I watched Rolwen as he went back and forth, performing the earth kata again and again with a look of determination on his face. Ever since Nymph reported a small tremor in the ground when Levin was practicing his Earth kata, Rolwen had been doggedly practicing every second he could find some free time.
The Earth kata was the first of the five basic kata. All five of the basic kata started the same way. They mimed a defense against an attack from an imagined opponent, with a step backward at the same time as the block is raised. During the step back, you also move the hand that is to deliver the counter into a ready position.
In the case of the Earth kata, this ready position has the hand held straight back behind you, in a position reminiscent of the Yoga warrior pose. The idea of the Earth kata is to use gravity to your advantage, so the attack was to swing your arm like a pendulum. The power behind the strike comes from the transferred force from the pendulum-like swing. If you can time your step during the attack perfectly, right as the arm is crossing your hips, you can impart a bit of extra force behind it. In fact, if you don’t get the step correct then there is actually almost no real power in the strike at all.
It was a very simple motion when viewed by an outside observer, but there were several layers of complexity just to execute this single motion. When I had first learned it, it really felt like they’d placed the most difficult of the five kata first for some reason. The others seemed much simpler by comparison. I only learned later that this was done to help ready your mind for the deeper aspects of what was to come.
The fact that this kata only consists of those two moves is a true saving grace considering the sheer number of hidden complexities in this very simple looking move. All the kata consist of only two moves, and look far more simple than they truly are. The idea was that, when practicing, you would simply repeat those two moves. The simplicity would allow you to descend more deeply into a meditative state. And, right now, Rolwen had been going at it for quite a while.
It was an admirable work ethic, but I just wish he wouldn’t do it outside, where all the elves could see.
[What is he doing?] an elven child asked, while watching Rolwen with interest.
[It’s some kind of dance he likes to do,] a younger kid said.
[It looks like he’s trying to fight something,] the first kid said. [It’s way too stiff for a dance.]
[Nah, he’s just bad at it because he’s little. I saw Levin doing the same thing, he’s a lot more loose with it,] the second commented.
Yeah, that’s also an issue. Rolwen is not exactly in the right mind-set for meditation right now, and it has begun to show in his moves. He’s really not doing the kata right. I can see the tension in his shoulder as he swings his arm, it’s ruining the transfer of force.
Rolwen stopped with a groan and glared over at me and the kids who had taken an interest in him. He locked eyes on me, and his expression immediately turned bitter.
Seriously? Don’t look at me like that. You’re the one who decided to practice your kata outside, in the middle of the day, while we were surrounded by prying eyes. I would love to offer advice, but I’ve gotta play the role of the sickly weak child in front of these kids. Doubly so out here, considering the adults watching from a distance as well.
[But isn’t Levin the same age?] the older elven child asked.
[I guess he’s just better at it.] the younger replied.
Rolwen groaned and sulked over toward our direction.
“Levin, can you tell him something?” I asked. “I just need you to cover so that I can say something.”
“Uhh… sure,” he said.
The other kids around started giggling. [They taught Asa how to speak the language they use!] a body said.
[Yeah,] I said, putting on the overly proud smile of a child eating up their praise. I didn’t over do it too much though. I was still officially a 2 year old toddler, after all. Supposedly, I shouldn’t have much of an attention span at this age.
Levin looked over his shoulder, unsure of what he should be saying. The agitated poise of Rolwen’s body language wasn’t exactly helping.
“So, what am I doing wrong?” Rolwen asked.
[What did he just say?] one of the younger elven boys pestered me. I decided to ignore him.
“Uhhh… well…” Levin hemmed and hawed, as he glanced back over at me. “Well, you… I don’t know.”
“Your mind is stiff so it’s making your movements stiff,” I said. “You need to visualize the feeling of earth a little better.”
[What are you people SAYING!?] the kid demands with large agitated arm movements. I decide to take advantage of baby status and groan as I swing my hand blindly in his general direction to ward him off.
Rolwen sighed “I thought I was visualizing earth!” he barked.
Levin glanced at me, and then turned back to Rolwen.
“Can’t talk more now,” I said, and looked around to indicate the elves. I couldn’t be seen to be the one offering them all of their ‘dance’ advice.
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“Yeah, of course,” Rolwen said with a heavy tone and glanced back to Levin. “So, I thought I was doing it right. For earth we create an image of something that symbolizes earth to us. I visualized the earth moving with magic and it’s not working.”
“Oh! No, that’s not right.” Levin said in a tone that made it sound like he was proud about figuring something out. “I don’t think it is, anyway,” he added, suddenly far less sure of himself.
“Yeah, it’s not,” I confirm. “You can’t think about the action. That’s going to make your thoughts heavy. Levin, what were you thinking about when Nymph said you managed to do something with earth magic?”
“Uhh… it was… umm… I started by thinking about a grassy field, and then I was fighting someone on that field and I threw my arm forward like in the kata, and suddenly my arm in the vision whipped like rubber and it turned into an upper-cut that sent the guy flying. Then, all of a sudden Nymph said something happened,” Levin said.
“That’s good,” I said. “You weren’t thinking about doing earth magic, you were thinking about a result that could be caused by your actions, but not the action itself. The part about the vision warping into some kind of extra-ordinary action is interesting too, there's definitely something to that. I think the most significant thing in it though is, correct me if I'm wrong, but you didn't actually consciously form the vision that way, right?"
"Huh? Oh, no. No, I was just going to do the kata normally in the vision," Levin said.
“Hmm…” Rolwen made a thoughtful noise.
“I haven’t been able to do it again since then, though,” Levin added.
“That’s probably because now you’re thinking about trying to reproduce your previous actions,” I said. “You stopped thinking about results, and now you’re thinking of actions. Just like the problem Rolwen is having now. Also, I bet adding that extra-ordinary action into your vision by choice doesn't help a bit.”
"Yeah, uhh... I mean, no," Levin said.
“Hah!” Rolwen scoffed, shaking his head. “Ahh this meditation stuff is complicated. How the fuck did you ever get this stuff done on Earth without any actual magic results?”
“Well, that would be because of the light finicky joint-lock methods we use,” I told him. “The ones you mocked at first, the ones that are just like the jujutsu that is part of the MCMAP program, except with far less muscle behind them. Since we use no upper body strength for the joint locks, it takes the exact same mind-set that seems to work for magic.”
“Haha! You know? The more I hear, the more I think Tia was right,” Rolwen said. “It’s like this style was set up specifically to teach magic in a world that didn’t have magic, just in case the practitioners ever got access to mana again.”
He started walking to his training area again. But then, he suddenly stopped and turned back. “Hey, Levin. You wanna go for some partner training on this? Maybe we can offer each other pointers and actually figure this out.”
“Uhh… I dunno, what if one of us manages to make something happen?” Levin asked.
“Should be fine,” I said. “Just don’t hold any intent to hurt each other, it shouldn’t make an effect that will be harmful to your partner. While miming the other side’s involvement like Rolwen was doing is possible, this exercise was meant to be trained with partners.”
“Just one thing though,” I added. “Do it inside.”
“Ah, yeaaah,” Rolwen groaned. “It would be pretty darn stupid to get ourselves revealed for what we’re really doing because they saw me blocking a punch from Levin.”
At my encouragement, Levin somewhat hesitantly followed Rolwen back into Nymph’s tree.
[What? Hey! They’re leaving!] one of the kids said.
[Hey, they’re not supposed to leave Asa alone!] A somewhat older kid declared, and then turned to the teen human girl following him. [Hey! Help Asa get back to the tree!] he said. The girl nodded, and then picked me up to carry me back. Meanwhile, the elf kid went running ahead to give Nymph the mana she would need to open up her walls for us.
I found it a little disturbing that I was starting to accept it as a matter of course how naturally the human kids responded to the orders of elves here. They seemed to be treated well, but the subservient status of humans here was also pretty clear. They were treated more like servants without pay than beaten slaves living under a whip, but that really didn’t change the facts of the dynamic. To the elves, humans were only a food source that could also do a few simple tasks for them.
The strange thing was, they didn’t even seem to expect much out of humans in terms of what they were asked to do. A human failing or refusing to do what was asked of them was not even treated that harshly. Usually, the response was just a little bit of frustrated yelling or harsh glares. If the human continued to refuse, nothing was done about it. It seemed more like humans were treated as some kind of intelligent pet than anything else. Still incredibly degrading, but not exactly to the same level as a slave.
I sighed as I was carried back to the tree in pursuit of Levin and Rolwen, but then I noticed a strange sensation. I’d become a lot more sensitive to the intent of others ever since I’d started using the void to hide my spirit energy, and right now I was picking up something that seemed rather negative coming from one particular direction.
I looked out into the forest. There was an elven man off in the woods, peeking out from behind a tree at our activities. That was certainly creepy enough, but the really odd thing was his hair.
His hair was long and white, like the hair of an elderly person. It was not grey, and it was not silver like mine or Tia’s. It was completely white. His skin, though, looked young and healthy like a man in his 20s. It was a bizarre combination.
He suddenly noticed my eyes on him. He seemed rather unpleasantly surprised by that, and immediately slunk off deeper into the woods.
That was definitely strange. I was getting a bad feeling.