Chapter 483: Learning to Let Go

Over the following weeks, there were no ancient revelations, no emergencies from Vermillion, and no new letters marked with Arvell's three lines. Damon began to suspect that the world had finally learned to leave him alone, although Jian Yue said that thinking such a thing out loud was probably the most efficient way to ruin everything. Even so, the routine continued. Varos remained in the process of gradual reintegration, Maelor-Serik cooperated with the audit without showing any particular hurry to return to the Valley, Neria divided her time between Eir and Mirath, and Jian Yue finally allowed her to begin striking a target that could also move. Not fighting. Not yet. Just tracking a slow wooden sword, dodging enough to avoid being struck, and responding with a controlled touch. Neria quickly discovered that a padded post was much more polite than a person.

"It doesn't change direction," she complained after Jian Yue avoided her fourth consecutive strike simply by tilting her body a few centimeters.

"That tends to be a major flaw with posts," Damon replied, sitting near the wall.

Neria looked at him. "You could help."

"I am helping."

"By sitting?"

"Observation is an essential function."

Jian Yue didn't even need to say anything. She simply extended a second wooden sword toward him.

Damon looked at the weapon. Then at her. "Was that a threat?"

"No. Work."

"I prefer threats."

Neria smiled and resumed her stance while Damon stood with obvious theatrical reluctance. It had been weeks since Ester had lifted his restrictions, and his body had completely recovered. His vampiric energy responded normally. So did his incubus structure. The ancient connections remained so subtle that Damon could go days without thinking about them, something that would probably have seemed impossible just a few months earlier. Jian Yue handed him the sword and pointed toward the space in front of Neria. "Defense only. You don't attack." Damon nodded. "Can she?" "Controlled touches." Neria raised her own weapon. "Finally." Damon looked at her. "You seem far too happy." "I've waited weeks." "That makes it worse."

Neria's first movement was so predictable that Damon dodged before the sword had even completed half its trajectory. She stopped, staring at him. "You moved too early." "Because you gave yourself away with your shoulder." "I didn't say anything." "Your body did." Jian Yue confirmed with a gesture. "He's right. You started the strike here." She touched her own shoulder. "The sword merely finished what your body had already announced." Neria adjusted her stance, clearly annoyed by the fact that Damon was right. On the second attempt, her shoulder remained more controlled, but her eyes followed exactly where she intended to strike. Damon dodged again. "Eyes." Neria clenched her jaw. "I hate this." "Good. It means you're learning."

On the fifth attempt, she tried to deceive him by looking in the wrong direction and nearly lost her balance because she was thinking too much about her head and forgot her feet. Damon caught her forearm before she fell, but released it as soon as he noticed Neria had already recovered her balance on her own. "You tried to do four new things at once." "It seemed like a good idea." "That's my influence." Jian Yue immediately replied, "Unfortunately." Neria took a breath, returned to her stance, and started again. This time, she didn't try to be clever. She simply performed the movement correctly. Damon dodged. She repeated it. Damon dodged again. By the tenth attempt, he was beginning to notice small changes. Her arm didn't stiffen as much. Her feet followed more smoothly. Her gaze didn't reveal everything. She was still slow, but it was a clean slowness, without unnecessary hesitation.

Then something strange happened.

Not to Neria.

To Damon.

She advanced, he retreated half a step, and waited for the familiar sensation near the base of his spine, that small sense of readiness that appeared during abrupt changes in balance.

Nothing came.

Damon recovered his position normally.

Neria tried again.

He deliberately shifted his weight, without exaggerating.

Nothing.

Jian Yue noticed the change in his expression.

"Something wrong?"

Damon stood still.

Neria lowered her sword.

"The connection?"

"Maybe."

"Which one?"

"The lower one."

Jian Yue approached. "Pain?"

"No."

"Weakness?"

"No."

"Lost your balance?"

"Not that either."

Neria looked at him. "Then why that face?"

"Because it normally responds."

Jian Yue crossed her arms. "And now it didn't."

"Yes."

"Do you need it?"

Damon opened his mouth.

Stopped.

No.

He didn't need it.

In fact, he had recovered his balance exactly as he would have before knowing that structure existed.

"No," he replied.

Jian Yue shrugged. "Then continue."

Damon looked at her. "That answer was very Eir."

"You've spent enough time around us to contaminate everyone."

Neria raised her sword again. "Can I try hitting you now?"

"You seem strangely unconcerned about my ancestral anatomy."

"You said they could disappear."

"I said maybe."

"And Teyra said two of hers disappeared."

Damon narrowed his eyes. "You pay too much attention."

"So?"

He returned to his stance.

"Continue."

The training ended without the connection responding again.

Damon didn't try to provoke it afterward.

That was harder than he cared to admit.

Hours later, back in Mirath, he sat in the infirmary while Ester kept two projections open in front of them. Aria stood beside her, trying not to display scientific enthusiasm over something that might simply be a structure shutting down because it was no longer necessary. Aurelia watched with considerably less restraint.

"The connection hasn't physically disappeared," Ester explained after a few minutes. "At least not completely. The region is still different from the surrounding tissue, but its activity has dropped almost to zero."

"Dormant?" Aria asked.

"Maybe."

"Closing?" Aurelia suggested.

"Also maybe."

Damon rested his arms on his legs. "Everyone seems very comfortable with that word."

Ester ignored him. "The other two remain unchanged. The one near the heart shows a normal response. The abdominal one remains low, but detectable."

"So the spinal connection might return."

"It might."

"Or not."

"That too."

Damon exhaled.

Aria looked at him. "Want to test it under load?"

"No."

The answer came so quickly that all three looked at him.

Damon noticed.

"No."

Aurelia almost smiled. "You didn't even think about it."

"I've been thinking about it the entire way here."

"That's different."

"I don't want to force a reaction just to find out whether I can still make something appear."

Ester closed one of the projections. "I agree."

Aria looked physically wounded.

"I only suggested testing it."

"You said it in that voice," Damon replied.

"What voice?"

"The voice that comes before three hours of observation."

"That's not a voice."

Aurelia replied, "It is."

Aria fell silent, betrayed.

Ester brought the remaining image closer. "It might be exactly what Teyra described. This connection became more active during your recovery, especially when correcting your balance. Your body no longer needs to compensate for your shoulder, ribs, or altered movement patterns. Perhaps it's simply stopping its use of that pathway."

Damon stared at the projection. Months earlier, the possibility of a structure inside him disappearing would have immediately triggered an investigation. He would have trained until he made it respond, sought out Eir, demanded explanations, compared every available record, and probably turned something irrelevant into a personal emergency.

Now he felt curious.

And slightly irritated.

But not afraid.

"Then we leave it alone."

Ester nodded. "We leave it alone."

Aria still looked dissatisfied. "Can we at least document it?"

"Of course."

She immediately began writing.

Damon looked at Aurelia. "I should've seen that coming."

"You allowed documentation."

"My mistake."

Two days passed.

The connection didn't return.

Damon trained normally. He ran. Fought Jian Yue. Used vampiric and incubus energy during controlled sessions. Made sudden changes in direction and even genuinely slipped once when Xue Mei decided to throw a small stone into his path during training.

He nearly fell.

Recovered on his own.

Slowly turned toward her.

Xue Mei was already walking away.

"I don't know anything."

"You threw a stone."

"Serious accusation."

"I saw you."

"Then there's no need for an investigation."

Damon stared at her.

Jian Yue began laughing.

The connection remained inactive.

On the third day, he stopped checking.

It was also on the third day that Neria managed to hit him.

Not because Damon was distracted by the connection. At least, that was what he would continue to insist.

Jian Yue had increased the speed of the exercises and allowed Neria to attempt unrestricted touches within a limited area. Damon was still forbidden from attacking. He could block, dodge, or simply move out of the way.

Neria had already failed twenty-three times.

Damon knew because she was counting.

"Twenty-four," he said after dodging another strike.

Neria retreated.

"I know."

"Want to stop?"

"No."

"Good answer."

"You're trying to annoy me."

"That too."

She took a deep breath.

Jian Yue watched from outside the training area.

"Don't try to be faster than him."

Neria glanced sideways.

"That sounds like a major problem."

"You don't need to be faster. You need to make him choose wrong."

Damon looked at Jian Yue.

"You're specifically teaching her how to hit me."

"You're a good target."

"I still don't see any consent in this."

Neria advanced.

Damon expected another high strike.

She began in exactly the same way.

Controlled shoulder.

Neutral gaze.

Sword rising.

Damon moved his body out of the way.

And realized too late that the strike wasn't going to end where it had begun.

Neria allowed the sword to drop halfway through the movement, took a small step sideways, and touched the wooden blade against the side of his ribs.

Weak.

Controlled.

But clear.

All three froze.

Neria looked at the tip of the sword resting against him.

Then at Damon.

He looked down.

"That was betrayal."

Her smile appeared immediately.

"Twenty-five."

"You were counting just to reach this?"

"Yes."

Jian Yue nodded, satisfied. "Good."

Damon pushed the sword aside with two fingers.

"Did you teach her that?"

"No."

He looked at Neria.

She was still smiling.

"You came up with it."

"I adapted."

Damon fell silent.

Then smiled too.

"Even better."

Neria lowered her weapon.

There was no exaggerated celebration. No jumping, no childish display. Just that very specific satisfaction Damon already recognized: something had worked because she had learned, made mistakes, tried again, and chosen a solution of her own.

"Again," Neria said.

Damon sighed.

"Naturally."

This time, he didn't go easy on her.

She didn't hit him again.

Not that day.

And she seemed perfectly satisfied with that.

Later, sitting near Eir's great trunk, Neria recounted her achievement as though she had defeated an ancient monster.

"I hit Damon."

Eir immediately replied:

"Hurt him?"

Damon pointed. "Thank you."

"No," Neria replied. "It was wood."

"Good."

Liora was lying on a root, eating something.

"I'd hit him."

Damon looked at her.

"You don't even know how to use a sword."

"Can learn."

"No."

"Ask first," Eir said.

Liora turned toward him.

"Can I learn?"

Damon closed his eyes.

"I hate the way you taught her that."

Neria began laughing.

Eir asked:

"Connection returned?"

Damon opened his eyes.

"No."

"Problem?"

"No."

"Then good."

He looked toward the great trunk.

"You could at least pretend to be a little curious."

"Am curious."

"Doesn't seem like it."

"Not a problem."

Damon thought for a moment.

"Fair enough."

Neria rested the wooden sword beside her.

"If it doesn't come back, will you lose anything?"

"Maybe some ability I didn't even know I had."

"And does that bother you?"

Damon took a moment before answering.

"A little."

Neria nodded.

"But you're going to leave it alone."

"Yes."

"Why?"

He looked at his own hand, opened and closed his fingers, then glanced at the forest around them.

"Because maybe that's exactly the part I needed to learn."

Eir spoke:

"Let it close."

"That too."

Neria smiled.

"Then we're learning similar things."

Damon looked at the sword beside her.

"You're learning to hit people. I'm learning to lose mysterious organs."

"Connections."

"Doesn't make it better."

Neria laughed.

The subject ended there.

No extraordinary investigation.

No searching for Teyra.

No summoning Aurelia in the middle of the night.

Damon continued training, and the connection remained silent.

Perhaps it would return.

Perhaps it was disappearing.

Perhaps, a few months from now, Ester wouldn't even be able to detect it anymore.

For the first time, Damon realized that he could lose a possibility without feeling as though he had lost a part of himself.

He still had two.

He still had his own body.

He still had choices.

And at that moment, that was enough.