Learning the trade

For @Adam [Simeon]

Had it really been three weeks already? Saoirse felt like her body was actually strong, her body in the best shape it had ever been and she could barely feel the infection at this point. She was running, and lifting and withstanding all of the thorough mental tests that Simeon put her through. At this point he had gotten under her skin, she was actually trusting him. She had opened up and he had shared his knowledge, it was quite the symbiotic relationship at this point.
She was laying on the ground, heaving for air as he had pushed her further today. Her skin covered in sweat, her marks glowing slightly but it seemed to do that whenever she exhausted herself. Looking up at the concrete above, the dim fluorescent lights that did a bad job at lighting much of the area up. But she knew he was in the shadows, watching her. Closing her eyes she could sense him, his steps, how he held his posture. "What time is it?" she asked. Knowing why they were here and underground was because it made time seem like it never passed. Perhaps it was his way of truly pushing her training hours, but he had seemed to almost become obsessed these last few weeks. Of course she felt the difference in herself, but her mind felt blurry. It was like she could barely remember any time before the training. The infection and the pain she could of course, and when she laid her head to rest at night she swore she could feel Amos press up against her, but things had changed.
Sitting up she rubbed her forehead, opening her eyes to look at Simeon in the shadows. She was a little covered in dust and dirt. These abandoned stations barely got visited if it wasn't illegal meet up or homeless trying to find a dry place for the night. Getting to the was a whole other headache in it of itself.

The young trybrid's progression had been quite satisfactory and Simeon even had to admit that he had come to care less for getting rid of her. At least the way she was progressing and actually listening to what he was trying to teach her of her daemonic origin, how could he claim her to not be sticking to her daemon genes for the time being? She was less of an abomination day for day. "It's nearing dinnertime. 5 o'clock." he replied as he looked at his wristwatch. They didnt see a lot of sun down here, but they didnt really need to either. "How would you say you feel these days. Better connected to yourself?" he asked, moving away as he went to a few barrels he had pressed together to make a table. He spread a scroll on it and mumbled a few ancient daemonic words to watch the scroll's lettering light up. "Life will soon return to normal as less and less people succumb to the infection. The bigger portals will be closed and no darkened souls will leave. But I feel like you wont be the same girl you were before all this." he said as he glanced back towards her. He pointed at the scroll. "Read it out for me." he commanded her. He thought she had worked hard enough to earn a little something, so he had found exactly what he had told her of, some ancient lore about the use of hybrids back in old time.

It was strange to feel so strong after everything she had gone through, and his question made her nod in response, getting up to her feet. She moved over to him, running a hand through her dirty and messy hair. It was clear that she was giving her all, but part of her knew she had to or he would make her training even worse for her. It was straining and tough work, but in the end the reward was big. His words sounded solemn,  as if he knew how the world worked down to the smallest details. It sounded like some balance was finally returning. Joining him at the makeshift table she widened her eyes. It was clear she was excited, looking from the scroll and to Simeon with a bright smile that reached her eyes.
Her attention was soon on the scroll, skimming it just to be sure she was reading it right. "On the matter of these beings it is clear they are superior creations that were never meant to be," she said, swallowing as she still found the daemonic language a little foreign to her tongue. "Part Verity, part Bael, the way they traverse the Abyssus is extraordinary, and their withstanding of both holy and unholy items is great." It felt like a peak in to the past, reading about the discoveries, how the hybrids had come to be. But this was the stuff that interested her most, because it was recounting the actual findings. "However their greatest weakness must be their constant inner battle; imagine the great war between our people and the seraphim, and you will find it is much similar to that of the mind of these beings," she frowned, because had that been why she had been weak? Because she had tried to deny her daemonic self. She looked at Simeon, her eyes clearly fluid, but she knew better than to cry in front of him. Her eyes quickly returned to the page. "It is this author's greatest belief that these beings might be the key to unlocking the secrets of the Abyssus, understand the creatures within it and why it is only our summoners who might conjure beings from it."
She went silent after reading aloud that sentence. In the distance she could hear the loud clanks of the underground train that was soon passing through. They wouldn't be noticed as usual, but sometimes it felt like her old life was peaking at her. As if the old underground train was a reminder of life outside of this abandoned station and Simeon's place. Strangely Saoirse felt more free than she had in a long time. It was weird. Listening to the metal whirring as it needed to break to come around a corner, she unwrapped the cloth from her hands. Her knuckles were a bit beaten up, but she saw every bruise as an advancement in this training. Sometimes her life seemed to have been turned upside down, so much so that it at times made her wonder whether or not she had actually been alive. "The key," she muttered under her breath, re-reading the scroll once again, but as always it seemed as if she couldn't get all the information she truly wanted. Blinking she looked at Simeon with a puzzled look, her eyes glimmering with something that seemed like a memory. "I've ... Been to someplace dark before," she said, looking down at her hands, clenching them every once in a while to get the blood flowing more evenly out to her fingertips.
Saoirse took a few steps away, kicking some dirt up, moving her shoulders as she tried to remember what had been happening in that hectic moment. "I was ... Really upset, and I just wanted to disappear, and never be seen again," was she speaking for deaf ears or were he listening? "I closed my eyes and I imagined slipping away into nothingness; And soon enough I was going through some sort of veil or like archway ... No, maybe it was more like a door," she had to shake her head, her memories a little shaky as she had been so upset back then. Not to mention scared.