The morning mist had barely lifted when Marcus led me to a wider clearing, where the trees arched high above like silent sentinels. Sunlight filtered through the leaves in jagged shafts, catching the edges of Aerthalis’s shimmering currents that ran invisibly beneath the ground and along the roots of the great trees. It was a place that promised focus and solitude, yet I could feel an almost tangible tension in the air—an invisible pull that seemed to tether me to Marcus even as he deliberately kept his distance.
“Today, we continue your training,” Marcus said, his voice calm but curt. He gestured toward the clearing, and the soft hum of Aerthalis currents beneath our feet responded almost instinctively to his presence. “But there is something you must understand. Distance is part of disc
