Chapter 29: No training

Chapter 29: Chapter 29: No training

Jason woke a little past six, out of habit more than necessity at this point. He laid there a moment before it registered.

No training today.

No more Darius pulling him out the door by eleven.

He got up anyway, the routine too ingrained to abandon just because the reason for it had disappeared, and made his way to the kitchen to start on breakfast.

He called Judith first, phone tucked against his shoulder while he pulled ingredients out of the fridge.

"Morning. Wanted to catch you before you headed over. No need to come in today, actually. I’ll be home the whole time."

"Oh, lovely. Give me an actual day off, will you." Judith’s voice carried a faint, amused edge. "Tomorrow, then?"

"Tomorrow, yeah. I’ve got a raid tomorrow, so I’ll need you back on the usual schedule starting then."

"I’ll be there. Enjoy your day, the both of you."

He set the phone down and got to work on the Jade Vein Soup, a slower dish than most of what he usually made, thin slices of pale root vegetable simmered alongside a dark, mineral-rich broth base that took most of an hour to properly draw out.

He fed a thin thread of Fire essence into the pot the same way he always did now, coaxing more out of the ingredients than the stove alone ever could.

By the time it finished simmering, Novaria was stirring.

---

"Morning," she said, blinking against the light as he came in.

"Morning my love. How’d you sleep?"

He asked as he eased her up into the wheelchair.

"Well enough I guess"

He wheeled her to the bathroom, the day settling into its usual rhythm, toilet first, giving her the privacy for that part, then back in for the rest.

He held the toothbrush steady while she worked through it herself, one of the few things her hands could still manage on their own, though even that left a faint tremor in her wrist by the end.

"You’re free all day," she said, around the toothbrush. "What are you going to do with yourself?"

"Haven’t decided yet. Might practice a little. Mostly just going to enjoy not being told my footwork is embarrassing for a few hours."

"I’m sure Darius will be very disappointed to hear you took a day off from serious training."

"Darius can survive the disappointment."

He eased her into the shower next, careful and unhurried, the two of them keeping up an easy back and forth the whole way through, then dried her off and got her into a fresh change of clothes before wheeling her out and stepping in to clean himself up in turn.

By the time they sat down to eat, the soup had cooled to something drinkable, and Novaria took the first spoonful he offered with visible curiosity.

"You know of all your mysterious recipes, this one has to be my favorite"

Jason made a mental note of that information and they continued through the rest of breakfast

---

Late morning, he finally brought the spear outside, more out of restlessness than any real plan, and Novaria wheeled herself out after him without being asked.

"You don’t have to watch," he said.

"I want to." She settled a comfortable distance back. "Someone should make sure you don’t set the neighborhood on fire."

"Bold of you to assume I won’t."

He started with Piercing Thunder, easing Lightning essence into his legs, and the burst came out marginally more controlled than it had in the field, though his balance still wavered hard on the landing.

"Better," Novaria called.

"Barely."

"Barely counts."

He tried again, adjusting the flow lower, more even, and the second attempt held together considerably better.

"There," she said, something satisfied in her voice. "You were flooding it too fast. Ease into speed the same way you’d ease into a sprint. Nobody goes from standing still to full speed in one step, not even with essence doing the work."

He paused, turning that over.

"That’s... actually helpful."

"I have my moments."

He adjusted the next attempt based on exactly that, easing the essence in gradually rather than dumping it all at once, and the burst came out clean, controlled, his footing steady all the way through.

"Where did you even learn a technique like that," Novaria asked, watching him catch his breath afterward. "That’s not a beginner’s manual. I’ve read enough combat theory to recognize high-level construction when I see it."

"Can’t really say."

She studied him a moment, then let it go with the same easy acceptance she always did now. "Is it one of those things you’ll tell me eventually?"

Jason nodded in agreement

He moved on to Crimson Blaze next, the wide version first, fire sweeping out across the yard in a broad arc that scorched a healthy stretch of grass and made Novaria laugh.

"Effective."

"Wasteful, more like. Let’s see the other version."

He compressed the same essence down, aiming for the wooden target near the fence, and the flame came out denser, hotter, punching clean through the wood.

Then he tried it again, pushing slightly harder, greedy for more output, and the compression slipped at the last second, the flame veering wide and catching the side of the shed instead, scorching a black streak up the wall.

Silence.

Novaria didn’t even try to hide her laughter this time.

"That’s coming out of your earnings, you know."

---

He tried once more, more carefully this time, and Novaria watched the third attempt with quiet interest before speaking again.

"Let me hold it."

He hesitated, just slightly, before offering it over, and immediately regretted the hesitation when she caught it in her expression.

"I wasn’t asking permission to be treated gently," she said, an edge of dry amusement in it.

"Wasn’t doing that."

"You were doing exactly that."

He handed it over properly this time. She held it a moment, adjusting her grip out of old instinct, wrist angling into a stance that clearly meant something to her even now, before a small, sharp wince crossed her face, the weight already pulling at muscles that couldn’t sustain it.

"Novaria."

"I’m fine."

"You’re not." He took it back gently before she could argue further, watching her flex her fingers, easing the strain out.

She didn’t say anything for a moment.

"It’s lighter than my old sword," she said eventually, quiet. "And I still can’t hold it properly."

"You will."

"Optimistic of you."

"I’ve got a good reason to be." He set the spear aside, crouching beside her chair instead. "I’m not stopping until you can hold whatever you want to hold again."

She looked at him a moment, something unreadable behind her eyes, then let the subject drop.

---

He spent the afternoon fixing the yard, patching the scorched grass, replacing the ruined target, scrubbing the soot off the shed wall while Novaria supervised from a comfortable distance.

"You know," she said, watching him scrub, "most people use a training yard for training."

"I was training."

"You set it on fire."

"That’s part of training."

"Is destroying property part of your cultivation method now?"

He paused, considering. "I’m still refining the method."

She gave him a flat look that didn’t fully hide her amusement.

---

Lunch was simple, quick, the two of them talking through nothing in particular while he worked.

"Judith mentioned her son again yesterday," Novaria said. "She really does light up talking about him."

"You two get along well."

"We do." A small smile. "She stayed longer than she needed to yesterday, you know. I don’t think that’s just professional dedication."

"You think she likes it here."

"I think she likes us. Me, more specifically but still."

He considered that, quietly pleased by it, and let the conversation drift on to smaller things after that.

---

Dinner came with more of the same, easy and unhurried, until the conversation eventually settled on the raid.

"Darius really thinks you’re ready for real combat."

"He thinks I’ve got the fundamentals. Says the rest has to happen out there." He met her eyes. "I’ll be careful."

She studied him a long moment.

"Good," she said, simply, and let it be enough.

---

That night, he sat down beside her bed and began cultivating, mana drawn in slow and steady, refined down through the Core with the same patient discipline as every night before.

He kept at it long past the point his body wanted to stop, aware of exactly what tomorrow’s rest needed to buy him, chasing every scrap of progress he could manage before the raid made further practice a luxury he wouldn’t have.

By four in the morning, he’d pushed as far as the night could reasonably allow, he finally let himself go on the floor beside the bed.