Book 2 Chapter 51

Miss Mu snorted, immediately breaking the tension caused by the ex-guardsman’s ominous statement.

“No need to try and scare them Mati. I’ve accepted their choice even if I ultimately disagree with it.”

The intensity of his stare immediately let up and he gave Mu a sheepish smile. “My apologies, I seem to have misread your intent. Sorry if I scared you as well, Willow.”

The boy shook his head. “I wasn’t scared, but thanks for apologizing.”

He had admittedly been a little nervous when Matias had gotten all intense like that, but he trusted his mentor to step in if things got too bad.

Matias laughed, the switch back to being the affable older man slightly jarring to Willow. “Glad to hear that, little one!” His focus switched back to Mu. “Now then, I suppose we should talk details. How long do you need my focus, and do they require any special consideration?”

She took a drag on her pipe as she seemed to consider his question. “I was hopin’ for around two years of your time for tutelage. I know that’s a lot, but I’ll wipe our slate clean, and even owe you one if you agree.”

Matias leaned back in his chair and seemed to be considering her offer.

“As for considerations, well…”

Miss Mu gave the signal for Willow to harmonize with Xandra’s bond, having decided ahead of time to stick to the same story they’d given to Madame Park. Though apparently it was a much harder decision since his mentor actually trusted Matias, unlike the Madame.

Harmonizing with his reflection spirit always felt a bit more immaterial than he expected from metal. Whether that was due to Xandra’s innate nature, or Willow misunderstanding the fundamental properties of the element was yet to be determined.

Metal felt strangely mercurial to him, like it could be so many different things.

It could be harder than the toughest stone, or weaker than a sheet of paper.

It could incorporate the properties of others if properly combined and treated.

It could take in and redirect energies with ease, or resist them outright.

It could be both the sharpest of blades, or the toughest of armors.

Xandra seemed focused on the redirection part of things, reflecting light and memories off their surface at their whim.

He was apparently somewhat headache inducing to observe in this state as he seemed to perfectly reflect back his surroundings, with the occasional muddied scene from his past flitting across his surface.

According to Mu, from what she’d observed, nothing was clear enough to actually get anything out of unless he focused entirely on the memories. Which meant it was unlikely to cause issues or reveal any of his secrets unless Willow was particularly careless while in this state.

Matias took in the transformation with surprising calm, though his eyes took on that piercing quality once more. Miss Mu was strangely silent as he took in the reflective child, probably wanting to see what her old friend made of it before speaking.

“That’s not a standard cladding technique is it?” He eventually asked, having stared unblinkingly for an uncomfortably long time even when Willow had ended the harmonization.

Miss Mu cracked a smile. “It is not, no. Willow here has a peculiar physique, as attemptin’ to use any type of attuned qi causes them to physically shift into a form based off of the attuned qi type.”

Matias continued to stare, and it was starting to make Willow uncomfortable. “Quite intriguing.”

Willow’s mentor continued. “Their condition also has the side effect of making them swap between boy and girl on the regular. So please be considerate of that.”

That piece of information finally caused the old guardsman to blink. “Truly? Must be quite an inconvenient condition to work around, and I can only imagine things’ll get even worse for them as they age.”

Miss Mu shrugged. “They’re a wonderful student and their condition rarely comes into play while teaching them, but I will admit to be dreadin’ their comin’ teenage years. Hopefully the two states will even themselves out.”

Willow was unsure what the two of them were talking about, but he’d be pestering his mentor about it after this meeting.

Matias began to tap his index finger on his desk as he considered the wanderers’ offer.

“Two years is an awfully long time, you know. I’m assuming you’ll be working out of the city as their training is going on?”

Mu nodded. “Yup, and I’ll even be helpin’ out the guard as much as I’m able, if that’s one of your conditions to help.”

He leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling.

“I don’t have a glut of free time available to me right now, so I’ll likely only be able to personally teach them once or twice a week. If it’s all right with you I can stick them with the recruits for the rest of the time if you think they’ll be able to keep up? They’re certainly not the best crop of students I’ve had, but I’ve seen nothing in their temperament that implies they’d make a fuss at Willow joining them.”

She puffed on her pipe for a few moments before looking at Willow, silently asking if that sounded all right to him.

It definitely wasn’t the ideal situation they’d hoped for, but it should be good enough for their purposes.

So he nodded.

“The boyo seems to be on board with it. So we can at least give it a test run. If it doesn’t work out then I still have other options and you can still consider my favors repaid.”

Matias nodded to himself. “Sounds like a plan then. It’ll take about a week for me to set everything up for them to join in safely, but if he wants to watch the training in the courtyard until then he’s more than welcome to.”

He got up from his chair and clasped hands with Miss Mu, sealing their deal. He then turned to Willow and returned the martial salute that the boy had given to him earlier.

Though his was, of course, the version a superior gives to a junior.

The two of them then left the office and attempted to make some small talk as they navigated the crowds of people on their way home, making a brief stop at a shop that sold decent quality paper and ink for Willow’s letter home.

Willow liked to think the crowds were slightly more bearable this time, but knew that he was probably fooling himself. The only reason he found them even a bit bearable was Miss Mu’s presence and attempts to distract him.

He still had hope that he’d get used to it over time, he didn’t want the Madame’s efforts in making a technique for him to be in vain.

When they got back to what would be their new home for the foreseeable future, both Willow and Mu made use of the bathing facilities available to them so that they could finally freshen up. He’d learned enough of how to use water qi to provide clean drinking water, but drawing enough from the air for a proper bath was still beyond him. So the provided tub of warmed water was downright heavenly after weeks on the road.

As he soaked and washed away some of his worries he began to think of what he would write to his family about.

There was so much for him to share.