"How am I supposed to do that?" The boy asked nervously. "If saving everyone really hinges on me figuring out these powers we're going to be waiting for a long time!"
Aennin shook his head and pulled Kaleth from his bed. "Bullshit! Your Avatar powers aren't all you have to offer! Do you think Geos would have chosen you if he thought you were too weak on your own?"
"I'm a druid!" Kaleth protested weakly. "A pacifist! What can I do against an undead army?"
Aennin shrugged and raised an eyebrow at him. "Don't they teach druids healing magic? That's pretty much all Volt wants to do most of the time when she's doing stuff with us!"
Kaleth sighed and shook his head. "Yeah, but that's what I was learning to do before the sai'mul crashed into Orion."
"That's no good," Aennin replied with a frown. "Well, either way we can't have you sitting on your hands now that we know you're part of the team. I'll go talk to Volt to see if she can teach you how to heal, but I can think of some ways your transformations can be put to some use too. We have until Spring before we can get out of Heron to do anything useful, so we might as well use this time to help you get ready.
So began a long winter of what Kaleth would come to know as Avatar School. To be even one Avatar short, Aennin declared, was a disadvantage that no one could afford. In the mornings, he would train with Atunis to sharpen his reflexes by sparring just like his father used to do. During these sessions, the Salican Avatar would talk about the Kartal that he knew and how their templar training informed their decision-making as Avatars. During these times Kaleth struggled to resist asking about how the Kartal from this other timeline differed from the father he had grown up with. Atunis seemed constantly stressed by the idea of his dearest friend causing so much damage by abusing Geos' power and Kaleth couldn't see no good in making him think about it any more than he did. In truth, both of them needed the distraction they found in swinging sticks at each other.
When the two tired of sparring, Kaleth would next go to see Tir to learn what she could teach him of Intalan magic. Aennin adamantly stressed that telepathy in particular was an important skill as a scout when used in concert with his transformations. This was a matter of some irritation to Crane's Avatar as she specialized not in telepathy, but in divination and engineering. Still, she relished in the challenge of linking the principles of these disciplines to the skill Kaleth sought to acquire and learning alongside him. It was during these times that Kaleth would learn about what was happening in the world outside Heron. Through her frequent contact with her predecessor, Mr. Broger, they had learned that the Serene Avatar, Ekera, was alive and using the benefits of her sai'mul body to gather information from the enemy. This role wasn't without risk as she had learned that some of the undead army were able to distinguish the mindless sai'mul they had subjugated from those who still thought freely. But with newfound allies among a guild of warrior artisans, she was already making moves against their adversaries that would hopefully lay the groundwork for the Avatars' return from isolation.
After lunch, Kaleth would seek out Volt, a notorious late sleeper whose lunches were actually her breakfasts, to continue his training in healing magic. These were some of the hardest times for him because she was rarely in the best of moods. She had counted on the power of Geos to save her husband from whatever fate had befallen him in the midst of this sai'mul onslaught, but hearing that Kartal caused all of this to happen by doing the same for his wife should have soured her to the idea. This didn't change her mind at all, however. No one seemed more interested in his progress in mastering his Avatar abilities than she did and the fact that he was focusing more on his worldly skills did nothing to cheer her up.
This left Kaleth looking forward to his late afternoons with Aennin. The person he had once known as an acerbic rogue quickly became the most welcoming presence among the Avatars. Unlike the others, who had looked to him to master his powers quickly in the hopes that he would single-handedly fix everything, Aennin was the only one who made him believe that he could be useful with or without Geos' blessing. To Aennin in particular, Kaleth was a valued member of the group he was thrust into just as he was. Instead of forcing him to think of his place among the chosen figures of the divine, Aennin's training felt more like playing. Every day, Kaleth would face the challenge of sneaking on the elf in order to steal something from him, spy on him, or ambush him in whatever beastly form he expected least. This gave him an opportunity to explore Dalaska through the eyes of a falcon, mouse, stag, dog, cat, or crow. Although he rarely seemed to surprise Aennin, the elf was always sure to point out when he believed he would have fooled anyone else.
It was always in the evening that Kaleth spent any time thinking about Geos and his future as his Avatar. It had been a month before he reached an important breakthrough in understanding these dilations of time. As it turned out, finding a pattern in the speed-ups and slow-downs had been besides the point. The more he thought about it, the more random they seemed to be. But as contemplating these powers became routine, he found that he could predict these occurrences more accurately when he was completely relaxed. Eventually he realized that this was the key to controlling his powers. It was during these moments of gentle contemplation that he ceased to predict these changes in the flow of time and began to mentally trigger them.
He decided to demonstrate this power to Aennin during one of their games. He had been tasked with stealing Aennin's coin purse. Normally he would do this by sneaking up and pouncing as a cat or diving from the rooftops as a bird. But he knew Aennin would be on the lookout for these tricks now and he started to doubt he even needed to do so anymore. So, he merely donned a cloak and shadowed him for most of the afternoon. He was sure that Aennin had spotted him before the time had come to make his move, but it no longer mattered. He took a deep breath and concentrated on slowing everything down. As expected, even the quick reflexes of his teacher weren't enough to stop him from sprinting up and snatching his prize for the first time with his own hands. In his excitement, he lost control of the power and Aennin smirked at him.
"See? I knew it was only a matter of time before you started to pick it up!" he declared proudly. "What did you learn?"
"I'm not sure," Kaleth said uncertainly. "I just stopped stressing about it so much and figured it out naturally."
"That's the trick," Aennin said with a grin. "None of the others would know this because they were already far more confident with themselves than you were when they first found out they were Avatars, even Atunis. But the trick to gaining control of your powers is gaining control of yourself. These abilities are a part of you now and the only way you were ever going to learn that was by sharpening your original skills."
"So, what's next?"
"What's next is continuing to practice with this new skill until you are able to use it confidently and doing yourself a favor by keeping this a secret between us. The more progress you make, the more pressure everyone else is going to put on you which we now both know isn't going to help. Just focus on what you're already doing until you're ready to move on to reversing time."
"Wait, what?"
Aennin sighed. "Your dad wasn't always able to avoid getting hit in battle. He only seemed that way because, as Geos' Avatar, he was able to undo any damage he took by reversing the movements of whoever hit him. It's not the same thing as going back in time, but kind of winding the clock backwards. If you can control the speed at which time flows, eventually you'll get the hang of controlling the direction, right?"
"I guess so," Kaleth replied uncertainly.
"You have to know so," Aennin emphasized with a roll of his eyes. "Remember that confidence is the key to unlocking your new powers."
Kaleth nodded a little more confidently this time. "I will!"
"Good! You should have extra time to work on it tonight since you finished today's mission more quickly than usual," Aennin said with a smile. "I'll be sure to come up with something more challenging tomorrow.
"Okay! I look forward to seeing what you have in mind," Kaleth replied with a smile.
The two then prepared to go their separate ways until Volt approached them with some important news.
"Ekera's here!"
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