Hana Akki's Secondary Magic Training [Private]

Akeya looked around at her surroundings, making sure that they would suit her needs for her latest mission. Well, she called it a mission, but honestly it was more of a request that had been made and which the rest of Blue Pegasus had told her to fulfil. A mage from Fairy Tail wanted to learn how to use shadow magic, and they had contacted Blue Pegasus in the hopes that Akeya could teach them. The half dragon wasn't too sure what to think about the fact that apparently she was famous enough that a mage from another guild would ask for her teachings. Especially since Akeya had never really taught anybody anything before. She was pretty self-centred, so she was constantly busy practising and learning herself. By now she felt that she had a pretty solid grasp on the workings of Shadow Dragon Slaying Magic, but explaining it to another person could get tricky. When you added in the fact that Akeya was highly anti-social and introverted things just looked even more like they'd get difficult.

Still, there were upsides to this. Akeya had already been chosen as a Rising Star, which meant the Magic Council saw her as a promising legal mage, and now another legal mage asked for her to teach them shadow magic. That would reinforce the idea that Akeya was in fact a respectable mage, which would decrease the chances of the Magic Council and their Rune Knight lapdogs getting the urge to find some excuse to annoy her. Avoiding trouble with the Magic Council was one of the primary reasons why Akeya had chosen to join a legal guild instead of an independent -or even dark- guild, so if this would help with that objective she'd try to figure out how to teach somebody else shadow magic. It couldn't be that tricky.

At least she had chosen the right spot for the training. These ruins were old, large, and basically a mess. You could still distinguish between buildings, but there was rubble everywhere and a lot of the buildings had taken on interesting shapes as neglect and time had done their job wearing them down and removing parts. All of this together had the effect that quite honestly there were shadows literally everywhere. The rubble had shadows, the buildings had shadow, the landscape and the plants which surrounded the ruins had shadows. Not a single spot in this place was plain and flat, everything had some kind of curve, hook or shape to it that would create a shadow under the right circumstances. The right circumstances being evening. Akeya had told the prospective shadow mage to arrive at the ruins when the sun was already well underway to meeting the horizon. They could also have chosen the morning for this, but Akeya preferred moving from the evening into the night. That suited her usual sleeping schedule a lot better after all, seeing how she was nocturnal in sharp contrast to all the humans who didn't have night-based work.

The half dragon stood on top of the tallest ruin that still could bear her weight, looking around at her surroundings and occasionally glancing towards the sun to tell the time. The magic tattoos which adorned her cheeks prevented her eyes from being harmed by staring directly into the sun, which made observing the thing a lot easier. Akeya remembered when she had yet to protect her eyes like that. Since her eyes were particularly sensitive to light that hadn't been very pleasant. When going out in broad daylight she had basically been glaring perpetually in an attempt to keep the sunlight out of her eyes. Everything had been so bright... Good thing she had found a way to deal with that problem.

Spreading her wings and flapping them a couple of times, lifting herself off the ruins for several seconds before landing again, Akeya wondered what her student would be like. The request had been a polite one, at least, so with some luck her student would be one that showed proper respect and who would listen when the half dragon was talking. If there was one thing that Akeya wouldn't tolerate it was somebody who asked for her help and then would not actually bother to pay attention. It was basically going out of your way to insult somebody by drawing their attention just to show how little you care about what they have to say. If the prospective shadow mage was somebody like that Akeya would have to find a way to punish them. Of course she couldn't harm them too much: Fairy Tail would take offense if somebody from Blue Pegasus inflicted serious harm onto one of theirs. Familial ties was basically that guild's primary purpose. Akeya was very glad that she hadn't joined that guild. Blue Pegasus wasn't perfect either, but at least they didn't enforce socializing, getting along with others, or treating your fellow guild members as something more than just that, fellow guild members.

Well, that wasn't important right now. What was important was that her student should be arriving soon, and Akeya had to think of how to start the training. First she'd ask what the mage already knew about shadow magic and if they had already developed some basic skill or if they had to work their way up from the very bottom. It would be easier if the mage already knew the core stuff and Akeya only had to teach them about how to improve upon that and how to learn the more complicated stuff. The half dragon looked around for her student, idly cleaning the tip of her tail with her scaled hands.

On the way to the ancient ruins, a young girl with silver hair and crimson eyes sat in a train trying her best not to let her motion sickness take over. Ever since she had become a dragon slayer, she would often forget about it and hop onto the train before she can remember. It had been quite a pain, but Hana knew that it was only fair. Looking out the window, Hana heaved a sigh. She couldn't lie, she was nervous, but then again she was happy. It surprised her when the mage Akeya that her teammate Sorano informed her about accepted to mentor her. But then again, she wasn't really a people person, so everybody's actions surprised her. Hana yawned as the train had become boring, especially with nausea kicking in. She couldn't even find the appetite to eat feeling too sick, and had stuck her head out the window every time she began to feel heated. At long last, the train had stopped, and Hana sighed in relief. Although it would take a bit for her to feel better and her skin was paler then usual catching everybody's attention, she felt content knowing that she may now walk it off. Pulling the bag with her that she had brought, she made her way out of the train, the soon to be setting sun hitting her like a wall of bricks, except less painful. For an ice dragon slayer, the heat felt pretty nice now that she was out of that moving prison. it would take the young girl a while to get to her destination, the ruins was pretty far after all, meaning Hana would have to begin her walk right away if she wanted to make it on time. Akeya had told her specifically to come when the sun met the horizon line... and not even! As Hana walked along the dirt path, her mind drifted off to a thinking state. What would her mentor be like? What would she teach her first?Excitement bolted through the unusually small girl,  creating a jump in her step. There wasn't much that she knew of Akeya, just that she was the shadow dragon slayer and she is a member of Blue Pegasus. It always intrigued Hana when she met someone knew, even though her shyness overtakes that trait from revealing itself to the naked eye. Of course though, if she wanted to seem worthy of Akeya's time, she had to be confident. When Akeya replied to her request, she seemed very literal and straight to business. Hana found that admirable in a person, and it determined her to work her hardest in her training. Traveling further into what came to be a forest of trees, Hana's ears filled with a soft and soothing toon, louder than the one she had previously heard before entering the woods. Ah, yes, it was the sound of nature. Singing freely and clearly only for Hana's ears. A smile grew wide on her face, and she looked on with calm eyes. At least of anything we're to go bad, she would have these lullabies to cling to. The sun was getting lower, now just above the horizon. Far out in the distance, Hana's keen eyes spotted a rubble of buildings. The ancient ruins. Thats where she would be meeting her mentor for her secondary magic, and it absolutely thrilled her. The excitement traveled through her veins, and nature tones the music down to more of a sleepy song to call her down, and as always, succeeding. Nature was like a mother to Hana. Although it couldn't be there for her physically, it always looked out for her with the sounds of it's voice. Hana's walking slowed, and she watched on as creatures of different types traveled through the trees and bushes. These weren't dangerous creatures, they we're nice, soft, and maybe even cuddly creatures which Hana had to held back from stalling herself to pet and feed them a bit of her uneaten lunch she packed. As time continued to move, sweat dropped down Hana's forehead. She had been walking a while, her feet now aching. It was like a never ending staircase, it just goes on and on and on until you give up and collapse, but Hana wasn't one for giving up. She didn't even start her training. She would just be weak of she gave up. Besides, she was perfectly used to traveling ,always being one to get up and move, she was already well acquinted with the aching and cramping of her feet whenever she would walk somewhere without a break.Finally, as the sun was a quarter under the horizon, Hana made it. Standing in the center of the ancient ruins, she observed her surrounding  finding plants, rubble, and... "H-hi! Are you Akeya?" asked the dragon like woman. Hana observed that she had a pair of wings, a tail, and scales littered her body. It made somewhat sense... Hana just couldn't understand that if she wasn't in dragon force then why did she appear that way? Shaking the thought off,  Hana put on a small smile and introduced herself as she stuck her hand out to shake. "My name's Hana, I'm the wizard that requested your service in training me for shadow magic." Softly speaking, Hana hoped that she didn't come on too nice or that her extended hand didn't effect the relation and there for the training as well. She was just shy and nervous and she wanted to come off as a good student who would be willing to learn. Hana's hand remained extended, feeling awkward as she waited for a reply. The breeze ruffled her snow-like hair as the sun came down lower and lower, stars almost visible in the evening sky.

The sun had already descended quite a bit towards the horizon, and the shadows that were cast from every faded building and piece of rubble was long, with distinct edges. An almost perfect combination of size and sharpness. There was a difference between magic that manipulated shadows, and magic that utilized darkness. The difference wasn't always as obvious, and some mages specifically developed their magic so that the difference only enhanced their abilities. Akeya herself wasn't like those mages, since she hadn't exactly chosen her magic as much as her soul had accepted the magic that suited it best. Her magic was one where rather than standing there throwing magic at the enemy in the form of shadows and darkness she used both as utility to allow her to move around freely and become impossible to find.

The difference between shadows and magic was, so far as the half dragon could see, the fact that shadows were a part of the physical world, whereas darkness was more of a concept which could be turned into reality. Shadows were both the lack of light and the contrast between different light intensities. Darkness however was more about the actual opposition of light, which was distinctly different from a lack of light. That and darkness could also mean a lot of other things, like negativity and emptiness. Shadow magic, which Akeya used, allowed you to do things like move from one place of low light intensity to another, become invisible by letting all the light pass right through you, and turning the edge of a shadow into the actual edge of a blade. Darkness magic was a lot more mysterious. It could be used to nullify light magic, create holes in which others could be trapped, and other tricks which were a whole lot more sinister than simple mobility and stealth. Akeya would have to make it very clear to this Hana that she didn't teach darkness magic. She taught the magic of hiding, of moving about quickly and silently, of turning the shadows into weapons. Her student might be able to develop their own style, completely different from the half dragon's, but Akeya herself was an assassin, and her training would most certainly focus on that. Which of course also meant that she expected her student to be capable of physical combat and skills instead of solely focusing on her magic. Both magic and physical prowess were tools that one used to accomplish their objective. To neglect one just because you preferred the other was foolishness, and Akeya most certainly didn't want to teach a fool.

The half dragon's spiny ears twitched when she heard footsteps heading towards the ruins. Most likely Hana. Akeya looked around one last time, scanning the area, before focusing on the direction from which she could hear the footsteps. Thanks to her sharp eyes she could make out her student before the girl actually came close, which allowed her to study the person she would be educating in the art of shadow magic beforehand. She was a small girl, pretty in that way which is more cute than actually stunning. She didn't look very old. In fact Akeya wouldn't be surprised if she was still a teenager. However she also liked like she was in good shape, which at least meant that she wasn't just letting her body become weak and frail. Good. Akeya wasn't going to expect a human to live up to the standards of half dragons, and she wasn't planning on teaching this girl every single thing she knew (teaching somebody all of your tricks was asking to die. Under no circumstances should anybody know all of your abilities. Even your own family needed to be left in the dark to some extent, because every person who knew a secret was another way for that secret to be let out), but if Hana had been some fat and easily winded girl she most likely would have told her to go back to her guild. At least coming out here was worth it in that aspect. Time to see if that was also the case for the rest.

Jumping down from her vantage point Akeya landed in the middle of the ruins, waiting for Hana to reach her. Once she did the half dragon inspected her once again from up close, at first not speaking. Instead she only nodded in confirmation of Hana's request. The girl sounded somewhat nervous, and Akeya could tell that she was staring at her draconic features. Not surprising. She could smell and see that this girl was a Dragon Slayer just like her, so she was most likely wondering why her teacher was showing such draconic traits even though she hadn't activated Dragon Force. She pondered for a moment, then decided that informing Hana about the side effects of Dragon Slaying magic wasn't detrimental to herself, and if she was to be a teacher telling Hana stuff that was actually useful was pretty much part of the job. After leaving the girl's hand alone at first she eventually reached out and grabbed the soft hand with her own hand, covered in scales and all. She didn't actually shake the hand, instead only holding it with a firm grip for several seconds before letting go. Not wasting any time after that she began to speak.

"Greetings. I am Akeya Kuusai. I will be teaching you shadow magic. However before that I want to both know something and tell you something. I can smell that you are a Dragon Slayer, just like me. However you aren't a Shadow Dragon Slayer. What kind of Dragon Slayer are you, and why do you want to learn how to use shadows as well? And I saw you staring at my body. Dragon Slayer magic is actually the magic of dragons. The only reason humans called it Dragon Slayer magic is because it happened to be one of the few things which could actually hurt a dragon. The more you use Dragon Slayer magic the more like a dragon you will become, so be warned."

Akeya then turned around, inspecting their surroundings, although this time more to have Hana draw her attention to the ruins than that she actually needed to see everything again.

"Before we begin with the actual magic, tell me what you know about shadows, shadow magic, and why I would call you out here, amongst these ancient ruins, at a time that humans would start heading to bed. Lastly, I need to know what I'm working with, so if you already know a little bit about shadow magic I would like a demonstration."

A short silence filled the air, before the half dragon took Hana's hand and firmly held it for a few seconds. It's not what Hana entirely had in mind but she guessed it worked out. It was much better than just standing there that was for sure. The woman then proceeded to introduce herself as Akeya Kuusai, but what she said next, and also questioned, caught the young silver haired mage by surprise. She wouldn't guess that Akeya could smell her as a dragon slayer, as others haven't, and the fact that being a dragon slayer turns your body to something similar of Akeya's, well, let's just say Yuki (Hana's dragon) left that part out. To answer Akeya's question Hana would have a lot of explaining to do that pretty much involved most of her life story... but she wouldn't want to hear about that. Hana sat in thought for a second on how she should shorten things up, but to no avail did it come to the girl's mind. Should she just wing it? Would it make her sound like some type of foolish idiot? She wasn't very sure, but considering this moment it seemed like the best option. She didn't want to make Akeya wait too long. Opening her mouth to speak, Hana took a deep breath before beginning.
"Well, you see ma'am, it's not so much that I want to learn it as I want to regain it. When I was young I was trained by the ice dragon Yuki in ice dragon slayer magic. I got the techniques and concepts down, however, instead of ice, I would be producing shadows. Not too long ago, I gained the ability to produce ice out of my magical power, but I've lost my shadow magic, and even as a secondary, I would like to maintain it. As a shadow dragon slayer, I thought maybe you can help me since this element is specifically your expertise. As you can probably tell by now, I know quite a bit about shadow magic. Shadows are that of the lack of light, as for shadow magic, it can be used to manipulate the shadows to the user's will. From my experiences, you can use shadows to make a weapon such as senbon or a sword, but shadows also come very handy in defense. It can serve as a shield which would hide the user from sight, and if we're speaking of light against shadow, well, it's not gonna be a very easy thing to use then since the light controls where shadows may loiter. As for why you called me out to these ruins at such a late time.. well, as I said, the only light getting in the way of the shadows is the moon, and even then, shadows thrive more. As an ancient ruin, it would only be natural for there to be many countless shadows that we can have at our disposal, due to the piles of rubble. Now, if you would like a physical example out of me, I'm afraid the outcome will turn out as ice, the reason why I requested your help in obtaining it as a secondary."
After Hana's rather long explanation, she took yet another deep breath. Saying so many things at once really did hitch her breathing there for a second. If she could, Hana would have probably gone wandering off to look for some water... but that wasn't really important right now. As of now, she was talking to the person who would be training her, and she didn't want to ruin things before they could even begin. Oh no, that would be terrible. If that happened Hana didn't know what she'd do. She would have to find a different mentor and even they may not be as helpful as Akeya. Hana nervously held her breath,  patiently in wait of Akeya's response. The situation seemed once again awkward, much different to when Hana had actually been talking. When she was explaining things she seemed more confident in her knowledge, but now that she was actually finished, she was a nervous wreck. What if she said something that sounded completely retarded? That would be really bad on Akeya's impression of her, and to Hana's experience, that was never a good implication on a mentor. It could change the entire training style and how well she's taught. Especially if the person was someone as serious as Akeya... just the thought had caused a shiver to run down Hana's spine. 'Just calm down Hana, even if the worst is to come, things will turn out alright...' Hana cooed this to herself mentally multiple times. It was a technique which her twin brother had used on her, and apparently, it worked. Whenever Hana was frustrated, sad, scared, or maybe even just neutral, Hana would use this technique upon herself just like he had for her. It was much like what a parent would do to their child when trying to calm them down. But alas, it did not work this time. Hana's hopes we're set too high for her liking, and that was never a good thing. Not even the gentle voices of nature could calm Hana's beating heart at this moment. As Hana continued to stand there in wait for a response, a soft breeze came by, ruffling Hana's snowy hair. If Hana hadn't been such a nervous wreck, it would've been a pretty relaxing and treasuring moment. The ruins, even though just being piles of rubble and rotten debree, looked absolutely stunning, the way the light reflected onto the rock and the way the leaves gently flew through the breeze. Hana immediately made a mental note to come here on her free time and just chill. What a time that would be... Hana's tinted face died back down to it's normal color, she was now much more still, and her heart seemed to have calmed down from the earlier commotion within her head. Hana was now patient in her wait for her possible mentor's response, looking at the nature setting and back every now and then as she thought of how funny it was that the simplest things in life could calm her down as such. If it wasnt such a serious matter, Hana would've probably made a joke out of it as well. With the sun getting lower with each passing minute, now it was just up to Akeya to decide on what should happen from here on out. Would they start her training or would they abandon it? As much as Hana wished, it wasn't really up to her now, was it?

It appeared that this Hana was notably nervous, looking at the way she behaved. Most likely she had heard about Akeya's reputation and was worried that she might offend or anger her teacher, who didn't have that much patience for either stupidity or incompetence. For the half dragon incompetence wasn't just something that could be forgiven. If you had proper dedication and focus even if you weren't gifted with talent you could still become one of the most powerful of creatures. Incompetence indicated that a person was either unwilling or unable to actually dedicate themselves to improving, either because they just lacked the mental discipline or they pitched a fit when they learned that they weren't one of the lucky ones who were born with talent and were unwilling to actually put in the effort. Either way, Akeya didn't care for it. Granted, she had both been born with great talent and had grown up to have a level of mental discipline that bordered on insanity... Although Akeya herself always thought that her accomplishments were as much based on the fact that she had dedicated herself to improving as that she had been lucky at birth or anything like that. You couldn't claim responsibility for being talented. It was just a case of whether you were lucky or no. It was only what you achieved through actual work and effort that could be said to be your own doing.

Well, a nervous student wasn't too bad. At least it meant that she wasn't going to step out of line any time soon, and she would actually worry about what she said and did beforehand. Akeya found people who were certain of themselves and knew what they were doing more interesting, since they wouldn't immediately break or bend before her will, but if the relation was that of teacher and student rather than fellow intelligent beings having them actually respect her will and take great heed of it was preferable. Although the half dragon hoped that Hana would learn how to worry and talk quickly. It also looked like Akeya's warning about the effects of Dragon Slayer magic caught her by surprise. Well, it was up to her to make use of that knowledge. That wasn't part of the training, so now that she had delivered the message it was no longer Akeya's problem. The half dragon listened intently when Hana began to speak, as always dedicating a large amount of her focus to her conversation partner. Thanks to Akeya being such a focused person there were many who felt uncomfortable when she paid close attention to them, her gaze making them feel as if they were being subjected to a spotlight and their words feeling as if they were being drawn into a great void. Akeya's mental discipline was for a great part based on that immense focus.

Hana's words were also of great interest to Akeya, since they told of a situation which she had never heard of before. Granted, it wasn't like she was that knowledgeable about how people outside of her village developed their magic abilities. Hana's tale was one where she had been taught Ice Dragon Slayer magic, yet when she tried to shape ice she was creating shadows instead. Which was interesting, since it indicated that Hana actually had a natural affinity for shadows, and a very strong one...at least, if no external sources had been affecting her ability to use magic. Assuming that this wasn't the case, however (as it was unlikely that a child raised by an Ice Dragon would be influenced by anybody to accidentally use shadows instead of ice), Akeya's student might be a quicker learner than she had been expecting. Relearning something was always easier than learning it in the first place. It might have been accidental, but Hana had already gone through the process of creating and shaping shadows, and even if she had managed to change that into using ice her body and mind should remember the shadows to an extent.

"You can refer to me as Ankin. But rather than me teaching it to you from scratch it's more that you want my help regaining what you already possessed in the past. That does change the method of approach, so stay silent as I think about this."

Akeya wondered if Hana knew that Ankin was the word for 'teacher' in the most common form of Draconic. Whedalsin had also demanded that she used the term, although he hadn't been that strict about enforcing that rule. Maybe he had realized that trying to force Akeya into complete submission was a long term project that couldn't be managed just by being her mentor and demanding respect. More importantly, the half dragon had to think about what to do next. If Hana was a normal case, a mage who wanted to learn shadow magic, she could have first given Hana some of the theory, given a demonstration, and thought of a way for her to sense the shadows as a tool to use rather than a difference in light intensity created by objects. Which in itself was already pretty difficult, especially since Akeya herself hadn't really used the normal training method, and she wasn't just going to teach Hana the Soul Dance on a whim. Not to mention that the Soul Dance took year before it was effective.

Instead she had to find out how Hana had replaced her connection with shadows with one for ice, and then figure out a method to reverse the process without Hana losing her ice magic. Which wasn't going to be an easy trick. The shadow dragonness looked back at her student.

"The easiest method is to figure out why your magic was shadow based to begin with. It is very unusual for a mage to use a certain element while training their magic abilities when they're being taught another element entirely. Tell me in as much detail as you can about anything that might have caused your magic to create shadows instead of ice, and also tell me how you managed to learn how to produce ice. I can't think of a good way to reverse this effect if I don't know the details of the effect, not even mentioning the increased difficulty caused by teaching you how to use shadow and ice at the same time. Also, I would still like that demonstration. Even if it's ice I am an acute magic sensor and can see magic, so I could figure out if there's something in your magic that's of use to me."

OOC: My FC has changed, so the descriptions are gonna be different. If yoy wosh for details on Hana's appearance or such for detail in your posts the link is in the siggy at the bottom. 

Hana's eyes widened in surprise and confusement as Akeya suggested she called her ankin, but realization soon over her as she remembered the meaning from when Yuki was teaching her new things. Although she remained perfectly calm on the outside, on the inside she was a jillion happy bubbles ready to burst. The small gir's muscles slowly drooped down in relief that the half dragon had agreed to be her mentor throughout her secondary magic training. Even so, Hana didn't even mind the awkward silence as Akeya quietly stood in thought. It did take a while though, and Hana just sat on the ground playing with a leaf in which a ladybug was on as she patiently waited. A bit of time has passed before Hana's mentor began speaking ice again, but not much time was wasted. Hana listened closely to every detail given to her which had come out of Akeya's mouth, nodding in response to her instructions. She couldn't wait to get started, and was a bit pumped, but she made sure to keep her composure under control."WELL, in all honesty I don't even know why I produced shadows in the first place... although growing up I wasn't really exposed to much light so I guess it would be natural. As for ice, Ive been practicing many years... ever since I was seven, so I may have just had enough practice that I finally got to the point where I can make ice, just in the exchange for my shadow magic.... it's pretty cofusing... As for the demnstartion, right away!" Just as before, adrenaline had made it's way rush in through the young girl' vein, eager to show Akeya magic so they may being the true training. But what spell should she start with? Hana sat once again in thought, contemplating between the list of pells she has. Maybe it would be a good idea to start of with something simple to work with and more relate to her shadow magic? Yeah, it seemed like a good choice, but would her ankin be satisfied with just one? Standing up, Hana faced a target and gathered her magical energy, having made up her mind. However, before she would begin casting, she looked back to the dragon like woman, opening her mouth to explain her intentions and reasons. "For my example I'm gonna start off by showing you a simple and more shadow related spell which could be used in pretty much every element. Just for  simple start. If you would like something more out of me just give me the word." Gathering her magical energy Hana could feel the icy cold touch of it as she began to feel as of she was grasping an object. That feeling though, was not really a feeling but a reality. In her hand appears a sword made of ice, which Hana soon broken them down into five throwing knives dry ice engraving the tips of each one. Facing her target with now serious eyes, she pointed her knives at the tree, and using her strength threw them hard enough to where they not only made it to the tree, but stuck themselvesabout half way in there as we'll. For a D rank spell, but at the same time she was well aware of the fact that there we're better D rank spels out there. Even so, she was proud of her work, and she sent a happy grin towards Akeya, not really caring about her opinion on the usage of the knives which we're now embedded in the splintering base of a tree. "Is there anything in specific you had in mind for an example? Ill be willing to do that as well if necessary." Hana' blue eye glistened in the light of the now rising stars, the music of which nature sang becoming a more quite and gentle melody.

Akeya wondered why this girl was so enthusiastic about all of this. She wasn't being too obvious about this, but the half dragon had a tendency to pay close attention to people, if only because of her tendency to focus immensely and because small signs could give away a lot, which was pretty important for a predator while studying prey. Hana really seemed to be happy at the idea of being taught shadow magic by her, which left her puzzled. Just what kind of mental image did this person have of her? Well, she wasn't completely baffled: she was a half dragon, which basically made her royalty when compared to a mere human. Beyond that she was overall beautiful, skilled and intelligent. Looking at it from that perspective it was completely normal for somebody to be amazed and excited at the prospect of being taught by her. Akeya had just assumed that her overall antisocial behaviour would counteract that a bit. She never really had bothered to hide the fact that humans weren't very interesting from her perspective and that she didn't desire to build good relationships with them. She worked with Blue Pegasus because it was a good place to be if she wanted to avoid trouble, not because she felt any kind of compulsion to do good or mingle with the humans. She had merely deduced that the best way to avoid trouble was to join a prestigious legal guild. As long as she did all those things a legal mage did and kept a low profile the Magic Council wouldn't have a reason to be suspicious of her. Well, beyond the ground level of suspicion everybody has of a stealth and assassination expert.

Well, that wasn't important in the here and now. If the girl was so happy at the prospect of being taught by her she would take it in stride. What was important was that she figured out why this girl had such an affinity for shadow magic, and how she had managed to replace that with ice magic. Once she knew that she could begin figuring out how to reverse the effect without losing the ice magic, giving Hana the ability to use both shadows and ice. Akeya would try to get something out of it herself as well, but she knew that it wouldn't work. For one thing someone who was solely dedicated to one art would achieve greater heights with it than somebody who diverted their attention. Second was the fact that Akeya had gained her Shadow Dragon Slaying magic through her Soul Dance, which didn't allow for her to adapt an entirely different form of magic at the same time. A disadvantage to offset all the advantages that her method of training had offered her. She couldn't teach it to Hana, but since her student wanted to use both ice and shadow it would probably be of little use to her anyway.

As Hana began her demonstration Akeya watched closely, using the magic tattoos that had been carved underneath her eyes. Beyond being a particularly acute magic sensor Akeya also had these tattoos applied, which allowed her to see the flow of magic itself and discern between types. A most useful ability, especially now that she had to study somebody else's magic and try to figure out how to use it to teach that person shadow magic while also allowing them to retain their use of ice magic. As she watched Akeya noted that the spell that Hana was creating was a purely offensive one, which confirmed the half dragon's suspicion that this person was a lot more straightforward in her abilities than herself. If somebody had asked her to demonstrate her abilities she would most likely have chosen something related to mobility or trickery. What kind of spell somebody cast to demonstrate their abilities could to some extent be used to get an idea of what kind of person they were, or at least personality traits that related to how you fought. Akeya's choice of spell would be something which wasn't very flashy but would get the point across of what her magic did, something which was about either becoming hard to find or quickly moving about. Hana had chosen a spell where she materialized a weapon made out of ice, which she then divided into smaller projectiles which she then launched towards the target. A technique which displayed a decent amount of creativity and primarily offensive. What this said about their respective personalities was not something that could be said that easily. Akeya had a pretty good idea, but that was just an idea.

More importantly, she was pretty sure she had seen something of importance while watching Hana use her magic. She had been focused on Hana's flow as the girl created the sword, when she turned it into knives, and when she launched the knives. She had also studied the way that they had struck the tree and stayed stuck in the bark even as she knew that the girl was looking towards her. Yes, there had been something of real importance in that demonstration. There was no doubt that currently her student was using ice magic, but she could see that some traces of the shadow magic had remained. Well, maybe it wasn't correct to say that it remained. More accurately traces of Hana's previous magic type were visible in her current magic. Traces which corresponded with Akeya's own, at least on the superficial level. Which meant that the capacity was most certainly still there. Hana's body still had the capability of producing shadow based magic instead of ice based magic, it was just that she had forced herself to learn how to create ice, turning that shadow magic into ice magic. Theoretically now that she had learned how to turn her magic into ice it should be possible to somehow remind her of her original magic. With that reminder she should be able to figure out how to make her magic into shadows, without it suppressing her knowledge on how to create ice instead. Of course, the trick now was to figure out how to remind Hana... Akeya could show some of her own magic, but Hana had to feel every part of it, every intrinsic detail. That required a lot of focus and fine tuned magic sensory. Akeya wasn't sure whether her student possessed the ability to do that. Well, it was their best shot for now, so she might as well try.

"That demonstration was sufficient. I believe I've already figured out how to do this. However before we continue I want you to do something. In these ruins find the best location for using shadow magic. While doing this keep in mind that the sun is setting, so think ahead."

The half dragon looked at Hana expectantly. She was clearly not planning to do anything but wait for Hana to do as she was told. She also wondered if Hana would realize that instead of the location with the largest volume of shadows she should be searching for the spot with the heaviest contrasts. A shadow with a sharp edge was a lot more useful than a shadow which was a bit bigger but of which you could barely make out where it began and ended.

Hana was happy when she heard that her example was good, well enough for Akeya to find out the problem with her bipolar magic. Her next instruction made the girl cheer even more happily though. She loved exploring, if it wasn't already obvious, and these we're ruins for Christ's sake! Just thinking of all that she could possibly find made adrenaline pump through her veins. She had to say, she was rather enjoying the first task of her training as she immediately got ahead to work, but not before shouting out "Yes ma'am" and giving a lazy and half-assed salute Akeya'a way. Wandering off out of the center of the ancient rubble, Hana began scanning the area with her one revealed eye, looking for any area with the darkest shadows. Having already had experience with shadow magic, she knew which shadows were more likely to be stable and which ones weren't. She had to say though, this was tough. As the sun was getting even lower, revealing dim stars, the place started to seem enourmess as Hana struggled to find the perfect place. It had to have anough place to train, but not to the point where there were barely any shadows to work with. Next, and most important thing, darkest shadows. As previously mentioned, it was well known to her that she had to have the deepest contrast between light and dark. Once again, sweat began to roll down the young girl's brow, her eye looking around carefully, until finally, Hana had found the perfect place. It wasn't too late, too dark, it was just right. The light of the sun glowed a deep reddish yellow color, allowing the shadows to stand out nicely, the place wasn't too crouded with rubble, bit it wasn't to the point where there we're barely any either. All that was left to do was get Akeya over so she at get the half dragon's approval on the area. Understanding the buffs of being a dragon slayer, Hana knew quite well that all she would have to do was calm out for her mentor, in which she complied. "ANKIN! I THINK I FOUND THE RIGHT SPOT!" 
Looking around further as she would wait for Akeya, she began to analyze a quaint boulder. It looked well enough to sit on, so she did, patiently awaiting for Akeya to arrive.

Akeya watched Hana as the girl wandered off to find the best spot to use shadow magic in. Somebody else might have felt bad about playing a trick on their own student. Akeya had trouble with the idea of feeling bad about something like this, especially since in her eyes it had real use. Several uses in fact. It would benefit both the half dragon herself and her student, so why should she feel bad about neglecting to tell Hana something which would have helped her find the best spot for using shadow magic? The girl had been eager to accept the half dragon as her mentor, which meant that right now she was Akeya's student. A mentor's job was to help the student develop and improve, but that wasn't exactly the same as guiding them on every step of the way. Although she did hope that Hana would understand once she explained. Not that the opinions of the girl were very important to the shadow dragoness, but as stated before she preferred it when her student was cooperative and eager over one who would act offended and obstinate purely because Akeya wasn't coddling her.

While Hana went to search for the best spot to use shadow magic in Akeya herself quickly merged with the shadows, staying hidden as she followed her student, seeing how well the girl would fare at finding her objective. She idly wondered whether she should also teach Hana how to detect creatures who use the shadows to hide. On one hand, it was a very useful ability which could save your life. Creatures who could cloak themselves with shadows tended to be either rather harmless as they tried to just run away, or deadly as they used the shadows to get closer to their targets to kill them with relative ease. Akeya herself was an example of the latter, a predator who would stalk the prey through the shadows before ending their life with one strike. On the other hand, Akeya was not too fond of the idea of teaching others how to find her while she was hiding in the shadows. There were very few mages or other creatures who could find her when she was doing her best not to be detected, and she would rather that it stayed that way. So the question was, was it more important to teach Hana everything she might need to know, or keep some knowledge to herself for if Hana turned into a liability in the future? Akeya figured that for a lot of humans this wouldn't even be an issue. Humans managed to be both too trusting and paranoid at the same time, an achievement which impressed Akeya. She didn't think that a single person could at the same time doubt anybody they didn't know, yet willingly tell their allies all their weaknesses as if they believed that those allies would never actually turn on them.

It took some consideration (done while she was also following Hana. The initial mistake aside, the girl clearly knew what she was doing. If it wasn't for Akeya's trick she would have found the best spot without any real issue. As it was she would find the second best, after which Akeya would explain what she had done and show Hana the real best spot) but eventually Akeya decided to keep the knowledge on how to track shadow entities to herself. Her student appeared completely honest in her desires to learn shadow magic from her, but Akeya wasn't one to easily trust. Not even her closest allies in Blue Pegasus could be said to have earned her trust. If Hana was smart enough she could figure it out herself. Having found the conclusion to that problem Akeya waited for Hana to finish her search, noting how the girl was indeed slowly heading for a very good spot for shadow magic. Looking at the way she was searching she clearly did remember what it was like to use shadow magic, or at least some aspects. She didn't remember enough to be able to actually use shadow magic,  but she still remembered that if you wanted to use shadows properly you were better off finding shadows with a sharp edge than large but very vague shadows. Then again, the girl could just be clever...

When Hana finished her search and called out for her Akeya stepped out of the girl's own shadow, tapping the girl on the back to alert her of the shadow dragoness's presence before looking around, inspecting the location carefully before turning back to her student. Yes, she was pretty sure that most people would have felt bad at this point, having observed Hana's eagerness and dedication, not to mention just how close she had gotten to actually finding the best location. She wondered if Hana would actually be hurt or offended.

"I will admit that you made a very determined attempt at finding the best location to practice shadow magic. This place has many sharp shadows, and those shadows will remain sharp until the sun sinks away under the horizon and we will be completely enveloped by shadows. However it is not the best location. The best location was where you met me."

Akeya shifted her weight to one leg while supporting the elbow of her left arm with her right hand as she motioned with her left hand.

"By greeting you there and then asking you to find the best place for us to train our shadow magic you unconsciously removed that location as one of the possibilities. After all, usually one wouldn't ask for something which they are literally standing on unless their intelligence was rather poor, and I believe I do not give the impression of being one of those unfortunate people. I was testing your ability to see beyond the obvious. Although I wouldn't say that you have cause to feel bad for failing that test. Most of you humans are lacking in that aspect. Better to take this as a lesson about thinking about things more thoroughly in the future. I might or might not set up another one of these tests, so I advise you not to take everything I say at surface value and study it a bit more closely."

With that Akeya walked past Hana, her hips swaying as she moved in a rather serpentine manner, her tail moving from side to side even as she used one of her clawed hands to beckon for Hana to follow her. She would lead the girl back to their original location, mentioning for Hana to return to her own spot while Akeya took her own, as if she never really left that location.

"I also trailed you while you searched for that other location, and I can say that you would have found this one without much issue if I hadn't used that mind trick which resulted in you not considering this location. You knew what to look for and didn't waste any time. Your performance was a lot better than what I would expect from others. Even if you have the advantage of having been able to use shadow magic before I still feel that you deserve praise for that."

Akeya smiled slightly, although it was more reptilian than honestly warm. It didn't help that her eyes didn't follow the example of her lips. They were possibly showing some more mirth, but by and large they were still sharp, carrying a nearly insane amount of focus, and a certain something which made it clear that this half dragon always looked at everybody as if seizing up her prey.

"Well done."

OOC:  Sorry for the delay, it's almost summer and grades falling so I had to bring them up cuz I dont wanna go to summer school >~< , Anyways, here's my post. 

Hana was a bit surprised when Akeya jumped out of her shadow, btshe couldnt really argue e she used to do the same thing to other people as well. Blushing a deep crimson from embarassment, Hana nodded along, smiling at her mentor's praise. "Thankyou very much. It was a great lesson to be taught. Ill be sure to use it wisely in the future." Although Akeya had been looking a but stoic, Hana could still make out the warm intentions she had behind that expression. Looking around, Hana could tell it was much closer now to getting dark, in which the only light available to create shadows would be that of the moon, making it much more difficult to use those given shadows. If there was one difference besides light, it hato be the dark. Shadows cannot exist if the to weren't to mix, and the only time they actually do is during the day, and thats only if eres and oject to block the light from a certain area. Shadow magic truly was a diffilt hing to use let alone learn due to the time. With a bit of an awkward silence in between, Hana soon oened her mouth to break it. "So will we be continuing my traning in the plce we first met? If so, what will we be doing next there?" Hana's embarassment had long since faded, and her excitement one again had returned, now ready and eager to get back to it. She was pretty sure that if her little raccon pal was here he would be sweat dropping at the girl's attitude.

Akeya closely studied the reaction her student had once she explained that she had tricked Hana. The girl looked embarrassed, but she said that she was grateful for the lesson and would take it to heart, and Akeya was inclined to believe her. A lesser human would have gotten angry at being tricked, unable to realize that if Akeya managed to deceive them like that it was their own fault for not being able to figure it out. Right now Akeya was Hana's teacher, which meant that if the half-dragon wanted to test Hana and the girl didn't pass the test it was a sign that the girl needed to improve, not that Akeya had done something she shouldn't have. The half-dragon was satisfied that her student wasn't one of those humans who was too stuck up and proud to acknowledge when they messed up and that they should improve rather than being content with their current state. Akeya herself was a very arrogant creature and even she realized that there was always room for improvement and that lessons should be acknowledged and learned instead of ignored and resisted.

She guided Hana back to their original location, moving to stand in the spot where she had been standing when her student arrived. She stayed quiet while walking there, only speaking up after they were done walking. She wanted Hana to focus on her words, and the human might get distracted if they were walking at the same time. Hana had already proven to be more worthy of her attention than most humans, but that didn't mean that Akeya was going to assume that she would meet her expectations every single time. For example she hadn't managed to notice that Akeya was testing her ability to see past the obvious. Once they were standing still Akeya once again shifted her weight to one leg, making a sweeping motion with one clawed hand to indicate their surroundings as she began to speak.

"When you cast that spell I studied the magic in the spell itself and the magic inside your body. While doing that I noticed that your shadow magic isn't exactly gone. If I understood what I saw correctly your body still knows how to produce shadow magic, but in your efforts to learn how to use ice instead you began to instinctively turn it into ice magic before shaping it into the actual spell. Now that you've gained full control over your ability to use Ice Dragon Slayer Magic you're so used to turning your magic into ice that you no longer really notice it and thus don't know how to keep yourself from doing it."

Akeya held up one of her claws at chest height, making sure that Hana was watching before slowly turning that claw into shadows, allowing them to somewhat spread out and swirl but keeping the basic claw shape intact.

"Humans usually don't have an element in their magic. In fact magic itself isn't that natural for humans. I know that a fair amount of human mages have no trouble channelling and using their magic, but as you must have realized the vast majority of humans aren't mages. Most humans don't contain more magic than everything else in this world does, because we live in a world which is saturated with magic. And even amongst those who have enough magic that it could be channelled there are many who can't manage it by themselves, and need a magic item which draws out their power. I do not say this to speak ill of humans, but I want you to understand that compared to creatures such as I, a half-dragon, humans have very little talent for magic and possess little."

She made a quick turning motion with her shadow claw and it returned to normal, Akeya flexing it to demonstrate that it was once again made of flesh and blood before placing it on her hip.

"For humans turning their hand into shadows requires focus and training, not to mention keeping those shadows in the right shape and turning them back into a hand without any mistakes. I barely have to think about it. So, magic doesn't come that naturally to humans. And even when you do possess magic it's usually magic without any significant traits. A human who has just begun developing their magic abilities usually just imitates the magic of their teacher. The fact that for most humans this goes without issue proves that their magic is in itself rather uniform. If they released their magic without using any spells or techniques it would be pure energy which would barely do anything. Somebody like you, who had real difficulty learning one type of magic because you instinctively used another type, is rare. Your magic actually has specific traits. And just because you learned to override those traits and turn your shadows into ice doesn't mean the traits themselves are gone. You just need to learn how to stop overriding them, or at least learn how to control when you convert your magic and when you let it be."

While she talked Akeya began to make several signs with her clawed hands, even as she explained her view on how magic worked when it came to humans channelling her own magic to begin the next step of the 'training'.

"Possessing non-uniform magic and being able to convert it into another type of magic suggests that you have plenty of talent and a good understanding of how to control your magic and shape it to your desires. While I could help you improve still that isn't necessary if our primary goal is for you to regain your shadow magic. For that objective I only have to get you to remember what your magic is supposed to be. Once you remember that you should have little issue seeing the same magic in yourself and channelling it without converting it. Of course this is just a theory, but it is one which should have the desired results. As for how I will help you remember, I will expose you to my own magic, which is shadow based just like yours. By providing enough of an example you should be able to remember."

All the shadows in their surroundings became slightly darker before they began to rise up, turning into tendrils that gathered to form bigger masses of shadows until Hana and Akeya were surrounded by a thick circular wall of darkness. The half-dragon made a final symbol with her hands before aiming one claw at Hana, open but looking ready to close.

"Being engulfed by my magic like this could be a shocking and unnerving experience, so I want you to prepare yourself mentally. Once you give me the sign that you are ready I will use all these shadows to form a sphere of darkness around you filled with my magic, which should make it very easy for you to sense and understand the shadow magic."

With that Akeya waited for Hana to finish preparing herself.

Although Akeya didnt answer, she didn't really have to. She lead Hana back to the spot where they originally met, and the two stood once again back in their original places. It was quiet on the way, but not that Hana would mind much due to the comforting sound of nature. On their walk Hana thought about the test, and soon came to realize her mistake. She was too eager, her excitement had gotten the best of her and thus causing her to fail the test and fall for her ankin's trick. She made a mental note to work on controlling that excitement to one of calmness and patience, it would afterall be useful incase she were to run into a situation in which she may be fooled. At their arrival, Akeya once again took her leaning position, and motioned to their surroundings before beginning to speak. To Hana's attention, Akeya's words had been filled with long thought out wisdom. It was true, Hana ever since her first lesson with Yuki had been determined to learn the magic meant to be taught to her, she didn't pay much attention to what she already had and therefor didnt embrace it causing her to overwrite what she already knew into an entirely different thing. Raising one of her claws in front of her chest, Hana's attention would be brought to Akeya's claw and surprising her as it had turned into a swirling pool of shadows, however it strangely kept its claw like form. Although Hana had been looking on in amazement, she had made sure to still catch on to Akeya's explanation. It didnt insult Hana when Akeya explained their lack of originality and ablity to possess such power,as it had already been proven to her by her experience with other creatures. Although not all of them were strong, Hana could tell that they didnt have to concentrate as much as a human would. She was surprised to say the least though when she heard that her situation was rare. She thought that there would be much other people having problems with the nature of their magic, but apparently that nature isn't oiginal, it's determined on the nature of their teacher's magic. As Akeya continued to talk, she had long since returned her claw back to it's physical form and began writing strange symbols. The young girl was curious as she looked on at the writing, but she didn't want to interupt Akeya as she was explaining things to her, it would be rude, dissrespectful, and stall the 'lesson'. No way in Hana's right mind would she ever contribute to something as disrespectful as that. Once Akeya finished, the shadows surrounding the two had become darker and in a way began to take on the form of tendrils. Akeya would give her warning to Hana to mentally prepare herself as the dragoness loosely pointed to the young silver headed girl. Hana didn't doubt that a magic with as many properties as Akeya's would shake the nerves of a person, and therefor she took her mentor's instructions into actions. Like she did as a child, she rebuilt the walls that she had broken down over the past ten years, and swept all emotions back into a locked away cage stripping her mind and apparence of them. She would destroy all  thoughts of worry, sadness, curiosity until it was nothing more but a mere tool that held the information of what to do in unbearable situations. Taking one last deep breath in assurance that she would maintain that composure, her voice softly but boldly rang out much like that of a bell within a tower ringing for all to hear. "Im ready."

Akeya waited for Hana to give the signal that she was ready for the half-dragon to begin the procedure of submerging her in shadow magic. The girl's enthusiasm was most likely partially why she hadn't realized that when Akeya asked for the best spot to use shadow magic, but it also meant that she could expect Hana to make a determined effort. As long as her student managed to channel that enthusiasm instead of allowing it to take control of her she should be capable of doing whatever Akeya asked of her (well, within reason). So instead of worrying or giving advice the dragoness just waited. With some other humans she might have felt inclined to guide them through the process of preparing themselves, but from Hana's behaviour it was clear that the girl knew what to do and that she didn't need the help. Akeya idly wondered if this was what it was like to have a talented student, one who needs little guidance and quickly gets a grip on whatever challenge posed to them. Granted Hana was somewhat exceptional in that she had used this magic in the past and was just trying to relearn it, although the very fact that her magic was from nature shadow based would have made her a very talented student to begin with. If Akeya was the type to easily form connections or be affected on an emotional level she would most likely have been proud.

Instead she merely nodded when Hana declared that she was ready, studying the girl with her usual intense scrutiny before judging it good enough. Even if Hana's resolve wasn't strong enough and she faltered she could remove the shadows with little issue. The half-dragon closed the open hand she had been pointing towards Hana, turning it into a fist covered in scales of midnight. On her command all the shadows that she had been gathering, amplifying and multiplying quickly approached Hana, swirling around her until the girl was completely covered in shadows, the dark form becoming larger and denser until where Hana had been standing there was naught but a man-sized sphere of utter darkness. Akeya kept her fist closed, narrowing her eyes as she focused. Her job now was to keep that sphere stable for as long as Hana needed to realize what she had been doing wrong so far in her attempts to return her ice magic to shadow magic. Since she could see through even the thickest darkness she could still see Hana inside the sphere, which meant she could keep an eye on her student and see how she progressed. Still, gathering such a large amount of shadows and condensing them like this would take some effort, especially if Hana took a while.

While Akeya was busy on maintaining the sphere of darkness Hana's perspective would be a bit different. Once she was completely engulfed in the shadows she would find that she had ended up in some kind of void. There was no light anywhere, but beyond that all her other senses were muted as well. She was no long standing on solid ground. She could not feel anything. There was no sound. There were no smells for her nose to pick up, or her nose was no longer working. Even her tongue could no longer make out any taste. There was nothing for her to sense, no way for her to sense. In fact she could not even feel her own body any longer. It was as if she was no longer a physical being, instead being a mere consciousness in a space of absolute nothingness. When Akeya said that being engulfed by her shadows could be unnerving she did not say that without cause. Shadows were but a creation of darkness clashing with light, and darkness was but an extension of the void. Shadows were the hiding places of the creepy and the deadly monsters, creatures that would hunt you down and appear in your nightmares. Darkness robbed the creatures of the light of their confidence, their determination. Void made everything you possessed disappear, including your own senses and your own body. Darkness was created by gathering enough shadows that the light was no longer able to drive them away. Void was created by amassing enough darkness that the world could no longer keep the void at bay. Humans had a tendency to believe that there was a difference between shadows and darkness. Akeya felt that honestly they were pretty much aspects of the same concept. Humans believed that shadows were merely the result of an object blocking the light so it could not illuminate the shadowy area. Akeya knew that shadows were not a mere absence of light. It just so happened that shadows (and in extension darkness) could not occupy the same space as light, and since this world was primarily a world of light the shadows could only exist in places where the light could not banish them. The reason why sharp shadows were stronger than large but vague shadows wasn't that shadows were but a mere representation of contrast, but because a sharp shadow was a more solid extension of the darkness and the void. A vague shadow was weak, easily dispelled.

Akeya created this void world for Hana by gathering and condensing as many shadows as she could, exposing her student to the true nature of those shadows she sought to control. The only things that Hana could sense in this place was the darkness that surrounded her utterly, and Akeya's magic which saturated the darkness. Sensing that magic should tell Hana a lot, both about shadow magic and about Akeya herself. For one thing, while Akeya's appearance and biological nature was still of a half-dragon her magic didn't have a single human trait in it. Her magic was the same as it would have been if she had been born a shadow dragon. A vast magic, ancient, suffused with Akeya's alien mind and intent. Magic which belonged to an ancient and powerful creature, a creature which was far beyond all those inferior animals and entities. A creature for whom power and intelligence were a natural gift, one which they didn't even need to question or be grateful for. A creature of a cold and cunning intellect, still capable of feeling but wielding those emotions with a grip of steel, who saw humans and all those other animals as primitive beasts who were controlled by their instincts and emotions. A creature of pride and confidence, for whom an obstacle was never anything more than a momentary challenge, and respect was something which they deserved merely by existing. A creature who, at its very core, was more majestic and impressive than any human of royal blood could ever hope to compare to.

And this creature was a creature of the shadows, the darkness and the void. Rather than seeking the light it avoided it, knowing that it didn't belong under the sun. Shadows were tendrils of darkness encroaching onto the world of light, which is why those who belonged to and used the shadows and the darkness could never rely on being strong enough, because the world of light would always oppose them and eventually drive them back. Because of that shadow creatures and shadow users had to be sneaky, they had to be cunning. Rather than fighting straight on they would stalk, hide, observe, wait for the perfect opportunity, the perfect method. The phoenix, a creature of light, would proudly display its power and channel the power of the sun to smite those it deemed evil. The dragon of shadows, on the other hand, would hide. It wouldn't target everybody who happened to be evil. A shadow dragon would use its power sparingly, always keeping an eye out for possible drawbacks and future plans. A shadow dragon would only target those it needed to target for its own goals. It would keep its power hidden, either not being noticed at all or appearing as something harmless and hardly worth noticing. It would wait, it would gather information, it would plan, it would apply every part of its being to make up for its shortcomings. It would apply its very being to achieving what it set out to achieve, not letting anything get in its way even though as a creature of shadows it was always outnumbered in the world of light, always the weaker side.

All this and more would flood Hana as she was trapped inside that void world, the darkness and the magic engulfing her and practically forcing her to accept them and learn about them. She might not be trying to learn about Akeya herself, but the technique that Akeya had chosen to use didn't give her much of a choice. Her ankin might appear as a half-dragon, but Hana's current experience would make it clear that her ankin was truly a shadow dragon, a creature of shadows, and that the reason why she was so instinctively good at using shadows was that they suited her own personality, her own core so well. The reasons why humans usually didn't have significant traits in their magic, that they had to learn how to use every type of magic from the very beginning, was that the vast majority of humans at their core weren't that different from one another, and what they all shared was that they were rather neutral, all things considered. Humans weren't particularly noble, courageous, cruel, cunning, or any of those things. Sure, they could display those traits, but the reason why a shadow dragon could use shadow magic so instinctively and a human couldn't was that for a shadow dragon all those traits which belonged to shadows and darkness were as natural as breathing. They were, by definition, cunning and sneaky. Humans might also be cunning and sneaky, but it very rarely was an actual fundamental part of their being. Humans tended to be a whole lot more diverse, made of a whole lot of different aspects, which is why all in all they turned out to be rather neutral.

Of course, this experience might also cause Hana to think more about herself. Why would she, in contrast to most humans, have such a strong affinity with shadows that using shadow magic came naturally to her? What kind of person was she that she could grasp the concepts of shadows so easily, even if they were still to some extent clouded by her limited knowledge and point of view? Akeya hadn't intended for it to, but for Hana the half-dragon's test could be as much a road to discovering more about herself as that it would help her understand shadow magic and how to use it once again, as well as learning more about her teacher and the very nature of shadows and darkness.

Akeya meanwhile had closed her eyes and stopped moving, only breathing very slowly and allowing her body to keep itself going. The amount of magic she was using to keep Hana submerged in darkness like this was quite an impressive amount. Akeya certainly wasn't lousy when it came to magic power and stamina, but this was still something which she wouldn't be able to do on a whim. However now that she was committing to it she might as well try to get something out of this experience herself. By concentrating and focusing on maintaining the sphere she would give Hana plenty of time to learn what she needed to learn about shadow magic, thus hopefully allowing her to regain control over her own, and Akeya would have the perfect opportunity to get some extra practice when it comes to controlling a large amount of magic and shadows and maintaining that control for extended periods of time. Using her own energy like this would also help expand her pool of energy that she could use, and improve her efficiency at using that energy.

Akeya might be one of the most focused people Hana would ever encounter, but that didn't mean that the dragoness didn't recognize and utilize an opportunity when she saw one.

((My apologies if this post seemed a bit over the top, but I felt the muse.))

At Hana's word, the hand that Akeya had been holding slightly open tightly turned into a fist, covered in the darkest scales Hana's eyes had seen. Within that moment, all the tedril-like shadows had rushed their way over, beggining to surrounding her. She was a bit surprised by this, but she made sure not to show it, and to lock that feeling up as well. After all, it was an emotion, something Hana shouldn't be feeling right now. As the shadows surrounded her, Hana's world came to one of  monotonous midnight, however, unlike normal people, that didn't bother her in the slightest, it was actually kind of peaceful. It was very much like the time her friend and her had fought, and he trapped her within a void, except at the time she couldnt breath, this time she could. But there was something missing, something Hana had grown way too accustomed to. Her senses. She couldn't hear, feel, smell or even taste. The most she could do was see and even then, everything surrounding her had been blacker than night itself, even the floor which made it feel like she was floating. Thinking that she would be there a while, Hana decide do take a seat on the not so existent floor, and continue to observe. Focusing on the area, a wave of feelings rushed over her, but that couldnt be right. She locked all of her feelings away... Focusing, Hana became detrmined in finding the meaning behind these feelings, and tried her best to make them out. To her surprise, she did. The feeling was majestic, patient and regal. Stern and almost monotone to all things that didnt matter. It reminded her of her ankin, and it intrigued Hana. Within the shadows she felt security and a warmth that you would feel no where else but home. Everything was so different to the feelings Hana would get when using her ice magic. It was hidden, not straight forward. If there was a way to compare the shadows between the ice, she would have to say it was like a Knight between an assassin. Laying down, Hana could begin to feel her magic coursing through her, as if it had itself found this world of midnight far more enjoyable, indeed causing her to question herself and why she was the way that she is.

Akeya kept her position, not even shifting her weight or sitting down to make things more comfortable as she kept up the dark sphere in which Hana should be learning quite a lot about both shadow magic and herself. Akeya was one of those people who rather than trying to get away from discomfort would actually seek it out, at least if that discomfort could lead to an improvement in skill or power. Which wasn't even a dragon trait: that was just Akeya being Akeya. It wasn't something she got from her parents either. If you had to ask why Akeya was so focused on always improving, sacrificing comfort without any second thought most of the time, even the half dragon herself would not be able to give you the answer you wanted. She would explain that from her point it was obvious that humans and in fact most creatures were too focused on finding comfort instead of improving themselves. Which would completely fail to answer the real question, which was why Akeya was different in that aspect. Maybe it was just one of those many personality quirks that one could have for no other reason than because they happened to have that personality quirk. Either way, it didn't change the fact that the half dragon was standing there in that same position, focusing solely on keeping that dark sphere intact as she thought about her student, who she could see inside the void that she had created by gathering and compressing as many shadows as she could find in her surroundings.

This test had, once again, two purposes. Akeya was a woman who liked to be efficient. And she also had a tendency to only rely on herself, and only think from her own perspective (not exactly, but it would be difficult to explain the way that the half dragon approached situations like these). Before she had given Hana the task to find the best spot to use shadow magic, and had added the hidden test for Hana to see through the mind trick that the half dragon was playing on her and realize that they were already standing in the right place. This time she also had a hidden part to the test, although rather than something that Hana had to realize it was more an objective for Akeya herself. This dragoness had a very strong yearning for information and knowledge. That thirst for knowledge was why she had left her village in the first place. And right now her thirst was being directed towards the girl that she was training. That girl and her origins, for obvious reasons (from her perspective).

As Akeya had explained to her student humans were honestly quite complex creatures. At the same time they were surprisingly balanced. Their nature tended to be rather neutral because they consisted of a wide variety of different aspects which prevented any other part of a human from becoming so strong that it would affect their magic nature. Humans liked to speak of people who were greed incarnate or the avatar of righteousness, but in all honesty most of the time they were just plain wrong. Not always. Akeya would never be so foolish as to claim that humans were incapable of having a very strong trait. However most of the time when one of those humans was deemed especially clever, curious, kind, pure, innocent, greedy, lustful, or anything at all it wasn't nearly as strong as other humans thought. They just saw somebody who was noteworthy in that aspect and elevated it to ridiculous heights. Humans were by their nature complex and because of that rarely managed to really be defined by one trait. Although the distinction had to be made between the strength of a trait and the intensity of it. Somebody could be very intensely curious, but it most likely wouldn't actually be strong (a line which would confuse many. Akeya only really understood it because she was the one making this up as she observed the world around her and the humans that lived in it). To put it a lot more simply: a human could be extremely greedy, but in the end you would be unable to describe them properly just by saying that they were greedy. That was the big difference between the vast majority of humans and all those other creatures who so clearly had an elemental affinity. A naiad, a nymph of water, could have a real personality with lots of facets, but when you got right down to it every single naiad could always be summed up with one word: placid. They might have more to them than that, but if you knew that a naiad was placid you understood pretty much every naiad you might meet pretty well.

That was basically the difference between humans and those elemental beings. Humans could have specific traits strongly enough that they had more talent for one type of magic than another, but in the end their own complexity kept them from having the level of elemental affinity that those elemental beings possessed. At least, most humans.

Akeya's own objective was to find out why Hana was one of those very rare people who actually had one trait so strongly that it would make her have the kind of affinity for shadow magic that using shadow magic came instinctively for her. Those humans did exist: they were just rare. However there was always an explanation to be found for why they were like that. Akeya didn't believe that there was a single human who would develop that kind of affinity 'just because'. It wasn't something which could happen just by coincidence. It needed a cause. Akeya couldn't call herself a true expert on the matter, but she could think of three reasons why a human would have that kind of affinity.

The first was the most likely, and it was that the human had ancestry from an elemental being. It could be seen as a cop-out, but it made sense to Akeya. The easiest way for a human to be strongly tied to a particular element was if they were actually literally connected to that element through their blood.

The second reason was that they had purposefully trained to become like that. Unlikely, since it wasn't something most people would even think of, let alone manage. It wasn't something you could just get by wanting it. It was a very difficult thing to do and it wouldn't work unless you knew what you were doing. Honestly the chances of this being the case were so low they were barely worth considering.

The last option was that a human as a child was primarily exposed to one kind of environment or one kind of emotion, which had caused them to become a whole lot simpler and defined than most humans. More likely than that it was a trained affinity, but less likely than the possibility of there being a non-human in a human's ancestry (after all, with enough time it was actually surprisingly likely that beings from different natures would actually manage to become attracted to one another).

Hana had told Akeya that she had grown up in a dark place. However that alone wasn't enough, even though it could be a hint towards the true origin of her shadow magic. Maybe that place she had grown up in wasn't just dark, but had also possessed other qualities which had managed to leave a strong impression on Hana while she was but a child, and thus easily affected? Or maybe...Hana wasn't actually a pure-blood human? Well, she was going to be human for the majority either way, but even if the non-human in your ancestry was from very long ago it could still have a strong effect on you.

As Hana was kept inside that world of nothingness, her ankin continuing to provide the void in which she would be able to learn more about shadow magic and how to regain what she had been suppressing, that same ankin studied her intensely, wondering what she might learn about her student.

Laying in the darkness, Hana soon felt a ringing pain in her head. It was as if somebody had caused an explosion and she had been near it. With the pain being close to unearable, Hana soon shot up from her laying position, grasping  the sides of her head and tightly squeezing her eyes shut in pain. She wanted to open them, she she had to,  but the pain was unbearable. After many many tries, Hana finally managed to crack her eyes open, but it was what she saw that made her open them all the way, eyes widening out of surprise. Before her was a scene that had haunted her for many years. She was in her old cell, but wait, where was her twin brother? The one that would comfort and hold her? He was missing. Looking around, Hana found herself in the old rags she would wear for clothes. Her smaller body was once again frail and was littered head to toe with bruises and open wounds, scars scattering here and there. She didn't have her eye pac like she usually would, it was uncovered, her red eye exposed to the world. Suddenly, a loud clinging noise could be heard from the cell bars, causing Hana to snap her head in that direction. From the dim light of the "hallway", Hana was able to make out a rather tall and lean silhoutte. Unnaturally though, it isn't belong to one of her father's men he would often send down to fetch her, no, it was her father himself. Glasses reflecting light and whip at the ready, he looked just as terrifying as Hana had remebered. Although her face hadn't show her fear, she scooted back further into the dark corner she usually sat in. Not that he would see it though....  his eyes rather sucked in the dark. As he opened cell and inched closer to her, Hana's face had held no emotion, not even her eyes. She was once again useless rag doll, unable to react even as her father was now whipping at her in attempt to get a reaction. However, a feeling was budding inside her, a feeling she had never felt within this time period. Was anger? No... it was... ANNOYANCE. Annoyed as if she were a greater being than him and he was just a pesky little insect. She never thought of anybody that way before... but now she apparently did. Raching out her hand, her father stood in shock, but simply replaced that shock with a smirk instead... Oh how verywrong of him to react in such a way. Shadows in the room began moving very much like how they did when Akeya had begun writing symbols. As she did so, she could suddenly feel the movements of the shadow, understand the way they worked and why she hadn't been able to control them before. It now felt as if they were truly an extension of her, but before she could do anything jurrasic, she slowly put them down, back into their normal forms as if nothing had happened. She wouldn't get the chance to see her father's reaction however, as the scene before her instantly faded, once again leaving her in a black, empty void.

Akeya raised one eyebrow when she noticed that Hana's behaviour was changing. So far the girl seemed to be quite relaxed inside the void world, even having decided to lay down in what for her must have felt like endless nothingness. The fact that she could feel so comfortable in such an alien environment, one that would usually leave one feeling quite helpless and alone, only reaffirmed that Hana wasn't exactly normal. Humans were rather universally afraid of the dark. Granted, most of them managed to keep that fear to manageable levels, where they could walk around in dark places without immediately freaking out, but there were few humans who truly did not care if it was dark or light. There were people who might like the night, but even those tended to be a bit easier to scare while it was dark. This wasn't surprising or something to be ashamed of as a human. Humans were creatures of the day and the light. They weren't supposed to be at their best during the light and in the darkness. Those that tried to pretend otherwise were basically fighting against the nature of being human, and those that acted as if being afraid of the darkness was embarrassing were just idiots.

Humans usually had a lot more affinity with light than shadow. They were creatures who were at their best during the day, they preferred it when it was light. Very simple. Those that had as much of more talent with shadow tended to be a bit rarer, and usually were like that because they had a lifestyle where they just weren't as exposed to the light of day as much as most other humans. And then there were people like Hana, who had an actual strong affinity with shadows. She must have experienced very little real light while she was young, enough that for her the shadows and the darkness were in fact more natural than the light. Those were the only kind of people who could actually claim that they felt better while it was dark without lying to some extent.

At least, that's what it had been like so far. Hana had looked comfortable, lying down as if being in a void without any light or even sense of self was the same as going to bed. A very strong clue that Hana wasn't like most humans. But now she was acting as if she wasn't sure of what was going on, moving into a sitting upright position in a flash, as if suddenly sensing something new which required her immediate attention. The half dragon carefully observed as her student seemed to be in pain, clutching her head and looking very unhappy with whatever was happening to her. Akeya considered getting rid of the dark sphere, but decided to keep it up for a bit longer and see what was actually happening to Hana. There was absolutely nothing inside the dark sphere except Hana and the endless void which stole away all your senses, even the ones which allowed you to feel yourself. For Hana to be sensing something it would have to be a mental occurrence, and since the dark sphere also made a pretty good defence against being affected by external forces (one would have to be able to see in utter darkness before they could even notice Hana, and anybody who entered the dark sphere would be afflicted with the same lack of sensation as Hana) that meant her student's mind was causing it. Akeya was assuming that being exposed to so much darkness and shadow magic without there being anything else to distract her was causing Hana's mind to remember the events which had led to her having a strong shadow affinity in the first place. Given how humans were by nature more attuned to light for Hana to be the complete opposite and even more so meant there were high odds of her childhood not being pleasant. However if she was remembering those times it should help her remember how to use her shadow magic properly, which meant that the best action right now would be to sustain the dark sphere and leave Hana alone with her memories for a while longer.

Of course this could be seen as cruel by some. After all it was clear that Hana wasn't happy with what was happening, and they would argue that it was better to not make her suffer if it could be avoided. However doing so would unnecessarily drag out the efforts of having Hana remember how to use shadow magic, and besides, she had gotten through those memories once. She could endure going through them again, especially since she now was older and mentally stronger. Even if those times turned out to be a psychological weak point for Hana she should still be able to get through them without losing her sanity. That and Akeya was a big supporter of the idea that if you were afraid or something or had a psychological weakness you should try your utmost best to control that fear and destroy that weakness, since those kind of weaknesses could backfire spectacularly. Also they indicated a weak mind. The half dragon was as strict with others as she was with herself, and she was the one who had willingly stepped into a world where she would encounter nothing but her greatest fears so she could face those fears and shatter them, proving that her mental discipline was too strong for anybody get any hold of her on that level. Compared to that Hana couldn't have it much worse. At least she only had her memories to deal with.

Still, it looked like Hana was in real pain, and didn't like what was happening in the slightest. The half dragon observed carefully as it looked like Hana was trying to move backwards, away from something only she could see. It was interesting that when you placed somebody in a place where there was nothing to distract them their own imagination would become a whole lot stronger, to the extent that Akeya could basically make people hallucinate just like how Hana was doing right now just by stealing all of their senses. Granted since they would be trapped in a void world usually the hallucinations they experienced weren't very happy ones. And it worked better if they had memories of darkness and shadows which they were reminded off while inside the dark sphere.

Akeya narrowed her eyes when she noticed that Hana's magic was surging. It was clear that her student was trying to use magic in the setting her mind had placed her in. With her eyes which could see through darkness and which could see magic she saw Hana's magic reach out, and saw that the magic that Hana was trying to use was shadow magic rather than the ice magic that her student had gone through so much trouble to learn. It looked like Akeya's plan was right on the money. Being surrounded by shadow magic and darkness has made Hana remember what it was like to be in the darkness, spurring those memories and allowing her to relearn that which she had lost. Akeya waited for her student to calm down and stop channelling her magic before slowly making the dark sphere disperse. Of course since she was in control of the dark sphere Hana had been unable to seize control over the shadows around her in this reality. Still, inside her mind she should have experienced it quite strongly. Once the dark sphere was gone Akeya stepped towards Hana until she was standing right next to the girl, looking down at her with folded arms.

"And? Did you remember what you needed to remember?"

Almost immediately after Hana had returned from that painful memory, the dark void had been stripped from the area she was in, once again leaving her in the ancient ruins. Relief fell over Hana as her senses came back, but not only that; the serene melody that nature had been and always will be playing for her once again resonated through her ears, comforting her as she tried to regain herself and break the walls she rebuilt, attempting to once again be the cheery little midget she was before she was trapped within the dark sphere. As she was still trying to recollect her thoughts and emotions, her ankin suddenly came up to her in question of her progress so far. "Mhmm," she would nod, her silver hair once again swaying in the wind allwng her that free and homey feeling. "To be honest... I'm quite embarrassed I forgot it... it felt as if it was an extention of me and was very much different compared to ice magic..." Although she wasn't sure whether Akeya cared much about her feeling emarassed-which she probably didnt- her response did state her understanding, the serious look in her eye backing it up as well. As she sat there, she was soon able to regain her normal composure, happily breathing in the nice clean air, but she had a feeling that the memory of her father whipping her in her cell without her brother there to comfort and potect her would not be leaving her mind anytime soon.

As Hana had guessed correctly Akeya cared little about whether her student felt embarrassed or not. She herself felt rarely if ever embarrassed, and in this scenario Hana's embarrassment very simply didn't mean a lot. If pushed to answer the half dragon might agree that it was somewhat silly of Hana to have trained so hard to move away from her affinity with shadows that she had actually forgotten about it, but that was only if Hana for some reason felt the need to get Akeya's opinion. The shadow dragoness herself was more interested in just how much Hana had gained from this trip down memory lane. From the way that Hana was behaving it was clear that she had remembered at least something of importance, and the look in her eyes affirmed that she wasn't just making things up. Which meant that the dark sphere had actually been of use. Which was good, because it had also been quite straining to hold up. Akeya had a lot of energy and a lot of control over her powers, but the amount of shadows needed to create that dark sphere, not to mention how she had to keep it all condensed like that, was substantial. However she wasn't going to show weakness to her student, looking exactly the same as before Hana had been enveloped by darkness.

"That sounds promising. Now that you have remembered what it feels like to use shadow magic we can begin training in the actual use of it. Because of your natural affinity you can most likely pick up new techniques without much difficulty, but I'm going to make sure that before you leave here you at least have some basic tricks. You can expand your personal list of techniques afterwards, although if you would rather learn more I guess I could stay for a while longer."

With that Akeya deftly wrapped her tail underneath Hana's shoulders and lifted her with no visible effort, supporting Hana until the girl could stand on her own two feet, after which her tail would release its hold on her and return to its usual position, swaying slowly behind Akeya. The half dragon once again took that stance where she put most of her weight on one leg, keeping her arms folded as she seized Hana up. Of course, she was actually inspecting the magic inside her student, affirming that it was indeed back to how it was supposed to be, but since she had never revealed the fact that she could see magic like that Hana might only see Akeya inspecting her body closely. The half dragon only stopped the inspection once she was sure that Hana wasn't actually harmed by her memories and that the magic inside her wasn't showing any irregularities or problems. It wouldn't do to teach her student magic if she first had to recover from the ordeal. Well, at least if she had to recover because her body and magic were affected. Whether her mind was harmed or not was a little less pressing, although she guessed that she would have to make sure that Hana wouldn't have a psychotic breakdown in the middle of training.

"I realize that trapping you inside that sphere could be seen as cruel, and from the looks of it you have remembered more than just how to use shadow magic. However it is better if you remember your roots, and with the kind of affinity you have for shadow magic anything I could have taught you using other methods would have been only a weak imitation of what you could achieve now that you have remembered. As I told you before humans usually are rather balanced regarding their affinities for elements. There are two exceptions to that. The first is that your ancestors included a non-human with a strong elemental affinity. The second is that while you were young you went through an experience which allowed you to become very closely attuned to a certain element. Judging from the way that you behaved inside the dark sphere you are an example of the latter. While that method allows a full-blooded human to gain a strong affinity it has the limitation that your affinity is also tied to those memories. Basically, the only way for you to unlock your full potential for shadow magic is to remember those times, no matter how much you might want to forget."

Akeya unfolded her arms and crouched so she could look Hana in the eyes from the same height, placing a clawed and scaled hand on the girl's shoulder as she subjected her student to a close up exposure to her draconic gaze, so intense and focused that one might consider it a sign of insanity. Her expression was serious, as it almost always was, wanting to make sure that Hana would listen and understand her words, both the ones that she had said just now and the ones that she was going to say.

"This way you can also learn how to accept those memories and learn how to not let them bother you. Most humans tend to run away from memories which are painful, frightening or otherwise unpleasant. That is because humans are by nature weak, and thus are better at running away than fighting. However if you want to be strong the first thing you must do is become strong in mind. Pain and fear are warnings, your body and mind telling you to do something about the situation you are in so it is no longer painful and frightening. The only reason why you feel pain while being cut is because your body is telling you to avoid being cut. These warnings are useful, because they allow you to realize when there is danger present. I am not telling you to stop feeling fear and pain. Creatures that don't feel pain are likely to injure themselves. Creatures that don't feel fear will not know when to fight and when to run."

Akeya tightened her grip on Hana's shoulder for a moment before relaxing it.

"You must be able to feel pain and fear to survive, but you must also know how to tolerate them. If you have a painful memory you must train yourself to face that memory instead of hiding from it. That way if you suffer in the future you will be able to react. Creatures that are unused to pain tend to enter shock when they suddenly experience it. And creatures that are unwilling to remember the times when they were afraid will panic when they are once again exposed to fear. If you are in shock or panicking you can not do what you must do to avoid danger, to survive. And for you humans, being social creatures, falling into shock or shooting into a panic would also make you unable to protect those you care about. In short, while you might think I was cruel for forcing you to remember, it was a necessary thing to do, both for you to achieve your full potential and to help you become a stronger person. If you end up being unable to forgive me for it, so be it."

Akeya narrowed her eyes as she released Hana's shoulder and straightened up.

"Humans are quite foolish creatures. Many of your kind never learn how to live with fear and turn into cowards who panic whenever they are endangered. And there are just as many humans who would judge you for feeling fear at all, not realizing that a coward is not someone who feels fear, but someone who panics because of that fear. Humans are too easily inclined to see fear as something bad. I hope you will not be one of them."

Hana listened while nodding along to the first thing Akeya began to talk about. Although Akeya had talked what one would think was illy of humans, Hana knew full well that it was true. Although she did grow up in a rather... off-grid habitat, it wasn't isolated. There we're many others who were in her situation, and instead of talking to them to see things from their point of veiw or forming her own opinion, she would simply just observe things and take them in as how they truly were. She was pretty indifferent as a child, and truth be told she still was, just not as much as before due to the experiences she's had within her freedom. What truly caught her attention though wasnt the interaction with Akeya at the moment, but what Akeya had said. Patiently, Hana would wait for Akeya to finish speaking before putting in some two-sense in, a soft laughter escaping her lips before speaking. "Ankin, I don't hate you and I don't see myself being unable to forgive you. Although honestly, I don't know what to feel of being put in one of my real life nightmares, whether it was cruel or kind. I don't formulate my own opinions much, only emotions,  you're right. Facing your fears and conquering them is what makes you stronger. Now, I'm no future teller, but... hell, I sure do hope I can cooperate with my fears rather than running from them. Well, now that that's finished, What's next on the list? Oh! And dont worry about staying overtime to teach me more than what you were originally planning. I'm already thankful enough that you took the time to help me in the first place."

If Akeya felt something when Hana claimed that she neither hated her nor felt like she couldn't forgive her the half dragon didn't show it. And truth be told, she honestly didn't care that much. At least not about what Hana might think about her. There were people whose opinion actually mattered to her, but while her student was showing that she had a lot more intelligence than most humans that Akeya had encountered so far it would take a bit more than just that before the shadow dragoness would feel the need to actually be moved by Hana's words. Akeya wasn't very easily affected mentally by...well, honestly anything. As she had told Hana one became strong by being strong of mind, and Akeya had both been born with a lot of willpower and had then gone out of her way to enhance what she was already talented with, resulting in a mind of steel. As people from her guild had already noted, Akeya's biggest power might not be her control over shadows, her physical strength, or her skill at using all her abilities as efficiently as she could manage. Her biggest power was her discipline, both physical and mental, which allowed her to avoid the pitfalls that many others tended to find their demise in. The half dragon rarely made mistakes which were caused by strong emotions, she took good care of herself so she wouldn't fall ill at unfortunate times and trained like mad to become even tougher and stronger, she was very difficult to intimidate or otherwise influence, and more importantly, she was very, very dedicated to doing what she thought she had to do, and would use every power available to her to achieve it. Of course, this wasn't without its drawbacks, but for Akeya's line of work it was one of the best mindsets you could ask for.

Beyond that there was the fact that Akeya wasn't a social creature like humans. Even the most anti-social human still had to deal with the fact that humans at their core were social. It was quite literally part of the definition of being human. And being a social creature at the core had both advantages and disadvantages. Quite often those advantages and disadvantages were exactly the same thing viewed from different angles. For example the fact that humans had to rely on each other for survival and because of that were good at working together. On one hand, if they didn't need to rely on each other they wouldn't have nearly as much motivation to cooperate (seeing how some humans seemed to have trouble with cooperation anyway, that said a lot about what humanity would have been like if it wasn't made of social creatures). On the other hand, it meant that if a human was alone they were a lot weaker than a creature which hadn't evolved to rely on being in groups to survive. Akeya as a half dragon dominantly had traits of dragons, and one of those traits was that she was by nature a loner. Not one of those overly dramatic humans who always tried to attract attention by complaining that they were all alone in the world. Akeya was quite literally a creature who was supposed to be good at surviving on her own. Which the other way around also meant she wasn't as good at cooperating or socializing as humans, because she didn't have the required incentive to be good at it. Which was also why she didn't really care that much emotionally what humans might think of her. If she was a solitary creature that meant that she didn't have to rely on the goodwill of others to survive. Which meant she didn't have to worry what they thought about her. After all, if you were all alone in the wilderness why would you care that some other creature which you rarely if ever interacted with didn't like you?

And then there was the fact that as a person with predominantly draconic traits Akeya had difficulty considering humans as peers. A strong and intelligent human could manage it, but the vast majority? Interesting at best, annoying at worst, and unimportant all in all.

Although when it was said that Akeya didn't care too much for Hana's opinions that was mostly on an emotional level. On a pragmatic level having her student not hate her or hold a grudge towards her was very much a beneficial thing, since a grudging and hateful student would be harder to teach. They would be obstinate and difficult purely because their emotions would not allow them to be anything else. So all in all, Hana's proclamation that she didn't mind too much that Akeya had forced her to relive her memories was a positive thing. The half dragon nodded at her student to acknowledge her words.

"That is fortunate. If you were feeling like you truly hated me and couldn't forgive me it could have negatively influenced the training. And I am glad that you have already realized that fear is something you control, not something that you either run away from or be consumed by. Make sure that you remember what you learned in the endless void, because it will become important both in your training and in the future."

With that Akeya looked around, motioning for Hana to also do so. While Hana was trapped inside the dark sphere it had already become quite dark. In fact they were now in the twilight zone, and it wouldn't take much longer before it would be plain night. The half dragon waited until Hana had looked around and registered this change in light intensity before she spoke.

"As you can see we are no longer in a place made out of clear light and sharp shadows. Instead the entire world is being swallowed by the darkness that we call night. Do you think that we have wasted our opportunity to train our shadow magic? That I had to use all of our valuable time just to help you remember that which you needed to remember? Do you, in fact, believe that the shadows are merely something created by the light, and that without light there couldn't ever be good shadows for us to use?"

As she talked Akeya motioned with her draconic hand, and several shadows stretched out and swirled around her, looking like swirling black smoke as Hana's ankin continued talking.

"The idea that shadows are a mere absence of light is something often thought by humans, a result of them carefully studying shadows and declaring that shadows only exist when light is hindered in reaching an area. Thus they claim that shadows are places where there is less light than around it, and that shadows are nothing more than the concept of absence. If we only look at what most humans can observe it is not that strange an assumption. It's also wrong."

Akeya motioned for the shadows to return to where they belonged before she resumed speaking.

"You might already realize this thanks to those memories you have regained, but I want to be clear on this: shadows are not mere absence. The world we live in is primarily a world of light. Most living creatures thrive when they have light and weaken when it is dark. However there is also darkness, and that darkness is not mere absence of light. It is the opposite of light. Just as there is a world of light there is a world of darkness. And that darkness encroaches upon this world of light through the shadows. The reason why you find shadows where the light is weak is that the light and the dark do not like each other. As they oppose each other combining them, allowing them to exist together, is very difficult and rarely done. Shadows exist where the light is weak because that is where the darkness has a chance to invade the world of light. And the night is just another example of how the darkness manages to touch this world which is usually dominated by the light. We might be considered shadow mages, creatures of shadow, but that is because shadows are the primary way that we can use darkness within this world. If you ever find yourself in a place with true darkness you might find that your abilities are only stronger than they already were. Although it is possible that your own limitations still make you weaker. After all, belief is a powerful thing and hard to shake off."

Akeya folded her arms, looking at Hana with a stern expression.

"To summarize, darkness is its own element, and shadows are an extension of that element. The reason why sharp shadows are more useful than those vague shadows is because a sharp shadow is a more solid extension of the darkness. Also, in case you are inclined to believe that the darkness must be evil for it to invade the world of light, the reverse also happens. There is no evil and good. It is purely light versus dark. They will always oppose each other, and neither can be considered better than the other. Now, to actually answer your question of what we will be doing next: before we do anything else I must see how well you can use your shadow magic when I have yet to teach you anything specific. Which means that your first challenge will be to fight me."

Akeya held up a clawed hand.

"Well, I say fight, but I suppose the more accurate term would be attack. After all, I will not fight back. I will only do my best to avoid being hit. Although I suppose that you might feel more pressure and pull out more of your potential if there is some kind of danger to yourself. Hmmm... Regardless, your first challenge is quite simple: take me down. You are allowed to use whatever method comes to you. The only limitation is that the only type of magic you're allowed to use is shadow magic, and seeing how it is me that you'll be hunting you'll most definitely need magic to stand a chance, unless you happen to be a prodigy at unarmed combat and tracking. So whatever trick you can think of is allowed, as long as it doesn't include the use of any magic other than shadow magic. To keep things somewhat fair I will not just stay out of your reach or hide in a way that it would be near impossible for you to find me. You do not need to worry about harming me: as the Shadow Dragon Slayer and a half dragon I am quite resilient to both shadow magic and physical attacks, so even if you were to hit me with what you humans would call your best shot it is unlikely that I would be severely injured. As mentioned before I will not fight back, primarily because harming you might hinder further training. Unless, of course, you want me to fight back, although even then I will avoid harming you."

The half dragon turned around and began to walk away from Hana, once again using that rather serpentine walk, which seemed to designed to show off her more reptilian biology, the way that it made her tail sway behind her and how it would remind anybody who saw it of reptiles, only to notice Akeya's scales and claws. The fact that it also showed off her curves and figure was either an unintended side effect or a bonus. The half dragon didn't turn around towards Hana as she spoke next, appearing entirely unconcerned about the fact that she was showing her back so blatantly towards the person she had just told to hunt her.

"In case you were wondering, the hunt begins now. I will mention when it is over, and I will do so when I believe that I have gained enough information regarding what you are capable of. Although if you want I will answer any question you might have before you begin your attempts to strike me, at least as long as I deem the answer one worth giving."

Hana's eyes widened in response to Akeya's request, leaving her in a trance that she wouldnt come back from until Akeya's last comment. Although it was reasonable in a sense of learning where Hana is at with her shadow magic after just obtaining it and seeing what there is to work with, she still left nervous. Its been a while since she last used her shadow magic and although she had a natural affinity for it she was still feeling rather doubtful of herself. 'Stop it Hana.' She began to metally scold herself, 'Having a mindset like that would only weaken you. Just focus on your target and go for the least obvious choices...' Standing in thought for a bit, Hana would continue to stare at her ankin's reptillian back before an idea would pop into her head. What if she could try shadow traveling? Choosing that as the best choice in her situation, Hana would use the same technique she did before the loss of her magic, and she casually slipped into the void of shadows, making sure to be silent on her feet. Continuing her walk through the dark void, Hana would soon slip out back into the physical world on a tree branch. Observing the area below her, Hana could see she was right above Akeya, and she smirked, a plan coming to mind. Although she knew that no matter what, Akeya was able to sense her, she couldn't stop the feeling that this was some sort of exam, so she continued to treat Akeya like any other enemy that didnt have the special ability to sense her prescence. Plan now being tooke into action, Hana would recall this one spell that she would favor and jumped of the tree, quickly making her way towards the ground. Before she could though, she would gather all sharp shadows causing a dark aura to suound her, and send them out it senbon like material in all different directions. It wouldn't be until she actually landed on the ground that she would get to see the results of her actions.

Akeya had expected Hana to ask some questions before starting the exam of trying to hit the shadow dragoness, but it looked like her student was eager to prove her worth. That or she simply wanted to try her best and get her mind off of certain things. Like those memories that she had regained just now. It wouldn't surprise Akeya if, even though the girl had said that she agreed with the half dragon's opinion that hiding from your worst memories was only something done by weak people who weren't willing to do what it took to become strong, right now her student would be happier not thinking about it. Which was probably as fair as Akeya was going to get it. Even if Hana was aware of how you had to face your memories instead of running away from them knowing it was different from actually doing it. Her student was diligent and intelligent enough that she'd start thinking about those memories afterwards, and was only using this new test as a kind of respite before she had to deal with that. And even if she wouldn't do it while awake Hana would almost certainly be forced to face those memories in her sleep. It may be memories from a traumatic past, but remembering those kind of memories after the events had already passed meant that she wouldn't be able to just forget them even if she wanted to.

Well, all of that wasn't important. What was important was that right now Hana was going to show Akeya what she had remember from her past when she still could use shadow magic, and what she might be able to figure out on the spot as she sought to land a clean hit on her ankin. Akeya wasn't really expecting Hana to succeed. Hana might be intelligent and enthusiastic, but even if she showed promise she didn't fulfil that promise yet. Akeya on the other hand had already been acknowledged as a Rising Star, a young mage with a lot of potential to be one of the greatest forces of goods in Fiore (the mere thought almost made her snort with amusement. She could agree with her being a young mage and having a lot of potential, but if she was viewed as one of the potentially greatest forces of good in any group that group was most likely not going to be classified as good by any other group. It wasn't that she saw herself as evil. It was more that she realized that her philosophy and views on life were too harsh and logical for them to suit a truly good-natured person). Beyond that Akeya was a half dragon of the shadow lineage, as well as a third generation Dragon Slayer and a shadow assassin. These were all the reasons why Hana most likely had chosen Akeya as her ankin, but it was also all of these reasons that her chances of actually getting in a solid hit were very low. Akeya knew a lot about shadows and how to use them, and since she had told Hana to only use shadow magic (if she decided to use magic) that basically meant that whatever Hana used, Akeya would know what to do about it.

But then, this test wasn't really about hitting the half dragon. That was just the easiest way to place Hana in a situation where she'd have to try hard to accomplish something, during which Akeya would be free to observe her tricks and her approach to fighting and hunting. And how to use her shadow magic. Granted, even if Akeya wasn't planning to be hit she still had to make it so that Hana stood a chance, even if it was a very small one. As she had already told her student she wouldn't just permanently keep outside of her reach, or make herself impossible to touch. Which basically meant that she wouldn't use her shadow form or use her wings to stay airborne. Hana might be able to figure out a way to deal with both techniques, but that was for another time if Hana wanted to continue training.

Akeya didn't move as she felt that Hana was moving around. Her student had decided to step into a shadow and travel from one to another, although it seemed she used a technique which wasn't as fast as the half dragon's own shadow travel but which allowed her more control over where she popped up. Now her student was above her, most likely preparing for an ambush. Akeya was curious to see what Hana's first choice of attack would be, so she remained in place, acting as if she had no clue that her student was preparing herself to jump down and strike. If she suddenly began to move Hana might feel rushed, which would make her less creative as she would just use whatever came first to her mind which might allow her to reach Akeya. That would also tell her something about Hana's abilities, but first she just wanted to see what Hana could come up with given the opportunity. After all, assassins tried to organize their missions in such a way that they could plan the perfect approach. It was only fair that she would give Hana the opportunity to do the same, especially since a normal opponent wouldn't have known that Hana was up there in the tree.

When Hana jumped down, finally making a sound, the shadow dragoness allowed herself to react, looking up before diving out from underneath Hana. Once she touched the ground she grabbed it with both clawed hands and rolled, allowing her to see what her student was planning to throw at her. Her eyes narrowed when she saw that Hana was gathering a lot of shadows before sending them out as an omnidirectional rain of black needles. Not bad for a first attack. It was clear that Hana was focusing on actually hitting Akeya above landing a decisive blow, and had chosen for a technique which basically hit everything in the area to negate the possibility of Akeya simply dodging. It was not a bad decision, although it wasn't the best either, even if you took into account that Akeya hadn't given Hana the fairest of challenges.

Completing the roll Akeya ran away from the rain of needles, then suddenly turned around and jumped straight towards it, folding her wings tightly to her body while holding her arms at her sides. Moving straight towards the expanding cloud of needles after having created some distance first meant that she was basically letting herself get hit by only a tiny portion of the attack before landing in the safe zone, where she landed and turned towards Hana.

"Not a bad idea for your first attack. By attacking every direction at the same time you make it harder for me to escape. However there's two flaws with that approach, although one of them doesn't apply to this situation. The flaw which doesn't apply here is that attacking in all directions only works if you don't have to worry about collateral damage. Since we are in these ancient ruins with nobody else around you can be excused for not worrying about the damage you might do. However the second flaw does apply. You don't have enough magic power to attack all directions at the same time and still inflict a respectable amount of damage towards singular targets."

Akeya held up an arm, where Hana would be able to see that the needles had only left some very minor wounds which were already closing up as the half dragon's regeneration showed itself.

"I moved away from the attack but then made my body profile as small as possible while moving straight towards the attack. That way I was hit by a bare minimum of needles, none of which had enough power to deal lasting damage. I acknowledge the idea behind the attack as valid, and that you have hit me, but you will have to land a more solid attack before I acknowledge that you have completed the task I gave you."

With that the half dragon prepared herself for Hana's next attempt, wondering what her student would come up with next. The girl was a quick student, so most likely she would take Akeya's advice and try something more meant for a single target.

Hana-as always-listened to what Akeya had to say about Hana's approach, and nodded in response at Akeya's instruction in a more direct attack, causing her to once again stand in thought. She wanted it to be surprising but she was already well revealed to her target. Perhaps.... if she were to make countless little spheres of shadows and plant them around Akeya, she could maintain those "objects" just for enough time to reach a safe spot and then release that darkness in small explosions... NO. That wouldn't work. Hana stayed in thought for a little longer, before finally coming up with a decision. Putting on a blank expression, Hana charged toward Akeya. However, just as she was about two steps from Akeya she once again dissapeared from Akeya's line of sight. She had once again chosen to use shadow travel and as she reached the next exit she would reappear behind Akeya, landing a blow that would send her flying a few feet away. Before Akeya could possibly land, Hana used her magical energy to create shadow strings and attatched them to Akeya's shadow, allowing Hana to have controll of the dragoness' shadow therefor her herself. This was the magic she had practiced after Yuki left and before she arrived at Fairy Tail to the point where she continued her studies in ice dragon slayer magic. Hana would fuse her magic with shadows and form them into strings in which she would attatch them to the shadow of an object or being. Due to the connection between a person's shadow and them self, she would not only gain control of the shadow, but that person as well. She called it 'Shadow Puppeteer Magic'. It was rather suitable for Hana's true personality. Manipulative. She had an affinity for trickery and taking control due to the habitat she grew up in, and it's the reason she's able to mask that side of her with her more gentle and soft side. Both were a part of her, it's just one side she prefers to keep hidden within herself, benifitting her in most every way. Now with control over Akeya, Hana had decided to play nice and throw her aside. Usually when she had access to one's actions, she would play with them for a bit, like they were a puppet. But she was weak within that time, and only did it to small animals when she was impassive. Therefor, she didn't do anything more, and stood in patience as she waited for Akeya to assess her motives.

Akeya watched Hana silently as she waited for the girl to make up her mind about what she would be doing next. She was intelligent enough to listen to the half dragon's advice, so most likely the next attack would be more focused on dealing with a single target rather than the area bombardment that she had released before. Well, calling it a bombardment might be a bit of an overstatement... Akeya looked down at her own arm, where she saw that the wounds she had received from Hana's last attack had already pretty much disappeared. Granted, she was a lot tougher than pretty much any human she had encountered before because of her draconic blood, but even so that rain of needles didn't have a lot of raw damage. It really was something you'd primarily use if you were either providing a distraction or if you were dealing with a whole bunch of small fries who couldn't take much of a beating. It was the kind of ability that Akeya honestly had never bothered to develop herself. It was too weak to use against assassination targets since those usually weren't that easy to kill, and she rarely found herself in a situation where it was her job to dispose of a lot of small fry. And even if she did, her draconic blood granted her the ability to deal with that problem as well, by disposing of all of them using her own hands. Well, claws and tail. And sometimes fangs. The point is that when it came to lots of small fry Akeya preferred to just slit all their throats in close combat and move on. She had to grant Hana that this needle shower was a lot faster though. Her own approach worked, but even though she prided herself on her speed she was still a single person moving from one target to the other to slit their throats. On the other hand, the reason why she wasn't that good at quickly getting rid of large amounts of weaklings was because she had focused on being able to take down a single strong guy, and was really good at that.

Meanwhile it looked like Hana had decided upon her next move. The half dragon took a defensive stance as her student ran towards her, wondering what she would be shown next. The needle shower hadn't been a bad idea as much as that it just wasn't the best choice for the situation. It would have been perfect if the only objective was to touch Akeya at all, but the half dragon wanted a bit more from Hana than just a tap on the shoulder. She wanted to see what Hana was capable of when she had just regained her shadow magic and how creative she would be with it. That couldn't be achieved if she were to grant Hana the victory the moment she managed to touch Akeya even once. Well, not that the half dragon was expecting Hana to be able to deal any significant damage no matter what she did, but there was still a world of difference between a couple of pinpricks from needles and something like a strike to the back of the neck. Especially since a strike to the back of the neck would actually work on most people while those needles really required the target to be fragile. Well, unless your goal was to slow them down with the needles rather than actually inflict significant damage... But Akeya couldn't stop her own regeneration, so Hana was just unlucky in that aspect.

Akeya kept her stance even when Hana once again disappeared, having decided to try and change the frontal assault into a feint which would lead up to...a strike from the back, sending Akeya flying. Not very far, but apparently far enough for her student's needs. Akeya raised an eyebrow when she turned around mid-air and noticed that dark strings were shooting out from Hana's location, heading for her own shadow cast by her airborne form. She hadn't been expecting her student to try something like that. Hana had only been giving a rather straightforward and simple impression so far, especially when she gave an example of her magic by creating ice which split up into ice knives to throw at the target. Shadow strings were more suitable for people like Akeya herself, although Akeya was less about controlling the target and more about just binding them in place so she would have an easier time finishing them off. For Hana to be using something like that either meant that somebody had suggested it to her (like the dragon who taught her ice magic) before she exchanged her shadow magic for ice magic, she had thought of it completely out of the blue as she was trying to think outside the box, or she had carefully been hiding some less straightforward aspects of her personality. Akeya was inclined to think of the second option, since Hana really didn't give the appearance of being the manipulative type, and puppeteer strings made out of shadows weren't that popular idea. In fact that kind of technique usually had a bad reputation because it was seen as particularly nasty or morally reprehensible to control another like that.

Well, no matter how Hana had thought of it, it didn't change the fact that she was seizing control of Akeya's shadow while the half dragon was still airborne, which normally would mean that she would be unable to evade. Well, normally in this case meant 'if she wasn't a half dragon with the ability of flight'. However her student worked fast so she would most likely be able to catch Akeya even if the half dragon executed a hasty dodge in the middle of the air. There were several ways that Akeya could avoid the strings, but she had already told Hana that she wouldn't use any tricks which would make it too hard for her student to actually catch her. Most of the options available to her probably fell into the category of 'making things too difficult' if she allowed herself the use of those. Besides, she should reward Hana for thinking of an idea like that, and just outright avoiding her attack would probably give the wrong idea.

Still, Akeya didn't like the idea of being controlled at all, so she'd just have to use a technique which normally wouldn't make her any harder to catch and which just happened to be perfect for defending against Hana's shadow puppeteer.

When Hana threw Akeya's shadow aside she would find that Akeya herself continued flying in her original arc, landing on her feet and turning around to face Hana. If the girl were to look at her ankin's feet she'd notice that there was no shadow there: her shadow was still where Hana had thrown it. The half dragon nodded, folding her arms as she looked over towards where her shadow had ended up, appearing completely unperturbed by the idea that she was disconnected from her own shadow, a phenomenon which would unnerve almost everybody because having a shadow was so natural that you never even noticed it until something like this happened.

"If your target hadn't been me that would have been a very effective attack. Although I would actually advice against approaching from the front and then shifting to the back. It may seem like the logical approach, but the fact that it is the logical choice means that a smart enemy who knows that you're a shadow user will anticipate it. If that happens you could actually end up jumping right into a counterattack, unless you're notably faster in which case there is no need to shift to the back. Although I must point out that the power of your punch was somewhat lacking. It managed to lift me off the ground but it didn't deal a lot of damage. It looked more impressive than it actually was. If you want to try that attack again I would advise training yourself so you're better at actually inflicting damage with your strikes rather than just propelling the target. A lot of people who could have been quite powerful are actually laughably weak because they never learned the difference between a punch which breaks bones and a punch which bruises and knocks the target backwards."

She looked back at Hana, raising one eyebrow.

"As for your follow up attack, I must say that I am impressed. I would not have imagined you able to think of such a thing nor that you could do it. I suppose that even though you were training to use ice magic you also took your time thinking of ways to use your shadow magic when you were training with the dragon. Regardless, if you manage to connect those strings you can indeed perform tasks such as throwing your target, although it is better to use the strings to keep them in place while you hit them with another attack which would otherwise have insufficient accuracy. For one thing, even if you control them through a shadow a heavy target remains a heavy target. Throwing such a target would be exhausting. The second reason is that the kind of targets that you should be wary of won't be fazed by being thrown about. The third reason is that in this world there are quite a lot of creatures who would be able to resist actual control but be more susceptible to the simple approach of keeping them from moving. It's easier to prevent movement than to force it. A creature which resists your control could either simply be too strong for you, or be like me and have a way to counter your ability. Although seeing the difference in strength and experience between the both of us I would have been able to break out of it anyway."

Akeya swayed her tail from side to side as she took a rather relaxed stance, obviously once again waiting to see what her student would be doing next. Although before that she had one more thing to say.

"However as I said, I'm impressed. It took you a while to think of the tactic but you pulled it off nearly flawlessly, and if it had been a real target other than I they most likely would have been in serious trouble once you caught their shadow while they were in mid-air."

With that she extended one clawed and scaled hand towards her shadow, making a pulling motion after which the shadow actually returned to its place at Akeya's feet. The half dragon made a cutting motion with the same hand and the strings which Hana had attached to Akeya's shadow suddenly separated, returning back to their creator as her ankin put her hand on her hip and looked at Hana.

"Come on, let's see what else you can think of. Or would you rather I put the pressure on you by returning attacks from time to time?"