Chapter Text
“May I ask something?” Kishiar asked.
They were alone so he felt Yuder hop off his shoulders. After he felt the movement of magic and a presence ripple into existence, Kishiar looked over.
“When we visited Mick Shuden, he said something I haven’t quite figured out.”
“About the holes?”
“Ah, so you heard,” he said, fairly unperturbed, “that wasn’t what I wanted to ask. I wanted to know why your soul looks like that of a cat.”
Yuder seemed to consider this. “I would guess that’s because I’m not fully either.”
“I must admit I don’t understand.”
“...You know my awakener ability is not to turn into a cat. That was something I was born with.”
Kishiar hadn’t considered that shifters weren’t humans with the ability to turn into animals. It sounded like they were both, or something different altogether.
“I see.”
Yuder looked like he had a question of his own.
“I told you that you were allowed to ask questions when you like.”
“That’s not…” he frowned slightly. “You haven’t asked about it.”
“About being a shifter?” Kishiar clarified. “It’s not that I don’t have questions, I just considered it might be uncomfortable.”
“Uncomfortable?”
“It isn’t important information for me and, considering your existence is well hidden, I figured it wasn’t something you spoke of.”
“...I wouldn’t know.”
“Pardon?”
“I don’t know any other shifters.” He clarified, “Not since I was 13.”
Assuming it was hereditary, that meant he had lost all of his family young.
“How old are you now?”
“20.”
Kishiar didn’t doubt the answer but did feel like there was more to it. His gaze and abilities of reasoning made him seem much older.
“So you weren’t told to hide that you were a shifter?” Kishiar decided to shift gears from thinking of a young teenaged Yuder, alone in the world.
Yuder considered it. “I was told I was different and that I shouldn’t draw attention when we went into the village.”
Which implied he hadn’t been living in a village.
“Which village?”
“Airic.”
“...Airic,” Kishiar repeated thoughtfully, it sounded familiar. “Ah, so you did live in the mountains.”
“...Yes.”
“Do you miss it?”
Yuder seemed puzzled by the question. “...No.”
“That’s a shame. I wanted to see where you used to live.”
He got a blank look. “It’s a house in the forest. there’s nothing there.”
“But it’s where you used to live. I want to know more about my dear Yuder.”
“...You can just ask.”
“Can I?” Kishiar grinned, delighted.
-
-
“Can I make changes to the training schedule?”
Kishiar looked up, unaware Yuder had even come back from going out in the day, much less that he was back in his human form.
“What changes do you want to make?”
Yuder considered him. “May I have some paper?”
Curious, he handed some over, as well as a pen to write with.
As Kishiar turned back to his work, he wondered not for the first time who taught Yuder to read and write.
Some time later, Yuder gave him several pieces of paper, which had an outline of the changes and the reasoning behind each change. He even listed out names of who should be grouped together, which meant that, while he didn’t often show himself to the majority of the Cavalry, he did observe and make note of all of them.
“These are interesting changes. May I ask questions about a few things?”
Yuder nodded.
When Kishiar posed his questions, Yuder listened seriously, then gave well-thought out responses.
Considering how well he understood this, Kishiar felt it was reasonable to assume that the group he had been with before and felt guilt over had been awakeners. Though, even so, the suggestions he gave were extremely impressive considering the fact that awakeners had only existed for two years now.
Eventually, Kishiar passed all the suggestions and gave them to the Cavalry.
Yuder also began reporting to him about the progress since it was clear that he was keeping an eye on them already.
His reports were impressively thorough while still prioritizing the correct information and lined up with what he heard from Nathan and the Deputy Commanders.
What he learned from the reports was that the new training regimens were turning out very impressive results and the members were advancing faster than ever.
He’d certainly made the right choice in keeping Yuder when he first found him.