want to accomplish. There's another avenue I want to explore, too."

Alpha Luke's eyes bored into Nathanial's for a few seconds before he snorted and shifted his posture aside to break their stares.

Nathanial turned back to the group as a whole with a silent sigh. "And now for something completely different. Micah, fly into the backyard. Keep moving around quietly and avoid us. We'll try to find you -- without using any supernatural senses -- while Faelen helps you hide." Micah gasped and clapped his paws together. "Yeah, yeah! Hide-and-go-seek!" He zoomed off.

Nathanial turned to Faelen. "You have to stay here. You can't move and can only use your powers to help him from here." To the other seekers he added, "Sight, smell, touch, and hearing are fair game. No chi, no manifesting, and no vibrations through the earth if Micah lands. It's partly why I picked him as the target -- that, and he'll enjoy it the most."

The patio door rumbled open again. Gwen stood there peering out into the fog with Bear in her arms. "Faelen?"

Faelen looked at Nathanial and asked, "I have an idea that should help. May I...?" Nathanial nodded, so he smiled at Nathanial and nodded toward Gwen; he received a smile, shrug, and nod in return, so he phased through the fog to appear beside her. "Beside you, Gwen." She didn't startle, like most children would; instead, she merely twitched her ears in response, as stoic as ever. "I'm training right now, but I think you can help." She looked up to where his voice came from almost expectantly. He thought the idea would make her extremely happy. "I'm trying to keep everyone from finding Micah; he's in the backyard, but it's a large area. Why don't you use Bear and your powers to help them? It'll be good practice for me." It'd also be good practice for her.

She cocked her head to one side. "A backwards hide-and-go-seek? Okay. Is Grandda Luke playing, too?"

The alpha sounded grumpy. "Yeah, sweetie, I am. They need me to help out, so I guess I have to. Why don't we work together?"

Gwen shook her head 'no' as her fur slowly turned grey. Bear shook its head in her arms, too. "No. Spirits need to learn how to stand on their own. I have Bear with me, and Grassy, too." She wandered to the lawn just past the wall Faelen had protected. She crouched down to touch the browning vegetation, and the dirt under her paws bubbled, tearing up the sod on top. A few seconds later, a roundish, four-legged creature began to take shape out of pebbles and dirt. It was somewhat similar to a turtle, with the remaining patches of thatched grass forming the shell. "Now I have a pet that isn't weak to grass attacks, so Micah will have an even harder time winning."

Alpha Luke smelt disappointed, but he sounded proud when he rubbed her head. "That's my granddaughter." Had he really wanted an excuse to play with her?

Nathanial peered at the backyard. "Ready, Faelen? Micah is." Before he could answer, Nathanial huffed a bit. "It's going to be a challenge just to keep from using any magic. Maybe I should just watch." A heavy sigh escaped the pup. "Well, I'll try."

Faelen moved to the wall and sat down with his back against the wood. "One moment." Closing his eyes, he tried to feel where the fog moved around things. It flowed around some large objects, rough and prickly -- the pines. It lapped against the stone fence and the house. And a huge disturbance flung the vapour about where Micah zipped around; his wings acted like an electric mixing machine whipping up some cream. On top of that, the light breeze that had begun to move through the yard tickled his senses like wind chimes or rustling leaves; it was rather pleasant. As Faelen had found out during the hospital chase, he could also pick a point in the fog to see and hear from as if he stood there. Between the two, a broad range and a narrow one, he could keep track of everyone in the yard, to a degree.

If Faelen properly understood this test, Nathanial wanted him to hide Micah by any means necessary. Perhaps he could create images of Micah to act as decoys, possibly coupled with sound. Unfortunately, after that one horrible experiment back home in Ireland, Faelen had never tried to vibrate fog or make noise with it. Yet, the purpose of this whole session was to try, try anything. He took a deep breath. 'Start small. Build up logically. Pass the ball back and forth slowly while standing still before trying to pass it while running. Each step leads to another. Each drill builds up into winning the match.' Step one: create swirls in the fog like someone is moving just beyond sight. "Ready."

Nathanial raised his paw and dropped it, calling out, "Go!"

Geoff and Alpha Luke broke into a run, immediately heading out on slightly divergent paths. Liam turned and ran the opposite direction to circle the house, perhaps to catch Micah by surprise. Nick and Nathanial nodded at each other; Nick took the lead at a jog and Nathanial followed behind him. Gwen... Gwen sauntered off after them with Bear a couple of paces ahead and Grassy beside her.

Step one, begin.

A swirl of fog moved toward Geoff, then broke off heading up and to his right. Geoff pursued his quarry. Another swirl drew the alpha left. Their formerly divergent paths _con_verged, but before Faelen could get them to run into each other, the alpha slowed with twitching ears. The large Wolf turned and returned to his original track. Geoff chased the decoy for a few more seconds before he, too, slowed. From the twitching of his nose, it was the lack of scent that clued him in to the diversion.

Nick looked at the movement in the fog but didn't alter his steady jog at all, and Nathanial didn't stop from following his brother. Based on what Faelen could tell, Nathanial shouldn't be able to see much more than Nick's tail. The older Akita kept stumbling over small tussocks in the lawn.

Gwen and Liam weren't really in the 'combat' zone, so he left them alone. Liam was almost to the corner at the front of the house and moving fast... Gwen, not so much. She ambled along the patio and hadn't passed the pool.

'Well, then, on to step two. Which would be...shapes in the fog?' Faelen winced as Nathanial pitched forward, but the Akita turned it into a proper forward roll just like Liam taught them.

Nick turned to his brother. "You okay?" He held a paw out after some hesitation. Alpha Luke's encouragement seemed to have buoyed his mood a lot.

Nathanial climbed part way to his hindpaws before he seemed to notice the offered paw. He took it, though it wasn't an assist anymore. "Yeah. I can't see a bloody thing. Shutting off my magic senses takes a lot of effort, and I seem to be taking out my natural ones somehow. I just don't get it." Nathanial held his arm straight out. "I can just barely make out my wrist."

"Huh." Nick backed up three paces. "I have trouble seeing you here, about two metres back." He shook his head, not that Nathanial could see it. "Go back to Faelen. You're liable to hurt yourself."

Nathanial sighed. "You're right. Micah will be disappointed."

"He'd prefer that over you getting injured, dumbass."

"True." The two Akitas moved off in opposite directions. Nathanial loped back the way he'd gone, passing by Gwen with an amused grin. "You have to tag Micah, you know. Of course, you can use your Spirit powers to slow him down, but nothing that might hurt."

The stone-coloured Wolf didn't glance over. "Okay. I just don't like running unnecesses..._unnecessarily."_Faelen knew she added the last bit because she was often told she moved too slowly, either obliquely like Nathanial just did, or very pointedly like her phys. ed. teacher had in several letters to Conor and Avery.

Nathanial turned, still trotting toward Faelen, albeit backwards, and watched Gwen continue to saunter along. "You don't need to, as long as you have a plan on catching him, or at least a way to herd him to someone else."

"Yup."

Faelen chuckled. 'Part two. Right. Shapes. Let's go with something simpler.' Geoff was aimed toward the back wall halfway between the gate and the corner of the property, while the alpha seemed to be going to the gate itself. Faelen knew they'd be clearing that section before cordoning off chunks of the property in a way they could be fairly certain that Micah wasn't slipping past them. The best way to deal with them would be to convince them they weren't keeping to a proper search pattern. 'Wall.' Faelen built up a thicker bank of fog just beyond Geoff's sight the same height as the stone boundary. Geoff soon ran close enough that he could see it and slowed down, radiating confusion. Faelen hurried to try to replicate some of the texture in the wall. 'Shit! The forest!' How could he forget to add the darker shapes of trees behind the wall? Faelen wasn't sure what tipped Geoff off to the deception -- there were too many cues -- but his boss picked up speed again and ran through the false barrier.

Nathanial stopped in front of Faelen, shaking his head. Faelen found he couldn't pull the two scenes into focus at the same time; either Geoff stood out clearly or Nathanial did. When the Akita spoke, it turned out sound acted the same way. "Don't try to get the details right manually; let your subconscious do some of the work. Aim for Luke next. Throw him off by putting the copse of pines to his left."

'How did Nathanial know what my plan was?' The Akita raised his paw in a way that looked like he was going to flick or tap Faelen's nose. Faelen leaned to one side before he could do it. 'I guess he thinks I'm overthinking again.' To show he wasn't lost in thought, Faelen asked, "Tips?"

"Pick where you want the trees to go. Hold it in your mind." Faelen did. Adjacent to the gate and to Alpha Luke's left. That way the alpha would cut in to run parallel to the wall for a bit before aiming for where he thought the gate should be. Nathanial continued once Faelen nodded. "Okay, keep the spot in your mind as you focus on the trees. The area, the height, the density. Don't worry about replicating it, just get the feel."

It wasn't easy splitting his attention like that. Everything he did was geared around single tasks. 100% concentration.

Something must have shown on his face, because Nathanial smiled wanly. "You can cook, Faelen. The spot you've picked is the pan you're heating on the stove, and the trees are the omelette you're seasoning. You can't let the pan overheat, and you can't screw up the amount of salt or spice you're adding to the eggs. It's no harder than that."

An odd analogy, but Faelen understood what Nathanial meant. It was a single task with multiple parts; it was no different than things he normally did. Then, if he carried that analogy... Get the flavour of the trees right, and don't worry about where each fleck of pepper ended up -- where each trunk stood, rather. If he did it right, the alpha wouldn't get close enough to see the trunks clearly. Faelen took a deep breath as he imagined standing in those trees. How they _felt_around him...and the fog moved to match it.

His coach chuckled. "See? You think too much. You aren't a Mage where your magic is built up glyph by glyph; you're a Spirit -- you have the power, and you just need to give it direction. Trust it and yourself. Geoff doesn't need to build a dragon scale by scale, so you don't need to build a tree needle by needle."

It_seemed_ to be true. The false trees mimicked the original copse very well. The alpha stopped jogging and stared at it for a second before looking around in obvious confusion.

Nathanial leant over. "Draw the scent of the pines to the false copse, and then to him. Just like you did with the scent of the bleach when you cleaned your bed in Ireland." The night before Aunt Muireann's funeral, yes; he remembered that. He captured the scent in a large puff of vapour and let it trail out in front of the giant Wolf as if it came from the illusory trees. Alpha Luke reacted just as Faelen expected: running parallel to the wall to get 'back on track.'

Moving the scent of the pines worked well, so maybe he should play with the scent trails everyone naturally laid down behind them. Gwen likely wouldn't rely on it to track where she had been, but Alpha Luke, Geoff, and Liam certainly would. Nick probably couldn't pick up his scent, or at least not well enough to follow it. But he'd have to do that later, as they were closing in on their quarry, and he didn't want them getting _too_close; first, he decided to let Micah know where everyone was.

The Changeling hovered mid-air at a point roughly a third of the way to the house from the back and a third of the yard's width from the far wall. Faelen drew the fog into an exclamation point; Micah's smile grew to a huge open-mouthed expression of glee. The pup silently clapped his paws. Faelen shifted the punctuation to an image of Liam pointing toward where Liam was, then to Geoff, Alpha Luke, Gwen, and Nick.

Micah twirled about, changing his clothes to match Gwen's -- a thick, hooded sweatshirt and baggy jeans -- before cocking his head questioningly. Faelen created Gwen's image again, nodding, and one of Bear. 'Grassy' took more effort, since Faelen had a hard time imagining the new construct, as he'd only seen it once, briefly. To show she was using her powers, he also made the fake Gwen stamp the ground and a 'rock' bounce into the air. Micah nodded to show he understood.

Liam approached the game zone, so Faelen began working on him. His boyfriend ran parallel to the outer wall, six metres out; that'd be the point at which Liam must be barely able to see it. First, he made a fake wall appear, moving away from the real one at a slight curve inward. Liam slowed to a stop and looked at it, shaking his head. "If you can hear me Faelen, my apologies. I must withdraw, likely for the same reason Nathanial did... If not, please pass the message on, Nathanial. I feel Faelen's energy within the fog he fashioned the wall out of, and my mental defences prevent me from seeing it as anything but shaped fog."

Nathanial looked to Faelen. "Did you hear Liam?" At his nod, the Akita shrugged. "I'm not surprised, but I want you to try something. His phrasing partially confirmed a suspicion of mine: your ability can affect people's minds. I want you to focus the same way you did when you made the trees, but don't think of an object. I want you to focus on the sensation of being lost. Swirl the fog around him, slowly, in a widdershins, er, _counterclockwise_direction."

Faelen wasn't sure he understood. How could his powers affect a mind? Fog was just water vapour.

Nathanial noticed his scepticism. "Cloud his mind, Faelen. Have him walking in a fog. This may or may not work, but try."

Liam had already turned away from the wall and began trotting toward him. Faelen closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled. 'Lost.' What did that really feel like? He'd never been lost in the forests around the clan; he could always follow his scent home. He even grew up knowing what he'd be doing for the rest of his life. When he doubted himself recently, he still knew he'd serve Geoff and didn't feel that 'adrift' sensation people talked about.

Then, Nathanial's mind touched his. There weren't any words, just feelings, fleeting images of Nathanial's younger years. A sense of panic, confusion, and what could only be described as 'alienation' -- that nothing, especially him, belonged. Faelen struggled to keep the emotions from becoming his own, but he still needed to sense them enough so the fog could take on that aspect.

Liam's emotions spiked with concern, and then the fog responded. It slowly swirled around the Rottie, counterclockwise as Nathanial insisted, and barely discernible shapes took form for less than a second each. Clawing paws clutched at Liam's legs and arms as if to drag him to the ground. Wisps like spectral faces pleaded with Liam before turning away. Paths he needed to take appeared just long enough to be seen before getting swallowed up. Liam froze. His trembling paws rose blindly. "F-Faelen?" The Mist Spirit felt fear flooding back through their link. Small, tan hindpaws hesitantly stepped forward to the left and then to the right.

Faelen was just about to stop when Nathanial gripped his wrist. "Not yet." Nathanial's mind disconnected from Faelen's, and the influx of emotion stopped. "Keep going." Nathanial let his arm go, and Faelen obeyed, though it was more difficult to replicate the emotions than it was to transmit them.

Liam looked around, confused and bewildered, his ears twitching back and forth in growing alarm. "Faelen, my love? Lorie, dear? Dad? Where are you?"

The fear that shot through their link shattered Faelen's wavering concentration, and the haze of confusion he wove all but collapsed. The Rottie stopped moving. Liam held his paws together to focus and closed his eyes. Almost instantly, the last of the terror left their link. He felt a wave of relief from Liam, and Faelen couldn't help but feel relieved, too.

"Hmm. It seems like you could hold on for a little while after I stopped helping, though it didn't seem to work for very long beyond that. But then again, Liam is really good at this stuff. It's got potential; we can work on it more, later."

Liam blinked a couple of times, shaking his head to clear it. "That was...unpleasant. I do not wish to feel the like ever again." Faelen agreed. He didn't know if the emotions Liam felt were as, more, or less intense than what Faelen received from Nathanial, but his experience was bad enough.

Faelen focused on feelings of apology, hoping Liam could sense it. The tender smile he received said yes, he could.

Nathanial smiled, too. "Sorry, but you aren't done. You can make images, draw scent along to add realism to it, and trap a single_person. Now, I want you to combine these and cover the backyard. Create a labyrinth of walls, and fill the fog with the sensation of confusion...but, er, not _quite as strong." Nathanial looked at the pavement and scuffed one of his hindpaws on it. "I-I'm sorry if it w-was a bit...much."

Faelen knew Nathanial didn't intend to overwhelm either of them with memories of his feelings, feelings strong enough to drown a person, but it was difficult to make light of what he'd just experienced. Faelen shrugged. "It worked, and yeah, much less intense."

Geoff was heading back this way on a track that should cross the alpha's, if the alpha hadn't been diverted -- he was running along the back wall looking for the gate. Nick jogged on a path that'd take him right to Micah, and Gwen sauntered along a very similar path. 'That's strange. Nick wouldn't cheat, and how does Gwen know where to go?' Liam resumed running toward Faelen. 'No panic. The feeling of confusion is fine, but let's intensify that some to make up for the panic...and...' Hmm, maybe Faelen did know feelings to put in. When Geoff had run off to the Plane of Darkness, Faelen felt so helpless because he didn't know how to follow his boss. He knew where he needed to go, but there was no path for him to take. 'No paths.' He had watched the movie Labyrinth_many years ago, so he pulled up the imagery of that twisting maze of stone walls. _'Micah is in there, and he's in danger. Find him.' Now, to feel.

Faelen closed his eyes. Raising his paws, he held his pads out to the backyard and imagined power running out of his paws into the fog. 'There is no direction. There is no path.' The mist swirled. The two older Spirits stopped dead in their tracks.

Alpha Luke turned around in a circle. "...the shite?"

Geoff looked about him. "Er... Well done, Faelen?"

Oddly, Nick didn't even seem to notice anything changed. He just ran through the walls. Gwen closed her eyes and walked on. "Keep going, Bear. Micah is straight ahead." How did she know? Liam focused his chi again before continuing.

Nathanial nodded as if he expected these results. "It's mind-affecting, for sure. Nick has a warding spell on, a stronger one than Mind Ward. I...don't quite get Gwen, but I think she has homed in on the beryl in the pin his grandfather gave him. It's either the magic in it, or the fact it's a stone that's a few metres off the ground." The Akita frowned as he thought of something. "But...even if she has a destination, I felt what you've done; you erased the path. She shouldn't be able to get there, not according to what she feels."

Faelen reluctantly told Nathanial, "She...was born with a mental condition. She thinks differently."

"Ah, so she may only be getting part of the information you're sending out?"

"That, or she feels lost most of the time and is used to just going on regardless."

Nathanial looked like he understood that all too well. "You'll have to figure out how to stop her, then. You might need that experience some time. By the way, how is she able to walk with her eyes closed? She's on grass, not stone or dirt."

Faelen shook his head; he wasn't sure either. "Perhaps she senses where the dirt is, so she knows where dips and rises are. The lawn itself is cut smooth." The alpha would be trying to smash the walls soon. Maybe he could diffuse the force to add a sense of solidity to the walls. 'Hmm, a web of force connecting every droplet. The kinetic energy spreads out from the point of 'impact,' diffusing it.'

Alpha Luke didn't disappoint. He raised a beefy paw, wound up, and swung at the wall in front of him. His punch went cleanly into the image, but most of the force was lost before his arm was fully extended. Nathanial tapped his muzzle in thought. "Huh. Diffusion helped, but it wouldn't feel right. Impacts don't work like that. You probably won't be able to stop something with that much force behind it yet, but I want you to try this: diffuse it similarly to last time, but instead of just directing the energy away,_I want you to redirect it _back as an opposing force. In science class we learnt that every force has an opposing one. Gravity pulls us down, but the ground pushes up to keeps us from sinking in. Do that. It'll add more realism to the scene, and cause their brains to fight themselves."

Faelen understood what Nathanial meant. He still needed to ask, "How do you know what I tried? Can you see it, or can you see kinetic energy?"

Nathanial tipped his head to one side. "See? Not as such. I could see the fog react as the force went through it, to a degree, but my magic senses aren't direct parallels to my physical ones, remember? I...felt?...the transfer, the diffusion, but I really don't have words to describe how I could...er, see it. As for your magic, no, I can't. At all, really. It's kind of weird."

While waiting for the alpha to pull himself together enough to swing again, he checked in on Micah. The Changeling's eyes showed he had his Feysight active, and that it was dark enough for his eyes to turn silver; Faelen wasn't sure what difference it made, other than it affected his magic somehow. Micah hovered in place and peered about with a Cheshire Cat smile.

The alpha shook his head clear and finally appeared ready. He looked around as if searching for Faelen, before nodding, winding up, and punching with his full might at the wall. Faelen followed Nathanial's idea: the energy flowed out in a wide circle before curling in on itself to push back against Alpha Luke's fist. The paw stopped buried thirty centimetres into the wall, less than half the distance of the previous punch, despite the extra force behind it. A faint smile lurked around the alpha's muzzle, even though only a snort escaped him. "Huh. I smell that Mage pup written all over this. Much better, both of you."

'Gods, he must be extremely _impressed.'_Faelen felt his ears colouring and smelt the pleased embarrassment coming from Nathanial.

The sound of pawsteps somewhere near him made Faelen shift his focus; the source was an irate Neasa stomping toward the doors. The heavy glass rumbled aside. "Luke!" Ciaran followed her silently and nodded to Nathanial; a second later his nose twitched minutely, and he acknowledged Faelen, too.

Nathanial grasped his tail with one paw. "I-I let him know you're h-here. H-He's on his way."

"And who's with him?"

Nathanial tilted his head in confusion. "With him, a-as in right with him? No one? If you m-mean nearby, that's Geoff, Liam, Gwen, and Nick." The motion in the fog seemed to indicate Nathanial had told everyone the game was over; they were all heading back.

Neasa glared at Nathanial. "And who is with Geoff?_Where's Faelen? Why aren't the bodyguards _guarding?"_She glared over her shoulder at Ciaran. _"He's_not a proper guard as it is. The least he could be doing is keeping _close to the person he's supposed to protect." Ciaran said nothing in response.

Liam_did_ as he ran up. "I have been filling that role while my pupil finishes a task for me. Furthermore, Faelen is here and can be by Geoff's -- or Luke's -- side in less than a second, and no one could get within range to harm the McDougals without Nathanial noticing -- noticing and stopping them."

Faelen wasn't sure exactly why Ciaran stayed back instead of Poppy Aedan or Poppy Faeden. Based on the silent dialogue Faelen had noticed between Aoife and Ciaran, it seemed like Ciaran wanted to ask something but was waiting for a good opportunity. It also looked like Nathanial knew what that was. Technically, Neasa was right: Ciaran _wasn't_a bodyguard; neither was Liam, but he was more than qualified.

Neasa stared down at Liam. "You might have _been_Lowell, but you aren't anymore. You aren't a Spirit, either. You're as much a threat as any non-clan person."

Alpha Luke arrived with Geoff, his eyes on his wife and a glare curdling his brow. "Neasa. Stop right now." His expression melted into one of deepest respect as he bowed his head to the much shorter Liam. "I'm sorry, Ancient One. Liam, sir, I trust you as Grandda Ruarc did. He told me many stories about you; if even half of them were true, you've done more for our clan's safety and wellbeing than any fifty Spirits before you, and you are still part of the clan as far as I'm concerned." He tilted his head to glare at his wife again. "And I thought I made that clear before we came over." His face softened once more as he returned to the relatively minuscule Rottweiler. "If anyone should be doing the guarding, I should be protecting you."

Faelen had definitely gotten the impression Alpha Luke respected Liam-slash-Lowell, and he had sought him out for advice the last time they were in Ireland, but Faelen hadn't realised the extent of it. From the expressions on everyone else's faces, including Neasa and Ciaran, they hadn't, either.

Liam just laughed and clapped his paw on the alpha's arm. "Ah, lad, thanks for the kind words, but mind your place. I'm just a business Wolf; you're the alpha. Besides, if I die, it's only a temporary condition. You can't say the same, now can you?" Liam's smile took on a diabolical aspect. "And it's not like I can't put you over my knee if I choose. How do you think you could stop me from fighting on your behalf?" A faint whine came out of the fog as Nick approached. He'd heard that.

Ciaran smothered a cough. "Ahem, Da? Temporary condition or not, Luke can regenerate quickly and is far more resistant to damage. Be careful. We just got you back."

Liam waved his son off. "I know, I know. I was making a point, my boy." He winked at Ciaran before meeting Neasa's gaze. "Now, lass, you mind your place, as well. It's the O'Conalls' duty to guard the alpha, be they McDougal or not, and it's our call -- not yours -- to say who is, and is _not,_qualified." Faelen felt a sudden pressure as Liam bore down on the Breeze Spirit. _"Are we clear?!"_Neasa quickly nodded, looking utterly overwhelmed. Liam let up. "Don't make me remind you again."

Before anyone else could say anything, Nathanial piped up. "N-Now that that is s-settled, let's take a quick break before continuing th-the training."

Liam peered at Nathanial as Lowell retreated back into slumber. "It is chilly outside, and the wind does not help. Some warming tisane may be in order. I shall put the kettle on as I go through the kitchen to look at the ofuda." Faelen suppressed his powers and followed his boyfriend inside.