Lately, it was getting harder to leave the blankets he'd been cocooning himself in with his books and notes, but he needed to. Needed to take a harder look at some of the things he wasn't asking for that he should be. Joseph was trying to help with physical combat type training, but him against Potence? Didn't end so well most of the time. For the training at least - distractions were easy.
After bringing up harder and more intensive training with Amadeus to Joseph, and the fact the training wheels would be coming off, Rhys had been a little surprised at the response. As long as his mentor teleported them to and from, there would be little worry. Of course, the fledgling was expecting some pain but at this point, he understood that some, or more than some, pain now was better than true death later. How long had he been whining about wanting to be useful instead of proving himself? The end of that had begun with the aftermath of fire at Blue Velvet and it needed to continue.
One day, he hoped to be as formidable as the man teaching him, but he had to live long enough to try.
Tonight, after saying goodbye to Joseph and Melissa, Rhys had headed into the back alley behind the theater, dressed all in black, phone in hand. Unlike how he'd dressed in the past, his partner and Mab had worked on his clothing choices and it showed. All the articles fit and we're flattering on his thin frame - flexible jeans, fitted long sleeve shirt tucked in and boots with no heel. He was ready for maybe almost anything that could be thrown at him during this session.
All he had to do for right now was wait for his mentor.
There were a lot of places that Amadeus could have taken Rhys to do his training. There was even a place within the Ivory Tower itself for such things but he was still trying his best to just keep the younger Tremere away from there—even when it came to physical training. Rhys needed both. He wasn’t ready for the stronger magics that would just bring a hunter to their knees if they got a grip on him. He needed to be able to get away long enough to unleash his magic on them.
Which meant both.
And Amadeus has the space for both. There was no reason not to use it other than keeping where his haven was a secret. But then that’s where the ability to teleport came in wasn’t? Amadeus had certainly worked long and hard enough to learn how to do it and using it was for more than just teleporting about the city showing off.
The only catch had been only Rhys. No one else. Not that the Elder Tremere was going to stand for anyone else standing over his shoulder hovering as they worked anyway.
Amadeus was much more casually dressed than Rhys was used to ever seeing his mentor when he finally appeared to fix the younger Kindred. Loose pants and a zipped up hooded, though heaven forbid he forgo the makeup and hair.
“Ready?” He asked before holding out his hand and teleporting him to the top floor of his apartment. Hardwood bare floors went wall to wall with only cravings in them here and there. The only thing that adorned the room was a few weapon racks filled with weapons, many of them much, much older than Rhys himself.
It really did take him by surprise when he saw Amadeus appear in front of him, dressed the way he was. It wasn’t the fact that he just appeared and disappeared so easily, that he was used to. It was almost as if they had switched wardrobes. Kind of. Rhys hadn’t done anything to his hair, though he probably should have at least tried to pull it back with a headband. Too late for that now.
Shaking it off, he nodded and took his mentor’s hand without really saying anything at all. Though he had been taken along for the ride a few times now, he still wasn’t quite used to the dizzying feeling he got when they landed. It was only to be expected, being pulled through time and space like that when you weren’t used to it. The room he opened his eyes too wasn’t exactly what he had expected. There had been the idea of an open space, yes, but outside rather than inside for some reason. Rhys really had no idea where the other man had taken them, and that was probably the point.
Green eyes took in the room, looking from wall to wall before his attention got to the weapons. Weapons? Well… it was kind of something he had expected. Kind of. “What are we… doing?”
Amadeus waved the weapons off. “Pay them no mind. It will be a long time until you’re ready for such things.” The last thing he needed was for the kid to cut his foot off. Sure it would regrow but he’d never hear the end of it from well—everyone—if it did happen. No, those were a lot way off if ever.
“You need to learn to fight as much as you need to learn how to use magic both for defense and offense. A shield is a great way to block an attacker if you see them coming. As if blasting them away from you. But there’s going to be times that you’re not going to see them coming and you’re going to have to use your hands. Your body.”
As he explained, Amadeus unzipped his hoodie and kicked off his shoes so that all he wore was the loose pants. A big change for anyone who didn’t realize the fine lined muscle that lay under some of those layers that the Tremere wore. “Learning from Joseph is no good. He’s a brawler. He’s used to punching quick and hard. Ariel is the same, though his way of brawling relies on speed and claws.” At the mention of it, Amadeus tries not to focus on the other night.
“You need to learn to be quick and out of reach before following it all up with a hit. I can’t teach you in just a few nights what it took me a lifetime to learn but it’ll be something.”
Oh, thank god. While he might be okay with some kind of weapon in his hands, he would be too scared, for now, to hurt either Amadeus or himself. Of course, he knew that if he had hurt his mentor, it would have been an extremely lucky thing. Like lightning hitting the same place three times in a row kind of luck. To say he wasn’t ready for weapons was like saying he could be the center of attention on purpose. It could happen, one day, but not now.
There was a second where he watched the other Tremere take off his shoes and hoodie before he followed suit with his boots, listening to every word. Joseph might be a bit on the skinny side, but it was obvious brawling definitely wasn’t for the younger man. Not the way he did it. From what it sounded, not like Ariel either. It was probably for the best he hadn’t gone to his mentor’s lover for help on that. Not after he saw those claws up close and personal.
When the hunter attacked him the first time, he hadn’t seen them until almost the last second but all it did was change the path of the stake. Instead of through his back, it made a deep scratch down his side. If he’d asked for all of this before, what would have happened? Rhys was sure it would have ended with more than a broken rib before his lover came and broke his neck.
The last part was no surprise. While Rhys had taken things quickly in the past, there was a difference between making a human sleep and fighting. “W-Where do we start?”
Amadeus circled Rhys at first, walking on the arches of his feet more than anything, his movements almost more that of a dancer than anyone posed to attack but if one watched closely enough they’d see the coiled viper waiting to strike.
“Some would say that power—real magic— comes from pain. Anger. All that pent up emotion waiting to burst free,” he paused and looked at Rhys,” and it can. If you want to blow something up.” Or rage into an inferno that threatened to consume a whole neighborhood. Which was one of the reasons Amadeus went through his daily exercises. Or worked out his pent up stress in other ways when needed.
Right now though, Rhys needed to learn how to turn all that off. “You need to find the center of it all and then forget all of that. There’s an eye to every storm. Find it and once you do, I want you to focus on that calm, feel your body, and come at me.”
Something in him really didn’t like the way he was being circled, even with the distraction of Amadeus continuing. It wasn’t something he could exactly explain, really, and he wanted to twist his hands together to calm himself. Instead, he settled for curling them against his thighs while chewing on his lip. Calm wasn’t something he did all that well. Sometimes, he envied people who had that easily.
Pain he had, but anger? The only time he’d felt anger recently was when he’d seen his love come back from the fire. He’d wanted to just hit his fists against him and rage. But… that wasn’t exactly right. He’d been angry at Henry for leaving him, for disappearing, for not coming back. For dying. All of that had been curling in his heart. Could he really use that?
Maybe later. Right now, he was supposed to find himself centered. Calm. When he’d been human, there had been more ways to just try to stop shaking so much but now taking that breath was something that took energy and resources. It was something he didn’t want to waste. Instead, Rhys closed his eyes and tilted his head back, instead thinking of the one thing that did seem to do just that for him. A spark of blue filled his thoughts before he opened them again, moving towards Amadeus with more determination than he would have had a moment ago.
That movement was met with Amadeus slapping Rhys’ in the forehead with the palm of his hand and swiping his feet out from under him. He wasn’t about to make this easy for him after all. He looked down at his student who lay on his back on the floor with a bemused smirk.
“Not bad. Better than I thought you’d do.” Much better because Amadeus had felt what Rhys had focused on to center himself. What he had used to find the calm in the storm. It hadn’t been rage. Nor anger. It hadn’t even been love—or rather just focus on his lover—as he feared he would do. No, Amadeus had felt him reach for that spark within himself. The same one that Ariel criticized Amadeus himself for playing with far too much.
He reached down and helped Rhys’ to his feet. “Now, do it again. Only this time, not only let that bit of you that you found center you, but push it out towards me as well. Use it to try and hit me at the same time.”
There was not a moment in Rhys’ mind that he thought he’d actually get a hit in on his mentor, especially not this early, but he almost laughed out loud when he hit the floor. It was kind of funny. It was obvious that Joseph had been going easy on him when it came to their sessions. He did, however, feel a flare of pride in his chest. It still was something he wasn’t very used to at all, but he liked it. Liked that he could feel it.
Taking the hand that was offered to help him to his feet, the fledgling took that encouragement and settled himself back down again. Push it out? He could try.
Moving again, he tried to go around his mentor this time, while pushing that little spark out, letting it go down his fingers like that time he had been hunting with Mab. Intent and backbone to make her sleep so he could feed and settle her down. This time, though, it wasn’t sleep, but a defensive shove. Meant to be a distraction that might make the older man stumble. He didn’t even let the ‘it probably wouldn’t work’ go through him.
One swipe of his hand had Amadeus knocking the small shove of magic aside. Then followed it up by smacking Rhys’s upside the head before he danced out of reach.
It didn’t matter that Rhys hadn’t landed either blow but that he had managed to get that burst of magic out of him at all and that the younger Tremere kept up the courage to come at him again even as his mentor knocked him around. After all, how was he going to learn to avoid being hit if he didn’t keep getting hit. He needed to learn and adapt muscle memory to something he wasn’t used to doing. There was no reason after all to be gentle about it. Bruises were a way of learning and they were Kindred. What were bruises to them? They’d be healed soon enough, if by tomorrow night if nothing else.
“Good. Now do it again,” Amadeus instructed, taking up the same stance as before.
Again, he was knocked aside pretty easily. It was to be expected and, for some reason, it didn’t even bother Rhys as much as he thought it might. It wasn’t exactly a failure. Just a few months ago, he probably would have seen all of this as a failure on him and would have felt it deeply. Maybe he really was changing for the better, more than he’d even realized.
After a pause to get himself back together, the fledgling watched his hands open and close, a glimmer on his fingertips. More of a pull. At least Amadeus wasn’t hitting him full stop. It was more of a tap than anything? At least he didn’t fall this time, even if it was barely keeping his feet under him. That was probably more because his mentor didn’t sweep his legs out that time.
Another run, to the other side, a bigger push with his magic this time, taking up a little more space than before, but it was weak around the edges, only stronger where it was around his hands. Could he go like this all night? Probably not, but he wasn’t getting tired yet. If he kept his focus, he could go for awhile, but he wasn’t going to hold back where he did start to feel the strain. The moment he felt his beast come up, he’d stop. Another try, another try, another try. He was determined to get at least a close call.
Amadeus was well aware of how far he could plus his student before his beast raising up would be a problem. He’d have him worn out and exhausted as a Kindred could be before then. They had a while to go that night. Always more of the same. The Elder Tremere having the younger come at him both in body and magic only to smack it all away and hit him back instead. The hits were never enough to harm but not gentle either. The point was for Rhys to feel all of it. To react and adapt to all. He’d be black and blue before they were done, there was no doubt about that.
“Again,” Amadeus would demand, sometimes after landing Rhys back off of his feet once more. “There’s no Mr Miyagi here. There is no wax on, wax off.” No, that way was too soft. Too easy. Bullshit tasks were not going to teach the fledgling anything.
Then at one point Rhys got in closer and Amadeus caught his wrist and grinned. “Closer. Ready to give up for the night yet?”
His body would realize he was tired before Rhys’ mind did, going again and again, going this way and that. Right as he thought he’d found a way to at least get under arm’s reach, he’d only be intercepted before he could get closer. Of course the hits were painful, even in a lower level, and so was falling on his ass so many times in a row, but he kept going, even without the encouragement to try again.
By the time he did get close, the younger kindred had lost track of how many times he’d moved towards Amadeus. Instead of a hit and knock back, all his mentor did was catch his wrist before he got any closer. It wasn’t nothing. Once the shock wore off, he registered two things at once. He was starting to really feel his body and he didn’t want to stop. He’d found he didn’t mind pain as much as he’d once thought, but that was under special conditions. Being beat up probably wasn’t one of them but the fact that he’d gotten to that point? It could be ignored a little longer, right?
Pulling his wrist away, Rhys shook his head. “Not yet?” It was a question but it wasn’t a hesitation. “Just… a little bit more.” What had he thought of before - lightning striking multiple times? How many times did it have to arch before it finally stuck? It wouldn’t go on for much longer, no, maybe not without another feeding, but for a few more attempts at least.
Amadeus nodded approvingly but while his student was willing to keep pushing for the night, the Elder knew it was for the best that they stop. No one was going to learn in one go and lightening was unlikely to strike this night. It was getting late, it having been easy to lose track of time with what they had been doing, though the elder Tremere was well aware of how long they had been at it.
"You are doing well, but it's best to stop for now. You're not going to learn everything in one night. There is no reason to push it." No sense burning out or testing the limits of his control of his beast on the first night. What mattered this night was that Rhys had found an inner calm and a determination to keep going. "We will start again tomorrow night if you wish. In the meanwhile, is there anything you wish to know?"
Disappointment rolled through him but Rhys could understand being turned down, for now. It wasn’t like this was the only training session they were ever going to have, ever again. There would be others in the future. Things took time and though he was starting to feel impatient with himself, he could handle waiting. He might change his mind, later, and think about pushing himself, but hopefully he didn’t even let it cross his mind. It needed to be kept together, seeing the future.
Nodding after a moment's hesitation, the younger man rubbed a hand against a bruised cheek, the other rubbing at the side of his thigh in an unconscious way. “Please, tomorrow…” Dropping his hand, Rhys tilted his head to the side a little, thinking about that last question for a moment. “If I… do it away from Joseph, can I practice?” He knew it was a long shot, simply because the ‘don’t do magic by yourself’ was still in effect, as far as he knew, but he wanted to ask anyway. Just in case.
“I can’t promise a steady schedule but if I have the time again tomorrow I’ll let you know and come get you. Same with other nights. The more regular we keep this up the quicker you’ll develop the needed muscle memory and get better at it,” Amadeus explained as he went over to grab his hoodie to pull back on and zip up. “I’ll start showing you some meditative exercises as well that will help you focus more on your core.” If they helped Amadeus center his own self and keep things in check, maybe they’d also start helping Rhys with some of that built up anxiety.
The second part of Rhys’ question had him turning to look at the younger Tremere and studying him for a second before nodding. “If you can find a safe space to do it in so that you’re not accidentally blasting someone then, yes.” Amadeus suddenly had visions of Rhys blasting pop bottles in an alley. “A safe space where no one no kine can stumble upon. Though in this, this is magic coming from your core—your blood. I’m not going to say no if Joseph is nearby for it.”