Chapter 15.2

Silence fell and Eirwen carefully studied everyone's faces, while her own emotions slid behind an expressionless mask. People looked at Aoife, then at the weapon master, then at Eirwen. Mild panic, that would be the best descriptor of the look on his face. Not guilt, though. So this wasn't something he had hid deliberately, then. But he feared she would assume it was, perhaps? Afraid she would see it as betrayal.

Aoife caught onto the awkward atmosphere. "Wait. You didn't tell her?" He twitched. "You didn't tell her? Your admiree? You call yourself her suitor, yet you didn't tell her?" Shame was now clearly visible on his visage. Aoife leaned back, shaking her head. "You swore your life to her, yet you kept this from her. I hate her, and even I would have told her. Yet you didn't. How little your word is worth."

Honestly, the last line felt like it was just Aoife lashing out to hurt him. She did get him good with that, though. He sputtered as he responded, "There wasn't a right time for it!" A raised eyebrow sent him spiralling, gone the authoritarian leader, enter a flustered young man. "It's only been a few days and there were more pressing matters at hand! I didn't have time to think of one of the dozens of tricks I learned, when I was busy screwing everything up instead!"

Bethan failed to hold in a laugh. It proved infectious, the others joining in as well. Eirwen also couldn't help but laugh brightly. She saw a blush rush up his cheeks, embarrassed by the situation, by his own lack of composure. It only made her laugh more, requiring roughly half a moment to calm down again.

Eventually she found the ability to speak. "Ahem. That was a bit cruel, Aoife." They smiled at each other, then she turned to him, her mask slipping partially back into place. "I will accept that you didn't hide this deliberately. But you did promise to answer any and all of my questions. So explain yourself. What materialisation trick?"

For a bit, he was too flustered to respond properly, tripping over his own words. Eventually he closed his eyes and took a couple of deep breaths to steady himself. When he opened his eyes, she saw he had managed to compose himself.

"Alright. Yes, this trick eventually became what I labelled materialisation. I also developed something beyond it. But it's best if I start at the beginning." He sounded the way he did when gently teaching people, starting at the beginning and establishing the building blocks that formed the foundation.

"It starts with shared recollections, also called shared imaginations. You all know this trick, where you can share memories to explain something in more detail. This requires mentally linking to people, which is hard in larger numbers. It also is easy to steer wrong."

They nodded. A useful way to handle a report, but too unreliable for court. "Next up, we have depicting, where we take our recollections and make them witnessable by others." Behind him appeared a visual depiction of a group of Verglas knights, blades ready to cut. An intimidating appearance, and a recognisable one. Behind them stood Eirwen, sword also drawn. That meant this was his memory of their training session two days ago.

"This works well for sharing visuals or even sounds to a larger group, but it's limited to your own perception. It is a flat recollection, after all. However, we can combine it with the recollection of our mana senses. Since those are not flat, it no longer is merely depicting something. This I call manifesting."

Behind him, the image became less detailed, yet more substantial. It slowly turned, until now the fake Eirwen was visible from her left side. Not all knights in front of her were still fully focused, the ones to the side now more blurred. "A downside is that manifesting takes far more focus and energy, hence me leaving out some details."

From the left, basically originating from outside the room, a figure launched itself forward. Eirwen could see her own memory stab forward, while a sword slashed at her neck. The figures froze and he let the knights fade out, trading them for detail on him and her, allowing all to see the blood that had trickled down her neck, and how easily he could have taken her head.

Aoife interrupted the show with a grumble. "You actually drew blood? And now you're showing us all of that? Couldn't you have shown us you petting a horse or something? Also, hold on, you broke through an entire line of knights? Wasn't there a less dramatic way to make your point?"

He smiled briefly. "It's easier to use this example for the next steps. So, manifesting helps for illustrating a memory, but it's not perfect for training, because it is just a recollection. With extra effort, however, this can become a manipulation of the physical memory, allowing for a fake fight." His figure put his sword away, then both their figures turned towards the group of onlisteners. He let her figure disappear, only keeping himself around.

"I should make a sidestep here. Detailed physical observation and even communication are possible at a distance, which for example lets me talk to Eirwen while I am located at the other side of the estate." He closed his eyes and suddenly his image became sharper as it stepped forward a bit, looking Eirwen straight in the eyes.

The fake him smirked, then spoke, and it almost felt real, the voice barely not matching the location of the fake mouth. "I could combine this with using a different figure, allowing me to act like the real thing during training. Though of course the lack of substance plays a part." His false hand seemed to touch the back of the chair, but no actual pressure was present.

Now both his real and fake face turned deadly serious. "Enter materialisation." More focus, more mana, and a small change. Suddenly, his fake hand actually put pressure on the chair. "And as part of that, enter materialising mana manipulation." Suddenly a false Verglas blade shot towards his neck, while his real arm applied the Carraig defence to block it. Eirwen grimaced as she saw the blade slightly cut into his lower arm, blood slowly trickling down. And then her blood chilled as she realised the consequences.

Almost as if he read her thoughts, both his faces smiled. "Honestly, its potential is rather low. It takes a lot of energy and is far less effective than showing up in person. Otherwise, I would have used it to assassinate my father. But it adds substance, which can be used for quick training bouts. And it means no risk at taking a fatal blow. Unfortunately, it's but an intermediary which gives off a dangerous impression. As such, it should be considered a sealed technique that you must never mention. But it did guide me to what I now call materialisation instead, but is actually imagined materialisation."

Eirwen wondered if he was exaggerating its uselessness, if only to make sure nobody would slip up. If perfected, that technique could have served as an ideal way to assassinate people. Though if was easy to sense, it could still serve well as opening attack. As she pondered that, he continued his explanation.

"Coming back around to the starting point, imagined materialisation combines all the tricks from before. It's a materialisation without the actual manifestation part. You share not a memory, but the manipulated figure, with the target. If done right, it shows to them and can be given substance, but only for them. Outsiders will not see or feel it, but the target will. This allows for simulating a fight while spending far less energy."

The figure behind him slowly vanished from sight and he opened his eyes again. Yet his eyes looked as if they were seeing something entirely different than their presence. He reached out to them mentally and they now saw the Flameheart throne hall around them. It didn't fully replace the result of their own eyes, but still they could perceive it, as could they the figure of Eirwen standing behind him. Not substantial, not manifested or more, but it still felt real.

The figure's sword flashed past him and they could see him channel mana armour only at the spots being hit. The pressure actually was impacting his skin. Then the figure of Eirwen Verglassed her blade and managed to pierce the Carraig defence on his face. Eirwen's breath halted as she saw the blood well up from his cheek, before he called upon his abilities to heal the wound and vaporise the blood.

"This technique has limitations, fortunately. It requires the target's cooperation, for starters. Each of you could have easily shut out the image. And the materialisation part of it isn't capable of doing serious damage. The subconscious will reject it. I could illustrate, but that might feel a bit too gruesome for a simple demonstration. Still, it lets one fully experience a fight, which makes it quite suitable for training a single person, or a larger group."

He retreated from their minds and the throne hall and figure disappeared from their senses. Next were his eyes, which shifted back to focus on the room, having released his techniques. He acted as if it had been a simple demonstration, but all of them could see the sweat on his skin, hear his heavier breathing. This hadn't been easy for him. Yet the potential of that final technique was massive. Eirwen couldn't help but go over everything in her mind, rethinking the way he had manipulated mana during everything. She could definitely find a potential weapon to wield here.