Hanna, the girl with long dark hair, shy, stutters whenever she talks to people, her long-sleeved blouse outfit and pants, giving a conservative appearance, her hair hiding much of her face and reaching up to her waist, no matter if she is standing, sitting or walking, always inspires insecurity. From Chris's perspective, from what he has come to observe, she is an introverted, insecure and even unstable person, but that doesn't matter to him at all.
What Chris sees in her is a spark, one that can ignite a very bright future, while she clearly grabs determination from anywhere Chris just accepts anything she is going to pronounce with her little mouth. After the ritual of preparing to talk so long that you could cook a full meal, she starts talking:
"As a child I was normal, I attended school, I got together with other children, I always helped my parents with household chores. Nothing out of the ordinary, until I awakened my elemental power. I always had a lot more elemental power than the other kids, so much so that the teachers at the school constantly talked to my parents about training me to greatness... My mother always refused. She defended me from all the bullying and my father told me to do things at my own pace, to take it easy.
I really felt safe at home and eventually stopped attending school and my parents didn't care about it, on the contrary, they felt safer with me inside. But one day it was all over, the Lord of that time came to the door and tried to convince them and again they refused. My parents were all night arguing about what they were going to do, eventually the Lord was going to take me by force, and they were going to end up suffering.
Being so young and in that environment, I ended up falling asleep and had nightmares and by the time I woke up the house was engulfed in flames. The more I was upset and scared, the more the flames were fanned, my parents came into my room and sheltered me, and then I lost consciousness. By the time I woke up I was covered in bandages and the healers told me that my parents saved me from the fire. They sacrificed for me; the fire was so intense that their elemental power was not enough to make it out alive. "
She, with her right hand trembling, showing that her heart beats quite hard and fast, discovers her face in its entirety, showing scarred skin in little more than the right half of her face and with the light of the campfire it is clearly seen that her right hand and neck are also in those conditions.
Chris maintains his composure, while listening carefully only the almost certain possibility that this state extends through the entire right half of his body passes through his mind. Meanwhile, Hanna, gradually filling herself with a lump in her throat, begins to speak more fluently:
"Ever since, I went to live with my grandfather and no one tried to approach me again, the children treated me very badly, saying that I killed my parents, the only person besides my grandfather who treated me as a person was Lillian, she wanted to help me heal my scars, but she never could. But I do appreciate that she treats me well for so long.
She doesn't even care about my appearance, for she was born blind. Even after gaining the leadership of the nation, he continued to improve his skills to heal my scars and makes time to be with me. He truly is the best person I have ever met."
Chris stood his ground and asks her to stop, that she doesn't have to force herself so hard. He just puts a hand on her shoulder and tells her it's enough, she doesn't have to say more. She begins to let go in tears and he ends up comforting her for a long time, until she fell asleep.
While Hanna sleeps, Chris keeps looking at her face, calmer than the forest where he surprised her and begins to shudder a little, clearly having a bad dream. Chris just puts one hand on her forehead and calms her down a bit, and gradually wakes up. It's barely dawning and she’s a mess, and he just gives her a faint carefree smile.
—You'd better prepare, it'll a tough first day. — says Chris with motivation trying to convey to Hanna —«I will help you; I promise you. I don't want to see you cry like that again, like Karen used to. »
With a face full of sleep and staggering half asleep Hanna is standing in the light of dawn and Chris positions himself in front of her at a short distance.
—«What will it make me do? » —is the only thing that goes through Hanna's mind as she tries to stay awake, slapping her cheeks to finish waking up, putting on a look of insecure determination.
From a bag Chris takes what she needs to make a campfire and a flint and a piece of iron. He places them on the floor and asks Hanna to turn it on, and with a body expression of total discomfort she sets out to do so. With a little of Chris' guidance, she gets to turn it on and stoke it. Once lit Chris asks her to sit in front of the campfire and he sits on the opposite side.
With an air of security Chris is ready to address some very important words.
—My teacher, even if he taught me to be a warrior, was actually a Fire adept, and an old friend too, so believe me when I tell you that I have some real experience with fire, in a sense.
He asks her to take her hands, left with right and right with left and tells her to close her eyes.
—What do you visualize in your mind at this very moment? Can you imagine the fire in your house, or do you imagine only fire?
These questions begin to rumble in Hanna's mind, and she begins to get upset.
—Stay calm, pay attention to your current surroundings. Not with your gaze, but with your whole being. The campfire, although it is warming our bodies, is a relatively small and quiet flame. With your hands feel my pulse, listen to my breathing and follow the rhythm.
Hanna begins to calm down, concentrating on following her rhythm, paying full attention to Chris' voice, speaking lower and lower.
—Imagine a candle, that small, uniform flaming candle, one that is disturbed by just our breathing. Visualize it between your hands and in them you feel the beat of your heart. You feel your breath and realize one thing, a simple but great thing, the flame begins to grow, but not violently, no, it grows slowly with your breath. It is feeding on you, but at the same time you can feel its heat, it gives you a warm feeling that relaxes your body, you are feeding on the flame.
Chris lets go of Hanna's hands and watches her closely.
—Keep that image, keep that feeling, record in your being the feelings you have right now.
He asks her to open her eyes, and to her surprise the campfire is out.
—Look in your hands. —says Chris and Hanna realizes something impossible, between her hands lies the flame of the campfire, but it has a uniform and calm shape, as if it were on a candle.
Hanna stays watching the flame, her gaze submerged inside it, and Chris utters a few words that would be engraved in her soul.
—That flame represents your being; your elemental power maintains and feeds that flame and depending on what you feed it with it will take on a certain form and intensity. If you feel fear the flame will be unstable and if you are full of passion the flame will be intense like the sun.
Hanna's gaze, still stuck in the flame, begins to show that spark that Chris saw from the beginning, he even begins to show a slight but very sweet smile and Chris decides to record that moment in his heart. He has just fanned a flame that could illuminate the world and begins to feel something.
—« Did my teacher feel the same when he was training me? They’re difficult things to explain in words, so I don't have to think about it much, if it makes you feel good, what's wrong? » —Chris meditates and decides to follow the most important advice given to him by his teacher: Follow your instinct.
After a long time keeping the flame in her hands, Hanna rests a little and Chris puts her to meditate on it, she must record and reproduce that feeling naturally, because, after all, it is part of her and denying her fire power means refusing to be herself. Chris puts her to turn on the campfire again and repeat the exercise, this time without his help and after being a few minutes in front of the campfire she achieves the same result, and Chris makes her repeat the exercise more than twenty times throughout that day.
Exhausted from collecting firewood, lighting it and "grabbing" the fire from the campfire, Hanna retreats to her house with Chris accompanying her. Hanna apologizes to Chris for taking his training time to train her.
—I've been training for more than 10 years; training you is much more fun. —Chris nonchalantly says, what he wants least is to kill the motivation of the girl who asked him for help.
—«Is it really amusing you that I am exhausted from so much walking in the forest? » — Hanna thinks seeing Chris' smile at not having to put so much effort into teaching her, although what he said leaves her intrigued —«Chris has trained for more than 10 years, how many years was he with his teacher? Did he have more than one teacher? What things will they have taught him to move so securely and naturally? Even without being a Fire adept he knows very well the bases, his teacher and an old friend, is he talking about Karen, the Shinigami? » —all of those questions go through Hanna's mind as they walk to her grandfather's house.
Once they arrive, Chris says goodbye to her and tells her that she can train with candles if she wants to practice more. Once away Hanna retires to her room and Chris reunites with his companions at the inn and they prepare for another day of hard work.
Chris, Guilian and Tsubaki have a feast at the inn and talk about the places where they are training. Dinner feels more alive than before, Guilian and Tsubaki see how Chris is in a good mood and ask him if anything good happened in the past two days.
—I wouldn’t, say it happened to me, I just found a good way to pass the time. —Chris replies before choking on food and leaving his two companions without food for themselves.
Meanwhile, at Hanna's house, her grandfather asks her where she was, she didn't tell him she was going to stay outside, but she doesn't want to talk about it. After spending years supporting her in her darkest moments, Grandpa can only resign himself to giving her space, though she apologizes:
—Sorry to worry you, it's just that there is something I seriously want to do. When I'm ready, I'll tell you. —Hanna's words seem too important to her grandfather to interfere.
—Okay, just don't overdo it. Remember that, in excess, even the best medicine can destroy someone. —Grandpa's words are wise.
Grandpa finishes some details and gives Hanna a box with typical Vodheim sweets. He asks Hanna to take it to the young man who walked her home, as a thank you for his help and she agrees with great encouragement.
The next morning, Hanna is surprised to see Chris at his post:
—It's time to start, come on. —says Chris with a smile of "Today I won't let you rest a little bit”, and Hanna prepares as quickly as possible with a lot of nerves, although it was she herself who asked for the instruction.
Instead of going to the same camp near the forest, he takes her to run around the city, Hanna really notices that she is not in shape compared to Chris. Almost out of breath, Hanna asks him why that exercise.
—It doesn't matter if you exercise physically or elementally, what you are forging is your mental state. Even if it is in combat or in a quiet place, you must maintain your mentality and tranquility. Another lap and try to keep up. —Chris' words are said so confidently that Hanna stops panting for the marathon.
With Chris' guidance, Hanna begins to take her rhythm, inhales through her nose, one step forward, exhales through her mouth, another step forward, tries not to land her foot with her heel. After finishing the second lap around the city they arrive at the camp of the previous day, and he puts her to light the campfire. This time she's not just going to grab the fire, she's going to light more campfires from one. That raises the difficulty for Hanna, but the goal is clear, each time she will require more control and the mentality that makes her forge is fundamental.
As Hanna struggles in her training, Chris tastes the sweets he received from Hanna. He loved what, according to Hanna, are called chocolates with almonds, in addition to having a "caramel" cover, Chris enjoyed the sweets very much and that made Hanna happy while making it difficult for her to focus.
And so, the days became weeks, every day they ran, every day she lit bonfires, every night she played with the flames of the candles in her room, even on rainy days she kept the flames lit for the campfires, now she had familiarity with the fire she held in her hands, protected them and fed them so that they would not be extinguished. One day, Chris asked Hanna to do the first exercise, from day one... no campfire. Hanna was confused, but still tried.
She imagined the flame, fed it with his elemental power and…boom! There was a flame in her hands, Hanna had created fire with her elemental power, instead of stoking and controlling the fire that already existed. That fire was totally hers, and she looked at it as the first time, "That flame is you" are the words that go through her head, the words that Chris said to her from the beginning, and she feels, for the first time, that she begins to know herself for real.
Chris sees in her a brighter smile than the first time, maybe she is not a warrior, but her spark is getting bigger, now it is a quiet flame, it shows from afar in her eyes. But it's not time for sentimentality, Chris raises a wall of earth and puts Hanna the next exercise: "Go through the wall and reach me."
Hanna is a gentle soul, but she knows full well that when Chris says it, everything has some purpose or meaning. She throws the flame and goes out immediately, barely moved away from her hand and disappeared. Now the difficulty lies in keeping the flame away and Hanna has it clear about the goal just with the first attempt. Already with weeks of daily training, Hanna and Chris can understand each other without needing to speak directly.
Days go by and finally the flame reaches the wall, but it does not do much, it barely has a few embers in the impact zone, she must make the flame larger and more concentrated, throw it with more speed, not with force, but with power. And she throws over and over again for days, until one morning, after trying all night before, without sleeping or resting for a minute, Chris is asleep on the other side of the wall and a tremor wakes him up. The wall was not only pierced, but it was also destroyed, and each piece is covered in flames and from among the dust in the air Hanna comes out with a fireball in one hand and easily any adept can tell that a large amount of fire is concentrated in the ball the size of a fist.
Her gaze, full of determination, suddenly changes to an expression of concern when she sees that Chris is covered in the rubble and begins to apologize multiple times for the disaster. What a change of attitude, but that only makes Chris start laughing outloud.
—Destroying that wall was not only an exercise, but it is also an analogy, going through any adversity and moving forward. That was my teacher's last teaching. —Chris' final lesson to Hanna, a treasure she will keep for the rest of her life.
With a Hanna starting to bring tears for finishing her training, Chris is full of satisfaction to see how far his student has come and the tournament a few weeks away from starting is how a new life begins for the shy, but gentle Hanna.
