The Whisper of the Nightingale

Chapter 38: The Fake's Preformance

Raven looked over at the young Elder that seemed to cause a rare difference of opinion between the two twins.

"Isn't he a bit too . . . young to be an Elder?" she asked in a low voice.

"You bet!" exclaimed Martin in a not so low voice, causing a few students to look their way. Coughing slightly he continued, more silently this time, "he's only nineteen!"

"Then how come he's an Elder? Even in Earth Empire, most academies only let you graduate at eighteen, right?"

"Well, first off, he's a Healer Spiritualist which means his focus in cultivation is on control of spirit essence rather than strength," said Lark and shot a keen glance at Elder Willow. "Just like with the girls here, Healers generally advance in control a lot faster than us Martial Spiritualist. According to rumor, Elder Willow was such a fast learner that, a few years ago, there came a point in when none of the Elders at his Academy could teach him anything! So, they asked him if he wanted to join them as an Elder and help teach the other students instead. It's quite impressive, right?"

'He is even better than his academy's headmaster? That ought to be at least a high Champion level . . . interesting!' thought Raven as she nodded slightly.

"Right, because a male Healer is so amazing," said Martin sarcastically and rolled his eyes.

"Then what is a female Martial Spiritualist - a joke?" countered Raven before she could resist it.

Lark grinned approvingly while Martin blinked a few times in confusion. While he was searching for the words to refute Raven with, all students had already collected a box and taken their seats; the same groupings from before were still present and the male dominated groups had ended up the furthest away from Raven.

"Alright," Elder Willow's voice filled the courtyard once more, "before we get started, I would like to introduce myself to those of you who might not have met me yet." He gazed over all the boys in the class. "My name is Myrtus Willow and I'm one of the exchange Elders from Earth Empire. Since last year, I have been teaching Spirit Control at the Healing Department here and from now on I will be in charge of this class as well. I know some of you might have doubts concerning my age . . ." Raven noticed him briefly looking over at her, challengingly, "but I assure you that you will find my teaching beneficial."

'Ho, he heard me?' Raven smiled internally, 'I get the feeling he found the comment ironic coming from me.'

"If you have any doubts about my abilities after this lesson, feel free to report it to Headmaster Swan."

"We wouldn't dream of it," echoed the girls in unison, causing more boys than just Martin to roll his eyes.

Elder Willow seemed a bit amused by the commotion but suddenly his demeanor grew serious as he started his lecture; "Up until now, Control Class has been about inner control of your spirit essence. While such control is vital for how quickly you can prepare a Divine Skill, without sufficient control over your essence once it leaves your body, the effect of most Divine Skills will drop drastically. This is especially the case for Healing Skills."

He paused and summoned a globe of visible spirit essence into his palm. The globe then separated into dussins of smaller globes that started flying around him in intricate patterns. Raven focused her attention on the globes.

'This seems similar to the process described in the Spacial Dash for creating an incorporeal body. . . .'

Elder Willow waved his hand and the globes floated out among the children and landed on their boxes. "With sufficient control you can make your spirit essence take a nearly physical form, even without using a Divine Skill." He snapped his fingers causing the globes to simultaneously click open the small latches that had kept the boxes closed.