Tzirret bent his head back and laughed some more. "This one was trying to offer you more of it!" he said, before looking to her again. "Ma'tanza need not worry. Tzirret had enough to eat. Probably because he ate more slowly than usual. As for finding it, this one has just had practice here. He is more experienced hunting in the mountains."

Taking a moment, Tzirret laid one of his legs flat and brought his hands to lay over his chest. He smiled, but gave a curious look. "When we were wrestling, you mentioned something about fighting a wolf. Was this just a regular wolf, or did Ma'tanza wrestle with werewolves before?"

---

Despite Meesei trying to drop the subject, Sabine had the last word as they walked. "It was rougher than I liked. I do not think we will try it again."

As for the lesson itself, Sabine did not have to spend long thinking of an answer to Meesei. It was tempting to follow Meesei's footsteps in lighting, given what Meesei could do with it, but her experiences informed her otherwise. "Um...I think I like frost the best," she said, bringing her hand to her elbow and her other to her chin while she thought, "When we were ambushed by Vile's forces outside of Senchal, I used ice storm spells to slow them or kill them. I think it saved my life."

Ma'tanza nodded. "Yes, there are a lot of werewolves in the clan, and wrestling is a good way to pass the time. This one has had a lot of friends in the clan other than Bheja and Qa'habi, especially before the attack. But, winning against a werewolf is difficult. There are some werelions Ma'tanza knows who can do it reliably by being quick enough, but this one has never been that good at fighting with her hands. She isn't the strongest, or most fit person in the clan. Ma'tanza can fight with magic, if she has to.

Grinning, Ma'tanza reached out and lightly punched Tzirret's shoulder. "You're lucky Ma'tanza was in her beast form. If she had turned back to normal, she'd have made you into a statue."

---

Meesei clenched her hand into a fist, which she quickly surrounded in a small cloud of frost. "I see. Frost can be potent in several ways. You can create a veritable blizzard of frost, or concentrate it into a fine point to create a spike of ice that can pierce like an arrow. It is important that you be competent will all elements of destruction, but choosing an aspect on which to concentrate will allow you to learn abilities you would not be able to obtain otherwise. At least, not any time soon. Today's lesson is going to focus strongly on combat, and I believe we will start with a more...mundane aspect of magic."

Meesei took a few steps back from Sabine, away from the direction of camp. "It does not matter how strong or fast an ice spike is if it misses its target. You need to be able to be precise against a moving target, so what I would like for you to do is attempt to hit me with a few ice spikes. I will ward and move around between the trees; you attempt to hit me as many times as possible."

Stepping back even farther, Meesei put out her hand and began projecting a ward. "Whenever you are ready."

Tzirret returned the grin. He remembered clearly how M'ibasa was frozen by Ma'tanza's paralysis magic. "No fair," Tzirret complained jokingly.

For a few seconds, Tzirret closed his mouth and just smiled at Ma'tanza. He was in the best mood in weeks. That seemed to sink in his chest, however, as he remembered his pendant. He wished that he had it with him. His smile faded and he turned his head to look at the sky, visibly crestfallen. He wondered whether Ma'tanza would ask about it and give him an excuse to speak about it, but La'khay's words came up to protest in him mind. He would have to initiate this.

"Ma'tanza," Tzirret started, speaking seriously and not looking at her, "Do you mind waiting here while Tzirret gets something from camp? He wants to give you something."

---

Sabine stepped back into a stance to use magic in combat, like she had been taught before. As she looked at Meesei with her ward up, she felt a twinge of worry, but she had practiced against Meesei's ward for long enough to trust her.

Sabine's hand raised with fingers curled as she concentrated magicka into freezing the air and conjuring ice, causing tendrils of steam to seep down from her palm. Then, lining up her target, Sabine threw one hand forward, causing a cracking sound as a white shard spun through the air from her hand, seemingly out of nowhere, heading straight for Meesei's ward.

The same scene was repeated a number of times from Sabine, but as Meesei moved around, it was an exercise in concentration to land the ice spikes in the right spots. Not many crashed into Meesei's ward; most flew wide or shattered against tree trunks. It was not quite the same as aiming with a sling, like she was most used to. Additionally, it was more difficult than flinging the lumbering, boulder-sized ice storms that she was fond of.

After roughly a minute, Sabine had improved in leading her target, but she was beginning to look a little frustrated. She was still missing plenty of times. As a result, she overcompensated her pace to fire more spikes at once. She swiftly ran out of magicka and had to stop. "Hold on," she said, sounding drained, but not out of breath, "I need a moment."

Ma'tanza raised her brow at Tzirret curiously. "You want to give Ma'tanza something?" She repeated questioningly. Already, her mind was going over what it could possibly be, but she of course did not have any definite answer, only suspicions. Tzirret moved so frequently between displaying confidence and anxiety that she found him to be a very difficult person to read. To her, his intentions could have been anything.

"Ma'tanza can wait here, sure. She needs to scrub the rest of this blood out of her fur anyway." Ma'tanza answered before standing up and stretching out her muscles. "Just don't make this one wait too long alone, or...she will come find you." She added, giving a smile before she walked herself back into the water.

---

Upon Sabine's request, Meesei stopped. Sabine's performance was not any worse than she had been expecting, but there was certainly some room for improvement. While she was moving around and acting as the target, she had also been observing her technique and looking for any flaws. Being as well-practiced as she was, Meesei knew the common pitfalls that mages tended to fall into during a fight. Some tended to focus so much on how to improve the power of the spells themselves that they did not put enough effort into learning how to use them effectively.

Meesei walked over to Sabine and stood alongside her, facing out in the direction Sabine had been shooting. "Your accuracy shows promise, but your technique could use improvement. Before you can lead a target, you need to make sure your shots are consistent. It is easy to try and focus your eyes on the target and shoot ahead of them, but your shots will end up varying far too greatly. You want to make sure your shot goes exactly where your eyes are focusing, every time. If you can do that, then you can learn how to focus your vision ahead of your target the right amount to land the hit."

Meesei looked ahead towards one of the trees with an ice spike charged in her hand, then released it dead into the center of the trunk. "When you are able, I want you to try and land your ice spikes in as tight of a grouping as possible. Right on that spot. Watch my technique." She instructed. She followed through with a few more ice spikes directed at the same spot. There was some spread between her shots, of course, but they all landed in essentially the same spot.

"It will not take long to find," Tzirret assured, returning Ma'tanza's smile with a small one of his own for a moment. He stood up and set off on a jog back towards camp. Being nearby the river meant that it was not a great distance to travel, but the extra time made Tzirret's thoughts run into unhelpful worrying. What if trying this now would be awkward? What if Ma'tanza refused? What if she thought the pendant was ugly or tried to ask more details about himself and La'khay? He just kept jogging to try and keep the thoughts at bay. This had to happen today, now or never.

Tzirret returned to where he had deposited his belongings, in the spot beside the tents set up by Ma'tanza's family. If there was anyone he knew that he passed by, he gave them a wave, but did not linger. He rifled through the pouches and belts until he pulled out the pendant, looking over its perfect crescent. What if she is interested in someone else? Tzirret clutched the pendant in his palm and began jogging back. What if he accidentally says something offensive? He quickened his pace.

The stupid questions that whirled around Tzirret's mind left him incredibly nervous by the time he spotted Ma'tanza in the river again. It was just like the time when he had tried to approach her and her friends at the very beginning. This time, however, it was for different intentions entirely. He took one step and almost overbalanced, noticing his legs becoming uncoordinated and his heart racing. He was breathing through his mouth and looking like a terrified wreck as he walked up, pace by pace, with the pendant in both hands against his chest. The leather strap hung loosely, giving the only clue to any onlooker as to what it was.

"Um, Ma'tanza!" Tzirret called out. He was amazed that he didn't stammer. The questions were gone now, replaced by the same thrill one gets when they have already jumped off a cliff and knows that there is no returning. He kept walking until she closed the distance approaching him as well. In that moment, he looked at her nervously for a couple of seconds, took a deep breath, reached out to grab her hand, and placed the pendant onto her palm. The detailed cat on the crescent moon was napping just as happily in Ma'tanza's palm when Tzirret took one of his hands away. Tzirret had kept the bone jewellery clean this entire time, and even touched up a few spots to perfect it.

Tzirret had spent weeks trying to think of the right way to speak about the gift, rather than stumbling around in the chapel with his first attempt, but he had forgotten all of them. The moment to try and gather something to say at least gave Ma'tanza a moment to speak herself.

---

Sabine nodded to Meesei's instruction. It seemed that she would have to practice aiming, just as if she was learning archery. "I will try," she said, staring town the target Meesei had marked.

Now that there was a still target to shoot, Sabine lowered herself into her combat stance, but took her time aiming. The cracks of her ice spikes being conjured became more intermittent as she lined up her shots. At first, her spikes glanced off the side of the tree or lodged themselves with poor grouping. Many simply shattered or bounced off rather than sticking in the bark, making it difficult to record progress. It took a few more minutes of mimicking and refining the technique that Meesei used before her grouping was becoming more consistent.

"It is better, but this technique is awkward," Sabine commented. "I feel like I should practice this more."

Ma'tanza had been in the water when Tzirret called out her name, but as she was essentially finished cleaning herself, she climbed out to meet him on the riverbank. She was expecting him to give some sort of explanation to whatever this was that he wanted to give her, but to her surprise, he simply placed it into her hand.

There were a few moments of silence as Ma'tanza looked down and examined the pendant in her hand. She seemed to be curious, tracing her claw lightly over the carving. Certainly, the pendant was well-made, but it was not the item itself that had the majority of her curiosity. She wanted to know why he was giving it to her, and why he seemed so nervous about it. "It's...a pendant. Made of bone, right? It looks very nice, but...why are you giving it to Ma'tanza?"

---

Meesei gave a light chuckle. "And practice you shall. A single, well-placed ice spike can kill outright, but a good hit anywhere can cripple an opponent. I encourage you to practice consistency on your own. If you can hit in roughly the same spot as you are focusing every time, then you just need to be able to place your focus in the right spot, and shoot the spike at the right time. But, for the moment, I would like to move on to another kind of frost attack: the larger, slower frost storms. I want to see the absolute, most powerful storm of frost you can manage. Show me the limit of what you can accomplish with your current abilities." She said, gesturing towards the tree.

"Horn, actually. Tzirret made this a while ago," Tzirret blurted out. His ears twitched and already, his mind burned; that wasn't what she had asked. That doesn't help anything! "It's...the reason is..." At least five different points tried to leap out of Tzirret's words at once. Rather than panic, Tzirret took a quick breath, relaxed his tightened brow, and decided to start from the beginning. "It is a long story."

Nervously, Tzirret looked away and rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. He started off speaking through nervous bared teeth. "Look...you know when Ma'tanza said that Tzirret was not as nervous as he said he was? Well, back in Bruma, and up until a short time before he met Ma'tanza, Tzirret was...much worse." Tzirret slowed down and lowered his hand from his neck. He gave Ma'tanza a glance and a light frown, but did not keep eye contact. "After being turned, he was afraid of almost everything. His beast spirit, Hircine, talking to people, undead from under the clan home, everything. He was even afraid of carving things like this, because carving anything reminded him of when he was turned." Tzirret shuffled one foot lightly on the ground. "That only really began to change when he set out for Elsweyr with the champion's pack. There were many times where Tzirret had to face terror, so he learned much on his own, but Gallus and La'khay also helped him with other things."

Tzirret's gaze went to the pendant. It was easier to speak now that he had a direction to go in, but he still felt like his knees could give out at any moment. He spoke solemnly and carefully, "This pendant is carved from a horn of the minotaur Tzirret killed. It was the one time in his life where he rose above his fear. This one had wanted to give it to La'khay because she helped him so much with his confidence, but when he tried, she told him that she didn't deserve it. She...um..." Tzirret was not bothered by skipping the details of La'khay's involvement. He was more worried about the fact that his explanation was reaching its purpose, so he hesitated.

Tzirret looked into Ma'tanza's eyes as he breathed in and brought his other hand up to hers. "She made him promise to give this to someone who deserved it. Someone kind and...ehm..." Tzirret tripped over his words and took another shaky breath. "S-someone that he loves."

It had all flowed out like water, leaving Tzirret's mouth suddenly dry. He let the words linger for but a second before he looked at the pendant again. He spoke with a tone caught between relief and defeat, his ears half perked, "He would like to fulfill his promise."

With that, Tzirret closed Ma'tanza's hand over the pendant.

Now that he was done, Tzirret closed his eyes and braced his emotions for Ma'tanza to respond. He could have gushed about why he loved her. He could have gone into more detail about how much the pendant meant to him. However, he felt that he had said all that was needed. As well, he had managed to do it without bursting into tears.

---

Sabine nodded again, before looking back at the tree. The thought of making the biggest storm spell that she could actually brought an excited smile to her face.

The cold mist gently flowing from Sabine's hands began to thicken as she lowered herself. Her hands hovered over one another near to her torso as the magicka flowed into a small, concentrated ball of whirling white condensation. Frost actually began to cover Sabine's hands and wrists as the cold spread, but she didn't seem bothered. More and more power flowed into the spell up until Sabine had no magicka left at all.

As if tossing a heavy stone with all her might, Sabine shouted through grit teeth as she projected the frost storm in front of herself. The ball she had made expanded into a huge sphere as it moved forward, spinning with freezing wind like a window into a blizzard. It was at least two metres in diameter, making it difficult to escape, but it moved much slower than Sabine's ice spikes. Still, its devastating effect was immediately apparent as all the ground that the sphere 'rolled' over was coated with thick, stiff frost and a dusting of snow. Everything its path that could freeze did so in an instant, even the water in the air.

The sphere appeared to pass through the tree, but more accurately the tree was parting it. There was even a creak as the water in the wood expanded suddenly. An entire section of the trunk was covered in white ice. The water from the partially melted ice spikes had flash-frozen into slick rivulets. The storm travelled a short way further into the woods before dissipating, leaving the rapidly melting path of snow and frost as the only evidence of its passing.

Sabine shook the frost off her hands and blew onto them with her mouth wide open to warm them up. "I have never made one that big before. I never tried." Sabine seemed happy with herself, but then again, she would never cast a spell in combat that would drain all of her magicka at once.

Hearing the emotion in his voice, Tzirret had Ma’tanza’s full attention throughout his explanation. Knowing how he had obtained it, and what he had been through, told her what it meant to him. He said that she deserved to have it, which, given the context, was flattering enough to briefly bring a smile to her face. However, there was one word which he said that gave her pause. Her expression became nervous, almost frightened.

“L-loves?” Ma’tanza repeated. She looked down at the pendant, clutching it tightly in her hands as she went over again in her mind what he had just explained to her. “Give it to someone you…love? Ma’tanza likes the pendant; it is beautiful. And…she likes you. Tzirret is kind, and treats Ma’tanza differently from a lot of boys. But…love?”

Ma’tanza was now breathing almost as heavily as Tzirret himself, though her fear was of a slightly different source than his. “Ma’tanza…cannot say she loves Tzirret. She doesn’t know you that well. It has only been a few…weeks since we met. She…she doesn’t want to disappoint you, Tzirret. Ma’tanza doesn’t want to hurt you. It’s just…love is a lot, Tzirret. This one likes you, a lot, but she doesn’t want to say she loves you if she doesn’t know that it’s true.”

---

Meesei observed the wave of ice Sabine produced without any particular reaction, until it had dissipated. At that point, Meesei gave her an encouraging smile. “Exciting, is it not? To push yourself to your fullest limits, just to test your potential. Though, despite the…theatrics of such spells, they are far from the most impressive displays of magic possible, at least in my opinion. Adding more raw power to a spell is something that any mage can do. However, it is good for providing a good visual demonstration of where you are in your training. You have accomplished much in the past three or four years, likely more than you give yourself credit for. With enough time, I have no doubt you will become a mage to surpass even me.”

After giving Sabine a few moments to take in her words, Meesei’s smile turned to more of a grin. “Now, you have likely just drained most of your magicka, and have not had much time at all to restore it, so…put up a ward.” She instructed as her hand began to glow with the light of a restore stamina spell. It was not a damaging spell, but a ward would still block it all the same.

“While it is something you should do your best to avoid, it is inevitable that you will find yourself in combat while low on magicka. Wards are great defensive spells, but can be draining on your magicka reserves. You recall the previous lessons I have given you on how to make your wards absorb some of the energy of the spells they block, yes? Now, we are going to practice that technique. You will need to use the energy of my spells to sustain your ward.” Meesei explained.

Tzirret opened his eyes when Ma'tanza began to respond. Her answer was not something he could have anticipated, not because it was outright rejection, but because it implied that Tzirret had attempted this at the wrong time.

In immediate response, Tzirret let his fingers slip free of Ma'tanza's and took a step back. He was about to run, just like he had with La'khay. Back with La'khay, however, Tzirret was anticipating rejection because he knew the outcome already. This here was a shock. He had already decided that he would not break down crying, but somewhere along the process, he decided not to run. He would be okay after this, he knew because he had been there before. Unfortunately, that left him in front of a likely equally shocked Ma'tanza with little to nothing he could think to say.

"Um..." Tzirret's eyes went to the ground, giving Ma'tanza the occasional sideways glance. He began to think out loud, though it was filtered from his roiling worries and sadness. "Tzirret understands," he said flatly. That was a good start. "Perhaps he could try...just...like? Instead of love? For a while?" He brought one hand up to rub his forehead, that was a bit odd. "W-what he wants to say is, he is sorry. This one did not read properly how Ma'tanza felt and...he has made a mistake." Tzirret began to turn away, "He understands if Ma'tanza does not want to be his friend anymore."

---

It was quite the contrast for Sabine to go from the overwhelming thought that she might surpass Meesei as a mage to suddenly needing to bring up a ward. She of course could not hold the ward for more than two seconds, and it broke easily under Meesei spell, but that made it a motivator to keep listening.

Sabine was a little rusty on how to absorb spells into a ward, though she attempted it all the same. "I...do not think I could sustain a ward without end under spell fire," she commented.

"No, no, it's just..." Ma'tanza began quickly, though she too was having a difficult time finding the right words. "Ma'tanza likes you, Tzirret, she does. But...love is a very big thing to her. It is something you're supposed to build over months, or years. It's supposed to be something you're so certain of that it would seem insane to question it. Ma'tanza, she likes you, but she doesn't know if she feels that...strongly about you. Please, don't be upset, this one still really likes you, she just...is so unsure."

Ma'tanza lowered her head, then walked up alongside Tzirret just as he turned away. She placed her hand lightly on his shoulder, then turned him back towards her. "Maybe...maybe love isn't quite the same where you're from. Maybe it isn't as strong as Ma'tanza sees it. You weren't completely wrong with your judgement of Ma'tanza. You're not like other boys; you're so nice and...interesting. She can't say she loves you, but there is...something."

---

Meesei nodded. "I can give you a minute or two to allow you to recharge somewhat, but the point of this exercise is to use my spells to sustain your ward. For obvious reasons, it is a skill that can save your life."

Just as she said, Meesei allowed Sabine a few minutes to rest, but she did not intend to allow her to regenerate too much of her magicka. She allowed her only enough time to be able to create a simple ward before she once again readies a restoration spell in her hand. "Remember your lessons. The magicka in my spell is no different from the magicka in yours, so once it hits your ward, it is yours to manipulate. You need to be quick, but you can redirect the burst of energy back into yourself. Now, let us try again."

There was no resistance from Tzirret as Ma'tanza turned him around. He looked to her again, but did not look like he had much hope.

In the end, Ma'tanza's words left Tzirret in a state of conflict. On one hand, he wanted to experience mutual love and be in that kind of relationship with Ma'tanza right now, else let the pain of uncertainty go and leave her alone for good. On the other hand, he understood her apprehension and did not want to impose on her feelings by tearing apart what they already had. It was something, even if it wasn't love to Ma'tanza. Tzirret, in his state of high anxiety, was torn and wordless.

For a while, Tzirret just stood, breathing in to speak and releasing his breath wordlessly over and over. The conclusion of his thoughts was clear, so he was honest. "Tzirret does not know what to do," he said sadly. He looked to Ma'tanza's hand on his shoulder and reached his hand up to put it on hers. That much made him bow his head and scrunch his eyes shut for a moment, but he did not quite produce tears. He continued in a tired voice, "He cannot just pretend that he did not say all of those things, but...maybe Ma'tanza is right." He looked up to Ma'tanza's eyes with some hope nudging through the sadness, "Could we try to keep that...something that she mentioned, does she think?"

---

After sitting down and closing her eyes while her magicka reserves regenerated, Sabine felt as though she could hold a ward up to something stronger than a simple stamina spell. Although, absorbing it? That was something that she was not so certain about.

Sabine charged a light blue spell in her left hand and allowed it to spread forth a translucent half-bubble that covered her front. She blocked Meesei's first spell entirely without absorbing it, misjudging how to use the technique. The next attempt had Sabine accidentally absorb the full effects of the spell into herself. She muttered a small curse under her breath as she felt her energy get rejuvenated a little, but no doubt it would have been very painful had it been an offensive spell.

Variations of the two scenarios repeated themselves for a little under half an hour before Sabine properly extracted the magicka of a spell for the first time that day. It seemed to be a bit of a fluke. Indeed, the technique she was trying to pull off was not very intuitive. She still congratulated herself and grinned, nonetheless.

Practising some more lead to more success, but not without a greater proportion of failure. The technique was just so...odd and precise. "Meesei, how long did it take you to perfect this?" Sabine asked curiously between attempts.

Ma'tanza nodded, reaching out and grabbing Tzirret's hand. "This one does not want to stop seeing you, no. Maybe...Ma'tanza used to be with Qa'habi, you remember, but she didn't love him. She really liked him, and was with him to get to know him. This one might have loved him eventually, if he hadn't called it all off. Is that what you want to do? To be with Ma'tanza like Qa'habi used to be?"

Overall, Ma'tanza seemed frightened, and confused on what she wanted. It was clear that she had not thought of Tzirret in the same way as he had thought of her, but at the same time, she was not unwilling to try. It was possible she could come to see Tzirret in the same light, or she might cause him an even greater disappointment in the future.

---

Meesei was giving Sabine a brief moment to rest when she was questioned about her own learning experience. "Well, to perfect the technique, I would say that I have not yet done so after almost twenty years of practice. No matter how much I learn, or how advanced my skills become, there always seems to be an improvement to be made. I can always make my technique a bit more magicka efficient, or a bit more powerful. But just to do it reliably? I believe it was about a week or so. We have not placed that much focus on this technique, so I would not be discouraged. It helps if you do not try to predict it with your eyes. You cannot always see the spells being fired at you, and something like lightning travels so quickly that you could not possibly predict it. You want to make it a reaction to a spell hitting your ward, almost like muscle memory. There is enough time that, if you start performing the technique as soon as you feel the impact, you should be able to absorb plenty of the energy."

For a few moments, Meesei was silent before another thought came to her mind. "Say, would you like to see an example of some of the...highest level destruction spells?"

"What Ma'tanza and Qa'habi had?" Tzirret repeated. He looked unsure for a moment, but not for obvious reasons. "Tzirret cannot know exactly what you two had, but Tzirret could try."

After a moment of just looking into Ma'tanza's eyes again, a small, hopeful smile crept onto Tzirret's face. He had been so certain that he had destroyed his chances a moment ago. He brought both of Ma'tanza's hands in front of both of them and his tone became lighter, "This one wishes he did not make so much of a fool of himself." He let out a light laugh.

Noticing that Ma'tanza still had the pendant in her hand, Tzirret looked to it and gently took up the leather cord with one hand. "Ma'tanza does not have to love Tzirret. But, she still deserves this. She should keep it." Tzirret carefully took both ends of the cord, placed the pendant around Ma'tanza's neck with both hands, and began to tie it closed. Standing this close to Ma'tanza, Tzirret just wanted to hug her, perhaps even kiss her, but he was still quite nervous. Tzirret finished tying the pendant so it was sitting just at Ma'tanza's collarbone, and then he left his hands on her shoulders. "This one thinks it suits you," he added.

---

Sabine nodded to Meesei's advice. It made sense as it always seemed like timing was an issue. "Very well. Two weeks is not impossible."

As for seeing the most powerful destruction spells, Sabine looked at Meesei with wide eyes. "Um, I do not think I could ward them, let alone absorb them. Do we have to try that?" Sabine said quickly. She seemed a bit shocked, not knowing that Meesei was not intending to use them against her for ward practice.

Ma'tanza reached down once the pendant was tied and took the carved piece of horn gently in her hand, examining it once more. "Thank you, Tzirret." She answered with a smile, albeit a nervous one.

"This one is sorry, this is all just so sudden. It is not what Ma'tanza expected today. But...she is glad to be together with you. There isn't much we can do that we couldn't already, but she is looking forward to spending time with you. Just...don't listen to everything Bheja says when he learns about it. He likes to play jokes, and if you ask him about this one, he will probably trick you into playing a joke on Ma'tanza. He did that to Qa'habi. Oh, and don't take S'nishi too seriously. She is very protective of Ma'tanza and M'ibasa. She might start watching you more often, threaten to eat you, that kind of thing." She explained before suddenly giving Tzirret a hug.

---

Meesei laughed rather loudly at Sabine's sudden fears. She supposed she could understand the misunderstanding, given the context of what they had just been talking about, but nevertheless, the thought of Sabine trying to ward against one of the lightning storms or blizzards she could unleash caused her to chuckle.

"No, that is not quite what I had in mind. I merely meant as an example; a demonstration. I want to show you a taste of what you might achieve with diligent practice." Meesei clarified.

Tzirret gave a nod to both warnings. He smiled at what Bheja might do, but he was more appreciative of the warning about S'nishi. Tzirret would have been very easily terrified of any threat from a Senche-raht.

Although, when Ma'tanza hugged Tzirret, all the words disappeared. Tzirret hugged her tightly in return as an automatic response, one hand on her back and another on the back of her head. He slowly released a breath that he did not realise he was holding and felt his neck and shoulders pleasantly release their tension. Another slow breath had his nose lower onto Ma'tanza's shoulder. He missed how good it felt just to hold someone he loved, but he had a feeling that it would cause Ma'tanza more fluster to tell her as much.

Ideally, Tzirret did not want to let Ma'tanza go, but in an effort not to embarrass himself with his body's involuntary response to such physical contact, he pulled away reluctantly. He kept his arms around the back of Ma'tanza's neck as he regarded her, somewhat abashed. "So, um...what does Ma'tanza feel like doing now?" Tzirret said in an attempt to Keep Ma'tanza's attention upward, "We could keep swimming, or just talk, or head back to camp?"

---

Sabine knew Meesei well enough that she understood what she had actually meant when there was a laugh. Sabine chuckled uneasily with a little embarrassment. "Right," Sabine responded, "Yes, I would like to see. Do I...have to stand back?" Sabine took a few steps back anyway. She had seen some powerful spells before, but she did not know what was the highest level. She was a little tense, but also excited and curious.

Ma'tanza still kept her arms around Tzirret as well, lightly scratching the fur on his lower back. She was just as uncertain as before, though for different reasons. She looked at the water briefly, somewhat wanting to swim, but not entirely. "Um, well, we could swim more, if you wanted. We could also just go back to camp, find the others or just stay with each other. Uh, none of that was really helpful, was it?"

Closing her eyes and lowering her head, Ma'tanza let out a brief sigh. "We could do anything you want. Ma'tanza doesn't really know what she wants to do. Like she said, there isn't much we can do now that we couldn't before."

---

"Yes, just...stand back a bit farther. Roughly twice as far, actually." Meesei warned, moving herself even farther away to the base of the tree Sabine had used as a target. She took in a few deep breaths as she started pouring magicka through herself in preparation.

"As you know, my specialization is lightning, and that is the type of magic for which I can create the most powerful spells and most impressive displays. But, I do not believe this would be the best place to demonstrate those abilities. I would not want to accidentally start a forest fire that I could not extinguish. Since you have an affinity for frost, I will show you something of that element. It may not be my specialization, but my general aptitude in destruction still allows me to cast magic normally considered to be at the master level, regardless of the element. I just know more techniques for lightning. Just do not step close until the effect has completely ended." Meesei warned.

With the end of her explanation, the air around Meesei grew very cold, though she did not perceive it. An aura of destruction magic formed around her, which quickly coalesced into concentrated, swirling frost around her hands. The trained eye could see easily that the frost around her hands was exceptionally intense for as long as she charged the magic, but it was not until she unleashed the spell that the extent of its power became readily apparent.

In only a brief moment, Meesei went from charging the spell close to her chest, to thrusting her hands out to either side of her, pushing the magicka along with it. The air around her quickly went from calm and pleasant, to a raging whirlwind of frost about forty feet in all directions around her. Everything from the ground, to the grass, to the trees themselves were not only whitened by the ice on their surface, but frozen to the very core. With the thickness of the cloud of frost, Meesei was not even visible at its center.

Tzirret looked around aimlessly, twisting his mouth in thought. He didn't really mind what they did either, as long as he could be closed to her. After a mildly awkward silence, Tzirret looked to Ma'tanza with a suggestion, though not a particularly inspired one. "Well, what were we doing earlier? We could just lay here and talk. This one enjoyed that."

Without any better ideas, Tzirret slid his hands down from Ma'tanza's neck to her hands and lowered himself to be seated, opting to keep one arm affectionately around her shoulder if she joined him. Of course, sitting and talking meant they would need something to talk about. Tzirret had not thought that far ahead. One thing eventually came to mind. "You know, Tzirret was going to try this in Leyawiin. You remember in the chapel?"

---

Sabine unquestioningly distanced herself as necessary, but even with the warning, she had to shield her face with her arms with the force of the wind and the cold. What Meesei created was nothing short of amazing. Sabine stood in awe as the effect of one of her smaller ice storm spells came forth with greater destructive power, centred on Meesei, and orders of magnitude larger. The spinning wind and ice looked like it would lacerate and freeze anything or anyone unfortunate enough to be caught inside. This made Sabine concerned, for Meesei was in the centre of it.

It took a while, but when the spell died down and the spinning snow settled, Meesei stood unharmed in the centre. Everything around her was in the depths of winter, but now steaming in the sun. The grass was flattened and covered in frost, bent in a spiral pattern around her. Sabine was open-mouthed and dumbstruck.

"That..." Sabine's eyes skipped around the shrinking snow and ice on the ground. She took some furtive steps over the affected ground and found that the frost crunched under her feet. It was uncomfortably cold against her bare soles. "That was so much power..." Sabine looked to Meesei with shock, "How is that possible?"

Ma'tanza followed suit and sat down beside Tzirret. Mimicking his posture, she also put her arm over his shoulder, as well as wrapping her tail around his waist. Following all of the discomfort and confusion, Ma'tanza had lost much of what she had been thinking about before. Instead, they were replaced by thoughts of the future, and what might happen between herself and Tzirret over the following weeks. As such, she did not have anything to say until Tzirret spoke up.

Cocking her head to the side somewhat, Ma'tanza, once more, appeared confused. "Yes, Ma'tanza remembers the chapel, but...she isn't sure what exactly you're talking about. She remembers looking at all of the beautiful windows and carvings, and talking about the Imperial gods. She does remember that you were going to tell her something before we had to go, but you didn't bring it up again. Were you going to give Ma'tanza the pendant then?"

---

Meesei took in a few deep breaths as she stepped away from the center of what remained of the frost storm. Since her magic had passed, the slick sheet of ice on the ground was starting to feel cold to her as well. Briefly, she paused and looked back when she heard a loud cracking sound coming from the tree behind her. The whole base of its trunk was frozen in ice, and it looked to be rather unstable. However, it seemed to settle after a few moments.

"That...was more power than I would normally use, yes. That frost spell takes much more out of me than a comparable lightning spell. It is not something I would use in combat unless I had a very good reason, certainly." Meesei answered. She walked up to Sabine, then turned around and stood alongside her to join in looking over the spell's effects. "I gained that power the same way you are gaining yours. Training, experience, and perhaps some talent. It may seem unimaginable now, but power like that is within your grasp. Another ten years or so, and I could see you casting a frost spell more intricate and powerful than that."

"Well, he was going to try," Tzirret said, "Gallus kind of...interrupted. It got this one thinking, though...Tzirret has never been good at keeping secrets, especially about himself. He gets nervous when they are brought up, then people push him, and he is not good at hiding such things. Not like other people." Tzirret looked down, took the end of Ma'tanza's tail gently with his free hand and ran the soft, thick fur between his fingers. He couldn't help but bring his own tail around her waist as well. He continued with a more curious tone, "But, it sounds like Ma'tanza was still surprised for Tzirret to admit his feelings just now." Tzirret turned his eyes to look at Ma'tanza, "Did this one really hide them that well?"

---

No matter how hard she tried, Sabine could not see it possible to cast a spell more powerful, let alone as powerful, as Meesei's blizzard. She could imagine the image, and it was exhilarating, but she could not feel herself doing it. "I think I will need much more practice," Sabine concluded again.

Smelling something nearby, Sabine turned her head and spotted a few clan members watching on through the trees. They all looked as awestruck as Sabine was a moment ago. "We have attracted attention," Sabine said with mild surprise. She offered an unsure wave, but the onlookers did not respond with anything except leaning to one another and murmuring.

Normally, their magic lessons were not spectacular enough to attract an audience. Sabine found herself feeling a little uneasy about being watched during training by strangers, but she did not feel right telling them to leave. She turned her head to look up at Meesei again, "Should we...try more absorbing practice?" Sabine asked. The relatively repetitive exercise might bore the strangers into walking away.

Ma'tanza rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. "Um, well...sort of." She answered with some uncertainty. "You did act like a lot of boys do when they are attracted to Ma'tanza. Looking at her for a bit longer than usual, getting nervous speaking to her. But, you also acted like that around other people, and for reasons that weren't about Ma'tanza. You, um, seem to get nervous more than most people, so this one never really knew what caused it. Was it all about Ma'tanza, or were you nervous about other things too?" She asked.

---

Meesei simply chuckled and gave a wave along with Sabine when she pointed out the people observing them. She was not sure exactly when they had arrived, so she did not know how much they had seen. She was not one to intentionally show off her abilities, but she did not mind that some members of the clan had happened to see at least the results of her demonstration.

After stepping away from the frozen ground, Meesei nodded, then charged another simple restoration spell. "Certainly. Raise your ward, and concentrate." She instructed.