Cass sat in the courtyard behind the inn, watching the skies between the inn and the distant Lord's manor floating in the center of the spire district. It shone like another star in the night sky, floating amid the clouds.

Below them, on the continent below, the mists had risen. They were thick with aether. Even here, the aether was thick. Not enough to accumulate into visible mist as it was in the lower sections of the city, but enough her body could barely sit still.

"Nice night," Marco said as he stepped out beside her.

"Yeah," Cass said absently.

"Any sign of Alyx?" he asked.

Cass shook her head. Alyx still wasn't back from her meeting with the lord, and she didn't feel Kelstor on the air yet. She was probably still there.

"She'll be back when she's back." Marco sighed. He carried a wooden sword over his shoulder. "In the meantime, I promised a while ago we'd train together."

Oh.

"You're in better health, and there's no guard duty to worry about," he said. "You up for it?"

Cass squeezed her staff. Staff Mastery languished at level 16. It had been a while since she'd gotten many levels in it. Probably because she was throwing Tempest Blades rather than fighting at melee these days.

Which opened the question: did she really need Staff Mastery?

She shook the thought aside immediately. There had been entirely too much melee combat recently, she'd just not had a staff to fight with for most of it. She had a staff again, but the rest of that wasn't going to change anytime soon, as much as she hoped it would.

She nodded mutely. This was a good opportunity.

"Good," Marco grunted. He took a couple of steps back, so he was more in the middle of the courtyard, and raised his wooden sword. He wore a buckler on his left arm. "Come at me."

"Here?" Cass asked, looking around the yard. It wasn't busy, but there were still a few other guests loitering around the edges.

"Sure. No space inside."

That was true, but... Well, he seemed sure this was fine. She raised her staff.

"Don't overthink it, girl," Marco yelled. "Just swing it around like you always do. Relax."

Cass stiffened. Why was she so tense? Marco wouldn't hurt her, and she wasn't going to meaningfully hurt him. He had levels on her and decades of experience to boot.

She rolled her shoulders and took a deep breath. It had become second nature to fight when her life was in danger. This should be easier.

Staff Mastery shifted in her mind, pushing her hands a touch further apart along her staff and widening her stance just a smidge. Go, it whispered. Beat some sense into that man. Show him what you can do.

She Sprinted forward. She swung.

He took it on his buckler, turning the attack and twisting the strike into a glancing blow. He stepped out of her reach. "Good. Keep going."

Cass swung again, slicing for his right side.

He pushed the staff aside with the wooden sword, again stepping out of the attack's arch. He said again, "Keep going."

They repeated this dance another two times, Cass swinging, Marco deflecting the attack in one

"Don't just swing at me," he said. "What else can you do with that thing?"

"Magic?" Cass asked. She was pretty sure they were just meant to be practicing Staff Mastery.

"With the staff, girl," Marco said. "Is swinging it all you know how to do?"

Cass stopped flat-footed. "I guess I could stab with it?"

"Then why don't you?"

Cass twisted the staff in her hands. Why didn't she? "Because I always threw Wind Blades by swinging it?"

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Was that it?

"Mages." Marco shook his head. "Are you using Wind Blade now?"

Cass shook her head.

"Then let me see your stab."

Staff Mastery pulled her body into another pose. Her right hand thrust the staff forward while her left stabilized the staff as it slid through it.

Marco again knocked the staff to the side with his sword. "Not bad. Again."

She stabbed again.

"Again."

And again.

Each time he knocked the staff aside with either his buckler or sword.

"Try to hit me," he said. "Don't aim for my buckler. Hit me."

Right. Cass stabbed at his collarbone.

His sword danced out to redirect the strike. "Better. Keep going."

She stabbed again. Again, he knocked it aside.

"Why stop after one?" he asked. "Do you stop between attacks in real battle?"

Did she? She didn't think so. But usually, people tried to hit her back before she could swing again.

"What should you do after I knock your staff aside? You are faster than most of your peers. You don't need to wait for them."

That was probably true? She'd only fought people massively outleveling her, and even then her speed was usually comparable. Against an equal leveled opponent, she should massively outspeed them. Even if they could knock her spear aside, why couldn't she keep swinging?

"Come at me. Don't stop this time until I hit you," Marco said. He raised his sword in a ready pose.

Cass lunged, her staff stabbing out. He knocked it aside as he'd done a dozen times now. Time slowed as Alacrity sped her thoughts. Marco moved in slow motion. His sword had moved to his right to push her staff wide. But her staff was way out of position too, extended out and up.

Staff Mastery suggested dragging it back, just a little, just to regain her control over the weapon, and then to drive it down on Marco's head. Oh. Yes, the staff wasn't that far out of position for that.

Her staff crashed down. Marco's shield snaked out, far faster than she'd thought he could move. Her staff hit the shield, glancing to the left and down.

His sword was coming around to return to guard his right. His shield was still high from deflecting her staff. Her staff tip was by his ankles.

Staff Mastery recommended she twist her downward momentum into a rightward sweep, across his knees. Her hands twisted and her arms carried the staff through the arch Staff Mastery drew for her.

She'd expected Marco's sword to slip in the way. It had been moving vaguely in that direction. Instead, it slammed hard into her right shoulder.

"Ah!" Cass grunted, stumbling backward.

"Not bad, not bad," he said. He pulled up his pant leg, inspecting the spot Cass's staff had struck his shin. "That might bruise tomorrow."

Cass rubbed the spot on her shoulder he'd hit her. She wouldn't have been surprised if it were already bruised.

"You applied what I said right away," Marco continued. "That suggests your Staff Mastery already has the experience it needs to fight at a higher level than you've been, you just haven't been using it."

"It's not like I have been trying to ignore it," Cass said.

"I'm sure," he said. "But you've got a lot of fancy skills, all of which have different optimal use cases. Learning when to lean heavier on which is part of the process. In fact, I imagine if you hadn't been so focused on Staff Mastery, your dodge skill would've had you avoid that strike of mine."

Cass blinked. He was right. That hadn't been a particularly fast attack. Dodge should have seen it coming and moved her out of the way in time.

"I thought so," he nodded, taking her shocked face as confirmation.

"This felt different from past times I've relied on just Staff Mastery," Cass said. "Normally, it feels more like I'm…" she wasn't sure she wanted to admit this to him. She was sure this wasn't how most people experienced their skills. People would have a harder time if they did. "Normally, it feels like I'm a puppet controlled by Staff Mastery."

"Ah," Marco nodded. "How did you get Staff Mastery? Was it through training with a staff or by the grace of the system?"

"The second."

He nodded knowingly. "You hadn't made the skill yours. So the skill was making you its."

"What?" Cass asked.

"Your body and mind didn't have the right context to use the skill. All you could do was what it told you. You had nothing else to weigh its advice against. If I understand you right, you didn't even have any brawling experience to ground yourself with. It's no wonder you felt like you weren't in control. You weren't.

"But, I imagine it's been a while since you've felt like that?"

Cass nodded slowly. "Mostly. But sometimes, I still do." Like the loss she'd felt when she lost her staff mid-fight. Or when Liminal Dodge pulled her out of a lethal attack.

He patted her shoulder, the one he hadn't smacked with his sword. "It'll get better. You just need more practice with 'em. With experience, you can balance what your skills suggest better with what you want."

She nodded.

"But my magic skills have never felt like that."

He shrugged. "I don't know much about magic. But maybe you already had the context you needed for those?"

"There was no magic where I'm from."

"Was there?" he asked. "Really, truly no magic?"

There wasn't.

"But the concept of magic wasn't foreign to you, was it?" he asked.

"I mean…"

"You've always looked much more comfortable summoning fire with that skill of yours than futzin' about with flint and steel. You didn't seem shocked by the magic-powered spigots in the kitchen or bathrooms. I'm not sure you even noticed the way the lights in the Delim manor turned on with magic when you entered a room?"

Did they do that? Oh. Maybe they had. That would have to be magic, wouldn't it? Had some part of her just assumed someone else had hit the light switch? Obviously, she would have discarded that theory if she'd thought about it at the time. But it hadn't registered as unusual, and so she hadn't thought about it.

"Maybe, as 'unnatural' as magic might be, it's still closer to how you feel the world should work?"

Huh. Was it an understanding built on stories and dreams? That was a kind of context. Was that enough?

But in comparison, what had she known about fighting? Only that it was not something that good girls did.

Not something that adults did.

Not something civilized people did.

Maybe that was all it was. Her hand tightened around her staff. Her world had changed so much. She had changed so much.

"Shall we continue?" Marco asked.

Cass nodded. This was something she needed now.

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