In the camp of the forest patrollers.
With sadness in his countenance, Seip concluded his story to Leiza about how the great rebel group gradually dissolved after Fyrod's betrayal.
-We could not overcome the death of our leader, the lack of cohesion within the group ended up weakening us too much. Small subgroups were formed, some of which rushed to organize an immediate offensive towards the kingdom, getting easily crushed. Many others, who remained still active, began to be persecuted relentlessly by the royal guards. That manhunt did not end until the King felt satisfied and declared the rebellion dead. Some of us only survived because we gave up the cause; we considered more important to devote our existence to attainable goals, rather than to die participating in such an unequal and futile war. Without Rioya, the alliance with the stone men ended, they returned to the forest to protect the order and harmony in it. I built this camp after I tried to do something of value and, together with my companion Dartio, formed the project I always wanted to create to prove to myself that I could be more than just a lucky person who had a potion.
-Did you drink a potion like Mity and Luespo?
-Yes, only that mine contained the power of the incandescent arms, and not the ability to become gigantic.
-Did you know beforehand the power you would get by taking that potion?
-I did. I was able to choose the one I liked the most from several options, something that I never imagined would be a possible scenario a long time ago. Potions are very expensive items and my family didn't have a lot of resources. Thanks to the fact that my father was the soldier responsible for saving a member of the royalty in an attempted assassination raid, he was offered a potion as a reward, which he preferred to give to his teenage son in order for him to become a much better warrior than his father could ever be. I consumed the liquid from the bottle that allowed me to sprout incandescent arms from my back. With that I went from being a mediocre fighter to becoming the most feared of my entire training group. Very quickly, the level of respect and opportunities given to me was very different. That potion changed my life, but it also made me feel guilty about it.
-Are you crazy? What fault could you have had in that?
-That' s a good question. I was never the most outstanding student at the academy. There were fellow classmates with remarkable innate abilities who dedicated their entire existence to training. They were far superior to me, but the potion made me jump in line and surpass them. Not because of my effort or talent, but because I was lucky enough to take it. I was the only one who could leave the group, all those people I met at that time ended up stuck in the lower levels of the militia, as new recruits with Goan in them were always coming up to surpass them quickly. I realized that remaining stagnant would have been my fate had I not had that stroke of luck. Nevertheless, I was soon surprised when I moved up the ranks in the military to find that having taken a potion was a minor thing for some people. Those of us who did not receive a direct transfer from Goan were seen as inferior fighters, never comparable to them. I felt I didn't belong in either world. Thanks to the power of a potion, I surpassed the group of students I grew up with, but I couldn't match up to a different group of people who had access to something even better. The key to economic, social or physical power was always linked to the Goan.
-What do you mean by a direct transfer of Goan? -Leiza asked intrigued.
-In the beginning, the original heirs of Goan, Adorisse and Bopo, transferred it by placing their hand on the person's body. This allowed the power to arrive in a more abundant state, although with greater difficulty to control it. When Bopo switched to the model of transmission by potions, the amount contained was diminished. The Goan is a resource capable of being shaped on three levels: destruction, regeneration and creation. The potential in it grows as you advance in level. In essence it is not very different from the most important element on this planet: water. The easiest thing you can do with both resources is to destroy; the destruction level does not require much skill, just a large volume of the element. A tide can wipe out everything in its path, but that's not even close to the best that water has to offer. The second level is regeneration, where both Goan and water manage to preserve life. This level does not require as much volume of the element, but a better knowledge of how and where to use it. Finally, the ultimate expression is found in its capacity to create; this is the third level of Goan. Only water has the virtue of creating life, and whoever completely masters the Goan is capable of generating things with a minimum depletion of its power. The greatest exponents can create variations in size, produce fire, wind, ice or earth at will, and if they wish, cause four incandescent arms to sprout from their back. But don't be fooled, just because I can do the latter doesn't mean I've mastered the third level. It means that Bopo, the original heir, ended up discovering that the only way to transfer a smaller amount of Goan into a potion was by isolating a specific ability from the creation phase. Therefore, those of us who drink it, deplete our Goan at a slower rate, although the downside is that we cannot use techniques unrelated to our ability, because our Goan reserves are very low. Releasing power at a destructive or regenerative level would soon deplete them.
-Does that mean that Luespo and Mity will stop being giants at some point?
-That's right, they will no longer be able to do so when they have exhausted all the Goan inside them. Though it is possible to train them to voluntarily control their ability, thus making them dose their reserves efficiently. But I can't help them with that, if you are looking for a mentor in the use of Goan, you are in the wrong place. This camp is quite the opposite, a site I built to train those who don't have it, ordinary people looking to make a positive change in the world by themselves. The skilled women and men you see in this place are talented fighters in their own right.
-That sounds amazing! But don't get me wrong, isn't it a bit contradictory that a person with Goan is the one running this place?
-It's the same question I asked myself for a long time. I felt ashamed to have, thanks to a fortuitous event, access to opportunities that others would never receive. I wanted to surrender that gift, until I met Rioya, who opened my eyes. He was the one responsible for removing that guilt in me. He showed me that I was a fortunate person with an awareness of it, and that the idea of abandoning that position to put myself on an equal level with others was absurd. I had to use that gift to stand up for people less fortunate. I will never forget the way he said it: "If you are convinced that you would have never made it without that potion, dedicate your life seeking to achieve that if tomorrow you were born again in the world you are helping to shape today, there would be better opportunities to stand out for your effort and not just because of a potion. Don't give up that power of yours, use it for your cause."
-That's a good vision of life. I like the way you think, Seip. You know, I can no longer go back to where I lived before. I don't have Goan or great skills either, but just like you, I have always wanted to make an impact on the world. Do you think you could accept this young woman as one of your students? I am small and not very strong, but maybe I can become a good warrior with time. What do you think?
Seip smiled at Leiza's request and answered quickly:
-In this place we don't believe that the will always comes packed in big sizes. Your training starts tomorrow morning at six o'clock, girl.
Seip's words couldn't be more serious. The following day, while the sunlight was beginning to filter into the tents, Dartio - his right-hand man and partner in battle for several years - visited Leiza to take her to the training site. There, all the members of the group were getting ready for the beginning of the session. Only the giant pets, Mity and Luespo, who still had many hours left to sleep, remained in the camp. At the top of a tree, Zaz's slender body was squatting, waiting to witness its companion's debut in combat. Leiza had never imagined becoming a fighter, but in a short time her life changed radically. Although she was a sensitive and loving woman with her loved ones, she also appreciated independence and was insatiably curious about learning and discovering new things. Knowing that they were being pursued by the kingdom, her primary learning had to come in the form of self-defense skills. She could not be a burden to Zaz, Luespo and Mity.
Leiza joined the rest of the patrolmen in a line, who looked at her with surprise because of her fragile appearance. They arranged in several rows that left enough space between them to have mobility. Dartio the instructor, who was not a Goan wielder, but had a fast and powerful combat technique, took the lead. Nobody else was able to know the human being's potential in his natural state like him, since he had worked very hard to develop himself. The beginning of the session was abrupt, Dartio had no mercy on anyone. From the first minute, Leiza received the maximum demand and was already beginning to suffocate just with the warm-up exercises. When they moved on to the sparring practice, the little girl discovered what physical pain was in a new way. Her unfamiliarity with fighting was such, that she was not even able to guard herself. The punches entered without being muffled - blows that were quite considerable for her, despite the fact that no one was using their full strength-. Dartio stood by her side to watch, and did nothing to stop that massacre, he said that in the real world no one was going to restrain her adversaries. Zaz witnessed from high above with annoyance the suffering of its ally. It noticed that several patrolmen in the group were judging Leiza with condescension, not believing that she was capable of surviving the training for more than a week for being such a small and fragile girl with no previous combat experience. She was being thrown into the beasts' jaws to be devoured. Zaz could relate to that, when at some point in its life, it had to get out of the savage lawlessness of the forest. Many wounds and deformities on its body were the result of that urgent learning experience. Watching Leiza take a beating made it realize that it made a big mistake by focusing on training only the giant cat and the giant dog, omitting her from the sessions. It judged her in the same way as those patrolmen, and didn't believe in her because of her small size. It realized that it would have to do something to correct that mistake.
Leiza finished the first training session with Dartio and the patrolmen in a demolished state, doubts and defeatist thoughts arose in her attempt at learning how to defend herself. At breakfast, she ate some soup quickly so she could return to her tent and fall asleep for hours. It was until nightfall when she awoke, aided by Zaz's hand touching her with a reddish aura releasing Goan in regeneration mode. Leiza's fatigue and pain disappeared completely and she felt better than ever. However, Zaz had no intention of leaving her in that state for long, it was time to start with the nocturnal training. It took her to a distant area where they began to work on combat techniques. There, Leiza experienced a nightmare again, as she did not fare very well against Zaz's enormous dexterity, who was not holding back with her. It did so, because it knew that it was necessary to accelerate the learning process to the maximum, so much that Leiza fainted at the end of the night. Zaz carried her to the tent and cured her with regenerative Goan once again. This double training session became a new routine for Leiza.
Seip noticed the movement happening in the camp at night. Although he never objected on it, he just watched it with pleasure and used it as an argument to refute Dartio's initial disapproval after allowing Leiza to train with the group:
-I didn't just bet on her, I bet on her whole team. Those four are special, and as a group, they will be able to pull through.
In less than two weeks, Leiza's movements became agile and she was no longer afraid of contact. She was able to defend herself in training. She was becoming a warrior.
