Life Giver

Just as Zaya and Casmir were about to leave the main faculty building, Casmir was pulled to the side by Zaya. At first Zaya just looked Casmir up and down, still absorbed in her earlier thoughts, but she quickly recollected herself as she spoke.

"Ahem.. You haven't told me your affinity yet Casmir? I assume that's because you haven't been tested." Zaya said calmly, she acted as if this was the first thing she had wanted to ask Casmir.

Casmir looked at her strangely because of how she was acting but replied as if nothing had happened.

"I have been tested but only a basic test, I know I have a low grade animal affinity but that's it." Casmir replied.

He had obviously been tested by Gloria when he was younger but nothing stood out to her so she didn't find it important to talk much about it. Animal, along with floral affinities, are the most common affinities and low grade animal affinities would have little impact on ones life.

Of course this was when Casmir was planning to be a physician of some kind like Gloria, for cultivators – especially combat cultivators - even low grade affinities can have a fair impact on their future choices.

"Ok, come with me. We're going to check your affinity, I know a teacher here that can help us." Zaya said.

Casmir didn't have any objections so he followed Zaya into the building and up a few floors until they reached an office, on the door of the office was the name Prof. Josena Kandar, Beast studies.

Zaya, rather differently from how she acted before, knocked lightly on the door as if respectful of the person behind it.

"Come in." A woman's voice called out from the other side of the door.

Zaya opened the door and walked in with Casmir following her, as he stepped into the room he noticed how organised the room was, he also noticed the various glass like objects placed carefully a top tables and cupboards.

"Ahhh Zaya sweetie, you've finally come to see me." A sweet voice suddenly said as they entered the room.

A tall woman the same height as Zaya walked over and hugged her excitedly, she looked very similar to Zaya with the same cheetah fur patterned hair, long legs and slender body. She looked young but not as young as Zaya, she seemed more m.a.t.u.r.e or at least on the surface

"Josena can we not do this right now..." Zaya said quietly out of embarrassment, she had really hoped this wouldn't happen in front of Casmir.

The tall woman, Josena, broke from her hug and looked at Casmir with a cheeky smile.

"..and who might you be young man? Has Zaya been playing with you on the field?" Josena said playfully the later half of her sentence seemed to be hinting at something only Zaya would know.

Zaya's face almost contorted as she heard this but Casmir didn't see any hidden meaning in her words, so he simply replied.

"Yes, she's been helping me train. I'm Casmir, Casmir Sing... Are you Zaya's elder Sister by any chance?" He said politely.

As Josena heard Casmir, her eyes lit up in satisfaction, she felt as if she had found another string to pull however before she could pull it Zaya quickly intervened.

"AHEM Josena, I came her because I wanted to test Casmir's affinity, he has an animal affinity so could you test him please..." Zaya said with an awkward smile on her face as if she was bearing a great anger inside her.

Seeing Zaya's face Josena could only forgot her teasing, Zaya might never visit her again if she went too far.

"Okay okay, I'll test him for you 'sis'..." Josena said with a sly smile.

Josena walked over to an old wooden drawer to find something, Casmir looked at Zaya as if he wanted to say something but upon seeing Zaya's furious eyes he thought it best he say nothing for now.

"Ah, there it is." Josena said as she picked up a smooth glass like orb.

She quickly walked back over to Casmir and Zaya, she had a sly smile on her face as if she wanted to say something to Zaya but Zaya quickly turned her head away, clearly unwilling to be spoken to further.

Josena could only put on a put out expression as she turned to Casmir.

"Right, this orb will let me test you, just hold the orb in your hand as I hold it and try to fill it with your Qi." Josena said in a slightly serious tone, apparently she wasn't playing around with Casmir anymore.

Casmir followed her instructions, the pair held the orb together as if holding hands and Casmir injected his Qi along his arm and into his hand. As the Qi reached his hand a sudden force furiously s.u.c.k.e.d it into the glass orb, Casmir was surprised but the force only lasted for a moment and it only absorbed a tiny part of Casmir's Qi.

Josena then took back the orb and walked over to the desk to sit down.

"I need to analyse your Qi for a moment, take a look around at my collection while your waiting." Josena said politely with a lovely smile as she pointed at the various glass objects that filled the room.

There were over a dozen Glass objects around the room of different colours and shapes, they were all smooth and generally circular but they were all obscure and dark as if hiding something inside of them.

Casmir was a bit curious as to what these objects were, from where he stood the light shined on the glass objects so he couldn't properly observe them but as he stepped closer to one of them he was surprised by what he saw inside of them.

At this time Zaya spoke from beside him, her back turned towards Josena as if to ignore her.

"They are amber fossils, or more specifically Qi infused amber fossils. Whatever gets trapped inside them enters a form of stasis supported by the Qi inside the amber, these fossils have all been depleted but 'living' fossils can be worth a fortune." Zaya explained.

The amber fossil in front of Casmir was a dark green and inside of it was a flower, one couldn't distinguish it's colour but just from the shape of the petals one could tell that it was beautiful.

Casmir was fascinated by these amber fossils, he joyfully looked around the room at the various specimens and Zaya walked around with him occasionally telling him some information about the fossil.

Although Zaya was feeling annoyed and put out because of Josena's teasing, she still felt quite happy as she observed and talked about these fossils with Casmir.

As the pair walked around the room, Josena was concentrating on studying Casmir's Qi that had been absorbed into this special type of stone. She had already determined Casmir's affinity, a common Grade 3 ancestral animal affinity but as she observed Casmir's Qi further she felt something strange was happening.

Josena couldn't put her finger on it but she felt that something wasn't right about Casmir's Qi.

Suddenly the stone in her hand cracked, breaking like a piece of glass and a look of shock appeared on Josena's face, she quickly concealed it before Casmir and Zaya could turn around in response to the sudden noise.

"Is everything alright?" Casmir asked as he looked at the broken glass like stone in Josena's hand.

Josena was already naturally smiling as she looked at the pair.

"Oh it's fine, this stone's a bit old now so it's about time it broke. I've already determined your affinity, it's a common Grade 3 ancestral animal the Purple Haired Great Ape. It has some passive effects on ones Qi such as increasing the strength of your muscles, particularly in your arms." Josena explained naturally as if nothing was wrong.

Affinities had a variety of forms, one of those forms was elemental which gave a cultivator a greater power and understanding of an element and even the ability to create it.

Another form was the ancestral affinities, an affinity related to ones ancestors or more specifically, an ancestor that passed a certain threshold. These affinities were not understood very well and were only known to be passed down by floral and animal races.

Most ancestral affinities only passively effected your Qi energy, for example the Purple Haired Great Ape affinity was a common human ancestral affinity that increased the effect of Qi energy on ones muscles. This was understood to work like a pathway, the affinity guides your Qi to flow similarly to the ancestors through a pathway in the body, changing or modifying certain properties of the Qi energy.

These ancestral affinities can produce a variety of effects however they all revolve around Qi energy educing some kind of effect. An ape affinity would increase ones strength, an orchid affinity might cause ones Qi energy to produce a special scent or a bull affinity might cause ones Qi energy to excite and enrage increasing ones strength but dulling ones senses.

There are a multitude of effects but for now, that was unimportant.

After Josena explained some further details about Casmir's affinity, she suddenly politely asked Casmir and Zaya to leave under the guise that she was slightly busy today.

"Oh, ok. Sorry to bother you Josena but thank you for your help. I might have to visit you again if you gather any more of these amber fossils." Casmir said politely, he really did find Josena friendly but perhaps he wouldn't come here with Zaya again...

Zaya also said a quick "Goodbye" before the pair of them left the room.

However once they left, Josena sat down with a pale face and confusion written all over it, across the room from her a large window suddenly rattled as if someone was knocking on it.

Josena reluctantly got up and opened the window letting in a lovely warm breeze, however it was strange because today's weather was rather cold.

Suddenly the air in front of Josena started to shine with a blue light and with a flash a graceful figure in a blue dress appeared, she looked at Josena arrogantly and slightly angrily as she questioned.

"What did you do?"

Josena looked miserable, all she did was do a favour for her niece and now she had to deal with this crazy woman.

"All I did was check his affinity..." She said weakly with a put out expression on her face...

======

Zaya and Casmir soon made there way over to the training field, most of the other students had already gone home only some of least talented or most hardworking students were still here working away at their cultivation.

Instructor Redfire and some of the other instructors had set up a small gazebo nearby to relax and cultivate as they watched over the remaining students. Although they had their own cultivation to worry about, at there cultivation levels they only needed to sleep for a couple of hours each day, so they had much more time each day compared to these younger students.

And in the end if any students dared to stay for too long then they could find other teachers to keep an eye on them, after all Heldan academy was not like a typical institution it was open 24/7 with different classes and students attending at times appropriate to them.

If someone stayed for a couple more hours they would notice a new influx of 'night shift' students.

Casmir and Zaya went to Instructor Redfire to report what they had done today and be dismissed, however Instructor Redfire called Casmir over to quickly inform him of something.

He informed Casmir that he had be given academic credits by Master Bluefire, they were not to be used without her permission and she would expect to see him later this week on Saturday.

After a brief talk, Casmir then decided to head home, he found that Zaya was kindly waiting for him however when she approached him she simply told him to be ready for further training tomorrow morning.

She then simply started to leave, however Casmir called out to her unwillingly to simply let her leave.

"Wait a minute Zaya! Where do you live? We can walk together if you like?" Casmir said quickly as he caught up with her.

Zaya wasn't really expecting his offer, she was taken back a bit but still looked calm on the surface.

"That's fine.. I'm not going home anyway, I'm going out of the city to train in the forests. The training facilities here aren't what I'm use to.." She explained with some annoyance, not towards Casmir, but towards the lack of training places.

As someone who had lived in a nomadic tribe all her life, she was used to training in large naturally space's like forests and plains. The inside of a city was like being confined in a cave to her, so when she wanted to train by herself she typically left the city and went to nearby natural area's.

It didn't take long for Zaya to leave the city, she was very agile and the journey could simply be part of her training.

"You want to train in a forest? Why are you going outside the city? Why don't you go to Ellaris park, it's a large space with forests and grassland?" Casmir suggested.

Zaya was confused, the parks she had scene so far were only a few hundred meters across and only had a sparse amount of trees, it was unsuitable for her training.

"No, no, those parks are way too small. It needs to be a fairly large space with lots of trees, at least a kilometre in size." Zaya explained.

Casmir realised that Zaya had probably never been to Ellaris park, Ellaris park was massive in comparison to other parks and it actually stretched out into the outskirts of the city connecting itself to the more natural habitats.

"Come with me to the park, trust me it's massive. If you're not satisfied then I'll follow all your instruction tomorrow without a sound." Casmir promised with a big smile on his face.

Zaya was reluctant but there was something about that silly big smile on his face that caused her to give up and agree with him, it wouldn't cost her much time anyway.

"Okay fine, but you're buying lunch tomorrow." Zaya said with a smile.

Casmir happily agreed and the two of them made their way towards Casmir's home.

Casmir would usually cut across Ellaris park on his way home as it was a shorter walk, so they soon found themselves at the park. It was hard to tell how big the park was at first glance because there were a lot of trees in this part of the park but as they made their way towards Casmir house Zaya couldn't help but admit that Casmir was right.

"Well, I suppose this place is quite big, you weren't wrong." Zaya said as if reluctant to admit Casmir was right.

Casmir immediately saw through Zaya's act as he teased her.

"Oh was I not wrong? That means I must know more than Great Master Zaya.. haha.."Casmir said happily.

Zaya couldn't help but frown at him, but she didn't want to stoop down to his level so she just turn her head away from him and ignored him.

Casmir chuckled to himself when he saw this, he realised that Zaya really wasn't that hard to deal with, she just needed some coaxing so that she doesn't scratch you with her claws.

As they neared Casmir's house, Casmir pointed in a certain direction and said, "The best place is just over here, you see those white trees.."

Suddenly Zaya's eyes lit up as she shouted "White Poppers!" and ran over to the trees.

Casmir was frozen were he was standing, a broken, proud smile on his face as he watched Zaya rush towards the trees. He had prepared a long explanation about the White Popper's usefulness because he wanted to show off a bit to Zaya but as it turned out, Zaya already knew about them.

"Sometimes all your plans are for naught.." Casmir mumbled to himself as he walk over to Zaya.

Zaya was already energetically running around the forest as she examined the trees, Casmir just leaned on a nearby tree watching her.

She soon came back and happily talked to Casmir, the smile on her face was of genuine happiness and Casmir's forlorn mood couldn't help but disappear as he looked at her.

"These trees are the best Casmir! Haha I'm definitely coming here to train. Thanks for bringing me here Casmir.. I'll buy lunch tomorrow.." She spoke happily at first but when she thought about repaying Casmir she was slightly reluctant.

Zaya didn't believe herself to be ungrateful she just felt as if she didn't want to lose out to Casmir, as if she was competing with him over something.

Casmir decided at this point it was time to leave, he was quite exhausted after all of today's training and he wanted to relax for a little while.

"Ok Zaya, I'll see you tomorrow. We can meet up at the training field and go from there." Casmir said with a smile and a wave.

"See ya tomorrow!" Zaya casually shouted as she ran off excitedly to look around the park as if finding a new toy.

Casmir simply chuckled as he watched her, his thoughts turned to Elena and Rose, after a long day he just wanted to see them...