Khan kept care of Martha until she calmed down. She didn't take long to stop her tears, and their hug broke when they sat next to a wall.
"Sorry for being such a mess," Martha whispered as she left Khan's shoulder and wiped her eyes.
"I told you that it's fine," Khan reassured as he patted her head. "You shouldn't hold back, not with me at least."
"I didn't want to depend on others after everything that happened," Martha admitted while fixing her gaze on a random spot in front of her. "Though it feels nice to stop wearing a mask after so long."
"Masks are heavy," Khan sighed as he recalled his period in Ylaco's training camp.
"I'm glad that you don't lie as often as before," Martha stated as she tilted her head to shake off Khan's hand. "I can't say the same for your dumb side."
"I thought you liked that I made you laugh," Khan teased.
"Don't dig up the past now," Martha pouted. "You should focus on making your girlfriend laugh."
"I can handle multiple women," Khan bragged.
"You are an idiot," Martha glared at Khan, but she ended up laughing when she saw his proud smirk.
"Okay!" Khan exclaimed as he left the wall and crouched in front of Martha. "We can't waste time. I think I know how to deal with your problems."
"Are you afraid that I might have asked you things about the other planets?" Martha joked, but her expression froze when Khan took her hands and made her palms point upward.
"Training first," Khan announced. "I'll share some stories later if you really want to hear them."
Khan was using his playful tone, but Martha heard the lingering resolve in his voice. He was taking the matter seriously, so she nodded and suppressed the slight embarrassment caused by his gesture.
"Your problems aren't actual issues," Khan continued while focusing on the mana inside Martha. "The medical procedure allowed you to ignore part of the time lost while you were asleep. Sure, you can't use your power well, but you remain a first-level warrior."
"I'll probably have to spend many months relearning how to use my mana," Martha contradicted. "I'll waste what the procedure allowed me to save."
"That would be true if you stuck with the human methods," Khan declared.
"What do you mean?" Martha asked.
"The human methods are straightforward and simple," Khan explained while raising his eyes to meet Martha's gaze. "They are easy to learn since they only involve repeating the same exercise countless times. However, you can't even approach that training right now."
Martha wanted to voice a snarky comment, but she held back since she felt that Khan might be onto something. After all, it was clear that his solution involved alien techniques.
"The Niqols approach everything related to mana very differently from humans," Khan continued as he raised one of Martha's hands and pointed her palm toward him. "Keep it still. I'll show you."
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Martha followed the order and put some strength in her arm. Khan nodded when he sensed her muscles tensing up before focusing on his mana.
"With the right amount of control," Khan announced as red-purple mana covered his hand, "The Niqols can turn a punch into a caress and a light touch into a slap."
Khan demonstrated his explanation right away. His mana grew darker as he reached for Martha's raised hand slowly. He merely touched her palm with a finger, but her whole arm shot back after the impact.
"What?!" Martha couldn't help but exclaim as she looked at her palm and saw that a faint bruise had appeared at its center.
"Show me your hand again," Khan ordered without giving her the time to think.
Martha followed the order, and Khan punched her palm as soon as it went back in its previous position. However, Khan's mana had turned paler during the process, and the attack failed to push Martha's hand back.
Martha had seen that Khan didn't hold back. He had delivered a regular punch on her palm, but the attack had felt like a faint caress that couldn't make her budge.
The scenes made no sense in her mind. Martha wasn't stupid, but Khan's actions escaped her knowledge. Mana could do wonders, but she had clearly seen him delivering a mere soft touch and a proper punch.
"How did you do that?" Martha asked when she managed to snap out of her stupor.
"The Niqols divide the training with mana into three categories," Khan explained while sitting on the floor and showing his right palm.
Red-purple mana came out of Khan's palm and began to change form. Even its shades went from dark to light as he altered its nature before following with an explanation. "This is an application of the manipulation field. It allows to modify the purpose of mana and transform normal movements into something entirely different."
Khan stopped changing the nature of his mana and amassed it into a series of small spheres that began to move across his hand. Of course, an explanation followed. "This is an exercise of the control field. We'll focus on this for the time being."
"What's the third field?" Martha asked in an excited tone.
"It's about the sensitivity to mana," Khan revealed. "You can train your mind to react to that energy. It's quite useful, and it can replace your senses in most situations."
Martha nodded a few times. She had actually read something about Khan's senses, and now she had received an explanation. Moreover, she could see how a dive into the Niqols' training methods would be more beneficial than her traditional exercises.
"I think you should ignore everything except for the exercises involving the control field for now," Khan declared. "You don't need more mana for now, and you might develop bad habits if we start sparring right away. Focus on reclaiming control over your body for a while. I'll tell you when to move to the next step."
Khan didn't hesitate to share his knowledge about the control field and the exercises involved in the topic. He had followed many lessons on Nitis, and his ability had also reached a decent level, so his explanations carried many details that helped Martha keep track of his words.
Meanwhile, Martha noticed how Khan changed again during his explanation. She could almost sense his love for those exercises and teachings.
"I think I want to hear about Nitis first," Martha exclaimed while Khan was in the middle of his explanation.
The statement made Khan fall silent. He initially thought Martha wanted to know about Liiza, but her earnest expression told him that her interest was genuine.
"Nitis wasn't always nice," Khan smirked. "I have many dark stories about that planet."
"That's okay," Martha stated. "I want to understand why you grew so fond of it."
Khan tapped the floor with his hand to check the hour on one of the hall's menus. It was still early, and Luke had yet to say anything about the dinner.
"I'll share something once you are done with your exercises," Khan exclaimed while closing the menus.
"I planned to prioritize them in the first place," Martha rebuked.
"Start with the first exercise then," Khan ordered. "Don't try to succeed on the first try. Focus on getting used to the training. I'll step in if you need help."
The training session began after that order. Martha had never been the type to slack off, and her situation was bad enough to fill her mind with firm resolve. Still, Khan had given her a path now, and she went all-out with it due to her trust in him.
Khan couldn't do much, but he still did his best to help. Martha couldn't even summon her mana freely during the initial phases of the exercise, so he had to take her hands to push her energy out of her body.
The process was nowhere near easy. Affecting someone's else mana was an arduous task. Khan had to alter the nature of his energy to turn it into something dense enough to push out what Martha managed to gather in her hands.
Nevertheless, Martha began to show some progress after a few minutes. Khan also revealed nothing but patience, which led to silent training. The two focused entirely on the exercise, and the distance created by the coma shrunk until they forgot that one and a half years had even passed.
A few messages reached Khan's phone during the training, but he checked them only when Martha grew too tired to continue. Apparently, Luke had booked a table in a fancy place in the city, and he had even set an hour for the meeting.
Khan forwarded the message to Cora and Amber before discovering that Luke had sent something different to Martha. Her text mentioned a habitation for their stay at Reebfell's camp.
"Does Luke want to move here permanently?" Khan asked after reading the message Luke had sent to Martha.
"I don't know what he has in mind," Martha revealed while wiping the sweat from her forehead, "But it probably involves you."
"You also reached that conclusion," Khan exclaimed while sitting next to Martha and laying his back on the wall.
"The mana treatment was crazy expensive," Martha uttered. "Luke wouldn't spend so much out of mere friendship."
Martha was a promising recruit, but she wasn't amazing. Her time in the coma would have usually flattened her value as a soldier. Spending so many Credits on her would make sense if they came from her family, but Luke had no deep connection to her.
Instead, Khan's fame had turned him into one of the most desirable assets at his level. The descendants from wealthy families and the soldiers aiming to increase their political weight would pay a hefty sum to add him to their squads, but they struggled to find some leverage.
That didn't apply to Luke. Martha and Khan had been pretty close during their time in Ylaco's training camp, and everyone knew about that, especially Luke. The latter knew that he had a chance to tie Khan to his plans as long as he saved Martha.
The ploy was subtle due to how easily Luke could mask it as an act of goodwill, but Khan had never abandoned his paranoia, and Martha knew how politics worked. Finding Luke's true intentions was only a matter of connecting dots for them.
"I'm fine now," Martha broke the silence that had fallen between the two. "I only need you to write a training schedule for me, and I'll be on my way. Don't get involved with me any more than this."
"Give it up already," Khan snorted. "I'm not leaving you alone while you are in this state."
"But," Martha tried to complain, but Khan suddenly revealed a confident smirk that made her fall silent.
"Besides," Khan continued, "I guess I should hear him out at least. His offer might be interesting."
"Do you want to use Luke for your goals?" Martha asked.
"Isn't that how politics work?" Khan shrugged his shoulders.
"I really want to hear your stories," Martha declared without hiding her surprise in front of that mature and intelligent behavior.
"We have a few hours before the dinner," Khan commented while checking the menus on the floor. "I need to clean myself up and change, but I can share a few stories before that."
"He also cleans himself up now," Martha mocked.
"I'm the cleanest man in the entire camp," Khan claimed.
"I don't believe that at all," Martha sneered.
"I do take showers regularly," Khan stated.
"You only had to get a girlfriend to reach that point," Martha joked.
"I would have been pretty clean even without Cora," Khan announced.
Martha fixed her gaze on Khan. She didn't believe those words for even a second, and Khan understood the feelings carried by that gesture.
"Fine, I would have been a bit smelly," Khan admitted, and Martha exploded into a laugh.
"Come on," Martha giggled. "Tell me about Nitis. I want to hear both the good and the bad."
"It might get pretty grim," Khan revealed as his memories brought him back to a village by a lake.
"Start with the good then," Martha insisted.
"The good," Khan repeated while crossing his legs and wearing a longing smile as more memories surged in his mind. "I guess the first good thing involved Liiza and a certain eagle…."
****
Author's notes: I'm back home. The second chapter will arrive in the next hours.
