Beneath the purple mist

As solid as air

Amaris stood in the cold, shivering despite several layers of thick woolen clothing. Her and Amara were at the west side of the castle, above them you could see the balcony of what was supposed to be the bedroom to the king's most trusted advisors, however Aleksei gave that chamber to none other then his humble servant.

"You really are a fragile little thing." Amara said with a small laugh and gave Amaris her coat, she could almost hear the girl's bones shaking.

"Not exactly easy to be tough as nails when air passes freelly through your bones." Amaris joked and took the coat.

Amara looked at the girl in front of her and found a little bit of herself in Amaris. As a hybrid of a ghost and a vampire, she too used to shiver at the slightest wind.

But now, she could walk almost naked in the cruel blizzard and it wouldn't make her flinch. She leanred to control how solid she was, she could make her skin stone hard, and she could make herself almost invisible. Not fully because of her vampire blood though. It did give her other advantages like hightened sense and agility.

"How do you do it? I can see your spear through your hand but you seem so unbothered by the cold?" Amaris asked.

She almost always lingered in a partially see through state, she could make herself completelly solid but maintaining that state was extremelly draining.

"I want to teach you how to make yourself completelly invisible, and how to make yourself so strong not even an angel's blade can cut through your skin." Amara said and placed her palm on Amaris' cheek. The general's skin was only a shade darker then the girl's.

Asaide from their skintones, it was almost like they were sisters, or cousins at the least.

"You think I could do that? Be completelly invisible? Even to vampire eyes?" Amaris asked, the idea of being able to control her power to such extremes sounded like a dream come true.

"Of course you could. Let's try it, shall me?" Amara assured her and stepped away, with Amaris nodding furiously, she continued. "First let yourself feel the air passing through you, I know it's cold but it'll pass. Feel every place on your body that the air flows through and expand it. Let the wind pass not only trough parts of you, but through your whole body, through every last fiber of your being."

Amaris listened, and she regretted it almost that exact second. The cold that was tolerable up until then suddenly stabbed it's way through her body with thousands of jagged daggers, tearing and ripping through her flesh.

A terrible scream tore from her throat and she fell down onto the snow. The coldness of the snow even seemed comforting compared through what she felt moments ago.

Amara was by her side that very second. "It's hard, I know. But you did it. For a second there you were completelly gone."

"I did?" Amaris managed to mumble out.

"You did. Don't worry, the first time is always the hardest." with those words she managed to pull Amaris up to her feet again.

"I'm not sure I can do that again any time soon." Amaris said, her voice was shaking and she could swear she was able to hear her own bones rattling around in her body.

"That's all right, we'll do something else. We can train your stamina for being fully solid." Amara told her and sat her down on a wooden box next to them.

"Sure, just... Give me a bit." Amaris responded, still trying to catch her breath.

Meanwhile, Hadrian was on the training polygon, trying for the past half an hour to get past the begining of it and failing miserably.

Jiayi just stood there, rubbing her fingers on her temples as Hadrian was knocked off the wooden beam once again.

"Come on, I'm not cut out for this." he complained as he lay flat on his back in the snow. It was so very cold but the ache in his muschles was far worse then the cold.

Out of the five of them, he had the least interest in fight and war. He joined in regardless because he knows he could be useful if he trained enough, but he found himself regretting the decision.

"Get up. Again." the woman said sharply.

"I already failed a houndred times, I can't do it." Hadrian said, not getting up or bothering to open his eyes. He could feel some blood leaking down his temple but just let it do so. His body heals fast so it won't bleed for long.

"Well you will do it a houndred and one, and one more after that and as many times as it takes for you to complete it. Now get up." Jiayi told him.

Allthough she was small she was by no means frail. She demonstrated the whole polygon to him five times without breaking a sweat. All of the generals were like that, actually.

They were pretty and seemed gentle, but none of them was by any means a damsel in distress.

"I. Can't. Do. It." Hadrian protested none the less, though he jumped to his feet once he heared her small footsteps aproach him.

"Yes. You. Can. Now do it or I will let my hunting dogs out on you, then you'll see just how fast you can be." she told him in a calm voice, but the threat was very much real.

It took Hadrian another twenty tries to get past the wooden beam with swinging obsticles, after which he was so amazed he didn't even notice the spinning puppet with wooden spikes roatating it's way towards him, and so he was kocked down into the snow once again.

"That was just out right mean. You could've warned me!" he whined from the floor.

"Would you be warned in a battle? Do you think your enemy would just announce their attack? Again." the same sharp tone as usual, only this time the general couldn't hide the slight giggle in her voice.

And so he did it again. And again, again, again, until it was already dark outside but he had managed to get through the entire polygon in one go without falling or being hit by anything.

That night all five of them fell asleep the second their bodies touched the bed sheets.

Aleksei stood in the doorway, he planned on informing them about tomorrow's training but decided not to wake them and leave it for the morning.

The sight made him remember the night in the mountains with Theo, the one night they had together where they were just them. He fought so desparatelly not to let his tears fall but they did.

They fell and wouldn't stop no matter how much he tried to stop them, once he had made his way back into the castle and into the throne room, to the side of Theo's lifeless body, the tears rushed even faster.

Aleksei could swear he cried a river that night, like so many nights before that one. He was slowly breaking, he needed Theo back, he was going mad without him.