“Sage said you had some training, so show me what you know,” he invited, crossing his arms over his chest and nodding toward my feet.
It had been a very long time since I was trained with the Foraoise Elves, but I had refreshed my memory a little with Sage. So I did my best to demonstrate what footwork I could recall while Ciaran watched impassively with that slight scowl on his face. I was beginning to think it was the grumpy asshole’s default expression.
He asked all kinds of inane questions from what kind of weapon I preferred to whether I had trained for solitary combat or formation. And it did not escape my notice that he was giving me almost all of his attention. There were other trainers present helping to facilitate the whole group under his supervision, but he stayed working with me.
And there were a few of the female students who were less than impressed.
“Everyone else is done now,” I pointed out hopefully a few hours later. We were the last two people on the field besides the trainers who were gathering the equipment.
“You are not everyone else, you are a rider, and we still need to try summoning your armour,” he reminded.
But at least he finally sat down with his legs crossed under him the way Amira sat when she was about to do her witchy meditations. I found the thought of him doing that was humorous until it occurred to me that it seemed like something he might actually do.
Ciaran motioned for me to sit with him, and I happily sprawled on the grass. He frowned and waited wordlessly until I sat up and did my best to mirror his position with my hands resting on my knees.
“Will summoning it not be easy once I’m initiated?”
“Why would you think that?” he asked.
“I don’t know, I just assumed being more connected to all of you would make all those things easier,” I admitted. Especially after Sage was able to help me see the shields in my mind that I’d never even known were there.
“Connecting with your armour and your vargr have nothing to do with your connection to the other riders,” Ciaran assured me. “Now let us begin.”
Unsurprisingly, I did not manage to summon my armour, but I did finally sense the vague shape of it like a spectre hovering at the edge of my consciousness. I just couldn’t figure out how to bring it forward and into the real world. But at least I felt my magic finally come back.
“How do I make it corporeal?” I asked impatiently.
“You do not need to make your magic corporeal for it to manifest. You simply will it,” Ciaran insisted.
He had shown me the utmost patience despite his usual grouchiness. I didn’t like to appear weak to others, but his no-nonsense persistence somehow wore down my usual defenses. And it occurred to me after a few hours that he likely knew how to work with me because of Aodhan.
“But it does not feel like a part of me,” I found myself admitting in frustration.
“That is probably because you have not bonded with it. It has been a long time since my induction, but I seem to recall that it got easier once I summoned it initially.”
We spent another few moments in silence while I tried to find a way to will that spectre in my mind to manifest into armour on my body before Ciaran spoke again.
“Are you aware there are new buds on your antlers?”
“What?” I gaped at him, my eyes snapping open as my hands reached up for my antlers to check them. I winced when I accidentally snapped a bud loose in my hand but then looked down eagerly. Only to frown in confusion.
“I don’t recognize this flower,” I mumbled.
“It is an Autumn bloom. Goldenrod,” Ciaran said as he sat closer to examine my antlers. “They are growing back similarly to how Aodhan’s did with Autumn flowers.”
“His antlers grew foliage again?” I verified excitedly. Why had no one thought to tell me this before?
“Yes, but they took many years to regenerate as much as yours have already. I had joined the Hunt by that time. And it was not long after that before he cut them off.”
Rian had told me about that decision the night before, although he had not mentioned regrown foliage. He told me that my brother cut off his antlers in direct defiance to their importance to dryad culture.
“Why?” I asked Ciaran, but he shook his head.
“He would never tell me why he did it. We were not close at the time,” he admitted.
“Because you had to kill Keelan to join the Wild Hunt, and they were close?” I guessed.
Ciaran looked shocked that I would know this, but he nodded before he quickly got to his feet and held out his hand to pull me up with him.
