The entirety of the newbies matches happened without Killian being there. He had only sent a message to Shania, via WLog, to handle them.

Killian remained at the training grounds. A large crystal was fixed in the middle, with the banner reading that it was a deflection crystal.

His Void Shield was active, and he spent the last two hours sending fiery attacks against the crystal and having it deflect back into his Void Shield.

His precision had improved within the last hour, so he drew an even smaller circle on the crystal and stood at the same distance.

He breathed out, concentrating the oxygen around him into one point. The door to the training ground creaked open.

His Void Shield faded almost instantly, and a crease formed on Killian’s forehead.

He waited until whoever walked in would reach the balcony. He raised a brow when he saw the dark-haired girl.

She didn’t see him and kept peeking around the walls, looking everywhere but the base where the crystal was because it was the least used place to train.

"Oh," she said softly, and moved the way she came.

"What do you want?"

She froze.

Killian grabbed his Void-Bat, which looked worn out from the blows during the training with the crystal, and walked towards the ladder.

"Ah, um, nothing!" The girl tried to rush out when she heard something rushing at her. She yelped but the Void-Bat dropped a few inches from her feet. Her breathing had already quickened.

Killian climbed up the ladder, and landed easily to the top. He checked where the Void-Bat landed and seeing it beside her, he frowned. "It didn’t hit you, did it?"

She shook her head quickly.

He picked it up and sent it to his Inventory. He pushed his hands into his pockets, standing close to the girl and towering over the girl. "So tell me, what’s your deal?"

"Ah, I, I was only trying to... um... practice. Yes, practice with myself!" She laughed as she found a ’suitable’ excuse. But from his expression, she knew that wouldn’t walk. "I was stalking you."

She said simply.

"Yes, I know," Killian replied, not even bothered by the suddenness of her words. "My question is why? Who sent you?"

"Nobody," the girl replied sharply, as if offended that that would even be a question.

"I am interested in strong people, you see. So it is only natural that you caught my eye." She said confidently.

Too confident for someone that had been stammering and shaking in front of him a few seconds ago.

Killian shook his head. "It seemed all the girls in this region had dual personalities."

He said his thoughts aloud but remembered Evelyn too, so that theory couldn’t hold. Perhaps all girls had dual personalities?

But his sister was pretty normal, and Theodore was a boy with dual personality too. Killian shook his head again. ’I just don’t get it.’

The girl grinned proudly. "We are descendants of master-planning brothers, of course. You can never know our true intentions—" she paused when Killian walked away.

She hopped at a spot before following him, keeping the grin on her face. She had no idea where he was heading to, but she followed, shaking her head left to right.

"Oh, so since you’ve accepted me as your disciple, will you give me a name or should I give you the ones I my bullies call me?"

Despite her question, Killian kept moving unfazed. "Pixie."

"Oh, that’s good. Pixie is nice." She smiled. "Thank you."

The Void stirred inside of Killian and he stopped moving. He turned to the girl again and noticed her hand return to her side. He squinted his eyes at her, before looking away again.

"Welcome." He got down the stairs, returning to the crystal training ground the normal way. "What is your element?"

"On paper, Mist."

’On paper?’ Killian turned to her fully, and her eyes had narrowed at him. He couldn’t place why he knew she was a weird one but he didn’t do the reasonable thing of staying away.

"Pixie, do you have people you care about?"

"Should I? I have no friends and I am one of those from the National Orphanage. I am just stuck here because I have a Mist element on paper." Pixie shrugged.

Killian nodded. The national orphanage held children from Wardens who died in service, and depending on what they awakened, another Warden could adopt them and help them grow to be Wardens.

He felt it was a little predatory since it groomed children of orphaned Wardens to take their parents’ place but most of those children grew stronger than their parents due to specialized training.

"So what is actually your element?" he asked directly.

Pixie looked away, whistling loudly.

Killian looked away as well, finding a weapon amongst the stash. "You’re not going to answer that even if you want me to take you as my disciple?"

"Haven’t I already been your disciple?" Pixie acted surprised. A sword was thrown to her and she caught it with one hand, then switched it to the other. "Are we going to practice with swords?"

Killian took one for himself. "Yes, I want to get better at it. Assist me."

"Okay." Pixie ran a distance, and pointed her sword at him. "Oh, and after this, can I also ask a question of you, Master?"

A shiver ran down Killian’s spine at being called Master. He had been trying to act unaffected by Pixie’s insanity but she found a way to chip off his indifference every time.

He breathed in sharply, and exhaled. "Ask the question now—"

"No, when I beat you, I’d ask," Pixie said, a tone of finality in her voice.

Killian watched her, seriously now.

From her stance, she evidently knew how to use the sword.

While he only wanted to practice from where he left off with the Orc Priest and expand what he used to watch Keith do.

But he was curious about her question.

So he agreed.

"If you beat me, then I’d answer your question, Pixie."