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Teval takes a day to just be alone, think over everything in between his stretching sessions with Ista, and just lets himself feel sad. He deserves that much at least. Nobody bothers him while he rests and naps, and he knows this is for the best.

The next morning, Teval finds the rest of his things from Matan's room sitting outside his bedroom door, and he knows it was Lexton. Nothing could really repay Lexton's patience in this matter, but Teval is going to have to try somehow.

He sits in the bed with a lap desk borrowed from Ista and writes out the first draft of his resignation. It ends up being five pages filled with the anger and frustration that has built up over the years. He goes back through it as he scribbles in new additions and crosses out sections to move them. When he's finished, the papers are a mess, but he feels much better getting it all out of his system. He rereads it a few times, making notes here and there, but he knows words on a page would never carry the weight his voice could. Handing this in himself would certainly make a statement.

After dinner with the team, Teval does his daily stairs exercise, up and down three times before he sits down at his desk and carefully puts all the words in order in the cold and precise language he was taught to use, but happy to add speculation at Jiyo's anger and jealousy when he relates his former leader's consistent behavior leading up to the attack. He does as promised and demands payment for Matan, and the end of his shadow as well as extra payment to reimburse him for nearly being killed at the hands of another academy member.

Once he's made a second copy to keep for his own records, Teval signs the end of the page with the most extravagant signature he's ever managed to produce as his back spasms. He takes a breath, letting it out slowly as he sets down the pen and moves to the floor to stretch his back. He's not going to let the academy get to him. Once they're out of his life, they're not going to get one more thought from him.

Teval puts the resignation into an envelope given to him by Delian, and he's about to add his insignia pins when he pauses and decides against it, setting the envelope on his desk, the pins resting atop.

For the next few days, Teval rests his back, doing as much sitting as possible to make sure it will be ready for his visit to the academy to turn in his resignation. While he does, he and Lexton decide that while the earth attribute book they were using might be helpful, it's possible they could find better things elsewhere.

In the mornings, Teval drills Lexton with the basic castings at the beginning of the book as well as any shields he can learn. The younger man picks them all up with ease now that he's casting better, and Teval is proud to see the progress. During afternoons, if the team isn't out looking for a bounty, Lexton goes hunting for books and manages to find a book on shields that most everyone can cast, as well as some at the back of the book for specific attributes, including his.

"Wow," Lexton murmurs as they read the book together at the dinner table. "I didn't even realize there could be shields for me."

Teval smiles. "This isn't all you can do," he says as he taps a shield that disassembles simple projectiles like rocks or debris. "You don't only have to do what books or teachers tell you. You can develop your own castings to suit your needs."

"Like how the metalsmiths Seran worked with used specific shields for heat?"

"Yep. I bet if you ask her, they might have some that shield their eyes from light, or help fold metal in a certain way."

"She has this one casting where she focuses heat in one small spot to melt metal precisely when altering parts," Lexton tells him. "I've seen her do it, this dot that burns red hot. I don't know if she learned it or made it herself, though."

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