Die. Respawn. Repeat.

Mari and I are positioned across each other in a makeshift arena. She's come up with rules for this spar, this time it's different from the time I trained with her and Tarin in preparation for the Raid. According to her, it's because this time I don't need to get strong as fast as possible; I just need to understand the skills I already have.

And the Inspiration, which throws a whole other curveball into my Firmament skills, if Gheraa was telling the truth about them. I don't think I can apply the Inspiration to any other category of skill I've tried. It's like trying to force a square through a round hole; it doesn't work.

But when it does...

I have three Firmament skills at the moment Color Drain, Firmament Manipulation, and Temporal Fragment. My understanding of each is fairly limited.

Color Drain, according to Ahkelios, allows me to drain specific colors out of things, with different colors corresponding to different effects. I don't know what those effects are, yet, and the only thing Ahkelios remembers is that red probably corresponds to Strength.

Firmament Manipulation is pretty much just what it says on the tin. I have no idea how an Inspiration like the Mirror could possibly modify it, though I'm looking forward to finding out.

Temporal Fragment is by far the most nebulous of the three, and I suspect that has something to do with how the Interface offered it out of line with its usual credit-to-skill-rank ratio. I'm grateful for it, considering its versatility, but that only means I need to understand it more I might be missing something important. I probably am missing something important.

Which brings us back to Mari's rules.

"I tell you rules," Mari says sternly. She folds her wings across her chest. "If you break rule, we train longer. We train until you no break rule. Then we eat and you take break. Okay?"

"Right," I say.

"Rule one!" Mari points at me in a way I think is unnecessarily dramatic. "You no use same skill or skill combination twice. Use Inspiration, or think of new way to use attack."

Reasonable. I grimace when I think about how I'd only thought of Firestep being more in the middle of a fight with Naru. I need to be more aware of what my skills can do, and I haven't taken the time I should to figure them out.

"Two, you not hold back," Mari says. "I strong enough to take you."

She is ridiculously strong. The Raid had suppressed her to an absurd extent; the fact that she's able to hold her own against Naru though she'd said Naru was almost certainly holding back tells me she's beyond me, even now. I wonder if the crows would've been able to deal with the Raid properly, if the Interface hadn't actively suppressed their Firmament.

Probably. I remember Tarin saying something about that. Hestia's overwhelmed by monsters, and they just want the Trial to be over, so they can have the planet to themselves again.

"Three." Mari's expression is serious. "You not hurt village."

"What?" I blink at her, stunned. "I would never."

"It important rule," Mari says, not budging. "You agree?"

There's a look in her eyes that makes me understand where she's coming from, a little. She has no reason to think I'll hurt anyone, obviously, but she's also clearly had a past with Naru, and maybe that's where all this is coming from.

"Yeah, of course," I say. I'm not going to argue with her about something I'm not going to do anyway. "I have a question, though."

"Question?" Mari cocks her head at me.

"Why are you and Tarin so much stronger than the others?" I ask. It's a question that's been on my mind. "Not that I've fought any of the others, but during the Raid..."

Mari considers the question for a while. "You beat me in spar first," she finally says. "Then I tell you."

Beating Mari in a spar is easier said than done by which I mean I don't think it's something I'll be able to do this loop, or for the next several loops.

At least Ahkelios is enjoying himself. I'm pretty sure he's shoveling handfuls of moss between his mandibles, and while I'm curious about how that works when he's a fragment made of nothing but Firmament, I decide that's a question I'll deal with later.

First, I have a scary bird mom I need to fight.

Mari wants me to be creative in the spar, but her own bag of tricks at least what she's shown so far is pretty limited. She's a powerhouse in the strength department, but not nearly as fast as her husband; where she excels is her Firmament control. It's a force multiplier that lets her hit above her weight class, and she knows exactly how and when to move her Firmament.

Case in point: When I start with my basic move, the Barrier-Firestep-Triplestep-Crystallized Strength combination, she simply tanks it. I feel a massive spike of Firmament right over the area I'm about to hit, and although I try to shift my strike to accommodate, she simply moves to match me. Punching her is like punching feathers made of steel, and I'm very glad I decided to use Barrier.

Mari doesn't even bother fighting back. She stares at me, like she's waiting for me to throw my next punch, and I think about what I can do.

There's Firestep. Firestep had hurt even Naru, when I used it, and I don't understand why; that entire aspect of the skill is hidden to me. But I've used it, and now the flames behind me are raging with Firmament. I coax them forward, trying to recall the state of my mind during the fight; a determined sort of anger, glowing brightly, with a target.

It's hard to aim that target at Mari, considering all she's done for me, but the flames respond to my will anyway. They're not as strong or as bright as they were against Naru, but consciously focusing on them clearly makes a difference. Mari looks at the flames, and then raises an eyebrow at me, as if to say 'really?'

"I don't really understand that skill yet," I say. I'm not sure why I feel the need to defend myself.

Mari steps forward into the flames, and I almost reach out and pull her back. I remember what those flames did to Naru I remember him screaming.

But Mari doesn't react at all.

"Hm," Mari says. "Flames tickle. Not strong."

What?

Why?

The flames of Firestep clearly have an emotional component to them. Maybe what they did to Naru; he's not as in control of his emotions as Mari is. That's not exactly a theory I can test.

"Oh," Mari says. She looks up at me, and her eyes are bright; I take an instinctive step back. "Flames burn heart."

That's... a vague statement. I don't have enough time to understand what she's saying, because she suddenly rockets towards me, and I have to put everything I have into defense.

Barrier!

The barrier shatters beneath her strength, though it does manage to slow her down; I'm already Triplestepping away, this time avoiding Firestep so I don't repeat whatever it's done to her. She doesn't look like she's lost control, exactly, but she doesn't look happy.

"Hey, uh, do we need to stop"

I barely dodge her next attack, which is a kick that lands hard enough to leave a dent in the ground. I'm pretty sure she's not trying to kill me I've seen her fighting harder than this but she doesn't seem like she's in the mood for talking.

Fine. Let's figure this out.

Color Drain.

Ahkelios tells me that red should be strength, and Mari's primary ability is her strength and reinforcement. The problem is that there's not much red on her at all. Her feathers are a dull gray, and they shift to a dark turquoise as the red bleeds out onto the ground; she stumbles slightly, catching herself, but still darts towards me with enough Firmament in her wing that I know getting hit will hurt.

I've already used Barrier and Triplestep. Temporal Fragment.

I've been around this village enough that there are echoes of me everywhere, just going around the village; the one I grab isn't one that was doing anything, just enjoying his soup. I see Mari hesitate for a fraction of a second before landing her blow, looking up as if to make sure I'm not the echo and then her blow lands, and my echo's head is completely detached.

I wince as the paradox whips away the Firmament clone a second later, and it dissolves into nothing.

"Ew," Mari comments. I don't disagree, but I've let her take the offensive for too long. I call on Temporal Fragment again, and for the first time, I reach for the Inspiration within me.

The Mirror Twice Shattered Temporal Fragment.

It feels, for a moment, like time slows down. Five options present themselves before me, the initial four and the final one that I cobbled into the Mirror.

I make my choice.

Anger.

I feel energy drain out of me in a flash. The Fragment clone that forms this time burns with a furious red. Mari lets out a startled squawk as it swings towards her for a moment, I almost think it's alive, moving under its own will. Then I realize that this is just another moment from my past, transposed in location.

I recognize myself, vaguely. I'm pretty sure this is from the moment I punched Naru in the face the first time. I remember the boiling anger I felt in that moment how I couldn't understand how little he cared about his father. I'd only known Tarin for a short amount of time, and I cared more about him than his own son.

Faced with an image of myself from the outside, I'm struck for a moment by how pissed I looked.

Then the blow from my temporal clone pushes Mari back, the force of it immense despite her reinforcing Firmament. She lets out a startled caw as she twists, half-flapping a wing to balance herself again. She gathers herself and launches forward, cutting out with a wing to dissipate the clone.

Before she can, I forcefully interrupt the skill, cutting into it so the clone fades into nothing. Mari's swing hits nothing but air, and she stumbles, thrown off balance.

I've learned two things.

One, the Mirror is an incredibly versatile Inspiration. If I'm right about its use, then I've essentially got five different Inspirations folded into one. I can't help but wonder how powerful the Weapon would have been.

Two, using an Inspiration is exhausting. I've only used it once, and I feel like I've just fought through half a Raid. I've got maybe one more Inspiration in me before I collapse.

So I use it, of course.

The Mirror Twice Shattered Fear. Temporal Fragment.

Proper testing requires that I pick the same skill, and simply reflect it through a different part of the Mirror. I prepare myself for the drain, and use my Firmament sense to watch for what an Inspiration actually does.

Firmament gathers. It rushes through me, through the part of myself that feels like the Mirror, and something about the Firmament fundamentally changes.

A yellow Fragment clone coalesces out of the air.

In the same moment, I nearly collapse. Even prepared, the drain that roars through me makes my vision go gray at the edges. The Mirror drains something fundamental from me.

Mari's eyes flicker to me, concerned but she doesn't have time to help me, because the Fragment clone flickers into action, moving so quickly I can't track it. I can't even tell what moment in my life it's from. I do see that its path crosses with Mari's, and she doesn't have the time to move her Firmament to block.

It bounces off of her, thankfully.

That's about all I see before I slip into blessed unconsciousness.