Fair.

“it would seem I have nothing left to teach you Anemone.”

“Thank you master Udo.”

Anemone and Udo bowed in front of each other, the 18 year old girl’s training was complete, a master of her abilities, it was time for her to leave the dojo and live her life, but something was still on her mind.

“however…”

“what is it girl?”

“You have taught my to harness, and master my abilities, but not their origin, not their purpose.”

“this troubles you… well I think that is a good sign. The truth is I cannot tell you why people like us can do… just what we do. My knowledge on the matter is extremely limited. But I hear tell of scholars in Koob researching the white event. Before then, no one had abilities like this. That may be a suitable first destination for you.”

“thank you master.”

“ah, and no more of this ‘master’ business now, you could best me quite easily I think ‘Udo’ is fine from now on.”

“thank you… Udo.”

“good, now, not that I’m desperate to get rid of you, but I believe I have four fresh students arriving today.”

“Its ok, I’m keen to get started too.”

“Goodbye… Master Udo”

Anemone set off to the lodge to collect her things and leave, Udo meditated in the center of his dojo, waiting for the new students to arrive.

–

“Ok children sit straight in a row. Now, what are your names?” Udo asked the youngsters.

“Cadence.” said the first girl,

“I’m Ignis” announced the boy next to her.

“Mavis” the third girl said quietly.

“I’m Dolores, but you can call me Doll” said the girl with long braided hair at the end.

“Very well, children, you are here to become masters of your abilities, and the first and most important thing you need for that is discipline,” Udo Stood up and began to walk to the doorway, “As such, you must remain sat where you are until I say you can move.”

Udo walked out the dojo door. “And I’ll be able to tell if you move!” Udo called back.

–

An hour or so later, “Uuugh, this is so boring,” Cadence moaned, “hey, Sis?”

“what?” relied Doll, a little irritated her sister was pointing out how long it was taking.

“we could be here for days!”

“maybe.”

“u..um,” Mavis started, “are we really… are we allowed to talk?”

“well he didn’t say NOT to.” Cadence said “Might as well get to know each other I think, seeing as how we could be here FOREVER”.

“God, you girls are NOISY.” Ignis complained.

“so what? You just want to sit in silence?” Cadence questioned

“I do”

“Not asking you sis!”

“ugh, I could sit still forever, but sitting with girls is really the hardest thing ever.”

“yeah? Well its not that great sitting next to you either smelly.”

–

After a long silence, “So… where are you guys from? Mavis?” Cadence asked

Mavis was unsettled by the question, “I… I don’t want to talk about it…”

“Fine, what about you… Ignis was it?”

“If you must know, I’m from Norren.”

“Norren? You mean up in the mountains? Hey sis we are training with a real life barbarian here!”

“SHUT UP!”

“huh?”

“Don’t call me that, I’m nothing like those animals.”

“…I’m sorry, I guess we all have problems with our past then…” Cadence looked down for a moment “lets… lets call this our start ok? We can forget everything that happened before… and this is where we start our lives.”

Mavis looked at Cadence, “I, think… I would like that.”

there was a moment’s silence and then Doll looked at the others, “you think he’ll let us go to pee?”

Suddenly all the children tensed up, and if they didn’t need to go before, they couldn’t think of anything else now.

–

five minutes later, Udo walked in, “Ok that’s enough.”

“Thank GOD!” cadence didn’t hide her relief.

“The toilets are out there” Udo pointed and smiled as the kids dashed away, this was definitely an interesting group he thought to himself.