Chapter 23:

Dawn broke over the training grounds, the pale light stretching across the packed dirt as Harvey moved through his daily regimen. His muscles ached from days of relentless drills, but there was a steadiness to his breathing, a rhythm in his movements that hadn't been there before. Duncan watched from the side, arms crossed, eyes sharp as Harvey adjusted his stance, feeling the weight of the practice sword in his grip.

The training was brutal, but Harvey was changing. The power inside him, the force that had gnawed at his strength for as long as he could remember, was no longer an unchecked storm. Through sheer effort and discipline, he was beginning to bottle it, to hold it in place.

At first, it was like trying to hold back a flood with bare hands, but now… now it felt as though he was building a dam, keeping the force contained. And in that stillness, something shifted.

For the first time in his life, energy from the world around him didn't slip away the moment it touched him. Instead of being drained, his body absorbed the lingering warmth of the morning sun, the rich nutrients from his meals, the steady rhythm of his breath—all of it settled inside him rather than vanishing into the void.

He had never known what it felt like to retain strength before. The realization was almost jarring.

Duncan, noticing a flicker of something different in Harvey's expression, tilted his head slightly. "You're holding yourself better today," he noted. "Not just your stance—your presence. Something's changed."

Harvey hesitated, unsure how to explain. "It's… like for the first time, I'm not leaking," he said finally. "Everything used to slip away from me before I could grasp it. Now, I feel like… I'm keeping it."

Duncan studied him for a long moment before nodding. "Good. Then you're finally learning what it means to have control."

The day's training continued, a cycle of drills, sparring, and endurance work. Sweat beaded on Harvey's forehead, but his stamina held stronger than before. Every movement didn't leave him quite as hollow as it once had. The plain meals he'd been given—mostly simple oats—no longer felt like fleeting fuel but instead something that stayed within him, nourishing him beyond just the moment he ate them.

Duncan had never explained the source of the food, nor had Harvey asked. But unknowingly, the ather oats, a product of the kingdom's cultivation gardens, had been reinforcing his body all along. Before now, that reinforcement had simply faded as fast as it came, his body unable to hold onto it. Now, though, that had changed.

When the training session finally ended, Harvey stood a little taller. He was still far from where he needed to be, but for the first time, he felt what it meant to be whole—to retain rather than lose.

As he walked back to his quarters, his hands instinctively curled into fists. He had spent his life recently feeling like a vessel with cracks too deep to repair, but today was proof that the cracks could be sealed.

He would not waste this chance.