I'm Breaking You Down To Build You Up (Elincia)

[Kaida Taldir]

Star Fortress, Tygara.

The Star Fortress lay high in the Iron Mountains that overlooked New Santaissa. It was an imposing military installation that bristled with firepower, dwarfing even the fallen Citadels of lost Kaeshana - Kaeshana is not yet lost! - and the fortifications Firemane had constructed on Ossus and Boz Pity.


Massive Tempest cannons and Ion Cannons, expertly concealed, were pointed at the heavens, ready to spit out their rays at warships that might come into orbit. They were supported by a wide array of smaller cannons and flak turrets to rain down death upon potential attackers, along with thousands of soldiers, drawn from the Angelii, the regular Eldorai army, Firemane and native auxiliaries. A theatre grade Aspis shield granted the citadel virtual immunity from orbital bombardment.


Construction was not yet complete, but great strides had been made. In the aftermath of the failed Battle for Kaeshana, defences had been reinforced considerably. Kaida Taldir was not directly inside the base. Rather she was a bit further up in the mountains. Earlier, the Angelii had been inspecting the placement of mine fields. Now she was waiting for a pupil to show up. A rather undisciplined pupil, who nevertheless would go through the Seraph's forge and be the better for it.


A strong wind blew her way and since they were so high up, it was quite chilly. But the cryomancer did not mind that in the least. She stood as ramrod straight as ever, almost to the point of appearing rigid. [member="Elincia Alanis"] better not be late. It would also be advantageous if she'd equipped herself appropriately for climbing up the mountains. The Seraph looked very frosty, though that's the way she normally looked. Kaeshana might have made her even more chillier.

 

[Elincia Alanis]

The loss of Kaeshana has brought a lot of headache to the Angelii. War was cool if you craved some action and bloodshed, however it also took a lot of lives if you looked at it that way. Not only that, they had to deal with protesters afterwards the battle, which was yet another hit to the already tired army. People running around, new soldiers getting trained, which Elincia thought getting thrown to the tigers was less intense at this point, so one would think the Angelii base was "livelier" than the most of days here. One thing that didn't change at all was how everyone looked like a spiky ice wall which would kill you if you said anything.

All those cool stuff happening outside, Elincia.... was on cleaning duty. Because she wasn't officially forgiven yet. Even though things were intense right now, discipline, and the punishments, were not forgotten yet. So, Elincia continued doing her job, sighing and thinking about things until it was over.

"Why am I still here?" Elincia thought. "Just to suffer? Every night..." Wait, wait wait. Was that copyright?

An Angelii officer walked towards the group, which immediately caught the young Angelii's attention. She knew she saw her around ice lady, so this could only end well... The officer talked with the Seraph for a minute or two, if you don't remember, worse than the ice lady one, and then both looked at her.

"Alanis."

"I am in trouble."

Gulping, she looked at the Seraph and put a smile, preparing the puppy eyes. "Yeah?"

"Good news. You can leave early today. Seraph Taldir's expecting you."

Her face went from happy to hell no in a record time.

"Uhh...no...?"

"Alanis, stop talking and get over here or else I will make you clean everywhere by yourself. With no equipment. And at a time limit. And a punishment if you fail."

Alright, that was a winning argument. So she moved towards them.

"We shall speak about the details on the way. First, let's get you some equipment. You'll need them." The officer said and then started to walk, motioned for her to follow.

And thus, the journey to... probably her death, began. "So,... "

"I am in no mood for unfunny jokes, Alanis. Please just walk."

Elincia rolled her eyes and sighed. Yep, in trouble.

On the way, she learned that the ice lady was waiting for her up the mountains. She remembered something from a movie. Hopefully, she wasn't going to get kicked meanwhile ice lady shouting "This is Tygara!" or something. Probably not. That was a funny thought though. Yeah?

Equipment, check. Still alive Elincia, check. Alright, time to go. A timeskip later, she would arrive to the said mountain. It was a huge one. Great!

And she took her first step to start climbing the mountain. And another, and another... Each step, she felt like she was about to slip and fall to her death. The cold wasn't that much of a bother to her, being a cryomancer had its perks. However, it was getting difficult to breathe and thus concentrate on her stamina as she continued to ascend. Deep breaths. One more push. Repeat.

At one point, the walkable path ended and she actually needed to climb the mountain. Oh the horrors.

After at least having a heart attack thinking she would fall to her death, or suffocating to death 5-6 times, she threw her hand to the top of the mountain and pulled herself to safety, seeing the ice lady standing there like her usual self but double the ice, she thought jumping the mountain would be a lot safer. But, well, here they were. No running from her at this point.

"Whatever it is, it wasn't my fault!" She said catching her breath, trying to save herself from an imaginary crime.

[member="Kaida Taldir"]

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Elincia Alanis"]


Suffice to say the mountain was terribly high, so Elincia's ascent was quite arduous. Moreover, the air was rather thin up here. This made getting enough oxygen into your lungs a bit of a chore. A strong wind blew across the mountain.


Predictably, Kaida looked as frosty as ever. "You're three minutes late," she said icily, as if that was a terrible crime. "Get your arse in gear. We shall board the shuttle. When we arrive at our destination, you will be tested." In other words poor Elincia had been forced to climb a mountain just to board a shuttle.


Could they not have climbed into one at the hangar? Yes, of course, but that would have defeated the point of the exercise. "The environment will be unpleasant," the Seraph added cryptically. Naturally she saw no reason to tell Elincia where they were going.


The transport ship would take them far away from Eldorai territory. They'd travel for several kilometres, until they reached the blazing hot deserts of southern Tygara, close to where the Qadiri, their distant cousins, lived.

 

[Elincia Alanis]

It was getting difficult each second to catch her breath, because of the lack of oxygen this high up the mountain and the ice wall right in front of her. However, it seemed like she would survive one more day, as she wasn't dead yet.

Three minutes late?! I mean, yeah thanks I didn't, like, almost die a few times trying to climb this mountain.

None of those, of course, escaped her mouth because she knew it wouldn't end well for her. Of all those years she has been a member of the Angelii, even though she always liked to make her mad in situations like these, she would prefer to do it in a place where she could go hide somewhere. So, instead, she shrugged with a forced smile.

And when ice lady talked about boarding a shuttle, after all the bother of climbing the mountain, she looked at her like she burned all her "special" magazines one by one, smiling as she watched. Yeah, it was such an intense feeling. And what was this "test" she was talking about? Too many questions, and Elincia already missed her cleaning adventures. Nah, that would be overreacting. Not that much.

"Tested? What do you mean tested?" She said, as much as she wanted to conceal her little meltdown, it was glued to her tone.

And now, she was being cryptic? Since when Seraph Taldir, the ice lady, the direct approach queen, talked in such ways?! Alright, it proved that Elincia was not going to have a good time. The mystery of it would make her excited if it wasn't her Elincia was dealing with.

"Ice lady, you are not going to throw me to the tigers just because I was late for 3 minutes, right?"

Probably not, right? Right?

With that, they would board the shuttle and depart from the mountains, going "somewhere unpleasant". After a couple of minutes, hours... Who knows, at this point Elincia was too busy trying to understand what was happening and where they were going, she started to feel itchy and like extra uncomfortable than she should feel right now. Breathing was a little bit difficult, and the air was a little warmer than she was used to.

This is the part where she kills me.

[member="Kaida Taldir"]

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Elincia Alanis"]


There was sand at their destination. Boy, there was so much sand. Moreover, it was extremely hot, like a binary furnace. A hot, dry wind blew over the sandy dunes, throwing up columns of sand and dust. For a cryomancer it was a bit like being a snowflake in a blast furnace.


The merciless sun shun brightly, radiating intense heat across the desolate landscape. There was no relief from the scorching rays of the yellow orb, save for the shade provided by the shuttle, which would depart as soon as they set foot upon the earth. The only sound was the wail of the wind.


"We've arrived. Come on. " Sand crunched beneath Kaida's boots when she stepped out of the shuttle. There was a duffel bag slung over her shoulder. As far as the naked eye could see, there was neither civilisation nor any form of vegetation. Just sandy dunes.


"We won't leave this desert until I say so. You're first test is to run. Don't stop until I order it," she commanded, not really giving Elincia any time to adjust to their new surroundings. Dehydration would be a serious risk and Tygara's desert was as unforgiving as the Dune Sea of Tatooine.

 

[Elincia Alanis]

The shuttle has landed after a couple of very uncomfortable minutes, and ice lady headed for the exit, motioning her to follow, and she did.

"Where did we... oh..." Well, it was no use to finish that sentence, as it was revealed that they have come to a totally empty desert.

A desert. A karking desert. Great! She looked at her, her look saying "It's a joke, right?"

It probably wasn't a joke.

Following her outside, she felt the sand crunching and immediately felt sick from the heat, like someone was boiling her alive. Her itchiness reached to the maximum levels and breathing was getting very difficult. At least they had the shuttle... Aaand it was gone...

So, ice lady and a totally empty desert with a burning sun and sand as far as the eye can see.... She looked at her again, still expecting this to be a joke.

It still wasn't.

And now, she wanted her to run. Run until she said otherwise. Not even saying why they were here, or what was it all about. Run.

"Run? Like, right now? Under this sun? Why? Why are we even here?" Even before starting to run, she started to feel the exhaustion. Her questions were probably welcomed by an icy stare.

"Run it is." So she did, of course, not before rolling her eyes for she didn't understand. She wouldn't say no to a hot date with the ice lady, but it wasn't the hot date she had in mind! One step, another, another, each getting faster than the last one. It was difficult to control her breathing. And after a couple of minutes, she already started to feel thirsty. But she kept going, she could feel the heat of the sand, heat right on top of her. There was no running from it. She was literally getting roasted right now. Breathe, continue to breathe, continue to breathe... Steps, steps, steps... If she even stopped, she didn't know what punishments the ice lady had in mind. So, she continued running. Or tried to.

She would enjoy a bottle of water right now. Very much.

Very, very much...

Did she dare to ask?

[member="Kaida Taldir"]

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Elincia Alanis"]


Kaida was pitiless. "I never joke," she said flatly. It was true. She never did! "Time to step out of your comfort zone. If you can't adapt, you're no use," Her voice was as harsh as the wind and as sharp as the crack of a whip upon flesh.


So run they did. To her credit, the Seraph ran alongside Elincia. She had many flaws and was frankly a very difficult person to get along with, but she never asked something of her soldiers that she was not ready to do herself. This was why she carried the same amount of gear as Elincia.


The desert took its toll on her, too. Her blonde hair soon hung in sweaty clumps around her face. Her body was baked in sweat and she was soon getting thirsty. Over time, her armour would begin to feel heavy on her shoulders. Likewise, her skin would feel dry and hard. Still, she kept running beneath the merciless, scalding sun of the great Tygaran desert.


Perhaps at some point they'd be able to see an oasis. Though it might not seem that way, Kaida had not dumped them in the desert at random. After all, she did not want to end up a dehydrated, desiccated husk. However, until then it would be a long march, for it was meant to push Elincia. The young Angelii would endure the binary furnace and overcome it - or fail.

 

[Elincia Alanis]

She didn't even realize that the ice lady was running alongside her, it seemed only a few minutes and the sun already started to play with her perception. "Well, maybe you should start doing that. It is a good practice for communication." She said, with a little dry and shaky voice, more relaxed about the backlash since it was clear now that the ice lady wasn't mad at her and didn't bring her in the middle of a desert to kill her... well the last part was not that clear but anyway!

Rolling her eyes to her next words, Elincia's brain was getting fried right now as the exhaustion and the heat started to get to her, so she didn't have anything clever to say and continued to run into the emptiness of sand and heat, accompanied by the ice lady herself. Where were they even going?

Sweat dripping down her face, the equipment she had with her, which were not suitable for a desert at all, started to feel heavier and heavier as they continued, it felt like they were trying to pull her to the ground by each step she took. She continued breathing, breathing and breathing. Even breathing was getting uncomfortable at this point.

However, it was a competition. She wasn't going to let her win.

She would adapt.

She had to adapt.

What other choice was there anyway?

[member="Kaida Taldir"]

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Elincia Alanis"]


So they ran across the dunes. Not once did Kaida give Elincia even a moment of breathing space. Should the junior Angelii ever slacken in her pace or even pause, Kaida would yell at her or hit her with a cane. The harsh stinging blows would be a good way to motivate the young soldier!


There would be no slacking. No reprieve unless the Seraph ordered it. Breathing and movement would get difficult for both of them, but that was the point of the exercise. Kaida was feeling the effect of the heat as well, but she refused to let it stop her. Weakness could not be allowed to slow her down. That was what had been their undoing at Kaeshana.


Eventually, the pair would reach an oasis. Lush palms and grass covered the hollow and under the trees it was much cooler. However, Elincia would still not get any rest. "We're not done yet," Kaida said flatly. "The temperature in this area is thirty-eight degrees and we are in direct sunlight. You must be able to endure your time here without heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Willpower does not suffice. You will learn a skill called tapas, which lets you regulate your own body temperature."


Having said this, the Seraph spent the next ten minutes explaining to Elincia how to put this into action. If the Wing Leader applied this information correctly, the unbearable heat would merely feel oppressive. It would still damage her focus, but no longer be an unsurmountable obstacle. She'd face a reduced risk of falling unconscious or suffering dehydration, if all went well. Until Kaida was satisfied, she wouldn't be allowed to drink anything.

 

[Elincia Alanis]

This was the worst date of all time.

Not only she was forced to run in a desert dressing like someone who just climbed a mountain, there was no moment to breathe as well, if she fell a little behind, she faced the wrath of ice lady's cane, and pain was a powerful motivator.

As they continued running, at some point she saw lots of green in the distance, and to be honest, it was a welcome sight after the endless sand and heat. Wait, was that real? She once heard people could hallucinate in these situations. Probably that, since she didn't expect anything nice from this little journey after what she has been through so far.

It was revealed a few minutes later as they got closer to the area, that it was actually real! Elincia couldn't believe her eyes still and did a reality check by blinking several times, yep, it was still there. An oasis!

She felt like she heard a whisper, the trees were calling her, inviting her to rest under their protective shadow. Apparently they had a face, and... Nah, that part was probably a hallucination. Anyway, most importantly, there was water! "Alright!" She thought, couldn't help but show a huge smile. "This is the part where it gets better." However, reality hit her in the face 10 times more painful than ice lady's cane, and it was ice lady saying they weren't done yet. The smile, of course, vanished immediately as she heard those words...

No rest for the wicked, it seemed. She knew resistance was futile, whatever she said would be met by the icy gaze of the Seraph. However, it didn't stop her from saying her piece anyway because she definitely didn't feel that good and was pretty thirsty. The oasis felt so close, yet so far at the same time. "So the torture continues..." An eye roll followed.

Just as she thought, unless she managed to do whatever ice lady had in mind, she wasn't allowed to do anything else. A painful sigh escaped her lips as she looked at the water once more. The next ten minutes passed painfully as ice lady explained how to do the magic. What was it called? She was too busy thinking about the water. Once the explaining was done, it was her turn to act.

Closing her eyes, she tried to concentrate. Trying to only think about ice lady's instructions, which was quite difficult at this point, she focused on her body temperature. Breathe, breathe, breathe...

As the uncomfortable minutes followed, she started to feel some change around her body, it felt less hot all of a sudden, she felt as if she was under the trees, just lying down and doing nothing.

She felt a little better, however she wasn't focusing enough, probably the ice lady noticed that as well. "Am I doing it right?" That would translate to "Can I drink some water already?" but of course, saying that would just piss her off.

[member="Kaida Taldir"]

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Elincia Alanis"]


"No." Despite being covered in sweat, Kaida still managed to sound frosty. Since even she was starting to feel claustophobic, she'd taken off her helmet. Her blonde hair was tousled and soaked. "Focus more. You won't get any water until you're doing it right, and you're close to dehydration." That was truly motivating. "You think I'm being cruel, but I'm breaking you down to build you back up."

 

[Elincia Alanis]

[member="Kaida Taldir"], the master of motivation! Well, reminding someone they are close to death was somewhat motivating, but anyway. She would choose the fire lady version of motivating, with less religious talk. Anyway, she sighed.

"You know I am not a robot, right? " Even though it was a joke about the ice lady talking about breaking and building her back, her tone sounded a little bit serious because she was too tired, or pissed off, to fix that.

Drops of sweat fell down to the ground from her face, as she pushed herself one more time to think about anything else but her condition. Focus, or else you are going to die. Would the ice lady be that harsh? Who knows. Probably?

So she focused, focused and focused. She was so close to doing it right last time, she could feel it. She followed the same steps and focused on her body temperature, feeling it slowly cool down as seconds passed.

First step, checked!

Now, continue from there.

Don't think about water, don't think about water....

Minutes later after a streak of failures, she started to feel better. Like, the temperature was still a bother, however it wasn't burning her alive. And most importantly, she wasn't dying for water like before. Her throat was very dry, but that was it. The uncomfortable breathing slowed down a little bit, and then she opened her eyes.

Hate to say you were right, but "Alright, that actually feels a little better."

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Elincia Alanis"]


In response to her quip, Elincia got an icy glare and a good, hard slap across the face. That would sting. Kaida was very old school when it came to training soldiers and enforcing discipline. Whiny liberals complained a lot, but as far as she was concerned they could go hang.


Time passed, and finally Elincia achieved success. "Keep at it. This must become second nature to you." Clearly it was too much to ask to expect the Seraph to offer words of praise. "You may get some water. But not much. Do not gourge yourself. Or you'll just feel thirstier. Maybe Elincia was hoping that she'd get a proper break at last, but alas Kaida had other ideas. "Then we will set up the tent. Then you will fight me." This day was just getting better and better.

 

[Elincia Alanis]

The slap was unexpected, when she felt the stinging pain of the slap on her face, she let out a groan and her hand reflexively went to her cheek, rubbing it until the pain went away. "Owww..." She said after the sudden shock vanished, then added. "What the kark did I do?!" Probably bad choice of words.

Now, she was used to punishments like these, but she usually did stuff to her ears. Direct hit to the face was a first.

Clearly, the ice lady wasn't in the mood for jokes today. But when was she?

And of course, she didn't expect praise words from her. It was either "Keep it up or you are useless" for her. So being in the "Keep it up" phase was good enough. Anyway, good news is, she was finally allowed to drink water. Maybe later she would take a little nap under the trees before ice lady got any more ideas. She moved towards the water and drank from it like someone who didn't drink water for years, well that would kill that person but you get the idea.

It was very refreshing after an hour of exercise under the desert sun. Once she was full, she splashed some on her face and then sighed in relief. That felt much better indeed.

But of course, ice lady was there to ruin the moment once again. And now she wanted Elincia to fight her... Unless that was an invitation to something else but probably not.

"Should I bury myself in the sand and wait until I die as well?" She said, annoyed but still careful not to piss her off too much.

Probably better not to give her ideas. But it was too late for that.

[member="Kaida Taldir"]

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Elincia Alanis"]


Too late! Elincia had given Kaida a lovely idea.


The Seraph made a casual gesture and suddenly a strong wind blew Elincia's way, meant to knock her on her butt hard. It picked the very sand up from the ground, creating a miniaturised sandstorm. On Tygara, a sandstorm could not only blind someone, but with a heavy enough wind blast the skin off the body, leaving raw, unprotected flesh.


Now, this was not Kaida's intention and Elincia would presumably be wearing armour, so that was less of a concern. It would still be unpleasant for any areas of her body not covered by her suit. Sand might get into her eyes, unless she shielded herself. As if being pushed into the ground was not annoying enough, she risked being buried under the column of sand.

 

[Elincia Alanis]

Me and my kar...

Suddenly, Elincia found herself on the ground, and even if it was a bunch of sand she fell to, it hurt her a lot from the impact. And most importantly,sand everywhere.

Once she opened her mouth to say something probably she would regret, she realized that it wasn't over yet as she could sense a strong wind, and then suddenly it turned into a sandstorm. She had only a little time to react as it was fast, and she wasted that time to stand up. Once she recollected herself, the sandstorm was already very close, the sand flying went into her eyes, opened a few wounds and soon the figure of the girl got lost and only the sandstorm was visible. One would think she got caught without any defense from the scene.

But then, once the sandstorm cleared, it was revealed that the girl managed to create an ice wall, shielding her body from the sand. As the intensity of the sandstorm got calmer, she released the ice and found herself on the ground once again, panting.

"A....warning could... be nice." She said, coughing sand.

[member="Kaida Taldir"]

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Elincia Alanis"]


So far Elincia had climbed a mountain, ran across sand dunes in the blazing heat while being incorrectly equipped and now she'd been assaulted by a sandstorm after barely having time to catch her breath. None of this had been pleasant.


Her superior was kind of a queen. However, it was all for a good cause. Even if it would probably take Elincia a very long time to see that. There was a method to Kaida's madness.


"There are no warnings in battle. Your enemy will not be so kind to let you catch your breath and check your fingernails," Kaida said bluntly. "Adapt, fight, or muck around and perish."


Speaking of all the ice the junior cryomancer had summoned, it was obviously melting now. After all, it was terribly hot in the deserts of Tygara. Solid ice melted and became fluid once more, increasing in heat. As Kaida manipulated it with her Sciia, she created steam. It was boiling hot and all around the young cryomancer. The cloud might make breathing a bit difficult, too. "Your cryomancy will not help you in the desert. You must adapt."

 

[Elincia Alanis]

And of course, there was no break for poor Elincia, as the ice she created suddenly turned into steam and everywhere around her became very hot to the point she was having difficulties breathing.

And yes, her thoughts about the ice lady has worsened a lot in this journey, she was almost sure it was a punishment and the ice lady was just pretending it wasn't. She knew the Seraph was difficult to have a friendly conversation with, but this was going for an extreme. Or was it her understanding of bonding with people? Who knows.

The confusion soon turned into exhaustion, and then frustration.

It, of course, also reflected to her face, as she looked at her angrily and breathed heavily because of the heat. "At this point, the enemy would kill me already. Wanna show the same mercy? Oh wait, you are incapable of that." She said, then added, anger could be read from her voice quite well. "I will karking adapt."

With that, she took a breath and then concentrated on the cloud of hot air around her, then pushed it away quickly. People in her radius could feel the sudden heat wave coming towards them and if they weren't prepared it would hurt, combined with sand, because of its speed. Also, it provided wind for Elincia, thus opened a little room to breathe comfortably.

The girl realized how tired she was as her energy drained quickly and the speed of the wind decreased as the seconds passed by. She was surprised how she didn't fall unconscious at this point.

[member="Kaida Taldir"]

 

[Kaida Taldir]

[member="Elincia Alanis"]


"You'd be surprised. Ever thought about what the enemy is doing to our people on Kaeshana? I suspect not." Kaida retorted. She sounded icy, but that was par for the course for her, but it was more than that: She sounded angry.


That was probably something Elincia was not used to. Kaida was acidic, cold and aloof. That was all normal and expected. But she very rarely showed any form of emotion. "Enough of our people have been murdered or enslaved. I'm harsh to make sure you make it out alive."

 

[Elincia Alanis]

When she heard anger in her tone, Elincia's angry expression changed into a shocked one, as she looked at the ice lady surprised. She always tried to make her show emotions by playing silly jokes on her, push her to the limits by doing stupid things. She never could get even a change in her tone. But now, it was different. She, actually, sounded like a living being.

So, that's the reason.

And why did Elincia feel bad now? Wasn't this what she wanted?

"I... uhm..." She said, stopping for a moment. It was so unusual she didn't know how to react. "I know. I heard about it. It's... bad."

It seemed there was more to her than being an ice lady after all.

"I was frustrated. Sorry about the comparing you with the enemy thing." She sighed. Everything had a first after all. Of course, Elincia was out of practice with apologies. "But I didn't know that was the reason. I thought you were punishing me. I can't know if you don't talk to me. You don't talk to anybody." It was getting too emotional, and the weather wasn't the best for that. So, time to change the air a little bit.

"Also, I would probably be a very bad slave. And I don't plan on dying either."

[member="Kaida Taldir"]