“Disciple?” I echoed, stunned that he’d even consider making such an offer, especially under circumstances like these.
He nodded with almost eager insistence. “I’m no scholar of whatever strange abilities you wield, but you’ve got to be one of the strongest fighters I’ve ever crossed paths with… for your age.” He lingered a moment, letting me bask in what almost sounded like praise, but then, inevitably, the sting followed. “Certainly not the most skilled, though. Who blows up their own arm just to land a punch?”
Hard to argue with that. Still, was it too much to ask for a compliment that wasn’t dipped in backhanded disdain?
“But still, strong. Very strong,” he concluded.
“I’ll take it,” I muttered.
His eyes shot wide. “So you agree?”
My own widened to match. “What? No… Well, not no, but—Why do you want to teach me?”
“You’re strong,” he repeated flatly, as if that alone contained every explanation I could possibly need.
“Right… And how exactly do you plan to teach me? It’s not like I can just stroll over,” I grunted, hoping to hammer in my point. “Not to mention, I already have combat instructors.”
“Y—you think that’s wise? I haven’t exactly been… Maybe she should just for—”
“Don’t worry so much,” he cut her off, gentleness slipping into his tone. “You’ll both need time. Just make it over here soon, okay?”
She didn’t answer. Instead, the air beside him split open with a tearing sound, as the warped space solidified.
Amei stepped through moments later, the distortion snapping closed behind her. Her shoulders rose sharply, and she pressed a hand against Sei’s chest, grumbling low in her throat.
“I was so distant. She’ll hate me.”
She didn’t notice me, or at least, I don’t think she did.
“Maybe we should wait until you’ve evolved too,” she murmured, leaning in closer.
Sei chuckled, shaking his head. “No. Who knows how old she’ll be by then? I’m close, but I still can’t break through that space.” His hands rubbed over her shoulders before he bent to whisper something into her ear.
Whatever it was froze her. She stiffened, straightened, then slowly turned, eyes locking on me.
“Peter… I—Uhhh…”
I dipped my head slightly, doing my best to ignore the tenderness I’d just interrupted. “Good evening, Miss Amei. Was Serith not with you?”
“Umm, Y—No,” she stammered, correcting herself mid-breath, her voice flustered. “I mean, she was. She’s still back in my office. I only came to…” She turned toward her partner again, expression pleading for an escape.
“Relaaax,” Sei drawled, comforting her. “I already told Peter anyway.”
The atmosphere in the room shifted in an instant. Luna curled tighter around my wrist, instinctive and protective, as the temperature plunged. Frost began to snake along the corners of the hall, creeping inward with steady inevitability, each crystalline tendril edging closer toward the center.
I couldn’t help but wonder, briefly, how bitter that cold might have felt if ice hadn’t already been stitched into my abilities.
“You. What?” she demanded, her voice sharpened into a blade of ice.
Sei retreated half a step, lifting his hands in a mock surrender. “Well, he won’t tell anyone.”
Didn’t he say it wasn’t a secret anymore?
“You can’t just go around telling anyone you please!” she shouted, her intensity flaring. “It’s not as if a Steward can simply date someone from their own territory! This—this should’ve waited until you were stronger! What if—what if you get hurt?!”
Suddenly, this was the last place in the world I wanted to be. Wedged at the epicenter of a couple’s quarrel I barely understood.
“Hmm… you’re right,” he admitted matter-of-factly. Yet despite the words, her fury didn’t thaw in the slightest.
“I know.”
He started to step closer, but Amei’s glare froze him where he stood. With a sigh, he relented and shifted tack.
“It was said in a heated moment,” he murmured. “A shared moment of longing to see our loves. Forgive me.”
My jaw nearly unhinged. This guy… a complete liar. We hadn’t shared anything other than his desire to shout his devotion out.
But Amei only lowered her gaze, pressing a hand against her forehead.
“Stop messing around.”
Apparently, his story wasn’t as persuasive as he thought. Or maybe she was simply too accustomed to his nonsense.
“What is it you wanted?” she asked at last, weariness bleeding into her tone.
He set a hand lightly on her shoulder, then motioned toward me.
“I’d like to take him in as my student. Stepping isn’t possible for me yet, so—”
“I can’t,” she cut him off, her refusal absolute, final enough to end the matter then and there.
He didn’t press the point, only shifted the conversation with calculated ease.
“Peter offered to take Mei in as well, to your old home,” he said more softly this time. “I thought it might be the perfect place for you and her to grow closer again.”
Her eyes flicked to me, carrying something that almost resembled apology. In that single glance, she conveyed more emotion than I had seen from her during the entirety of this trip.
“I know it’s hard,” she said, voice low, “but try not to get caught in his schemes. He’s talented at weaving them.”
How else would he have managed to date a god?
The thought flared across my mind, though I kept it locked there.
She turned back toward Sei. “It isn’t that I don’t want to, Sei. I can’t. Serith and I can’t just go shifting our people back and forth as if it were nothing.”
His frown deepened, displeasure etched in every line of his face. “That restriction should weigh most heavily on your Champions. For the love of—some of those creatures even kill the very people they’re sworn to protect.”
Her eyes narrowed, sharp as drawn steel. “It’s not so simple for everyone. They have reasons to get away with such interference.”
The exit loomed in my thoughts, alluring as a siren’s call. Every second here grew more suffocating, more awkward. I hated this.
Right. It couldn’t possibly get worse… could it? My I could end it.
“I can teach her,” I blurted, my voice trembling at the edges, drawing both their gazes to me at once. I forced a nod, as though conviction could disguise my nerves. “And both of you. At least you, Sei. I can show you how to access your Inner World.”
Their eyes widened in unison, matching gasps escaping before I pressed forward.
“Mei told me that evolution may happen after cracking open the World Seed. And it should be easier if you can directly interact within that space, right?”
Amei didn’t answer. Instead, she mirrored Sei’s earlier gesture, sweeping her hand through the air. This time, the tear that formed was far more substantial, its edges sharp and steady as reality itself seemed to yield.
“Serith, get over here!” she called, her voice raised just enough to carry. The simmering tension from the argument thinned, redirected toward the summoning.
My Guardian stepped through moments later, her expression carved with disinterest, as though the very act had already exhausted her patience.
“I don’t want to get involved, whatever this is. You kids can deal with your own romances,” she declared flatly until her gaze settled on me.
“Peter can access the Inner World?” Amei pressed, eyes fixed on her friend.
Serith spared me a glance, not a flicker of surprise crossing her features, before turning back to her former student. “Seems so. I wasn’t aware, but there are countless methods scattered throughout the world. You’re still too young, and—”
“Not the time for a lecture!” Amei snapped, cutting her short. “Do you have any idea how insane this is?!”
Serith only shrugged, her indifference as immovable as stone. “No. And even if I did, there’s nothing I can do about it now. He’s my Champion.”
Maybe she wasn’t a practitioner of Animora. Was she really a pure system user?
Amei’s composure wavered. Her eyes darted about the hall, restless, almost childlike, as though afraid of being judged by unseen eyes at the corners of the room.
“W—what about other Guardians?” she whispered.
Serith arched a brow. “What exactly do you mean?”
The conversation was really putting their statuses in perspective for me. Serith carried herself with the calm weight of one who had endured far more, seen far more. Amei, by contrast, felt inexperienced, uncertain beneath her authority.
Leaning closer, Amei asked, her voice fragile: “If I help Peter indirectly… could I bring Mei, and my hus—Sei, into his home?”
Serith’s expression shifted, softening into something that held both understanding and pity. “Amei… it isn’t so simple. Acting in favor of your own people carries consequences.”
Sei stepped forward, bowing with practiced ease. “If given time, I could Step on my own. With Peter’s guidance, my wife would only need to intervene once.” He tilted his chin up, gaze steady. “Or, you could…”
Serith exhaled heavily, turning her full attention to me.
“How many students do you plan to take?”
I blinked.
Then, without hesitation, I pointed at Sei.
“He started it.”