Training

As he walked back into the elf city that he hadn't seen in over a week, Roko very quickly found Momo standing outside a concession stand.

"Hey Momo." Roko called as he walked up to her.

"Whoa! Look who came down from the mountains!" Momo grinned as she turned to greet Roko, "Hey man! Want some fairy bread?"

"Eh, why not." Roko shrugged, "Anything happen in the past few days? I haven't been interrupted yet so I assume not."

"Well it's been mostly rebuilding stuff. Repairing houses, assigning new homes to those who were destroyed, distributing welfare as people start to get back on their feet, just a bunch of stuff we princesses are kind of used to. No doubt your help would be useful but we're not going to drag you out of your cave if you're busy."

"Umm...thanks..." Roko said as Momo handed him some fairy bread from the vendor.

"No problem. So what's the occasion? Got tired of work or did you just miss us?" Momo asked as she began munching on her own fairy bread.

"Mandatory vacation." Roko sighed, "Some people are more concerned for my health than I am."

"That's good." Momo chuckled, "Those type of people are the kind you should cherish in your life. Especially if you're not good at taking care of yourself to begin with."

"What do you mean, I've been working all this time and I've been fine." Roko frowned.

"Let's just say you're not exactly an unbiased source."

"But it's my life." Roko muttered as he bit into his fairy bread,

"Got any plans today?" Momo asked, "It's your rare unwanted mandatory vacation so you should spend it valuably."

"I dunno, I already spent this morning fighting Romer."

"You fought Romer?!" Momo cried, "At the barracks?!"

"Yeah."

"Dammit, the one time I'm not there and you go having an exciting fight without me!"

"It wasn't that exciting."

"I beg to differ."

"You haven't even seen it!"

"Yeah but I want to!"

"Well you can ask the dark elves for more details. I don't want to think about it anymore."

"Sounds interesting."

"It wasn't."

"Yeah yeah. So what are you going to do now?"

"I was going to make the rounds, see if everybody was okay and then maybe lay in bed for the rest of the day." Roko shrugged, "Honestly, I've forgotten what having a normal life was like."

"See, that? That right there is why you needed a vacation." Momo ate her fairy bread smugly.

"Whatever, I'm going to go check on the others." Roko sighed as he walked past Momo.

"Okay!" Momo grinned, "I'll see you at the camp then!"

"Camp?" Roko turned around, a dreadful feeling taking over his body, "What camp?"

"The training camp." Momo replied, "The one you're going to have in a couple of days?"

"..."

"Was that not your idea?"

"HELENA!"

"Oh heyo, it's Roko!" Helena smiled as she threw out two threes and a jack and drew three cards from the deck, "What's up, you seem frustrated?"

"Did you tell everyone I was going to do a training camp for everyone in our group?!"

"Oh that? That's old news." Helena chuckled as she revealed her three of a kind 10s to Roland's two pair of jacks, "Can't wait for it to happen though. It's in a few days so I hope you're prepared."

"You can't just tell everyone I'm doing something and NOT tell me!"

"Relax, it's just a bit of tomfoolery." Helena smirked as she took a share of potato chips from the center and added them to her plate as Roland began to shuffle up the cards again, "It's not like I expect you to honor it."

"Then why did you do it?!"

"To put some pressure on you."

"What?"

"Look, I know you got your research and all and I'm happy for you but after the raid and getting utterly quashed by the big orc, we've all been thinking of ways to get stronger. Momo included but that goes without saying. And believe it or not but we just couldn't decide on a direction to take our efforts. Hell, we had trouble coming up with ideas. So-"

"You decided to offload the work to me?"

"I mean, if you're not busy or anything."

Roko just glared at the smug princess in front of him.

"Told you he wouldn't be happy about it." Roland scoffed as he shuffled the deck.

"Then why didn't you stop her?!" Roko snapped.

"Man, what reason do I have to help you?!" Roland snapped back as he began to deal cards out again.

Roko hung his head as he considered his options.

"Potato chip for your thoughts?" Helena offered Roko one of her prizes.

"...Gimme a month."

"Pardon?"

"Gimme a month!" Roko growled, "I'll come up with something."

"Attaboy Roko! I knew we could count on you!" Helena clapped politely with the biggest grin on her face.

"I need to get back to my room." Roko sighed defeatedly.

"You just don't know how to say no to someone do you?"

"Shut up, Roland! Why are you even keeping a pair of twos anyway?!"

"Hey, I could get a third two! And Helena might not have anything so even just a pair of twos is-"

"Full house."

"GODDAMMIT!"

And so Roko cut his vacation short to start a project he never intended to start. Then he went back to work the next day at the library and began to work on two projects at the same time. Vine and Branch and even Rivera began to notice the seven folders that Roko began to carry around but didn't press too hard about it. Corissa was deeply concerned when she heard that Roko's workload had doubled and was only mildly reassured when Roko told her some of the work overlapped and it actually helped him sort some of his thoughts.

"Still, I made sure to punish Helena for bothering you." Corissa huffed.

"Really? What did you do?" Roko asked as he ate his ramen.

"I gave her a 1200 page book and made her do a book report on it, making her rewrite it over and over again until me and Vine are satisfied."

"That...sounds annoying." Roko said.

"She's been surprisingly compliant." Corissa shrugged, "I've seen her reading the book we gave her everywhere."

"What's the book called?"

"Love Lives Listlessly: The Life and Labor of Lance Lizack and Lucia Labble."

"Is...that a biography?"

"Umm...all Vine told me was that it was a love story."

"Vine reads some questionable stuff sometimes. Did you read it yourself?"

"Umm...Vine wouldn't let me read it."

"That doesn't bode well."

"It...it can't be that bad can it?"

"I know Vine's taste in books."

"So is it bad?"

"...Helena will be fine."

"So...can I read it?"

"Probably not."

"Why?"

"Read Helena's book report for the answers."

"That's going to take days!"

But slowly and surely a month passed and the day for Roko's Boot Camp(TM) arrived. Everyone, Momo, Helena, Corissa, Kaguya, Roland, Mikado and Varis all waited in the lodge for Roko to arrive. And Roko did, arriving like a tired college teacher with several folders filled with papers under his arm. Of course Helena had to spice up the occasion with a red carpet and several loud poppers. And confetti. And a party ball. None of which Roko found amusing to stand in the middle of. Once all of Helena's celebrations ended, Roko simply held up his folders and spoke,

"I've got ideas for each of you. We're going to discuss them privately in a room. You can come in alone or with your assigned knight. Doesn't really matter to me. Who wants to go first?"

"Unceremonious as always, Roko." Helena chuckled, "Way to bring down the party."

"This isn't a party, this is a boot camp that I was was coerced to do." Roko replied, "If you're not going to take this seriously, I'm going to head back to my room and sleep for a week. Now who wants to go first?"

The princesses all turned to look at Momo but Momo turned her head away, trying her best not to look too excited and anxious despite nearly shivering with anticipation.

"Then I suppose we'll go first." Kaguya offered, "I have a feeling that our meeting won't be very long anyway."

"Mikado and Kaguya then? Alright. Let's go."

Roko brought the two to one of the many simple inn rooms, sitting them down in front of the table before he sat down himself and shifted through the folders he had, picking out and placing down two folders with their names on it.

"Kaguya." Roko sighed, "And Mikado."

"Yes?" Kaguya smiled pleasantly, "Gosh, this feels like a job interview."

"You've been to a lot of job interviews?" Roko raised an eyebrow.

"We tried to get jobs for a bit after we were...ousted from the royal society. I'm afraid we didn't have much qualifications though."

"You've certainly gone through a lot."

"Well, that's all in the past." Kaguya smiled solemnly, "What matters is now and how we can get stronger."

"Right, well..." Roko opened up her folder, "I have some ideas but let's be honest here." He placed down the folder as he looked Kaguya in the eyes, "You don't want to grow stronger do you?"

Kaguya chuckled softly, "Always the sharp one aren't you? Yes, I admit I've enjoyed going through all these adventures with you but I'm afraid I can offer very little. I've killed but I've rarely fought. Mikado's an exemplary knight but not an exceptional one. And at least for me, I don't wish to become stronger than I am right now."

"I thought so." Roko nodded, "You've always been more concerned with the revival of your hometown and country. You've been mostly absent since we came here because you've been working hard to emigrate sustainable plants back to Fuyuki right? How's that been going anyway?"

"Quite well. I've discovered over 50 plants that could feasibly be grown in harsh cold environments." Kaguya replied, "I've been studying my options to see which are the most worth emigrating. Nothing quite revolutionary yet but they're promising at least. My apologies for being so absent."

"That's fine. We all have our own priorities." Roko nodded, "And if you don't want to grow stronger that's fine as well."

"But still, I'm curious." Kaguya smiled, "What did you write for me?"

"Ah, it's mostly questions about how your knife, Calcify, works. And if there's a chance to incorporate different poisons with it other than the urchin type you've been using."

"Hmmm..." Kaguya reached into her jacket and took out a small capsule with an organ in it, "This is the venomous organ that we harvest from the Usude Fuchi. Poison is drawn out of this still living organ to coat Calcify in toxins and this liquid poison freezes at the edge of the blade to make a true, sharper edge that break off and dissolve in the body of it's victims. It's made to especially work with the urchin venom but there have been speculation about using other types of poison. There's a specific balance of attributes that requires a poison that's able to be frozen into an edge."

 "Do you know or have any of them?"

 "I know maybe a handful of poisons that might work but I don't have any of them now nor can I say they would be easy to procure."

 "I see. That's fine." Roko sighed, "You're not the type for frontal assaults anyway."

 "While it's reassuring to hear you say that, I do have have my frustrations with my role in battle. Or lack thereof."

 "And yet you don't want to change do you?" Roko replied, "I'm not going to force you to fight, your poison has proven to be useful on several occasions already. If anything, when the time comes I hope you'll be willing to lend your expertise."

 "You plan on assassinating some people?" Kaguya smiled.

 "Not right now. But if there's no other choice, you'll be the only one that can help me."

 "Well, I'm certainly flattered." Kaguya chuckled, a light blush coming to her face, "But are you sure a career hero should be saying something like that?"

 "I've never considered myself a hero." Roko frowned, "You know that."

 "But that'd mean you're jobless."

 "Which is technically true."

 "Can't you at least call yourself a student?"

 "Have I learned anything?"

 "I should certainly hope so." Kaguya smiled, "Any tips for Mikado while we're here?"

 "Mikado, you're a very balanced knight. You don't have any particularly powerful ability but you have a good core of skills nailed down."

 "That's certainly true." Kaguya turned to her ever silent but stalwart knight, "Mikado's an exemplary knight but he's not extraordinary."

 "There's always the opportunity to learn something extraordinary." Roko suggested, "Be it magic or a sword style but I don't imagine you are?"

 "I may have some hidden strengths of my own but I can't quite access them as of yet." Mikado bowed apologetically, "I'm afraid you're stuck with my meager skills for now."

 "That's perfectly fine." Roko nodded, "Everyone's a bit too offense oriented anyway. Having someone good at defense with a sword and shield helps balances our roles out. Especially after Roland ditched his shield for another sword."

 "I see." Kaguya nodded as she picked up her folder and looked through it, "Then we'll focus on shoring up our defensive abilities for now."

 "That sounds good. Take your folders if you want, there's a few more ideas if you want to look them over."

 "Thanks." Kaguya handed Mikado his folder and got up, "We'll be sure to look over them."

 "Alright then." Roko sighed as the two left the room. "NEXT!"

 Upon Roko's announcement, Momo bounded into the room and sat down, nervous and excited in equal measure shaking her otherwise still body with anticipation. Roko sighed and pulled out the largest folder he had, packed fat with papers.

 "Momo." Roko sighed.

 "Yes?!" Momo gulped.

 "...How have you been doing?"

 "Oh. Oh uh...I've been doing fine. Helping out with the reconstruction where I can makes for pretty good training actually. Moving building material and supplies makes for good muscle training."

 "Uh huh. And are you satisfied?"

 "Course not!" Momo cried, "My fight with that giant kaiju monster? It was extremely difficult. I practically had to do it without magic since the thing eats magic. If I'm going to have to fight more of these things I have to bulk up even more!"

 "What about your magic?"

 "Of course...I want to get stronger there too..." Momo bit her lip, "But what do you want me to do? Start learning how to use that spell you taught me?"

 "Amp is one of the ways you could get stronger." Roko nodded, "There are some exercises I included to maybe start controlling it but there are easier ways to get stronger."

 "Like what?"

 "...I'm sure you've thought of this before. You've already faced it twice before. How do you feel about armament magic?"

 Momo sighed, "You're right. I have been thinking about it. But...as I see it...armament magic is too complex to apply it to multiple people at once. It would make ME stronger...but that's not what I want to become. I don't want to just be strong, I want to make others strong as well. I want to raise people, to give them the power to overcome adversity together. Armament magic just wouldn't allow me to do that."

 "...That's fine." Roko nodded, "I figured that would be your answer. Then we'll just work on your current strengths."

 "Okay but which ones?"

 "For starters, amp is a spell that strengthens your magical ability but also removes your control over them."

 "Right, that's the main problem." Momo nodded, "I can't think about how to use my enhancement without firing off spells randomly. Even using it for maybe one spell, I could end up repeating the spell in my head, stacking its effects and drawing more power and using more energy than I wanted."

 "Well, for starters gaining control over Amp would probably help." Roko nodded, "I'm not sure if it'll allow you to regain control over your other spells but hopefully it will give you a little more control."

 "Okay...how do you suggest I do that?"

 "Are you familiar with how to practice intentional casting?"

 "Oh." Momo rubbed her face. "Yeah I guess that might help."

 "Do you not like the idea?"

 "No, I..." Momo sighed, "I've been trying to master intentional casting on my other spells too in hopes that it'll help with that spell but..."

 "You want something more active to practice?"

 "I mean, if you got any ideas."

 "I do." Roko held up his hand, "Try punching me. Without reinforcement magic."

 "Okay..." Momo stood up wound her fist back and punched Roko's hand with so much power that Roko himself barely had the strength to stop it inches from hitting his face despite his block.

 "Very good." Roko winced and waved his sore hand around as Momo retracted her fist, "Now I'm sure you can imagine what would've happened if you use reinforcement magic."

 "Yeah. But what's the point?"

 "Try punching the wall." Roko pointed to the nearby wall, "However, use as little strength as possible but use your reinforcement magic."

 "O...kay?" Momo said, thoroughly confused. She walked up to the wall and basically tapped the wall with her fist. Nothing happened. She turned back to Roko, "So what's the idea?"

 "The idea is to further power up your reinforcement magic." Roko explained, "Your reinforcement magic strengthens your physical power the more magic you put into it but how much does it actually help? It's certainly provably effective but it could be even stronger. By removing your natural strength and putting all the onus onto your reinforcement magic, you'll be able to draw more power of it without having to spend more mana. Ideally anyway."

 "I think I get it." Momo nodded, "So...I work on improving my spell's power by reducing how much of my own power I put into it."

 "That's the idea."

 "Okay..." Momo smiled, "Okay, that sounds interesting. But what should my goal be?"

 "For starters we'll start small." Roko said, "Maybe making a small impact on like a log or some-"

 "I'm going to try and split a boulder!"

 "I..." Roko tried to say something but Momo had already run out the door in her excitement, "Okay..."

 "Hey Roko!" Helena knocked on the door as she came in, "Mind if we go next?"

 Roko sighed as Helena and Roland sat down in front of him.

 "Okay Roko, we're all yours! What have you got for us?"

 "Helena."

 "Yes?!"

 "You need to decide how to take your ice magic."

 "What do you mean?" Helena asked, confused but excited.

 "Your little stunt with the ice triangle."

 "You mean all the way back to the incident with the one cultist guy from Vera's village? What about it?"

 "It was effective but it's too weak and situational to be of much use. It requires a specific set up and it only amplifies an aspect of your ice magic that's not necessarily helpful."

 "What do you mean?" Helena asked, "Isn't ice magic supposed to frost over whatever it touches?"

 "Yes and it's certainly a powerful aspect of ice magic that you could employ." Roko nodded, "However in review of the skills, or rather, talents that you have it's not going to be that useful."

 "You're talking about my sniping, I presume?"

 "Exactly. Freezing over an enemy requires either a strong burst of magic or constant magical energy to induce a deep freeze. While the former is still viable for you, the latter is not your strong suit. For someone of your skills, I would focus on the sharpness of your ice. The sharpness, density, flying strength, speed and duration are all things I would focus on. The more damage you deal the further away you are, the better."

 "I mean that makes sense..." Helena frowned, "But then I'm so far away from the action..."

 "As a supplement for these skills, I would go to Momo and try to learn reinforcement magic for your vision."

 "Okay, that sounds a little neat, I guess." Helena pouted, "I'm still not sure how I feel about it. Being so far away from the action just isn't my style."

 "Okay, think of it this way. You're the guardian angel that comes out of nowhere to turn the table with impossible shots that hit exactly where the opponents aren't looking."

 "...I'm coming around on it..."

 "I might come up with some sort of hand signals to lead some of your shots."

 "Deal." Helena grinned, "I have a lot to learn now."

 "Some of the elves might be able to help further the strength of your magic."

 "Maybe but ice isn't usually an elf spell though. Maybe I can get some hints from Drift."

 "That'll work." Roko nodded. Then he slowly turned his head towards Roland.

 "What?" Roland snarled.

 "Roland…"

 "What?!"

 "You wield your swords like they're bats."

 "I resent that remark!" Roland stood up.

 "Calm down." Helena chuckled as she pulled Roland back down, "You'll never get better if you don't admit there are problems."

 "You definitely have a talent for dual wielding." Roko continued, "Unfortunately there isn't really a teacher for you to learn from. You're literally the only one I know who dual wields."

 "That's a good thing right?" Roland asked.

 "How do you expect to get stronger then?"

 "Well isn't that what you're here for?!"

 Roko sighed.

 "Look, do you have anything for me or not?!"

 "Short of sending you out into the woods to make you fight monsters all day?"

 "I'm not doing that." Roland scowled.

 "I'll make him do it." Helena offered.

 "It's fine." Roko sighed, "I've prepared a weighted sword for you. You can go pick it up at the elven armory. Use it to practice."

 "That's it?" Roland scoffed, "How heavy is this sword?"

 "Four pounds."

 "That's pretty heavy. That means I'll be swinging a total of eight pounds? I mean, I'm up to the challenge but-"

 "No, there's only one sword." Roko corrected, "You'll be swinging a regular practice sword with your other hand."

 "Well then what's the point?"

 "The point is to get you to be aware of your own openings. Dual wielding swords is a balance of responsibilities. When one goes on the offense, the other is not just preparing for another attack but covering one of your blind spots. When one retreats the other attacks. When one attacks the other guards. Until you learn this balance of roles, how your body can and should move and the tempo for a balanced and continuous assault, you have no right to call yourself a swordsman."

 "Okay buddy." Roland scoffed, "Let's not forget who's the weakest one of our group."

 "Corissa?" Roko said.

 "Okay, second weakest."

 "Kaguya?" Helena smirked.

 "Right, all of you can go fuck right off, I'm leaving." Roland scowled as he stood up and walked away.

 As Helena got up to leave as well, Roko spoke up, "By the way, Helena?"

 "Yeah?"

 "For fun, you can shoot at Roland during his training to help him find his blind spots."

 "You mean for the training right?"

 "Of course."

 "Gotcha." Helena winked, "Love ya, Roko!"

 "Bye." Roko sighed as the princess left.

 And with the sun setting over the horizon in the window behind him, Roko's last client walked into the room, more nervous than any of the girls that came before them. Corissa walked in and sat down timidly with the ever intimidating Varis standing behind her.

 "G-Good afternoon." Corissa smiled politely, "Or I guess it's good evening now. I should probably start preparing dinner after this."

 "Then I'll try and make this quick." Roko replied as he tossed out one folder labeled 'Varis'.

 "There's nothing in it." Roko said as Corissa picked it up and opened it, "That's because I genuinely don't know the full extent of Varis' strength and honestly he seems like he could defeat anything that we could ever encounter. That power is only limited by the fact that he is only one person. That's why I always tell you to keep him around you, so he can actually protect someone at least."

 "I see." Corissa said, "Varis really is strong isn't he? But I couldn't possibly ask him to accompany me all the time. He deserves some time to himself and I don't want to become a burden to him."

 "That's fine and but at least try to bring him along when you go outside."

 "Aw, it's not that bad when I go out."

 "..."

 "...Is it?"

 "Let's move on." Roko slid Corissa's folder across to her, "I think we've both been anticipating this."

 "Gosh, now you're getting me nervous. Err...more nervous."

 "..." Roko hesitated, the words floating in his head but his doubts holding him back.

 "This is about holy isn't it?" Corissa said, "Did you figure something out about it?"

 "Yeah..." Roko sighed, "I'm not sure how accurate or true my interpretation is but...I might have figured out the true nature of holy."

 "Really?!" Corissa cried, "That's impressive if it's true! I just hope it's not too complicated..."

 "There's a report in there regarding my research. It has more details but I'm not sure if you'll understand it all. I'm sending a copy to Rivera as well so it's pretty succinct."

 "Um...why don't you just tell me?" Corissa smiled nervously, "What did you find out? What's the true nature of holy?"

 "..." Roko took a deep breath, "The true power of holy...is the power to reject that which cannot be understood."

 Corissa stared at Roko blankly for a moment as she processed his words, "So..."

 "Before you say anything." Roko sighed, "It's not the ability to destroy that which you do not understand, it's what cannot be understood. The ability to destroy things that cannot be understood by the human mind."

 "Are...are you sure?" Corissa said, unsure of how to take this news, "I mean we know it can negate magic."

 "Let me put it to you this way." Roko began, "In my world, we understand water on a molecular level. To the extent we can create water through specific processes. We understand water for the most part. Then there are things like physics. We have a remarkable understanding of physics but there are parts of it we still do not understand. We do not need to understand it fully to be subject to its effects but we have the potential to. It is within human potential to understand how the world works. Are you with me so far?"

 "I think so. But what does this have to do with magic?"

 "We do not understand magic. We can utilize it but we don't actually understand how it works. How we can create water from nothing. Mana has something to do with it but we manipulate it without actually understanding it beyond generalizations. Not even the elves understand it beyond a phenomenon. A phenomenon we can control but that doesn't make it more understandable. I can't even begin to try and explain it and I don't think we ever will understand it. That's why holy can erase it."

 "We...don't understand magic?"

 "We can't understand magic."

 "...Then..." Corissa blinked, "What about those monsters?"

 "They're creatures we are incapable of understanding. There's a lot we don't know about it but they operate in ways that are foreign to our understanding of the world. If there is a consciousness that controls them we may not be able to understand its intentions. Whenever it's a being whose existence is too large for us to comprehend or its thought patterns being too different or complex for us to understand, it's beyond human ability to communicate with it."

 "Then how do you explain the grimoires?"

 "We're not communicating with it, it's communicating with us. Or at least it's trying to."

 "Uh...huh..." Corissa massaged her temples as she tried to understand what Roko was saying, "So...holy won't be stronger if I'm stupider."

 "Yes."

 "Well that's a relief." Corissa smiled, "I was afraid I needed to stop learning there."

 "That's unnecessary." Roko sighed.

 "Well, I'm not sure I completely understand it but I think I get the gist of it!" Corissa said, "At least I know holy isn't a spell that can kill someone."

 "I don't know if that's true." Roko frowned.

 "What do you mean?"

 "Do you know what I'm thinking now?"

 "No?"

 "Do you know what I'm going to do in the future?"

 "No."

 "Why not?"

 "Because...I'm not you?"

 "Exactly. We are incapable of truly understanding each other. We can live together, we can cooperate, we can comprehend each other. But we will not understand each other the same way we understand ourselves."

 "...You really think that?"

 "It's not really an opinion as it is a fact. We are two beings that just happened to meet. We are incapable of understanding each other. If you can comprehend that, you could possibly use holy to 'reject' another person. How that'd work I'm not sure though."

 "...I see..." Corissa looked down.

 "It's for that reason that I believe you initially had trouble with the spell. It's a spell that can reject a lot of things at once which is why you need a definite target for it along with an understanding of how it works, what you're trying to do with the spell. You know that this spell rejects magic but you don't know why so it didn't work."

 "So...now that I know how it works, I need to keep in mind specific targets." Corissa said, "Because...if I don't I could erase someone along with their magic."

 "Possibly." Roko nodded, "I don't know how difficult it'd be to reject an entire person."

 "Mmhmm..."

 "You're taking this information better than I expected."

 "Well to be honest, I'm still processing it." Corissa bit her lip, "I'm...not sure how to use this magic now. I...don't know if I want this magic anymore."

 "It's all just a theory for now." Roko replied, "You don't ever have to use it if you want to. But there are people who think your power will be necessary."

 "What do you think?"

 "Me? It's certainly an interesting power that has already done quite a bit for us. If you could master it, it could be valuable but if you don't want to, I won't force you."

 "...If you say I should learn it, I will." Corissa put on a brave smile that confused Roko.

 "Wait, that's not what I said." he began to say but Corissa was already standing up.

 "I have to start making dinner." Corissa smiled, "Do join us for tonight, alright?"

 And with that, the last of Roko's clients walked away.

 Roko sat there for a moment, a bit disoriented by Corissa's leave but more than that it was the numbing idea that he was done. Nearly a month's worth of work has now been submitted and now there was an emptiness there where it used to be. An end of what felt like a sisyphian task. Roko leaned against the wall and sighed.

 "Now I have to report to the queen."