Gilded Ashes-Chapter 60: Dignity Missing

"They prefer the term students" Kori mumbled, not looking at the hammer for longer than a second. "But I call them disasters."

Something was different in her attitude. She wasn’t the same chaotic teacher Raizen was starting to get used to. Her cheeks, a slightly warmer color than before, explained the rest.

Kenzo gave a small bow. "Good. Thanks for reaching out, by the way – I’m usually pretty busy, but I managed to find a bit of free time."

"I’m – ahem – We are just glad you could come."

"Haah..." Kenzo stretched, letting out a sigh. "I really wish I could spend more time at the Academy... I bet these "disasters" are easier to deal with than illegal vendors..."

"Mhm..." Kori nodded.

"Alright, then!" Kenzo finally turned towards the eight royal scholars. They were all sitting in a neat line, just like Kori told them. "Today we’re going to learn the part of Eon that most of you think is a myth - until it pulls the ground out from under you." He looked across them. "You’ve learned Eon in your muscles, in your weapons. In your luminite edges. Now you can learn it in the world. Outside of you."

He spread his fingers.

The hammer rose from the floor without a sound. The massive head hung in the air, perfectly still. Kenzo moved his hand - casual, almost playful - and the hammer drifted left, then right, circled once, and settled back down with a weight that made the floor tremble the slightest bit.

Keahi breathed out a soft, involuntary "Whoa."

Kenzo’s grin widened. "Telekinesis is the old word, you might have met it in books. We don’t use that here. Here we talk about grip and invitation - how you ask Eon to hold what you can’t, and how you let it put things back down." He looked at them. "If you push hard, it’ll just fight you. If you invite, it helps."

"Like how Kori "asks" us to do homework," Feris said.

Kori stared straight at Feris’s eyeballs, with wide eyes and an expression that practically begged her to not make her look bad in front of Kenzo..

Kenzo tapped the hammer’s handle with two knuckles. "Anchor, path, release. That’s the whole trick and the whole problem. Anchor is the point where you set your intention – in other words, where your legs can stand without giving up. Path is whatever you want to do, and where. Release is... Well, where something actually happens."

Arashi raised a hand. "What if my intention is to never get hit again?"

"Then your anchor is too vague" Kenzo said cheerfully. Then he clapped once, throwing a glance at Kori. She hid her face immediately. "Let’s see what kind of "disasters" you really are."

They spread out across the hall, where Kori’s chalk marks were still visible. Kenzo made a hoop float three meters up and left it bobbing in the air. A small target ball drifted lazily inside it.

"I watched your arena match" Kenzo said, and the room’s energy shifted. "Impressive work, for beginners. But what you know is barely the start." He looked straight at Raizen. "And I heard a certain someone wants to surpass us Phalanx."

Raizen looked away. That goal he set in the Rust Room had been replaced with something simpler a long while ago. Of course, he still wanted to be the best. But sometimes even best wasn’t enough.

"Extra points if you can hold anything without looking like you’re dying" Kenzo continued. "Arashi - try not to enjoy this too much. Your smile is sometimes contagious!"

"I never enjoy anything" Arashi said, deadpan.

"Lies" Keahi said, and nudged him aside with her hip.

Esen looked at the hammer. His eyes widened, then brightened - because this was clearly a challenge, and he wanted to see how far he could go. He set his feet, rolled his shoulders, wrapped both hands around the handle, and pulled up with all of his strength.

The hammer didn’t rise.

Esen did.

He yelped as his feet left the floor - half a meter up, legs pedaling air. He let go, headbutted the handle on the way down with a solid thunk, dropped flat and kissed the floor.

"Congratulations!" Feris shouted. "Was that headbutt levitation? Impressive move!"

"Shut up" Esen said, rubbing his forehead.

Kenzo laughed – it was a low sound, but it the kind of laugh that made you want to hear it again. "Good. It’s... Definitely some progress. But if it pulls you, you anchored the object instead of yourself. Anchor yourself to the ground. Then guide Eon where to hold it."

Esen muttered something under his breath, and tried again. The hammer twitched. He let out a tiny whoop at the microscopic victory, and the hammer settled back down, like it was totally unimpressed.

Kenzo took the handle in one hand and lifted the whole thing like it was made of paper. He threw it in the air and let it float for a breath, then caught it upside down. Kori’s mouth tried to stay very carefully neutral. Her ears were getting pinker by the second.

"Now, your turn" Kenzo said. "We start gentle. Objects smaller than your head. Arashi, no bullets yet. Feris, not the mace. And of course, you won’t try lifting my hammer, it’s still too early for that. Kori, if you could-"

Before he could even finish his sentence, Kori ran to the supply cabinet and tossed something to the center of the floor. A bright rubber ball, cherry red, no bigger than a fist. It bounced a few times and sat there.

Ichiro looked at it and almost smiled. "You could have asked me to lift the building."

"No" Kori said, too fast again. "The building might be easy for you. This is better."

Ichiro eyed the ball. Set his feet down. Pulled.

The ball bounced.

The little red thing hopped two small centimeters, bounced in place twice, then rolled away slowly like it was bored of Ichiro’s incompetence.

Ichiro frowned, panting from the effort. He tried again, more careful this time. The ball rolled the other direction. Ichiro raised his hands, and the ball hopped in place - once, twice - like it was making fun of him.

"Oohh... You’ve met your match, huh?" Arashi said, leaning in.

"Be quiet" Ichiro grunted.

After a few more useless tries, he bent down to just pick it up with his fingers.

Kenzo flicked his finger, with a grin on his face. Suddenly, the rubber ball popped out of Ichiro’s hand and hit him in the chin.

Esen lost it completely. "The twenty-meter-pillar guy, defeated by a rubber ball, haa!"

Ichiro didn’t quit. He took a slow breath, and the corner of his mouth moved - trying not to be annoyed. The red sphere trembled, then floated a thumb-width off the floor. He kept it there. Careful. Astonished.

Across the room, Hikari chose a thin wooden rod. She set it across her palms, closed her eyes for a breath, and let it rest on the air just above her skin. It floated for a second. Then her focus ran too hot and the rod dropped. She caught it without expression, reset, and tried again. The rod lifted half a meter, held there for a few seconds, but then wobbled and clattered to the floor.

"Hmm, yes" Kenzo mumbled, satisfied. "Different from what you’re used to, isn’t it?"

Arashi had three blunt training rounds stacked on his palm. He squinted at them with deep concentration. One rose. Then two. Then all three - and then one slipped the invisible grip and floated too high, pinging him in the forehead.

"Ow" he said. "Rude." 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"Invite, don’t boss around. You don’t want bullets to hold grudges against you, huh?" Kenzo laughed again.

Feris reached toward her mace with both hands. The mace answered - by skating toward her feet with a small force. Then she yelped as the force started dragging her five meters across the floor. Luckily, Kori stuck a boot in the way just in time, and stopped both girl and weapon.

Keahi drew a small flame from her blade and tried to hold it above her palm with Eon. She could confidently hold the flame, but she never thought about making it float. The flame popped instead - a bright little burst of heat, leaving a small scorch mark on Ichiro’s cloak.

"Sorry!" Keahi said, caught between horror and delight.

"It’s fine" Ichiro mumbled, and put the char out with a flick.

Raizen set his twin blades on the floor in front of him. He didn’t touch the hilts.

The blades lifted a centimeter off the wood. He kept his breath slow, his throat loose. He held them at the balance point - not by weight, but by where the air wanted them to sit.

For three seconds, they floated. Still. Obedient.

He smiled.

But that ruined it.

The blades twitched, tipped forward, spun once, and clattered to the ground.

Arashi applauded. "Beautiful. Try to miss my shoes next time."

"Maybe," Raizen said, biting back a laugh. He could still feel it though - that brief window where the blades had been something lighter than steel. More idea than object. He wanted to find it again.

Esen looked at Arashi thoughtfully. "Yo. Can I lift you?"

"Absolutely not." Arashi said immediately.

"Come onn! Just a little..."

Kenzo smiled and didn’t try to rescue either of them.

Arashi sighed with the air of a man walking to his own funeral. "Fine. But if you drop me, you owe me a sandwich."

Esen rolled his shoulders, cracked his knuckles, and bent his knees. "One big fat sandwitch. Got it."

Arashi rose an inch off the ground, arms pinwheeling, hair floating up in a chaotic halo.

Esen grinned, despite the bead of sweat rolling down his forehead. Then he grunted, and tried more.

Arashi shot toward the ceiling.

Arashi shouted something panicked as his head bumped the room’s roof. He hung there, pinned against the ceiling, arms spread, staring down at them with an expression caught between outrage and genuine fear.

"Uhm... Try to let him go, slowly" Kenzo bit his finger, still trying not to laugh.

Esen panicked and dropped everything at once. Arashi fell. Raizen stepped under him without thinking and caught him - both arms, full weight, stumbling two steps before they both fell down.

Arashi pressed a hand to Raizen’s chest. "My utmost thanks, dear prince! You saved me!" he said in his most dramatic voice.

Then his real voice came back: "Seriously. I can’t feel my dignity."

"Hold up, you had dignity?" Keahi said.

"Don’t confuse dignity with ego" Arashi said, back on his feet, and straightening his collar. "I had both."