The fresh mountain breeze teased Jake’s dirty blond locks, and tugged at his sweat stained clothing.

“I’m going to have to find a new place to meditate. I could smell you the moment you opened the portal,” Breaker said, “when was the last time you bathed? He stood and turned around, brow creasing as he saw the patch over Jake’s empty socket. “Did Skovik do that to you?”

“No,” Jake said, “I traded it. For a rather valuable memory.”

Breaker smiled at his former apprentice, the Y-shaped scars beneath his eyes dimpling. “You found a way to penetrate Ulroké’s inner sanctum.”

“Penetrate is right,” Jake said wryly, “I can portal straight to his bloody bedchamber.”

“Well done,” Breaker said, “it seems you and Flint make a fine team. Even if it did cost you can eye.”

“Well worth it.” Jake replied. “Only now-”

“You want me to train you to fight with half your sight. It may take longer than you have.”

Jake nodded, lifting the sword still clasped loosely in his right hand. “Let’s begin.”

“I did a little research of my own, on Ulroké.” Rather than pluck a blade of grass, Breaker crafted a curved dagger of ice in each hand. “I learned he favors short blades. He also commands a host of other abilities… but if you’re clever, you’ll find a way to make him fight you, sword to knife.”

“He has a protector,” Jake said. “My once-friend Amari. She commands ethereal serpents that pass through blades and armor to bite flesh. Can you teach me to fight them?”

Josh smiled and placed one palm atop the other. “Althanas exists on many planes,” he said, layering his hands again. “To teach you to navigate all of them would take far too long. But you might learn to strike at all of them simultaneously. You wield a great deal of power when you make portals, Jake. This will merely mean learning a new way of channeling it. Focus on the sword.”

Jake drew on the Eternal Tap, and rather than conjuring a portal or fire, merely attempted to express the energy into the sword. For a moment the crystal blade glowed, and then flames erupted from it. Jake nearly dropped the sword in surprise, but willed the fire away instead.

Breaker chuckled. “That was your arcane influence following a familiar path. Try again. Become one with the blade. Make it everywhere, and nowhere at once, as you are when you fight.”

The half elf narrowed his remaining eye and concentrated. The sword began to glow again, and he could feel power circulating between his body and the blade. He could sense that it had grown stronger, and that it reached… outward, and away.

“Good.” Breaker called. “Now see if you can catch the wind.”

A summoned gust knocked Jake off balance, and the demigod somersaulted through the air to land at his side, stabbing high and low with both icy daggers.

Jake leaned into the direction the gust had pushed him and performed a one-handed handspring of his own. As his body rotated his sword swung out like a lateral pendulum, forcing Cronen to stay at range.

“Good,” Cronen called again, and threw one of his daggers at Jake’s face. The half elf struck the projectile with his sword, shattering it into a thousand shards. “Well done,” the demigod grinned, conjuring a replacement dagger. “You’ve been practicing, since you lost the eye.”

“As best I could, with what was available.” Jake attacked this time, driving forward in a flurry of swift thrusts. Cronen evaded them with casual trunk movement, not bothering to bring his blades to bear. His hands remained at his waist as he backpedalled, bobbing and weaving, and then he spun suddenly and threw an arcing kick at Jake’s head.

The half elf could not see the kick coming - it was on his blind side - but he read the movement in Breaker’s body and countered with an upward swing of his glowing sword.

Clang! Jake turned his head in time to see his blade braced against Breaker’s metal boot, and then the demigod spun again and swept his legs from under him.

“With limited vision, you must learn to think more moves ahead,” Josh said, “every battle is a game of chess. Treat it as such.”

They trained for many hours, until Jake was covered in sweat and breathing hard, his empty socket throbbing painfully. He sheathed his sword as Breaker called a halt, and re-adjusted his eyepatch.

“Many thanks,” Jake said, bowing to his instructor. “I should be on my way back to Ettermire.”

“Hold there,” Josh said. He released the icy daggers he still carried, and they melted into a wave of warm water that swept over Jake, cleansing him from head to toe. It drew the sweat and dirt out of his clothing, and seemed to sponge fatigue and pain from his muscles and grave wound. “Now at least you won’t kill your allies with your scent.”

Jake laughed. “You and your sensitive nose.” He turned, and then paused, and pivoted back to face the demigod. Breaker raised an eyebrow. “Could I ask one more favour of you?”

“I suppose I could grant such a boon,” Josh grinned, “for a former student and old friend.”

“Tomorrow, if you could be on this plateau, meditating… just in case we need your help.”

“Haven’t you faith in Skovik and his people?”

“Some,” Jake said, lone green eye narrowing shrewdly, “but I’d feel better with the Breaker in my back pocket.”

Josh considered the request while the wind whipped between them. He nodded. “Tomorrow I will spend the day here. And if a portal appears, I will step through it, and assist you. But after that I will be leaving this place. Your frequent travelling alters the Tap’s energies.”

“Thank you,” Jake said again, and then he crafted a portal between them and ducked through it.